Tempered Woman

Aloha Luau Cupcakes

noreply@blogger.com (Tempered Woman) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:39:00 +0000

My final hurrah at my previous place of employment. We celebrated the end of Summer with a Luau and I got a chance to finally make the cupcakes that had been sitting in my head for a ridiculously long time. I have a list of so many ideas but never seem to have the excuse to make them. And as popular as cupcakes have become, someone usually manages to beat me to the punch. You all are just too damn creative for your own good.

Well I became obsessed with dulce de leche a while back. I found out about cajeta and had to try out the goat's milk version. Next thing I know I was caramelizing everything I could get my hands on including goat's milk yogurt (think caramelized sour cream). The idea of coconut milk was a natural progression and I thought I was oh so clever until I found a recipe right there on Epicurious. gah! There are no original ideas left in my head I guess...

So anyway, I wanted to do a more Asian inspired version of caramel and pears because I love those flavors together and the Luau gave me the perfect excuse to finally bake these puppies. And only I would find a reason to make an Asian- Mexican fusion, right? I have real issues
I know.
But pineapple just seemed too obvious, yeah?

Salted Coconut Milk Dulce de Leche- Lychee Fruit Cupcakes
adapted from Chockylit's Lychee Fruit cupcakes
makes 30 cupcakes

4 cups Cake Flour
2 t Baking Soda
2 cups Turbinado Sugar
4 large Eggs
1 cup Oil
2 t Vanilla
20 oz can Lychee Fruit, drained and chopped
1 1/2 cups Dulce de Leche Coconut Milk (recipe below)

Sift together flour, baking soda, salt and sugar in a medium sized bowl. In your mixer bowl, combine eggs and oil over low medium speed with paddle attachment. Add vanilla. Slowly add in dry ingredients over low speed in thirds. Fold in chopped lychee fruit then the dulce de leche on slow speed until just combined. Do not overmix.

Scoop cupcake mixture into lined cupcake tins 2/3 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Salted Coconut Milk Dulce de Leche
adapted from Epicurious

2 14 oz cans Unsweetened Coconut Milk
1 1/1 cups Brown Sugar
1 T Fleur de Sel salt

Whisk coconut milk, sugar, and salt in heavy large skillet over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to medium-high and boil until mixture is reduced to 2 1/2 cups, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. Transfer sauce to a glass/porcelain dish or small jars. Cool completely, chill any sauce that you will not be using immediately.

Salted Coconut Milk Dulce de Leche Frosting
adapted from Chockylit's Salted Caramel frosting

2 sticks/ 8 oz. unsalted Butter, room temp
8 ounces or 1 package of Cream Cheese, room temp
6 cups Powdered Sugar
1 cup Salted Coconut Milk Dulce de Leche

Mix butter and cream cheese in mixer bowl with paddle attachment on medium speed until creamy. Sift 3 cups of powdered sugar into the butter/cream cheese mixture and mix to combine. Add the salted dulce de leche and mix until just combined. Sift the remaining 3 cups of powder sugar, and add until just combined and smooth. Frosting will be soft.

Coming Clean
I decorated the cupcakes with dried Lychee fruit and chocolate shells that I made just using a simple chocolate shell plastic mold from a craft store and a blend of tempered white and dark chocolate.

The coconut flavored dulce de leche was a really nice surprise. You get definite caramel with coconut milk undertones. People had a hard time figuring it out until I told them and then it seemed obvious. We could have eaten the salted dulce de leche over ice cream, we even dipped the leftover chocolate shells in it, it was so good.

The lychee fruit and coconut milk dulce de leche went together so wonderfully and it certainly made an incredibly moist cupcake. The sweet lychee balanced really well against the salted nutty flavor of the the coconut milk dulce de leche. They were way too addictive so consider yourself warned. I highly recommend them if you are looking to try something different and fun that has unique flavor and makes for a great cupcake.

Tentatively Testing the Tempered Waters...

noreply@blogger.com (Tempered Woman) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:58:00 +0000

I know I have fallen off the blogger planet and am going to try to get back into the swing of things. It being October and all... holy crap! when did it get to be October?!?!

And for the record, I am now in Denver. I miss St. Louis a ridiculous amount, tis true. Things didn't go quite as smoothly as we would have liked. In fact, they went pretty dreadfully but it turns out it was all for the best because I may have new *news* Oct. 10th. {sigh} And yeah, I'm sick of me too. heh.

So when I should really be focused on this...

Instead I'm focused on this...

How am I supposed to help myself when my new Farmers' Market has a wonderful organic farm that not only grows a ton of different peppers, they also fire roast them right before my eyes (and celebratory nose). Did I mention the homemade tortillas?? I have amazing choices here and a market every day of the week. I still haven't found eggs though so boo hiss. I'm trying to settle in and now that I have a functioning oven hope to get back on the baking bandwagon.

In fact... I'm typing up the cupcakes I made for my final hurrah before leaving my old job (I'm just now finding the notes). I need you to hold me to it so I don't get sidetracked by dreams of mexican food, lemon cake and the dentist. Blame the weirdness on the alien inside of me. And I'm hoping to get caught up on my blogging friend reading. I'm so far behind on what everyone is up to it's shameful. I've gotten lazy with Twitter.

I've honestly missed you all. Hope everyone out there is happy and looking forward to a beautiful Fall. Now wish me some cooler weather darnit~ 80's be GONE!

No Eggs. No Milk. No Cream.

noreply@blogger.com (Tempered Woman) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:48:00 +0000

* uhm yeah, so this post is also here. Cause I'm a big dork and forgot to cut and paste my draft into a more recent date. DOH. back to regularly unscheduled programming...

But I had to have one last Askinosie recipe to celebrate the announcement of Cupcake Hero results...ya know, when slacker finally got around to posting results that is...ahehehehemmm. Ok, this obviously won't be my last recipe using Askinosie cocoa evah, but you get my drift.

This recipe is care of Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich. I am only kept 3 cookbooks out to take to my mom's and all others were packed. This was one of them. Oh yeah, did I happen to mention that I am now officially the cool food blogger who lives with her mom?!? That's not weird or anything, is it? uhm yeah, so back to the recipe. In the introduction it says

"use the best cocoa you can find for this exquisite sorbet. It is packed with intense bittersweet chocolate flavor. I also make it with rasberry vodka instead of rum, or with no liquor at all. For a more 'gently' flavored chocolate-sherbet effect, make the base with only 1 cup of water and 1 cup milk along with the vanilla."

Now you and I know, Alice is just being a lady and her editor prob made her write that whole "or no alcohol at all" garbage cause let's be honest... just reading it sounds silly. So the words 'best cocoa, liquor and I get to use my ice cream machine again' really spoke to me. Did I mention I brought the ice cream maker with me to my mom's as well?!? Yeah, I'm that kind of ultra- cool food blogger who not only lives with her mom but brings cookbooks and the ice cream maker along. The world isn't big enough to handle this amount of cool, right? right?!?!?!?!

Chocolate Sorbet
adapted from Pure Dessert
makes 1 quart

1 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1 cup Brown Sugar, not packed
2 tiny pinches of Salt
2 cups Boiling Water
1/2 t Vanilla extract
1 1/2 T Kahlua

Combine the cocoa, sugar, and salt in a heavy 3-quart saucepan, and whisk in about 1/2 cup boiling water to form thick paste. Whisk in the remaining water. Stir the mixture over medium heat until tiny bubbles start to appear around the adges of the pan. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Transfer to a bowl, cover and refrigerate until cold, at least 4 hours.

Transfer mixture to ice cream machine. Begin mixing and add Kahlua. I use a Cuisinart and mixed for 30 minutes in the freezer bowl. Sorbet was ready to serve but you can put it into a container and freeze to harden if preferred.

Coming Clean
This sorbet needed absolutely nothing- it was rich and perfect. My mom said it best "I have GOT to make brownies with this cocoa!" Girl after your heart, right? Monkey is not one to just idly sit by and settle for perfectly good rich chocolate sorbet~ oh no... I raised this chica after all. She smothered it with some fresh sliced strawberries and topped it off with whipped cream. It was a perfect counterbalance actually. I didn't get any pictures of that tho~ you are stuck with three pictures of the exact same damn thing~ cause this family does not let ice cream sit around once it has been smothered with strawberries and whip cream. No siree...

Big congratulations go out to April of Abby's Sweets for her yummy Cocoa Orange Cupcakes that take home the big prize. And how much does Askinosie totally rock for sponsoring the prize, right? Go show them some love. And check out their BAD@$$ brand new product that you've just been dying waiting for but didn't even know it. I can hardly wait to see April's recipe over there~ just too damn cewl if you ask me!

Knocked Up~ Pass the Prune Juice

noreply@blogger.com (Tempered Woman) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:03:00 +0000

That's right, I'm preggos and constipated. And I'm here to kick my classy blog up a notch. But first things first...

Thanks to the well wishes on Twitter. You guys are all really too cool to be reading my tweets. And if you aren't following these folks, you should be cause they were paying attention to me so they can't be all that bad, right? Oh, ehrr, wait. More importantly, if you are reading this right now and you aren't on Twitter, why the hell not?!? Just give in to the peer pressure like the rest of us muckety-mucks, k? And as far as cravings go, Ms. BlogNosh~ uhm, not-so-much. Just the "smell" of water brings on the waves of nausea. It would appear that this baby is going to beat me over the head with every last symptom in its arsenal.

To clear up a few things: No this was not planned. Who in their right mind plans to get pregnant while their hubby is away for 6 months, they are forced to live with their mom because her house sold too quickly and is supposed to be moving to Denver in a month but has no idea where yet and has still not told her job that she's leaving and is totally stressed out beyond belief? Did I mention that my genius 11-y.o. monkey managed to break her foot at summer camp? NOBODY in their right mind, THAT'S WHO.

Yes, hubby is ecstatic and overjoyed and will soon be fixed. But let this be a warning to all of you married couples who get comfortable thinking they are too old to worry about these things anymore, and thinking it's a blessing to have an only child who is spoiled rotten, and who decide to get their freak on way too many times when they mistakenly think they miss their displaced hubby and decide to show him the many ways you've missed him *which shall remain untyped here.* It's been said before, but it's worth repeating~ Sex and marriage just do not go together. Now pay more attention to your married friends who are bitching about their ungrateful spouse who has disgusting habits and how normal married couples only have sex once/year. During a full moon. When she is NOT ovulating for the love of humanity.

By the way, I hope I didn't shatter anyone's world view if you still believe the whole stork thing, but WARNING: Sex makes BABIES. There. My PSA is done. Go about your day. And yes, this blog is likely to to go totally batty because a little something else people conveniently forget about pregnancy... NINE MONTHS OF BEING SOBER. And you know sober and me just do not play nicely together. At this rate, the insanity might drive me to becoming democrat. heh. not. But having my snarky sister call me and ask how much of my wine cellar she has rights to now (cause she is keeping my beloveds for me while our household goods are in storage) might just be the tipping point. So not funny sis. If you don't mind, I'll now go back to reading this fun and engaging article that is just making me feel all kinds of warm and fuzzy inside. Prune Ice Cream & Prune Cupcake recipes to follow. And right now? I just threw up a little in my mouth.

Daring 2 Days with Danish Braids in my mom's kitchen

noreply@blogger.com (Tempered Woman) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 16:06:00 +0000

I haven't done a Daring Baker's challenge in a ridiculous amount of time. I've been a bad baker, I know. But all of the last few have been recipes from cookbooks I own that I've already done in the past. This time however, no excuses allowed. The event was being hosted by two of my very favoritest people in food blogdom and there was no way I wasn't going to suck it up and contribute. The recipe is long so I posted it in a previous post to this one for posterity's sake.

My mom loves mango so I decided to fill one with a mascarpone cream topped with thin mango slices then pineapple slices and then sprinkled with some Ceylon cinnamon. The other was a chocolate cream cheese mixture topped with morelo cherries and some more Ceylon cinnamon. The recipes for the mascarpone/ cream cheese mixtures were adapted from The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion and are at the end of the post.

For the record, no wine bottles were actually harmed in this baking experience...my mom doesn't own a rolling pin. I know!! What kind of civilized human being doesn't own a rolling pin?! And more importantly~ I'm related to this person?!? May need to start digging for those adoption papers...

I highly recommend measuring, measuring everything, measuring again. From figuring out the one-third middle to fill to where you should cut the braids. I never got my dough to roll out as big as the measurements in the recipe said it should. I came up short. But I worked with what I had and it seemed to turn out fine.

I decided to get fancy and curve one of the braids. This is what it looked liked before proofing. I'm not showing you what it looked like after cause it's ugly, needed to be baked in a different pan, and still tasted good so I'm in denial. Just don't curve your braid and expect a pretty picture, ok? After 2 hours these guys got HUGE. I was a little worried but shouldn't have been. Have faith {cue George Michaels}

I didn't brush mine with eggs, I didn't want to waste any good eggs on wash. Wash is for sissies. I drizzled Agave Nectar over them before rising and then just kept brushing it as they rose. I personally like the crispy sugary crust it creates for the outside. I wish I had also sprinkled some raw sugar over them before baking for a little more texture to the outside flaky dough. Next time...

