Never to be one who is shy of sharing my love of all things coffee related, today we bring to a mocha cupcake recipe that will blow your mind. Laced ever so lightly with wonderful coffee-flavored enhancers like Kahula, instant espresso powder and deep bitter chocolate, my friends, these cupcakes are sublime. They even turned the heads of non-coffee drinkers (yep they exist) into possible converts after experiencing this mocha cupcake.

It is almost June, where did the time go? It has been one of those months that you are shocked it is almost over. At least there is one saving grace among all the hustle and bustle of a busy work week — coffee! — which was the inspiration for me to finally make a mocha cupcake. Honestly, I slightly surprised myself when I realized there is not one already on the blog! But just to you know, this mocha cupcake recipe was worth the wait ;)

My co-workers were very pleased when I walked into work with a box of cupcakes (as they always are). The comments were so flattering, the common one being “What bakery did you get these at? They are amazing!” When I announced they were homemade and decorated by me, every wide-eyed jaw-on-floor look made every minute in the kitchen worth it. Even before the last crumbs were eaten and often with buttercream still on their fingers and lips, my co-workers were asking me for the recipe.

Slightly adapted from one of my previous chocolate cupcake recipe to suit coffee flavor because really, why mess with perfection, the frosting is a basic Swiss buttercream with a mix of Kahlua and instant espresso powder that allowed for no mistaking this was a coffee flavored buttercream. Wanting to add another dimension of chocolate to balance out the coffee in the buttercream and cake, I took a que from the ICB cupcakes and I added a layer of bitter ganache between the cake and the frosting. The overall cake was moist, full of coffee flavor with a subtle touch of chocolate to just let you know it was there and not over powering. The perfect cupcake for coffee lovers and the perfect cupcake to convert non coffee lovers. Enjoy!

Chocolate Espresso Cupcakes

Yields: 12-18 Cupcakes

• 3 oz Bittersweet Chocolate
• 1 oz Dutch-processed cocoa
• 3/4 cup Kahlua
• 3 tbsp instant espresso
• 4.50 oz All Purpose Flour
• 5.25 oz Sugar
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
• 6 tbsp (2.35 oz) Vegetable Oil
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 2 tsp Cider Vinegar
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare 12-18 cupcake molds with paper liners or two 8″ round cake pans. Heat the Kahlua up in the microwave, around 175°F, same temperature as a hot cup of coffee or tea.

In the bowl of your stand mixer add in the chocolate, cocoa powder, Kahlua, instant espresso. Mix on low until combined and smooth, all the chocolate should be melted. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and whisk to combine. In a large (two cup capacity measuring cup combine the vegetable oil, eggs, cider vinegar, and extract. Whisk to combine.

By now the chocolate mixture should be smooth and cool. Stop the mixer and add in 1/2 the flour mixture, and 1/2 the egg mixture. Continue to mix on medium speed until combined. Then continue for one minute  Turn the mixer off and scrape down the sides (if necessary) add in the remaining flour mixture and egg mixture, and mix on medium speed until well combined for two minutes. Scraping down the sides as necessary.

Fill prepared cupcake liners 3/4 full (one full ice cream scoop full, 4 tbsp size) and bake for 18-20 minutes until an inserted toothpick comes out clean, remove from oven. Leave in the pan to cool for 5 minutes before turning out to cool completely on a wire rack.

Bitter Espresso Ganache

• 1/4 cup Kahula
• 3 tbsp Instant Espresso
• 3 oz Bittersweet Chocolate
• 1/2 tbsp Unsalted Butter, cold
• 3 oz Heavy Cream

In a small bowl combine the kahula and espresso powder, microwave for 30 seconds until warm.  Stir to combine and set aside. Place the chocolate and butter in a bowl big enough to dip the tops of your cupcakes. Add one tablespoon of the kahula espresso mixture to the chocolate, reserving the remaining kahula espresso mixture for the buttercream frosting.

In a measuring cup, microwave the heavy cream until begins to boil. Pour the boiling cream over the chocolate and butter. Let set for two minutes. Stir to combine until smooth and glossy. Set aside to cool. Do not refrigerate.

Chocolate Truffle Swiss Buttercream Frosting

• 5 egg whites
• 2/3 c sugar
• 4 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• Remaining Kahula Espresso Mixture from Ganache
• 1 tsp Vanilla Paste

Prepare a medium sauce pan with 1″ of water and set to a low simmer. In a 2 quart bowl add in the egg whites and sugar whisk until well combined and slightly foamy. Place over the simmering water continue to whisk until you can no longer feel the sugar in the mixture. It should just feel smooth and glossy. Transfer to the bowl of your stand mixer and whisk on high speed until cool, about 3-5 minutes until the bowl feels cool to the touch.

Once the egg whites are cool with the mixer still on high begin adding in the butter 4 tbsp at a time. Once all the butter is in the mixture will look split and curdled, add in the vanilla and kahula espresso mixture. Keep whisking on high, stopping to scrape the sides as needed. It will come together and look like a frosting. Taste, for sweeter frosting add in powdered/frosting sugar until desired sweetness. Mix until combined, and use immediately or freeze for up to a month.

Assembly

Drip the tops of the cool cupcakes into the ganache. Refrigerate until cool and the ganache is not tacky to the touch. Pipe on the buttercream in desired pattern. Optional: Garnish with chocolate covered espresso beans and grated chocolate.

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

Because of the crisp texture of the amaretti biscuit along with the strong association to coffee the word biscuits tend to be a better descriptor then the word cookie, as some call it. They are crisp on the outside and very lightly chewy in the center. It’s the rich almond flavor that stands out to me making them the perfect accompaniment to coffee in it’s many fantastically addictive forms. Amaretti biscuits are one of my lost loves. There was this cafe in Vancouver, BC that sold them 4 for $1, and where my love affair began with amaretti. It is such a rich warm comforting flavor that helps you just wash all other thoughts away as the crispy exterior slowly erodes into the soft chewy meringue center. The rich almond flavor then washed away with the bitter notes in a warm cappuccino it was perfection after a long car ride, or night out.

Not only are they delicious with coffee but they make great additions to any dessert. The texture of the crunchy exterior and rich almond flavor that gives them a versatility that makes their possibilites in the kitchen limitless. They can be used in many desserts from cakes, pies, trifles, cupcakes. Crumble up some of the cookies and create a textural delight of a layered dessert with some fresh berries and cream. A great addition to trifle or a pudding style of dessert to add extra texture and a wonderful look, or just crumble a few cookies over the layer of custard based pie and they will add amazing flavor and texture. Another thing to note my friends, are these are gluten free. If you are a biscotti with coffee type of person these are a fantastic replacement.

The amaretti biscuits do last for quite a while if stored properly. They can be prepared, cooked, and you can have the mess cleaned up in about 30 minutes, which to many is a big plus. They do not require that you have a food processer, at least 4 cup capacity, but it does make it easier to prepare. The recipe originally asked for 2 egg whites, but I found I needed to add another half egg white from a 3rd egg to get the correct texture from the cooked product. Adding in half of an egg white is easier then you might think. Just scramble up the white and then it is easy to add in just half of the white to the mixture as you have broken up the proteins that generally hold it together.

I also learned a fantastic trick, I had to share. After the cookies have cooled for about 5 minutes turn them upside down on the tray so the parchment is now the top and the cookies are face down on the tray. With a wet paper towel, wipe the bases of the cookies through the parchment, and pull the parchment slowly away from you while gently easing the cookies off. This technique with the residual heat of the cookies will make them easy to remove with out tearing out the chewy center. This also provides you with further ease in transferring them to a cooling rack.

Amaretti Biscuits

Yields: 40 Biscuits
Adapted: Joy of Baking

1 c Bakers (Castor) Sugar
8 oz Almond Paste
2-3 Egg Whites
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Preheat oven to 375°F. Prepare a 16″ or larger pastry bag with a round tip and set aside. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper and In the food processer add in the sugar, almond paste, two egg whites and vanilla. Blend until smooth. Add in half of the white from the third egg. Blend until completely smooth and no lumps of the almond paste remain. It should be the constancy of cake batter. Pour into the prepared pastry bag, and drop 1-1.5″ rounds on the prepared cookie sheets with a 1″ space between each cookie. Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes until a deep golden brown.

Cool for 5 minutes and remove from parchment, see technique in the post, transfer to cooling rack and cool completely. Store in cookie jar for up-to two weeks.

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

I want to start out by saying that for me, Valentine’s Day is an overrated holiday in which men and women – mostly men – spend too much money on disposable items. The items offer only temporary enjoyment which is more for the recipient’s onlookers like friends and colleagues than themselves. It is a visual form of gratification and self-promotion to all onlookers. The more money spent shows how much they are supposedly loved and adored by the giver, and the receiver then desires a secret feeling of contempt and jealousy from onlookers. Which to me is just a mean and spiteful and complete opposite of what the day is supposedly celebrating.

Personally, I do not really believe in such a silly day. I don’t believe love is shown in chocolates, and expensive flowers or dinners on one day in a year. I believe that love is shown in many ways that cost nothing throughout the entire year. A tissue and a shoulder to cry on when you are sad. A firm grip of your hand when you are scared. A silly joke to make you smile when you’ve had a bad day. To me those free actions show love every day of the year, and a surprise date night mean more then any one scheduled day in a year could. For mostly my own stubborn reasons and personal beliefs in what love is, I used to boycott Valentine’s Day a child and even still to this day as an adult. I used to threaten boyfriends if they attempted to give into such nonsense I wouldn’t talk to them. My husband gets glares as we pass the pink and red colored aisle in a store. He laughs and thinks I am stubbornly cute.

Now, you are saying to yourself “OK, lady I don’t get you. You say you dislike the idea of Valentine’s Day yet you are making heart cupcakes?” That is easy. It’s for the kids, and what kids wouldn’t like cupcakes. I don’t believe in a lot of things but I would never impose my thoughts or beliefs on anyone’s kids. If they want hearts, things of pink and red with little cards that say “I choo, choo, choose you” with a happy little cartoon drawing of a train smiling, then I will gladly put on a smile and sign the card. Maybe even sprinkle glitter over it all, and make these double chocolate cupcakes with little sugar harts. Children have to deal with so much now a days if I can do anything to help keep a child a little more innocent I will. Even if it involves making red chocolate hearts.

The cupcakes are going to be part of a Valentine’s Day decorating day for my friends two girls. The youngest is having a birthday in March and we are going to brainstorm her birthday cake. I didn’t want to leave the older sister out so I am making a bunch of sugar cookie hearts to resemble conversation hearts and then letting them both write in messages to give to their mom and grandma for Valentine’s. The cupcakes are a gift to the family from me. Sometimes, my cynical side subsides just long enough when kids are involved to let me give in to what I would normally think would be a nonsensical day.

These are the perfect double chocolate cupcakes. They are just very slightly modified from ATK’s. They are awesome and only changed because of what I had on-hand. They are great with the creamy rich buttercream. This is my very first attempt at an American buttercream. If you have read my blog at all you know I am a die hard Swiss buttercream fan. The frosting recipe is from a friend who got it from her mom who got it from her aunt who now lives in the UK. I don’t know the original source but I did convert the grams on the recipe to ounces to make it easier for my American readers. The frosting is fluffy, creamy, easy to pipe, and just smooth. Which to me is new, all my experiences with American buttercream is gritty and overly sweet. This is just fluffy chocolate awesomeness. Slightly ashamed to admit that I was eating the left over by the spoonful, and even Frank was surprised at how good it was. So, give it a try. I think you will be surprised and quite pleased with the results. I do not think you will find a better accompaniment to these rich fluffy double chocolate cupcakes. I finished the cupcakes heart sprinkles and then with red melting chocolate drew out and filled hearts with some candy heart sprinkles to make it more Valentine-ish? Yep just made up a new word!

Double Chocolate Cupcakes

Yields: 12-18 Cupcakes / two 8″ layer rounds
Adapted: America’s Test Kitchen

• 3 oz Bittersweet Chocolate Chips
• 1 oz Dutch-processed cocoa
• 3/4 cup hot coffee
• 4.50 oz All Purpose Flour
• 5.25 oz Sugar
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
• 6 tbsp Vegetable Oil
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 2 tsp Cider Vinegar
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare 12-18 cupcake molds with paper liners or two 8″ round cake pans.

In the bowl of your stand mixer add in the chocolate, cocoa powder, and hot coffee. Mix on low until combined and smooth, all the chocolate should be melted. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and whisk to combine. In a large (two cup capacity measuring cup combine the vegetable oil, eggs, cider vinegar, and extract. Whisk to combine.

By now the chocolate mixture should be smooth and cool. Stop the mixer and add in 1/2 the flour mixture, and 1/2 the egg mixture. Continue to mix on medium speed until combined. Then continue for one minute  Turn the mixer off and scrape down the sides (if necessary) add in the remaining flour mixture and egg mixture, and mix on medium speed until well combined for two minutes. Scraping down the sides as necessary.

Fill prepared cupcake liners 3/4 full (one full ice cream scoop full, 4 tbsp size) and bake for 18-20 minutes until an inserted toothpick comes out clean, remove from oven. Leave in the pan to cool for 5 minutes before turning out to cool completely on a wire rack.

Chocolate American Buttercream

Yeilds: 30 oz Buttercream
Adapted: Family Friend

• 10 oz Unsalted Buter, softened
• 14 oz Powdered (Frosting) Sugar
• 2 oz Dutch Processed Cocoa Powder
• 2 tsp Vanilla extract
• 4 tbsp Milk

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the butter, sugar, and cocoa. Mix until combined yet still looks slightly dry like bread crumbs. Add in the vanilla and milk. Mix on high for 2 minutes until begins to look creamy. Scrape down the sides and mix for 5-7 until almost doubles in volume and pales in color to a chocolate milk color. Taste, continue to mix in 1 minute increments until you no longer taste the grit of the sugar and the mixture is smooth and creamy. Use immediately or seal in an air tight container and store for up to two weeks in the refrigerator. Bring the mixture up to room temperature and whisk to lighten before using refrigerated product.

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

In the last few weeks I had a few cake orders which are keeping me busy. The raspberry ombre cake was more for me than for anyone else. I wanted to try an ombre cake so badly. The opportunity presented itself and I took it! The cake was my basic white cake with a vanilla swiss buttercream. Then it was filled with raspberry jam between 4 thin layers, this added a perfect amount of tartness to the cake which made it much more palatable and easier to eat. I will be doing another one in the coming weeks, this time with a tutorial to show you just how easy this style is to do, and makes any simple cake less simple with a minimal amount of effort and time.

The birthday cake for one of my best friends, a pastry student was the chocolate coffee macaron tower cake. Me and her boyfriend plotted this cake weeks in advance. It was a surprise she had no idea to expect it and when she finally got it on her birthday, she knew looking at who made it. It was a fantastic surprise.

I tried a new technique I found for smoothing buttercream I found on you tube, which worked so beautifully I jumped up in down a little when it was done. The cake base was from the Raspberry Chocolate Cake filled with chocolate almond mousse with a layer of cocoa nibs. Then covered in a Kahula Swiss Buttercream, with more cocoa nibs pressed around the outer edge for some nice contrast.

The macarons were two types. A basic shell with no color topped with cocoa nibs to tie it all together. The filling was the left over chocolate mousse that was used to fill the inside of the cake. Then we used cocoa macaron shells, filled with the left over Kahula Swiss Buttercream. They provided a nice contrast in colors to the over all cake.

The one thing I wanted to change? Smaller shells around 1.5″ to surround the cone better. Which I picked up from the local craft store and wrapped in cling film. The macarons were tacked on to the cone with toothpicks. The result was my first attempt at a quite a number of techniques which I think resulted in a great birthday cake for a very dear friend.

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

I took some time away which many have noticed to take a step back and a look at my life. We are in a state of transition and exploration, which is new to us. The thought of a home and family isn’t as scary as it once was, even wistful at times. We liked our life, small apartment in the trendy part of the cities. With the hipsters, the bars, bistros, and numerous coffee houses. It worked for us, simple and fun. We made enough to get by, go out drinking with friends, have date nights. We had no real responsibilities like a car payment, or house payment, or anything really. Our days off when we got them together would be annoying cute like reading our books together on the couch with the cat asleep between us, and often movie night cuddled on the couch with a cup of tea. We are happy, we get along great, we make each other laugh all the time. Insanely, annoyingly, and completely in love. Yet in the last few months, things haven’t seem enough.

I worked for many many years retail. It is a business where everyone goes out and drinks after work, new friends were found, age doesn’t matter, it’s so much fun at times it doesn’t even seem like work. Think of Scrubs, the TV show, a work day for me was as fun and spontaneous and even as sarcastic as the show. Yet the down side is pretty big. The hours you work fluctuate daily, and weekly. Making plans more then a week out is unheard of. You have no sense of weekends or holidays. With the trend of “midnight opens” on black friday, and “open late” on christmas eve growing in the states. It often ment family was always put second, even if that family was just a amazing husband and a fluffy grey cat. I would always put work first, nominating to work the late shift on holidays since everyone I worked with had kids, parents, family that they wanted to spend the day with. Mine was 2000 miles away, so I felt it was right, making that sacrifice. Well it used to.

I realized that the entire time for years, I was putting my husband, and cat, second. I didn’t made enough to support my baking and Starbucks habit and help with a few bills. Seeing how insanely supportive he was and all he’s done for me just this last year alone is crazy. I mean look at the site he built for me not to mention his photos! I felt guilty. The late night talks about  owning a home, and starting a family were not getting closer with me not really contributing. In December I had the opportunity to get out of retail and I took it. At first it was hard, I loved my job, the guys I worked with were amazing. I got to talk and play video games for a job? I felt like a 20 year old every day at work, like I never had to grow up ever. It was a dream job come true for me, but it is not about just me anymore. Took 11 years later, and our second wedding anniversary to see that. I am just glad it was not to late. It takes a while to realize what you wanted but once you know what you want. It’s funny how it is so easy to see now, and you wonder how you missed it before. So it is time to grow up, and make “our” dreams come true. I won’t let them go completely, but… Goodbye Halcyon Days, the easy and calm days of a carefree youth.

I will always make time for this site, it’s my form therapy. I love it and it is something we do together that we both love and have fun with every post we make. He is even teaching me to use the camera! The cookie photo is mine too. So, in light of all the deep thoughts and goodbyes to the carefree days that I felt making our childhood favoriate cookie into a grown up version was a perfect symbol to the change. So with out further delay Thomas Keller’s Oreo’s.

Kahula American Buttercream

1 stick of butter, very soft
2 cups of powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2-3 tbsp Kahula

Mix the butter and powered sugar in a bowl until very pale and fluffy if it is too thick add the vanilla now. Just means your butter wasn’t soft enough yet. Mix on medium until you can barely feel the sugar grains, takes about 7-10 minutes. Add in the vanilla if you didn’t before and start with 1 tbsp of kaluah. Whisk on high until it gets fluffy but not runny. Keep adding Kahula as needed to thin out and get the desired taste. I ended up using just about 2.5 tbsps. The mixture should be very fluffy, keep in an air tight container until ready to use.

Thomas Keller Oreo

12 ounce butter
8.5 ounces sugar
13.4 ounces all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
4.5 ounces cocoa powder

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together on medium speed. Sift the dry ingredients together and add to the butter and sugar mixture until combined. It will be large crumbs and look dry, but it’s ok. Pour the dough onto the counter and press into a tight 1″ high square wrap in cling film and refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes. Roll the dough out to a thickness of 1/8 of an inch. Cut out cookies into desired shapes and place 1″ appart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or a silpat. I used a 2″ scalloped round and made a design with a toothpick to help so it didn’t puff when baked. Set your oven to preheat to 325°F and refrigerate the cut cookies for 20 minutes while the oven heats up. Bake for 14 minutes and let cool on a rack.

Once completely cool match up half’s and spread about 1 tsp of the buttercream on a half and sandwich together. Repeat until all the cookies are used, you may have left over buttercream will freeze up-to 1 month.

Recipe Source: Cookies | The Kitchn / Buttercream | S&S

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

Let me start this post by saying how sorry we are for how long it’s been since our last post. We have not been ignoring you guys! We have just been so-damn-BUSY. Between work, this event I am about to tell you all about, my bi-weekly D&D group, and the release of Borderlands 2 we have had zero time. Today however, is about me sharing with you this amazing experience we had, a simply amazing and delicious pear tart and how I think I am totally sick of chocolate. This is a little long, so bear with me if you can :)

About eight weeks ago I got a random tweet about joining this event called The Food Experiments National Tour. It was coming to the Twin Cities with a theme of pies and tarts (It has been touring major cities in the US with different themes for each). Initially I blew it off as just more random spam. When I finally did some research, I was floored – it was a real and legitimate contest and I figured “Why the hell not?” It took me about 3 days to finally enter and it was not because of my awesome procrastination skills this time. No, what took so long was the realization that we needed to put down what dish we were going to enter with upon registering.

Having to decide then and there what to make threw my brain into indecisive meltdown; sweet, savory, spicy, mild, complex, simple… argh! Too many options was making my brain whine and shut down. That final line in the entry form was left blank for a real long time. If I could not even fill out the form I was sure I would be doomed from the get go. No, I had to get past this – but nothing was coming! I laid my head on the desk at one point about to bust into tears when my mind wandered back to a few summers ago, when I made up the raspberry and frangipane bars that never made it to the contest they were intended for. That was it! Inspiration! I lifted my head up off the desk and typed out “A chocolate frangipane and pear tart.” I’d had this idea stuck in my mind for a while so now was the time to let the beast out.

On the entry form I was allowed to sign up a second person to help. I knew exactly who I wanted; my friend Jackie! She is going to culinary school with a focus on pastry – weird how we would get along right? – she’s super hyper (I’m pretty sure it’s 95% caffeine) and always stays amazingly positive. Exactly what I knew I would need to counter my inevitable freak-out mode. We have cooked and baked together before and I knew it was a good match.

We had 6 weeks, but with her going to school and us both working retail jobs, getting any days off to match up so we could work together was like winning the lottery. Finally, three days before the contest we finally got together and I made six different versions, each with different types of crusts, chocolate frangipane in varying amounts of chocolate and about 4 varieties of pears all done two different ways. Miraculously, Jackie and Frank were still not sick of chocolate. On the other hand, for me chocolate has all but lost its charm. I’ll give it a few months for my fondness for chocolate to come back, since I am sure it will not be permanent (I’m crossing my fingers).

We spent all of Saturday the 29th from 4pm until almost 4am working on the four 12×12″ tarts. Bedtime couldn’t come soon enough. I crawled into bed smelling of chocolate and vanilla – I suppose that’s not so bad, all things considered. The few hours of sleep I got were riddled with nightmares of broken tarts, raw pastry, and other general disasters. Around 9am I crawled out of bed and back into the kitchen to make one final tart as a display piece while Frank ran to the local kitchen store for boxes to transport the cause of my newest stress headache. Meanwhile Jackie was at home getting ready and making me the most awesome puffy chef hat to wear. This chick is crazy talented.

As we drove to the venue twenty minutes away, I was a tightly-coiled ball of nerves ready to spring like in a jack-in-the-box into a hysterical laughter of wound up nerves. To make matters worse, we arrived and were informed we were not on the ballot! (Wait, what??) There was no space for us and every table was full. Apparently no one planned on us showing up there as we had been mistakenly thought to have withdrawn.

So then I started to freak out a bit. Okay, more than a little bit. Apparently the misunderstanding came from when I emailed the event coordinator earlier in the week that due to conflicting work schedules we would miss the meet and greet/happy hour event the Friday before. However, we would be there Sunday to pick up our grocery voucher with our entry pastry in tow. It was just a misunderstanding that he thought we were withdrawing, but was he was very gracious about working to fix immediately.

