Christmas Melting Snow Cake

Merry Christmas! We hope that you are having a wonderful holiday season. No matter what holiday you celebrate, this is a cake that can be celeb rated and enjoyed by all, enjoy our Melting Snow Cake. This is a spiced pound cake with a marshmallow fluff layer on the outside. This cake doesn’t get its name for any reason….it is a small cake, but is messy cake to make, so beware. If you are not feeling the messy frosting, and want something more prim looking feel free to buy a can of frosting and mixing our marshmallow fluff in with it!

Enjoy!

Ingredients: Serves about 4-6

Marshmallow Fluff:
3 egg whites room temperature
2 cups corn syrup
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cake:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan 
 2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pan 
 1 cup sugar 
 4 large eggs 
 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 
 1/2 teaspoon salt
1.5 teaspoon ground ginger
1.5 teaspoon ground clove
1.5 teaspoon cinnamon

Start by making the marshmallow fluff and preheating the oven to 350 degrees.  Pour corn syrup into the egg whites, and beat on a high speed with an electric mixer until the mixture doubles, about 5-6 minutes.  Slowly add in your powdered sugar while mixing on low. Once completely mixed, add vanilla extract. Place in fridge until ready to use.

Butter your cake pans. We used two 8 inch round pans.  Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition then add vanilla and salt.

With mixer on low, gradually add flour, and all of your spices, beating just until combined.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, about 35 minutes.

Let cool completely before you start to put the cake together. If the top of the cake is too rounded you can simply take a knife to flatten the tops off. Start by putting a layer of fluff in between the two cakes, if you are afraid of your cake sliding, then secure with toothpicks. Place second cake on top. Cover in fluff. When we made it the fluff poured all down the side because it is so heavy, so we placed in the freezer immediately for about 5 minutes.

Don’t leave in freezer for longer than 15 minutes, because it will be difficult to eat! Before serving dust with powdered sugar!

Tada!

Merry Christmas!

 

 

Christmas Ham Pot Pie!

We hope that you are staying warm, have people you love close by, and love in your heart. We have prepared for you a wonderfully simple and delicious shitake mushroom and Christmas ham pot pie. You can make one gigantic one or you can make 5 or 6 small ones!!

Merry Christmas!

*you can make your own pate brisee, we have recipes for that, but don’t feel any shame in using frozen pie dough!

Ingredients: serves 6

2 large carrots
1 turnip
1 yellow onion
1 cup diced red and purple potatoes
5 medium shitake mushrooms
3 garlic cloves
Pre-cooked glazed ham (2 cups worth)
1 ½ sticks unsalted butter
¾ cups flour
2 chicken bullion cubes
5 cups chicken stock
1 teaspoon salt plus a pinch
2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary
1 egg
2 packs frozen pie dough

 



Start by preheating the oven to 400 degrees, and dicing all of the vegetables and ham into small pieces, leave pie dough out so it softens.

Place the potatoes and turnips on a sheet tray and sprinkle with a pinch of salt, and bake 10 minutes, until partially cooked but not completely raw.

In a medium sauce pan heat 5 cups of chicken stock, then dissolve the bullion cubes in the stock.

In a large sauce pan melt butter. Once butter is melted add onion, garlic, and rosemary. Cook until onion is translucent.

Reduce heat to low, add flour and salt to the butter and whisk constantly until thickened, about 2 minutes. After two minutes add chicken stock, stirring constantly until completely thickened. Add salt, then take the mix off the heat and add in all of your vegetables and ham and fold in.

Spoon mix into the bowl or bowls you will be baking in. Mix the egg in bowl, and brush the outer edge of the baking dish. Place pie dough over the top with at least ½ and inch over the edge, then pinch the dough where it meets the baking dish so that it adheres. Brush the top with of the dough with egg, and using a really sharp knife make four small slits.

Place in oven and bake 45 min to an hour, or at least until the dough is golden brown.

Let them cool at least 10 minutes, otherwise you may sear your tongue!

