An Aspiring Foodie

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-30T12:12:00.001-04:00

Chubby little candy pumpkins

Daring Baker’s Baklava

2011-06-29T18:49:00.001-04:00

What a neat challenge, Baklava! I enjoyed the challenge, although I did push it until the last minute!

Erica of Erica’s Edibles was our host for the Daring Baker’s June challenge. Erica challenged us to be truly DARING by making homemade phyllo dough and then to use that homemade dough to make Baklava.

See Erica’s site for the full recipe and directions to make your own phyllo and Baklava.

The dough was easy to pull together. Erica suggested to double the recipe to make sure you had enough dough for a 9x9 pan. I ended up doing a shallow baklava in a 8x8 pan, so I had extra phyllo dough, but that was better than too little!

Once the dough was made, I coated it in oil and covered the dough on a plate. It worked out so that I let the dough sit out overnight, which worked out perfectly fine.

The next morning, I rolled the dough into thin sheets, cut to match the pan, and started assembling the baklava. I had combined the nut filling the day before, which made assembly easy.

I layered 5 sheets of phyllo on the bottom, then added about a third of the filling. In hindsight, I probably added more than a third of the filling, and could have done with less. I assembled one more phyllo and nut layer before topping with the final phyllo layer. I think the phyllo layers could have been thinner, and will try that next time.

I cut the baklava, popped it in the over, and waited until the second thirty minute baking cycle to start the baklava honey syrup. Since I knew my baklava pan was smaller than the recipe intended, I reduced the syrup ingredients by about a third, and it worked out smoothly when adding the syrup to the baked baklava.

Once the syrup was added, I let the baklava sit over night. The final product was awesome. Such a sweet rich dessert, but I would definitely make it again, especially for guests!

Garabatos ~ Mexican Scribble Cookies

2011-05-03T22:49:00.001-04:00

Just in time for Cinco de Mayo, these Garabatos (scribble cookies) are buttery and chocolaty, so good!

Garabatos, from My Sweet Mexico by Fany Gerson

Cookies
3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract

Filling
5 1/2 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
3 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Place the cookie ingredients in a food processor and pulse until combined. The mixture will be moist and a coherent ball.

2.Place the dough ball between two sheets of parchment paper and roll flat, to a thickness of 1/4 inch. Once the dough is rolled, use a 2-inch round cookie cutter to cut out cookies. Re-roll dough one or two more times if needed.

3. Place cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheets and place in the over for 15 minutes, rotating halfway through. Take the cookies out of the oven when the edges are golden brown.

4. While the cookies are cooling, place the 5 1/2 ounces of chocolate in the top bowl of a double boiler and melt fully. Once melted, take off heat and add the remaining ingredients for the chocolate filling to the bowl. Once combined and smooth, let cool to room temperature.

5. With an inverted spatula, spread a small dollop of chocolate on the bottom of a cookie, and then place a similar sized cookie on top, bottom facing down, to make a sandwich. Continue with all cookies.

6. Once the cookies are sandwiched together, let set for about an hour. When the cookies are set, warm the remaining chocolate filling in a small bowl for about 15-30 seconds, until melted and smooth. Place chocolate in a food-safe squirt bottle and drizzle ‘scribbles’ of chocolate on top of each sandwich cookie.

Hope you enjoy, Feliz Cinco De Mayo!

Daring Baker’s Maple Mousse

2011-04-27T21:41:00.004-04:00

The April 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Evelyne of the blog Cheap Ethnic Eatz. Evelyne chose to challenge everyone to make a maple mousse in an edible container. Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 27th to May 27th at http://thedaringkitchen.com!

This is going to be a quick post, so link over to Evelyne’s blog for recipe and instructions for the Maple Mousse!

I made a nut bowl for my edible container, and halved both the mousse and nut bowl recipes.

The nut bowl after baking, in a cute vintage star mold.

The mouse mixture, about to set in the fridge, before folding in the whip cream.

Finished product! Star-shaped maple mousse!

Daring Baker’s Yeasted Coffee Cake

2011-03-27T21:45:00.001-04:00

March’s challenge for Daring Baker’s was a yeasted meringue coffee cake, hosted by Jamie and Ria. Another treat I have never made before, and it turned out enjoyable. Also fairly easy, compared to some drawn-out challenges.

I decided to half the recipe and make only one loaf of coffee cake. The dough was easy to pull together, adding the hot milk and butter mixture to the dry ingredients. Once all was combined, I opted to let the KitchenAid's dough hook knead the bread, and that worked out just fine.

Once the dough was kneaded, I placed it in an oiled bowl and covered to let rise. It worked out where I left the dough for two hours, and was at least doubled in size when I was ready for work with it again.

I decided to use Jamie’s traditional filling of the meringue with cinnamon and chocolate chips. I whipped up the meringue, and since I halved the dough recipe, I only used two egg whites, instead of three, and reduced the other ingredients accordingly.

When the meringue was ready, I rolled the dough out and spread the meringue over. The amount of meringue worked out perfectly with the half recipe. I used generous amount of cinnamon, much more than was called for, and appreciated the cinnamon flavor once the cake was baked. I sprinkled chocolate chips on top, but after tasting, I could have done without the chocolate.

The cake was then rolled up like a jelly roll, transferred to a baking sheet, and shaped into a ring. I used scissors to cut into the cake, cutting fairly deep. The cake then had to sit for an hour.

I then topped with chopped pecans and placed it in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes.

