I no longer live close enough to get this on any regular basis, and recently finished what mix I’d bought the last time I was there. I wanted to come up with some cookies that were along the same lines, so I could reminisce a little and, more importantly, eat chocolate cookies. These are inspired by hot chocolate and are chocolate that are slightly spicy, so they are aptly named: Hot Chocolate Cookies.

Hot Chocolate Cookies
225 g butter, room temperature
300 g brown sugar
2 large eggs
265 g all-purpose flour
70 g cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (more if you want it SPICY)
1/4 teaspoon orange zest, or a drop of orange extract
1/2 teaspoon ginger
250 g chocolate chips- I mixed dark, milk and white

Preheat oven to 350F. Cream butter and brown sugar just until uniform. Add eggs one at a time, thoroughly mixing after each addition. Sift dry ingredients into bowl, and mix just until dry ingredients are incorporated. Add chips, and mix. Scoop by portion scoop or drop by teaspoons onto parchment lined sheets. Bake for 8 minutes, turning halfway through.

Daisy has no idea that a very natural thing to her- producing milk, is so valuable. Her biggest concern is whether or not she can reach that perfect piece of green hay in the corner of the pile. Most of us need to spend big bucks to learn a trade so we can earn our keep- she doesn’t need to do push paperwork about the process of milk for an 8 hour work day or go to trade school… She cows around 24 hours a day and, I would like to believe, she is content doing it.

Daisy gets milked twice a day, and she gives me about 10 L each time- if you figure the math on that, it’s about 140L of milk a week. Matt is voluntarily doing overtime on milk consumption, but this is a stretch even for him. I’ve done quite a bit of cheesemaking in a week- I am shocked how much actually. I’ve been following recipes from a book I got a while ago when we got our pain in the butt goats- The Cheesemaker’s Manual by Margaret Peters-Morris, the owner/ operator of Glengarry Cheese in Lancaster, Ontario. It’s pretty decent book… I’ve already started deviating…

Below is a gallery of what I’ve accomplished so far- who knows, maybe we’ll do a giveaway when there is something ready…

Yogurt incubating

Costello Blue made from partially skimmed milk. This was from 2 milkings, so there is a layer of ash in the center, like Morbier.

Draining yogut and brie- Draining some yogut I thought was a little runny and baby brie made from someone else’s cow milk…

Cambazola- At this point all of my molds were full- so the Cambazola is buche shaped, and some babies….

Truffle Cambazola- I had some truffle salt and oil, so I added the salt to the outside and mixed the curd with the oil before molding.

Cider cheddar- I cooked the cheddar curds in some of our cider instead of the whey (maybe I should call it gouda or colby…?). It smells amazing.

Double cream camambert- There is a big crack in it, but after consulting Margaret, it should only be visually distracting, not bad bacteria problems- assuming everything else is good….

Cultured butter similar to that in Europe. It has a slight cheesey taste.

Roquefort made with extra cream…

Cheddar curds ready for pressing and poutine!

Just adding the blueness.

I spilled my blue

Hanging the curds before molding

Can you see the color difference?

I am sitting here, eating breakfast- which includes my very first harvest of milk from our new dairy cow, Daisy. She is a lovely tempered Guernsey, with yellow colored high fat milk- which thus far has made the best cappuccino I have every had. And adds the perfect amount of creaminess to my oat & semolina pudding….

We have been talking about buying a milking cow for a while- we eat a ridiculous amount of dairy, it’s really not normal. I LOVE cheese and have always wanted to make it. Getting daily posts from Wedge in the Round about all of the fabulous cheeses that we couldn’t get was driving me crazy- so we took the plunge and bought a milking cow.

milk

I think Daisy is pretty amazing so far, despite her constant need to poop. She is really gentle and seems to understand that I have really no idea what I am doing, she tries to accommodate me as best she can going from a 10 minute efficient milking session to a clumsy 40 minute one….

(Look at the cream!! It’s so yellow!)

I hope you are excited as I am to see what cultured creations I get to create and report on- I’ve got about 30 liters of milk waiting for me as we speak…

A long time ago, I worked at a place that did grilled chicken and linguica braised in BBQ sauce it was smoky and sweet with huge tomato-ey goodness flavor. When we were processing one of our pigs a few months back, I made linguica for the sole purpose of making it.