As the jack-in-the-box inside me was about to pop and start downing copious amounts of beer – we were in a bar, after all – the coordinator and representative came up to us apologized profusely. By the time we came back with five large cake boxes from the car they had set us up with a table. I was beginning to calm down and things were looking up. We quickly got the pieces cut up and in sample dishes. Two hours flew by. People came up to our table trying samples and smiling. The feedback was so amazing, but as the saying goes ‘we are our own worst critics” and it was hard for me to fully acknowledge the gracious complements. I didn’t even taste my own tarts out of fear that they weren’t good! I don’t know what’s wrong with me.

Cutting up the tarts for the masses! / photo via City Pages

Another hour passed and it was my turn to take my entry to the judges. I was completely aware there were going to be a potential six winners. There would be three winners of the judges vote and three for the audience vote. The audience vote would win the big prizes. My goals were set high and damned if I didn’t want that win, but I had told myself I would be happy with winning the judges vote, since the panel was quite an impressive round up of local media personalities and chefs. Ultra-intimidating for a home cook!

photo via Brooklyn Brewery

• Jason DeRusha, Food Maven and Personality, WCCO-TV and DeRusha Eats
• Kim Ode, “Baking Central” Feature Writer, Minneapolis Star Tribune
• Thomas Boemer, Executive Chef of Corner Table
• John Kraus, Pastry Chef/ Owner of Patisserie 46

For me it was Chef Kraus who was the most intimidating. Here I am, a simple home cook giving a French pastry to man who is a French pastry chef. While standing in front of the judges I could not stop watching his reactions. I wanted him to love it. Hell I would have been ecstatic if he just would have swallowed it with a smile even if he hated it. But then I did see a smile. I did a little skip as I left the stage! Shortly after – as I was the last contestant the chefs were leaving the venue – Chef Kraus shook my hand, patted me on the back and said excellent job.

Now, some might not understand this experience yet some might. Just know that for me this was as exciting as meeting your favorite celebrity. It was an experience that here I am writing this a few days later and I am still giddy. Apparently, per the event coordinator, Chef Kraus loved my tart and commented on how well the tart base was made – which is good to hear considering this was a contest based on pastry crusts!

Lots of anxious contestants!

So you are asking, “Did you win? OMG tell me!” Well my friends, I’m very pleased to say that Jackie and I ended up winning third place for the judges vote!

I absolutely cannot tell you how exciting this was for us. Not only in acknowledgement but just the recognition. On here I might not come off as shy and after a few hours around a person I am the complete opposite of shy. However, when it came time to say something in the microphone on stage looking into the crowd, I froze. It was – and you will get this if you know the movie – I had a moment just like in the Fifth Element when Chris Tucker’s character shoves the microphone into Bruce Willis’ face… All I could say was “Umm, Hi!” and “Thanks!” It wasn’t the most gracious acceptance speech ever but I guess it made me kinda memorable in an awkward way. We left the Fine Line Music Cafe with not only more grey hairs, but great memories, new friends, some cool prizes and an unforgettable experience we will never forget.

Me and Jackie with our “French” moustaches

More photos from this event can be seen at The Brooklyn Food Experiment’s Flickr gallery and over at the City Pages.

So you might be wondering if you’ll get the recipe for the tart? Yup. Soon…

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

One of my fabulous friends sets up a cupcake day with me every few months. This time she said she wanted something with a toffee flavor or almonds, and I was happy to indulge her! Chocolate toffee cupcakes like this have been on my mind for a while now because of my trips to Angel Food bakery in Minneapolis. They do a Butterfinger cupcake that is just awesome and I knew I wanted to do something similar.

I’m happy to say that it only took two attempts to achieve perfection. First attempt was a different recipe that just tasted like raw flour and chocolate. I would not give those to anyone to eat, they were just not good. Second try was this very simple chocolate cake I had made before but it was dry. We ended up adding in some sour cream for moisture and we got great success! Not only is this a fantastic chocolate cupcake recipe, it’s also very quick and simple to make. Now, being the Swiss meringue buttercream queen that I am, I knew adding caramel to the basic buttercream would make this cupcake just heaven.

Oh yeah, was I right. Give half of the completed cupcakes to your friends and keep the other half to yourself for maximum happiness.

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

This post for my spiced apple bundt cake is a week over due, but life is life and it gets in the way of fun times. Better late then never, right? I am very excited to share this experience with you. Back in May I received a message from Dan McGleno (Klecko) CEO of Saint Agnes Baking Co. in St. Paul, MN and host for the past 10 years of the St. Agnes baking demos at the Minnesota State Fair. I at first thought it was a joke, and was instantly going to make some off-handed comment. Then when the realization hit me that he was serious and genuine, I laughed out loud sitting at the computer and instantly emailed Frank giggling the whole time like a 8 year old girl walking into an American Girl store. I accepted and the date was set for Aug 25th at 11am.

Klecko Making An Introduction

This year’s theme was “Church Basement” – Bars, Bundts and Hot Dish. The church basement theme threw me off (since I’m not a native mid-westerner). I actually messaged Klecko back joking that I have never been in a church much less the basement of one and had no idea what a hot dish is. I had never even known any kind of bars before last year when the invention of the frangipane raspberry bars evolved. I had a little knowledge of what bars are but had never heard of a hot dish in my life.So, the decision of doing a bundt was easy for me. I was quite familiar with bundts because my grandmother used to make them and I had even made a few as a kid. So, bundt it was!

When deciding on flavors, I actually thought of turning my car-bomb cupcakes into a bundt and then I got a message from Klecko that said he was doing one for his demos for the 12 days of the fair. That threw that idea out the window (instant sad-face). I had just under three months to make a choice, which meant I could procrastinate my little butt off. July ended and the July birthday cake madness was over, so study time. It came down to three types; apple, pumpkin, chocolate.

Since this was the end of August and fall will soon be upon us, I thought of home and my family. We had huge apple trees in our back yard and my grandmother used to make apple cobblers, pies, cakes, and jams. I took the base of her apple cake and added a little of my own flair to it to come up with my spiced apple bundt cake. I Added in more spices, pecans, and a cream cheese glaze. This cake was a winner. Attempt one went great, I made it before our bi-monthly D&D game and it was devoured. Attempt two, was even better. Frank would not stop eating it – he would walk by the table and tear off chunks to eat as he walked through the kitchen to get water and go back to his desk.

The final test cake before the demo was an utter disaster! I did everything I knew not to do when baking a cake; opened the oven too much to check if it was done, I did not grease the bundt pan, and I even tried to take it out before it was cool. Argh! I was so mad at myself! It was the day before the show and my nerves were getting the best of me. We made a quick trip the the grocery store and at 1am – 10 hours till show time – I pulled a perfect cake out of the oven and went to sleep to avoid the temptation to fuss with it.

Talking about bundt pans with Klecko

Klecko live-posting on Facebook

Answering questions after the demo

We left the cake I made during the demo to bake in the oven of the awesome fake St. Agnes kitchen and wandered off to enjoy the fair. The stress was over, the cake baking in the fake kitchen, the cool rain falling (being a Pacific Northwest girl, rain is my natural element and very relaxing), and I had the best ice-cream cone ever from the dairy building. We even saw Andrew Zimmern handing out food in his new food truck at the fair! It was a good day.

So a week later, here’s the recipe for the spiced apple bundt cake I demonstrated. I hope you like it!

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

One of the best things my husband ever bought me was a full set of Cuisinart stainless steel cookware. Prior to this, I had been using crappy Teflon-coated pans like the majority of people in America. We hated using non-stick pans because Teflon is toxic and we don’t need to be eating that in everything we cook. Our big problem we encountered though, was that we did not know how to cook with stainless steel pans!

One weekend while I was working, he was having problems with his eggs sticking to the pan, which was oddly a problem I never really had. He did some pretty extensive research and found out exactly what causes food to stick to stainless steel pans. We love science, and knowing the physics behind the sticking is just plain cool. These two videos explain exactly WHY your food sticks, and how to test that your stainless steel pan is hot enough to fry with.

To sum up, always start out on a med to med-high heat. When you add a drop of water to the dry pan does it just bounce and sizzle away? If so then your pan is not hot enough yet. The right temperature of heat expands the steel closing any small fissures that can grab on to the food and cause it to stick. When you add a drop of water to the fry pan and it forms a blob that just sits there and doesn’t sizzle away, it will look like mercury, then you’re pan is hot enough to now add the oil.

After your oil becomes streaky like when you twirl wine in a glass, you’re all set to start frying! If you wait for these two steps then you’ll never have issues with food sticking to your pan. After a while you’ll instinctively know when the pan is hot enough and you can declare yourself the master at cooking with stainless steel! The only thing that will be sticking is yummy caramelized goodness that you can deglaze and use!

Now that you know how to cook with stainless steel pans and avoid food sticking to them, you can throw out that toxic Teflon. Yuck.

Also, don’t forget to clean your pans well with some Barkeeper’s Friend. That stuff’s amazing!

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

I didn’t know what was up with Oreo brownies. I’m a bit of a purist when it comes to my sweets. I think box mixes are the devil and turning several boxed/packaged desserts together into one abomination is enough to make me want to throw up. Seeing pictures of these creations on Pinterest are often enough to make us see red because I don’t think the popularity of such desserts is justified. They’re a symptom of the poor eating habits of a large part of our nation and it makes me sad, in addition to the previously mentioned rage. So for me to post an Oreo brownies recipe means that we’ve found at least some sort of redeeming quality in it to justify tossing up a recipe.

Brownies hold a special place in my heart as the first dessert Lia made for me from scratch. Oreos also occupy a special place in my heart since I grew up like many little boys dunking them in milk until they were ready to break apart and plunge into the bottom of my glass (which many did). I never did favor twisting them and eating the filling. I was a strange kid. After I watched in fascination as Lorraine Pascale put crumbled Oreo cookies into her brownie batter, I started to wonder if there was something I was missing in life. So Lia made some.

I won’t say that these are the best brownies I’ve ever eaten, because I don’t think they qualify as brownies. I think these are something new, something that’s more than the sum of its parts. This is a brownie transformed. This is a cookies & cream fudge brownie mutant monster, full of chocolate fudgy notes, a hint of unexpected savory salt and a dark chocolate crumble. I had no idea that an Oreo brownies recipe could result in something so interesting that every bite I try to figure it out. I’ve now begun to think of Oreo cookies not as just a cookie or processed food, but as a recipe ingredient that Lia and I can consider for future concepts.

And the best part? The brownies are still made from scratch (except the Oreos, but that is a possible future post), and our integrity remains intact.

And now I know what’s up with Oreo brownies.

Adapted from Lorraine Pascal’s Baking Made Easy

PS. For more brownie awesomeness, check out our brown butter brownies recipe! Possibly one of the best brownie recipes ever, these brown butter brownies may be your new default brownie recipe.

This post is part of Get Your Craft On Tuesday at Today’s Creative Blog

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

If you are in the market for an affordable chef’s knife, you need the Victorinox 40520 Fibrox 8-Inch Chef’s Knife.

For the first 7 or so years that Lia and I had been together, we had been using kitchen knives handed down to do me by my mother. Maternal love notwithstanding, these knives were anything but great. They did the job for the most part, but I’d used a really nice set of chef’s knives for a couple years before I suddenly no longer had access to them. For a long time I wished I had them again but could never afford new ones. Then, one day Lia and I just got fed up with the inability of our knives to cut worth a damn and I sat down to do some quality research. It was getting close to Christmas and I felt it was time to gift ourselves.

Now, buying a chef’s knife or set of knives is a major purchase that affects your life, like a good quality office chair or a set of audiophile quality headphones so you shouldn’t take it lightly. Being one of those people who does endless research before I make a decision on a major purchase like that, I was delighted when my research paid off and saved me a lot of money on a high quality chef’s knife. Enter the Victorinox Fibrox Chef’s Knife.

The Victorinox Fibrox 8-Inch Chef’s Knife

Most people know the name Victorinox as makers of Swiss army knives, but few realize they make an excellent line of kitchen knives as well. As soon as this knife arrived via Amazon, the apathy we often experienced when faced with cutting vegetables or meat evaporated like a Seattle fog in the new day sun. Suddenly we were cutting everything we could that was edible and then some things that weren’t. Both of us also managed to badly nick our fingers in short order and quickly learned to respect this knife.

Coming from both ends of the kitchen knife spectrum of cheap and bad to awesome and expensive, I never imagined a knife this affordable could be this good. Costing under $30 on Amazon, the Victorinox Fibrox 8-inch chef’s knife is made of a stamped high carbon stainless steel blade which happens to be the same grade as that in the classic Wusthof knives which cost three times as much. While not quite as heavy, the knife still feels good in the hand and quickly becomes an extension of your arm as you slice your way to nirvana. The Fibrox handle is exceptional, being super-grippy even in the messiest carving situation. No matter how slimy our hands have been, neither of us have never lost our grip on the knife. I also find it very comfortable to use, and makes me admit that I don’t like the feel of the handle of a lot of more expensive chefs knives when using them in the proper fashion with my index finger resting around the top of the blade.

The knife comes razor sharp and keeps its edge for quite a long time. It was a good 3-4 months of use before we had to take a steel to it to hone the edge back to peak performance and only now almost two years later do we think it’s finally time to take the knives in to have them professionally sharpened. As long as you’re cutting on a suitable surface (ie, NOT plastic) like a nice Epicurean cutting board or butcher block, your knife should stay wicked sharp for a good long time. Victorinox knives also come with a lifetime warranty.

If you don’t believe my opinion and want more, America’s Test Kitchen gave it top marks and it was the only “Highly Recommended” knife in the Inexpensive Chef’s Knives category. Cooking for Engineers also liked it, naming it the “best Value” in their extensive tests between 11 knives of various brands. Of course, the Japanese knives beat out the Henckles and Wusthof offerings, but the big surprise is that the Victorinox knife beat out the German knives in every respect. Granted, the contest is seven years old, but regardless this is still impressive, even now that Wusthof has updated knives available. If you STILL aren’t convinced this is worth a look, read the reviews on Amazon and take note of it’s ranking at the top of Amazon’s best seller list for kitchen knives.

Victorinox Swiss Classic 4-Inch Paring Knife, Spear Tip

We have been so impressed with the chef’s knife, we’ve since purchased two 4-inch paring knives (these things are scary), the 7-inch santoku and the 10-1/4-inch bread knife that Victorinox also makes. I think it’s fair to say that we’re pretty much set and are definitely not feeling like we need anything more than this. Luxury brands no longer hold sway over our minds as they once did (although it’s hard not to drool over the Global knives at our local kitchen store.) We’re very content with Victorinox. Any of our friends who have used our knives are blown away by them and many have purchased their own.

If you’re still using one of those awful serrated knife sets from Wal-Mart or Target, do yourself a favor and order one of these knives, then watch this informative video by Alton Brown on proper knife handling. You will be amazed at how much a really great knife can change how much you enjoy cooking!

The Giveaway! (Now Ended)

And now for the really awesome part! We’re giving away one of these fantastic knives (a $50 value!) to one lucky random person! You have two ways to enter the drawing.

1. Simply “Like” us on Facebook.
2. And/or leave a comment here, telling us how badly you need new knives.

Doing each of the above will give you an entry into the drawing. If you have already liked us on Facebook, you’re already entered and need only leave a comment to double your odds!

The giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents only (sorry to everyone outside North America) and will be open until 12:01AM US Central Standard Time on Thursday the 16th, 2012. One randomly-lucky individual will be announced here and notified via email or Facebook for shipping information.

Good luck, and tell your friends! (especially if their knives are terrible.)

UPDATE 8/16/12: And the winner is…

A big congratulations to our lucky winner JESSICA DREW! Soon you should have an email request for your information so we can ship your sharp shiny new chef’s knife to you!

Thank you so much to everyone who participated in our first giveaway! We promise to do this again soon (next month?), so don’t forget to watch the usual social channels (and here) for updates on future giveaways!

Stay classy, internet.

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

There’s something magical about Sundays. I don’t know if it’s sleeping in as late as I want, waking up to a cool and dimly lit apartment on my own terms (no stifling heat or alarm clock). Or maybe it’s because I’m drinking white wine and eating a chocolate bar that was left over from our dinner party with a fun couple of friends from the previous night? It was a good night full of great food, laughter and the Star Wars Holiday Special!

Whatever the case, it’s Sunday and that means it’s time for another Snapshot of stuff I’ve bookmarked to try out in the (near) future as well as the some of the Pinterest users that we’ve followed this week.

Enjoy!

6 Pinteresting People We Followed This Week

1. Anne Louise – While we follow Anne Louise for her ginormous food board, she has other boards overflowing with pins of photography, art, home decoration ideas and handcrafted goods. An active pinner, and well worth a follow.

2. Violette L – Sometimes you just like a Pinterest user because there’s just so much stuff to look at. It’s like window shopping or wandering around at a giant flea market where there’s just so much to look at or just finding a cute little store that you can wander around in and be fascinated at every little knickknack they sell. Violette’s boards are like that to me. Oh, and she has a couple of really really good food boards to follow too.

3. Kim Kiwi – Let’s see here… 137 boards full of food, clothing, shoes, animals, celebrities, life, art, places and some random things. Seriously, I don’t know how people can maintain this kind of activity but I’m thankful for it. There’s a lot to see here and very much worth the time to look at a few boards.

4. Myan Duong – A good sized food board plus a ton of other seemingly random subjects make for another great Pinterest user worth looking at. I’m strangely drawn to her board on bicycles but there’s plenty to follow from DIY to fashion to tattoos to home decorating and kids.

5. Zellain Dystopia – Tons of home styling and fashion boards to choose from here. If you’re a fan of the Gothic style, you can’t go wrong with this user. I love her pins and sense of style even though I’m not much of a Gothic person myself. Sometimes it’s good to just look at something different for a while and enjoy it.

6. Erin Dollar – Erin has a large (and excellent) food board and one with drinks, but she also has multiple boards full of art, her own crafts that are a places and pretty things that inspire. Just all around nice boards.

As always, if you haven’t already then feel free to follow us as well!

Recipes we’re drooling over this week

Vanilla Cream-Filled Doughnuts via Martha Stewart and Joanne Chang’s “Flour” cookbook – Holy crap, I think this will have to be a future post. I love donuts and I love vanilla pastry cream. If I can make these at home, I’ll never have to go to a bakery again. Well, ok I’ll still stop by Angel Food on my way to work in downtown Minneapolis from time to time, but…. yeah. Donuts.

TKOs – Thomas Keller Oreos! via Oui, Chef – Oh my God! I can make Oreos at home too! Seriously though, I love chef Thomas Keller and these sound delicious and are a must-try.

Nutella Espresso Mug Cake via Mandy Ashcraft – Who doesn’t love Nutella? Who doesn’t love espresso, or a good mug cake made in the microwave? We’re big fans of microwave mug cakes and I think we’ll be trying this one really soon.

I hope everyone stays cool and enjoys their upcoming week! Try not to eat too much and remember, dark chocolate is the answer to most of your problems…

And a leftover bottle of wine.

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

If your remember in our last post we mentioned we went to a housewarming party? Well, we didn’t just make one cake. We made two! And here is the other, in full-color limey goodness. When I first watched Lorraine Pascale make her mojito Genoise cake recipe in a MasterChef Australia masterclass I had a hunch it would be perfect for the party that was coming up. I had a hunch it would be a perfect companion to Lia’s chocolate cake and the first bite of my test cake I knew I’d struck gold. Actually, I was sold just by tasting the frosting ;)

I’ve actually made this cake three times in about five weeks. The first time was a little six-inch cake to try out the recipe and adjust it where I thought it needed it. The second time was the full-size eight-inch cake for the party. The third time was another six-incher for pictures. Can you believe I’m still not tired of it? I’m actually wishing I had some more to eat and it’s only been a couple weeks since Lia and I ate the last of it.

This cake is based around an Italian Genoise sponge. If you’ve never heard of it before, it’s a very light sponge made without a raising agent so you’re whipping the hell out of eggs and sugar over a double boiler to get a ton of air into the mixture, and at the end folding in butter and flour. The end result is a light and sweet sponge that is a perfect base to do almost anything with.

The layers of sponge cake are brushed with a mint/lime/rum sugar syrup and covered in a sweet lime buttercream frosting. The outside is covered in a pecan praline that adds a nice bitter and crunchy counterpoint to the lime and buttercream. Squeeze a wedge of lime over your cake and you’ve got something really refreshing, I’m telling ya. This cake is perfect for a summer celebration. The cake is only as sweet as you want to make the buttercream so you can eat a lot of it. Now go bust out your kitchen scale and make one!

Adapted from Lorraine Pascal’s Baking Made Easy

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

This summer has been beyond hot. I moved to Minnesota because of the famously cold winters (no lie!). I love the cold, the snow and cuddling up with a warm cup of tea or coffee. This summer though is getting to be way too much for me and my desire to have the oven on and bake is driving me crazy. My poor oven is getting seriously neglected in this heat! So after we got invited to a housewarming party for some dear friends I cranked up the AC on high and jumped on the opportunity to make a cake that would make everyone go “wow”.

For the cake base I used a modified buttermilk cake recipe that is super moist. I normally do a half recipe for this cake which makes a perfect double layer 6-inch cake. For the party I doubled it and made an 8-inch cake. What makes this cake a winner the moist and delicate crumb, and the rich chocolate flavor. Then what else could I tie the two beautiful layers of cake together than with some fresh raspberries to give it that big bang of flavor it needed.

You can never go wrong mid-summer with anything that has fresh raspberries in it. Add chocolate to it and you have an instant winner. I wanted to make a truffle type chocolate frosting so I came up with a great way to do that by adding a tablespoon of cocoa powder to the melted chocolate. That made it rich and bitter like a truffle you would get from a shop. Then I layered fresh raspberries between the cake halves, covered it all with that creamy frosting and piled it high with chocolate curls on top. Easy!

My raspberry chocolate cake had the “wow factor” that I was looking for visually plus that great balance of flavors and textures which makes a cake go from good to amazing. It was so simple and quick to put together! With just a little effort you too can have a great looking (and even better tasting) chocolate raspberry cake for any gathering that will surely impress your friends.

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

We’re back! I hope everyone’s had a good weekend! It’s time for our Sunday roundup of Pinterest users and recipes that we’re excited to try this week. We hope you enjoy what we have in store for you this time around. I know we’re especially excited for the recipes ;)

6 Pinteresting People We Followed This Week

1. Cora Müller – Looooots of food (especially if you like sweets) and lots of pretty home interior stuff here.

2. Edwina Richardson – From her own description: “A lover of makeup artistry, vintage photography, ecclectic interior design, typography and rejuvenating old treasures; all things beautiful and inspiring…to name but a few!” Also some food, some clothing style and hair, and other pretty things. Check her out if you like the sound of that.

3. Jane Kim – Lightly put, Jane has a lot of pins. Food, clothing, home stuff, art, animals, DIY, gardening, more food, cats, more fashion… some nice multi-user boards to check out full of pins. You’ll probably be here a while.

4. Emma Fexeus – Author of her own home design blog, you’ll find a lot of home design stuff here in addition to women’s and kids style with a little bit of food.

5. Handmade Charlotte – For the DIYer looking for cool things to make and great interior design for the home (especially kids), you’re going to find a lot of cool things here. There’s also a great board for food and party ideas that you shouldn’t miss.

6. Ez Pudewa – And in saving the best for last, we have Ez Pudewa. The blogger behind Creature Comforts Blog, Ez has a lot of fantastic pins and boards worth following. She pins often, has a good amount of food, DIY stuff, gifts and artsy things… I think you’ll like this one.

As always, if you haven’t already then feel free to follow us as well!

5 Recipes we’re drooling over this week

Ok this is a little bit of a cheat in that all five recipes are in the form of a single post, but these recipes are simple and sound delicious by The Kitchy Kitchen.

