375 degrees

Number 70: Apple cobbler with white miso streusal

2011-05-20T19:17:00.000-07:00

At some point in my life, I became obsessed with cobbler. It started off with this:

A warm peach cobbler, hidden beneath two scoops of vanilla ice cream on a perfect summer day with good friends in Pasadena, right before a cutesy Michael Cera movie.

After that there was the berry cobbler with ice cream and coffee in Andersonville, the three or so apple or blueberry pies from Whole Foods, another triple berry crumble pie. And now, I'm hooked.

This recipe uses miso in the streusel topping - brilliant! It adds some depth to the flavor ("umami"is the trendy term, I believe). And even though I always slip a little too much lemon in, it always turns out to be a party pleaser. So make it! The recipe will make two small cobblers (as in two cake pans worth) or one large cobbler. And then grab some vanilla bean ice cream (though my sister prefers peanut butter) and dig in. All the peeling and coring is worth it.

Apple cobbler

with white miso streusel

from Bon Appetit

For the apples

7 medium-large apples (I like to keep it straight up Granny Smith, but they suggest three Fujis)

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp lemon zest

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup packed golden brown sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (I always add a bit more. I love cinnamon)

For the streusel

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

3 tablespoons white miso

2 large eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (see above)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 13x9x2-inch baking pan, or an equivalent.

1. Pell, slice and core the apples. Toss with lemon juice, zest and vanilla.

2. Toss the apple mixture with the sugar, flour and cinnamon. Distribute between baking dishes.

3. For the streusel, whisk together the butter, miso and eggs.

4. Combine flour, sugar, powder and cinnamon in a large bowl.

5. Form a well in the dry ingredients, add the wet mixture and stir until large clumps form.

6. Break streusel apart using fingers and sprinkle over apples.

7. Bake 50 to 55 minutes, or until the apples are bubbling and the topping is deep gold.

8. Cool, heap ice cream on, serve.

Number 69: Dulce de leche cookies

2011-02-01T21:34:00.000-08:00

It's thundersnowing!

Which means after a terrible live shot attempt in video journalism class (I said "the blizzard people" instead of "city officials"), I rushed back home to change into my jammies and have some hot apple cider. It's my first blizzard EVER. (Reminder: I come from the snowless place of Los Angeles).

So tomorrow is my first snow day, and the school-less agenda includes but is not limited to: Hot chocolate, snow forts, snow angels, snow men, snowball fights and sleep. Lots of it. And maybe some dulce de leche. I bought a jar from Whole Foods last weekend and it has taken all my will power to refrain from eating it with a spoon like ice cream. I had it with a muffin yesterday, so I'd say I'm doing okay.

As of now, the wind is banging against my window and I am wrapped up in my yellow blanket from when I was a kid. There's supposed to be 20 inches of snow tomorrow, but I think my dulce de leche and I can handle it.

Dulce de leche cookies (Alfajores)

Adapted from epicurious.com

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened and cut into cubes

1/3 cup cornstarch

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 large egg yolks (*note: If you like softer cookies, I suggest adding 1 egg white and watch bake times carefully)

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup (approx) dulce de leche (I found mine at Whole Foods, but Williams Sonoma and other specialty food stores have it)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

1. Whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt

2. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fulffy. Add in eggs and vanilla.

3. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet until the dough has formed. You may have to knead with your hands. The dough should be soft but not sticky.

4. Roll out the dough until it is 1/8 inch thick. Cut cookies 1.5 inches wide.

5. Place cookies 1/2 inch apart on the lined cookie sheet. Bake 12 to 15 minutes until firm and golden on the edges.

6. Let cool for 10 minutes and fill with dulce de leche.

On food writing

2011-01-21T19:46:00.001-08:00

I kind of love this GOOD magazine series.

Number 68: Orange marmalade

2011-01-15T18:52:00.000-08:00

How to kill time this long weekend:

As it is winter, and in this area, snowy and miserably cold, I propose we spend our days indoors with the stove going full force, thus reducing the need for a heater.

The best way to stretch out the amount of time in front of the stove is to make marmalade, or jelly, or jam. And as it is winter, with citrus fruits popping off trees somewhere in California (not in Illinois), I suppose orange marmalade is the answer. This will ensure at least an hour of occasional pot-stirring.

I made two jars of orange marmalade as a present for my mom, who was obsessed with orange marmalade on saltine crackers with cream cheese. To be honest, it was way too much work for my taste, especially if you want to can it properly. When I have to boil clean jars in hot water, use tongs to remove them, and then boil the filled jars again, I usually give up. But I guess for my mom, I stuck it out.

So here's the recipe I used. It's too long and I'm too lazy to re-word it and everything, but if you have an interest in properly canning preserves to make them last longer and whatnot, learn how to sterilize mason jars here and process the jars here.

Number 67: Brown butter cookies with sea salt

2010-12-20T13:13:00.000-08:00

V has been raving about the Brown Butter Cookie Company in Cayucos, Calif. ever since he biked from San Jose to Los Angeles and tried a free cookie on the way. Apparently I had to make these rounded brown butter cookies with sea salt sprinkled on top.

I didn't get a chance to try the cookies last summer, but brown butter and sea salt seemed like an appealing combination. Another Northwestern baker at Bakelist posted brown butter cookies last summer, which I added walnuts to here. This time, however, I stuck to the recipe. For the most part.

Since I was using a brand new cookie cutter which imprints letters, I left out the heavy cream, which tends to crinkle the cookies' surface. With inspiration from V, I mixed sugar and sea salt and pressed it around the lettering. These aren't the little rounds of dough found at the Brown Butter Cookie Company, but they're good.

Half of these became study snacks for a friend who is studying for the MCATs. The other half disappeared within days. Only one cookie was left for V, three days after the batch went into the oven. It wasn't as good as he remembered, but only because he had biked 50 or so miles before the first brown butter cookie in Cayucos.

Brown butter shortbread with sea salt

adapted from Bakelist

1/2 cup unsalted butter, browned and cooled to room temp

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened and cubed

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

a pinch of kosher salt

sugar and sea salt, to taste (more sugar than sea salt, for me)

1. To brown the butter, melt the butter in a saucepan over medium low heat. Cook, scraping the bottom often with a wooden spoon, until the butter begins to turn brown. Remove and strain into a clean bowl. Allow it to cool.

2. Cream butters and sugar until well-combined.

3. Add in vanilla, flour and salt. Mix until combined; my dough came together in large crumbs so I kneaded it slightly and patted it into two discs.

4. Refrigerate the dough for at least half an hour (up to overnight).

5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Roll out the dough evenly until it is 1/4" thick. Cut out cookie shapes; refrigerate for another 10 minutes so the cookies keep their shape.

6. Remove from the fridge and sprinkle the sugar salt mixture over the cookies, pressing the crystals in.

7. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the edges have browned.

These cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 7 days. Also, you can buy the cookie cutter here, or larger ones here.

Number 66: Lavender honey shortbread

2010-11-10T17:37:00.000-08:00

If you walk into The Spice House, you will walk out smelling like paprika.

The Spice House is one of my favorite establishments in Chicago.They sell three varieties of vanilla beans, several varieties of cinnamon, and dried lavender - perhaps the most elusive ingredient I have used so far.

So last week I picked up a packet of lavender at The Spice House in Old Town and proceeded to make lavender honey shortbread cookies. A commenter mentioned that such savory herb cookies are the best.

Unfortunately, these weren't all that favored by my friends, so perhaps another recipe is worth a shot? Maybe more sugar? More honey? A better oven that lets me know when it is preheated? We shall see.

In the meantime, here is the recipe. Personally, I enjoyed the cookies, but I think I like my rosemary shortbread cookies better.

P.S. Any other ideas for lavender?

Lavender honey shortbread

adapted from Serious Eats

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 tablespoon dried lavender

6 ounces (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, softened and cut into cubes

2 tablespoons honey

1/4 cup sugar

1. Mix together the flour, salt, baking powder and lavender in a medium sized bowl

2. In a larger mixing bowl, cream the butter, honey and sugar

3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and combine thoroughly

4. Roll into a log, about 1.5-2 inches in diameter, and refrigerate for at least an hour

5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.Cut into 1/2-inch cookies and place on a parchment-covered cookie tray, 2 inches apart

6. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until the bottoms and edges are golden. Note: the original recipe said to bake for 8 to 10 minutes. See what works best for your oven.

Food adventures: Weekday specials

2010-11-05T11:36:00.000-07:00

I always like trying something new on weekdays - it makes the day less mundane. Especially if it's a Wednesday.

One of the editors this past summer was telling someone about how she loved Los Angeles because you could go somewhere different or nice to eat in another area of town, and it will feel like a mini vacation. Say, lunch at Beverley Hills. And then you see a celebrity.

I never saw a celebrity, or had a mini vacation, but that's because I usually made lunch. But I get it, a little break from the everyday.

So that's what happened last Wednesday. Roomie and I went for a late lunch at Fraiche, a cafe and bakery a couple blocks north from the dorm. It is, in short, super cute.

Anyway we had trouble choosing between the grilled cheese (with apple butter, ham and white cheddar) and a brie sandwich (brie, poached pear, basil, honey mustard). We ended up going with the grilled cheese and a orange curd cupcake, but we'll definitely go back for the brie. And their almond crusted brioche french toast. New favorite lunch/brunch spot?

Food adventures: What's wrong with mall restaurants?

2010-11-03T11:27:00.000-07:00

Especially when it's in the Bloomingdale's plaza on 900 N. Michigan Ave.

There's a pizzeria on the fifth floor that I've fallen in love with. Boyfriend doesn't like pizza, or Italian food in general, which I think is somewhat preposterous but he's hardcore Chinese so whatever, but Roomie and I are pretty partial to it. We can easily split a single pizza and still overeat. Also, the "outside" dining area has excellent soft light around lunchtime.

So on a shopping day sometime in the past few weeks, Roomie and I stopped by for a pizza. We ordered the Rita D, with ricotta, marscapone, mozzarella, asparagus, truffle oil and a farm egg.

And then Roomie got a sweater from Zara. Success story.

Number 65: White chocolate chip muffins

2010-10-28T01:00:00.000-07:00

My humblest apologies for having ignored this blog for almost two months (two months!) now. I have my reasons.
The first is the fact that our dorm kitchen (yes, I'm still dorming it) is located in the basement. Yes, the basement. That means two flights of stairs. And a tiny oven.
The second reason is that Boyfriend has to pay for electricity, and oven usage is expensive. So not so much baking at his place.
I will definitely try to keep this up, but expect more restaurant/eating out posts than baking posts. I did just buy a packet of lavender at the Spice House (where EIC of Bon Appétit will be next Friday!) so that will keep me motivated.

Roomie and I decided to make white chocolate chip muffins for one reason: Hendricks Belgian Bread Crafter in River North, Chicago. It just opened about five months ago and it is my new fave. And of course, their white chocolate chip muffin is amazing. A couple bites in and you find yourself devouring a good solid hunk of white chocolate. They definitely don't skimp.
Unfortunately, we didn't have large chunks of Belgian white chocolate. But we did our best. And they were good.

White chocolate chip muffins

adapted from a website I do not remember but will update

2 eggs

1.5 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup sugar

3.5 ounces butter, melted and cooled

1/4 cup plain yogurt

1 cup + 1 tbp flour

white chocolate chunks to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter mini muffin tins, financier tins or regular muffin tins(this will change baking time)

1. Sift flour, baking powder and sugar together. Mix well.

2. Beat eggs with melted and cooled butter, add yogurt.

3. Add wet ingredients to dry.

4. Place a small amount of batter at the bottom of the pans/tins, enough to cover the bottom.

5. Place large quantities of white chocolate into the center and cover with remaining batter.

6. Bake 8 to 10 minutes if using mini muffin tins, 16 to 20 if larger.

Number 64: Pearl sugar studded puffs

2010-08-30T11:47:00.000-07:00

I've always had a thing for Sundays. Despite my lack of religion, I've always felt that it was a day for rest (or rather, laziness).

Having just come back from a crazy family road trip to the Bay Area (think straight into San Fran for one day, the Wine Country for another day, and through Berkeley straight home the third), I needed some rest. So I slept in Sunday, woke up bleary and made some choux pastry. Of course. And then I spent the remainder of the day reading, watching Disney movies and drinking hot chocolate.

Pearl sugar studded Chouquettes

Adapted from David Lebovitz, "The Sweet Life in Paris"

1/2 cup water

1/4 teaspoon coarse salt

1 teaspoon granulated sugar

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

1/2 cup all purpose flour

2 large eggs at room temperature

1/2 cup pearl sugar (sold at Ikea! or at Scandinavian baking stores, I suppose)

1/4 cup chocolate chips (Optional)

1. Position a rack in the upper third of the oven. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Heat water, salt, sugar and butter in a saucepan (it should be large enough to hold the battter). Stir until the butter is melted.

3. Remove from heat, dump all the flour in at once and stir rapidly until the mixture is smooth and forms a mound of paste that doesn't break up.

4. Cool the dough for two minutes, stirring occasionally. Then beat in the eggs one at a time, until the paste is smooth and shiny. If using chocolate chips, cool completely to room temperature and stir in the chocolate chips.

5. Drop two tablespoons of the dough onto the baking sheet, about 2 inches apart.

6. Press pearl sugar over the top and sides of each mound (as much as possible). Try to keep them off the parchment paper because they'll melt and burn quickly.

7. Bake for about 15 to 17 minutes or until puffed and browned.* Serve warm or at room temperature.

*The book says 35 minutes but for some reason mine were done in half the time. Check occasionally - you want the pastry browned so it will keep its shape, but not burnt.

Number 63: Kiwi sorbet

2010-08-25T23:48:00.000-07:00

Summer has completely kicked in now - the 70 degree, breeze-filled days are gone and now it's on into the hazy white heat and hot leather car seats that burn the back of your thighs. Once more, I'm inland and it's heavy weather.

There are few things that make the heat bearable. The obvious is air conditioning. Just as good, though, is an ice cream maker.

I just got one of my wisdom teeth pulled, and armed with a dentist's note stating I should only eat soft, cold things, I was ready to put my ice cream maker to good use. Unfortunately, with the salmonella scare going on in the egg business, my mother refuses to let me make ice cream. So sorbet it is.

I love making sorbet - it's so simple. Fruit puree with a dash of simple syrup and perhaps a squeeze of lemon, sorbets freeze so well in ice cream makers and are best freshly churned. And kiwi sorbetto is my go-to at every gelato shop. There's something about the smooth tang and the sharp bites of the seeds that gets to me. Sweet, sharp, smooth and cool - perfect for the August heat.

Kiwi sorbet

3 ripe kiwis, peeled and cut into cubes

1/4 cup simple syrup (or to taste)

a squeeze of lemon juice

1. Combine all ingredients into a food processor and puree.

2. You can push the mixture through a seive with a rubber spatula for a smoother texture.

3. Freeze according to ice cream makers instructions and consumer immediately. As simple as that.

Number 62: Rosemary shortbread

2010-08-09T21:33:00.000-07:00

There are two things I like rosemary in - bread and lamb. And now, I guess, shortbread. These are quick and easy cookies, although a bit soft compared to the typical shortbread. Slightly savory at first, which gives way to a subtle sweetness and buttery goodness. Love.

They disappeared like potato chips when I brought them to a hangout Friday night, which was incidentally a total guy-fest, complete with sexual innuendos, pool and bagel bites. And my rosemary shortbread cookies. Go figure.

Rosemary Shortbread

adapted from the New York Times

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1.5 teaspoons chopped, fresh rosemary

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 stick butter, very cold and cut into cubes

1 teaspoon dark honey (I used dragon eye honey, which I love)

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees (you can even use a tiny toaster oven with a tiny toaster oven-sized baking sheet)

2. Toss rosemary and butter into a large mixing bowl. Whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt.

3. Add the flour mixture over the butter, drop in the honey and beat together with an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. This is messy, but power through and the dough will form.

4. Once the stuff looks like evenly-sized small peas, press it into a 5 to 6 inch square.

5. Prick holes with a fork, chopstick or the back of a toothpick.

6. Bake for about 30 to 40 minutes, or until golden brown. Cut into squares/rectangles/whatever floats your boat while the cookie is still warm.

Number 61: Lemon white chocolate chip cookies

2010-08-01T21:49:00.000-07:00

I'm going through a slight obsession with David Lebovitz right now, having just read his Living the Sweet Life in Paris. His latest, Ready for Dessert is also glorious and introduced me to the idea of lemon and white chocolate (so brilliant and simple and obvious. How could I overlook this?).

So on Friday, when my sister bailed on me and I was left alone in my apartment with nothing to do, I decided to whip up a summer version of the classic chocolate chip cookie. Chuck the bittersweet chocolate for white chocolate chips, lemon zest and lemon juice and we're good to go.

Lemon white chocolate chip cookies

adapted from David Lebovitz

1 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3/8 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature and cut into cubes

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1 large egg, at room temperature

1 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

7 oz white chocolate chips

1. Whisk flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside

2. Beat butter, sugars, lemon zest and lemon juice together until smooth. Beat in egg until thoroughly incorporated.

3. Blend in flour mixture, nuts and chocolate chunks until just incoporated.

4. Divide the dough in half and shape into a log about 9 inches long.

5. Chill until firm (at least 24 hours). I put mine the freezer, cheating a little bit.

To Bake:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a baking sheet or line with parchment paper.

2. Slice the logs into 3/4 inch thick disks. Place disks three inches apart on baking sheets.

3. Bake cookies, rotating midway through, until very lightly browned in the center. Overall baking time should be 10 to 12 minutes.

Storage:

Keeps for four days in an airtight container.

Dough keeps in the fridge for one week, the freezer for one month.

Number 60: Cheaters' Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes

2010-07-19T21:53:00.000-07:00

There's a cafe right around the corner from my apartment that has a Hazelnut Chocolate Cupcake on its menu. It's a chocolate cupcake with a creamy hazelnut filling and chocolate frosting. It sounds like heaven.

Unfortunately, they haven't had it for the last three weeks and I'm starting to think their menu is lying. So my sister and I decided to make our own Hazelnut Chocolate Cupcakes this past lazy Sunday.

