For the creamy chicken recipe, you will first need to make my basic shredded chicken recipe. Here it is:

Basic Shredded chicken:

3 big boneless chicken thigh

water to cover

2 T chicken boiullon

Boil until chicken is cooked and tender.  Check and adjust for salt and seasonings while boiling it.  Shred and reserve.

*you can use chicken breasts. Just remember you will loose a little bit of the flavor and moistness by using the chicken breasts.  Sometimes I like to use both breasts and thighs.

This recipe is something I love to make, because I can make a big batch and use it in other recipes.  All you do is change the seasonings and you create a entire new dish with the same basic ingredients (boiled shredded chicken) 😉  It is also easy for busy parents to freeze individual or family portions of the basic chicken and then use it on busy days.

I also like to strain and keep the water  you used to boil the chicken.  This is chicken broth and can be used to enhance the flavor in rice dishes, risotto, coxinhas and many other dishes.  I also like to substitute chicken broth in recipes that call for wine.

Now, for the creamy chicken

1 recipe of basic shredded chicken

1/2 onion diced

2 cloves of garlic smashed

2 T oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 or 2 tomato diced (no seeds)

1/2 cup of catupiry cheese – I LOVE this cheese 😉 wink wink

1 T sliced green onions

1 T parsley

Other optional things you can add: sliced palm hearts, corn, peas, olives, bacon, etc.

Sautte the onions and garlic in the oil.  Add the chicken, salt, pepper, tomatoes and cook for a little while. Taste for seasonings and adjust if necessary.  Add the catupiry cheese, green onions and parsley.

I like to use this chicken for pie fillings, or served with rice or your favorite pasta.  It is also good served with a nice salad 😉 Enjoy

This weekend, Craftsy is running its Endless Summer Sale and all classes are being offered at $19.99 or less!

I enjoy craftsy classes. Their program is amazing. They offer classes such as  cake decorating, crocheting, quilting and many other crafts. It is easy to watch when you have a couple minutes to spare. You can pause your class at any time and come back to it later. You can also ask questions to the instructor. Their customer service is amazing.   This is a great sale price for the information you will get.  Some of my favorite classes so far have been the “Decadent Chocolate Cakes with Alice Medrich“, and “Modern Piping with Joshua John Russel”  I know you will find some fun classes to take with craftsy.

This sale price ends on Sep 17,2012 at midnight.

Kat of The Bobwhites was our August 2012 Daring Baker hostess who inspired us to have fun in creating pate a choux shapes, filled with crème patisserie or Chantilly cream. We were encouraged to create swans or any shape we wanted and to go crazy with filling flavors allowing our creativity to go wild!

Pate a choux

½ cup butter

1 cup  water

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

4 large eggs

Line at least two baking sheets with silicone mats or parchment paper, or grease pans well.

Preheat oven to moderately hot 375°F.  In a small saucepot, combine butter, water, and salt.  Heat over until butter melts, then remove from stove. Add flour all at once and beat, beat, beat the mixture until the dough pulls away from the sides of the pot. Add one egg, and beat until well combined.  Add remaining eggs individually, beating vigorously after each addition. Resulting mixture should be somewhat glossy, very smooth, and somewhat thick.

Using a ¼” (6 mm) tip on a pastry bag, pipe out about 36 swan heads.  You’re aiming for something between a numeral 2 and a question mark, with a little beak if you’re skilled and/or lucky. Remove the tip from the bag and pipe out 36 swan bodies.  These will be about 1.5” (40 mm) long, and about 1” (25 mm) wide. One end should be a bit narrower than the other. Bake the heads and bodies until golden and puffy.  The heads will be done a few minutes before the bodies, so keep a close eye on the baking process.  Remove the pastries to a cooling rack, and let cool completely before filling.

Assembly

1.  Take a swan body and use a very sharp knife to cut off the top 1/3rd to ½.

2.  Cut the removed top down the center to make two wings.

3.  Dollop a bit of filling into the body, insert head, and then add wings.

Vanilla Crème Patissier

1 cup whole milk

2 Tbsp. cornstarch

6 Tbsp. sugar

1 large egg

2 large egg yolks

2 Tbsp.unsalted butter

1 Tsp. Vanilla

Dissolve cornstarch in ¼ cup of milk. Combine the remaining milk with the sugar in a saucepan; bring to boil; remove from heat.

