If you are a Daring Baker, chances are you came by to check on my chocolate eclairs. As usual I procrastinated but then today ended up with bad baking mojo! I have learned from experience that when one recipe fails, I may as well hang up my apron for the day.
I may attempt the eclairs tomorrow if I end up with time on my hands. I do have the day off, and all the ingredients, so we'll see.
These plum cakes are a gem from the Baking with Julia tv series and accompanying cookbook. I have been recording all the old episodes on PBS to try to learn something, and this recipe seemed so simple and summery - finally, a fruit dessert that doesn't cover up the taste and freshness of the fruit!
I even bought ramekins for this dish, since I didn't have enough.
Well, I think I just tried taking too many shortcuts. I didn't have buttermilk, so I added vinegar to the milk, and probably didn't wait long enough. I mixed everything by hand so I'm not convinced the butter and sugars creamed enough. I divided the recipe by half.
It isn't ... bad, exactly. The batter just isn't holding the plum as much as it should. The creme chantilly that I made is good though. And you can definitely taste the plums, maybe too much.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Summer Means Blackberry Pie
On the day of the great wine berry quest, all I came home with were blackberries. So I made a pie. And it was beautiful.
That's all you're getting out of me for tonight, I'm afraid.
What dessert means summer for you?
That's all you're getting out of me for tonight, I'm afraid.
What dessert means summer for you?
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Just Baked Bakery Cafe in Topsail Island, NC
I spent last week at the beach in North Carolina. Bakeries in tourist towns have always interested me, because I have wonder if it is really possible to survive as a business with seasonal customers. Just Baked Bakery Cafe proves it is possible.
Two years ago, Just Baked was just a small little bakery, and it has now expanded into a larger space, also serving lunch and dinner. It is to my chagrin that I only decided to go here on my way out of town, since their lunch menu looked amazing and the smells that were coming from the kitchen would have brought me back daily.
Since I was there during breakfast, most of the offerings were pastries, muffins, and scones. They had already put out cookies, pies, and breads for the day, and I could see cupcakes and cakes cooling in the back.
You can look at the Just Baked Bakery Cafe website to see pictures of their cakes and other menu items. One night for dinner we had some bread that was like a cross between Italian and foccacia, and was delicious - nice air pockets, chewy, and flavorful.
Originally, I thought I'd just want to return to Topsail Island for the beauty of the ocean. Now I have two reasons to return!
Categories: Bakery, Blueberries, Pastry
Two years ago, Just Baked was just a small little bakery, and it has now expanded into a larger space, also serving lunch and dinner. It is to my chagrin that I only decided to go here on my way out of town, since their lunch menu looked amazing and the smells that were coming from the kitchen would have brought me back daily.
Since I was there during breakfast, most of the offerings were pastries, muffins, and scones. They had already put out cookies, pies, and breads for the day, and I could see cupcakes and cakes cooling in the back.
You can look at the Just Baked Bakery Cafe website to see pictures of their cakes and other menu items. One night for dinner we had some bread that was like a cross between Italian and foccacia, and was delicious - nice air pockets, chewy, and flavorful.
Originally, I thought I'd just want to return to Topsail Island for the beauty of the ocean. Now I have two reasons to return!
Categories: Bakery, Blueberries, Pastry
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Honey Peach Tart with Fresh Peach Ice Cream
To anyone looking here for the Daring Bakers challenge, I skipped this month! But I had a sack (known as bag in these parts) of fresh local peaches that I needed to do something with. I decided I had to make fresh peach ice cream, and made a lovely rustic honey peach tart to serve underneath.
Ha, I say that like the ice cream was the main attraction. Actually, the peaches are. It is always a challenge to find recipes that utilize fresh fruit without masking its freshness and flavor completely. The nice thing about the tart is that the crust is rolled thin and only is folded up around the edge, allowing the peaches to be the focus of the flavor. Since they are in one layer, they don't need to be mixed with much, and are in fact layered on top of a sprinkling of flour and sugar and drizzled with honey. The recipe is here but the baking time is 10 minutes too long, so really keep an eye on your crust.
The peach ice cream recipe comes again from The Perfect Scoop, and was interesting because it contained sour cream. The flavor was superb and a great show case for these South Carolina peaches.
For a closing word on South Carolina peaches, I turn to Stephen Colbert.
Categories: Ice Cream, Peaches, Tart
Ha, I say that like the ice cream was the main attraction. Actually, the peaches are. It is always a challenge to find recipes that utilize fresh fruit without masking its freshness and flavor completely. The nice thing about the tart is that the crust is rolled thin and only is folded up around the edge, allowing the peaches to be the focus of the flavor. Since they are in one layer, they don't need to be mixed with much, and are in fact layered on top of a sprinkling of flour and sugar and drizzled with honey. The recipe is here but the baking time is 10 minutes too long, so really keep an eye on your crust.
The peach ice cream recipe comes again from The Perfect Scoop, and was interesting because it contained sour cream. The flavor was superb and a great show case for these South Carolina peaches.
For a closing word on South Carolina peaches, I turn to Stephen Colbert.
Categories: Ice Cream, Peaches, Tart
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Chocolate Chip Cookie Olympics
Today is my 2nd blogiversary! To celebrate I originally intended to do something elaborate and involved, but then I came across Cream Puffs in Venice's entry on the chocolate chip cookie heard round the world, and hit inspiration.
You know, there are a lot of chocolate chip cookie recipes out there, since it is such a classic. A lot of them claim to be the best. So I figured, why not put them to the test!
Before we get to the challenge, please get to know our judges, some of the staff and faculty of the library at Furman University, where I am privileged to be the music librarian. I brought the three recipes of chocolate chip cookies to break today and encouraged feedback. I think most people had at least three cookies, so they were prepared to give a score!
Let's start with what I've named the Urban Legend Cookies. I'm sure you've heard the story, or something similar, where someone ate at the Neiman Marcus cafe, liked a cookie, asked for the recipe, and was charged $250 for it. To get back, they have made this recipe freely available to you, and please forward it to all of your friends. I first made this recipe years ago, back when I actually read forwards in my e-mail, and laughed when my Mom sent it to me the other day like it was something new.
You can check out Snopes.com if you want to know if the story has any truth, but true or not, this story at least has longevity. I included it merely for its story, knowing I didn't care much for the cookie itself. Ground up oats is a terrific idea, but there are simply too many dry ingredients in this cookie for my taste.
Neiman Marcus offers a recipe on their web site to counter the urban legend, but this is not the one I made (although it actually sounds pretty good). Instead I made the one that has been forwarded to me, and now you can too, if you want. My mixer wouldn't even hold the entire thing, and I would recommend halving it.
The second recipe vying for gold was the original Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, what most people think of as chocolate chip cookies. That is the most frequent comment made from the "judges," that this recipe was what they remembered from childhood. The texture was also remarked on. I have to admit, I cheat on this recipe a bit - instead of using 1 cup butter, I used half butter and half margarine because they stay softer longer. Other than that, this is THE original recipe, and is what I would recommend if you just want something classic.
A few more than half of the judges picked the Jacques Torres chocolate chip cookie as being their favorite. This is the recipe Cream Puff posted about as well, and I don't understand the science any more than she did, but the strangest step is leaving the dough in the fridge for 24 hours. It did have much more depth of flavor than the other two, and seemed to hint or beg of orange, despite a lack of citrus. For some of the judges, it was far too salty, and did indeed have 3 times as much salt as the other two recipes.
For the cookie olympics of 2008, the Jacques Torres recipe gets the gold by a millisecond. The traditional Tollhouse recipe wins the silver, and the urban legend Neiman Marcus arrives at a distant third, but picks up the bronze medal.
For a funnier take on chocolate chip cookies, please visit my good friends at Cakespy. Okay, I've never met them, but they're the kind of people you want to claim to know.
Categories: Chocolate, Cookies
You know, there are a lot of chocolate chip cookie recipes out there, since it is such a classic. A lot of them claim to be the best. So I figured, why not put them to the test!
