frankie's foods

Cake Pop[sicles]

2011-07-11T20:41:00.000-07:00

Cake pops/cake balls/cake truffles/whatever you want to call cake crumbs and frosting mashed together are an ingenius fad! Because bakeries can charge money for cute balls of cake scraps and leftover frosting- really, smarter than the cupcake thing, the frozen yogurt thing, the food truck thing, and the next food fad thing.

After trimming and frosting the mermaid/underwater cake in the previous post below, I had loads of leftover pink cake, chocolate cake, cream filling and buttercream. The solution? Cake popsicles! Because that frozen mush of cake crumbs and frosting really does taste amazing frozen and is funner to eat on a popsicle stick ;)

These were made the exact same way as cake pops/cake truffles- by turning the cake scraps into crumbs (I used a food processor) and adding frosting a bit at a time until it became solid enough to mold. I shaped the cake into popsicle shapes, stuck a large popsicle stick through them and let them chill out in the freezer on a wax paper lined cookie sheet. After a couple hours they were solid enough to dip into chocolate, sprinkles, nuts, and anything else that you can think of.

Store these in the freezer and try them cold- after all, they are popsicles :)

Mermaid Cake!

2011-07-10T21:40:00.000-07:00

This is a mermaid cake made for my good friend's daughter, Mahea. It was her 4th birthday on Saturday and we celebrated at Seascape Kids in Anaheim. This is us having fun in the play structure and on the slide :) Yes, I got pelted in the face by the foam ball gun several times.

The top tier of her cake was a white (pink) cake with vanilla cream and the bottom tier was a chocolate cake with vanilla cream filling. The blue is buttercream and all the accents are marshmallow fondant. She wished for a mermaid cake this year so that was the idea :) Happy Birthday Mahea!!

March 2011 Daring Baker's Challenge

2011-03-27T21:14:00.000-07:00

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake.

I chose to do a Blueberry-Lemon Coffee Cake- Instead of the chocolate, cinnamon and walnuts, I studded the meringue with fresh blueberries, dollops of lemon curd and lemon zest. I also threw a couple teaspoons of zest into the dry ingredients for the dough.

Love the cake- not too sweet, soft, moist and very beautiful.

FILLED MERINGUE COFFEE CAKE
Makes 2 round coffee cakes, each approximately 10 inches in diameter
The recipe can easily be halved to make one round coffee cake

Ingredients
For the yeast coffee cake dough:

4 cups (600 g / 1.5 lbs.) flour
¼ cup (55 g / 2 oz.) sugar
¾ teaspoon (5 g / ¼ oz.) salt
1 package (2 ¼ teaspoons / 7 g / less than an ounce) active dried yeast
¾ cup (180 ml / 6 fl. oz.) whole milk
¼ cup (60 ml / 2 fl. oz. water (doesn’t matter what temperature)
½ cup (135 g / 4.75 oz.) unsalted butter at room temperature
2 large eggs at room temperature

10 strands saffron for Ria’s version (Saffron might be hard to find and it’s expensive, so you can substitute with ½ - 1 teaspoon of ground cardamom or ground nutmeg. Or simply leave it plain like Jamie’s version)

For the meringue:

3 large egg whites

at room temperature
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon vanilla
½ cup (110 g / 4 oz.) sugar

For the filling:

Jamie’s version:
1 cup (110 g / 4 oz.) chopped pecans or walnuts
2 Tablespoons (30 g / 1 oz.) granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup (170 g / 6 oz.) semisweet chocolate chips or coarsely chopped chocolate

Ria’s version:
1 cup (130 g / 5 oz.) chopped cashew nuts
2 Tablespoons (30 g / 1 oz.) granulated sugar
½ teaspoon garam masala (You can make it at home – recipe below - or buy from any Asian/Indian grocery store)
1 cup (170g / 6 oz.) semisweet chocolate chips ( I used Ghirardelli)

Egg wash: 1 beaten egg
Cocoa powder (optional) and confectioner’s sugar (powdered/icing sugar) for dusting cakes

**Garam (means “hot”) masala (means “mixture”) is a blend of ground spices and is used in most Indian savory dishes. It is used in limited quantities while cooking vegetables, meats & eggs. There is no “one” recipe for it as every household has a

recipe of their own. Below, I am going to share the recipe which I follow.

4 or 5 sticks (25 g) Cinnamon Sticks (break a stick and open the scroll)
3 ½ tablespoons (25 g / less than an ounce) Cloves, whole
100 g. (3.5 oz.) Fennel seeds
4 tablespoons (25 g / less than an ounce) Cumin seeds
1 ½ tablespoons (10 g / less than half an ounce) Peppercorns
25 g (less than half an ounce) G

reen Cardamom pods

In a small pan on medium heat, roast each spice individually (it hardly takes a minute) until you get a nice aroma. Make sure you stir it throughout so that it doesn’t burn. As soon as each spice is roasted, transfer it to a bowl to cool slightly. Once they are all roasted, grind into a fine powder by using a coffee grinder, or pestle & mortar. Store in an airtight container and use as needed.

Directions:

Prepare the dough:

In a large mixing bowl, combine 1 ½ cups (230 g) of the flour, the sugar, salt and yeast.

In a saucepan, combine the milk, water and butter and heat over medium heat until warm and the butter is just melted. Ria’s version: add the 10 saffron threads to the warmed liquid and allow to steep off of the heat for 10 minutes. This will give the mixture a distinct aroma and flavor and a yellowish-orange hue.

With an electric mixer on low speed, gradually add the warm liquid to the flour/yeast mixture, beating until well blended. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes. Add the eggs and 1 cup (150 g) flour and beat for 2 more minutes.

Using a wooden spoon, stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a dough that holds together. Turn out onto a floured surface (use any of the 1 ½ cups of flou

r remaining) and knead the dough for 8 to 10 minutes until the dough is soft, smooth, sexy and elastic, keeping the work surface floured and adding extra flour as needed.

Place the dough in a lightly greased (I use vegetable oil) bowl, turning to coat all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel and let rise until double in bulk, 45 – 60 minutes. The rising time will depend on the type of yeast you use.

Prepare your filling:In a small bowl, combine the cinnamon and sugar for the filling if using. You can add the chopped nuts to this if you like, but I find it easier to sprinkle on both the nuts and the chocolate separately.

Once the dough has doubled, make the meringue:
In a clean

mixing bowl – ideally a plastic or metal bowl so the egg whites adhere to the side (they slip on glass) and you don’t end up with liquid remaining in the bottom – beat the egg whites with the salt, first on low speed for 30 seconds, then increase to high and continue beating until foamy and opaque. Add the vanilla then start adding the ½ cup sugar, a tablespoon at a time as you beat, until very stiff, glossy peaks form.

Assemble the Coffee Cakes:

Line 2 baking/cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Punch down the dough and divide in half. On a lightly floured surface, working one piece of the dough at a time (keep the other half of the dough wrapped in plastic), roll out the dough into a 20 x 10-inch (about 51 x 25 ½ cm) rectangle. Spread half of the meringue evenly over the rectangle up to about 1/2-inch (3/4 cm) from the edges. Sprinkle half of your filling of choice evenly over the meringue (ex: half of the cinnamon-sugar followed by half the chopped nuts and half of the chocolate chips/chopped chocolate).

Now, roll up the

dough jellyroll style, from the long side. Pinch the seam closed to seal. Very carefully transfer the filled log to one of the lined cookie sheets, seam side down. Bring the ends of the log around and seal the ends together, forming a ring, tucking one end into the other and pinching to seal.

Using kitchen scisso

rs or a sharp knife (although scissors are easier), make cuts along the outside edge at 1-inch (2 ½ cm) intervals. Make them as shallow or as deep as desired but don’t be afraid to cut deep into the ring.

Repeat with the remaining dough, meringue and fillings.

Cover the 2 coffee cakes with plastic wrap and allow them to rise again for 45 to 60 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).

Brush the tops of the coffee cakes with the egg wash. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes until risen and golden brown. The dough should sound hollow when tapped.

Mrs.Field's SUPERFUDGEBROWNIES and prostitution

2011-02-02T17:51:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking...would you call modeling "facial prostitution"? I mean, it's using your face to make money right? "Hi, I'm a facial prostitute". But by that logic, you would call other professions "brain prostitution" because you use your brain to make money! Hm. Lame/doesn't make sense? Ok thought so. Plus extremely unrelated to brownies. Which trump prostitution any day!

I am on Team Fudgey as far as brownies go...I like things rich (like my men ((hehe sorry boyfriend! lets see how long it takes for you to notice this)) ), decadent and very sweet. I've found that brownies/cookies that use melted chocolate and butter instead of cocoa powder produce a chewier, richer and fudgier texture.

I've been scouring different brownie recipes recently looking for lots of melted chocolate, butter, sugar and eggs with very little flour. I was flipping through the Mrs.Field's Cookie Book (which does not include the recipe for her famous chocolate chip cookies sorry!) and came across her recipe for Super Fudge Brownies. I'll be honest, the cookie book looks like it's from the 80s or something with funky pictures and a kind of un-interesting layout. Normally I don't like trying recipes that are in recipes books with weird aesthetics (recipe-book-discrimination, sorry) but I loved that her brownie recipe did not include any leavening agents and fit what I was looking for. So I tried it ...and loved it.

You know a brownie recipe is fudgey when it looks like fudge- the candy. Anyone on Team Fudgey would absolutely adore these brownies. They are dense, rich, and almost melt in your mouth. They remind me of a flourless chocolate cake with a truffle-like texture and deep, dark chocolate taste.

It's too bad that I have to wear coconuts on Friday or else I'd eat the whole pan.

Super Fudge Brownies

Mrs.Fields Cookie Book

6 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate

1 cup salted butter, softened

4 large eggs

2 cups white sugar

1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

pinch salt

1 cup (6 oz) semisweet chocolate chips

Yield: 16 brownies (2 inch squares)

1. Pre-heat oven to 300F. Grease an 8x8 inch baking pan.

2. Combine unsweetened baking chocolate and butter in a medium saucepan. Melt over medium-low heat, stirring constantly until pieces are almost melted. Remove from heat and stir until smooth.

3. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat eggs until light yellow in color- about 5 minutes. Add sugar and blend on low until thoroughly combined.

4. Add vanilla and melted chocolate to the egg and sugar mixture. Blend on low speed until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Add flour and pinch salt. Mix thoroughly.

5. Pour batter into greased pan. Smooth surface with a spatula and spirnkle uniformly with chocolate chips. Bake on the center rack of oven for 45-55 minutes. The batter should be set and a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean or with a few moist crumbs. Do not overbake.

6. Cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. To cut brownies, dip a sharp knife in hot water and wipe dry. Use warm knife to slice brownies. Serve chilled.

Marshmallows!!!

2010-12-18T01:13:00.000-08:00

The minute I got my stand mixer, I knew one of the first things I wanted to make was homemade marshmallows. I'm one of those marshmallow people who just loves marshmallows and could eat them for days. But homemade marshmallows require a good beating- like 12 minutes of beating straight. And I was not about to do that with a hand mixer!!

Homemade marshmallows are 100 million zillion thousand times fluffier, lighter, and more addicting than regular marshmallows from the bag. In fact, once you go homemade marshmallow, store bought ones will feel like rubbery slabs of sugar. Homemade marshmallows also leave room for flavoring, decorating, or turning into other candies (caramel covered marshmallows hello delicious!)

I made this batch of marshmallows for my marshmallow-addicted cousins (runs in the family). I

decided to portion out the batter and make four types- vanilla, strawberry, mocha and chocolate swirl. I used fresh strawberry puree for the strawberry flavor, a concentrated chocolate and coffee paste (hot water + cocoa + instant espresso) for the mocha and melted chocolate chips for the chocolate swirl. The strawberry ones took on a weird texture but the rest of them were delicious! Of course the sprinkle covered marshmallow was the first to go, but the runner up was the mocha. The chocolate swirled into the marshmallow tasted like a candy bar because of the contrasting textures of the chocolate and soft candy- yum! The ingredients are simple and the only difficult thing about these candies is waiting for them to set overnight. Mix and match with different flavors, colors, shapes and sizes- you really can't go wrong with these! Unless you are a marshmallow hater. In which case, go away.

Marshmallows

3 packets of knox gelatin

1/2 cup cold water

2 cups sugar

2/3 cup corn syrup

1/4 cup water

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tablespoon vanilla.

1. Line a 9x12 inch pan with saran wrap and light oil it. set aside.

2. In the bowl of electric mixer, sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water. Let soften for 10 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, combine sugar, corn syrup and 1/4 cup water in small saucepan. Bring mixture to a hard, rolling boil and boil for 1 minute.