Now keep in mind that the key word is "lazy". Big Sis and I went off to see the Swell Season, She & Him and The Bird and The Bee at the Hollywood Bowl that Sunday, so we had an entire picnic to plan.

With low energy and little time, we went off and bought some Devil's Food cake mix, nutella, bittersweet chocolate chips and chopped hazelnuts. Sorry diehards, this one's for the cheaters.

Hazelnut Chocolate Cupcakes

Chocolate cake mix, your preferred brand

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1.5 cups bittersweet chocolate chips

1 tablespoon chopped hazlenuts, toasted

Nutella

1. Make the cupcakes according to the directions on the box. Let cool.
2. Meanwhile, make the ganache frosting. To do so, heat 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream. Pour over 1.5 cups bittersweet chocolate chips. Let sit for a minute or two and stir until smooth. Let it come to room temperature. Then chill. Then whip until stiff.
3. Once the cupcakes are cool, cut out a square on the top. Drop in as much Nutella as you want. Cover up again.
4. Frost and top with toasted chopped hazelnuts.

Number 59: Mochi wrapped around strawberries

2010-07-15T22:32:00.000-07:00

I know two vegans - the in-house photographer at the Mag and his assistant. Since the Mag is a food mag, we always have a lot of tastings - but they can never eat them. There's eggs and butter in the dessert, or cream in the veggie dip, and meat, well, meat is featured on almost every cover. Meat and dessert.

So they never get to try anything - and their lunch snacks consist of carrot and celery sticks. You just have to feel a little guilty while spooning down mouthfuls of creamy risotto.

Now I've never consciously made anything vegan before, but I've been on a mochi craze ever since I ran across a perfectly pliable recipe. I've made matcha mochi and plain mochi, ate it alone and with strawberries, had it hot right out of the microwave (yes, you use the microwave) and cool from the fridge. This one, however, is best at room temperature. It is chewy and slightly soft, but with the perfect amount of bite. I made it for the two vegans Tuesday when they had a shoot, and we had it plain and cut into strips for a snack - perfect for vegans and non-vegans alike.

Mochi

wrapped around strawberries

3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons Mochiko flour (sweet rice flour)
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons hot water

1. Combine flour and sugar in a large, microwavable bowl
2. Add in water and mix until smooth (for softer mochi, add more water)
3. Microwave in increments of 40 to 60 seconds, depending on the strength of your microwave, stirring in-between increments.
4. When the mochi is elastic and slightly transparent, it is done. Let it cool to room temperature.
5. If filling it with something (diced strawberries, red bean paste, ice cream), lightly dust a cutting board with corn starch and roll out the dough to desired thickness. Cut out circles, fill, and fold under.

Santa Barbara Beach Day

2010-07-08T07:35:00.000-07:00

So I started a new blog, but haven't completely switched over. Let's see how handling two different blogs work out.

In the meantime, check out the crab and lobster we got last Saturday.

Number 58: Brown butter walnut shortbread

2010-07-01T22:21:00.000-07:00

Love at first crumble. Some things need no words.

Brown butter walnut shortbread

adapted from Barefoot Contessa

1/4 cup butter, browned and cooled
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons ground walnuts, toasted
a pinch of salt

1 tablespoon heavy cream
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar

1. Brown the butter by cutting the stick into cubes, heating it in a small saucepan, scraping the bottom to ensure even browning. It is ready when there is a nutty aroma and there are little, slightly browned flakes of butter.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
3. Cream butters and sugars until well-combined.
4. Add in ground walnuts, flour and salt until just combined. Turn out onto a sheet of plastic wrap and shape into a log, 1-inch in diameter.
5. Chill at least a half hour, up to overnight.
6. Slice into 1/4 inch pieces, place dough onto a parchment-covered baking sheet. Chill for at least ten minutes.
7. Brush heavy cream over the cookie dough, sprinkle on brown sugar and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.
8. Let cool. Serve with coffee or tea.

Number 57: Honey madeleines

2010-06-22T18:41:00.000-07:00

My first madeleine was from Costco. Buttery, crumbly and crusty on the outside, it was perfect for my teenage sweet tooth.

And then I read Proust's Swann's Way my freshman year. Of course, that famous passage of Combray growing out of a tea cup - the taste of madeleines dipped in tea recalling an entire childhood. Ever since then, I've been inkling to make these old school cakes.

This summer, I scrounged every Bed Bath & Beyond for madeleine pans and right before leaving for my internship, I made these cakes to remind me of home. This recipe makes lighter madeleines - they're not as sweet as Costco's, but they're still timeless with tea.

Honey madeleines

serve with tea and strawberries

adapted from Bon Appétit

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

pinch of salt

2 large eggs

1/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons honey

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon, packed, finely grated lemon peel

1. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl

2. In a larger bowl, beat eggs and sugar until thick and pale

3. Add honey, vanilla and lemon peel into the egg mixture. Beat an additional minute.

4.Carefully fold in dry ingredients until fully combined.

5. Press plastic wrap to the surface of the batter and chill at least 3 hours. The batter will last one day in the fridge.

6. Position rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

7. Butter and flour a madeleine pan of 12. Drop about one tablespoon, maybe less, into each madeleline mold.

8. Bake until madeleines are golden and a toothpick comes out clean, about 8 to 10 minutes.

9. Sharply rap pan to loosen madeleines and turn out onto a wire rack. Let cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Amazing pancakes from a awesome dad

2010-06-17T21:23:00.000-07:00

http://www.jimspancakes.com/

Highlights, just to get you all pumped up:
1. A Ferris Wheel (3D!)
2. A plane (3D!)
3. A tertis game

Number 56: Lemon olive oil cupcakes

2010-06-17T19:52:00.000-07:00

Usually, when I see olive oil, I think chopped garlic and slightly wilted spinach. So olive oil cake, while all the rage on tastespotting, was not exactly something my mother makes. But hey, olive oil is great in bread and on bread. And then you have the combination of time + home oven + a bottle of extra virgin olive oil + Internet + a killer photo + muffin tins. Forget spinach, let's make some cake.

Lemon olive oil cupcakes

adapted from Blue Ridge Baker

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

1/2 cup granulated sugar

zest of one lemon

juice of half a lemon (about 2 tablespoons worth), strained

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

1.5 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

3.5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 tablespoon sugar for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place cupcake liners in muffin tin
1. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt into a small bowl
2. In a larger bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar and lemon zest. Whisk over simmering water until warm to touch.
3. Once warm, remove from heat and beat with an electric mixer until pale and thick.
4. In another bowl, mix olive oil, lemon juice and cream.
5. Drizzle olive oil mixture over egg mixture. Beat until just combined.
6. Slowly add dry ingredients, beat until just combined. Stir in melted butter.
7. Divide batter evenly, filling the muffin tin about three-quarters full.
8. Sprinkle some sugar over batter, bake until the top is golden and a toothpick comes out clean. About 15 to 17 minutes. Makes about eight cakes.

Number 55: Flourless Chocolate Cake with freshly whipped cream

2010-06-16T20:27:00.000-07:00

I'm not typically a fan of chocolate cake, or cake in general.No offense, cake lovers. I'll have me some birthday cake when the time is right, or indulge in some pear chocolate cake when I can find it. But oftentimes the store-bought stuff is dense and dry, monotonous in flavor with the texture broken up only by the sickening sweetness of frosting.

But at the end of the school year some two weeks ago, we had eggs, chocolate, sugar, butter and whipping cream - all the ingredients for chocolate cake and a little sweetness. With finals, I figured who wouldn't want chocolate cake?

Photo's not much, but the recipe is delicious. Almost brownie-like, crumbles and melts in your mouth. Perfect with lightly-sweetened whipped cream and some chocolate ganache.

Flourless chocolate cake

with fresh whipped cream

from Epicurious

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate

1 stick unsalted butter

3/4 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

1. Chop the chocolate into pieces, the butter into cubes. Melt chocolate and butter over simmering water or in a double boiler, stirring until smooth.

2. Remove from heat, whisk in sugar.

3. Whisk in eggs.

4. Sift cocoa powder over the mixture and whisk until smooth.

5. Pour into a buttered 8-inch round cake pan. Bake about 25 minutes, or until a thin crust forms on top. Let cool five minutes. Serve with lightly-sweetened, softly whipped cream and a dab of chocolate ganache.

Number 54: Banana pancakes

2010-05-15T13:36:00.000-07:00

First off, these are awesome.

Secondly, I've been itching to try banana pancakes ever since I tried some at Eggsperience with Boyfriend, so here they are. I woke up at noon and made these for lunch-ish, and seeing as I've never made pancakes before, it took quite a while. Nevertheless, they came out well - make these for a sweetheart a la Jack Johnson's love song.

Banana Pancakes

adapted from allrecipes.com

1/2 cup flour
1.5 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
dash of salt
3 tablespoons beaten egg
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1 ripe banana
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Sift flour, sugar, powder and salt
2. Separately, mix the egg, milk, butter, vanilla extract and banana
3. Stir the flour mixture into the banana mixture until just combined - it will be lumpy, which is fine.
4. Heat a lightly oiled frying pan. Drop in two tablespoons of the batter, waiting for it to spread into the circle. Let cook until bubbles pop and do not fill on the sides. Flip and cook the other side until golden brown.
5. Serve with powdered sugar and slightly caramelized banana slices.
Makes about eight small pancakes.

Such a smart site:

2010-05-13T23:10:00.001-07:00

http://notbeansagain.com/

Number 53: Chocolate Chip Cookies. Success!

2010-05-08T22:19:00.001-07:00

Updating before the upcoming hell week. It's midterm season, Boyfriend is gone for the summer (we're doing long distance again), and registration is starting. Yay for freaking out and spazzy minds!

Anyway a couple days slash weeks ago Tasting Table sent out David Lebovitz's chocolate chip cookie recipe from his new cookbook Ready for Dessert. Classic chocolate chip cookies always seem to solve everything (or make everything better), so I decided to take a second stab at a choc chip cookie recipe. Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from David Lebovitz on Tasting Table

2 + 1/4cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, room temp
12 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped into 1/2 inch chunks

1.Whisk flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside
2. Beat the butter, sugars and vanilla until just smooth. Add in the eggs one at a time.
3. Blend in the flour mixture with the chocolate
4. Divide the dough into quarters and shape each quarter into a log about 9-inches long. Wrap in saran wrap and refrigerate until firm (I stuck them in the freezer). These will last in the fridge for 1 week, in the freezer for 1 month.
5.Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
6. Remove the dough and slice into 3/4-inch thick disks. Place the cookies about 3 inches apart on buttered baking sheets.
7. Bake cookies for about 10 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking. The cookies should be lightly browned in the centers and on the bottom.

Keeps in an air-tight container for four days.

Pardon the expletives...

2010-04-29T16:55:00.000-07:00

http://www.whatthefuckshouldimakefordinner.com/

Number 52: Snickerdoodles

2010-04-25T11:57:00.000-07:00

Hello readers! This photo has been lounging around for a while, and I seem to have lost the recipe for these marvelous sugar cookies. Fear not! Roomie will help me find it once she finishes stressing out about school and life in 6 weeks (and I'm in the same boat). Maybe I'll find it before. Just wanted to show off (teehee) the super cute duck cookie cutters I got at Cost Plus World Market.

Also, I have decided to serve tartelettes at my wedding, like this farmer market inspired party. Those are some gorgeous tarts. I'm thinking a "create your own" bar, although it may take some arranging to make it super-versatile.

EDIT: found the recipe...in my recipe notebook. It's obviously a bit disorganized.

Sugar cookies / Snickerdoodles

For the cookies:

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter (3 sticks)

2 cups sugar

2 whole eggs

2 egg yolks

3 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1. Cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer

2. Add in 2 eggs and 2 egg yolks. Mix in vanilla

3. In a separate bowl, sift the dry ingredients

4. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet 1 cup at a time

5. Turn out and refrigerate for at least an hour

6. Roll out until it is 1/4 inch thick. Cut out cookies and bake for 6 to 8 minutes at 350 degrees.

These are great with frosting or covered with equal parts sugar and cinnamon for snickerdoodles.

Life Stills: Picnic in the park

2010-04-18T18:30:00.000-07:00

A bunch of friends and I decided to make the best of a breezy spring day and headed out to have a picnic.We stuffed everything into bags and brought a Snuggie to sit on. Success.

The menu:
chips and guac
ham/turkey and cheese sandwiches
lemonade
sugar cookies
california cuties tangerines
fresh pineapple, courtesy of M

The itinerary:
food
frisbee
climbing trees

More photos after the jump

For the guac:
4 large Hass avocados
1 small tomato diced
1/2 a small white onion, diced
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
1/2 lime
salt, to taste

1. Slice, mix and mash the avocado
2. Add in the diced tomatoes, onion and cilantro
3. Squeeze in lime juice, mix in with salt
4. Add in 1 or 2 avocado pits to keep it fresh
5. Cover with saran wrap. Chill.

National food holidays

2010-04-15T12:47:00.000-07:00

It has come to my attention that April is National Grilled Cheese Month. Really?

So I looked up some stuff on the Web and found the food we should be celebrating in May.

May, it turns out, is:
National Barbecue Month
National Chocolate Custard Month
National Egg Month
National Hamburger Month
National Salad Month
National Salsa Month
National Strawberry Month

So start off with chips and salsa, a barbecue beef burger with a salad to balance it out, and chocolate custard (taking care of National Egg Month) and strawberries for dessert.

Also, Wikipedia says May is the Month of the Man. What does that even mean? Man as in, The Man, or Man as in Being or Man as in Woman and Man. And if it's the latter, is there a month of the WOMAN?

Number 51: Strawberry shortcake

2010-04-12T22:44:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay! I have been making things, but as usual, no opportunity to photograph. Chocolate ice cream must be the most difficult thing to capture.

Story: In middle school my friends and I referred to ourselves in terms of berries - a good friend of mine was Strawberry. So I made her a Strawberry Shortcake 3-D picture sort of thing, so when I think of strawberry shortcake, I think of spending countless hours cutting and gluing and all that jazz. Not this delicious dessert.

I saw this recipe while browsing Chicago Home + Garden and had to try it. It was just so cute! Obviously, mine are not as cute as theirs, but I try.

In other news, I was able to obtain my ultimate internship this summer! Staying in LA, hoping to find an apartment so I can avoid the soul-sucking commute.

Strawberry shortcake

adapted from Chicago Home + Garden

For the biscuit/cake:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup + 3 tblspn heavy cream

For the strawberries:
1 pound strawberries
2 tablespoons sugar
a squeeze of lemon juice

For the whipped cream:
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
confectioners sugar to taste

To make the cake:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
1. Sift flour, 1/2 cup sugar, powder and salt into a large bowl. Mix
2. Add in the 3/4 cup cream. Mix until a dough forms.
3. Pat into a disk 1-inch high
4. Split into 6 triangles. Round them out slightly.
5. Bake on a parchment paper-covered baking sheet for 15 to 20 minutes until golden and firm to touch.

To make the strawberries:
1. Wash, slice the strawberries.
2. Sprinkle sugar over, squeeze in some lemon juice, toss.
3. Add more sugar to taste.
4. Refrigerate until use.

To make the whipped cream
1. Combine all ingredients into a bowl and whip until soft peaks form. Add sugar to taste.

Cake vs. Pie: The final four

2010-04-04T01:37:00.001-07:00

I love this. Vote now!

Number 50: Caramel-frosted cupcakes

2010-03-31T19:01:00.000-07:00

Today's haiku, courtesy of Roomie and me:
Cali cuties are
super duper f-cking cute
tangerines, not girls.

Spring things:
1. Dittmar gallery at NU - awesome installation imitating what's inside a spring cloud. What is a spring cloud anyway? And why is the installation dark and yellow?
2. Gregory Alan Isakov at Evanston Space in April.
3. History of the 60's counterculture or Gender, race and the politics of beauty?
4. Metric in May
5. Big Sis's graduation. May

Also. If I were to have a non-traditional wedding dessert, I would have tartelettes. I mean, donuts, sure. But people (mainly girls watching their weight) would complain. (Well...donuts versus cake. Which is more unhealthy?)

Caramel-frosted cupcakes

adapted from Martha Stewart and Piece of Cake

Use cupcake recipe found here

1/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1.5 tablespoons unsalted butter

dash of salt

1 tablespoon milk

dash of vanilla extract

1/4 cup confectioners sugar, sifted

1. Combine sugar, butter and salt in a saucepan. Melt over medium heat, stirring frequently.

2. Bring to a boil. Add milk and vanilla. Boil for 45 seconds, stirring occasionally.

3. Dump all of the confectioners sugar at once. Beat with a wooden spoon until thick and smooth

4. Frost cupcakes quickly by dipping the tops and rolling. Try and do this as quickly as possible, keeping the caramel warm in the saucepan.

These can be stored at room temperature for four days.

Number 49: Tea olive flower-infused sugar cookies

2010-03-24T19:27:00.001-07:00

My spring break in food:
1. Sushi Gen, right off the plane. Toro was subpar, maguro was superb. I missed good seafood.
2. Chinese noodles. Love.
3. Shabu shabu. More sashimi.
4. In-n-out. Double double protein style.
5. Lamb. Fish. Made my own wontons!

And these lovely cookies. I've always wanted to make jasmine sugar cookies via chop chop a to z but I don't have jasmine flowers on hand. At home, however, I do have tea olive flowers on hand. A few adaptions later, these amazing cookies came out of the oven. I'm in love with this sugar cookie recipe.

Tea olive flower-infused sugar cookies

2 teaspoons dried tea olive flowers
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 egg
1 tablespoon tea olive syrup (or rum)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Mix together flowers and sugar, let sit for a couple hours to infuse the sugar with the flowers. Then sift the sugar.
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg, and the rum/syrup.
3. Combine flour, powder, soda and salt. Beat into the wet mixture.
4. Fold out the dough into a plastic cling wrap. Refrigerate for at least an hour.
5. Roll out and cut out 2-3 inch cookies. Bake at 325 degrees F for 6 to 8 minutes, or until lightly browned on the edges.

