Chocolate Strawberries

  中文： 巧克力草莓

Chocolate strawberries can be simple and simple.  You just need to melt the chocolate and dip strawberries in it, and then, wola, chocolate strawberries!  But they can be sophisticated too.  Chocolate needs to be tempered to enhance its shine and taste.

I am in a lazy mood today, so I am going the easy way.  The strawberries I bought yesterday from Meijer are surprisingly sweet and delicious.  So I pair them with 72% dark chocolate.

Ingredients:

12 strawberries (try to pick equal sized strawberries)
1/2  to 2/3 cup dark chocolate
3 to 4 tablespoons white chocolate

Directions:

Wash and drain the strawberries. Pat them dry with paper towel.

Melt the dark chocolate with a double boiler; whisk until chocolate is silky and smooth.

Melt and white chocolate the same way in a separate double boiler.

Line a flat plate with plastic wrap.

Hold the strawberries pointed side down, dip into chocolate, and then place them on the plate until chocolate is set and harden again.

Drizzle the white chocolate over chocolate strawberries.  Or you can do what I do here. Fill a pastry bag with white chocolate and then pipe out even thin strips on strawberries. 

Nice afternoon tea snacks.  O(∩_∩)O~

They can be awesome gifts too！

Coffee Macaroons

中文： 咖啡马卡龙

I want to try coffee macaroons, so I use the burr grinder on my espresso machine (this one from amazon) to make the finest coffee and add it to the macaroon batter.  It turns out pretty great.  The dark and slightly bitter coffee flavor goes well with the macaroon sweetness.

Although I grind the coffee beans as fine as I can, my tongue can still sense a little bit roughness from it.  But I am fine with it. O(∩_∩)O~

Ingredients:

25 g almond flour
7 to 8 g fine coffee powder
55 g powder sugar
12 g granulated sugar
1 large egg white

Direction:

Combine powder sugar, coffee powder and almond flour.  Pour the mixture into food processor (food processors on amazon).  Run the processor for about 10 seconds.  And then shift the flour mixture.  Discard any big almond pieces.

Prepare a medium/large size pastry bag and NO. 12 tip.

Line a cookie pan with silicone baking mat.

Beat the egg white with an electronic whisk at medium speed for a couple minutes.  Add sugar when beating, little by little.  Stop beating when the stiff peak forms.

Fold the shifted almond flour mixture into egg whites. Fold it gently until the batter can fall smoothly like a silky ribbon.

Fill the pastry bag with almond batter.  Squeeze a dollar coin size batter onto the silicone mat, about a quarter inch in height.   Repeat it until all the batter is finished. 

I want to make little cute coffee macaroons this time, so I squeeze smaller batter circle onto the baking mat.  There are 30 in total, which means I can make 15 macaroons out of them.

Tap the bottom of the cookie pan when done to smooth the cookie dough tops.

Let the pan sit on countertop until the surface becomes dry to touch.  It might take 30 to 60 minutes depending on the humidity around.

Preheat the oven to 325F.

Bake in the oven for 8 to 9 minutes.  DO NOT open the oven to check cookies when baking.

Let cookies cool down on silicone mat a bit before transferring to a cooling rack.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

中文： 情人节快乐

My husband and I Just got back from our trip to New Orleans, and then Valentine's Day comes.  Happy Valentine's Day!

I used to buy chocolate for my husband on Valentine’s Day.  I decide to do something new this year.  So I make store-bought dark chocolate into chocolate roses.  This is a nice surprise for him.

Chocolate roses taste better than fondant roses. It might only be good for small cake decorations like flowers and leaves.  If you want to do a whole cake, fondant is still the best choice.

The cake includes chiffon cake, chocolate whipped cream, chocolate ganache, and coco powder.  The edge is covered with store-bought chocolate wafer sticks.  They have to be dipped into melted chocolate before going onto the cake; otherwise they will soften from moisture from whipped cream. 

Gifts from my husband.  Love them!

I have an exact same Le Creuset soup pot.  It is my favorite.  I basically use it to do everything.  So he buys me another one in bright lemon yellow color (Here's one at AMAZON).  O(∩_∩)O~

My ceramic cast iron collection

Baked Sweet Potato Wedges with Brown Sugar

中文菜谱：  红糖烤红薯

Here is another super easy and simple snack.  The sweet potatoes I stored in my basement become sweeter half way through the winter.  I simply just bake them with some oil and brown sugar, and it turns out to be a tasty sweet snack.  By the way, it is healthy too! 

Ingredients:

4 to 6 sweet potatoes
1 1/2 to 2 tablespoon oil
4 to 6 tablespoon brown sugar(use more if you have a sweet tooth or the sweet potatoes are not sweet enough)

Directions：

Preheat the oven to 375F/190°C.
Clean and rinse thoroughly the sweet potatoes.  Peel and cut them into wedges.  Add oil, mix until all wedges are evenly coated with oil. 

Place sweet potato wedges on a baking sheet lined with silicone matt (available on amazon) .

Sprinkle with brown sugar on top. 

Bake for 24 to 28 minutes, and serve immediately.

If you want the wedges to be a little bit chewy on the outside, reduce oven heat to 200F/93°C and bake another 10 to 15 minutes. 

They go well with tea or black coffee.

Oven roasted chestnut

中文菜谱: 烤栗子

When the fall came to the end, chestnut, one of my favorite nuts, appeared on local Saturday farmer’s market.  I have to buy several quarts of them whenever I see these cute brown color sweet nuts.  Right, that is how much I love them.

I was approached more than once by some curious American fellows asking me what they are and what they taste like.  Well, when toasted, chestnut tastes very much like butternut squash, but sweeter with firmer texture.  According to my standard, they are a hundred times better than butternut squash. 

When I was growing up, dried chestnut was a winter staple in my grandma’s pantry.  They are used in chicken soup, pork stew, even in porridge.  There are a thousand ways to cook chestnut and each single one of them is awsome.  

As for me, I always enjoy the freshly roasted ones the best.

It is a very simple and non-effort way.  Chestnuts are the only ingredient here.  We will also need a pair of sharp scissors and a toaster oven. 

Wash and drain the chestnuts.  Cut across the tops and be careful not to hurt yourself or cut the chestnuts into halves.  We just need a shallow cut so that they won’t explode when roasted in the oven.

Preheat the toaster oven to 350F. (Preheat to 375F if using a normal sized oven).

Spread out the chestnuts onto a cookie pan. Pop them in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. (Bake another 5 minutes if using a normal sized oven). 

These chestnuts I got from local farmer’s market are quite small.  Large size chestnuts might require additional 8 to 10 minutes baking time. 

Serve immediately right out of oven.  The cuts on chestnut tops will help to release the nuts from their shells. 

I’d rather have a bucket of these instead of popcorn when watching a movie and cozying up with my husband on the couch.  They taste so much better!