Garlic Twists #BakingBloggers

This month's theme could well be Make a Vampire Cry, or as Sue said. Vampires Beware, we're Baking with Garlic. 
BTW, I'm talking Baking Bloggers here.    We get together the second Monday of the month and bake something that goes along with our theme of the month.

And since it's October the theme is Baking With Garlic.   Gotta keep those vampires at bay, somehow.

Personally, I love garlic, whether it's roasted, or fresh or garlic powder or just a ton of garlic added into stuff.
A few years back I kinda o'd on garlic though.  My DH doesn't really care for it, but as I said I love it.  So since he was going to be away for a few days, not only did I roast several heads of garlic, I smeared it on fresh french bread as a topping, ate the garlic as soon as it cooled off enough after roasting it, tucked some under some chicken skin and roasted  the chicken.  And basically ate garlic three meals a day for several days.  By the end of that week, I decided that maybe moderation was a good way to go with eating garlic.  Even the dog avoided me after 3 days.  I guess I was a little odorous?
No mind.
I'll still sneak garlic into just about anything I can.  Including these little garlic twists.

Which used as a base my Witchy Fingers recipe but then I did a twist.  I cut the amount of butter in half and used some Cream Cheese in place of part of the butter. 
Get it?
Nevermind.
I made a rough puff pastry, rolled it out, then I made some of Witchy Fingers and rolled that out.  Placed the cheese dough on top of the puff pastry, used my Microplane to zest some garlic over the cheese pastry, then folded over the puff pastry.  I let it cool for a couple of hours, then took it out of the fridge and cut it into strips using my pizza cutter.  I then twisted the strips, and baked them off.  And it totally did not work.  I'd made the puff pastry from memory and hadn't bothered checking out the correct ratio's before I did it.  And while they tasted pretty good, they resembled pie pastry with a filling more than what I had envisioned.
Luckily I'd only baked a test batch, cause the dough didn't feel quite right.  And I had lots of  the lovely garlicky filling left.  It became an offering to the kitchen goddess.

I might have gotten carried away a touch with the garlic.  I not only used my microplane to zest some garlic into the dough, I added granulated garlic as well as some sauteed garlic.
Filling on the puff pastry

On the baking sheet ready to bake.

After the bake

And ready to eat

Yield: 16 servings approximatelyAuthor: Sid's Sea Palm Cooking

Garlic Twists

prep time: 15 minscook time: 15 minstotal time: 30 mins

These little twists are a perfect accompaniment to soup or as a standalone cocktail snack.

ingredients:

2 sheets prepared puff pastry

Filling

8 oz. Monterey Jack cheese, grated, with 2 oz. Roughly chopped.

2 oz. finely shredded Parmesan Cheese
3 Tablespoons Butter, softened

4 oz. Cream Cheese
1 tsp. Cayenne Pepper
1 cup all purpose flour

3 cloves raw garlic, grated on a microplane

1 teaspoon granulated garlic

2 cloves garlic, sautéed til soft and then chopped.  

instructions:

Thaw the puff pastry by placing it in the fridge overnight.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Prepare a baking sheet by placing a piece of parchment paper on it.

By hand or using a mixer, mix together the cheeses, butter, flour, cayenne pepper and garlic until it forms a ball. 

Divide it in half and flatten it into a disk and place in the fridge for 30 minutes or so to firm up. 

Unroll the thawed puff pastry, and set aside for a minute.  Take out half of the filling and divide it into two and roll it out each piece between two sheets of parchment paper, place very carefully onto half of the puff pastry, and then fold the puff pastry over.   Using a pizza cutter or sharp knife, cut into strips and twist each piece and put on baking sheet, separating them as the puff pastry will puff out.  Continue until the baking sheet is full, bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. 

The other half of the filling can be saved and make into Witchy Fingers or bake them into small rounds and serve with a good hearty soup. 

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Baking Bloggers

• Baked Garlic Sweet Potatoes by Jolene's Recipe Journal
• Baked Roasted Garlic Burgers by Our Good Life
• Crispy Garlic Baked Potato Wedges by Cook with Renu
• Garlic Breadstick Snakes by Palatable Pastime
• Garlic Cheesy Knots by Simply Inspired Meals
• Garlic Puffs by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Garlic Twists by Sid's Sea Palm Cooking
• Kale and Garlic Ciabatta by Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Pampushky (Ukrainian Garlic Bread) by Tara's Multicultural Table
• Twisted Garlic Cheese Bread by Sneha's Recipe

Pina Colada Cake

I only got to taste the barest little sliver of this cake but it was enough to make me think I needed to make it again, soon, and this time I may not take it to the Legion Cake Raffle.   Since the winner of the last one took it home and didn't share.
Which they can do, but most winners of the cake will cut up the cake and share it out, to appreciative recipients at the Legion. 

