pacific thyme

Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake

2011-11-13T08:00:00.000-08:00

On the day after Halloween, Starbucks started using its signature red holiday cups. It got rid of pumpkin spice lattes and pumpkin scones, and introduced peppermint mochas and holiday blend teas. Did I miss something? How can they skip fall and Thanksgiving and go right to Christmas?? It's not time for peppermint yet! It's still pumpkin season! And you should expect several more pumpkin recipes as we approach Thanksgiving :)

This cheesecake was a request from one of my coworkers. He asked for pumpkin cheesecake, but I decided to keep with a traditional cheesecake base, and swirl pumpkin into it. It turned out so well! This cheesecake is seriously yummy, and not overly-pumpkiny (can there even be such a thing as too much pumpkin?) so it's a nice compromise for cheesecake lovers and pumpkin lovers and before you know it, the whole pan is gone!

Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake
adapted from Elegant Made Easy and Gingerbread Bagels

Ingredients
Crust

1 1/2 cups crushed graham cracker
3 Tablespoons packed brown sugar
½ cup melted butter

Cheesecake

3 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons flour
3 eggs
8 oz. sour cream
1 Tablespoon vanilla

Pumpkin Swirl

2/3 cup of pumpkin puree
2 Tablespoons of flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions

Add cookies and sugar in a food processor; pulse until ground. Add in butter and pulse.
Press mixture into a 13×9 buttered or parchment lined pan.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees
For the cheesecake, cream the sugar, cream cheese, and flour with an electric mixer on medium until light and fluffy.
On medium low, add eggs one at a time, mixing well with each addition.
Add sour cream and vanilla and mix until just combined, then set cheesecake mixture aside.
In a separate bowl, combine the ingredients for the pumpkin swirl (pumpkin puree, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger).
Add 1 cup of the cheesecake mixture to the pumpkin swirl mixture, and stir until combined and smooth.
Pour the plain cheesecake mixture over crust and evenly smooth out.
Add dollops of approximately 1 teaspoon of pumpkin-cheesecake mixture every few inches. Take a wooden skewer and run it gently through the pumpkin mixture and cheesecake mixture to make swirls.
Bake for approximately 35 – 40 minutes or until set.
Let cool and then chill in refrigerator for at least 2 hrs before slicing.

Homemade Vanilla Extract

2011-11-08T14:11:00.000-08:00

I first learned about making your own vanilla extract last summer, and ever since then, I've slowly been accumulating empty jars so I can make it! It is totally easy, and I'm excited about packaging up my homemade vanilla to give at Christmastime.

First: get yourself some cheap liquor. At least 80 proof, and plastic bottles are preferred :) (but seriously...don't waste good alcohol on extract. Save it for cocktails!) I got some "Early Times" bourbon and some "Kavlana" vodka. Never heard of those? Good. You should never actually drink them. They come in big, plastic bottles, and are cheap cheap cheap.

Next: get yourself some empty jars. I saved my pasta jars for the past several months. Anything that seals well will do.

Finally: get yourself some vanilla beans. I ordered these beans from online. You can order as much or little as you want. In retrospect, I should have ordered 1/4 lb (or even less...) because I have a LOT of beans left over... but that's ok because they keep forever! More vanilla extract for all!

To assemble: take a sharp paring knife and slit the vanilla beans all the way down, leaving about 1 inch at the top, to hold the bean together. Then put the split beans into a jar and pour alcohol over them. The rule is: 3 beans per 1 cup (8 oz.) of alcohol. I put 2-3 cups in each jar, so 6-9 beans per jar!

Seal the jars, and place in a cool, dark spot for about 2 months. Shake them periodically to distribute the vanilla, and in 2 months, you will be ready to package up the vanilla to give away, or use in your favorite chocolate chip cookies :)

Recipe Source: Joy the Baker

One-Bowl Pumpkin Bread

2011-10-16T22:16:00.000-07:00

It's fall, which means it's time for pumpkin recipes! I made this ridiculously easy pumpkin bread one night and brought it to work the next day. It truly is one-bowl. You put all of the ingredients into a bowl, mix it all together, then bake it up (either one bundt pan or two loaf pans) and then you'll have some very yummy bread! I think this might be the most popular thing I've ever brought into the office (and I've brought in a LOT of treats!!). I don't think it lasted more than 30 minutes in the kitchen. I'll let the feedback speak for itself:

"Thanks for bringing pumpkin cake for us! It is super delicious. I am mind blown. I didnt even know pumpkin could taste so yummy!"
"Your pumpkin bread made my day! This whole side of the office is in a coma just enjoying."
"holy goodness"

As if you needed any more convincing...make this now!

Pumpkin Bread
Makes 2 loaves or one bundt pan
from A Muse in my Kitchen
Note: there is a green print button at the bottom of this post. You can choose to print this recipe with pictures or without, and you can also choose which text to include in the printed version (i.e. recipe only) Try this link if you want to print the recipe!

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 cups pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling!)
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 cup water

Directions:

Mix all ingredient together.
Pour into 2 loaf pans sprayed with baking spray (or one bundt pan).
Bake one hour at 350 degrees.
Let cool, then remove from pan and dust with powdered sugar, if desired

Easy Butterscotch Cookies

2011-10-10T23:26:00.000-07:00

A very exciting thing happened this weekend: the digital camera that I purchased was delivered!! I was very excited to photograph a new recipe, but I was house-sitting this weekend, which meant that I didn't have my usual supplies (read: no stand mixer...oh no!). I actually welcomed this change - it was a chance to get back to basics in the kitchen...except with the addition of a new camera!

This recipe is very easy, and I'll bet that you have all of the ingredients on hand at this moment. It doesn't require any ingredient that isn't a pantry staple (which is why it was perfect to whip up in another person's home) and just requires a big bowl and a sturdy spoon for mixing. I really loved stirring the cookies together, then rolling them in sugar before baking. They bake up beautifully and are SO yummy! They have an almost caramel flavor, with a very chewy interior with a crunchy sugary exterior. Their aroma is pretty heavenly, too :) Browning the butter is an extra step, but doesn't take any more effort, and makes these cookies oh so good...! Make them soon and share them with friends (or kitties that you are watching for the weekend)!

sneaky kitty!

Butterscotch Cookies
adapted from Simply Recipes
Yield: Makes ~4 dozen

Ingredients

12 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 3/4 cups brown sugar (dark, if you have it)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Sugar Dredging

1/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons sugar
Kosher salt or sea salt, for sprinkling* (reserve for sprinkling on top...do not mix in with the sugar)

*Do not use fine grain table salt (aka: iodized salt) as the flavor will be way off and unpleasant.

Directions

Preheat oven to 375°F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, and baking powder and set aside.
Mix together the sugar dredging mixture in another bowl and set aside.
Place butter into a thick-bottomed skillet over medium heat. The butter will foam a bit before subsiding.

the butter is on its way!

Once the butter takes on a tan color and begins to smell nutty take it off of the heat and pour it into a mixing bowl. (See Elise's tutorial on how to brown butter.)

yum browned butter bits!

Once the brown butter is in a mixing bowl , add the brown sugar and salt and mix.

Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and mix together.

Add the flour mixture in three increments, being sure to really scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, but mix just until the flour is incorporated. The dough will be very thick.

Take 1/2 to full tablespoon-sized pieces of dough (you can make them however big you like) and gently roll them into ball shapes.
Dredge them in the sugar dredging mixture until well-coated.
Place on the baking sheet and sprinkle with a little bit of the sprinkling salt (be reserved with the salt as very little goes a long way).

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges have browned a bit. Be careful not to over-bake. (I baked mine for 10 minutes) Allow to cool on the sheet for one minute before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Hi Hat Cupcakes!

2011-09-29T16:20:00.000-07:00

Just look at these babies. Moist chocolate cupcakes, towering pillars of marshmallow, and a hard, thin chocolate shell. Mmmmm...

Like most impressive treats, these do take some time, but they're actually not at all difficult. And look at them! These are hi hats! These are worth it!

The recipe is posted below, but there's a really great picture tutorial from King Arthur Flour you can look at for step-by-step instructions.

Chocolate Hi Hat Cupcakes
recipe slightly adapted from Martha Stewart and Tracey's Culinary Adventures

Ingredients:
Cupcake Batter (Martha says this makes 12 cupcakes, but I doubled the recipe and got WAY more than 24. I think this recipe makes about 16 cupcakes.)