Brown Butter Popcorn @ Kitchy Kitchen

Sriracha Lime Popcorn @ Kitchy Kitchen

Vanilla & S’mores Milkshakes @ Kitchy Kitchen

Old School Movie Candy @ Kitchy Kitchen

Two different kinds of popcorn, two flavors of milkshakes and some easy caramel candies that are perfect for a movie night of entertaining a few friends or even just two lovers cuddling on the couch. We plan on making all of these some night soon, so how could we not feature this post! We strongly suspect the sriracha lime popcorn might turn into our newest addiction :)

Have a nice week everyone!

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

This Portuguese chicken and rice recipe was one of the first posts on the old blog. Not only did it need an update but it needed to be shared with new friends. So here it is! Again!

I know it’s summer here in the USA and we’re melting under this oppressive heat and humidity, but sometimes you still need a warm hug. This dish is my warm, comforting hug. It really makes me feel good to eat a bowl of this stuff. Whether the season is Winter or Summer, this dish is one pot wonderful, especially if you don’t want to turn on the oven. This has the home-cooked feel that I grew up with but it has enough complexity in flavors and textures to be just a little bit more. And while it’s not really an ‘authentic’ Portuguese recipe and it’s almost a quick and dirty paella minus the saffron and shrimp, I’m calling it my Portuguese Chicken and Rice because the flavors and main ingredients are there and it sounds better than “Pretty good spicy chicken and rice”.

I love this recipe so much that in 25 years or so I can imagine this being my ‘Grandma’ dish that I make every other week for the family. It just makes you feel loved and warm and you always want more. I also love it because the leftovers are packed with so much flavor the next day!

The great thing about this dish is that it consists of ingredients that I usually have in my pantry. Making it with or without the chorizo is up to you and what you have on-hand but if you feel like getting the chorizo, go for it (because it IS delicious).

This chicken and rice dish does takes some time to prep. When making this recipe, make sure to have everything chopped up and ready to go when the recipe calls for it so it takes no time to toss together.

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

It’s been a slow week around here due to the mid-week holiday and working every day that isn’t one therefore not much in the way of food happening around here. So you get two Snapshots in a row! Lots of beer brats were consumed though, and whatever else we had in the fridge that would put together a suitable meal.

No recipe links this week, as we’ve been too busy auditioning different coffee roasts for ice coffee to make note of anything and haven’t been on the computer much. But we have extra Pinterest users for you to follow :) Enjoy!

Yes, that’s our ultra-fluffy cat up there.

9 Pinteresting People We Followed This Week

1. Nicole Franzen – I’ve been a fan of Nicole’s photography at nicolefranzen.com and La Buena Vida for a while now, but for some reason I didn’t think to look for her Pinterest profile and sure enough when I did, I was rewarded. Nicole has an eye for beautiful food and interior design and just life in general. I’m sure you’ll like her as much as I do.

2. A n y a – Lots of pins, lots of beauty, lots of things you’ve not seen recently or before if you are an active pinner. A whole lot more that just food here too, so go feast your eyes.

3. Angela Marie – This weekend’s “Crazy amount of food” award goes to Angela. A serious recipe goldmine here plus a lot of great party and craft stuff too. Serious time wasting possibilities.

4. Big Girls, Small Kitchen – Cara from Big Girls Small Kitchen has quite a good collection of pins that I recommend you look through and follow some or all of her boards. Seriously, there’s something for every kitchen mistress here.

5. Deeba Rajpal – Looking for Indian food? Here you go. Lots of delicious sounding food that you don’t see around the usual channels on Pinterest. Definitely worth checking out if you want something different in your Pinterest stream.

6. Aimee | Simple Bites – With over 50 boards entirely devoted to food, how could you not follow this user? And I have to say, I love it when boards are well organized.

7. Maria (Two Peas and Their Pod) – What can I say? Maria pins pretty stuff… and a lot of it!

8. Caitlin | Roost – Who doesn’t love reading and repinning from Roost? You might as well follow all of the beautiful boards from Caitlin.

9. Heather Orton – I’m going to round off this Pinterest roundup with some impeccable style from Heather Orton. Absolutely beautiful pins all around from food to clothing to kittens to hair. Heather is probably one of my favorites of the week.

As always, feel free to follow us as well! Have a nice week everyone!

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

It’s July 1st and we’re all wondering where June went so fast. The heat of summer is bearing down on us with full force and July 4th is stuck in the middle of the week! Who let this happen? I didn’t approve of this! Frankly, we’re both getting a little sad-faced. Thankfully, we’ve found we can make ourselves feel better with some food and drink and long sessions on Pinterest.

So read on for this Sunday’s link list…

6 Pinteresting People We Followed This Week

Aaah, Pinterest. It’s like a field of endless inspiration that stretches as far as my mouse clicking finger can click before cramping up… And this is a few of our favorites from this week.

1. Jennifer Chong – Oh Jennifer, we love you and your blog. Her nearly 2 million Pinterest followers is well-deserved. There’s a little something for everyone here, especially if you love food and graphic design.

2. Heidi Leon Monges – Lots of food and home decoration, more food, photography, art, food, clothing, travel, food… Lots to see and follow and repin. Chances are you’ll find more than a little inspiration here.

3. egle – A beautiful sense of style and high amount of activity make her an attractive user to follow. Seriously, she has several boards bursting at the seams with food and photography and your personal feed will always have pretty things in it every time you sit down for a serious pinning session.

4. april and may – We love looking for future home decoration ideas and if you love to as well, look no further. Not really any food here but lots of pretty home decoration ideas (especially if you like the white and airy aesthetic).

5. Real Simple – The folks at the Real Simple home and lifestyle network have some great boards to follow. Lots of food and ideas to make your life simpler and more practical. Check them out if you haven’t before, follow a few boards and get some inspiration for ways to make life easier.

6. Gooseberry Patch – My mother has given us a couple of these cookbooks and you may or may not be familiar with them. I was delighted to find they have a Pinterest profile that’s brimming with food ideas. While these aren’t all of the artsy and gorgeous foodie blog photos that seem to dominate our feed, there is a lot of comfort food here that will appeal to pretty much everyone. It’s a really nice departure from the norm that we’re used to and one that brings me back to my childhood. Thumbs up!

And of course you can also follow us as well for some yummy and inspirational food pins :)

5 Recipes We’re Drooling Over This Week

Because we’re so bummed about the placement of the 4th of July this year, we’re turning to cold treats to keep us happy. Here’s five that we found and are offering up to help you too…
1. 1. Magic Coffee @ une deux senses – Let’s hit the ground running! With coffee! We loooove iced coffee. It’s so gorgeous and smooth and best of all, it’s cold. We have a batch of this in the refrigerator right now. It’s dynamite.
2. 2. Chocolate Sherbet @ David Lebovitz – David’s chocolate sherbet recipe is one I’ve read a dozen times but haven’t tried it. I really do think it’s time we took the plunge. Read the comments for some awesome ideas on variations of this.
3. 3. Firecracker Ice Pops @ Martha Stewart – Martha Stewart to the rescue! Man, popsicles never sounded so good. You may have seen these on Pinterest by now but these strawberry and blueberry popsicles sound so good I think they’re worth a link to beat the heat this week.
4. 4. Strawberry-Watermelon Red Wine Sangria @ Sips and Spoonfuls – Sweet Jeezuz a pitcher of this sangria sounds good. And a deck to sit on and drink it.
5. 5. Mimosa Sorbet – @ Peanut Butter and Dill Pickles – To round off this week’s list, let’s end it with bubbles. This sorbet sounds refreshing and just what I need with a Sunday morning brunch, which is one of the few acceptable times in the morning to drink!

Between David’s sherbet and that mimosa, we’re thinking it’s finally time to get an ice cream maker. Hell, we might as well throw in a set of popsicle molds too.

Enjoy your Independence Day if you’re American and don’t forget to stay cool!

*Cover photo via une deux senses

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

I love the simple joys of summer. Waking up at 6:30am to go to the Minneapolis farmer’s market on a Saturday morning isn’t one of them, though. But as much as I moan and groan when getting up to go, once I am there I am in my happy place. I have my favorite vendors that I go to every weekend. One for fresh herbs and greens. The other is this family that has the most amazing fruits and vegetables. They even have hard to find fruits for this part of the world like, passion fruit, starfruit, lychee, and mangoes the size of my cats head. Keep in mind his head is bigger than a softball. Then there is another stall that has the most amazing root vegetables. They are big, fresh, sweet, and the potatoes are so fresh you can peel the skin off with just light pressure of your finger.

On this most recent trip I was really eyeballing some rhubarb for a trifle that I will be making soon for a good friend’s housewarming party when my eye caught onto these big plump blueberries. I knew right away I wanted to do a sweet and light tart if for anything but a chance to make this fantastic almond sour cream pastry I have been using lately for sweets. It is flaky, easy to work with an almost unnoticeable shrink if handled properly.

To me, blueberries and mascarpone are one of those combinations that always turns out amazing no matter how they are combined. Enjoy!

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

Welcome to this weekend’s Sunday Snapshot!

I hope everyone is having a good weekend! It’s the season for graduation parties, grilling and early morning trips to the local farmer’s market for fresh herbs and produce. If you’re not going to your local market to get your veggies and herbs and whatever else gets you goin’, you really need to start. I would happily pay so much more for the high quality produce we get at the Minneapolis markets on the weekends but I’m glad for the prices as they are. You can’t beat saving yourself money, getting healthy food and supporting local growers all in one sweet transaction after another. Sleeping in on a Saturday is great and all, but going to the market for the week’s produce is just so much more rewarding for us. I highly encourage your to get up early, go get some great deals on fresh local goods and go make something good with them!

So here’s what we have for you this week…

6 Pinteresting People We Followed This Week

1. Foodie Crush – Heidi Larsen has a ton of great food pinned here. You’ll probably lose some time here.

2. Daniel Bear Hunley – Daniel has good taste in many areas aside from just food. Great typography, home goods and men’s style boards here and a few other good things.

3. bakingbetter – Wow, there’s lots of food from this Pinner. I said you’d be on Heidi Larson’s boards for a while? You’ll be lost here quite a while longer for sure.

4. gawkerverse – The Gawkerverse’s Pinterest boards are here. I probably don’t need to convince you to go here if you look at Foodgawker or Weddingawker and such.

5. Avant Gardenist – A single food board here with some good stuff, but what drew me to this one is the large amount of home decoration stuff. Worth a look if you are into interior and exterior home decorations big fancy gardens (non-food for the most part).

6. Lisa Thiele – Lots of food and a great sense of style, what makes her boards really great is how much healthy food she pins.

Don’t forget to check us out and follow us on Pinterest as well!

5 Recipes we’re drooling over this week

1. 1. Orange Dark Chocolate & Coconut Bites @ With Style & Grace – Speaking of Lisa Thiele, she has a delicious sounding recipe for these little cups. You had me at dark chocolate, but the orange and coconut make this sound really special.
2. 2. Chorizo & Tomato Salad @ Greedy Gourmande – We really love chorizo around here and seeing it in a fast and simple salad like this makes me drool. I can’t wait to try this.
3. 3. Katie’s Patatas Bravas with Ham and Eggs @ What Katie Ate – Who doesn’t love Katie Quinn Davies? She has a lot of delicious tapas ideas in this post but the Patatas Bravas really caught my eye and I’ve been meaning to do something like this for a while now. Potatos, ham, egg, thyme… yum!
4. 4. Spaghetti Vongole via Chantelle Grady – Ever since we started making our own pasta, I’ve fallen in love with it all over again. So it would probably not be a surprise to Lia that I bookmarked this simple spaghetti dish with baby clams. Simple food is some of the best and like the chorizo salad above, this one has me smitten.
5. 5. Summer ‘Freestyle’ Margaritas @ Boulder Locavore – Because Summer is in full swing here I felt like rounding this out with a refreshing drink. This margarita base is perfect for some fruit and herbs. I can’t wait to throw some of these in my mason jars and get my drink on!

We hope you enjoy this weekend’s links! Have a nice week, and see you next Sunday!

*Cover photo via With Style & Grace

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

So why did I make these? Well, the girlfriend of one of the members of my monthly D&D group is allergic to eggs. In order to take something to this month’s session, I wanted to find something she could enjoy. I thought of Julia’s melting moments cookies recipe from MasterChef Australia and remembered that they were eggless, so I knew these would be perfect. Consider these the Americanized version of Julia’s.

Test batching started rough but got better as it went along. Batch one, measured the ingredients out like any American would (meaning by volume, not be weight). It ended up in the bin. They were too dry, too dense, too sweet. There was too much sugar and flour, it just was not a pleasant melting moment cookie.

On attempt number two I busted out my kitchen scale, replaced half of the flour with cake flour and used half of the original powdered sugar with some baking powder for a nice rise. Batch two was weighed and successful as far as texture and the sweetness I was looking for but way too thick. This batch I rolled the dough into 25g balls – which are perfect for individual-size melting moments cookies that will not be sandwiched, but just sprinkled with powdered sugar and served. The resulting sandwiched cookie was much too thick and not as fine of a result as I wanted. In the final batch, I made smaller balls of dough at 15g each. Flattening with a glass then imprinting them with a fork made them just thin enough so when sandwiched they were the delicate cookies I was looking for! I highly recommend you do this for your melting moments cookies.

The custard powder I used is not required in the recipe. You can substitute with cornflour/cornstarch (same thing just different name based off global location). Just know that by using the custard powder it does add a real richness to the cookie which makes for some good contrast against the sweet tart filling. I don’t think you quite get that when you use the corn flour in it’s place.

This is such an easy cookie to make, and it can have any fruit filling inside. Since we had some around, we chose raspberry but these would work very well with lemon.

So are these a Monte Carlo cookie or a melting moments cookie? They’re sort of a hybrid really because we’re replacing the normal cookie from a Monte Carlo with a melting moments cookie. Monte Carlo Moments? Whatever it is, the end result is a rich and sweet sandwich cookie that die hard sweets lovers will swoon over.

Enjoy!

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

Welcome to the Sunday Snapshot! Throughout the week we bookmark and pin a lot of stuff and we wanted to share it with our readers.

Pinterest Best Practices

Though we’ve only been on Pinterest a few weeks, we’ve noticed something that I think should be addressed when pinning items. The easiest way to pin something is to just re-pin an image from someone without clicking through. Not everyone notices where this image originally came from, but we do. I’ve found a disturbing amount of pins come from Tumblr that have been reblogged over and over and somewhere along the way the attribution has been lost, meaning there’s no link back to the food blog it came from. Often these are called “ghost pins”.

With a few exceptions where it’s not possible, I generally choose not to repin something that has Tumblr as its source because the blogger that it’s from doesn’t get the click-through that they deserve. This isn’t necessarily a knock against Tumblr because I love the service, but as a general rule I like to click through a pin to the blog it’s from to see the recipe and also to see if the blog is something I want to add to my RSS feed. Hopefully this is something you will start to take note of as well and try to make sure that your pins link back to the source.

6 Pinteresting People We Followed This Week

1. Pennyweight – We’re staring off with another heavy hitter this week. With over a million followers, Pennyweight is no slouch. While Elise of Pennyweight has only one board dedicated to food, there’s a lot there to look at and repin. She also has quite a few good boards related to fashion and home-type things. Definitely worth checking out, as well as her blog.

2. Sarah Kieffer | Vanilla Bean Blog – Sarah is a fellow Minneapolis food blogger who has a great amount of food boards that you really should be following. Sarah also has a lot of other good boards with an emphasis on dreamy photography.

3. Laurie Leahy – Laura is an active pinner and has 9 food boards worth following, including one that’s a multi-user board overflowing with food (it’s the last board in the list). Lots of great food and drink photography and pins related to painting and various creative arts.

4. Bakers Royale – Food. LOTS of food. Also, a great blog. I don’t really don’t have to go into much detail here. Just go and enjoy.

5. Moys N – A very active Pinterest user with a serious amount of food to look at and repin. Good eye for quality too.

6. Ideas to Steal – Also an interior design blog, you’ll find a LOT of interior design and architecture pins here. There’s no food here really, but if you’re looking for home decorating ideas you’ve got a great resource here.

And of course you can always feel free to follow us as well!

5 Recipes We’re Drooling Over This Week

1. Chocolate Fudge Sauce @ The Sophisticated Gourmet – Looking for a good recipe for chocolate fudge sauce? Look no further than here.

2. Chocolate and Espresso Fondants @ Citrus and Candy – More chocolate! Fondants are warm, gooey and full of chocolate love. This recipe sounds wonderful and I can’t wait to try it.

3. Grilled Portobello and Peach Burgers @ Design Sponge – After all the chocolate above, these sound like the healthy meal we need. Seriously though, portobello mushrooms are awesome and this whole vegetarian “burger” sounds and looks delicious. I can’t wait to try it this summer.

4. Shrimp Po’ Boys @ Bev Cooks – We talk about making po’ boys once in a while and I don’t think I’ll have a hard time convincing Lia to make these soon.

5. Caramelized Balsamic Onion and Gruyere Pizza @ Just a Taste – I love pizza. I love gruyere cheese. I love caramelized onions. This might be the next pizza we make.

Have a nice week, and see you next Sunday!

*Cover photo via design sponge

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

Do you have a chocolate craving that you just can’t satisfy? Do you like chocolate ice cream? Do you like dark chocolate and maybe cocoa nibs? Then my friends this latest semifreddo we cooked up will rock your little chocolate-smeared world. Behold, an chocolate semifreddo so intense and creamy you’ll be breathing out a cloud of chocolate with every exhale.

My husband challenged me to make an ice cream (well, a semifreddo in this case since we have no ice cream maker) that he said needed to be so extremely chocolatey, smooth, and rich that it would satisfy even the worst craving. From the word go I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I needed to layer chocolate flavors into each step of the process, so when everything came together at the end you would get this massive hit of chocolate.

Attempt number one was great in flavor but I had messed up on an important step. I put the chocolate into the cold whipped cream, which caused it to seize. This resulted in lots of bits of chocolate in the final result (so don’t do that). It was not bad but there was just too much going on texture-wise with all of the little chocolate shards it ended up with. I fixed the mistakes from the first batch and the result of the second attempt was a dark, smooth, rich, cold and amazing pan full of chocolate happiness.

To create the layers of chocolate flavor, I made a chocolate caramel with a dutch cocoa powder. Then I made a chocolate chantilly by combining melted dark chocolate with the whipped cream, which is then folded into the egg mixture and cocoa caramel. The semifreddo was capped off by adding in a few (ok a lot) of cocoa nibs.

Adding the cocoa nibs makes it healthy right? Sort of? Well all of the antioxidants and flavanols in this semifreddo along with the happy chocolate rush makes this an all around Good Thing. This should be my final installment of the cocoa nib obsession we have had this past month. Hopefully we’ve peaked your interest a little bit. I suggest you try adding them to your granola, ice cream sundae in place of nuts, in cakes, cupcakes and cookies. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination!

If you want to try this at home, please use a good-quality dark chocolate. A good dark Valrhona like we used or a similar high quality bar of plain dark chocolate will do fine.

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

Welcome to our first Sunday Snapshot! We bookmark and pin a fair amount of stuff throughout the week and thought that it would be nice to share some of these good things with our readers. Much of it will be about food or photography (or food photography), but we hope to toss in a few other things that are (usually) related. So let’s get on with it and start sharing some stuff!

5 users we followed on Pinterest this week

1. carOlina – Ok, so Carolina isn’t exactly new this week but needs to be included in this list because she was one of our first Pinterest users we followed and for the fact that she posts so often and has so many beautiful pins. If you’re into lots of white and airy photos of pretty things then this is one you have to follow. Also, if you like chocolate and coffee then you really have to follow her pins. Her pins are nicely categorized as well.

2. Christine Kysely – If you like shoes, fashion, food and lots of color, then this Pinterest user is for you. Christine’s boards (715 of them!) are organized by colors and many other criteria. Even if you’re only looking for food, she has a lot of boards to follow. There’s so much ammunition here to pin you’ll be here a long, long time for sure.

3. Bonnie Tsang – Another Pinterest user with a lot of pins relating to style and just pretty things. We love her for her photographic taste and style.

4. Marja – Great food, fashion and interior design boards to look at here, and good activity. We’ll be pinning from her for a long time to come.

5. Kimberley Wiens – Another fantastic pinner who has a good sized following and pins a LOT of interior design pins, so perfect if you’re looking for inspiration for decorating your home. No food here though but not everything has to be about food, does it?

And of course you can always feel free to follow us as well!

5 Recipes we’re drooling over this week

1. Spinach Artichoke Grilled Cheese @ a Couple Cooks – You had me at ‘artichoke’. What’s not to love, just from the title alone? So simple and you know it will be delicious. I put it on my short list to make soon. I’d fill this list with stuff they make but I have to be fair to the rest of the internet.

2. @ Tartelette – We just got a nice long tarte pan and you can bet the first thing we’re making in it is this.

3. Gourmet sandwiches @ Christelle is Flabbergasting (in French) – We love crusty bread and tasty fillings in our sandwiches. Christelle has some sandwich ideas that have me in a swoon every time I look at them.

4. Cinnamon Roll Almond Flour Donuts @ Roost – I’m a sucker for donuts, but these sound like something different and special.

5. Ginger Fried Rice @ momofukufor2 – The runny egg on top put this on the top of my to do list. It sounds so simple and so good!

Do You Love Cookie Dough?

The The Cookie Dough Lover’s Cookbook came out this week! We love it when food bloggers turn author so a big congrats to Lindsay Landis from Love & Olive Oil. If you like cookie dough in anything from ice cream to cupcakes, you should check out Lindsay’s new book. Her cookie dough recipe is easy and safe to eat raw as it contains no eggs and she has tons of recipes with big bright pictures to accompany each recipe.

MasterChef All-Stars Prepare to Do Battle

We’re huge (more like obsessed) fans of MasterChef Australia and we’re super-excited to find out that the finalists from the first three seasons are going to battle it out while raising money for charity. I can’t wait to see Chris and Hayden duke it out! Also, who else is excited to see Jamie Oliver compete in this week’s immunity challenge? I expect a lot of energy and can’t wait to see who gets to fight against him.

I hope you liked this little slice of our week. Come back for more next Sunday!

*Cover photo via momofukufor2

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

What kind of a recipe blog would this be without a recipe for red velvet cupcakes? Not a very good one, I would wager. Red velvet cupcakes happened to be one of the first posts on The Catalyst Cupcakes and I figured that now that I have a much better understanding of how to make a really good cake, it was time to resurrect that old post and revamp the recipe to one that works better. Also, my D&D group requested them for our next session. (Yup, I don’t just play video games!) Thus, I give you the best red velvet cupcake recipe that I could muster.

For gatherings, so many people make something like a Duncan Hines red velvet cupcake box mix. How dare you, I say! Make your red velvet cupcakes from scratch! Homemade red velvet cupcakes are superior for so many reasons, including the self-satisfaction of something made with your own hands and quality ingredients.

I have to admit that I generally don’t understand the obsession with red velvet cupcakes (or just red velvet cake). Maybe it’s because I’ve had a lot of it that was badly made or made from a box cake mix. The flavor of most that I’d had really wasn’t very special at all and the crumb was all wrong for what I consider a good cake. Also, it was just chocolate cake with a lot of red food coloring dumped in. That’s just wrong! I shouldn’t have to worry about staining my guts red when I eat one of these, should I? No for that’s essentially a pretty red delivery vehicle for cream cheese frosting, am I right? Well whatever the reasons for the obsession, there’s no denying that it tastes good and if you’re looking for something with a great texture, not overly sweet and pretty to look at in the form of a cupcake, you can’t go wrong with what I think is the best red velvet cupcake recipe I’ve ever had. They taste so good, I can see how a properly made red velvet can be obsessed over.

Like I said, I don’t like all of the red food coloring that gets added to a traditional red velvet cake recipe. I have seen as much as 2 fl ounces to as low as 1 tbsp. So I go with a red alkalized cocoa powder from my local kitchen store. It may be hard to find for a lot of people so you might have to go with a few more drops of red gel paste than I used. The red alkalized cocoa powder helps give the cake a more natural-looking color that doesn’t make you afraid to eat it. Another addition that I make is to add a small amount of all-purpose flour to the cake flour to give it a bit more stability than the typically quite soft texture that is common with many varieties of known Red Velvet cakes.