Before we get to the challenge, please get to know our judges, some of the staff and faculty of the library at Furman University, where I am privileged to be the music librarian. I brought the three recipes of chocolate chip cookies to break today and encouraged feedback. I think most people had at least three cookies, so they were prepared to give a score!
Let's start with what I've named the Urban Legend Cookies. I'm sure you've heard the story, or something similar, where someone ate at the Neiman Marcus cafe, liked a cookie, asked for the recipe, and was charged $250 for it. To get back, they have made this recipe freely available to you, and please forward it to all of your friends. I first made this recipe years ago, back when I actually read forwards in my e-mail, and laughed when my Mom sent it to me the other day like it was something new.
You can check out Snopes.com if you want to know if the story has any truth, but true or not, this story at least has longevity. I included it merely for its story, knowing I didn't care much for the cookie itself. Ground up oats is a terrific idea, but there are simply too many dry ingredients in this cookie for my taste.
Neiman Marcus offers a recipe on their web site to counter the urban legend, but this is not the one I made (although it actually sounds pretty good). Instead I made the one that has been forwarded to me, and now you can too, if you want. My mixer wouldn't even hold the entire thing, and I would recommend halving it.
The second recipe vying for gold was the original Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, what most people think of as chocolate chip cookies. That is the most frequent comment made from the "judges," that this recipe was what they remembered from childhood. The texture was also remarked on. I have to admit, I cheat on this recipe a bit - instead of using 1 cup butter, I used half butter and half margarine because they stay softer longer. Other than that, this is THE original recipe, and is what I would recommend if you just want something classic.
A few more than half of the judges picked the Jacques Torres chocolate chip cookie as being their favorite. This is the recipe Cream Puff posted about as well, and I don't understand the science any more than she did, but the strangest step is leaving the dough in the fridge for 24 hours. It did have much more depth of flavor than the other two, and seemed to hint or beg of orange, despite a lack of citrus. For some of the judges, it was far too salty, and did indeed have 3 times as much salt as the other two recipes.
For the cookie olympics of 2008, the Jacques Torres recipe gets the gold by a millisecond. The traditional Tollhouse recipe wins the silver, and the urban legend Neiman Marcus arrives at a distant third, but picks up the bronze medal.
For a funnier take on chocolate chip cookies, please visit my good friends at Cakespy. Okay, I've never met them, but they're the kind of people you want to claim to know.
Categories: Chocolate, Cookies
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Ice Cream Intuition
I'm not sure if ice cream belongs in a baking blog, but since I got a beautiful ice cream maker for my birthday, I thought I would share about the experience.
With baking, I have made certain things long enough where I really have bake by "feel" in addition to following a recipe. I know the texture things should be before I move on to the next step. My goal by the end of the summer is to develop the same skill with ice cream. Believe me when I tell you it has not happened yet.
The first day that I made ice cream, I had selected pear-caramel ice cream from The Perfect Scoop. I had well-chilled the bowl, and had all the ingredients. Unfortunately, the pears had not ripened. I combed through the book, and didn't have everything for chocolate or coffee, but kept seeing this recipe for basil ice cream!
I happened to have a counter full of basil I had trimmed from my huge plant, needing a destination. Despite the fact that everyone at my house that day seemed to think basil ice cream was a strange idea, I plowed full speed ahead and made it anyway. My new fridge is a Samsung with a quick-chill drawer in it, so after cooling the mixture in an ice bath, I stuck it in that drawer to get chilly quickly. It seemed to work; by the time I poured the mixture into the frozen ice cream maker bin, the mixture had started to thicken.
The end result was a lovely, smooth ice cream the texture of soft-serve, although it melted very quickly. I could have put it in the freezer and waited to serve it until it had hardened, but the process is a long one, and we were all ready. Basil ice cream is incredibly summery - not too sweet, very fresh, and if you can manage not to think of pesto cream sauce while you are eating it, it is pretty incredible. I would not hesitate to make it again!
After one success, I thought it would be easy to make something else. When the pears finally ripened, i started off to make pear-caramel ice cream. I'm not sure why, if the recipe just didn't have the same binding agents (no egg yolks in that one) or if I was just simply impatient with the mixture, but after 30 minutes churning around in the machine it never set up at all. If I had been less frustrated, I could have dumped the mixture back into the fridge overnight, but it went down the garbage disposal.
Chocolate ice cream was to be my next feat. However I did not just want plain chocolate ice cream, and I knew I could supposedly add ingredients the last 5 minutes of churning. For some reason, making chocolate Hob Nobs ice cream entered my head and just would not leave. When I realized our friend Brian, who recently moved to London, had a birthday coming up, I decided to make Chocolate Hob Nobs ice cream in his honor.
Hob Nobs were one of the things I lived on when I was traveling in the UK, because they are these amazing oaty nobbly cookies with chocolate coating that come in a can, and are easy to stick in a backpack. I came across them at Whole Foods Market and snagged the last two cans!
The first time I tried it, the mixture smelled amazing but didn't set up. I knew I had merely been impatient, because the mixture was thick and coated the spoon just like it was supposed to. I re-chilled it and tried again, and this time it churned up beautifully. I added smashed up Hob Nobs to the churning mixture the last five minutes. We ate a bit of it right out of the ice cream maker, but froze the rest to give it more of a normal ice cream look, which is what you see here. (Happy birthday, Brian!)
Two successful tries down, many more to go. I am also desperate to find a frozen custard recipe, since we miss Ritter's in Indiana. What is your favorite type of ice cream?
ETA: If you are a LiveJournal user, you can now subscribe to this blog using their syndicated feed.
Categories: Basil, Chocolate, Ice Cream
With baking, I have made certain things long enough where I really have bake by "feel" in addition to following a recipe. I know the texture things should be before I move on to the next step. My goal by the end of the summer is to develop the same skill with ice cream. Believe me when I tell you it has not happened yet.
The first day that I made ice cream, I had selected pear-caramel ice cream from The Perfect Scoop. I had well-chilled the bowl, and had all the ingredients. Unfortunately, the pears had not ripened. I combed through the book, and didn't have everything for chocolate or coffee, but kept seeing this recipe for basil ice cream!
I happened to have a counter full of basil I had trimmed from my huge plant, needing a destination. Despite the fact that everyone at my house that day seemed to think basil ice cream was a strange idea, I plowed full speed ahead and made it anyway. My new fridge is a Samsung with a quick-chill drawer in it, so after cooling the mixture in an ice bath, I stuck it in that drawer to get chilly quickly. It seemed to work; by the time I poured the mixture into the frozen ice cream maker bin, the mixture had started to thicken.
The end result was a lovely, smooth ice cream the texture of soft-serve, although it melted very quickly. I could have put it in the freezer and waited to serve it until it had hardened, but the process is a long one, and we were all ready. Basil ice cream is incredibly summery - not too sweet, very fresh, and if you can manage not to think of pesto cream sauce while you are eating it, it is pretty incredible. I would not hesitate to make it again!
After one success, I thought it would be easy to make something else. When the pears finally ripened, i started off to make pear-caramel ice cream. I'm not sure why, if the recipe just didn't have the same binding agents (no egg yolks in that one) or if I was just simply impatient with the mixture, but after 30 minutes churning around in the machine it never set up at all. If I had been less frustrated, I could have dumped the mixture back into the fridge overnight, but it went down the garbage disposal.
Chocolate ice cream was to be my next feat. However I did not just want plain chocolate ice cream, and I knew I could supposedly add ingredients the last 5 minutes of churning. For some reason, making chocolate Hob Nobs ice cream entered my head and just would not leave. When I realized our friend Brian, who recently moved to London, had a birthday coming up, I decided to make Chocolate Hob Nobs ice cream in his honor.
Hob Nobs were one of the things I lived on when I was traveling in the UK, because they are these amazing oaty nobbly cookies with chocolate coating that come in a can, and are easy to stick in a backpack. I came across them at Whole Foods Market and snagged the last two cans!