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup sour cream

Marshmallow Frosting

3/4 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup meringue powder

Chocolate Coating

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (or chopped chocolate)
3 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil

Cupcake Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a muffin pan with paper liners.
Put the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl and heat in 15-second bursts, stirring in between, until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth. Set aside to cool.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder together.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or with a regular hand mixer), cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
With the mixer on low, add the melted chocolate and beat to combine.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating to incorporate each completely before adding the next.
Mix in the vanilla and beat until the batter is creamy and the color has lightened a bit, about 1 minute.
Add the sour cream and mix until the white streaks disappear.
Finally, with the mixer on low speed, alternately add a third of the flour mixture, then half of the water, then another third of the flour mixture, the rest of the water, then the remaining flour mixture, beating just until combined.
Divide the batter evenly among the prepared liners, filling each with about 1/3 cup of batter (the wells will be quite full, and the cupcakes will bake with tops that rise slightly over the edges of the pan).
Bake for 20-22 minutes, or until the cupcakes spring back when lightly touched and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Remove the muffin pan to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes before removing the cupcakes from the pan to the rack to cool completely.

Marshmallow Frosting Directions

(you can also make marshmallow frosting with egg whites. Martha has a recipe for that)

Bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan. Once boiling, remove the pan from the heat and add the sugar, stirring to dissolve the sugar completely. Let cool to room temperature. (I put it in the refrigerator to speed up the process)
Add the meringue powder to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (or use your hand mixer!), and add the cooled sugar water and beat the mixture on medium to medium-high speed until stiff peaks form, about 10-15 minutes.

Cut the end off of a piping bag or ziploc bag, and fill with marshmallow. I put the bag into a drinking glass, then fold the bag over the mouth of the glass. It makes it easier!

Pipe the marshmallow onto the cooled cupcakes in a tall, swirl pattern. First I piped one circular layer, then another smaller one on top, then another, etc. You want the frosting to look almost like a soft serve cone of ice cream would. If it takes a few tries to get it right, don't worry - you can scrape the frosting off the cupcake easily and try again.

Once all the cupcakes have been frosted, put them in the freezer for a few hours.

Chocolate Coating Directions

Combine the chocolate chips and vegetable oil in a microwave safe bowl.
Heat in 15-second bursts, stirring in between, until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth.
Let the chocolate cool slightly before you start dipping the cupcakes.
Transfer the chocolate to a tall cup with an opening wide enough for the cupcakes. I used a margarita glass - I found that it was the perfect shape and depth!

Holding each cupcake by its bottom, turn it upside down and dip it into the chocolate - you want to cover all of the marshmallow frosting but not the cupcake itself.

Lift the cupcake out of the chocolate, but continue to hold it upside down over the cup of chocolate to allow the excess to drip off.

Turn right side up and transfer to a platter.

Use a toothpick to touch up any spots at the base of the cupcake that may not have been covered.

Once all of the cupcakes have been dipped, move them to the refrigerator to allow the chocolate to fully set.

Store the cupcakes in the refrigerator, but let them sit out at room temperature for 10-15 minutes before serving.

Making a Wedding Cake

2011-09-28T21:28:00.001-07:00

It is such a treat to be asked to make a wedding cake for my friends. I love sharing in their special day, and making a beautiful, yet tasty cake. (And of course, sparing the couple the expense of a $500+ cake!) Having only made two wedding cakes, I'm no professional, but I have learned some very helpful tips and tricks along the way. So with that, let's make a wedding cake!

First: plan, plan, plan! Almost every part of a wedding cake can be done ahead of time, so you don't need to have one day of stress - spread out the tasks to make it easy on yourself! You can bake the cakes up to three weeks in advance, just triple wrap the layers in plastic wrap and put them in the freezer. Also, freezing cakes makes it very easy to work them later: frosting a frozen cake means fewer crumbs to deal with. Fillings can be made several days ahead, as well as frosting. Just keep in the refrigerator, and bring the frosting to room temperature before using. Now that you've planned, let's bake the layers!

This particular cake was intended to serve 30 people. I wanted a two-tier cake, with the bottom tier an 8" square, and the top tier a 6" square. Each tier was 3 layers, making a nice, dramatic height. I've used the same recipe for both wedding cakes that I've made, and it is GOOD. It comes from the best cake book of all time, and it is chocolate! Everyone loves chocolate! And the best thing yet: the recipe adapts perfectly for a gluten-free cake! I just substituted the cake flour that the recipe called for, with a gluten-free all-purpose flour mix that I made. It worked so well! The texture was lovely, the cake was moist, and it was oh-so-chocolatey. I will post the recipe in a separate post later. Once the cake is made, triple wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in the freezer.

Next, make the filling. The couple requested a cherry filling, so I got dark canned cherries, and added brandy, lemon juice and corn starch to thicken the filling. I heated the ingredients on the stove until the filling simmered down into a delicious syrup-y sauce studded with sweet cherries. Then I let the filling cool as I leveled the cakes.

To level the cakes, there are a couple of approaches, that I like to call the Easy Way and the Hard Way. The Easy Way: purchase a fancy cake leveler, then use it to create nice, even layers. The Hard Way: measure the height at various places and place a toothpick at the desired height, then cut using the toothpicks as your guide. Can you guess which way I chose? Yep. The Hard Way. But it was kind of fun :) Here are some photos:

Now that the cake is leveled, wrap them in single layers of plastic wrap and place back in the freezer as you make your frosting. The frosting that I like to use for wedding cakes is Swiss Meringue Buttercream. My kitchen is a No-Fondant Zone (the stuff has no taste! give me frosting!) so I turn to buttercream to get a nice smooth finish, that is actually delicious to eat! Swiss Meringue Buttercream may seem scary, but I think it's fairly easy to make. Deb has a really great post detailing how to make the buttercream. Join with me - Say NO to Fondant!!

Once your frosting is made, it's time to assemble the cake! Take your layers from the freezer and lay it on whatever surface will be easiest. I am terrified of moving the cake once it's frosted, so I filled and frosted it directly in the cake box that I was going to use to transport the cake. Put the first layer down, then spread on the filling, leaving about a half inch space before the edge. Repeat with all layers. Now the cake is ready to frost!

Let's start with the crumb coat. This is a thin layer of frosting designed to seal in all of the crumbs. This is especially important for a dark cake and white icing, because you don't want dark flecks of cake showing through in the frosting! Spread the frosting so that the cake is neatly covered, then add a second coat! Now you have a finished tier. Repeat with the remaining tiers, then place in the fridge until the wedding day! This can be done up to three days in advance. I frosted this cake the night before, but a few days in the fridge is fine.

You've made it to the wedding day! It's time to transport the cake to the reception location. I had a 50-mile drive...and I was terrified! I put the cakes on a towel in the back seat of my car so that they would be as level as possible during the ride. I also drove the entire route in the slow lane...which is a feat for me ;) I nervously avoided all instances of speed bumps, slamming on my breaks, or sharp turns. Thankfully, the cakes all survived the drive without any issues! I also packed a cake "doctor's bag" to take to the reception location. I packed: two containers full of extra frosting, pastry bags, tips, an off-set spatula, a plastic spatula, a roll of paper towels, a wet rag in a plastic baggy, aluminum foil, and a bag for trash. I also packed raspberries to decorate the cake, and extra filling to serve with the cake.

Now it is time to assemble the cake! First, cover your stand or plate with little strips of foil or parchment paper to keep the edge clean. Carefully remove the bottom tier from the cake box and place in the center of your stand. Now add more frosting! Clean up any imperfections from your original frosting coat by running the spatula along the sides and top of the cake with a thin layer of frosting. It's important to put more frosting on the top so that the next tier will have something to hold onto. I didn't use any dowels in this cake because it was small, but if it were a large cake, I'd have used dowels to hold the tier together. The tiers each sat on a cake board, though, to make it easy to separate the tiers later when slicing and serving.

Next, carefully add the top tier. Repeat the smoothing and additional frosting. Again, put more frosting on the top so that the decorations have something to hold onto. Now you are ready to decorate! The raspberries are ready.

I covered the top of the cake and the top of the second tier in raspberries, keeping it very simple. I also piped a little row of pearls along the bottom of the cake to hide the cake board, and because I think it looks pretty :)

Ta-da! The wedding cake is done!! Here is a picture of me with the finished product:

But more importantly, here are photos of the bride and groom with their cake! (Photos from Hagop's Photography)

Lastly, I baked one extra top tier so that they could freeze it and eat it on their first anniversary. Here's a pic:

Congrats Jay and Jenn!