So last week, I pulled out a chicken, and my homemade linguica, which I was so proud of, and set out to grill it- yes, in the middle of winter…. what can I say, I suffer for my art . The weather, on the otherhand, was against me. It was windy. Really windy. Like gale force winds. Hurricane katrina gale force winds. My BBQ actually ended up on it’s keister and in many parts.

Needless to say, I readjusted and did an adapted version and in a comforting stew. It seemed appropriate given the blustery weather. It was delicious- I finished it with a few green onions and it really brightened it up. In hindsight, cornbread would’ve been awesome with it… Next time. This makes a big pot, so there is plenty of leftovers!

Chicken, Linguica and Basmati Rice Stew
3 sticks of linguica, casing removed and then sausage diced
4 cans of tomatoes, crushed (home made if available)
chicken stock (see below)
3 onions, peeled and diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 parsnip, peeled and diced
cooked cold basmati rice (about 2 cups or so….)
pulled chicken
tobasco & worcestershire sauces
salt and pepper
green onions
Heat a large pot (your stockpot) over medium heat. When the pot is heated, add the linguica and saute. Lots of fat will come out, so no need to add any- when the sausage is starting to brown, add diced onions. Cook until onions are translucent- make sure you smell it! Add remaining vegetables. Cover with chicken stock and tomatoes. Cook over medium low heat until vegetables are fork tender, season with salt and pepper and add tobasco and worcesterhire to taste. Cool with your pot set in a sink filled with cold water and add rice and chicken. Add the rice and chicken while the liquid is stll hot will just keep cooking the rice and it will swell up and be no longer recognizeable…and the chicken goes stringy… Reheat as needed. And it freezes really well!
Chicken Stock
1 chicken, that fits into your stock pot
3 peeled carrots
3 peeled onions
2 bottles of beer
2 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon celery seeds
1 tablespoon dried tarragon
1 tablespoon sweet basil
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon peppercorns
cold water to cover
Put everything in a pot, cover it with water. Heat over medium high heat until it just starts to boil, reduce heat so that you have lazy bubbles hitting the surface. Let this go for 3 to 4 hours. You may need to top it up with a bit of cold water from time to time. Remove from heat and let cool enough to feel comfortable straining it. I actually cooled mine overnight with the chicken in the liquid, when you cook something in liquid, it dries out if you cool it out of the broth. Scrape the fat of and heat the stock up to loosen it. Strain and reserve the liquid. Separate the chicken from everything else, which can go to the compost bin. Pull the meat off of the chicken bones, tearing it into bite sized pieces. Refrigerate until needed.

This recipe is a derivation from the my Nan’s shortbreads/ lemon poppyseed cookies. They are super simple and quick, and the dough can be held in the fridge or freezer so you can be ready for fresh baked cookies anytime, like any good icebox cookie. The flavor combination is a little different for main-stream cookie eaters, but isn’t daunting enough to scare anyone off (I think…).

Orange Sesame Shortbreads
This would look super-funkadelic if you used a few black sesame seeds mixed in with the white…they weren’t in my pantry….
225 g butter, room temperature
10 ml sesame oil
100 g white sugar
3 g salt
zest of 1 orange
68 g cornstarch
210 g all-purpose flour, sifted if necessary
30 g white sesame seeds

extra sesame seeds

Cream butter, sesame oil and sugar until light and fluffy- about 5 minutes on medium high speed, with a paddle attachment attached to you mixer. You can use a mixer or your arm, it’s up to you… Add remaining ingredients (at low speed) just until everything is incorporated and no flour pockets at the bottom of the bowl. Roll into 2 logs, and roll logs in extra sesame seeds. Wrap well in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350F and have 2 parchment lined baking sheets ready. Remove plastic wrap and slice dough 1/8 inch thick. They can be thicker, but just make sure they are all the same thickness to bake them all evenly. These cookies don’t spread very much, so they can be placed fairly close together. Let them cool, keep them in a sealed container or bag for up to 1 month.

How many times have you had the last one or 2 bananas sit on your counter and turn black and disgusting looking, maybe bleed a little banana goo…..but smell AMAZING?!? At this point the compost or another batch of banana bread seems inevitable- don’t get me wrong, I love me some banana bread, but it gets a little repetitive. I needed something different, with texture that was sweet, and preferably deep fried…

I went with yeast as a leavener because I like the flavor it adds, but I am pretty certain you could in fact use banana bread batter in the same facet, (I will visit this at some point and update). I went with maple syrup, but honey, brown or white sugar could also jump in here easily.

