Recipes for Cook

Valentines gifts tend to focus on chocolate treats so its nice to have something a little different for Valentines Day.  This bacon and heart-shaped egg salad fills you up and also provides the freshness and crunch that I feel is so important to enjoy in the winter months and would be the prefect for a Valentines day brunch or lunch.

I was sent this little gadget, called an Eggspress, from Just Mustard which moulds hard-boiled eggs into heart shapes, so when you cut them in half you have a pretty little heart.  Just Mustard is a gift company with lots of fun novelty gifts.

The back of the packet tells you how to create your heart shaped eggs and are easy to follow.

Although it is easy to make, mine didnt turn out quite so perfect as the ones in the illustration.  The yolk does not always sit right in the middle.  The heart shape does form, but its not very pronounced and I think you need to use them fairly quickly as I found that the egg started to lose the point at the bottom after about half an hour.

Bacon and Egg Salad (serves 2)

8 slices of smoked streaky bacon
4 medium eggs, hard boiled and cooled
1/2 bag of mixed lettuce leaves
4 stalks celery, chopped
1 apple, cored and chopped
4 cherry tomatoes, halved
juice of half a lime
2 tbsp olive oil
salt & freshly ground pepper
1 tsp honey

1. Grill the bacon until crisp, drain on kitchen paper and cool
2. Press the eggs as per instructions and cut in half.  If you dont have an Eggspress then simply cut the eggs in half.
3. Place the celery, apple and 4 slices of crispy bacon (crumbled) into a bowl.
4. Make the dressing with juice of half a lime, oil, seasoning and honey, whisk or shake in a jar then pour over the celery, apple and bacon mixture
5. Spread the salad leaves on the plates,  divide the celery, apple and bacon mixture between them.
6. Top each plate with two bacon rashers crossed.  Place 4 egg halves evenly around the plate and place the tomato halves between them and serve with crusty bread.

It was fun to serve the heart shaped eggs with this salad and if you would like to try it yourself, I have two Eggspress egg moulds to giveaway.  UK residents only please.  Just follow the instructions on the Rafflecopter Widget.  a Rafflecopter giveaway

2. Lavender Collins

3. Cucumber Mint Martini (made with vodka, not gin)
Megan was fairly certain the pear rosemary martini would be her favorite, but in the end, we all favored the cucumber mint martini. That said, the lavender collins was a close second. Matts beautiful boyfriend Tony was also on hand to taste test.
 Right after I took this picture of him he said "Okay, one more." Were now best friends.
And of course, we couldnt swig trios of libations without a little something to soak up all the sin juice, so we did what came natural and ate a huge feast of shrimp tacos, cilantro rice, guacamole, and chips.
 AND summer fruit fondue!!! Ya know, my nickname in college was fondue--cus I was fun to do!
I just cant quit you and your puns, Mamrie.

Im guessing you all deserve a drink too...which one is at the top of your list??

Ive written about it before, but dear God its worth another mention. Bake It In a Cake just got cray cray and featured a funfetti cake ball baked into a chocolate cupcake:

OK, BLOGGERS, YOU HAVE BEEN CHALLENGED (that means you too Ingrid!!) I hope everyone will post their end result photos!!

ANSWERING QUESTIONS:

1. What kind of yeast do I use? ANY dry active yeast will work!! You will find it in the baking isle in a two or three little envelope strip (or you can buy a 4 ounce jar of it). You can also buy it by the pound vacuum bag at Costco, but stick with the little envelope strips until you start to bake a LOT. I keep my yeast in the fridge. Check the expiration date before you use it. I like the Red Star brand of yeast, but Ive accidentally bought bread machine yeast before and it worked great. ANY yeast that is called dry active yeast will do the trick!! Yes, "fast acting" yeast is perfectly fine...anything but "wet cake yeast from the refrigerated section".

2. Will these Butterhorns freeze well? Yes they do. I frost mine, then let them "set" until the frosting has dried to the touch, then wrap them individually in plastic wrap and put a bunch of them in a large freezer bag.