Enjoy, Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Leftover Panettone Eggnog Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding!!!



Panettone is without a doubt Italy’s national Christmas sweet. In 1919 Angelo Motto started mass producing his cakes out of his Milanese bakery, revolutionizing this cake by giving it it’s now traditional dome shape. Due to so much competition in the Panettone world the price of these got so low, that by the end of WWII anyone could afford it. This is the beauty of this cake, it is delicious, a tradition, and a national sweet that anyone can afford.

Panttone is such a staple in the Quintano household this time of year, that without fail there are at least three left over. What Michael and I decided to do, besides eating it every day, giving some to the neighbors, and to the dogs…is to take our leftover panettone and leftover eggnog and make a bread pudding out of it. This recipe is made to feed about 15 people, though the photo shows a small one, we baked ours in a huge pan for a Christmas party we had. So feel free to divide by whatever you want to suit your needs!

Here is our massive Christmas leftover chocolate chip eggnog panettone bread pudding!

Ingredients: serves 15

Use a bake safe pan about 12” across, preferably a circle

15 cups Panettone (about 2 large ones)
14 eggs
1 ½ cups melted unsalted butter
3 cups sugar
3 cups eggnog
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups chocolate chips

 

 

 

Preheat the oven 350 degrees.

To start cut all the crust off of your Panttone, rip in to medium to small sized pieces, and measure out to 15 cups and place in a large bowl. Pour melted butter in one cup at a time, folding it in after each cup. In a medium bowl, whisk together all of your eggs, sugar, and cinnamon. Pour the mix in parts over the bread while folding it all together, until all the mix is used. I used my hands, it is a bit easier to make sure all of the bread soaks up the delicious flavors. For the last part mix in your chocolate chips for last umph of flavor.

Spray your baking pan with a little non stick spray, pour the batter in and let cook for about 1 ½ to 2 hours depending on how well your oven works. Just watch it towards that last half hour, and check it with a pick. It is the same as any cake, if crumbs stick, let it bake longer!

Enjoy your leftovers made into pudding to become better leftovers!!!! Yum!



Christmas Eve Lamb Leek Mushroom Lasagna!

Christmas Eve at my house is left to last minute gift wrapping, dogs eating bottom branches of the tree, running out to CVS at midnight, and on the less stressful note watch a classic Christmas film and eat some delicious food. Traditionally in Italy one only eats fish because we are technically “fasting”….but since eating 7 courses of fish isn’t technically fasting, I will neither be fasting nor eating only fish. So Michael and I have prepared a festive Christmas Eve lasagna filled with tomato sauce, ground lamb, leeks, mushroom, and delicious ricotta cheese.

Enjoy this lasagna with your loved ones, maybe around the fire place and next to the tree!

God Jul!
Joyeux Noel!
Buon Natale!
Mele Kalikimaka!

Ingredients: use a 9”x13” baking tray

1 box oven bake ready lasagna pasta sheets
5 cups diced tomato in their juice
8 oz. tomato paste
3 cups sliced button tomatoes
2 lbs. ground lamb
2 medium leeks
4 garlic cloves
1/4 cup olive oil
¾ teaspoon salt
1 lb. ricotta
2 cups shredded mozzarella

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and get all of your mise en place set up. Start by chopping the leeks. To do this cut the root off, then cut where the light green starts to turn dark. Cut the leek in half lengthwise and take one layer off. Holding the halves intact, run them under water to get all of the dirt out. Now placing the cut side down, thinly slice the leeks into half-moon pieces. Next pull the stems out of your mushrooms, rinse, and slice into ¼ inch slices. Lastly dice up as finely as possible all of your garlic.

In a large sauce pan heat your olive oil. Once the olive oil gets to a searing temperature, put all of your ground lamb into the pan and cook all the way through, about 7 mins, stirring with a wooden spoon. Now take your meat out of the pan and drain all the fat through a colander, and place the meat back in the pan. Add leeks, cook about 5 minutes, next add garlic. Once the garlic starts to brown a bit add all of your tomato paste and stir, cook for one minute. Add tomatoes and their juices along with salt, and lower the heat to medium and let cook for about 25 minutes.

