Haley: Recipe Homework…It’s Edible!

Dan    Ask Dan     calgary, cooking, Haley, Kick The KD, learning, thoughts

Every week, recipe ‘homework’ is assigned to the class. Here are some of things I’ve been cooking up at home…

Biscuits

For the first time in history, I have made perfect biscuits from scratch without aid from my mother. Not only is that amazing because biscuits seem to always get the better of me, but it’s also amazing because they were so perfect.

It took me two tries to finally get them right; the first time I put WAY too many raspberries in and I couldn’t tell if they actually turned out properly or not but they were delicious all the same, and the second time I didn’t mix them enough (out of fear of over mixing) so they were weird.

I used ¾ cup of whole wheat flour instead of all white flour to make them a bit healthier, albeit my roommate wasn’t too keen on the whole wheat flavour whole wheat flour tends to have. I, on the other hand, thought they were great. I didn’t put anything on them this time but now that I am a biscuit master (ish) I may give it a go next time round.

Beer Nut Cake

I saved this one for an end-of-school celebration type picnic with friends which I thought was a good idea. I took some for my friends and I ended up with one slightly mangled slice left after about an hour. Note: people REALLY like beer nut cake, so if you’re looking to make friends this is an excellent way of attracting friends, or my friends at any rate…

I halved the recipe because I didn’t want to bring, or make, quite that much cake. I also put in apricots like we did in class (I prefer them to dates in general) and used whole wheat flour in lieu of white flour. The only thing that may have gone slightly wrong is that the cake is a bit dry so if you’re using whole wheat flour add a few extra tablespoons of beer or maybe some extra butter. Oh, I sprinkled coconut on top instead of mixing it in too.

I would definitely make this again and I’m tempted to try making some other things with Steamwhistle, maybe not a beer and chocolate mix but blueberry beer muffins perhaps?

I can’t remember what week we made hummus (Dan says: Week 7), but my love for hummus is strong and lovely. Since I don’t have a food processor, I used a blender. Last time I tried to blend something other than soup or a smoothie I ended up with really liquid-y Moroccan date bites that turned into date squares. Albeit they were good, it was mildly distressing to sit there for half an hour and blend up dried fruit that clearly isn’t blending. Disasters behind me, I conquered hummus in a blender! It turned out really well and I’ve discovered the trick is to put it on ‘mix’ or ‘puree’ (or another low setting) for ages until it gets smooth enough to eat.

I added a roasted red pepper to mine and used my mum’s recipe which had garlic and oregano in it (I don’t remember what the one in class had), and it turned out deliciously.

–Haley

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