Sucre à la Crème Cupcakes

Sucre à la Crème, absolutely delicious. I came across this delight by my now husband, then friend, he brought some in for Christmas and shared a piece with me.

For those of you who are not familiar with Sucre à la Crème, here is the to-the-point definition on Wikipedia:

The sugar in the cream is a delicacy made of cream to 35% of sugar and brown sugar, all churned during cooking.

Popular in Québec, this delicacy is usually served in small cubes granules during the holiday season, that is to say during the days preceding and following Christmas.

How I came about this recipe... Just after we were engaged (Christmastime), I asked him if he would make me another batch of Sucre à la Crème and in return he had made me a double batch. Uh WOW, as much as I enjoy this delightful fudge, that is enough for an army.

I thought to myself, what am I to do with this mass amount of fudge (aside from share the wealth - which I did) I decided to turn it into a cupcake. These days you see all sorts of flavours, so why not give it a shot.

Continuing with the flavours of Québec, I decided to add some maple syrup to the glaze before topping it off with a generous morsel of Sucre à la Crème.

Sucre à la Crème Cupcakes
Makes about 18 cupcakes

Ingredients:

-Cupcake Batter-

• 1/2 cup Softened Butter (unsalted)
  
• 1 cup Brown Sugar
• 2 Eggs - Large
• 3/4 cup Self-Rising Flour
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tbls. All Purpose Flour
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
• Approx. 1/2 cup chopped Sucre à la Crème (melted)
  

Glaze:

• 1-3/4 cup Icing Sugar
• 1/4 cup Softened Butter (unsalted)
• 1/4 cup Milk
• 1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
• 1 tbls. Maple Syrup
• Pinch of Salt
  

Decoration:

• Additional cubed Sucre à la Crème fudge for topping (about 1 piece per cupcake)
• Sprinkling of Cinnamon

-Directions-

Preheat Oven to 350.

1. Place butter and sugar into a bowl and cream until light and fluffy.
2. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Add melted Sucre à la Crème into the mix and incorporate well. (To melt Sucre à la Crème, place in the microwave for intervals of 15 seconds until reaching a caramel consistency)
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Combine All-purpose and self-rising flours and place aside.
   
5. Add flour and milk in an alternating cycle until all the flour and milk have been added and the batter has completely been mixed and fluffy.
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Spoon into a lined cupcake pan and bake for 15-25 minutes (depending on your oven).

Cupcakes will brown nicely and be soft to the touch, use a toothpick to check if it's fully baked (the toothpick will come out clean).

While you are waiting for the cupcakes to cool, lets make the icing.

1. Place Icing Sugar, Milk and Vanilla Extract in a bowl and mix well.
2. Add Softened Butter, Pinch of Salt and Maple Syrup and whisk until a smooth consistency is reached.

Once the glaze has been created, refrigerate for 15-20 minutes, checking on it every so often to mix.

Once the cupcakes have cooled, slowly spread a small amount of glaze on the cupcakes (it may drizzle down the sides) and and top with morsel of Sucre à la Crème fudge.

Sprinkle with Cinnamon and voila, Sucre à la Crème Cupcakes are here.

Hope you enjoy these cupcakes as much as I have!

Cheers,
Naho @ Scrumptious Foods

Greek Pasta Salad - Revisited

I had actually had made another version of this salad recipe a few years ago with slight variations, but since I wanted to pass this recipe around, I thought I would post the recipe I brought into work today:

Greek Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 English Cucumber, Seeded
• 1 Package Grape or Cherry Tomatoes, (Sliced Optional)
• 1 Jar Black Olives
• 1 Small Red Onion
• 1 Package Pasta (Fuselli, Rotini, etc)
• 1 Green Pepper
• 1 Small Bottle Kraft Mediterranean Dressing

Optional:

• Extra Dressing / Seasoning
• Crumbled Feta Cheese

Directions:

1. Put on your pasta for the boil, you will need to have this cooked and washed in cold water after cooking as this is a cold pasta.
2. Cut and prep all your veggies (I chose to keep them julienne and cubed) and place them into a large salad bowl and lightly toss.
3. Add your pasta to the veggies and top with salad dressing. Toss Well.
4. The flavours will set over night even better if you choose, serving it right away is also a great option.
5. Top with Crumbled feta and enjoy!

As the summer starts to creep up on us (not that we mind) I'm sure more great salad recipes will be popping up.

