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Eight-layer nachos (REC0008)

The Writing Life of a Tadpole Posted on November 26, 2017 by PolyWoggNovember 26, 2017  

After canvassing multiple people, and various recipes, I wanted to come up with a definitive personal nachos recipe. We considered lots of variations, but this was the winning combo for us.

EIGHT-LAYER NACHOS (REC0008)

Difficulty

Low

Meal

Dinner /

Snack

Genre

Quick and easy

Yield

Serves 4

Time

Prep: 10-30m

Cook: 10-15m

Rating

★★★★★

Shopping List Preparations
Qty Ingredients

Sous-chef preparations:

  1. Dice and brown 2 cups of chicken (reduces later cooking time) with the taco or pico salsa seasoning.
  2. Dice 1/4 cup of green onions.
  3. Clean, slice and dice two red bell peppers.
  4. Drain 1 cup of mild salsa.

Main preparations:

  1. Using a large baking dish, do one complete layer of tortilla chips.
  2. Add a layer of shredded cheddar cheese (1 cup).
  3. Add a layer of already-cooked diced chicken (2 cups).
  4. Add a layer of green onions (1/4 cup).
  5. Add a layer of bell peppers (2 peppers).
  6. Add a layer of tortilla chips.
  7. Add a layer of shredded mozzarella cheese (1 cup).
  8. Bake for 10 minutes @ 350 degrees, uncovered.
  9. Garnish with the drained salsa (1 cup).
  10. Serve with sides of guacamole, sour cream and regular salsa, as desired.
1 bag Tostitos Restaurant-Style Tortilla Chips
1 cup Shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup

Shredded mozzarella or Monterey Jack cheese.

2 cups

Diced chicken

2 tbsp

Taco or pico salsa seasoning

1/4 cup

Diced green onions

2

Bell peppers, red

1 cup

Drained mild salsa


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#50by50 #06 – Crowd-sourcing an eight-layer nachos recipe

The Writing Life of a Tadpole Posted on August 19, 2017 by PolyWoggApril 13, 2018  

A lot of people are likely to think that this goal hardly merits being a “50 things by 50” item, and I can see their point. It’s not a “bucket list” type item like bungee jumping or something equally extreme, nor necessarily exotic like a trip to the Galapagos. But that isn’t what my 50by50 list is about — some of them are large, some are small, and some are Goldilocks items — just right for me.

A nacho recipe is one of those “just right” items for me. I have long-wanted a “definitive” recipe for nachos, one by which all other nachos that I encounter will be measured. I think part of my attraction to it is that it is not the type of food I grew up with, and the thought of my mom and a nachos recipe is laughable. The meat and potatoes regime that I grew up would have considered nachos like this to be something akin to “weird ethnic food”, the way even foodies might view eating insects dipped in chocolate or bull’s testicles. It was just not an option in our household. Chinese food? Never. Indian? Never. Heck, even Italian was limited to spaghetti with meat sauce.

And I know the history of nachos. It was “invented” in Mexico at a restaurant across the border by a waiter named Ignacio Anaya (with the nickname nacho) who threw some together on the spur of the moment for wives of American military personnel one afternoon when the chef was absent from the kitchen. So it was invented there, but it is not a Mexican food. It became popular in Texas at arenas, sometimes just with cheese offerings. And eventually it spread. But it’s not “Mexican” fare, even if people treat it as TexMex.

Plus there are thousands of variations. But I wanted to create my idea of a definitive nacho recipe, with multiple layers. And since I wanted to include it as a 50by50 item, I thought I would crowd-source it and get people talking, expressing their hopefully passionate views about guacamole or sour cream, or cheese blends. That didn’t quite go as I planned. Some friends wanted to know what time they should arrive for dinner hehehe, while others just turned it back to say “what did I want”. What I wanted was views! 🙂 However, like most things on Facebook, I’m not very good at being a catalyst for discussion or feedback. It was what it was though, and I’m grateful for all those who shared their thoughts.

The discussion for me starts with the base. I mentioned the thousands of variations of recipes out there, and some play with the base. Some use triscuits, or baguettes, or potato chips, or anything flat really. But for me, those aren’t nachos. I don’t know exactly what they are, but I am a purist for using tortilla chips. I pulled two brands for the test, PC Restaurant Style and Tostitos. The Tostitos ones are way better in our limited judging panel of three (Jacob, Andrea and I), with the PC ones being a bit bland. However, I find the Tostitos a bit saltier than I would prefer, so I’m still on the hunt for another brand, and we’ll see if we find something better in the future.

