Mangio da Sola

北海道牛奶麵包 Hokkaido Milk Bread

2011-04-24T03:22:00.009-05:00

UPDATE: I'm in the process of moving from Blogger to Wordpress once I figure out how to add Foodbuzz and other widgets to my site. Anyway, my new web address is http://mangiodasola.net. If you know how to add the Foodbuzz Top 9 to Wordpress, please leave a comment on the new site!

White Chocolate Crumb Muffins

2010-09-10T21:33:00.001-05:00

Wow. I haven't updated in more than a month! Things have been pretty rough for me here in LA because I hadn't found a job even after submitting 10-20 applications a day and 3 interviews. To make matters worse, I will have to move out of my girlfriend's house very soon because she is allowed to have only 3 people in her rental home. I will have to live in my car if I don't start earning money soon! After having worked so hard in school for so many years, the thought of living in my car is a terrible one. Fortunately, I just landed a job teaching Spanish online for Oklahoma public schools (if you knew my family background (most of them live in OK), you would understand the irony in all of this). I will be teaching 7 hours a day as a substitute until I get my emergency certification to teach in Oklahoma while still residing in California (ah, the power of the internet and Skype). Anyway, I just hope you all can keep me in your thoughts and prayers while I go through this difficult time.

ONLINE LANGUAGE TUTOR: I thought that I'd inform you all that I started an online business called Online Language Tutor! For months, I have been thinking about starting this business but was afraid it would fall through. I still have that fear, but I have decided to keep moving forward, start small, and unofficially advertise it to you all first. I first shared this idea of online tutoring with my mother, and she was excited about it and agreed to be my (very) silent partner. I allowed the idea to marinate a little and almost gave up on it. However, a few weeks later, Marly from NamelyMarly emailed me and asked me to help her out with some Spanish grammar questions her personal tutor was unable to answer. After happily helping her out, she suggested I start an online tutoring business without even knowing I had already formulated the same idea. Anyway, because I enjoy and miss teaching Spanish on a one-to-one or two-to-one level, I thought that I would provide a tutoring service for anyone interested in learning or retaining Spanish, English, or a beginner's level of Brazilian Portuguese.

I plan to offer online tutoring via Skype to anyone around the world and in-person tutoring to those in the Los Angeles area. The website I created is extremely rudimentary due to lack of funds. However, I hope to buy a true domain for it and all that jazz once my business improves. I'm also still working on the business registration and all the other stuff to make my business legit. My mom, a PhD-holding English professor, plans to help with editing and proofreading papers for anyone interested as well (as you can tell, she didn't proofread this post LOL). Please check out my website, and provide any suggestions via email. Also, if you know anyone who would be interested in my tutoring services, please let them know about Online Language Tutor. I have also added a link to my site on this blog.

BAKING/COOKING IN MY NEW LOCATION: I have been cooking and baking a little here in LA, but I never get around to taking photos because 1) the lighting in this house is bad, and 2) my girlfriend and 2 daughters (along with many other guests) are pretty impatient and unaccustomed to people taking photos of food for long periods of time. Now that I'm with my girlfriend, I've realized why I was so addicted to blogging. The act of blogging and cooking was a filler of the void I felt without my girlfriend. Even though we are still adjusting to each other, I don't feel as empty anymore and many times, I forget to blog or even look at Google Reader. I'm sure that will change once I find my own place.

MUFFINS. FINALLY!: Anyway, I made these muffins before moving to California. The original recipe called for regular chocolate chips, but I only had white chocolate leftover from Guittard's generous package, so I used those. The muffins were good on the first day and improved in taste the next. The interior was very soft, and the white chocolate had a very subtle taste. I liked the crumb on top of the muffins. Next time I make these, though, I will use regular chocolate. If you're considering making these muffins, I suggest you do the same and just follow the recipe.

(White) Chocolate Crumb Muffins

from 300 Best Chocolate Recipes by Julie Hasson

Topping:
1/2 c powdered or icing sugar
1/2 c AP flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt (I used kosher)
1/4 c unsalted butter, melted

Batter:
2 c AP flour
3/4 c semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used white chocolate but would've preferred chocolate)
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt (I used kosher)
3/4 c granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
3/4 c milk (I used buttermilk)
1/2 c vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
ground cinnamon (for the top of the muffins)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C)

ASSEMBLE TOPPING: In a medium bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients. Then, whisk in the melted butter until crumbly. Set topping aside while you prepare the batter.

BATTER: In another medium bowl, combine the flour, chocolate chips, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl or mixer bowl, whisk together the sugar, eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla extract. Stir in the dry ingredients just until combined. DO NOT OVERMIX!!

Spoon batter (or use a small ice-cream scoop) into prepared muffin tins/cups. Sprinkle the topping over the batter and add extra ground cinnamon.

Bake for 22-24 minutes or until puffed and golden. You may also use a toothpick or knife to test its doneness. Allow muffins to cool for 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.

Buttermilk Pound Cake & Big News

2010-08-05T17:00:00.001-05:00

The photos in this post were taken a day after I made this cake.

BIG NEWS: I'm moving back to Los Angeles in fewer than 10 days. I have applied for a leave of absence from graduate school, so I hope to return to school in a year. I have been in school non-stop since kindergarten. So, I went from elementary to high school to earning my BA to my first master's degree to my second master's to doctoral coursework and then to my qualifying paper (a condensed version of my dissertation). For practically 2 years, I have been working on my qualifying paper in graduate school because my depression and lack of willpower have been preventing me from moving forward. When I tell myself to work on my paper, I end up doing something else like cook, bake, read other blogs, post entries, take photos, watch TV, lie in bed, stare at the walls, cry, etc. Before you blame my lost of will on baking and blogging, I must tell you that I was feeling this way one year before starting this blog, which is also one year before I started to cook/bake.

Since I was 9 years old, I have wanted to earn a PhD. I have come very close to reaching my goal, and it frustrates me that I waited so long to take a break when I'm close to the end. However, I cannot keep wasting my school's or my own time. This life is the only one I have.

I have been applying for jobs in Los Angeles and so far have not found anything (BTW, if you know of anyone looking for a new employee, let me know! haha). I will miss teaching foreign languages so much, so I hope I can a find a teaching job. Anyway, I don't know what the future will hold, but I have decided to push my worries away and leave my future up to God. I have faith that He will direct my path.

CAKE: I have been wanting to make pound cake for a long time. When I found this recipe entitled "Mama's Pound Cake" in Paula Deen's cookbook in Barnes and Noble, I immediately took a photo of it on my phone to make it for later. I modified the recipe a bit by adding almond extract, substituting buttermilk, and adding a simple glaze.

The oven burnt the top after only 15 minutes. I covered it with foil and allowed it to cook longer. The cake was not fully done on one side and was burnt on the outside on the other. However, the part underneath the burnt crust was almost perfect, so I ate only the done parts. For the other loaf of cake, I lowered the oven rack, and the cake cooked much better. However, I didn't grease the loaf pan well enough because I was running out of spray, so it didn't come out completely. Anyway, the next day, the cake was even better. Just make sure you cover your pound cake with a towel or a paper towel loosely. According to Alton Brown, pound cakes don't like to be smothered.

I won't be posting for awhile due to the move. I've already sold the TV trays I use for my photos, anyway. Take care, everyone!

Buttermilk Pound Cake

adapted from Paula Deen's 'Mama's Pound Cake'

Yield: 2 loaf pans or 1 tube pan

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup shortening, room temperature
3 cups granulated sugar
5 large eggs, room temperature
3 cups AP flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt (I used kosher)
1 cup buttermilk (or regular milk)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray 2 loaf pans or tube pan with Baker's spray, the like, or butter/flour.

Cream butter and shortening. Add sugar a little at a time. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well each time. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt, and combine the buttermilk and extracts in a liquid measuring cup. Add the dry mixture to the batter alternatively with the milk/extract mixture, beginning and ending with the dry mixture.

Pour mixture into the pans or tube pan, and bake for 1 1/2 hours. Allow cake to cool for 10 minutes. Remove the cakes to a cooling tray for 10 minutes.

Vanilla Glaze

Powdered sugar
Milk or half-n-half
Vanilla extract (optional; I forgot to add this)

I have no set measurements for the glaze. I just put some sugar in a bowl and added enough milk (add the extract before the milk) to make the glaze pourable.

Carrabba's Bread Dip

2010-08-03T15:03:00.011-05:00

Whenever my mother comes to visit, I know that there are two places she will want to visit: 1) Her favorite bubble tea place - Tapioca Express/House and 2) Carrabba's Italian Grill. I honestly believe she visits me just to go those two places and seeing me is just like a little perk on the side ;).

I only go to Carrabba's Italian Grill when she visits me, and we both order practically the same thing. I order either the Pasta Carrabba, which is basically Fettuccine Alfredo with green peas, or Pollo Rosa Maria (I'm definitely going to make this soon). She almost always orders the Insalata Johnny Rocco or something with eggplant.

Once we sit down and order our drinks, the waiter brings out some fresh sourdough bread and a little saucer filled with spices that looks very similar to what I have made on this post.

The waiter then proceeds to pour olive oil on top of the spices to create the dip. Because my mother has the ~~annoying~~ habit of soaking up all the spices and oil with just one slice of bread, we always request for two saucers of spices so that I can have my own.

I promised many moons ago that I would blog about the copycat recipe for this dip and never got around to it until now. Once you've made the spices (without the oil!), you can keep it in a closed container in your fridge for a long time. Whenever you're ready to eat some, just spoon out as much as you want on a little plate, and pour the oil on top.

Make sure your bread is soft and not hard like mine was. I shouldn't have toasted it. Oh well. The dip is the focus of this post anyway. Enjoy!

Carrabba's Bread Dip

adapted from Chef 2 Chef

1 Tbsp crushed red pepper
1 Tbsp crushed black pepper
1 Tbsp dried oregano
1 Tbsp dried rosemary
1 Tbsp dried basil
1 Tbsp dried parsley
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp garlic powder (I use 2 tsp garlic salt in place of the two last ingredients)
1 tsp salt

In a to-go container (like one from Whole Foods, Central Market or other specialty grocery store), combine all the ingredients together. Store mixture in the refrigerator until needed.

Put 1 Tbsp of mixture per person in a small saucer with raised edges. Pour extra-virgin olive oil over the mixture, and dip warm sourdough or French bread into the mixture. Be as greedy or dainty as you like!

Orange Chicken Revisited

2010-08-01T00:00:00.006-05:00

Here is another recipe I'm revisiting because the original photos are HORRIBLE, and this dish is worthy of being on my blog twice.

QUESTION: Whenever you are in the process of making a dish, do you think about what you are going to write about on your blog for the same dish? I do. For instance, I wanted to mention that using cornstarch in place of flour makes the chicken pieces look too white while flour browns the chicken more. So, you should combine the two when coating the chicken. Also, I wanted to mention how I didn't have green onions, so I used white onions (then I found some green onions in the refrigerator after the photo session!).

Anyway, I think the fact that I made this dish again tells you how good it is. Aside from the regular onions, I followed this recipe exactly. I also made some jasmine rice in the used rice cooker my mom just gave me. For the first time, I had to call my mom on how to operate a kitchen-related appliance :D. Now I know why people love their rice cookers! I no longer have to wait for the water to boil. That is so nice.

I accompanied the orange chicken and rice with cold, green tea sans the ice. [Did you know that I don't like ice, but my mom is crazy about ice (she buys a big bag of ice every week! I have no idea what she does with that much ice.)? That is another contrast between my mom and me. Ice interrupts the flow of my drink (like nuts in soft desserts), and when the ice melts, it waters my drink.] Okay, enough of my quirks. Here is the recipe:

This piece is about to go into my mouth. . .riiiiiight. . .NOW.

