For the love of Peanut Butter!

Peanut Butter eggs might be my favorite Easter Candy! As you know, I was inspired to make my own Easter Candy this year, following in the footsteps of MySweetCreations! I will probably do some of the free form eggs using this recipe: Peanut Butter Easter Eggs, but for my first attempt, I made them in my cute egg mold. I'm not going to go through tempering and dyeing of the chocolate. For that information, refer to my Why I love Easter blog.

Here's how I made my eggs:

Tint your white chocolate to desired colors. I choose 2 for this mold.


Using a Wilton candy paint brush, I painted the decorative lines in the mold. I then placed the mold in my freezer for 10 minutes to set.


After the colored chocolate set, I added a small spoonful of semi-sweet chocolate to each mold and brushed up the sides. Again, I put this in the freezer for about 10 minutes to set.


While the mold was setting, I made my peanut butter filling. To achieve a similar texture to Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, I began with one whole graham cracker in a ziploc bag.


I rolled over it several times with my rolling pin until it was very finely ground.


I then added 1 cup of creamy peanut butter and two tablespoons of powdered sugar. Stir until well combined. You may add additional powdered sugar to make it your desired texture.


Using a 1/2 teaspoon, I added a small amount of filling to each egg and gently pressed into place with my fingers.

I forgot to take a picture of the last step (Drat!), but you spoon additional melted chocolate over the top. Tap the side of the mold to remove all air bubbles and to get a smooth surface. Freeze again for about 20 minutes. If the eggs are set, they will fall right out of the mold and look like this:

My painting skills still leave a lot of the colors still needs a little practice~ but I think they turned out pretty cute, and they are super delicious!


Robyn loves the plain chocolates I have been making for her- can you tell??

I love Lemon!!

I'll start by saying- if it's made with lemons, I'll probably LOVE it! I've been known to keep Lemon Curd in my fridge and eat it with a spoon :)

While I was home visiting my family last weekend, I made them Shrimp Po'Boys for dinner. I decided we needed a fancy dessert too...so I made Lemon Cake with Lemon Filling and Lemon Butter Cream Frosting!

The first thing I did was zest and juice 7 large lemons (no reason for 7, that's just how many I had!)
I made the curd first so it could chill. Put lemon juice, lemon zest, sugar, butter and cornstarch in a saucepan and heat over medium high until it begins to boil. While it heats- crack three eggs, separate the whites and yolks, and whisk the yolks until smooth. (Make an Omelet with the whites!)

After the lemon mixture begins to boil, add small amounts of the hot liquid to the egg yolks to bring them to temperature. Then, add the yolks to the pot and whisk constantly until the mixture thickens. I removed my mixture from the heat and pushed it through a sieve to make sure there were no "chunks" of egg! It should look like this:


Next, I made the cake. For the record, this recipe says it is a lemon cake, and I didn't see anywhere in the recipe where you add anything lemon to the cake batter...

Start by creaming the butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time.


Alternate adding the dry ingredients and milk until you have a smooth batter. It will look like this:


Pour the batter into two greased and floured cake pans. And bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.

Next- work on the frosting. After reading reviews for this recipe, I decided to double the frosting so I could do a crumb coat and decorate! Cream two sticks of butter with lemon juice and zest. Slowing add powdered sugar.

I used about 6 cups of powdered sugar- the recipe called for 8!!! The consistency was wonderful!

I removed a portion of the frosting to tint and then assembled my cake (Split each cake into two layers. Add lemon curd to the first layer, then frosting, then lemon curd) and added a crumb coat (A crumb coat is a super thin layer to insure no crumbs get in the final coat- refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes to allow the crumb coat to set).
I piped the edges with my yellow tinted frosting (using a Ziploc bag) and decorated with slices of lemon. This is on my Grandma's BEAUTIFUL cake stand. I think that made the cake better :)

So- it was a gorgeous cake, but the next time I make it, I will use a different cake recipe. We thought the cake was a little dense and dry. I would also double the lemon curd filling, because the cake seemed to soak it up and I like LOTS of curd! Doubling the frosting was perfect. Best served at room temperature. This would be a great cake for Easter!