The second layer has to be cheese in my view. I know lots of people put the cheese on last, and I’ll come to that, but I want my chips to stay together in all their gooey goodness, and I want the various ingredients to stay put so that they are evenly spaced for the chips. I hate buying nachos where the bottom layer is basically plain chips where none of the other ingredients are left to even touch them. For this layer of cheese, I have a surprisingly-strong preference for shredded cheddar. Single, double or triple-strength, but definitely cheddar.

After that, we start into the real topping layers. Beef, chicken, shrimp, vegetable only, bacon, ham…they’re all available as toppings, and the views on FB were less than definitive. Preferences across the spectrum. However, for the definitive recipe, I think the flavour interactions between chicken and the other ingredients are too strong to ignore. Most of the others tend to “sit” there as toppings, and while they add flavouring, chicken seems to interact more with the other toppings, as well as the chips and cheese. I prefer beef for tacos and fajitas, but for nachos, it has to be chicken in the end.

I am, however, a heathen. A rebel. A traitor to the nacho revolution. We pre-cooked the chicken in the Epicure steamer to reduce cooking time for the nacho portion. Some of the nacho recipes range from 15 minutes up to 45, often to ensure full cooking of the meat. If we pre-cook them in the steamer, no chance of the meat not being cooked, and we don’t have to risk over-cooking the rest of the ingredients nor burning the nacho chips. For some connoisseurs in Texas, cooking it all together for the whole time is a requirement and anything else might be a hanging offense. Consider me an outlaw then. For added seasoning, and there has to be some, we used Epicure spices to tweak the chicken. One batch was the standard taco seasoning, and while we used Epicure, lots of stores have some form of taco seasoning of varying strengths (mild to medium is better than strong for this). The other batch, we used a Pico salsa seasoning, and I actually liked it a lot more. It just seemed like the chicken was infused with this one, rather than coated.

For the onion layer, and yes, there have to be onions if it is going to be called nachos, I can go either way on green onions or white onions. The green onions obviously have a different taste, and for me, I suspect that “kick” is enough. I’ll spoil the finale, but I like to taste my food without having one ingredient overwhelm the rest, so there are no black olives nor jalapenos in my recipe. I know, I know, another sacrilege. But my palate, my nachos, my recipe! 🙂 Plus neither Jacob or Andrea like them either. If we did have jalapeno peppers in it, I think I would go with the simpler white onions so the flavours wouldn’t clash.

The next layer has to be the regular bell peppers. Red, yellow, green, orange…any combination will likely do, but I find that the red peppers seem to blend better with the chips, chicken and cheese. I’d be fine with just red, as the others are a bit different levels of sweetness, but I’m flexible to include a smattering of all four. Infinite diversity in infinite combinations, the Vulcan approach to recipe creation.

I then feel like it is time to start wrapping things up on the layers. But not before another layer of chips to truly “bind” it all together (so that it is not like eating bruschetta!), and then topping it all off with another layer of cheese. While cheddar belonged on the bottom, I think this last layer can be “chef’s choice”. I prefer a mozzarella blend, but I could see adding some monterey jack or even some stronger cheddar flavours. No, you can’t use feta or gouda. Well, you can, but then it’s not nachos. I don’t know what it is, more like screwed-up nachos. 🙂

There is one other layer, and this one is a bit tricky for two reasons. First, you apply it AFTER everything is cooked so it goes on cold. The second part, the tricky part, is that while it is something tomato-ish, some people just use salsa. Which is good, and if you find a good salsa blend (not mango, or jalapeno, again avoiding them to avoid overwhelming the other flavours), it’s great. Except for one thing. Even the chunkiest of salsa is too wet and can completely destroy the texture of the chips and turn it all into a soggy mess. If you’re using salsa, I think it has to be drained. Perhaps even pressed/drained. Or, you can do what we did, which is spread fresh tomatoes on top.

There were some other options I considered in the attempt.

