For those of you who have me figured out, you realize I’m all about the images. I try not to get too wordy in my posts. I like to let the photos speak for themselves. But this post has a story to it, one that has to be told in its long version to be appreciated.

I started with this toffee recipe back before I bought a bed and breakfast in Maine in 2004. It fact, made it several times, successfully. So when we bought the inn, I thought I’d make it as my thing, to put in the candy dishes in the rooms every day. It would become my signature candy, no commercial candies for me, it had to be homemade. So one day I got out my trusty candy thermometer (the same one I used before when making the toffee) along with the other ingredients and started making toffee.

Let me first preface the rest of the story by saying DO NOT MAKE TOFFEE AT CHECK-IN TIME. Repeat, DO NOT MAKE TOFFEE AT CHECK-IN TIME. My kitchen was open to the guest entrance (which I loved) so in walk some guests to check in. I’m standing over my pot of melted butter and sugar in its light golden stage of yumminess. I tell my guests that I’ll just leave the mixture on low while I give them the tour and show them to their room. They even offer to wait until I’m done (maybe they had more sense than I did given that I was using a candy thermometer- pretty serious stuff). But NO, DON’T WORRY, THE CARAMEL IS STILL IN THE VERY EARLY STAGES AND NOT EVEN READING 200 YET (it needed to reach 290)…so off we go. You can see where this is going. After a few minutes upstairs I begin to smell smoke. I run downstairs to the kitchen and the caramel in the pan is as BLACK as ASPHALT and smoking the house up. Thankfully the smoke alarms didn’t go off (my guess is that because Summer in Maine is gorgeous we leave all windows open almost all Spring/Summer/and part of Fall. I ran outside with the pan so that it could continue to smoke OUTSIDE and not INSIDE. Baking  is supposed to make the inn smell good, right? The rest of the checkins that day heard my “don’t assume the smell of burned food will be what’s to come in the morning, please!!!!” and they all laughed.
Over the next year I attempted to make toffee again, promising NEVER to leave the pan unattended again. I followed the recipe exactly. Removed the mixture from the heat when the thermometer read 290. But it still looked too pale to be done. But I followed the recipe. After a handful of attempts and trashed toffee, I bought a new thermometer. This time, a fancy digital thermometer.

So it had been a while before I decided to try making toffee again. But now that I have a new thermometer, I was confident. But this time I had just been given a gift of a box of See’s Peanut Brittle, I think it was just before the holidays, and we happened to have a little snow on the ground. If you haven’t tasted See’s brittle, GO ONLINE and BUY IT NOW, it’s just amazing. Or maybe you shouldn’t because you could become addicted and be in my predicament of trying to create it at home…So the primary difference between brittle and toffee is baking soda and/or cream of tartar, it some how changes the texture just slightly.

I get all of my ingredients out, new candy thermometer and I decide to make brittle. I follow the recipe (except I used too small a saucepan but couldn’t have imagined that would matter)…WRONG. Candy making tip: DO NOT ASSUME WHEN MAKING CANDY. Repeat: DO NOT ASSUME WHEN MAKING CANDY. When it comes time to add the baking soda at just the precise moment, I add it and am prepared to stir quickly as the recipe reads, but I wasn’t prepared for a big VOLCANIC ERUPTION from my 3 quart saucepan. Fortunately my kitchen door was only 15 feet from the stove, I ran with the erupting saucepan outside and leaned over the porch rail JUST IN TIME for the blobby bubbly brown mess to pour over the edge of the pan and plop onto the beautiful WHITE SNOW. This brown blobby mess hardened in the once white snow immediately, AT OUR INN’S FRONT ENTRANCE, looking like someone had a bad case of the stomach flu (oh dear what if our guests thought it was from my breakfast?) My husband tried to remove the hardened candy from the snow but it wasn’t as easy as he thought. So he covered the mess up with more snow. Out of sight, out of mind…so the blobby mess sat beneath a winter’s worth of snow. By spring there was no sign of it. That was my FIRST and LAST attempt at making brittle.

So YEARS LATER after we sold our inn…I decide to get the almonds out of the pantry and right away my husband knew where I was going with this. He said “uh oh”, but right away I said “no, you know what, I’m making my original toffee and I’m NOT going to rely on the thermometer. I know what color it should be.” And that’s exactly what I did. I used both thermometers just to verify what I thought all along, that my eye knew what would be right. The thermometers gave an inaccurate reading. And many chefs do things the same way, by touch, taste, appearance, smell, using the senses. MY TOFFEE TURNED OUT PERFECTLY DELICIOUS WITH JUST THE RIGHT TEXTURE.

SO HERE’S THE RECIPE with my coconut twist:

3 cups whole raw almonds (you can buy them already roasted but I prefer to roast my own)
2 cups shredded coconut
2 sticks butter
1 tablespoon water
1 cup white sugar
6 tablespoons corn syrup
1. roast almonds and coconut on sheet pan in oven on 300 degrees for about 15-20 minutes. Let them cool.
2. chop the nuts in a processor – stopping halfway to reserve about half the mixture leaving some larger pieces, then continue to pulse into small pieces.
3. put butter in 3 quart saucepan (we’re not adding baking soda so this size is adequate!) and add the water, corn syrup and sugar and heat to melt over medium heat.
4. Once melted, bring mixture to a boil over medium high heat, stirring with heatproof spatula occasionally for about 10 minutes (here is where the recipe calls for heating to 290 degrees) but I say heat it until it JUST gets to the right color of toffee (camel brown) and then remove from heat.
5. immediately add the large chop nuts and half of the small chop nuts and quickly fold to combine. The mixture will harden quickly.
6. spread onto parchment lined sheet pan with an offset spatula or heatproof spatula to the desired thickness.
7. top with 2 cups of chocolate chips (I prefer semi-sweet but you can use milk chocolate or a combination), let sit for a couple minutes, then spread the melting chips over the toffee.
8. top the melted chocolate with the remaining finely chopped nuts and let sit at least a few hours at room temperature. When completely set, break into pieces and store in an airtight container. Freezes beautifully!

