Chewy Whey Caramels

 

I keep hearing all the talk about whey caramel in my cheesemaking posse. When I went online this morning, I couldn't find a single recipe for a chewy candy version of this when using Google. Let me help you out by sharing this wonderful, soft chewy caramel that won't rip the teeth out of your mouth. You don't even need corn syrup! I recommend going ahead with mixing in ground cinnamon and dipping these beauties in some chocolate!

In my cheesemaking groups, I keep hearing about whey caramel. The recipes I've seen are all for a liquid type caramel. I decided I would form my own chewy whey caramel recipe. So far it works! These are both tangy and sweet. I'm using goat whey which I think may make these even more tangy. 

Chewy Whey Caramels

2 C Whey (from cheesemaking)

14 Tbsp Butter

2 C Sugar

1/2 C Water

2 tsp Salt

2 tsp Vanilla

Cinnamon for swirling (optional)

Line an 8x8" or 9x9" pan with parchment or wax paper. Spray generously with cooking spray or grease with butter.

Reduce whey by half while boiling in a heavy bottomed pan on medium high heat. Stir constantly. Add Butter in and melt. Once melted and mixed through, turn off heat and mix in salt and vanilla. Set aside. 

Prepare a cup with water and a pastry brush to set nearby.

In a big pot, stir water and sugar together. Heat on medium high heat, mixing constantly to dissolve sugar before boiling. When you get to a boil, do not mix. Use wetted brush on sides of pan to get rid of crystallization. Keep boiling sugar until it reaches 350 F degrees and turns an amber brown. Take off heat and carefully add in whey mixture while stirring constantly. It will bubble up and sizzle which is ok.

Return pot to medium heat and stir. Bring mix to 250 F degrees. There will be lots of bubbling here so having this in a pot rather than your biggest saucepan is essential!

Pour caramel into pan immediately. Working fast, add some big pinches of cinnamon powder if you choose to do this option. Swirl cinnamon with toothpick. Let caramel set 3 hours up to overnight before cutting.

At this point you can form and wrap candies in wax paper or enjoy them. To make a special treat, you can melt some chocolate and dip these in using a fork. Use another fork to get candies to sit on top of parchment or wax paper. Allow chocolate to harden at room temp.

Legendary Smoked Pork Tamales

    I've done it! I've created one of the best recipes that makes me salivate every time I think about it. Smoked. Pork. Tamales.

    I grew up in a part of Iowa that was getting some authentic Mexican recipe influence. This gave me high expectations anywhere we got Mexican food. My husband and I really enjoy authentic Mexican tacos. We moved to Wisconsin where more of the cultural influence tends to be authentic Hmong recipes. All fantastic!

    Some of the hardest tacos to find by me are carnitas, suadero, goat birria (or any birria), cabeza and cochinita pibil. I have a huge admiration to anybody by us that make these tacos. Carnitas is one of my favorites. We make some at home in the instant pot. I save much of the fat from this to render lard that is used in my smoked pork tamales recipe. I tend to use as much homemade items in this recipe: the Lard, Chicken Stock and Smoked Pork Butt are all done in advance. You can choose if you want to make these from scratch or get them all at the store. You can also try different fats from lard like vegetable shortening, etc. You are the master to this creation.

    When I moved to Wisconsin with my husband, I realized I had never had a tamale. Tamales are traditionally served for Christmas in Mexico. I really felt like I was missing out. I rolled up my sleeves and searched for a good pork tamale recipe. At that time, pork wasn't a meat that I had a lot of. I grew up with very little pork products due to my mom avoiding it. I wanted to expand my horizons. Boy did I miss out all those years! I found a great tamale recipe. I bought way too many peppers and corn husks. I ran into the trouble that the original guajillo chilies were not there at the store. We settled for puya chilies since so looked up what could be substituted. We fell in love ever since. I liked the pork tamale recipe we had but felt that I could really change it with some smoked pork. This was a total game changer. I simply cannot do this any other way. I've had some other people try these smoked pork tamales and they tell me these are better than some of the ones they get elsewhere.

    I bought a good size electric smoker from one of my coworkers a few years ago. He had put the whole thing together and never used it. Never used! He knew who to ask! The first thing I tried smoking in this smoker was pork butt. I learned then that I really should have left the fat cap on it. I had a great mix for wood to use so my first pork butt was still great. The fat kept on makes pork butt legendary. Now I just score the fat cap so it renders easily into the meat. I usually use a blend of the competition wood pellets from Lumber Jack (maple, hickory, cherry) and then some apple wood chips. I go between 2 recipes for my smoked pork butt. One is big jame's pork rub (https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/222157/big-james-pork-rub/) the other is a sweet rub from kitchen dreaming (https://kitchendreaming.com/sweet-bbq-rub-recipe/). You can use whatever rub you'd like in this recipe. I'm the kind of person that smokes meat and will save a bunch of it for later recipes when I get the motivation for it.

