Cranberry Orange Shortbread

Today I made cranberry orange shortbread cookies. I started by blending cranberry and sugar in a foods processor and then I zested an orange and set it aside. In a large bowl I combined the rest of the sugar, flour, cut cold butter into cubes and then blended it all with a pastry blender until the mixture resembled fine cubes. I then added the zested orange, cranberries and almond extract as well as some orange juice and mixed it all together. I put the dough into a big ball and then rolled it out with my hands into a big log shape before sealing it in cellophane and putting it in the fridge for at least two hours. The next day I sliced the log into cookie pieces and sprinkled sugar overtop. I put the cookies on parchment paper on a cookie sheet and baked them at 325 degrees for about 12 minutes. These cookies tasted fruity and sweet, the flavour of orange and cranberry together was amazing. The cookies were soft but also slightly chewy, I would give them a 5/10 for nutrition because they have some fruit in them and not that much sugar but they have a lot of butter in them. Overall these cookies tasted better then normal shortbread cookies so I will defiantly make them again.

Apple Pie

Today I made a simple apple pie. I started by making the crust… I combined flour water and butter together and made a well in the centre. I then baked the crust in a round pie pan. While it was baking I made the apple filling out of red apples, sugar, brown sugar, flour, milk, cinnamon, nutmeg and butter. I whisked the dry ingredients together and then added the sliced apples into them. I then poured the milk and melted butter into the apple mixture and combined everything together before pouring the entire mixture overtop of the baked crust. I then put the pie back in the oven for about 35 minutes at 400 degrees. When it came out of the oven it smelled warm and sweet, like a fall day. The pie tasted amazing, it was the perfect balance of all the fall spices with the warm apples. I would give this recipe a 6/10 for nutrition because of the amount of flour, butter and sugar. But I would defiantly make this again because it was one of the best apple pies I have ever had and it was really easy to make!

Gingerbread Cookies

I made gingerbread cookies today, which was slightly harder than I anticipated. I started by sifting together all my dry ingredients into a small bowl. I then creamed together the butter and sugar in a separate bowl until it was fluffy. I then added in the egg and vanilla into the creamed mixture before adding in the molasses. I then mixed all the wet ingredients together until it was quite pale and then added the dry into the wet. I mixed all the ingredients together and then proceeded to lightly spread flour on my counter. I rolled the dough out with a rolling pin, which was quite challenging because the dough kept sticking to the rolling pin. Since I didn’t have cookie cutters I made regular cookies instead at baked them in the oven for about 16 minutes at 350 degrees. When they came out of the oven I let them cool for about 20 minutes and I then iced them. I made buttercream, icing out of butter, icing sugar and vanilla, I also put red food clouting in the icing so that they would look more like Christmas cookies. I spread the icing over each cookie and then poured some Christmas sprinkles on as well. These cookies were amazing, they were soft and chewy and had a perfect balance of cinnamon and gingerbread flavour. The icing was a bit too sweet so next time I won’t make as sweet icing. Overall I would give these cookies a 6/10 for nutrition because of the sugar and the butter in the cookies and the sugar and the butter in the icing. They were some of the best gingerbread cookies I have ever made though, so I will be making these again!

Snickerdoodles

I made snickerdoodles today and these were amazing. I started by mixing together butter, an egg, vanilla and sugar in a large bowl. I then whisked flour, cream of tarter, and baking soda in a separate bowl before mixing the dry ingredients in with the wet. I then chilled the dough for 30 minutes in the fridge while I made the cinnamon sugar. I used 2 tablespoons of sugar with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and combined it together in a small bowl. When the dough came out of the fridge I rolled them into small balls and dipped each one in the cinnamon sugar. I put the cookies on a cookie sheet with parchment paper and baked them at 375 degrees for about 12 minutes. When the cookies came out of the oven the smelled of cinnamon and they tasted sweet but not too sweet. It was a perfect blend of cinnamon and sugar and the cookies turned out amazing. I would give these a 6/10 for nutrition because there is quite a bit of flour, sugar and butter in them. Overall though they tasted amazing, these were some of the best snickerdoodles I have ever had, so I will be making these again for sure.

Chocolate Biscotti

Today I made biscotti. This was an easy recipe to make. I started by sifting my dry ingredients together and then I mixed together butter and sugar in a separate bowl. I added in vanilla and an egg and mixed that with the other wet ingredients as well. I added the dry ingredients into the wet in three parts before mixing everything together. I then chopped half a cup of almonds and combined them with chocolate chips before mixing everything together. I rolled the dough into a log shape and baked it in the oven for 25 minutes and 350 degrees. I let the log cool for 20 minutes and then cut it into biscotti pieces. I but the biscotto back in the oven for 10 minutes. When I took it out of the oven the biscotti was chocolaty and crunchy with a perfect nut flavour as well. Overall I would give this a 6/10 for nutrition because it doesn’t have as much sugar in it as other biscottis would. I would defiantly make this again because it was so rich and chocolaty, a perfect holiday treat!