Orange Chicken
from Blog Chef

Chicken-
2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts (cut into 1-1/2” cubes) (I used 1.25 lbs)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup cornstarch
1 egg (beaten)
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper

Oil (for frying; I used vegetable or canola oil, but peanut oil is the best for frying)

Orange Sauce-
1 ½ cups water
2 Tbsp orange juice (I used the juice of 1/2 of a large orange)
¼ cup lemon juice
1/3 cup rice vinegar
2 ½ Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp orange zest (grated)
1 cup packed brown sugar
½ tsp ginger root (minced)
½ tsp garlic (minced)
2 Tbsp green onion (chopped) (I used 1/4th of a regular, white onion)
¼ tsp red pepper flakes
3 Tbsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp water

Step 1: Combine flour and cornstarch. Place chicken in the egg mixture along with salt and pepper, and shake the pieces in the flour mixture to coat.

Deep fry chicken in batches at 375 degrees in a deep fryer (or use a wok) until completely cooked and light brown (around 5 minutes per batch).

Step 2: Meanwhile, in a large saucepan combine water, lemon juice, orange juice, rice vinegar, and soy sauce. Blend well over medium heat for 2 minutes. Stir in brown sugar, orange zest, ginger garlic, onion, and red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil.

Step 3: Combine 3 Tbsp of cornstarch with 1/4 cup of water and mix thoroughly. Slowly stir cornstarch mixture into sauce until it thickens. Pour sauce over breaded chicken, and if desired add red pepper flakes and garnish with green onions.

Want a piece? That's all I'm willing to share.

Daring Bakers: Swiss Roll Ice Cream Bombe Cake

2010-07-30T23:27:00.008-05:00

The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – Life and Food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home.

I was finally able to take decent photos of my cake. I know I'm super late, but at least I posted this before August! HAH! So, I bet you're wondering my cake doesn't look a Swiss roll ice cream cake. I will give you three seconds to guess why. . .just think about my sausage buns, and you'll figure it out.

1 segundo.

2 segundos. .

3 segundos. . .

Yep, you guessed it. My overheating oven apparently isn't too fond of sponge cake, so it ruined the first one completely and almost ruined all of the second one as well. I managed to salvage most of the cake, but I was unable to make Swiss rolls out of it. So, I slathered on the vanilla bean whipped cream (which is just "genious-ly" good!), cut the cakes into circles and rectangles, and placed them into two ramekins and one loaf pan.

I used the leftover hot fudge from my Chocolate Sybil Cake. I still have more left for chocolate milk. YUM!

This one looks more like an elaborated s'mores cake than a bombe ice cream cake.

Although my ice cream cakes are not nearly as pretty as the other daring bakers' cakes, at least they still tasted pretty good, and I completed the challenge.

For the ice cream portion, I made coffee ice cream and chocolate ice cream. I used different ice cream recipes from those on the challenge because I wanted egg-based ice cream, which tends to be creamier. Everything tasted fantastic except for the sponge cake, but I think that is because of the egg-white flavor and my oven's performance (or failure to perform well).

TWO THINGS I LEARNED DOING THIS CHALLENGE:

1. Whole eggs can expand big time! I thought that with the addition of egg yolks, eggs couldn't expand that much, but I was pleasantly surprised. I don't know why, but I was.

2. That there exists such a thing as vanilla bean whipped cream that doesn't require the removal of the seeds. This whipped cream was AMAZING!!

3. That there really are foods that can stick unmercifully to Silpat despite what the company claims.

TWO THINGS I KNEW ALREADY BUT SOMEHOW FORGOT:

1. My oven sucks even after being "fixed" twice.
2. Ice cream melts quickly and can be frustrating so set up everything for your photo shoot ahead of time.

3. That I love ice cream cake!

I apologize to all my fellow DBers for being so late. A lot of things are going on in my life that I will let you know about later. I enjoyed this challenge despite the moments of frustration while taking photos of the melting ice cream haha. Now, I need to find volunteers to eat up all this excess ice cream and cake! Anyone interested? :)

Here is the recipe for the cake.
Here are the recipes for the coffee and chocolate ice creams I used.
Note: For the chocolate ice cream, I used half-n-half instead of milk for a creamier consistency.

Mmmmmmmmmm!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Buttercream

2010-07-29T00:35:00.005-05:00

I did complete the DB challenge this month, but I have been too lazy to take it out of the freezer for photos. I will try to do it tomorrow.

Anyway, here are some cupcakes I made while my mom was here. I normally stick to my go-to recipe for chocolate cake, which is a doctored up version of Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake. However, once I saw these cupcakes from Cook's Illustrated on Gonna Want Seconds, I decided to try out another recipe.

This chocolate cake recipe is a bit more involved and more expensive because of the chopped chocolate, ganache, refrigeration time, and bread flour, if you don't bake bread often (I suppose you could use AP flour instead, but I haven't tried that). The flavor and texture were amazing, though. I can't say that it was necessarily better than my go-to recipe; I can only say they are two fantastic variations of basically the same thing.

Not surprisingly, the Cook's Illustrated recipe is a bit richer and more sophisticated than the go-to recipe. The go-to recipe is easier to do and is not as decadent. So, I would definitely use the go-to recipe for a "just-because" day, a child's birthday, or around the time "Aunt Flo" comes by (if she ever stops by your place hehe). It tastes like the prototypical chocolate cake but better. The more sophisticated recipe, however, would be perfect for special occasions or whenever you want to indulge a bit more.

I rarely like chocolate on chocolate because it can be so rich, so instead of using chocolate frosting, I used vanilla bean frosting.The frosting was so good and flavorful. If you look closely, you can see a few specks of the vanilla bean. [Speaking of vanilla beans, I bought a 1/4th pound of the stuff over a year ago for only 4-7 dollars on eBay, and I still have a bunch left. I suggest searching on eBay for some good deals on vanilla beans.]

Chocolate Cupcakes with Ganache Filling

adapted from Gonna Want Seconds, which came from Cook's Illustrated

Ganache Filling:
2 oz. bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, chopped fine
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 Tbsp confectioner’s or powdered sugar

Chocolate Cupcakes:
3 oz. bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, chopped fine
1/3 cup cocoa (regular or Dutch-processed)
3/4 cup hot coffee (I used espresso and boiling water)
3/4 cup bread flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp table salt (I used kosher)
1/2 tsp baking soda
6 tbsp vegetable oil
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract

FOR GANACHE FILLING:

Place chocolate, cream, and confectioners’ sugar in medium microwave-safe bowl. Heat in microwave on high power until mixture is warm to touch, 20 to 30 seconds.

Whisk until smooth; transfer bowl to refrigerator and let stand until just chilled, no longer than 30 minutes.

FOR CUPCAKES:

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard-size muffin pan with baking-cup liners.

Place chocolate and cocoa in medium bowl. Pour hot coffee over mixture and whisk until smooth. Set in refrigerator to cool completely, about 20 minutes.

Whisk flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.

Whisk oil, eggs, vinegar, and vanilla into cooled chocolate-cocoa mixture until smooth. Add flour mixture and whisk until smooth.

Divide batter evenly among muffin pan cups. Place one slightly rounded teaspoon ganache filling on top of each cupcake. Bake until cupcakes are set and just firm to touch, 17 to 19 minutes.

Cool cupcakes in muffin pan on wire rack until cool enough to handle, about 10 minutes. Carefully lift each cupcake from muffin pan and set on wire rack. Cool to room temperature before frosting, about 1 hour.

Vanilla Bean Frosting

1 stick of unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup of shortening, room temperature (you could also use another stick of butter instead)
1 vanilla bean pod
4-6 cups of powdered sugar (based on how sweet you like your frosting)
2-5 Tbsp of whole milk or half-n-half (based on desired consistency)

Place the butter and shortening in the mixing bowl, and mix for 2-3 minutes. While the butter is mixing, remove the seeds from the vanilla bean pod. Add the seeds to the butter mixture. Next, add 4 cups of the sugar. If you feel it needs more sugar, add more 1/2 cup-1 cup at a time until you reach desired level of sweetness. Lastly, add the milk 1 Tbsp at a time until it reaches a creamy enough consistency to be piped or frosted.

Look! I saved one just for you!

Supplì

2010-07-26T00:36:00.009-05:00

My blog has caused me to realize that I like Italian food more than any other International food. The reason could also lie in the fact that I am addicted to ItalianFood.Net and watch their cooking videos almost daily.

When I saw this video for supplì (already in the plural form; pronounced [soop-PLEE], based on U.S. English pronunciation), which are fried, stuffed balls of short-grained rice and ragù. When I saw these nuggets of meat, tomatoes, cheese, and rice, I just knew I had to get over my dislike of homemade, fried foods and make them. The chef even says that supplì are one of his favorite treats, so I had to make them.

*UPDATE* Supplì are not arancini, although they are very similar. The latter are shaped differently and do not include ragù (the tomato & beef sauce). Moreover, supplì are said to have originated in Rome and arancini in Sicily. I hope to try out arancini sometime very soon.

While this dish takes quite a bit of time, it is well worth it in the end. I made the ragù the day before so that the flavors could meld overnight in the refrigerator. The next day, I made the rice mixture and created my assembly line for the coating. I had never fried in olive oil before, but I didn't notice a huge difference between using any other type of oil.

Anyway, I highly suggest making supplì for a party, your kids, or just because. I halved the recipe and still had enough for 3-4 people (I don't know why the chef says the full recipe is for four people!). I decided to roll up the supplì you see in the photos and to save the rest of the rice mixture for whenever I want more. That way, the supplì are always fresh. If I don't feel like making more supplì, I could also just eat the rice mixture as is, which is made almost exactly like risotto. It tastes amazing with or without the coating. Seriously.

I took the last photo while eating my first bite ever of supplì. I almost ended the photo session at that point. LOL! That first bite was amazing.

Ragù alla Bolognese

reposted from here and adapted from Italian Food Net (video)

You only need a FOURTH of this recipe, but I halved it here so that you can have leftovers for other dishes.

1 lb ground beef (or ground turkey)
4 cups (1 Litre tomato sauce (I used about one box of Pomì crushed tomatoes)
1/2 of tomato paste tube (2.25 oz)
1 big carrot (½ cup) chopped
1 celery rib (½ cup) chopped
1/2 white onion (½ cup) chopped
1/4 cup of red wine (I used about 4 oz of Fre Red Wine, a non-alcoholic wine!! Yeaa!!)
1-2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce (optional)
1-2 Tbsp fresh sage
1-2 Tbsp fresh rosemary
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and black pepper to taste

Heat a large saucepan. Pour in olive oil. Add celery, carrot, onion, and let them brown over medium heat. Then add sage, rosemary, and cook the mixture for 1-2 minutes.

Add the ground beef, divide it well, and cook until the liquid has evaporated (about 5-10 minutes), then season with salt and black pepper.

After 10 minutes of cooking pour in the red wine, and let it evaporate. Add tomato paste, stir well, and add tomato sauce, cover and let it simmer for 1 ½ hour on a low heat. Make sure you season this sauce well before assembling the lasagne.

Supplì

halved & adapted from Italianfood.net (text in Italian) (video with subtitles) (video w/o subtitles)

Make the ragù ahead of time. You could also form the supplì without coating them ahead of time.