    I needed to get this recipe to you folks and make it immortal. I haven't posted a recipe in years because I had been so busy. I had to come back with something legendary for you. Enjoy!

SMOKED PORK TAMALES

MEAT MIXTURE:

Prepared Shredded and Smoked Pork Butt from about a 3 1/2 lb roast (I usually eyeball this from an 8lb roast)

1 medium white onion, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

MASA DOUGH:

3/4 C Lard

6 C Masa Harina

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

6 C Chicken Stock/Broth (plus more for consistency)

ENCHILADA SAUCE:

15 Dried Puya Chilies

4-5 Garlic Cloves

2 tsp Ground Cumin

1 tsp Salt

2 tsp Flour

2 tsp Lard

50 Corn Husks

Saute White Onion and Minced Garlic on stove with enough oil/fat and salt to taste. Cook until Onions sweat. Mix Onion with Pulled Pork. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees f. Remove stems and seeds from dried chilies (leaving some seeds for more heat if desired). Place chilies in a single layer on baking sheet. Roast 2-5 minutes or until you smell a sweet aroma. Remove from oven and soak in hot water for 30 minutes or until cool. Put chilies and 2 1/2 C of the chili soaking water in a blender. Save the remaining soaking water. To the blender, add the rest of the garlic, cumin and salt. Blend until smooth. Set aside.

In a 2 qt Sauce Pan, stir Flour and Lard over Medium heat until browned. Carefully stir in blended Chili mixture. Simmer uncovered for 5-10 minutes or until slightly thickened. If sauce gets too thick, add some of the soaking liquid to desired consistency.

Warm up enchilada sauce with meat and onion mixture. Soak corn husks for at least 20 minutes.

To prepare the masa dough, beat Lard on medium speed for 1 minute in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix Mass Harina, Baking Powder, and 2 tsp Salt. Alternately add Masa mix and Stock/Broth into bowl of whipped Lard, mixing in each time. Add just enough Stock/Broth to create a thick creamy paste.

To assemble the Tamales, spread 2 Tbsp of Masa mixture in the center of the corn husk. Each husk should be about 8 inches long and 6 inches wide at the top. If husks are small, overlap 2 of them to get to size. If the husks are too big, rip them off the side. Place about 1 Tbsp of meat and sauce mixture in the middle of the masa. Fold in sides of husk and fold up the bottom.

Place a foil ball in the middle of a dutch oven. Lean tamales in pot with open ends at the top. Add water to dutch oven (just below a basket if you have one. If not, adding some water (1 inch or 2) is necessary and won't destroy your tamales. Bring water to a boil and reduce heat to simmer. Cover and steam 40 minutes, adding water when needed so they don't burn. Stay close as the burning can happen easily. Remove from pot and check to see if masa dough firms up enough to stay together. Remove all tamales from pot so they don't sit in water if you don't have a basket. Enjoy.

Tamales reheat very well and can be made ahead of time. To reheat, wrap each tamale in a damp paper towel and microwave for 2 minutes or until hot.

Viva la Pasta Baby!

Pasta is one of my most favorite things to eat for dinner.  Pasta works as an excellent canvas to whatever you use it with.  Today I'm going to share with you my signature dish that works with almost any kind of pasta.  It's a fast gourmet dish if you use store bought pasta.  It's even better with homemade fresh pasta.  I will also share with you 3 different recipes I came across to making pasta at home.  I just got a brand new toy for my Kitchenaid stand mixer.  It is their pasta extruder.


ALWAYS SALT YOUR WATER!!!  Anytime you make pasta, you must salt the water enough or your pasta will be bland.  Salt it like the sea.  I guarantee it will be delicious.  Also, Al dente is where it's at.