The first time I tried it, the mixture smelled amazing but didn't set up. I knew I had merely been impatient, because the mixture was thick and coated the spoon just like it was supposed to. I re-chilled it and tried again, and this time it churned up beautifully. I added smashed up Hob Nobs to the churning mixture the last five minutes. We ate a bit of it right out of the ice cream maker, but froze the rest to give it more of a normal ice cream look, which is what you see here. (Happy birthday, Brian!)
Two successful tries down, many more to go. I am also desperate to find a frozen custard recipe, since we miss Ritter's in Indiana. What is your favorite type of ice cream?
ETA: If you are a LiveJournal user, you can now subscribe to this blog using their syndicated feed.
Categories: Basil, Chocolate, Ice Cream
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Blueberry and Blackberry Galette with Cornmeal Crust
After my recent blueberry picking ventures, I have been on the hunt for recipes that would allow me to use my berries without masking their flavor completely with sugar and pastry. Enter the blueberry and blackberry galette with cornmeal crust, in the most recent issue of Cooking Light! (Thanks Libby!)
I'm actually not sure there is anything light about this recipe. The crust has a stick and a half of butter, and the berries are mixed with regular sugar.... But who cares, really, it was incredibly tasty.
The cornmeal in the crust was a nice textural addition. I think if I made this again I might make individual tarts, since the large one almost didn't fit on a sheet pan and leaked all over my brand new oven.
Blueberry and Blackberry Galette with Cornmeal Crust
Recipe from Cooking Light
Ingredients
Pastry:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (about 7 3/4 ounces)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup cornmeal
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/3 cup fat-free buttermilk
Filling:
4 cups blueberries
2 cups blackberries
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons fat-free milk
1 large egg white
1 1/2 tablespoons turbinado sugar
Preparation
1. To prepare pastry, lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine flour and next 3 ingredients (through salt) in a food processor; pulse two times. Add butter to flour mixture; pulse 4 to 5 times or until mixture resembles coarse meal. With processor on, slowly add buttermilk through food chute; process just until dough forms a ball. Gently press dough into a 4-inch circle on plastic wrap; cover. Chill 30 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 350°.
3. Unwrap and place dough on a sheet of parchment paper. Roll dough into a 15-inch circle. Place dough and parchment on a baking sheet.
4. To prepare filling, combine berries and next 3 ingredients (through juice) in a medium bowl; toss gently to coat. Arrange berry mixture in center of dough, leaving a 2-inch border. Fold edges of dough toward center, pressing gently to seal (dough will only partially cover berry mixture).
5. Combine fat-free milk and egg white in a small bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Brush dough with milk mixture; sprinkle turbinado sugar evenly over dough. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until pastry is golden brown. Let stand 30 minutes; cut into wedges.
Yield
10 servings (serving size: 1 wedge)
Categories: Blackberries, Blueberries, Buttermilk, Pastry, Tart
I'm actually not sure there is anything light about this recipe. The crust has a stick and a half of butter, and the berries are mixed with regular sugar.... But who cares, really, it was incredibly tasty.
The cornmeal in the crust was a nice textural addition. I think if I made this again I might make individual tarts, since the large one almost didn't fit on a sheet pan and leaked all over my brand new oven.
Blueberry and Blackberry Galette with Cornmeal Crust
Recipe from Cooking Light
Ingredients
Pastry:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (about 7 3/4 ounces)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup cornmeal
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/3 cup fat-free buttermilk
Filling:
4 cups blueberries
2 cups blackberries
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons fat-free milk
1 large egg white
1 1/2 tablespoons turbinado sugar
Preparation
1. To prepare pastry, lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine flour and next 3 ingredients (through salt) in a food processor; pulse two times. Add butter to flour mixture; pulse 4 to 5 times or until mixture resembles coarse meal. With processor on, slowly add buttermilk through food chute; process just until dough forms a ball. Gently press dough into a 4-inch circle on plastic wrap; cover. Chill 30 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 350°.
3. Unwrap and place dough on a sheet of parchment paper. Roll dough into a 15-inch circle. Place dough and parchment on a baking sheet.
4. To prepare filling, combine berries and next 3 ingredients (through juice) in a medium bowl; toss gently to coat. Arrange berry mixture in center of dough, leaving a 2-inch border. Fold edges of dough toward center, pressing gently to seal (dough will only partially cover berry mixture).
5. Combine fat-free milk and egg white in a small bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Brush dough with milk mixture; sprinkle turbinado sugar evenly over dough. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until pastry is golden brown. Let stand 30 minutes; cut into wedges.
Yield
10 servings (serving size: 1 wedge)
Categories: Blackberries, Blueberries, Buttermilk, Pastry, Tart
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Daring Bakers - Danish Braid
I had made the Danish Braid from Baking with Julia last January, so when the June Daring Bakers Challenge was announced, I felt ready to meet this challenge head on. This time the recipe comes from The Secrets of Baking by Sherry Yard, and can be found at one of the two host(ess)'s sites for this challenge - Kelly from Sass & Veracity, or Ben from What's Cooking?.
I have a history of procrastination for challenges, but this time I had a really good excuse - we moved during the month of June! This is the first time I have owned a home, so it is all very exciting, and this was only my second baking project in my new kitchen. I am a little more hesitant to get this one dirty, but seeing how it has been cleaned successfully several times now, maybe I'll get over it.
I did not start the dough until 10:30 last night or so, which was a MISTAKE. After the dough comes together, you have to roll it out, fold it up, and let it chill again 4-5 times. Thank goodness some friends were online to talk to me until 2:30 this morning, or I might have had an entirely different end result.
To me the main difference with this dough compared to Julia's recipe is that this has orange and cardamom in it, and I really noticed it this morning after the dough had chilled its minimum five hours and I was rolling it out to make it into the braid.
Friday, I took the day off, and spent the morning picking blueberries at The Happy Berry in Six Mile, SC with some friends. I knew I wanted to use them somehow with this baking challenge, because seasonal local produce can't be beat! Down here in South Carolina we passed strawberries and rhubarb long ago, and are barreling down the path toward peaches at this point, but that means that blueberries are perfectly in season. I found a random blueberry filling recipe and cream cheese filling recipe online, but since that was after four and a half hours of sleep, I'm not sure I can find it again. Somewhere on the internet, but they proved sufficient. I deliberately undercooked the blueberry part, wanting to make sure we could still taste the freshness of the berry.
The biggest misstep I made in this recipe was the beurrage, or butter block, stage. After seeing so many entries today, I see that it should have been more of a spreadable texture. But if you start with cold butter, and only have a Sunbeam mixer, nothing cohesive was going to happen. So I actually ended up grating the butter, mixing it with the flour, and sprinkling it on the dough during the first roll out. I feel like that worked pretty well, and it never got too warm to work with nor did it poke out of the sides, but I wonder how the end result would have been different if I had done that part more accurately.
Now to figure out what to do with the other half of the dough - I've seen some great examples of bear claws and chocolate croissants, I need to try one of those!
Categories: Blueberries, Breakfast, Cardamom, Danish, Daring Bakers, Pastry
I have a history of procrastination for challenges, but this time I had a really good excuse - we moved during the month of June! This is the first time I have owned a home, so it is all very exciting, and this was only my second baking project in my new kitchen. I am a little more hesitant to get this one dirty, but seeing how it has been cleaned successfully several times now, maybe I'll get over it.
To me the main difference with this dough compared to Julia's recipe is that this has orange and cardamom in it, and I really noticed it this morning after the dough had chilled its minimum five hours and I was rolling it out to make it into the braid.
Now to figure out what to do with the other half of the dough - I've seen some great examples of bear claws and chocolate croissants, I need to try one of those!
Categories: Blueberries, Breakfast, Cardamom, Danish, Daring Bakers, Pastry
Monday, June 23, 2008
Cookbook Review - Big Fat Cookies!
A co-worker lent me a few cookbooks and I have been eyeing this one throughout my move. The shiny pictures and easy to follow recipes lured me in, but the hardest part was picking which ones to try. I'm intrigued by the Pine Nut and Fig Round Ups as well as the Currant Cornmeal Crunch Cookies, but both of those were under the crunchy category.