  • Some recipes drizzled oil over the first layer of chips, but this seems gratuitous if you’re keeping the cooking time less than ten minutes as we did;
  • Other recipes went for special spice blends (cilantro, basil, garlic, salt, black pepper, chili pepper) or atypical flavourings (Italian seasoning, ranch dressing, bbq sauce), but just as with the seasoning in the meat and avoiding jalapenos, I worry that these flavours are either superfluous or easy to overwhelm the recipe, preventing other more subtle fusions from creeping forth; and,
  • Traditional recipes also wanted black beans, corn, maybe some kidney beans, and chunks of avocado, but again, it is just too many flavours or superfluous or don’t really add anything desirable.

Some people and recipes argued it is simply not nachos if there isn’t guacamole and sour cream, but since these too can overwhelm a base, I think they can best be handled through sides that people can adjust quantities as they see fit. I like the sour cream option, but feel it is too “wet” as well to be directly on the chips. And that’s it.

My new definitive recipe for eight-layer nachos is:

  1. Add Tostitos chips; shredded cheddar cheese; pre-cooked chicken in Epicure Pico salsa seasoning; green onions; bell peppers (red plus some combo of green/yellow/orange too); Tostitos chips; and shredded mozzarella cheese;
  2. Bake for ten minutes;
  3. Garnish with chopped tomatoes, uncooked; and,
  4. Serve with sides of guacamole, sour cream and salsa, as desired.

We made it last night, and I’ll do up the full recipe later with pics, but it was certainly the best nachos I’ve ever had at home, and probably in the top five ever.

And THAT is worthy of a 50by50 entry.


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English Muffin Pizza (REC0007)

The Writing Life of a Tadpole Posted on January 7, 2017 by PolyWoggApril 16, 2018  

It’s almost hard to call this a “new recipe” as it’s a recipe we’ve used several times before, and it is really just using English muffins for your pizza crust with assembly of different toppings. But I thought I would add it here anyway. I have a small bias towards including pepperoni in every variation, but technically it is optional. 🙂

ENGLISH MUFFIN PIZZA (REC0007)

Difficulty

Low

Meal

Dinner /

Snack

Genre

Fast

Yield

12 mini-pizzas

Time

Prep: 10-30m

Cook: 10-15m

Rating

★★★★☆

Shopping List Preparations
Qty Ingredients

Sous-chef preparations:

  1. Slice English muffins in half.
  2. Prepare (slice/dice) any of the optional additional toppings.

Main preparations:

  1. Pre-cook any of the extra toppings if necessary (brown ground beef, sausage, etc.)
  2. Spread the sauce evenly over the cut English muffins.
  3. Add any additional toppings from the variations below.
  4. Add cheese on top.
  5. If you are eating immediately, place the English muffins on baking sheets and bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes PLUS an additional 5-8 minutes depending on how many toppings you add and/or number of additional mini-pizzas you are cooking.
  6. If you want to freeze them, do so before cooking and they should be good for up to 3 months. If cooking from frozen, increase baking time to 24-28 minutes.
BASE
6 English muffins (whole wheat or seeded or original, your choice!) [note that 6 English muffins make 12 pizzas]
FOUNDATION
1/4 cup Tomato paste or tomato sauce or pizza sauce or salsa (all slightly different flavours)
1.5 cups

Shredded cheese, your choice of combos:

  • Chedda
  • Mozzarella
  • Swiss

Variations / Notes

Meat

Add 24 pepperoni slices after adding the sauce and then cook 1/2 lb ground beef + 1/2 lb diced pork sausage, 1/2 small onion, 1/4 tsp garlic salt, 1/4 tsp dried oregano, 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (optional). Spread evenly over English muffins. Add 5 minutes to baking time.

Hawaiian

Add 24 pepperoni slices after adding the sauce. Add 1/4 cup of cooked ham (diced), 1/2 small onion (chopped and sautéed), and 1/2 cup pineapple chunks (cut to size), spread evenly over English muffins. Add 5 minutes to baking time.

Super Supreme

Add 24 pepperoni slices after adding the sauce. Cook 1/4 lb Italian sausage, 1/4 lb mild sausage, 1/4 lb ground beef, 1/4 cup of cooked ham (diced), 1/4 cup green pepper (diced), 1/4 cup red onion (diced). Mix together with handful of sliced black olives and 1/4 cup of sliced mushrooms. Spread evenly over English muffins. Add 8-10 minutes to baking time.