4. pour the boiling syrup into soaked gelatin and turn on the mixer using whisk attachment at high speed.

5. add the salt and beat for 12 minutes. After 12 minutes, add vanilla extract and beat to incorporate (or add another flavoring/add ins of your choice i.e. peppermint extract, mocha slurry, chocolate swirls, etc.)

6. scrape the marshmallow into the prepared pan and spread evenly (grease hands or spatula to help). Place another piece of lightly oiled plastic wrap on top of marshmallow to seal it. Let mixture sit overnight until cool and set.

7. Cut marshmallows with a sharp oiled knife or kitchen scissors. Dredge pieces in a mixture of equal parts cornstarch and powdered sugar.

Chewy, Buttery & Tasty Low Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies

2010-12-18T00:50:00.000-08:00

You know the search for the perfect chocolate chip cookie? I think my journey has ended and my perfect cookie is LOW FAT!!! *dies* This recipe comes from America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book. Since all the recipes in the book are tested over and over again a couple dozen times to make sure they work, I knew I could trust this suspicious "low fat" cookie recipe.

These cookies are ridiculous. I gave one to my brother and he asked for a second one. He's a pro at detecting "weird" ingredients and the first one to turn his nose up at "low fat" foods but he had no idea! They come out of the oven with crispy edges and are chewy throughout- they also STAY chewy for days. They are the PERFECT CHEWY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE. EXCITED!!! What's the secret ingredient?! How is this done?!

Dates! I've been on a date kick lately because I recently discovered how much I love lara bars- they are these food bars made with all fruit and nuts- no sugar, no additives and no preservatives. And they come in flavors like apple pie, carrot cake and peanut butter cookie. And they TASTE EXACTLY LIKE THOSE THINGS. no joke. *dies again* Anyway the point is, they are held together by dates and so in an attempt to recreate these bars at home, I had a giant tub of dates in my fridge. Which just so happen to be the secret to these cookies.

These cookies are low fat because they cut out a majority of the butter in exchange for date puree- weird but it works. To mask the flavor of the dates and pump up that amazing butter flavor, the butter is browned in a pan over the stove before going into the batter. Browning butter brings out all kinds of luscious buttery flavors and it works like a gem in this recipe. I also thought that as long I was trying to make "healthy" cookies, I would add some whole grain. So I swapped a cup of the all purpose flour with white whole wheat flour. I'm so bad. Yet these cookies are so good.

Don't be afraid of the dough seems kind of weird a dry- it comes together when you roll it into a ball and while it bakes somehow. I also don't think it is necessary to bother with their method of shaping the cookies- I think using a cookie scoop would be quicker and they would look fine.

Big and Chewy Light Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/4 cup dried dates (chopped) or whole dates

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup white whole wheat flour (or all purpose flour but you know you want your fiber)

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar

1 egg

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line baking sheet with silpat or parchment paper.

2. If your dates are dried, bring 1 cup of water to boil and add dried dates. Boil till dates are tender and puree in the food processor until you have a thick paste. If your dates aren't dried, skip the boiling and go straight to pureeing them. You should have a little over 1/4 cup of date puree.

3. Cook butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until nutty smelling and brown, about 4 minutes. let cool.

4. Whisk flour, baking soda and salt together in a separate bowl. In a large bowl, beat the melted butter, brown sugar and date puree together until smooth about 1-2 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla until combined about 30 seconds, scraping the sides.

5. reduce mixer to low and add flour mixture until combined. reserve 2 tablespoons chocolate chips then mix in remaining chips until incorporated.

6. Working with 2 tablespoons of dough at a time, roll dough into balls, tear the balls in half and press back together with the torn side up. (or skip this step and roll dough into regular balls and place on cookie sheet) Lay the cookies jagged side up on the prepared baking sheets, spaced about 2 inches apart. press the remaining chocolate chips evenly into cookies.

7. bake cookies, one sheet at a time, until the edges are set adn beggining to brown but the centers are still soft and puffy, 15- 20 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway through baking. (My cookies only took around 13-14 minutes)

8. let the cookies cook on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then serve warm or transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

2010-12-18T00:35:00.000-08:00

This cake is chocolate lover's heaven- It feels like a cross between the most decadent, smooth, melt-in-your-mouth truffle, luscious piece of fudge and pure ganache. It is so rich that you only need a thin sliver to satisfy any chocolate craving. It feels like it came from a gazillion star restaurant from the finest pastry chef but in reality there's only six simple ingredients and it's a breeze to make. It will also taste exactly like the chocolate you decide to use so pick carefully and adjust sugar to suit your needs. I halved the recipe and made it in a 9 inch pie tin lined with parchment paper- it made the water bath so much easier with no need to use a bunch of foil to make sure the springform pan is leakproof.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

1/2 cup coffee

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup sugar

18 ounces semi-sweet or dark chocolate (3 cups chips)

1 cup unsalted butter

6 eggs (room temp)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Grease one 10 inch round springform pan, dust with cocoa and set aside.
If your coffee is hot, stir in the salt and sugar till dissolved. If not, combine ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat until sugar and salt are dissolved.
Either in the top half of a double boiler or in a microwave oven melt the chocolate. Pour the chocolate into the bowl of an electric mixer.
Cut the butter into pieces and beat the butter into the chocolate, 1 piece at a time. Beat in the hot coffee mixture slowly so it doesn't slosh. Scrape down sides of bowl occasionally to make sure all chocolate is incorporated. Slowly beat in the eggs, one at a time.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Have a pan larger than the cake pan ready, put the cake pan in the larger pan and fill the pan with boiling water halfway up the sides of the cake pan.
Bake cake in the water bath at 300 degrees F (150 degrees C) for 45 minutes. The center will still look wet. Chill cake overnight in the pan. To unmold, dip the bottom of the cake pan in hot water for 10 seconds and invert onto a serving plate.

Krispy Oatmeal Cookies

2010-11-02T22:35:00.000-07:00

There used to be a tiny little shop next to my grandma's house called Kelly's Kookies. My mom always thought it wouldn't last long because any shop who spelled 'cookies' with a "K" was bound to be a fail. Evidently not though! Kelly's Kookies just opened up a new shop in the Westside Pavilion in LA and my family still likes to eat and give the cookies as gifts.

My mom is always talking about the crispy oatmeal cookies from Kelly's Kookies. And I always tell her that NO ONE likes crispy cookies (except her)! But she kept on talking about them so finally I decided to accept the challenge! I took a look at the Kelly's Kookies website and found out that the cookies are called Krispy Oatmeal Cookies- which means they have rice krispies in them. The only crispy oatmeal cookie recipe I could find is one from Cook's Illustrated but there is no rice krispies in them. I divided the dough and did 4 experimental batches. Two had rice krispies and two didn't but all batches yielded crisp, buttery oatmeal cookies that have made me change my mind about crispy cookies. The ones that have rice krispies have an extra crunch to them and a nice texture. They make the cookies feel very light but you still get the wonderful taste of butter and oats. If you leave the krispies out they're just as good ;)

This recipe can be modified to suite your tastes (as long as you think you like crispy cookies!) Throw in a handful of nuts, chocolate chips or pump up the cinnamon spice- anything goes!

Thin and Crispy Oatmeal Cookies
Slightly modified from Cook's Illustrated

Makes 24 cookies

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (5 ounces)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon table salt
14 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 3/4 sticks), softened but still cool, about 65 degrees
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
2 cups rice krispies cereal (optional- if want really really crispy all the way through)
dash of cinnamon (optional)

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 3 large (18- by 12-inch) baking sheets with parchment paper/wax paper/silpat. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt (and cinnamon if using) in medium bowl.

2. In standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter and sugars at medium-low speed until just combined, about 20 seconds. Increase speed to medium and continue to beat until light and fluffy, about 1 minute longer. Scrape down bowl with rubber spatula. Add egg and vanilla and beat on medium-low until fully incorporated, about 30 seconds. Scrape down bowl again. With mixer running at low speed, add flour mixture and mix until just incorporated and smooth, 10 seconds. With mixer still running on low, gradually add oats and mix until well incorporated, 20 seconds. Give dough final stir with rubber spatula to ensure that no flour pockets remain and ingredients are evenly distributed. If using rice krispies and/or chocolate chips, stir/fold them in using the spatula making sure they are incorporated into the dough. You've got to really press the krispies into the dough to get them incorporated.

3. Use small cookie scoop or your hands, roll balls about 1 rounded tablespoon. Place cookies on prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 21/2 inches apart. Using fingertips, gently press each dough ball to 3/4-inch thickness to make flatter.

4. Bake 1 sheet at a time until cookies are deep golden brown, edges are crisp, and centers yield to slight pressure when pressed, 14 to 16 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through. Transfer baking sheet to wire rack; cool cookies completely on sheet. Cookies will crisp up as they cool.

Caramel Apples

2010-10-29T17:25:00.000-07:00

I've been eyeing those caramel apples in the window of Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory for a few months now. I'm not a big fan of caramel apples myself but they just look so gorgeous! I decided to try my hand at them and they are very very easy to make (even the caramel from scratch!) and very cheap. I'd say the cost of ingredients was about $10 for a dozen "gourmet" caramel apples- You can only get 1 fancy caramel apple for that price at the shop ;)

I used a caramel candy recipe and modified the instructions to make it apple dip-able. I made four different types- stealing two of the most popular ones from the chocolate shop. There is regular with chocolate drizzle, regular with chocolate and peanuts, snickers and apple pie. The snickers caramel apple was made by rolling the apple in chopped up snickers bars and drizzling dark chocolate all over it. The apple pie flavor was made by dipping the caramel apple in white chocolate, then rolling it in a mixture of crushed cinnamon toast crunch cereal, brown sugar and cinnamon.

I got a chance to try the plain flavor, the snickers caramel apple and the one rolled in chocolate and peanuts- now I understand why caramel apples are so popular! The sweet, soft and sticky caramel balances out the granny smith apple perfectly.

Caramel Apples

· 1 cup butter

· 1 pound light brown sugar (2.5 cups)

· 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

· 1 cup light corn syrup

· 1/2 tsp salt

· 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
12 Large Granny Smith Apples or 16-20 small ones

B Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Dip apples into boiling water briefly, using a slotted spoon, to remove any wax that may be present. Wipe dry, and set aside to cool. Insert sticks into the apples through the cores. (Tip: use a clean pencil sharpener to sharpen thick wooden sticks) Put in fridge.

In a heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat, combine the butter, brown sugar, sweetened condensed milk, corn syrup and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Heat to between 234 and 240 degrees F (112 to 116 degrees C), or until a small amount of syrup dropped into cold water forms a soft ball that flattens when removed from the water and placed on a flat surface. Cook for 2 minutes at that temperature. Remove from the heat and stir in vanilla.

Pour caramel into a metal bowl. Cool until temperature reaches 200 F. Take apples out of fridge one by one and dip in caramel. Place on a silpat or waxed paper. The caramel will drip down the sides of the apple a little. Put the apples back in the fridge for 10-15 minutes. If you have extra caramel,use it to dip marshmallows, pretzels, potato chips or anything else cool in your pantry that would taste good dipped in caramel.

After 10-15 minutes the caramel will have hardened a little. Take the apples out of the fridge 1 by 1 and press the pooled caramel back onto the apple. Now roll in whatever coatings you want or dip in chocolate! Chill for at least an hour and serve.

The Daring Bakers Deep Fry Stuff

2010-10-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

Yah! doughnuts. or donuts. I'm not sure which one is correct? I started off with Alton Brown's recipe for yeasted donuts- they turned out crispy on the outside and very light and airy on the inside! Man homemade donuts are so much better than the ones from the shop! The only downside is watching the big pan of oil you are frying the donuts in...and then eating several donuts, with the picture of the pan of oil in your head. Thinking about all that oil that seeped into the donut...But it doesn't matter. Because they are delicious!

I decided to make several different kinds because I'm crazy. I made a s'mores donut which was a regular donut filled with homemade marshmallow creme and topped with chocolate frosting and graham cracker crumbs. Then I made a coconut cream filled donut topped with toasted coconut. Then there are the standards- cinnamon sugar, regular glazed, powdered sugar and chocolate sprinkle. And FINALLY I made one very special donut. This is the kind of donut that they would have at the county fair (except they would probably find a few other ways to make it

more fattening). This special, lone donut, was an oreo cookie filled donut! I contemplated doing cookies and cream filled but then I figured, why not just put the whole oreo in there? So I did and it was amazing- it tasted like a cookies and cream donut.Now I wish I had

thought of other things I could have stuffed into the donut dough before deep frying but hey there's always the next deep fry session!