Number 48: Swedish honey cookies

2010-03-18T21:43:00.000-07:00

Boyfriend and I love honey, so I wanted to try these cookies. That, and I had 2 eggs and 1.25 cups of butter in my fridge, a week to use it all and a dislike for chocolate cookies. It's almost spring break, so we have to defrost our fridge.

Anyway these are almost graham cracker-like because they're more sturdy than cookies, but not crispy. The honey taste is slight and the cookie isn't overpowering. It's a bit dainty, actually.

Also, if you've noticed, I'm coming up to the 50th recipe on here. Suggestions for number 50 are welcome!

Swedish honey cookies

adapted from biteclubeats

1/2 cup butter

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup honey

1 egg

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F

1. Cream the butter and sugar

2. Add in the honey and egg

3. Mix in flour, salt and cinnamon

4. Turnout onto a sheet of clear plastic wrap. Wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes

5. Roll out the dough to 1/8 inch and cut with a cookie cutter

6. Bake for 5 to 7 minutes, until edges brown slightly

Number 47: Pavlova with oranges. Or berries. Or any fruit for that matter.

2010-03-11T20:46:00.000-08:00

So I had some leftover egg whites from ice cream. Normally, I go for financiers but I was out of almonds (and walnuts) so meringues it was! I never really like meringue - too sweet. But for the most part, it's an easy crowd-pleaser.

But first, baking cookies with Adobe Photoshop via here. I love.

Pavlova with fresh fruit

2 egg whites
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/8 vanilla bean or a pinch of vanilla powder

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Line two baking sheet with parchment paper.
1. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form
2. Gradually add in sugar while beating. Beat until stiff and glossy
3. Fold in vanilla bean/powder
4. Spoon the meringue into 6 dollops on the baking sheets. If stiff enough, make a dent in the meringues to place the fruit. Tap the sheet against the counter to get rid of air bubbles.
5. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the outer lay is completely dry. Turn off the oven and leave the door ajar, allowing the meringues to cool in the oven.
6. Serve with fresh fruit.

Number 46: Snickerdoodle cupcakes

2010-02-26T11:09:00.001-08:00

I love it when my hands smell like cinnamon. It always reminds me of this poem. And Christmas. And learning how to bake.

On another note: Chicago Restaurant Week, Caliterra Bar and Grill, Shirley Temple for me and Roy Rogers for Boyfriend, Steak Oscar and an extra Bailey's Bomb dessert for Roomie. I feel like a well-fed kid.

Snickerdoodle mini cupcakes

adapted from Martha Stewart

For the batter:

1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons cake flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

dash of salt

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/4 cup sugar

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons milk

For the frosting:

1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons +3/4 teaspoon sugar

1/6 cup water

3/4 teaspoon light corn syrup

1 large egg white

1 teaspoon cinnamon, divided into 2

1/2 teaspoon sugar

To make the batter:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F

2. Sift together flours, baking powder, salt and cinnamon

3. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy

4. Add in the egg, beat until just combined

5. Add in vanilla, beat until just combined

6. Add flour mixture in 3 instances, alternating with 2 additions of milk

7. Divide the batter evenly in mini-muffin tin

8. Bake 5 to 7 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean

To make the frosting:

1. Combine (1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons) sugar, water and corn syrup in a saucepan

2. Cook until it reaches the thread stage (230 degrees)

3. Meanwhile, beat the egg white until soft peaks form. Add in 3/4 teaspoon sugar and continue beating

4. Once the syrup reaches the proper temperature, pour slowly into the egg whites mixture while still beating

5. Whisk until mixture is completely cool, stiff but not dry (about 7 minutes)

6. Fold in 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, pipe onto cupcakes

7. Combine remaining cinnamon and sugar, sprinkle over cupcakes

Makes about 24 mini cupcakes; lasts 2 days at room temperature, 2 months in a freezer

Note: If you feel uncomfortable with the egg white frosting, you may use the cinnamon buttercream recipe found here. However, this frosting-cake combination has a great texture.

Number 45: Vanilla honey ice cream

2010-02-25T22:58:00.000-08:00

Apologies for the lacking photos. Ice cream is difficult to photograph, especially when an ice cream scooper is not available. Also, churning during the day is almost impossible due to crazy lazy schedules.

Super easy, nice and clean, with a floral aftertaste. Save your good vanilla beans and honey for this one.

Vanilla honey ice cream

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup honey

1/2 vanilla bean

1. Halve and seed the vanilla beans

2. Combine all ingredients into a pot

3. Heat until steaming, remove from heat and remove vanilla bean stalks

4. Pour into a container with a spout, cover with plastic wrap so it touches the mixture. This prevents a skin from forming

5. Refrigerate overnight. Churn according to manufacturer's instructions.

Number 44: Bavarian sugar cookies (?)

2010-02-21T15:46:00.000-08:00

Have you heard of Bavarian sugar cookies? Apparently they're from Stranger than Fiction, which I did not watch. But if these really are Bavarian sugar cookies, as raspberri cupcakes says they are, they are amazing. She calls them crack cookies because you just can't stop eating them, and I agree. Except in our room, guac is our crack.

Moving on.

So Roomie is kinda awesome because yesterday we ran out of sugar. And I was somewhat down and nothing really cheers me up like baking something good. So Roomie hopped over to M's room and stole (read: borrowed and will never return) his sugar. We'll just buy him some more.

I've been eying these cookies for a while, so after some annoying conversions, we made them. We decided to use my porcupine cookie cutter, of course. And today, while photographing, I tried to recreate Rilo Kiley's "It's a Hit" music video.

Rilo Kiley -It's a Hit
Uploaded by Alexander_Band. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

Okay enough of that. Here it is! The recipe is halved (except for the frosting so you can pile it on if you like) and adapted to US measurements.

Bavarian sugar cookies
adapted from raspberri cupcakes

For the cookie:
9 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and chopped into cubes
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 egg yolk (Beat an egg yolk and put 2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon ish)
dash of salt
1/6 cup + 1.5 teaspoon granulated sugar

For the frosting:
1 egg white
14 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

To make:

Preheat the oven to 440 degrees F.

1. Sift the flour into a large bowl. Using a pastry blender, cut the butter in until it resembles coarse meal (you can also use two knives, or your hands)
2. Mix in the sugar, then egg and salt
3. Knead the dough until it comes together. Wrap in plastic wrap and fridge for 30 minutes or until firm.
4. Meanwhile, make the frosting. With an electric mixer on the lowest setting (or whisk by hand), whisk the egg whites and gradually sift in the sugar until it is smooth and white. Don't let it sit untouched for too long or it will form a skin.
5. Take the dough out of the fridge and roll it out carefully until it is 3 to 4 millimeters thick. It's super delicate dough, so be careful.
6. Cut out cookies, place them on parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Frost carefully - the frosting may burn if it goes over the cookie's edge. Bake for 4 to 5 minutes, or until the edges brown slightly.
7. Remove and let cool. Enjoy!

Number 43: Roasted pear

2010-02-16T15:49:00.000-08:00

Econ midterm: Ugh.
Discussion: Bleh
Lunch: Doughnut, chips and latte (I know, awful)

A roasted pear would be much appreciated now, but alas, I made it last night whilst studying for the midterm which I bombed this afternoon. It was a small treat for the worn-down.

Roasted pear

serve with caramel sauce

1 D'anjou pear

2 tablespoons butter, softened at room temperature

2 tablespoons brown sugar, packed

half an orange (or in my case, tangerine)

pinch of cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

2. Halve the pear and remove the core

3. Mix together butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. I was too lazy to wait for my butter to soften so I just dumped it in the microwave for 10 seconds

4. Place the pears cut-side up on separate squares of aluminum foil.

5. Pack the butter mixture into two spheres and place into the empty core of the pears. In my case, just spoon the mixture over the pears

6. Squeeze some orange/tangerine juice over the pears, wrap them up and bake for an hour or so.

Number 42: Bittersweet chocolate mousse with raspberry puree

2010-02-14T16:14:00.001-08:00

Let's start this one with the score. Mousse: 75, Jess: 25.

Here's the story. Boyfriend and I celebrated V-day early because we have nonexistent lives (read: work, homework and reading) today. His job: Paella. Mine: Something chocolate-y with fruit.

Naturally, I went for the classic chocolate mousse, adding on a raspberry puree. And this being our first V-day celebration, I wanted to be fancy.

Originally I was planning on chocolate, pear and honey, but eh. I wanted something reddish. Sure, raspberries aren't in season, but chocolate-covered strawberries are the rage for romance and they're only in season during the summer.

I was choosing between Martha Stewart's bittersweet chocolate mousse recipe and tartelette's chocolate, honey and pear and milk chocolate mousse, and since I wanted to be fancy, I decided to go with the latter, halving the recipe and making it all chocolate. Boyfriend loves honey, so I was attracted to this recipe which didn't use any sugar.

But this recipe called for gelatin. I hate gelatin. It scares me. You just add it and everything becomes sticky or stiff and stays that way. Most of the time, the gelatin doesn't dissolve like it should. Or it clumps together in whipped cream. Obviously, I'm still a novice at using gelatin.

So this time the gelatin didn't dissolve in the microwave like it should've. So I made two batches of gelatin and the resulting mixture was super stiff. Made for a difficult mousse. Not necessarily homogeneous (yuck).

Nevertheless, I charged forward. In went the chocolate. Except I spent such a long time on the syrup that the melted chocolate had begun to solidify. I ended up with bits of chocolate in the mousse, which didn't look appetizing (but it was!) So I melted more chocolate, added it in, dropped the mousse into ramekins and smoothed it over with the back of a spoon.

The raspberry puree was nice and smooth, although the color was bright pink and looked quite ridiculous next to the medium brown of the mousse. I was hoping for a deeper brown, but ah well. Such is life. Take what you can, right?

It turned out fairly decent - Boyfriend wasn't much of a fan because it was quite bitter (bittersweet chocolate...of course) and he's more of a milk chocolate person. Maybe I should have stuck with the pear and chocolate mousse, but for my first attempt I suppose it was worth it. So why is it mousse: 0.75, Jess: 0.25? Well, the mousse almost beat me, and I almost had to throw it away, but in the end it was edible and quite good. Rave reviews from everyone but Boyfriend (who is my best and harshest critic, next to my mom)

Perhaps it's mousse: 75, Jess: 125?

Bittersweet chocolate mousse with raspberry puree

sweetened with honey

mousse adapted from Tartelette

For the mousse
1 tablespoon powdered gelatin
2 tablespoons plus 1.5 teaspoon water, divided
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup honey
3 egg yolks
3 ounces chocolate, melted and slightly cooled

For the raspberry puree
1/2 cup fresh raspberries
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon water

To make the mousse
1. Dissolve 1tablespoon gelatin into 1 tablespoon water
2. Beat cream until soft peaks form. Chill
3. Wash your bowl and mixer - dry completely.
4. In a heavy saucepan, stir together 2.5 tblespoons (2 tablespoons plus 1.5 teaspoon) water and the honey. Stir until dissolved. Boil over medium heat until it reaches the soft-ball stage (238 degrees F)
5. Once it reaches the temperature, pour into a container with a spout (making it easier to pour over egg yolks)
6. Beat egg yolks at medium high speed to break it up. Continue beating while carefully pouring the hot syrup over the yolks
7. Dissolve the gelatin in the microwave (!) for 10 to 15 seconds.
8. Add to the egg yolk mixture (pate a bombe)
9. Whip until cold and airy.
10. Remove whipped cream from the fridge.
11. Fold 1/3 of the whipped cream into the pate a bombe until the mixture becomes gentler
12. Fold the rest in carefully
13. Fold in melted chocolate
14. Separate into 4 ramekins or serving containers, smooth over with the back of a spoon.

To make the puree
1. Combine all ingredients in a pot
2. Over medium heat, cook ingredients until the raspberries break down
3. Simmer until thick, about 5 minutes
4. Push through a strainer to get all the seeds out
5. Spread over the mousse with the back of a spoon

Once assembled, chill for at least two hours or overnight. The colder, the better.

Number 41: Fleur de sel caramels

2010-02-06T00:12:00.000-08:00

My favorite candy bar when I was a kid was the Milky Way bar. Mostly because of the caramel. So in honor of that, as well as some caramel cravings amongst the inhabitants of room 214, I decided to try my hand at real caramel.

Salted caramel ice cream was already on my "Success List," but real caramel, I discovered, is a lot more time consuming. I was reading sections of Andrea Dworkin's "Intercourse" (oh, gender theory) in front of the stove for at least an hour.

The difficulty was somewhat multiplied by the fact that I did not bring my candy thermometer from home. Fortunately, the recipe called for the caramel to be cooked until firm-ball stage, something which can be realized without a thermometer. No need for fanciness in this dorm.

To check the cooking process, I simply dipped a wooden spoon into the cooking caramel every 10 minutes or so. Then I would run the spoon under a trickle of cold water to see how it reacted. If the caramel was easily washed away, it was definitely not ready. If the caramel moved but gathered somewhat, it was at soft-ball stage. If the caramel stuck onto the spoon but didn't move or gather, I scraped it off and rolled it into a ball. Usually this means it's pretty much done, but if you want a firmer caramel, wait a little longer and start noticing the hardness of the caramel when cold. Ours turned out a bit soft, so we store them in the fridge for a firmer texture.

It's pretty annoying, actually. Simple, but repetitive, so if you do have a candy thermometer, use it. It'll make life easier.

So enjoy! Take a night to make these, and sprinkle with sea salt before wrapping. The best part is the zing of the salt against the creamy caramel.

Fleur de sel caramels

adapted from vanilla & lace

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/3 teaspoon sea salt
2.5 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon fleur de sel/sea salt

1. Line a 5x8, or smaller, cake pan with parchment paper, lightly buttered
2. In a heavy saucepan, combine sugar, corn syrup, salt and half of the heavy whipping cream. Cook over medium heat. Number 5 on NU stoves. Stir constantly and bring to a boil.
3. Once boiling, drizzle in the remaining cup of cream. Do this slowly and evenly - you want to keep the mixture boiling.
4. Reduce heat to medium low (I chose number 3 on our stoves) and boil without stirring for 5 to 6 minutes.
5. Add butter in three installments, stirring after each melts.
6. Allow to boil over medium low heat (2-3) until the mixture hits 250 degrees F, or firm-ball stage. This should take 30 to 40 minutes.
7. Once you have reached the right temperature, remove form heat and stir in the vanilla extract.
8. Pour into the prepared pan and let sit until it reaches room temperature and hardens.
9. Cut up into rectangles or squares, whatever you desire, and press into sea salt. Wrap in wax paper.

Number 40: Plain jane macarons with semisweet chocolate ganache

2010-02-04T15:37:00.000-08:00

Yes. It's true. I have made macarons in the dorm kitchen.

I suppose that's not such a big accomplishment, but it is to me. An oven without a viewing window is damn annoying when you're trying to see if the feet have formed yet.
But I did it -- moderately successfully. Brought my coffee grinder all the way from California to do this, and after finding myself with four egg whites left over from eclairs, I decided I was ready.

I let the egg whites age in the fridge for four days (Pierre Hermes recommends five, from what I've read). I bought whole almonds, powdered sugar, and cream for the ganache.
This time I decided to try a classic macarons without food coloring and a semisweet chocolate ganache - start simple until I get it perfect, and then branch out.

It worked, somewhat. A total of three trays went into the oven. Batch #1 came out nicely, although I'm afraid I didn't tap all the air out so there's an air bubble between the shell and chewy filling. Still tasty. Batch #2 was burnt, although when I cracked them in half there was no air bubble --- strange. Batch #3 was the middle child -- slightly burnt but still edible.

So here they are! The recipe, based on the Italian method, is posted with the specifics for a dorm kitchen, just for any NU students out there. Also, expect sea salt caramels --- made in a dorm kitchen, and without a candy thermometer. That's right. No thermometer.

P.S. Boyfriend has the stomach flu. I have a cold. Roomie's got a headache. What a sad picture.

Classic macarons

with semisweet chocolate ganache
adapted from Food & Wine and David Lebovitz

For the shells (find the original here. Omit food coloring.)
4 large egg whites
1 1/3 cup ground almonds (or almond flour)
1 1/3 cup powdered sugar
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons water plus 1 teaspoon

For the chocolate ganache
2 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon light corn syrup
1/2 tablespoon butter, unsalted

To make the shells
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place a rack on the uppermost divider of an NU dorm oven (it should be 2/3 of the way up). For regular ovens, divide the oven into thirds with two racks. Line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Sift/whisk ground almonds and powdered sugar in a large mixing bowl. Using a spatula, mix in one egg white until evenly moist. Set aside.
3. In a small saucepan, combine 2/3 cup sugar with water. Bring to a boil, washing down crystals forming on the side with a pastry brush. Boil over high heat until it reaches 240 degrees on a candy thermometer. If you don't have a candy thermometer, dip a wooden spoon in occasionally and run under cold water. The syrup should move slightly on the spoon, but gather. You should be able to roll the syrup into a semi-soft ball when cold.
4. Meanwhile, in another large bowl and with clean beaters in the electric mixer, beat the remaining 3 egg whites until soft peaks form.
5. With the electric mixer at high speed, slowly drizzle the hot syrup over the egg whites. Beat until firm and glossy.
6. Stir 1/4 of the egg whites mixture into the almond mixture. Once fully incorporated, fold in the remaining meringue with a rubber spatula. Do not overmix! Be sure that the mixture is still smooth and "flows like magma," whatever that means. Normally I just make sure the mixture is rounded on the top and flows slowly in a ribbon when lifted from the batch.
7. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2 inch tip. Pipe out 1.5 inch mounds on the baking sheets, 1 inch apart.
8. Tap the sheets to remove any air. Let sit for 15 minutes to dry (at least 15-minutes)
9. Place in the oven (top rack only, dormmates), close the door, and turn off the oven. Bake for 5 minutes.
10. After 5 minutes, turn the oven back on to 400 degrees and bake for another 8 minutes. The meringues should be puffed up and the tops should be firm
11. Transfer baking sheet to a wire rack and let cool. Carefully remove the shells.

For the filling
1. Heat the corn syrup and heavy cream together in a pot.
2. Add in chopped chocolate. Let sit for a minute and then mix until smooth.
3. Add in butter and mix until melted. Let cool completely before using (it will thicken and be easier to spread).