My cream cheese frosting is based off of my Swiss meringue frosting. I think it’s important to have a light frosting so that you can eat more than one cupcake. That just makes sense to me, because if people are going back for seconds and thirds, you win. I’ve had cream cheese frosting that was so sweet it made my teeth hurt and I didn’t want to eat more than half of it or just scrape the frosting off. And a cupcake filled with frosting? Forget it. I won’t eat it. The frosting for red velvet cupcakes should complement the light flavor of the cake, not overpower it! So I hope you make this version of the frosting too.

Cover your red velvet cupcakes with your frosting however you like with a spatula or pipe it on in some fun fashion. I tossed cocoa nibs (yay!) on the edges of mine for a little bit of fun texture and some bitterness to balance the richness of all that frosting.

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

Cocoa nibs: Roasted, peeled and crushed up cocoa beans. Also, my new obsession! I’ve seen these little things around for the last couple of years but never thought much about them. I love chocolate, so you would think that I would have tried them by now but as you know just because you watch TV doesn’t automatically mean you watch Mad Men (which we don’t). I don’t know exactly what spurred me to give them a try, but the accumulated exposure to them in a zillion food blogs and all over Pinterest probably brought us to this point. Well, I threw some into a batch of semifreddo a couple weeks ago and now I’m obsessed! The bitter, chocolatey/coffee flavor plus the added crunch these provide is something that I don’t know how I lived without all this time. So of course I had to make some cocoa nib macarons with them!

Each ounce of cocoa nibs contains:
130 calories
3 grams of protein
10 grams of carbs
13 grams of fat (but doesn’t raise cholesterol)

Cocoa nibs are a good source of potassium, chromium, copper, calcium and zinc. Cocoa nibs are also a rich dietary source of magnesium (which many Americans lack). They are chock full of antioxidants which as you know fight off disease. The flavanols in cocoa nibs also help with emotional and cardiovascular health. It’s like eating a bunch of chocolate without getting all the sugar you don’t want. A big win in my book! They can be added to ice cream, yogurt, tossed in your cereal or just eaten in small handfuls (although by themselves they can be an acquired taste for some people).

These things are so friggin' awesome

So for my first official treat featuring cocoa nibs, I made macarons (are you surprised?) filled with a bitter espresso ganache. To add some flare and texture I topped the shells with a light sprinkle of nibs just before they went into the oven to bake. They add this crunchy chocolate coffee flavor and are just… yum. Teamed up with the ganache they help to balance the intense sweetness that macaron shells have. My desserts always have to have a balance of flavors and textures so when you eat it you are not overwhelmed by sweetness and can eat more than one. That my friends, is what I consider a mark of success. Expect to see nibs pop up a lot this summer.

The macaron shells were the same basic shell recipe I have used many times. This is what they look like with no color added. A simple, light creamy tan that is the perfect color for visual balance (more balance!) with the dark colored bitter espresso ganache and the multicolored/textured nibs.

Basic Bittersweet Espresso Ganache

The ganache is very simple (4oz+1tsp)+(4oz+1tsp) = ganache!

4 oz heavy cream
1 tsp unsalted butter
4 oz bittersweet chocolate
1 tsp espresso powder

In a bowl add the chocolate and espresso powder. In a small pan, bring the cream and butter up to a simmer. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let sit for 1 minute. Stir gently until the mixture is smooth and glossy. Let completely cool to room temperature before using.

Pipe it onto your shell halves and stick them together before trying to eat the whole lot. Don’t forget to be nice and share with a few people!

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

My kitchen would be a sad place with out basic pantry items like vanilla extract and vanilla sugar. Vanilla extract was something I have always had in my mind to do because it’s used in almost every dessert we make. Some bulk Mexican vanilla beans (Mexican vanilla beans are the best), vodka, and a pretty bottle from the local kitchen store plus lots of patience was all it took to make this vanilla extract. What makes this so great is that it is so basic, and both the sugar and extract are items that you will use often. There really isn’t any reason you shouldn’t learn how to make your own vanilla extract (and vanilla sugar).

I love being inspired to try new things from the blogosphere, especially when it is something that you frequently use and gives you that satisfaction of having made it yourself. This particular adventure was inspired a few weeks ago by Zoe of Zoe Bakes, the co-author of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. She is an inspiration to me for many reasons. First, her story of how she used to come home and bake to relax from a long day at work. Her husband had seen the difference in her, and he encouraged and supported her desire to follow her passion. It is very close to my personal story, but with a slightly different ending. The real clincher for why I adore her, is she is also a local Minnesotan.

Make Your Own Vanilla Extract

There are a couple of things I want to address when making your own homemade vanilla extract. First is the easiest way to split a vanilla bean. The majority of people who use whole beans know that there is a wide side and narrow side. Most people will lay it flat with the wide side down against the board. Then they split it down the middle with the knife tip pointing at the board. This will leave you with two narrow pockets in the split pod. Then when you go to scrape the seeds out you end up with long threads of the pod pulp mixed in with the seeds, and this method can cause waste.

What you want to do is lay it flat to the board as seen below. Then fillet the bean so you end up with two wide sides with the most seeds exposed, rather then tucked away inside the pod. With a wider surface area open you can easily scrape out all the delicious seeds (with the back edge of the blade, not the sharp edge!) with no unwanted threads of pod!

You don’t have to use vodka when you make your own vanilla extract. You can also use rum or bourbon to make your own extract. Either will make a wonderful vanilla extract.

For this specific jar size (12oz) I used 5 beans. Three were split with their guts scraped into the jar along with the pod. The other two were just the split pod as the seeds were used elsewhere. I took the wise advice of Zoe and in the absence of a small funnel I used a large round pastry tip as a funnel to get the vodka in without making a mess. That woman is a genius, I tell you.

give that thing a shake!

With the beans submerged in vodka, we get to a fun part. Make sure the top is sealed tightly and then shake the living crap out the jar for about 10 seconds. Immediately you will see a color change. Now we have the hardest part; Place it in a dark cool corner of your cupboard and let it sit for 4-6 weeks before you start to use it. Every week give it a good shake to get those seeds mixed up with the good stuff. When you’ve used a fair amount of it, add a little more liquor op top it off again. If it begins to pale in color, remove a pod or two and replace them with new fresh pods.

zero to heaven in about six weeks

The final result of this batch helped produce the most amazing anglaise I have ever had. I was making an ice cream base and had to call in Frank from another room to taste it because it was just that good. He claimed he could smell the extract in the next room! This homemade vanilla extract is to die for!

Make your own Vanilla Sugar

I also had to talk about making your own vanilla sugar as it was my first must-have pantry item. I came upon vanilla sugar while watching Jamie Oliver about 6 months before I got up the nerve to make my own. About a year ago I had extra pods and did not want them to go to waste. Little did I know that making vanilla sugar is so simple! Just process the seeds and pods in a grinder or food processor with sugar (sorry I don’t have any pictures, but I’ll try to add some when I make another batch). Let it set for a week to gain some potency and it lasts for ages. What you end up with is the most fragrant and pure vanilla taste in a sugar that can be used in anything that uses sugar and vanilla together. Often replacing as little as a 1/4 of a cup of sugar in any recipe with vanilla sugar will spike that vanilla flavor up to new levels in your recipes.

My recipe for making your own vanilla sugar is more about ratios than measurements. You can use a whole vanilla pod or one where you just scraped the seeds out. NEVER reuse a bean used in a soak, like when you soak it in milk or cream when you are making a custard. Depending on the type and size of pod used the ratios change. The method however does not. I have made my sugar both ways, with whole pods and with a seedless pod (I used the seeds in a cake recipe or frosting recipe). Both produce fantastic results so next time you are stuck with extra pods and not sure what to do with them this is a great use so you have no waste.

• 1 whole pod : 2 cups sugar

Add 1 cup of sugar into a food processor. Scrape the seeds from the pod and add to the sugar. Chop up the seedless pod into about 1″ chunks and add to the food processor. Process until you do not see any large chunks of pod left. Sift the vanilla sugar into a piece of parchment paper. Add the remaining sugar and any bits left in the sieve back into the processor and blitz until well incorporated. Sift this batch onto the parchment, and if there is any large pod pieces left put back into the processor and give it a blitz. Sift onto the parchment and then with the remaining bits put into a small square of cheese cloth 2.5″x2.5″. Tie it closed tightly with some kitchen string, and place it in the bottom of the air tight container you will be using for storage of the sugar. Carefully lift up the parchment with the sugar and pour into the air tight container. Store in a cool dark place.

• 1 seedless pod : 1 cup sugar

Add 1/2 c of sugar into a food processor. Chop up the seedless pod into about 1″ chunks and add to the food processor. Process until you do not see any large chunks of pod left. Sift the vanilla sugar into a piece of parchment paper. Add the remaining sugar and any bits left in the sieve back into the processor and blitz until well incorporated. Sift this batch onto the parchment, and if there is any large pod pieces left put back into the processor and give it a blitz. Sift onto the parchment and then with the remaining bits put into a small square of cheese cloth 2.5″x2.5″. Tie it closed tightly with some kitchen string, and place it in the bottom of the air tight container you will be using for storage of the sugar. Carefully lift up the parchment with the sugar and pour into the air tight container. Store in a cool dark place

I hope you enjoyed this and you go make our own vanilla extract and vanilla sugar. With some pretty glass jars and bottles, they make awesome gifts to friends and family and once you start making your own, there’s no way you will go back to store bought!

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

First food post on the new blog! I hope you are excited as we are. This new look makes feel completely invigorated. I have a list tacked up in my kitchen of things to make, and that’s just for May. Once the seasonal fruits and vegetables come in to play, it’s game on baby! I can’t wait for the weekend trips to the farmer’s market to start!

We could not think of a better recipe/item to kick off this season of cold treats. My friends, this is happiness in every spoonful. Salty, sweet, cold, creamy. It ticks every box for texture and balance of flavor for us. I made it on a whim, and as soon as Frank scraped the last spoon full out of the pan, he realized he ate it all before he got around to taking pictures. Silly man, but he still won. I made it again. It turned out just as amazing. This time around he took pictures first, yet was quite happy to finish off the bowl after he was done.

I would say there are a few points in this recipe where you can stuff up if not paying complete attention. First with the salted candied pecans make sure to preheat your oven so it’s nice and hot before you even start. You need to have enough heat to toast the pecans so they still have some crunch without burning. You can take the candied pecan pretty far, into a deep caramel. It will get a little bitter and that bitter salty taste will just complement the semifreddo so well. Then you have the hot caramel sauce and you want to take it far enough until you get a nice dark caramel tint to it before adding in the cream. Just be careful adding the hot caramel sauce to the egg yolks because you don’t want to spill any on you. It will still be quite hot, which will safely bring the yolks up to temperature. Also, don’t worry about any chunks of the caramel in the mix. They just add a nice random caramel hit to the finished product. The final note has got to be the egg whites and cream. Do not worry about over mixing the egg whites, take them to a very stiff firm peak. As for the whipped cream, take it to a very thick and heavy stiff stage. Just teetering on the edge of becoming like a whipped butter.

We have made this both with and without the bourbon. It is really quite good without it, but I highly recommend you do not omit the bourbon because it makes this ice cream/semifreddo into something wonderful by a large margin. It adds a huge a depth of flavor to the caramel and the candied nuts. I will leave it up to you to be the final judge, though. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Inspired by: Donna Hay

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

My old blog started off simple enough. I love to bake and I wanted to share my recipes that I concocted/adapted/cried over with the greater world. I started off with just WordPress.com and my iPhone and the love and support of my husband’s stomach. Thus, The Catalyst: Cupcakes was born, because it all started with a love for cupcakes! That went on for well over a year and naturally as both my baking skills and my husband’s love of photography has evolved, so has our ideas about the direction of our blog. I’ll always love my old blog (which now permanently redirects here) for the motivation it gave me to keep baking and cooking and trying new recipes, both sweet and savory. But as I was saying, we have evolved to a point now where we deemed it necessary to change gears a little bit, both in blog design (getting off of WordPress.com) and blog direction. While I will continue to bake and cook and my husband will eat and take pictures (usually while gesturing wildly and complaining about the light) we decided to combine both of our blogs into one. He canned his photo blog a while back and we felt he could contribute to the blog by posting recipes of his own as well as other things that are food related (or that spark his interest and aren’t too-far off topic, he says).

Thus, Sugar & Snapshots began in earnest after the first of this year. Frank wrestled with boiling a blog down to its essentials and making a good understated layout that focuses on the food and the recipes. I think he did a great job :)

We are very excited to get going with this new blog just as Spring is in full swing here and we will soon have fresh seasonal ingredients to cook with (and photograph)! So feel free to kick the tires and sub to the new RSS feed and stalk us on Pinterest! We’re excited to see where this all leads to!

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

Oh Julia, you do know best. You changed the world of home cooking forever and we are so grateful for it. No one will be able to impact the professional and domestic inspired way of cooking like she did. When I first purchased her very famous book I could barely contain my excitement as every recipe is pure gold. We try to cook out of it as often as possible and every recipe we have made out of it tastes perfect. The Queen of Sheba cake was no exception.

It was dense and moist, and the rum flavor just made it sing. The frosting, oh my goodness, the frosting. I could have eaten a bowl of it and for someone who does not like chocolate frosting at all (and is also somewhat allergic to chocolate) this was a big deal. This frosting tastes like chocolate silk. My one word of advice for this cake is do not, by any means skimp on the quality of the chocolate you use. You will taste the difference and for utter and complete decadence use a high quality 55-65% cocoa chocolate bars or buttons.

Since I had not made this cake before I wanted to make a small sample to test it. To see what adjustments I may have to make in regard to temperature, technique, and flavor. Why would I question Julia? Well it was because I have never made an almost flour-less cake like this before so I was a little concerned – completely unwarranted as it turned out perfect! When the trial cake came out of the oven Frank would not stop eating chunks of it and said “I want to smear this all over my face, it’s so good.” In the movie Julie & Julia they make this cake seem very decadent as Julie’s husband smears it all over his face moaning “It is so good”. We used to laugh at it and think how odd, and what a waste of cake. Now we completely agree with the reaction in the movie it is spot on. This is now his favorite chocolate cake, and it was hard for him to admit that after the Chocolate Ginger Cake.

The recipe for the Queen of Sheba cake was taken directly from the book.
I didn’t make any variations or changes, so the recipe will not be posted. I highly recommend you pick up Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. If you’ve seen Julie and Julia and liked it (hell, even if you didn’t but you like to cook), I see no reason why you shouldn’t have this book. This is a book that should be in everyone’s kitchen, even if you think you cannot cook. The way the recipes are written makes it so that just about anyone with any amount of skill in the kitchen can succeed at making French food and just might learn a few things (actually a lot) in the process.

Now go make your own Queen of Sheba cake and Bon appétit!

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

Chocolate chip cookies! A repost! And an anniversary of sorts!

I got a text from a close friend that just said she was coming by to make chocolate chip cookies. No reason other than just “it’s a long story”. It ended up being for one of those great “I win” moments in a relationship when someone presents you with “the best” of something and it ends up being sort of unmemorable. Then you get this smirk on your face as your mind starts going and you know you can do better or know someone whose is better. Being almost as competitive as my friend is, I was all for this cookie competition.

It also happens to be just over a year since my old oven broke and was replaced with the new one I have now. The first test of my new oven involved this classic cookie so it is very fitting (and freakish coincidence) that I’m making them again. Oh what a pain that was, to get a new oven through our apartment’s management company. Just getting it installed and working correctly was a day full of phone calls and complaints and some frustration on the part of the guy who finally hooked it up. I made these chocolate chip cookies for my husband and also as a thank you gift to my building manager who had to put up with me calling him and nagging about the stove more times than should have been necessary.

These are really good cookies but wow did I have some problems with consistency yesterday. Every time I bake a recipe that uses U.S. customary units I have such inconsistent results that I’m disappointed and irritated until I make them right. Thankfully I remembered the advice of all great pastry chefs and I busted out my kitchen scale and weighed my ingredients this time and officially converted my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe to metric. It makes a such a huge difference and results in the perfect cookie every time. Some day I will write a post singing the praises of using a kitchen scale like this one for baking, but in the mean time I hope you give it a try. You will be very pleased with the consistent results you get and how much sense it makes to weigh dry ingredients (and sometimes wet, like egg whites) rather than measure by volume.

The big plus with these cookies is you can make them without a hand mixer or stand mixer. It also doesn’t make the insanely large amount of cookies that typical recipes do, so this is just enough to get your fix and maybe share two or three (or none and not feel too guilty). These cookies are amazing, and worthy of an index card in anyone’s recipe box.

My husband is also happy for the chance to update the pictures for this cookies recipe with better ones than the original I took with my iPhone. :(

Adapted from America’s Test Kitchen Cookbook

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

The Daring Bakers’ February 2012 host was – Lis! Lisa stepped in last minute and challenged us to create a quick bread we could call our own. She supplied us with a base recipe and shared some recipes she loves from various websites and encouraged us to build upon them and create new flavor profiles. I had my recipe in mind from the second I had seen the challenge published. I wanted to create a healthy breakfast muffin of my own with my favorite ingredients.

The inspiration for these came from my grandma’s apple sauce cake. Growing up in Washington State, we had a back yard full of trees with fresh fruit to use. Apples were used in a lot of our desserts, my favorite being an applesauce cake. Translating it into the muffins was quite easy. At first this may seem to be a slightly difficult or time consuming recipe but trust me when I say this is one of the best muffins I have ever had. It turned out just perfect! Aside from the streusel topping (which is optional, but comes highly recommended from my husband to not omit) this recipe contains no butter or oil and very little sugar. The final result is still a light, moist and quite flavorful muffin that is perfect for that walk to the bus, or quick breakfast before driving to work.

I ended up being short on muffin cups so being my industrious self, I cut out 4″x4″ squares of parchment and pleated them to use as muffin cups. They turned out really cute and I think I will be using them again, since they just look fun. Next time I will add a tutorial, I promise.

Apple Pecan Muffins

Makes 12 Standard Size Muffins

Ingredients

2 Granny Smith Apples, Large
3/4 c Packed Brown Sugar
2 tbsp Water
2 Cinnamon Sticks
2 c All Purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
2 eggs
1/2 c Greek Yogurt
1/4 c Low Fat Milk
3/4 c Chopped Pecans

Optional Topping
1/4 c Chopped Pecans
1/4 c Brown Sugar
2 tbsp All purpose Flour
2 tbsp Unsalted Butter, cold

Directions

Prepare your muffin tin by lining with cups or spraying with a non stick spray. Preheat oven to 400°F.

*Peel core, and dice the flesh of one apple into small 1/4″ cubes. Reserve the other apple for later use.

In a small sauce pan add the diced apple, brown sugar, water, and cinnamon sticks. Bring to a smimmer and cover, continue to let simmer for 10 mintues. Remove the two cinnamon sticks. Pour contents of sauce pan into a blender. Optional: Use a stick blender in the pan to puree. Pulse on low speed until puree’s into a fine apple sauce. Pour contents into a large mixing bowl.

With a large spatula or wooden spoon mix vigorously to knock some of the heat out of the apple sauce mixture. Let it cool.

Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a separate bowl.

Turn your attention back to the apple sauce. Peal the last apple, and grate it into the apple sauce mixture, stir to help knock out some more of the heat.

Continue to mix vigorously, adding in the eggs one at a time. Keep stirring so the eggs don’t cook. Add in the yogurt, milk, and chopped pecans. Mix until well combined.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet and fold in gently, trying now to over-mix or stir. You want to just get the dry ingredients wet, so it’s ok if you still see some flour streaks. It should take about 15 folds, no more then 20. Pour into the prepared muffin tins.

Optional: To make the struesel. Combine the nuts, brown sugar, flour, and cold butter with your finger tips until crumbly and well combined. Sprinkle on top of the muffins about 1 tbsp of mix per muffin.

Bake for 5 minutes at 400°F. Without opening the oven, turn the heat down to 350°F and bake 15-18 minutes more until lightly golden brown and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

What is the use of having a cookbook if you don’t make at least one recipe from it? For a while now we have owned Damn Good Food by chef and owner Mitch Omer of Hell’s Kitchen in Minneapolis. We’ve been there many times now and everything on the menu is absolutely amazing. I wanted to try something different that I have never made before, so I went with their Caramel Pecan Rolls. I just made half of the books recipe and some aspects were failing for me so I had to make some slight changes. Otherwise, it was superb. They were a lot easier than I first thought. The dough itself is slightly sweet rather than being bland and letting the filling and caramel carry it. My husband keeps raving about it as he finishes off the last of them. The caramel itself isn’t overly sweet either which gives the rolls a nice rounded flavor that doesn’t make you run for a glass of milk to wash it down. I’m going to make these the next time my mother-in-law comes to visit as she adores caramel pecan rolls, and I will use any opportunity available to impress her.

What is the use of having a cookbook if you don’t make at least one recipe from it? We have owned Damn Good Food by chef and owner Mitch Omer of Hell’s Kitchen in Minneapolis. We’ve been there many times now and everything on the menu is absolutely amazing. I wanted to try something different that I have never made before, so I went with their Caramel Pecan Rolls. I just made half of the books recipe and some aspects were failing for me so I had to make some slight changes. Otherwise, it was superb. They were a lot easier than I first thought. The dough itself is slightly sweet rather than being bland and letting the filling and caramel carry it. My husband keeps raving about it as he finishes off the last of them. The caramel itself isn’t overly sweet either which gives the rolls a nice rounded flavor that doesn’t make you run for a glass of milk to wash it down. I’m going to make these the next time my mother-in-law comes to visit as she adores caramel pecan rolls, and I will use any opportunity available to impress her.

Caramel Pecan Rolls

Posted by Lia S on February 14th, 2012

These well-balanced sweet rolls are sure to be a hit. Not too sweet but very indulgent, you won’t believe how fast you will inhale one.

Yield: About 9 rolls

Ingredients

Sweet dough

• 3/4 c + 2 tbsp Milk
• 2 tbsp Honey
• 2 tbsp Vegetable Shortening
• 1 tsp + 1/8 tsp Yeast
• 1 Egg, Medium Size
• 1 tsp Kosher Salt
• 2-3 c All Purpose Flour

Sugar filling

• 2/3 c Sugar, granulated
• 1/3 c Brown Sugar, packed
• 1 tbsp Cinnamon, ground
• 4 tbsp Unsalted Butter, softened

Caramel

2/3 c Brown Sugar, packed
2/3 c Heavy Cream
1 tbsp Vanilla Paste (optional)
2 c Chopped Pecans

Instructions

1. In a small sauce pan combine the milk, honey, and vegetable shortening. Bring up to 110°F no higher, or it will kill the yeast. Pour the milk mixture into the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add in the yeast and let bloom for 5-10 minutes.
2. While the yeast is doing its magic, measure out 3 cups of flour. In a small bowl combine the sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon, mix well and set aside. Prepare your work surface by lightly dusting it with flour.
3. Turn your attention back to the stand mixer, turn it on medium speed and add in the egg and salt. Mix until well combined. Once combined slowly add in 1 cup of flour. It will turn into a batter like constancy. Keep adding in the flour 1/4 cup at a time just until the dough pulls away from the sides. Let it kneed for 5 minutes. Transfer to your prepared work surface and kneed until the dough forms a ball, that is not sticky to the touch, but quite elastic. Cover with a towel, and let rise for 40 minutes.
4. After it has risen for the 40 minutes, punch down the dough into a rectangular shape, and cover with a tea towel and let rest for at least 15 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare your baking pan I used a 10″x10″x4″ square cake pan. Line with foil, or spray with bakers spray. Set aside and begin making the caramel.
5. In a small sauce pan add the brown sugar, heavy cream, and vanilla. Bring up to a boil and simmer until the sugar is melted completely. Pour the caramel into the bottom of your baking pan. Add 2/3 of the chopped pecans into the caramel in an even layer. Time to work the dough.
6. Roll the dough out into a 24″ x 10″ rectangle. Take the softened butter and with a pastry brush create an even layer of butter over the top of the dough going to the edges. Pour the sugar mixture over the butter and with your hands spread out into an even layer.
7. Roll it up length wise so you have a 24″ long tube. With a sharp knife, slice into twelve 2″ pieces.
8. Place the rolls on top of the caramel pecan mixture in the pan leaving around 1″ between each roll. Cover and let rise for 1-2 hours, until doubled in size. Bake at 350°F for 35-45 minutes until the tops of the rolls are a golden brown.
9. Remove from the oven and let cool for 30 minutes, place a piece of parchment over your serving tray, and put it over the warm rolls. Flip the pans so now the caramel pecan mixture is on top, and the rolls are on your serving tray.