The dough for the yeasted donuts was very very soft- it didn't really come together after adding the amount of flour stated on the recipe. It kind of just poured out but I think that was the key to such a light and fluffy outcome. It was also really hard to keep the donuts a nice shape since the batter was so soft. Next time I might just add more flour anyway so I can get prettier donuts! If you know me, you know I have a dislike of ugly food- I'm sorry ugly food!

In the end, this was a really cool challenge. The amount of oil that I used (and splattered all over the kitchen) was unsettling but you only make donuts once in a while right? :) I got up extra early to make these and so my mom ate a few and I gave the rest of them to my relatives ...along with a coconut cream cake and a mocha cream cake. You see, I had a lot of extra coconut cream filling and I had also made some coffee cream filling (except I decided not to use it to fill any donuts not sure why) so I had to find a use for the extras...But who doesn't appreciate a home made donut and two full sized cakes?! Yummmm scrumptious!

Yeast Doughnuts:

Preparation time:
Hands on prep time - 25 minutes
Rising time - 1.5 hours total
Cooking time - 12 minutes

Yield: 20 to 25 doughnuts & 20 to 25 doughnut holes, depending on size

IngredientsMilk 1.5 cup / 360 ml
Vegetable Shortening 1/3 cup / 80 ml / 70 gm / 2.5 oz (can substitute butter, margarine or lard)
Active Dry Yeast 4.5 teaspoon (2 pkgs.) / 22.5 ml / 14 gm / ½ oz
Warm Water 1/3 cup / 80 ml (95°F to 105°F / 35°C to 41°C)
Eggs, Large, beaten 2
White Granulated Sugar ¼ cup / 60 ml / 55 gm / 2 oz
Table Salt 1.5 teaspoon / 7.5 ml / 9 gm / 1/3 oz
Nutmeg, grated 1 tsp. / 5 ml / 6 gm / ¼ oz
All Purpose Flour 4 2/3 cup / 1,120 ml / 650 gm / 23 oz + extra for dusting surface
Canola Oil DEPENDS on size of vessel you are frying in – you want THREE (3) inches of oil (can substitute any flavorless oil used for frying)

Directions:

Place the milk in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat just until warm enough to melt the shortening. (Make sure the shortening is melted so that it incorporates well into the batter.)
Place the shortening in a bowl and pour warmed milk over. Set aside.
In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and let dissolve for 5 minutes. It should get foamy. After 5 minutes, pour the yeast mixture into the large bowl of a stand mixer and add the milk and shortening mixture, first making sure the milk and shortening mixture has cooled to lukewarm.
Add the eggs, sugar, salt, nutmeg, and half of the flour. Using the paddle attachment of your mixer (if you have one), combine the ingredients on low speed until flour is incorporated and then turn the speed up to medium and beat until well combined.
Add the remaining flour, combining on low speed at first, and then increase the speed to medium and beat well.
Change to the dough hook attachment of the mixer and beat on medium speed until the dough pulls away from the bowl and becomes smooth, approximately 3 to 4 minutes (for me this only took about two minutes). If you do not have a dough hook/stand mixer – knead until the dough is smooth and not sticky.
Transfer to a well-oiled bowl, cover, and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
On a well-floured surface, roll out dough to 3/8-inch (9 mm)thick. (Make sure the surface really is well-floured otherwise your doughnuts will stick to the counter).
Cut out dough using a 2 1/2-inch (65 mm) doughnut cutter or pastry ring or drinking glass and using a 7/8-inch (22 mm) ring for the center whole. Set on floured baking sheet, cover lightly with a tea towel, and let rise for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oil in a deep fryer or Dutch oven to 365 °F/185°C.
Gently place the doughnuts into the oil, 3 to 4 at a time. Cook for 1 minute per side or until golden brown (my doughnuts only took about 30 seconds on each side at this temperature).
Transfer to a cooling rack placed in baking pan. Allow to cool for 15 to 20 minutes prior to glazing, if desired.

Coconut Cream Cake

2010-10-24T18:17:00.000-07:00

This cake came about as an excuse to use up lots of extra coconut cream filling. It's a double layer white cake brushed with a simple syrup, filled and topped with a light coconut cream and sprinkled with toasted coconut.

I really wanted to try out this white cake recipe because the method is different than other white cakes. You are basically cutting in the butter as you would when making a pie crust and then adding the wet ingredients- it turned out great! Moist with a nice crumb. I'll definitely be using it again the next time I need a scratch white cake.

The coconut cream isn't actually made with any coconut- it's flour frosting/filling with coconut extract added to it. Flour frosting/filling is my new favorite thing- it's absolutely amazing! You use butter/margarine/crisco (or any combination of the three) , regular white granulated sugar and paste you make out of flour and milk. It sounds weird but it makes an amazing amazing frosting or filling that is light, fluffy, not tooth achingly sweet and can even pipe well! (It pipes best if you use real butter). You can add extracts or cocoa powder to it to make any flavor you want too! No more worrying about egg whites and butter with Italian Meringue buttercream or the 2 pounds of powdered sugar needed for American buttercream! This one is hands down the best because everyone will enjoy it!

Flour frosting/filling

1/2 cup flour

1 cup milk

1 cup sugar

1 cup butter/crisco/margarine (I used half margarine and half crisco because I left my cake sitting out)

1 teaspoon vanilla (I used about 2 teaspoons of coconut extract in addition to the vanilla for this cake)

1. whisk together the flour and milk in a small saucepan. cook over low-medium heat whisking constantly so there are no lumps. it will get really thick and gloppy- thicker than glue, but thats what you want!

2. if there are lumps, you can press the mixture through a sieve. let the mixture cool to room temperature. you can do this by either sticking it in the freezer for 5-10 minutes, fridge for 20-30 minutes or let it sit on the counter. it must be room temperature though! no warm goop!

3. while your goop is cooling, beat butter/crisco/margarine together in mixer (use whisk attachment if using stand mixer) until super light and fluffy (a couple minutes).

4. add in goop. beat on high speed until the mixture becomes light, fluffy, smooth and delicious! it might look weird and curdled at one point but just keep beating. finally add in your vanilla extract, beat to combine and you're good to go!

Cheesecake Cheesecake!

2010-10-19T00:51:00.001-07:00

My grandma gave me a giant block of cream cheese last week for no reason at all...so I agonized over the different cheesecake options for a few days and finally decided on cheesecake brownies and cookie dough cheesecake bars. I used the cheesecake marbled brownies recipe from Smitten Kitchen and the chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake bar recipe thats been floating around the internet on several blogs.

The cheesecake swirl in the brownies balances out the fudgy brownie perfectly! Even my mom liked them- and she thinks everything is way too sweet. But I liked them too! And I love anything sweet! They're super addicting and have the perfect ratio of delicious velvety cheesecake to brownie!

The chocolate chip cookie dough bars were just like everyone has said...out of this world!

Since some people said the cookie dough ended up a bit dry, I added milk to mine. This and maybe the use of margarine caused them to melt seamlessly onto the cheesecake bars making for a better presentation, but still a big, chewy cookie dough texture and flavor! Oh yum these were so scrumptious! The sweet gooey cookie dough balanced out with the smooth cheesecake and it all came together with a great crust and dark chocolate drizzle!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars

Crust

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
5 Tablespoons butter, melted
2/3 cup miniature chocolate chips

Cookie Dough

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
3 Tablespoons granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 Tablespoon milk
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Cheesecake Filling

10 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Prreheat oven to 325°. Butter a 9″-square baking pan. Line pan with parchment paper, leaving enough to extend over the sides.

To prepare the crust combine graham cracker crumbs and butter until crumbs are moistened. Stir in the mini-chocolate chips.

Press crust mixture into bottom of pan and 1 inch up sides. Bake for 6 minutes. Set pan on wire rack to cool

Prepare the cookie dough. Using an electric mixer, mix butter, brown sugar, sugar, salt, vanilla extract and milk at medium speed until smooth. Decrease mixer speed to low and add flour Mix just until incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips. Set aside.

To prepare the filling, using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar just until smooth. Add egg and vanilla extract, beating just until blended. (I used a food processor for this step)

Pour batter into baked crust. Drop cookie dough by teaspoonfuls over the top of the filling.

Bake about 30 minutes, or until set. Transfer to wire rack.

Drizzle chocolate to decorate after the pan has cooled.

Using the edges of the parchment paper, remove bars from pan. Cut into bars and serve. (I chilled them for a few hours first- I like cheesecake cold and it makes for more gooey and delicious cookie dough on top)

Fluffy Japanese Cheesecake

2010-10-15T10:17:00.000-07:00

It was my dad's birthday a few weeks ago and my family is all about "light, NOT TOO SWEET" desserts. It completely rules out most frosted cakes and traditional birthday sweets so I had to do a little digging. My mom told me that my dad really really enjoyed this "thing from the bakeries in Hong Kong that is labeled 'blueberry cheesecake' but it's not a cheesecake, it's more like a sponge cake and is really light". A few years ago I tried a recipe for Japanese cheesecake that I found on Allrecipes.com and it seemed to fit the bill. Light, fluffy, not too sweet but also a 'cheesecake'. I wanted to find a better recipe though, and possibly something that incorporated blueberries, so I searched the food blogs and finally found it- Japanese Cotton Soft Rare Cheese Cheesecake. I just call it Fluffy Japanese Cheesecake though because cheesecake with the words 'cotton' and 'rare cheese' is a little intimidating. I also used google to painstakingly roughly translate all the measurements because I don't own a kitchen scale! In the end, my family really liked it telling me that it was "light and not too sweet". Go figure!!

Japanese Fluffy Cheesecake

For soft cotton cheesecake
50 g/2ozs butter (4 Tablespoons)
9 ozs cream cheese (1 block plus a little)
100 ml/3 fl ozs milk (A little less than 1/2 cup)
60g/2 ozs plain flour (1/2 cup plus 1 teaspoon)
20g/1 oz cornflour (1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 150g/5 ozs fine granulated sugar (3/4 cup)
- 6 eggs separated
- 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
- For Rare Cheese cheesecake (Blueberry filling)
- 100gm fresh or frozen blueberries (a little less than 1 cup)
- 125gm cream cheese (1/2 block)
- 100gm fresh cream (1/2 cup)
- 3 tbsp fresh milk
- 30gm sugar (1/4 cup)
- ¼ tbsp lemon juice
- 2½ tsp gelatin
- ¼ cup hot water
1. Melt cream cheese, butter and milk over a double boiler. Cool the mixture over an ice bath.Add the flour, cornstarch, 6 egg yolks, lemon juice and mix well.
2. Whisk 6 egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Add in the sugar and whisk until soft peaks form.
3. Place a kettlefull of water to boil. Whisk in one third of the egg white mixture to the cheese mixture to lighten. Then add the rest in third batches and fold in carefully, making sure that the egg whites are thoroughly combined gently. Pour into a 8-inch round cake pan (lightly grease and line the bottom and sides of the pan with greaseproof baking paper or parchment paper). Wrap two layers of foil around the tin to prevent water seeping in. Place in a large baking dish.
4. Carefully pour the boiling water around the cheesecake to make a water bath. Bake cheesecake in the water bath for 1 hours 10 minutes or until set and golden brown at 160 degrees C (325 degrees F). Chill thoroughly.
  
  Makes 1 (8-inch) cheesecake, 12 servings
  
  Instructions for Blueberry Rare Cheese cheesecake
  
  1. Line the same 8 inch springform baking tin with parchment. In a small bowl, mix together gelatin with hot water and stir briskly with a fork until all of the gelatine is dissolved.
  2. Blend all remaining ingredients in a food processor. Add gelatine mixture and pulse until mixed. Scrape into prepared tin and cover with cling wrap and refrigerate until set.
To Assemble
1. Split cooled cheesecake in half lengthwise. Carefully place the blueberry filling on the bottom half and then
replace the top half. Garnish with freshly whipped cream and blueberries.

Golf Cake

2010-10-03T01:40:00.000-07:00

This cake was made for a friend's mom- She likes to golf so my friend requested a golf cake for the surprise birthday party they were throwing her. It's half chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and half yellow cake with vanilla frosting. The trees are sugar cones with royal icing and the figure is gum paste. I tried my best to make it look like the picture we had drawn out!

2010-09-27T00:36:00.000-07:00

The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.

This challenge was an excellent opportunity for me to try out glace icing. I've used royal icing to decorate sugar cookies countless times in the past but I was curious about glace icing which is supposed to taste better, not set up as hard, doesn't require 7 minutes in the mixer and doesn't use any meringue powder. I used the recipe below and it was gorgeous- easy to work with, easy to pipe and tasted great. To make a chocolate version I just threw in about 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder and it yielded a rich, fudgy frosting that was just as easy to work with. This will definitely be my new staple sugar cookie icing!