Veggie

Combine 3-5 of:

  • 1/2 small yellow onion or 1/4 cup white or red onion (chopped and sautéed)
  • 1/4 cup mushrooms (sliced)
  • 1/4 cup green pepper (diced)
  • 12 black olives (sliced)
  • 12 green olives (sliced)
  • 1/2 cup pineapple chunks (cut to size)
  • 2 medium tomatoes (sliced thin)

Spread evenly over English muffins and add 5-8 minutes depending on how many ingredients you add.


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Cowboy Beef Dip (REC0006)

The Writing Life of a Tadpole Posted on January 6, 2017 by PolyWoggJune 24, 2017  

This was an adaptation from a ground beef recipe book that I picked up when Andrea bought the Epicure silicone steamers that are so good at cooking ground beef quickly and easily. I didn’t use it for this recipe, as there are other ingredients to cook with the beef, but that was more choice than necessity. I’ve been looking for a dip-like recipe, or a softer chili recipe at least, and thought this might be worth a try. A definite keeper.

COWBOY BEEF DIP (REC0006)

Difficulty

Low

Meal

Dinner

Genre

Beef

Yield

3 servings

Time

Prep: 20m

Cook: 25m

Rating

★★★★☆

Shopping List Preparations
Qty Ingredients

Sous-chef preparations:

  1. Chop the onion.
  2. Chop the peppers.
  3. If using block cheddar, shred the cheese.

Main preparations:

  1. Using a large skillet or dutch oven, cook the beef, onion, and peppers over medium heat until the pink in the beef is gone. Drain.
  2. Mix the nacho cheese dip powder with 1 cup of sour cream and add it to the skillet.
  3. Add the salsa, oregano and pepper.
  4. Bring to a boil.
  5. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes.
  6. Transfer to a serving dish or individual bowls.
  7. Add shredded cheese, remaining sour cream, and parsley on top.
  8. Serve with tortilla chips.
1 lb Ground beef
1/2 Medium onion
1/2 Red bell pepper
1/2 Green bell pepper
1 tbsp Nacho cheese dip powder
1 cup + 3 tbsp Sour cream
1/2 cup Salsa
1/4 tsp Dried oregano
1/4 tsp Pepper
1/4 cup Shredded cheddar cheese
2-3 tsp Fresh parsley
— Tortilla chips

Variations / Notes

  1. For additional garnish, reserve 1/4 of onions and peppers and add at STEP 7 on top.
  2. Gunslinger version: Slice and add 4 tbsp ripe olives, 4 tbsp pimento-stuffed olives, 2 tbsp chopped green chilies, and 1 tsp chopped seeded jalapeno pepper at STEP 3.


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Sweet Chicken Curry (in a slow cooker) (REC0005)

The Writing Life of a Tadpole Posted on January 5, 2017 by PolyWoggApril 16, 2018  

This was an adaptation from a diet recipe book for slow cookers, and was a pretty easy recipe (particularly using the slow cooker, but also just the limited number of items to chop / dice / slice). And the mango chutney is really the key to the sweet taste. Wasn’t a big fan of chutney before, but it is awesome here.

SWEET CHICKEN CURRY (in a slow-cooker) (REC0005)

Difficulty

Low

Meal

Dinner

Genre

Asian

Yield

4 servings

Time

Prep: 20m

Cook: 4.5h

Rating

★★★★☆

Shopping List Preparations
Qty Ingredients

Sous-chef preparations:

  1. Chop the chicken into 1-inch pieces.
  2. Chop the pepper into 1-inch pieces.
  3. Slice the onion.
  4. Seed and chop the tomato.

Main preparations:

  1. Place the chicken, bell pepper, and onion in the slow cooker, and mix it together well.
  2. Add the tomato on top, evenly distributed.
  3. In a small or medium bowl, combine the mango chutney, water, cornstarch and curry powder.
  4. Pour the liquid evenly over the ingredients already in the slow cooker.
  5. Cover, cook on low for 3.5 to 4.5 hours or until chicken is tender.
  6. Serve over rice.
1 lb Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 Large green or red bell pepper
1 Large onion
1 Large tomato
1/2 cup Mango chutney
1/3 cup Water
2 tbsp Cornstarch
1.5 tbsp Curry powder
— Hot cooked rice

Variations / Notes

You could experiment with different chutneys for different flavours.

 


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Extremely Rich Chocolate Cake (REC0004)

The Writing Life of a Tadpole Posted on November 6, 2016 by PolyWoggApril 16, 2018  

I snagged the base for this recipe from a “Taste of Home Fall Baking – Fresh from the Oven” cookbook. My first attempt at a proper cake, part of a goal for myself.