These are glazed donuts, which helps prevent them from drying out too fast, but if you know they are going to get gobled up right away, icing sugar, sugar or even being tossed in cinnamon sugar (all while hot hot hot) would be super delicious as well.

Dirty Rotten Banana Maple Nut Fritters

100 g warm water (not hot, body temperature)
15 g instant dry yeast
Combine these in your mixing bowl and let sit while you measure out the remaining ingredients.

150 g maple syrup
15 ml vegetable oil
1 egg
2 ugly ripe bananas, peeled
5 ml vanilla
2 g nutmeg
1 egg
75 g oats
150 g all purpose flour
100 g bread flour
50 g cornstarch
100 g walnuts
Add the remaining ingredients to the mixing bowl, and mix until combined well. Don’t worry too much about over mixing, it adds a nice chewy texture to the fritter- the oats and cornstarch help prevent them from being tough. (You could actually use all-purpose for both flours, the oats and cornstarch, if you don’t have all of these on hand…). Let the batter sit for an hour in a warm spot to get all cozy bubbly.

While the batter is flavouring up, prepare your oil- either pot or fryer should be 375F (use a thermometer!) to fry your donuts. Please remember to not catch on fire or deep-fry any appendages: give a couple of inches headspace at the top of the pot for displacement and the oil excitedly bubbling around your little darling donuts. Try and get everything you need while frying ready before you are actually frying- bubbly hot fat and not being ready isn’t ideal…

Drop directly into oil by portion scoop or by teapoons- this means get close to the oil, part of your spoon can actually be in the oil- it’s safer then dropping from up high. If you are using teaspoons, push the batter off of the spoons with another spoon AWAY FROM YOU. Do not over fill the fryer, it will bring the temperature too much and you will truly have oily cakes. I had a large pan, I did about 8 and they were swimming happily around. They should be deep golden on the bottom side, and then flipped to be the same color on the other side.

Drain them on paper towels for a minute or 2 and then straight into the glaze. Drag the bottom of the donut on the side of the pot to remove excess glaze and set to drain on a cooling rack that it set over a tray. Let them dry for an hour before packaging. I would recommend eating them after about 15 minutes- you’ve NEVER eaten a donut until you’ve had one warm out of the fat (sounds so appetizing, doesn’t it…)! WARNING: Right away out of the fat may result in loss of feeling in your mouth and perhaps some decorative blisters!

Glaze for donuts
If you are making glaze, this should also be done at this point (really, you have an hour- you can’t have a coffee until the donuts are done, so you might as well work!). I have never found a glaze I liked anymore then the one from my first baking text book- Professional Baking by Wayne Gisslen. If you can get your hands on gelatin sheets (the gelatine helps the glaze set on the donuts and dry nicely), use them, they are awesome- they weigh 2 grams, and are each considered a teaspoon. They are less messy and look kinda pretty- I’ve used them for windows in gingerbread houses before….

3 g gelatin
200 g water (or cider, or any liquid, really…)
50 g corn syrup
1000 g icing sugar
8 ml vanilla
1 g salt
Bloom gelatin in a 6 qrt pot with water until soft (2-3 minutes), then heat gently over medium-low heat. Over heat, mix in syrup, vanilla and salt. Using a whisk, mix in icing sugar a little at a time (unless you want an icing sugar cloud explosion), whisk until smooth. Keep over low low heat, until you need it. It should be warm going on the warm donuts, other wise the glaze gets too thick. Don’t worry if it forms a crust- whisk it back in and your good to go.

It seems as though I am slightly “Cookie orientated” lately, I’ve got a ton of ideas I’m playing with and a fair amount of them are cookies. Besides, how can you not love cookies? They’re pretty quick to make, and they can be anything you want- sweet, buttery, tender, crisp, chewy, chocolate-y, spiced, the list is endless…. Anyway, bear with my cookie phase if it gets out of hand (it happens….).

My pick of the cookie litter? I love chocolate chip cookies- regular chocolate chip, peanut butter chocolate chip, oatmeal chocolate chip, chocolate chocolate chip…. They all get equal space in my heart and stomach, not necessarily in that order. How can you elevate a cookie that has such a high regard?I started thinking about this- I didn’t lose sleep about it, but I did dream a little (mainly frolicking in a field of chocolate chip cookie flowers- isn’t that normal though?).