The cake came out looking great, and it tasted great too, a classic coffee cake flavor!

Happenings

2011-03-23T21:42:00.002-04:00

Things have been busy! We’ve been out of town, bought an old truck, and have been enjoying Florida’s warm weather.

Hubs and the new-old truck. So much fun!

We are crazy dog people, and got Ducky a kiddy pool in anticipation of summer. He still needs to get used to it!

Beer and beer-y cupcake from Intuition Ale Works.

Husband and the brother-in-law, being friendly.

Hope everyone is having a great week so far!

Panna Cotta and Florentine Cookies

2011-02-28T09:59:00.001-05:00

February’s Daring Baker’s Challenge was Panna Cotta, paired with Florentine cookies. The challenge was hosted by Mallory of A Sofa in the Kitchen, with full recipes and info over at her site! I had never made either of these items, although I am not terribly fond of Florentine cookies.

I was surprised how quick I was able to make the Panna Cotta. For a dessert I thought was complicated, it really wasn’t. The gelatin was added to cold milk to soften. Then I heated the milk mixture, added the cream, honey, sugar and salt. After the mixture heated thoroughly, and the honey and sugar dissolved, I took it off the heat to cool a little.

While I was making the Panna Cotta, I also decided to make a strawberry gelee. I used the fruit gelee recipe from the challenge, which was to heat pureed strawberries with sugar, then whisk in softened gelatin. I am still a little weirded out by gelatin and it’s texture,especially with the gelee.

Once the panna cotta and gelee cooled, I spooned both into dishes and refrigerated overnight.

Later, I made the Florentine cookie dough and baked off the cookies. Another surprisingly simple recipe. The butter is melted, then the dry ingredients, such as flour, sugar and oats, are added to the butter. I spooned the cookie dough onto a cookie sheet.

The cookies baked quickly, in about 6 minutes. I think I could have baked the cookies longer, but they looked like they were about to burn, so I took them out a little early.

Valentine’s Day Treats

2011-02-01T20:19:00.002-05:00

Here are some Valentine’s Day treats I’ve been working on.

Vegan heart-shaped Oreos. I am so pleased with how these turned out!

Swirly colored mini cupcakes for Valentine’s Day, with classic buttercream.

And look at this awesome vintage cake carrier! I have a small booth at an antique mall, and found this in another booth. I am so loving it, with the bits of color left, but mostly rusty, I wonder what kind of stories it has.

Easier French Onion Soup

2011-02-01T15:17:00.002-05:00

French Onion Soup, that didn’t take a million hours, and is vegetarian too! Awesome!

I have been wanting to make a vegetarian French Onion Soup for a while, I even bookmarked a couple recipes, but just never got around to it. Looking through my Google Reader feed reminded me, so I started looking for recipes again. Since Cook’s Illustrated does great soups, I found a recipe, but it took 4-5 hours, and that seemed like a large time commitment. I went with their easier, quicker version, which still took 2-3 hours.

The recipe called for a combination of beef and chicken broth. Instead, I used the best quality organic vegetable broth our supermarket had.

The time-saving method of this recipe was to microwave the chopped onion for about 25 minutes, until the onions are wilted.

The onions are then sautéed in a dutch oven with butter until browned. Then we deglazed the pot and repeated the deglazing another 5 times,until the onions were very brown.

While the onions were deglazing, the husband had the good idea of making an onion paste/roux in a side pan, to add to the soup to add extra flavor, since we were subbing the meat broths.

Once the onions were browned, the recipe called to add sherry and cook until evaporated. We didn’t have sherry, and winging it, decided to substitute a 50/50 mix of dry vermouth and port, which ended up working excellently.

Then it was time to add the vegetable broth, bay leaf, and thyme. I didn’t have kitchen twine, so I added the thyme to a loose tea pod. The soup then simmered for another 30 minutes. While that was on the stove, I prepared the croutons and slices the cheese.

Once the soup was ready, I ladled some into soup bowls, added the croutons and cheese, and put the soup bowls until the broiler for several minutes.

The husband and I agreed that the adjustments we made worked out great, the end result was a great, flavorful soup!

Quicker French Onion Soup
Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated

4 lb yellow onions, cut in quarter-inch thick slices
3 tbsp butter
2 cups water, plus extra
1/4 cup dry vermouth
1/4 cup port
6 cups vegetable broth, preferably premium organic
6 sprigs thyme leaves, trimmed and placed in a loose leaf tea pod
1 bay leaf

1 French bread baguette, sliced and toasted
Swiss Cheese, sliced

Place the sliced onions in a microwave safe bowl and toss with a teaspoon of table salt. Place a plate on top of the bowl, and microwave for 25 minutes, stirring halfway through. Once the onions are wilted, drain the onions of any excess water. I squeezed the onion to make sure they didn’t retain too much water.
Melt the butter in a dutch oven, then add onions. Cook onions for about 25 minutes on medium high heat, until the butter and other liquids have evaporated. Towards the end of the cooking time, the bottom of the pot will begin to brown and you need to make sure to stir often. Once the onions have begun to brown, add 1/4 cup water (I found 1/3 cup of water worked better) and deglaze the pan, scraping the brown bits off the bottom of the pot.
Brown the onions for 6 minutes, and deglaze with water. Repeat the browning and deglazing process 3 mores times, until the onions are dark brown.
Add the port and vermouth, and cook, stirring frequently, until the alcohol is evaporated.
Now add the vegetable broth, thyme, and bay leaf. Stir, increase to high heat until soup simmers. Then reduce heat to medium, cover, and cook for 30 minutes.
While soup is simmering, toast baguette slices in oven, then switch oven to broiler setting.
Once soup is done, fish out bay leaf and parsley pod. Ladle soup into oven-safe soup bowls, place croutons and sliced cheese on top of soup.
Place soup bowls in oven, under broiler for 3-5 minutes, until cheese is bubbly and beginning to brown around the edges.