EXTREMELY RICK CHOCOLATE CAKE (REC0004)

Difficulty

Easy to Medium

Meal

Dessert

Genre

Cake

Yield

12 servings

Time

Prep: 40m

Cooling: 40m

Bake: 40m

Rating

★★★★★

Shopping List Preparations
Qty Ingredients

Main:

  1. Combine the food cake mix, sour cream, pudding mix, eggs, canola oil, water, buttermilk, chocolate syrup and vanilla extract into a large bowl.
  2. Beat on low, 30 seconds, and then on medium for another 2 minutes. The goal is to have them well-mixed.
  3. Grease and flour two 8-inch baking pans, and pour the mixture evenly into the two pans. Note you are making two the exact same size so that you can stack them later.
  4. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Test with a toothpick by inserting it — it’s done when it comes out clean. (While the cake is baking, you can start on the frosting below.)
  5. Cool for 10 minutes in the pans, and then remove from the pans onto wire racks to cool completely (30 more minutes).

Frosting:

  1. While the cake is baking and cooling, melt the chocolate slowly in a microwave, 30 seconds at a time on low to medium, stirring until smooth. Let the frosting cool for 20-30 minutes.
  2. While the frosting is cooling, heat 6 tbsp of water to boiling, and then dissolve the cocoa powder in a small bowl or measuring cup.
  3. In a medium- to large-sized bowl, beat the softened butter and confectioners’ / icing sugar together. It should become almost fluffy, but don’t worry too much as you are going to then add the melted chocolate. Beat until it is well-combined, and then add in the cocoa mixture and beat some more. If it starts adhering to the sides of the bowl, use a small spatula spoon to scrape it off and add to the mixture.

Combining the cakes:

  1. At this point, you should have two plain cakes resting on the wire racks and a bowl of frosting.
  2. Place one cake on a serving platter (whatever you want the cake to sit on for now as it will be difficult to move later).
  3. Use about 40% of the frosting to cover the top of it. This frosting will serve as the “middle” layer, and can be as thick or as thin as you want. Don’t worry about the sides at this point.
  4. Place the second cake on top of it, carefully, and then add frosting to the top and all around the sides, completely covering the cake.
1 package devil’s food cake mix
1 cup sour cream
1 package instant chocolate fudge pudding mix
4 large eggs
1/3 cup canola oil
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 tbsp chocolate syrup
2 tsp vanilla extract
Frosting
1 lb / 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
6 tbsp cocoa powder
6 tbsp boiling water
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
1/2 cup confectioners’ / icing sugar

Variations / Notes

  1. I loved the outcome, but it was extremely rich, and there was way too much. It estimates 12 servings, but those are good-sized servings. I’d recommend halving the recipe and using smaller 4-inch cake pans if you have them (or use the 8″, it will just be a shorter cake).
  2. In addition, you might reduce the frosting by a third whether you reduce/half the overall recipe or not. There was way too much frosting, and it is extremely rich.
  3. For the chocolate, it suggested using small chunks and chopping them up. I found it easier to just use two cups of small chocolate wafers/chips, and just melting those.

Cake:

Frosting:

Final Cake:


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My first real baking attempt

The Writing Life of a Tadpole Posted on October 16, 2016 by PolyWoggApril 16, 2018  

My goals often include a reference to cooking, and less specifically at times, to baking. Or more pointedly, learning to bake. I am not a fantastic cook, but not in the sense that applies to most people. My food turns out well, I’m just really slow at it and I have almost no memory for recipes.

There’s a meme that goes around where the person is cooking something from a package, reads the package, throws it out, digs it back out, throws it out, and does so several times as ten seconds after reading the instructions, they’ve forgotten what it says. That’s me, minus the dumpster dive. I will read the recipe through once, maybe twice when starting a new one, and then as I’m going, I am constantly reading what I just did and the next two, kind of a constantly rolling 3-step checklist. If I follow the recipe, things usually turn out fine. Well, actually, better than fine. I almost never cook something that is likely to go horribly wrong or that I won’t like, and except one time where I mistook lemongrass for green onions or another time I misread tsp and put in tbsps of a spice, with both ending up hotter than intended, it’s usually completely edible. I may not think it was worth the time and effort to add it into a regular rotation, but I like trying the recipes out and seeing what shakes out.