Number 39: Cream puffs

2010-01-28T17:21:00.000-08:00

Roomie was craving cream puffs, as previously posted, so here they are. She prefers vanilla pastry cream to chocolate, but we drizzled chocolate glaze over it anyway. Because we're both girls, and we're both hating life (school!) right now.

Throat hurts from running in the cold - silly weak immune system. Can't even handle a quick jog to catch the bus.

Also, trying to contact publishers Stranger Danger distros. Help please! I'm on deadline for tomorrow and I have no story. I keep getting emails, but from all the wrong people. Life.

So eclairs with cold vanilla cream to make us feel better. Assemble these fresh, or they'll get soggy.

Cream puffs
recipe adapted from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé

For the pastry cream
Go here. Omit the chocolate, but simmer 1/2 vanilla bean or 1 tablespoon vanilla extract in milk

Cream Puff Dough.
(makes 20-24 eclairs)
½ cup (125g) whole milk
½ cup (125g) water
1 stick (4 ounces; 115g) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
¼ teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup (140g) all-purpose flour
5 large eggs, at room temperature (I ended up using 7 to get the right consistency)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, with two racks evenly distributed.
1. In a heavy bottomed medium saucepan, bring the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to theboil.
2. Once the mixture is at a rolling boil, add all of the flour at once, reduce the heat to medium and start to stir the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon. The dough comes together very quickly. Do not worry if a slight crust forms at the bottom of the pan, it’s supposed to.
3. You need to carry on stirring for a further 2-3 minutes to dry the dough. After this time the dough will be very soft and smooth.
4. Transfer the dough into a bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using your handmixer or if you still have the energy, continue by hand.
5. Add the eggs one at a time,beating after each egg has been added to incorporate it into the dough. You will notice that after you have added the first egg, the dough will separate, once again do not worry. As you keep working the dough, it will come back all together again by the time you have added the third egg. In the end the dough should be thick and shiny and when lifted it should fall back into the bowl in a ribbon. The dough should be still warm. Pipe immediately.
6. Pipe circles about 2 inch in diameter, 2 inches apart.

Notes: Once the dough is made you need to shape it immediately. You can pipe the dough and the freeze it. Simply pipe the dough onto parchment-lined bakingsheets and slide the sheets into the freezer. Once the dough is completely frozen, transfer the piped shapes into freezer bags. They can be kept in the freezer for up to a month.

1. Bake one tray (or two if you can fit it) for 7 minutes on the top rack.
2. After those 7 minutes, put the handle of a wooden spoon between the oven door to let it vent. Bake another 7 minutes.
3. Move the tray to the lower rack, rotate it front to back, and bake for another 8 to 10 minutes, until golden.

To make the chocolate glaze
1. Take 3 ounces semisweet chocolate and 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
2. Melt together, drizzle over baked and assembled cream puffs

Random post 2

2010-01-27T15:26:00.000-08:00

Yes, I have been making things. I've just been busy. And the lack of natural light these days is making it difficult to get decent photos. Sundown at 5 is a pain.

I food adventured around Chicago this past weekend because it was Boyfriend's birthday. Late lunch at his aunt's Chinese-Japanese fusion restaurant (we tried to go to Hot Doug's but the line was too long), ice skating at Millennium Park and dinner at the Russian Tea Time. I love their house brewed tea, which Boyfriend got. It's got a musky, smoky, sweet but light taste. I wonder if that makes sense... Their jasmine green tea, which I got, was also good --- the smell is strong and it feels like it would be bitter, but it's not. Love.

Anyway Roomie has had a hankering for eclairs, so we'll be making those today (hopefully successfully). Also, guac is on the menu because I've had a hankering for avocados. Hopefully photos will be up ---- in the meantime, how to make heart-shaped marshmallows? I'm in love.

Number 38: Key lime pie

2010-01-16T15:12:00.000-08:00

Hello hello. As promised, key lime pie for T as a "thank you" present for a favor. Getting 1/2 teaspoon of lime zest using a parring knife was a pain, but I guess that's the price for having a good writer on staff.

Anyways, recently I've just been madly dashing around looking up internships (!) and apartments (!) and my life is a little hectic. I've been super messy, super lazy when I can be and super anti-social. You know when certain questions keep bugging you, but you never ask them because you fear the response? Yes. That. Like "Am I going to be able to graduate early?" or "What happens if we don't get an apartment?"

Moving on! Had to get that out, but key lime pie for T. To be honest, I've never had key lime pie, so I was unsure of how it would look. I used a recipe from Food & Wine, which called for beaten egg whites to fold into the custard. Roomie noted that she didn't do this, but ah well. I guess it's to make it fluffier? But it's nice and tangy, perfect with sweetened whipped cream. Final verdict will come from T. Bit nervous.

P.S. My porcupine cookies made it onto the National Cookie Network. Yay :)

Key Lime Pie

from Food & Wine

For the crust (I used a premade one, but if you want to be all authentic):
1.5 cups of graham cracker crumbs
4 tablespoons butter, melted

For the filling:
3 large eggs, separated
1 full egg, slightly beaten
One 14-ounce can of sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup fresh lime juice, preferably from key limes, which I didn't have
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lime zest (more for garnish)
sweetened whipped cream

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees
To make the crust:
1. In a medium bowl, mix graham cracker crumbs and butter
2. Press evenly over the bottom and up sides of a 9" pie plate
3. Bake for 15 minutes at 325 degrees, or until firm. Let cool.

To make the filling:
1. Beat 3 egg yolks and the full egg until thickened.
2. Add in the sweetened condensed milk, then beat in lime juice and zest
3. With an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until firm peaks form
4. Fold one-third of the egg whites into the egg-condensed milk mixture
5. Once well-incorporated, fold in the remaining egg whites
6. Pour the custard into the pie crust.
7. Bake at 325 degrees for 15 minutes, or until barely set.
8. Place on a wire rack, let cool. Chill overnight.
9. Serve with whipped cream.

Random update

2010-01-11T19:02:00.000-08:00

Nothing until this weekend (key lime pie for T) so just some food porn.

Played around with a friend's Nikon outfitted with the 50 mm lens that goes down to f/1.8. Lovely.

Croissant and tea at Royal Cafe in Rogers Park, before an interview.

Number 37: Porcupine-shaped smores and New Years

2010-01-01T09:44:00.000-08:00

Apologies for the hiatus! Too busy touring and not wanting school to start. But alas, it has.

So I never make New Years resolutions because I always forget to, but I figured, why not.
Of course, they're mostly food-related for now.
1. Make successful and gorgeous macarons
2. Learn to handle raw meat
3. Try red velvet cupcakes
4. Go to moto (or otom)...this means saving money
5. Make a successful chocolate pear cake

This winter break consisted of a lot of baking failures. The list is as follows
1. Chocolate pear brown butter cake via smitten kitchen. Jerry was helping and we forgot to add baking soda. We added it in, mixed it again (read: overmixed), and decided to try it anyway. Fearing that the cake wouldn't rise and the pears and chocolate would overcome the cake (ruining it and wasting all the hard work), I only put in 1/3 of the pears. The cake rose, but the pear flavor was overpowered by the chocolate. Boo.
2. Pear honey financiers. It made everything soggy. 'Nuff said.
3. Pear and white tea jelly. Inspired by tartelette, but the pear slices were too small, the tea too bitter.

As you can tell, it's all pear related. Why? Because I cut too many pears slash didn't put the required amount into the cake and had a lot of extra pear cubes.

Ah well. Failures are good for bringing my ego down.

After I returned to the States, I decided to use my porcupine cookie-cutter. (Sidenote: Some people have been telling me it's a hedgehog. That is possible. Still cute.)

So the idea for hedgehog/porcupine smores popped into my head. It was an almost-fail. I over-baked the first batch, and subsequent batches always seemed too hard for the marshmallows. After a day, however, the cookies softened. I skipped out on the chocolate because I was too busy packing, but I'd recommend spreading chocolate over the cookie (leaving the face of the hedgehog/porcupine alone, though).

Porcupine graham crackers and marshmallow

For the graham crackers
2.5 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp sea salt
7 tblspn butter, cut into cubes and frozen
1/3 cup honey
5 tblspn milk
2 tblspn vanilla extract
3 tbs granulated sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

1. Combine brown sugar, flour, baking soda and salt into a food processor. Pulse on low to incorporate
2. Add butter, pulse on and off until the mixture becomes a coarse meal
3. Whisk together honey, milk and vanilla until smooth. Add to the dry ingredients and pulse until it barely comes togheter
4. Dust with flour, wrap and chill 2 hours
5. Meanwhile, combine granulated sugar and cinnamon
6. Once the dough is properly chilled, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
7. Roll out the dough to about 1/8 inch. Cut out porcupines (or squares), dust with topping and chill until firm. 15 to 20 minutes in the freezer, 30 to 45 minutes in the fridge.
8. Remove from freezer/fridge and prick holes, using a toothpick (blunt end makes a nice impression) or chopstick.
9. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes. If it seems a bit wet on the bottom, it's fine. It will harden once cooled. Also, check in the middle and move around the cookies to prevent uneven browning.

For the marshmallow recipe, see here. Doubling the recipe should make enough marshmallow for all the crackers, although the more the merrier! Read: Triple it and have fun.

-- EDIT--

A lot of people have asked where I found this cookie cutter. Unfortunately, I found it at natural kitchen in Japan - it's a 100 yen store that sells household goods. I don't know if you can buy things online, because I can't read Japanese. But they also have squirrel cookie cutters, if that interests you as well.

Food adventures: Japan

2009-12-23T04:45:00.000-08:00

Hi from across the Pacific.

So I've been in Japan for the past couple of days - Kobe for two, Kyoto for the past two. I've been buying macarons wherever I see them - including the Starbucks across the street. That's right. Starbucks makes macarons. Who knew?

So snapshot of a few of the macarons I bought (plus random cute things). The two sets shown here are from different bakeries on the basement level of department stores. Bottom right, yellow is passionfruit and chocolate. It's surprisingly amazing, actually.

Also, they have this cheap (relatively) little housewares store called "natural kitchen." I bought quite a lot (bottom left) because almost everything is 100 yen (105 including tax). That's roughly $1.50, I believe. Their stuff is ridiculously cute. Porcupine cookies, here I come.

Inspiration

2009-12-09T19:08:00.000-08:00

I am cold in my room and wearing my favorite lazy-day jacket from AE with a fuzzy hood and want one of these in my apartment, damnit.

Actually, I just want an apartment.

Number 36: Pecan tarts

2009-12-07T09:24:00.000-08:00

Christmas presents are easy for college kids. A batch of chocolate chip muffins here, cookies, there. For a good friend, though, it helps to know preferences.

Roomie decided to make T a bag-full of goodies in preparation for finals. Her favorite recipe of carrot cake (imagine chopping 3 cups full of carrots) and his favorite dessert, pecan pie.

Given that we didn't have any pie tins, we made pecan pie tarts instead. These are actually pretty simple, and the crust is quite good. Something to keep in the books.

Pecan tarts
adapted from My Kitchen Snippets and Chocolate Chip Trips

For the crust:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 egg
2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
For the filling:
2 eggs, slightly beaten
3/4 cup honey
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup chopped pecans

To make the crust:
1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy
2. Mix in egg
3. Add flour and mix until combined
4. Roll into a flat disc, cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour
5. Roll out dough and press into 3-inch tart pans (diameter). Trim excess dough off the top
6. Set aside
7. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

To make the filling:
1. Whisk together eggs
2. Whisk in honey, sugar, salt, syrup, flour and vanilla
3. Pour 3 to 4 tablespoons into each tart pan
4. Spread 2 tablespoons of pecans over each tart
5. Bake for 20 minutes or until the center is set
6. Let cool on wire rack

Makes 12 3-inch tarts

Speaking of honey, this honey popped up on A Cup of Jo as possible gift. Chunk honey, with a piece of honeycomb inside. Pretty awesome.

P.S. Snow! Sticking! In Chicago!
P.P.S. My friend gave me a rhinovirus (common cold) plush for Christmas...and now I have the rhinovirus. For realsies.

Number 35: Cookie variations 2 - Strawberry jam thumbprint cookies

2009-12-03T13:13:00.000-08:00

The thing about the thumbprint cookies Roomie and I make is that they always have character. You know, there are some prettier than others, some boring, some downright deformed. And I always separate the pretty from the ugly, but in the end I always forget which group is which.

Tired of chocolate (yes, weird) and with a lot of jam in our fridge, I adapted our thumbprint cookies and spooned in jam instead. Done right, these are buttery and caramel-y and wonderful.

Just preheat the oven to 350 degrees, take the dough recipe from here, roll out little tablespoon balls, and bake them 1-inch apart for 8 minutes.

Remove them from the oven, make deep indentations with your thumb and fill them with jam.

Move the rack higher in the oven (be careful!) and bake the cookies for another 7 to 9 minutes, or until the bottoms brown.

Let cool before enjoying - poor Stephen got burned eating these too quickly.

Number 34: Cookie variations - peppermint chocolate shortbread

2009-11-26T17:32:00.000-08:00

Apologies for the hiatus. My return from Virginia was followed by some serious stressing out about finals. So here are some things that happened during the last week and a half.

1. I watched two Miyazaki films - Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle. Am now wondering why teens lust after vampires in their imagination, if they can have an awesome river god who turns into a dragon.
2. Roomie and I bought a huge can of pumpkin and made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. And then we made pumpkin cupcakes with chocolate ganache frosting. And then we left them at her house.
3. I obsessed about the new issue of Desserts Magazine, especially because they've got local Chicago pastry chef Ben Roche and his recipe for ants on a log dessert.
4. I realized that stepping foot into the moto kitchen as a guest chef was probably the most exciting thing to happen in my journalistic career....and I wasted it just interviewing the chefs. Booooo. (It was still pretty damn awesome)

Anyway before we left for Thanksgiving, I made a treat to take on the plane. I ran across similar cookies on cupcakes and cashmere and wanted to spice up some shortbread.

I used up the remaining cookie dough from the marshmallow chocolate cookies, but you can just use your favorite shortbread/sugar cookie recipe. Coat them in melted chocolate, sprinkled crushed peppermint candies on top, and chill them until the chocolate sets. It's Christmas in a cookie. Forget chocolate chip - these are the cookies to leave for Santa.

Food adventures: Chinatown and 3-inch macarons

2009-11-22T22:53:00.000-08:00

Yes. That is a three-inch macaron. A raspberry vanilla 3-inch macaron. You can freak out (and be jealous).

It all started with not knowing where to eat on a Saturday night. For some odd reason there was a parade down Michigan Avenue day before yesterday, so the streets were crowded with tourists and cute kids (!). However, it also meant that there would be people standing around learning how to use the CTA transit card machine, which made me miss my train going downtown (urghhhhh).

So walking around, not knowing what to eat, seeing good places filled with lines and not wanting to wait, we walked into the Peninsula's wine and cafe place Pierrot Gourmet. Obviously too pricey for college kids, but they had three-inch macarons. Raspberry vanilla, or PB&J. I think I turned to Boyfriend, pointed at this raspberry vanilla creation, and said "I want."

Not sure, but quite positive it was along those lines.

He promised to come back later and buy it. As for dinner, off to Chinatown. Where we didn't find wontons. Boooo.

But I got the macaron eventually. And I finally understood what people have been describing as a "creamy" center. Heaven!
As you can see, it's taller than an iPod shuffle. And bigger than Boyfriend's mouth.

Off to practice spanish for a presentation tomorrow! Booooo. But after that, snickerdoodles from leftover shortbread dough. We'll see how they turn out.

P.S. Photo credit goes to Boyfriend, who knows how to use his camera better and has a knack for angles.

Number 33: Blueberry sour cream coffee cake

2009-11-21T00:09:00.000-08:00

Both Roomie and I agree that all baked goods with sour cream are golden. Thus we bought a tub of sour cream a couple days ago at the local Jewel...and some blueberries.

After Roomie finished a three-page paper last night (on a Friday night!) we took a break to bake. And watch some Grey's Anatomy.

Blueberries and sour cream have met before - with a lot more flour, a lot more butter, and less egg. They're great in scones. But I tired of scones after the last bit was left stale in our fridge (we just can't eat that much!) and I was cravin' some cake.

Not sugar-y dessert cake. Coffee cake. So I turned to the internet, and the dependable internet gave me love.

So here's the result of our baking adventure on a Friday night. We used up the rest of our sugar and eggs, so no more baking until we get to Roomie's for Thanksgiving (lo siento, but it's not practical to go grocery shopping right before a break).

Happy baking 'till then.

Blueberry sour cream cake

Adapted from Recipezaar

1/3 cup unsalted butter
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 teaspoon baking powder
2/3 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup sour cream
2/3 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup blueberries

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees
1. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy with an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. There's quite a lot of sugar so don't worry if it's granulated and chunky.
2. Mix the eggs in one at a time.
3. Sift the dry ingredients together (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt)
4. Gradually add the dry ingredients into the wet, alternating with the sour cream. Be sure to finish mixing with the dry ingredients.
5. Stir in the vanilla extract
6. Fold the blueberries into the batter
7. Pour into a greased and floured pan (Mine was a 6.5 inch by 9.5 inch pan with decent sides, lined with parchment paper).
8. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
9. Let sit in pan for another 10 minutes. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Number 32: Chocolate-covered marshmallow cookies. Or psuedo smores.

2009-11-19T23:16:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was my registration day, and lucky me - I somehow ended up with the last slot for sophomores. Drag.

So to cheer myself up after a day of angrily cursing the 2 people who took the very last spots in the one (okay the second) class that I really wanted this quarter, I made myself these cute little smore-ish cookies.

I had never made marshmallow before so it was quite an experience. You're supposed to cook the syrup until the soft-ball stage (or when the syrup, when run under cold water or when chilled, can be rolled into a soft ball). I, however, was preoccupied with scraping the vanilla bean and didn't notice my syrup going past the soft-ball stage, onto the hard-ball stage, past caramel, and straight into the stage where everything becomes a wonderfully black, burnt mess of burnt sugar. Really burnt sugar.

Try two came out fine, even without a candy thermometer, all I did was periodically pick up a drop of syrup on a wooden spoon and run that under cold water. Then I rolled the syrup to see if it would harden just enough.