3. My unbaked butterhorns look flat, what did I do wrong? In this particular case, the dough needed a little more flour. If a dough does not have enough flour, it can not "support" itself as it rises.

4. Do I use the dough hook? For tranditional yeast doughs yes, but this is not a traditional yeast dough, so I would use a regular beater or a paddle beater and not the dough hook for the butterhorns.

Please do not hesitate to ask questions, Ill post your answers right here, so check back.

1 tablespoon yeast
1 teaspoon white sugar
1/4 cup warm water
1/2 cup milk
1 egg (room temperature)
2 cups all purpose flour
1½ tablespoons white sugar
½ teaspoon salt (do not leave out)
½ cup of butter (no substitutions)

Measure 2 cups flour (spoon into cup and level off), 1½ tablespoons of sugar and the salt into a bowl. Cut the butter into the flour using a pastry blender until you have very small pieces of butter when you are done, it should look like oatmeal. (I did this step in the food processor and just pulsed it a few times, it looked like this)



In a small dish, mix the yeast and 1 teaspoon of sugar; stir in ¼ cup of warm water and let it sit for 10 minutes so that the yeast can start to bubble or activate. OK, this is where most novice bakers get freaked out (the temperature of the water). Too hot and it will kill the yeast, too cold and it will slow the yeast down (but it wont hurt it). I always think of the correct temperature as "baby bottle warm". For those of you who have children, youll know what temperature this is. You are aiming for a temperature that you could safely feed a bottle fed baby.

After the yeast mixture has been sitting for 10 minutes, it should look like the next photo. If it doesnt, dont despair, just throw it out and try this step again. This is called proofing the yeast (I always think of it as "proving the yeast is good"). Its done this way so you dont have to throw a whole batch of dough away if the yeast isnt any good. Tip: make sure your yeast is fresh, check the expiration date. I keep mine (I buy it by the jar) in the fridge.

Warm the milk until the chill is off (I used my microwave) and then add the slightly beaten egg. In a large bowl, add the (milk-egg mixture) and the (yeast-water mixture) to the dry ingredients. Stir well until it is all blended together. It will be a very soft dough (not a kneadable dough). I used my heavy duty electric mixer to mix everything together. It will look like this:


Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight (I chilled it overnight). The next day, sprinkle your counter with some flour and turn the dough out onto the counter. Sprinkle the top of the dough with more flour and roll the dough around until all sides are coated with a little flour so its not so sticky anymore. Roll (or pat) the dough out to ½" thick rectangle. The dough will be sticky during this stage, but dont give up, just keep lightly flouring your counter and rolling pin.

Cut the rectangle in to ¾" strips. Pick up a strip and dust the excess flour off of it. Twist the strips a bunch of times and then place one end on the counter and wind the twisted strip (in a single layer) around and around (tuck a tiny piece of the "tail" under the pastry) Sorry I forgot to photograph this step.
Place the rolls on a lightly greased baking sheet. Very lightly, spritz the tops of the rolls with vegetable spray so the plastic doesnt stick to them. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let them raise for an hour (or until they are doubled in size SEE NOTE BELOW). Bake in preheated 400 degree oven for 10 to 15 minutes (my oven took 15 minutes).
Frost the Butterhorns with a simple glaze made out of 2 cups of powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and ¼ teaspoon of almond extract and enough milk to make the glaze the right consistency.
NOTE: I put a tablespoon of raspberry pie filling in the center of my butterhorns before I baked them, but it isnt necessary. You can just frost them or frost them and sprinkle with toasted nuts.

NOTE: Dry active yeast requires water, sugar and warmth to "do its thing" in a bread recipe. When a recipe tells you to "let the dough raise for an hour" keep the warmth of you kitchen in mind. If your kitchen is on the cool side, it will take longer than the recommended time for your dough to raise. If your kitchen is hot, it will raise quicker than the recommended time. When dealing with a dough that is chilled (like the Butterhorns) the recommended raising time is an hour, however, I found that my dough took just short of TWO hours to double in size. If you bake the recipe before the dough has completely raised, it will turn out dense and heavy.