And, well, I'm more of a soft cookie girl.
Growing up, my Mom often made morning glory muffins, full of carrots and coconut and nuts. The Morning Glory Breakfast Cookie is more like a muffin top, but in a handy cookie shape. My husband and I sometimes order Erin Baker's Breakfast Cookies online and love them, so I am always looking for a recipe that will come close. These aren't quite dense enough to be like those, but still delicious.
The other cookie I chose was the black and white cookie. These aren't typically the kind of cookie I would pick but I liked the idea of making them. The cookie dough is a lemon-scented buttermilk sugar cookie, and you use the bottoms to have a smooth surface to put the two glazes on. These were really fun to make, and have a lot more flavor than I expected.
So hooray! The first baking project in my new kitchen - two cookie recipes in two hours!
Categories: Apples, Breakfast, Buttermilk, Carrots, Chocolate, Coconut, Cookies, Lemon, Raisins
And, well, I'm more of a soft cookie girl.
Growing up, my Mom often made morning glory muffins, full of carrots and coconut and nuts. The Morning Glory Breakfast Cookie is more like a muffin top, but in a handy cookie shape. My husband and I sometimes order Erin Baker's Breakfast Cookies online and love them, so I am always looking for a recipe that will come close. These aren't quite dense enough to be like those, but still delicious.
The other cookie I chose was the black and white cookie. These aren't typically the kind of cookie I would pick but I liked the idea of making them. The cookie dough is a lemon-scented buttermilk sugar cookie, and you use the bottoms to have a smooth surface to put the two glazes on. These were really fun to make, and have a lot more flavor than I expected.
So hooray! The first baking project in my new kitchen - two cookie recipes in two hours!
Categories: Apples, Breakfast, Buttermilk, Carrots, Chocolate, Coconut, Cookies, Lemon, Raisins
Monday, June 16, 2008
Organized but not unpacked
This is my kitchen - spots are designated, but boxes still aren't unpacked, and half of it is still in the last place.
Coming soon - the first baking project in my new kitchen!
And yes, I totally did a sticky note organization method, because I couldn't decide where everything would go.
Coming soon - the first baking project in my new kitchen!
And yes, I totally did a sticky note organization method, because I couldn't decide where everything would go.
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Cookbook Tourism - Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Every time I travel, I try to buy a cookbook. As a result I have quite the regional cookbook collection! I often make piles of cookbooks to go through when I bring home an ingredient without a specific plan for it. This weekend, it was zucchini from the farmer's market in downtown Greenville. I was hoping for some kind of fruit, but we must have hit it post strawberry/rhubarb season but too early for blueberries.
It isn't like I've never made chocolate zucchini bread or cake before, but this recipe in particular comes from Clayton Farms B&B in Grinnell, IA. The recipe is from the Sampling Iowa Treasures Cookbook that I purchased from the only bed and breakfast in Prarie City, IA - Country Connection. Nathaniel and I stayed there as we moved across the country from Oregon to Indiana. It was a memorable day, because we managed to find enough time to go to the Iowa State Fair in the hottest weather we had ever experienced, managed to blow out the tires on the car we were carrying behind the moving truck (forgot to take off the emergency break), and the people running the B&B had an interesting conversation philosophy. I don't remember specifics, this was 2000, but I remember the breakfast conversation being very morbid.
Still, I may never visit Iowa again. But it can be nice to visit via my Iowa B&B Cookbook!
Chocolate Zucchini Bread
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil*
2 cups sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla
2 cups peeled, shredded zucchini
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp baking powder
Beat eggs, oil, sugar, and vanilla together. Stir in the zucchini. Mix together all the dry ingredients and add to previous mixture. Mix well and pour into two greased and floured 4x8x2 inch loaf pans. Bake at 350 for one hour or until it tests done.
* I was out of veg oil, so I used half butter and half olive oil. As moist as zucchini is, I was surprised to see such a high fat content in this recipe! I need to learn more about making recipes more healthful.
I also baked this in a bundt pan, because I hate my silicon loaf pan.
I have to admit that this recipe feels so boring to me, but only because I've had it a million times. It doesn't mean it is any less delicious. I'm in the middle of moving to the first home we've ever bought, so I had to grab something quick. Next week, depending on how together I am, you may see the first post from my new kitchen. In the meantime, please go to absolutely favorite baking blog, Cakespy, to see how they turned garden vegetables that aren't typically featured in baking into tasty treats. You won't regret it. (I'm still waiting for my brussel sprouts cupcake, personally).
ETA: This is my 100th post! Happy 100th post to me! I'll be celebrating my 2nd anniversary soon of blogging, so stay tuned!
Categories: Bread, Breakfast, Chocolate, Cinnamon, Zucchini
Monday, June 02, 2008
Blueberry-Blackberry Honey Butter-Glazed Scones
I was searching for a recipe to make to thank the people involved in a weeding project on the first day of summer in the library, and what is better than a scone that is stuffed with berries and glazed with honey? Yum.
This recipe comes from Passion for Baking, a cookbook I was given for the holidays but haven't made a lot from yet. The recipes are beautifully presented with good tips and nice photographs.
The main trick this recipe uses is to add a glaze to a scone, to extend its shelf life. It makes sense that my favorite scone recipe has a cinnamon-sugar glaze. Most of the time I tend to make scones that are more appropriate for jam and clotted cream, but these are more along the lines of coffee house scones.
Blueberry-Blackberry Honey Butter-Glazed Scones
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 cup, approximately, whipping cream
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1 large egg
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 - 3/4 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 - 3/4 cup frozen blackberries
Milk or melted butter for brushing*
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup unsalted butter
Put lemon juice in a 1 cup measuring cup, pour in whipping cream to 1-cup mark, and let stand a few minutes to make soured cream.
Preheat oven to 425 F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a food processor, add flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda and blend briefly. Add butter and pulse to make a coarse, grainy mixture.** Turn mixture into a large bowl and make a well in center. Add egg, vanilla, and enough soured cream to make a soft but firm dough. Gently fold in berries.***
Knead briefly on a lightly floured work surface, adding more flour, if required, to make a firm dough. Pat out to 1-inch thickness. Cut into wedges or rounds and place on prepared baking sheets. Brush each scone with milk or melted butter.
Bake until scones are nicely browned, about 16-19 minutes.
Meanwhile, for glaze, heat honey and butter in a liquid measuring cup in a microwave until mixture is just simmering, about 1 1/2 minutes on HIGH, stirring after 45 seconds.
Brush scones lightly with honey-butter glaze as they come out of the oven. Let stand on baking sheet. Repeat with more honey-butter glaze, more generously, about 15 minutes later.
Makes 8-12 scones****
* I somehow missed this step, but this would have added more browning.
** I definitely just went the old-fashioned biscuit method for this step, which is rubbing the butter into the dry ingredients until sandy.
*** I stirred the berries into the crumbly mixture before adding the soured cream.
**** Okay, if you made 8 as I did, they are crazy huge scones. Try 12 or 16 for sure.
Categories: Blackberries, Blueberries, Honey, Scones
This recipe comes from Passion for Baking, a cookbook I was given for the holidays but haven't made a lot from yet. The recipes are beautifully presented with good tips and nice photographs.
The main trick this recipe uses is to add a glaze to a scone, to extend its shelf life. It makes sense that my favorite scone recipe has a cinnamon-sugar glaze. Most of the time I tend to make scones that are more appropriate for jam and clotted cream, but these are more along the lines of coffee house scones.
Blueberry-Blackberry Honey Butter-Glazed Scones
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 cup, approximately, whipping cream
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1 large egg
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 - 3/4 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 - 3/4 cup frozen blackberries
Milk or melted butter for brushing*
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup unsalted butter
Put lemon juice in a 1 cup measuring cup, pour in whipping cream to 1-cup mark, and let stand a few minutes to make soured cream.