The basic sugar cookie recipe we were provided with was also fantastic. I'm glad this challenge forced me to try a different recipe because I absolutely love this one! It created cookies that were chewy, sturdy, and held their shape perfectly. I wouldn't be afraid to use this recipe with a really intricate cookie cutter because I know it would hold its shape. Also going to be a new staple recipe!

As for the shapes and decoration, Mandy asked us to create sugar cookies that reflected what September meant to us. As I was looking in my cupboard for some cutters and inspiration, I had a whole slew of ideas that I couldn't resist trying.

The first idea (my personal favorite) was donut sugar cookies. I happened to find my donut cutter while I was rummaging around and I knew I had to use it! Who doesn't love a dessert that has frosting and sprinkles?

And then of course I had to include the dreaded jelly donut....

September also means trying out my new cookie cutter...that I bought in September ;) Ice cream sundae cookies!

September is...hanging out with my amazing boyfriend!

September is...Thanking someone.

This month a friend of mine has been helping me a lot with the grueling job hunt. She's been giving me endless tips, advice and help! Right now she's a fashion designer and she's giving me the opportunity to model one of her looks in an upcoming fashion show. I wanted to thank her for all of her help so I decided to make cookies based on the themes that her designs are inspired by- water, fire and nature.

This cookie here is a layer cake cookie- I saw an example of it somewhere and I thought it was the cutest thing ever! I also wanted to do several flavors (boston cream pie, rasberry, etc) but I ran out of cookies!

Overall this was a fantastic challenge that allowed me to get super creative! Love the recipes and the cookies! Happy September!

Basic Sugar Cookies:
Makes Approximately 36x 10cm / 4" Cookies

200g / 7oz / ½ cup + 6 Tbsp Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
400g / 14oz / 3 cups + 3 Tbsp All Purpose / Plain Flour
200g / 7oz / 1 cup Caster Sugar / Superfine Sugar
1 Large Egg, lightly beaten
5ml / 1 tsp Vanilla Extract / Or seeds from 1 vanilla bean

Directions
• Cream together the butter, sugar and any flavourings you’re using. Beat until just becoming
creamy in texture.
• Tip: Don’t over mix otherwise you’ll incorporate too much air and the cookies will spread during
baking, losing their shape.
• Beat in the egg until well combined, make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Add the sifted flour and mix on low until a non sticky dough forms.
• Tip: I don’t have a stand mixer so I find it easier to switch to dough hooks at this stage to avoid
flour flying everywhere.
• Knead into a ball and divide into 2 or 3 pieces.
• Roll out each portion between parchment paper to a thickness of about 5mm/1/5 inch (0.2 inch)
• Refrigerate for a minimum of 30mins.
• Tip: Recipes commonly just wrap the whole ball of dough in clingwrap and then refrigerate it for an
hour or overnight, but by rolling the dough between parchment, this shortens the chilling time and
then it’s also been rolled out while still soft making it easier and quicker.
• Once chilled, peel off parchment and place dough on a lightly floured surface.
• Cut out shapes with cookie cutters or a sharp knife.
• Arrange shapes on parchment lined baking sheets and refrigerate for another 30mins to an hour.
• Tip: It’s very important you chill them again otherwise they’ll spread while baking.
• Re-roll scraps and follow the above process until all scraps are used up.
• Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C Fan Assisted) / 350°F / Gas Mark 4.
• Bake until golden around the edges, about 8-15mins depending on the size of the cookies.
• Tip: Bake same sized cookies together otherwise mixing smaller with larger cookies could result in
some cookies being baked before others are done.
• Tip: Rotate baking sheets half way through baking if your oven bakes unevenly.
• Leave to cool on cooling racks.
• Once completely cooled, decorate as desired.
• Tip: If wrapped in tinfoil/cling wrap or kept in airtight containers in a cool place, un-decorated
cookies can last up to a month.

Char Siu Bao

2010-09-07T13:54:00.001-07:00

Char Siu Bao is my absolute most favorite dim sum food. It's a white steamed bread with a bbq pork filling. This is probably my 5th or 6th attempt at making it and finally I'm satisfied.

The first few times I tried to make this bread was a few years ago and I couldn't get the filling right but I thought the bread was okay. When I recently tried to make it again, I was happy with the filling but the bread was terrible. My third recent attempt finally succeeded and I was

left with a tasty pork filling and soft, fluffy, slightly sweet bread. The texture of the bread is not exactly the same as the baos found in dim sum restaurants but the taste is similar (Probably due to the all-purpose flour) I will definitely try to make the bread again in the future but for now, this recipe is

good for my char siu bao cravings!

I guess you could say I cheated because I used store bought char siu sauce to marinate the meat but I didn't want to take a chance at a bad marinade recipe! The meat was juicy and spot on so I'm happy!

The dough is very soft and easy to work with and the meat is dead easy with a jar of sauce (Lee Kum Kee Char Siu Sauce!). If you're a dim sum crazy like I am ... go for it.

Char Siu

2 lbs. pork butt

about 1/2 cup char siu sauce

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons sugar

2 or 3 cloves chopped garlic

honey

1. Cut pork butt into 8 pieces. Arrange in a bowl or baking pan and cover with enough char siu sauce to coat each piece. Sprinkle salt, sugar and chopped garlic all over meat. Cover and marinate overnight in fridge.

2. When ready to roast, preheat oven to 375 F. Place meat on a rack in a large roasting pan. There will be some marinade left at the bottom of the bowl or baking pan. Reserve this for later use.

3. Bake meat for about 25 minutes until meat is no longer pink.

4. While meat is baking, mix equal parts honey and marinade to make a sauce. After meat is finished baking, baste with your honey/marinade mixture and turn oven onto broil.

5. Broil meat until edges start to char.

Char Siu Bao Filling

Adapted from Rasa Malaysia

1 lb char siu, diced

1 small onion, diced

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

1/2 tablespoon sesame oil

red food coloring [optional]

1/4 cup cold water + 2 teaspoons corn starch

1. Add oil to a saucepan. Sauté onion 1 - minutes. Add everything into the pan except the water/cornstarch mixture. Stir fry for a minute or so.

2. Add water/cornstarch mixture and mix until thickened - about a minute or so as well.

3. Allow to cool before using.

Steamed (or baked) Bun

Just Hungry

1 packet (2 1/2 tsp) active dry yeast

1/4 cup warm water (110F)

3 cups ap flour (bleached, if possible)

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup warm water

1/2 cup warm milk

1 tbsp shortening, melted

1/2 tsp baking powder

1. In a large bowl, combine yeast and 1/4 cup water. Let stand for 5 minutes, until foamy. Add 2 1/2 cups flour, sugar, water, milk, shortening and baking powder and stir well. Add remaining flour

gradually until the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl.

2. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 2-3 minutes. Place in a greased bowl and cover in plastic wrap. Allow 45-60 minutes to rise.

3. Cut 12 3-inch squares of parchment paper (I made 8 giant baos with this recipe)

4. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and flatten. Divide dough into 12 (or 8) pieces. Keeping the unused pieces of dough covered with a dish towel, flatten a piece of dough into a circle with the center slightly thicker than the outside (approx 4-5 inches in diameter, but you'll get the hang of it quickly without measuring). Place about 2 tbsp filling in the center of the dough and close the dough around the filling pinching to seal. Place seam-side down on a square of parchment and place on a baking sheet. Repeat with all dough. Cover baking sheet with a clean dish towel and let rise for 15-20 minutes.

6. Steam buns for 15 minutes, in batches if necessary, until springy to the touch. Serve hot.

Update: If you liked the baked version, this dough recipe works! It yields a crispy bottom and golden top with a soft, fluffy interior. For the baked bao, you will need:

1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water

2 teaspoons sugar dissolved in 1 tablespoon hot water

While the filled dough is rising, preheat the oven to about 385 C. When the oven is heated, put the filled baos on a parchment paper or silpat and put into the oven for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, take the baking sheet out and brush the tops with the egg yolk/water mixture. Put back into the oven for 5 minutes. After the baos are a nice dark brown, remove from oven and brush the tops with the

sugar/water mixture. Enjoy!

Twinkie Cake

2010-09-07T13:24:00.000-07:00

I discovered a new love and it's seven minute frosting.

I made this cake for a cousin of mine who just graduated high school. He's a boy so I figured he would like something really really chocolately and really really sweet. I was pretty upset with the appearance of this cake but the taste was phenomenal (for those with a sweet tooth).

Seven minute frosting is basically a pillowy frosting made out of egg whites and sugar. It tastes exactly like marshmallows and pairs perfectly with anything chocolate. I used this to fill layers of chocolate cake and fudge frosting which resulted in a rich cake that tasted a lot like a Twinkie.

Seven Minute Frosting (To just fill two layers of a cake, half the recipe)

1 3/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
4 egg whites, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. In a saucepan, bring sugar and water to a boil. Boil for 3-4 minutes or until a candy thermometer reads 242 degrees F (firm-ball stage). Meanwhile, beat egg whites and cream of tartar in a mixing bowl until foamy. Slowly pour in hot sugar mixture; continue to beat on high for 7 minutes or until stiff peaks form. Add vanilla. Continue beating until frosting reaches desired consistency, about 2 minutes.

My Favorite Fudge Frosting (triple the recipe to fill and frost 9 inch layer cake)

2 cups powdered sugar

5 tbsp cocoa

1/8 tsp salt

3 tbs. soft butter or margarine

4-5 tbsp heavy cream or milk

1. Combine all ingredients with enough milk to reach desired consistency. Beat until smooth.

Chocolate Cake

2 cups white sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup hot coffee

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two nine inch round pans.
In a large bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla, mix for 2 minutes on medium speed of mixer. Stir in the coffee last. Batter will be thin. Pour evenly into the prepared pans.
Bake 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, until the cake tests done with a toothpick. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
When cakes have cooled, level the tops if necessary. Split each layer in half to create 4 layers.
Put a smear of frosting on your cake board and place first layer down. Pipe a dam of fudge frosting along the outer edge. Fill with seven minute frosting and place second layer on top.
Spread fudge frosting on second layer and place a third layer. Pipe another dam of fudge frosting and fill with seven minute frosting. Place last layer on top and frost entire cake with fudge frosting. Let chill for at least 2 hours.

Yogurt

2010-09-07T12:46:00.000-07:00

I recently learned to love Greek yogurt. Before I thought yogurt was supposed to be sweet and fruity (Yoplait!) and I thought Greek yogurt was odd, sour and way too thick. But then I learned about tzatziki sauce, discovered that yogurt was the absolute perfect fat free and healthy way to replace sour cream in Mexican food and about how much healthier it was than all the other processed yogurts with additives and artificial sweeteners.

I started buying Greek yogurt and it was about $3-4 for 16 ounces (two cups). It was a b

it pricey so I only bought it once in a while. I then stumbled upon the crock pot yogurt recipe flying around the internet. I looked at different blogs and saw that it wasn't fail proof so I avoided trying it for a long time. Finally, after a burst of making a lot of tzatziki sauce, I decided to go for it. After all, the only ingredients I needed to get started were about a cup of store bought yogurt (which I had in my fridge) and a half gallon of milk (~$2). I ended up following the recipe here, using 2% milk and taking in suggestions from the comments about how to keep my yogurt warm. Warmish, unrefrigerated milk might be scary to some people and it definitely made me have my doubts at first but after the first time around, I got used to it and started seeing my yogurt as a pet/plant. That was growing in my cold oven.

This yogurt recipe makes about 8 cups of yogurt but since I like to strain mine to make it thick

(like sour cream) it yields about 3-4 cups. It is tangy like Greek yogurt but you can add your own sweeteners and blend in any combination of fruit you want. Once you make the yogurt for the first time, you can use it to keep making more yogurt- you never have to buy store bought yogurt again. If you're a fan of plain yogurt, don't let the recipe freak you out. It makes yogurt just as good as the pricey kind you find at the store.

Crock Pot Yogurt

- 8 cups of milk, or half a gallon. Many people suggest using whole milk first but I used 2% with good results.

- 1/2 cup store bought yogurt with live and active cultures

- thick towel

1. Pour milk into crock pot. Set crock pot to low for 2 1/2 hours.

2. Turn crockpot off and unplug. Leave it there with the lid on for 3 hours.

3. After the 3 hours, scoop out a cup or two of the lukewarm milk and whisk it together with your 1/2 cup of store bought yogurt. Dump the entire thing back into the crockpot and stir.