Shaved Asparagus Salad

2011-05-11T20:15:00.000-07:00

This salad is my new obsession. The recipe couldn't have come at a better time - the markets are bursting with the first bunches of asparagus, and that means summer is almost here! This salad is incredibly light, crisp, bright and refreshing. It is a perfect side-dish that takes next to no time to prepare - yay! It can be customized in any number of ways, but the recipe I'm posting below is my favorite flavor combination so far. I honestly had never considered eating raw asparagus before...but now I'm not sure if I'm going to roast it ever again ;)

Shaved Asparagus Salad
from Smitten Kitchen

First, there are no exact measurements in this recipe - everything is to taste, so taste as you go along to make sure you’re getting all the parmesan, nutty, and lemony flavors you want (or however else you want to customize the salad)

1 pound asparagus, rinsed
1 lemon, halved
1/4 cup pine nuts or sliced almonds, toasted and cooled
Olive oil
Coarse salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 to 2 ounces shredded or grated parmesan cheese

No need to snap off the tough ends of your asparagus, just lay a stalk of asparagus on a cutting board. Holding onto the tough end, use a vegetable peeler to shave off thin asparagus ribbons from stalk to tip, peeling away from the tough end in your hand. Discard the tough ends once you’re done peeling. (I was left with some asparagus parts that wouldn't shave, but I found that I had plenty of ribbons for a very satisfying salad). Gently pile your ribbons on a medium-sized serving platter or in a medium bowl. Squeeze some lemon juice over the asparagus, drizzle it with a bit of olive oil and sprinkle it with parmesan cheese and salt and pepper. Toss gently. Sprinkle with some toasted nuts and serve immediately!

Sour Cream Sugar Cookies

2011-02-08T19:20:00.000-08:00

I used to think that sugar cookies were only for Christmastime. I used to make them with my mom on Christmas Eve, along with a gingerbread house. We'd frost them and pour sprinkles on them, and put them out for Santa. But since reading Annie's tutorial on how to decorate with royal icing, I've discovered that sugar cookies can be for any occasion!

I had some girlfriends over for a Valentine's cookie decorating party - it was so much fun! We made lots of icing colors and had sprinkles and just went to town decorating a ton of cookies and watching The Bachelor :)

I've tried several types of sugar cookies over the past year, but this recipe is my new favorite. It is my Aunt Kathy's recipe, and everyone who has tried these cookies loves them! I took a big batch into work today, and even people who said they don't normally like sugar cookies loved these! So there you go - these cookies convert people. You should whip up a batch!

Aunt Kathy's Sour Cream Sugar Cookies
[yield approx. 5 dozen cookies, depending on how big you cut them and how thick you roll them out. I rolled them to 1/8 inch]

Ingredients:

3/4 c. butter
3/4 c. shortening
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 c. sour cream
3 egg yolks
1/2 tsp baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp vanilla
6 c. flour

Directions:

Cream butter, shortening, sugar in large bowl. Set aside.
Add baking soda to egg yolks in a medium bowl.
Combine sour cream, yolks and vanilla; mix well.
In another bowl, sift salt, flour, and baking powder.
Add flour mixture to creamed mixture, alternating with the sour cream mixture. (Aunt Kathy's note - this dough can get pretty crumbly at this stage, so don't be afraid to use your hands to mix it together!)
Roll out dough and use cookie cutters. (There is no need to chill the dough before rolling it out. In fact, it makes it much harder to do so. I chilled my dough and ended up needing it to be warmer in order to roll it out. Just use a well-floured counter, and you'll be good to go!)
Bake at 350 about 10 minutes depending on thickness.
Decorate with royal icing.

Starbucks' Pumpkin Scones

2011-01-09T18:43:00.000-08:00

One of my girlfriends loves Starbucks. She is in law school and frequently studies at the Starbucks near her house. She loves to get a chai latte and a pumpkin scone, and is upset if she arrives too late in the day and the pumpkin scones are all gone! She asked me once if I could make these scones for her, so I found a recipe that I wanted to try. She came to visit this past weekend, along with our other two best friends for our annual girls' trip, and we made these scones together. They were heaven.

They weren't at all hard to make, and they were DELICIOUS! Pumpkin scones from that coffee shop will never be the same. H - I hope you make these again and pack them with you when you go studying!

Starbucks' Pumpkin Scones
from Recipe Girl

Ingredients:
-Scones -

2 cups all-purpose flour
7 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp ground ginger
½ cup canned pure pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
3 Tbsp half and half (or whole milk)
1 large egg
6 Tbsp cold butter, cut into cubes

-Plain Glaze-

1 cup plus 1 Tbsp powdered sugar
2 Tbsp whole milk

-Spiced Icing-

1 cup plus 3 Tbsp powdered sugar
2 Tbsp whole milk
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
pinch of ground ginger
pinch of ground cloves

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425°F. Spray baking sheet with cooking spray or line with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients (through ginger).
In a separate bowl, whisk together pumpkin, half and half and egg.
Use a pastry cutter or two knives to cut butter into the dry ingredients. Continue cutting until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. (You may also use a food processor for this step. Pulse until the mixture resembles fine crumbs).
Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients, then form the dough into a ball. Pat out dough onto a lightly floured surface and form it into a 1-inch thick circle that is about 9-inches in diameter.
Use a large knife or a pizza wheel to slice the dough into 6 equal portions (think slicing like a pizza into 6 pieces with 3 cuts through the circle)

Bake 14 to 16 minutes on prepared baking sheet. Scones should begin to turn light brown.
While scones are cooling, prepare plain glaze by combining ingredients in a medium bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed. Mix until smooth.
When scones are cool, use a brush to paint a coating of the glaze over the top of each scone.
As the white glaze firms up, prepare spiced icing by combining ingredients in another medium bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed. Drizzle this thicker icing over each scone and allow the icing to dry before serving (at least 1 hour). A squirt bottle works great for this, or you can drizzle with a whisk.

Yield: 6 scones

Martha Washington's Great Cake

2010-11-29T06:35:00.000-08:00

Hello, there! I'm Amanda, Erin's old ADX roomie. I would like to share with you a lovely recipe for Martha Washington's Great Cake.

I currently live in Arlington, Virginia, which is only 10 miles away from Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington. I recently went on a candlelit tour of Mount Vernon, and received a copy of Martha Washington's recipe for her Great Cake, which she traditionally served on Twelfth Night (January 6th, the last day of Christmas, or Epiphany). Twelfth Night was also the Washingtons' wedding anniversary; they were married on January 6, 1759. I was excited to try out an authentic 18th-century recipe, and I hope you will, too!

Martha's original recipe is a bit daunting, as copied down by Martha Parke Custis, the second of Mrs. Washington's four grandchildren:

Take 40 eggs divide the whites from the yolks & beat them to a froth then work 4 pounds of butter to a cream & put the whites of eggs to it a Spoon full at a time till it is well work'd then put 4 pounds of sugar finely powdered to it in the same manner then put in the Youlks [sic] of eggs & 5 pounds of flower [sic] and 5 pounds of fruit. 2 hours will bake it add to it half an ounce of mace and nutmeg half a pint of wine and some frensh [sic] brandy.

Needless to say, I possess neither pan nor oven (nor social callers) sufficient to bake a cake that calls for 40 eggs. Thankfully, Mount Vernon provided a recipe adapted for the 21st century.

Martha Washington's Great Cake
adapted from Mount Vernon

Ingredients:

10 eggs
1 lb butter
1 lb sugar
1 1/4 lbs flour (20 ounces)
1 1/4 lbs assorted fruit & nuts
2 1/2 tsp ground mace
2 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
2 oz wine (I used cooking sherry)
2 oz French brandy (I used E&J VSOP)

The recipe recommends certain fruits and nuts based on what would have been available to Mrs. Washington. I largely followed the recommendations, with the exception that I substituted dried cranberries for the suggested raisins, because I loathe raisins.

Fruit and nuts:

5 oz of pear (peeled, cored, and diced) (I used two Cortland apples)
9 1/2 oz of apple (peeled, cored, and diced) (I used one Bosc pear)
3 1/2 oz of dried cranberries
2 oz of sliced almonds

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Separate egg whites from yolks and set yolks aside.

2. Beat the egg whites to a "soft peak."

3. Cream the butter.

4. Slowly add the beaten egg whites, one spoonful at a time, to the butter. (Note: Pretty much every step of this recipe should be done "slowly," as suggested. I disobeyed the "spoonful at a time" instruction, and it was very difficult to coax the egg whites and the butter to interact.)

5. Slowly add the sugar, one spoonful at a time, to the egg whites and butter.

6. Add egg yolks.

7. Add flour, slowly. (Note: I added a 1/4 cup at a time.)

8. Add fruit.

9. Add ground mace and nutmeg, wine, and brandy.

10. Lightly grease and flour a 10-inch spring-form cake pan. (Note: I only had a 9-inch spring-form cake pan, so I set aside enough batter for six cupcakes, which worked out nicely.)