Thanksgiving Feast

Today we made a Thanksgiving/ Christmas dinner feast. It consisted of turkey, carrots, mashed potatoes and stuffing. I started by cutting and mixing all the ingredients together for the stuffing. I then placed the stuffing in a tin foil cup and put butter, salt and pepper overtop of the turkey breast roast. The next day I roasted the turkey in the oven for about 30 minutes as well as cooked the stuffing. Next I washed and cut up the potatoes before cooking them in boiling water for 25 minutes. When I removed them from the heat I added butter, milk, salt and pepper to them before mashing them with a potato masher. I lastly boiled the carrots for about 8 minutes and then poured honey and butter over them. Finally everything was ready. All the foods tasted amazing together like a full Christmas dinner! The mashed potatoes and stuffing in particular were amazing and the carrots were also really good as well. This is a very balanced healthy meal because it includes foods from every food group. So, I would give it an 8/10 for nutrition. The turkey was tender and well done, the carrots were slightly sweet, the stuffing was chewy and doughy and the mashed potatoes were buttery and creamy. Overall this was surprisingly not that hard to make and I would defiantly make the carrots again because I had never eaten carrots with honey before and they were really good.

Greek Week

For greek week we made a variety of different greek foods. We started off by making homemade tzatziki dip, which was very easy because we just had to mix all the ingredients together. Next we made roasted potatoes, which was also easy because we just added a bunch of different seasonings to them and roasted them in the oven for 30 minutes. We also made chicken souvlaki with different spices, and then put it in the fridge to marinate overnight. We then cooked it the next day for about 7 minutes in a cast iron pan on medium heat. The next greek food was a greek salad which we made out of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, olives, feta cheese and red onion. We diced the veggies and then mixed everything together before drizzling olive oil and balsamic vinegar overtop. The last thing we had to make was the pita bread. Which was very easy because all we used was water, yeast, olive oil, salt and flour. We let the dough rest overnight and then the next day we lightly floured it before turning it into small disk shapes. We cooked the pita bread in cast iron frying pans for about a minute. All this greek food tasted amazing! I was surprised that it wasn’t as hard to make as I thought it would be. This is a very balanced meal as well because you have veggies, protein and carbs so I would give it a 7/10 for nutrition. The tzatziki dip was amazing and it tasted exactly like what you would buy from the store, the potatoes were also very good and crispy. The chicken souvlaki was amazingly seasoned and it wasn’t too spicy which I liked. The greek salad tasted very refreshing and it was very colourful. And the pita bread was slightly golden brown and very dough which I loved. Overall I thought all this greek food tasted great.

Caramel Apple Bark

Today in foods class we got to design our own Christmas dessert that had to include green apples. I started by thinking of what went well with apples and I instantly thought of caramel, so that would those would be my first two ingredients. Then I thought of other sweet ingredients, and then decided on milk chocolate. To make everything better I decided to add mini pretzels as well, so that I would have a sweet and salty combo. This dessert bark was very easy to make because all I needed was melting chocolate, green apples, caramel sauce and mini pretzels. I started by lining a baking tray with parchment paper and then cut up two green apples into small cubes. While I was cutting the apples I melted about two cups of milk chocolate in the microwave at 20 second intervals until it was melted. Once the chocolate was melted my next step was to put the apples in a small bowl and then mix about 1/3 a cup of caramel sauce into the cut up apples. I then poured the majority of the melted chocolate onto the baking sheet and spread it until it was as smooth and even as I could get it. Then I placed the pretzels across the melted chocolate until it was completely covered in pretzels. I then poured the caramel apple mixture overtop and spread it out with a rubber spatula until it was covering the pretzels. Lastly I drizzled the rest of the melted chocolate and more caramel sauce overtop of the apple bark. I put the tray in the freezer for about 45 minutes until it was all hardened and then I cut it into squares. When I tasted the caramel apple bark it was so sweet and also a bit salty so it was a great combo. Overall this recipe is defiantly not the healthiest because of the caramel and the chocolate but at least it had some apples in it. I probably wouldn’t make this again because it was way too sweet for my liking.

Kourabiede Christmas Cookies

In foods class today we made Mexican styles Christmas cookies. These were very easy to make because the recipe only called for a few ingredients. I started by creaming together butter, icing sugar and salt in a large bowl. Next I added in the flour and then mixed it all together until it was crumbly. Lastly I mixed in vanilla and chopped pecans before putting the cookies in the oven for about 18 minutes at 325. While the cookies were baking I cleaned up my kitchen and washed and dried everything. When the cookies came out of the oven they smelled buttery and toasty because of the nuts. I would give these a 6/10 for nutrition because they don’t have a lot of sugar but they do have a lot of butter. Overall I probably wouldn’t make these cookies again because they weren’t sweet enough for my liking, I think if we had added white chocolate they would have tasted better!

Ravioli

Today in foods class we used are pasta making skills again and made ravioli. The day before cooking the ravioli we made the pasta dough the same way we have in the pasta and we also made the ravioli filling out of spinach, feta cheese, pesto and a variety of nuts. The next day we started by washing our hands and then needing our pasta dough. We then smoothed it out with the pasta maker before laying out the thin pasta dough on the table. We proceeded to brush egg overtop of each square and then added a scoop of the filling before closing up the squares. Next we cooked the raviolis for about 4 minutes in rapid boiling water and then they were finished. We ran into some challenges today when we were stretching out our pasta dough with the pasta maker, because our dough was really thick and still a bit cold. These raviolis were amazing though! They were very rich and savoury in taste, I would give them a 6/10 for nutrition because they are a lot healthier then raviolis you would buy at a restaurant. I would definitely make these again because it was a lot easier then I expected and they tasted amazing.