Mango- Pineapple Mascarpone Filling
made enough to fill one braid with some leftovers

1/2 Mango, quartered and thinly sliced
1/2 Pineapple, quartered and sliced
8 oz. Mascarpone
2 T softened Butter
1/4 cup Turbinado Sugar
1/8 t Salt
1 t Vanilla extract
2 T AP Flour
1 large Egg
Ceylon Cinnamon

In mixer bowl, beat together over low speed the mascarpone, butter, sugar, salt and vanilla. Scrape down sides and bring up to medium speed to get a fluffy texture with ingredients fully incorporated. Add flour and egg, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl thoroughly.

Spread the mixture evenly over the middle third of the braid then top first with thinly sliced mango and finally pineapple slices. Generously sprinkle entire middle third with Ceylon cinnamon.

Cherry Chocolate Cream Cheese Filling
made enough to fill one braid with some leftovers

1 cup Moreno Cherries, removed from juice and dried well on paper towel
8 oz. Cream Cheese
2 T softened Butter
1/4 cup Turbinado Sugar
1/8 t Salt
1 t Vanilla extract
2 T Cocoa Powder
1 large Egg
Ceylon Cinnamon

In mixer bowl, beat together over low speed the cream cheese, butter, sugar, salt and vanilla. Scrape down sides and bring up to medium speed to get a fluffy texture with ingredients fully incorporated. Add cocoa powder and egg, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl thoroughly.

Spread the mixture evenly over the middle third of the braid then top with the cherries. Generously sprinkle entire middle third with Ceylon cinnamon.

Coming Clean

These turned out incredibly well and I think that once you have the feel for the process it goes much quicker and smoothly. It has been a crazy long time since I've made laminated dough so I found myself constantly going over the directions and reminding myself where I was in the process. It probably would have been a little easier in my own kitchen as well, since I felt a little out of sorts using my mom's kitchen and tools. But if I can pull this off anyone can, honestly... We really enjoyed the filling and the mango/ pineapple combination is a new favorite for me now. Be sure to check out the rest of the Daring Bakers for some much more inventive fillings and I'm sure we'll be wowed by their incredible creativity. And many thanks to the 2 cool for school hosts~ you guys are the best!

Danish Braids Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Tempered Woman) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 16:05:00 +0000

DANISH BRAID

Makes enough for 2 large braids

Ingredients
1 recipe Danish Dough (see below)
2 cups apple filling, jam, or preserves (see below)

For the egg wash: 1 large egg, plus 1 large egg yolk

1. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface, roll the Danish Dough into a 15 x 20-inch rectangle, ¼ inch thick. If the dough seems elastic and shrinks back when rolled, let it rest for a few minutes, then roll again. Place the dough on the baking sheet.
2. Along one long side of the pastry make parallel, 5-inch-long cuts with a knife or rolling pastry wheel, each about 1 inch apart. Repeat on the opposite side, making sure to line up the cuts with those you’ve already made.
3. Spoon the filling you’ve chosen to fill your braid down the center of the rectangle. Starting with the top and bottom “flaps”, fold the top flap down over the filling to cover. Next, fold the bottom “flap” up to cover filling. This helps keep the braid neat and helps to hold in the filling. Now begin folding the cut side strips of dough over the filling, alternating first left, then right, left, right, until finished. Trim any excess dough and tuck in the ends.

Egg Wash
Whisk together the whole egg and yolk in a bowl and with a pastry brush, lightly coat the braid.

Proofing and Baking
1. Spray cooking oil (Pam…) onto a piece of plastic wrap, and place over the braid. Proof at room temperature or, if possible, in a controlled 90 degree F environment for about 2 hours, or until doubled in volume and light to the touch.
2. Near the end of proofing, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Position a rack in the center of the oven.
3. Bake for 10 minutes, then rotate the pan so that the side of the braid previously in the back of the oven is now in the front. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees F, and bake about 15-20 minutes more, or until golden brown. Cool and serve the braid either still warm from the oven or at room temperature. The cooled braid can be wrapped airtight and stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days, or freeze for 1 month.

DANISH DOUGH

Makes 2-1/2 pounds dough

Ingredients
For the dough (Detrempe)
1 ounce fresh yeast or 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
½ cup whole milk (warm enough for yeast)
1/3 cup sugar
Zest of 1 orange, finely grated
¾ teaspoon ground cardamom
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ vanilla bean, split and scraped
2 large eggs, chilled
¼ cup fresh orange juice
3-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt

For the butter block (Beurrage)
½ pound (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter
¼ cup all-purpose flour

DOUGH
Combine yeast and milk in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on low speed. Let the mixture rest and make sure the yeast begins to bubble in the milk. Slowly add sugar, orange zest, cardamom, vanilla extract, vanilla seeds, eggs, and orange juice. Mix well. Change to the dough hook and add the salt with the flour, 1 cup at a time, increasing speed to medium as the flour is incorporated. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes, or until smooth. You may need to add a little more flour if it is sticky. Transfer dough to a lightly floured baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

BUTTER BLOCK
1. Combine butter and flour in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat on medium speed for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle and then beat for 1 minute more, or until smooth and lump free. Set aside at room temperature.
2. After the detrempe has chilled 30 minutes, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough into a rectangle approximately 18 x 13 inches and ¼ inch thick. The dough may be sticky, so keep dusting it lightly with flour. Spread the butter evenly over the center and right thirds of the dough. Fold the left edge of the detrempe to the right, covering half of the butter. Fold the right third of the rectangle over the center third. The first turn has now been completed. Mark the dough by poking it with your finger to keep track of your turns, or use a sticky and keep a tally. Place the dough on a baking sheet, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Place the dough lengthwise on a floured work surface. The open ends should be to your right and left. Roll the dough into another approximately 13 x 18 inch, ¼-inch-thick rectangle. Again, fold the left third of the rectangle over the center third and the right third over the center third. No additional butter will be added as it is already in the dough. The second turn has now been completed. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.
4. Roll out, turn, and refrigerate the dough two more times, for a total of four single turns. Make sure you are keeping track of your turns. Refrigerate the dough after the final turn for at least 5 hours or overnight. The Danish dough is now ready to be used. If you will not be using the dough within 24 hours, freeze it. To do this, roll the dough out to about 1 inch in thickness, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and freeze. Defrost the dough slowly in the refrigerator for easiest handling. Danish dough will keep in the freezer for up to 1 month.

APPLE FILLING
Makes enough for two braids

Ingredients
4 Fuji or other apples, peeled, cored, and cut into ¼-inch pieces
½ cup sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
½ vanilla bean, split and scraped
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
4 tablespoons unsalted butter

Toss all ingredients except butter in a large bowl. Melt the butter in a sauté pan over medium heat until slightly nutty in color, about 6 - 8 minutes. Then add the apple mixture and sauté until apples are softened and caramelized, 10 to 15 minutes. If you’ve chosen Fujis, the apples will be caramelized, but have still retained their shape. Pour the cooked apples onto a baking sheet to cool completely before forming the braid. (If making ahead, cool to room temperature, seal, and refrigerate.) They will cool faster when spread in a thin layer over the surface of the sheet. After they have cooled, the filling can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Left over filling can be used as an ice cream topping, for muffins, cheesecake, or other pastries.

No eggs. No milk. No cream.

noreply@blogger.com (Tempered Woman) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 12:29:00 +0000

But I had to have one last Askinosie recipe to celebrate the announcement of Cupcake Hero results...ya know, when slacker finally got around to posting results that is...ahehehehemmm. Ok, this obviously won't be my last recipe using Askinosie cocoa evah, but you get my drift.

This recipe is care of Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich. I am only kept 3 cookbooks out to take to my mom's and all others were packed. This was one of them. Oh yeah, did I happen to mention that I am now officially the cool food blogger who lives with her mom?!? That's not weird or anything, is it? uhm yeah, so back to the recipe. In the introduction it says

"use the best cocoa you can find for this exquisite sorbet. It is packed with intense bittersweet chocolate flavor. I also make it with rasberry vodka instead of rum, or with no liquor at all. For a more 'gently' flavored chocolate-sherbet effect, make the base with only 1 cup of water and 1 cup milk along with the vanilla."

Now you and I know, Alice is just being a lady and her editor prob made her write that whole "or no alcohol at all" garbage cause let's be honest... just reading it sounds silly. So the words 'best cocoa, liquor and I get to use my ice cream machine again' really spoke to me. Did I mention I brought the ice cream maker with me to my mom's as well?!? Yeah, I'm that kind of ultra- cool food blogger who not only lives with her mom but brings cookbooks and the ice cream maker along. The world isn't big enough to handle this amount of cool, right? right?!?!?!?!

Chocolate Sorbet
adapted from Pure Dessert
makes 1 quart

1 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1 cup Brown Sugar, not packed
2 tiny pinches of Salt
2 cups Boiling Water
1/2 t Vanilla extract
1 1/2 T Kahlua

Combine the cocoa, sugar, and salt in a heavy 3-quart saucepan, and whisk in about 1/2 cup boiling water to form thick paste. Whisk in the remaining water. Stir the mixture over medium heat until tiny bubbles start to appear around the adges of the pan. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Transfer to a bowl, cover and refrigerate until cold, at least 4 hours.

Transfer mixture to ice cream machine. Begin mixing and add Kahlua. I use a Cuisinart and mixed for 30 minutes in the freezer bowl. Sorbet was ready to serve but you can put it into a container and freeze to harden if preferred.

Coming Clean
This sorbet needed absolutely nothing- it was rich and perfect. My mom said it best "I have GOT to make brownies with this cocoa!" Girl after your heart, right? Monkey is not one to just idly sit by and settle for perfectly good rich chocolate sorbet~ oh no... I raised this chica after all. She smothered it with some fresh sliced strawberries and topped it off with whipped cream. It was a perfect counterbalance actually. I didn't get any pictures of that tho~ you are stuck with three pictures of the exact same damn thing~ cause this family does not let ice cream sit around once it has been smothered with strawberries and whip cream. No siree...

Big congratulations go out to April of Abby's Sweets for her yummy Cocoa Orange Cupcakes that take home the big prize. And how much does Askinosie totally rock for sponsoring the prize, right? Go show them some love. And check out their BAD@$$ brand new product that you've just been dying waiting for but didn't even know it. I can hardly wait to see April's recipe over there~ just too damn cewl if you ask me!

And for the finale, Ice Cream Cupcakes

noreply@blogger.com (Tempered Woman) — Fri, 30 May 2008 16:49:00 +0000

As Stef so insightfully deduced~ I've been working up to an ice cream cupcake for the Ice Cream Cupcake Roundup. I of course waited until the last minute because I was trying to build up the "anticipation." No procrastination to see here folks, move along.

I wanted to use the Chocolate Covered Cherry Ice Cream I had made. The ice cream was already incredibly rich so I wanted the cupcakes to complement the flavor without trying to compete. I needed something simple but hearty enough to make a good base for ice cream. And then it dawned on me I should just carry over the almond flavor in a simple almond cake. I've wanted to use the Citron Honey I found at Trader Joe's for some time now and this recipe was the perfect excuse. It contains Yuzu fruit, think pink grapefruit honey. It added just a touch of zing to the cake. You could honestly substitute any honey in this recipe and get a great flavor I think.

I also debated the name round and round- striped? Tuxedo? Zebra? I decided to go with Chocolate Cherry Amaretto cause truth be told, these cupcakes are a celebration of almond and great chocolate. and I'm so gosh darn clever and creative like that

Chocolate Cherry Amaretto Ice Cream Cupcakes
makes 12 cupcakes

For the cupcakes:
5 oz. Almond Paste (1/2 of the can pictured)
1/4 cup Sugar
3 oz. unsalted Butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
2 T Citron Honey
2 large Eggs
2 T Amaretto
1/2 cup AP Flour
1/8 t Salt

Preheat oven 350 degrees. In a mixer bowl with paddle attachment, cream together almond paste and sugar. Let them fully incorporate on medium low setting for a good 2 minutes or more. Add in the butter pieces and continue on medium low, allowing the batter to get light and frothy, 5 minutes. Add honey, eggs, and amaretto one at time. Allowing each ingredient to be fully incorporated before adding the next. Scrape down sides well. Fold in flour and salt until just combined.

Prepare cupcake pan with metal liners (you'll want them easy to remove, you could use a silicone cupcake pan instead if you are into that sort of thing). I only filled the cupcake liners 2/3 full, the cupcakes won't rise a lot but I didn't want them too big as I planned to fill them with an ice cream layer later. If you try to keep them 1/2 to 2/3 full, you'll have a perfect amount of batter for one dozen cupcakes that just rise to the edge of the liner, no more. Bake for 15-18 minutes. The edges of the cake will just begin to turn brown and a toothpick inserted will come out clean. Allow to cool before removing from the pan. Place on to a tray and let them cool completely. Cover and place in freezer for several hours or overnight.

for the frosting:
8 oz. Mascarpone
2 oz. unsalted Butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
1 T Amaretto
1/2 cup Cocoa (I used Askinosie again)
3-4 cups Confectioner's Sugar

In mixer bowl with paddle attachment, cream together mascarpone and butter. It should be fluffy and fully incorporated. Add amaretto until well combined. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Sift together cocoa and sugar in separate bowl. Gently fold sugar/ cocoa into creamed butter mixture on low setting one cup at a time until you reach desired consistency.