Serve warm covered in extra pecans and caramel with a cup of coffee, and watch your loved ones devour them with glee.

Adapted from Damn Good Food

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

This white cake cupcakes recipe is a white birthday cake recipe that I found and wrote down from an old cookbook at my mother-in-laws. It required a lemon but I did not have any on hand, so I replaced with some vanilla paste and it tinged the cake slightly so I didn’t get that white birthday cake look. However, after one bite I didn’t care these were amazing with a very tender crumb that was still light and moist. I haven’t made cupcakes in a while so I was thrilled to finally make something new.

I will use this recipe again frequently if the opportunity allows. I must try this with lemon because it is probably divine, just replace the vanilla with lemon juice and zest. I had some of my basic Swiss buttercream in the freezer from earlier in the week. To use frozen frosting defrost it and then whisk it up, add in the food coloring and is perfect for quick cupcake needs.

On very high recommendations I bought some AmeriColor Gels and I used the violet in the frosting and I am beyond happy with the gels. They are bright, vivid, and true rich colors. I threw out my other colors and replaced them, these color gels are just amazing. If you have not had a chance to try them out and jump on that bandwagon do so soon. I cannot say enough good things about this AmeriColor Gels pack, it has all the basic colors you would need.

In regards to cake flour, I am going to guess 95% of you are like me and don’t have it on hand. It is easy to make everyday all purpose flour into cake flour. The conversion is 1 cup All Purpose Flour – 1 tbsp All Purpose Flour + 1 tbsp Corn Starch = 1 c Cake Flour (sift it like 3-4 times to aerate). For this recipe specifically, measure out all purpose flour of 2 1/2 cups. Remove 2 tablespoons and 1 1/2 teaspoons of the measured flour. Next measure out 2 tablespoons and 1 1/2 teaspoons of Corn Starch add to the flour. Sift 3-4 times to aerate and proceed with the recipe as normal. A simple fix to give you a soft delicate crumb to your cake that just using all purpose flour alone does not achieve.

White Cake Cupcakes

Posted by Lia S on January 30th, 2012

Yield: Makes 25 to 30 cupcakes

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 c Cake Flour
• 1 tbsp Baking Powder
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 1/2 c Sugar
• 1/2 c (1 stick) Unsalted Butter, room temperature
• 4 egg whites
• 1 1/4 c milk
• 2 tsp Vanilla Paste (or 2 tsp lemon zest & 1/2 tsp lemon juice)

Instructions

1. Prepare two cupcake pans with liners and preheat oven to 350F. Sift the cake flour, baking powder, and salt, into a small bowl. In the bowl of your stand mixer combine the sugar and butter and whisk until pale and fluffy.
2. While the butter mixture is whisking in a 2 cup glass measuring cup combine the egg whites, milk, and vanilla or lemon flavoring and whisk with a fork to combine.
3. Once the butter sugar mixture is fluffy and pale turn down to medium speed. Add the flour and milk mixture in two parts alternating wet and dry, ending with dry.
4. Once the mixtures are added turn off and scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix for one minute on medium speed.
5. Divide the cake mix into the prepared pans filling each 2/3 full. Bake each pan for 15-18 mintues. Cool completely before decorating.

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

Originally I had my heart set on making a lemon tart. When I started gathering my ingredients, I was dismayed to find a few essential ingredients missing from my cupboard. What’s a girl to do in this situation? “If life gives you lemons, make macarons out of them!” I succumbed once again to the macaron madness and went to town. This batch turned out so perfect and consistent with the last couple batches, I think I’ve finally nailed these suckers and I can justify a moderate ego boost. Thus I present to you, these lemon macarons.

If you’re new to the world of macarons I recommend reading my tips from this prior post before proceeding with your shells.

Meyer Lemon Macarons

Posted by Lia S on January 24th, 2012

Yield: About 20 macarons

Ingredients

Meyer lemon curd

• 4 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup sugar
• Pinch of salt
• Juice and zest of one meyer lemon
• 3 egg yolks

Swiss meringue buttercream

• 5 egg whites
• pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 c granulated white sugar
• 2 c (4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature cut into 1 tbsp pieces
• 2 tsp vanilla extract or paste (optional if adding liquor)

Basic macaron shells

110g Blanched Slivered Almonds or Almond Meal/Flour
200g Confectioner’s Sugar
100g Aged Egg Whites (3 egg whites), room temperature
20g Sugar
Optional: Gel Food Coloring, 2-3 drops

Instructions

Meyer lemon curd

1. In a small sauce pan over medium heat combine the butter, sugar, lime zest, lime juice, and salt, whisk to combine.
2. Add in one yolk at a time until combined. Bring to a simmer and cook for 10-15 minutes until thick like a heavy sauce.
3. Pour into a bowl and place cling film over the top resting on the curd to prevent a skin from forming and refrigerate over night to 1 week.

Swiss meringue buttercream

1. In a heat-proof bowl add the egg whites and a pinch of salt. Whisk vigorously until all the whites are broken up. Add in the sugar and place over a pot of simmering water.
2. Whisk the mixture consistently while heating. The mixture will become thick and frothy and take on a creamy color. At this stage if it appears that the sugar has dissolved, touch the egg mixture and rub between your fingers. If it feels smooth it is done. If you feel even a slight gritty texture keep whisking and every 30 seconds feel the mixture until smooth when rubbed between your fingers. FYI: Sugar melts at 186°F and in accordance to the USDA and FDA guidelines eggs should be cooked to 145-155°F to be safe. You do not need a candy thermometer to make this frosting which some sites suggest. Just due to the melting point of sugar your eggs are heated to a high enough temperature to be safe. Just make sure that when you rub it between your fingers it should feel smooth with no grittiness left at all from the sugar.
3. Transfer the egg mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form and the egg mixture has cooled to room temperature, about 10 minutes.
4. Reduce to medium heat and add the butter, 2 tablespoons at a time. Continue adding the butter once each addition has been incorporated. After the last piece of butter has been added around 30 seconds later the mixture will look separated or curdled. Continue to beat on medium-high speed until thick and smooth, it will come back together after a total of 3-5 minutes.

Basic macaron shells

1. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or a silpat. If you only have two cookie sheets, place one on a wire rack to create a flat surface. This is so you can double up the cookie sheets for baking the shells. If using parchment paper a great trick for if you’re new to macarons is to draw out circles using the base of the piping tip to create a guide for me while piping. With a pencil and the Adeco #804 tip create circles in a 5×8 pattern on one side of each sheet of parchment. When you have made your circle guide on one side, flip it over so you don’t accidentally pipe the mixture onto the pencil drawings.
2. Grind the almonds and confectioner’s sugar in a food processor. Grind for 2-3 minutes until fine and like sand in texture. Sift 2-3 times to lighten the dry mixture. Reprocess as needed to get out all of the big pieces of almonds ground down, and lumps out of the sugar. You are looking for the consistency of sand.
3. In a bowl of a stand mixer or large bowl with a hand mixer (I found a hand mixer more successful). Whisk the egg whites until a foam tarts to foam, it should have a slight tinge of the color of the egg whites in the folds of the ribbons. Slowly add in the sugar while mixing and whisk until a medium stiff peak forms. Optional Note: After the sugar has been incorporated and the egg whites are at a soft peak add the food coloring if using. As soon as you can hold the bowl upside down over your head with out it falling out, the eggs are done.
4. Sift half of the dry mixture onto the egg whites, and mix in to lighten. Sift in the remaining dry mixture, and begin to gently fold in. Once mostly combined, tip the bowl at a 45° angle. Spread the mixture out on 1/3 of the side surface of the bowl, sweep under and fold it over on it self. Repeat this process 10-12 times. When you reach the 10th time, stop and lift up a spatula full of the mixture if it forms thick ribbons, watch the mixture and count to 10. It should absorb into the rest of the mixture with only slight indication of edges, your mixture it done. It should just very slowly settle on itself.
5. Pour mixture into a piping bag fitted with a round tip. I used Adeco #804. Pipe out following your guide pattern (make sure the side with the pencil led is facing down onto your prepared cookie sheet. Gently tap the bottom of your sheet twice to remove air bubbles, and let it set out to dry to form a shell. What you’re looking for is it to not feel tacky. This can be 15 minutes to an hour.
6. Bake at 300°F for 18 minutes. Once finished baking, if you are using parchment let the shells cool for 10 minutes and then transfer the tray to refrigerator to cool the rest of the way. When the shells are completely cooled they will come off of the parchment quiet easily. If you are using a silpat you can let sit out to cool until you can easily remove them from the silpat.
7. Once the shells turn over easily without sticking to the mat or paper, transfer them to a wire rack and slide the next parchment or silpat with shells onto the top sheet of your doubled-up baking sheets. Follow the same baking temperature and time, repeating the cooling process as well to remove the shells from the parchment.

Pair up the shells of the same size and flip bottom up to let cool completely before adding in filling. With the buttercream make a ring around the outer edge of the flat bottomed half. Fill the center space with the lemon curd. Place the matched top on and gently press down.

As always, these keep incredibly well in a sealed container in the refrigerator for a week or so. Let come up to room temperature for maximum enjoyment.

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

Back in October we went to my favorite restaurant for dinner and the dessert of the week was a chocolate ginger cake. After the first bite of this cake I was convinced that I had to try to replicate it. It tasted like Christmas. Yes, I realize this is late for a Christmas cake, but it’s also an ideal winter cake. What makes this cake over the top is the bourbon caramel sauce. Serve it with some toasted pecans and crème fraîche and you have a highly complex and impressive dessert that is rich and leaves you completely satisfied. This dessert will also ruin your New Years diet resolution, so for that I am sorry.

The great thing about this recipe is it’s a one pot wonder. The bundt pan I used was a gift for my birthday and not-coincidentally matched the one the restaurant used. I have mentioned before about the trick to using dark pans vs light pans — to turn down the oven slightly with a darker pan to avoid an over cooked outside with a undercooked interior. So keep that in mind when making this cake as the temperature will go down by 25°F if you will be using a dark aluminum pan.

The caramel is a basic butter caramel I have made before with some adjustments to make it dark and rich with the amazing flavor of the added bourbon. The leftover caramel sauce can (and should) be saved in a sealed container in the refrigerator (mason jars are awesome for this), because it is simply amazing on ice cream. Give this a try for your next party, or just to warm and spice up a cold winter dinner, you will not be disappointed.

Chocolate Ginger Cake with Bourbon Caramel Sauce

Posted by Lia S on January 7th, 2012

Chocolate, ginger, bourbon and caramel. Sinful, rich, dense slices of heaven in the form of a cake.

Yield: 1 bundt cake

Ingredients

Chocolate ginger cake

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup unsweetened dutch cocoa
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 2 eggs + 1 yolk
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 tbsp fresh grated Ginger
• Seeds of 1/2 vanilla bean (or 1/2 tsp vanilla paste)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp coarse salt
• 1 1/2 tsp fresh ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground clove

Bourbon caramel sauce

• 4 tbsp butter
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• Seeds of 1/2 vanilla bean (or 1/2 tsp vanilla paste)
• 1/4 cup of bourbon
• 1/4 cup heavy cream, room temperature

Instructions

Chocolate ginger cake

1. Prepare your bunt pan by spraying it with cooking or ‘bakers’ spray, and set aside. Preheat the oven to 325°F
2. In a large 3 quart sauce pan over medium heat add the butter, cocoa, molasses, and brown sugar. Mix until butter and sugar have been melted together about 3-5 minutes. Turn off the heat and set aside to cool.
3. In a small bowl combine the eggs, yolk, milk, fresh grated ginger, vanilla bean and whisk to combine then set aside.
4. In another bowl combine the flour, baking soda, salt, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, and ground clove, whisk to combine and set aside.
5. The mixture in the sauce pan should have cooled slightly at this point. With a heavy whisk begin mixing the butter cocoa mixture, and slowly pour in the egg and milk mixture. Pour slowly and continue whisking while adding to avoid cooking the eggs and the mixture splitting until completely combined.
6. Once the egg mixture is completely incorporated keep whisking and add in 1/3 of the flour mixture and mix add in 1/2 of the remaining flour mixture and combine. Add in the remaining flour mixture and whisk well to completely combine.
7. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and place in oven for 35-45 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely in the pan before inverting onto the serving plate.
8. Serve with the caramel bourbon sauce. Optional: add toasted pecans and crème fraîche before serving.

Bourbon caramel sauce

1. Combine butter, sugar, vanilla, and bourbon into 2 quart sauce pan over medium high heat. Keep whisking the caramel until all the sugar has melted and the mixture is at a rolling boil. It will look almost like it is foaming.
2. Remove from the heat and continue to whisk, add in the heavy cream. It will bubble up high once you add in the cream so this is why you may want a bigger pan. Keep whisking.
3. Once the mixture has calmed down stopped bubbling and settled, pour into a jar or bowl for storage. Refrigerate, and heat up in the microwave briefly before use.

Note: Serve cake warm (just a few seconds in the microwave) with a garnish of toasted pecans and a dollop of creme fraiche. Enjoy!

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

A crack of the knuckles, a light breath to blow some dust off the keyboard, and I’m sitting down at my computer with purpose again. I must remember to enjoy the little things! Oh little blog, how I missed you! I want to apologize to you friends for the lack of updates since holidays began. Interestingly enough it is when most blogs show the highest number of post but when you work two jobs in retail, then take a vacation to visit family your time for cooking gets shorter. Many days I would get home at 11pm, go to bed and start the day over at 8am – 11pm again. I know, I did it to myself so only I am to blame, but it was nice to have the extra money, and work at a job that I cannot even express how much I enjoy it compared to the other. Okay, enough about me and my weirdness enjoying a busy holiday season at the country’s biggest shopping mall.

On to the real matter at hand, food. Well with me it’s more sweets and desserts, but you know that by now. I have had this combination on my list since my first batch of macarons came out all lovely and puffy. At the local market I seen these limes that were the size of a large lemon and they smelled fantastic. Then what is in a basket on the end cap? A bag of organic shredded coconut which was on sale. I knew it had to be so I picked up both and went home on a mission.

It took mostly visual tweaks to get what I was looking for from these cookies. The first batch I used just the green color and it looked like the color teal from a bad prom dress in the 90′s. They tasted great but when the look doesn’t match the flavor it throws the mind off a bit. In that first batch I also learned that if you are going to put anything on the top of the macaron to decorate, make sure the cap is set. Meaning, it isn’t tacky to the touch. When baked it will help form the dome but it also helps anything added to the top of the cookie from sinking into it. I am here to make the mistakes for you and trust me, many are made.

The green color was finally achieved by following the basic shell recipe from my chocolate macaron post and adding to the whipped egg whites 3 drops of forest green food coloring gel and one drop of chocolate brown food coloring gel. It got me the perfect green color I was looking for to represent a lime. I used my now-standard Swiss buttercream recipe and a basic lime curd recipe for the filling.

The finished product was shared at a dinner party with some friends as an after dinner treat. The host is not a fan of sweets that don’t involve chocolate, but for him to make a comment about how just amazing these were in the complexity of textures and flavors had me blushing. The light but not overly sweet Swiss buttercream with the tang of the lime curd balanced out with the sweet crunchy shells perfectly into an almost addicting combination. So of course I had to share it with you my friends. I hope you all had a lovely holiday season and I wish you the best this coming new year. You will see more of me in 2012, with new recipes and of course more macarons! Full recipe below!

Coconut and Lime Macarons

Posted by Lia S on January 2nd, 2012

Lime and coconut team up with sweet macaron shells to make a thing of beauty.

Yield: 20 macarons

Ingredients

Lime curd

• 4 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup sugar
• Juice of one lime, large (or two small)
• Zest of one lime, large (or two small)
• Pinch of salt
• 3 egg yolks (save the whites for your macaron shell recipe)

Swiss meringue buttercream

• 5 egg whites
• pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 c granulated white sugar
• 2 c (4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature cut into 1 tbsp pieces
• 2 tsp vanilla extract or paste (optional if adding liquor)

Coconut macaron shells

110g blanched slivered almonds or almond meal/flour
200g confectioner’s sugar
100g aged egg whites (3 egg whites), room temperature
20g sugar
1/2 cup of shredded coconut
Green and brown gel food coloring, 2-3 drops

Instructions

Lime curd

1. In a small sauce pan over medium heat combine the butter, sugar, lime zest, lime juice, and salt, whisk to combine.
2. Add in one yolk at a time until combined.
3. Bring to a simmer and cook for 10-15 minutes until thick like a heavy sauce. Pour into a bowl and place cling film over the top resting on the curd to prevent a skin from forming and refrigerate overnight up to 1 week.

Swiss meringue buttercream

1. In a heat-proof bowl add the egg whites and a pinch of salt. Whisk vigorously until all the whites are broken up. Add in the sugar and place over a pot of simmering water.
2. Whisk the mixture consistently while heating. The mixture will become thick and frothy and take on a creamy color. At this stage if it appears that the sugar has dissolved, touch the egg mixture and rub between your fingers. If it feels smooth it is done. If you feel even a slight gritty texture keep whisking and every 30 seconds feel the mixture until smooth when rubbed between your fingers. FYI: Sugar melts at 186°F and in accordance to the USDA and FDA guidelines eggs should be cooked to 145-155°F to be safe. You do not need a candy thermometer to make this frosting which some sites suggest. Just due to the melting point of sugar your eggs are heated to a high enough temperature to be safe. Just make sure that when you rub it between your fingers it should feel smooth with no grittiness left at all from the sugar.
3. Transfer the egg mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form and the egg mixture has cooled to room temperature, about 10 minutes.
4. Reduce to medium heat and add the butter, 2 tablespoons at a time. Continue adding the butter once each addition has been incorporated. After the last piece of butter has been added around 30 seconds later the mixture will look separated or curdled. Continue to beat on medium-high speed until thick and smooth, it will come back together after a total of 3-5 minutes.

Coconut macaron shells

1. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or a silpat. If you only have two cookie sheets, place one on a wire rack to create a flat surface. This is so you can double up the cookie sheets for baking the shells. If using parchment paper a great trick for if you’re new to macarons is to draw out circles using the base of the piping tip to create a guide for me while piping. With a pencil and the Adeco #804 tip create circles in a 5×8 pattern on one side of each sheet of parchment. When you have made your circle guide on one side, flip it over so you don’t accidentally pipe the mixture onto the pencil drawings.
2. Grind the almonds and confectioner’s sugar in a food processor. Grind for 2-3 minutes until fine and like sand in texture. Sift 2-3 times to lighten the dry mixture. Reprocess as needed to get out all of the big pieces of almonds ground down, and lumps out of the sugar. You are looking for the consistency of sand.
3. In a bowl of a stand mixer or large bowl with a hand mixer (I found a hand mixer more successful). Whisk the egg whites until a foam tarts to foam, it should have a slight tinge of the color of the egg whites in the folds of the ribbons. Slowly add in the sugar while mixing and whisk until a medium stiff peak forms. Optional Note: After the sugar has been incorporated and the egg whites are at a soft peak add two drops of green and one drop of brown gel food coloring. As soon as you can hold the bowl upside down over your head with out it falling out, the eggs are done.
4. Sift half of the dry mixture onto the egg whites, and mix in to lighten. Sift in the remaining dry mixture, and begin to gently fold in. Once mostly combined, tip the bowl at a 45° angle. Spread the mixture out on 1/3 of the side surface of the bowl, sweep under and fold it over on it self. Repeat this process 10-12 times. When you reach the 10th time, stop and lift up a spatula full of the mixture if it forms thick ribbons, watch the mixture and count to 10. It should absorb into the rest of the mixture with only slight indication of edges, your mixture it done. It should just very slowly settle on itself.
5. Pour mixture into a piping bag fitted with a round tip. I used Adeco #804. Pipe out following your guide pattern (make sure the side with the pencil led is facing down onto your prepared cookie sheet. Gently tap the bottom of your sheet twice to remove air bubbles, and let it set out to dry to form a shell. What you’re looking for is it to not feel tacky. When the shells are no longer tacky to the touch (this can be 15 minutes to an hour), sprinkle generously with flaked coconut. The coconut will toast lightly and add lovely flavor and texture to the cookies.
6. Bake at 300°F for 18 minutes. Once finished baking, if you are using parchment let the shells cool for 10 minutes and then transfer the tray to refrigerator to cool the rest of the way. When the shells are completely cooled they will come off of the parchment quiet easily. If you are using a silpat you can let sit out to cool until you can easily remove them from the silpat.
7. Once the shells turn over easily without sticking to the mat or paper, transfer them to a wire rack and slide the next parchment or silpat with shells onto the top sheet of your doubled-up baking sheets. Follow the same baking temperature and time, repeating the cooling process as well to remove the shells from the parchment.

Assembly: Match up the shells by size and pipe a ring of buttercream around the inside of one of the shells. Using a squeeze bottle, squeeze a blob of lime curd in the center. Place the other shell on top and lightly press together. Completed macarons can be kept in a sealed container in the refrigerator for a week or so. Let come to room temperature before eating.

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

I made these brown butter brownies again this weekend and they turned out so good I thought I should give this recipe a bump and a new picture. I didn’t change anything with the recipe and they turned out better than ever. So read on and enjoy!

Originally posted on March 11th, 2011

It’s Friday, the weekend is here. I got a lovely dozen white roses yesterday from my husband to cheer me up after the past quite stressful and emotional two weeks. It worked, they look amazing. So, to do something equally nice I decided to make him brownies. I know they are his favorite and bring back memories of the very first thing I ever made for him. When we first moved in together 9 years ago, he was working nights and I knew when he got home in the early morning he would go to his computer to play a few turns on a game and stay up for a few hours. To surprise him, I made a batch of brownies and left them on his desk. According to him I “blew his mind” because they were from scratch. Until that day I had never made brownies from scratch before – they were always from a box mix. Since that day I refused to make brownies from a box ever again.

One recent day I went looking for a new brownie recipe. Usually my brownies had been lighter and more of a cake-like texture and I wanted something that had more of a tooth to it. After a bunch of trial and error I arrived at this final recipe. I had never made brownies using this technique but I am sure they will be received with just as much joy and welcome by your loved ones and friends as the first time I made my husband brownies.

Browning the butter adds a nutty toffee element to the final result and adding in the espresso powder just enhances the chocolate flavor. The crunchy top and fudge like center make this by far the best brownie recipe I have ever had in my life and that is not an exaggeration. My suggestion, make them when you will not be alone with them for hours. This recipe does require quite a bit of arm strength and at a few points things might not look right but trust me, in the end the work for these is worth it! Chocoholics beware. This will take a lot of will power to resist consuming the entire pan.