4. With crockpot still off/unplugged, wrap a towel around the entire thing and let it sit for 8 hours. I like to put the wrapped crockpot into the oven and then pour some hot water into a container and let it sit next to the wrapped crockpot. The hot water kind of keeps the inside of the oven warm (for a while anyway) and putting everything in the oven is a bit warmer than leaving it on the counter.

5. After 8 hours (or overnight, I've left it for as long as 10 before) the contents in your crockpot should have thickened. This is your yogurt! Finished! Make sure to save 1/2 a cup of it if you want to make yogurt again. You don't have to do anything special- just don't eat 1/2 a cup of it and use it instead of the store bought yogurt next time.

It might be a little thin once it's finished. You can either put it in the fridge and it will thicken a little or strain it to get Greek style yogurt.

To strain: Line a sieve with coffee filters or cheesecloth. Pour yogurt into strainer and set over a bowl to catch the whey that will be strained out. There will be a lot of liquid that gets strained out (2 cups or more) so make sure you set it over a big bowl.

Morning Glory Muffins

2010-09-07T12:36:00.000-07:00

These muffins are easy, tasty and most of all, very very healthy. They taste a lot like carrot cake with two full cups of shredded carrots and moist nutty interiors! They are breakfast muffins but can easily be eaten for dessert with a smear of cream cheese frosting. I've changed the recipe to be whole wheat, reduced the sugar and replaced a lot of the oil with apple sauce. I have a mad crazy sweet tooth but nothing was missed.

Morning Glory Muffins

2 white whole wheat flour ( or 1 cup whole wheat + 1 cup all purpose)
3/4 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
dash nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups shredded carrots
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 apple - peeled, cored and shredded
3 eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 ripe banana, mashed
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease 12 muffin cups, or line with paper muffin liners.
In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Stir in the carrot, raisins, nuts, and apple.
In a separate bowl, beat together eggs, oil, banana and vanilla. Stir egg mixture into the carrot/flour mixture, just until moistened. Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups.
Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

The Daring Baker's August Challenge

2010-08-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”.

I've been thinking about trying to make baked alaska cupcakes for a long time but I never had the excuse. I don't throw

dinner parties and baked alaska must be 'made to order' so I just didn't have the chance. This challenge was my perfect chance!

Browning the butter for the browned butter pancake was a little nerve wracking. It can't be cooked too much or else it will burn and it can't be cooked too little or else the flavor won't be there. The pound cake itself was absolutely delicious- it had a nutty flavor that I have never

tasted before because I've never eaten anything with browned butter!

For the ice cream, I decided to make a soy vanilla type. My mom is lactose intolerant but I wanted her to try this dessert because she mentioned baked alaska recently. I also wanted to tweak a soy vanilla ice cream I had made in the past but it was too sweet. I decided to try a different method for making the ice cream which was "by hand" except with the help of a food processor. I'd call this the food processor method. Instead of freezing the ice cream in a pan and stirring it every half hour, I put the custard mixture into the bowl of a food processor with the blade in. I put the whole thing in the freezer and took it out and just turned it on for a minute or two every half hour. It was an interesting new process and it worked well! The food processor broke up the ice crystals quickly and effortlessly. A plus was that I could easily scrape the bowl with a knife or spatula whereas when I use an ice cream machine, the ice cream gets frozen onto the sides of the bowl.

Finally for the meringue I used a double broiler and cooked the whites and sugar over the stove a bit to make sure to kill anything that might potentially be dangerous (salmonella egg recall here recently).

As for the assembly of the dessert, I divided the batter into some muffin tins with liners and some that were greased and floured. Both worked well and easily came out of the pan. After they cooled, I used the cone method to hollow them out. I then scooped ice cream into the pound cake "cupcake" and piped my meringue around it to get the look of piped frosting. I used a mini blow torch (I've been looking for a good excuse to use it!) and browned the meringue.

The dessert itself is absolutely amazing. The mixture of the cold and creamy ice cream with the nutty browned butter pound cake and sweet toasty meringue is delicious. The dessert itself is not that difficult to make, just make sure you seal in the ice cream with the meringue or else you'll melt it! I'm really happy with my baked alaska 'cupcake' idea and I intend to try more combinations and flavors in the future. As for the pound cake and ice cream, I will also definitely be making those again too! Absolutely love this challenge!

Brown Butter Pound Cake

19 tablespoons (9.5 oz) (275g) unsalted (sweet) butter
2 cups (200g) sifted cake flour (not self-rising; sift before measuring) (See “Note” section for cake flour substitution)
1 teaspoon (5g) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt
1/2 cup (110g) packed light brown sugar
1/3 (75g) cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F/160°C and put a rack in the center. Butter and flour a 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan.

2. Place the butter in a 10” (25cm) skillet over medium heat. Brown the butter until the milk solids are a dark chocolate brown and the butter smells nutty. (Don’t take your eyes off the butter in case it burns.) Pour into a shallow bowl and chill in the freezer until just congealed, 15-30 minutes.

3. Whisk together cake flour, baking powder, and salt.

4. Beat the brown butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well, and then the vanilla extract.

5. Stir in the flour mixture at low speed until just combined.

6. Scrape the batter into the greased and floured 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan.[Or, cupcake tins that are lined with papers or greased and floured] Smooth the top with a rubber spatula and rap the pan on the counter. Bake until golden brown on top and when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. [about 15-20 minutes for cupcakes]

7. Cool in the pan 10 minutes. Run a knife along the edge and invert right-side-up onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Soy Vanilla Ice Cream

1/2 Cup Powdered Sugar [Original recipe calls for 1 Cup but it was way too sweet...for my mother's taste =P ]

4 Egg Yolks

1 tsp. cornstarch

2 Cups soy milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1.Put the eggs yolks, sugar, and corn starch into a bowl; whisk the mixture together.

2.Heat the soy milk; slowly pour the hot soy milk into the mixture while continuing to beat.

3.Add the vanilla extract.

4.Gently heat the mixture until it thickens.

5.Let the mixture cool in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours.

6.Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker; make ice cream following the instructions of the machine.

Wedding cookies

2010-07-31T14:52:00.000-07:00

These are flooded sugar cookies for a friend's wedding celebration. I tried to model the design of the cake and dress after the real thing. Wedding cookies are so fun- I hope someone else gets married soon! :)

Old Fashioned Fudge

2010-07-31T14:31:00.000-07:00

All my life I've been making the type of homemade fudge with marshmallow creme and chocolate chips. It's pretty delicious and addictive but it requires ingredients that I don't always have on hand and the texture just doesn't compare to real fudge. Real fudge consists of just sugar, cocoa, milk, a bit of butter and a splash of vanilla. If done correctly, those simple ingredients will yield you a dreamy creamy chocolatey fudge similar to the ones you see being made on the marble slabs at the county fair. It may seem easy but homemade old fashioned fudge is almost like French macarons- it takes practice and can be very finicky. You boil the first few ingredients up until a certain temperature and then add the rest and beat like crazy until it starts to thicken. Getting it up to the right temperature and beating the mixture is very time consuming and tiring. If you do attempt it and get it right though, I guarantee you will not be disappointed.

I used my electric hand mixer to beat the fudge instead of a wooden spoon. It took about 10+ minutes for it to start losing its sheen - and then my electric mixer broke. I had been having some problems with it and of all times, it decided to die on me while I was in the middle of this very important step. I patted the fudge into the pan anyway and because it was underbeaten, it was just a little too soft to cut into firm pieces. I decided to turn them into truffles by scooping what was in the pan into little balls, freezing them (so they would hold their shape) and then dipping them in chocolate. They ended up being very very sweet, rich and delicious- a very good spin on a classic truffle.

Old Fashioned Fudge

2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1 cup milk
4 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Grease an 8x8 inch square baking pan. Set aside.
Combine sugar, cocoa and milk in a large pot with high sides. The mixture will eventually bubble up and almost triple in size. Stir to blend, then bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat, simmer and DO NOT STIR.
Place candy thermometer in pan and cook until temperature reaches 238 degrees F(114 degrees C). This could take anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour. Don't rush it.
Remove from heat. Add butter or margarine and vanilla extract. Beat like mad with a wooden spoon until the fudge loses its sheen*. DO NOT UNDER BEAT or else fudge won't set up.
Pour into prepared pan and let cool. Cut into about 60 squares.

* I used an electric mixer here instead- I have no idea how one would be able to do it with a wooden spoon! It was tiring even with the mixer!

Daring Baker's Swiss Roll Ice Cream Bomb

2010-07-28T00:07:00.000-07:00

The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home.

This ice cream bomb looks crazy. It looks like a brain. Swirly brainish looking things scare me a lot- its just kind of a thing I have.To make it less brain-ish looking I decided to mold it into the shape of a traditional round cake instead of a dome but it still has that creepy swirly thing going on.

The challenge was to make the swiss roll, two different ice creams, a fudge and then mold everything into a bombe. I also attempted to put a little Mexican twist on mine by making Mexican hot chocolate ice cream and horchata (cinnamon rice milk) ice cream. Instead of fudge, I made some homemade dulce de leche and then I spiced the chocolate swiss roll and filling with some cinnamon.

The recipes that I made up and used for the ice cream turned out to be not as flavorful as I would liked them to have been. The Mexican hot chocolate ice cream was made with Mexican hot chocolate powder, whole milk and eggs with some extra cinnamon and cayenne to kick up the flavor. The horchata ice cream was basically just homemade horchata made with whole milk instead of water and then with some egg yolks added to thicken it up into a custard.

I own an ice cream machine but I wanted to try to make one of the ice creams by hand this time. I made the chocolate in the machine and then used the freezing and stirring every half hour method for the horchata. To my surprise, the method by hand yielded a much fluffier, lighter ice cream than the machine did. This could have been due to the small amount of ice cream that I made (so a lot of it froze to the bowl of the ice cream machine itself instead of being churned).

I used a small stock pot to form the bomb into the shape I wanted. When it came time to cut, the Mexican hot chocolate ice cream was frozen solid! I wasn't a big fan of the bomb taste-wise because of the way my ice creams turned out but I LOVE the idea and the presentation is pretty neat [for people who aren't scared of swirly things like me]. I'll definitely be making this again except maybe with some different ice creams and flavor combos.

Swiss roll ice

cream cake

(inspired by the recipe of the same name from the Taste of Home website)

The Swiss rolls-

Preparation time- 10

minutes

Baking time- 10-12 minutes

Rolling and cooling time

- at least 30 minutes

Filling-5-8 minutes

Filling and rolling- 5-10 minutes

Ingredients-

6 medium sized eggs

1 C / 225 gms caster sugar /8 oz+ extra for rolling

6 tblsp / 45gms/ a pinch over 1.5 oz of all purpose (plain) flour + 5 tblsp/40gm /a pinch under 1.5 oz of natural

unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted together

2 tblsp /30ml / 1 fl oz of boiling water

a little oil for brushing the pans

For the filling-

2C / 500 mls/ 16 fl oz of whipping cream

1 vanilla pod, cut into small pieces of about ½ cm (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)

5 tblsp / 70gms/2.5oz of caster sugar

Method-

Pre heat the oven at 200 deg C /400 deg F approximately. Brush the baking pans ( 11 inches by 9 inches ) with a little oil and line with greaseproof baking paper. If you have just one pan, bake one cake and then let the pan cool completely before using it for the next cake.
In a large mixing bowl, add the eggs and sugar and beat till very thick; when the beaters are lifted, it should leave a trail on the surface for at least 10 seconds.
Add the flour mixture, in three batches and fold in gently with a spatula. Fold in the water
Divide the mixture among the two baking pans and spread it out evenly, into the corners of the pans.
Place a pan in the centre of the pre heated oven and bake for about 10-12 minutes or till the centre is springy to the touch.
Spread a kitchen towel on the counter and sprinkle a little caster sugar over it.
Turn the cake on to the towel and peel away the baking paper. Trim any crisp edges.
Starting from one of the shorter sides, start to make a roll with the towel going inside. Cool the wrapped roll on a rack, seam side down
Repeat the same for the next cake as well.
Grind together the vanilla pieces and sugar in a food processer till nicely mixed together. If you are using vanilla extract, just grind the sugar on its own and then add the sugar and extract to the cream.
In a large bowl, add the cream and vanilla-sugar mixture and beat till very thick.
Divide the cream mixture between the completely cooled cakes.
Open the rolls and spread the cream mixture, making sure it does not go right to the edges (a border of ½ an inch should be fine).
Roll the cakes up again, this time without the towel. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge till needed, seam side down.