Assembly:
You'll need approx. 1/2 pint of ice cream for 12 cupcakes.
Take out ice cream to thaw slightly. Remove cupcakes from freezer and take them out of their liners. Place new metal liners in a cupcake tray. With a very sharp knife, cut the cupcakes in half, placing the bottom half in the lined cupcake tray. Place the top half to the side, but keep track of who owns which top half (I arranged them on the counter to mimic the placement in the cupcake tray). I scooped the ice cream into a piping bag and then piped it on the bottom half. This probably isn't necessary and could have just been spooned and smoothed over the bottom half. Place the top halves back on the ice creamed bottom halves and push down gently to seal. Cover with wrap and place into the freezer for at least 2 hours. When frozen hard, remove from the cupcake pan and put on a tray. Frost as desired. Keep covered in freezer until ready to serve.

Coming Clean
By the way...do you have any idea how hard it is to photograph ice cream cupcakes when the only good light you get is outside and this outside happens to be like 90 degrees?!?! Fun times. And by fun times I mean times which involve lots of swearing and running back and forth to the freezer.

While the almond cakes were baking~ I thought I might have to gnaw my arms off they smelled so durn good. Lord gah almighty- it smelled ridiculously good in my kitchen. And I'll admit it. I scrounged every last bit of crumb I could get my hands on to taste them. The cupcakes were incredible! They beg to be soaked in something so I'll be revisiting this recipe again. The ice cream soaked into the cake as they froze and made the most incredible bottom layer.
Warning: Assembly may be hazardous to your health. Scooping ice cream into cupcakes may lead to scooping ice cream into your mouth as well.

And now I've posted enough to not feel guilty anymore this week, right? Cause to be honest I feel like the worst blog friend ever. I am spending my weekend getting caught up with all your wonderful blogs and the posts I've been desperately missing. Right after I go see the Sex and the City movie. And visit my wine bar that I haven't been to in ages (they've probably forgotten my name by now). And go to the Farmer's Market tomorrow morning. But right after that I swear I'm blog-stalking you, and you, and you! Mwauhhh!

Askinosie Cocoa~ Cold School Style

noreply@blogger.com (Tempered Woman) — Thu, 29 May 2008 13:01:00 +0000

Consider this post a not~so~subtle reminder that Cupcake Hero entries are due May 31st. That's right around the corner cupcake peeps... Oh yeah, did you happen to catch the prize this month? No?!? Well no worries, here's a not~so~subtle prize reminder:
"Prizes this month kick ass, if I do say so myself. Askinosie Chocolate is going to provide a prize for the winner AND feature the winning recipe on their website. Does it get any cooler than that? No, no it does not. Many thanks to Shawn at Askinosie for being such a huge supporter of our cupcake cause."

Uh huh, aren't you glad I reminded you now? In case your creative juices aren't kicking in yet, I thought I'd whip up my own salute to Askinosie Cocoa powder. I didn't want to steal any cupcake thunder though, so I decided to honor the chocolate in the form of my new obsession. I warned you didn't I??

I wanted a recipe that really was full-on chocolate. So for this I actually also used their chocolate bars. As the cocoa is Del Tambo, I went the same way with the chocolate bar. And yeah, you should totally covet my cocoa powder- in case you are wondering it is in fact a whole Kilo. You can hook up with my dealer here. And I'm pretty sure I'm not winning any Mother of the Year awards cause my Monkey never got sick of saying~ "Mom has a Kilo of powder in her bag. *snicker* *snicker* " Uh huh... that's my kid. I'm so proud... You should be jealous tho~ I can just go pick my goods up any time I want. I don't need no stinkin internet drugs... ehrrr, cocoa powder.

Chocolate Covered Cherry Truffle Ice Cream
Makes 1 Quart/ 2 Pints

1- 16 oz. jar Maraschino Cherries
1/2 cup Sugar
2 large Eggs
1 cup Whole Milk
1/4 cup San Jose Del Tambo Cocoa Powder
1-1/2 cups Heavy Cream
6 oz. San Jose Del Tambo Chocolate, chopped
2 T Amaretto

Prepare the Cherries the night before: Drain the juice from the cherries into a small heavy bottomed saucepan. Bring the juice up to a boil and then reduce to low heat. Let the juice reduce for a good 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat when it has reduced to at least 1/2 of its previous amount. While it is cooling, quarter chop the cherries. Place into a freezer bag that will safely hold liquids. When the juice has completely cooled, carefully pour it into the bag over the chopped cherries. Make sure the bag is completely sealed and roll it into a log to secure the juice and cherries at the bottom of the freezer bag. Freeze overnight.

For the Ice Cream: Whisk together (I used a handheld mixer) sugar and eggs in a bowl until well incorporated and frothy, 3 minutes. In a heavy bottomed saucepan, bring milk to a simmer over low heat. You will just begin to see heat/ steam and should be able to smell the milk cooking. Be careful NOT to boil the milk or overcook, you just want it at simmer. Whisk in the cocoa powder and bring the milk back to a simmer. Allow to simmer for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Gently drizzle a small amount of the warm milk into the egg/ sugar mixture while whisking vigorously. You are tempering the eggs without cooking them. It's important to be patient here and just drizzle in small amounts of milk while constantly whisking to bring up the temperature of the eggs. Once the milk is completely incorporated into the eggs, pour the mixture back into the saucepan and continue to simmer over lowest heat setting. Stirring constantly the mixture will thicken slightly, 10 minutes. Put the mixture back into the bowl to cool while you prepare the chocolate.

In the saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a simmer. As soon as it is warm and you can smell it, remove from heat and add chopped chocolate. Stir in the chocolate until it is completely melted and incorporated and resembles a creamy ganache. Mix into the cocoa/ milk mixture and combine. Whisk in Amaretto and make sure everything is well incorporated. Allow to cool for a few minutes so that mixture is closer to room temp. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Can sit overnight if you want to make ahead.

Remove mixture from the refrigerator and pour into prepared ice cream maker. I'm using the Cuisinart which has a bowl you freeze ahead. I let the ice cream churn for 30 minutes. Fold in the frozen cherry mixture. The ice cream was ready to eat but I put it into containers to harden a little more in the freezer.

Coming Clean
This is incredibly rich chocolate ice cream! It tastes like an ice cold truffle. Ridiculously good. If you decide to try this- be sure to use good chocolate because the better the chocolate the more it will shine through in the final product. This ice cream really was all about honoring great chocolate. It tasted just like a rich chocolate covered cherry, the almond flavor bounces off the chocolate perfectly. For those of you tracking the bottom line- uhm yeah, this was rich ice cream in every sense of the word. I wanted something special for the holiday weekend though and everyone definitely could tell this was something special right away. Their loud moans the second their tongue touched the spoon was kind of a dead giveaway. And to be honest, a little bit went a long way with this rich ice cream. I posted the recipe for the chocolate bowls in the picture here. I also used Askinosie Cocoa powder to make those. And for the love of Pete- if you go to the trouble of using good chocolate, please be sure to indulge in good cream and eggs as well. Remember- this stuff is barely cooked and the true flavors of the ingredients will be the defining flavors in the end. Splurge a little~ you are SO worth it!

Homegrown Peanut Butter Style

noreply@blogger.com (Tempered Woman) — Tue, 27 May 2008 13:01:00 +0000

It's Homegrown Gourmet time and Katie at KBK Bakery is hosting this month's round. Little did she know~ her choice of Peanut Butter was actually an homage to St. Louis... Goodness knows, you can't appreciate a food if you don't know its history. I'm starting to think that the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis is the Bermuda Triangle of Food~

"C.H. Sumner was the first to introduce peanut butter to the world at the Universal Exposition of 1904 in St. Louis. He sold $705.11 of the treat at his concession stand and peanut butter was on its way to becoming an American favorite!" And to keep things in perspective, in 1904 the average U.S. salary was 22 cents an hour; the average annual salary was $200-400 per year. So that's a lot of peanut butter. It was obviously a hit.

I figured the only way to best honor Peanut Butter for Homegrown Gourmet was to incorporate it with some other well known World's Fair food folklore. Everyone has heard the story about ice cream and the ice cream cone, right? Supposedly, ice cream was the big hit of the fair (there were over 50 ice cream vendors selling a total of 5000 gallons of ice cream per day) and a vendor ran out of dishes to serve it in. So he teamed up with a waffle vendor nearby who rolled his waffles into cones. No one knows exactly what happened for sure, but much like peanut butter, it wasn't until the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair that the treat gained widespread popularity.

Confession: I don't have a waffle maker. I'll have to put it on my food toys wish list. I actually made ice cream bowls instead. I thought chocolate would be the perfect pairing for peanut butter so I used our own MO Hometown Chocolate Hero Askinosie Cocoa powder. I also wanted the ice cream to be as rich as possible so I used the most local milk I could get my hands on- Oberweiss who uses glass bottles, low temperature pasteurization and does not to treat their cows with rBGH. I actually prefer Oberweiss to Organic- you can read why at the link. I also used eggs from a local free-range farm. I honestly think quality milk, cream and eggs are the key to great ice cream. And I made my own peanut butter so it doesn't get any more local than that...

Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in Chocolate Bowls
Ice Cream:
makes 1 Quart/ 2 Pints

3/4 cup Brown Sugar
3 large Eggs
1 cup Whole Milk
3/4 cup Peanut Butter* (I used Alton Brown's recipe but definitely use a local fave if you have one!)
1 1/4 cup Heavy Cream
2 t Vanilla
20 miniature Peanut Butter Cups, frozen and quartered (I froze them to make it easier to quarter them and then put them back in the freezer until I was ready to add them to the ice cream)

Whisk together (I used a handheld mixer) sugar and eggs in a bowl until well incorporated and frothy, 3 minutes. In a heavy bottomed saucepan, bring milk to a simmer over low heat. You will just begin to see heat/ steam and should be able to smell the milk cooking. Be careful NOT to boil the milk or overcook, you just want it at simmer. Gently drizzle a small amount of the warm milk into the egg/ sugar mixture while whisking vigorously. You are tempering the eggs without cooking them. It's important to be patient here and just drizzle in small amounts of milk while constantly whisking to bring up the temperature of the eggs. Once the milk is completely incorporated into the eggs, pour the mixture back into the saucepan and continue to simmer over lowest heat setting. Stirring constantly the mixture will thicken slightly, 10 minutes.

Remove from heat and whisk in peanut butter. Allow to cool for a few minutes so that mixture is closer to room temp. Whisk in cream and then vanilla. Mixture should be well incorporated. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Can sit overnight if you want to make ahead.

Remove mixture from the refrigerator and pour into prepared ice cream maker. I'm using the Cuisinart which has a bowl you freeze ahead. I let the ice cream churn for 30 minutes. Fold in chopped peanut butter cups. The ice cream was ready to eat but I put it into containers to harden a little more in the freezer.

Chocolate Bowls:
makes 8 bowls

1/3 cup AP Flour
2 T Cocoa Powder
1/4 t Salt
2 large Eggs
1/2 cup Sugar
4 T unsalted Butter, melted and cooled
3 T Milk
1/2 t Vanilla

Preheat oven for 400 degrees. Place a sheet of wax paper on the counter and have small bowls (I used ramekins) turned upside down on it, ready to place the cooked chocolate crepes on. Prepare a sheet pan with a silicone pad/ Silpat.

Sift together flour, cocoa and salt in separate bowl. In mixer bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar until well incorporated and frothy, 3 minutes. Add melted butter, milk and vanilla until just incorporated. Gently add in flour mixture, careful not to overmix. The final batter will resemble a thin pancake batter, very similar to crepes. Scoop a conservative 1/4 cup of batter onto the silpat and gently spread out into an approx. 6 inch circle. You want the batter to be very thin but enough to coat so that it isn't translucent anywhere. Bake for 7 to 10 minutes, depending upon how crispy you want your bowl. I baked mine until the edges started to noticeably turn brown. Using a large flat metal spatula, pick up the crepes and place them on the upturned bowls. Gently push them down to form around the sides of the bowl. I put another ramekin on top of the crepe to keep the sides down while they cooled. Think ramekin sandwich. Bowls are best used the same day. If not- place in the refrigerator until ready to use. Reheat at 400 degrees for just 3 minutes.

Coming Clean
I really wanted to make this ice cream for the holiday weekend as the hubby was going to be home to visit. TOBAC, who is considered the authority on all things peanut butter in this household, declared this the best peanut butter ice cream he has ever eaten. Which is actually saying a lot because he is also an ice cream freak. He is always completely honest when it comes to my creations, love it or hate it. I try to love him anyway. He wasn't as big of a fan of the chocolate bowls for the ice cream, but Monkey liked them so I win some, I lose some. I think he would have liked them more if they had the waffle texture and had been fried versus baked. So I may have no-so-subtly hinted at what a great birthday present a waffle maker would make. Ya know, to go with my new ice cream maker. Hint. Hint. And yes, my new obsession is ice cream. Tis the season. Consider yourself warned. This may become an ice cream blog. Yes, I am actually not packing my ice cream maker so I can keep it with me until we move. Obsess much? That's me.