This recipe is in my Cookbook, The Art of Breakfast (which includes baked goods, chocolates, etc!)

Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal Cake with Vanilla Cream, Rhubarb Sauce and Fresh Strawberries (from The Art of Breakfast)

This was one of the most surprising and requested recipes we served at the inn, probably because of its simplicity and the health benefits of oats. It was surprising as many people who don’t typically like oatmeal really enjoyed this because of its cake-like texture. I even kept pre-printed cards with the inn’s logo and recipe at the checkout desk in anticipation of the request! Give it a try: you just might convert some oatmeal naysayers like I did.

½  cup canola or vegetable oil
½ cup walnut oil (if not available, use a total of 1 cup vegetable oil)
1¼ cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1½ teaspoons salt
1 cup whole milk
1¼ cups half and half
6 cups thick cut rolled oats (not quick cook or instant)
Combine the oils, sugar, eggs, cinnamon, baking powder, vanilla, salt, milk and half and half in a mixer and beat until well combined. Add the oats and mix thoroughly.

Pour the mixture into a greased 9×13 glass baking dish, cover with plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Remove the dish from refrigerator and allow to sit while oven is heating.

Bake uncovered for 30 minutes, until lightly brown on top. Cut into squares, place in shallow bowl, and top with a good amount of the Vanilla Cream, a nice drizzle of the Rhubarb Sauce and garnish with some fresh sliced strawberries.

This freezes and rewarms in the microwave beautifully. Kids will love it for a healthier breakfast!

Vanilla Cream

Heat 2 cups milk with 1 tablespoon vanilla, 1 tablespoon sugar in microwave or on stovetop until warm.

Rhubarb Sauce

Makes about 2 ½ cups

4 cups chopped fresh rhubarb ½ cup water
½ cup granulated sugar

Cook the rhubarb, water, and sugar in a medium saucepan, covered, for 20 to 25 minutes until soft. Remove from the heat and puree with an immersion blender until smooth. Serve immediately or let cool and refrigerate until ready to use. Warm in the microwave before serving. This can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or in the freezer for 4 weeks.

• Salmon, Boursin and Wonton Wrappers

• Salmon, Boursin and wonton, wrapped up ready to bake
  

  Salmon and Boursin in crispy wontons

   

Looking for a quick and easy appetizer? Five simple ingredients:

• fresh salmon
• boursin
• wonton wrappers
• cracked black pepper
• olive oil

Fill, fold, drizzle with olive oil (or you could use a spray) and bake at 350 until the edges get crispy!

If you’re like me, every now and then you like to sip on colorful cocktails that are fun and beautiful as well as tasty. I decided to buy a bottle of Hpnotiq, a French combination of fruit juices, French vodka and a touch of Cognac. So I decided to combine it with fresh lemon and St. Germain. I used 2 parts Hpnotiq to 1 part vodka, 1 part St. Germain, 1 large fresh squeezed lemon. I think next time I might even add a touch of Blue Curaçao for a deeper shade of blue. It’s a nice sweet and tart cocktail!

Chocolate Cherry Cordial Tart

Wonderful as an afternoon treat with coffee or tea.
Add a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream  or frozen yogurt and you have a perfect dessert.

Serves 8

4 cups fresh sweet Bing cherries, pitted
1/2  cup sugar
1/4 cup port wine
1 tablespoon chocolate balsamic
vinegar (I use Fiore brand), but if not
available, use an aged Balsamic
1 teaspoon arrow root powder
(dissolved in a couple
tablespoons of the port)
2 teaspoons cocoa powder
1 sheet frozen puff pastry,
thawed (you could make your own!)
4 ounces softened cream cheese
4 ounces shaved chocolate (or
Chips)

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2. Mix the pitted cherries with the sugar, port,
balsamic, dissolved arrow root powder, and cocoa
and put into medium saucepan. Cook over medium
heat until sauce comes to a boil. Remove cherries and boil
sauce 2 to 3 minutes longer to thicken. Remove from heat and
place cherries back into sauce and allow to rest.

3. Press the puff pastry sheet into a 9-inch shallow and greased baking dish or tart
pan.

4. Spread the softened cream cheese on the pastry. Spread the chocolate shavings
(or chips) evenly over the cream cheese. And using a slotted spoon, place the
cherries in a single layer over chocolate.

5. Bake for 35 minutes. Allow to cool at least 20 minutes before serving.

This recipe is in the Baked Goods section of my cookbook, The Art of Breakfast.

1. Rim the martini glass with a piece of grapefruit and dip into a plate of dark brown sugar
2. Add a small handful of ice to a cocktail shaker
3. Squeeze 1 large ruby red grapefruit into the shaker (it yields about a 3/4 cup)
4. Add 1/2 cup vanilla vodka (I used Pinnacle, they’re in Maine)

Shake vigorously and serve in the brown sugar rimmed glass. Garnish with a slice of the ruby red grapefruit and enjoy!

Grapefruit Brûlé Cocktail

Grapefruit Brûlé from The Art of Breakfast