Category: cooking

Friday morning I’m headed to my parents’ house for a few days there, most of which I think shall be spent making a Bûche de Noël! I tried making the meringues tonight at my house, but they didn’t really work out (I lack a mixer and metal bowls) so I’ll be making all the parts of the cake on Christmas Eve, then assembling it on Saturday for our big family dinner.

I’ve started a new circle scarf in Malabrigo Twist for Christmas knitting, and I could not be happier with it – I LOVE IT. The yarn, the stitch, everything. I think it’s going to be pretty quick, too, since I’m knitting it on 5mm needles. Of course, what with all the baking, we’ll see if I get through the two balls of yarn I wound up this evening, ha.

It’s getting pretty late to whip up a knitted gift, but homemade edibles are always appreciated! My caramel corn has been going over very well this year, and so I’m sharing the recipe with you all.

Ultimate Caramel Corn – inspired by gleek

12 cups popped popcorn (I do mine on the stove in a little oil, 1/2 cup of kernels)
1 cup or more unsalted shelled peanuts

1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tbsp fancy molasses

1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2-1 tsp kosher salt or fleur de sel

100g each white and dark chocolate

Preheat oven to 250F.
Place butter, corn syrup, molasses and brown sugar in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil for 5 minutes, swirling occasionally.
Remove from heat and add baking soda, vanilla and salt – I like to use quite a bit of salt.

Mix the syrup with the popcorn and peanuts, and any other mix-ins you’d like – other nuts, pretzels, whatever! I just eyeball it and pour some peanuts in. Don’t worry if it doesn’t look even, you’ll be able to spread the syrup around as it bakes.

Spread the mixture onto baking sheets in a single layer. Bake, stirring every 15 minutes to distribute the caramel, for a total of 1 hour. Let cool on the pans.

Melt chocolate one at a time in a double boiler or in the microwave and drizzle over the cooled popcorn. You may need to pop the sheets into the fridge for a few minutes to firm up the chocolate if you’re in a hurry. Store in an airtight container, but if you take it to a party there won’t be leftovers anyway!

I hope you’re having fun this holiday and spending it in a happy place.

Thanks so much for your reception of the Massey Wrap! I’ve been wearing it a lot – light enough for springy weather, but long and warm enough for the occasional blustery day like we’ve been having lately.

I don’t have much in the way of knitting to show you all, so how about some yummy dessert instead?

I made this for denny’s 50th birthday party at lettuce knit yesterday. I’ve had such a craving for a strawberry tart and haven’t found them anywhere – and of course, my homemade one is tastier anyway!

I used this recipe from Confessions of a Tart, slightly modified. I had an 11″ tart pan rather than a 9″ one, so I doubled the pastry recipe and had enough for a pretty thick crust on the big tart, and a couple of mini ones (which are still chilling out in the freezer). The fact that this pastry doesn’t require pie weights is great, since I don’t have any.

I made 1.5 times the pastry cream so I’d be sure to have enough, and I used half a vanilla bean in the milk rather than vanilla extract at the end. Delicious – the pastry cream is my favourite part, really. It’s quite eggy on its own but works so well with the strawberries. I don’t generally like to buy strawberries out of season, but this week I found some organic ones that actually smelled and tasted like proper strawberries and were cheaper than conventional, too!

No glaze; they’re kind of heavy and weird. This was all freshness. I’d definitely make it again – perfect for a crowd and would work great with all kinds of fruit – I think whole blueberries would be really good.

Happy Birthday Denny!