Let me share this cake with you now. I've been playing around with making cakes using various methods of mixing.  And I'll detail those in a bit.
This cake had one of my two favorite frostings on it.  I love my Faux  or Ermine buttercream but I think that 7 Minute frosting may edge out that one by a hair, or spoonful as the case may be.

I used a yellow cake recipe for this, then added an extra egg, and added another element to the mixing process.
I'm not sure what this mixing process is called, and umm, it did make some bubbles in the cake, at least a few that I didn't get stirred out.
But the flavor was good.
Here are a few pictures of the process.  As you can see, I mixed the cake a little too much and got lots of bubble in it.
The 'dam' of frosting around the edge of the cake.

I took the cake over to the table to get this shot, and as you can see from the pencil there, I make notes as I'm baking and decorating cakes.  
The pineapple filling, nestled into the frosting dam.  This keeps the filling from oozing out the sides when the layers are put together.

 After the layers are put together and the sides have been smoothed out a little.  You can fill in the gaps by piping butter cream in and smoothing it out. 

Ready for the frosting to be dumped on top.

 and a very poor picture of the inside of the cake with the one slice that had been purloined.

Yield: 12 servings, 2 layer cakeAuthor: Sid's Sea Palm Cooking (adapted from Celebrating Sweets recipe)

Pina Colada Cake

prep time: 15 minscook time: 35 minstotal time: 50 mins

This cake is a taste of a tropical drink, but in cake form.

ingredients:

Cake:

1 1/2 cups butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 cups sifted self rising cake flour

4 eggs, separated - whites beaten to a soft peak

1 1/4 cup milk

2 teaspoons dark rum

Filling:

1 can (15 oz.) crushed pineapple

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch mixed in 3 tablespoons water

1- 1 1/2 cup prepared  plain butter cream in a piping bag ( I keep piping bags filled with prepared butter cream in the freezer but you can also use commercial frosting for this)

7 Minute Frosting: 

2 egg whites lightly beaten

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/3 cup water

1/4 tsp. Cream of tarter (or 1 tablespoon corn syrup)

1/8 tsp. Salt

2 teaspoons Dark Rum

Topping

1/2 cup toasted coconut

instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease 2- 9 inch (2 inch high) cake pans or 3 8 inch cake pans, using Bakers Joy or grease and flour the pans. 

Separate the eggs, and set the yolks aside for a minute while beat the egg whites to a soft peak.   Set aside. 

Cream the butter and sugar together for at least 5 minutes in the bowl of a Kitchenaid.  Add the egg yolks and mix in well, then add the rum.

As soon as it is incorporated, add 1/3 of the self rising flour, mix in, add half of the milk, mix together, add the next third of the flour, mix, then add the remainder of the milk.  As soon as it is incorporated, add the remainder of the flour.  Mix.

Fold in the beaten egg whites with a spatula until the egg whites are incorporated and there are no more little bits of egg whites visible.   Pour the batter into two cake pans and bake for about 35 minutes.  Check at the 30 minute mark to see if it's done, either by poking a toothpick in and seeing if it comes out clean or by touching it to see if it springs back lightly when touched in the middle. 

While the cakes are baking, mix the pineapple, sugar and cornstarch slurry together and heat  over medium high heat until the mixture has thickened, stirring constantly so that it doesn't burn.  Take off of heat and let cool.

As soon as the cakes are baked, tip them out on a cooling rack.  

Assembly:

Divide the cooked pineapple into thirds, just by drawing a spatula thru the pineapple mixture while still in the pot.  Doesn't have to be exact.

If the cakes 'domed' up during baking, cut the dome off with a long serrated knife so that the cakes are level. 

 Split each cake in two using a serrated knife and place the first cake layer onto a cake plate with the leveled off side up.  This is where you will add the filling.  Using a piping bag, carefully pipe a 'dam' around the edge of the cake.  Then fill in with 1/3 of the cooked pineapple.  Very carefully, place another cake layer on top.  Pipe a dam of butter cream frosting around the edge of the cake and fill with some more pineapple.  Continue with the third layer and for the final cake layer, make sure that the cut side of the cake is down and you are frosting the bottom of the cake.  Less chance of crumbs in the frosting that way. 

