Reese's Peanut Butter Squares

Two weeks ago, I made some delicious peanut butter squares. I even doubled the recipe, hoping that we'd have them around for a while. No such luck, they were gone by the middle of last week!

If you want to make one batch of these treats yourself you will need: 

• One 9x13 baking dish
• 1 cup peanut butter (all natural is best)
• 1 cup butter
• 2 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 2 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs (try not to get the honey flavoured ones as they will alter the taste)
• 1 package of milk chocolate Chipits

Begin by mixing sugar and crumbs in a large bowl.  

Melt butter in microwave and pour onto crumb mixture. Add peanut butter and stir. I find that a final mix with my hands always does the trick!

Once everything is thoroughly mixed, press it into your pan. 

I had two pans because I doubled the recipe. 

Next, melt your chocolate chips. I find the easiest way to do it is to microwave them for 20-30 seconds at a time, stirring in between each zap. Once the chips are all melted, spread them evenly onto the peanut butter mixture.

Let the chocolate set for 30 minutes to an hour, but make sure you cut your squares before the chocolate has totally hardened.

Voila! Enjoy :)

Blueberry Lemon Curd Phyllo Tarts

I had some leftover Phyllo after making the Baklava so I decided to make these cute little tarts.

To make them yourself you will need:

• 5 sheets of phyllo pastry
• 3/4 cup melted butter (divided)
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tsbp lemon juice
• 6 large egg yolks
• 1/2 pint fresh blueberries

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees celsius.

Set aside 1/2 cup of the butter for the lemon curd filling. Use the rest for the phyllo cups. Start by brushing the muffin tins with butter.

Place one sheet of phyllo on a clean work surface. Keep the remaining dough covered with a damp cloth until you are ready to use it.  Brush the sheet with butter.

Place the second sheet on top of the buttered phyllo. Butter the second sheet and repeat until you have used all five sheets. Work quickly so that the dough doesn't dry out. 

When you're done, cut the dough into 12 even pieces.

Place each piece in a muffin cup. Pleat dough to fit if necessary.

Place phyllo cups in oven for 12-14 minutes.

To make lemon curd filling, place sugar and lemon juice in bowl. Use wire mixer on a medium speed for 1 minute to beat mixture.

Separate egg yolks.

 Add one egg at a time, beating 30 seconds after each one.

Add one tbsp of butter, beating for 15 seconds after each addition.

Pour into medium saucepan over Medium-Low heat.

Stir constantly until the curd thickens and starts to bubble. Do not bring to boil.

Pour curd into a bowl and cover with aluminum foil. Press foil directly onto curd. Place in fridge to cool for 4 hours.

When curd has cooled, spoon into phyllo cups.

Top tarts with fresh blueberries that have been washed and dried.

That's it! Now you can enjoy your very own Blueberry Lemon Curd Phyllo Tarts!

Baklava

Ever since tasting these Turkish treats at a Shawarma shop downtown, I've been wanting to make them myself. While I heard these are usually made with pistachios, I decided to use almonds and walnuts. Pistachios were just too expensive, especially with the amount of honey you have to use for this recipe.

To make these sweet, crunchy little squares yourself you will need:

• 1 packet of phyllo pastry ( you can find this in the frozen section of your grocery store)
• 2/3 cup butter 
• 1 1/2 cups almonds
• 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp cloves

To start, pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. You should have already thawed the phyllo as per the directions on the box.

Melt the butter in a small bowl.

In a food processor, process the nuts, spices and sugar into a medium texture.

Next, you will need to brush butter on your 9x13 cake pan.

Fold your first piece of phyllo and place it in the pan. Open the fold, butter the first layer and then fold the second half back over.

Repeat this with 4 more sheets of phyllo until you have done 5 full sheets in total.

When you are done, trim the excess phyllo on the sides, if you have any.

Spread half of the nut mixture over the dough and press down.

Butter two more entire sheets of phyllo over the nut mixture, then spread the other half of the nuts over that.

On top of the second layer of nuts, butter four more whole sheets of phyllo.

With a sharp knife, cut through the top layer of phyllo to mark your pieces. I did 35 pieces but you can choose your own size.

When you have cut out the top layer, place the pan in the oven for 30 minutes.