Preheat oven to 425 F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a food processor, add flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda and blend briefly. Add butter and pulse to make a coarse, grainy mixture.** Turn mixture into a large bowl and make a well in center. Add egg, vanilla, and enough soured cream to make a soft but firm dough. Gently fold in berries.***
Knead briefly on a lightly floured work surface, adding more flour, if required, to make a firm dough. Pat out to 1-inch thickness. Cut into wedges or rounds and place on prepared baking sheets. Brush each scone with milk or melted butter.
Bake until scones are nicely browned, about 16-19 minutes.
Meanwhile, for glaze, heat honey and butter in a liquid measuring cup in a microwave until mixture is just simmering, about 1 1/2 minutes on HIGH, stirring after 45 seconds.
Brush scones lightly with honey-butter glaze as they come out of the oven. Let stand on baking sheet. Repeat with more honey-butter glaze, more generously, about 15 minutes later.
Makes 8-12 scones****
* I somehow missed this step, but this would have added more browning.
** I definitely just went the old-fashioned biscuit method for this step, which is rubbing the butter into the dry ingredients until sandy.
*** I stirred the berries into the crumbly mixture before adding the soured cream.
**** Okay, if you made 8 as I did, they are crazy huge scones. Try 12 or 16 for sure.
Categories: Blackberries, Blueberries, Honey, Scones
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Daring Bakers Challenge - Opera Cake!
I was so excited to hear that this month's challenge would be opera cake that I ran home and made it the day it was announced.
No, I'm not joking. For those of you who have read my stories of procrastination in the past, I am sure you are shocked. I had many reasons - I had made a strawberry mousse that was not great on its own and needed something to do with it, and the students in the music department were doing an oratorio the next day. I decided my first cake, rather than being an opera cake, would be an oratorio cake!
Before heading home I skimmed through the text of Dona Nobis Pacem by Ralph Vaughan Williams and wrote down some catchy phrases to potentially use in decorating. I went grocery shopping and then raided my cupboards to try to find an interesting flavor combination. I was originally going to do strawberry and cardamom, but then I spied the rosewater that I don't think I had used since making rice pudding almost two years ago. (The thought suddenly occurs to me that maybe it had expired, but I didn't kill anyone). I decided to use strawberry just in the mousse, and rose everywhere else - the cake, the syrup, and the buttercream.
I baked the Oratorio Cake in three rounds rather than using the jelly roll pan approach the first time, but even after an extended amount of time they still were not really done. I tried to flip one over too soon, but then saw how undone it was inside. This picture is the aftermath, after properly baking. Phew, disaster averted. I do like these cake layers with very little flour though. It got me thinking about creative things to do instead of almonds - surely other nuts. I wonder if things such as graham cracker crumbs would have worked. Can you substitute those for nuts or flour? I'll have to try sometime (mental note).
The buttercream wasn't quite as nice as Dorie's recipe but I still had no problems with it breaking or anything. The rose flavor was delicate but nice, and I colored the remainder to decorate the top of the cake. I still had enough left over to make what are now forever known as stress cupcakes.
I ended up being very happy that I had picked round cake pans for the Rose Strawberry Oratorio Cake, since the quotation I liked the most was about the moon. I brought it into the music library the next day. The student workers and a bunch of other students devoured it, in fact I had students coming back in unabashedly asking for seconds. For normal things like cookies or brownies, this doesn't surprise me, but I honestly was not convinced that the rose, almond, white chocolate, and strawberry combination would be pleasing to college student palates.
Since I live in South Carolina, we get a lot of spring fruits coming in really early. This month was the month for strawberries AND rhubarb, and I had been wanting to try something else with rhubarb. When Tartlette made this rhubarb mousse, I e-mailed her to ask if I could borrow the recipe for my opera cake, not wanting to use it if she was planning to. Her recipes are always superb, but this mousse was light and foamy and delicious.
I didn't want to just make a rhubarb opera cake. I decided to incorporate ginger in some way, because it seemed that a lot of traditional rhubarb recipes added ginger. I was at Tea Junction in the local mall and they had premade simple syrups - I almost jumped ship and went with lavender instead of ginger, but ultimately decided the white ginger would be nice. This time I added it to the cake as well as the buttercream, and used it as a substitute for the syrup that is brushed onto the cake layers.
I went ahead and used the three square layers this time around, and was pleased with the result, even if I skipped the white chocolate layer and didn't really decorate. As you can see above I attempted to make a rose out of rolled out crystallized ginger, in a similar way I have seen flowers made out of gumdrops, but it was unwieldy. The toothpicks are an indication of how I prepared it for transportation since the square cake wouldn't fit in my round cake transporter!
I liked the spring flavors in this, but think I would like the chocolate version the most!
This month was hosted by Ivonne from Cream Puffs in Venice, Lis from La Mia Cucina, Fran from Apples Peaches Pumpkin Pie, and Shea of Whiskful. The Daring Bakers have grown so huge, we are now hosting challenges with small armies, in order to involve our newer members before the next century. To view all the Daring Bakers posts for this challenge, please view the blogroll.
Categories: Almond, Buttercream, Cake, Daring Bakers, Ginger, Mousse, Rhubarb, Rose, Strawberry
No, I'm not joking. For those of you who have read my stories of procrastination in the past, I am sure you are shocked. I had many reasons - I had made a strawberry mousse that was not great on its own and needed something to do with it, and the students in the music department were doing an oratorio the next day. I decided my first cake, rather than being an opera cake, would be an oratorio cake!
Before heading home I skimmed through the text of Dona Nobis Pacem by Ralph Vaughan Williams and wrote down some catchy phrases to potentially use in decorating. I went grocery shopping and then raided my cupboards to try to find an interesting flavor combination. I was originally going to do strawberry and cardamom, but then I spied the rosewater that I don't think I had used since making rice pudding almost two years ago. (The thought suddenly occurs to me that maybe it had expired, but I didn't kill anyone). I decided to use strawberry just in the mousse, and rose everywhere else - the cake, the syrup, and the buttercream.
I baked the Oratorio Cake in three rounds rather than using the jelly roll pan approach the first time, but even after an extended amount of time they still were not really done. I tried to flip one over too soon, but then saw how undone it was inside. This picture is the aftermath, after properly baking. Phew, disaster averted. I do like these cake layers with very little flour though. It got me thinking about creative things to do instead of almonds - surely other nuts. I wonder if things such as graham cracker crumbs would have worked. Can you substitute those for nuts or flour? I'll have to try sometime (mental note).
The buttercream wasn't quite as nice as Dorie's recipe but I still had no problems with it breaking or anything. The rose flavor was delicate but nice, and I colored the remainder to decorate the top of the cake. I still had enough left over to make what are now forever known as stress cupcakes.
I ended up being very happy that I had picked round cake pans for the Rose Strawberry Oratorio Cake, since the quotation I liked the most was about the moon. I brought it into the music library the next day. The student workers and a bunch of other students devoured it, in fact I had students coming back in unabashedly asking for seconds. For normal things like cookies or brownies, this doesn't surprise me, but I honestly was not convinced that the rose, almond, white chocolate, and strawberry combination would be pleasing to college student palates.
I didn't want to just make a rhubarb opera cake. I decided to incorporate ginger in some way, because it seemed that a lot of traditional rhubarb recipes added ginger. I was at Tea Junction in the local mall and they had premade simple syrups - I almost jumped ship and went with lavender instead of ginger, but ultimately decided the white ginger would be nice. This time I added it to the cake as well as the buttercream, and used it as a substitute for the syrup that is brushed onto the cake layers.
I went ahead and used the three square layers this time around, and was pleased with the result, even if I skipped the white chocolate layer and didn't really decorate. As you can see above I attempted to make a rose out of rolled out crystallized ginger, in a similar way I have seen flowers made out of gumdrops, but it was unwieldy. The toothpicks are an indication of how I prepared it for transportation since the square cake wouldn't fit in my round cake transporter!
I liked the spring flavors in this, but think I would like the chocolate version the most!
