Food Fun

Silky Strawberry Balsamic Soup with Yogurt Drizzle

One of my most popular culinary teaching classes has consistently been my “Soups, Simplified” course. The students always indicated in their feedback that they were blown away by how much they learned in this class. As well, they pledged that they would never, ever dispose of vegetable scraps or peelings again after completing the course. The class always included several treats for the students. For example, this Silky Strawberry Balsamic Soup with Yogurt Drizzle was a hit! It was served at the beginning of the program as an amuse-bouche prior to starting the class discussion. I thought I would share it this easy-to-make recipe with my readers since it is also very popular for Valentine’s Day, as well as luncheons or bridal and baby showers. This elegant gluten-free soup is served chilled and can be made in minutes with fresh or frozen strawberries.

Skip to My Recipe

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Twice Baked Nutty Meringue Cookie Crisps

By Denise Pare-Watson

These Twice Baked Nutty Meringue Cookie Crisps will be unlike any cookie you have ever baked. It is a biscotti style cookie, meaning it is baked one more time after it is sliced to create a crispy flavourful cookie.

Skip to My Recipe

Twice Baked Meringue Cookie Crisps

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Holiday Cookie Roundup by Food Bloggers of Canada

By Denise Pare-Watson

RECIPE ROUNDUPS

Recently, the Food Bloggers of Canada had a call-out for Holiday Cookies. You are going to have fun with this recipe roundup of 40 cookies. I am thrilled to say that one of my cookie recipes was chosen as part of this Holiday Cookie Roundup. I had a bit of food fun in the kitchen with a very young child and he was thrilled to help out the colourful Vanilla Bean Poppers – Holiday Food Fun Variation. I hope you will enjoy browsing through this roundup of amazing cookies from Food Bloggers of Canada and have some fun baking this holiday season. Please visit the bloggers and tell them how much you enjoyed their recipes.

You want cookies? We've got cookies! 40 different kinds in our FBC Holiday Cookie Guide – 40 recipes from classic…

Posted by Food Bloggers of Canada on Saturday, December 10, 2016

Here is a photo of the Vanilla Bean Poppers – Holiday Food Fun Variation. Bake with a young helper – believe me, you will have just as much fun as the little one. I give you step by step details in the recipe.

Vanilla Bean Poppers - Christmas version | urbnspice.com

Lay the cut Vanilla Bean Poppers on their side on a parchment lined tray and bake according to the directions given in the recipe below

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Vanilla Bean Poppers

By Denise Pare-Watson

The Inspiration of Urb’n’Spice Series

This is a recipe that I had so much fun creating. My challenge was first, to come up with a cookie using cream cheese, and second, a cookie that could also be made gluten-free, if necessary, without any difference in appearance or quality. Cream cheese makes any baked item very tender and rich tasting, so I knew that this was going to be a good cookie. I also liked the idea of making cookies so tiny that they could be mistaken for candy drops. Eureka! Success! Everything I wanted to achieve in my little cookie challenge became a reality – my little cookies became so popular that I was confident entering my recipe into a competition for edible gifts. I call the cookies Vanilla Bean Poppers because they are delightful delicate little cookies that are so irresistible you will keep popping them in your mouth – literally!

These cookies are lots of fun to make with children. Even very young children will love helping you roll the dough into long rope-like snakes before you cut them into small pillows or balls. The little ones will love giving these cookies to their teachers. I also make tons of these teeny, tiny cookies during the holiday season and put them in pretty jars or beribboned cellophane bags to give away as hostess gifts. And, for further food fun, I made variations of the same cookies: Urb’n’Spice Rainbow Poppers and Vanilla Bean Poppers – Holiday Food Fun Version.

Urbnspice Vanilla Bean Poppers

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Patio Delights by Urb’n’Spice

By Denise Pare-Watson

It is that time of year when everyone seems to be spending more time on the patio or deck enjoying a glass of wine and dining alfresco or what we like to call “Patio Delights.” It certainly is a past time that we enjoy very much. It is also a wonderful opportunity to share appetizers with friends and family.

I had the pleasure of teaching a course at Vom Fas Oils, Vinegars and Spices in Kelowna using their wonderful products. My teaching challenge was to create recipes using whatever Vom Fas Oils, Vinegars and Spices that I wanted – creating a menu for my Patio Delights course was fun!