While you wait for it to cook, you can make the syrup. For this you will need:

• 1 cup water
• 13 oz honey
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 3 tbsp lemon juice

Start by mixing all ingredients into a medium pot.

Over medium heat, bring the syrup to boil.

Lower heat to Medium-Low and simmer the syrup for 20 minutes so that it can reduce.

Let the syrup cool. After 30 minutes in the oven, the baklava will look like this.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake for another 20 minutes.

When it's done baking it will look like this:

Poor the cooled syrup over the baklava, making sure you get it around the outside and in the score marks.

You might not need to use the whole syrup mixture. Stop pouring when it looks like this:

Let the Baklava sit for several (could take up to 4) hours until it absorbs all of the syrup.

Ta Da! Enjoy :)

What $20 Worth of Strawberries Looks Like

Yesterday, we travelled over to the Parkdale Market so see what kind of deals they had. Turns out one of the vendors had an awesome deal on strawberries! You could buy two large baskets for ten dollars, which was great because the pick your own place charges 10 dollars for just one basket! So here's what 20 dollars bought us... 

So yummy! Turns out we had to walk 3 km with these strawberries and they smelled so good the whole time, I'm surprised we had some when we arrived home!

When we got home we cored them and froze them up so we'll have lots for smoothies and strawberrie shortcake! Yum :) Best of luck with your strawberry adventures this season!

Lemon Melting Moments

What can be better to melt in your mouth than shortbread and lemon frosting! Last week, I was hankering for something sweet and decided to make this Australian treat. I used a star tip to pipe the cookies and the icing and did they ever turn out pretty!

To make your own, you will need:

• 1 1/4 cup softened butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup icing sugar
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees and line your baking sheets with parchment paper.

Cream the butter, vanilla, lemon juice and icing sugar in a small bowl until it gets light and fluffy. In another bowl, mix the flour and cornstarch and then add in two batches to the wet mixture.

Place the dough in a piping bag with a large star tip and pipe cookies onto the baking sheet. My cookies were about 2.5 inches in diameter but I think it would be best to keep them smaller, about 1 to 1.5 inches. Make sure they're all pretty much the same shape.

Bake each batch separately in the oven for about 15 minutes. Once you take them out of the oven, let them sit for about 5 minutes to set and then transfer them to a cooling rack.

While they're cooling, you can make the icing. To do so, you will need:

• 2/3 cup butter
• 2 cups icing sugar
• 3 tsp lemon juice (or 1tsp finely grated lemon zest and 1 tsp lemon juice)

Beat the icing with beaters until it is light and creamy. Use the same tip to pipe the icing onto half of the cookies. Place the other half of the cookies on top of the iced ones to make sandwiches. Dust finished cookies with icing sugar before serving and enjoy!

Whole Wheat Chocolate Walnut Brownies with Mocha Icing

I was making brownies tonight and decided to substitute brown flour for the all-purpose flour. They turned out great and even stayed really nice and moist! 

I couldn't wait for the brownies to cool so they're not the most beautiful ones I've ever made but they sure were delicious!

To make these healthified brownies yourself, you will need:

• 1/2 cup softened butter
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, sifted
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Start off by pre-heating your oven to 350 degrees, then grease and flour a 9x9 baking dish.
Cream together your butter, sugar and vanilla, then beat in your eggs. Be careful not to over-beat the mixture though.

Next, combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt and then stir it into the creamed mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts.

Pour the batter into your greased/floured pan and place into pre-heated oven for 25-30 minutes. When is done, a toothpick will come out with a little liquid on it, but not a whole bunch of batter. 

Let cool for a couple hours, or if you're really eager like me, sneak it into the freezer for about 30 minutes.

In the meantime, to make the Mocha icing, you will need:

• 1/4 cup butter at room temperature
• 3 cups icing sugar
• 2/3 cups of strong instant coffee (approximately 1 heaping tbsp per 2/3 water)
• 2 heaping tbsp cocoa powder

Beat butter, 2 tbsp of coffee, cocoa and 1 cup of icing sugar together in bowl. Slowly alternate adding coffee and sugar until you have desired amount and consistency.

When your brownies have cooled you may ice them. Make sure that they really are cool though, otherwise the icing will melt and run all over the place! To top them off, sprinkle some shaved chocolate or walnuts on the icing and voila!