Take a look at the cake and fill in any gaps with the remaining butter cream frosting in the layers, smooth it out with an offset spatula and place in the fridge to rest for an hour.

While the cake is resting, you can toast the coconut, very briefly in a hot oven.  Just spread the coconut out on a pan, let toast for 5 minutes or so, then remove from oven as soon as the coconut changes color.  If you let it get too dark, the coconut gets bitter.

Make the 7 minute frosting.  Mix together the egg whites, sugar, salt, cream of tarter and water in a heat proof bowl, or the top of a double boiler. 

Heat the water in the bottom of a double boiler to boiling and place the top of the double boiler over it, making sure that it is not touching the water. 

Using a hand held mixer, whisk the egg white mixture together at high speed for 7 minutes. It will become light and white and fluffing. At the end of the 7 minutes, add the vanilla extract and mix in with spatula.

 Take cake out of fridge and enrobe the cake with the 7 Minute frosting, covering up the sides and making swirls on the top.  This frosting will set up so it should be made after the cake has been filled. Sprinkle with the toasted coconut and serve.

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First Monday Favorites - October 2018 -23

I'm starting to feel like the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland.  I'm late, I'm late, I'm late.   But here it is, First Monday Favorites for October.  Featuring my favorite recipe from last month.  

September didn't just rush by, it went through at hurricane force and left no prisoners.

I wasn't just sitting on my thumbs either.  I'm working on a new cookbook featuring shrimp recipes along with some other seafood's.  I also made a wedding cake and a groom's cake, made a couple of cakes for the Legion Cake Raffle, which I do every other week, and attended a couple of other link parties.  I used my Master Mix to make some awesome Breakfast Biscuits and participated in a food fight where I made a Banana Bundt cake. 


I hosted a virtual online Tapas Party to celebrate and launch my newest cookbook, Nibbles and Bites and some awesome bloggers joined me and made recipes from the cookbook.  And as all good great cooks do, they made the recipes their own and added some wonderful nuances to some of the recipes.
Shameless plug here, but this book has simple, easy recipes with ingredients that you can pull from your pantry or your fridge and have a fun appetizer ready to go within minutes.

I do ask that you share a link to your favorite recipe from last month and I have to say my favorite recipe was this one.  Roasted Potato and Heirloom Carrot Soup. 

Yup, it's the one I made for Soup Saturday Swappers and it's a winner.  I think one of the things that totally made it for me was my idea of  'crisping' up the pork bits and browning them in a touch of fat and then topping the soup.  I loved it and in fact I may just have to go make some more this weekend.  I ate up all the other one.

An InLinkz Link-up

 Nibbles and Bites - A Compilation of Appetizers, Canapes and Finger Foods.  Available both in book form and as an ebook.

or

if you're in the Carrabelle or Apalachicola, Florida area, you can pick up an autographed copy of the book at either Shop by the Sea in Carrabelle or Downtown Books and Purl in Apalachicola.  Nibbles and Bites is also available at the Crooked River Lighthouse gift shop. 
My cookbook Hygge - Danish Food and Recipes would be a great gift for any foodies in your life. Available as a Kindle e book or in paperback. Autographed copies are also available at the Danish Windmill in Elk Horn, Iowa or on their website.

All recipes and their respective images are either original or adapted and credited, and are all the sole property of Sid's Sea Palm Cooking © 2011-2018, with all rights reserved thereof.  

Community Potluck September 2018

I'm late, so late, and am very sorry it took so long to get this posted.  I've been just a weensy bit busy.  The week of the potluck I was baking a wedding cake and a groom's cake.  Then I was working on my latest cookbook, and editing a manuscript and well time just flew past me. 
It would have hit but I'm good at ducking. 
So here goes.
Well, here's what everyone brought and shared and life was good.

We've got some great and inventive cooks in our area and it's always fun seeing what they make and bring.

We had this, and look how gorgeous the presentation was and it tasted good as well. Pork loin with apples, potatoes, onions and celery nestled on a bed of sauerkraut. 

and Spaghetti and meat sauce with some garlic bread.

Deviled Eggs, always a popular item

Some Shepard's Pie

Chips and Home made Salsa

Penne Pasta baked with cheese.

Fajita's, Pork, Chicken and Beef

With a totally awesome sauce.  I need this recipe, hint.