Of course, the cookies didn't come out as cute as tartelette's. I don't think I beat the marshmallow enough/waited long enough for it to dry out. So some of my marshmallow kisses just ended up looking like tiny misplaced boobies. Oops!

Of course, when covered in chocolate, it doesn't really matter does it?

Chocolate-covered marshmallow cookies

Recipe at Tartelette

For the shortbread(note: I only used half of this because Roomie and I can't eat that many cookies. And we're selfish):
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/8 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 eggs, whisked together

For the marshmallow:
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons powdered gelatin
1 tablespoon cold water
1 egg white
1/2 vanilla bean, split and seeded

For the chocolate glaze:

4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
4 teaspoons vegetable oil

To make the shortbread:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F
1. Mix together dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon)
2. Using the paddle attachment of an electric mixer, slowly incorporate the butter until sandy. (I started out mixing by hand because our bowl is quite small).
3. Add in the whisked eggs until combined.
4. Turn out on cling wrap. Form a disc and refrigerate for at least an hour, up to 3 days.
5. After the dough has firmed up enough, roll out to until it is 1/8 inch thick. Cut out 1 to 1 1/2 inch round cookies.
6. Bake for 10 minutes or until light golden brown.

To make the marshmallows:
1. Heat the sugar, water and corn syrup in a saucepan. Stir until the sugar has dissolved and cook untouched until it reaches the "soft-ball" stage, or 235 degrees on a candy thermometer.
2. Sprinkle gelatin over cold water to dissolve.
3. Remove syrup from heat and add in the gelatin. Mix until the gelatin is all dissolved.
4. Whip the egg whites until soft peaks form.
5. Pour the syrup into the egg whites, whipping continuously.
6. Add in the vanilla beans and beat until stiff peaks form (this takes quite a while. The egg whites need to cool down and stiffen so be patient! I wasn't.)
7. Pipe a "kiss" using a round pastry tip on top of each cookie. If you have too little marshmallow, sandwich the cookies.
8. Let sit at room temperature to firm - about 2 hours.

To make the chocolate glaze:
NOTE: The chocolate didn't firm as much as I wanted it to, and it took forever (read: overnight). Maybe down the oil to 2 teaspoons?
1. Melt the chocolate and oil together in a double boiler, or a bowl over barely simmering water. Or use a hair dryer, like I did.
2. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
3. Dip the kissed cookies into the chocolate, lift with a fork to let excess chocolate drip down.
4. Set on parchment-lined baking sheet and let sit at room temperature until the chocolate firms (about 1 to 2 hours).

P.S. These are messy cookies to assemble. I ended up with chocolate on my shirt, on my face, and on my fingers. Love.

Food adventures: How (not) to halve recipes

2009-11-17T14:34:00.000-08:00

You know when you cut a recipe in half and everything is going perfectly ... until it comes out wrong and ugly and you realize that you forgot to halve one ingredient?

This time, it was the eggs.

Naturally, we didn't realize this until an hour or so later, after lamenting the disfiguration of our precious cookies. The epiphany went something like this:

Me: Those cookies are a little weird.
Roomie: Yeah they're a little cake-y.
M: They're also really egg-y...you know?
...
R: OH!
M: OH! Ohhhhhhh....oops.

Number 31: Lemon buttermilk tarts

2009-11-14T11:13:00.000-08:00

The first time I tried making pie I didn't realize you had to bake the crust separately. Needless to say, the lemon meringue pie was awful :(

But I've learned my lesson! Ish. I slightly overbaked the crusts, but hey - stops it from becoming soggy too soon.

Pie is still scary for me because of the crust - it's different from shortbread crusts and different from cookies and different from graham cracker crusts (obviously). So yeah. Un poco dificil.

This was my second attempt at a pseudo pie - pie crust in tart shells with a lemon buttermilk filling. It works out well because the crust is not sweet at all, and things with lemon tend to be overly tangy and sweet. The perfect combo! Add on any berries and you're good to go.

Lemon buttermilk tarts

with blueberries and confectioner's sugar

For the pie crust:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 cup water

For the lemon buttermilk filling:

2 eggs

3/4 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup granulated sugar

6 tablespoons lemon juice

zest of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

To make the pie crust:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F

1. Sift dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl

2. Rub in the butter until the mixture because flaky and crumbly

3. Gradually add water, stirring and cutting with a knife, until the dough can form a large, soft ball

4. Roll out and press into tart tins

5. Refrigerate for 20 minutes until cold

6. Fill each with parchment paper and pie weights (I used spare change)

7. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes

8. Remove parchment paper and return to oven. Bake until golden (8 to 10 minutes)

9. Remove and let cool

To make the filling:

Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees F

1. Whisk all ingredients in a medium mixing bowl

2. Evenly divide among cooled tart crusts

3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the center of the filling has set. If cracks form, remove immediately - it has been over-baked.

4. Cool to room temperature; refrigerate until properly chilled.

5. Dust with confectioner's sugar and top with berries.

Food for thought: Ready-to-eat crème brûlée

2009-11-13T14:42:00.000-08:00

Step 1: Take out of fridge
Step 2: Remove plastic
Step 3: Sprinkle caramelized sugar on top
Step 4: Broil for 2 minutes

Seriously?

Number 30: Buttermilk scones

2009-11-09T12:41:00.001-08:00

This, my friends, is my 30th recipe post. Kind of awesome, no? 30 in maybe 3 months -- not too shabby.

So I went to feast in Wicker Park two weeks ago and was wowed by a biscuit-y scone-y thing they served with their bread and a spicy, almost-chipotle butter. So now I'm off to hunt down what it is - scone? Or biscuit? We'll just have to go back and double-check. ;)

Buttermilk Scones

serve with jam and/or butter
adapted from epicurean escapism

1 egg
1 1/2 cup buttermilk
4 cups white flour, plus extra for kneading
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup cold butter, cut into cubes

Preheat oven to 220C.
1. Beat together the egg and buttermilk.
2. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt.
3. Rub in or cut the butter cubes into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs.
4. Turn the flour mixture into a large bowl, add the egg mixture, and stir lightly with a fork until a soft dough forms.
5. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently.
6. Divide the dough into quarters and pat into 1/2-inch thick circles. Cut each circle into 6 wedges.
7. Place scones close together on a greased baking sheet.
8. Bake for 13-15 minutes, until lightly browned.

Number 29: Bittersweet chocolate cupcakes with vanilla cinnamon buttercream

2009-11-07T14:20:00.000-08:00

So yesterday I got my hair cut and went shopping with Roomie (yay for girls only outings!)

Found a nice silk scarf at Crossroads and a boys shirt on sale at Urban. And while at Francesca's Collections, we found a book of supercute cupcakes. And of course, we decided to make our own supercute cupcakes when we got home.

Unfortunately, we didn't have much to go on. We didn't have any lemons, fruits, or anything really flavorful, so at around 7 p.m. we were looking at some pretty boring vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting.

Luckily, Boyfriend saved the day by bringing some bittersweet chocolate, buttermilk and baking soda. (The buttermilk and baking soda was bought for buttermilk scones - those will come later.)

And the frosting? Well, originally we were going to make a simple vanilla buttercream, but the dairy taste in the cream was too strong, and it was getting too sweet, so we added a teaspoon and a half of cinnamon. Perfection.

The cupcakes aren't necessarily sweet, so even if the buttercream is too sweet for your taste, it balances out.

Bittersweet chocolate mini cupcakes

with vanilla cinnamon buttercream

For the cupcakes:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
a pinch of salt
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
1/2 cup buttermilk

For the frosting:
1 stick butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups of sifted powdered sugar, divided into two
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons of milk
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

To make the cupcakes:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line mini cupcake tin with liners
1. Sift flour, baking soda and salt in a medium sized mixing bowl. Set aside.
2. In a separate bowl, cream butter with an electric mixer
3. Add sugar to the butter and cream until light and fluffy
4. Add eggs one at atime, beating well after each addition
5. Add melted chocolate and mix until well incorporated
6. Add dry ingredients (flour, baking soda and salt) into the wet ingredients, alternating with the buttermilk in two or three installments
7. Mix well after each installment. However, do not overbeat.
8. Fill cupcake tin 2/3 of the way
9. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean

To make the frosting:
1. Beat butter at medium-high speed until creamy
2. Sift half of the powdered sugar into the bowl. Add vanilla and milk. Beat until well-combined.
3. Gradually add the remaining sugar and the cinnamon until you get the consistency/sweetness desired.
4. Pipe or spread onto cooled cupcakes.

Makes 46 to 48 mini cupcakes.

Number 28: Julia Child's Biscuit au Beurre (Butter Spongecake)

2009-11-05T22:19:00.000-08:00

SPECIAL GUEST BLOG FROM DORMMATE MATT!

Julie Powell ain’t got nothing on us….

I would prefer to think that we are not getting caught up in the Julia Child renaissance. I grew up with the French Chef; my grandma would always have her shows on whenever I came to visit…which was often. That raspy voice is a part of my childhood. So into the boxes of college stuff went her tome Mastering the Art of French Cooking…early edition to boot.

So what better way to procrastinate on a Thursday night when we should all be reading/writing/studying/schooling than trying to recreate one of her finely crafted recipes in the confines of a tiny dorm kitchen?

…and I have a knack for impressions. Julia’s raspy voice is my specialty…much to the chagrin of Jess and her Roomie. I have been threatened with bodily harm if I ever use it again in their presence. All I have to say to this is, “Bon Appetit!”

I have now been told that my Julia Child imitation is half Julia, half evil old lady from Hansel and Gretel. Do we really know how a fictional character sounds? Well, the increasing grip Roomie has on her spoon seems to say yes.*

Jess's note:
* Seriously. He sounds like he's an old lady who wants to eat us. :)

Biscuit au Beurre
(Butter Spongecake. Halved.)

2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 eggs, separated
1/3 cup granulated sugar plus 1 tablespoon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sifted cake flour (sifted once more)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Take a half-sheet baking pan with decent sides and line with parchment paper.
1. In a mixing bowl, gradually beat together the 2 egg yolks and 1/3 cup sugar
2. Add in vanilla and beat until the mixture is pale, thick, and forms a ribbon when lifted allowed to fall

3. In a separate bowl, beat together salt and 2 egg whites until soft peaks form
4. Sprinkle the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar over the whites and beat until stiff

5. Scoop 1/4 of the egg whites over the top of the egg yolk and sugar mixture. Sift 1/4 of the flour over the mixture as well. Fold delicately until just incorporated
6. Repeat the process with 1/3 of the remaining egg whites and 1/3 of the remaining flour
7. Repeat with half of the remaining egg whites and flour
8. Repeat with the last bits of egg whites, flour, and half of the melted butter
9. When partially blended, fold in the rest of the butter (but omit the milky residue at the bottom of the pan) Do not overmix.
10. Turn into prepared pan, tilting pan to run batter to the rim all around.
11. Set in the middle of the oven and bake for 12 to 15 minutes. The cake should be finished when it is risen, lightly browned and just shrinking from the edges of the pan.
12. Remove and let stand for 6 to 8 minutes. Then lift parchment paper out and remove carefully from the edges.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.

Check this out

2009-11-04T16:58:00.001-08:00

Okay I'm a little behind, but I heard about this somewhere and ran across this photo gallery. Pretty awesome

Gelato University

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1932341,00.html

Number 27: Banana chocolate mini muffins

2009-11-02T10:50:00.000-08:00

So sorry for the week-long hiatus. Quick post. Still tired from life. Have these for sweet cravings!

Banana chocolate mini muffins
adapted from delish

2 medium bananas, mashed
1/8 cup (2 tablespoons) butter, melted
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips (divided into two portions)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a mini muffin tin.
1. Combine bananas and butter. Whisk until smooth.
2. Add in the sugar, egg and vanilla. Mix until smooth.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, sea salt).
4. Fold dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Half-way through, add 1/4 cup of chocolate chips and continue folding until just-combined.
5. Divide the batter evenly within the muffin tin. Top with remaining chocolate chips.
6. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Makes about 24 mini muffins

Number 26: Chocolate thumbprint cookies

2009-10-20T13:39:00.000-07:00

It's midterm season, and with quarter schools, midterms never stop.

So a quick post here until after my midterm on Tuesday. If I post anymore, you may chastise me for not studying. Then again, it might just be me relieving stress.

Speaking of dealing with stress, here's a few tips that are on a sign in the dorm hallway (courtesy of ResLife).
1. Tickle a baby
2. Play patty cake with a toddler
3. Dance a jig
4. Visualize yourself winning
5. Buy yourself a flower

Mine? Bake. And eat.

Chocolate thumbprint cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) and 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter
1 cup confectioners sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 teaspoon light corn syrup

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
1. Cream the butter (reserving the 3 tablespoons) and sugar with an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment
2. Beat in flour, beginning on low speed and increasing to medium until well-combined
3. Roll tablespoons of dough into balls, placing them 1-inch apart on an ungreased or parchment-lined baking sheet
4. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and press thumb into the tops of cookies to make indentions
5. Return to oven and bake for another 7 to 9 minutes, or until light brown along the edges.
6. Remove from oven. If the indentions have lost their shape, press down to redefine the dent.
7. Remove to a wire rack adn cool.
8. Meanwhile, combine chocolate, the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter and corn syrup in a small heat-proof bowl.
9. Set over a pot of simmering water (we used a hair dryer) and melt, stirring occasionally until smooth.
10. Let cool slightly and fill cooled cookies with the chocolate mixture.

Number 25: Mini blueberry muffins (with streusel! and jam! and Roomie!)

2009-10-16T13:15:00.000-07:00

Hi there. So I’m jess’s roommate. I go on baking adventures with her and generally just do what she asks me to when we’re baking. (There’s a word for that, isn’t there? Juuuuuust kidding.) It’s jolly fun.

This past Thursday we changed things up a bit and made one of my old recipes from home; blueberry muffins with streusel topping. They’re my little brother’s favorite so I’ve made them many, many times. In fact, they would probably have made me feel homesick if it weren’t for the fact that we turned them into mini muffins.

Just a few notes:
- First off, I think the greatest part about this recipe is the streusel. The second greatest part? The jam. Yum. So even though they are not absolutely vital to the muffins, don’t skip on either of them.
- Also, the original recipe (which I found a long time ago, somewhere in cyberspace) calls for a half cup of buttermilk. I experimented with real buttermilk and several buttermilk substitutes for this recipe specifically. In the end my favorite was half a cup of milk combined with half a tablespoon of lemon juice. Of course, don’t forget to measure out half a cup of the entire substitute after you’ve combined them.
- And finally, the numbers in this recipe are going to seem strange. This is because we cut the recipe in half, since all we had was a mini muffin tin. Worked just fine for us.

Blueberry muffins
(with streusel!)

For jam:
½ cup blueberries
½ tsp sugar

Muffin batter:
1 ¼ cup flour
1 ¼ tsp baking powder
½ cup plus 1 tbs sugar
1 egg
¼ stick butter
2 tbs vegetable oil
½ cup buttermilk (see note about substitute above)
¾ tsp vanilla
½ cup blueberries

Streusel:
1 tbs plus 1 ½ tsp granulated sugar
1 tbs plus 1 ½ tsp dark brown sugar
a pinch of salt
¼ cup plus 3 ½ tbs flour
2 ½ tbs unsalted butter.

To make the jam:
1. Simmer blueberries and sugar. Mash the blueberries to break them down. Cook until thickens.
2. The mixture should thicken to about 1/8 cup. Let cool to room temperature.

To make the batter:
1. Combine flour and baking powder in a large bowl.
2. In smaller bowl, combine sugar and egg. Then whisk in butter (melted and cooled slightly), vegetable oil, buttermilk and vanilla.
3. Fold the egg mixture and ½ cup blueberries into the flour mixture and mix until just moistened.
4. Pour the batter into greased muffin tins.
5. Spoon about a half teaspoon of the jam on top of each batter mound. Use a chopstick to swirl the berry mixture into the batter. (Don’t over-swirl.)

To make the streusel:
1. Combine granulated sugar, brown sugar, salt, and flour into a bowl.
2. Drizzle melted butter over the mixture and mix until evenly moistened.
3. Sprinkle on top of muffin batter.

Bake for 8-10 minutes at 425 F.

Inspiration: Savory sweet

2009-10-14T15:24:00.001-07:00

From foodzie.com
Rosemary shortbread.

Let's do it.

Food adventures: Manic Mondays and macarons

2009-10-12T22:44:00.000-07:00

My first bakery macaron. Ever.

I love feel good 80's songs. I hate Mondays.

Today I woke up with a sore throat and a stuffy nose :( But I refuse to get sick. I refuse. I am now loading up on hot water and vitamin C. Go immune system! Go!

Also walked to the post office only to find it closed. National holiday. Right (Why do we have school again?).

But to make up for it, dropped by Bennison's Bakery on Davis St. for two things.
1. To see if they had any job openings
2. To see if they had macarons.

The results?
1. Negative
2. Affirmative. Bought one of each, brought them home and shared them. Lavender (pictured above), raspberry and chocolate. Interesting; not what I expected, but good. The lavender was more almond-y than anything else and I didn't get the pseudo-cake texture. But they were darn cute.

I've tried making macarons before (jasmine tea, mint chocolate and others which failed). And somehow, I'm not sure whether or not I've done them correctly. Mine had feet, but they also had a little air bubble between the shell and the interior. I didn't fold them to the consistency of magma, but every time I tried they stuck to the sheet. Soooooo. No idea. Will have to try again once I get my hands on a food processor and some almonds. I also tried to find Tartelette's macaron tutorial but Desserts Magazine won't let me access that. Bummer.

Now about Number 1. Is "Sorry, we're not hiring at this moment" a euphemism for "Sorry, we're not hiring you because you're not qualified"? Or "Sorry, we filled the position with someone else"? Both bakeries around the area have turned me down and I am just realizing how badly I need a job. Really. Good food and baking supplies = money. Money which I may not have in a while.

So I shall pepper the landscape (read: cafes) with my resume and hope someone decides to hire me.