Beat the whole egg, then the yolks into the cornstarch mixture. Pour 1/3 of boiling milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so that the eggs do not begin to cook.  Return the remaining milk to boil. Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream, continuing whisking.  Continue whisking (this is important – you do not want the eggs to solidify/cook) until the cream thickens and comes to a boil. Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla.  Pour cream into a stainless steel/ceramic bowl.  Press plastic wrap firmly against the surface. Chill immediately and until ready to use.

Chantilly Cream

1 cup cold heavy cream

2 tablespoons confectioners’ (powdered) sugar

Chill medium mixing bowl and whisk in freezer for 10 minutes before beginning. In chilled bowl, whisk cream until it begins to foam and thicken. Add sugar and continue to whisk just until soft peaks form. Do not over-whip.

For my swans I mixed some of the Chantilly cream in to the Vanilla Creme Patissier. It made the Creme lighter and delicious!

Brazilian potato salad is usually a side dish you will find in many variations at parties and BBQs. This one I make is simple and easy. It can be a basic recipe where you can then add other toppings accordingly with your family’s taste.  My husband likes it this way, so it is usually what I do.

6-8 medium potatoes

1 large carrot or 2 medium carrots

salt and pepper to taste

1 can peas (drained)

green onions (to taste)

3-4 T mayo

Boil potatoes and carrots until soft. Dice them. In a large bowl, mix potatoes, carrots, salt, pepper, peas, green onions and mayo.

Other things you can add to this basic recipe:

Diced boiled eggs

Bacon

Tomatoes

Diced onions

Shredded chicken

Ham and Cheese (diced)

Green Peppers

Corn

Diced apples

Palmito (hearts of Palms)

Raisins

Olives

Enjoy!

Brigadeiros, a delicious Brasilian chocolate truffles.  Created in the 1940s and still popular today. This candy is found in many brasilian parties such as birthdays, weddings, and get togethers.  I love brigadeiros, because it is easy to make and also the basic recipe can be used to create many other flavors. Check out this video from Marcela, the sweet brigadier to learn more about brigadeiro’s history and how to order this and other delicious treat right to your home.

Our July 2012 Daring Bakers’ Host was Dana McFarland and she challenged us to make homemade crackers!  Dana showed us some techniques for making crackers and encouraged to use our creativity to make each cracker our own by using ingredients we love.

Pepper Jack and Oregano Crackers

Servings: Approximately 80 crackers

Ingredients

1⅔ cups all-purpose flour

2¼ cups grated pepper jack cheese, firmly packed

2 teaspoons dried oregano

½ teaspoon  salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

½ cup  vegetable oil

½ cup  water

Spice topping

¼ teaspoon cayenne

1 teaspoon  kosher salt

1 teaspoon  sugar

Directions:

1. Combine the spice topping and set aside.

2. Grate the cheese and put in the bowl of a food processor with flour, oregano, salt and pepper and pulse to combine. This can also be done by hand.

3. Add the oil and pulse until the consistency of wet sand is reached.

4. Add enough water for the dough to come together.

5. Form the dough into two disks, wrap with cling film and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

6. Heat the oven to moderate  325°F.

7.Working with a quarter of the dough at a time, either use a rolling pin or roll out in your pasta rollers to 1/8 of an inch (3 mm) thick. If you use pasta rollers, ensure the dough is well floured so as not to stick.

8. Cut the strips into cracker shapes or cut out using a cookie cutter.

9. Transfer to a parchment lined cookies sheet and sprinkle with the spice mixture.

10. Bake for 20-25 minutes until medium golden brown.

11. Store in an airtight container and eat within three days

Cheddar, Rosemary and Walnut Icebox Crackers

Servings: Approximately 48 crackers

Ingredients

½ cup butter, well softened

2¼ cups grated aged cheddar cheese (the better the cheese, the better the cracker), firmly packed

1 cup plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose (plain) flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts

1 tablespoon finely chopped rosemary

Changes: If you are making Romeo and Julieta: I used 1 cup of hard ricotta shredded and 1 1/4 c cheddar cheese.  Instead of resemary I used 2T sugar.