KALLISTA'S SIGNATURE PASTA

1 lb of your favorite Pasta (or 1x recipe below)
1 Red Onion, chopped
1 Tbsp Butter
1 Tbsp Olive Oil, plus more for coating pasta
6 Cloves of Garlic, Minced
Pinch of Red Pepper Flakes
1/4 C Pine Nuts, toasted
Garlic Powder, as needed
Several Tbsps of Parsley (close to 1/8 C)
Sea Salt and Pepper, to taste
2.5 oz Sharp White Italian Cheese, grated (any of the Sartori cheeses rock, especially the balsamic bellavitano)

Boil Pasta in salted water to al dente.  For fresh pasta, this takes like 2-3 minutes in a boiling pot of salted water.  If you must use boxed pasta, I find that 6 minutes is usually perfect.  It doesn't matter what the box says because they usually tell you to cook it for way too long so your noodles will end up super mushy.

On medium heat in a fry pan, saute Red Onion, Butter, 1 Tbsp Olive Oil, Garlic Cloves and Red Pepper flakes.  Mix in with Pasta and toss with more Olive Oil to coat, Garlic Powder, Parsley, Sea Salt, Pepper and half of the grated Cheese.  Serve with more cheese on top with Toasted Pine Nuts, Sea Salt, Pepper and a drizzle of Olive Oil.

Making Pasta is relatively easy once you know what consistency you're looking for.  The pasta dough should be somewhat tough and leathery.  You want to wet the dough while hand kneading if it just crumbles all over.  It's VERY important to SIFT your flour so you can get to the right consistency.  Don't add much water each time you do this or you will end up with a sticky mess and will have to add more flour.  The following Pasta Making recipes came from the Kitchenaid Pasta Extruder book and I don't claim them as my own, even if I change the wording a little bit.

In the following recipes, I will list them from easiest to hardest.  By far, the whole wheat was the hardest and I kept having to add more and more water.  Please keep in mind, your dough can change with the different flour brands and what the humidity level is in your kitchen.  All of these dough recipes will work with other shapes than what is shown. If you are new to Pasta Making, I highly recommend starting with the egg noodle recipe first until you can get it right.  If you want the egg noodles to be more authentic, then substitute half of the flour with Semolina (aka durum wheat flour).

BASIC EGG NOODLES

4 Large Eggs
3 1/2 C SIFTED All Purpose Flour
1 Tbsp Water
1 tsp Salt

Break Eggs into a clear liquid measuring cup.  Make sure it measures to 7/8 C (207 ml).  If it's low, add 1 tsp water at a time until measurement is reached.

Mix together the sifted flour and salt.  Attach to your Kitchenaid mixer and turn to Speed 2.  Add water and gradually add eggs.  Mix for 30 Seconds to combine.  Switch to Dough Hook and knead for 2 minutes on Speed 2.

Remove dough from bowl and knead on clean surface.  Hand knead for 30 seconds to 1 minute or until smooth, pliable and holds together into a ball.  You may need to add water or flour to get the proper consistency.  It should feel slightly leathery.

Form into walnut size balls and extrude pasta into desired shape. Each shape uses different speeds, so refer to your machine's suggestion for each plate.  Extrude and dry separately, up to 1 hour.



LIGHT WHEAT PASTA

2 1/2 C SIFTED Whole Wheat Flour
1 C SIFTED Bread Flour
4 Large Eggs
2 Tbsp Water
1/2 tsp Salt

Break Eggs into a clear liquid measuring cup.  Make sure it measures to 7/8 C (207 ml).  If it's low, add 1 tsp water at a time until measurement is reached.

Mix together the sifted flours and salt.  Attach to your Kitchenaid mixer and turn to Speed 2.  Add water and gradually add eggs.  Mix for 30 Seconds to combine.  Switch to Dough Hook and knead for 2 minutes on Speed 2.

Remove dough from bowl and knead on clean surface.  Hand knead for 2 minutes or until smooth, pliable and holds together into a ball.  You may need to add water or flour to get the proper consistency.  It should feel slightly leathery and not crumble.

Form into walnut size balls and extrude pasta into desired shape. Each shape uses different speeds, so refer to your machine's suggestion for each plate.  Extrude and dry separately, up to 1 hour.



WHOLE WHEAT PASTA

4 Large Eggs
2 Tbsp Water
3 1/2 C SIFTED Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 tsp Salt

Break Eggs into a clear liquid measuring cup.  Make sure it measures to 7/8 C (207 ml).  If it's low, add 1 tsp water at a time until measurement is reached.

Mix together the sifted flour and salt.  Attach to your Kitchenaid mixer and turn to Speed 2.  Add water and gradually add eggs.  Mix for 30 Seconds to combine.  Switch to Dough Hook and knead for 2 minutes on Speed 2.

