Dark Chocolate Ice Cream Roll

Well years ago I attempeted a Chocolate Roll. But the cake tore and did not work. So I figured why try again. There are lots of other things that turn out that I can make. So years later I think to myself time to overcome this fear. I was so stressed making this dessert. Partly cause I was affraid it would not turn out. Also I was making it for Christmas Dinner with my side of the family. So it had to turn out. I found a great recipe on line. Here is the link http://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipes/Dessert/Chocolate/recipe.html?dishID=3337

The recipe called for vanilla ice cream. But I thought to myself that candy cane ice cream would be very festive. So as we have an ice cream maker and making ice cream is very easy I went on line to find a recipe for that. I did here. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/peppermint-ice-cream-recipe2/index.html

The ice cream turned out great. Was a very strong minty taste which I did not like. I don't really like mint. Then dday came and I had to make the cake. I did lots of crying and being stressed. But the cake turned out great. The whole dessert was not as hard as I thought. I would definately make this dessert again. If you have never made a Chocolte Roll before its really not that hard to do. Oh and it tasted soooo good. Did not notice the strong taste of the mint in the ice cream in the cake. I wish I had more to eat. I served the slices of cake with a dolip of whip cream and sprinkled a bit of candy cane on the  whiped cream. So if you are an adverntursome cook give this a try. You won't regret it. Also if you don't have an ice cream maker you can just buy ice cream at the store. You can also find candy cane ice cream. Blessings!

All Day Bake a Thon

Hey all! So yesterday my niece and I did an all day bake a thon. What a lot of fun. The plan was to make 6 kinds of cookies doubling each batch. Well my niece arrived here at 10 am and we started baking at 10:30 am. First I made my gingerbread dough as it needed to be chilled for 2 hours. Then my niece made these fabulous Chocolate Kalua and Pecan Cookies. She got the recipe from a cooking magazine. Definately my favourite cookie of the day.Then we moved on to me making Super Gooey Chocolate Drops. Tasted good but were very soft and crumbly. Ben suggested that they would be good ice cream toppings. From there on to my nieces Malted             Maddness cookies.                                                                                       Kalua Cookies

They are a choclate cookie with chocolate icing on them, then crushed Malt Balls. Very good but very sweet.

 Then I made Whipped Shortbread cookies. Bens moms recipe. Ben just loves these cookies. They are a very soft shortbread they melt in your mouth. Delicous. By this time it was 7 ish at night and we were pooped. So we figured that to make the last 2 batches we would be up to like 12 am and we were not interested in that. So as we were going to be seeing each other the next day in the evening we decided that we would make our cookies the next after noon at our own houses and exchange them  that evening. Which we did. I made my ginigerbread and my niece made chocolate macarrons. I had a great day hanging with my niece. That was a real blessing to me. I think that will be my best Christmas present this year. I love all my nieces and nephews so much. They are all really precious to me. Thanks Brianna for such a wonderful day. :o)

Here is the recipe for the Chocolate Kalua + Pecan Cookies
1 cup butter, 1/4 cup kahlua liqueur, 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour, 1 tsp salt, 1tsp baking soda, 1/4 cup cocoa, 1 cup chopped pecans, 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips. Combine butter and sugar; cream on high speed. Add eggs 1 at a time, and kahlua beat till smooth. In a seprate bowl combine flour, salt, baking soda and cocoa. Add to butter mixture and mix to incorporate. Stir in nuts and Chocolate chips. Drop by rounded tablespoons on to cookie sheets. Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes.

Have you made these?

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/holiday-icebox-cookies?backto=true&backtourl=/photogallery/christmas-cookies#slide_1

So tell me have you made pinwheel cookies before? I would love to make these ones by Martha Stewart. They look so fun and colourful. But I am scared to death to make them. I need to overcome this. So maybe this season is the one. I phoned a friend who has made pinwheels before and asked her if she could help me. So I wait for her response. But tell me have  you made them and what has your experience been. Any tips for me? They are probably not nearly has hard as I think.

Cookies Cookies and more Cookies!!

I am so excited for Saturday December 11th to come. My niece has asked me to bake Christmas cookies with her. So she is coming to my house and we are going to bake 6 kinds of cookies but doubling all the recipes. So thats like 12 batches of cookies. We start at 10 am and go until we are done. How ever long that will take. My niece is picking 3 kinds to make and brining all the ingredients for those and I am doing the same. Nothing to challenging here. Well maybe the baking all day long. That may be a challenge. We will plaly the Christmas tunes and watch Christmas movies as we do it. So I will definately post pictures. Maybe not saturday as when we are all done I maybe ready to flop. Wow that will be a lot of cookies. I wonder what my single niece will do with all those cookies? I do need to get back to some challenges here. I am starting to feel better so what is my excuse. Ben really wants to make a gingerbread house. That scares the poop out of me. But I have always wanted to do one so maybe this is the year. Also I am bring the Christmas dessert to my familys Christmas celebrations. So that I have decided is going to be a challenge. But I will tell you about that in a different post. More closer to Christmas. So tell me what is your favourite Christmas cookie? Do you bake at Christmas time? Here is a great site for some new Christmas baking I am making 2 kinds from here both chocolate ones. Mmmm chocolate! http://www.foodnetwork.com/topics/christmas-cookie/index.html

Yeast Bread a flop

So I thought today that I would try and save my family money by making homemade bread. Well I started with my stir bread which is a no fail bread. Always turns out and tastes so good. For recipe check an earlier blog entry. Then I moved on to attempt Harvest Brown Bread. Which went well I thought. Although I don't ever make yeast bread. So I don't really know what I am doing. But hey it is good to try new things. My heart was in the right place. Well as you can see here the bread sunk. Can bread do that? It looks awful. As long as it tastes good. Then it was not a total loss. Oh I hope we can still eat it. Any one out there know why this happened? Did I add to much flour? Did I kneed the dough to long? Did I not let it rise enough? Did I punch down the dough to much? I have to know and try again. This bread will not beat me! I will have the victory of a nice loaf of bread. Well off to go and slice it and see if it tastes any good. Never give up keep trying. If at first you don't succeed try try again. Blessings