It went something like this:

Patio Delights: Fig Prosciutto appetizer | urbnspice.com

Fig and Prosciutto Appetizer

“Patio Delights by Urb’n’Spice”

Denise Paré-Watson – Urb’n’Spice Chef/Pastry Chef

Ginger Mint Lemon Iced Tea

Raspberry-Pomegranate Mint Spritzer

Fig, Arugula and Prosciutto Appetizer

“Baked” Herbed Feta (served with garlic-kissed crostini)

Spicy Star Apple Balsamic Chicken Bites and dipping sauce

Quince Balsamic Vanilla Bean Sabayon with Seasonal Fruit and Berries
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Vanilla Bean Poppers – Holiday Food Fun Variation

By Denise Pare-Watson

VANILLA BEAN POPPERS – HOLIDAY FOOD FUN VARIATION: Recently, I was thrilled to win a prize for the delightful little cookies in this post. Urb’n’Spice is proud to be one of the Grand Prize Winners of an Edible Christmas Gifts Contest. Since then, I have made this recipe several times and have had quite a bit of fun with it. (See Rainbow Poppers for my grandson’s third birthday rainbow themed party).

That same little boy helped me make another variation today: Christmas Vanilla Bean Poppers! He and his older sister often ask if they can make more vanilla bean poppers. Young children enjoy making the ‘snakes’ and ‘ropes’ and cutting the little cookies with a plastic pastry scraper. Separate the dough (recipe below) into three parts. Reserve one part, colour one part with a few drops of red food colouring, and the remaining part with a few drops of green food colouring.

Vanilla Bean Poppers - Holiday Food Fun Variation | urbnspice.com

The Vanilla Bean Popper dough is coloured separately and twisted together to make a coloured rope. Cut the small logs into small slices.

Lay the cut Vanilla Bean Poppers on their side on a parchment lined tray and bake according to the directions given in the recipe below.

These vanilla poppers make a Delightful Hostess Gift. Here is the original recipe for your reference – have fun with these!

Vanilla Bean Poppers

I make these teeny, tiny cookies for hostess gifts and put them in pretty jars during the holiday season. I call them poppers because they are delightful delicate little cookies that are so irresistible you will keep popping them in your mouth. These cookies are lots of fun to make with children. They can help you roll the dough into long rope-like snakes before you cut them into small pillows or balls. They will love giving these cookies to their teacher.

As you can see in the photos below, the cookie dough is very easy to mix up and it is great fun to make the ropes, cut into tiny pillows and roll into balls. They can be left as little pillows as well. They bake up in a few minutes. Cool before dredging them in icing sugar. They are irresistible treats. The little bowl of baked poppers used in the photograph quickly disappeared before my eyes.

Making Snakes: Vanilla Bean Popper Dough

VANILLA BEAN POPPERS

INGREDIENTS

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 8 oz. brick plain Cream Cheese, softened to room temperature
2/3 cup icing sugar, sifted
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (or substitute Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 Gluten Free Baking Flour)
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1 dash fine salt
2 cups icing sugar, for coating the cookies

METHOD:

In a mixer with a paddle attachment, cream the butter, cream cheese and 2/3 cup icing sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the vanilla bean paste and mix to combine
Combine the flour, cornstarch and salt together. With your mixer on low speed, add these dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and mix until combined well.
Remove small handfuls of dough from the mixer at a time and roll into ‘snakes’ about 1/2 inch in diameter. (Remember, these are tiny cookies). With a sharp knife, cut the dough into 1/2 inch pieces.
At this point, you can leave them in the pillow shapes as they are, or you can roll them into tiny balls. Either way, place these tiny pieces of dough on a parchment-lined baking sheet. (The cookies do not spread, so you can place them fairly close together).
Bake in 325oF oven for 12 – 15 minutes, depending on the size of your tiny pillows or balls. The bottoms of the cookies should just start to turn a very light golden.
Let the cookies cool slightly. In a medium-size bowl, place the 2 cups of icing sugar. Place the cooled cookies in the bowl and toss them to coat thoroughly with the icing sugar. Tip: Place the cookies in a sieve to shake the excess icing sugar off.
Place the cookies in a decorative container or jar, label and decorate with ribbon and give to your favourite someone.

LEARNING TIPS:

Please CLICK the link above to access my UrbnSpice LEARNING TIPS, which are listed alphabetically on the Learning Tips blog post under the following subheadings:

Parchment Paper
Oven Temperature Accuracy
Vanilla Extract
__________

OTHER GIFT IDEAS:

Variation to Vanilla Bean Poppers: Urb’n’Spice Rainbow Poppers

Dee’s Old Fashioned Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

Cherry Rhubarb Compote

Chocolate Desserts Cookbook Series

Rainbow Poppers

By Denise Pare-Watson

Thinking outside the box is not an unusual past time for me when it comes to creating fun recipes. In December, the idea for Vanilla Bean Poppers came into my head when Real Women of Philadelphia – Canada announced an intriguing contest for Recipes for Edible Gifts. Rainbow Poppers is a variation of the recipe I submitted called Vanilla Bean Poppers.

