Learning to Cook with Jim

Chocolate Ganache!
Perfect for icing cakes, cupcakes, drizzle for cookies etc.
Recipe:
12 ounces chocolate chips
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp corn syrup
1/2 cup heavy cream
Combine and gently heat, stirring until smooth. Be careful to not overheat.
I use a large measuring cup and microwave for 1 minute. Stir until smooth.

Jim's Waffles!
Ingredients:
2 cups of flour (I like to mix all purpose and pastry flour)
4 teaspoons of baking powder
2 tablespoons of sugar
2 tablespoons of corn starch (secret ingredient for tender inside)
1/4 teaspoon of salt
mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl
in a separate bowl mix all the wet ingredients together
3 eggs
1/2 cup of oil
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 can of coconut milk (the other secret ingredient)
1/4 cup of milk
gently combine wet and dry ingredients, do not over mix, lumpy is good!
pour batter into hot waffle iron, cooking for 5 minutes or until crisp
finish with soft butter and warm pure maple syrup!

Do you need a hit dish for the party?
A twist on a Taco Salad! Taco Nachos!
Here is a picture of my Taco Salad.
Now substitute the lettuce with Doritos, pile on taco meat, cheese, peppers and onions, olives, tomatoes. Use Catalina Dressing mixed with sour cream!

Doing a little international baking today. Cupcakes with buttercream icing.

I love to make fun and easy food!

Most of my friends know how to make pizza dough. I want to share how to take the idea of pizza dough and change it to a French sweet doughnut dough called a “beignet” (ben YaY).
Before adding flour to your warm water, yeast, sugar and salt, add a cup of milk, 2 eggs, a little melted butter, and some more sugar. Mix this all together and now add the flour, enough to make a dough. Cover and let the dough rise for about a 90 minutes. Heat some oil in a heavy pan to hot (325 degrees). Rollout some of the dough to a 1/4” thick and cut into any shape like a 3” square. Gently place in the hot oil and fry until golden dark brown and flip over to finish frying. They cook really fast. Sprinkle powered sugar on them and serve warm!

Need to make cupcakes? Start with homemade butter cream icing!

Vanilla butter cream icing:
1 pound butter (softened)
2 pound package of powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2-4 ounces of milk or cream
Cream together with a mixer

You could also make a chocolate icing or ganache.

Chocolate icing:
6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon corn syrup
2 ounces heavy cream
Heat altogether just enough to stir into a smooth mixture. I use a microwave for 30 seconds stir and another 20-30 seconds and stir until smooth.

I used these two recipes to make retro cupcakes. My first attempt....