11. Pour batter into pan and bake about 75 minutes.

I had a bit of a complication at this point: my new spring-form pan leaked! Imagine my dismay when I smelled burning, only three minutes into baking. To remedy the leak, I wrapped the bottom of the pan in tin foil, and placed it on a baking sheet, which solved the problem.

12. Allow cake to cool after baking. (Note: the cake was golden brown after 75 minutes, but seemed rather moist. Don't worry--it will solidify as it cools.)

I baked the "Great Cupcakes" for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees. To get them out of the pan, I ran a sharp knife around the edge, and then used a fork to pry them out. Don't forget to grease and flour this pan, too!

18th-Century Icing
adapted from Mount Vernon

Ingredients:

3 egg whites
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp lemon peel, grated
2 tbsp orange-flower water (I used 1 tbsp orange extract)

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Beat three egg whites and 2 tbsp powdered sugar. Repeat additions of sugar until you have used 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar.

2. Add 1 tsp grated lemon peel and 1 tbsp orange extract.

3. Beat until the icing is stiff enough to stay parted when a knife cuts through it. (Note: I don't think I ever reached this point, even after switching to the electric hand mixer. Don't despair--it'll still work out if it's a bit soupy!)

4. Smooth it onto the cake. (Note: my method for icing the side of the cake was to put a dollop of icing on the top edge, and then allow gravity to help me along as it slid down the side.)

5. Let it dry and harden in 200-degree oven for one hour. (Note: icing will be brittle when cut with a knife.)

All told, this cake required a very lengthy process. It is a good recipe for a Saturday afternoon at home. I was intrigued by how the cake came out; my taste testers and I agreed that it was more like a delicious fruit cake than anything else.

My favorite part of this recipe was the frosting, which functions much like a meringue. I want to try it on other baked goods!

-Amanda

Caramel Corn

2010-10-30T18:30:00.000-07:00

If not for Halloween, when would we eat things that are sweet and sticky and bound to rot our teeth?
When you make this caramel corn...the answer might just change to every day.

I hope this recipe finds you in time. It's Saturday evening, and you're probably preparing the final touches on your costume and getting ready to go to a fun Halloween party, or host one of your own. But it's still not technically Halloween, so you have one more day to make this AMAZING caramel corn...and make everyone around you very, very happy.

Luckily, you probably have all of the ingredients for this on hand already. It takes almost no effort to prepare, and is an instant hit. The unique thing about this recipe is that once you dump the caramel sauce all over your popcorn, you bake it in the oven for an hour. Orangette says "In the oven, the caramel, which had started to harden as you stirred it into the popcorn, gets a chance to soften again. You can now stir it into the popcorn more easily and evenly. The whole, gooey mess will crisp spectacularly as it cools, and the kitchen will smell outrageous."

She wasn't kidding. I couldn't even bring myself to let it bake for the full hour. I made it to 20 minutes, did the first stir, and let it sit in the oven another 10 minutes before I couldn't bear how amazing my kitchen smelled, and how I had to have that caramel corn now. (I ate it right then and there...without allowing it to cool as recommended...and it was still INCREDIBLE).

Caramel Corn
adapted from Orangette

Orangette's recipe notes:

Be sure to have a whisk and a rubber spatula close at hand. You’ll need them both on short notice.
Before you begin cooking the caramel, measure out the baking soda and the vanilla, and set aside in small bowls. You won’t have time to do it later.
Do not try to make this recipe without a candy thermometer.

Ingredients

1 (3½-ounce) package plain (unbuttered natural flavor) microwave popcorn, or about 10 cups fresh popcorn popped by any method, lightly salted
1 cup packed light brown sugar
¼ cup light corn syrup
6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
¼ tsp. salt
½ tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat the oven to 250°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
If using microwave popcorn, pop the popcorn according to the package instructions. Coat a large mixing bowl with nonstick cooking spray, and dump the popcorn into the bowl, taking care to pick out and discard any unpopped kernels.
In a medium saucepan, whisk together the brown sugar, corn syrup, butter, salt, and 2 tablespoons of water. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.
Continue to simmer, whisking often, until the mixture reads 250°F on a candy thermometer, about 3 to 4 minutes.

Immediately remove the pan from the heat, and whisk in the baking soda and vanilla.
Quickly pour the hot caramel over the popcorn. Use a rubber spatula to gently fold the caramel into the popcorn, taking care to distribute it as evenly as you can.

Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 1 hour, stirring and turning the popcorn with a spatula every 20 minutes. Remove from the oven, and place on a cooling rack for 20 minutes. Gently break up the popcorn, and serve.

Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days (or thereabouts).

Halloween Sugar Cookies

2010-10-19T00:18:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year! Time for pumpkin recipes, fall soups and chilis, and of course, decorated sugar cookies! This was my first time using this royal icing technique. I've seen it everywhere: beautiful cookies with a beautiful matte sheen layer of icing, decorated in every possible color. I was lazy and only wanted to use one color (ok, two if you count the normal white). I followed Annie's tutorial on how to flood a cookie with royal icing, but basically, you take normal royal icing, pipe it along the edge of your cookie, then let it sit for about 30 minutes. Then take some of the icing, add a little bit of water to it, until it is thinner and runs off your spoon, and then "flood" the interior of the cookie, using a toothpick to help bring the icing to the edge.

I made these cookies pretty late at night, so I didn't take any pictures of the process :( But it's really easy to make a cool spiderweb design: before flooding the cookie, take some of the thinner icing and put it into another container. Color it with black food coloring, and then proceed to flood the cookies with the white icing. After flooding, while the icing is still wet, put some of the black icing into a pastry bag with a tip attached, and pipe a "target" onto the cookies (as shown in my horrible MS Paint drawing below).

Then take a toothpick and drag lines from the center of the cookie, outwards, pulling the black circles into a spider web! Let the icing harden overnight, and you will have beautiful spiderweb cookies!

Sugar Cookies
adapted from Annie's Eats

Ingredients:

1 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 ½ tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
2 ½ cups flour

Directions:
Cream butter. Add powdered sugar. Blend in egg, vanilla, salt and flour. Chill dough until firm. Roll to ¼” thickness on well-floured surface. Cut with cookie cutters. Place on greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375° for 8-10 min. Cookies should not brown. Frost and decorate when cool. Yields ~24 cookies.

Royal Icing
from Alton Brown

Ingredients

3 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups confectioners' sugar

Directions

In large bowl, mix the egg whites and vanilla with an electric mixer until frothy. Add confectioners' sugar gradually and mix on low speed until sugar is incorporated and mixture is shiny. Turn speed up to high and beat until mixture forms stiff, glossy peaks. This should take approximately 5 to 7 minutes. Color if desired, and transfer to piping bags for use.

-Erin

Orangette's Wedding Cake

2010-10-16T08:26:00.000-07:00

On Orangette/Molly Wizenberg: I've been a huge fan due to my old roommate and reading her book just made me a even bigger fan!! Another friend of mine saw her at Gregoire's and emailed her... too bad they didn't become friends, since I would have loved to meet her! I so want to go to DELANCY in seattle!!!

So, after reading A Homemade Life by Orangette's Molly Wizenberg, the first thing I wanted to make was her chocolate cake. Granted it was also her wedding cake and a cake she calls "the winning hearts and minds cake," I had great expectations. The recipe calls for 5 eggs and 1 tablespoon of AP flour something I have never run across with cakes. (I'm a not big cake fan, pie any day over cake, but I was intrigued as I usually am with reading new and different recipes!)

I decided to make this cake for a friend's belated birthday, she had strep and the flu over her birthday weekend and I thought I should add guinea pig to Eunice's attempt at Orangette's cake recipe.

You are only supposed to use one 8" round cake pan but I was afraid it would puff up too much but then again I wasn't thinking about the ingredients so I put 1/5 of the batter into another cake pan so my sister who kept putting her finger in the batter could try some. BUT remember there wasn't any leavening agents! NOTE: all the pictures are of the cake from extra cake pan (1/5th of the normal size).

The Winning Hearts and Minds Cake
from A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg

Ingredients

7 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 3/4 sticks unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 C + 2 T granulated sugar
5 eggs
1 T unbleached AP flour

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375F

2. Butter a 8" round cake pan, line the bottom with a round of parchment paper and butter the paper (this is important in order to have better ease at removing the cake at the end)

3. Put chocolate and butter in a microwavable bowl, microwave on high for 30 sec at a time, stirring until smooth (OR use a double broiler to do the same)

4. When mixture is smooth, add sugar and incorporate well

5. Set batter aside to cool for 5 min

6. Add the eggs one by one, stirring well after each

7. Add flour and stir to mix well (batter should be dark and silky)

8. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for about 25 minutes (set the timer to 20 min and check cake every 2 min). The top is lightly crackled and edges are puffed and the center only jiggles VERY slightly.