Instead of making ropes and cutting (like gnocchi), I separated the cookie dough into smaller portions, added food colouring (I used Wilton Gel Icing Colours, as I find that the colours stay vibrant once the cookies are baked). I explain this further in the steps of the recipe below.

In the photo above, you will notice that the technique is just a bit different than making the vanilla bean popper ropes. In the rainbow poppers recipe, make several coloured ropes and join them together, rolling to smooth them into a colourful cylinder, chill and cut into disks, bake and enjoy. Follow along step by step in the recipe for Vanilla Bean Poppers provided below.

RAINBOW VANILLA BEAN POPPERS

INGREDIENTS

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 – 8 oz. package Original Cream Cheese, softened to room temperature
2/3 cup icing sugar, sifted
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (or gluten-free flour alternative)
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1 dash fine salt
2 cups icing sugar, sifted (for coating the cookies)

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 325^oF.
In a mixer with a paddle attachment, cream the butter, cream cheese and 2/3 cup icing sugar until light and combined.
Add the vanilla bean paste and mix to combine.
Combine the flour, cornstarch and salt together. With your mixer on low speed, add these dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and mix just until they are combined.
Remove equal size pieces of dough from the mixer. For each individual piece of dough, add food colouring to your taste. Roll each coloured piece of dough into ‘snakes’ about 1/4 to 1/2 inch in diameter.
Once you have all of the colours you want for your rainbow cookies, place the coloured snakes together lengthwise and start to roll them together. You might have to cut the larger rope into sections in order to get the colourful cylinders of dough to a circumference that will be small enough to cut into 1/2 inch (or less) cookies. (Remember, these are tiny cookies – the tinier the better). With a sharp knife, cut the dough into 1/4 to 1/2 inch or smaller coin-sized pieces.
Place these tiny pieces of coin size dough on a parchment-lined baking sheet. The cookies do not spread, so you can place them fairly close together.
Chill the tray of prepared cookie dough for a few minutes in the refrigerator. CHEF TIP: I find that most cookie doughs benefit from a chill in the refrigerator before baking. It helps the cookies to retain their shape. Try this the next time you make chocolate chip cookies.
Bake in the preheated oven for 12 – 15 minutes, depending on the size of your tiny pillows or balls (for example, the recipe on the Kraft Canada website indicates baking for 25 to 28 minutes for 1/2 inch cookies). The bottoms of the cookies should just start to turn a very lightly golden and will feel firm.
Place the colourful rainbow cookies in a decorative container or jar, label and decorate with ribbon. Give them to your favourite someone.

LEARNING TIPS:

Please CLICK the link above to access my UrbnSpice LEARNING TIPS, which are listed alphabetically on the Learning Tips blog post under the following subheadings:

Creaming
Oven Temperature Accuracy
Vanilla Extract
__________

More Urb’n’Spice Cookie Fun:

Vanilla Bean Poppers

Vanilla Bean Poppers – Holiday Food Fun Variations

My Dee’s Old Fashioned Oatmeal Coconut Cookies

Italian Almond MacGluten-FreeGluten Free Cookie

Urb’n’Spice Chocolate Cookbook Series – Cookies, Brownies and Squares

As you can imagine, the possibilities are endless! What shall I create next?

As always, if you give this recipe for Rainbow Vanilla Poppers a try, please come back and leave me a comment below with your feedback.

You can find me on social media – just be sure to tag @urbnspice and #urbnspice so I am sure to see it. Enjoy!

Denise Paré-Watson

The Urbnspice Chef

Follow me on Social Media:

Urbnspice Facebook Page

Urbnspice is on Twitter

You will find lots of fun boards on Pinterest

I am also on Instagram

Crumb Truffles! A Journey in Gluten Free Recipe Development

By Denise Pare-Watson

What are Crumb Truffles? I have a little story and words of encouragement for you if you have ever tried to develop or follow a recipe and it did not go exactly as planned. Follow me as I tell you about my journey in Gluten Free Recipe Development.

Truffles as part of a Mignardise plate

CRUMB TRUFFLES!

A Word of Encouragement

In every journey, there a few tumbles.

Recently, the Urb’n’Spice kitchen is a hive of activity testing for a new cookbook in the series,

“Chocolate Desserts Made Easy and Delicious”.

This book is a little different in that all of the recipes are gluten-free

– and all chocolate.

In gluten-free baking, we can expect

that there is the possibility of, shall we say, “interesting” results.

I have had more than my share of fiascos during the research,

testing and tasting for this book.