Christmas Stollen

2010-12-31T15:16:00.002-05:00

December’s Daring Baker’s challenge was Stollen. I had never made Stollen, and it turned out to be an interesting challenge!

I made candied orange peel, which was a disaster the first time around. The second time, with a little help from the hubby, it was a success.

The dough was made the night before, rested in the fridge over night, where is quickly doubled in size.

When I was ready to use the dough, I pinched it down, kneaded, and rolled the dough out into a rectangle. Then I rolled the dough, and forgot to divide, so it ended up being a huge loaf of stollen. Shaped the rolled dough into a ‘wreath’, cut the edges of the dough, and allowed to rise before baking. I was surprised how much the dough continued to rise before baking.

I was then ready to bake, which took about 40 minutes. I let the loaf cool slightly before putting the first of several coats of powdered sugar on the crust.

Great Challenge, thanks!

Daring Baker’s Doughnuts

2010-10-27T22:58:00.001-04:00

This month’s challenge, hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up, was doughnuts. I think it was about this time last year we were frying cannoli in oil, and since that didn’t end well, I was a little apprehensive when I read about the doughnuts. As this month became unexpectedly hectic, I wasn’t sure if this challenge would even happen. As a weekend freed up, I decided to tackle the doughnuts!

I chose the yeast doughnuts, since I have never been a fan of cake doughnuts. I think now that I’ve tried yeast doughnuts, I would try cake doughnuts, worth a shot next time!

The recipe called to heat milk, pour over butter to melt.

As that was happening, the yeast activated in warm water. I then split the amounts of milk mixture and yeast, setting aside half to add chocolate to, which ended up an interesting experiment.

Added the milk mixture together with the yeast, then added flour and remaining ingredients. I let the dough rise in an oiled bowl and repeated the process with my chocolate dough experiment.

I was surprised by how much the dough rose, but as I got a late start on the project, I decided to refrigerate both dough's and make the doughnuts the next morning.

The next morning I pulled the dough out of the fridge and let sit for about 2 hours. Then I rolled the dough, cut doughnut shapes with cookie cutter, and let rise while my ‘oil supervisor’ helped get ready to fry these doughnuts.

When we started frying, everything went successfully, no accidents! After tasting some hot doughnuts, we decided they needed a glaze, and used the powdered sugar & cream glaze that was suggested with another recipe.

I enjoyed making the doughnuts, especially since it is a project I wouldn’t have done without the challenge. The doughnuts were of course best hot, and a couple hours after frying, the doughnuts had a distinct oily-fried flavor.

The ‘chocolate’ doughnuts did not taste chocolaty at all, which was disappointing but not surprising. I had added two tablespoons cocoa powder to the milk mixture, which did not give a significant flavor enhancement. All in all, great challenge!

September means Football & Cookies

2010-09-27T17:39:00.003-04:00

The September challenge for Daring Baker's was Decorated Sugar Cookies, and how perfect! The cookies had to be in the theme of September, whatever that meant to you personally.

To me, September is the start of College Football. In our house, the only football that matters is Florida State football.

I started with the sugar cookie recipe, provided by September's host, Mandy of What the Fruitcake? I wasn't initially thrilled with the sugar cookie recipe, the dough seemed dry and had an average flavor. After I made the dough, I chilled it before rolling. I then rolled the dough, a handful at a time, to a thickness slightly less than ¼ inch.

I wanted my cookies to be a very specific spearhead shape, and since that isn't a cookie cutter you can get, I made a stencil. First, I printed the image, carefully cut it out, and then traced it onto a thick cardstock-type of paper. I carefully cut the shape out, and had my own cookie stencil. With a paring knife, I carefully cut around the stencil on the cookie dough. Once I cut as many cookies into the dough, I tore excess cookie dough from the cookies, and then transferred the cookies to a cookie sheet to chill in the freezer until firm.

Once the cookies were firm, I took them out of the freezer, arranged on cookie sheets, and baked. I was very pleased with how the cookies cake out of the oven, in the same shape, this changed my mind on the cookie recipe. My usually sugar cookie recipe wouldn't have kept the shape and sharp edges as well.

Cookies were baked, cooled, taken off the cookie sheets and transferred to baking rack. As the cookies were cooling completely, I made royal icing. Using thicker royal icing for outlining, I outlined the cookies in black. Let the outline dry overnight, then I thinned the icing and filled the cookies, in garnet, gold and white. While the large white and garnet sections were still wet, I dipped a toothpick in the alternating color to make streaks of color on the spearhead.

Once all the icing was done, I let the cookies dry overnight before boxing them.

New Favorite: Homemade Oreo's

2010-09-26T22:46:00.004-04:00

Everyone loves Oreos. And what is more fantastic than vegan homemade Oreos?

From Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

If you want to impress friends, these vegan oreo’s are the way to do it. They were first sent to Hubby’s work for a coworker’s going away, and then they appeared at the first football tailgate of the season.