3/4 cups (175 gr) (6.15 oz) short-grained rice (I used arborio. Other suggestions: Carciofi, Bomba)
1 cup (250 gr) (9 oz) ragù (meat and tomato) Sauce (homemade or storebought; can be vegetarian)
1 large egg
50 gr (3.52 oz) cubed mozzarella cheese (enough to put in the small rice balls)
1/4 cup (50 gr) (3.52 oz) finely-grated parmesan
2 Tbsp (30 gr) (2.11 oz) unsalted butter, separated
2 cups (500 ml) beef broth or stock (can use chicken or vegetarian stock)
Enough flour and breadcrumbs to coat (I used Italian breadcrumbs)
Extra virgin olive oil for rice and for frying
Kosher salt to taste

Heat up a pot over medium heat then add 1 Tbsp of olive oil, 1 Tbsp of the butter, and let it melt. Once the butter has melted, add rice and toast it for about 2 minutes.

Add enough hot broth to cover the rice and when the broth has almost completely evaporated, continue to add enough broth to cover the rice, and keep doing this until there is no more broth, and the rice has evaporated.

When the rice is cooked al dente, season with salt, add remaining butter, ragù sauce, grated parmesan and stir quickly until becomes creamy. Turn off the heat and let it cool down to room temperature.

Make your supplì:

Break the egg and whisk. Pick up a handful of the rice mixture, mold into small balls, and firmly press it, place a small cube of mozzarella into the center then reshape into a ball. Firmly press the rice giving the typical elongated oval shape.

(In order to not make too much of a mess, I rolled up half of the rice mixture up to this point, and set them aside. That way I did not have to roll each ball through the coatings, wash my hands, and start over.)

Roll the rice ball in flour. Continue molding the rice to give it the elongated oval shape, then dip the supplì in egg, and finally roll it well in breadcrumbs. Repeat until all the rice is used.

Heat extra virgin olive oil, which should be 3 inches deep, in a pot over high-medium heat, then add supplì. Let them fry until golden brown and crisp on all sides, turning over occasionally. When all supplì are golden brown, remove with a slotten spoon and place on kitchen paper to drain the olive oil.

Transfer supplì to a serving dish and offer to your friends. Remember to eat them with hands!

Mom's Blueberry Salad

2010-07-25T00:05:00.011-05:00

As you can see, I didn't bother styling this salad. I just let it be. . .

A little more than 24 hours ago my mom arrived safely at home after spending more than 3 weeks with her favorite and only offspring - me :). While I love her dearly and enjoy spending time with her, I have to admit it is nice to have my bed and my place to myself again.

On the day I made the pasta on the previous post, my mother volunteered to make the salad *gasp!*. My longtime readers know that my mom doesn't like nor knows how to cook. However, she is the master of chopping veggies and throwing together salad-like meals (case in point - the pizza she decorated).

After spending ~~too much~~ time eating salads from Panera Bread as a graduate student in upstate New York, my mother's tastebuds changed somewhat drastically. So, upon her return to Texas a few years ago, I was surprised when she told me that she now likes olives, which she at one point detested. ~~To make matters worse~~ Also, she became fond of adding various fruits, onions, and nuts to her salad. Now, I know that most foodies like these additions to salads, but I am ~~boring~~ a purist. All I fancy on my salads are lettuce (the simple kind like the water-drenched, nutrient-lacking iceberg lettuce or healthier, romaine lettuce), red tomatoes (mom and I agree on extra tomatoes), cheese, and ranch dressing. If I feel like eating a "fancier" salad, I may add on hard-boiled eggs and cucumbers but nothing more than those two ingredients.

My favorite thing about this salad? The ratio of tomatoes to everything else.

So, when my mom volunteered to make this salad, I had completely forgotten about the changes in her food preferences until I saw the salad she placed in front of my camera. I instantly gave her my shocked look and promptly said, "Mo-om, it has blueberries, olives, and walnuts in it!" While rubbing her hands together in delight with a fork in one hand she said, "YUM! I know! (pause) Oh! I forgot you don't like those things in your salad! (proceeds to flick her hand nonchalantly) You can just pick them out. They won't hurt!" Thanks a lot, mom!

Fortunately the salad was pretty photogenic. Once we sat down to eat our meal, I did remove the unwanted items immediately to the disappointment of my parental figure. I also made sure to get the part of the salad withOUT the ~~yucky~~ bleu cheese dressing on it. Her pour/action shot was cute, but I wish it would have been ranch dressing instead.

Anyway, there's no real recipe for this salad. I will just list the ingredients she used and likes to use just in case you feel like venturing out with salads - if you haven't already. I apologize now for not joining you. . . :)

Mom's Blueberry Salad

Arugula

Roma tomatoes

Black or green olives

Fresh blueberries

Chopped walnuts

Hard-boiled eggs

Freshly-chopped mushrooms
Purple onions

Other possible ingredients (feel free to add more in the comments section):

Strawberries

Orange slices (including mandarin oranges)

Chopped Pecans
Romaine Lettuce
Feta cheese

Daring Cooks?: Creamy Mushroom Sauce and Homemade Pasta

2010-07-16T03:08:00.010-05:00

I wrote "Daring Cooks" with a question mark in the title because I didn't really follow the instructions in this challenge (and I'm two days late!), but I was inspired by one of the dishes we were requested to make with one of the nut butters.

The July 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Margie of More Please and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make their own nut butter from scratch, and use the nut butter in a recipe. Their sources include Better with Nut Butter by Cooking Light Magazine, Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds, and Food Network online.

One of the dishes suggested was Chicken with Pecan Cream and Mushrooms from Cooking Light. Well, most of you know that I don't like any type of nut, so I decided to make a chicken and mushroom dish with homemade pasta to make this dish a bit more fussy so that it could still be sort of a challenge even though I've made pasta before. So, I'm aware that this dish doesn't count as a Daring Cooks' Challenge; however, I tried to make it work for what I like. Do I get half of a point for doing that? :D

I highly suggest clicking on this photo or opening it on another tab and doing a close-up of the cooked, fresh pasta. It is almost translucent and looks so different from the store-bought, dried pasta. I cooked this pasta for 3 minutes and regretted it because it wasn't al dente, but it was still fantastic. Cook fresh spaghetti for 2 minutes.

Anyway, I took some chicken out of the freezer to defrost for the next day and forgot to put it in this dish! I didn't realize I had forgotten to include the chicken until my mom and I had sat down to eat! After taking one bite of this dish, though, I forgot all about that missing ingredient. This sauce was AMAZING and so flavorful. I made adjustments to the recipe based on the highest rated comment on allrecipes.com and based on what I had in my kitchen and will never turn back. This sauce was so quick to make that I could eat it at least once a week every week for the rest of my life. I loved the addition of sage and the meatiness of the mushrooms. For any lovers of meat, this dish would be perfect as a Meatless Monday meal or any type of meal; you really won't miss the chicken. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make this sauce. This sauce is so good and quick to make. I will be making this again very soon.

As far as the pasta is concerned, it came out perfectly. I usually make fettuccine with my pasta cutter, but my mom wanted spaghetti, so I made that. I don't know if my mom had fresh pasta in Italy, but she claimed that this time was her first known experience eating it fresh. While my mom and I were happily eating this pasta dish, we got into an interesting discussion about the role of homemade pasta versus store-bought pasta (and sandwich bread) when mixed with a good sauce or other ingredients.

HOMEMADE PASTA VS. DRIED, STORE-BOUGHT PASTA: We both agreed that many, not all, store-bought pasta and sandwich bread act more like mere vehicles for sauces, meats, and other ingredients. In other words, some store-bought items serve as a means to a end, i.e., transporting the the savory sauces, and what have you, into your mouth. Homemade pasta and bread, however, play a larger role in dishes and at times become the star in a dish even if the other ingredients are quite flavorful. In other words, the homemade pasta and bread themselves become refreshing and delectable edible "plates".

Now, the fresh pasta and this creamy mushroom sauce that my mom and I enjoyed were great complements to each other. Both the pasta and the sauce stood out so beautifully that I don't know if I could ever eat this sauce with the store-bought kind. Okay. . . okay. . .I'm sure that on my lazier days, I will try it out and will just think back to how amazing this dish tasted with the fresh pasta.

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON HOMEMADE VS. DRIED, STORE-BOUGHT PASTA OR BREADS?

All of these spaghetti came from only half of the ball of dough you will see below.

Pasta Dough

For the pasta dough, I've learned that true Italian pasta dough does not call for any water at all despite the other recipes I've seen online. As I always do when I want an authentic, Italian meal, I turned to ItalianFood.Net for a recipe for my pasta dough. This is now my go-to recipe for pasta dough.

From ItalianFood.Net (click here for the video)

Reduced for 4 people; the source recipe would be more for 6, not 4, people.

100 grams 00 flour (You could sub AP flour. I bought my 00 flour from a local Italian market)
100 grams semolina/durum wheat flour (I used this flour and bought it from Central Market)
Pinch of salt (I used kosher)
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 tsp - 1 Tbsp olive oil (you may need to add more oil if your ball of dough is dry like mine)

Mix the two flours and salt in a bowl and form a hole or well in the middle. Place the eggs and olive oil in the middle. Mix the mixture with a fork well. Form a ball in the bowl, and transfer the ball to a flat surface. Add flour if the ball of dough is too wet, and add more oil if it is too dry.

That little ball of dough is enough for 4 people's worth of pasta. That little cut piece on the bottom left created those two lonnnng layers of pasta in the lower right photo.

Knead the dough until the ball of dough becomes smooth and homogeneous. Cover the ball of dough completely, and allow it to rest for 30 minutes so that the gluten can relax. Work with 1/4th of the dough at a time to form the pasta. If you have a pasta roller/cutter, follow the instructions for your machine. If you do not have a pasta roller, roll out the pieces of dough as thin as you can with a rolling pin as instructed on the video on italianfoodnet.com.

Creamy Mushroom Pasta

adapted from allrecipes

8 oz of fresh or store-bought fettuccine (I used spaghetti)
1 1/2 Tbsps olive oil, separated (1/2 Tbsp for pasta water and 1 Tbsp for sauce)
1 shallot or small onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
4 oz of fresh mushrooms, chopped
1/2 Tbsp of unsalted butter
1 Tbsp of AP flour
1/4 - 1/2 of a chicken or vegetable bouillon cube or 1/4th cup of chicken/vegetable broth
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 Tbsp sage (trust me!)
salt and pepper to taste (don't use too much salt b/c the bouillon is salty. I didn't need any at all.)

Prepare pasta water and pasta:
Bring a large pot of lightly-salted and oiled water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 minutes (2-3 minutes for homemade pasta!), or until al dente. Reserve some of the pasta water to thin out the mushroom sauce later.

While waiting for the pasta water to boil, make the sauce:
Heat olive oil in a medium skillet or saucepan over medium heat, and cook shallots and garlic until transparent. Stir in mushrooms, and cook until tender. Add the butter, and add the flour after the butter melts to form a roux to thicken the sauce. Stir the roux with the sautéed vegetables for 2-3 minutes to cook out the flour taste. (Don't forget about the boiling water for the pasta! It should be boiling by now!)

Mix in heavy cream and sage. Cook and stir until thickened. If too thick, use some pasta water (i.e., the leftover water from the cooked pasta) to thin out the sauce a bit. You can either toss the sauce with cooked pasta, and season with salt and pepper to serve, or add salt (I didn't add any salt) and pepper in the sauce, and serve it atop the pasta.

Bacon, Egg, & Cheese Quesadillas and An Award!

2010-07-14T04:57:00.007-05:00

My lame attempt to "tell a story" through a food photo. Before leaving for Brazil, his home country, my friend lent me this collection of works from Mark Twain. I cannot wait to read it!