Remove dough from bowl and knead on clean surface.  Hand knead for 2 minutes or until smooth, pliable and holds together into a ball.  You may need to add water or flour to get the proper consistency.  It should feel slightly leathery and not crumble.  This was the hardest dough to get right and I found myself adding plenty of water.

Form into walnut size balls and extrude pasta into desired shape. Each shape uses different speeds, so refer to your machine's suggestion for each plate.  Extrude and dry separately, up to 1 hour.





For the Pasta Making Process, I used these recipes from Kitchenaid's Pasta Extruder Manual: Egg Noodle Pasta, Light Wheat Pasta, Whole Wheat Pasta.  As for the awesomeness of Kallista's Signature Pasta, that one is my own that I've created.  Any time I make it, people ask for more.  I make it all the time without really measuring anything so feel free to adjust it to how you like!

Hot Chocolate Cookie Recipe

Baby it's cold outside and you want some hot chocolate, right?  It's that time of year again where we all roll up our sleeves and fight the great fight against time to produce as many awesome cookies we can before Santa comes down our chimneys!  Why not have your hot chocolate in cookie form?  These wonderful cookies are sure to please any chocoholics out there.  Proceed with caution, you can't have just one!

One note I might add is that this recipe is going to be difficult for people just starting out with baking as these take a particular process.  The time and effort on these are so worth it!

HOT CHOCOLATE COOKIE

1/2 C Butter
12 oz bag Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
1 1/4 C Brown Sugar
3 Eggs
2 tsp Vanilla
1/4 C Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1 1/2 C Flour
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
8 oz Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate split into 1 inch pieces for 32 cookies, plus more grated to top with
16 large Marshmallows, cut in half

In a medium saucepan, melt Butter and Chocolate Chips and stir often.  Just when everything is melted through, take off the heat and set aside for 5 minutes to slightly cool.

Meanwhile, beat Brown Sugar, Eggs and Vanilla.  Beat in slightly cooled chocolate mix.  Add Cocoa Powder, Flour, Baking Powder and Salt.  Once combined, cover bowl and refrigerate for 2 hours.  This would be a good time to grate the extra chocolate, store in fridge until use.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees f.  Line cookie sheets with parchment paper to prevent burning.  Scoop cookie dough with a spoon onto cookie sheet at least 2 inches apart from eachother.  Dough drops will be slightly larger than walnut size.

Bake for 12 minutes.  Place 1 piece of Baker's Chocolate in the middle on top of each cookie.  Place 1 Marshmallow half on each chocolate piece on the cookie.  Return to oven and bake for another 4 minutes.  Take out, dust with grated chocolate and cool by leaving on pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to cooling racks.  Let cool long enough for chocolate to harden back up (maybe 2 hours).  Store in airtight container.




Recipe found via Pinterest from Holly Lofthouse at http://stepable.com/recipes/590/hot-cocoa-cookies-with-marshmallows.  The grated chocolate on top of these make it extra special.

Pumpkin Pie Recipe

Who wants Pumpkin Pie?  I sure do!  Thanksgiving is next week and I know some of you have been just dying for this wonderful dessert to be set right before your eyes.  As for the significant delays in between posts, I apologize.  My husband and I moved to a house with a much better kitchen now.  It is a lot to take care of!

I wanted to make the best pumpkin pie recipe I could make.  I've had the filling recipe for many many years from the family.  My mother had this recipe in her big cookbook and it was always a winner.  Not sure who in the family she got this from.  This is the best pie filling I have ever come across.  However my mother wasn't good about making pie crusts.  She insisted on buying pre-made pie crusts all the time.  Although this is a very good filling recipe to use in the pre-made crusts, I tend to prefer everything homemade if it's not too much of a pain.  I thought about the best pie crust recipe I've come across and it comes from none other than my mother in law.  She's ridiculously good at apple pie.



PUMPKIN PIE


FILLING

2 eggs
1 can Pumpkin Puree (about 1 3/4 c)
1 C. Brown Sugar
1 Tbsp. Flour
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 3/4 C. Evaporated Milk
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Nutmeg
1/2 tsp. Ginger
1/4 tsp. Cloves

CRUST

1 1/4 C. Flour
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/3 C. Shortening (lard is ok too)
3-4 Tbsp. COLD Water

Mix all ingredients well  for pie filling together in a medium bowl.  Set aside for preparation of crust.

Stir Flour and Salt for Crust recipe in a medium bowl until well combined.  Cut in Shortening (or lard) until the pieces are the size of small peas.  Add 1 Tbsp of Cold Water to the mix and toss with a fork, push to the side of the bowl until it is all moistened.  How much water you actually need will depend on the humidity level around you.