Assembly-

Cut the Swiss rolls into 20 equal slices ( approximately 2 cms each ).
Cover the bottom and sides of the bowl in which you are going to set the dessert with cling film/plastic wrap.
Arrange two slices at the bottom of the pan, with their seam sides facing each other. Arrange the Swiss roll slices up the bowl, with the seam sides facing away from the bottom, to cover the sides of the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and freeze till the slices are firm (at least 30 minutes).
Soften the vanilla ice cream. Take the bowl out of the freezer, remove the cling film cover and add the ice cream on top of the cake slices. Spread it out to cover the bottom and sides of the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and freeze till firm ( at least 1 hour)
Add the fudge sauce over the vanilla ice cream, cover and freeze till firm . ( at least an hour)
Soften the chocolate ice cream and spread it over the fudge sauce. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 4-5 hours till completely set .
Remove the plastic cover, and place the serving plate on top of the bowl. Turn it upside down and remove the bowl and the plastic lining. If the bowl does not come away easily, wipe the outsides of the bowl with a kitchen towel dampened with hot water. The bowl will come away easily.

Day 4 (dessert)

2010-07-19T12:24:00.000-07:00

Double Fudge Cookie and Cookies and Cream ice cream sandwiches. My brother bought a giant tub of cookies and cream ice cream in anticipation of his friends coming over. Well for some strange reason these particular boys eat like birds so the entire tub was still sitting in the fridge the day before they were about to leave. I decided to remedy this by making ice cream sandwiches :) The chocolate cookie recipe is delicious- soft, chewy and very very chocolatey. Paired with cookies and cream ice cream, it was absolutely phenomenal.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In large bowl, cream butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each egg and then add vanilla extract. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl; stir into the butter mixture until well blended. Mix in the chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls* onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or just until set. When you pull the cookie sheet out of the oven, rap it onto the counter a few times to deflate the cookies in order to make them chewier. Then cool on the cookie sheets until they are set and firm enough to transfer to wire racks.

*A large cookie scoop or ice cream scoop will yield bigger, more store-like cookies, better for making ice cream sandwiches with. I used a large cookie scoop and baked the cookies for 13 minutes, turning once halfway through.

To make the ice cream sandwiches:

First way (the way that I used, and decided that a different way might be better): Sandwich scoops of softened cookies and cream ice cream between cookies. Individually wrap in plastic wrap and store in freezer. Because the cookies are so soft, it's difficult to sandwich without them squishing...try the second way!

Second way (the way that I came up with that might be better than the first way): Place cooled cookies on a cookie sheet, fitting as many as you can and making sure they aren't touching. Place cookie sheet in freezer and freeze until all the cookies are frozen solid (overnight) . Then sandwich scoops of cookies and cream ice cream between the cookies, individually wrap and store in freezer.

Day 3 (dessert)

2010-07-19T12:00:00.000-07:00

Better than something-dirty-you-do-in-bed cake. I've always heard about this cake (under it's real name...) but had never tried to make it until recently. It's basically a chocolate cake which has holes poked into it once it comes out of the oven, and then drenched in caramel sauce and fudge sauce which soaks into the entire cake and makes it rich and moist. It's usually topped with cool whip (to balance out the sweetness) and chopped candy bars. Usually it's made with boxed cake but I opted for a from-scratch one bowl chocolate cake and some homemade dulce de leche instead of caramel topping from a jar. You would think that this cake would be jaw achingly sweet but it's not that bad- just very rich and moist.

Better Than Something-dirty-you-do-in-bed Cake

2 cups white sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup hot coffee

1 cup hot fudge topping/chocolate syrup

1 cup caramel topping/dulce de leche or condensed milk

1 container frozen whipped topping, thawed

a few chopped up candy bars such as heath or snickers

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour 9 or 10 inch springform pan.
In a large bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla, mix for 2 minutes on medium speed of mixer. Stir in the coffee last. Batter will be thin. Pour evenly into the prepared pan.
Bake 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven. Meanwhile, heat chocolate topping/syrup with caramel topping/syrup and stir to combine. When cake is done, remove from oven and immediately poke holes all over with the handle of a wooden spoon or chopstick. Evenly pour chocolate/caramel mixture over cake. It will take a while for it to soak in.
When everything is completely cool, top with whipped topping and candy bars.

Day 3

2010-07-19T11:36:00.000-07:00

Pizza day. With the exception of one home-made chicken pot pie since one of the boys doesn't do cheese. We did one pepperoni, one bbq chicken and one cheeseburger pizza. The secret to making it fast and easy = a food processor. All the dough was made in the food processor with no kneading whatsoever. Awsome? AWSOME! Bread flour gives the pizza the chew that you find from pizza parlors and endless combinations of toppings dress it up to make it gourmet.

Pizza Dough

2 tsp or 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
- 2 teaspoons white sugar
1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 3/4 cups bread flour
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1 teaspoon salt

1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Let stand 5 minutes until foamy. Then add olive oil and set aside.

2. In the bowl a food processor, put bread flour, garlic powder, onion powder and salt. Pulse to combine.

3. Turn food processor on and slowly pour in the wet ingredients. Process until dough forms into a ball.

4. Put into an oiled bowl and let stand until doubled in size about 30-45 minutes.

5. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Punch dough down and roll out into a circle. Top with desired ingredients and bake until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.

Pepperoni pizza: Spread thin layer of tomato sauce onto dough. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and pepperonis

BBQ chicken pizza: Spread thin layer of BBQ sauce onto the dough. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese, chunks of grilled chicken, onions and drizzle of ranch dressing

Cheeseburger pizza: Spread thin layer of mustard. Top with cheddar cheese, light sprinkling of mozzarella cheese, ground beef crumbles, red onions, bacon crumbles and pickles.

Day 2

2010-07-19T11:26:00.001-07:00

3 Ingredient Slow Cooker BBQ Pulled chicken Sandwiches with salad and thick cut fries. Dead easy, moist, juicy and tasty bbq sandwiches in hardly any prep time. If you insist, you can make the hamburger buns and bbq sauce from scratch....but I didn't. And the boys all asked for seconds anyway :)

6 Frozen chicken breasts

1 12 ounce bottle bbq sauce

6 Hamburger buns

1. Defrost chicken. Place in slow cooker and cover with entire bottle of bbq sauce. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

2. Using two forks, shred chicken and put back into slow cooker. Cook on low for another 2-3 hours.

3. Toast Hamburger buns, stuff with chicken and serve.

Diary of (attempting) to cook for 4 boys

2010-07-19T10:46:00.000-07:00

Monkey Bread. A delicious, baked, breakfast concoction of packaged biscuits covered in cinnamon and sugar, baked into a lovely caramel sauce. Easy, sweet and great for a large crowd.

Monkey Bread

3 (12 ounce) packages refrigerated biscuit dough
1 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease one 9 or 10 inch bundt pan.
Mix white sugar and cinnamon in a large bowl. Cut biscuits into quarters using a pizza cutter. Throw them into the bowl and coat with cinnamon/sugar mixture. Arrange pieces in the bottom of the prepared pan. Continue until all biscuits are coated and placed in pan.
In a small saucepan, melt the butter and brown sugar over medium heat. Boil for 1 minute. Pour over the biscuits.Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 35 minutes. Immediately flip out onto a plate and let sit so the caramel can drip down into the biscuits. Serve!

Crab cake

2010-07-05T22:46:00.000-07:00

Crab cake for a 3 year old birthday. Possibly a distant relative of the killer whale. Chocolate and vanilla cake filled with chocolate mousse, covered in chocolate butter cream and marshmallow fondant. Hat is rice krispie treats, all legs and arms are marshmallow fondant and sand is toasted vanilla cake crumbs. Happy Birthday Mahea!

NO PUDGE!

2010-06-30T20:06:00.000-07:00

If you are a Trader Joe's fan like I am, you've probably seen the Fudge No Pudge brownie mix in the stores. It comes in a pink box and all you add is about a cup of yogurt in order to get fat free, deliciously fudgey brownies. My mom used to buy the mix for me and I would make them all the time in high school. A few years ago I got to thinking about that pink box of brownie mix and took a closer look at the ingredients. It was all things I had in my pantry. I just didn't know the secret measurements. I scoured the internet until I came across this recipe. A clone of the brownie mix! I almost died. The recipe tastes almost exactly the same as the store bought mix and can be slightly adapted- such as using white whole wheat flour. DON'T use splenda though! There's something science-y that I can't explain about the sugar that causes the brownies to be fudgy. Also, while I have all the ingredients out, I like to make a second batch of the dry ingredients and keep it in a tupperware in the cupboard (just like the mix!)- next time I want brownies all I have to do is add yogurt!

No Pudge Fudge Brownie Clone

1 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup non-fat vanilla yogurt
nonstick cooking spray

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Mix all dry ingredients.

3. Add yogurt and mix well. Mixture will be extremely thick!

4. Spread in a greased 8x8 inch pan and bake for 25-30 minutes.

Sugar Cookies

2010-06-28T23:08:00.000-07:00

Every time I walked by the Wilton 101 piece cookie cutter set in a store I would swoon thinking about the endless possibilities for decorated sugar cookies that exist (Yes, us foodies are weirdos) . All the holidays are right there! Along with miscellaneous cutters, number cutters, letter cutters and weird cutters (like the foot). After making a successful batch of decorated easter egg cookies for Easter and the trauma of trying to free-hand cut palm trees for a Hawaiian cake last year, I gave in and bought the set.

I just had my first chance to really use it the other weekend and it was AWESOME! It was a family party for my uncle's 80th birthday. I found out from a cousin that he liked football, the Chargers and used to be an aerospace engineer. Okay, so that automatically puts the airplane, football helmet, football and trophy to use!

Then maybe some flowers, hearts, smiley faces, and shooting stars ...you know, for the girls. Yes! So I made a double batch of the following sugar cookie recipe and a double batch of royal icing to decorate. These cookies are very sturdy and great for transporting- I drove them two hours away down towards San Diego last weekend. Even if you don't have a super cool set of cookie cutters like me and can't make psychedelic flowers, decorated sugar cookies are worth a shot. There's tons of tutorials and videos online about how to decorate with royal icing- it's fairly simple and can make your cookies look like you custom ordered them from a fancy shop!

If you intend on decorating with royal icing, bake your sugar cookies at least two days in advance to give the icing a chance to dry and harden.

Sugar Cookies

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
3 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. STIR in the flour. WITH A SPOON. (DO NOT USE YOUR MIXER, this will result in a very very very sticky dough that is impossible to roll out!) , baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

Royal Icing

3 Tablespoons Meringue Powder

4 Cups (1 lb) powdered sugar

6-8 Tablespoons water

1. Combine meringue powder and powdered sugar in the bowl of a mixer. Add water and beat on medium speed for about 7-10 minutes until icing is no longer shiny looking. It should be smooth and fluffy. Store in an AIRTIGHT container.

To decorate the cookies

1. Pipe borders around your sugar cookies with the royal icing. If it is too stiff to pipe, add a few drops of water. Let dry a few hours.

2. To "flood" the cookies, or cover them in icing within the border you piped, thin down some royal icing in a bowl with some water until the consistency is like a thin chocolate syrup.

3. Using a spoon, spoon the thinned royal icing into the dried borders of your sugar cookies. The borders should hold the thinned icing in. If the thinned icing is not reaching the borders, use a toothpick to drag it or make it thinner and pour more onto the cookies. Let dry at least overnight.

4. Pipe on whatever decorations you want with the rest of your royal icing.

Banana Cake

2010-06-18T21:26:00.000-07:00

Hi Aunty Naty [if you are reading this],

Happy Birthday! I thought your favorite cake was Tres Leches because I remember that one year we bought it from Northgate market and had it for your birthday. I was all set to make it and then we went to the mall yesterday and you mentioned that your favorite is banana cake! I really hope you didn't mean banana bread. Because I made you this banana cake! We are about to leave the house and go deliver it right now. The cooking method was very unconventional- it was baked at a low temperature for a long time and then immediately put into the freezer for 45 minutes. Strange, but let's hope it turns out good!

Banana Cake

Adapted [kind of a lot] from Allrecipes.com

3/4 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
3 cups cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 3/4 cups pureed bananas

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F Grease and flour two 8-inch round pans. Puree bananas in a food processor/blender, or mash with a potato masher! mush mash mash mush. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream 3/4 cup butter and 1 cup brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in 2 tablespoons vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk. Stir in banana mixture. Pour batter into prepared pans.
Bake in preheated oven for 35-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place directly into freezer for 45 minutes.

Real Cream Cheese Icing That Doesn't Taste Like A Pound of Powdered Sugar but Tastes Like Cream Cheese

1/4 cup butter, softened
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Beat cream cheese and butter together. Beat in vanilla. Slowly add powdered sugar until mixture is blended.

To assemble cake!