Directions:

1. Combine butter, rosemary and cheese in a stand mixer and beat well (can also be done by hand)

2. Add the flour, salt and nuts and stir to combine

3. Form the dough into two tight logs and wrap with cling film

4. Chill for at least an hour and up to several days. The log can be frozen at this point for several months.

5. Heat the oven to moderate  325°F.

6. Slice a log into 5mm (1/5 inch) coins and place on a parchment lined baking sheet

7. Bake about 10 minutes until golden brown

8. Store in an airtight container and eat within three days

9. Try this recipe with different cheeses, nuts (or no nuts), and spices. Get creative!

The end product is something that should be crispy so, if after your crackers have cooled they remain a little soft, simply pop them back in the oven until crispy.  The leaner the dough (less fat and cheese) I find are the most successful baked twice. More rich doughs tend to be perfect when browned and less likely to need additional baking. You really are just drying out the dough rather than cooking the ingredients so keep any eye on them and adjust cooking times to suit your oven.

For the Romeo and Julieta Crackers: Roll out the dough (thin) cut into squares and add a piece of goiabada in the middle of the dough.  Pinch the ends and bake. When done I sprinkled a mixture of cinamon sugar on top.

This is a light breaded coating. Usually people use beer to make the batter. I wanted to try it with soda. You may choose a ginger ale, sprite or seven up! Enjoy

For the batter:

2 egg yolks
1/2 c soda (ginger ale, sprite or seven up)
1/2 c flour
1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 -1 t cayenne pepper (depending how spicy you may like it)

Mix is all together. Dry the fish fillets (I used cod, but tilapia would work very well) using a paper towel. Salt and pepper both sides, then dip them into the soda mixture.

Fry each fillet for about 3-4 minutes each side.

Simple Cake with Passion Fruit Ganache

For the Cake:

3 c flour

6 T corn starch

3 eggs (separated)

3 c sugar

3 T butter

1 c milk

1 T baking powder

splash of vanilla

In a bowl add flour, corn starch, and baking powder -set aside.  In a cup add the milk and vanilla. Set aside.  In a mixer, beat the egg yolks and sugar until fluffy.  Add the butter, mix until it comes together.  Add rest 1/3 of flour mix, 1/2 of milk mix then flour, milk and flour.  Mix well, set aside.  Beat in egg whites until soft/medium peaks. Fold into cake batter.  Pour into greased cake pan and bake at 350 until done.  (I check by inserting a cake tester in the middle of the cake, if it comes out clean , it is done)

For the Ganache:

250 grms melted  chocolate

1/8-1/4 c passion fruit juice

1/4 c heavy whipping cream

Mix all ingredients.  Pour this mixture on top of the already baked cake.

Pastel is a deep fried pastry dough. Some of the most common are filled with chicken, meat, ham and cheese, catupiry, and other mixtures. You can also make it sweet with chocolate, goiabada, doce de leite and others.  It is easy to find pastel in Brasil. It is common to find it in the street corners and street markets.  It is a delicious treat.

Here is one of my favorite dough recipes.  I have about 3 of them that I rotate and make when I crave pastel.  I would say they are all about the same. The secret is to be able to open the dough nice and thin before filling it.  I use my mom’s dough roller (cilindro) which I brought from Brasil. I think any pasta maker machine would work perfectly.

2 c warm water (about)

1 kl flour

1/2 c oil

2 T butter

1 T baking powder

2 eggs

pinch of salt

Mix the flour, baking powder, butter and oil.  Add the eggs, one at a time.  Pour the water slowly in the middle of this mixture and mix until it comes together.  It will be nice and soft.  Let the dough rest for about 1 hour.  Cut pieces of the dough and use the pasta machine to make thin rectangular shapes.  (it will be thin like a paper).  When I use the dough roller, I start on the highest number (thick) then start lowering the numbers until I get a thin dough that will be able to hold the filling. This dough will freeze very well.

Fill your pasteis with your favorite fillings.  Fry in hot oil. Enjoy!

A kitchen scale will come in handy to measure the ingredients for this recipe 😉

This is such a fun activity to do with the kids. My little one loves to help measure the ingredients and watch the dough come together. It is a fun time from beginning to end.  The best part is to see their imagination while they make all sorts of things with the playdough. Enjoy!

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

2 tsp cream of tartar

1 cup water

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

Cook approximately 3 minutes on medium heat. It will start to leave sides of the pan.

Knead until it is nice and smooth.

Dive the dough and color (I use Wilton paste colors)

Let the kids have fun.  I usually get all sorts of kitchen gadgets and let their imagination run wild!

Store in the refrigerator in a container or zip loc bags.