I rarely eat bacon, but I had some in the refrigerator that needed to be used up. Also, I never buy store-bought flour tortillas since homemade ones are so much better, but my mom was too impatient to wait for me to make some for her, so she bought some instead. Therefore, I took advantage of her impatience and frustration with my laziness by making these quesadillas with her tortillas.

While they tasted amazing. I was just missing one thing - salsa. There weren't anymore tomatoes in the house, and I didn't feel like going anywhere, so I had to eat them as is. If you decide to make these yummy, simple quesadillas, please make sure you have some homemade or store-bought salsa on hand. I'm sure that cold, red, flavorful concoction would amp these quesadillas up a few notches.

Versatile Blogger Award:

I was so blessed to be awarded by Lynne of Cook and Be Merry a few days ago, and I feel so honored to be awarded by such a talented blogger and food photographer. Her photos are so bright and clear; the presentation is lovely as well. I can only wish that I could photograph as well and consistently good as she does. One day I'll get there, though. Anyway, thank you so much for the award, Lynne!!

The guidelines for accepting this award are:

Thank the person who gave it to you.
Tell 7 things about yourself.
Pass the award on to 15 bloggers whom you have recently discovered and think are fantastic.

So, here are seven facts about me:

1. On my mother's side of the family, I am an only child and was raised as such since my dad wasn't around.
2a. I changed my last name to my mother's last name so that she could get all the credit for how awesome I was to become! :D
2b. I am humble. LOL
3. Despite what I wrote in #2, I have very low self-esteem.
4. When people write or say "anyway" with an "s" at the end, my mother and I cringe.
5. I have been in a tumultuous, yet amorous relationship with a woman for more than 10 years off and on.
6. Even though I don't write well, I love to talk about grammar more than any other topic, including cooking and baking.
7. I detest watermelon and very rarely eat fried chicken despite the racial stereotype ;).

I am passing along this award to the following 15 bloggers I have recently discovered. However, I won't be hurt if you were chosen yet don't feel like participating. I know how it is.

Hilah Cooking - I love her personality on the videos and the fact that we live in the same city.
Namely Marly - The lady obsessed with names (including mine!) and vegan cooking. She is so lovely!
Asopaipas - He comments on each and every post I create, and I adore him for that, the fact that his native language is Spanish, and that he shares great, simple dishes. ¡Este premio es especialmente para ti, José Manuel! Gracias por ser un lector tan fiel.
Like Mother Like Daughters - One of the daughters of this blog was a student of mine! I adore her and the fact that this blog is written by her, her sister, and her mother.
Jessiker Bakes - This woman loves sweets even more than I do! I love to see what she makes.
Scrambledhenfruit - I discovered her lovely blog because of the paella pan giveaway, and she actually won!
Baked Bree - I've been going to Bree's lovely blog for a little while now. I love how bright and clear her process photos are. I'm constantly envious of how much light she gets in her kitchen.
Frieda Loves Bread - She makes bread as much I wish I could make bread. Seriously.
Ambrosia e Nettare - Check out the lemon cheesecake on this blog! Complimenti, Lucia!
Cake on the Brain - The name of the blog itself tells you why I included this one on the list. YUM!
Jolts & Jollies - Another fellow Daring Cook! I love her process photos.
One Cake Two Cake - The blog title lured me in. Then the photos of yummy desserts kept me there.
TheArdentEpicure - Run, not walk to this website, and check out the enchiladas. Goodness!
Baking Powders - I love the title and the blog. Fantastic large photos and delectable treats. YUM!
i am mommy - I'm sure just about everyone knows about this blog. Her treats are so AMAZING!

And there you have it! Remember, this is a list of recently-discovered blogs, so there are a LOAD of amazing blogs I've known about for a long time that I didn't include here. Have a great week, everyone!

Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Quesadillas

Yield: 2-3 quesadillas

3 - 4 strips of bacon
1 1/2 - 2 Tbsps unsalted butter, separated
2 eggs
salt and pepper to taste (don't use too much salt because of the bacon and cheese)
1/2 - 3/4 cups of monterey jack or cheddar cheese
4-6 taco-sized flour tortillas (homemade or storebought)

Prepare the bacon on a clean skillet. At the same time, prepare the eggs in another skillet after melting the half a Tbsp of butter. Lightly season the eggs with salt and pepper. Set the bacon and eggs aside.

Wipe the skillet that had the bacon in it clean with a paper towel, and place half of a Tbsp of butter in there. After the butter has melted, place one tortilla in the skillet; add some of the eggs and bacon. Add half (or a third if making 3 quesadillas) of the cheese on top of the bacon and eggs. Place a second tortilla on top of the mixture. Grill the tortilla for about 2-4 minutes per side until both sides have browned and the insides are melted. Repeat the process with the other tortillas. Serve with fresh salsa. YUM!

BBQ Wings & My First Online Interview!

2010-07-13T00:00:00.038-05:00

I ate these wings with corn and mashed potatoes.

Remember the baked spicy buffalo wings I made last month? Well, since that time, I have made it two or three more times because they are that good. So, I thought I would make the base of these wings with the homemade BBQ sauce I made, and it was fantastic too!

Since I finally made these wings in the daytime, I thought I'd include some process photos. So, whenever you make these wings or the buffalo wings, you can visualize the process a bit more. Please please make one of the two versions of this dish or both! It is a quick, delicious meal.

In fact, I went to a restaurant today and ordered wings, and my mother said that "my" wings tasted considerably better even though the restaurant's wings were very flavorful. If that compliment doesn't convince you to try the buffalo and/or these BBQ wings ASAP, then I don't know what else will.

MY FIRST INTERVIEW: I am so happy to announce to you all that I had my first online interview a few days ago. Marly from Namely Marly contacted me via email after seeing my name and requested an interview about it. We conducted the interview on Skype and by phone; it was so fun! So, if you'd like to learn more about my name changes (yes, more than one) and me, please stop by her beautiful blog, which also features great vegan recipes. Click here for my interview, and feel free to leave comments and thought-provoking questions! Thanks again, Marly!

I'm reposting a photo of the sauce here.

Copycat Recipe of Rudy's BBQ "Sause"

adapted from Beth's Favorite Recipes; original post here

1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 1/2 tbsp white vinegar
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup lemon juice (2 lemons)
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp coarse black pepper
1/4 tsp cumin
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

Combine all ingredients in a large pot. Simmer until slightly reduced. Store in a covered container in the refrigerator.

BBQ Wings

Base recipe comes from Life's Ambrosia; my original post here

1.5 to 2 lb chicken drummettes or wingettes
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp seasoning salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp granulated garlic
1 egg
2 Tbsp milk
About 1/4 cup canola oil
BBQ Sauce (recipe above)

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

In a bowl whisk together egg and milk. . .

Combine flour, seasoning salt, pepper and granulated garlic in one gallon plastic bag. . .

Put chicken wings in the egg wash first and coat (I sometimes season the wings with seasoning salt and pepper before placing them in the egg wash; I did that after this photo.). . .

Transfer the wings to the plastic bag with flour. Seal the bag and shake to coat. . .

Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Lay wings in single layer. Drizzle with canola oil. Bake for 20 minutes. Turn and bake for an additional 20 minutes. . .

Wings should be golden brown and crispy. Prepare the wing sauce while your drummettes are cooking.

Enjoy!

Pizza Hut Clone Pizza Revisited

2010-07-10T01:38:00.008-05:00

My mom's pizza: tomatoes, olives, mushrooms, jalapeños, onions, sauce, and mozzarella cheese.

In May of last year, I made this clone recipe of Pizza Hut's Pan pizza and was instantly hooked on it. I love thick and thin dough, but my favorite is the thick, pan variety. Even though this recipe doesn't yield a pan pizza exactly like that of Pizza Hut, it is fabulous and less oily. I didn't have any tomato sauce, so I watered down some tomato paste and added Italian seasoning, garlic salt, a little sugar, and pepper. That worked like a charm.

Another burnt creation thanks to my beloved oven. It all still tasted amazing, including the crust. My pizza: pepperoni, sauce, and mozzarella cheese

The maintenance workers came to fix my oven two times, and now it seems to be worse than before. Consequently, I burned my meat pizza and had to watch my mother's pizza like a hawk; hence, there are more photos of my mom's pizza than mine. I probably could have cooked the pizza a couple of minutes more to get more color on the crust, but my mother was pleased with how it looked, and it was well-cooked. Even my gently-burnt pizza was still amazingly good.

My mom "decorated" this pizza all by herself haha. I'm so proud of her.

In the original post, I had promised my mom that I would make this pizza for her in July of last year. Well, I am one year late in my promise, but the month is July, so I'm happy I could make this for her. She said this pizza was the best pizza she had ever eaten, and my mom is a pizza addict who has eaten pizza in New York, Chicago, and various parts of Italy. So, that is a major compliment!

I had only one cast-iron skillet, so I split the dough into two pieces. Once I baked my pizza, I transferred it to a plate and started working on my mom's pizza in the same skillet. I really like making pizza in a cast-iron skillet; it is much easier than making it in a pie plate or on the back of a jelly roll pan.

My mom's favorite part of the pizza was the crust on the top left part of the above photo, so I had to take a shot of it haha.

I hope you make this one day soon; it is a fantastic recipe. I am submitting this post to yeastspotting!

Pizza Hut Clone Pizza

adapted from Real Mom Kitchen

Sauce:
1 (8 oz) tomato sauce (I used one 8oz tomato paste + 1/4-1/2 cup water)
1-2 Tbsp Italian seasoning (or 1 tsp dry oregano; 1/2 tsp marjoram; 1/2 tsp dry basil; 1/2 tsp garlic salt)
1/2 tsp sugar (to offset the bitterness of the tomato sauce)

Combine the ingredients. Allow the mixture to sit for 1 hour while the dough rises.

Pizza:
1 1/3 C Warm water (105F/40C) (OR you could use 1 1/2 cups of WARM milk in place of water and dry milk)
1 pk (2 1/4 tsp) dry yeast (I used active)
1 Tbsp granulated sugar
1/4 C non−fat dry milk
2 Tbsp vegetable oil (for dough)
1/2 tsp salt (I used kosher)
4 C AP flour
approx. 6 Oz Vegetable oil (3 oz. per pan)

Preheat oven to 475F (I cooked at 450). Put yeast, sugar, and dry milk in a large (2 qt.) bowl or mixing bowl of stand mixer. Add the warm water, and stir to mix well. Allow mixture to sit for two minutes.

Then, add oil and stir again. Add flour and salt, and mix until dough forms and flour is absorbed. Turn out on to a flat surface and knead for about 10 minutes (If using a stand mixer, mix the ingredients with a dough hook and then knead the dough for 5-6 minutes.)

Divide dough into two balls (about 450-460 grams each). In two cast-iron skillets (or you can use two 9' cake/pie plates or one 9-inch pie plate and one 9 x 13 dish), put 1-2 Tbsp of oil in each skillet/plate making sure it is spread evenly. Using a rolling pin or your hand, roll/pat out each dough ball to about a 9" circle in the skillet (you probably won't be able to spread the dough to the edges at this time).

Cover with a towel or a plate. Place in warm area and allow to rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Then, pat the dough once more to the edges of the skillet.

Poke holes in the crust or use pie weights, and parbake the crust for 2-5 minutes to prevent sogginess of dough after adding the sauce.

Spoon 1/3 cup sauce on dough. Distribute 1 1/2 Oz. shredded mozzarella cheese on sauce. Place toppings of your choice. Top with 3 oz. mozzarella cheese. Cook until cheese is bubbling and outer crust is brown about 15 minutes. Then brush outer edge of crust with garlic butter.

Sausage Buns and Giveaway Winner!

2010-07-07T19:34:00.006-05:00

My supposedly fixed oven slightly overcooked my buns, but they didn't taste burnt at all.