This is not an inherited trait. My parents were pretty vanilla chefs when it comes to regular dinner. Meat and potatoes is an appropriate phrase, or maybe simply unadventurous. They were likely more open-minded earlier in life, but by the time I came along, the last of six kids, it was far more important to them to make things people would automatically like than experimenting with new tastes. I still remember going to Cancun, having fajitas in a restaurant, and my mother and sister staring at me like I was crazy for the “weird” things I would eat. I pointed out I was having beef strips on bread, and she was eating a hamburger, but the point was lost. (Oddly enough, she called me one time about ten years later and told me she had tried something called “fajitas” at my brother’s place and really enjoyed it!).

A desire to bake, however, is fully inherited. My great grandfather and grandfather were apparently bakers, partly commercial and partly home-schooled, and my Dad also learned to bake as well. When my brothers and sisters were younger, it wasn’t uncommon for them to wake up on a Saturday morning to the previously unannounced smells of bread rolls, cinnamon rolls, and occasionally bread. Tarts were also in my father’s wheelhouse, including his family-famous butter tarts. Lemon tarts and strawberry rhubarb occasionally put in appearances too. For me, the last of the six, baking didn’t occur that often, but when it did, we rarely ate anything else that day as we were too full.

I can remember coming downstairs to fresh bread rolls. OMG. Add some butter, still warm rolls, we would gobble down three or four before we got told to take it easy, and then often snagged 1 or 2 more after that anyway. My friends next door came over once, and the four of us polished off most of a batch. But my father never did baking as a simple thing — it was usually full production day, with multiple batches of just about everything. Lots wound up in the freezer, and the rest was gone in a day or two. Dad would also do shortbreads at Xmas, but those were never my favorite.

My mother was the pie and cookie person, but I don’t remember my parents baking together. My mother would make cookies or pies during the week, my dad’s baking was almost always Saturday mornings. I used to make cookies, pies and occasional cakes with my mom, and it was one of the few things she would let me help with in the kitchen as a kid. Or at least I thought I was helping at the time. In reality, I realize she was mostly giving me busy work to keep me out of the way — rolling out small dough rolls, stirring something she had already mixed, etc. Of course, it was fun, but the real benefit for me was that I got to try the peanut butter cookies fresh from the oven. And she would frequently make pumpkin pies for dinner, my favorite pie. Dad was more of an apple lover.

I never did any baking with my dad though. By the time I was old enough to appreciate what that would mean later in life, he had stopped baking. Well, that and the fact that he would seem to do it spontaneously some Saturday morning and always before everyone else was even awake (he was an early riser, frequently awake at 4 or 5 a.m.).

Soooo, that’s a long intro to say that I put baking on my goals list because of my parents, but it frequently has slipped from my list. I keep saying “I want to” but between other time pressures, laziness, and the simple fact that I have no idea really what I’m doing, I never seem to get around to doing it.

This month, perhaps partly in tribute to my dad who passed away 20 years ago, I decided to give it a go. A recipe book I have, Taste of Home: Fall Baking, has some decent-looking recipes in it, and I convinced Andrea to ride shotgun on the baking journey mostly to help me understand what some of the instructions mean and keep me on track.

Chocolate Chip Caramel Rolls were my first choice, and I think it is mainly nostalgia. They look like my dad’s cinnamon rolls. Sure, I could have found his specific recipe for cinnamon rolls, but I wanted to start with some basic learning before attempting one of his recipes. The Caramel Rolls sounded doable.

I don’t want to spoil the ending, but they ended up tasting great. I even field-tested them with my staff at work, and got positive feedback across the board albeit a little rich. No crumbs were left though, so that’s a good sign.

The recipe calls for basically three main steps, and the full modified recipe is available at Chocolate Chip Caramel Rolls (REC0003). The first phase is making the basic dough, and I made at least two mistakes in the opening. You’re supposed to mix all of the dough ingredients together and get the dough consistency right. You start with 3 cups of flour as one of the ingredients and you can increase to 4 to get the texture and consistency right. I seemed to have misread that step and went with the full 4 cups up front. I also wasn’t supposed to put the chocolate chips in until the kneading phase, and I put them in the first batch with the rest of the ingredients before the mixing stage.

The end result, either from the amount of flour or the amount of yeast used or the chips added too early, was that the dough was like superglue. I could barely even pull my hands out of it when I was kneading it. It practically choked the hand mixer. I think I could use it to make house bricks stick together. But Andrea helped scrape my hands clean to get all the batter back into the bowl, and we moved on.