Anyway I have finalized my plans for Thanksgiving, and am going to the D.C. area to hang out with Roomie! I get to be a tourist and explore. Plus, her mom used to own a cutesy cool deli in the area, so more food adventures for me. Finally, expect guest blog from Roomie soon :) Blueberry muffins are on the agenda.

Number 24: Honey strawberry financiers

2009-10-09T15:47:00.000-07:00

I miss home. And slow breakfasts with the light streaming in just so.

Strawberry honey mini financiers

1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup walnuts, grounded
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 egg whites
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
1/4 cup honey
12 small strawberries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease mini-muffin tin and set aside.
1. Cut butter into four pieces. In a saucepan, melt the butter. Stir constantly and warm until it browns and smells nutty.
2. Strain the butter in a clean bowl, set aside.
3. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, walnuts and salt
4. Add the egg whites and mix until it just comes together
5. Mix in butter.
6. Mix in the honey
7. Divide evenly in a mini-muffin tin.
8. Top each with a halved strawberry
10. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.
11. Let cool and then remove from tin.

Note: If using regular muffin tins, bake for 16 to 18 minutes.

Also, crushed walnuts using a knife and a rolling pin. Thanks to Mayra and Matt and Roomie for helping.

Number 23: Matcha honey cookies

2009-10-08T14:43:00.000-07:00

Rain rain rain today.

Rainy days make me want some hot chocolate and a fireplace. A good read is also in the dream sequence, as well as a super duper comfy blanket.

Sadly, our dorm doesn't come with a fireplace, and our heater just doesn't do the trick. The hot chocolate will come after another shopping trip, but for now, tea will have to do. Tea and matcha green tea cookies.

Here's the story behind these cookies. Dormmate Matt's impulse buy this summer was a little can of matcha green tea powder. I wanted to make jasmine green tea cookies. Inspired by Boyfriend's recent successful venture with matcha green tea and honey ice cream, I decided to try something new. And voila! Stumbled upon this great blog, found a recipe for matcha cookies and dropped quite a lot of honey into the batch. These came out wonderfully crumbly and clean, very matcha-y with just a hint of honey. Tom called them "goofy." I call them perfect.

Matcha honey cookies

5 ounces unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1.5 tablespoons matcha green tea powder
3 large egg yolks
1/4 cup honey
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar (for coating)

1. In a separate bowl, whisk the tea powder with the sugar
2. Cream the butter with an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add sugar until just-incorporated
3. Add the egg yolks and honey
4. Mix in the flour

5. Turn out onto a floured cling wrap
6. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes
7. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
8. Roll out cookies to 1/4 inch thickness and cut shapes out. Trees are cute. Mini tart tins work as well.
9. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the edges brown

Special post! Three-in-one! Number 22, Food for thought, and Food adventures

2009-10-04T20:42:00.000-07:00

Food for thought: BEST. BOYFRIEND. EVER.

I love my boyfriend who can cook :)

Here's a little food porn for you all - some life-changing dorm curry out of our tiny kitchen, courtesy of Boyfriend.

Why is Boyfriend so awesome? Took me to an asian supermarket today to buy rice and curry stuff and made me food after my mind-numbing magazine meeting. Love.

Number 22: Raspberry mousse tarts

So I made the chocolate strawberry meringue tarts the other day. Super-ghetto college style. Didn't have my electric mixer so softened butter with a hair dryer. Rolled out the dough with a glass bottle covered in plastic wrap. Worked our tiny kitchen into producing some pretty decent tarts, which we shared with the hall.

Then Boyfriend complained about his lack of tarts, so I ventured downtown with the leftover tart crust dough and tried out Tartelette's raspberry mousse. This time I rolled out dough with a jam bottle wrapped with plastic wrap - fun. Worked out well, and super cute. Add some mini chocolate chips (or a layer of chocolate ganache) to the bottom of the tart for a sweet(er) surprise.

Raspberry mousse tartlettes

For the crust:
18 tablespoons butter, unsalted
1 1/8 cup confectioners sugar, sifted
3 3/4 cups cake flour, sifted
a pinch of salt
1 egg

For the mousse:
1 1/2 tspoon gelatin (3 sheets)
1 tablespoon cold water
1 cup whole milk
1/2 vanilla bean (split lengthwise and scraped)
1 egg and 1 egg yolk
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/3 cup raspberry jam
1 cup heavy whipping cream (I used Cool whip?)

To make the crust:
1. Cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment
2. Mix in the egg
3. Mix in the cake flour and salt
4. Turn out on a lightly floured cling wrap, wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour
5. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees for deeper tarts, 365 degrees for shallow tarts
6. Roll out dough on a floured surface
7. Press into tart tins and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until brown around the edges and on bottom
8. Remove from tins and let cool

To make the mousse:
1. In a small bowl or ramekin, sprinkle the gelatin over the water.
2. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk sugar, egg and egg yolks
3. Add the cornstarch and mix until it becomes a smooth paste
4. In a saucepan, heat the milk and vanilla beans until it steams
5. Pour gradually into the egg mixture, stirring continuously to prevent curdling
6. Strain the mixture back into the saucepan, cook until it thickens
7. Add the jam and cook for another 30 seconds
8. Remove immediately from heat, add the gelatin and stir until it dissolves
9. Place in a cold water bath and stir until it reaches room temperature
10. Beat whipping cream until stiff and fold into the custard
11. Pipe onto tart shells, top with raspberries if desired.

Food adventures: Wicker Park

So Boyfriend and I cruised Wicker Park Saturday, searching for this design-your own ice cream/sorbet/fro-yo/pudding cafe on Milwaukee, and I must say it is pretty damn amazing. It's called "iCream," as in "iPod," "iMac," and all those other "iThings." But it makes sense. Essentially they give you certain options and you pick and choose to create your own. And then they churn it right in front of you, using liquid nitrogen to speed up the process and make it super smooth.

So you start with this base - ice cream, fro-yo, or pudding. The sorbet has pre-made flavors based on Naked juices (I love Naked orange juice, btw). Then you choose what flavors you want (caramel, burnt sugar, green tea, honey, pear, peach, pomegranate...it goes on!). Then mix-ins, toppings and color (pink! green! purple!). Genius (!).

Boyfriend chose green tea and honey ice cream with sprinkles and I got peach and pear fro-yo with peaches mixed in. Possibly the best fro-yo I've ever had, because normally I'm only semi-partial towards yogurt.

Sorry for the lack of pictures - didn't bring my camera with me. But I shall go again! And I'm thinking caramel and burnt sugar ice cream with chocolate chips mixed in. And I want it purple... just kidding on that last part. Maybe.

After some walking around and browsing, we hit up (pastry) Chef Mindy Segal's Hot Chocolate for dinner and had the best mac and cheese. Ever. I'm serious! Boyfriend never knew mac and cheese could be so good, and although it was a little salty, I had to agree. Beats dining hall mac and cheese at least (although that's not saying very much. Beats my mom's mac and cheese? Meh, she's red-hot at Chinese food. Not American).

Also shared a lamb and krema kasa sandwich with some pickled beets on the side which was very appetizing and finished off with a gorgeous pear dessert called, fittingly, "Pear." Poached pear tatin with some red wine and gingersnap ice cream.

Segal loves playing with salt, from what I've eaten (some with my eyes). Okay, I've eaten there twice, and only once for dinner. The other time was for dessert. But her salted caramel ice cream? Her fleur de sel cookies (pictured below with the pink filling)?

Hello Mindy Segal. I love you. Please teach me everything you know.

Fun fact - Segal is Roomie's drawing prof's cousin. Can I exploit this connection? Probably not. Awkward and weird and manipulative. Not my style.

But picked up some cookies (more food porn!) for Boyfriend's roommates and Roomie.

And with these delectable cookies, I finish off this incredibly long, epic post. Epic? Maybe. Hopefully. No more baking this week, as I have a game of catchup to play with my classes.

Food for thought: BEST ROOMMATE. EVER

2009-09-29T17:49:00.000-07:00

So I haven't mentioned this yet. I have the best roommate ever. Ever.

This morning I woke up to a hardboiled egg hiding in a pot on my desk. For me. Yay :)

Roomie wakes up about 2 hours before I do (strange schedules) and makes coffee (don't tell the CA) and breakfast for herself. Today was eggs and I got one :) Pretty damn awesome. Also, who doesn't love the smell of coffee in the morning? Even though I usually sleep through it.

And then she bakes with me and shops with me and mothers me (okay I mother her sometimes too). So yeah. This blog is a tribute to Roommate.

Also, exciting news. ish. The California Strawberry Commission is apparently releasing a strawberry-recipe eBook for the iPhone and they want to use my chocolate ganache strawberry meringue tart! (That's a mouthful. Pun not intended). So you won't be seeing anything new I've made lately because I'll be working on making sure the recipe is converted to cups and tablespoons as well as reworking the banana walnut muffin recipe.

And finally.... I received a package today filled with goodies :) my electric mixer, ice cream maker, rice cooker and food (read: ramen). Yay for packages and presents!

Number 21: Mini chocolate chip muffins

2009-09-25T15:01:00.000-07:00

As promised, my roommate and I (with the help of another friend) made chocolate chip muffins after a long and painful walk to and from Jewel-Osco. We opted to go for the cheaper grocery store a good 20 minutes away to buy our flour, sugar, milk and eggs instead of the wallet-crushing Whole Foods.

So. Here they are! We cut a recipe in half because we only wanted these to last a week, but really after the first five minutes about half of it was gone.

Oh! I forgot to mention another exciting thing in my last post. Found Tahitian vanilla beans on sale at a mall in Montclair, CA for about $3 each. Very exciting.

So here's the recipe modified to our mini-muffin tin. Have fun!

Mini chocolate chip muffins

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/6 cup white sugar
1/6 brown sugar (dark)
1 tspoon baking powder
1/4 tspoon salt
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled (it's important to have room temperature or cooler butter to prevent eggs from curdling)
1 egg
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (or to taste)

Grease a mini-muffin tin. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
1. Combine all dry ingredients (flour, white sugar, brown sugar, baking powder and salt) in a large mixing bowl with a whisk until smooth
2. Combine all wet ingredients in a separate bowl until well-incorporated (egg, milk, butter)
3. Form a well in dry ingredients and pour wet ingredients into dry. Mix until just incorporated.
4. Fold in chocolate chips.
5. Evenly distribute batter. If you want larger, coffee-house style muffins fill them almost to the top.
6. Top muffins with extra chocolate chips if desired.
7. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. A toothpick (or wooden chopstick in my case) should come out clean.

Makes 22 to 24 mini muffins.

Food adventures: Hello from Chicago

2009-09-25T09:29:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posts - I know it must have been weird after the everyday posts of summer.

Anyhow I know you were thinking what I was trying not to think - with school and reading and wanting to have a life, how am I supposed to keep baking?

Well fear not (*cringe. Sorry for the cliches). Today (as in today, Friday, after the first week of school and before a weekend of reading) my roommate and I will walk to the local Jewel-Osco and buy some groceries (i.e. baking supplies).

I have vanilla beans on hand, as well as vanilla extract and a mixer and whatnot. Our master plan? Mini chocolate chip muffins to provide us with a week of breakfast. So expect a recipe post soon! :)

Anyway on top of my schoolwork I've been trying to find a job at a local bakery, so hopefully that'll come around. I just really want to get a feel for baking and become better at it.

Other exciting news: I ventured into the Spice House on Central in Evanston and it. is. awesome.

Three types of vanilla beans (and extract), the cheapest one is $1.89 per bean. For Madagascar beans. AH! And then the Tahitian beans. AH! And orange blossom water, lavender, rose water, pure wasabi. AH! You know what this means? THIS
and THIS and, well, a lot of other stuff that I can only dream of making in my tiny dorm kitchen.

Anyway I can't wait to tell Boyfriend about Spice House :) He's cooking wontons tonight.

Number 20: Mini banana-walnut muffins

2009-09-16T23:27:00.000-07:00

Okay. Hopefully, you won't hear from me in a while because that means I'm super busy packing/getting ready for school/ getting ready for class. Starting college again and I'm going to miss my kitchen :(

Note: USE RIPE BANANAS. VERY RIPE. TRULY BLACK RIPE. Okay? Okay.

See then your muffins will turn out nice and fluffy and sweet, instead of flat and dense and pseudo-sweet like mine. I'm super impatient so oh well. Also, if you noticed, these are tiny. My mini muffin tin is tiny. They're on the same dish my jasmine tea macarons were on - just to give you a scale.

Banana-walnut muffins
from A Dash of Sass

2 and 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
2/3 cup walnuts, chopped and toasted
1 cup (approx. 1 medium) banana, very ripe and smashed
1/4 cup plain yogurt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 egg
1/3 cup honey
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a standard muffin tin or use cupcake/muffin liners.
1. In a large bowl, mix together 1 cup of the walnuts and the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt and baking powder). Reserve the remaining 1/3 cup walnuts for the tops of the muffins.
2. In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, yogurt, vanilla, honey and melted butter. Mix in the bananas.
3. Fold wet ingredients into dry until just combined. Don't forget to scrape the bottom, where a lot of flour hides out.
4. Using a spoon, fill mini muffin tins with the batter. Fill up to the top if you want large, coffee shop-style muffins, otherwise fill the tins only 3/4 full. Top with the reserved walnuts.
5. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until the tops are nicely browned and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
6. Remove from oven and let rest on a cooling rack for 5 minutes before removing from tin. Makes approximately 24 mini muffins

Ok guys wish me luck at school. :)

EDIT. I am such a dunce -_- Sorry for anybody who tried this recipe before Oct 2. The numbering for the flour was wrong. I promise it won't happen again!

Number 19: Vanilla ice cream and roasted pear

2009-09-15T23:00:00.000-07:00

So.

I did say I would be doing breakfast foods - and I did! But I made two dishes today and I'm a little lazy. Two posts a day is a lot! So vanilla ice cream and roasted pear it- yum!

I have a love-hate relationship with brown sugar. I love the caramel taste it gives to dishes, but really? Must it turn into rock whenever I put it away? It bent my measuring spoons.

Interestingly enough, I found a book titled "The Best Kitchen Quick Tips" in my mother's library - my mother has everything. Under "Brown Sugar" I found "Softening" which instructs us to place a cup of brown sugar in a glass plate or bowl, cover with a small piece of waxed paper, top with a slice of bread and zap it in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Apparently the bread supplies moisture.

Cool. Didn't do it because my brown sugar was stuck in the box, but I'll definitely try it next time. In the meantime, I loosened the sugar using a chopstick like a pick. Fun stuff.

Sorry if that seemed random, but the recipe calls for quite a lot of brown sugar so it's relevant!

Speaking of the recipe. Vanilla ice cream and roasted pear. Ahhh it's so perfectly paired. I've wanted to try roasting pears ever since I ate at a tapas place in Evanston (Tapas Barcelona), where they had this amazing dessert (another one) with a roasted pear stuffed with white chocolate and served with vanilla bean ice cream. And I was going to be legit and make vanilla bean ice cream, but vanilla beans are so expensive and the cheapest place is Williams-Sonoma some 20 miles away. And I hate driving.

So vanilla extract it is. But still. It turned out good. Even my mother liked it!

Also, as you'll note in the picture, I attempted at making a caramelized almond crust (inspired by a semi-okay dessert at El Torito) but that didn't work out. So here's the recipe for the ice cream and pear (adapted from Tartelette and allrecipes.com, respectively). I'll come back to the caramelized almonds someday - anyone have a recipe?

Vanilla ice cream
with roasted pear

For the ice cream:
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
3 egg yolks
2 tspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar

For the pears:
2 bosc pears
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
dash of cinnamon (or to taste)

To make the ice cream:
1. Combine milk and cream in a saucepan and heat until it's steaming
2. Meanwhile, whisk together eggs, vanilla and sugar
3. Temper egg mixture with the hot cream, pouring a couple tablespoons into the egg mixture and whisking vigorously. Gradually add the rest of the cream into the eggs, mixing continuously
4. Return to saucepan and cook, stirring continuously until the mixture coats the back of a spoon
5. Strain into a clean bowl in an ice bath. Continue stirring until it reaches room temperature.
6. Cover with plastic wrap so it touches the surface of the custard sauce. This prevents a skin from forming.
7. Refrigerate overnight and process in an ice cream maker to manufacturer's instructions.

To make the pears:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
1. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
2. Peel, halve and core the pears
3. Place the butter on the baking sheet and put it in the oven until it melts.
4. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and sprinkle brown sugar on top of the melted butter.
5. Drizzle cinnamon on top
6. Place the pears cut side down on the sugar/butter mixture
7. Bake for about 15 minutes or until barely soft
8. Sprinkle a little more sugar and cinnamon on top, or if the sugar isn't burnt, turn the pears and baste in pan sauce
9. Bake until tender and glossy, about another 15 minutes or so
10. Cool before serving with ice cream

P.S. Stick a cinnamon stick in the vanilla ice cream while soft, let it firm for a couple hours or overnight, and voila! Cinnamon ice cream. Although the vanilla is still much stronger.

And now, food talk. Breakfast-related. This is what I will miss while in Chicago:

Obviously I'm not going to miss bagels because Chicago has bagels - although the Einstein Bros Bagels near school is mad expensive.

But this is my favorite bagel, and Einstein doesn't have it. The rosemary olive oil bagel from the Clearwater Bagel Co in my hometown Walnut (I think there's others somewhere). Anyway, this bagel is the reason why I learned how to make rosemary oil bread, and not surprisingly, the picture doesn't do it justice. I loooooooove this bagel. Especially with Earl Grey tea.

Okay enough raving. Just thought I'd put it out there in case anybody finds rosemary olive oil bagels in the Chicago area.

Happy eating!

Number 18: Blueberry scones

2009-09-14T12:30:00.000-07:00

So this is my last week at my lovely home with my beautiful kitchen in sunny California. Friday, I'm off to Chicago to live in a tiny room with a tiny kitchen and expensive groceries.

Considering the fact that I'm a college girl, I realized that I'm not going to have much time to bake. Tarts? Ridiculously time-consuming. So my master plan for these next few posts is to focus on recipes that are simple and easy, mostly breakfast foods because nobody should eat breakfast in the dining hall. So scones, muffins (mini muffins!), croissants, etc.