I narrowed it down to oatmeal chocolate chip- mainly because I haven’t had them recently- and started reviewing the ingredients. What can I change about the existing ingredients without altering the awesomeness that is an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie….

The most obvious was the butter- to me it was anyway- I usually avoid shortening and margarine, oil in a cookie doesn’t do it for me… I adore brown butter, and thinking of it in cookies changed my whole cookie though process!!! It went from there….

Suped-Up Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies

225 g brown butter, room temperature
370 g brown sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
295 g whole wheat flour
110 g toasted oats (see notes)
1 teaspoon baking soda
320 g milk (or whatever you like) chocolate chunks/ chips

Preheat the oven to 350F. With the paddle attachment on your mixer (or a suitably equipped strong arm), cream butter and brown sugar together until smooth, add vanilla and salt- make sure you smell this, yes smell, because it smells amazing. Add eggs one at a time, scraping the bowl down and mixing thoroughly after each addition. Add measured flour, toasted oats and soda and mix to a uniform dough (no fat pockets, or flour at the bottom of the bowl). Mix in chocolate until it is evenly distributed.
Drop by the teaspoon or small portion scoop onto parchment lined baking sheets. (Just as an FYI, if you haven’t switched to using parchemnt paper, you will loe it- it’s reuseable and pretty inexpensive, not to mention clean-up is non-existant.) Bake 5 minutes and turn, and continue for another 5 minutes. I always pull my cookies out when they are a little on the gooey side, because that’s how I like them… If you can, let them cool for a few minutes- just long enough to let them set up so you can pick them up, then dig in!

Notes about Toasting Oats:
This is literally what it says- toasting oats. Toasting oats- or anything for that matter- adds a nutty flavour, and often takes out a bit of the starchiness. This method also works for flour, which MUST be sifted afterwords- it’s like a brick…Spread oats out on a clean and dry baking sheet and place in a preheated 350F degree oven. They take about 15-20 minutes to toast, and should be stirred periodically as to not color to darkly in spots. Pull them out when they are light golden brown.

Butter on it’s own needs no explanation why it’s awesome. It’s butter. Brown butter is like the super-cool sister or brother that shows up when you need a hand. It has a rich, nutty flavour and can be used in many of the same applications as butter. In the process of browning the butter, the milk solids are browned and moisture is evaporated, so it does change the structure of the butter. Using it in a buttercream frosting or a curd is not ideal because it will leave these feeling a little grainy in the mouth.

Browning butter is not a hard thing to conquer, you just need to know what you are looking for. You need to use your senses. Peel the paper off of your butter, and place in a pot that will leave room for expansion (be safe, it’s fat on a heat source, go tall), place over medium-low heat. After the butter is melted, it will start to separate the fat from the milk solids and moisture.

 It will start to sounds like a deep fryer with popping noises and will have random bubbles coming to the surface. At this point I start carefully stirring (it spits), scraping the milk solids off of the bottom.

Some people want the milk solids stuck to the bottom so they can pour the butter off of them, I like the flavor they add to end products.

The surface of the butter will have a good bed of bubbles on it and a white scum that moves around with the bubbles.

After a few minutes it will start to actively foam. A few brown bits will surface.

 Then die back with a light foam surface.

Lots of little brown bits will start rising to the surface and the top will lok creamy. You will alos notice a ridge around the outside of the pot where the butter has reduced. Some people take it off around here, I like deeper flavor, so I actually keep it on to brown the fat as well.

The fat will look dark and the milk solids will be a few steps away from black. It will alomst resemble a light Guiness beer.

Let it cool until you can touch the sides of the pot and them our it into a container- check it by holding your hand an inch away from the surface of the fat to see how hot it is. If you can’t leave your hand there for any length of time, it’s too hot to handle. I had a co-worker once that immediately poured the butter into a plastic container and it melted the container and went everywhere. Don’t do that. It’s dangerous and it’s makes a mess that will make YOU angry and dangerous (at least that’s what happened then…).

You can leave the brown bits out or leave them in, it’s up to you. (Remember they are intensely toasted, adding too many may have too much flavour for certain recipes you are creating- a light cake or a mellow vegetable saute).

Use in baking or cooking.