French Bread Rolls for Shrimp Po'Boys- for a Lovely Friday night with my Family!

I went home to see my family for a long weekend. A wonderful visit filled with good food, good wine, and lots of family time....plus, a little shopping :)
Friday, I cooked for my whole family. We had Shrimp Po'Boys on French Bread Rolls to Die For, with roasted asparagus and my own recipe for oven fries! This was my first time making the French Bread rolls and they were quite tasty. Here is the process:

First- gather your ingredients. A very simple recipe, unless you are visiting your parents and the first two stores (one a grocery store) that you go to, don't carry yeast! Hello? Isn't Active Dry Yeast a fairly common grocery item? Anyway- this recipe requires Bread Flour, Salt, Yeast, Water, Sugar and Oil (I used Olive Oil).

Combine water, yeast and sugar and allow to proof for about 10 minutes. When it's ready, it should look like this:
Carefully add in flour and mix until dough forms. I made this recipe times 1 and 1/2 and only used 4 cups of flour. Knead 8-10 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic. Should look like this:

Cover with a damp towel and allow to rise for about 1 hour, until the dough looks like this (double in size):
Form into the number of rolls you desire. This recipe says it makes 16 dinner rolls. I made the recipe times 1 and 1/2 and formed 12 sandwich size rolls. Allow the rolls to rise for another 40-60 minutes, until they look like this (not perfect, but that's how you know they are homemade!): Bake for 18-20 minutes at 400 degrees until golden brown. They should look something like this (other pictures for this recipe are much more beautiful!):
They were really good and perfect for my Po'Boys. In the rush of entertaining on Friday night, the sandwiches didn't get a picture, but here is my recipe!

Shrimp Po'Boys with Lemon and Jalapeno Mayonnaise

Po'Boys

6-8 medium size shrimp per person
Wondra Gravy Flour
Salt and Pepper
Olive oil

Mix together flour, salt and pepper. Toss in raw shrimp to coat. Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add oil. Fry shrimp until they are crispy and opaque.

Lemon and Jalapeno Mayonnaise

1 cup mayo (regular or low-fat)
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 large clove of garlic finely minced or grated
1-2 TBS of chopped, pickled jalapenos

Chop garlic and jalapenos. Add to mayo. Zest one lemon and then juice it. Add both to mayo, stir and refrigerate. Best if made at least 2 hours before serving. Also delicious with the oven fries!

Slice rolls, top with hot shrimp, mayo and shredded lettuce. DELICIOUS!!!

Why I love Easter!

Why do I love Easter? Because I was born on Easter!! I haven't had a birthday on Easter since, but this year it is two days after :) For the last few years, my family comes to our house for Easter. We dye eggs, eat well, and have a huge brunch on Easter morning. This year, I was inspired by another blogger (MySweetCreations) to try my hand at making Easter Candy. Here is my first experiment.

Collect supplies- I use Baker's White chocolate, Baker's Semi-Sweet Chocolate, a Wilton Candy mold, Wilton paint brushes, and Wilton chocolate dye.

Begin by chopping one square of White Baker's Chocolate- this is enough for one mold.

Then, you need to temper your chocolate- this allows it to harden properly. You can tell when you have melted to the right point, when the chocolate is still lumpy, but warm. The warm chocolate will melt the remaining lumps. It will look like this:

After your chocolate is smooth, add desired colors. I divided the white chocolate into two bowls. I added 3 drops of red to one and 3 drops of yellow to the other.

Blend well!


Using a paint brush, apply the white chocolate to desired areas on your mold. Place mold in the freezer for about 10 minutes.


While your chocolate is setting, make breakfast for your daughter :)


And yourself!


Then, temper your Semi-Sweet chocolate- I used 4 squares for this mold.


Gently spoon the melted chocolate into your mold. Tap the edge of the mold to remove any bubbles and to make the surface smooth.


When the mold is full- you may add lollipop sticks, if desired. Make sure to roll the stick in chocolate first so it holds well.


Chill in the freezer until set- if you chocolate is properly tempered, this can be done without freezing, but freezing will speed the process. The chocolates should come out of the mold easily.


Lollipops for Robyn


And chocolates for me :)