Mouthwatering Butterhorns

So as "Frankenstorm" looms large over our city and the rain falls continually on our Sunday afternoon, my mom (who is visiting from Alberta) and I got busy in the kitchen. It was time to fill the house with the amazing scent of her mouthwatering butterhorns. And I am not joking, when I say they make your mouth water. Even as I write this, my mouth is watering simply from the smell alone.

Never heard of a butterhorn? You are not alone and today is quite frankly your lucky day. A lot of butterhorns that you see out there look more like crescent rolls...these are not them. These are simple...better!

 

Ingredients:

Yeast mixture

1 cup of lukewarm water

2 tbsp yeast (2 packages traditional not quickrising)

2 tsp sugar

Butterhorn Mixture

1 cup milk

1 cup butter

4 cups flour

3 tbsp sugar

1tsp salt

2 egg yolks

Icing

2 cups icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla

3 tbsp milk (if you need more add a little at a time)

1 cup of walnuts

 

Instructions

Scalp one cup of milk in the microwave or in a small pot on the stove. Add 1 cup of butter, stir and then cool in the refrigerator until cool to the touch.

In a separate bowl combine lukewarm water, yeast and sugar and stir until fully mixed. Sit on the countertop for 10 minutes to allow the yeast to rise.

In a medium sized bowl, mix flour, sugar, salt and egg yolks and then add the fully risen yeast mixture and the cooled scalded butter/milk mixture. Stir until fully mixed. Cover the top of the bowl with saran wrap and leave in the fridge for approximately 5 hours or overnight.

Remove the mixture from the fridge and on a large cutting board or flat surface, sprinking a light layer of flour to ensure the dough mixture does not stick. Cut a softball size piece of the mixture using a small knife and using a rolling pin, roll the mixture out to the size of a medium pizza (approximately 8-10 inches in diameter). Grabbing one side of the mixture roll the dough into the shape of a sausage roll and cut into 2" strips. Take the individual strips and put down into a small flat ball and place on a cookie sheet coated with butter or non-stick cooking spray.

Cover with clean dish towel and let rise for 40 minutes. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and cook for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned.

While the butterhorns are in the oven, prepare the icing mixture. Mix all ingredients in a small bowl including the walnuts. Add additional milk slowly if the mixture is not spreadable.

Once butterhorns have cooked fully, remove from the oven and add the icing mixture immediately. And if these babies straight out of the oven with the icing sugar mixture still melting don't make your eyes roll back a little in your head, I don't know what will.

Bacon Jam at The Meat Dept on the Danforth

By 9:30 this morning my car was filled with pots, pans, jars, jar lifter, knives, cutting boards, onions, garlic, maple syrup, coffee, cider vinegar and 10 lbs of glorious bacon from The Meat Department and I was enroute to the commercial kitchen.

By 1pm I was walking towards The Meat Dept with 13 jars of bacon jam that were labelled and still warm from the kitchen. As of 1pm today Manning Canning Bacon Jam is available exculsively at The Meat Dept on the Danforth. Get it while it's hot!

Why you should always check the expiration date on Pectin

Crestfallen…that is how I felt when I woke up this morning.

crest·fal·len

adjective /ˈkrestˌfôlən/  Sad and disappointed - he came back empty-handed and crestfallen

When I walked into the kitchen and picked up the 125ml jar of what was supposed to be Beer Jam but is still simply beer liquid, I felt my heart drop. I knew that the people who attended my Prosecco Jelly (which turned out beautifully) and Beer Jam class last night at The Depanneur would at some point come to the same realization when they checked the jars they brought home last night.

I sat down with a bit of a thunk at my kitchen table, rested my head in my hands and mentally ran through the list of reasons why a jelly doesn’t set so that I could diagnose the situation.

• Incorrect amount of sugar. I knew that was not the problem as I watched as Vicky meticulously measured the sugar and even got someone to double check the quantity. Sugar was not our problem

• Not enough acid. We used the juice of 1 lemon as the recipe called for and I watched Gwen squeeze the life out of that lemon. Acid was not our problem.

• Overripe fruit. There was no fruit in this particular jelly unless you consider Guinness Beer a fruit, so I knew I could cross this one of our list.

• Not enough pectin. We used the prescribed amount of pectin. Not enough pectin officially crossed off the list.

•  We cooked the jelly for too long after adding the pectin causing it to break down. We timed it to the second. Argghhh….what was the reason

 Suddenly it came to me in a flash and I ran to my Rubbermaid container with the supplies from the class last night and dug out the box with the pectin used in the beer jelly. EXPIRED.

 KEY LEARNING: Always, always, always check the box for the expiration date before using it.

 The good news for those in the class is that you can still use what is in the jar. It is not a total waste. Just bring it to a gentle simmer in a pan until it begins to thicken up and use it as a syrup or marinade.

 But as anyone who knows me will attest, this really bothers me. For those in my class (and I am going to try to reach you via email) who would like a jar of the Beer Jam that they got to taste at the beginning of the class, just drop me a line. I will whip up a batch and drop some off at The Dep for you to pick up.

I hope that the skills you learned in the class will still prove handy and that you will have the confidence to try this recipe again at home!

Preserves as Gifts

With Christmas approaching, some of you may be thinking about making preserves as gifts for family members and friends. If so...you may want to keep you eye on Pimp That Preserve for creative ideas on how to dress up those gorgeous jars of preserves.

3 tips for crisper pickles

Ever made a batch of cucumber pickles and had them turn out on the mushy side? Ever bit into a pickle and had a bunch of brine pour out from the hollow middle? Ever had pickles turn brown on you after a couple of months? Disappointing, isn't it? These 3 pickling tips should help solve at least some of your troubles.

• Weather, most especially heavy rain fall can have an effect on homegrown and farmer’s market produce. It can cause the produce to retain water; the excess water absorbs into the cells of the vegetables and is hard to remove and can cause your final pickle to be soft and lacking in flavor. Wait at least 2-3 days after heavy rain fall to use vegetables from your garden to make pickles

• Try to use produce that has been picked within 24 hours. Cucumbers and items like squash will start to develop hollow centers when they stand for longer than 24 hours. These hollow centers trap air and will cause pickles to float and spoil earlier.

• The high temperature of a boiling water bath, even for a short period of time can rob pickles of their crispness and colour. To prevent this, pickles should be processed for a longer period of time in a 180F to 185F water bath to pasteurize the contents of the jars. This method is called low temperature pasteurization.

Are there other tricks that you use to ensure pickling success?