Adapted from Bon Appetit

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

The macaron madness continues! I adore how they fit any flavor combination you can possibly think of. I already have two pages in my notebook filled with combinations to try. This round I went with a basic macaron with a blackberry buttercream. I had some blackberry compote in the freezer left over from the orange blossom cheesecake. This filling fits macarons perfectly, it isn’t overly sweet and has the perfect ratio of acidity vs sweetness. Did I say they taste amazing yet? This is so far my favorite combination, but I am sure I will say that again soon.

I hope you get a chance to give macarons a try in your kitchen. If you do, my previous post has some of my own tips that helped me. I hope they will help you as well, so good luck!

Blackberry Macarons

Posted by Lia S on October 20th, 2011

Yield: 30 macarons

Ingredients

Macaron shells

• 115g blanched slivered almonds or almond meal/flour
• 200g confectioner’s sugar
• 100g aged egg whites (3 egg whites), room temperature
• 20g sugar
• 2 drops violet gel food coloring

Blackberry buttercream

• 3 egg yolks
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp water
• 3 sticks butter (24 tbsp), room temperature
• 1/4 cup blackberry compote

Instructions

Macaron shells

1. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or a silpat. If you only have two cookie sheets, place one on a wire rack to create a flat surface. This is so you can double up the cookie sheets for baking the shells. If using parchment paper a great trick for if you’re new to macarons is to draw out circles using the base of the piping tip to create a guide for me while piping. With a pencil and the Adeco #804 tip create circles in a 5×8 pattern on one side of each sheet of parchment. When you have made your circle guide on one side, flip it over so you don’t accidentally pipe the mixture onto the pencil drawings.
2. Grind the almonds and confectioner’s sugar in a food processor. Grind for 2-3 minutes until fine and like sand in texture. Sift 2-3 times to lighten the dry mixture. Reprocess as needed to get out all of the big pieces of almonds ground down, and lumps out of the sugar. You are looking for the consistency of sand.
3. In a bowl of a stand mixer or large bowl with a hand mixer (I found a hand mixer more successful). Whisk the egg whites until a foam tarts to foam, it should have a slight tinge of the color of the egg whites in the folds of the ribbons. Slowly add in the sugar while mixing and whisk until a medium stiff peak forms. Add in two drops of food coloring gel. Continue to whisk, as soon as you can hold the bowl upside down over your head with out it falling out, the eggs are done.
4. Sift half of the dry mixture onto the egg whites, and mix in to lighten. Sift in the remaining dry mixture, and begin to gently fold in. Once mostly combined, tip the bowl at a 45° angle. Spread the mixture out on 1/3 of the side surface of the bowl, sweep under and fold it over on it self. Repeat this process 10-12 times. When you reach the 10th time, stop and lift up a spatula full of the mixture if it forms thick ribbons, watch the mixture and count to 10. It should absorb into the rest of the mixture with only slight indication of edges, your mixture it done. It should just very slowly settle on itself.
5. Pour mixture into a piping bag fitted with a round tip. I used Adeco #804. Pipe out following your guide pattern (make sure the side with the pencil lead is facing down onto your prepared cookie sheet). Gently tap the bottom of your sheet twice to remove air bubbles, and let it set out to dry to form a shell. What you’re looking for is it to not feel tacky. This can be 15 minutes to an hour depending on the heat and humidity in your kitchen.
6. Bake at 300°F for 18 minutes. Once finished baking if you are using parchment let cool for 10 minutes then transfer the top tray to refrigerator to cool. When they are completely cool it will turn off of the parchment quiet easily. If you are using a silpat you can let sit out to cool until you can easily remove from the silpat.
7. Once the shells turn over easily without sticking transfer to a wire rack, and prepare your next batch with the two cookie sheets by doubling them up and sliding the parchment or silpat with shells onto the top sheet. Follow the same baking temperature and time, repeating the cooling process as well to remove the shells from the parchment.

Blackberry buttercream

1. In the bowl of your stand mixer whip the egg yolks with a pinch of salt. Whisk until tripled in volume, and a pale yellow in color. Meanwhile, place a medium-sized sauce pan over medium heat with the sugar and water. Bring it up to 245°F.
2. While whisking the eggs on medium speed, slowly pour in the hot sugar syrup in a thin stream. Once all the sugar is incorporated, whisk on high until cool, about 10 minutes.
3. Once the egg and sugar mixture is cool, still at medium speed, add in the butter in small chunks of 2 tbsp. Once all the butter is incorporated slowly add in the blackberry compote, and whisk until smooth. Add more confectioner’s sugar if you want more sweetness, then whisk until smooth.
4. Place into a piping bag fitted with a round tip. I used an Adeco #809 tip. Pipe the frosting onto half the paired macaron shells. Once you have completed piping all the halves, place on the tops. Store in the refrigerator sealed 7-10 days, bring close to room temperature before eating.

Pair up the shells of the same size and flip bottom up to let cool completely before adding in filling. Refrigerate in a sealed container for a week. Let come up in temperature slightly before eating for best texture / taste.

Macarons very slightly modified: Tartelette / Buttercream inspired by: MasterChef Australia

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

Honestly, I don’t need this many chocolate macarons in the house and I wish all of you could show up just to take some away, but now I understand the term macaron madness. I cannot believe how much fun I am having making these things! They are just too hard to resist eating.

For this batch of chocolate macarons, I wanted to come up with a filling that would require egg yolks. I was left with three for every batch of macarons and would rather not waste them. So, I took some inspiration from my favorite cooking show, Masterchef Australia (link at the bottom). This version of buttercream uses egg yolks – yay no waste! – and it’s very smooth which complements the cocoa shells wonderfully. I decided to add half of the espresso powder in the buttercream near the end give an almost crunchy texture to the cream with tiny bursts of coffee flavor to wash away the sweetness of the chocolate macaron shell. I don’t think it could have turned out any better.

Macarons are the bane and bliss of many food bloggers. I have been semi-successful before but that was nearly a year ago. I wanted to make them again as an alternative to my birthday cake. The problem was, my old recipe wasn’t working for me. I wasn’t getting any pied or feet. I blame the new oven I got in the spring (likely excuse, but seriously when you get a new oven it takes time to learn its personality). I gave up for a while until I read Tartelettes ebook, Demystifying Macarons. When you want to make macarons, she’s a pretty reliable go-to. I’ve had multiple success now with her recipe and techniques by mixing it with some other little tips and tricks that worked for me.

Remember when you were told as a kid, “practice makes perfect”? Well, Parisian macarons fall along those lines. I cannot explain well enough in words what the mixture should be like. Where to be gentle, where to just stir with some vigor, and the exact texture. I will tell you I have found that adding cocoa powder produces a chewier cookie, and takes less folds than the basic macaron recipe does. So, it’s just working with the basic recipe enough times to gain a feel for it, to know when you are at the right constancy. If you decide to go down this road of trial and error, I promise to send you happy pastry thoughts.

I wish I could give you step by step details so you never fail at macarons, but I cannot. It will happen, it does happen. The epic fails (to me) of macarons are; no feet, hollow shells, and raw or spongy texture. All I can do for you my friends is share what I do to get the best results. I hope this helps make your attempts successful.

1. Buy some macarons from a bakery/pastry shop. You need to know what you should be looking for in regards to the shell, filling, balance. Knowing what the end result should be will help when you begin to make your own at home.
2. Weigh the ingredients. Yes, you have to use a kitchen scale but trust me, it’s one of the best investments I have ever made.
3. Grind the almonds with the confectioners sugar. I found this helps takes some of the moisture out of the almonds.
4. Sift the dry ingredients at least two times, three is better. I go one step further and sift the dry ingredients over the whipped meringue in two batches.
5. Aged egg whites. The reason to age the egg whites is, most commercial chicken eggs contain a high % of water in the whites, by aging them the extra water evaporates out. Separate the white from the yolk and wrap lightly with a paper towel, then place in the refrigerator for 24-36 hours. Bring to room temperature before using to make the macarons.
6. Whip the egg whites just until it stays in bowl when tipped upside down. This is around a medium stiff peak, when you hold the bowl upside down it doesn’t slide out it stays in the bowl firmly. Old trick my grandma taught me.
7. Fold half of the dry quickly into the whites. Don’t be so gentle with the first mixing work it in so your second half of dry ingredients you can work it in quickly. The second half the method I use is to tip the bowl at a 45° angle and spread the mixture along the side of the bowl and fold it over. I do this 10-15 times until the mixture is thick and forms wide thick ribbons that settle on itself when lifted and drips down. I start watching it carefully at fold over 10, the more you do this the thinner it gets and the cookie won’t work. This is the most tricky part so be careful. You just want the mixture to settle gently on its self.
8. Silpat vs Parchment. This is another big argument with bloggers, but like I said. This is what works the best for me, the only difference is that I have found is with a silpat you get a very slightly – not even really noticeable – smaller foot. It also gives you a shiny flat base with no sticking. If it sticks it means you didn’t cook it long enough. I have used both, both successfully. It’s all about using what you have on hand and what works for you.
9. Let the mixture form a dry shell. After you have piped the mixture out, gently twice tap the cookie sheet to get out air no more than twice. Then let it rest for 20 minutes to an hour. This depends on lots of things, but what you are looking for is when you touch the mixture it isn’t tacky.
10. Balance. Remember the shells are quite sweet, so your filling should have some sourness, acidity, or savory notes to it. It just needs create a lovely balance. You don’t want sugar on sugar on more sugar.
11. Storage. Store your completed macarons in a sealed container in the refrigerator and they will keep well for a week or a little more. They are always better the next day or a couple days in the refrigerator. Just let them come back to room temperature before eating.

And now, the recipe…

Chocolate Macarons with Coffee Buttercream

Posted by Lia S on October 17th, 2011

Who doesn’t love chocolate and coffee? These chocolate macarons will definitely satisfy those cravings. Very enjoyable with a fresh brewed cup of coffee or espresso.

Yield: About 20 macarons

Ingredients

Chocolate macaron shells

• 110g blanched slivered almonds or almond meal/flour
• 200g confectioner’s sugar (minus 2 tbsp)
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 100g aged egg whites (3 egg whites), room temperature
• 20g sugar

The coffee buttercream

• 3 egg yolks
• A pinch of salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp water
• 3 sticks of butter (24 tbsp), room temperature
• 2 tsp espresso powder, divided
• 1 tsp water, hot

Instructions

Chocolate macaron shells

1. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or a silpat. If you only have two cookie sheets, place one on a wire rack to create a flat surface. This is so you can double up the cookie sheets for baking the shells. If using parchment paper a great trick for if you’re new to macarons is to draw out circles using the base of the piping tip to create a guide for me while piping. With a pencil and the Adeco #804 tip create circles in a 5×8 pattern on one side of each sheet of parchment. When you have made your circle guide on one side, flip it over so you don’t accidentally pipe the mixture onto the pencil drawings.
2. Grind the almonds, cocoa, and confectioner’s sugar in a food processor. Grind for 2-3 minutes until fine and like sand in texture. Sift 2-3 times to lighten the dry mixture. Reprocess as needed to get out all of the big pieces of almonds ground down, and lumps out of the sugar. You are looking for the consistency of sand.
3. In a bowl of a stand mixer or large bowl with a hand mixer (I found a hand mixer more successful). Whisk the egg whites until a foam tarts to foam, it should have a slight tinge of the color of the egg whites in the folds of the ribbons. Slowly add in the sugar while mixing and whisk until a medium stiff peak forms. As soon as you can hold the bowl upside down over your head with out it falling out, the eggs are done.
4. Sift half of the dry mixture onto the egg whites, and mix in to lighten. Sift in the remaining dry mixture, and begin to gently fold in. Once mostly combined, tip the bowl at a 45° angle. Spread the mixture out on 1/3 of the side surface of the bowl, sweep under and fold it over on it self. Repeat this process 10-12 times. When you reach the 10th time, stop and lift up a spatula full of the mixture if it forms thick ribbons, watch the mixture and count to 10. It should absorb into the rest of the mixture with only slight indication of edges, your mixture it done. It should just very slowly settle on itself.
5. Pour mixture into a piping bag fitted with a round tip. I used Adeco #804. Pipe out following your guide pattern (make sure the side with the pencil led is facing down onto your prepared cookie sheet. Gently tap the bottom of your sheet twice to remove air bubbles, and let it set out to dry to form a shell. What you’re looking for is it to not feel tacky. This can be 15 minutes to an hour.
6. Bake at 300°F for 18 minutes. Once finished baking if you are using parchment let cool for 10 minutes then transfer the top tray to refrigerator to cool. When they are completely cool it will turn off of the parchment quiet easily. If you are using a silpat you can let sit out to cool until you can easily remove from the silpat.
7. Once the shells turn over easily without sticking transfer to a wire rack, and prepare your next batch with the two cookie sheets by doubling them up and sliding the parchment or silpat with shells onto the top sheet. Follow the same baking temperature and time, repeating the cooling process as well to remove the shells from the parchment.
8. Pair up the shells of the same size and flip bottom up to let cool completely before adding in filling.

The coffee buttercream

1. In the bowl of your stand mixer whip the egg yolks with a pinch of salt. Whisk until tripled in volume, and a pale yellow in color. Meanwhile, place a medium size sauce pan over medium heat with the sugar and water. Bring it up to 245°F
2. While the eggs are whisking on a medium speed, slowly in a thin stream add in the sugar. Once all the sugar is incorporated, whisk until cool. While the mixture is whisking to cool. Place 1 tsp of espresso powder with 1 tsp of water. Place in microwave for 15 seconds to dissolve, and place in refrigerator to cool.
3. Once the egg and sugar mixture is cool, still at medium speed, add in the butter in small chunks of 2 tbsp. Once all the butter is incorporated slowly add in the cooled espresso, and the remaining tsp of espresso powder. This is the point you can add confectioner’s sugar if you want to add more sweetness. Whisk until smooth.
4. Place into a piping bag fitted with a round tip. I use an Adeco #809 tip. Pipe the frosting onto half the paired chocolate macaron shells. Once you have completed piping all the halves, place on the tops.

Macarons adapted from Tartelette // Buttercream inspired by MasterChef Australia

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

Oh yes my friends it is that time of year when the spicy warmth of pumpkin is everywhere. Like a large portion of the population I love Starbucks, what I don’t always love is the prices of baked goods. For the price of two you can buy enough ingredients to make a weeks worth for two people. This is where my search for a pumpkin scones recipe began.

Trolling around the internet like I do, I wanted to find a recipe similar to Starbucks Pumpkin Scones. I found one that had rave reviews and from a tried and trusted blogger Sweet Pea’s Kitchen. The recipes we have tried from her before were a great success. I knew these scones would be too. It was a complete success with just very slight changes, due to the spices I had on hand.

My husband is the scone maker in our home, but I wanted to surprise him with these. I knew from the little tips he has told me how to make them turn out successful. It really is just as simple as not touching the mixture with your hands, and making sure you combine the wet/dry ingredients until just barely combined. If you over-work the mixture the scones come out too cake like, and not crumbly like a true scone.

It comes together quickly, and this recipe takes (including cooking time) less than 30 minutes. The hardest part is waiting for them to cool before you dive in. My husband was taunted by the smell of them cooking and picked a hot one off the tray when it came out. Good sign of a successful recipe.

Pumpkin Scones Recipe

Posted by Lia S on October 10th, 2011

Crumbly and full of the taste of autumn. Perfect with tea or coffee!

Yield: 6 to 8 scones

Ingredients

Scones

• 2 cup flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ground all spice
• 6 tbsp unsalted butter, cold, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 3 tbsp half & half
• 1 large egg

Cream cheese glaze

• 1 oz cream cheese
• 1 cup confectioners sugar
• 1/2 tsp all spice
• 1-2 tbsp milk

Instructions

Scones

1. Pre-heat oven to 425°F. Line a large cookie sheet with a sil pat or piece of parchment.
2. In a medium size bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, all spice. Whisk to combine, and set aside.
3. In a small bowl combine the pumpkin, half and half, and egg. Whisk to combine and set aside.
4. Cut the cold butter into the flour mixture. You can use a food processer or a pastry cutter to do this step. When the flour and butter mixture looks like bread crumbs, pour in the pumpkin mix and fold in gently until all the ingredients are just wet.
5. Pour half the mixture onto the center half of the cookie sheet. Put the remaining half of the scone mixture in the center half of the same cookie sheet on the opposite side. Shape each mixture into 1″ thick circle. With a sharp knife, cut each circle into 6-8 wedges like a pie.
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the edges take on a deep golden tint. Remove and let cool on the tray for 10 minutes. Use a sharp knife to recut your wedges and gently break them apart. Transfer the wedges to a wire rack placed on top of a piece of parchment paper to catch the glaze dripping.
7. After you have transferred the scones to the wire rack prepare your glaze mixture.

Cream cheese glaze

1. In a small bowl combine the cream cheese, confectioners sugar, and spice.
2. Add in one tbsp of milk and stir, adding an additional tbsp and more if needed until it reaches the desired constancy.
3. Drizzle the glaze over the scones, let set for 2 hours until the scones are completely cool and the glaze is dry.

Store at room tempature in an air tight container for up to a week.

Slightly adapted from Sweet Pea’s Kitchen

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

I got inspired to make this when I saw it while browsing on a food app on my iPhone. I have been looking for reasons to use my orange blossom water. I know that I could have just used some orange juice or zest and got an orange flavor, but I love the light floral notes in orange blossom water. It is easily found at any Middle Eastern market store, and it lasts forever if refrigerated. Pomegranate fruit is just fun and messy as can be, but it’s worth the work for that crunchy tart flavor. Blackberries remind me of my childhood home. We had wild blackberry bushes all over the property that we used to just stop and eat when we got hungry while playing outside. With three of some of my favorite ingredients in this one dessert, I could not wait to make it.

You can take a typical cheesecake to a new level by adding in the orange blossom water. The flavor is amazing and subtle. You can even substitute the orange blossom water for lemon juice and you could have a great basic cheesecake recipe. The compote is tart and flavorful. The leftovers are fantastic as a syrup over waffles or pancakes. Maybe even ice cream? The possibilities are up to you.

Seeding a pomegranate is not as troublesome as you might think. It is as simple as filling a bowl with cold water, cutting your fruit into quarters, and working it in the water prevents the juice from squirting everywhere, also easily sorts out the seeds from the skin. The seeds sink to the bottom of your water bowl, and the skin floats. Here is a great video on how to seed a pomegranate the way I am trying to describe. Much easier than you might think, over all it produces a flavor that the bottle juice cannot match.

There are a few tips I have picked up to help prevent large cracks in your cheesecakes. Watch the temperature of the cake is a big one, but to me not as big as greasing the sides of the spring-form pan before you add in the filling. Also can always add a bit of cornstarch to the recipe to help stabilize the egg proteins. I like to use all three methods with this specific cheesecake recipe, which is my favorite to go to.

Orange Blossom-Scented Cheesecake w/ Pomegranate & Blackberry Compote

Posted by Lia S on September 29th, 2011

Cheesecake is great. Cheesecake scented with orange blossom is beyond great. Add this compote to it and you have a thing of beauty.

Yield: 1 cheesecake, 12 or so slices

Ingredients

Graham cracker crust

• 1/8 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
• 8 graham cracker sheets (1 sleeve of a box) one sheet is 4 small un-perforated cookies
• 1 tsp sugar
• 5 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

Cheesecake filling

• 5 8oz blocks of cream cheese, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1 tbsp corn starch
• 1 tbsp water
• 6 eggs (whole), room temperature
• 2 egg yolks, room temperature
• 2 tsp orange blossom water

Blackberry pomegranate compote

1 pomegranate, seeds removed
2 tsp water
12 oz blackberries (fresh or frozen)
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp of gelatin

Instructions

Graham cracker crust

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line the bottom of an 8″ or 9″ spring-form pan with a piece of parchment paper.
2. In a food processor combine the graham crackers, sugar, and nuts. Blitz until small crumbs form. Pour in the melted butter and blitz again until the mixture is now moist.
3. Pour into springform pan. With a flat-bottomed glass press firmly into the base in an even layer.
4. Once the crumbs are packed into the bottom of the pan bake for 10-12 minutes until the edges are just starting to go golden. Remove from the oven and let cool while you prepare the filling.
5. Raise the temperature of your oven to 475°F once the crust is removed.

Cheesecake filling

1. Prep all ingredients to make things go easier.
2. Add all the eggs and yolks into a bowl, and set aside.
3. In a small cup or dish combine 1 tbsp of water with 1 tbsp of cornstarch, mix until thick and smooth.
4. Cut the cream cheese into small pieces before adding into the bowl of a stand mixer.
5. Add the seeds of the scraped vanilla bean to the beater blade of your stand mixer. This makes it easy to scrape all the beans off.
6. Before you start your mixer add 1/2 cup of the sugar to help loosen up the cream cheese. Mix until fluffy and scrape down the sides.
7. Add in the remaining sugar, sour cream, and salt. Mix until incorporated and again scrape down the sides.
8. Add in the eggs two yolks at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl between each addition.
9. Once incorporated, scrape down the sides and turn the mixer back on. Slowly pour in the cornstarch mixture and orange blossom water, mix for 30 seconds or until well combined.
10. Place your prepared and cooled crust in the spring-form pan on a cookie sheet with high sides.
11. With a pastry brush, melt about 1 tbsp of butter and brush the sides of the pan with the melted butter to help prevent sticking which is the main cause of cracks in the cheesecake. Pour the mixture into the prepared spring form pan.
12. Lightly tap the tray on the counter to release any air bubbles. Then with the back of a spoon smooth out and burst the bubbles on the top of the filling.
13. Put the springform pan in the oven which should be at 475°F, cook for 15 minutes and without opening the door turn the oven down to 200°F. Let the cake cook at 200° for 90 minutes.
14. With an instant read thermometer check the temperature in the center of the cake at 90 minutes. You don’t want the center to reach beyond 155°F or it can cause cracks. If it is between 148-152°F this is ideal. If it is under, leave in the oven for another 15-20 minutes depending on how far you are from the target temperature. You should check the temperature every 15-20 minutes until the ideal temperature is reached.
15. Once the center of the cake reads between 148-152°F, remove from the oven and run a sharp thin knife along the edge of the cake between the pan as extra insurance to prevent cracks. Let the cake cool on a wire rack completely 2-3 hours, before transferring to the fridge to cool for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Blackberry pomegranate compote

1. Remove the seeds of one pomegranate. I used the method of the video from above.
2. In a small sauce pan over medium heat combine the pomegranate seeds, 1/2 of the blackberries, water and 1/2 of the sugar.
3. Once the mixture is hot and simmering pour into blender and pulse 2-4 times until the mixture is smooth puree.
4. Sieve the mixture back into the sauce pan to remove the pulp and seeds.
5. Add the remaining blackberries and sugar.
6. Bring up to a light simmer, for 5 minutes.
7. Remove from heat and stir in the gelatin.
8. Allow to cool to room temperature, transfer to the storing container. It will thicken as it cools.

Note: The compote will keep in the fridge in a well-sealed container for at least a week. It is excellent over pancakes/waffles, ice cream, cheesecake, as a filling for cakes or cupcakes, lemonade, added flavor to lemon lime sodas, anything!

Inspired by Epicurious

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

This isn’t the first recipe for risotto that I’ve tried, but none have turned out nearly as good as this recipe did. I knew the basic idea of making risotto; slowly boil Arborio rice with stock until creamy and tender. Easy, right? Wrong! You’d be surprised how many ways there are to screw up a dish like this that is so simple yet isn’t. But once you get it right the first time, you’ll be set for life. After some trial and error, I think I have the perfect creamy chicken and mushroom risotto recipe to show you.

I’d been watching MasterChef Australia when I really got turned on to the idea of making it. After seeing so many contestants fail at it, George Calombaris finally showed us how to make a proper risotto and passed along his technique. I’m so happy that he did. I don’t know why my other attempts didn’t quite turn out. I guess it’s because George’s method requires so little fussing with it so it doesn’t turn out all broken and gluggy.