9. Remove the cake and cool for 15 minutes in the pan

10. Carefully turn it out of the pan then flip onto a serving plate so the crackly side faces up

11. Cool completely

END product: a very THIN, but very moist, dense CHOCOLATY cake like a flourless chocolate cake but with a subtle lightness. Molly says to serve some lightly sweetened with whipped cream.

** All the pictures where taken of the cake made from 1/5th the batter so the cake should not be as thin as pictured above **

- Eunice

Moussaka

2010-10-10T18:30:00.000-07:00

About a year ago, my boyfriend introduced me "Greektown" in Chicago and took me to this fabulous restaurant called Pegasus. I couldn't pronounce one thing on the menu! Greek food to me was kebabs, falafel, and gyros. Luckily, he knew what he was doing and ordered for us.

When the food finally arrived, I was blown away by one dish in particular: the moussaka. Moussaka is a dish based on ground meat and eggplant layered with a bechamel sauce. It...was...unbelievable. So unexpected, so unassuming, and oh so wonderful. I had never had such flavors present in a meat dish before. It reminded me of Christmas. From then on, I have ordered moussaka at every Greek restaurant I go to, but nothing compares to the one at Pegasus....

...until now. I have been experimenting with different dishes over the summer, but this one seemed the most daunting. I ended up using two different recipes for reference, which can be found here and here. It came out great! It did not look as pretty as Pegasus' dish, but the familiar flavors were all there. It's just so good. :)

Moussaka
(adapted from the Gastronomer's Guide to Moussaka)

Ingredients

For the eggplant layers:

3 long globe eggplants
coarse sea salt (I used Kosher)
olive oil (~1/3 - 1/2 cup)

For the meat filling:

2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped (I used around 5-6 cloves because I love garlic)
1 pound ground turkey (It's traditional to use beef or lamb, but I had turkey on hand)
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 15-ounce can crushed tomatoes (I used fresh crushed grape tomatoes)
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon parsley
coarse sea salt
freshly ground pepper

For the béchamel sauce:

4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons flour
2 cups fat-free milk
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
coarse sea salt
freshly ground pepper
6 ounces pecorino Romano, grated

Directions

To make the eggplant layers, cut off ends and cut lengthwise into 1/2-inch thick slices. Liberally salt both sides and let stand in a colander set over the sink for at least 30 minutes. Cover them with an inverted plate that is weighted down by a heavy can or jar. Place the colander in the sink so that excess moisture can be drawn out. Rinse with water and pat dry.

Heat oil in a large heavy-bottomed sauté pan on medium-high. Fry eggplant slices for 3 to 5 minutes per side until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

To make the meat filling, heat the butter and oil in a large heavy-bottomed pan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the turkey and cook until brown, about 5 to 10 minutes. Add the wine, tomatoes, tomato paste and cinnamon. Simmer until liquid has reduced, about 15-20 minutes. Add the parsley and season with salt and pepper.

To make the béchamel, melt butter over low heat. Using a whisk, add flour to melted butter whisking continuously to make a smooth paste. Allow the flour to cook for a minute but do not allow it to brown.
Add warmed milk to mixture in a steady stream, whisking continuously.
Simmer over low heat until it thickens a bit but does not boil.
Add half the grated cheese and continue to whisk until melted. Add the nutmeg and season with salt and white pepper.
To assemble, layer the bottom and sides of a 9-by-13-inch greased baking dish with the eggplant slices, making sure to overlap edges. Spread with half the meat mixture. Add another layer of eggplant slices and spread with the remaining meat mixture. Cover with remaining eggplant slices. Spread with half the béchamel and sprinkle with remaining grated cheese. Bake from 30 to 40 minutes until bubbling around the edges of the pan. Remove and let cool for 30 minutes. Serve squares with remaining béchamel sauce and either homemade or store-bought marinara sauce on the side. Yield: 6 to 8 servings.

Before the oven.

And after.

-Traci

Gingery Zucchini Bread

2010-10-07T13:04:00.000-07:00

Monday morning and I felt like that Fall was finally approaching. The sky was grey and my feet walking barefoot around the house were a bit nippy and I wanted to bake. I looked around the house and saw the huge zucchini we got from our neighbor's garden. A couple of weeks ago we received 3 of these foot long summer squashes. My mom had already made a zucchini meal of grilled zucchini, roasted zucchini and korean zucchini pancakes a week before and froze the second one.

I was fascinated by 101 cookbook's zucchini bread - the additions of crystallized ginger and walnuts seemed like a wonderful addition so thought I'd give it a try. Then I found out that there was only 2T of butter... But I was set on making THIS zucchini bread... So I substituted 6T with Smart Balance butter spread.... more on this decision later.

I cut down the amount of walnuts to 1/4C because my mom hates it when I steal all the nuts, 1/3 C of crystallized ginger because I was unsure if I'd like it, and 1t of curry powder because I am a conventionalist at heart and 1T curry powder seemed too much! I also did not have poppy seeds or lemon zest.

Zucchini Bread
Recipe from 101 Cookbooks

Ingredients

1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup crystallized ginger, finely chopped
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups grated zucchini with skin, squeeze out the moisture and fluff up
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon curry powder

2 loaf pans (5x9 inches)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F

2. Butter and dust loaf pans (or Pam cooking spray with flour)

3. In a small bowl combine walnuts and ginger

4. Beat butter until fluffy using a stand mixer (or hand mixer in a separate bowl). Add sugars and beat until no longer crumbly. Add eggs one at a time. Stir in vanilla. Add zucchini lowering the speed.

5. In another bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and curry powder.

6. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients in two batches.

7. Fold in walnuts and ginger by hand. (If you like save some to sprinkle on top of the loves.)

8. Divide batter between the two loaf pans.

9. Bake for 45-50 minutes on the middle rack.

10. Remove and cool for about 15 minutes. Take them out of the pan to cool completely.

The result: a soft moist zucchini bread with the subtle surprise of the crystalized ginger and crunch of the walnuts, however a bit on the salty side. Perhaps it was the Smart Balance butter spread or 1 teaspoon is a bit much. I believe that the Smart Balance butter spread also affected the crumb making it a bit loose and crumbly. So lesson: USE REAL BUTTER.

-Eunice

Ultimate Banana Bread

2010-10-04T23:27:00.000-07:00

I'm definitely on a banana kick lately. When I've let my bananas sit on my counter a little too long (and didn't make them into ice cream), I stick them into the freezer. Once I have collected enough super-ripe bananas (think waaay beyond spotty...these bananas are so ripe they aren't even yellow anymore) it's time for the next best thing: banana bread!

(Image source: Cook's Illustrated)

The July issue of Cook's Illustrated had a banana bread recipe that sounded so strange, I knew I had to try it. It involves microwaving bananas. Weird! But as weird and unnecessary as it sounds, this banana bread was possibly the best banana bread I have ever had! It was really banana-y, dense and moist, but not soggy, and still fluffy. And the smell of it while baking....mmmm my apartment has never smelled better!

The secret to this ultimate banana bread is definitely the use of more bananas than a typical recipe. This recipe calls for 5 bananas, which would typically make a banana bread way too dense and soggy -- enter the microwaving part. The microwaving makes the bananas release their juices. Then you simply strain the bananas, cook the liquid on the stove until it reduces, and then add it back into the dough. This intensifies the banana flavor, but doesn't make the bread soggy. Voila! Ultimate Banana Bread!

Ultimate Banana Bread
recipe from Cook's Illustrated, July 2010

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
5 very ripe bananas (plus one mostly ripe banana for garnish, if desired)
8 tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
2 eggs
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped, if desired (I omitted the walnuts)

Directions

Adjust oven rack to the middle position, and heat to 350 deg F. Spray a 9x5 loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray.
Whisk flour, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.
Place 5 bananas in microwave-safe bowl; cover with plastic wrap and cut several steam vents in plastic with a sharp knife. Microwave on high until bananas are soft and have released liquid, about 5 minutes. Transfer bananas to fine-mesh strainer placed over medium bowl and allow to drain, stirring occasionally, 15 minutes (you should have ½ to ¾ cup liquid). [Note - if you don't have a fine mesh strainer (like me!) you can put a paper towel into a regular strainer placed over a bowl, and it will work just as well]

(weeeiird! microwaved bananas!!)
Transfer liquid to medium saucepan and cook over medium-high heat until reduced to ¼ cup, about 5 minutes. Remove pan from heat, stir reduced liquid into bananas, and mash with potato masher until fairly smooth. Whisk in butter, eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla.
Pour banana mixture into flour mixture and stir until just combined with some streaks of flour remaining. Gently fold in walnuts, if using. Scrape batter into prepared pan.
Slice remaining banana diagonally into ¼-inch-thick slices. Shingle banana slices on top of either side of loaf, leaving 1½-inch-wide space down center to ensure even rise. Sprinkle granulated sugar evenly over loaf.
Bake until toothpick inserted in center of loaf comes out clean, 55 to 75 minutes.
Cool bread in pan on wire rack 15 minutes, then remove loaf from pan and continue to cool on wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

One Ingredient Ice Cream

2010-09-27T22:37:00.000-07:00

It's hot out. Oakland hit 96 today...phew! (before you say your city was hotter, do you have air conditioning? On days like today, I'm so thankful for my big box fan.)