I saw these buns on Hearty Bakes and knew that I needed, wanted, and deserved to make them pronto. The dough was easy to put together, but the instructions in the first recipe were lacking some detail for me, so I looked up another recipe on Fresh Loaf that was basically the same but with more steps. I used the recipe from the first and the shaping instructions from the second. The compilation of the two recipes is below along with some process photos.

The dough was still so soft and had just the right texture due to the mixture of bread and AP flour. For the hot dog portion, I used Nathan's hot dog wieners, which were longer and skinnier than the average wiener. Consequently, I had to make the dough rope longer. When you make these buns, make the dough rope slightly more than double the size of the wiener for proper coverage.

With this recipe, I ended up with double the amount of dough needed for 8 buns, so I plan to use the other half of the dough for monkey bread or more sausage buns. They are sitting in the freezer waiting for their purpose in life :). I hope you make these buns soon. They are fantastic. If you're a yeastaphobe, these are a pretty easy and fun introduction to making bread.

Paella Pan Giveaway Winner: According to the Random Generator, out of 51 valid entries, the winning number is 26, which is scrambledhenfruit!! Congratulations! Email me ASAP with your contact information.

I am submitting this post to yeastspotting!

Sausage Buns

Adapted from Hearty Bakes and jleung on Fresh Loaf

If you possess a scale, please weigh your ingredients instead of using measuring cups.

400 g (1 3/4 cup) Bread Flour
100 g (almost 1/2 cup) Plain Flour
1 Tbsp instant yeast
100g (almost 1/2 cup) castor or granulated sugar
1 tsp salt (I used kosher)
220 ml (~3/4 cup) warm water (110 degrees F)
75 g (1/3 cup) soften butter (I used unsalted)
16 Hot dogs or sausages (I put 16 because with 8 wieners, I still had another bunch of dough left)
Egg wash (1 beaten egg + 1 Tbsp water)

Preheat oven 190 degrees C/350 degrees F.

Mix bread flour, plain four, yeast, sugar, salt in the mixer bowl, and slowly pour in water. Knead the dough till gluten is formed. Add butter and knead till dough smooth & elastic. Leave aside to prove till double in bulk.

After proof or bread has risen, weigh and slice dough in equal weight (50g each/ping-pong ball size), and shape it round. Leave aside to rest for 15 minutes.

Next, roll the dough into individual long rod shapes, and allow them to rest for 5 minutes to relax the gluten. Roll out each log again and gently stretch them into thinner, longer logs. They'll need to be long enough to wrap around your sausage, so make them a bit more than double the length of the wiener or sausage.

[If you want the middle bulge of your bun to be bigger, you could also at this point taper the ends of your dough log by rolling the very ends a bit thinner until they form a point at each end.]

Wrap the log around the sausage and try to leave both ends on the bottom. That way, you can easily form a better seal by pressing the dough-wrapped sausage down on the ends. You'll want to place the shaped buns on a greased baking sheet, parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

Wrap dough over the each sausage, and place them on baking tray. Cover tray with plastic wrap or a damp cloth.

Leave them for final proof till double in size, estimated time about 30 minutes. When they start to look puffy, brush them lightly with the egg wash and sprinkle sesame seeds and/or sea salt (if using) on top.

Brush with egg wash on top of buns, and bake buns for about 20 minutes. Bake on the middle rack of a preheated 200C (~400F) oven for 8 minutes, and then 180C (~350F) for 5 minutes, or until they're golden brown.

Chocolate Sybil Cake

2010-07-06T04:22:00.003-05:00

I don't know who Sybil is, but she gave Paula Deen a fantastic recipe for Texas Sheet Cake. It is easier to make than another version I've made, yet tastes the same, if not better. I halved this recipe, and baked it in an 8x8 square pan, but I have posted the full recipe below. It is rare that I take a bite of something and have a food orgasm, and this cake definitely did that for me. I gobbled one of these slices so fast that I didn't realize I had eaten it all. It is so rich that I paired it with (skim) milk instead of vanilla ice cream, but if you have the stomach for it, go for the gold!

Since I didn't have any chocolate syrup at home, I made it myself using Alton Brown's recipe (posted below). It was easy to put together and gives you more than enough to make at least half of this cake. I have so much syrup left now that I can use the rest either for another one of these cakes or for chocolate shakes, ice cream, or chocolate milk.

Because my mom is in town, I won't be as active on my blog or visiting other blogs as much I usually do. I hope you all are enjoying your summer and that all the Canadians and USicans :) enjoyed their national holidays!

I will be posting the winner of the giveaway soon.

Cocoa Syrup

Adapted from Alton Brown

1 1/2 cups water
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups Dutch-processed cocoa (I used Guittard's Cocoa Rouge Dutch-Process Powder)
1/4 tsp kosher salt
2 Tbsp light corn syrup
1 Tbsp vanilla extract

In a medium pot, bring water and sugar to a boil and whisk in cocoa, salt, and corn syrup.

Whisk until all of the solids have dissolved. Reduce sauce until slightly thickened. Remove from heat, and add the vanilla extract. Strain and cool to room temperature. Pour into squeeze bottles or an easy-access container.

Other Uses: Squeeze into cold milk and stir for delicious chocolate milk, or serve on your favorite ice cream.

Chocolate Sybil Cake

Halved and adapted from Paula Deen's friend

Cake:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
16 oz (2 cups) of chocolate syrup (recipe above)

Frosting:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup evaporated milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (I omitted)

Prepare cocoa syrup first, and allow it to cool while making cake.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 13 by 9 by 2-inch pan.

Cake: Using an electric or stand mixer, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift or whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in another bowl. Add to creamed mixture while continuing to beat. Add vanilla and chocolate syrup to batter and mix well.

Pour into prepared pan, and bake for 25-30 minutes. Just before cake is done, prepare frosting.

Frosting:

Put butter, chocolate chips, sugar and evaporated milk in a saucepan over medium heat, and bring to a boil. Stirring ingredients together, boil for 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in vanilla and nuts (if using). Pour over warm/hot cake.

The Search for the Perfect Yellow Cake: Part 6

2010-07-03T23:04:00.025-05:00

Don't forget to sign up for the GIVEAWAY! The deadline is Monday, July 5th!

I think we found THE cake so far. The recipe comes from the baker at Cake Love, Warren Brown.You may have seen him a long time ago on Food Network's Sugar Rush.

This cake was easy to put together. I made three modifications based on previous cakes: 1) I used 1 egg yolk plus 3 eggs instead of 4 whole eggs; and 2) I used 6 oz of all-purpose flour with 3 oz of cake flour (9oz total) instead of 7oz of AP with 2 oz of potato starch (9oz total).

We plan to try out more yellow cake recipes, but so far, this one is my favorite. Lydia thought I had put oil in it, but it doesn't have a lick of oil in it. The batter is AMAZING. I would give the batter a 10 because I kept licking the beater and ended up licking the bowl and spoon once everything was in the oven, and I have never done that with any of these yellow cakes.

THE GOOD:
The texture of the cake is soft, light and fluffy, yet it is sturdy enough to be used in a strawberry shortcake cake or something requiring a wet or moist filling. It tastes close to, but better than a cake-mix cake in my opinion. It isn't spongy or oily. I would not call it moist; however, I wouldn't call it dry either. It just has a perfect texture. You could easily eat it without frosting (like Warren Brown did in his video that I posted below). In fact, that is what I did with the fallen pieces of cake that didn't get frosted.

I would pair the chocolate frosting with a quick type of buttercream instead of the "gourmet" one that requires melted chocolate and 3 sticks of butter. I used the latter, and my friend, my mother (SHE'S IN TOWN!), and I agreed that the frosting was overwhelming and distracted you from the cake too much.

THE BAD:
I can't think of anything bad about the cake. My mom couldn't either. That doesn't mean it was perfect, though; it was just really good.

THE UGLY (aka ratings): (ratings in bold because they were not present in the original post)
Memoria: 9/10 (C1: 6.5/C2: 5/C3: 0/Cake-Mix(C4): 8/C5: 7.5)
Lydia: 9/10 (C1: 5/C2: 5/C3: 0/Cake-Mix(C4): 9.5/C5: 7.5)
Memoria's Mom (new rater!): 8/10
Lydia's Husband: 10/10 (C1: 8.5/C2: 9/C3: 4/Cake-Mix(C4): 9/C5: 7)
My Neighbor: 9.5/10 (C1: 8.5/C2: 9/C3: N/A/Cake-Mix(C4): 9/C5: 7.5) He said the cake was moist and fluffy. He loved it.

Like I said, we will be looking at other recipes to see if there is something better out there, but so far, this is my favorite and is the winner . . . for now.

Yellow Butter Cake

adapted from Cake Love (linked to a great video of him making this cake)

6 oz (3/4 cup or 1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
14 oz (1 3/4 cup) superfine or regular granulated sugar (I used regular)
3 large, whole eggs (room temperature)
1 egg yolk (room temperature)
6 oz AP flour
3 oz cake flour
1 tsp salt (I used kosher)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup half-n-half
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
(Warren Brown also used 2 Tbsp of brandy)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (335 degrees if using a convection oven). Prepare your 8" or 9" cake pans (I used Baker's Joy).

Cream the butter and sugar for about 3-4 minutes. Add in the eggs one at time, making sure the batter is well-blended before adding another egg.

I love how yellow this batter is after adding the eggs!

In a separate bowl, whisk or sieve the flours, salt, and baking powder. In a (2-cup/16oz) liquid measuring cup, mix the half-n-half and extract. Pour in a 1/3rd of the dry and a 1/3rd of the wet ingredients and continue to alternate, ending with the flour mixture. The batter should be thick (and tasty).

No longer yellow but still very delicious!

Pour batter into cake pans, and bounce them on the counter to remove air bubbles and to make the batter even. Bake the batter for 30-35 minutes, or based on your own oven, which I'm sure functions better than my oven.

For the "gourmet" chocolate buttercream I used, go here. For the simple chocolate buttercream I recommend for this cake, look below.

"Cheaper" & "Simpler", Yet Still Tasty Chocolate Buttercream

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3-4 cups powdered sugar, to taste
3/4-1 cup cocoa powder, to taste
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
4-5 Tbsp milk, to desired consistency

Blend the butter on high for about 1-2 minutes. On LOW, add the powdered sugar one cup at a time. Add the cocoa powder. Once mixed well, add the vanilla extract and milk until desired consistency.

Happy 4th of July to all who observe this holiday!

UPDATE:

One of the readers of this blog asked about my reasons behind my changes to the recipe. I actually addressed them on previous posts about the yellow cake, but for sake of simplicity, I answered her questions in the comments section, but I thought it'd be helpful to post my reasons here.

1. 1 yolk + 3 eggs instead of 4 whole eggs: To make the batter/cake more yellow and less eggy-tasting. It didn't make the batter look more yellow but before adding the flour and half-n-half, it looked yellow (look at the next to last photo above). Also, we had another cake that called for 4 eggs, and it tasted eggy.

2. Cake flour instead of Potato Starch: I didn't have potato starch and felt it unnecessary to purchase it for a cake. I also wanted a recipe where most ingredients are accessible and usually found in most homes. Even though not everyone has cake flour, I believe it is more present in homes than potato starch. Since Warren Brown of Cake Love said that the protein amount for the cake flour was different from that of potato starch, I adjusted the ratio of AP vs. cake flour. The cake flour makes the cake lighter, and the all-purpose makes it a bit more dense.

Chicken, Shrimp, & Chorizo Paella & A Giveaway!