The great thing about this recipe for chicken and mushroom risotto is that it comes together in under 30 minutes. You’re often tired by the time you get off work, you’ve battled traffic and when you finally get home you don’t want to invest too much time in dinner. You can have a hearty, earthy meal in no time, which is what most of us need. You really want to spend that time in more productive ways like making dessert, right?

Who knew making risotto was so easy?

The process of making a creamy risotto is simple. Slowly cook the rice by adding a little bit of liquid at a time until it’s mostly absorbed, then add more. With the use of a second pan you save time by cooking the mushrooms and chicken with spices. The amount of stock used in the rice will vary so in the recipe I give a range of cups to use. I also use two kinds of cheese: Parmesan and Romano. I felt that too much Parmesan makes it too salty and the Romano balances it out since it’s a slightly milder hard cheese. I think this simple risotto turned out perfectly.

Below I’ll walk you through how I make my easy chicken & mushroom risotto. Go on, it’s OK. If you think it will help you get through your first attempt, go ahead and pour yourself a glass of white since you’ll be cooking with it anyway.

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

Everyone has a banana bread recipe that they swear is “the best ever” and it might be true. However, I have yet to find one as good as this. It’s simple, moist, tender, and very flavorful. Until a few years ago I had no idea you could freeze bananas.I know that sounds weird but once they went over ripe I used to throw them away. One time my husband stopped me and was shocked at what I was doing.He explained to me that you use frozen over-ripe bananas to make bread. I looked at him like he was speaking another language. Then thanks to the power of Google, I was shocked – he was right!

I had enough to make the banana bread and I was just ecstatic at how good it was. Really the best result was as simple was freezing the blackened over ripe bananas for future use. Just add your rapidly-darkening extra bananas to the “banana shelf” in your freezer until you have enough to make a loaf of bread. As the fruit defrosts, the water crystals that formed during the freeze break down the flesh into a syrupy mush. You will notice the now defrosted fruit won’t hold its shape but if you snip off one tip you can squeeze it out like toothpaste. It is the ideal texture for banana bread and has an intense banana flavor.It’s so simple! I really cannot believe it took so long for me to know this.

Now that the cold weather is upon us and I can turn on the oven without getting heat stroke, I had to make some. It freezes very well and defrosts quickly. I usually make up a batch and freeze the slices individually or as mini-loafs. Then as we head out the door to work we grab a slice and by time I get to work to settle in with my coffee it’s defrosted and delicious. This also saves me tons of money because I don’t have to buy it at Starbucks to go with my coffee. They own enough of my soul already with their soy vanilla lattes. This is one of our regular favorites and easily adapts to a loaf, mini loaves, muffins, so have fun and enjoy!

My Banana Bread Recipe

Posted by Lia S on September 18th, 2011

Yield: 1 loaf of banana bread

Ingredients

• 4 ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• 7 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 2/3 cup flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Instructions

1. Pre-heat your oven to 350°F and prepare your loaf pan(s) by lightly spraying with baking spray. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl add the bananas, eggs, egg yolk, melted butter, and vanilla. Mash together until well mixed with a fork or potato masher. Set aside.
3. In another medium size bowl add the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Whisk together to mix.
4. Pour the banana mixture over the flour mixture, and add the nuts to the mixtures. With a large spatula fold all the ingredients together until well incorporated and there is none of the dry mixture left. Pour into the prepared pans and for one large loaf, bake for 50-60 minutes until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. For mini loaf(s) bake 30-40 minutes, and Muffins 25-35 minutes.
5. Cool on a wire rack in the pans. Store in air-tight containers in slices or chunks (or whole loaves) and freeze for as long as you or your family let them last. Enjoy!

Adapted from Cooking for Engineers

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

Until recently I had no idea what a snicker-doodle was. (Apparently I’ve lived under a rock most of my life.) Thanks to the power of Google I found a recipe that had a high rating and 1,000+ reviews of it on a site that had “all kinds of “recipes”. I figured why not give it a try, and honestly I have never been more disappointed by a cookie in my life. It was just so basic, it had no depth and the flavors were bland, bland, bland. To me it had no reason to have that many positive reviews. I was determined to make it better.

I started thinking back to when my family would take road trips in the summer. During our trip we would always stop at this restaurant in Yakima, WA that had the best barbacoa tacos and these cookies! Oh man these cookies were amazing! We would get like a dozen of these heart-shaped cookies with a fine cinnamon and sugar-coating. It was the texture that really made them stand out to me. It is so rich and crumbly, yet very delicate. It wasn’t really overly sweet and had a nutty flavor that still stands out to me.

It took a bit of research and trial and error. Ok, mostly it was me swearing while I threw batches in the trash, but I finally had the perfect cookie! When the winning batch came out of the oven I was so excited to share them with everyone, but mostly my husband who never had one. He had only had snicker-doodles which I vow to never make those horrible little disks of fake flavor again.

It only took one bite of this cookie to take me right back to the long car trips to Colorado. Me and my brother fighting over who’s on who’s side while my mom drove and grandma sat in the passenger seat doing cross-word puzzles. It made me happy and sad all at the same time, and made me realize that I miss my family. I am going to keep these cookies as a tradition when I get a family to make and take on road trips, and when I finally get back out to Seattle, I am going to make these for my mom and brother.

Since I have gotten so used to doing all my recipes in metric now, I love it. It makes them so much more consistent each time you make them, but also very easy to remember. This cookie recipe I made to be very simple and easily halved or doubled easily. I added both imperial and metric in the recipe. That way you can decide which way to go, since it is just very minor differences that really are off by just grams. I also of course used a heart shape cookie cutter because that is the shape they were when we would by them so that is more for nostalgia then anything. You can use any cookie cutter you want, but the cookie should still be fairly thick.

I wish I could express to you how happy these cookies make me. Because of the memories it brings with each flavorful bite, but how just great the recipe turned out. If you like snicker-doodles, or just the flavor combination of cinnamon and sugar, make these. Make them, make them right away. They are better than any snicker-doodle you have ever had in your life, and you will never go back to your old recipe. Enjoy!

Polvorónes

Posted by Lia S on September 11th, 2011

Light, sweet and crumbly, these cookies are sure to be a hit with everyone in your family. I guarantee these wont last long!

Yield: 12 to 15 Cookies

Ingredients

• 2 cups + 2 tbsp (220g + 2 tbsp) all-purpose flour, toasted
• 1 cup (200g) unsalted butter, room temperature.
• 2/3 cup (80g) confectioner’s (frosting) sugar
• 1 cup (100g) almond meal/flour
• 1/4 tsp all spice
• 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

Sugar dusting

• 1/2 cup (60g) powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup (100g) sugar
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 325°F.
2. On a large cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, sprinkle flour over the paper and bake for 25 minutes. Every 5 minutes stir the flour around to even out the cooking.
3. After 25 minutes is up transfer the flour to a large plate to cool. It will be almond in color and have a nutty flavor. Toss with a fork every few minutes to help cool down faster, or place in refrigerator but still toss to help cool. Do not use until completely cool. Once the flour is cool, measure out 2 cups and sift, set aside. The remaining flour will be used to dust your work space.
4. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silpat.
5. In the bowl of a stand mixer combine the butter and powdered sugar until pale and fluffy. Add in the Almond meal and the spices. Once combined slowly add in the flour until completely combined.
6. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface. Shape the dough into a ball, use any of the remaining toasted flour as needed.
7. Roll the dough out lightly until 3/8″ to 1/2″ thick. Cut out your cookies, and place on your cookie sheet. The dough is dry but soft, so I suggest using an angled spatula to help lift and place the cookies on the sheet. Leave about 2″ around each cookie.
8. Refrigerate any unused dough between baking. Bake for 25 min.
9. While the cookies are baking, combine the sugar dusting and mix to combine. You will need a sieve at the ready for the moment the cookies come out of the oven so what I found was the easier was to line the sieve with parchment and place the sugar mixture on top of the parchment. So when you are ready to sift over the hot cookies, just slide the parchment out easily and dust the cookies.
10. When the 25 minutes on the cookies are up, remove from the oven and immediately sift the sugar mixture over the hot cookies very generously. You may want a helper to take the cookies out so you can dust immediately. Remember this mixture will need to dust all the cookies so be generous yet leave enough for the others.
11. Let cool completely before moving the cookies off the parchment or silpat. Repeat the process with any unused dough. Makes 12-15 cookies depending on the size of the cookie cutter used. Store in air-tight container for up to two weeks. If you can make them last that long!

Inspired by Polvorons

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

I know you are thinking, “What!? Ice cream without a machine? You woman, are insane!” Ok so you’re not thinking that exactly but I am nothing if not eccentric and quirky. So, however true that may be, I might add that I have quite an affection for vanilla bean ice cream, and even though most of the store bought varieties are made with dried flavorless seeds that have had the flavor sucked out and are there for mostly looks. I love to see the speckles of vanilla goodness.

If you have followed me for even just a bit or looked back at my posts, I have a chocolate ice cream that doesn’t require a machine. Our tiny apartment has a kitchen the size of cubicle, i just cannot afford the space for an item that would get only seasonal use. I found a chocolate no ice cream maker ice cream, and made it into a mocha and rocky road, now modified into vanilla ice cream happiness.

Originally I had bought ice cream to go with my tart tatin. I picked up a brand that claimed to have only 5 ingredients. Of course a first trial of a mini tarte tatin with the ice cream was good but really it tasted like iced milk with a cheap extract. I was not happy with it at all and however good and just delicious that tarte was, the ice cream ruined it. The perfectionist in me wouldn’t allow this to happen again, so I was on a mission to make the best ice cream.

So with my ever-quick wit and endless desire to do things my way, I took that recipe and made it into vanilla bean dream ice cream! By infusing the beans of the two pods with the extract, it made such an intense vanilla flavor that is hands down the best damn vanilla ice cream I have had. So here ya go, 4 ingredients to awesome vanilla ice cream (no machine required!) I have ever had.

Also, my home-made chocolate sauce! Super easy just takes 10 minutes and lasts for 2-4 weeks sealed and refrigerated.

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream & Dark Chocolate Sauce

Posted by Lia S on September 4th, 2011

No ice cream maker? No problem! Just four ingredients stand between you and ice cream bliss.

Yield: 1.5 quarts

Ingredients

Vanilla bean ice cream

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 can (14oz) sweetened condensed milk
• 2 vanilla beans (Mexican preferred)
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract (Mexican preferred)

Dark chocolate sauce

• 3/4 cup water
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup vanilla sugar
• 1/2 cup Dutch processed cocoa powder
• Pinch of salt

Instructions

Vanilla bean ice cream

1. In a small cup or measuring cup add the tbsp of vanilla extract the the seeds of two vanilla bean pods, mix to combine and set aside to let the flavors marinade for 5-10 minutes.
2. In a large 3 quart microwave safe bowl add the sweetened condensed milk and microwave for 15 seconds to just loosen the milk up. Add the vanilla mixutre and stir to combine and set aside.
3. In the bowl of your stand mixer, add in the cream and whisk on medium high until soft peaks form. Keep VERY careful watch on the cream at this point, and let it get to a medium peak stage.
4. With a large balloon whisk, add in a large dollop of the cream into the milk mixture and whisk to lighten. Fold in 1/2 of the remaining whipped cream into the milk mixture until incorporated.
5. Once that is mixed in add the remaining and pour into a lidded freezer proof container(s). Place in freeze for 8+ hours to set.

Dark chocolate sauce

1. In a 2 quart sauce pan over medium heat, combine the water, sugars, and salt until well combined and all the mixture is wet.
2. Add in the cocoa powder and bring to a boil. Once it begins to boil, set a timer for 5 min.
3. Once the 5 minutes is up remove from heat and let cool in pan for 20-30 minutes before transferring to the storing container. Will keep in the fridge for 2-4 weeks, if you can let it last that long.

Inspired by David Lebovitz

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

Fall is approaching, and I am craving that cool crisp weather and the colors. I love Minnesota in the fall, and at the right time of day as the leaves are falling you can drive or walk down my street in uptown with all the houses, trees, and cars and it’s like a scene from a picture. Makes me love Minnesota every time, and so glad I moved here. In hopes and anticipation of fall, I made a small tarte tatin and served it with vanilla bean ice cream.

The concept of this tarte is very, very simple. It’s sugar, apples, and pie dough or puff pastry. Delicious and simple, and it’s easy to scale down or up depending on pan size. I used a 6″ frying pan that is rated for up to 500°F for oven use, two apples, and a half sheet of puffy pastry. Adding more flavor dimensions by adding a bit of lemon juice and zest and of vanilla and cinnamon. It is as I like, a quick, tasty dessert that includes little ingredients, but tastes like it took hours. The nice thing with this tarte is that you can make it ahead and let it cool, the flavors will meld together and be amazing, then reheat for 5 minutes before turning out onto a plate to serve. As with any apple dessert, vanilla bean ice cream is the ideal accompaniment.

Apple Tarte Tatin

Posted by Lia S on August 25th, 2011

Yield: 2 to 4 tartelettes or one large 12-inch tarte

Ingredients

• 3/4 c sugar
• 1 1/2 tbsp butter, unsalted
• 2 firm baking apples, peeled and cored, each cut into 8 wedges
• Juice and zest of half a Lemon
• 1 vanilla bean, seeded
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• Pinch of salt
• Pinch of ground clove
• 1 Sheet of puff pastry

Instructions

1. In a small bowl, add the Apple wedges, lemon juice and zest, vanilla bean seeds, cinnamon, salt, clove. Toss to combine and let marinade. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. In a 6″ sauce pan combine the butter and sugar over medium heat. Stir only until the butter has melted, do not over stir or agitate or the caramel will split. After it has come to a boil/simmer, cook for 5 minutes NOTE: It may take less then 5 mintues, you are looking for a medium light caramel color, but don’t want it too deep or it will burn and taste bitter.
3. After the 5 minutes is up, turn the heat down to low and arrange the apple wedges in a circular pattern around the pan. Pour the juice from the bowl the apples were in over the apples and caramel.
4. To prepare the puff pastry. Lightly flour your work surface and place the sheet of puff pastry down, and lightly flour the top. Roll the sheet just until the pastry is seamless.
5. Turn the heat off the stove top, and lay the pastry over the pan lightly. Press down lightly into the apples and into the bottom sides of the pan, trying to create a seal. Let the pastry cover over the rim of the pan and trim off any access. Place into the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes, before turning out onto a plate.
6. To turn the tarte tatin out, place the serving plate over the pan (be VERY aware of where the hot pan handle will go while you are turning it out), and flip. Place the plate on the counter top and gently lift off the pan. If any caramel is still in the pan, heat it up on the stove top, and drizzle over the tarte. Serve with ice cream, whipped cream, or creme fraiche.

Note: If you are going to serve immediately, let the tarte cool in the pan for 5 minutes before attempting to turn out onto a plate. If for later use, let cool and reheat in oven for 5 minutes so it is easily turned out onto a plate.

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

My husband and I were having a massive chocolate craving, so I rummaged around in my fridge and freezer to see what I had. I peeked my head out of the kitchen and shouted “mystery box challenge!” Yeah, that was a MasterChef Australia reference. I’m a big dork, but at least I acknowledge it and don’t even try to hide it! I really surprised myself when this was finished mostly because it really tasted amazing. It took longer for me to figure out what to do and almost giving up before I knew exactly what I was making.

So after poking around and pouting for about 10 minutes, I ended up pulling out a package of frozen pastry shells, some bitter-sweet ganache left over from earlier in the week, and some heavy cream. I knew exactly what I wanted and the total time took 30 minutes from “What the hell should I make?” to “OMG this tastes awesome!” If you precooked the shells, then you could whip this up for company in 10 minutes, and delight the hell out of them. I added the option to add gelatin or not. If for immediate consumption omit the gelatin, and if not then add in the gelatin and refrigerate. Both methods work well and both produce a fluffy, rich and quick chocolate mousse.

Quick Chocolate Mousse

Posted by Lia S on August 20th, 2011

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 4 packaged puff pastry shells, prepared according to directions
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup frosting sugar
• 2/3 cup chocolate ganache, room temperature (see my salted choc tarte recipe)
• 1 tsp gelatin (optional)
• 1 tsp cold water (optional)
• 2 tsp boiling hot water (optional)

Instructions

1. Make the puffy pastry shells according to directions on package. After baking, remove the tops and set aside for garnish.
2. In a medium size bowl add the heavy cream and whip until it is just starting to get thick.
3. Add in the frosting sugar. See my note at the end if this are not going to be eaten immediately. Continue whisking until it is just barely starting to hold its shape when you lift the whisk out of the bowl.
4. Add in 1/2 cup of the ganache and whip until stiff peaks form, and the mixture is a consistent color. Set in the fridge to chill while you prep the shells.
5. Put the remaining ganache into a small piping bag. In the bottom of each pastry shell, pipe a thin layer of ganache. On each of the caps pipe a dolop of the ganache. Any remaining ganache add to the bottoms of the cups or use to decorate the plates.
6. Take the mousse out of the fridge and you can either spoon into the cups or place in a pastry bag and pipe it into the shells, filling to the top and slightly over to give a very full look. Place the cap on the top of the mousse and decorate as desired. I dusted with powdered sugar, and drizzled chocolate sauce.

Note: If you are not going to use the mousse immediately I strongly suggest using gelatin in the recipe as follows. Dissolve 1 tsp of gelatin in 1 tsp of cold water and let set for 5 minutes. Add 2 tsp of boiling hot water to completely dissolve, and add to the cream mixture by slowly pouring in after all the frosting sugar has been mixed in but before adding the ganache. Complete recipe as above.

Inspired by Alton Brown

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

There is a MN Food Bloggers community that I am very privileged to be a part of, and this month one of the women who founded this group hosted a gathering and bar bake-off contest. I was so excited to participate but then work obligations came up and two days before I had to withdraw.

I think it was partially for the best. I was having bad luck, but I knew this combination would be a hit. The pan I ordered was the wrong size, I burnt my first batch of almonds, my raspberry jam didn’t set right and was more like a coulis. Then, when I finally got the recipe down my job started shaking its finger and said “Oh, I don’t think so.” This week, I made my bars anyways and they turned out as amazing as I had predicted. I just wish I could have entered them into the bake-off, which from posts and Facebook updates from the bloggers was great fun and had a life changing sangria that no one has stopped talking about.

I tried 3 different types of crust for this bar, and liked the results with just a very basic crust. I also made almond flour from toasted almonds and then a store-bought almond meal. The best result was the blanched silvered almonds, ground into a flour made the best frangipane. After that it was easy and yummy, this would also make a great winter or fall dessert bar, use up that fresh raspberry jam from the summer, and it makes it extra special. These are great and different then a typical dessert bar recipe. I am getting used to doing my recipes now in metric, I had added the conversions, but here is a nice clean chart you can use as well. Happy Baking!

Raspberry Frangipane Bars

Posted by Lia S on August 15th, 2011

If you’ve never had frangipane before, you’re in for a treat. These bars are sweet, tangy and out of this world. The raspberry jam can be substituted with your favorite fruit preserves to make any kind of bars.

Yield: 16 bars in an 8×8-inch pan

Ingredients

Crust

• 150 g (1 1/4 cup) flour
• 60 g (1/2 cup) frosting sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 145 g (10 tbsp) unsalted butter, cold
• 1 tsp cold water

Raspberry layer

• 250 g of raspberry jam

Frangipane layer

150 g (2/3 cup) unsalted butter, softened
150 g (1 1/3 cup) powered sugar
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
1 tsp almond extract
150 g (3/4 cup) almond flour
1 1/2 tbsp rum

Instructions

Crust

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F.
2. In a bowl whisk the flour, sugar, and salt until well combined.
3. Cut in the butter using a pastry cutter or fork, once it is in a small crumb stage, add 1 tsp of water and keep working the mixture with the pastry cutter until a soft dough forms.
4. Press into an even layer into the bottom of a bar pan (8″x8″ or 10″x10″). Place in refrigerator to firm up.
5. Bake for 15 minutes or until the edges just start to turn golden brown. Place the pan on a cookie sheet.

Raspberry layer

1. While the crust is still warm and the pan still cannot be touched bare-handed, deftly use an angled spatula to spread the jam in an even layer on top of the crust. Once you have an even layer start on the frangipane layer.

Frangipane layer

1. In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
2. Add in the eggs, extract, and rum. Mix until well combined.
3. Turn the mixer down to low and slowly add in the almond flour. Once completely combined, spread in an even layer into your bar pan over the jam layer, gently using the angled spatula to help get an even layer.
4. Bake for 20-30 minutes at 350°F, until the top is light golden brown and the center gently springs back when lightly touched. Optional: About 2/3 of the way through cooking time, sprinkled with silvered almonds, it will give it a nice textural crunch to the bar.

Note: Almond flour can be purchased in the market pre-ground, or if you want to save yourself a lot of money you can purchase blanched silvered almonds and grind them up in the food processor, sifting and processing as needed to get the desired weight.

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

As some may or may not know I have a addiction like many others to MasterChef Australia. Which is weird because I am from the US (but I can watch it on their website thanks to our VPN connection). Skipping past that, let me tell you about the show. Love, Love, Love it, a little bit of drama, lots of furious cooking and tons to learn, but what makes me love the show is the camaraderie. No one is back-stabbing another contestant, and when one leaves due to elimination they are all generally upset and not cheering “that bitch is gone” unlike most if not all American reality shows.

Well in one of the masterclass episodes Vincent Gadan, an amazing pastry chef, made these tarts. I provided the recipe below and the original link, but added in my take on it and some changes. The dough is very temperamental. You must handle it as little as possible, and let it rest, or it will be very hard – like fortune cookie hard – which doesn’t make for a pleasant eating experience.

Personally, I don’t like the salty sweet flavor combination but my husband loves it, so these were made more for him to enjoy. If you try and make them, depending on your personal preference you can follow my changes or the original recipe provided via the link. Either way they are delicious, rich, and simply just amazing.

Chocolate Salted Caramel Tarts

Posted by Lia S on August 11th, 2011

Yield: 4 (6-inch) Tarts

Ingredients

Sweet dough crust

• 90g unsalted butter
• 50g caster sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 vanilla bean, seeds only
• 1 egg
• 20g almond meal
• 160g flour

Salted caramel filling

• 115g caster sugar
• 45g corn syrup
• 100g heavy cream, room temperature
• 5g salt
• 20g unsalted butter, cold
• 1-2 tablespoons roasted and unsalted peanuts

Chocolate ganache topping

80g heavy cream
80g semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
14g unsalted butter

Instructions

Sweet dough crust

1. In a medium size bowl, cream the butter, sugar and salt.
2. Add vanilla bean seeds and beat until fluffy.
3. Add egg and mix to combine. Add almond meal and flour and mix until mixture forms a dough.
4. Place the dough between two sheets of cling wrap. Flatten into a 6″ x 6″ square, refrigerate for 2 hours.
5. Preheat oven to 325°F
6. Portion out about 1/2 of the pastry and place the other half back in the refrigerator.
7. Lightly flour your work area. Place your pastry portion on top of the dusted work surface and dust again with flour lightly. Don’t add too much flour or it will make the pastry hard.
8. Roll to a desired thickness about 1-2mm and prick well with a fork, then cut out into 5 1/2″ rounds.
9. Lift gently and then gently press into tins to fit. Roll over the tops of the tart tins with a rolling pin to trim the edges clean off.
10. Refrigerate for 1 hour. Note: If at any time the dough gets too soft to work with, refrigerate to firm up then continue on.
11. Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes or until golden. Remove and cool completely before adding in the fillings.

Salted caramel filling

1. Place sugar and corn syrup in a 3 quart saucepan over a medium heat. Agitating mixture gently until sugar is dissolved. Simmer until sugars become a light brown caramel.
2. While stirring add in the cream and salt, remove from heat. Keep stirring constantly to avoid crystals from forming. Allow to cool slightly and whisk in butter until smooth and glossy.
3. Fill the tarts about 1/2 full with the salted caramel and top with 1-2 teaspoons peanuts. Chill to set.