When it's hot, I don't want to cook. I don't want to turn on my stove or oven and add heat to my top floor apartment. I just want ice cream! And I learned a recipe earlier this summer for a very surprising, one ingredient ice cream. This recipe has changed my life -- be prepared: all you need is a banana!

Seriously...just one banana, a freezer and a blender or food processor. (And if you want, peanut butter, nutella, chocolate chips, or whatever else you want to add...but then it becomes more than one ingredient, and I'm going to keep it simple for you right now...)

Honestly, when I first read this recipe, I couldn't believe it. Ice cream out of a banana? There is no milk! There is no cream! Heck, there is no ice!! No messy rock salt, no bulky ice cream maker. Just. A. Banana. Believe it!

And believe me, this "ice cream" is so incredibly thick and creamy, you have no idea that it's just a banana! This recipe is the best secret weapon for ice cream that is actually guilt-free. You're just eating a banana!

Ok, onto the recipe. This will be very informal because there aren't any complex directions here. Take one banana (or more, depending on how many people you want to serve). I like bananas that are starting to get spotty, but aren't yet at banana bread ripeness. I've also made this with plain yellow bananas and it's been good every time.

Slice the banana into slices like you would to top your cereal (about 1/4 inch thick, but really there's no precision here). Put the slices onto a plate and then stick the whole plate into the freezer for at least an hour. (I like to leave it in for about 2 hours, but on nights like tonight, 1 hour can't go by fast enough!!)

After the pieces are nice and frozen, take a knife and scrape them off the plate and into your blender or food processor.

Turn on your blender or food processor and blend until creamy.

Scrape the "ice cream" out and into a bowl. At this point, you can stir in additional ingredients if you want (in addition to the list above, you could add blueberries, honey, granola...use your imagination!)

Enjoy your delicious, homemade "ice cream" mmmmmmm!

p.s. my very good friend Traci has been very active in her kitchen lately, and has agreed to share with you some of her recent cooking adventures. She will be posting soon on Pacific Thyme, so look forward to that!

Macarons!

2010-09-09T00:47:00.000-07:00

When you read as many food blogs as I do, you have been overwhelmed by everyone making macarons. You've read horror stories (they didn't have feet! they cracked! they stuck to the pan!), you've been wowed by a rainbow of colors, and you have been seriously tempted to try making them yourself, but you are intimidated by how finicky they seem to be, and you also don't have a kitchen scale. (Ok, so that last part is probably just me, but luckily I was able to borrow one quite easily). But if you aren't totally wrapped up in the food blog community, you are probably thinking (as EVERYONE i gave these cookies to did) what the heck are macarons??

No, they are not macaroons. There is only one "o," and yes, it makes a difference :P

Macarons are a French cookie, known for their hard shells, merengue-like interiors, and of course, their variety of colors and flavors. So, in a totally boring (yet totally delicious!) fashion, I picked chocolate for my first attempt at macarons. They definitely didn't turn out perfectly, but I was really happy with the results anyway, and everyone thought they were delicious. I took lots of pictures of the process so that you can follow along at home :)

Chocolate Macarons with Chocolate Ganache
recipe from Annie's Eats

Ingredients
For the macarons:

110 gm blanched slivered almonds
200 gm minus 2 tbsp. confectioners’ sugar
2 tbsp. cocoa powder
100 gm egg whites (from about 3 eggs), aged at room temperature for 12-24 hours (I aged mine for 3 hours, because I am super lazy and forgot to put them out earlier!....but they still turned out really well!)
50 gm granulated sugar

For the chocolate ganache:

1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 tbsp. granulated sugar
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
(you can add 1 1/2 tsp espresso powder if you are a coffee lover. i omitted this ingredient)

Directions:
1. Weigh the almonds, then pulse them in the bowl of a food processor until finely ground. Then add the confectioner's sugar and cocoa

2. In a large bowl, whip the egg whites on medium-high speed until foamy.

3.Gradually add the granulated sugar and continue beating until a smooth, shiny meringue with stiff peaks forms.

4. Add the ground almond mixture to the bowl with the meringue and quickly but gently fold together using a rubber spatula until no streaks remain. You want to achieve a thick batter that ribbons or flows from the spatula when lifted. You may feel like you are over-mixing, but keep going until the batter really flows.

5. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats (if you have them...I have only one baking sheet and one silpat, so I employed the technique: "squeeze as many macarons as possible onto one silpat!" Then I put the remaining batter onto a small baking sheet lined with parchment paper). Transfer the batter to a piping bag fitted with a plain wide round tip. Pipe into small rounds on the prepared baking sheets (each round should be about 1-1½ inches in diameter), spaced about 1 inch apart (unless you use my squeeze technique, then really these macarons are about 1/4 inch apart, if that!).

6. Let sit at room temperature for about an hour to develop a hard shell. During the hour of sitting, make the ganache: put the heavy cream, butter and sugar in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Place the chopped chocolate in a small heatproof bowl. Bring the cream mixture to a simmer, remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate. Let stand 2 minutes, then whisk gently in small circular motions until the ganache forms. Let the mixture cool until it is thick. (To speed chilling, transfer the bowl to the freezer or refrigerator and let cool, stirring every 10 minutes, until thickened.)

7. Preheat the oven to 300˚F. Bake for 8-10 minutes, depending on size [NOTE! I actually baked mine for 15 minutes, and wish I had baked them for 20, but some were starting to crack... don't be afraid of baking them for longer than 10 minutes]. Transfer the pans to a wire cooling rack and let cool completely before moving the cookies. (get excited if your cookies have "feet" like the ones shown below!)

8. GENTLY remove the cookies from the pans. THIS IS A DIFFICULT PROCESS. Be prepared to lose a lot of cookies :( Mine stuck a LOT to the parchment paper, and many even stuck to the silpat. Here is a picture of the casualties:

Conversely, here are the cookies that were perfectly removed from the silpat (MUCH fewer! haha)

9. With a knife, spread the ganache onto one side of a cookie, and sandwich with another matching size cookie.

And guess what...those cookies with less-than-perfect bottoms...totally hidden under the layer of ganache!! Look at all of the cookies I salvaged! :)

The Return of Pacific Thyme (and Roasted Garbanzo Beans)

2010-09-05T19:42:00.000-07:00

Wow, it has been a while since the last post on Pacific Thyme. So long, in fact, that my browser doesn't auto-complete the address when I start to type it.... sad days. I have had several people ask me lately if this blog was totally dead, enough people where I thought, geez, I really need to do a post if I actually want to keep this up! So here we are. This is Labor Day weekend, I have moved into a new apartment (with a kitchen I love to cook in!) and I am spending this Sunday evening getting a little carried away :)

What does that mean, exactly? Well, it means that I am making several things that have been on my "make this asap!" list, and asap turned into....never. These things include Garlic Knot Dinner Rolls, Banana 'Ice Cream', chocolate chip cookies (...because I have all necessary ingredients and am on a roll, ok?) and the thing I am most excited about: Roasted Garbanzo Beans!

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but garbanzo beans are, hands down, one of my favorite foods. I tried a recipe for roasted garbanzo beans once before, but the recipe called for dried beans soaked overnight in water, then roasting them, but that was a lot of pre-planning (which I rarely do when I cook) so I wasn't keen on making that dish over and over again. But then I found this recipe, using canned garbanzo beans (which I ALWAYS have on hand), and knew I had to try it. And it was so unbelievably simple, I can't make any excuses _not_ to share it with you. If you have a can of garbanzo beans, some olive oil, salt and spices, then you are 45 minutes away from a very tasty and addicting snack :)

Roasted Garbanzo Beans
from Steamy Kitchen

Ingredients:

1 Can of Garbanzo Beans
A drizzle of olive oil
Salt
Spice of your choice (I used chili powder)

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 deg F.
2. Empty the can of garbanzo beans into a colander and rinse them.