Vegan Oreos, or Ooh La Las

Makes at least 2 dozen sandwich cookies

Cookies:

¾ cup Crisco, room temperature

1 cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

½ cup soymilk

1 ½ cups AP flour

¾ cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder

2 tsp cornstarch

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp baking powder

Black food coloring gel

Filling:

¼ cup Crisco, room temperature

¼ cup vegan butter (or substitute a scant ¼ cup vegetable oil)**

2 ½ - 3 cups powdered sugar, sifted

1 - 3 tsp vanilla extract

1. With a handheld mixer*, cream the Crisco and sugar together in a medium bowl. When it is well mixed and fluffy, add vanilla extract and soymilk and mix. The mixture will now look a little curdled, but that’s fine.

2. Add the flour, cocoa powder, cornstarch, salt, and baking powder and mix. Add a couple drops of black food coloring gel to enhance the black color.

3. Place dough in the fridge for at least 15 minutes.

4. When thoroughly chilled, grab a handful of the dough and roll dough onto a parchment paper covered surface. Roll to a 1/8 inch thickness. With a round cookie cutter, place cookie cutters as close as possible. Slide parchment paper onto a small cookie sheet that will fit in a freezer. Repeat with remaining dough.

5. While the dough is chilling, preheat oven to 325 F. Take the dough out of the freezer, and pull the excess dough from the round cookie cutter pieces. Place the round cookies on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, about an inch apart from each other.

6. Bake cookies for 12 minutes, one cookie sheet at a time. Take the sheet out of the oven and cool on baking rack for several minutes before transferring the cookies off of the sheet and onto the cooling rack.

7. While the cookies are fully cooling, prepare the cookie filling by creaming Crisco and vegetable oil together in a medium bowl. Add powdered sugar to bowl in 4 additions, mixing thoroughly after each addition. The texture will get very stiff and clumpy, but keep mixing. Once sugar is mixed, add vanilla extract.

8. When you are ready to assemble the cookies, pair cookies by similar sizes. With a gloved hand (or not), pinch off a small amount of filling spread onto cookie. Place other cookie on top, pressing firmly and smooshing around a bit.

Voila! Oreos!

*A Note: I initially made the cookie dough and filling with a stand mixer, but later found that a hand mixer really works best with this recipe. First time I have used a hand mixer in years!

**An Updated Note: After making these oreo's several times, I have found making the filling with vegan butter, not the substituted vegetable oil. The vegan butter makes the consistency of the filling much smoother than the vegetable oil. It's worth the extra purchase!

Daring Baker's Ice Cream Petit Fours

2010-08-30T10:36:00.005-04:00

This month's challenge was Brown Butter Pound cake, used in Ice Cream Petit Fours or a Baked Alaska. The challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and baking. Feel free to hop on over to her site for recipes.

My feedback on the challenge : in general, underwhelmed. The brown butter pound cake gave me issues, was not cooked in the center, even though it was cooked plenty long enough, I didn't test the cake and got an undercooked cake. I was able to work around that, but the taste of the cake was a bit dry to me. Maybe I'm not a fan of browned butter.

I made coffee ice cream, using David Lebovitz's vanilla ice cream recipe and adding several tablespoons of instant espresso powder to the cream as it initially came to a boil. I was pleased with the coffee flavor, not overwhelming, but strong enough to notice.

More problems came when I took the cooled pound cake scraps, cut them in half and places the ice cream on the cake, so then it could set up to freeze. I live in Florida, in an old house with a very hot kitchen. As I was leveling the ice cream layer on the pound cake, it was hard to work with. I tried to quickly get it back in the freezer, but it was a little too melty, and the top layer of the cake slid off the ice cream. I now know to put toothpicks in the cake to anchor it.

I made the chocolate glaze according to instructions, and it consistency was thick and clumpy. I decided to use ganache as a glaze, and that ended up working better. When I took the cake out of the freezer to trim and glaze, the ice cream started to melt quickly.

It was an interesting challenge, I would make petit fours again, but without the ice cream element, that seemed to be more of a hassle than it was worth. My camera battery also died in the middle of the project, so it is an interesting selection of pictures!

Daring Baker's Swiss Swirl Ice Cream Cake

2010-07-27T23:50:00.006-04:00

This month’s challenge was hosted by Sunita . What an exciting challenge! Ice cream cake in such a hot month! I’ve never made an ice cream cake, and I even had a birthday to bring the cake to.

I made the ice creams with the recommended recipes. After reading recommendations to add alcohol to the ice cream so they wouldn’t freeze completely, making the cake easier to cut and eat when it is put together. I added a splash of vodka to the vanilla ice cream, and a splash of dark rum, as well as espresso powder, to the chocolate ice cream. Once those were made, I let them hang out in the freezer for a couple days until i was ready to bake the Swiss rolls and assemble the cake. I wasn’t impressed with quality of the ice creams individually, but in the cake it worked well.

Making the Swiss roll was easy enough. I don’t have the called for 9x11 inch baking sheets, but I do have 9x13 inch baking pans. I had read on the DB forum that someone had an issue with the Swiss roll breaking because they used a larger pan. Not wanting to have to make the Swiss rolls more than once, I calculated, with help from the Hubby, that the original cake batter recipe needed to be increased by about 15%, so I tweaked the recipe, adding an extra egg and such. I then sprayed the pans with baking spray, fitted with parchment paper, and divided the batter evenly by weight.