2010-06-30T03:40:00.008-05:00

Two years ago, my mother and I went to Madrid, Spain. Once there, I was tempted to try paella, but the presence of seafood prevented me from doing so. You see, the only types of unfried seafood I like are very small shrimp (like in fried rice), baked salmon, and tuna fish in a can. The only types of fried seafood I like are fish (like in fish and chips) and shrimp. That's it. I don't like crab, lobster, mussels, crawfish, or anything else that resembles how it looked when it was alive haha. I don't like slimy food either, so yeah, I had to stay away from the paella. I did, however, try to taste just the rice portion of the paella one day, but I had to quickly wash out my palate (not "palette!") because I could still taste the seafood or clam juice in the rice. From that day on, I had decided that the only way I would be able to have paella would be to make it myself, but at that time of my life, I wasn't a cook at all. So, I just gave up on that dream until a few days ago!

After corresponding with Sarah Jay (read how she started the company!), the founder of Paella Pans, which is a small, family-run business, I received a pan imported from Valencia, Spain in only a matter of days.

I found a recipe for Chicken Paella on her website and examined it anxiously every day as I waited for the pan. I almost had it memorized. My yellow-cake friend, Lydia, was with me when the pan arrived, and we were both impressed with how the pan looked and how big it was. I was beyond excited to try it out and felt like the luckiest person in the world.

A couple of days later, I made the yummiest paella I had ever had (out of two paellas total haha!). Lydia said that it looked incredible, and my neighbor said it looked like the real thing even without the big prawns and mussels, and they both used to live in Spain.

The pan from various angles: I stuck the tag back on this pan so you could see from whence (hehe) this pan came.

So, first let me talk to you about this company and this pan that was graciously given to me for me for review. It is a 14" pan made of carbon steel, which is considered the most popular and most used in Spanish households. The company, also sells pans made with enameled steel, stainless steel (so shiny!), pata negra (literally means "black foot/paw (of an animal)"), and flat-bottom pans. Not only do they have pans on their site, but they also sell authentic ingredients for paella, such as bomba rice, chorizo, pimentón (with an accent on the "o"!) dulce or sweet paprika, and saffron or azafrán of various sizes. They also have recipes and tips on making a successful and authentic paella. Okay, enough links for now! I'm just really excited about this company, its products, and especially the founder. She is such a lovely lady with whom I've interacted via email for quite some time now.

The bottom of the pan and its handle: look at the bubbles or dimples at the bottom of the pan; they are there to promote even heating.

As an instructor of college-level Spanish, it is refreshing to see how her excitement for the Spanish language and culture encouraged her to start a business for importing paella-related products directly. Now, that's what I call ambition and drive. I hope some of my students get that excited about learning Spanish and various cultures different from their own.

Anyway, back to the paella. Because I wanted to make this paella asap, I did not get to try out the ingredients on the Paella Pans website, but I did use similar products.

For instance, I used bomba rice that I obtained from Williams-Sonoma...

That's the most classiest-looking rice container I've ever seen.

I also used Spanish chorizo...

Yum!

...pimentón dulce (purchased in bulk for only .39 cents!), and saffron.

You can see the packaging of the chorizo in the top right corner.

The chicken as pictured was not fully done, so I had to cook that some more when I returned home from my friend's house (I don't have a photo of that because it was devoured quickly by my neighbor and me for dinner). Lydia, her husband, and I gobbled up the shrimp and chorizo, though, while pushing the lemon slices aside haha.

As Sarah writes in the recipe, don't pull out any plates for this dish; eat the paella directly from the pan itself. YUM! I want to make this again very soon.

¡Buen provecho!

After some serious damage, I still had plenty of leftovers. I still need to work on making the socarrat or the crusty, crispy layer formed under the rice, but look at that garlic!

I made only two additions to this recipe - the chorizo and shrimp. I cooked the deveined and peeled shrimp in a separate pan, but you could cook up all the meats together since the pan is so large or one at a time and then place them in a separate plate to rest. Don't cook the shrimp up too much because it will go back in the pan along with the rice later on. Just cook them until they turn a slight peach-looking color. Make sure the chicken is cooked pretty well, though. I had to cook the chicken for about 30 minutes, and that still wasn't long enough, so cook it longer than that. The chorizo is already dried and cured, so you don't need to cook it for very long. For the full recipe, go to the site.

For your entertainment, I have some process photos below and a special announcement you don't want to miss!!

PAELLA IN THE MAKING:

Boil chicken broth; toast and crush saffron, and add to boiled broth.

Cook the peppers and garlic; cook the meats and veggies and set them aside; peel the covered, hot bell peppers

Make the compote comprised of grated tomatoes and onions.

Add the Spanish or short/medium-grained rice before adding the broth and the rest of the ingredients that have been set aside while keeping the whole garlic in the middle of the pan.

ANNOUNCEMENT!

Okay, now for the exciting news! Paella Pans has graciously allowed me to sponsor a giveaway for one of their 14" carbon steel pans - just like the one I now have - to one of you all!!

MINIMUM QUALIFICATION: Because this is a small company, this giveaway is open to residents of the contiguous United States only.

TO ENTER THE PAELLA PAN GIVEAWAY: All you have to do is go to their site and tell me what you would like to either make or buy there if you could.

DEADLINE: Monday, July 5th, 2010. ¡BUENA SUERTE! GOOD LUCK!

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!
HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!

Daring Bakers: Pavlovas, Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse, and Crème Anglaise

2010-06-27T19:57:00.005-05:00

The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers’ to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard.

I did it! Even in the midst of the yellow cake experiment, two upcoming giveaways (yes, you read right!), and a frustrating, DB experience last month, I was able to pop out this lovely dessert for the DB Challenge! Woohoo! Go me!

Okay, with the exception of my favorite white cake, I abhor, detest, can't stand, don't like anything made of primarily egg whites.That includes macarons, meringues on top of pies, angel cake, and ...pavlovas. Needless to say, I didn't make that part of the dessert, but I did make everything else, including the mascarpone.

This mascarpone was so smooth. Can you tell?

Unlike last month's challenge, everything progressed quite smoothly for this challenge. I made the mascarpone last night, and then I made all of the other components today. The only things that went wrong were the piping of the mousse and whipping of the heavy cream for the crème anglaise mixture.

For some reason, the mousse would not come out completely out of my (new) #1M piping tip. It kept clogging up the nozzle. So, I just spooned out the mousses into the goblets. In regard to the heavy cream, it wouldn't whip up completely for some reason. I've never had that problem before so I ended up making three batches of the stuff until it finally whipped up right.

Egg Yolks and Sugar: The Beginning of the Crème Anglaise

Clockwise: Mascarpone added to crème; whipped together; whipped cream added; done...I guess.

ADJUSTMENTS TO THE RECIPE: I never post the recipe to DB challenges on here because they are so long, and are available everywhere by this time of the month haha. I only post adjustments or additional recipes I used not included on the challenge. Anyway, I added some powdered sugar to the whipped cream that was added to the crème anglaise. Also, after seeing what Barbara did to her mousse, I added some mint extract to my mousse, but I accidentally added too much, which leads me to my impressions of this dessert...

Clockwise: cream, milk and lemon zest; chopped chocolate courtesy of Guittard; chocolate added to milk mixture; chocolate base done

TASTE: This dessert is EXTREMELY rich as you would expect with all the heavy cream in it. I completely understand why this is more of a topping for pavlovas - to contrast with the lightness of it. I think it still tastes good the way I did it; I just won't be able to eat all of one goblet in one sitting, though. I'm not typically a fan of chocolate with fruit, so I just put the blueberries on top for decoration and moved the fruit aside hehe.

Folding process of the mousse

Thanks for a great challenge, Dawn. To see what the others have done and the recipe, go here.

The Search for the Perfect Yellow Cake: Part 5

2010-06-26T03:53:00.002-05:00

This cake was my favorite so far, but it still has a long way to go. It comes from Martha Stewart. I baked it in my oven, so it wasn't fully done in the middle, but it still had the prettiest, external color out of the five cakes we've made :(.

I picked this recipe because it had oil in it just like what is required in cake-mix cakes. The batter came out so runny that I added a little more flour to make it thicker. It was still not very thick, but I didn't want to change the recipe too much so that I could have a fair judgment of the cake. I forged on with this batter because it reminded me of the batter of my favorite chocolate cake recipe, which is also very runny.

For the frosting, I made the cheap variety like I did in the second cake; however, I also added some leftover frosting I made for another cake (I will blog about this later). So, the texture of the frosting was gritty but tasty.

Let's proceed to the ratings, shall we?

THE GOOD: I liked how moist it was. I liked the flavor. It didn't taste "eggy" like the second one did, and it was pretty yellow for not having dye. Lydia liked it and said it would be a good rum cake. I just took her word for it because I don't drink :).

THE BAD: It was also too moist. Some oil even sort of leaked out of the cake as my fork sank through a piece. That could be because it was not fully done, but I really think there's too much liquid in the batter. My neighbor said this cake was spongy. I think that is a good quality, but he felt it was a bad one, and its spongy state contributed to his lower rating.

THE UGLY:
Memoria: 7.5/10 (C1: 6.5/C2: 5/C3: 0/Cake-Mix(C4): 8)
Lydia: 7.5/10 (C1: 5/C2: 5/C3: 0/Cake-Mix(C4): 9.5)
Lydia's Husband: 7/10 (C1: 8.5/C2: 9/C3: 4/Cake-Mix(C4): 9)
The Neighbor: 7.5/10 (C1: 8.5/C2: 9/C3: N/A/Cake-Mix(C4): 9)

As you can see, Lydia and I feel more differently about most of these cakes than the two other raters with the exception of this one and the Duncan Hines cake. Case in point, this cake received the highest rating Lydia and I have given one of the from-scratch cakes and the lowest rating from one of the other two judges. I hope that when we find THE cake, we will all be in consensus or at least close enough.

Because Lydia and I think highly of this cake, we plan to work on this recipe to reach the quintessential cake. I will post only the final result. In the meantime, I will have something special for you all on Monday that has absolutely NADA to do with yellow cake.

Martha Stewart's Basic Yellow Cake

slightly adapted and found on Slice of Feist

4 1/4 cups flour (I added an extra 1/4 cup, so I used 4 1/2. I also used half cake flour & AP flour.)
3 1/3 cups sugar
3 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 3/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
3 large eggs plus 1 yolk
1 3/4 cups warm water (warm up cold water for 1 minute)
2 cups buttermilk
3/4 cups vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 360 degrees, and prepare cake pans.

In a mixing bowl, sift all dry ingredients together.

I use the whisk to sieve the dry ingredients.

Slowly beat in all of your other ingredients.

I think the the eggs and vanilla should be mixed in a bit before adding the other liquids to avoid small, drier clumps of batter. I also think the amount of liquids should be reduced.

Bake cake at 360 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until slightly brown on top and firm to the touch.

You would think the cake was done at this point, right?

[It was hard to strictly follow these steps above. I really think you should add the wet ingredients in more moderation than is described here. When I revamp this recipe, I will give more detailed instructions.]

The Search for the Perfect Yellow Cake: Part 3 "and 4"

2010-06-26T00:00:00.004-05:00

The "diet" cake

Okay, so on Friday Lydia and I decided to make one cake each. She made a "diet" version of a yellow cake from her grandmother that ironically called for a pint of heavy cream but no butter. I don't really know what is "diet" about that cake, but that is what the grandmother called it haha.

The "Cake-Mix" Cake

(*sigh* my photos are getting worse and worse. I don't know why.)

Along with making that cake, Lydia decided to make a cake mix version of the yellow cake to make a fair comparison of the best from scratch cake. We never planned on doing that, so I was pleasantly surprised she did it. Meanwhile, I made a Martha Stewart recipe that I will blog about next.

