we have been absent from tumblr…because well to be honest I totally forgot about it…we have been blogging on our site, but have been forgetting to add the updates to tumblr…and if we share the post via wordpress…it just shows a link..and it’s not cute! soooooo this week we will be transferring those posts over here! woooooot fun times!
xoxo
Jaden’s Treats :)
I have the prayers of my family and that’s all I need! My son gives me strength to accomplish what I have been wanting to start since I had him! I have an A.S. degree in electronic engineering, but this wasnt making me happy! I went to school for my culinary degree and got disgusted by the price of the tuition! The school I am currently attending, yet a community college, allows me to go to school on my salary, work at my own pace and I can attend classes online. I am setting my grade average on A’s and A’s only, that way when I get B’s I will be excited also! LOL…if you set out just to pass the class with the minimal average you always tend to get 1 grade average below. So don’t strive for a ’C’ just to get through it….because u might just get a ‘D’ and fail!
I always tell my hubby, not to think of yourself as a failure, because if you see yourself as one, everyone else will too! To me I AM THE SMARTEST PERSON IN THE WORLD (i know i’m not! but hey…no one else can tell me otherwise!) Strive for the universe, and you receive merely the world or even a star…you won’t be disappointed!
RANDOM THOUGHT OF THE DAY DONE!
P.S. Recipe to come…mmmmm Pecan Cookies!
Last week I found this awesome recipe for a Apricot Praline Mousse cake, but i wasn’t able to find all the ingredients I needed (i.e. HAZELNUT PRALINE PASTE!) They sell praline paste online or specialty stores that specialize in nut products. I don’t have time to drive around South Florida, looking for praline paste and I didn’t want to order it online, due to it being kinda pricey! So i did research on what exactly praline consisted of and thought “hey I can make this!,” usually you will have these ingredients around the house…and once it’s been made, it till last you a while, depending on what you will be using it for.
Depending on where you are located, Praline is different from place to place. In the America, praline consists of sugar, pecans and cream…us southerners call is BRITTLE, New Orleaners call is PRAWLEENS, all will call it freaking dee-licious! It’s helpful to know that the French word praline doesn’t refer to these pecan studded candies. It’s caramelized hazelnuts, which form the basis for the dish. This is really just hazelnuts mixed with a hard caramel and ground in the food processor. A little salt for flavor, and nut oil to smooth it out, and you too can experience the heavenly taste of what I like to call praline paste or butter. I love to drizzle it on a toasted piece of 9 grain bread or a bagel, and its delicious drizzled on top of oatmeal or ice cream(use sparingly).
The ingredients are quite easy to find, again if you can’t find hazelnuts you can use almonds, you will need sugar, water and you can use almond oil, walnut oil or vegetable oil.
You will need:
2cups of hazelnuts, (you can sub for almonds!)
1cup of sugar
1cup of water
1tsp salt
2tbsp oil (i used almond old but you can use walnut, peanut or just plain vegetable oil)
PREHEAT YOUR OVEN TO 325F
STEP 1
Put the hazelnuts on a baking sheet and place in the oven, let them roast for about30-35min. You will know they are done when they turn a golden brown and your house smell like a toasty hazelnut haven! LoL….make sure you have a timer, these will burn easily, so set an alarm or timer, I use the timer on my oven!
STEP 2.
Once done, put the toasted nuts in a bowl, or paper bag, and cover…this will steam the nuts, making it easier to remove the skins! Its important you dont skip this step. Let the nuts rest for about 10-15mins.
Once the 10-15mins have passed, take a clean dish towel and pour the hazelnuts into it! Cover the nuts, and start to rub them together, this will help remove the skins from the hazelnuts!
It will take a few minutes, but rub and pick out the nuts that are clean. If you rub the hazelnuts, the skins will come off, but it will take longer if you do this individually. (NOTE: some of the toasted skin might not come off, this is ok…it will give the praline more flavor!)
ONCE YOU HAVE SHELLED THE HAZELNUTS, ITS TIME TO START THE CARAMEL…
STEP 3.
Add the water and sugar in a sauce pan on medium heat…Stir the sugar until, it has dissolved. u can tell because the water will look clear instead of cloudy from the sugar! Once the sugar has dissolved, leave it alone so it can start to caramelize!
DO NOT TOUCH THE SUGAR WATER AFTER THE SUGAR HAS DISSOLVED!!!! THIS WILL CAUSE THE CARAMEL TO CRYSTALLIZE AND U DO NOT … DO NOT WANT THAT…YOU WILL END UP WITH ROCK CANDY NOT CARAMEL!
STEP 4.
After about 10 minutes, it will reach a lovely golden brown in its darkest part, and that’s when you add the hazelnuts. Immediately pour the hazelnut pralines onto a baking sheet lined with greased parchment, I used a silicon mat.
When you add the hazelnuts, stir it quickly and add the mix to the baking sheet, to let cool! While its cooling get your processor ready! AND if you have measured out your salt and oil, do so now!
STEP 5.
To make the praline butter, break the caramel into pieces that will fit into your food processor. Start running your food processor, and add the pieces of broken caramel one or two at a time, and process until they’re ground. The ground mixture will look like graham cracker crumbs, but keep processing.
It will start to get smooth, like thick peanut butter. At this point add a teaspoon of kosher salt, and keep processing. Start adding oil – hazelnut oil is best, but walnut oil will work too. Any neutral oil will also work in a pinch. Add a tablespoon at a time, and process until the mixture reaches your desired consistency. (I used two tablespoons of almond oil for mine) and I also used a tbsp of corn syrup to add a little more sweetness, but you don’t need to add it! You shouldn’t need more oil, just let it go and it will start to get smooth!
I made a video on our YOUTUBE channel…so watch it and enjoy!
I am new to tumblr, and just want to introduce myself (ourselves). We are a family, living in South Florida, trying to move to South Korea. We are making this tumblr page to document our journey to a goal. Joyce is a full time mom, student, and worker trying to better the life of our 1yr old son. Antonio is a full time …. ummm…. full time job seeker, while Jaden is a full time toddler, who loves to make mommy laugh.
WE are using this tumblr, to hopefully get traffic to our youtube page, and blog; where we will be posting recipes and blogging about just random things. So if you like what you see then, subscribe…if you want to see a recipe made, request….if you want to say hi, email us! We are very friendly and love meeting and talking to new people.
Dont speak english…well that’s all we speak, but we can google translate and we can say hi is different languages
hello, hola, annyeong, bonjour, aloha, oi…ummmm hi :0/
Drop us a line!
<3 Joyce, Antonio and Jaden! :)