Christmas is dead and gone, and now we are in the bowels of the deep-freeze called Winter in the Maritimes. As I am writing, it is -17C (-25C with the wind chill), fire is going- as are all of the space heaters that are needed in an old farm house. No gardens to take care of, minimal animal care, no people in the restaurant…. This is our time, and I will take it at any temperature Mother Nature decides to give us.

We still have work to do for market, but it’s manageable- fun even! 2013 rang in a new attitude for me, I have become a little more thoughtful and self-aware in my actions (my reactions, however, may be 2014). I was getting increasingly down about what we were producing to take to market, it’s the same dang thing every week. I am a pretty creative person, at least I’d like to think I am, so this was pretty stifling and spirit killing. No more. We took a week off of market and decided it would be a perfect time to switch our production list. So, every week I am doing different stuff. It’ll take a little while, but people will start looking for it- hopefully excited to see what we’ve come up with this week….I know I am!

A long time ago (17 years, I think), my Nan died. She was a lovely lady, a great cook and my lifelong inspiration on how food can make people happy- whether I went over and made stuff with her, or she dropped by with stew and doughboys, or she shared recipes with her friends…. Anyway, when she passed away, I was given her personal, handwritten cookbooks. I have had them since, pulling them out on occassion just to read them. Over Christmas, my dad and his sister were cleaning their houses, and both found more recipes that were my Nan’s. One was a stack of cards in a little Tupperware container- they were a mix of handwritten and commercially printed from a Flour company, the other was a Christmas envelope with my Dad’s favorite cookie recipe (this will be a separate post)- these were my favorite Christmas presents, and such an inspiration!

I have decided to start making her recipes, documenting them and bringing them back to life- it drives me crazy that they just sit there on my shelf (although they are in good company, neighboring with Thomas Keller and Escoffier). They are also going to go into the Market rotation, so they can do what they are supposed to- improve someone’s day, even just a little.

Over Christmas, I made my Nan’s shortbread recipe, and it was outstanding! Tender, buttery, a little sweet, light- have I said tender? Traditionally Nan put a quarter of a glace cherry on top (my Dad, when he was a kid, used to eat all of the cherries off of the cookies while Nan wasn’t around….). Just because of the time of year, I tweaked the recipe to make it a little more sunny in January. The base in the same, with the addition of lemon and poppyseeds. These would be awesome even without the final touches, I was feeling inspired so I added a few garnishes- nothing complicated, just a lemon glaze and a dusting of poppyseeds.

Lemon Poppyseed Shortbreads-approximately 32 cookies, not counting the ones I ate

I would strongly recommend using a stand mixer when doing these, they take a lot of whipping and I am not PopEye.

The use of cornstarch is actually a handy trick while doing icebox cookies- using a small amount in the cookies makes them a little more tender then using all flour. Balancing out the amount to use if a little tricky because you don’t want to go too far, as cornstach flavoured cookies are icky.

225 g butter, room temperature
68 g icing sugar, sifted
4 g salt
2 T lemon zest (approximately 2 lemons), microplaned or chopped fine
68 g cornstarch
2 T lemon zest (approximately 2 lemons)
208 g all-purpose flour
12 g poppyseeds
Using a paddle on the stand mixer, whip the butter to break it up, add icing sugar, salt and lemon zest and beat in high until light and fluffy – the length of time really depends on the temperature of the kitchen, I had a cold kitchen and it took longer then usual. Add flour, cornstarch and poppy seeds, and mix on medium low until it is uniform, turn it out on a work surface and knead it just to pull it together. Roll into 2 logs onto 2 pieces of plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight- you want the dough to be firm and not shapeshift when it is cut.  

Remove plastic wrap and slice 3/8″ thick. You can cut them thicker, just make everything the same thickeness to ensure even baking for all of your cookies. Bake on parchment lined baking sheets for 6 minutes and then turn, and bake another 6. As always, your oven may be different, so look for cookies are are not translucent, and have lost the sheen on top. I always flip one over to look for dough-y spots. Pop them back in and check again for a minute or 2. Cool before glazing. Or eat them all right now- I won’t judge you.

Lemon Glaze

2 T lemon juice, strained
100 g icing sugar, sifted
Mix both ingredients in a small bowl until smooth. It should be runny, but not watery. If you need to add a little more juice or icing sugar to adjust consistency.

Drop cookies with the pan side of the cookie facing up when it is in the icing. Fish them out with your thumb and index finger, and gently run the cookie over the side of the bowl to remove excess glaze. (Another option is to pipe it on with a piping bag- your choice…)Place naked side down on baking sheet and sprinkle a few poppyseeds over the top. Dry overnight- it needs to dry to not mess up the pretty glaze on top…. Store airtight for up to 2 weeks.