Categories: Almond, Buttercream, Cake, Daring Bakers, Ginger, Mousse, Rhubarb, Rose, Strawberry
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Fruity Mousse(s)
Mousse, which is French for "foam," is usually a light, airy dessert with whipped cream and/or egg whites, often using gelatin to stabilize (see various web definitions). This past month, both strawberries and rhubarb have been available in the sunny state of South Carolina. I was tired of desserts that masked the vivid brightness of these fresh fruits, and thought I would try making mousse to see if that would allow the flavor of the fruit to come through.
At the end of April we drove up to Strawberry Hill USA, a local farm growing strawberries and peaches. We bought a bucket of the largest, juiciest, sweetest strawberries I have ever had, and that is including the 20 years I lived right down the mountain from the Oregon strawberry fields that I would pick in for jam every summer with my Mom and sisters. I knew I didn't have long before they started to go bad, so I used the last half for the strawberry mousse.
Earlier in April I had gone through a bunch of recipes from The Enchanted Broccoli Forest and remembered a fresh strawberry mousse recipe that I had wanted to try. Since the cookbook is vegetarian, it relies on cornstarch as a thickener rather than gelatin. Unfortunately this does cause some issues with texture - instead of the light, foamy, airy feel I was hoping for, it is a bit cloying on the tongue. The heaviness also masks the freshness of the strawberries, and I think a bowl of strawberries may have been preferable to the mousse!
A few weeks later I ran into a recipe for rhubarb mousse on Tartlette's baking blog. She is one of my favorite bakers and I always marvel at how she brings elements together into one beautiful, perfect dessert. She used a rhubarb mousse in a lemon rhubarb marscapone mousse cake (follow the link for pictures and recipe), and my main goal was to use my second batch of rhubarb before it went bad waiting for me to get inspired. Rhubarb is tricky - a lot of people have not ever tried it, some claim to hate it, and I personally had not tasted it at all until last year. I didn't want it to be just rhubarb, and added some white ginger simple syrup that I found at a tea shop in the mall. I purposely allowed the rhubarb to stay a little chunky for some texture.
As opposed to the fresh strawberry mousse, this rhubarb ginger mousse was light, airy, foamy, and delicately flavored. The ginger added just a little punch to counteract the tartness of the rhubarb, which of course was also balanced by the light and sweet of the mousse. If I were to make strawberry mousse again, I would start with this basic mousse recipe.
Categories: Cream, Ginger, Mousse, Rhubarb, Strawberry
At the end of April we drove up to Strawberry Hill USA, a local farm growing strawberries and peaches. We bought a bucket of the largest, juiciest, sweetest strawberries I have ever had, and that is including the 20 years I lived right down the mountain from the Oregon strawberry fields that I would pick in for jam every summer with my Mom and sisters. I knew I didn't have long before they started to go bad, so I used the last half for the strawberry mousse.
Earlier in April I had gone through a bunch of recipes from The Enchanted Broccoli Forest and remembered a fresh strawberry mousse recipe that I had wanted to try. Since the cookbook is vegetarian, it relies on cornstarch as a thickener rather than gelatin. Unfortunately this does cause some issues with texture - instead of the light, foamy, airy feel I was hoping for, it is a bit cloying on the tongue. The heaviness also masks the freshness of the strawberries, and I think a bowl of strawberries may have been preferable to the mousse!
A few weeks later I ran into a recipe for rhubarb mousse on Tartlette's baking blog. She is one of my favorite bakers and I always marvel at how she brings elements together into one beautiful, perfect dessert. She used a rhubarb mousse in a lemon rhubarb marscapone mousse cake (follow the link for pictures and recipe), and my main goal was to use my second batch of rhubarb before it went bad waiting for me to get inspired. Rhubarb is tricky - a lot of people have not ever tried it, some claim to hate it, and I personally had not tasted it at all until last year. I didn't want it to be just rhubarb, and added some white ginger simple syrup that I found at a tea shop in the mall. I purposely allowed the rhubarb to stay a little chunky for some texture.
As opposed to the fresh strawberry mousse, this rhubarb ginger mousse was light, airy, foamy, and delicately flavored. The ginger added just a little punch to counteract the tartness of the rhubarb, which of course was also balanced by the light and sweet of the mousse. If I were to make strawberry mousse again, I would start with this basic mousse recipe.
Categories: Cream, Ginger, Mousse, Rhubarb, Strawberry
Monday, May 05, 2008
Stress Cupcakes
We have been house hunting all weekend and might be buying a home this year. I had some rose buttercream (color and flavor) left over and wanted to do something nice for our real estate agent, because she has spent many hours on us in the last week. What is better than making cupcakes?
Because of a baking project earlier in the week, I was out of eggs. Looking at homes for four hours is too exhausting, and I was adamant about not going to the store. I did a search for vegan cupcake recipes and adapted a chocolate vegan cupcake recipe into a vanilla one. I would have made almond to go with the rose, but was out of almond extract too.
Stress Cupcakes (AKA Rose Vanilla Vegan Cupcakes)
1 cup soy milk
1 tsp vinegar (I used white distilled)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp rosewater
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1. Preheat oven to 350°F and line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners.
2. Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and rose water, to the soy milk mixture and beat until foamy. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain (a few tiny lumps are OK).
3. Pour into liners, filling 3/4 of the way. Bake 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.
Frost as desired - I should point out that if you use a regular buttercream like I did, the cupcakes are no longer vegan! Simple pink sugar sprinkles make this cupcake look like a respite from mortgage rates and bidding wars and termite inspections. And to me, they tasted delicious - sweet and sugary and the little hint of rose adding a touch of sophistication.
Categories: Buttercream, Cupcake, Rose, Vanilla, Vegan
Because of a baking project earlier in the week, I was out of eggs. Looking at homes for four hours is too exhausting, and I was adamant about not going to the store. I did a search for vegan cupcake recipes and adapted a chocolate vegan cupcake recipe into a vanilla one. I would have made almond to go with the rose, but was out of almond extract too.
Stress Cupcakes (AKA Rose Vanilla Vegan Cupcakes)
1 cup soy milk
1 tsp vinegar (I used white distilled)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp rosewater
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1. Preheat oven to 350°F and line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners.
2. Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and rose water, to the soy milk mixture and beat until foamy. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain (a few tiny lumps are OK).
3. Pour into liners, filling 3/4 of the way. Bake 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.
Frost as desired - I should point out that if you use a regular buttercream like I did, the cupcakes are no longer vegan! Simple pink sugar sprinkles make this cupcake look like a respite from mortgage rates and bidding wars and termite inspections. And to me, they tasted delicious - sweet and sugary and the little hint of rose adding a touch of sophistication.
Categories: Buttercream, Cupcake, Rose, Vanilla, Vegan
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Daring Bakers Challenge - Cheesecake Pops
This month's Daring Bakers Challenge was hosted by Elle from Feeding My Enthusiasms and Deborah from Taste and Tell. The recipe can be found both places, so don't look for it here!
The basic premise is that you make a cheesecake, make balls out of it, and dip them in chocolate and other things. I had some creative inspiration that I didn't follow through on, mainly because the texture of the cheesecake was a bit too delicate. I wanted to make balls and decorate them in three different ways, and turn them into cheesecake pop shish-ka-bobs. It just wasn't meant to be.
The cheesecake had a really hard time setting up. I had baked it for double the time required when I took it out because it had started to crack, but I don't think the recipe was as infallible as I would have liked. As a result I had to take an extra day or so with this recipe, allowing more time to work around the softness of the cheesecake.
The cheesecake itself was left in the fridge overnight before balls were made, and the pops were frozen overnight rather than just for a few hours before being dipped in chocolate. Even as I dipped them, as they came to room temperature the chocolate seemed to want to stick less.
When I finished this recipe, I was not feeling like my cheesecake pops were particularly photogenic. I am always bringing recipes into work, but my co-workers never end up in my pictures.
Not this time. I sent out an e-mail informing them that showing up for break and cheesecake pops meant they might end up in the blog. Caroline, pictured here, was so excited about this idea that she posed for a picture even though she didn't eat a cheesecake pop!
Janet gives the cheesecake pops a thumbs up.