When the Swiss rolls comes out of the oven, I dumped them on a regular kitchen towel sprinkled with super fine sugar. I later realized I could have found better towels to use, but what I had ended up working, although I would have used thinner, smaller towels if I thought about it. I rolled the Swiss rolls with the towel and let cool on a rack.

Sometime during this I made the fudge. I was doing all of the work, minus the ice cream, on the day of the party that I intended to bring this cake to, and I also had come down with a cold a couple days before. I didn’t have cocoa powder in the house, and substituted unsweetened extra-fine chocolate shavings for the cocoa, and it worked well.

In the meantime, I made the cream filling. When the rolls were cooled, which didn’t take long, I unwrapped and unrolled it. It was sticking a bit to the towel, so I had to be careful not to tear the roll. I transferred the roll to a cutting board that had more sugar on it. I filled the roll with the cream, overfilled it actually, and rolled it up. Wrapped it in plastic wrap, and stuck it in the fridge after i repeated the process with the other roll.

I was waiting for the fudge to cool, which took what seemed like forever, and decided the cake and myself just weren’t going to make it to the intended party. Stupid cold.

The next day I finished assembly the cake, let it freeze overnight, and served the overdue birthday cake a couple days later, it was delicious!

Daring Baker's Croquembouche

2010-05-26T22:15:00.001-04:00

This month’s Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Little Miss Cupcake, and the challenge was to make a Croquembouche, or Piece Montee, which is basically lots of cream puffs all piled up into total amazingness.

For the challenge, we had to make the pastry cream, pate a choux, and use a glaze to mount the puffs into a structure. I chose to make classic Vanilla Bean pastry cream, and mounted the puffs freestanding with melted chocolate.

I made the pastry cream a day ahead and let it set in the refrigerator overnight.

The pate a choux is made by first boiling water, butter, salt and sugar together. Then you dump in flour and stir really hard. What I found difficult was adding the eggs. The recipe called for 4 eggs, adding one at a time. It was a hassle to incorporate the egg easily, taking some extra time. When I made gougeres, I added the egg in the food processor, and I think that would have been a better method.

Once the puffs were baked and out of the oven, I let them cool completely. When I was ready to fill the puffs, I fitted a pastry bag with a small sharp tip and filled with pastry cream. With the sharp tip, I puncture the bottom with the tip, and fill with pastry cream. Once I started to fill the puffs, I got a good feeling for what was overfull and what was just right.

After the puffs were filled and ready to be assembled into the little tower, I melted 8 oz of chocolate, to be used as the glue for my tower.

Dipping the filled puffs in the melted chocolate, I started placing the puffs very carefully onto a small plate. A couple times I had to chill the croquembouche in the fridge to make sure it was firm and wouldn’t turn into a catastrophe on me.

Once the piece was put together, I drizzled more chocolate on, and called it a masterpiece!

Vegetable Minestrone Soup

2010-05-25T18:35:00.001-04:00

Soup is a favorite staple around our house, and this soup is essential. It’s easy to add different seasonal ingredients to the soup, each time tasting different and wonderful.

With the vegetables, we add whatever is around, being fond on onion, garlic, and tomato. The original recipe calls for zucchini, but I am not a huge fan of it in soup, so we just adjust other amounts accordingly. If leaks are out of season and too expensive, we also adjust other quantities of veggies. It’s just a launching board!

We have also experimented with the type of pasta/grain added to the soup. We have added small mini-sized pasta, medium-sized pasta, rice, tortellini, ravioli, and this last time we added orzo, which was fantastic.

The cheese rind is necessary, adding an amazing flavor to the broth. Cheese rinds can be find at your local gourmet cheese counter. I have seen bags of cheese rinds packaged together for sale specifically for soups, but I have also asked the workers at the cheese counter if they have any. They are often left over. Or use the soup as an excuse to buy some nice cheese to use for the rind!

If you have a specific choice of been to add, feel free! We like cannellini beans, garbanzo, any type of white bean works well.

Vegetable Minestrone Soup, adapted from Cook’s Illustrated

2 Leeks, sliced, white and light green parts only

10 baby cut carrots, chopped (any type of carrot will work, we always have baby carrots on hand)

2 medium onions, chopped

4 ribs celery, chopped

1 medium russet potato, peeled and cubed

3-4 cups spinach, cut into strips ( I trim the stems off as well)

1 Tbsp chopped garlic

8 cups water

2 14 oz cans diced tomatoes, drained of liquids

Cheese rind, any type of hard cheese, can be found at gourmet cheese counter, ask

1/4 cup pesto (I have found this optional)

1 cup Orzo, uncooked

1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

salt and pepper, to taste

In a cast iron soup pot, add all chopped vegetables, tomatoes, garlic, cheese rind, and water and bring to a boil. Once brought to a boil, turn heat to medium low and let simmer for about an hour, stirring occasionally.
Add Orzo, or preferred pasta, and cook an additional 10 minutes, or until grain/pasta is at the desired tenderness.
Add garbanzo beans and cook until beans are warm, about 5 minutes.
Mix in pesto, if using, and add salt and pepper to taste.

Amazing Gougeres

2010-05-17T18:34:00.002-04:00

Back at Easter (yes, I know that was a while ago), some friends invited us over for a big Easter dinner. Hubby and I were bringing a bunch of stuff,but I wanted to make something out of the ordinary to bring. Since Hubby looooves cheese, Gougeres would be perfect!

I had never made pate a choux before, but David Lebovitz’s recipe made it perfectly easy, and you only need a small handful of ingredients, like the following.

