Vanilla Peanut Buttercream for whoopie pies

I have never made whoopie pies before but last night I acutally made it. I usually like to buy them at the local grocery store back in New England. I made chocolate chip peanut butter whoopie pies. These were so delicious. I tried out making just 3. I still have the chocolate chip batter and peanut buttercream.

Peanut butter filling

1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup peanut butter

1 1/2 or 2 cups Confectioner sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla sugar
1 tablespoon regualr milk
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract

In a bowl mix butter and peanut butter. Gradually mix in the sugar and vanilla sugar. Add in milk and vanilla extract.
Continue mixing until the buttercream is fluffy and easy to spread.

Cambodian Crispy Pork Toast

I visited my family in New England last Easter vacation. My mom had made a lot of great food while we visited. She made my favorite Cambodian egg rolls and she made these delicious toast. I'm not sure but I think she used ground chicken instead of ground pork. She made crispy toast with the egg roll filling she had and spread them on slices of baguettes and fried them. She is such a great cook.
During the week I made Crispy Pork Toasts. It's not as great as my mom but it was still delicious.




Ingredients

1 1/2 lb ground pork
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 shallots, minced
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 scallions, sliced
2 baguettes, cut into 25 slices, each less than 1/2 inch thick

3 cups vegetable oil

Asian style chili sauce

In a bowl mix pork and the 9 ingredients. Then add the scallions until well combined.

Spread about 1 tablespoon of the pork mixture on each slices of baguette. Mounding it slightly in the center.

Heat the oil in a wok over medium high heat. Fry the pork toast in batches until golden brown.

Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.

Serve with chili sauce, Sriracha sauce, or sweet and sour sauce.

Baked Crispy coconut/cornflake stuffed chicken breast

I made a similar version instead of fish I made it with chicken. Baked crispy coconut cornflakes stuffed chicken breast. I stuffed the chicken breast with a creamy spinach sauce. This was really tasty. I didn't deep fry. I just brushed some seasoned oil over the chicken and baked in the oven.

Stuffed Crispy Cornflake/Coconut Chicken

6 chicken breast

salt

black pepper 

paprika

cayenne pepper

garlic powder

onion powder

Italian seasoning

Worcestershire sauce

2 eggs beaten with 1 Tablespoon of water

1 1/2 cup cornflakes crumbs

1 cup coconut flakes

salt, garlic powder, pepper, parsley, paprika

2 tablespoons vegetable oil or melted butter

Cream spinach

1 bag of fresh spinach 

1 tablespoon butter

1 cup cream cheese

1/2 cup cream

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

In a sauce pan heat butter on medium heat. Stir in cream cheese, cream, and Parmesan cheese until smooth. Stir in fresh spinach. Cook for about couple minutes, so the spinach is coated with the sauce. Remove from heat and let it cool.

Preheat oven to 200'C-220'C

Butterfly each chicken breast and season chicken with the herbs and Worcestershire sauce to your taste.

In a bowl beat eggs and water together.

In a large bowl combine cornflakes crumb and coconut flakes seasoned with a dash of salt, garlic powder, pepper, parsley flakes, and paprika powder. Mix well.

Dredge each chicken in the egg mixture and then coat with the cornflake mixture.

Stuff the chicken with the cream spinach and fold the chicken to secure the filling. Place each chicken side by side on a greased baking dish. Shown in the picture below. 

Brush each chicken with butter or oil

Cover the top of the dish with foil and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. The last 10 minutes remove the foil and let it bake until it becomes golden crispy.

Soft Pretzels

I was craving for soft pretzels and I wanted to make some. I haven't seen any soft pretzels in the Oslo area. I have seen some but it was along time ago. These are my kids favorite with the hot dogs.