- Smear a little cream cheese icing on a plate or cakeboard to make sure your cake doesn't slide around.

- Flip out one of your cakes and put it on the plate.

-Spread a thin layer of cream cheese on the cake layer. Slice one banana really thin and arrange the slices on top of the thin layer of icing. Then, add another thin layer of icing.

- Flip out the second cake onto the banana slices.

- Spread icing on top of cake

- Put in fridge for at least an hour or so to let the cream cheese icing set up.

- Deliver to Aunt and hope she likes it!

Joe's Italian Ice - Garden Grove

2010-06-18T20:57:00.000-07:00

My favorite food is ice cream. Thats right, my #1 favorite food. Second is potatoes.

My boyfriend and I were looking around for a dessert/ice cream place to eat at in Orange County one night and I came across Joe's Italian Ice on yelp.com. I was immediately captivated by the idea of soft serve ice cream layered with Italian ice. The idea of being able to mix different Italian ice flavors and have it topped off with a rich, creamy vanilla ice cream was almost too much for me to handle! I absolutely love creamsicle-like/flavored type things and this sounded like the ultimate customizable creamsicle.

We arrived at the red, green and white stand late that night. The girls at the counter were so sweet- they immediately offered us multiple samples. They had flavors ranging from smurf poison [a sour, bright blue flavor] to strawberry. I got a Joe Latti which was the soft serve vanilla layered with Italian ice of my choice. I chose Peach and Strawberry. My boyfriend got a small cup of Smurf Poison. I really enjoyed mine- the creamy blend of vanilla soft serve and the ice sweet flavors of peach and strawberry worked really well together. It was like a peach strawberry creamsicle but better! My boyfriend was less than satisfied . He claimed that his small Smurf poison flavored Italian ice was exactly the same thing as a slurpee he once had- for three times the price. The portions are not huge but with something like the Joe Latti, they are enough to satisfy. The price is okay- In between cheap and expensive for something such as fruit flavored ice. Overall, it was a place I would probably come back to if I happened to be in the area but not go out of my way to [hound my boyfriend until he agrees to] drive on purpose.

Ramen

2010-06-13T00:48:00.000-07:00

There's this movie called 'The Ramen Girl' which is a really bad movie that you shouldn't see. The ending makes no sense and it leaves all kinds of things hanging...but it does have some absolutely delicious shots of a fully equipped kitchen, giant stock pots of ramen broth and of course, ramen. It also teaches you some cool stuff about ramen and can probably inspire any chef or baker to attempt to make the elusive, steamy, delicious broth from scratch. After seeing this movie, I completely caved and wanted to try to make the broth for myself. Believe it or not, it's really hard to find a recipe for ramen broth....like real ramen broth. Not that instant stuff that us [former] college kids used to live off of.

I used a recipe I found online which suggests using a pressure cooker. I didn't have one so I went the boiling-for-hours route and it turned the signature creamy white color, but the flavor was lacking 98.72%. Lame. Maybe next time. Anyone out there have a good fool proof recipe?

The Daring Baker's May Challenge

2010-05-28T14:16:00.000-07:00

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

Ok this was like the coolest thing ever. Aesthetically I think it's really hard because in order to get the nice, ideal cone shape of a croquembouche you need a cone. But the recipe for the pate a choux [cream puffs] was perfect, the crème patissiere [filling] was creamy, rich and delicious and the final product is amazing put together. Basically a croquembouche is a bunch of cream puffs sculpted into a large cone shape, held together by caramel or chocolate. I chose to do espresso filled puffs with a thin milk chocolate glaze to hold the structure together. I cut down the sugar in the cream a teensy bit and doubled the espresso since I used a milk chocolate glaze. Gonna go deliver this to my espresso-loving grandpa later! :D

Piece montée

Preparation time: You will want to use your puff pastry batter and chocolate glaze or caramel as soon as it has been prepared and as close to serving time as possible. This is not a dessert that stores well and it may be a bit temperamental in humid areas as the glaze needs to harden to hold the choux together. The crème patissiere can be made a couple of days in advance and stored in the fridge until ready to use.

For Chocolate Pastry Cream (Half Batch Recipe):
Bring ¼ cup (about 50 cl.) milk to a boil in a small pan; remove from heat and add in 3 ounces (about 80 g.) semisweet chocolate, finely chopped, and mix until smooth. Whisk into pastry cream when you add the butter and vanilla.

For Coffee Pastry Cream (Half Batch recipe)
Dissolve 1 ½ teaspoons instant espresso powder in 1 ½ teaspoons boiling water. Whisk into pastry cream with butter and vanilla.

Pate a Choux (Yield: About 28)
¾ cup (175 ml.) water
6 Tbsp. (85 g.) unsalted butter
¼ Tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 cup (125 g.) all-purpose flour
4 large eggs

For Egg Wash: 1 egg and pinch of salt

Pre-heat oven to 425◦F/220◦C degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Preparing batter:
Combine water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir occasionally. At boil, remove from heat and sift in the flour, stirring to combine completely.

Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly until the batter dries slightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan. Transfer to a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon 1 minute to cool slightly.

Add 1 egg. The batter will appear loose and shiny.As you stir, the batter will become dry-looking like lightly buttered mashed potatoes.It is at this point that you will add in the next egg. Repeat until you have incorporated all the eggs.

Piping:
Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large open tip (I piped directly from the bag opening without a tip). Pipe choux about 1 inch-part in the baking sheets. Choux should be about 1 inch high about 1 inch wide.

Using a clean finger dipped in hot water, gently press down on any tips that have formed on the top of choux when piping. You want them to retain their ball shape, but be smoothly curved on top.Brush tops with egg wash (1 egg lightly beaten with pinch of salt).

Baking:
Bake the choux at 425◦F/220◦C degrees until well-puffed and turning lightly golden in color, about 10 minutes.

Lower the temperature to 350◦F/180◦C degrees and continue baking until well-colored and dry, about 20 minutes more. Remove to a rack and cool.Can be stored in a airtight box overnight.

Filling:
When you are ready to assemble your piece montée, using a plain pastry tip, pierce the bottom of each choux. Fill the choux with pastry cream using either the same tip or a star tip, and place on a paper-lined sheet. Choux can be refrigerated briefly at this point while you make your glaze.

Use one of these to top your choux and assemble your piece montée.

Chocolate Glaze:
8 ounces/200 g. finely chopped chocolate (use the finest quality you can afford as the taste will be quite pronounced; I recommend semi-sweet)

Melt chocolate in microwave or double boiler. Stir at regular intervals to avoid burning. Use the best quality chocolate you can afford. Use immediately.

Hard Caramel Glaze:
1 cup (225 g.) sugar
½ teaspoon lemon juice

Combine sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan with a metal kitchen spoon stirring until the sugar resembles wet sand. Place on medium heat; heat without stirring until sugar starts to melt around the sides of the pan and the center begins to smoke. Begin to stir sugar. Continue heating, stirring occasionally until the sugar is a clear, amber color. Remove from heat immediately; place bottom of pan in ice water to stop the cooking. Use immediately.

Assembly of your Piece Montée:
You may want to lay out your unfilled, unglazed choux in a practice design to get a feel for how to assemble the final dessert. For example, if making a conical shape, trace a circle (no bigger than 8 inches) on a piece of parchment to use as a pattern. Then take some of the larger choux and assemble them in the circle for the bottom layer. Practice seeing which pieces fit together best.

Once you are ready to assemble your piece montée, dip the top of each choux in your glaze (careful it may be still hot!), and start assembling on your cake board/plate/sheet. Continue dipping and adding choux in levels using the glaze to hold them together as you build up.

You will need approximately 10 minutes to prepare the puff pastry, 10 minutes to pipe and about 30 minutes to bake each batch. The crème patissiere should take about 10 minutes to cook and then will need to be cooled for at least 6 hours or overnight. The glazes take about 10 minutes to prepare.

Equipment required:
• several baking sheets
• parchment paper
• a whisk
• a pastry brush (for the egg wash)
• a pastry bag and tip (a plain tip or no tip is best for piping the puff pastry; you can use a plain or star tip to fill the puff pastry with the cream)
• a flat surface such as a baking sheet or cake board/stand on which to assemble your piece montée
• some of the items you may want to use to decorate your piece montée include ribbons, Jordan almonds, fresh flowers, sugar cookie cut-outs, chocolates, etc.

Ingredients:

For the Vanilla Crème Patissiere (Half Batch)
1 cup (225 ml.) whole milk
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
6 Tbsp. (100 g.) sugar
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
2 Tbsp. (30 g.) 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.

Cupcakes?

2010-05-28T13:05:00.000-07:00

Assorted things make me happy. I could look at an assortment of ANYTHING for hours and just be delighted by the...assortment. But you know what doesn't make me happy? Cupcakes. I think they're dumb. Sorry I know I probably offended about 99% of the population right there but really guys. Come on. There are cuter baked goods than cupcakes. And as I've said before, I would rather have a whole cake. Or carton of ice cream. Or whole cheesecake.

When a few friends asked me to bring a cake down to San Diego for the weekend, I asked them what kind. I got answers ranging from Boston cream pie to lemon to red velvet to anything-with-cream-cheese-frosting. I'm a very indecisive person and so eventually indecisiveness won and I surrendered to the cupcake craze. In my head, the beautiful assortment makes up for the fact that they are just stupid little mini cakes.

I made cupcake flavors that I already had ingredients for in the kitchen. Fyi. Mom. I ended up with S'mores, Lemon meringue pie, cookies and cream, Boston cream pie, strawberries & cream and peanut butter cup.

S'mores = chocolate cupcake filled with whipped ganache topped with marshmallow frosting and graham cracker crumbs [Yes, I made my own graham crackers...............]

Lemon meringue pie = yellow cupcake filled with lemon curd topped with meringue [I finally got to use my cool little blow torch from Hong Kong here!]

Cookies and cream = chocolate cupcake filled with pastry cream topped with Italian Meringue Buttercream mixed with oreos [aka leftover weird walmart brand oreos]

Boston Cream Pie = yellow cupcake filled with vanilla pastry cream topped with dark chocolate ganache

Strawberries and cream = yellow cupcake filled with vanilla pastry cream and strawberries, topped with vanilla buttercream [You can make colored sugar/sprinkles for the top!]

Peanut butter cup = chocolate cupcake filled with peanut butter cup filling topped with whipped dark chocolate ganache and peanuts

I'm not crazy. As you can see, I only really baked two batches of cupcakes. And I also made a chart of how to mix and match the different fillings and frostings. Yup. Nerdy Baker. :D

Killer Whale

2010-04-29T21:49:00.001-07:00

Killer Whale cake for my good friend Eddie's 22nd birthday. Chocolate and Vanilla cake layers with cookies and cream chocolate buttercream. The tail is rice krispies and the fins are cardboard.

Daring Baker's Traditional British Pudding

2010-04-27T01:05:00.000-07:00

The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.

Suet " is the hard but flaky fat found on the inside of a cow or sheep around the kidneys and that area of the body".

Unfortunately this steamed chocolate cake does not have any flaky fat from the inside of a cow or sheep :( But the bright side is that it was moist and delicious with a different texture entirely than a baked cake! It was very easy to throw together and I had never even heard of steamed "pudding" before this. The technique is not difficult and a very fun, different way to cook a cake. There was also the option of doing a savory pudding. With the savory puddings you construct a crust within the steaming bowl- similar to a chicken pot pie I would think. Steaming a cake may sound a little strange and difficult at first but it is very easy and has a unique texture that baking can't do.

It seems Chinese people and British people have similar minds because there is a steamed Chinese sponge cake that one can get during dim sum that is also extremely moist and delicious :D. This challenge was very interesting and I learned more than I thought I would. I learned what suet was, what a savory pudding was and how to steam a cake! Some tips on steaming:

The easiest way to steam a pudding is in a dedicated steamer as the water is kept away from the pudding so it can’t boil over. If, however, you don’t have a steamer use a pan large enough to easily fit the bowl you are cooking. Don’t fill the water more than about a third of the way up the bowl or it may boil over and into the bowl. Keep an eye and top up as needed with boiling water.

You need to lift the bowl off the bottom of the pan. This can be done with a steamer stand, an upturned plate or even crumpled up kitchen foil — anything that can stand being in boiling water and lifts the bowl off the bottom of the pan will work.

Make sure you have a well-fitted lid on the pan as you want the steam to cook the pudding not to boil off.

Make sure you put a pleat in the foil or paper you cover the bowl with to allow for expansion and then tie down tightly with string.

This is a bowl ready for the steamer, note the handle made from the string that also ties it together around the top.. this makes it very much easier to lift out when hot and is well worth doing.