Today I found a recipe for blueberry scones via tastespotting and to my surprise, I had ALL the ingredients in my fridge and pantry. I love it when that happens - it'll be impossible at college.

We have a Whole Foods near school which is pretty pricey, but they have these cute little bite-sized scones so hopefully this will turn out the same. I used dried blueberries though - don't have fresh ones and I didn't want to drive today. But really, I should get out more. Maybe I'll go for a walk, scone in hand.

Blueberry scones

via the Kitchen Magpie

1 cup sour cream
1 tspoon baking soda
4 cups flour
1 cup sugar, granulated
2 tspoons baking powder
1 cup butter
1 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup blueberries, fresh or dried (or any other fruit)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
1. Mix sour cream and baking soda. This, according to the Kitchen Magpie, makes it go POOF.
2. Sift or whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt until smooth and well-combined
3. Cut in the butter with knives, a whisk or a pastry cutter until fine and crumbly
4. Mix in egg and sour cream mixture until just combined
5. Knead in the blueberries, being careful not to squish fresh fruit and release juices
6. Separate into three circular discs, about 1.5 to 2 inches thick
7. Cut each disc into 6 slices
8. Bake at 350 degrees until the tops and bottoms brown slightly

Food adventures: Sushi Gen

2009-09-12T22:41:00.001-07:00

toro

So this isn't really an adventure since I've been here before and I LOVE sushi, but I figured I'd take this opportunity to rave about my favorite sushi spot in LA. THIS is where I converted Boyfriend into a sushi eater, and now he buys sushi by the pound (?!).

Sushi Gen is an amazing traditional Japanese restaurant next to Little Tokyo and they have AMAZING toro. AMAZING. Every time I've gone there, their toro (fatty tuna) has always been perfect. Smooth and sweet and paired perfectly with rice. Always just the right color and the right texture.

Their sushi is always well-made, and the chefs are experienced. Sadly, their hamachi (yellowtail) is only decent, but their amaebi (sweet shrimp) and maguro (tuna) is also excellent. Uni (sea urchin) is also good.

They're always super busy but for some reason my parents and I have good luck and we're always seated upon arrival.

Amaebi

I tried eating the fried shrimp head for the first time today. Scary-looking things.

My mom, showing me how to eat it. I've never had it before and it freaked me out - you just remove the eyes and bite into it.

Anyway did I mention that I love sushi? My mom's worried that I won't be able to afford sushi in the future and then I'll just get skinnier and skinnier. Because sushi is the only thing I'll eat and keep eating.

Also, I keep hearing about this Sushi Sasabune - some people (cupcakes and cashmere) claim its the best on the West Coast. Really? Hmmm. Must try. Although it sounds like a non-traditional, experimental type of japanese cuisine and really, I'm more into the traditional.

That's all for now. Sorry, no recipes today. Bought a mini muffins tin for $10. Macarons are sticky again and I'm thinking of just going back to the David Lebovitz recipe. Made honey financiers with the cheapest honey I could find and some brown sugar - excellent variation.

Happy eating.

Number 17: Sweet rice cake/ MOCHI cake

2009-09-10T23:26:00.000-07:00

One of my former dance TAs has a little maltese named Mochi. SO cute.

I've been obsessed with mochi ever since I can remember. Those pretty little Japanese sweets bought at the Asian supermarkets - AMAZING. My favorite was, and still is, the plain mochi with pink and green stripes.

And then fro-yo kicked in and mochi became all the rage - paired with strawberries on top of a tart frozen yogurt = indescribable obsession.

I've been bugging my mom to teach me how to make this ever since I started baking, but we never had the right flour. So I eventually bought some Mochiko sweet rice flour on my own and last night at 11 p.m. I told her "We are making mochi." And she said "OK, but I'm not waiting up for it to finish baking."

So here it is. My mother prefers baking it so it's more dry. Other methods include steaming it in a rice cooker or a microwave (really? I have to try that for college). It's super easy and now I'm dreaming up flavored mochi cakes. Green tea, strawberry, passionfruit, etc etc etc. You can change around the amount of egg or sugar - it's not really like cake where timing and measurements are essential. Dig in with a spoon right after baking it or let it cool and slice it up - either way it's still sweet, sticky goodness.

P.S. better picture to come. My photography isn't getting any better and I'm a little frustrated.

Mochi cake

16 ounces of sweet rice flour
2 cups milk
1 cup water
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 325 degrees with a rack in the middle
1. Combine everything into a large mixing bowl. And I mean large - it's a lot of stuff to mix together and you don't want to waste any of it.
2. Mix together until smooth. No flour lumps or anything - it should be a thick, creamy liquid.
3. Oil a baking pan (I used a 10-inch one) with vegetable oil - try any with less flavor. I used peanut oil.
4. Pour the mixture into the baking pan, cover with aluminum foil
5. Bake covered for an hour. This should dry up most of the mixture, leaving moisture only on the top. A toothpick should come out clean.
6. After the hour, remove the aluminum foil and bake for another 10 minutes, or until visually dry on top.

Food adventures: Indonesian

2009-09-09T23:15:00.000-07:00

Today I went with a couple friends to try out this one Indonesian restaurant my Indonesian friend likes so much. Last time we went on a Monday only to find out it's closed on Mondays. Go figure.

Java Spice - 1743 Fullerton Road, Rowland Heights, CA 91748
Highlights: Specialty drinks, banana leaves
Pictured: Coconut milk with rose syrup, coconut milk with green gelatin and brown sugar

We also had some shrimp flavored tofu wrapped in banana leaves. Not amazing, tasted like kimchi and I can't stand spicy food. But I did like the presentation and the fact that it was a banana leaf. The same way I like the fact that bamboo leaves wrap that Chinese rice dish.

Anyway, some entree pictures. I enjoyed my noodle dish, although I can't remember what it is. I just ordered what the server recommended. It all had a very familiar taste, similar to Chinese food (I hope I don't offend anyone).

Onto non-food related adventures.* Watched "9" after dinner and was severely, terribly disappointed. The animations, the drawings, the IDEA was so well-done, insightful, intriguing. The actual execution? A disappointment. The plot was so forced, so simple without any driving point other than curiosity. And quite honestly, the curiousity wasn't enough.

Character development also let me down. The nine individuals created had such potential to be amazingly human figures - their expressions and nuances were so well done. There was, however, no expansion of that. You got a glimpse of their character, but no understanding. And perhaps that's the theme with "9". You get a glimpse of the world, but no real understanding of the key players. The theme of manmade destruction, however, is force fed to you.

*Sorry. I know this is a food blog. But I figured different things will spice it up a bit.

Number 16: Chocolate torte and salted caramel ice cream

2009-09-08T22:39:00.001-07:00

Today was one of those days where you spend a lot of time baking and nothing really goes right.

It started like this.

I woke up wonderfully late (I love summer vacation). I churned the ice cream with no problems. Attempted to make macarons via Tartelette's strawberry macaron recipe. It took me forever to dry the strawberries, and I don't like how they turned out. Are macarons supposed to be crisp? Chewy? I should probably try some before making them but I can't find any here. And I was doing so well with the David Lebovitz recipe! Ah well.

So I ate some lunch, picked up dry cleaning, and bought some butter.

When I came home I decided to make chocolate ganache for tarts. I want to recreate my first post to take a better photo. However, I made too much chocolate ganache for the nine shortbread crusts left over from my fruit tarts. After some hasty decision making, I made some more shortbread dough so I can make more ganache tarts. Another hasty decision led me to change my mind.
Instead, I decided to make some chocolate torte. This way I can get rid of the ganache AND serve it with the caramel ice cream.

Genius?

It was a lot of work, it was very backwards. Really, I should learn to manage food better (shortbread dough STILL IN THE FRIDGE. what to do?)

After dinner I served the torte and ice cream to complaints that the ice cream was too salty (sorry Dad). Then made some swiss meringue buttercream that tastes too much like butter and sugar and makes me sick. Not a good baking day, but we'll try again tomorrow I guess. Sorry for the bummer entry. Prepare for an optimistic Jessica and a better picture of the chocolate ganache, strawberry meringue tart tomorrow.

Lots of egg whites to get rid of. Might make some honey financiers again with cheaper ingredients to see how I can make this stuff at school.

Chocolate torte

with chocolate ganache and salted caramel ice cream
recipe adapted from Tartelette

For the chocolate torte:
5 oz chocolate (I mixed bittersweet and semisweet because I ran out)
4 oz (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 eggs
3/8 cup sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 tablespoons (15gr) flour
3/8 cup finely ground almonds
1/4 teaspoon espresso
1/8 teaspoon almond extract

For the chocolate ganache
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup whole milk
6 ounces chocolate, chopped
pinch of salt
1 egg

For the salted caramel ice cream
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 teaspoon honey
1/6 cup water
1 1/3 cup half and half
4 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon sea salt (or to taste)

To make the chocolate ganache
1. Bring the cream and milk to a simmer
2. Pour over chocolate and salt
3. Let sit for a minute, mix until smooth
4. Beat the egg and mix into the chocolate mixture

To make the chocolate torte with ganache:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and position a rack in the middle and a rack on the bottom.
1. Line a square cake pan with parchment paper and set aside.
2. In a large bowl set over a pot of simmering water, melt together the chocolate and butter. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.
3. In a stand mixer (or with hand held beaters), whisk the eggs and sugar on medium speed until slightly thickened.
4. Add the vanilla.
5. Turn the speed to low and add the chocolate mixture and whip for a minute.
6. Add the rest of the ingredients. Beat one minute on low speed until everything is incorporated.
7. Spread the batter on the prepared sheet pan and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or unti the center is just set.
8. Pour chocolate ganache over the cake and return to oven on the lower rack
9. Bake at 325 degrees for 15 minutes. If bubbles or cracks form it is overbaked.

To make the ice cream
1. Place sugar, water and honey in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan. Heat and mix until sugar dissolves
2. Once the sugar is dissolved cook until it becomes an amber caramel
3. Add in 2/3 cup of the half and half
4. Bring the mixture back to a boil, stirring to dissolve caramel bits
5. Slowly add the remaining half and half
6. Whisk the eggs, gradually adding in some of the caramel mixture to temper
7. Gradually add all of the caramel mixture into the eggs, and return it back to the saucepan
8. Cook until it coats the back of a spoon, stirring continuously
9. Strain into a clean bowl
10. Place the custard into an ice bath and mix in the salt and vanilla until it reaches room temperature
11. Refridgerate overnight. Process in ice cream machine according to manufacturer's instructions

Number 15: Fruit tarts

2009-09-06T23:10:00.000-07:00

Today was barbecue/high school friends reunion get together thing so I made fruit tarts, because you need a lot of people to eat up the custard before it goes bad. It was pretty successful. The barbecue, I mean. Fresh salsa and guac, carne asada, all the toppings and fruit tarts. Good summer dinner, although I'm still hungry. Those boys eat a lot.

I love the smell of strawberries and the way the colors of fruits collide on a tart - usually, I use kiwis, strawberries and blueberries but the blackberries were so amazing-looking at the market I skipped out on blueberries. Raspberries were just for fun.

I read on some food blog that the perfect tart crust recipe is like a baker's little black dress, and I agree. I love my crust recipe - it's buttery and crisp and perfect.

So here's the recipe. I used the same pastry cream recipe as the eclairs, just minused the chocolate. Wanted to try a simpler recipe without having to measure grams.

Fruit tarts

For the shortbread crust:
250 grams butter (unsalted)
125 grams confectioners sugar
1 gram salt
1 egg
360 grams cake flour (plus extra for rolling)

For the pastry cream:
2 cups (500g) whole milk
4 large egg yolks
6 tbsp (75g) sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or one vanilla bean stick)
2½ tbsp (1¼ oz: 40g) unsalted butter, at room temperature

To make the crust:
note: using an electric mixer makes this much easier, but use the paddle attachment
1. Soften the butter. Sift in the powdered sugar and salt and cream the butter until it pales slightly
2. Mix in the egg
3. Mix in the flour
4. Turn out the dough onto a piece of clear plastic wrap, slightly floured
5. Wrap the dough in the plastic and refrigerate for at least an hour. If you must use it soon, freeze it for about 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees for flatter tart crusts, 365 for taller crusts
6. Take the dough out from the fridge and turn it out onto a slightly floured work surface
7. Flatten so it is 1/4 inch thick
8. Press into tart mold (?) and poke a couple holes onto the bottom with a fork
9. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until golden on the edges. Let cool

To make the pastry cream:
1. If you're using vanilla beans, scrape seeds into milk and let sit for 10 minutes. In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a boil. In the meantime, combine the yolks, sugar and cornstarch together and whisk in a heavy‐bottomed saucepan.
2. Once the milk has reached a boil, temper the yolks by whisking a couple spoonfuls of the hot milk into the yolk mixture.
3. Continue whisking and slowly pour the rest of the milk into the tempered yolk mixture.
4. Strain the mixture back into the saucepan to remove any egg that may have scrambled.
5. Place the pan over medium heat and whisk vigorously (without stop) until the mixture returns to a boil. Keep whisking vigorously for 1 to 2 more minutes (still over medium heat).
6. Stir in the vanilla extract if using, and then remove the pan from the heat.
7. Scrape the pastry cream into a small bowl and set it in an ice‐water bath to stop the cooking process. Make sure to continue stirring the mixture at this point so that it remains smooth.
8. Once the cream has reached a temperature of 140 F remove from the ice‐water bath and stir in the butter in three or four installments.
9. Return the cream to the ice‐water bath to continue cooling, stirring occasionally, until it has completely cooled. The cream is now ready to use or store in the fridge.

Notes:
- The pastry cream can be made 2‐3 days in advance and stored in the refrigerator.
- In order to avoid a skin forming on the pastry cream, cover with plastic wrap pressed onto the cream.
- Tempering the eggs raises the temperature of the eggs slowly so that they do not scramble.
- I washed and dried the fruit beforehand, glazing it with a simple syrup to get a shine. Jam also works.
- Also, if you want, you can replace some cake flour with ground almonds.

Number 14: Jasmine chocolate truffles

2009-09-05T22:39:00.001-07:00

So I took a break from actual baking yesterday - tired and had to pick up a family friend from school. Instead, I made these chocolate truffles from the leftover white chocolate and bittersweet chocolate jasmine tea ganache I made the day before for the macarons.

So no recipe today - just check out the jasmine tea macaron recipe here to see the ganache recipe. Let the ganache sit in the fridge for maybe 2 to 4 hours to firm up, scoop out little teaspoons and roll into a ball. Roll in chopped almonds (mixed with cocoa powder if you want) and wrap in plastic wrap to let firm up again. The jasmine flavor really stands out after a couple days in the chocolate.

Anyway.

Onto food-related subjects, and some not food-related subjects. Yesterday I watched Julie & Julia, which was pretty good, although Amy Adam's character came off as awfully whiney. I really hope I don't whine and complain as much as she does, but I realized that when recipes fail I feel like crap too. Hmmm...I'll have to watch my temper.

But that one scene with raspberry bavarian cream made me really want to try that.

Another thing I realized - I can't be a cook. Chef. Whatever. I can't stand working with raw meat.

Anyway last night I was complaining to Boyfriend about how desserts aren't interesting anymore (cheesecake, some apple thing with vanilla ice cream, etc). But today my parents took me and family friend out to Santa Monica and we walked around Third Street Promenade (touristy, I know, but it's still my favorite place). For a lunchtime snack we went to Bubba Gumps and for dinner - ah dinner - we went to Italian Trastevere.

Sorry for the long-winded post, but the point. Dessert. Fresh baked pears and chocolate cream cake with chocolate sauce and whipped cream. I'm pretty sure the cream was freshly whipped, and it was amazing.

Okay that's all. I'm eventually going to try something with chocolate and pears but for now, fruit tarts for tomorrow's barbeque. Expect strawberries and kiwis.

Number 12: Jasmine tea macarons

2009-09-03T17:03:00.001-07:00

I decided to try my hands again at macarons, to see if it was just beginners luck the second time (ok, so maybe that goes against the definition). This time, they didn't necessarily turn out as pretty because I didn't rap the sheets immediately after piping them - I think next time I will try Helen of Tartelette's recipe for macarons. I'm thinking strawberry.

So here's a new tidbit for the blog - I LOVE jasmine. As in the flower, the fragrance, and especially the tea. My dog is named Jasmine, my favorite perfume is based on jasmine and lily of the valley, and I drink jasmine green tea on a daily basis.

I went through a phase where I tried to make everything jasmine - panna cotta (I hate panna cotta! I can never get it the way I like it, no matter how easy people say it is), cookies, syrup. They were even my first try at macarons (almond macarons with a jasmine tea syrup). So last night I figured I can make jasmine tea macarons.

I don't have actual tea leaves - just tea bags. Boyfriend claims to have jasmine tea leaves but he never gave them to me (although, to be fair, I asked for them once when he was in China). And now he's off in Chicago so it's a bit awkward to go over to his parents and say "Hi! Can I have some jasmine green tea leaves please?" (All in Chinese, of course).

Anyway I'm sure with actual tea leaves you would only need a teaspoon or so, chopped.

I was thinking of doing an orange white chocolate ganache for the filling, but the jasmine wasn't strong enough for the macaron shells. So I ditched the orange idea because I felt it would have overpowered the jasmine. Instead, I infused the ganache with jasmine tea. The white chocolate definitely has more of a jasmine aftertaste than the dark, but we'll see tomorrow once the flavors settle.

Jasmine tea macarons
with jasmine-infused white/bittersweet chocolate ganache

For the macarons
2 large egg whites
5 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 cup confectioners sugar
50 grams almonds, to ground
2 jasmine green tea bags

For the ganache (choose between white or bittersweet chocolate)
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
2 ounces bittersweet or white chocolate
1/2 tablespoon butter, unsalted
1 jasmine green tea bag
1 teaspoon corn syrup

To make the macarons
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F
1. Ground the almonds, whisk and sift with confectioners sugar
2. Cut open tea bags and mix in tea leaves with dry ingredients
3. In a large bowl, beat egg whites until it holds its shape
4. Add granulated sugar to egg whites, beat until glossy and very stiff (gravity-defying stiff)
5. Fold in dry ingredients in two batches. Don't overfold or else the egg whites will deflate
6. Pipe out 1-inch macarons an inch apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet
7. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until tops are crisp and barely slide against the bottom feet
8. Let cool before removing from parchment paper

To make the ganache
1. Cut open the tea bag and mix it into the cream
2. Bring cream, tea leaves and syrup to a boil and simmer for a couple minutes
3. Strain cream over chocolate, let sit for two minutes or so
4. Mix until smooth, add in butter and mix until melted

To assemble
1. Using the back of a spoon or a knife, spread ganache over the bottom of one macaron
2. Sandwich. These can sit in an airtight container at room temperature for five days, or freeze them.