Be sure to check out the final Homegrown Gourmet round-up which will be posted at KBK Bakery!

Yeah, yeah, yeah

noreply@blogger.com (Tempered Woman) — Sat, 24 May 2008 00:14:00 +0000

as a matter of fact, I DID fall off of the planet. Just when you think life couldn't POSSIBLY get any more crazy...

But this weekend is all about enjoying my last few days in my kitchen. So, how is this for signs of good things to come?

Intriguing, no??

Nueve de Mayo Fiesta

noreply@blogger.com (Tempered Woman) — Fri, 09 May 2008 13:28:00 +0000

Around here we actually celebrate Nueve de Mayo which is a much bigger celebration than Cinco de Mayo. You can read all about it here.

Margarita & Sangria Cookies
Recipe makes 18 cookies for each

Margarita Cookies:
3/4 cup unsalted Butter, room temp
1 cup Sugar
1 large Egg
1 T Tequila
1 T Triple Sec
1/4 t Lime Oil
zest and juice from 1 Lime
1 t Baking Powder
1/2 t Salt
3 cups AP Flour
Green food coloring

Sangria Cookies:
3/4 cup unsalted Butter, room temp
1 cup Sugar
1 large Egg
1 t minced Lemon Peel
1 t minced Orange Peel
3 t Blood Orange Juice (plain orange juice can be substituted)
4 T Red Wine
1 T Triple Sec
1 t Baking Powder
1/2 t Salt
3- 1/2 cups AP Flour
Burgundy food coloring

For Sangria cookies- reconstitute the minced lemon and orange by putting into a small cup and adding blood orange juice and red wine. Mix together and let sit for 15 minutes so the zest can absorb the liquids.

To make cookies: Soften butter in mixer. Scrape bowl and add sugar until creamed. About 3 to 5 minutes. Scrape down sides well and make sure butter, sugar mixture is fluffy. Add egg until incorporated. Add tequila, triple sec, lime oil, juice and zest (or if making Sangria cookies add reconstituted zest and Triple Sec). Scrape bowl, add baking powder and salt. Over lowest setting gently fold in flour. Add food coloring a little at a time until you achieve desired color. Remove from bowl wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 350. Have silpat or parchment paper sheet pans ready. Roll the dough to a 1/4" to 3/8" thickness. If you work quickly, then the dough should stay firm for cutting. Cut into shapes and place 2-inches apart on the prepared sheet pans until edges just begin to turn golden with a light golden brown bottom about 9- 12minutes. Be careful not to overbake as you don't want the cookies to turn brown at all. I kept the dough in the fridge while I waited for a batch to finish baking. Allow to cool on pans for 5 minutes, and then remove to a wire cake rack to cool.

To make the fruit, I used a large shot glass (appropriately enough) to create rounds then used my pastry cutter to slice them in half. I baked them along with the glass shaped cookies. Once they were cooled from the oven, I actually flipped them over and decorated the flat side (that they baked on).

Liquor Glaze:
1- 3 oz package Lime Jello (for Margarita) or Orange Jello (for Sangria)
1/2 cup Triple Sec
1/2 cup Tequila (for Margarita) or 1/2 cup Red Wine (for Sangria)

In medium, heavy bottomed saucepan, dissolve Jello in the 1 cup mixture of liquors. Whisking over high heat bring to a boil. Continue whisking and allow the mixture to reduce for 1 minute. Reduce heat to low and continue to simmer for 10 minutes whisking every now and then to be sure that everything is dissolved well. Let cool. Make sure cookies are on a wire rack or a nonstick surface. Using a pastry brush, gently brush the cookies (both the glass and fruit sections) with the glaze. I was able to get 3 coatings on all of the cookies using this glaze. You'll want to work quickly but gently so as to not break cookies but to finish before the glaze begins to solidify. Discard any glaze that begins to resemble a Jello consistency.

Liquor Icing:
* this is enough icing for all 3 dozen cookies. Halve the recipe if only making one kind of cookie.
3 cups Confectioner's Sugar
5 T Triple Sec
3 T Corn Syrup
Optional for lining rims: 1/4 cup fine flaked Sea Salt mixed with 1/4 cup fine granulated Sugar

Using the paddle attachment (not a whisk), mix together the sugar, triple sec and corn syrup in that order until just creamy over low setting. The frosting will be very sticky so I recommend using a disposable pastry bag to line the cookies. To begin, I cut a small hole and decorated the fruit cookies first. I lined the semicircle then created the triangle wedges. I then cut a large hole in the pastry bag to create the rim for the top of the glass. I immediately dipped the iced rim in the sea salt/ sugar mixture. I then put a small dollop of the icing on one side and affixed the fruit. Be sure to push down gently so the fruit will harden to the cookies.

Coming Clean:
So did you actually look up May 9th?? Didja, didja? Yeah, about that. My company was lame enough to sponsor a Fiesta May 9th rather than the Friday before Cinco de Mayo. And I was just too damn lazy to get these cookies done and get this post up by May 5th. In my defense, that weekend is my Anniversary and we are Cinco de Mayo fanatics cause I love Mexican so much. Ok, I love Mexican food and margaritas. Clarified. I'd love to claim I was too busy whooping it up to be bothered with getting these babies up but alas I'm old. And hubby is out of town. Again. But work is having a fiesta so I made these and also entered my grandma's world famous dip into our Salsa & Dip competition. I'm too emberrassed to post that recipe.

The cookies are great of course. I really liked the Sangria which smelled so much like actual Sangrias while baking that I may have indulged in the real thing. Just a little. I tested the waters with the glaze and ended up cooking the margarita glaze too long. I tried to use it anyway and some of the cookies got a weird milky pattern when they cooled. Lesson learned. And needless to say, they were all a huge hit at work. I think my cupcake addiction could easily turn into a cookie one!

And the Bribing shall Commence!

noreply@blogger.com (Tempered Woman) — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:42:00 +0000

Now I know you all love me. At least you all SAY you love me.
Here's just the opportunity you have been waiting for to prove it to me.
Go vote for my Caramel Cardamom Cupcakes (aka Brown Sugar Ménage à Trois Cupcakes) in the Royal foodie Joust.

I mean isn't it about time a cupcake reigned supreme?!?!
You know you wanna. Come on, all the kids are doing it.
Did I mention I put out?
Go vote here.
And then let me know in the comments how you prefer payment. Small unmarked bills, cupcakes, or just the satisfaction of knowing how much it means to me to finally be popular. Sorta. Yeah. Did I mention I put out?!?!

HomeGrown Gourmet Roundup- Yee HAW!!

noreply@blogger.com (Tempered Woman) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:57:00 +0000

Thanks to everyone who took the time to contribute this month and celebrated the International Year of the Potato. I think you'll find a rather varied offering of the spud from your fine fellow food bloggers! Be sure to check out the other roundups if you haven't had a chance yet. The very cool Bean’s Bistro started all the fun with sandwiches, and the Homegrown Gourmet event has featured soups, pies/tarts, stews, quick breads and breakfast.

But now, on to the Homegrown Gourmet Potato Show~

You can find some St. Louis style potatoes from me in my previous post. Let's start things off with Toasted Mashed Potato Balls:

Michelle from Big Black Dogs put together some much more sophisticated potatoes than your host this month. Check out her beautiful Pot-a-Leines!

Meghan at Joy through Cooking took the high road with sweet potatoes and put together a healthier version of the Pittsburgh Salad.

I'm wondering how my friend Laurie feels about this??

Katie at KBK Bakery ramped up the flavor on a Louisville tradition called The Hot Brown. She even made her own potato bread so be sure to check it out!

Ben over at What's Cooking went all native and decided the best thing to go with potatoes is beer, of course. Man after my heart that one Who wouldn't love Beer Potato Salad~ It's a barbeque in one dish, right?!?!

Erika of Beantown Bistro, Homegrown Gourmet's very own fine founder. She got bold and messy and submitted our only candy potato treat look at her pimping the Maine plate~ Maine Needhams:

Psychgrad from the Equal Opportunity Kitchen went with her favorite from R's hometown, the admittedly unhealthy but fun indulgence Scalloped Hashbrown.

Kate from Paved with Good Intentions, lied to her readers and gave us one more food post- Thanks Kate! Despite needing to pack and lacking her usual kitchen items she pulled off a Southwestern Sausage Au Gratin.

Culinography, our lovely host last month, got all sappy talking about comfort food and her mom. I love ya fellow carb lover! Check out her Dad’s Ham and Potatoes:

I couldn't help myself and in my usual food blog stalking I found~ People who did not enter Homegrown but should have! I didn't want to use anyone's images as they didn't actually enter this roundup but if you'd like me to include an image with the link please email me and I'll edit the post to include them~

Cooking and Booking made some Smashed Potatoes

What Smells So Good's Mom made rich decadent Vichyssoise

Canela y Comino made the prettiest pizza I've evah seen Genzano Potato Pizza

Ok already~ you probably want to know who I chose as the winner right? Well...

.....

.....

.....

Not only did she elevate a local classic... I mean COME ON~ she put mashed potatoes on potato bread for pete's sake!! She STOLE her mother's cookbook to make the potato bread. But she worked back karma points by using bacon and eggs from a local farm. How could I possible resist this perfect Hangover remedy? Congratulations Katie! Can't wait to see what theme you pick for the next Homegrown Gourmet.

Homegrown Gourmet Potatoes~ St. Louis style

noreply@blogger.com (Tempered Woman) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:40:00 +0000

I didn't want to putz out this month, especially since I came up with the ingredient. So I pulled together something fairly simple but honest to St. Louis I think. The city where we love to bread and deep fry everything it seems. What?? Ravioli isn't fattening enough for you? How about some Toasted Ravioli?? totally love them We've destroyed Italian, why not ruin Asian cooking as well? How about crab with some cream cheese in a wonton wrapper, uhmmmm anybody else see where this is going? DEEP FRIED! We call it Crab Rangoon and uhm yes I love it too she says sheepishly

To go really local I would have loved some heirloom potatoes from a local farm but the Farmers' Markets that I go to around here don't open their doors til May. Insert image of Tempered Woman shaking her fist at damn May! So instead I caved and went to a local chain supermarket and found these:

I'm a big believer in compromise lie but don't usually like to shop at cheap discount supermarkets another lie. So when I do, I try to do my share and seek out the organic or more local products that they offer first truth this entire post. I was thrilled to find out that Shop 'n Save is now offering their own Organic line of products. Now I realize these are probably far from ideal organic but if I'm forced to choose between this and something non-organic but cheaper, I like putting my dollar where my values are. Hopefully encouraging through spending, ya know?

Probably the most controversial item in St. Louis. Yes, cheese. Cause we roll like that. Few things will cause tempers to flare faster in St. Louis than a debate on pizza. And for the record I prefer thin pizza, you'd almost think I came from St. Louis And the biggest cause of this discourse? Provel cheese. Another weird St. Louis concoction. How do we come up with this stuff I have no idea. I don't personally have deep seated personal hatred for the cheese like most other foodies with a more respectable blog that reside here. It's not a personal favorite but it does melt well and I like it crumbled on salad. Sue me.

Now~ I have a storied past with mashed potatoes. This is probably the one food item I have the most dear memories of. Once again proving I'm far from gourmand, I know. But I don't think I could live without mashed potatoes. My birthday dinner request as a kid? Meatloaf and mashed potatoes. The first time I felt like the real chef of the family? My little sister would request MY mashed potatoes after school cause I added cut up ham, celery and cheese (I was in the 7th grade and oh so PROUD!). In high school, I was known for being the freak who ordered nachos with mashed potatoes. Yep, slathered them all over my nachos then covered everything with salsa. My first truly gourmet Valentine's Day meal for my boyfriend (I thought anyway)? Orange juice marinated grilled salmon and wasabi infused mashed potatoes. Like I said, we have history the mashed potato and I...

I've had something like my St. Louis potato inspired creation at a local St. Louis pub but they were called Coniques~ probably because Potato Balls sounds less refined. We absolutely loved them so I figured I'd try to create them at home. I am not quite so refined so from henceforth~ Potato Balls it is!

Toasted Mashed Potatoes
makes 24 Potato Balls, ice cream scoop size

2- 1/2 lbs. Russet Potatoes
1/2 cup Buttermilk
1/4 cup Butter
.5lb. Provel Cheese, grated or crumbled
Salt & Pepper to taste
2 cups AP Flour
1/2 cup Buttermilk (for wash)
2 Eggs (for egg wash)
2 cups Bread Crumbs (I used Italian bread crumbs for this)
Oil for fryer (Crisco BABY!! Just kidding- I actually used Peanut Oil)

Boil potatoes with skins on for 40 minutes. Allow them to cool still in water. I let them rest for an hour. Drain. Remove skins and discard, reserving potato flesh in large bowl. Add 1/2 cup of buttermilk and butter and mash. Make sure they are completely devoid of lumps and then mix in the crumbled cheese. Salt and pepper to taste. Using ice cream scoop, form the potato balls and place on parchment paper lined pan. Cover and freeze the potato balls overnight.