Piece of Advice not related to this recipe: Take the time to improve your mental well-being. We have started to clean out our house- really clean it out, not just tidy it up and it is like a weight lifted off my shoulders. Physical chaos can cause mental chaos. It benefits you, and the Slavation Army gets a few loads of clothes, books, dishes and random kitchen gadgets that had no business taking up real estate in our cupboards to begin with. That’s my 2 cents.- FRK

Have you ever thought of what you would want in your very own, personalized chocolate bar? I have. A lot. And I finally made it! I figured I haven’t been posting very much lately, so I’d better write something great- my first chocolate bar creation at least shows that I’ve been occupying my mind, if not my keyboard.

I have always wondered why fruit never really made it on the chocolate bar scene- I realize there are Orange Aeros and Cherry Blossoms, but I am not really certain they qualify as fruit….. Raspberries are awesome with chocolate, strawberries are… well any berry is, really…. Bananas, cherries, pear, infinite number of tropical stuff… Because I LOVE strawberries and they happen to be in season, this fruit was my muse.

There are actually a few things that you need to consider when creating a chocolate bar- flavours (of course), textures, eatability, structure.  I knew the flavor profiles I was going to use, I was more concerned about the eatability of it. What happens when you bite through it? Does the bar break in half or can you bite it without pulling apart the whole bar? I wanted layers of textures- it needed to be great! Starting from the bottom up, I chose a maple cookie for crunch (uber thin), then chewy marzipan, followed by pillowy strawberry marshmallow, then strawberry jam, topped with toasted almonds and then enrobed with dark chocolate.

Holy smokes, it was awesome. And here it is…

Strawberry Delight Chocolate Bar!

Maple Cookie:
280 g butter, room temp
150 g maple syrup
65 g maple sugar (brown sugar in a pinch)
1 egg
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda dissolved in 3 tbsp boiling water
600 g pastry flour
Cream the butter, the syrup and sugar until combined (not airy), add egg and salt- mix until incorporated evenly. Add soda water (it may look split) and finally the flour, mix until dough is uniform. Wrap is plastic wrap and chill for 4 hours or overnight. Roll with a rolling pin as thin as possible, and cut into shape that you want your chocolate bar to be… Bake on parchment-lined baking sheet at 350F until crisp. Cool.
****Any leftover dough can be re-rolled once. This makes an awesome cookie for sandwiching- especially with maple butter or strawberry jam.

Next- roll marzipan (icing sugar as “flour”) and cut the same shape as your cookie. I used tempered chocolate to adhere the marzipan to the cookie, using a pastry brush to paint on my “glue.” I did make the marzipan, I think I have another post with it in it, I will try to link it here->

Strawberry Marshmallow, or what I like to call “strawberry heaven”:
10 gelatin sheets
395 g sugar
225 g corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla paste or extract
4 egg whites
35 g strawberry puree
Soak gelatin sheets in cold water (hot water will just make water flavoured jello). Bring sugar, syrup and 125 ml water to a boil. Cook out to 220C. Drain gelatin sheets and place in a mixing bowl- I would recommend an electric mixing bowl as marhmallows are marathon mixing, and you may end up with a Popeye arm. Pour hot syrup over gelatin sheets, and turn mixer on low. Now, the egg whites need to get into the bowl, but the tricky part is to get them into the hot syrup without making scrambled eggs, but it needs to be hot enough to pasteurize them. Only drop in one at a time, directly over the whisk of the mixer- I usually turn the mixer up to 4 or so, but be forwarned that molten hot sugar is HOT, and it does fly… Crank up the mixer, and let it go until it cools to warm, then add the puree. Back on high, and whisk until room temperature- I usually cover the mixer with saran to prevent a mess….. When room temp fill a piping bag and pipe a layer and then a ring of marshmallow around the marzipan- let set 4 hours or overnight. Any leftover marshmallow mix can be piped onto a icing sugar dusted pan, and then dusted on top, let set 4 hours or overnight.

Almost done…. Fill the marshmallow ring with homemade strawberry jam and top with toasted almonds. And then dunk it in deliciously awesome dark chocolate that has been tempered. If you can, let the chocolate harden and then GIVE’R!!!