Very Chocolate Pudding
www.puddingclub.com

120g Un Salted Butter

120g Caster Sugar

120g Self-raising flour

30g Cocoa Powder

2 Eggs

60g Chocolate Chips

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Sift the flour and cocoa together and add with the egg, a little at a time, to the creamed mixture, beating well between each addition. Finally, stir in half the chocolate chips. Place a covering of the remaining chocolate chips over the base of a greased 1.1 litre pudding before adding the mixture. Steam for 1 ½ hours. Turn out and serve with, inevitably, Chocolate Sauce. Custard or Extra Thick are also wonderful with this pudding.

Gooey Butter CUPcakes!

2010-04-26T21:44:00.000-07:00

Ok I'm jumping onto the gooey-butter-cake bandwagon and
I'm kind of obsessed. Since the last gooey butter cake I made was such a success, I decided to try Paula Deen's famous recipe. There are hundreds of different variations that can be done to the basic backbone recipe. The recipe uses a box cake as a "crust" that turns out being a soft cake layer, and then is covered in gooey topping that consists of cream cheese, powdered sugar and of course, butter.

This version was a chocolate peanut butter combo gooey butter cake. It's best to bake the cake in a 9x12 glass pyrex dish but since I only had an 8x8 pyrex, I put dollops of the extra crust and extra gooey topping into cupcake liners and made mini cakes. I baked the cupcakes for about 18 minutes (until edges are set and middle is still jiggly and gooey looking) and the 8x8 cake for 40 minutes.

I absolutely LOVE the gooey butter cupcakes because it makes this recipe so much easier to share with friends and family! No more cutting up messy squares of cake when everyone can have their own individual cake with their own individual crunchy, sweet edges and warm gooey center. And they are cuter. These cupcakes can be made with any combo of cake mix and gooey butter topping...any at all....ooohh the calorific possibilities!!!

Paula Deen's Gooey Butter Cake (Chocolate Peanut Butter variation!)

Ingredients:

Cake:
1 18 1/4-ounce chocolate cake mix
1 egg
1/2 c (1 stick) butter, melted

Filling:
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 c (1 stick) butter, melted

1 16-ounce box powdered sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well with an electric mixer. Pat the 3/4 mixture into the bottom of an 8x8 inch pan. Divide the rest of the mixture among 6 cupcake liners and pat down into mini crusts.

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla, peanut butter, butter and beat together.

Next, add the powdered sugar and mix well. Spread 3/4 of the mixture over cake batter in 8x8 inch pan and divide the rest among the 6 cupcake liners. Bake cupcakes for 15-18 minutes and 8x8 inch cake for 40-45 minutes. Make sure not to over bake as the center should be a little gooey.

Donut Cake

2010-04-15T13:46:00.001-07:00

Paula Deen. Butter. Enough said.

I've seen the recipe for Paula Deen's Gooey Butter Cake on the foodnetwork.com website about a million times but I had no idea what butter cake was. Then I saw this post which raved about how delicious butter cake was...and compared it to cotton candy, spun sugar and creme brulee topping. The cotton candy thing sold me. I threw the recipe together for a small picnic near Laguna Beach having absolutely no idea what to expect. Make sure to let the cake cool completely because the topping is still liquid after it comes out of the oven. I made the mistake of only letting it cool for about an hour and my gooey topping oozed off! I suppose thats okay if you are serving the entire thing right away, but if not make sure to wait till it solidified a little.

The cake is a yeast cake that was moist, tender and not overly sweet. But that's okay because the gooey topping was the star of this recipe. There was a very thin layer at the top that was sweet and crunchy- almost like the caramelized sugar on top of a creme brulee- then underneath that was rich, gooey, sweet goodness that was somehow 100x better than frosting on a cake. The entire cake was buttery with a light base and rich topping. Also, it tasted exactly like a donut. At least to me and my boyfriend. No idea why, can't explain it, but it did. But it was still delicious and he still licked the bowl clean. And then ate another piece cold from the fridge later because he claims he likes it better cold. We will be calling this the Donut Cake from now on. The delicious Donut Cake that I'm only allowing myself to make every 2 months or else we won't be able to roll ourselves out the front door.

It's hard to really describe this cake unless you've tried it...so you should try it! It's easy and you'll like it. and if you don't, you can give the rest to your neighbors.

Oven Frying

2010-03-22T01:10:00.000-07:00

Oven frying is great. If you know me, you know I have this internal struggle with unhealthy food and staying fit and healthy. Which is why oven frying is so great! This was a basic onion ring recipe (buttermilk ((1 cup milk + 1 tablespoon lemon juice/vinegar)) & breadcrumbs with some spices, coated twice) and I baked them spread out on a cookie sheet in the oven at 400F for 22 minutes, flipping once in the middle. Crispy, tasty, and much better than Carl's Junior! Yum!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Filled Molten Lava Cake

2010-03-13T16:40:00.000-08:00

Molten lava cake is NOT undercooked cake batter. I tried this a few years ago and wound up with a rubbery goop-y mess that did not taste good. It's actually hard to find a real molten lava cake recipe because so many people go the undercooked-batter-route. BUT here's a secret. You can use ANY cake batter you want. ANY. Strawberry, chocolate, peanut butter, almond, red velvet, etc. And the molten chocolate center? It's just a truffle. And you can use ANY type of truffle you want. White chocolate, mint chocolate, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, chocolate hazelnut, etc. IS IT REALLY THAT EASY? Yes, yes it is.

1. Find a cake batter/cupcake recipe you want and make it.

2. Find a truffle recipe you want (or just buy a few truffles from the store). Remember, truffles are just chocolate and heavy cream.

3. Grease and flour a muffin tin well.

4. Drop a little bit of cake batter into the bottom of the tin. Place truffle on top. Pour enough cake batter to cover truffle.

5. Bake.

6. Test with a toothpick on the side- not the middle, or else you'll end up with chocolate.

7. Remove from oven, let cool a minute or two, flip out onto a plate.

8. Top with ice cream and then something else like fudge, caramel, strawberry sauce, etc. The possibilities are endless!

The one that I made was with a peanut butter cupcake batter, home-made chocolate truffles, fudge ice cream and a peanut butter glaze made of some pb, powdered sugar, vanilla and milk.

Can This Be It?

2010-03-08T16:38:00.000-08:00

The exclusive, elusive recipe for Mrs.Field's Chocolate Chip Cookie.

Everyone has a go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe. Mine used to be this one. I was very happy with it too- it created giant chewy delicious chocolate chip cookies. Until one day I started doing my research and found several recipes claiming that the secret to the chewy Mrs.Field's cookies was ground oatmeal. Ground oatmeal?! And then out comes this article from the New York Times claiming that the secret to chocolate chip cookies is letting the dough sit in the fridge for 72 hours.

I brushed those "secrets" aside for a few months until recently I had a mad craving for chocolate chip cookies. My curiosity was sparked and I decided that I absolutely had to try the ground-oatmeal trick and the refrigeration trick. I used this recipe, which can be found all over the internet under the name of "Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookies" or "Mrs.Field's Chocolate Chip Cookies".

What I've found is that refrigerating the dough has always yielded a chewey cookie but this time, I'm not sure if it was the refridgeration proccess or the ground oatmeal that lead to the slightly nutty flavor in the cookies. I was skeptical because of the amount of flour/ground oats to the amount of butter but they turned out chewey with crispy edges anyway. If you are trying to get a chewy (any type of) cookie, my advice would be to refrigerate the dough at least 24 hours and bake until the very edges are just barely golden brown. Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet for 2-3 minutes (they keep cooking as they cool on the sheet) and then slide them off. I've never had a problem with getting chewy chocolate chip cookies in the first place so I can't say much abou this recipe other than if done right, like other recipes, will give you a chewy delicious chocolate chip cookie.

"Mrs.Field's Chocolate Chip Cookie"

Cream together

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

Add

2 eggs

1 tsp. real vanilla extract

Mix together

2 cups all-purpose flour

2½ cups oatmeal (blended into a fine powder)

½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

Mix all ingredients well, then add one 24-ounce bag of milk (or semi-sweet) chocolate chips and 1½ cups chopped walnuts/pecans (optional). Drop 1" balls on ungreased cookie sheets, two inches apart, and bake at 375° for 6-8 minutes.

Caramel Peanut Topped Brownie Squares

2010-03-08T10:07:00.000-08:00

In trying to figure out how I could use up a bunch of random leftover baking ingredients, these brownies were born!

The idea is from Dorie Greenspan's Baking From my Home to Yours. Her recipe is for Caramel-Peanut-Topped Brownie Cake. I stole the topping and used a regular brownie recipe because brownie cake sounds a little too cakey for me- I like my brownie-esque things to be fudgy and chewy.

I cut the sugar down in the brownie recipe because I thought the addition of the topping would make it too sweet. The topping was actually perfect- the salty peanuts contrasted with the fresh caramel very well and the chocolate brownie complimented the whole thing making it taste like a chewy, not-too-sweet snicker's bar. They were really yummy and the fact that they weren't too sweet made it possible to eat more than one...and two...and three...without feeling the need to stop...

If you like gooey fudgy caramel-y desserts this is probably for you :)

Brooke's Bombshell Brownies

Adapted for this recipe from Allrecipes.com

1 cup butter, melted
2 1/2 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x13 baking dish.
2. Combine the melted butter, sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each, until thoroughly blended.
3. Sift or just whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Gradually stir the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture until blended. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared baking dish. 4. Bake in preheated oven until an inserted toothpick comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Remove, and cool pan on wire rack before cutting.

Caramel Peanut Topping

Dorie Greenspan Baking From My Home To Yours

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup water

1 1/2 tablespoons light corn syrup

2/3 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temp

1 cup salted peanuts

1. Put the sugar, water adn corn syrup in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan, stir just to combine the ingredients and then put the pan over medium high heat. Heat, without stirring, until the caramel turns a deep amber, 5-10 minutes. Wipe down any splatters of sugar on the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in cold water. To test the color of the caramel, drop a bit on a white plate. Darker is better!

2. Lower the heat a bit and standing back from the saucepan- the caramel will bubble and spatter- add the cream and butter. When the spatters are less vehement, stir to calm down the caramel adn dissolve any lumps.

3. Stir in the peanuts and pour caramel onto the brownies.

4. Let cool about 20 minutes.

Marble Cake

2010-03-08T09:48:00.001-08:00

I have a bowl full of eggs in my fridge and no idea what to do with them. I also have a few tubs of sour cream. So, as I was madly prowling around the internet looking for a recipe that called for a lot of eggs and possibly included some sour cream, I stumbled upon a recipe for Marble Cake.

Marble cake makes me think of those Asian bakeries that sell the loaves of black and white cake in the counters. I've never really been a fan until recently...but then again, I've never been a fan of a lot of things until recently (I think I'm getting old). This cake is moist and not that sweet with a very good contrast between the chocolate and vanilla flavors. In fact, it's a little addictive.

Marble Cake

from House of Annie

Ingredients:
3 sticks (12 oz) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

2 cups sugar

6 extra-large eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

3 cups (15 oz) bleached all-purpose flour

1/2 cup plain yogurt, full fat preferred (I used half a cup of sour cream here instead)

1/2 cup whole milk

100g (3.5oz) semi-sweet chocolate

1 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (optional)

1 Tbsp Grand Marnier (optional)
Method
1. Preheat oven to 325 F.

2. Put chocolate in a dry, clean bowl and melt in microwave oven in 30-second intervals, stirring till you get a smooth paste. Remove and let cool.

3. In a stand mixer, or a hand mixer, cream together butter and sugar till mixture is fluffy and sugar has been cut in well.

4. Add eggs, one at a time. Beat on med-high speed for about 20 seconds after each egg, and scrape down before adding the next one.

5. Add the vanilla and mix to combine.

6. Add dry ingredients in three portions, interspersing with the yogurt and milk and stir gently. So basically, this means 1/3 dry ingredients, yogurt, 1/3 dry ingredients, milk, final third dry ingredient. Stir till all traces of flour is gone.

7. Take out half of the vanilla cake batter and drop it into the baking pan. Add the melted chocolate and cocoa powder and Grand Marnier (if using) to the remaining batter and stir it.

8.. Interspersing globs of vanilla batter with chocolate batter, drop batter into pan.

9. Using your spatula, twirl the batter together using a figure-eight motion to mix the batter up to get that nice pretty marble design. Don’t overmix.

10. Smooth out the top of your pan and put cake in oven to bake. If you’re using loaf pans, start to test the cake after about 40 minutes. If using your bundt, it will need about 1 hour (test after 55 minutes). Cake tester should come out clean when it’s done.

Mardi Gras cake

2010-03-02T10:59:00.000-08:00