I also made rookie errors with the rolling out and rolling up process for the rolls. When rolling out, I completely forgot I’m supposed to put flour on the rolling pin. I knew that from helping my Mom, but I completely forgot, and I just sprinkled it on the top of the dough instead. Never even thought of the tip of rubbing it directly on the pin, until Andrea mentioned it after the fact (she was out with Jacob during the rolling out phase). When rolling up, I didn’t press the chocolate chips into the dough first, so the roll up shifted them around and bunched them up in a few places. Nothing major, just missing a simple step that seemed unimportant, simple process improvements for the future. Oh, and I didn’t pinch the seams well enough once rolled.

I also have no idea how you make it “rectangular”. Mine definitely had a pretty rounded shape (above). I also wasn’t sure what it would look like when finished, as the placements in the pan made it look like they were way too small. The dough didn’t rise that much in the second “rising” period (was supposed to double, it barely increased at all).

But the final outcome was awesome.

Certainly well past “edible” and nigh on into awesome stage. A little rich, and with only three of us in the house, we probably should have frozen half the batch. Even with taking four to work and cutting them in half, we still have a couple left almost a week later (just because they are so rich and heavy, even if we only eat half of one at a time).

Overall, I’m declaring it a success. I wasn’t anywhere near as patient with Jacob’s help as I would have liked, partly as it was “new to me” and I was nervous about having the first outing not turn out to be a disaster. I think that’s perhaps a good lesson-learned for me, that perhaps first attempts should just be about me, not trying to make it an “us” event necessarily at the same time, or at least not until I get my confidence up and it can be more enjoyable for everyone.

Who knows, maybe some day Jacob will tell his kids about how four generations of dads before him have made cinnamon rolls. I hope so.

Thanks Mom and Dad! On to pies, cookies, tarts and cakes!


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Posted in Experiences, Family, Goals, Recipes | Tagged baking, dad, family, goals, recipe | Leave a reply

Chocolate Chip Caramel Rolls (REC0003)

The Writing Life of a Tadpole Posted on October 16, 2016 by PolyWoggApril 16, 2018  

I snagged the base for this recipe from a “Taste of Home Fall Baking – Fresh from the Oven” cookbook. My first real attempt at a baking recipe, part of a new goal for myself.

CHOCOLATE CHIP CARAMEL ROLLS (REC0003)

Difficulty

Easy

Meal

Dessert

Genre

Rolls

Yield

12 servings

Time

Prep: 60m

Rise: 1h + 1h

Bake: 30m

Rating

★★★★★

Shopping List Preparations
Qty Ingredients

Main:

  1. Starting with a large bowl, use the warm water to dissolve the yeast.
  2. Add the milk, oil, sugar (1/4 cup only for this part), salt, and flour (3 cups only for this part).
  3. Beat for 3 minutes. The original recipe called for medium speed, but I confess this mixture was EXTREMELY gooey and I needed high speed just to make a dent.
  4. You can stir in enough of the remaining cup of flour to make a firm dough which should also reduce the stickiness.
  5. Put the dough onto a lightly floured surface and start kneading, adding in 3/4 cup of the semi-sweet chocolate chips as you go. 8 minutes should do it, making the dough smooth and elastic.
  6. Place in a greased bowl, turning the dough over and around once in the bowl so the dough is greased on the top, bottom, and sides.
  7. Cover and let rise, 1 hour. Should double in size, particularly if in a warm area.
  8. Punch the dough down in the bowl and turn onto a lightly floured surface. Sprinkle flour on to the rolling pin and then roll out the dough to make an 18×12 inch rectangle.

Filling:

  1. Spread the softened butter (either naturally softened or in the microwave) on the rectangle, staying inside a border of about 1/2 inch around the edges.
  2. In a small bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle the mixture over the buttered rectangle (looks like dusting, but a bit thicker).
  3. Dust the top again, this time with the remaining chocolate chips (1 cup). You need to gently press the chips into the dough, or when you go to roll up the dough, the chocolate chips will shift and bunch up.
  4. Roll up the dough from the long side, making it look like a jelly roll. Pinch the final seam to seal, or it will unravel later when you put it in the bowl.
  5. Cut the “long roll” into 12 even-width slices.