Susan models the first problem with how I made the recipe. When I went to the grocery store, they had no popsicle sticks. The only thing I could find were coffee stirring straws, which are remarkably flimsy.
Linda models one way to eat the cheesecake pop, by supporting its weight with the thumb from the other hand.
Elaina just decides to attack hers. I would like to be able to say that no cheesecake pops were harmed in the making of this blog, but that would be a lie.
Ed uses an extra toothpick to try to solve the eating problem, but it falls on the table anyway.
My cheesecake pops were pretty mobile. They even made a house call to be consumed by a librarian who recently had surgery.
Not all of the cheesecake got made into pops. This recipe really makes quite a bit! The first strawberries of the season had started to show up, so some of it was eaten with those. It made me wish I had thought to poke some strawberry pieces into the cheesecake balls before dipping in chocolate - that would have been a dream.
Speaking of strawberries, I might have bought a gallon today, and might be spreading the strawberry love shortly in my blog. Stay tuned.
Categories: Chocolate, Cream Cheese, Daring Bakers
The basic premise is that you make a cheesecake, make balls out of it, and dip them in chocolate and other things. I had some creative inspiration that I didn't follow through on, mainly because the texture of the cheesecake was a bit too delicate. I wanted to make balls and decorate them in three different ways, and turn them into cheesecake pop shish-ka-bobs. It just wasn't meant to be.
The cheesecake had a really hard time setting up. I had baked it for double the time required when I took it out because it had started to crack, but I don't think the recipe was as infallible as I would have liked. As a result I had to take an extra day or so with this recipe, allowing more time to work around the softness of the cheesecake.
The cheesecake itself was left in the fridge overnight before balls were made, and the pops were frozen overnight rather than just for a few hours before being dipped in chocolate. Even as I dipped them, as they came to room temperature the chocolate seemed to want to stick less.
When I finished this recipe, I was not feeling like my cheesecake pops were particularly photogenic. I am always bringing recipes into work, but my co-workers never end up in my pictures.
Not this time. I sent out an e-mail informing them that showing up for break and cheesecake pops meant they might end up in the blog. Caroline, pictured here, was so excited about this idea that she posed for a picture even though she didn't eat a cheesecake pop!
Janet gives the cheesecake pops a thumbs up.
Susan models the first problem with how I made the recipe. When I went to the grocery store, they had no popsicle sticks. The only thing I could find were coffee stirring straws, which are remarkably flimsy.
Linda models one way to eat the cheesecake pop, by supporting its weight with the thumb from the other hand.
Elaina just decides to attack hers. I would like to be able to say that no cheesecake pops were harmed in the making of this blog, but that would be a lie.
Ed uses an extra toothpick to try to solve the eating problem, but it falls on the table anyway.
My cheesecake pops were pretty mobile. They even made a house call to be consumed by a librarian who recently had surgery.
Not all of the cheesecake got made into pops. This recipe really makes quite a bit! The first strawberries of the season had started to show up, so some of it was eaten with those. It made me wish I had thought to poke some strawberry pieces into the cheesecake balls before dipping in chocolate - that would have been a dream.
Speaking of strawberries, I might have bought a gallon today, and might be spreading the strawberry love shortly in my blog. Stay tuned.
Categories: Chocolate, Cream Cheese, Daring Bakers
Monday, April 21, 2008
Russian Coffee Cake
My house is overflowing with cookbooks. When we moved here in 2006, I did a huge weeding of my collection, just enough to make sure it fit in my designated cookbook cupboard. I'm back to overflowing again, but the way I justify it to myself is that I NEED them. All of them. I have some of my husband's grandmother's cookbooks with her handwritten changes to some of the recipe, and no way am I parting with those. I have an entire shelf of vegetarian cookbooks, another of baking/pastry, and another of my cookbook souvenirs that represent places I've been. The only solution will be to buy another bookshelf.
Sometimes, though, some of the cookbooks get avoided. It isn't intentional, they just go in and out of usage. I was given The New Enchanted Broccoli Forest almost eight years ago, for a wedding shower gift. I have dabbled in it from time to time, but felt like I needed to make a serious dent in the recipes.
This week was deemed the Week of the Enchanted Broccoli Forest. I have marked several recipes to try, and each one has been a success. Let me take a quick break from baking to point to a few:
The Swiss Rarebit, a take on Welsh Rarebit, with swiss and wine instead of cheddar and beer, was very tasty over rye bread. Nathaniel deemed it "fondue on a plate." It doesn't look like much, but simple to make and the flavor is astounding. Great comfort food!
Lasagna al Pesto was a huge success, even if I went with no boil noodles and ended up with some crunchiness on top. I wish I could have find the green lasagna sheets, because that would have really created a nice look.
A few recipes I plan to try before the week is up:
Galician Garbanzo Soup (I need a new soup pot though!)
Oatmeal Maple Bread OR Corn & Molasses Muffins
Vegetable Strudel (hooray! tackling filo dough again!)
Mollie Katzen has finally made her way into my kitchen. Frankly, I'm surprised I held her off so long, as she is a classic in the vegetarian kitchen world.
I could not make a list of recipes to try without something baked. For that, I went with her Russian Coffee Cake recipe.
Russian Coffee Cake
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups unbleached white flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk at room temperature
Filling:
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup almonds
1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup peach or apricot jam
1/2 cup dried apricots, minced
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Generously grease a standard-size tube or bundt pan.
2. Place the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Cream together with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Stir in the vanilla.
3. Sift together the flours, baking powder, soda, and salt into a separate medium-sized bowl.
4. Add the dry mixture and the buttermilk alternately to the butter mixture (dry/wet/dry/wet/dry). Mix just well enough to thoroughly blend after each addition. Don't beat or otherwise overmix.
5. Place the chocolate chips and almonds in a blender jar. Whirl together in short spurts until ground into a coarse powder. Combine this with the coconut in a small bowl.
6. Spoon half the batter into the prepared pan, gently spreading it until even. Spoon small amounts of jam here and there onto the batter. (Don't try to spread it - just leave it in little blobs.) Sprinkle on the apricots and about 2/3 of the chocolate-nut mix.
7. Add the remaining batter, distributing it nicely. Sprinkle with the rest of the chocolate mix, and bake the cake for 45-55 minutes - until a probing knife inserted all the way in comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before removing from the pan.
Jenny's Notes: I chickened out a little on this recipe. I left the coconut out because Nathaniel doesn't care for it. I also left out the apricots at the last minute because I was afraid it would taste like fruitcake, but really regretted doing so. We still ate them for breakfast with the coffee cake, but the cake really needed them.
I dumped half the chocolate almond filling mixture in the sink on accident, and am very sad about this. I think a better use of the last 1/3 of it would have been multiple layers inside the cake since sprinkling it on the top of what is baked becomes the bottom and smears all over the serving dish, and not much of it ends up on the eaters' plates!
Overall this had fairly good texture and flavor and what it was lacking I believe was my fault for not following the recipe. You could taste the presence of the whole wheat pastry flour (usually my nemesis in baked goods) but it wasn't so much that it was overwhelming. Overall I wanted more filling - more apricot, more chocolate, and the coconut would have been very nice here.
Categories: Almond, Apricot, Chocolate, Coffee Cake
Sometimes, though, some of the cookbooks get avoided. It isn't intentional, they just go in and out of usage. I was given The New Enchanted Broccoli Forest almost eight years ago, for a wedding shower gift. I have dabbled in it from time to time, but felt like I needed to make a serious dent in the recipes.
This week was deemed the Week of the Enchanted Broccoli Forest. I have marked several recipes to try, and each one has been a success. Let me take a quick break from baking to point to a few:
The Swiss Rarebit, a take on Welsh Rarebit, with swiss and wine instead of cheddar and beer, was very tasty over rye bread. Nathaniel deemed it "fondue on a plate." It doesn't look like much, but simple to make and the flavor is astounding. Great comfort food!
Lasagna al Pesto was a huge success, even if I went with no boil noodles and ended up with some crunchiness on top. I wish I could have find the green lasagna sheets, because that would have really created a nice look.