On a lightly floured surface, flatten dough with hands and form a disc shape.  Roll dough from center to edge until about 12 inches in diameter.  Transfer dough to a greased pie plate.  Lightly press dough into place, paying attention to the edges.  Be sure to fill holes with extra dough.  Trim dough and flute edges.

Fill crust with filling, wrap edges with foil to prevent burning and bake at 425 degrees f for 15 min. Turn down oven to 350 degrees f and bake for another 35-40 minutes or until done.

Banana Mango Strawberry Coconut Chia Seed Bread

I'm so sorry to make you guys wait for another recipe from me.  I've been extremely busy the last few months.  I have still been making a lot of new things. Here, I have been wanting to try something new with my awesome banana bread recipe that has been in the family for several generations.  I came across a banana mango and strawberry bread recipe on Pinterest.  When I looked at the recipe, it had a few things that I didn't have on hand like coconut oil and almond milk.  I was up for the challenge and looked at 2 of these recipes and my own banana bread recipe and came up with my own.  This bread is so moist and flavorful that you don't even need to get the butter spread out!  And if you are lacking in an ingredient such as chia seeds, don't worry.  You can use something like poppy seeds in place or just get rid of the seeds in general.


BANANA MANGO STRAWBERRY COCONUT CHIA SEED BREAD

1 C Sugar
1/2 C Butter, softened
2 Bananas
2 C Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Vanilla
1/4 tsp Almond Extract
1/2 tsp Ground Ginger
2 Tbsp Chia Seeds
1 Whole Mango, diced
1/2 C Sliced Strawberries, slice extra for topping
1/2 C Coconut, keep extra for topping

Cream Sugar and Butter together.  Add Bananas and mix well.  In a separate bowl, mix Flour, Baking Soda and Salt.  Add to Banana mix.  Add Vanilla, Almond Extract, Ground Ginger, Chia Seeds and mix. Dough may be stiff but will loosen with the remaining ingredients.  Add Mango, Strawberries and Coconut and mix.  Transfer to a greased bread pan.  Smooth out the top with a scraper.  Add Sliced Strawberries on top and sprinkle with Coconut.  Bake at 350 degrees f for at least 1 hour.  Check every 5-10 minutes after and take out when done.  Mine took about 1 hour and 20 minutes.  Coconut will look toasted when done and the middle should be set.




Inspirations for this recipe came from: My family's Banana Bread Recipe, AmbitiousKitchen.com, and clarkpharm.blogspot.com.

Mushroom and Fontina Cheese Empanadas

Before this year, I have never had an empanada.  They seem to be the cat's meow these days so naturally, I had to try them out.  I was lucky enough to find this gem on Pinterest.  My favorite part of this is the raisins in it, as weird as that sounds.  The original recipe calls for using a dipping sauce such as aji criollo or spicy cilantro hot sauce.  We couldn't find that at the store and didn't notice the recipe for that, so we opted for a green salsa with cilantro in it.  I'm sure it's not as good as it could be.  I personally think these are great without that sauce.  I made some changes to the recipe as I saw fit.  This would be excellent to have with a fresh bean salad on the side.

MUSHROOM AND FONTINA CHEESE EMPANADAS

20 Empanada Discs (about 5 inch diameter, found in the frozen section with ethnic foods so be sure to thaw before using)
2 Tbsp Butter
16oz Sliced Baby Portabello Mushrooms
2 C Sliced Shallots (about 7-8)
1/2 C Raisins
2 tsp Balsamic Vinegar
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 C Grated Fontina Cheese (or more if you love cheese like I do)
1 Egg, Yolk and White separated and lightly whisked

Melt butter in large skillet on medium heat.  Add Mushrooms and Shallots.  Cook until tender, about 15 minutes.  Add Balsamic Vinegar and Raisins and cook for 3 minutes.  Take off heat and set to the side to cool down.

To make the Empanadas, place a spoonful of mushroom mix in the center of the empanada disc.  Top with cheese. Brush edges of the empanada disc with Egg Whites.  Fold over one side and seal edges with a fork.  Curl up edges and pinch to look like pie edging.  This helps them to stay sealed in the oven.  Store the empanadas in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.  This also helps the empanada stay sealed.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees f.  Lightly brush empanadas with the Egg Yolk.  Bake in oven to start with 15-20 minutes or until golden.  I baked mine for about 26 minutes as it depends on what oven you use.  Serve warm.



The original recipe came from laylita.com.  I increased the amount of mushrooms and rasins I used.