Set up 3 separate bowls with one containing the flour, one with the eggs and buttermilk wash, one with the bread crumbs. Using your left hand, coat the potato balls in flour, then using your right hand dredge the potato balls in the egg wash and then use your left hand again to coat them in the breadcrumbs. This keeps your fingers from becoming a pasty mess. Place them on a sheet pan while you wait for oil to heat. Have oven set for 200 degrees and a flat cookie sheet ready. Deep fry the potato balls at 400 degree setting for 3 minutes, making sure that each of the potato balls don't overlap in the basket. I fried 4 of them at a time. The potato balls will be a nice golden brown when done. Allow the potato balls to cool on paper towels and wipe off excess oil. Put on cookie sheet and put in oven so they stay warm while you fry the next round.

Coming Clean
Granted I'm only 12 years old but I giggled inside each and every time I typed "Potato Balls." I may have used the term more than necessary but I'm sophisticated like that. Just wanted to keep it real and honest for my peeps. Cause here in St Louis we have big deep fried balls, thankyouverymuch. If you didn't giggle, just go back and reread the recipe replacing the words "the potato" with "your." Ok, glad to get THAT out of my system.

These were great, but let's be honest. You weren't even wondering just a little bit about that. You were too busy thinking about all the other great things that could go in to those balls, snicker weren't you? When I make these again I'll definitely use a sharp cheddar/ provel mix. I liked the melty gooey provel but they needed some sharp tang in there. I'd also like to try and make these in a smaller size but no one wants to hear about me and my oversized balls, do ya? I did in fact eat these with a salad mix of baby romaine. They were perfect that way and I felt better, like it was all healthy because I was eating a salad. Sad, right? I don't care. My balls and me are just fine on our own, thanks.

How come you taste so good...

noreply@blogger.com (Tempered Woman) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 16:45:00 +0000

Just a warning: this post is highly inappropriate for most normal human beings. I appear to be in some weird raunchy mood of sorts and it's all Brown Sugar's fault.

So I have a new mission in life. Well, my blogging life that is. And it's to score a Royal Foodie Joust title. Her highness, The Leftover Queen has this amazing foodie event every month that I've always enjoyed from afar. Although this month she is off getting married (sucker!) and left the reigns to some crazy Mexican guy that you may have heard of... just kidding Ben! SO not kidding about the marriage thing tho.

The challenge this month was to create something with three ingredients chosen by Michelle who scored her own title in April for her Coconut-Yellowtail Lollipops with Spicy Lime Dipping Trio. I think it's kind of funny that the Daring Bakers are making Cheesecake lollipops and I'm talking about Michelle's fish balls. heh
So anyway, Michelle got to choose this month's challenge ingredients. The Ménage à Trois for May is Mango, Cardamom and Brown Sugar:

Well I could have kissed Michelle for these ingredients. right. on. the. lips. Maybe even slipped her a little tongue. Now I'm no stranger to cardamom. It's my secret ingredient in apple dumplings and carrot cake. I heart me some cardamom. And I love mango too. I mean, how many people do you know who has a great-aunt in Montana who shares her Curried Chicken with Mango recipe?? But I figured most others would probably highlight those ingredients in some way and treat the third like a step-sister. I knew right away when this challenge was announced which ingredient I wanted to be the real star. I mean COME ON, WHO can resist the Rolling Stones?!?!

And this is why I truly believe food blogging is so far superior to cookbooks. How many cookbooks do you know that give you the opportunity to enjoy some Rolling Stones while reading a recipe? and ridiculously long diatribe to boot... *ahem* Ok, truth be told, I've been itching to celebrate brown sugar in a cupcake. I wanted to really use it in several different ways to show off how diverse this ingredient can be and how it can shine through as a major player even when paired up with some other major stars.

I give you Caramel Cardamom Cashew Mango Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Swiss Meringue Buttercream but that's too much talking for these sexy things. So as I prefer to think of them...

Brown Sugar Ménage à Trois Cupcakes
makes 18 cupcakes which happens to be divisible by 3, hmmmmm

for the Cake:
1 cup and 1/2 cup Brown Sugar, packed (1 -1/2 cups total)
1 cup Mango Nectar/ Juice
1/2 cup unsalted Butter, room temp
2 large Eggs, room temp
1/2 cup Yogurt solids (squeezed through cheesecloth to remove excess moisture, can substitute Sour Cream)
1 Mango, peeled and chopped very finely (I got approx. just over 1 cup of fruit)
1 t Vanilla
1- 1/2 cups Flour
2 t Baking Powder
1- 1/2 t Baking Soda
1 t Salt
1- 1/2 t ground Cardamom
2/3 cup roasted unsalted Cashews, ground (I ground the cashews down in the food processor, just slightly larger than a nutmeal texture)

Preheat oven 350 degrees. In small saucepan, bring Mango nectar to a boil then reduce to simmer. Let the juice reduce to 1/2 cup. In medium sized heavy bottom saucepan, heat 1 cup brown sugar over medium-low heat. Brown sugar will begin to liquefy and caramelize. Stir to allow all of the sugar to liquefy. As soon as this is done, gently add mango nectar to brown sugar a small amount at a time and quickly whisk in. The mixture will bubble up, so be careful to only add small amounts of the juice and quickly incorporate to reduce crystallization. When all of the juice is incorporated allow the mixture to continue simmer for an additional minute while slowly stirring. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

In mixer with paddle attachment, cream 1/2 cup brown sugar, butter and eggs over low setting. Bring up speed to medium for just a minute to allow mixture to take on whipped appearance. On low setting add yogurt and then add chopped mango.

In separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cardamom. Add to wet mixture slowly while continuing to mix on low speed. Add ground cashews until just incorporated.

Caramel syrup should be cooled to the point of a thick preserves like texture. With mixer running on low speed slowly add syrup to cake batter. Allow the syrup to ribbon into the batter. Do not overmix, you want to stop when syrup is just incorporated. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and allow to mix one more minute on low.

Prepare a cupcake tin with liners. Pour batter into prepared tins 3/4 full. Do not overfill (like I did the first time, heh) as these will rise. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. I baked 6 cupcakes at a time and 25 minutes was perfect every time. Be careful not to overbake. Cool completely before removing from the cupcake tin to a wire rack as these cupcakes are very delicate. Approx. 10 minutes. Patience is a virtue or something...

for the Glaze:
2 cups Mango Nectar
1 cup Brown Sugar
2 T Cardamom Seeds (whole, not grounded)

In heavy bottomed saucepan, whisk together ingredients until sugar is well incorporated. Heat to a boil while whisking over high heat. Reduce to a simmer over medium-low heat without mixing. Allow to reduce for 25- 30 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely. Strain through cheesecloth and wire mesh into a bowl to remove cardamom seeds. Once cupcakes are cooled, use cake piercing tool to gently poke three holes in each cupcake. Glaze tops with pastry brush. I gave each cupcake two good coatings with glaze. There will still be about 1/3 of glaze left which I used to candy the mango slices.

for the Brown Sugar Swiss Meringue Buttercream:
4 large Egg Whites
1 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 t fine Salt
1/4 t Cream of Tartar
1 cup unsalted Butter*, at room temperature, cut into tablespoon pieces
1 t Vanilla Extract
1/2 t ground Cardamom

In the top of a double boiler set over simmering water, whisk together the egg whites, sugar, salt, and cream of tartar. Continue whisking until the mixture becomes too hot to touch comfortably, 7 to 10 minutes.

Transfer the mixture to mixer bowl and mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk on medium-high speed until the egg whites hold a stiff peak, about 8 minutes. Add the butter, one or two pieces at a time, mixing after each addition until incorporated. Add vanilla and cardamom. Use at room temperature.

*this frosting really benefits from using a high quality butter. You can really taste the butter and the creamy good European variety is best in this recipe. So go ahead and splurge for the frosting.

for the Candied Mango:
1 Mango- peeled and cut into thin slices
Reserved Glaze from above

Turn oven down to 200 degrees when cupcakes are done baking. Place mango slices onto baking sheet lined with parchment paper spaced apart so they are not touching. Using pastry brush, give each slice a thin coating of glaze. Let mango slices bake for 1 hour. Remove from oven, flip slices over and brush each with another thin coat of glaze. Let bake for another hour. Repeat for each side for a total of 4 hours and glazing each side twice. Once removed from the oven allow to cool slightly then shape as desired. I just twisted and worked them free style. Cool completely (best if overnight).

for the Brown Sugar Brickle:
*this is just a repeat of the caramel used in the cupcakes
1 cup Brown Sugar
1 cup Mango Nectar
1/3 cup roasted unsalted Cashews, ground (same as above also)

In small saucepan, bring Mango nectar to a boil then reduce to simmer. Let the juice reduce to 1/2 cup. In medium sized heavy bottom saucepan, heat 1 cup brown sugar over medium-low heat. Brown sugar will begin to liquefy and caramelize. Stir to allow all of the sugar to liquefy. As soon as this is done, gently add mango nectar to brown sugar a small amount at a time and quickly whisk in. The mixture will bubble up, so be careful to only add small amounts of the juice and quickly incorporate to reduce crystallization. When all of the juice is incorporated allow the mixture to continue simmer for an additional minute while slowly stirring. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Use cooking spray to coat silicone mat or small tupperware tray. *cough* shameless plug for Ben *cough* Spread caramel mixture out to 1/4 inch thickness. Press ground cashews into top and allow to cool in refrigerator for at least 1 hour (I let them sit overnight). I used the round end of a large decorating tip to cut circles out for the cupcakes. Then I decided some of the cupcakes shouldn't have to conform to the same rules as others and used funky shapes. Cause some of us like our brown sugar with a little funk... or we just really like our brown sugar on the big side, ahem...

Coming Clean
Come on now~ sing along with me!
Brown Sugar! How come you taste so good? Brown Sugar! Just like a cupcake should...
Definitely catchy, am I right?? Anyone else realize that this post managed to make a leap from fish balls to a brown sugar ménage à trois? If this post doesn't win me some major pervert search engine points I don't know what will.

Also, for those of you really keeping score... YES. I spent an entire day and practically every kitchen tool I own in making these cupcakes. I may have been just a tad wee bit obsessive on this one. I'll admit it. But it got to be such fun using these ingredients every which way I could and I wanted the final cupcake to look sophisticated and elegant. Befitting the ingredients I think. I thought the candied mango looked like little Chihuly glass decorations sitting on top. Now that I look at the pictures they sort of look like bacon~ but trust me they looked like glass artwork in person. They turned out to be Monkey's favorite part of the cupcake they were so good. Really sweet chewy mango with a touch of spiciness from the cardamom. I like teasing the tops of cupcakes with a hint about what is inside and this one just seemed to work out well. I also used a bit more salt in the cupcake than I normally do but I knew I could get away with it to bounce off the cashews in the cake.

Overall, these cupcakes were absolutely perfect. I wouldn't have changed a thing for once. The cupcake was incredibly moist and delicate thanks to the fruit inside. The cupcake was nutty and paired well with the light frothy frosting. You've got caramelized brown sugar, cashew nuttiness, mango fruitiness and cardamom spiciness. An amazing balance in one cupcake. And look at them! You know you wanna call them Foxy Brown~ am I right??

On a final note~ let's call this last paragraph a *LOVE LETTER* to you dear reader. You know you love yourself some Brown Sugar and you know how much I love you as well? Am I right?? So how do I put this delicately so as not to scare you off with my forwardness. I think it's time you show your commitment to this relationship. Yes, yes... that's right. I'm asking you to vote for me in the May Royal Foodie Joust. Let just put it out there shall we? I'm not above buying your love. Shameless, I know. But that's me...

And you get serenaded TWICE in one post. Could I prove my love any more than that? I think NOT.

MiniPost

noreply@blogger.com (Tempered Woman) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:32:00 +0000

Cardinal Rule 101 of blogging- try to keep people on your site or direct traffic to your site to ramp up your visitor counts.
Lucky for you all I couldn't give a bleschmeckity romp about rules or site stats...

GO HERE NOW

Go vote for you favorite minis so they can win prizes. Mmmmmm, minis. Who doesn't love to eat minis? Food, not babies. you sicko. Geesh.
*Kthanksbuhbyenow...

Bossy Muffins

noreply@blogger.com (Tempered Woman) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:47:00 +0000

That Ina Garten is such a 'ho. She has really made the rounds on the itnernetz. First I saw her getting all adapted by Smitten Kitchen. Ok, maybe it's not her but that Yogurt Loaf that is the real culprit. Since the VERY same day it's making an appearance at Sass & Veracity. So I know when I'm being hit upside the head with a loaf pan~ if two of my favoritest food bloggers are making it, well I'm in. Yes, I cave to peer pressure and yes, I would in fact jump off a cliff if Deb and Kelly told me to. k? are we done now?