Ingredient

1 1/2 cup warm milk 

1 package active dry yeast

2 tablespoons sugar

3 cups all purpose flour, plus more for kneading

1/4 cup unsalted butter (melted)

1 1/2 teaspoons table salt

1/3 cup baking soda

3 cups warm water

1 egg beat with 1 tablespoon water

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Pour warm milk into medium bowl and sprinkle in the yeast. Let the yeast mixture sit for about couple of minutes. Stir in the sugar, 1 1/2 cup flour, and melted butter. Mix and combined. Add the remaining flour and salt. Mix until dough is sticky. Remove dough from the bowl, onto a lightly floured surface and knead. Add more flour if needed until smooth. Shape dough into a ball. Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let it rise until it doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 200 degress C. Grease a large baking sheet.

Punch the dough to deflate it, remove from bowl and place onto a lightly floured surface. Divide dough, roll, stretch each pieces into 20 inch rope, stretching it, form each rope into pretzel shapes.

Pour 3 cups warm water in a pot and add the baking soda until it dissolves. Dip each pretzel in the baking soda mixture. Place each on the greased baking sheet. Brush each pretzel with the egg wash and sprinkle a little salt on each pretzel. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes until golden brown.

Baked crispy cornflakes/coconut cod

My husband saw a commercial about fish sticks with cornflakes. He told me about it and he said he would make it. Instead I made it my way. We love cornflakes and coconuts. My family loves fish and this they enjoyed.

4 cups of crushed corn flakes

1 cup coconut flakes

1/2 teaspoon seasoning salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

dash cayenne pepper

dash garlic powder

dash dill

2 eggs, beaten

1 1/2 lbs cod fish

salt

pepper 

soy sauce

1/2 cup of melted butter

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Preheat oven to 220°C

In a bowl add in crushed cornflakes with seasoning salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, and dill.

In a small bowl mix together melted butter and 3 tablespoon fresh lemon juice.

Seasoned fish with salt, black pepper, and dash soy sauce.

Dip each fish into the egg, on both side.

Dip each fish into the cornflake mixture coating each side completely.

Arrange the fish on a lightly greased baking tray.

Brush the fish with the lemon butter and dash of dill.

Set the tray in the center of the oven and bake fish for about 10 minutes until golden crispy.

I served it with rice, homemade guacamole, homemade tortilla cups, and fresh vegetables.

Fresh homemade guacamole in homemade tortilla cups. 

Homemade Cinnamon Rasin bagels

 I have been baking a lot the past couple of weeks. I've baked a lot of different kinds of cookies (chocolate chips, sugar cookies, peanut butter and caramel). I 've baked pies, brownies, bread, and pretzels. Yesterday I made my own bagels. My family loved the cinnamon raisin bagels.

1 1/2 cup warm water
1 pk yeast
3 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoon vegetable oil
3 1/2 cup bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 to 2 teaspoons cinnamon (I added extra because my family loves cinnamon)
1/2 cup raisins
1 -2 tablespoons brown sugar

2-3 quarts water
1/2 cup honey

In a bowl add in warm water, mix in the yeast, sugar, and oil. Let it stand for 5 minutes.

In another bowl mix in 2 cups of flour and salt. Add the yeast mixture. Stir until combined. Slowly mix in the rest of the flour.

Add in cinnamon, raisins, and brown sugar

Knead dough on a flour surface. Add additional flour if needed. The dough should be firm.

Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let the dough rise until double the size for couple hours.

After rise, punch dough down and place it on a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough with a knife into 6-8 pieces. Roll each pieces of dough into sausage shape. Join the ends to form a circle. Repeat with the remaining dough. Let the bagels rest for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 220 degrees C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Bring about 2 quarts of water to a boil, add the honey. Boil the bagels a few at a time just until they rise to the surface of the pot about a minute on each side. Remove bagels with a slotted spoon and place them on baking sheet. Baked in the preheated oven until the bagels begin to brown, about 20 minutes.

I made other bagels with garlic/green onion and using Italian seasoning to make pizza bagels. I also made my own English muffins. I'll give out the recipe some other time.