A few recipes I plan to try before the week is up:
Galician Garbanzo Soup (I need a new soup pot though!)
Oatmeal Maple Bread OR Corn & Molasses Muffins
Vegetable Strudel (hooray! tackling filo dough again!)
Mollie Katzen has finally made her way into my kitchen. Frankly, I'm surprised I held her off so long, as she is a classic in the vegetarian kitchen world.
I could not make a list of recipes to try without something baked. For that, I went with her Russian Coffee Cake recipe.
Russian Coffee Cake
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups unbleached white flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk at room temperature
Filling:
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup almonds
1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup peach or apricot jam
1/2 cup dried apricots, minced
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Generously grease a standard-size tube or bundt pan.
2. Place the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Cream together with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Stir in the vanilla.
3. Sift together the flours, baking powder, soda, and salt into a separate medium-sized bowl.
4. Add the dry mixture and the buttermilk alternately to the butter mixture (dry/wet/dry/wet/dry). Mix just well enough to thoroughly blend after each addition. Don't beat or otherwise overmix.
5. Place the chocolate chips and almonds in a blender jar. Whirl together in short spurts until ground into a coarse powder. Combine this with the coconut in a small bowl.
6. Spoon half the batter into the prepared pan, gently spreading it until even. Spoon small amounts of jam here and there onto the batter. (Don't try to spread it - just leave it in little blobs.) Sprinkle on the apricots and about 2/3 of the chocolate-nut mix.
7. Add the remaining batter, distributing it nicely. Sprinkle with the rest of the chocolate mix, and bake the cake for 45-55 minutes - until a probing knife inserted all the way in comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before removing from the pan.
Jenny's Notes: I chickened out a little on this recipe. I left the coconut out because Nathaniel doesn't care for it. I also left out the apricots at the last minute because I was afraid it would taste like fruitcake, but really regretted doing so. We still ate them for breakfast with the coffee cake, but the cake really needed them.
I dumped half the chocolate almond filling mixture in the sink on accident, and am very sad about this. I think a better use of the last 1/3 of it would have been multiple layers inside the cake since sprinkling it on the top of what is baked becomes the bottom and smears all over the serving dish, and not much of it ends up on the eaters' plates!
Overall this had fairly good texture and flavor and what it was lacking I believe was my fault for not following the recipe. You could taste the presence of the whole wheat pastry flour (usually my nemesis in baked goods) but it wasn't so much that it was overwhelming. Overall I wanted more filling - more apricot, more chocolate, and the coconut would have been very nice here.
Categories: Almond, Apricot, Chocolate, Coffee Cake
Monday, April 14, 2008
Adventures with Black Cocoa
It started around Christmas time, when a friend sent me a gift card for King Arthur Flour, and told me I absolutely had to try the black cocoa. I had never heard of it, so I bought a pound to play around with. Since then I've heard this is what makes Oreos so black, but don't quote me on that one.
I actually used it a couple of weeks ago in my Hi Hat Cupcakes because I was out of regular cocoa powder, but it wasn't as intentional as I wanted to be.
I wanted to make at least one recipe that I had made before with regular cocoa powder, so I could compare them. Enter Alton Brown's Cocoa Brownie Recipe, one I find myself making more than any other brownie recipe, I think because it only calls for cocoa powder and not baking chocolate, which I can't seem to keep around the house. But with 1 1/4 cups cocoa powder, surely using black cocoa would make a significant difference!
I followed Alton's recipe, merely substituting black cocoa for half the cocoa powder when it was sifted. Alton Brown's cocoa brownie recipe has been blogged multiple times, so please check the results at the Food Blog Search if you want to see the original.
Blackies (Adapted from Cocoa Brownies, originally created by Alton Brown)
4 large eggs
1 cup sugar, sifted
1 cup brown sugar, sifted
8 ounces melted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa, sifted
3/4 cup black cocoa, sifted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon salt
Preheat the oven to 300º. Butter and flour an 8-inch square pan. In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the eggs at medium speed until fluffy and light yellow. Add both sugars. Add remaining ingredients, and mix to combine. Pour the batter into a greased and floured 8-inch square pan and bake for 45 minutes. Check for doneness with the tried-and-true toothpick method: a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan should come out clean. When it's done, remove to a rack to cool. Resist the temptation to cut into it until it's mostly cool.
The result are dark chocolate brownies that are tender, chewy, and reminiscent of Oreo cookies. My students devoured them this afternoon.
A pound of cocoa is quite a bit, so I still had a bunch to try. I remembered Gale Gand making a cake with Wayne Harley Brachman back when she had a show on the Food Network, and knew the Brooklyn Blackout Cake was a prime candidate for trying out more black cocoa.
Throughout the recipe, any time cocoa was called for, I merely substituted half black cocoa for regular. This recipe is usually called a blackout cake because you turn 1/4 of the baked cake layers into crumbs, and they go on the custard that is spread on the outside. It was almost unnecessary to do this with the blackness of both the cake and custard, but I still did it for the effect.
I'm not sure this recipe was as successful as the brownies in taste and texture. To me, the extra crumbs on the outside give it the mouthfeel of being dry when it actually isn't. You haven't really lived, however, until you have stirred a bubbling pot of black chocolate custard on the stove - it just makes the entire baking experience surreal to make black colored things.
The last thing I am dying to do is to make a dark hot chocolate. I'll keep you posted!
Categories: Black Cocoa, Brownies, Cake, Chocolate, Custard
I actually used it a couple of weeks ago in my Hi Hat Cupcakes because I was out of regular cocoa powder, but it wasn't as intentional as I wanted to be.
I wanted to make at least one recipe that I had made before with regular cocoa powder, so I could compare them. Enter Alton Brown's Cocoa Brownie Recipe, one I find myself making more than any other brownie recipe, I think because it only calls for cocoa powder and not baking chocolate, which I can't seem to keep around the house. But with 1 1/4 cups cocoa powder, surely using black cocoa would make a significant difference!
I followed Alton's recipe, merely substituting black cocoa for half the cocoa powder when it was sifted. Alton Brown's cocoa brownie recipe has been blogged multiple times, so please check the results at the Food Blog Search if you want to see the original.
Blackies (Adapted from Cocoa Brownies, originally created by Alton Brown)
4 large eggs
1 cup sugar, sifted
1 cup brown sugar, sifted
8 ounces melted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa, sifted
3/4 cup black cocoa, sifted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon salt
Preheat the oven to 300º. Butter and flour an 8-inch square pan. In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the eggs at medium speed until fluffy and light yellow. Add both sugars. Add remaining ingredients, and mix to combine. Pour the batter into a greased and floured 8-inch square pan and bake for 45 minutes. Check for doneness with the tried-and-true toothpick method: a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan should come out clean. When it's done, remove to a rack to cool. Resist the temptation to cut into it until it's mostly cool.
The result are dark chocolate brownies that are tender, chewy, and reminiscent of Oreo cookies. My students devoured them this afternoon.
A pound of cocoa is quite a bit, so I still had a bunch to try. I remembered Gale Gand making a cake with Wayne Harley Brachman back when she had a show on the Food Network, and knew the Brooklyn Blackout Cake was a prime candidate for trying out more black cocoa.
Throughout the recipe, any time cocoa was called for, I merely substituted half black cocoa for regular. This recipe is usually called a blackout cake because you turn 1/4 of the baked cake layers into crumbs, and they go on the custard that is spread on the outside. It was almost unnecessary to do this with the blackness of both the cake and custard, but I still did it for the effect.
I'm not sure this recipe was as successful as the brownies in taste and texture. To me, the extra crumbs on the outside give it the mouthfeel of being dry when it actually isn't. You haven't really lived, however, until you have stirred a bubbling pot of black chocolate custard on the stove - it just makes the entire baking experience surreal to make black colored things.
The last thing I am dying to do is to make a dark hot chocolate. I'll keep you posted!
Categories: Black Cocoa, Brownies, Cake, Chocolate, Custard
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