Bossy was coming to visit, you may have heard something about it? I decided I wasn't stressing myself out enough and needed to make something for her Highness, ehhhrrr, Georgia. Everyone who has hosted her mentions her early morning sneakout so I figured I'd make the loaf as muffins instead and she could take one on the run. Also, the recipe as posted by Smitten Kitchen included a list of some ideas for ways in which to adapt the recipe. I of course am a sucker for experimentation~ so it sucked me right in.

Blood Orange Cranberry Muffins
made 1 dozen XL muffins

2 cups + 2 T AP Flour
2 t Baking Powder
1 t Baking Soda
1/2 t Salt
1 cup Plain Yogurt
1 cup + 1 T Sugar
3 extra-large Eggs
2 t dehydrated Orange Peel
1 t Vanilla Extract
1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
1 1/2 cups Cranberries, halved (I used frozen, thawed and rinsed well)
3/4 cup Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips
1/2 + 1/3 cup Blood Orange Juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare muffin pan with liners and spray insides with cooking spray.

Sift together 2 cups flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a separate bowl. In Mixer bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup sugar, eggs, orange zest, vanilla, oil and 1/2 cup blood orange juice. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Mix the cranberries and chocolate chip with the remaining 2tablespoons of flour to coat evenly. Fold them very gently into the batter. Pour the batter into the prepared muffin tins and bake for 40 minutes, or until a cake tester placed in the center comes out clean.

Meanwhile, cook the 1/3 cup blood orange juice and remaining tablespoon of sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Set aside.

When the muffins are done, allow them to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before flipping out onto a cooling rack. Carefully place on a baking rack over a sheet pan. While the muffins are still warm, use a pastry brush to brush the blood orange-sugar mixture over the muffins and allow it to soak in. Cool.

Coming Clean
I like oversized muffins, so I used a larger than average muffin tin and the larger liners for these. You could just as easily use a regular sized muffin pan or just make the loaf. These were really great- absolutely loved the yogurt~ citrus pairing. And cranberries and blood orange go together so divinely. It's like they truly love each other and just make out hot-n-heavy in the oven. The blood orange could have been a much more intense flavor though~ I should have reduced the juice. Next time I make these, I'll try reducing 2 cups of juice down to the 1/2 cup to get a stronger flavor. I threw the chocolate chips in for Monkey of course, and she much appreciated them. If I was making these again just for me I think I'd love to try nuts instead, probably pecans. But then again I'm irrational and change my mind at the drop of a hat cause it's my God given right as a woman and maybe I'd just ADD pecans and KEEP the chocolate chips too. How you like them muffins!?!

Sorry, I'm still feeling feisty from Georgia's visit. Oh? Did I forget to mention it? Right, back to the muffins. I will also probably wrap these up after glazing them and stick them in the fridge overnight. They needed the time in the fridge for their true moistness to come through. I've actually already got another adaptation in the works. There were some dark chocolate covered blueberries on the end cap of the Trader Joe's checkout just taunting me~ "Buy us! You know you wanna! Just cave already!" So I bought them just to shut them the f* up. I'm thinking those little bastards will taste divine in a lime version of above. Whatcha think? Any other ideas out there? I mean for the recipe, keep your "how about some professional help" comments to yourself. thankyouverymuch.

Hot Tamale!

noreply@blogger.com (Tempered Woman) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:18:00 +0000

We interrupt our normal programming (and chicken tamale post) for a Bossy lovefest.
The Hot Tamale Georgia Getz was in St. Louis!
Confession time. I really look forward to reading Bossy's posts and the trip has seemed like a fun time. I could just imagine how much fun it would be~ ROAD TRIP! But and it’s a big butt I'm a total introvert and had totally talked myself out of going to the St. Louis Bossy night. I wanted to go but was jittery about being around a bunch of "real bloggers” and having to explain a bazillion times who I was "Hi Tempered Woman. No, no, I'm just a food blogger." And then I had this really weird dream where I was helping someone else decorate The Chocolate Bar with streamers and stuff (I know, wtf?) and we had 15 minutes before Bossy shows up and I look down and realize I'm still in my pj's. So I try to walk home (I know, wtf?) but it's suddenly one drama after another and there is a whole bridge sequence where I've got to cross but there are security guards (of course I had been drinking, silly question). Suffice it to say, my subconscious was not jiving on the eminent Bossy festivities.

And then something happened to change my mind. Bossy needed somewhere to stay at the last minute. Her planned host had some last minute craziness and I couldn't just leave Bossy out in the cold. So this is what I emailed her:
Consider me your last resort. I'm cheaper than a hotel room but my house is on the market right now so not exactly the posh surroundings befitting you~ more like meager accommodations. Altho I can offer a wireless connection. And 2 needy dogs.
I would honestly love to take care of you~ but it's a far cry from the bed and breakfast you deserve. Altho I do make a damn good cupcake.
And then I waited. And fretted. And freaked out a little inside. What the hell was I doing?!?! Part of me hoped she'd find someone else cause I’d just be a disappointing dorky host but part of me was so excited at the idea of meeting her and hanging out. And then I panicked cause how was I supposed to stay anonymous if I'm all hanging out with Bossy and OH MY GOD WHAT IF SHE FINDS OUT I'M REPUBLICAN?!?!
And then I got this email:
hey, excellent - i'd love to crash there... sorry about the last minute thing...see you soon!

Well of course the bathroom scrubbing commenced and I was too busy freaking out about making the house smell like antiseptic to worry about anything else. The house had a showing from 2-3 the day she was due to arrive. Which gave me exactly one hour to take a shower and try to look presentable before she showed up at 4:00. When Bossy finally arrived I was so unbearably nervous that I think I spoke a million blabbering words in a matter of minutes. Poor Bossy couldn’t get a breath in. I think about it now and she probably pegged me as a raving lunatic.

I was too embarrassed to bring my dorky little Olympus to the shindig since I knew everyone else would be packing heavy artillery. I was not wrong. But I kind of wish I had brought my camera just so I could take a picture of all the huge honkin cameras that were on the table at one time. Instead I will gleefully steal photos from other bloggers that were there.

I stole this photo from her. The night went way too fast. I do not relish meeting new people. I have to do it a lot because we move often and TOBAC is a total social whore. But I must also admit that I’m incredibly picky when it comes to friends. I only have a few because I can’t stand wasting time with people I don’t genuinely enjoy being around. I know, I know, it sounds incredibly snobby but I’ve got to be honest, I don’t meet a lot of people I genuinely like. I can’t stand taking myself or life too seriously, I cuss like a trucker who use to be in the Marines, I say really f*ed up stuff about my kid, dogs and hubby, I’m always embarrassing myself by screwing up what I want to say and I end up saying the most inappropriate things. So I get it, I’m a hard person to take so I know it’s me that makes it hard to find people I can relate to. Well with that said… everyone was unfreaking believably cool. Like I could hang out with these women all the time. They were incredibly beautiful, funny as hell, not a pretentious one in the bunch. Yet they were all interesting amazing women who were doing incredible things with their lives and managing to capture it all in words on their blogs. And did I mention funny? Like hysterical, my stomach still hurts funny.

Picture stolen from her. The only other Republican in the whole bunch. Yes, we did in fact talk about politics, and education, and nerdy stuff. But we also talked about tattoos, breast milk, boxed wine, and funny names. Ya know, to balance things out. Cause we are classy ladies like that.

Picture stolen from her. I totally freaked out when Angela from fluidpudding showed up. I had no idea she was coming and I totally stalk her blog cause she is such an amazing writer. The girl had a handy dandy notebook to catch everything. And now I can't remember the name of some hot musicican/ actor that everybody was drooling about. But Angela will know!

Picture stolen from her. I didn't get a chance to let Raquita know I totally stalk her blog too and enjoy reading about her life and how much I lurve pics of her gorgeous daughters. There were all of these great conversations all going on at the same time. But I kind of liked just catching these really odd sentences when our side was suddenly quiet. The takeaways? Everybody is in love with Barack O'Boyfriend but me and MP. Everybody watches way too much TV. Everybody loves them some mojitoes and Lindeman's Framboise. And Camembert Delice spread on spiced nuts tastes like frosted heaven. MMmmmmm

Yes, Bossy is really that gorgeous in real life. She’s tall and you would totally think she was a model if you saw her just walking down the street. Very laid back and thoughtful. Incredibly gracious. Insert gushing adjectives ad nasaeum here. Some Bossy trivia highlight from the evening: The woman has the longest damn arms known to man. She can take a group photo like nobody's business. But even better. Georgia’s middle name is Tangerine! How great is that?!?!

It was an amazing night of amazing women like her, and her, and her and her and her. Whew! sorry peeps, inside joke

But the best part of the evening was talking my best drinking bud into going out with me- my sister who doesn't have a blog and had to work the next day. Funny thing is~ she's the writer in the family. So I insisted she come and then when we were getting into my car to head out, turns out my car's back seat is so covered in dog hair from the boys that she had to drive. HA! Love ya sis.

Did I mention that I'm selling my house right now? Did I mention that we've sold most of our "stuff" to make moving easier? So don't freak out, but poor Bossy had to sleep here:

I wish she could have stayed another day. I found out her daughter is the same age as mine and you’ll get a chance to see how amazing miniBossy is in the near future. I didn’t really get a chance to hang out much with just her and I could have kept her up all night with yakking. I regret not mentioning about a gazillion things. I didn't get a chance to tell her she should be listening to Martin Sexton and the Stereophics cause they are the best friends for ears evah. I didn't get a chance to tell her how her and her daughter should be upset over the Veronica Mars cancellation and watch the first 2 seasons on DVD over and over again just like me and monkey. I didn't get a chance to compare crazy familiy histories with her. Or show her my artwork from back in the days when I was kinda cool. Most importantly I didn't get a chance to tell her that I think her trip is incredible and I love jumping to all of the sites for the people she meets and getting a chance to read her trip through all of their blogs. It's an amazing thing, don't ya think?

But I knew she was exhausted and didn’t want to impose on her since she’d be up early to do her infamous sneakout in the middle of the God awful early morning. So I made her promise to take a muffin (to be posted tomorrow) before she left and let her get to bed at a decent hour. I totally suck don’t I? I totally should have plopped my fat ass on the bed and kept her up all night and we’d be bonded as sisters forever. Le sigh. But that’s me, they broke the dork mold when I was created. And let's face it, I'm nowhere as cool as her other amazing hosts, so perhaps it turned out for the best. I may have survived the Bossy experience without saying something incredibly innapropriate for once. Maybe. Did I mention the 3 bottles of wine?

Here's hoping that the last leg of the tour is just as amazing as our evening was. And a big smooch to all of the incredible women I met last night. MMwuuaahhh!

Event Reminders

noreply@blogger.com (Tempered Woman) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 17:20:00 +0000

Just a reminder that the Homegrown Gourmet deadline is approaching and this weekend would be a perfect time to whip up some Potato Cupcakes...ehhrrr... I mean your favorite local spud creation. And I just realized that I said the deadline was Wednesday the 22nd but that would be kind of difficult since Earth Day is freaking Tuesday!
I overwhelm you with my competence, no? So the deadline is still Wednesday April twenty-thththirrrrddddd. Did you catch that? 4/23/2008 which falls on a WEDNESDAY. Which of course isn't half as clever as making the deadline Earth Day but whatever.

And since you'll be in the kitchen anyways, don't forget to impress and honor your friends with some Earth Day inspired cupcakes since the Cupcake Hero theme is just that. Show me some organic love people!

Sunday is for Brunch...and pity parties

noreply@blogger.com (Tempered Woman) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 14:36:00 +0000

So this is me, waving the white flag. The world has beaten me down and I give up. Enough.
This post and Peace pie goes out to:

* The snarky woman whose cell phone number is just one digit off from mine and her charming 3 year old who keeps calling my cell phone and leaving messages or hanging up. You were nice enough the first time I called and gave you a heads up. But when I called you back and tried to kindly let you know I understand but I've since received 20 MORE phone calls from her child, she just f'in hung up on me.

* My baby sister who is pissed that I took my mom and her husband out for a nice swanky dinner and didn't invite her. Even though you know they were over here for an entire Saturday helping me fix things around the house since it is on the market and my hubby is gone. Even though mom's hubby was on his knees for several hours fixing carpet that *your dog* tore up in my basement. Even though I can't afford to also buy you a $50 dinner and you couldn't afford it either.

* My puppy who decided to repay me for taking my mom and her husband out for a nice dinner and not taking him by tearing up the carpet that we spent several hours fixing last weekend. Into shreds. Beyond repair. Did I mention that I took him on a 4 mile walk that day to try and work out that puppy cuteness? AND bought him a big @$$ bone to chew on.

So, where on this planet is the most peaceful place I can think of to evoke calm feelings? Why the Mediterranean region of course! Huh? oh, not so much. Yeah, this is actually what I had on hand. Hopefully there is peace in using up my veggie drawer. I made 2 but halved the recipe below. I gave the 2nd quiche to a neighbor whose hubby has diabetes so he can never eat my cupcakes. Oh yeah, the karma should be kicking in any moment now. I find the quiche especially delightful with a crocodile tears reduction sauce.