See, you boil some butter and water, with a pinch of salt and cayenne pepper. While your water is starting to boil, you shred some cheese, anything semi-hard, I used gruyere.

Then you take it off the heat, throw in some flour and mix it around.

Then, in your awesomely handy food processor, dump the clump of dough, plus most of the cheese and some fresh herbs, and mix in the food processor until all nice and mixed.

Scrape the sticky mixture of dough into a piping bag, fitted with a large tip. I use a standard coupler tip, since it is the right size, and just as easy as a tip. If you don’t have a piping bag, people say you can snip the tip of a freezer bag and use that, but I haven’t tried it that way. If you have to use a freezer bag, make sure you use a sturdy one, and cut the tip small, you can always cut it bigger if you need.

Pipe mounds of dough, a little larger than a quarter, onto a parchment lined baking sheet, evenly spaced on the sheet. Sprinkle some cheese on top of the mounds, then bake those suckers into amazingness!

Gougeres, by David Lebovitz

1/2 cup water

3 Tbsp butter, small cubes

1/4 tsp salt

Chile powder, as desired

1/2 cup flour, all-purpose

2 eggs, large

1 Tbsp fresh chives, or fresh herb of your choice

3/4 cup cheese, grated fine (I think a combination of grated Parmesan and Gruyere is perfect)

Preheat oven to 425F (I used a convection oven at 400F). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Place the water, butter, salt and chile powder in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, making sure the butter is melted.
Take the saucepan off the heat, and dump all of the flour into the water at once. Stir quickly and vigorously with a wooden spoon until the dough mixture is consistent.
Using a spatula, transfer the dough into a large food processor. Add the eggs and pulse the food processor until the egg thoroughly incorporated. Add chives and grated cheese, reserving 1 heaping tablespoon for later use. Mix well, dough will be sticky.
With a pastry bag, fitted with a large tip or coupler, fill with dough. Pipe the dough into small mounds, a little larger than the size of a quarter, evenly spaced to about an inch.
Sprinkle the tops of the mounds with the reserved cheese.
Place the baking sheets in oven, and bake at 425F for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, rotate trays, reduce heat to 375F (or 350F for convection) and bake for 20 more minutes, until gougeres are golden brown in color.
Take gougeres out of oven, place on a cooling rack, and let rest for 5 minutes. Puffs will taste best served warm.

Super Easy Vegetarian Bean Tacos

2010-05-03T22:26:00.013-04:00

Mexican food is a super favorite in our house. It is in stiff competition with Indian food for hubby's affection. We also love any holiday or excuse to make ethnic food. Everyone loves a theme menu, right?

Perfect for Cinco de Mayo, this is our favorite recipe for tacos, and is also the most ridiculously easy recipe ever.

Black Bean & Garbanzo Bean tacos

1 can Garbanzo Beans

1 can Black Beans

1 packet/3 tbsp Taco Seasoning

You will also need:

Taco Shells

Taco Toppings, such as:

Diced Tomatoes

Chopped Lettuce

Shredded Cheese

Sour Cream

Black Olives

Sauteed Onions

Taco Stuffing steps:

1. Open and empty both cans of beans, without draining liquids, into a large skillet. Add desired amount of taco seasoning. We add about 3 tablespoons from a large contianer of seasoning, but one small envelope of seasoning will also be fine. Mix seasoning into bean mixture.

2.With medium-high heat, bring beans and liquid to a simmer. Once at a simmer, stir often until thickened, about 5-10 minutes longer. For a saucier taco filling, take mixture off heat earlier.

Assemble your taco with your favorite toppings, and enjoy!

Daring Baker's Steamed English Pudding

2010-04-27T19:50:00.001-04:00

This month’s challenge was a traditional steamed English Pudding. I was a little skeptical, but decided to push through, particularly since I skipped last month.

The challenge was hosted by Ester of The Lilac Kitchen, and she has the full post of information on her blog. The post needed to use suet or a suet replacement. Suet is fat from a cow or sheep, fat that surrounds the kidneys. Blech. So I opted to use Crisco, which worked fine. Esther also gave the option to make a suet pudding crust, or a steamed suet sponge pudding. I chose the suet crust, with a savory filling.

I cut and sauteed leeks in a little oil, sprinkled flour on the leeks, added vegetable broth, which made it a little gooey, based on this recipe here.

I also cooked a little veggie sausage in a dish, and added the sausage to the leeks.

First, I mixed the flour with the crisco, then added about 3/4 cup water to make the dough slightly sticky. On a floured surface I rolled the dough out, taking about a third of the dough for the lid of the pudding. When rolled out, I pieced the dough into a greased 1.4 liter pyrex dish. The dough was tearing a little bit, so it was a little like putting a puzzle together.

Once the dough was fitted into the dish, I spooned the filling into the dish. Then I placed the dough lid on the dish, pinching it closed. There was a lot more dough than filling, so I cut off excess, pinched the dough closed again.

I fitted a large stock pot with a steamer basket, my jerryrigging of a steamer. With water on the bottom, I set the pyrex bowl on top of the steamer basket, and steamed the pudding for about 3 hours. Since I am a magnet for disasters in the kitchen, the water in the steamer actually boiled dry, oops!

So, I let the pudding sit for a couple minutes, turned it out on a plate, and voila, dinner!

Daring Baker’s Tiramisu

2010-02-28T22:38:00.001-05:00

What an awesome challenge! I love tiramisu, the creamy paired with the soaked biscuits, yum!