Syrup:

  1. Combine the brown sugar and cream in a small bowl. Pour into a baking dish, 13×9 inch should do it to allow room to expand.
  2. Take the 12 slices and lay them individually on their side (a cut-side down) on top of the syrup in the baking dish. Place them evenly in the pan, leaving room for them to expand.
  3. Cover and let rise. Should double in about 50-60 minutes. Start preheating your oven at the 45 minute mark.
  4. Bake at 375 degrees until golden brown, 30-35 minutes in total depending on your oven and if it was fully preheated. Remove the baking dish from the oven.
  5. Let the rolls cool for 10 minutes, and then remove from the container onto a platter/plate.
  6. Serve warm.
1 pkg or 1/4 oz or 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water
3/4 cup warm 2% milk
3 tbsp canola oil
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips
Filling
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 cup miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips
Syrup
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup light whipping cream

Variations / Notes

  1. I didn’t use enough flour in the first stage, and the resulting “goo” was strong enough I had to rip my hands out of it and scrape the dough off to get it into the dish. When you take it ouf of the bowl, it will really stick to the rolling pin and surface if you don’t have enough flour on both.
  2. I also forgot in the filling stage to press the chips into the dough before rolling it up, so the chocolate chips didn’t “roll” at first, they just pushed inwards until I had enough dough to fold over to hold them in place.
  3. The original recipe called for heavy whipping cream, which the store was out of, and I used light cream for the syrup instead. Worked just fine so I left it that way in the recipe above.
  4. I didn’t pinch the seam strong enough when we went to roll up, and so after cutting, the rolls unraveled a bit in the baking dish.
  5. We made 12, but these are extremely rich, and we cut them in half after the first day as they were a little too big for a regular dessert.


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Posted in Recipes | Tagged chocolate chips, cinnamon, flour, personal, recipe | Leave a reply

Maple Pork (REC0002)

The Writing Life of a Tadpole Posted on February 23, 2015 by PolyWoggJune 24, 2017  

Andrea snagged this recipe from her Mom, might be a Looney-Spoons recipe originally. It’s pork tenderloin with maple syrup. Sure, there’s other stuff, but those are the two flavours that pop. Totally awesome.

MAPLE PORK (REC0002)

Difficulty

Easy

Meal

Dinner

Genre

Pork

Yield

6 servings

Time

Prep: 10m

Marinate: 1h

Cook: 40m

Rating

★★★★★

Shopping List Preparations
Qty Ingredients

Sous-chef preparations:

  1. Trim pork of all visible fat.
  2. Grate orange peel, if necessary.
  3. Mince garlic

Main preparations:

  1. Place pork in large, heavy-duty, resealable plastic bag.
  2. Whisk together all remaining ingredients in a medium bowl, and then pour marinade over the pork and seal the bag. Turn bag several times to coat, and then marinate in refrigerator for 1 hour.
  3. Transfer pork and marinade to a small roasting pan or baking dish. Roast, uncovered, at 350°F for 40 minutes. Pork should be slightly pink in the middle.
  4. Let pork stand for 5 minutes before slicing. Slice thinly.
  5. Drizzle extra sauce over pork and serve immediately.

1 1/2 lbs

(680g)

Pork tenderloin
1/2 cup Pure maple syrup
2 tbsp Soy sauce (sodium reduced)
2 tbsp Ketchup (sodium reduced)
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp Grated orange zest
1 1/2 tsp Curry powder
1 1/2 tsp Ground coriander
2 tsp Minced garlic
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Variations / Notes

  1. n/a


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Posted in Recipes | Tagged curry powder, garlic, ground coriander, ketchup, mustard, orange, personal, pork, recipe, soy sauce, syrup, Worcestershire sauce | Leave a reply

Gratitude for a new recipe

The Writing Life of a Tadpole Posted on January 13, 2015 by PolyWoggJune 24, 2017  

Gratitude entry #10…Today I am grateful for a new recipe for lasagna. No, I haven’t turned into Garfield. The lasagna was a vegetarian recipe that my wife found that uses the Epicure steamer. I had a long day at work, didn’t get home until late, had to heat it up after everyone else was long done and had left the kitchen, and it was really good. Even re-heated.

That’s it for today — just grateful for a good meal, something different than our norm. Onward in the journey…


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Posted in Spiritualism | Tagged 2015, Andrea, Epicure, goals, gratitude, recipe, spiritualism | Leave a reply

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