Cheers,

Naho

100 Foods List

It's been a very long time since I have posted and for that I am sorry. I wish I had a bit more time to sit down and be able to blog and photograph, unfortunately with work, sometimes school and the daily life activities, I bake and read, but rush my photos and don't get to blog as much as I would like. I do however, tweet and you can follow me @ScrumptiousFood!

I came to post today because I came across something on The Eating Project blog that seemed like it would be fun to post, a couple lists of 100 foods you have to try (before you die, and Canadian yummies). Please feel free to do the same on your blog, you might see some new foods you would like to try, if you already haven't

For both:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.

2) Bold or cross-out all the items you’ve eaten.

3) Italicize any items that you would never consider eating.

4) Post a comment here linking to your results

100 things you should eat before you die compiled by Food Proof

1. Venison

2. Nettle tea

3. Huevos rancheros

4. Steak tartare

5. Crocodile

6. Black pudding

7. Cheese fondue

8. Carp

9. Borscht

10. Baba ghanoush

11. Calamari

12. Pho

13. PB&J sandwich

14. Aloo gobi

15. Hot dog from a street cart

16. Epoisses

17. Black truffle

18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes

19. Steamed pork buns

20. Pistachio ice cream

21. Heirloom tomatoes

22. Fresh wild berries

23. Foie gras

24. Rice and beans

25. Brawn, or head cheese

26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper

27. Dulce de leche

28. Oysters

29. Baklava

30. Bagna cauda

31. Wasabi peas

32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl

33. Salted lassi

34. Sauerkraut

35. Root beer float

36. Cognac with a fat cigar

37. Clotted cream tea

38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O

39. Gumbo

40. Oxtail

41. Curried goat

42. Whole insects

43. Phaal

44. Goat’s milk

45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more

46. Fugu

47. Chicken tikka masala

48. Eel

49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut

50. Sea urchin

51. Prickly pear

52. Umeboshi

53. Abalone

54. Paneer

55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal

56. Spaetzle

57. Dirty gin martini

58. Beer above 8% ABV

59. Poutine

60. Carob chips

61. S’mores

62. Sweetbreads

63. Kaolin

64. Currywurst

65. Durian

66. Frogs’ legs

67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake

68. Haggis

69. Fried plantain

70. Chitterlings, or andouillette

71. Gazpacho

72. Caviar and blini

73. Louche absinthe

74. Gjetost, or brunost

75. Roadkill

76. Baijiu

77. Hostess Fruit Pie

78. Snail

79. Lapsang souchong

80. Bellini

81. Tom yum

82. Eggs Benedict

83. Pocky

84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.

85. Kobe beef

86. Hare

87. Goulash

88. Flowers

89. Horse

90. Criollo chocolate

91. Spam

92. Soft shell crab

93. Rose harissa

94. Catfish

95. Mole poblano

96. Bagel and lox

97. Lobster Thermidor

98. Polenta

99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee

100. Snake

100 Canadian Foods to Consume compiled by Maple Syrup and Poutine

1. Arctic Char

2. Ketchup flavoured chips

3. Wild Rice Pilaf

4. Caribou Steak

5. Gourmet Poutine

6. Screech

7. Beaver Tails

8. Maple Baked Beans

9. Bison Burger

10. Bumbleberry pie

11. Nanaimo bar

12. Butter Tarts

13. Cedar Planked B.C. Salmon

14. Wild Blueberries

15. Pure Local Cranberry Juice

16. Chocolate from Ganong or Purdy’s

17. A cup of warm cider from your local orchard

18. Caesar

19. 4 of the following types of apples (Cortland, Empire, Golden Delicious, McIntosh, Spartan, Greensleeves, Liberty, Granny Smith, Red Delicious, Honeycrisp, Golden Russet, Idared, Gala)