3. Pour the beans onto a baking sheet lined with a paper towel. With another paper towel on top, gently rub with circular motions to dry the beans and remove any skins.

4. Once the beans are dry, remove the paper towels and drizzle a small amount of olive oil over them, and spread it around so that they are evenly coated.
5. Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes, until golden brown and crispy.

6. Sprinkle salt and spice(s) on the beans
Enjoy!

Ham Risotto with Sugar Snap Peas

2010-04-21T22:55:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone. My name is Tony and I've been cooking with Erin now for a few years. When Erin told me she had a food blog I was immediately interested in helping out. Cooking has been something I've enjoyed doing for years and I'm always looking to improve and expand my repertoire. Hopefully, spurred by the nagging sense that I should be writing a post, I'll be able to share some of my favorite dishes as well as try out some new ones!

One dish that I've always liked but never made is risotto. Risotto is known for being a little needy when it comes to cooking because you need to stand at the stove and stir it constantly while you slowly add the liquid in small quantities. But whatever it lacks in terms of attention required at the stove, it makes up for in adaptability of ingredients. This dish will take almost anything you have in your fridge. A leftover mushroom side dish from earlier in the week? Throw it in. Some leftover sausage that didn't get entirely used in a meal? Throw it in. You want meat in it? Add meat. Want it veggie? Use peas or artichokes or asparagus (or all three!).

Knowing we'd have leftover ham from Easter dinner this year, I got the idea to make this ham risotto I had been wanting to try. The recipe calls for just 3 ounces of diced ham, but I used what I had leftover which was more than 3 ounces. You can use as much or as little ham as you have or want to add. With prep plus cooking time coming in at around an hour, this is definitely something that's doable on a weekday night after work (which is what I did).

This leek is relatively clean, but they can be pretty dirty.

Leeks can be a little annoying to prepare as the layers oftentimes have a lot of dirt in them. The way I clean them is by slicing them lengthwise almost all the way through to the bottom. Open the leek up almost like a book and run it under cold water as you get out any dirt. Dry it, and then chop it however the recipe calls for. I'm not sure if this is the best way to clean them, but it works. (If you know of a better way, let me know in the comments!)

This risotto will give you a bit of an arm workout as you stir it constantly, but the results are well worth the effort! If you prefer, you can substitute the peas in this recipe with an equal amount of asparagus and it will work just as well.

Ham Risotto with Sugar Snap Peas

From Cooking Light

Serves 4

4 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
8 ounces sugar snap peas, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced leek (about 2 medium leeks)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup uncooked Arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
3 ounces diced cooked ham (about 3/4 cup)
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Bring broth to a simmer in a medium saucepan (do not boil). Keep warm. (I'm sure you could microwave this too)
Cook peas in boiling water 2 minutes or until crisp-tender. Drain and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process; drain.
Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add leek to pan; cook 5 minutes or until tender, stirring frequently. Add garlic; cook 30 seconds. Stir in rice; cook 1 minute. Add wine; cook 2 minutes or until liquid is nearly absorbed, stirring constantly. Add broth, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring constantly until each portion of broth is absorbed before adding the next (about 20-30 minutes total). Add ham to pan; cook 3 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Stir in peas, cheese, and pepper.

Japanese Goodness

2010-04-12T16:56:00.000-07:00

My recent hiatus from Pacific Thyme actually has a good excuse - I just got back from 10 days in Japan! Can I tell you how much I love Japanese food? Everything was SO delicious! Here is a glimpse of the goodness that I experienced:

First, I had the best and freshest sushi ever at Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo. The fish was literally in the water a few hours prior to being in my tummy :)

We ate all of the sushi except for this one: it was super goopy and nasty.

Here are some pictures from the fish market -- baby octopus, yummy ;)

Eel swimming in their own blood? Ewwww

More octopus tentacles...mmm

In the Kansai region (Nara/Kyoto), a favorite local food is Okonomiyaki. It's an egg pancake with toppings. This is egg stuffed with noodles and beef, with ketchup and mayonnaise spread on top. SO GOOD!

Traditional okonomiyaki: we ate beef (gyu) and octopus (tako) as toppings for the pancakes. And of course, lots of ketchup and mayonnaise.

McDonalds in Japan has a dollar (or 100 yen) menu. One of the delicious items is Shaka Shaka Chicken. To put it simply, it's a breaded chicken breast in a bag, and you add a flavor packet to the bag (either cheese, black pepper, or lemon), close the bag, shaka shaka, then enjoy your flavor-coated chicken!

One day in Ueno Park, we decided to try some of the street fare: Octopus Balls...but beware...these balls of batter and tentacles were nasty. It was probably because the batter was not cooked through, but they had such a goopy texture that they were hard to pick up and hard to eat! The tentacles were good though, so those were picked out of the batter and eaten :)

Here is some more street fare: fish on a stick!

If you know me, you know that I love pancakes. So when I saw pancakes in a bag at the 7/11 in Tokyo, I had to get them! Mmmm pancakes!

RAMEN -- super delicious! These are all of the toppings to put into my steamy bowl of broth and noodles.

Ramen is so yummy! I got soy sauce broth and all of the toppings :)

And last but best by far: Kobe Beef. For all of the money spent on this piece of meat, I can't even do it justice with a description. Words do not express how amazing this beef is. It melts in your mouth. It makes you never want to eat another steak again. Nothing can compare to how awesome this steak was. Simply put, WOW!

I also loved eating katsu, shaved ice, onigiri (well, when I got ones with fish that I like inside), ten-don, and yoshinoya! Mmmmm such amazing food!

On another note, Eunice, who was introduced through last post, and Tony, who has made an appearance on the blog before, will both be contributors to Pacific Thyme. I am happy to have them aboard, and look forward to tales from their kitchens!

Soft and Chewy Molasses Spice Cookies

2010-03-24T09:52:00.000-07:00

So I have always envied those who have a cooking blog, for their dedication and their creativity. I'm definitely a purveyor of a myriad of blogs and I'm one of those that have lots to catch up on my RSS feed. But I'm delighted that Erin has let me guest blog!

I love baking cookies and I'm one that likes those that are chewier. I guess I feel like I don't lose any of the sugary goodness with crumbs that could potentially get away. I made these cookies for the first time back in December when I saw the recipe in Cook's Illustrated. I was really surprised by the black pepper but it works surprisingly well! Maybe its a recipe fit for the holidays and winter months, but I say that molasses and spice are year-round ingredients!

These ones were baked at my friend Libby's house; Concord had lovely sunlight and made for some good shots!

Soft & Chewy Molasses Spice Cookies
from Cook's Illustrated

1/3 cup sugar, plus 1/2 cup for rolling
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup molasses, light or dark (we used Brer Rabbit Full Flavor)

Center a rack in the oven and preheat oven to 375 F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or spray with oil. Place 1/2 cup sugar for dipping in a shallow, wide bowl.

Whisk flour, baking soda, spices, and salt in medium bowl until thoroughly combined; set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment or a hand mixer, beat butter with brown and granulated sugars at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-low and add yolk and vanilla; increase speed to medium and beat until incorporated, about 30 seconds. Reduce speed to medium-low and add molasses; beat until fully incorporated, about 30 seconds, scraping bottom and sides of bowl once with rubber spatula. Reduce speed to lowest setting; add flour mixture and beat until just incorporated, about 30 seconds, scraping bowl down once. Give dough final stir with rubber spatula to ensure that no pockets of flour remain at bottom. Dough will be soft.

Using tablespoon measure, scoop heaping tablespoon of dough and roll between palms into 1 1/2-inch ball. Roll ball in sugar to coat and set on prepared baking sheet, spacing cookies about 2 inches apart. (We fit 16 cookies on a cookie sheet). Repeat with remaining dough. Bake 1 sheet at a time until cookies are browned, still puffy, and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft (cookies will look raw between cracks and seem underdone), about 8-10 minutes (depending on your oven), rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. Don't overbake if you want the cookies to be soft and chewy.

Cool cookies on baking sheet 5-10 minutes and enjoy!

-Eunice

Chocolate Cream Pi(e)

2010-03-16T22:40:00.000-07:00

Hi. I know it's been too long. Please accept my apology for temporarily abandoning ship. I've been doing a lot of thinking about this blog and my commitment to it. See, I'm very much a team player. I play on a soccer team, I work on teams as a consultant, and this blog was once a team effort. But with changes in life, the team dynamic disappeared. No one is on the other side to keep me accountable, to prod me to make sure that I am cooking, baking, photographing, and posting. And clearly, left to my own devices, I stopped. But don't worry, this is not at all a eulogy to Pacific Thyme. In fact, it is very much still alive, if merely dormant. Consider this a revival. And consider this chocolate cream pie my peace offering (believe me, with one taste, all of your problems will melt away and you will forget that I once abandoned you).