So, I drove over to Lydia's house with my cake, and she cut two slices (one for me and one for my neighbor) from each cake she made. After tasting my cake and her two cakes, I became so sick of yellow cake hahaha. We are now both so tired of this stuff! So, after I post about cake 4, you won't be hearing about more cakes until next week (Is that okay, Ingrid? haha). I would take a longer break, but I know that Esi's and Lydia's birthdays are coming up.

Anyway, let's proceed to the good, bad, and the ugly aka the ratings for the "diet" cake...

THE GOOD: I don't think there was anything good about this cake. So, let's proceed to the bad...

THE BAD: Everything. The texture, taste, and look were terrible! It tasted so badly that I had to spit out my first bite.

THE UGLY aka THE RATINGS:
Memoria: 0/10
Lydia: 0/10 (she's disappointed at her grandmother even more now hahaha!)
Lydia's Husband: He probably won't be tasting this since she threw it in the dumpster already haha.
The Neighbor: I didn't bother giving him a slice. That would be mean haha.

I think it would be mean for me to share the recipe of the "diet" cake, so I'll just talk about the cake mix cake. Again, my friend made this cake in order to gain a fair comparison of the scratch cakes to this one. She used the Duncan Hines cake mix. Also, she used store-bought frosting because she messed up her homemade frosting by using granulated sugar LOL! She's too cute. That's something my mother would do. Anyway, here's what we thought:

THE GOOD: The color was great. The texture was even and nice. The taste was just what it was supposed to taste like. What more can I say? haha

THE BAD: They use DYE to make the color great. Here we were working hard to make the cake yellow with eggs, only to find out that we will never reach that level of yellow without dye haha. While the cake was moist, I thought it could stand to be a bit more moist. It lacked in vanilla flavor.

THE UGLY:
Memoria: 8/10 (This may be because I'm so sick of yellow cake, though)
Lydia: 9.5/10
Lydia's Husband: 9/10
The Neighbor: 9/10 (he said it was pretty close to the taste of the second cake; he also said it was moist)

Stay tuned for the next cake! I will post it in a few hours.

The Search for the Perfect Yellow Cake: Part 2

2010-06-25T20:07:00.007-05:00

Okay, here is the second attempt. Click here for the first cake we made.

I didn't get any good photos of this cake because it kept sliding. Someone impatient forced me to ice the cake after waiting 40 minutes for the cake to cool. Needless to say, it was still warm.

This time around, we tried the long-awaited recipe of my partner-in-crime, Lydia. The difference with this recipe was that it wasn't based on making a mix, so I didn't have to use my disastrous powdered milk. Another difference was that this cake required four eggs instead of the two in the previous cake. A plus about this recipe was the amount of vanilla required - 2 1/2 TABLESPOONS!

Surprisingly, this cake didn't come out as yellow as the first one even with two extra eggs. However, even though it was cooked better since we used her oven, it didn't taste better than the first. Because we made the cake at her house, we had to make some modifications. First, we used a hand mixer that caused flour to fly everywhere at the beginning of the process hahaha (everytime I use a hand mixer, I am once again thankful I have not one, but two stand mixers (thanks, mom and Pioneer Woman!). Also, I forgot to bring my cake pans, and she didn't have any (gasp!), so we used a 9x13 pan. The cake thus didn't look as prototypical as the first cake, but I knew that wouldn't affect the flavor and our judgment of the cake. Her husband had to go to the store to get baking powder because I forgot to bring that too, and I had to make a flour/butter base to the pan like back in the old days instead of using my beloved Baker's Joy (such an appropriate name for this spray).

The frosting looks different on this one because I made a simple, cheaper frosting that required only cocoa powder, powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, and milk. So, there was no melted chocolate and 3 sticks of butter this time around. I also made a cheaper type of frosting so that the testers would focus more on the cake than the frosting because they did the opposite on the first cake haha. Once we find THE cake, we will try it again with the good frosting.

THE GOOD: Lydia loved the salient taste of vanilla in this cake and plans to modify future cake recipes with this amount of vanilla. The texture was much softer and "spongier" than the first. Even with the hand mixer, this cake was easier to put together than the first because the intention of the cake was not to make a dry mix but to make a cake. With a better oven, this cake baked much more evenly. Most importantly, this cake didn't taste like sweet cornbread.

THE BAD: When I took my first bite, I tasted the eggs. I didn't like that issue at all. Also, even with two more eggs than the first, the cake was much lighter in color. This cake didn't knock my socks off at all. I thought the first cake even with its problems was better than this one.

THE UGLY AKA RATINGS (rating of previous cake in parentheses):
Memoria: 5/10 (Mel's Cake 6.5/10)
Lydia: 5/10 (Mel's cake: 5/10)
Lydia's Husband: 9/10 (Mel's cake: 8.5/10) He preferred this cake over the other.
The Neighbor: 9/10 (8.5/10) He's the preferred this cake over the other.

My friend was greatly disappointed and became very sad and despondent after this cake test because this recipe was supposed to be her grandmother's tried-and-true recipe. She stated that she thinks that it wasn't because she remembered it being as yellow as the ones you see on the cake mix boxes. Then, she was forced to suspect that her grandmother had always made those cakes from a mix instead of from scratch. I then told her about my story of finding out that my stepmother, a reported baker of many wedding cakes and such, just doctored up cake mixes. Lydia was really affected by this cake test. I told her that it was okay because we are looking for THE ONE, and that we will find it.

On that note, I think that all these tests will cause us to just create THE recipe at the end of it all. We are taking note of what we like in our attempts and will be adapting upcoming recipes with our preferences. So far we plan to use some egg yolks and more vanilla in our future recipes. I have found quite a few recipes, and we plan to try them all. I hope you're still onboard. I need to hurry up for Esi's birthday, so I hope I can find one soon hahaha.

Here is the recipe, if you're curious.

Lydia's Grandmother's Yellow Cake

1/2 cup of whole milk, room temperature
4 eggs, room temperature
2 1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cup of cake flour
1 1/2 cup of sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cool

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour your 8-inch cake pans or a 9x13 pan, or use Baker's Joy or the like.

Blend milk, eggs, and vanilla together in a liquid measuring cup. Blend flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together in the mixing bowl. Cut the butter into tablespoons, and add the butter to the dry mixture. Mix the mixture well until you form small to medium chunks of butter deeply encased in the dry mixture.

Upon seeing this photo of my friend's hand on my computer, I instantly realized that these moments of making yellow cake will forever be in my memory and thoughts. Even though this photo is blurry, it is so comforting to see her hand caressing my silver bowl. *sniff* haha

Next, mix in ONE CUP of the liquid ingredients. Once mixed, add the rest of the liquid ingredients. Do not overmix!

Pour the mixture into the pans, and bake for 20-25 minutes if using cake pans and 30-35 minutes for 9x13 pan.

"Cheaper" & "Simpler", Yet Still Tasty Chocolate Buttercream

BBQ Chicken and Macaroni & Cheese

2010-06-25T02:17:00.002-05:00

I was craving barbecue. I was sifting through one of my now favorite blogs, Deep South Dish. I found a recipe for BBQ chicken on it. I looked for a recipe for a copycat of my favorite BBQ sauce at my FAVORITE BBQ restaurant, Rudy's BBQ (the "sauSe"). I ran to the kitchen and made BBQ chicken, macaroni and cheese, and green beans. I took photos. I prayed for my meal. I ate the meal heartily. I thanked God again for the ability to make such a wonderful meal. The End.

I hope you make this meal soon. It would be even better on the grill, but if you don't feel like using it like me, then make it in the oven. Just be sure to line your jelly roll pan with foil for easy cleanup!

BBQ Chicken

adapted from Deep South Dish

Brine for a moist, flavorful chicken:
2 lbs drumsticks (about 6), with or without skin based on your preferences
2 Tbsp of kosher salt
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

Fill a large pot or container with enough water to cover the chicken well. Whisk the salt into the water until dissolved; whisk in the vinegar. Add the chicken, and refrigerate for 6 to 8 hours, or overnight.

Dry Rub Marinade for added flavor, spice and a kick!:
2 Tbsp paprika
1 tsp freshly-cracked pepper
1 Tbsp brown sugar, packed
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp celery seed (didn't have)
2 tsp of Cajun seasoning, or to taste
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder

Remove the chicken from the brine, and drain well. Discard the brine. Pat the chicken pieces dry, laying out on a platter or baking sheet that will fit in the fridge. Combine the dry rub ingredients and rub the chicken well with the dry rub, cover loosely, and refrigerate one to several hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the rubbed chicken pieces on a rack on a foil-lined large baking sheet. Bake for approximately 45-60 minutes. [Use your tongs for this!] Turn the chicken over after 25-30 minutes. After 40-50 minutes, add the BBQ sauce on both sides with a brush or via a squeeze bottle. If you're a sauce lover like me, add more sauce once they are done.

For instructions on how to grill the chicken, go to the source.

Copycat Recipe of Rudy's BBQ Sause (with an "s")

from Beth's Favorite Recipes who adapted it from Chaos in the Kitchen

Combine all ingredients in a large pot. Simmer until slightly reduced.Store in a covered container in the refrigerator.

Quick Stovetop Macaroni and Cheese

1/2 lb macaroni shells
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp regular flour
2 cups WARM milk
2 tsp mustard or dry mustard
kosher salt to taste
pepper to taste
1-2 cups of cheese that melts, to taste (I used regular American cheese because that was all I had)

Cook pasta according to instructions (al dente). Make a roux by melting the butter in a separate saucepan and then adding the flour. Cook the roux for about 3 minutes, and stir frequently. Add the WARM milk 1/4 of a cup at a time at the beginning. Stir between each addition. Once you can no longer see the bottoom of the saucepan, add more milk in generous portions until you use it all. Add the mustard, salt, and pepper. Stir in the cheese until it tastes cheesy enough for your tastes. Turn off the heat.

Immediately, add in the al dente pasta, and then stir well. Once pasta is well-coated, you're done.

The Search for the Perfect Yellow Cake: Part 1

2010-06-23T00:00:00.026-05:00

My friend and I have decided to search for the perfect yellow cake. The idea for this search started when my friend told me that she was craving a yellow cake with chocolate frosting - the prototypical cake in my mind. She asked me if I knew of a good recipe, and I told her that I didn't. Thus, the search began.

We then planned to meet each other once a week and try out a recipe. On the first week, we were hoping to try out the recipe from her grandmother because she says that it was her favorite growing up. After weeks and weeks of begging for the recipe, she was never able to get it from her grandmother until today! We will be trying out that recipe tomorrow, so I will keep you posted.

As you can see, I didn't bother with fancy decorations. The point was to test the cake.

On this post, I present to your our first attempt. At the end of the post, I will give you the rating we and two other people gave on this cake. This first recipe comes from one of my most reliable food blog for good recipes - Mel's Kitchen. I love her recipes and get excited about just about any recipe that pops up.

When she blogged about a homemade yellow cake mix recipe, I was so excited. I was even more excited that I had all the ingredients in my apartment already, including the powdered milk....ahhh, the powdered milk (from hereon, we will call this ingredient PM). After making the batter, we tasted it and were surprisingly disappointed. The PM was the most salient taste; it really tasted off. Nevertheless, we forged ahead, baked, and frosted the cake with my favorite chocolate frosting.

My beloved, overheated oven caused the cake to burn around the edges while the center was still not done. I continued to bake the cake and then cut off the burnt, crusty tips. After frosting the cake, I cut into it in order to take photos. The knife struggled through the burnt, overly-done edges of the cake and then I pulled out the piece only to reveal an underdone cake! I cut another piece that looked a bit better and took photos of it instead.

