Food goodness

From: BBC Good Food I really liked this. Makes a delicious addition to your usual cheese board. I think many of our guests didn't know what to do with it (despite my helpful signage suggesting people try it with cheese and honey). My suggestion is to start with a cracker, top with a slice of cheese (manchego, perhaps), a slice of the fig cake, and then a drizzle of honey. Yum! These also make a nice gift - just tie up a couple in a cellophane bag. Please note that you need to make these in advance because you have to let them dry for about a week before you serve - otherwise they will be a sticky mess. Ingredients 100g whole almonds , toasted 500g pack dried whole figs , hard stalk and centre of base removed 85g dried apricots , chopped into small pieces 50g dried cranberries 1 tbsp brandy 1 tbsp clear honey 1 tsp ground cloves 100g sesame seeds , toasted Directions: Whizz the almonds in a food processor until most are finely chopped, then tip into a large bowl. Roughly ch...

Yum! Yuuuuuuummmmmmmmm! These were really super awesome good. Very easy, take no time at all to make, and your house will smell amazing. Adapted from: Culinary in the Desert 1 cup granulated sugar (a little less would probably be fine, too) 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 large egg white 4 tablespoons Kahlua 4 cups pecan halves Preheat oven to 325 In a small bowl, whisk together sugar, cinnamon and salt. In a large bowl, whisk together egg white and Kahlua. Add pecans and stir well to combine. Sprinkle half the sugar mixture on top - mix well. Pour the rest of the sugar on top and stir until completely combined. Scoop the mixture onto a large baking sheet lined with foil and coated with nonstick spray. Spread the pecans to an even single layer. Bake until pecans are lightly toasted and browned, stirring every 10 minutes - about 20 to 25 minutes total. Remove from the oven and scoop the hot pecans onto wax or parchment paper to cool completely.

adapted just slightly from: Annie's Eats My first attempt at a recipe that requires a candy thermometer! These were actually very easy to make, and I am going to put them in the goody boxes that I give to my coworkers on Friday (along with a couple of kinds of cookies). I used fleur de sel from Williams-Sonoma, because I wasn't sure if the regular coarse sea salt that I already had in my cabinet would be too salty or not. I even had to substitute some of the sugar for turbinado, because I was inexplicably out of sugar. I ended up using about 1/2 regular and 1/2 turbinado, and it still turned out just fine. Yield: 64 caramels Ingredients: 1 cup heavy cream 5 tbsp. unsalted butter ½ tsp. vanilla extract 1 vanilla bean pod, split lengthwise and scraped 1¼ tsp. fleur de sel, plus more for sprinkling 1½ cups sugar ¼ cup light corn syrup ¼ cup water Directions: Line the bottom and sides of an 8-inch square baking dish with parchment paper. Lightly butter the parchment. In a sma...

I wish I'd taken a photo of these before I distributed them at work... they are sort of ridiculously cute. My friend Amanda showed me how to do this, based on Bakerella's recipe except a bit simpler, and it's pretty fun. She prefers chocolate cake mix with cream cheese frosting, but I'm sure it would be good in other ways. We also dipped the pops into white chocolate and put shiny white sprinkles on them, so they looked like snowballs, and then did some more traditional ones with regular chocolate and different colors of sprinkles. Cute and good. 1. Make a store-bought cake according to the directions on the box. Make sure you don't overcook at all so that the edges are not crispy at all -- it should all be as soft as possible. 2. Crumble up the cake into crumbs, basically. There can be some chunks but the more uniform the better. 3. Mix in most a tub of store-bought frosting, leaving maybe 6 T or so still in the container. Form the mixture into balls with your han...