Peace of Quiche Pie~ Mediterranean style
1 prepared savory 9" pie crust (you can make your own, I'm in no mood)

4 eggs
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup Sunchokes/ Jerusalem artichokes, scrubbed with veggie sponge and sliced very thin
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup baby spinach, cut chiffonade style
1 cup feta crumbled
2 t Tuscan Sunset seasoning
1 t salt
fresh cracked pepper, little or lot depending upon preference

Prebake pie crust with foil lining and weights for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Remove foil and bake another 5 minutes. Place the pie crust on a sheet pan in case filling overflows.

In bowl, whisk together eggs and heavy cream. Add additional ingredients and combine so everything is well coated. I like to use a slotted spoon to then make sure all of the heavy ingredients go in first then pour remaining egg mixture over the top. Bake for 35 minutes or until a thin knife inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Coming Clean
I really enjoyed the crunch of the sunchokes playing off the silky blah blah blah.
I'm going back to bed. And pretending that my taxes are already done.

Plenty of Marshmallow Porn

noreply@blogger.com (Tempered Woman) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:16:00 +0000

to be found here.

Congrats to the new Cupcake Hero!

I couldn't stand watching all the marshmallow fun and baking other's creations without whipping up my own creation this month. And no one made what I would have come up with so I give to you...

~A Tale of Two Cupcakes ~
alternative title: Because TW can't ever just write a short post and shut the hell up
I've alluded to my true upbringing in the past. It's no secret I come from an unrefined pedigree. Whatever. So when I think of marshmallows, it should be no big shocker that I think of something off the wall like salad. Well as a kid, my mom use to always make a white trash concoction for picnics and potlucks called Watergate Salad. Essentially, it's only similiarity to salad is that it is green. By the time my mother and housewives everywhere had trashed this recipe it had become a combination of pistachio flavored pudding, rainbow colored mini marshmallows, a can of fruit cocktail, marashino cherries, nuts (either walnuts or pecans) and Cool Whip whipped topping.

While Kraft claims the original Pistachio Pineapple Delight recipe they have no clue as to how it got it's more notorious name. But the earliest recipe titled "Watergate Salad is: [1975]
1 (20-ounce) can crushed pineapple (undrained)
1 box instant pistachio pudding mix
1 1/2 cups small marshmallows
1 (9-ounce) box whipped topping mix
1 cup or less walnuts or pecans
Mix undrained pineapple with pudding by pouring pudding into pineapple. Stir. Add rest of ingredients. Stir by hand. Chill before serving. C.K."---"Anne's Reader Exchange," Washington Post, November 13, 1975 (p. C17)

So I decided this was the marshmallow cupcake for me, fond memories and all. Blah blah. You never thought you'd hear me wax poetic about the Nixon years didja?? But I was torn over elevating the status of this simple culinary item. After all, even my mother has become more high-maintenance in her golden years *coughcough*. And for the record she would not disagree with any of the statements thus far (for those of you wondering, you know who you are...). In the end, I decided I would have to try my hand at both a more refined Watergate and also a Whitetrash version and let my family be the final judge. Now, if I was a really cool cupcake baker and truly competing for Cupcake Hero I would have been more inventive and whipped up some accompanying toppers for these cupcakes. Perhaps a pic of Nixon waving his peace sign? The whitetrash cupcakes could just carry the moniker "I'm not a crook!" But alas, as my child has already found it necessary to point out time and time again, I'm just not that cool cupcake mom.

Watergate Cupcakes *The Pre-Nixon Years*
makes 15 cupcakes

For the cupcakes
1/2 of an 11 oz. Pistachio Nut Paste (I used Love 'n Bake but you could make your own)
2 oz. or 1/2 stick (4T) Butter
1/2 cup granulated Sugar
2 large Egg whites
3/4 cup Buttermilk
1 t vanilla

1- 1/2 cups Miniature Marshmallows
1 cup drained, crushed Pineapple
10 oz. jar drained, chopped Maraschino Cherries (reserve 15 for topping cupcakes)

2 cups Flour
2 t Baking Powder
1 t Baking Soda
1/2 t Salt

Prehat oven for 350 degrees. Prepare cupcake tin with liners.

Cream together 1/2 can of Pistachio nut paste, butter and sugar. On low mixer speed add egg whites one at a time. Once incorporated, add buttermilk and vanilla. Add in pineapple, cherries, then marshmallows.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Combine with wet ingredients with mixer speed still low until just combined. Scrape the bottom of the bowl and sides then allow to mix for one more minute on low.

Fill prepared cupcake tin liners 3/4 full. Do not overfill or marshmallow will bake over the sides and make one hellacious sticky mess. Bake for 25 minutes- cupcakes will just begin to brown on top. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before removing to cooling rack. Cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting:
2 cups Heavy Whipping Cream
the other 1/2 of 11 oz. can Pistachio Nut Paste
1/4 cup drained, crushed Pineapple
1 cup Miniature Marshmallows

Over low mixer speed using whisk attachment, allow nut paste and cream to combine. Once combined, gently begin raising the speed until you reach a good medium. Allow the cream to whip until peaks form and stabilize. 5-7 minutes. Remove from the mixer and fold in pineapple and marshmallows. Frost cupcakes. Top with marashino cherry.

Watergate Cupcakes *The 70's: An Era of Many Bad Choices*
makes 15 cupcakes

For the cupcakes
3 oz. package Pistachio flavored Pudding mix
2 oz. or 1/2 stick (4 T) Butter
1/2 cup granulated Sugar
2 large Egg whites
3/4 cup Buttermilk
1 t vanilla

1- 1/2 cups Rainbow Miniature Marshmallows
15 oz. can drained, chopped Tropical Mixed Fruit Cocktail (reserve 1 T liquid for frosting)
10 oz. jar drained, chopped Maraschino Cherries (reserve 15 for topping cupcakes)

2 cups Flour
2 t Baking Powder
1 t Baking Soda
1/2 t Salt

Prehat oven for 350 degrees. Prepare cupcake tin with liners.

Cream together pudding mix, butter and sugar. On low mixer speed add egg whites one at a time. Once incorporated, add buttermilk and vanilla. Add in fruit cocktail, cherries, then marshmallows.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Combine with wet ingredients with mixer speed still low until just combined. Scrape the bottom of the bowl and sides then allow to mix for one more minute on low.

Fill prepared cupcake tin liners 3/4 full. Do not overfill or marshmallow will *still* bake over the sides and make one even more hellacious sticky mess. Bake for 25 minutes- cupcakes will just begin to brown on top. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before removing to cooling rack. Cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting:
2 cups Heavy Whipping Cream
3 oz. package Pistachio Pudding

1 T reserved liquid from Fruit Cocktail (above)
1 cup Rainbow Miniature Marshmallows

Over low mixer speed using whisk attachment, allow pudding mix, fruit juice and cream to combine. Once combined, gently begin raising the speed until you reach a good medium. Allow the cream to whip until peaks form and stabilize. 5-7 minutes. Remove from the mixer and fold in marshmallows. Frost cupcakes. Top with maraschino cherry.

Coming Clean
I was so sick of making marshmallows for everyone else's recipe, that I just used store bought miniature marshmallows in both recipes. My kitchen was a sticky mess in my defense! Ideally, you would make your own for a truly, *ahem* refined version. I bought chopped pecans to use in the cupcakes but decided to leave them out at the last minute. I didn't want them to compete with the pistachio. In the end, I think you could use a tiny bit of chopped pecans if you like that sort of thing. I'd like to try them that way. I had to chop the tropical fruit cocktail because some of the pieces were just too big.

And what you've been dying to know...which tastes better... the refined or the white trash...
To be honest, they were both really good. This was one of the best cupcakes I've made so far and a great summer time keeper. I preferred the refined because I liked the more powerful flavor of pistachio which really bounced well off of the marshmallow and pineapple inside. Believe me, it is a heavenly marriage of flavors. The fruit in both makes for a very moist cake. And truth be told, the colorful marshmallows make for a fun looking cupcake. The frosting either way, as my friend Laurie would say, was "wicked" good. I will personally stick to the refined recipe for future potlucks but for a birthday I'll probably go with the addition of fruit cocktail and colorful marshmallows. And for the record, my mom loved both. She took her fair share and then some. There was a battle over the last cupcake, and let's just say it wasn't pretty. But that's my refined, high-maintenance mother for ya. Still enough 70's in her to scrap for a cupcake with the best of 'em.

Homegrown Gourmet #7

noreply@blogger.com (Tempered Woman) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:23:00 +0000

I was so surprised to find out last week that Culinography actually picked my entry for Homegrown Gourmet! Very cool and to be honest I felt like I so cheated. I mean how could all of those other great entries compete against cupcakes for breakfast, right? I took the low road on that one. And in my defense I SWEAR I did NOT know Culinography actually lived in Missouri. Complete fluke. So not only did I luck out, I also cheated. If you could see me right now you would know I'm hanging my humbled head. But I might be grinning just a little too. Woot!
And.
then.
I.
Panicked!
Eek!!

I have to actually choose the next theme. Crap. I'm not good at this stuff. I'm a big dork. The very cool Bean’s Bistro started all the fun with sandwiches, and the Homegrown Gourmet event has featured soups, pies/tarts, stews, and quick breads. I highly recommend bookmarking these posts along with Culinography's breakfast roundup and discovering some amazing dishes.

Uhm, so here goes, *please don't throw things at me*

April is a tough month. It's National Food Month for pete's sake... so anything goes cause not too much is really in season yet. We are stuck between Winter and Spring. Well, here at least. No offense to all of you other lucky bastards who are enjoying your new greens. So like any other barely functioning adult who is just faking normal in their day-to-day life rather than celebrate the new season and all the glorious rebirth that healthy adults embrace... I'm regressing. the next homegrown gourmet can have it. along with May and all of the really cool food holidays. I want, nay need my final comfort food. And when I think comfort food I think...

of potatoes. Oh sweet heavenly soulful comforting potatoes.

Slathered up with butter and cheese, whipped up in your favorite potato-centered entree, or cheat like me and put it in dessert. Highlight and celebrate the potato and you've fit the theme.

In fact~ did you know that the United Nations have officially declared the year 2008 the International Year of the Potato in order to “increase awareness of the importance of the potato as a food in developing nations”?!? Huh? didja? didja? Seems like a winner to me!

Here's some Inspiration~ Eat the Seasons , your Global Potato News and Wikipedia.

So now for the really fun part of all of this- cause I know you have been waiting for them~
THE RULES: {insert loud hand clapping and hurrah's}
1. Anyone can play! except for maybe potato haters. Cause that's not nice. or normal.
2. A theme will be picked by the host. Participants will make a dish that follows the theme and that somehow represents their home region - town, state, area. Representation can feature a local ingredient, be a traditional dish from your area, or be a creative twist.
3. Participants will have 3-4 weeks (host discretion) to complete their recipes and post them to their blog (or email the pics and text), and notify the host. The host will then post the results and then let everyone know via email or message board the results are up!
4. An explanation of your dish is required; it can be a story about the local custom or ingredient, how you came about eating/making the recipe, or an explanation about how your creative dish fits the theme.
5. Fresh and local foods are encouraged!
6. When the round is done, the host will announce their favorite dish by updating their blog. Favorite is completely subjective to the host- no one expects the host to make and taste test all the dishes, it is just something that strikes the host’s fancy! The creator of the fave gets the honor of hosting the next round, if they so choose!

Okay? You ready to rumble already or what?
To participate in Homegrown Gourmet #7, whip up your bestest dish highlighting the glorious, incredible edible Potato! Post about it in your blog and tell the world what makes your recipe Homegrown… be sure to link back to this post. Then send me an email at temperedwomanATgmailDOTcom with “Homegrown Gourmet 7″ in the subject line. Please include the following in your e-mail: your name, your location, your blog name and URL, and a permalink to your entry. Don’t forget to attach a picture (preferably 250 x 250) of your dish to the email. (Not a blogger and still want to enter? Why aren't you blogging already? Come on, you know you want to do it. All the cool kids are doing it these days... what? still no? Ok, email me all the details and I’ll post for you.)

Deadline for the event is WEDNESDAY, April 22, 2008.
Let the amazing cooking begin!
And to get you in the right food battle frame of mind I offer~ the most amazing beautiful intense Food Fight. War as only food could best represent it. Go potatoes!

Easter Carrot cupcakes, Easter Bunny vomit, etc.

noreply@blogger.com (Tempered Woman) — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 21:38:00 +0000

Yeah, I know I'm probably the 347,821st person to make Carrot Cake for Easter. But I had to make cupcakes and is there really any other cupcake more appropriate this time of year? In my defense I made a googleazillioneth of them.

This is what a buttload of carrot cupcakes look like. Cause I know you were wondering...