Mix ricotta and all but a ¼ cup of mozzarella together in a small mixing bowl.

Once your meat mix is done cooking, and your cheese is mixed, begin your assembly of the lasagna. Start by laying some meat sauce down, then cheese, then evenly lay out the raw mushroom. Top with pasta sheets. Repeat with meat, cheese, mushrooms, pasta two more times. Once you are done layering your ingredients take the last ¼ cup of mozzarella and sprinkle over the top layer.

You are now ready to cook. Cover the lasagna with a sheet of aluminum foil and place in oven and cook for 50 minutes. After the 50 minutes are up, remove the foil and cook for another 15 minutes to allow the cheese to create a nice brown crust!

Your wonderful lasagna is ready to be eaten! Merry Christmas!

Holiday Spicy Chocolate Truffles

During this time of year it is always wonderful to make small sweets that you can just pop in your mouth while wrapping some presents or to give as gifts. We decided to make some chocolate truffles. They are fun to make and there are so many options of how you can flavor them and decorate them. A huge problem we had while making them is they kept getting eaten before I could photograph them!

These truffles are a rich and creamy cinnamon and cayenne spice chocolate treat, with two kinds covered in sprinkles, one in coconut flakes, and one in chopped hazelnuts.

Enjoy, and happy holidays!

Ingredients: Makes about 2 dozen at about 1 ½ inches in diameter, takes about 2 hours

8 oz cream cheese
3 cups powdered sugar sifted
3 cups semi-sweet chocolate
1 ½ teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

In a large bowl beat the cream cheese until really smooth. One half cup at a time, add the sugar to the cream cheese until it is completely blended.

In a medium sauce pan melt the chocolate constantly stirring. The second all the chocolate melted take it off the burner, because chocolate will burn and dry out in a heartbeat! Don’t fret though, just stir and keep an eye out, should take about 5 minutes.

Stir the melted chocolate and vanilla into the cream cheese. Next add the spices and make sure you evenly blend so there is no one part that is spicier. Now place in the fridge for an hour to let set a little.

Once your hour is up, set up 4 small plates up with your decorations. Using a spoon, spoon out about one heaping tablespoon of chocolate, and using the heat of your palm form a ball. It takes love and patience!

Now to decorate you can either roll your chocolate truffles in the sprinkles etc… or a tip that I found to be useful is to pour some of your toppings into your hand and roll it in your hand so that you can evenly press the toppings into the chocolate.

You can serve right away, or refrigerate for another hour to let harden! You will adore these chocolates, and they are festive and super sexy!!!

Voila!

Holiday Spiced Rum

I first made this for Michael’s birthday last year as part of a prohibition era party I threw him, where we fermented our own liquers, made gin, and this delicacy….spiced rum. It seems only appropriate that we would yet again, make this drink during the winter month, where a warm spiced drink can warm your shivered bones, and bring a smile to your face!

This spiced rum is very simple, and is great to drink straight, and in our case we like to add a little water and warm it. Enjoy and get creative, you will figure out how you prefer to spice it!

Ingredients:
750 ml dark rum
1 vanilla bean
2 large strips of orange peel
1 cinnamon stick
4 whole cloves
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

This is such a painfully easy recipe. Basically you want to pour the rum out into a large pitcher (keep the bottle to rebottle the liquor), and put your ingredients with it. For the orange peel, use a peeler to take the skin off, just make sure that you get rid of the pith, which is the white part, the pith will make your drink bitter. With the vanilla bean, take a knife and run into down length wise to open it so all the lovely flavor can come out. Once all the ingredients are in the pitcher, place plastic wrap on top, and let sit in a cool dark area for 3 days. Once a day stir the mix, and reseal, and let sit.

After the third day, strain out all the spices, and rebottle! Now enjoy, you can spike some hot chocolate, drink warm, or on the rocks. Enjoy and be safe!