March 14th, 3/14 is one of my favorite holidays. Yes, for those of you not nerdy enough to recognize, it is Pi Day! A day where, for each of the past 8 years, my friends and I have gathered to celebrate all things mathematical, and enjoy some delicious pi(e). And this year was no exception. In fact, this year was a revival of Pi Day, too! My wonderful best friend and Pi Day co-founder, Tracie, had to miss the last two Pi Day celebrations (something about a trip to Ecuador and living in DC...but I'm not bitter, I promise!). But this year, she has moved back to the beautiful SF Bay Area and was able to once again join in the party!

I was killing some time at home on Saturday night before Tracie came over for a pre-Pi Day sleepover, and I decided to whip up this beauty: Chocolate Cream Pie. This pie was surprisingly quick to make. In fact, the directions recommended that I bake the shell, take it out to cool and while the shell is cooling, prepare the filling. But the filling was so quick to make, that the shell had barely cooled a few degrees! The directions then said: immediately pour filling into cooled shell. What was I supposed to do?! Ignore the "immediate" direction and wait for the shell to cool? Or ignore the "cooled shell" requirement and just pour my hot filling straight on in? Now I know that this may not seem like a big decision, but this is a Cook's Illustrated recipe we're talking about here. They've tested every possible way to make this pie, and have given really precise directions. And here I was, debating on how to disobey orders in the way that would least screw up the pie! I opted to ignore the "cooled shell" and decided to pour the filling right on in, then plop the whole thing in the fridge to cool overnight. The pie turned out fine :) In fact, it was quite possibly the biggest hit of the Pi Party, aside from the quiches Tracie and Tony made.

Everyone had a great time at the Pi Party, and all 6 pies were eaten up. Here are some pictures of our more creative apple and berry Pi(e)s!

Chocolate Cream Pie

from Cook's Illustrated, May 2001

Crust

16 Oreos with filling, broken into pieces (or whole if you have an awesome food processor)
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Filling

2.5 c. half and half
pinch salt
1/3 c. sugar
2 tbsp cornstarch
6 large egg yolks
6 tbsp unsalted butter, cold, cut into 6 pieces
6 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped (they recommended Hershey's Special Dark, which I used)
1 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped (I used Baker's)
1 tsp vanilla

Whipped Cream

1.5 c. heavy cream
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

For the crust:

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees.
In bowl of food processor fitted with steel blade, process cookies until crumbs are uniformly fine. (Alternatively, place cookies in large zipper-lock plastic bag and crush with rolling pin.)
Transfer crumbs to medium bowl, drizzle with butter, and use fingers to combine until butter is evenly distributed.
Pour crumbs into 9-inch Pyrex pie plate.
Press crumbs evenly onto bottom and up sides of pie plate.
Refrigerate lined pie plate 20 minutes to firm crumbs, then bake until crumbs are fragrant and set, about 10 minutes.
Cool on wire rack while preparing filling.

For the filling:

Bring half-and-half, salt, and about 3 tablespoons sugar to simmer in medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally with wooden spoon to dissolve sugar.
Stir together remaining sugar and cornstarch in small bowl, then sprinkle over yolks and whisk, scraping down sides of bowl, if necessary, until mixture is glossy and sugar has begun to dissolve, about 1 minute. (Here I went from sprinkle to dump the whole bowl...it worked out fine)
Whisk yolks thoroughly in medium bowl until slightly thickened, about 30 seconds.
When half-and-half reaches full simmer, drizzle about 1/2 cup hot half-and-half over yolks, whisking constantly to temper; then whisk egg yolk mixture into simmering half-and-half (mixture should thicken in about 30 seconds).
Return to simmer, whisking constantly, until 3 or 4 bubbles burst on the surface and mixture is thickened and glossy, about 15 seconds longer.
Off heat, whisk in butter until incorporated
Add chocolates and whisk until melted, scraping pan bottom with rubber spatula to fully incorporate.
Stir in vanilla, then immediately pour filling into baked and cooled crust.
Press plastic wrap directly on surface of filling and refrigerate pie until filling is cold and firm, about 3 hours (or overnight)

For the topping:

Just before serving, beat cream, sugar, and vanilla in bowl of standing mixer on low speed until cream is smooth, thick, and nearly doubled in volume and forms soft peaks.
Spread whipped cream over chilled pie filling.

Happy Pi Day!

Change is in the Air

2010-02-06T20:39:00.000-08:00

The thing about life is, it changes. We've entered February, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, and our dear friend Linda moved way across the country to Baltimore, MD. From PacificThyme to Eastern Time. And I miss her so much. But the other thing about life is, it goes on. Linda is pursuing a dream and a very cool medical research opportunity, and I couldn't be happier for her.

So what does that mean for Pacific Thyme? Well, truthfully, we don't know. This blog, in the few short months since its inception, is how we've been able to grow and share our passion for good food. That passion is unchanged. So PacificThyme will go on! Maybe less frequently, but I love this blog, and there is always an open invitation for Linda to contribute whenever she is able to. So bear with us, more good food is on its way!

Bakesale Betty's Fried Chicken Sandwich

2010-01-22T11:14:00.000-08:00

If you happen to make it to San Francisco, a short trip across the bay brings you to Oakland. Oakland has a rich selection of restaurant choices, from amazing Ethiopian food to seriously good pizza to delicious spicy bbq. I could go on and on about the delicious things to eat in Berkeley and Oakland, but there are a few must-eat institutions, and Bakesale Betty's is one of them.

Is it the charm of eating on the sidewalk on an ironing board? Or when waiting in line (and the line is often LONG), the cheerful Betty's staff handing out cookies and lemon bars? Or when you first lay your eyes on an enormous chicken sandwich? Or better yet, you first sink your teeth into said chicken sandwich covered in cool coleslaw, and immediately a protective instinct washes over you so that if anyone so dares to even *think* about taking a bite of YOUR sandwich, they better think again or risk bodily harm? And did I mention that they taste even better the next day?

If you are not convinced enough to take a trip to Oakland, then lucky for you, the SF Chronicle posted a recipe a few years back for these beauties. Now you can have Betty at home! And you just might want to pull out your ironing board, you know, for the experience.

Bakesale Betty's Fried Chicken Sandwich

recipe originally posted on SF Gate

serves 4

You'll have some breading left over, even after dipping twice. This makes a hefty sandwich in all regards - you'll need two hands to eat it.

Chicken

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, about 6 ounces each
Kosher salt to taste
1 quart buttermilk

The vinaigrette

1 tbsp Dijon mustard
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil

The coleslaw

1 small red onion, very thinly sliced
1 c. red wine vinegar
2 jalapenos, seeded, cut in half and sliced crosswise
1/4 c. chopped parsley
1/2 green cabbage, core and outer leaves removed, and very thinly sliced
Kosher salt

The breading

1 pound all-purpose flour
1 tbsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp kosher salt + more to taste
1 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
2 quarts vegetable oil, for frying
4 Acme Bakery torpedo rolls, sliced lengthwise (or french sandwich rolls)

Chicken: Season chicken breasts with kosher salt. Let sit at least 5 minutes. Fill a wide, shallow nonreactive bowl or casserole dish with buttermilk. Add the chicken and soak in the refrigerator for 1 hour up to overnight.
For the vinaigrette: Combine mustard, vinegar and salt in a bowl. Slowly whisk in olive oil until well blended.
For the coleslaw: Soak onions in red wine vinegar, and let sit at least 20 minutes. Remove onions and discard vinegar. Toss onions with jalapeno, parsley, cabbage and salt. Toss with vinaigrette until evenly coated.
To fry chicken: Pour vegetable oil into a large stockpot. Do not fill up more than halfway, or the oil could splatter. Bring oil up to 365°F, using a digital thermometer/candy thermometer to monitor the heat. Prepare the the breading while waiting for oil to heat up.
Breading: In a wide shallow bowl, mix flour, cayenne, salt and pepper. Pull a chicken breast out of the buttermilk one by one, letting excess drip off, and dredge completely in flour. To create a thick crust, place in buttermilk and dredge in flour a second time. Do not drain or shake off excess buttermilk or flour during the breading process.
When the oil is at 365°F, carefully place chicken pieces into oil one by one. Let it cook for a minute before disturbing chicken, then help it "swim" in the oil with tongs, until it is evenly cooked, about 5-7 minutes. Remove chicken from oil and drain on paper towels. Season immediately with salt.
For the sandwich: Place fried chicken breast on bottom of torpedo roll and top generously with coleslaw.