I made a Southwest Casserole,

 There were also some cheese and crackers and lunch meat

Grilled Pork Loin and Sweet Potatoes

 Another lovely Pasta salad

And for the Desserts...
This is self explanatory.

I've had this cake many times, I even have the recipe for it.  It's baked in an electric skillet and is totally delicious.   I just need an electric skillet to bake it in. 

There was also another delicious cake, topped with a wonderful frosting.

We also had this as a choice

And a Chocolate Silk Pie

and last but not least, cookies dipped in Belgian Chocolate.

And I didn't get a picture but there was also Pineapple. 

So that's it for this month, a little late but you're still welcome to drool over it.  Our next potluck will be in October and I'm thinking of ideas for it as well. 

Banana Bundt Cake for Fantasical Food Fight

It's time for the Fantastical Food Fight hosted by Sarah of Fantastical Sharing. 
This month theme or food I should say is all about Bananas.   The 21st of the month is the International Banana Festival and it's being celebrated in not only Fulton, KY but also in South Fulton, TN.  I wonder how close those places are to each other.  I guess I could google it, but I want to finish off here before I get distracted, again. 
I was inspired by this recipe Banana Bundt Cake with Brown Sugar Glaze from Celebrating Sweets. 
And then I played.
I think I've been watching too many episodes of the Great British Bake Off Master Class, cause Mary Berry keeps giving me ideas.  In this case I actually beat the egg whites and then folded them in for a lighter touch to the cake. It worked. 
This is also the cake I made for the Legion Cake Raffle a couple weeks ago.  I bake and donate a cake every other week for them to raffle off.  The money raised goes to various needed projects in our community.   The people who win the cake usually share it, but sometimes they take it home and keep it all to themselves.  And that's what the winner did last week.  He took it home. 

I made a killer toffee sauce to pour over it, and in fact, cheated a little and took some of the batter and baked it in a small (4inch) springform pan.  And I'm so glad I did.
Cause that way I got to taste it and I can say without any doubt, I'm making this again.  I poked holes in the cake before pouring the hot toffee sauce over it, thinking it might make the sauce soak in, but instead it soaked in from the bottom and after taste testing it I got a WOOHOOOO sugar rush.

And I'm making this again, just as soon as I get a stash over overripe bananas in the freezer, I'm thinking I should have enough by next week...

Yield: 12 servingsAuthor: Sid's Sea Palm Cooking (adapted from Celebrating Sweets recipe)

Banana Bundt Cake

prep time: 15 minscook time: 1 hourtotal time: 1 hours and 15 mins

This cake is nothing like regular Banana Bread. It's not that dense and holds up beautifully.

ingredients:

Cake

3 cup AP flour

2 tsp. Baking Soda

1 tsp. Baking Powder

1 cup Salted Butter

1 1/2 cups Sugar

2 tsp. Vanilla Extract

3 large eggs, separated

4 large bananas, mashed

1 cup sour cream

Toffee Sauce

1 cup butter

1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar

1 cup heavy cream

instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, grease a 12 cup bundt pan.  Set aside.

Separate the eggs, and beat the egg whites until stiff.  Set aside while you prepare the rest.   Mix the dry ingredients together, set aside  while you cream the butter, sugar and egg yolks together, until the sugar has broken down a little.  Add the mashed bananas and mix well.  Then add the sour cream and flour in two parts, alternating each one.   At the end, fold in the egg whites, carefully but making sure to blend them without leaving any little bits of egg.   Pour the batter into the bundt pan and smooth the top a little. 

Bake for 55 minutes and check for doneness after 50 minutes, increasing the baking time by 5 minutes at a time.  
Turn out onto a wire rack and remove the pan.  Let cool. 

 Make the toffee sauce while the cake is baking.    In a large sauce pan or pot, melt the butter over medium heat, then add the brown sugar.  Whisk together until the butter and sugar are well combined, let it cook for 3-4 minutes, then whisk in the heavy cream.  Continue to cook, letting it come to a boil.  Stir it constantly and let it continue to cook for an additional 5 minutes or so.   Take off of heat and allow it to cool.   This mixture will bubble up and almost double in size as it's cooking so it helps to have it in a larger pot than you think you'll need. 

As soon as the cake is cooled, pour the still warm toffee sauce over the cake in a pleasing pattern and serve.  If you wish you can keep some of the sauce back to serve with the cake. 

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 All recipes and their respective images are either original or adapted and credited, and are all the sole property of Sid's Sea Palm Cooking © 2011-2018, with all rights reserved thereof.    An InLinkz Link-up