I have never attempted to make tiramisu totally from scratch, but I really enjoyed it. The recipe wasn't hard, but had several components and required set-aside time and prior planning.

Recipe from Aparna at My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba at Passionate About Baking. See their blogs for full recipes. Too much retyping!

I just got back from an awesome wedding, so this is going to be a picture post, and a little late at that too!

The savoiardi biscuits, before baking.

Port used in the zabaglione. I hadn’t used port in baking before, neat opportunity to use a favorite spirit.

The Zabaglione folded with the mascarpone and pastry cream, before adding the whipped cream.

Putting the tiramisu together. I used a small dish, and placed plastic wrap in the dish before layering, because I wanted to de-mold the dessert.

The tiramisu didn’t de-mold the way I wanted it to, next time I will layer it in the dish I intend to serve it in.

Happy Baking!

Valentine’s Day Pesto Gnocchi

2010-02-21T22:35:00.001-05:00

A week later and I hope your Valentine's Day was happy and full of love!

Valentine's Day isn't huge for hubby and I, but we acknowledge it nonetheless. Back when we just met, Valentine's Day was one of the first dates we went on. As a freshmen in college, Hubby invited me over to his apartment for a dinner he had prepared. It was super cute and thoughtful, and after we were married, I found out he had made the entire dinner ahead of time to make sure it would work out! What a sweet guy, at the time I had no idea what effort was put into the dinner.

Hubby has been cooking fantastic food for me since that first Valentine's Day Date. This year he deserved to be cooked for, and I knew just what to make. Hubby loves anything cheesy. And gnocchi.

So Gratineed Pesto Gnocchi fit the bill, with a side of Sautéed Broccoli.

To finish the meal, a Flourless Chocolate Torte from Let Them Eat Cake.

Potato Gnocchi Gratineed with Mozzarella and Pesto

from Cooks Illustrated

Potato Gnocchi

(Potato Ricer is needed for this recipe. I have never made gnocchi without the ricer, so I am unsure of an alternate to a potato ricer)

2 lb russet potatoes, scrubbed
1 1/4 cup All-Purpose Unbleached Flour, plus extra if needed
1 tsp table salt
2 Tbsp butter, melted
Pesto Sauce, recipe below
4 oz fresh Mozzarella cheese, sliced thin

1. Pierce the potatoes with a fork several times on each side. Place potatoes on a microwaveable plate, and heat in microwave for 12 minutes. In the meantime, preheat oven to 450F.

2. Place microwaved potatoes in oven straight onto oven rack, horizontal of the rack, so not to fall through if over baked ( I have had one potato fall apart and totally yucky up the oven, so since then, I place an empty baking sheet on the shelf underneath the potatoes, just in case. I haven't had a potato fall apart since, of course.). Bake potatoes in oven for 20 minutes. (Make pesto sauce while potatoes are baking, using following recipe)

3. After potatoes have been taken out of the oven, use an oven mitt to hold potato in one hand, and peel potatoes with knife. Discard skin. With the potato ricer, rice potatoes into a large bowl. Let potatoes cool for about 15 minutes, until they are no longer hot. Don't turn the oven off, place it on broil to use later.

4. Sprinkle flour and salt over potato, and knead until the dough is soft and smooth. If sticky, add more flour, up to an additional 1 1/2 cups. Make sure the dough isn't sticky, or you will have to add more flour after you attempt to roll the dough into a rope, as I did.

5. Pinch off a quarter of the dough, and roll into a rope. If the rope falls apart, add more flour and start again. Cut the rope on a horizontal slant, 3/4 inch wide. Repeat with remaining dough.

6. Bring a salted pot of water to a soft boil. I cooked the gnocchi in two batches, as not to crowd the pot. The original recipe said it would take the gnocchi about 2 minutes to cook and float to the surface and be done. My gnocchi floated in that amount of time, but it was a total of about 5 minutes for the gnocchi not to be too starchy. When the first batch is done, take the gnocchi out with a slotted spoon and place in drainer. Repeat cooking process with remaining gnocchi.

7. Transfer gnocchi into medium mixing bowl and toss with melted butter. Mix prepared pesto in with the gnocchi, starting with a small amount, and adding more until you are pleased with the ratio. I added about half of the prepared pesto, about 1/2 cup.

8. Transfer gnocchi into gratin dish. Cover with mozzarella cheese. Place in oven and broil for 5 minutes until cheese is bubbly and beginning to brown. Take dish out of oven and let cool for several minutes.

Pesto Sauce

8 medium garlic cloves, unpeeled
3 cups fresh basil, stemmed and trimmed
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
1/4 cup part-skim ricotta cheese (Original recipe said not to use substitute fat-free ricotta, but that was what was in the fridge. I added about 2 tbsp heavy cream to the ricotta)
2 shallots, minced
2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
salt and black pepper

1. Toast garlic in a medium skillet over medium heat for about 5 minutes, tossing garlic in the pan occasionally. Place garlic on a cutting board to cool. When cool, peel.

2. Place trimmed basil in a large ziploc bag, and use a heavy object to bruise the basil. Original recipe suggested using a meat tenderizer or rolling pin. We don't eat meat and don't had a tenderizer, so I tried the rolling pin, which didn't work well. I then used a heavy lemon juicer, which worked wonderfully.

3. Combine all ingredients in food processor and process until smooth, scraping down sides as needed. My final product with the pesto was a little chunkier than I would have liked, so I mixed in some additional olive oil.