We tasted the cake reluctantly and were disappointed. My friend was more disappointed than I. I think the problem primarily came from the powdered milk and the oven. I should have used a newer box of PM and maybe I could have ground it up a bit before adding it to the cake mixture because the granules were quite large. Also, I need to request the apartment owner to install a new oven for me hahaha. I hope I have luck with that. Anyway, everyone who tasted the cake loved the chocolate frosting, but that had nothing to do with the yellow cake in itself.

I finally used one of the blocks of chocolate given to me by Guittard in the frosting.

I love the design on it.

Here are the ratings:

RATINGS:
Memoria: 6.5/10
Lydia: 5/10
Lydia's husband: 8.5/10
My Neighbor: 8.5/10

So, the non-picky people gave the cake a much higher rating. I think if I were to fix the two problems mentioned above, the cake would dramatically improve. So, with that said, I wouldn't totally dismiss this recipe at all. I plan to try it again under better circumstances. Despite the negatives, this cake was moist and buttery. All the homemade yellow cakes I've made prior to this one tasted like sweet cornbread for some reason. This one tasted like a cake even with the problems it had.

For the next cake, we will be using my friend's oven, and this recipe doesn't require PM :). Stay tuned!

Homemade Yellow Cake Mix

from Mel's Kitchen Café

*Makes enough for two 9-inch layer cakes (bake according to recipe), or one 9X13-inch cake (bake for 30 to 35 minutes), or one 12-cup bundt pan (bake for 40 to 45 minutes), or 24 cupcakes (bake for 18 to 20 minutes)

2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups cake flour (or 1 1/4 cups plus 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour and 3 Tbsp cornstarch) 1/2 cup nonfat dry milk powder
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
16 tablespoons butter (2 sticks), cut into 1/2-inch pieces and chilled
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Process sugar, flours (or flour and cornstarch if making the substitution for the cake flour), milk powder, baking powder, and salt in a food processor for 15 seconds to combine. Add butter and vanilla and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal (you want this much finer than, say, a pie crust). Freeze the dry mixture in a zipper-lock bag for up to 2 months or use immediately.

To make the cake, adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour your pan of choice (I used Baker's Joy).

1 1/4 c warm water
2 large eggs, room temperature

With an electric or stand mixer, beat the prepared cake mix, warm water and eggs until the mixture is smooth, about 2 minutes.

Scrape the batter into the prepared cake pan(s) and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 25-27 minutes for two 9-inch layer cakes. See the note above the recipe for alternate cooking times with other baking pans. Cool the cake(s) in pan(s) for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack. Cool completely.

Chocolate Buttercream
from the Daring Baker's Dobos Torte. Recipe copied from PastryPal

4 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used Guittard semi-sweet chocolate)
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons cocoa powder, Dutch-processed
1 1/4 cups (125 g) powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Fill a pot with water, bring to a boil, and place a larger bowl filled with the chocolate over it. It will melt gently. Let the chocolate cool to lukewarm on the side.

Meanwhile, beat the butter until completely smooth. Add cocoa powder and beat in. Sift the powdered sugar directly over the bowl and beat that in.

In the top photo, you can see the Cocoa Rouge Powder. I love the dark red hue in this powder.

Next, in goes the vanilla and the melted chocolate.

Mix together, and place a crumb coating on the cake. Refrigerate or freeze the cake for 30 mins-1 hour. Then, add another coat of frosting.

*If you want to do a lot of decorating with his frosting, I suggest making another half portion of this frosting or doubling it.

Strawberry Shortcake Cake

2010-06-21T04:35:00.008-05:00

This Sunday, I went to a Brazilian-themed party that I later found out was a party in honor of the World Cup game with Brazil playing against the Ivory Coast. I arrived just in time to see the recap of the game, but since I'm not into sports, I was completely okay with that. I just wish I could have heard all the Brazilian guests yell after seeing their country win. I love witnessing that type of excitement.

The reasons I made this strawberry shortcake cake were threefold (one of my mom's favorite words): 1) I had bought a bunch of strawberries at Costco the day before; 2) I have been wanting to make this type of cake ever since I saw this beautiful one on the Good Mood Food blog, an Irish blog written by Donal Skehan; and 3) I wanted to bring a cake to the party. I chose this cake over the Pioneer Woman's version because she used sour cream in the cake, and you know how I feel about sour cream.

I changed around the recipe for the cake so much that I can only say that I was inspired by the Donal's recipe. For instance, instead of melting the butter, I blended it with the sugar as is done with most cakes I've made. Also, I felt that half of a stick of butter was not enough for a good cake, so I used a whole stick. The other major change I made was to sweeten the whipped cream instead. I couldn't imagine eating whipped cream without sugar! Blech!

Once the strawberry filling was placed on top of the cake layers, they started to slide (along with the filling), and it became a huge mess. Also, I was already running late, so that is why I didn't take photos of the process. I ~~angrily threw~~ placed the cake layers in the freezer for 30 minutes. Then, I made more sweetened whipped cream and covered the entire cake after cleaning the edges. I was very pleased with the end result. This was a very photogenic cake. I speak in the past tense because everyone ate that cake so quickly. It was gone before I knew it. Anyway, after I had frosted the cake, I placed it back in the freezer for 15 minutes just to be safe. After placing more strawberries on the cake and taking photos of it, I got ready to go to the party.

I placed the cake in the passenger seat and surrounded it with my camera bag and a VCR that I am planning to donate or recycle that was sitting in the backseat of my car. I then wrapped everything together with the seatbelt :). It worked. The cake didn't move one inch.

I drove up to my friend's house and was greeted by the sight of bright green and yellow shirts with "BRASIL" written on the front. I almost turned around because I didn't recognize any of the people on the stairs (remember my social phobia?). I reminded myself that there were people I did know inside the apartment, and that thought helped me muster up the courage to get out of the car. I hid as much as I could behind the cake and cake stand and muttered a brief "Olá" to the people outside and anxiously searched for a familiar face.

Once I walked inside, my anxiety increased even more because there were so many people in there that there was barely enough room to walk! Even the sight of a few of my colleagues did not assuage my increasing desire to run back home. Finally, my friend - the host of the party - spotted me and got so excited about my cake. I felt a bit better and less nauseated after seeing her and walking in the near-empty kitchen. I managed to eat a traditional and DELICIOUS Afro-Brazilian dish called Bobó de camerão over white rice (I am soooo going to make this very soon) that another friend/colleague had made. I then became part of an interesting 3-way conversation that lasted until 8pm!

I had to "stop the presses" in order to take this shot...

When the cake was taken out, almost everyone took a slice. I personally thought the cake wasn't sweet enough. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised since I'm aware that desserts in the U.S. tend to be sweeter than those made in other countries (correct me if I'm wrong!). Nevertheless, because the cake wasn't super sweet, I knew that the guests of this party, which was comprised of 90% Brazilians (there was also one Mexican (the host), an Argentinean and one German), I assumed they would like it. I was right. They raved over the cake and kept saying comments like "Que delícia, Memória!".

...and this shot. Look at the poor strawberry haha.

If I were to make this cake again, I would pick a sweeter cake as the base and use a regular frosting. I love sweet desserts, though, so ignore my preferences if yours are different haha. Despite the sweetness level, the whipped cream and strawberry filling tasted really good. I loved how soft everything was. It was a very comforting cake that felt very light even with the presence of heavy cream. If this cake sounds like your kind of dessert, you should definitely make it!

Strawberry Shortcake Cake

Inspired by Good Mood Food Blog

Cake:
1/2 cup (1 stick/113g) of butter, room temperature
1 1/8 cup (225g) of caster sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup (100ml) of milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup (210g) AP flour
2 tsp baking powder

Strawberry Filling:
1 pint (300g) of strawberries, washed and hulled
1/4 - 1/2 cup granulated sugar (depending on how sweet your strawberries are)
1 Tbsp cornstarch
juice of 1/2 lemon

Whipped Cream:
2 1/2 (550ml) heavy cream
1/2-3/4 cup granulated or powdered sugar, to taste
1 1/2 tsp CLEAR vanilla extract (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350F/175C/Gas 4, and grease and line two 8-inch cake pans.

Using a mixer, beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.

Mix the milk and vanilla extract together in a liquid measuring cup. Sieve or whisk the flour and baking powder together in a bowl. Then, pour the flour and milk mixture into the mixing bowl, alternating and ending with the flour.

Mix the batter completely until smooth and combined.

Divide the mix evenly between the two baking tins (or you can pour it all into one pan and separate it with a knife if you have a steady hand. I used two pans) and place in the oven for 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Allow the cake to cool slightly for about 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely. [While the cakes are cooling, place the whisk and bowl for the filling in the freezer!]

Filling and Topping:
When both cake layers are completely cooled, make the strawberry filling. Place the cut strawberries in a medium sauce pan along with the sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice. Heat to boiling and then remove the pan from the heat. With a potato masher or fork, mash the strawberries into smaller chunks. Allow the filling to cool while making whipped cream.
With the cold whisk and bowl, whip the cream until soft peaks form. Add in the sugar and CLEAR vanilla extract. [If you don't have clear vanilla extract, you could omit it or use the dark variety. Just know that it will change the color of the whipped cream.]

Assembly:
If the cake layers have a peak in the middle make sure to slice it off so you are left with perfectly flat layers. Place one layer face down on a cake stand and dollop with half the cooled strawberry purée. Then, add about a fourth to a third of the whipped cream, spread evenly. Carefully place the second cake layer on top and add the remaining strawberry purée. To avoid making the mess that I made, place the layers in the freezer for 30 minutes. After that time, add the remaining whipped cream generously. Feel free to garnish your cake with more hulled strawberries.

White Chocolate Mocha Cookies

2010-06-18T00:19:00.004-05:00

For some reason, I was craving cookies the other day. I was deciding between two recipes that both had espresso powder in them and decided on this one because it was more different from any cookie recipe I've done on the blog due to the addition of cocoa powder . The other recipe looked more like a regular chocolate chip cookie.

The day I made these cookies, I was not overly impressed. I allowed the rest of the dough to refrigerate for two days (I had planned to make more cookies out of this dough the next day, but I didn't feel like baking that day.), and it made a world of a difference.

I halved this recipe and still made almost 2 dozen cookies. After forming the balls of dough, I rolled them in sugar to add sparkle, and then baked them. After baking the cookies, I immediately mashed the rounded cookies slightly with the bottom of a measuring cup to make them have a different look. Lastly, in these cookies, I used the Guittard white chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, and cocoa rouge powder that the Guittard company sent me a while ago. I think they look much better than they did when I didn't roll them in sugar and left them rounded . They also tasted much better.

Is it weird to drink fat-free milk with decadent desserts? haha

Remember: These cookies are much better in a warm state and with cold milk!

White Chocolate Mocha Cookies

adapted from Home Sweet Eats

Yields about 3-4 dozen small cookies; can be halved easily.

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups AP flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder (I used Guittard Cocoa Rouge powder)

2 Tbsp instant coffee or espresso powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt (I always use kosher)

1/2-3/4 cup white chocolate chips (I used Guittard wafers)

1/2-3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used Guittard wafers)
1/4 sugar for dredging (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until fluffy. Add flour, cocoa powder, coffee powder, baking soda, and salt and mix until combined. Fold in chocolate chips.

Roll dough into balls; coat with sugar (optional), and set on baking sheet or Silpat. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. If your cookies are too rounded, immediately after taking the cookies out of the oven, press down on the cookies lightly with a measuring cup or the bottom of a cup.

White Chocolate Mocha Cookies