And I'm about to commit baker sacrilege. Which is also pretty appropriate given the holiday, right? I wanted to make carrot cupcakes for the family dinner shindig. I also wanted to take cupcakes into the office for Easter Monday. I didn't think coworkers would look too kindly to being doused with water and whipped with switches on their legs. I don't really have a go-to carrot cake recipe so I just went with the 'ol default. Dorie's Bible, ehhrr cookbook to the rescue. It's called Bill's Big Carrot Cake. But after whipping them up they were...how do I say this...anticlimactic? Actually they were all around boring to be completely honest. In her defense, she does admit that the recipe is not that spicy and is more of a texture thing. But they were really unimpressive and as a cupcake didn't really form well. I have a cupcake reputation to keep so this wasn't going to work. So after the first 2 dozen cupcakes~ yes, say it with me people~ the word you are looking for is cupcake masochist.

Hello, my name is Tempered Woman and I'm a cupcake masochist. Hello Tempered Woman.

I went back to the drawing board and ramped up the carrot cupcakes. Which gave me another 30. Which for those of you out there keeping track and why are you keeping track? kinda creepy doncha think? that leaves me with approximately 389 cupcakes. Give or take. They weren't overly spicy either but had much better flavor and form. I added just a touch of buttermilk which I think kicked the baking soda into action. I also added more cinnamon which it really needed and some cardamom cause everything is better with cardamom but especially anything with fruit and cinnamon. Here's a side-by-side (the originals are on the right).

If you wanted to kick these up another notch, cloves would probably do the trick.

Resurrected Carrot Cupcakes
adapted from Dorie Greenspan's recipe on pg. 254
makes 30 cupcakes

Cupcakes:
3 cups AP Flour
2 t Baking Powder
2 t Baking Soda
3/4 t Salt
2 t Ceylon Cinnamon
2 t Cassia Cinnamon
1 t ground Cardamom

3 cups grated Carrots
1 cup coarsely chopped Pecans
1 cup shredded Coconut
1/2 cup Golden Raisins
1/2 cup Dried Cranberries

2- 1/2 cups Turbinado/ Raw Sugar
1 cup Canola Oil
1/2 cup Buttermilk
1 T Vanilla
4 large Eggs

Preheat to 325 degrees. Prepare cupake pan with liners.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamons and ground cardamom in a bowl. Set to the side.
In another bowl, stir together carrots, nuts, coconut, raisins and cranberries.
Cream together sugar and oil on medium speed until smooth. Add the eggs one by one. Add buttermilk and vanilla, continue on medium until batter is smooth and creamy. Reduce the speed to low and gently begin to add flour mixture, one-third at a time. Mix until flour is just incorporated. Then gently add in the rest of the ingredients still on low speed. Mix until everything is just incorporated. Using spatual, scrape down sides and mix on low for a few mroe seconds to allow everything to come together.

Fill prepared cupcake tins 3/4 full. Bake for 30-35 minutes until a thin knife inserted in cake comes out clean. Allow cupcakes to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to completely cool.

I didn't take a picture of them before baking them cause it pretty much looked like Easter Bunny vomit. I'm sure your dirty dirty mind can round up a graphic image of its own.

Frosting:
* this was enough frosting for decorations as well. If you don't like a lot of frosting you could easily half this recipe. but then again why would you?!?!
8 ounces Cream Cheese
8 ounces Mascarpone Cheese
1 cup unsalted Butter
1 T Vanilla
2 t Lemon Extract
32 oz. Confectioner's Sugar

Cream together cream cheese, mascarpone, and butter on medium speed until smooth. Gradually add sugar on low setting until just incorporated. Scrape down sides and add vanilla and lemon extract. Frosting will be velvety smooth when ready. Frost cooled cupcakes with an icing spatula to create a flat surface for decoration.

To make the carrots~ I used neon orange gel to color the icing. You can use a #3 tip or just cut a good size hole in a disposable bag. You let the frosting fan out a bit at the top and swirl it around then pull it down to make the shape. I used neon green gel for the leaves and used a #68 leaf tip.

Coming Clean
The cupcakes were a hit with family. Everone liked the texture and the inside was moist and crumbly just like you would expect a carrot cake to be. The frosting was the real hit~ the perfect sweetness and creaminess to balance against the crumbly cake~ the lemon really bounced off the cinnamon and cardamom fruitiness in the cupcakes. Of course, the cute carrot on top didn't hurt. People at work will be subjected to quite a few more cupcakes than I had planned as the originals will of course go to them along with the few remaining ramped up versions. But most of them won't really notice the difference~ at the office you really have them at "free cupcakes in the breakroom." Just don't tell anyone our little secret about sloughing off the first go-around on them, k? I knew I could trust you.
You're the best anonymous blogger friends evah!

If at first you don't succeed; call it version 1.0

noreply@blogger.com (Tempered Woman) — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 12:55:00 +0000

~Happy Pi Day Internetz~

A couple of days ago I ventured into the dark world of all things nerd and dived deep into research. I thought I may have come up with possibly the perfect nerd food. But alas, the results did not live up to my expectations. And in the immortal words of Dr. Raymond Stantz:
"Personally, I liked the university. They gave us money and facilities; we didn't have to produce anything! You've never been out of college! You don't know what it's like out there! I've worked in the private sector. They expect results!"

So I went back to the research and back into the kitchen to come up with pi results because the blog world is no University. Am I right people? You demand results!
Did you know there is actually a website for all things officially sanctioned and nerd approved? Well I did and I found this:

And it harkened back to some of my earlier research:

PB&J indeed. But the real clincher?

That's right, my very own boyfriend, the King of all things Nerd Cooking oriented, has made Peanut Butter Pie. I didn't use his recipe of course, cause I'm stubborn like that, but it set me dutifully on my path.
So you know what THAT means...What time is it???

I have some history with pie. Most notably my new found love of individual pies which I call CupPies. In fact, I managed to find the true purpose behind those metal paper liners for cupcakes. Pie crust weights! Albeit this time around I opted for leftover chickpeas that I had bought for a basque chicken broth that I'll probably never get around to posting but I digress. So my pie crust weights were a little less, ahem, artistic this time around.

TOBAC felt it necessary to nose his way into the whole experience as well. He considers himself the residential expert on all things peanut butter. Thus the roughly 237 recipes involving peanut butter on this blog. However, he is most assuredly NOT a nerd. Among his motivational repertoire are classics like "C's get degrees" and "Good enough for government work." Most telling perhaps is the fact that he played sports in high school. Yes, it's a good thing we didn't know each other in high school or my Monkey never would have happened. So he was rather unceremoniously kicked out of the Lab, ehhrr, kitchen.

Kitchen Parade has the round-up for the Pi(e) celebration so please be sure to check out the amazing creations that everyone came up with. I think you might be surprised at the incredible variety and creativity. And at some point in time LemonTartlet will hopefully get some interesting Nerd Food submissions to share with the food blogosphere. You still have plenty of time to come up with your own Nerd Creation as it's all in the name of celebrating her birthday April 5th. Nerd birthday cupcakes anyone?

PB&J CupPies

Pie Crust:
2- 1/2 cups AP Flour
1/2 cup Sugar
1 t Salt
1/3 cup Shortening, refrigerated
1 cup unsalted Butter, refrig.
1 Egg yolk
1 T Apple Cider Vinegar
approx. 5 T ice cold water

I used a food processor to prepare the dough and cut in shortening and butter. Combine flour, sugar and salt then add shortening sliced into pieces by the tablespoon. Do the same with the butter. Only pulse to just coat the shortening and butter. It should like little peas are forming. In a small bowl combine the egg yolk and vinegar. Add to flour mixture and use pulse setting until just combined. Gradually add water a tablespoonat a time as needed. The dough is ready when it has just come together. It will be a little sticky but it will be fine after refrigeration. Using wrap or parchment paper, take dough and shape into long log. Wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes (or can be preapred up to 2 days before you plan to use it).

Prepare a cupcake tin by first rubbing it down with butter or nonstick spray. It just needs a light coating along the top and barely anything inside of the cups. Place the paper lining into the cups.
Take your dough out of the refrigerator and unwrap over a floured surface. Gently roll out the dough, turing it so that it doesn't stick and maintains a good round shape. Now for the very complicated mathematical configurations:

Ehhh...not so much.

Yeah, turns out my margarita glass makes the perfect round. There comes a time in every woman's life when she realizes that margaritas are much more functional and practical than math... and men. A little tidbit from me to you.

Roll out the dough to a 1/4" thickness. Very carefully fold it over and place it into the cupcake lined tin. Gently press the sides down and into the tin and line the edges gently pressing out. The edges will come over the top a little but don't cut those down just yet.

I ended up with 9 cuppies. Why 9 you may ask? Well because it's a perfect square, duh! It is Area= Pi times radius squared after all. Didn't know you came here for a math lesson did ya? That'll learn ya.
I also did some very complicated and sophisticated computations to figure out the exact amount of pie crust pastry I would need left over to cover the pies.

I'd share the formula, but it's proprietary.

Wrap up the remaining pie crust pastry and place into the refrigerator to keep cooled until you need it later. Once you have the pie pastry assembled you will want to take the metal liners and place them into the cups. You'll then fill the metal liner with your weights of choice so that the crust won't shrink during baking. You can then crimp the edges so they create a lip for the pies. Cut off any unneeded excess.

Bake the crusts at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove them from the oven. Very carefully (as in please don't burn yourself) remove the metal tin and weights from the crust. Place the crusts back into the oven and bake for an additional 10 minutes. Let cool while you prepare your peanut butter.

Peanut Butter Filling:
16 oz. Roasted Peanuts (salted or unsalted per your preference)
8 oz. Cream Cheese
1/2 cup unsalted Butter
1/2 cup Honey
2 T molasses

Chop peanuts in food processor. Add ingredients in order one at a time. Honey will blend better if it is lightly heated first (just 10 seconds in the microwave did the trick). Let the processor blend everything together until you get a nice creamy consistency.

Place a large dollop of peanut butter into the bottom of your cooled crusts. Smooth out until you have the crust half filled with peanut butter.

For the jelly I was in no mood to go the homemade route. And I'll be honest. Making peanut butter is nerdy and fun. Jelly...not so much. I deferred to Monkey on this one. Her being a young nerd in training and all. She felt rather passionately that there was only one option when it came to PB&J.

Just bite the bullet. Go out and grab yourself an 18 oz. jar of Smucker's brand Grape Jelly. No substitutions or you're just a poser. Spoon the jelly into the cuppies to the top. I used almost all of the 18oz jar. I had about a 1/8 cup leftover. Hold on to this cause we'll use it later.

Now it's time to prepare the crust tops. Remove the pastry from the fridge and gently roll it out again to a 1/4" thickness.

Yet another sophisticated pastry cutting tool.
Cut your rounds for the tops. I wetted the edges of the baked pie crusts with a little water and pastry brush. And by pastry brush I mean the cute little paint brush I stole from my kid a million years ago for just this purpose. Place the round over the top of the cuppies and gently seal the edges so that the water can seal. Now remember that leftover jelly? Place it into a small microwaveable cup and heat for just 10 seconds. Stir with pastry brush. Place into the microwave for another 10 seconds. It should be a nice syrup now. Brush the tops of the pies with the jelly syrup. Finally, you'll want to cut small vents in the middle of the crust for baking.

in process...
Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. The crust should be a nice golden brown.

Fresh from the oven.

I had actually considered being a smart aleck and decorating these with mathematical equations. But they were just too darn purty to muck up. I caved in my nerdy duties. I'll admit it.

Now is that just the best darn looking PB&J you ever saw or what?!?!

Coming Clean
I'm ashamed to admit this and probably wouldn't if this wasn't relatively confidential *coughcough* but I had planned to bring these pies to work to share the Pi Day fun with my nerdy coworkers (trust me, they wouldn't mind me calling them nerds, they would be proud to represent). Uhm, yeah. They didn't make it. Because oh.my.GAH! These were so freakin good. I'm not a huge PB&J fan but the homemade peanut butter and wonderful flaky crust was so amazing against the sickening sweet jelly. It was fun to eat and incredibly good. Prebaking the crust allows the crust to stay crispy so it doesn't get soggy after you add your pie filling. It worked like a charm with this recipe. I could imagine the myriad of possibilities with these guys~ nutella, or perhaps a creamy third layer between the PB&J, or chocolate...oh sweet baby bejeezus, chocolate! I honestly think this would make for a fun treat for kids, they'd get a kick out of their own personal pies and biting into it to find PB&J. I'd also like to defend the nerdiness factor of these pies. Only a nerd would spend half a day trying to perfect PB&J. And then admit the fact that they essentially created a kid's quintessential dream snack.

I must also admit that my mathematical prowess was not quite of the caliber I may have represented it to be *coughcough* and the crust recipe I used would have been perfect for 10 pies rather than just 9. However, I should point out that while 10 is not a perfect square it does sound much nerdier than a dozen. It seems so binary, no? I ended up making the top crust a little thicker and threw out some extra. It all worked out in the end because the top crust brushed with jelly tasted so delicious, but if you do make these I'd recommend going for 10 pies cause then you have one more to eat.
How do you like that math?!?!