Our Wedding Day

 Today, I will share some highlights of our wedding with you. It was a beautiful clear, sunny, and warm day on Hilton Head Island. 

We could not have asked for better weather! 

We left our resort, and walked down the beach until we found a perfect spot between two sand dunes.

 My cousin was our wedding officiant. His family, and my friend Missy and her husband joined us.

And maybe a few people watching from afar on the beach.

 This really was exactly what I had envisioned for our wedding.

Even though we left the "country" for our wedding, we brought the country with us, and each wore our boots.

The newlyweds!

 The AMAZING White Velvet Cake my friend Missy made for us!

Flourless Chocolate Pecan Cake

I have read so many recipes for flourless cakes, and see pictures of these rich fudgy cakes without flour, but just hadn't been able to bring myself to invest the time or ingredients. That all changed recently. I was watching an episode of Pati's Mexican Table and she made Nana Jose's Flourless Chocolate Cake. It had been in her husbands family for years. So, not just a recent trending fad, but a tried and true family recipe. Ok, I was getting more interested. And, it had Pecans! When in South Carolina, my friend Missy sent home lots of Pecans from their tree's, so I have been wanting to try more pecan recipes.

This recipe could not be easier!  Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler, and then the rest is done in the blender. Seriously, can it get any easier than that? Into the oven, it went. I was still really nervous that this whole thing was not going to go well, but when I pulled it out of the oven, everything was still good. I let it rest for a couple hours, and served it for dessert that night.

Rich, fudgy, everything I hoped it would be. Truckin' Man loved it, too. Rich enough that he even wanted smaller slices than normal.  He didn't even guess anything was different about this cake, until I told him. The next day, I took some into work for the crew to try. My friend that is on a gluten free diet loved it. I was happy that she was finally able to enjoy some of my baking!

Flourless Chocolate Pecan Cake (source: Pati's Mexican Table)

1/4 cup unsalted butter 

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate 
1 cup pecans 
6 large eggs 

1 tsp vanilla extract 
1 cup sugar
1/8 tsp kosher salt
Confectioners sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9-inch springform pan with cooking spray, then line bottom with parchment paper.  

Melt chocolate and butter in top of double boiler over simmering water, stirring occasionally. Once melted, set aside to cool. 

Add pecans to blender, chop until pecans are very fine. To the pecans, add eggs, vanilla, sugar, salt and cooled chocolate.  Blend until smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for about 40 minutes.  Cake is done with a toothpick inserted in center comes out with a moist crumb. 

Cool for 20-30 minutes, then run a knife around the edge of pan to loosen the cake. Remove side of pan and serve on bottom of pan. Or, if you want to serve on a plate, place serving plate upside down over cake; turn plate and cake over. Remove bottom of springform pan. Dust top of cake with Confectioners sugar. 

Enjoy!

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More of our Time on Hilton Head

Change of plans...  The next post of pictures from our time away was supposed to be from the wedding, but there were more amazing pics from Hilton Head I wanted to share with you!

The first morning at the resort, Truckin' Man got up bright and early. He wanted to see the sunrise over the ocean! I am so glad he did, and I am so bummed that my pillow was so comforting that I missed seeing this. At least he tooks pics with his phone to share with his sleeping princess!

 Isn't it beautiful?

One of the most amazing things we saw on our beach walks was LIVE Sand Dollars. My parents starting family vacations to the ocean when I was very young, so I have many experiences of picking up sea shells, however this was my first time ever finding sand dollars! 

Don't take the live ones though, I guess there is quite a fine attached to doing that.

 The Coastal Discovery Museum was an amazing place to visit. We really could have walked forever in any of the parks we visited, we adore the Live Oaks with all the moss. So pretty! And, yes, to those of you not from that area, Live Oak is actually the name of the tree!

 One of the parks we went to, we visited during low tide, so we were able to walk out quite a ways.

Oyster beds everywhere.

 So many beautiful birds. Not sure what this bird is... I should have asked before we left.

We are happy to be home, but enjoyed every minute of our time on this beautiful island. 

Stay tuned for more pictures next weekend!

Overnight Crusty Artisan Bread

There are still certain things I miss about living in the city. Mainly friends and food. Out of the foods I miss, good bread is high on the list. Ciabatta is at the top. And a specialty Italian flatbread I loved having sandwiches on for lunch. The memories of the other breads are fading, but there were many. 

I can still get good breads on occasion at our local co-op. Some days of the week are better, and I honestly haven't figured out which days those are yet. And the price on those breads... well lets just say it isn't cheap. There has been a recipe I have run into several times this past year for a supposedly simple easy overnight crusty artisan bread. I had pinned it, but blew it off since I really didn't think it would A. be all that easy and B. be really all that good.  This winter I stumbled across another version of the recipe at Vermont Farm Heart. She had me convinced that I could make this bread, so I tried it. We loved it! The first loaf didn't last more than a couple of hours. 

If you haven't tried this type of bread yet, it really is worth your time. 

It's simple as simple can be. 

Chewy, Crusty, Perfection.

Overnight Crusty Artisan Bread (Source: Vermont Farm Heart)

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp. rapid rise yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water

***Note*** You will be moving your Dutch Oven around a couple times, and it will be very hot, so keep your hot pads close by all the time!

In large mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients. Add water and mix until completely combined. You will have a gooey and messy dough at this point. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Lay dish towel over top, and set in a warm place in your kitchen over night. (I have let this set for 12-15 hours).

When you are ready to bake the bread, preheat oven to 450 degrees. Set dutch oven in oven for 30 minutes to preheat. Meanwhile, on to a heavily floured surface, turn out dough and shape into a ball. Make sure that it is covered in the flour. It won't be pretty, but that is ok! Cover with plastic wrap and let rest.

When Dutch Oven is preheated, remove from oven and place dough in center, put the lid on the dutch oven, and bake into the oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove lid and continue baking for another 15 minutes.

Remove from oven. Bread should be golden, and when thumped on the bottom, it will sound hollow.
Let cool a bit, then enoy!


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