20. Freshly foraged mushrooms

21. Dinner cooked by Michael Smith, Susur Lee or Rob Feenie

22. Fondue Chinoise

23. Dish created from a Canadian Living Magazine recipe

24. Peameal Bacon Sandwich from St. Lawrence Market in Toronto

25. Lobster bought directly from a boat in a Maritime harbour

26. Handmade perogies from your local church or market

27. Alberta Beef at an Alberta Steakhouse

28. Leamington Tomatoes

29. Roasted Pheasant

30. Wild Game hunted by someone you know

31. Ice Wine

32. Habitant Pea Soup – entire can

33. Any Canadian Artisinal Cheese

34. Bannock

35. Tourtiere

36. Flapper Pie

37. Jellied Moose Nose

38. Saskatoon Berries

39. Fish and Brewis

40. Screech Pie

41. Fiddleheads

42. Montreal Smoked Meat Sandwich

43. Flipper Pie

44. Montreal Bagels with Smoked Salmon

45. Toutins

46. Jam Busters

47. Bakeapple Pie

48. Bridge Mixture

49. Canadian Style Pizza (bacon, pepperoni. Mushrooms)

50. Shreddies

51. A cone from Cow’s Ice Cream

52. Lumberjack or Logger’s Breakfast

53. Jigg’s Dinner

54. Rappie Pie

55. Pemmican

56. Lake Erie Sturgeon Caviar

57. Belon Oysters

58. Brome Lake Duck(in a way…)

59. Beer from a stubby bottle.

60. A beer from Unibroue or Phillips Brewery.

61. Salt Spring Island Lamb

62. Fry’s Cocoa

63. A bag of Old Dutch Potato Chips

64. Every Flavour of Laura Secord Suckers

65. Chicken Dinner from St Hubert’s or Swiss Chalet

66. Hickory Sticks

67. An entire box of Kraft Dinner

68. Candy Apples (NOT caramel apples)

69. Corn from a roadside stand

70. A meal at Eigensenn Farm

71. Okanogan Peaches

72. Berkshire Pork

73. PEI Potatoes

74. Something cooked in Canola oil

75. Figgy Duff

76. Blueberry Grunt

77. High Tea at the Empress Hotel

78. Fresh maple syrup hardened on the snow

79. Oreilles de Christ

80. Nova Scotia Beer Warmer

81. A cheese plate containing Bleu Bénédictin, Friulano, St. Maure and Oka

82. Black or red currant jam

83. Maple glazed Doughnut from Tim Horton’s with a Large “Double Double”

84. A glass of Mission Hill’s “Oculus”

85. Alberta Pure Vodka

86. Chokecherries

87. Canada Day Cake

88. Boulettes

89. Canadian Iced Tea

90. Mead

91. Fricot

92. Grandperes

93. Local honey

94. Creton on toast

95. Glen Breton Rare

96. A whole box of Smarties, where the empty box is then used as a kazoo

97. Grilled cheese made with Canadian Cheddar

98. A meal from Harvey’s

99. Lake Erie Perch

100. Red Rose Tea

I have to say that I have been lucky to try many of these great foods, how many have you tried?

Cheers.

Nahren

Baklava -- Middle Eastern Style

I apologize for the lack of blogging in the last while; I know it's been quite some time since my last post. I hope to bring more posts to this blog on a regular basis, so I thought to come back with a fantastic baklava recipe!

This was always a staple in our home around the holidays. After watching my mother make this treat after all those years, I learned to make it myself.

The process of baklava isn't too difficult but it can be tedious and must be neat. You need to watch out that it doesn't become un-even, lumpy and unattractive.


Baklava

Ingredients:

Pastry:

• 2 Packages Phyllo Pastry
• 1 pound Unsalted Butter

Filling:

• 600 grams Walnut halves (coarsely ground)
• 1 tbls. Sugar
• 1 tsp. Ground Cardamom
• 2 tbls. Unsalted Butter, melted

Syrup:

• 4 cups Sugar
• 2 cups water
• ½ tsp. Ground cardamom
• 1 tbls. Lemon Juice

Garnish:

• 3 tbls. Unsalted Pistachios, finely ground

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Syrup:

1. Place water and sugar into a large pot and mix well until sugar is dissolved
2. Place on medium heat until syrup starts to thicken and come to a boil
3. Once the syrup reaches a boil, add lemon juice and stir for 2-3 minutes
4. Remove from heat and add cardamom, stir and leave to cool

Filling:

1. In a bowl, mix coarsely ground walnuts, sugar and cardamom
2. Drizzle melted butter over mixture and incorporate so that the mixture binds together

Baklava:

1. Thoroughly melt butter over low heat
2. Line a large size cookie sheet (17”x14”) with a sheet of buttered parchment paper
3. Take two sheets of phyllo pastry at a time, butter with a pastry brush and repeat until you have 1 ½ packages lining the bottom of the cookie sheet
4. Evenly spread walnut filling over buttered phyllo pastry and firmly press down onto the filling
5. Using the remaining ½ package of phyllo pastry repeat step three by buttering every two sheets, leaving the final top two sheets unbuttered
6. Make sure the pastry is well fitted to the cookie sheet, if there is any overhang; trim off all excess
7. Using a knife pre-cut into desired shapes (squares, diamonds, triangles, etc.)
8. Place baklava in the bottom rack of the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until bottom is golden brown, whilst checking occasionally so that the pastry does not burn
9. After the bottom has reached the golden brown stage, place the baklava on the top rack until the top layer reaches becomes golden brown
10. Remove baklava from the oven and slowly pour 1-2 cups of cooled syrup over the entire slab of hot baklava (feel free to add more if you desire a sweeter baklava)
11. Sprinkle finely ground pistachios on top and leave to cool for one hour
12. Cut slices thoroughly and serve