4. Place pesto aside until needed.

Canada! Nanaimo Bars!

2010-01-28T22:30:00.008-05:00

Daring Baker's Nanaimo Bars - January Challenge

What a great way to celebrate Canada and the Olympics, with a Canada favorite, Nanaimo bars!

Living in Florida, I definitely have never had Nanaimo bars, and I first head of them from Cakespy and her wonderful finds.

The recipe for Nanaimo bars with gluten-free graham crackers can be found at Celiac Teen's blog. The recipe for all of the components are super long, and well, it gives you an excuse to check out Lauren's blog!

The challenge could be done gluten-free or with wheat flour for the graham crackers, and I chose to try gluten-free. It was neat to work with the new ingredients I haven't worked with before, like sorghum, tapioca and sweet rice flour. One thing I noticed right away was how fine the flours' consistency was compared to all-purpose flour. I loved the gluten-free graham crackers, and I would definitely try GF baked goods again.

Nanaimo bars have three distinct layers, which in my book makes it a fancy bar-cookie recipe. the bottom layer is an ultra-tasty combination of graham cracker crumbs, coconut and buttery goodness.

The middle layer is a custard filling, and mine ended up a little grainy and a little too sugary. (One thing that could have caused that - I used skim milk instead of whole milk - I know, I know, but I hate having milk around the house if it isn't going to be used, and unless I am baking with it, it just sits there! )

The nanaimo bars are topped off with a layer of chocolate.

Problems I ran into with the bars, other than the custard problem I admitted to, was that the bars were sure hard to cut and get out of the pan. The top chocolate layer cracked while cutting, and on most pieces separated from the custard. I let the whole pan sit out of the fridge for about an hour to see if that would help in cutting, and it did, but just barely.

I liked the dessert, it was very rich and a great novelty. Great challenge!

Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

2010-01-27T23:25:00.002-05:00

Oatmeal cookies with a touch of cranberry pizazz!

I just got the Sur La Table Art & Soul of Baking cookbook, and I am enjoying it. It is nice and big, with great pictures and explanations on the variety of recipes. Last week I tried Rustic Olive and Rosemary bread, and this week I was looking for a sweeter treat.

The recipe indicated it made 50 cookies, which I didn't really want 50 cookies hanging around, so I cut the recipe in half, with some tweaks. I did have to use half an egg, but it works for me. The following is the half recipe I used, adapted from Sur La Table.

Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies
Makes 12

1/2 stick butter, unsalted
1/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
2 1/2 Tbsp sugar, granulated
1 egg, lightly beaten and divided in half
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour, unbleached
pinch of baking soda
pinch of baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 cup rolled oats, old-fashioned
1/2 cup dried cranberries

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line one baking sheet with parchment paper.
2.In the bowl of a standing mixer, combine butter and sugars and beat until smooth. Scrape down, then add vanilla and half of egg, blend until smooth.
3.In medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together. Add to mixer, beat until combined.
4. Scrape bowl, then add oats and cranberries. Mix until combined.
5. With a small scoop, place scooped cooking dough on baking sheet. Bake cookies for 14 minutes, rotating from back-to-front and top-to-bottom halfway through cooking time.

These cookies were delightful, I felt it was a perfect balance of oatmeal-ness. Those who tried the cookies agree, I almost missed out in a final picture, they were going so fast!

Tiramisu Parfaits

2010-01-10T11:50:00.000-05:00

Tiramisu is a favorite easy dessert of mine, but one downfall with the recipe I use is that it yields 12-15 large portions. The recipe also uses 24 oz marscapone cheese, which can get expensive.

Hubby and I invited a close couple over for a Christmas dinner party, and I found the perfect solution in individual Tiramisu Parfaits.

Tiramisu Parfaits, based very loosely on a CooksIllustrated.com recipe. Makes 4 wine glass sized parfaits.

3 oz dark Rum
1/2 cup strong coffee, room temperature
1 Tbsp Instant Espresso Powder
1 cup Heavy Cream
6 oz Marscapone Cheese
2 Tbsp granulated Sugar
12-15 Ladyfingers
Cocoa Powder
Chocolate shavings, optional

Mix rum, coffee and espresso powder together in shallow dish until espresso powder has dissolved. Set aside.

In standing mixer, whip cream into stiff peaks.

Place marscapone cheese in medium bowl. Add sugar and soften using a few strokes with a spatula. Mix in whipped cream, starting with a small amount and gradually adding the full amount.

When ready to assemble parfaits, break the ladyfingers into pieces that will fit well in your glass. I broke mine into 2 or 3 pieces. Working with about 3 pieces at a time, dip the ladyfingers into the coffee/rum mixture. Roll the pieces, ensuring all is covered, but do not leave the ladyfingers in, or they will quickly become too soggy. Place the wet pieces on a separate plate and continue until all ladyfinger pieces have been dipped.

To assemble the parfaits, scoop a layer of marscapone mixture into the glass first. Sprinkle a light layer of cocoa powder on top of the marscapone. Place a layer of ladyfingers then repeat with an additional layer of each item. Finish the parfait with a top layer of marscapone, and garnish with chocolate shavings. Place in fridge for at least an hour so the flavors can really develop.

For my parfaits, I used 4 wine glasses and was able to layer each component twice, and then topped the dessert with a final layer of marscapone mixture. If you have taller glasses, you might want to adjust the layers or increase the recipe quantity.