"Easy white chocolate, I wouldn't want you to melt" (White Chicks, 2004)

So I was watching Fresh with Anna Olson. I love Anna Olson (I met her twice so far… hehe). She actually inspired me to start baking again a few years ago when her show "Sugar" was on. So on her new show, FRESH with Anna Olson, was on at 3:30pm on my favourite channel... THE FOOD CHANNEL, and she made these Butterscotch White Chocolate Brownies and they looked so good! My brother wanted them too, so off I went off to the grocery stores to buy the ingredients- toffee bits and white chocolate!

... go on, read more ;)

{Butterscotch White Chocolate Brownie Bites}

Recipe adapted from Food Network

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 6 ounces white chocolate, chopped
• 2 eggs at room temperature
• 1/2 cup light browned sugar, packed
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup + 2 Tbsp all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup Skor toffee bits

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-x-13-inch pan and line with parchment paper so that it hangs over the sides of the pan.
2. Over a pot of barely simmering water melt butter for 1 minute, then add chocolate and stir gently until melted. Remove chocolate from heat to cool for 5 minutes.
3. Whip eggs with sugars using electric beaters until thick and frothy. Add in vanilla and mix. By hand, stir in melted chocolate.
4. In a separate bowl, stir flour, baking powder and salt, then gently stir into chocolate mixture.
5. Stir in Skor bits and spoon batter into prepared pan.
6. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until a rich golden colour. Cool to room temperature before removing from pan.
7. For a fancier treat, melt white chocolate and dip each square halfway and chill to set.

RESULTS: The brownies were really sweet to me, so I decided not to dip the brownies into white chocolate. But they were chewy and I loved how the toffee bits were scattered around the brownie. Oh, I did use 1/6 cup of the white sugar and a little less than 1/2 cup of brown sugar and I still thought it was sweet. But that’s all due to the white chocolate and the toffee bits, so if you are going to make them, I suggest don’t put that much sugar. Overall, it was a good chewy brownie that I would make again :)

White chocolate was used in this recipe. What is white chocolate? Well white chocolate is not really REAL chocolate, because it is not made with cocoa. Rather white chocolate is made with cocoa butter, sugar and milk. It is sweeter than dark chocolate. Also, when baking, you have to be careful with heating the white chocolate, because it melts at a lower temperature.

Bon Appetit,

Jenny

An Apple A dAy keeps the doctor Away

Can you believe how many different types of apples there are out there in this world? At the grocery stores, you can find so many different ones… granny smith, macintosh, golden delicious, just to name a few. My favourite apple at the moment is organic ambrosia apples. These apples are crisp, sweet and smell good. They are also PRETTY- a multicolour apple, pink & a creamy colour! So I did some research on these ambrosia apples and found this great pdf all about it: (http://www.bctree.com/pressroom/downloads/AppleNewsletter-1.pdf). So if you want to know more, click the link. Oh, want to know something interesting? These apples are great for baking! Why?? Because they keep their shape when cooked so if you are making a pretty pie that would look awesome! Also, you can use them in salads like fennel and apple salad (omg it's soooo delicious), because they don’t brown fast. Cool right? Okay, maybe that's not cool to you, but I think it is really cool! haha

So I recently baked, Strudel topped Apple Muffins. I got the recipe from the book, Bite Me. (This book is awesome and so easy to follow- I totally recommend buying it, especially if you are a beginner to cooking/baking.)

RESULTS: these apple muffins were good! They were moist (well more moist the day after I put them in my cool cake stand container thingy haha). They had bits of apples throughout and had a little crunchy top because of the strudel topping. I would make them again!

So next time you want a snack, pick up an apple to keep the doctor away or just put them in some muffins :)

Apples provide great health benefits, such as fibre… and fibre helps you with cholesterol, cleaning out your blood vessels, like a broom. Apples also provide vitamin C which help with your overall immunity and antioxidants which help you your cells from damage from these nasty things called free radicals. And many more benefits. YAY APPLES!! =D

opening the oven

Hello fellow foodies!
So I finally decided to start blogging. After months of posting my baking/food pictures on facebook, I decided to start a blog to talk more about my baking & cooking adventures. It is not always a success story with food, but that's the fun of it- learning what to do and what NOT to do. And when it is successful... oh gosh, it is so good & satisfying like the last bite of that moist, piece of cake. What I know is... food is my savior. Whatever emotion or feeling I get, I can always trust food to lift my spirits. I know, you know, what I mean. We all had those days, where we just put on those sweatpants, go out to all you can eat sushi and stuff our faces until it hurts, haha. Okay, maybe that's just me being greedy and trying to be an all-star at all you can eat sushi and eating my money's worth. But we use food everyday whether it be for a special occasion or not- birthday cakes for birthday celebrations, drinks for those nights we want to let loose & go a little crazy, going out to dinner to hang out with a friend, etc. etc., but you know what I'm talking about! Food brings people together, food makes people happy. So I want to share with you my relationship with food. As a nutrition student, I have become more conscious of what I eat. Nonetheless, it does not mean I don't indulge sometimes... it's all about moderation people! Food is your friend. Embrace it, love it & share it.
So this is me, opening up my oven to you & letting you get a sniff and taste of what I create and eat.

bon appetit,
Jenny