Cheers,
Naho@Scrumptious Foods

Apple Crumble Pie

*sigh* I really must blog more often. So there are 23 days left until the wedding. I have missed my baking, my bloging and at times my sanity. Seeing as I am not the best at pie crust, I tend to buy the crusts and elabortate on what I would like to make with them. I decided to use what I had on hand and made an apple crumble pie. An apple crumble pie is your typical apple pie with a crumble top crust.

Apple Crumble Pie

Ingredients:

Preheat Oven to 375 Degrees.

Pie Filling:

-3 Apples thinly sliced
-2 tbls Brown Sugar
-1 tps Cinnamon
-1/4 tsp Nutmug
-1 tsp Vanilla
-1 tbls cold water mixed with 1/4 tsp cornstarch

Crumble:

-1 1/2 tbls Brown Sugar
-1 tsp Sugar
-1/2 tsp Cinnamon
-1/4 cup Flour
-1 1/2 tbls butter

Diretions:

1. Add sliced apples to a bowl with brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla. Mix well and add water and cornstarch mixture, mix and let sit for 30 minutes.
2. In another bowl start cruble mixture. Add brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon and flour and mix well. Add in butter and incorporate until it is a crumbly mixture.
3. After 30 minutes add apple filling to the pie crust and top off with crumble mixture.
4. Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.
5. Slice and serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream

Apple Crumble Pie
Originally uploaded by Nahren

Peanut Butter, Honey, Banana and Nutella Cakies

Some days, one can't help but experiment lol... Well these were not all that bad, I think they could have used a little less flour, so please play with the recipe to your desire :)!

I wanted a really soft peanut butter cookie, almost cake-like so I made "Cakies". Cakies are a cookie that is soft enough to be a cake. I thought of a sandwich I make every so often, peanut butter, banana and honey. Well from there, add a touch of Nutella and here you have it. Maybe next time I will try these as a cupcake, who knows?

Peanut Butter, Honey, Banana and Nutella Cakies

Ingredients:

- 1 Ripe Mashed Banana
- 1 Egg
- 1 tsp. Vanilla
- 1/4 cup Honey
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 cup peanut butter
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup flour (Start off with half, and if the batter is still too wet, go up to 3/4 cup)
- Pinch of Baking Soda
- Pinch of Salt
- Nutella for the top

Directions:

Set oven to 350 degrees.

1. In a bowl, combine mashed banana, egg, vanilla, honey,brown sugar and peanut butter; mix well.
2. In another bowl, sift dry ingredients together (Flour, pinch of salt, pinch of baking soda)
3. Slowly add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and incorporate.
4. Spoon drop cookies onto greased or parchment papered baking sheet.
5. Pipe a small dollop of Nutella to the tops.
6. Put into the oven for 10-15 minutes.
7. Once the cakies are done, let cool and enjoy.

Cheers,
Naho @ Scrumptious Foods

Peanut Butter, Honey, Banana and Nutella Cakies
Originally uploaded by Nahren

Guacamole

Okay so the photos isn't the best, but this guac is really good! One of my favourite summer dips would have to be guacamole... The vibrant colour, refreshing taste go great with some tortilla chips and a nice cool drink. This is a small batch of guac and can easily be doubled.

Guacamole

Ingredients:

- 1 Avocado (Peeled and mashed, keep pit on the side)
- 6 grape tomatoes (quartered) OR 1/4 cup of chopped tomatoes
- 2 green onions (Finely diced)
- Juice of half a lime
- Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Have the peeled and mashed avocado in a bowl and add the diced tomatoes and green onions.
2. Fold ingredients together and slowly add lime juice. You can add more or less lime juice to your desired consistency and taste.
3. Add salt and pepper to taste and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Don't forget to put the pit back into the guacamole so that it keeps it from discolouring quickly.

Cheers,
Naho @ Scrumptious Foods

Guacamole
Originally uploaded by Nahren