My words of advice:

Do not let disappointing results discourage you!

When life hands you lemons, make lemonade!

In other words, if your gluten-free baking experiments

Inadvertently provide you with more crumbs

than you can think of ways to use them,

Make CRUMB TRUFFLES!

Crumb Truffles!

That is exactly what I did!

And, they were a hit!

The Formula:

Place the crumbs in a mixer with a paddle attachment

Add any chocolate ganache (roughly 4 to 1 ratio)

(this is why it is great to make a little extra ganache)

If it is a little too sticky, add more crumbs. A little dry? Add a bit more ganache.

Mix until it becomes friendly – a nice moldable dough of sorts.

Use a small cookie scoop. Roll into balls. Chill until firm.

Roll the chilled balls into Chocolate Dip

(or tempered chocolate for my pastry chef colleagues)

Decorate the truffles, if you want with a little chopped chocolate,

chocolate jimmies,

or, as in the photo, a little chocolate caviar!

A medley of Crumb Truffles

Crumb Truffles! Share! Enjoy!

“Nobody knows the truffles I’ve seen”

LEARNING TIPS:

Please CLICK the link above to access my UrbnSpice LEARNING TIPS, which are listed alphabetically on the Learning Tips blog post under the following subheadings:

Cream
Ganache
Perseverance
Vanilla Extract
__________

More like this:

Dark Chocolate Truffles by Urb’n’Spice

A Unique Cheesecake: Double Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake with Chocolate Pecan Crust

How to Make Decadent Dark Chocolate Tart

Chocolate Almond Torte

Want More Chocolate?

Chocolate Desserts Made Easy and Delicious – Gluten-Free Chocolate Desserts

Purple Gnocchi

By Denise Pare-Watson

The Inspiration of UrbnSpice Series

Making comfort food is therapeutic during winter’s last blasts. I always encourage fun in the kitchen so let me tell you why I set about making a playful batch of purple gnocchi one day:

A plate of playful purple gnocchi

It has been very blustery on the Island where we live. It makes me shiver to look outside. My usual pattern of walking has been curtailed by periods of rain, wind, snow and sleet. While I am well equipped with Paddington Bear rain gear, there is definitely a small voice coaxing me to stay inside where it is warm and cosy.

During a sunny break amidst the storm clouds yesterday, we overcame the elements to stock up on groceries. My eye caught a display of purple potatoes which became my inspiration of the day.

UrbnSpice Inspiration of the Day: Gorgeous Purple potatoes

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Chocolate Gnocchi, anyone?

By Denise Pare-Watson

Chocolate Gnocchi? Why?

I had to think of an Italian themed dessert bite for an event this week – isn’t this fun?

I thought I would share. It is like having a tootsie roll – only it’s a cookie!

I show you how to make these by using my recipe for Chocolate Caramel Cookie dough

Chocolate Gnocchi, Anyone? You can make it from Cookie Dough.

Chocolate Gnocchi, anyone?

“Make a list of important things to do today.

At the top of your list, put “eat chocolate.”

Now, you’ll get at least one thing done today.”
— Gina Hayes

METHOD:

Use my recipe for Caramel Cookies for this gnocchi. You will find the recipe for Chocolate Caramel Cookies here in the post called Chocolate and the Oscars.
Follow the recipe for the chocolate cookie dough, omitting the caramel centres.
Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes.
Take small amounts of the cookie dough and roll it into thin snakes or skinny logs.
Cut the snakes into pieces that resemble pillow-like shapes, just like gnocchi. Place the pieces on a parchment-lined baking sheet in a single layer. Chill the cookies again for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350^oF (175^oC) or 325^oF, if using a convection oven.
Bake them on a parchment lined sheet for 5 – 7 minutes. Cool.
Toss with a little chocolate sauce and sprinkled with chopped pecans. And Voila! Chocolate Gnocchi. Bet your guests never had anything like this before!

This recipe for Caramel Chocolate Cookies is from my second book, called Chocolate Cookies, Brownies and Squares from UrbnSpice’s Chocolate Desserts Cookbook Series

As always, if you give this recipe for Chocolate Caramel Cookies a try, please come back and leave me a comment below with your feedback.

You can find me on social media – just be sure to tag @urbnspice and #urbnspice so I am sure to see it. Enjoy!

Denise Paré-Watson

The Urbnspice Chef

Follow me on Social Media:

Urbnspice Facebook Page

Urbnspice is on Twitter

You will find lots of fun boards on Pinterest

I am also on Instagram

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License Abstract:	You may read the original content in the context in which it is published (at this web address). You may make other uses of the content only with the written permission of the author on payment of a fee.