Food for thought: What I will miss in Chicago

2009-09-03T15:31:00.000-07:00

In-n-Out. Boyfriend always gets animal fries and a neopolitan shake - and I would steal some to go with my double-double protein style.

More food to come.

Number 11: Mint chocolate chip ice cream

2009-09-02T19:11:00.000-07:00

It's super hot hear in southern California, especially with the fire and everything. So I had some extra mint yesterday and decided to make mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Some of my friends have been complaining that my ice cream scoops are ugly. I'm sorry, but I'm not a super perfectionist and really, perfect ice cream scoops freak me out after reading stories about food photography and how some photogs get their ice cream to look wonderful. In other words, sorry, but you'll have to deal with my inability to scoop ice cream perfectly.

Also, I'm having problems keeping the creaminess of my ice cream. I'm still trying to figure out how to store it. I've been storing my ice cream in either glass or plastic tupperware things with plastic wrap over it. Still, it's really annoying to try and soften it after a couple hours in the freezer - I usually transfer the ice cream and sorbets into the fridge but I'm just too impatient.

Okay onto the recipe, which is Isaac Mizrahi's mint chocolate chip recipe from Epicurious. I actually cut the recipe into thirds because I only had two eggs, so the reduced, changed version is as follows.

Mint ice cream

with semisweet and bittersweet chocolate

2 large egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup whole milk
2/3 cup mint leaves, washed, dried and loosely packed
1/3 cup heavy cream
2 drops food coloring, green
1 ounce bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 ounce semisweet chocolate, chopped

1. Whisk together 3 tablespoons of the sugar and the egg yolks
2. In a saucepan, heat milk, mint leaves and the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar until it steams
3. Temper the egg yolks with a couple tablespoons of the milk mixture. Gradually pour in all the milk, whisking continuously.
4. Strain the egg/milk mixture back into the saucepan
5. Cook the mixture until it coats the back of the spoon. Do not let it boil.
6. Strain into a clean bowl.
7. Whisk in the heavy cream and food coloring (without food coloring the custard sauce will be a pale yellow)
8. Refrigerate overnight for best results, or at least until completely cooled.
9. Churn in ice cream maker, pouring in the chocolate chips during the last couple minutes of churning.

Number 10: Mint chocolate macarons

2009-09-01T18:41:00.000-07:00

The first time I tried (key word) to make macarons, they fell flat. I didn't really understand what they were at the time, I had never had one, and so I misread the directions that said "mix in dry ingredients" and didn't take the care to fold the ingredients in.

So obviously the macarons didn't rise, didn't keep their shape and didn't have those cute little "feet."

So after doing some research, obsessing over the technique and finding myself with an extra two (aged) egg whites, I decided to try my hand at it again.

This recipe is David Lebovitz's French Chocolate Macaron recipe. After seven times he found the perfect recipe with a way to make the perfect feet - and it works.

I split the egg whites up to make one batch of chocolate and one batch of mint macarons, filling them with a mint bittersweet chocolate ganache. (I burnt the first batch, sorry!)

Mint and chocolate macarons
with mint bittersweet chocolate ganache

For the macarons
2 egg whites, aged 48 hours in the fridge or 24 hours room temp
50 grams almonds
5 tablespoons sugar, granulated
1 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon chopped mint leaves

For the ganache
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon corn syrup
1/2 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon mint extract

To make the macarons
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
1. Ground the almonds with the powdered sugar until fine - sift
2. Split the powdered sugar and almonds in half, mixing mint leaves into one batch and cocoa powder into the other. Set aside
3. Beat the egg whites until it keeps its shape
4. Beat in the granulated sugar until very stiff
5. Take out half of the egg whites and put it into a separate bowl
6. In one bowl of egg whites, carefully fold in dry ingredients with mint in two batches
7. In the second bowl, carefully fold in cocoa dry ingredients in two batches
8. On a parchment-covered baking sheet, pipe out 1-inch macarons about 1-inch apart with a 2-cm pastry tip. Rap the sheet against the counter top a couple times to flatten the macarons.
9. Bake for 12 minutes
10. Let cool before removing from pan

*Note: Fold in just so the white streaks of egg whites disappear. Do not over mix or else the batch will fall flat

To make the ganache
1. Heat the cream to a boil
2. Pour over the chocolate, let sit for a minute
3. Mix the chocolate until smooth
4. Add in mint extract and butter, mix until smooth

To assemble
1. Spread ganache onto one cookie, sandwich
2. Paint on extra ganache with a toothpick

These are GREAT the day after. You can store them in an air-tight container for five days or put them in the freezer. Defrost them in the container to avoid the macarons getting soggy.

Number 9: Mini chocolate cream tarts

2009-08-30T22:06:00.001-07:00

Baking for my mom's friends is no fun - they tend to not eat a lot of sweet things, and they ALWAYS complain about how they can't eat a lot of sweet things. Such a shame.

So I made mini chocolate cream tarts to fulfill their sweet tooth and still feel good about themselves (mom's friends' birthday party was yesterday).

Mini chocolate cream tarts

with chocolate shavings

For the crust (adapted from Tartelette's shortbread cookies)
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/3 cup flour
1 tspoon vanilla extract
1/4 tspoon salt

For the chocolate cream see here

For the whipped cream
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1 tspoon powdered gelatin
3 tablespoons cold water

For the crust
1. Cream butter and sugar
2. Whisk in the egg and vanilla extract
3. Add flour with salt
4. Turn out, wrap in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for at least two hours
5. Roll out and press into tart tins
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes

For the whipped cream
1. Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water
2. Over boiling water, dissolve the gelatin without stirring until the water is clear
3. Let cool to room temperature
4. Beat the whipping cream until medium-thick
5. Add half the sugar
6. Beat until just stiff
7. Add the gelatin/water, mix to incorporate
8. Beat in the rest of the sugar

To assemble
1. Pipe pastry cream into tart crusts
2. Using a star tip pipe whipped cream on top
3. Top with chocolate shavings

Food for thought: On messy foods, first dates and relationships

2009-08-30T16:19:00.001-07:00

My mother makes these great ribs with some molasses and rum grilling sauce from Williams-Sonoma. I don't know what she does, but two hours in the barbecue at 325 degrees, add the sauce on, and it's a pretty damn good chunk of meat.

The catch: It's impossible to eat these (well) without getting messy, without using your hands, and without getting rid of any ladylike notions of propriety. Which is perfectly fine if I have a napkin.

Don't you hate those magazines that suggest women to avoid messy foods such as spaghetti and salad? When I was in high school, my mom always told me to eat as much food as possible on the first date - eat whatever you want, as much as you want (especially if it's sushi) and just offer to go dutch. Then, if the guy still wants you, you're good to go. (Well, those are my words, not hers. But the sentiment is right on. )

It's such a shame that I didn't put that to good use. First date with Boyfriend consisted of a japanese fushion restaurant that I didn't know. So I stuck to the standard salmon shioyaki lunch combo. If my memory serves me right, it was too dry and I was too nervous to eat. Also, he didn't let me pay. Should've ordered hamachi.

I guess since then we've gone to other good places (dare I say better? Maybe we should go try it out again) and eaten more good food, and he's seen me eat what I call "a lot" at Sushi-Gen (amazing toro. GO NOW). And now we've switched places and he's halfway across the country in Chicago with a gelato shop close-by and I'm jealous. I really want gelato. And Boyfriend to take me to gelato.

I forgot what the point of this post is. Messy foods? Oh right. So is it ever/always okay to be messy and just comfortable on a date? Or does it take time before it's acceptable to dig into a set of BBQ ribs without a napkin in front of a super-cute guy. Or is it idealistic for girls to be completely comfortable on a first date because you know, it'll never really happen?

Number 8: Mint green apple sorbet

2009-08-28T14:28:00.000-07:00

Green food has a bad rep - broccoli, spinach, any vegetable actually. And avocados? it's either hate it or love it.

But green apple sorbet is actually the second reason why I bought an ice cream maker - and just like the salted caramel ice cream, it started with a restaurant.

This one's called Catal, and it takes place in Downtown Disney. They have this really great dessert - not chocolate based, and perfect for summer. I believe they've changed their menu right now, but it was a jasmine panna cotta with effervescence, green apple sorbet and a green apple syrup. Afterward, I kept bugging Boyfriend to take me back - well, that never happened.

So onwards - green apple sorbet. Normally, I'm not a fan of apples in general (probably because I haven't had one from Virginia - I've heard they're amazing.) I stuck a bunch of mint leaves with the apples while they were freezing because I felt like it. Came out a little too minty - I guess I put in too many leaves. (Boyfriend is saying "I told you so.")

Green apple sorbet

infused with mint

1 pound green apples (about 3)
11 ounces sugar
1 1/4 cup water
juice of one and a half limes

1. Slice the apples thinly, squeeze lime juice over the slices to prevent oxidation. Place a few mint leaves among the slices. Freeze overnight.
2. Dissolve sugar in water, cook until it becomes a light syrup
3. Pour the syrup over the apple slices, remove mint leaves
4. Puree the apples and syrup as thin as possible
5. Freeze in ice cream maker

Number 7: Salted butter caramel ice cream

2009-08-25T19:19:00.000-07:00

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the reason why I bought an ice cream machine. The one time I've had dessert at Hot Chocolate in Wicker Park, Roomie and I ordered the Chocolate #1, a warm Colombian chocolate ganache and muscavado sugar meringue tart stuffed with chocolate soufflé, served with salted caramel ice cream and housemade pretzels.

It. Was. Amazing. To say the least. Completely worth the long train ride and $11.

So since then, I've wanted to try salted caramel ice cream (and the chocolate souffle tart) but the closest recipe I've found online is David Lebovitz (of the Perfect Scoop) and his Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream recipe.

Making caramel was a bit scary at first (pure sugar? almost burnt? hell to clean) but it was all right (Jerry helped again). It took a while at first to make this because I couldn't find the mixer for my ice cream maker, so Jerry and Vincent made a makeshift one - it didn't really work.

It sort of worked, and then didn't. But good thinking, Harvey Mudd kid. Eventually we found the paddle but it was too late, so I saved it for the next day and churned it then.

The problem is that the sugar content is so high in this recipe, it doesn't freeze easily. Even after you churn it, it's still a bit liquidy and you have to freeze it for a couple hours before it gets to the right consistency.

The ice cream definitely didn't turn out as good as the one from Hot Chocolate - it's too sweet, a little burnt (that's my bad). It was definitely worthwhile, but I didn't want to mess with the recipe because ice cream is like chemistry - super cool but a little foreign to me.

Salted butter caramel ice cream
with caramel pralines

For the caramel praline (mix-in)
½ cup (100 gr) sugar
¾ teaspoon sea salt, such as fleur de sel

For the ice cream custard
2 cups (500 ml) whole milk, divided
1½ cups (300 gr) sugar
4 tablespoons (60 gr) salted butter
scant ½ teaspoon sea salt
1 cups (250 ml) heavy cream
5 large egg yolks
¾ teaspoon vanilla extract

To make the caramel praline
1. Spread the ½ cup (100 gr) of sugar in an even layer in a medium-sized, unlined heavy duty saucepan
2. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or brush it sparingly with unflavored oil.
3. Heat the sugar over moderate heat until the edges begin to melt.
4. Use a heatproof utensil to gently stir the liquefied sugar from the bottom and edges towards the center, stirring, until all the sugar is dissolved.
5. Continue to cook stirring infrequently until the caramel starts smoking and begins to smell like it's just about to burn. It won't take long.
6. Without hesitation, sprinkle in the ¾ teaspoon salt without stirring (don't even pause to scratch your nose), then pour the caramel onto the prepared baking sheet and lift up the baking sheet immediately, tilting and swirling it almost vertically to encourage the caramel to form as thin a layer as possible. Set aside to harden and cool.

To make the ice cream
1. Make an ice bath by filling a large bowl about a third full with ice cubes and adding a cup or so of water so they're floating. Nest a smaller metal bowl (at least 2 quarts/liters) over the ice, pour 1 cup (250 ml) of the milk into the inner bowl, and rest a mesh strainer on top of it.
2. Spread 1½ cups (300 gr) sugar in the saucepan in an even layer. Cook over moderate heat, until caramelized, using the same method described above.
3. Once caramelized, remove from heat and stir in the butter and salt, until butter is melted, then gradually whisk in the cream, stirring as you go. The caramel may harden and seize.
4. Return it to the heat and continue to stir over low heat until any hard caramel is melted.
5. Stir in 1 cup (250 ml) of the milk
6. Whisk the yolks in a small bowl and gradually pour some of the warm caramel mixture over the yolks, stirring constantly.
7. Scrape the warmed yolks back into the saucepan and cook the custard using a heatproof utensil, stirring constantly (scraping the bottom as you stir) until the mixture thickens. If using an instant-read thermometer, it should read 160-170 F (71-77 C).
8. Pour the custard through the strainer into the milk set over the ice bath, add the vanilla, then stir frequently until the mixture is cooled down. Refrigerate at least 8 hours or until thoroughly chilled.
9. Freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.
10. While the ice cream is churning, crumble the hardened caramel praline into very little bits, about the size of very large confetti (about ½-inch, or 1 cm).
11. Once your caramel ice cream is churned, quickly stir in the crushed caramel, then chill in the freezer until firm.

Note: As the ice cream sits, the little bits of caramel may liquefy and get runny and gooey, which is what they're intended to do.

Number 6: Honey financiers

2009-08-22T17:22:00.000-07:00

So Saturdays are officially my baking days.
Mondays through Thursdays? not so much. Too much writing and interviewing during the day, so at the end of it all I just want a good massage.

But one more week of that and then I'm done! I'm thinking of bringing in some baked goods for my last day at work - just haven't decided what.

Anyway today I decided to make ice cream (the custard sauce is currently chillin' in my fridge) and had extra egg whites. So instead of making meringue...and then tart crusts....and then a filling, I decided to try these easy tea cakes - honey financiers via Dessert First.

It turned out a little too sweet for my taste, too honey-ish so I would down the honey factor to maybe 1/4 cup or the sugar to 1/3 cup. But biting into these perfect afternoon snacks = pretty good way to end a hectic week.

Honey financiers
serve with tea

4 tablespoons (2 ounces) unsalted butter

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup blanched almonds, finely ground

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

3 large egg whites

1/4 cup honey

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a mini muffin tin or financier tins with cooking spray.

1. Cut butter into pieces and place in a skillet or saucepan. Melt over medium heat on stove, swirling occasionally, until it starts to turn brown and smells nutty. Do not let the butter get too dark or it will burn. Strain butter into a clean bowl.

2. Whisk sugar, ground almonds, flour, and salt together in a medium bowl.

3. Add egg whites and whisk until just combined.

4. Add butter and whisk to combine. It should be a thick, smooth batter.

6. Add honey and whisk to combine.

(At this point you can cover the batter and store it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.)

7. Divide the batter among the prepared tins, filling almost to the top.

8. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, rotating tins halfway through. The financiers should be golden brown and just firm to the touch.

9. Let cool on wire rack for a few minutes before unmolding.

Notes: I used a regular muffin tin so I baked six cakes for about 16 to 18 minutes.

Also, Jerry helped. Thanks :)

Number 5: Swiss rolls

2009-08-14T17:01:00.000-07:00

Another one of mother's favorites. It's a very light cake - usually bakeries around here have very dense, thick sponge cakes that require something to wash it down. But this one is pretty ... fluffy?

Swiss rolls

with coffee ice cream

A-
4 egg yolks
20 g sugar
B-
30 g olive oil
60 g milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
C -
75 g cake flour
3 g baking powder
D -
4 egg whites
90 g sugar
1/4 teaspoon lemon juice (optional)

Prep:
Preheat the oven to 356 degrees
Line a shallow baking pan with parchment paper - Cut diagonals at the corners to make a perfect fit

1. Combine A
2. Add B to A mixture
3. Sift C twice, add into mixture, set aside.

4. Beat the egg whites until frothy (start at high speed)
5. Gradually add in half of the sugar
6. When the egg whites are smooth, add in the rest of the sugar and the lemon juice
7. Beat until stiff

8. Mix 1/3 of the stiff egg whites into the liquid mixture
9. When smooth, fold in the rest of the egg whites until just incorporated. Do not over-mix

10. Pour the batter into the baking pan
11. Spread the mixture evenly around, using a large spatula or a straight edge (index cards are usable)
12. Bake immediately for 12 to 15 minutes

13. Immediately remove the cake from the pan after taking it out of the oven
14. Pull the sides of the paper down to separate the parchment paper from the cake - this will prevent the cake from sinking in the middle and creating a valley
15. Once cool, take another piece of parchment paper large enough to cover the cake, place over the cake to create a paper sandwich
16. Grabbing both parchment sheets at the edges tightly, flip over the cake and remove the paper now on the top
17. Do this a second time if you want to cleanly remove the brown surface of the cake - I left mine on because I like the look but some of it got stuck onto the paper - hence the edge design

To assemble:
1.Find a thinner side of the cake. If they are equal, cut diagonally to taper off an end
2. Slice lines along the edge of the thin side - not through the cake. This is to help rolling
3. Spread whipped cream, jelly or any sort of filling along the cake with a spatula
4. Arrange the cake so the thin edge is right in front of you, the cake perpendicular to your body
5. With a rolling pin under the parchment paper, gently fold the edge in. Continue by rolling the pin along the parchment paper and pulling away the paper.
6. Wrap the circular cake in parchment paper or plastic wrap. Refrigerate.

Sound complicated? It still takes me a couple of tries.
Serve with tea, coffee, coffee ice cream, anything.