Chocolate ganache topping

1. To make the ganache pour the cream into a saucepan and when it is almost at a boil, remove from heat.
2. Add chocolate and stir until smooth.
3. Add the butter and stir until glossy and smooth.
4. Fill chilled tartes with ganache and refrigerate for 20-30 minutes to set. Sprinkle a little sea salt on top if desired.

Adapted from Masterchef Australia, via Vincent Gadan

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

First off, I am sorry that my posts have been so far and in-between. I have not neglected you my dedicated and very loved peeps! The heat index here has been near and over 120°F so the last thing I have been wanting to do is cook or bake. Also, this month just flew by and before I knew it my phone was beeping at me telling me that the Daring Bakers challenge was due in a few days and I lucked out with this weekend off of work, so I set to it.

Jana of Cherry Tea Cakes was our July Daring Bakers’ host and she challenges us to make French frasiers inspired by recipes written by Elisabeth M. Prueitt and Chad Robertson in the beautiful cookbook Tartine. The challenge was to make all the elements to this dish, in the shape of a freestanding cake with distinctive layers. I had made a version of a similar cake before. My Japanese Christmas Cake, which was amazing, I loved and wanted to make again, so honestly I was not afraid of this challenge like I was with the baklava.

I wanted to do something different and since we had all the freedom to do as we wished so I went with a very simple but fantastic combination of almond, strawberry, and white chocolate. This combination ended up being light, a nice combinations of textures, and the flavor was amazing. Don’t get me wrong, this sounds and was fairly simple but there are many steps required to complete the dish. Most can be made a day in advanced, so that takes some of the time and issues out of assembly which does take a little patience.

What I was really excited about was this gave me the opportunity to use my new kitchen gadget; a stick blender with 3 attachments, a processor, whisk, and hand blender. This is seriously the best thing I have ever owned and I am so happy to have it. For those who have limited kitchen counter space I highly recommend one, it is just wonderful.

One last thing in this post I also wanted to share with you is how many of my recipes come to pass. I still have black and white Composition books that I write and sketch plating ideas in, and recipe measurements. I found a bunch of the note books at the store one day on sale for $0.87. I have two of four filled now, with recipes that all look similar to this.

See, this is what my original recipe/post looked like, now aren’t you glad I cleaned it up and hopefully made sense out of it for you? I sit and watch tv, mostly things like Futurama and Bones so many times I can almost quote it, and write out ideas for recipes with little sketches. With my iPhone, a bottle of water, my favorite pen (blue ink only), notebook, bad penmanship, horrible spelling, and dodgy little sketches of what I want my food to look like in the end, I set out on my cooking adventures to share with all you wonderful people.

Whew! You’re done! Now stand back and admire what you’ve created. Serve to amazed friends and family. Refrigerate any unserved portions of cake.

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

So, what is the one of the best things about working again? Playing cupcake fairy on birthdays! This week a girl at work turned 18 and I asked her what flavor(s) she wanted for her birthday cupcakes. She said chocolate with chocolate, maybe cream cheese, oh and Nutella is awesome. As most of you know Nutella when baked loses a lot of the flavor and really it’s just cocoa and cream, but insanely addictive. Over all these cupcakes turned out really good, and if you like red velvet then you will really like these. The texture is similar and the flavors are too. I am quite proud of these and very pleased with the results. However, given that it’s 90 out and very sticky humid I did enjoy making these, but I am about to try out some steamed pudding recipes, turning the oven on in this heat is just becoming torturous. I am already looking forward to the snow.

As I tend to always make a half batch of what the recipe calls for, and I did that with these but wow it still made a lot. I was only looking to make 9-12 cupcakes and I ended up with 20. Not a huge ordeal but still shocked me. To me this is a lot, but some people this is an average batch. One thing that I did do to this batch to make it look prettier was I baked it higher for 5 min and continued baking it at normal temperature afterwards. This resulted in a nice puffy dome on the cupcake, which some love and others do not. Me? I like the big puffy dome on the cupcake if it’s going to be decorated with pipped frosting. It adds height and you can use less frosting and still make it stand tall.

Nutella Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Posted by Lia S on July 13th, 2011

Nutella is awesome, so Nutella cupcakes should be doubly awesome, right? Throw on some cream cheese frosting and you have something wonderful.

Yield: 20 cupcakes

Ingredients

Nutella cupcake

• 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp warm water
• 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup nutella
• 1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp cider vinegar
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room tempature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 whole eggs, room temperature

Cream cheese frosting (swiss meringue)

• 4 egg whites
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 12 oz cream cheese, whipped
• 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature cut in cubes
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

Nutella cupcake

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F and prepare two cupcake tins with liners.
2. In a small bowl combine the water and cocoa powder until smooth, add in the nutella and mix until smooth set aside.
3. In a bowl combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Whisk to combine and set aside.
4. In a cup combine the milk, vanilla, and cider vinegar and mix, set aside.
5. In the bowl of your mixer add the butter and sugar, mix on medium high speed until pale and fluffy, add in the eggs one at a time, mix until well combined. Add in the cocoa nutella mixture and mix until well combined, stopping to scrape down the sides as needed.
6. Turn the mixer down to low and slowly add in half of the flour mixture, mixing until just combined.
7. Add all of the milk mixture slowly as to not splash out of the bowl, and mix until well combined, then slowly add in the remaining flour mixture once combined, turn to medium speed and mix for two minutes, any more would create bubbles in your cupcakes.. so be careful.
8. Divide the batter into your lined cupcake trays. Bake one tray at a time at 400°F for 5 minutes, turn the oven down to 350°F and bake for 10-12 minutes until tooth pick inserted in center comes out cleanly. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Before adding in the second tray, preheat the oven back up to 400°F before placing it in oven and repeat the baking process.

Cream cheese frosting (swiss meringue)

1. Place a saucepan with an inch of water over low heat and bring to a low simmer.
2. In a large bowl add the egg whites and a pinch of salt, whisk until broken up and starts to foam slightly.
3. Add in the sugar and whisk to combine. Place over the double boiler and whisk until the sugar is melted into the egg whites, it should feel smooth when rubbed between your fingers. Transfer the mixture to the bowl of your stand mixer.
4. Place the bowl in your mixer and whisk on high for 10-12 minutes until the bottom of the bowl is cool to the touch, slowly start adding in the butter and cream cheese two to three cubes at a time until all is incorporated. The mixture may look curdled for a moment but keep mixing until it comes back together. It may take 2-5 minutes, just keep watching it.
5. Once the mixture comes back together slowly drizzle in the vanilla, keep whisking until well combined. For immediate use place into a piping bag and decorate cooled cupcakes as desired.
6. For later use refrigerate for 2-3 days bringing up to room temperature and whisking in your stand mixture before use. Or, you can freeze up to a month, bringing to room temperature and whisking to smooth out prior to use.

Cupcake inspired by Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

See my friends and fellow bloggers, I can make more than desserts! I made curry, and not just any but a fantastically bastardized chicken curry. But, wait your thinking… what do you mean bastardized? I have always wanted to make my own curry but problem is.. I have never made a curry other then a potato one years and years ago.

I have seen them made a number of times on TV shows (MasterChef Australia to name but one), and read so many recipes on blogs and food sites it makes my head explode with knowledge. I know the ‘real’ way to make curries is to have fresh whole spices and toast them and then grind them, and well honestly, when I came up with this I was on a budget and tired, and feeling lazy but wanted something full of flavor and spice, and I think I achieved all the points I was going for. Full of flavor, quick, easy, and all the ingredients are something I always keep on hand. And the best part? The leftovers are even better the next day!

I know, some of you are reading this tossing your arms up in the air screaming and swearing at your monitor or phone as you read this… “This isn’t a real curry!” “What is this abomination!” “Damn Americans!” Trust me, I have prepared myself for an onslaught of comments as to how I ruined a great dish, but hear me out and give try this first.

I even further bastardized this dish, I know some of you are thinking, “Impossible! This is already offensive enough!” But it’s true, I did. I use the basic boule recipe from Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day to make everything from pita bread to a baguette. So, my brain started ticking with an idea. I followed the format to make pita bread, which is no fail perfection and a must try, but what I did was just roll it out thin like a tortilla and brushed it with lightly with olive oil infused with garlic, crush 2 cloves of garlic and place in 1/4 cup olive oil and let it sit for 15 minutes before using, and then bake it for 5 minutes at 475°F and it’s the perfect accompaniment to this dish. Also, fellow blogger Rufus’ Food and Spirits Guide has shared a recipe re-post for Naan bread that is simple and delicious, and goes fantastic with this curry as well.

I have made this three times since I first got brave and started pulling spices out of my cupboards and tossing them in the pan, it really is pretty fantastic with Jasmine rice. I hope you give this a shot, it really is pretty damn good.

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

Just saying its name makes you crave that nutty sweet happiness that is a square of baklava. I joined the Daring Kitchen (Bakers) just under a month ago so this is my first challenge, and what a challenging week it is! I started a new job, which has a new store opening at the Mall of America, meaning we are spending the first 3 days just unboxing everything and merchandising the store. Also, my very best girlfriend’s boyfriend is having a birthday party and I offered to make the cake, his favorite, German chocolate. I also found out a week ago that he loves baklava, so guess whose birthday party this is going to!

Of course being me, I procrastinated and waited till the last moment, but I did it!. Erica of Erica’s Edibles was our host for the Daring Baker’s June Challenge. Erica challenged us to be truly DARING by making homemade phyllo dough and then to use that homemade dough to make Baklava. This was exciting to me, I was thrilled and scared at the same time. I researched for the last month how to do the filling since the recipe for the dough was provided.

I decided to go with two variations, and I didn’t want to do too much fuss, so I just made small batches with two layers of nuts and three of phyllo. The final result was thinner only around an 1″ tall, which might or might not be smaller then you would get in most locations/restaurants, but tasted wonderful. The first version was a walnut and orange version of baklava, I also did a pistachio and almond version with rose water syrup. This had to be my favorite, if I had to chose. It is really good, full of flavor, and almost dangerous to keep around. I had to say for my first Daring Bakers Challenge this was exciting and fun. I cannot wait for July. I hope if you do try these, even if you used purchased phyllo dough these turned out fantastic.

Tips & Conclusions:

• If I do this again I would double the phyllo dough recipe but not the mix recipe. Making more layers between the two layers of nuts, I suggest you do this.
• Hot Syrup on Cold Baklava = best result
• I cannot spell syrup with out the aid of spell check. If not for spell check this post would be a disaster and homage to my dyslexia.
• Use a wooden dowel vs a rolling pin, unless your roller has no handles. The pressure distribution with a dowel helps prevent tears and holes.
• Lots and lots of flour while rolling, do not be afraid to dust.
• Diamond shapes look better then square.
• Rose water, pistachio, and cardamon is the combination of Gods.
• A light flavored summer blossom honey is the best, a clove honey is just too powerful.

Phyllo Dough Challenge

Makes 9 sheets (9″ x 13″)

• 1 1/3 c flour
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/2 c water
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp cider vinegar

The dough was going to be tricky for me, I knew that it needed to be very well kneaded to truly activate that gluten, so you could roll/stretch it very thin. The constancy was not going to come together on it’s own with my mixer. It’s a little under powered for this sort of task, so I mixed all of the ingredients by hand with a pastry cutter, then put in to the mixer for 10 minutes.

While the dough was working I cursed my tiny kitchen and at the fact chopping all these nuts by hand was going to be a task, I was not really prepared for. I ended up using my blender as food processor. This was an awesome idea but only do 1 cup of nuts at a time. I learned that lesson for you.

Now the dough had been working with the mixer for around 10 minutes and it was very sticky. I knew the constancy needed to be very silky and have a lot of stretch. I took the bowl in my arm and lightly flowered one hand and used my hand as a mixer, keeping my hand lightly flowered as needed to work the dough into a ball in the bowl that cleaned the sides.

Once the dough no longer was sticking to the mixing bowl I once again lightly floured my hands, and worked the dough in my hands. I worked the dough with my hands by tossing it back between my hands like a ball stopping to lightly flour my hands as needed. How do you know when you have the right constancy? The dough should not stick to your hands anymore and hold its shape gently. Once it reached this constancy you won’t need to re-flour your hands as the dough should not stick to you, if it does lightly flour one hand. At this point now, I kept tossing it and massaging it in my hands for 10 minutes. Then I placed it in a bowl with bakers spray and then sprayed the top and covered it with plastic wrap and let it set for 90 minutes.

Now time to roll it out, being as I can be slightly pedantic about things I weighed each ball out on my scale to 47 grams give or take 2g. This ended up being the perfect size to make this one batch of dough into 9 sheets of phyllo. My tip here, flour everything, the table, the top the rolling pin, and flour some more while rolling. Roll and stretch it out as much as you can, I rolled my sheets out into a 13″x9″ cake pan size. Just slightly larger then what the size of the pan is, and I had very little waste.

I placed a piece of plastic wrap over a magazine and used that as my scale to see if I got it thin enough. If I could read the text clearly then it was thin enough. I placed it down on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper and repeated this process until I had all 9 sheets. The hard part was done, now the fun parts, the filling and baking.

———————–

Walnut Baklava

• 8 tbsp Unsalted butter, melted
• 3 c Walnuts, finely ground
• 2 tsp Cinnamon, ground
• 1/2 tsp Clove, ground
• 9 Sheets of phyllo (one batch of above recipe)

Preheat oven to 400°F. Melt the butter in a small bowl and set aside. Mix the nuts and spices together in a bowl and set aside. Optional: Remove 1/8 c of the nut mixture for sprinkling over the top of each piece or the entire pan after the syrup has been poured on.

In 9″ x 13″ cake pan. Layer a sheet of dough and with a pastry brush, brush melted butter over it. Repeat this process until you have 3 sheets lain down as a layer, place 1/2 of the nut mixture sprinkled evenly over the sheet of dough. Repeat the process this until you have 2 layers of nuts and 3 layers of dough (3 sheets per layer). With a very sharp knife trim off any access sheets of dough around the edges, and press the edges inside the pan with the back of the knife to have a nice clean edge.

With the sharp clean knife cut down half way through the layers to cut into squares, diamonds, or triangles, which ever you prefer. Wipe the knife off after every cut to keep clean edges. Re-brush the top layer with butter, and bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes until the top is golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature for 1-2 hours. Mixture must be cool before adding the hot syrup.

Orange Blossom Syrup

• 2/3 c Water
• 1 c Honey
• 2/3 c Sugar
• 1/8 c Orange blossom water
• 1/2 Vanilla bean & seeds scrapped into syrup

Place all of the ingredients in a small sauce pan. Bring the mixture to a boil, and then reduce to low, and simmer for 10 minutes until slightly thickened. Remove from heat and let sit for 5-10 minutes until very warm but not boiling hot, think… warm bath water temperature. Pour the mixture evenly over the cool baklava. If you reserved some of your nut mixture sprinkle a pinch of the mixture over the top middle of each piece until all used. Cover and let it set overnight to absorb the syrup.

———————–

Pistachio and Almond Baklava

• 8 tbsp Unsalted butter, melted
• 1 1/2 c Pistachios, finely ground
• 1 1/2 c Almonds, finely ground
• 1 1/2 tsp Cardamon
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• 9 sheets of Phyllo (one batch of above recipe)

Preheat oven to 400°F. Melt the butter in a small bowl and set aside. Mix the nuts and spices together in a bowl and set aside. Optional: Remove 1/8 c of the nut mixture for sprinkling over the top of each piece or the entire pan after the syrup has been poured on.

In 9″ x 13″ cake pan. Layer a sheet of dough and with a pastry brush, brush melted butter over it. Repeat this process until you have 3 sheets lain down as a layer, place 1/2 of the nut mixture sprinkled evenly over the sheet of dough. Repeat the process this until you have 2 layers of nuts and 3 layers of dough (3 sheets per layer). With a very sharp knife trim off any access sheets of dough around the edges, and press the edges inside the pan with the back of the knife to have a nice clean edge.

With the sharp clean knife cut down half way through the layers to cut into squares, diamonds, or triangles, which ever you prefer. Wipe the knife off after every cut to keep clean edges. Re-brush the top layer with butter, and bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes until the top is golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature for 1-2 hours. Mixture must be cool before adding the hot syrup.

Rosewater & Honey Syrup

• 2/3 c Water
• 1/2 c Honey
• 2/3 c Sugar
• 1/8 c Rose water
• 1/2 Vanilla bean & seeds scraped into syrup

Place all of the ingredients in a small sauce pan. Bring the mixture to a boil, and then reduce to low, and simmer for 10 minutes until slightly thickened. Remove from heat and let sit for 5 -10 minutes until very warm but not boiling hot, think… warm bath water temperature. Pour the mixture evenly over the cool baklava. If you reserved some of your nut mixture sprinkle a pinch of the mixture over the top middle of each piece until all used. Cover and let it set overnight to absorb the syrup.

I hope you enjoyed these recipes and give one of them a try!

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

This is my basic go-to recipe for macaron shells. Not every recipe works for everyone due to climate, kitchen humidity, oven variations, phases of the moon, etc. However I think this recipe is worth trying if nothing seems to work for you. To me, these turn out better than many macaron shells I have tried from several local bakeries. The recipe will vary a little bit as well depending on potential flavorings added to the shells, which I will cover in other specific (and future) recipes. On their own though, these taste fantastic. Often I’ll pair them up with a sweet filling and or a flavor variation of my Swiss buttercream recipe which is always a guaranteed winner in my book. I hope between the macaron and buttercream recipes some of my readers are able to find success where they may have failed elsewhere.

Adapted from Tartelette

Related: Swiss Meringue Buttercream

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

Swiss meringue buttercream is the best and I think easiest frosting I have ever made. Most people say it is too complicated, however I don’t think it is. I have added my technique of doing this recipe and some flavor options to make it match what you need it to. Words just cannot describe the wonderfulness that this frosting is. It’s light, fluffy, smooth, sweet, and just melts in your mouth. It is hands down the best frosting I have ever had. A reason it is such a huge hit is because it not only keeps well at room temperature but it has that richness of a buttercream without tasting like you are just eating a stick of butter dipped in sugar.

It can be a bit frustrating if you have not made it before, as it does not seem like it is ever going to turn out right. You will just have to trust me, it will. I have done this frosting plain vanilla, chocolate, liquor flavored, colored, uncolored… it’s amazing every time. This is the most perfect frosting you will ever have. I never liked frosting of any type until I tried this type. I’m now addicted.

Swiss meringue buttercream is fairly white in color, so it absorbs any colors quite well. I suggest using gels or powders and personally I prefer gel colors for frostings as they incorporate into the frosting the smoothest.

Adapted from Martha Stewart

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

The name of these cupcakes alone makes me want to take a shot. But it’s ok, it’s 4pm here. If you are not familiar with this shot that inspired this amazing confection let me give you a brief rundown. You get a small tumbler filled with Guinness (I am a HUGE fan of Guinness). Then you layer a shot glass with Jameson Whiskey, and Bailey’s Irish Cream. Just before you’re going to drink you drop the shot into the beer and quickly drink before the Bailey’s curdles in the beer. Now, this might not sound delicious, but trust me it’s soooo delicious. I have made these several times for St. Patrick’s Day and summer barbecues and they are always a wild hit.

Now that you know a little about the shot where the idea for this cupcake came from, let me tell you that this is the best cupcake I have ever had. I have many friends who are all fans of either the shot or Guinness so sharing these with them made for some of the best complements I have ever gotten about my food. That, and the high number of requests for these as birthday cupcakes leaves me to believe they are just made of win.

I made just a few changes from the original recipe I based these on mostly because I feel that filling the cupcakes took away from the flavor and texture of the cake and my experience with filled cupcakes is that people tend to eat around the filling or leave most of it still on the plate. I went with making it into a ganache that went over the caps of the cupcakes which not only add a different dimension to the flavor but help seal in the moisture keeping the cake from drying out – not that these ever last more then a day or so. Then you get this light spongy cake with this hint of malt and coffee, then this rich decadent ganache with a tinge of whiskey, and to round out the flavor the most amazing tasting buttercream frosting you’ve had in your life. I seriously had to stop myself from just eating the frosting while piping. It’s sweet, creamy, light, fluffy, rich, and has that amazing Irish Cream flavor that finishes out the cupcake to perfection. Enough about how just simply amazing these are. I will let you judge for yourself, but just know that these are NOT for children, as the cake is the only part in this that has the alcohol cooked out. However, you could just do the Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes with a chocolate buttercream and it would be great.

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

I asked my brother for some ideas as what I should make, and he mentioned coconut macaroons. There was this bakery in downtown area of Mt.Vernon, WA. We used to get these big coconut macaroon mountains from there with our mom, and he said make those. I still had some coconut in the pantry and I finally got around to making them. I wanted to use the left over condensed milk I had from making ice cream, and I didn’t want to use half of an egg white because it would just waste an egg. So, instead I put some marshmallows in the microwave until puffy with the milk just before folding in the coconut and it turned out great. I dipped the bases in melted semi sweet chocolate just like they did at the bakery. Surprisingly they didn’t end up overly sickly sweet which what I was in fear of, but they ended up amazingly perfect. I am not proclaiming this recipe to be healthy, but it is gluten free and delicious.

To me, food should bring you back to a memory, or create a new one. This recipe, this cookie, brought me back to walking down the street to my mom’s boat of a car, a ’78 Impala, nibbling the chocolate off the base of these knowing they would not make it home. I was very pleased with the results. I think you will be happy with how easy and simple this recipe turned out. I know now, that I will never buy them at the store again.

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

In Japan, Christmas cakes are traditionally eaten on Christmas Eve. They are simply a sponge cake, frosted with whipped cream, often decorated with strawberries, and usually topped with Christmas chocolates or other seasonal fruit. In the past, single women over the age of 25 were sometimes referred to in Japan as a “Christmas cake” (Japanese: クリスマスケーキ Kurisumasu kēki) based on the belief that just as a Christmas cake is unwanted after December 25th, single women become unwanted after their 25th birthday. (source, Wikipedia)

Japanese Christmas cake is sometimes also referred to as Anime Strawberry Cake or Strawberry Cream Cake. Whatever you want to call it, call it delicious. Like many other Westerners, I searched for this cake because I always see it being eating in anime yet I never knew what it was. All I knew was that I needed to find out more about it and try this lovely cake layered with strawberries and cream. I found the name of the it largely in thanks to anime fan sites, so I went on a hunt for a recipe.

I wanted to keep it on the Japanese side, so I went with the Japanese style of this cake from the sponge known as Castella or Kasutera. It is a popular Japanese sponge cake (with Portuguese origins) usually made of sugar, flour, eggs, and starch syrup (or honey in this case). Even though it doesn’t have any butter or oil in it the cake comes out moist and has a lightly sweet flavor and light texture. The cream which brings this all together is a recipe from the same source adapted slightly to suit my needs and uses agar-agar to stabilize the whipped cream. Agar-agar is a natural vegetable gelatin counterpart that sets at room temperature. The assembly of mine is slightly different, to give it a more “anime” look and feel but the technique is very similar. This light and flavorful cake would impress at any gathering and it makes the best dessert on a hot summer day.

Recipes adapted from La Fuji Mama

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

One day recently I asked my aunt for some recipes and this was among the ones sent. She said she found it when she had to make ice cream for someone with an egg allergy. I have been looking for some ice cream and sorbet recipes that do not require an ice cream maker either and this is something that fit the bill. Given that my kitchen counter space is limited, and ice cream maker is something we have to live without and after trying this recipe it is now something I really don’t feel is needed. Forget that over priced mixer, my 9″x13″ pan with lid is all I need.

I followed my aunt’s directions to the letter and it is superb. We are both coffee and chocolate lovers, and this just absolutely is hands down our favorite. I will never buy mocha ice cream from the store again. Words cannot express how good this ice cream is. Rich, creamy, yet light and so much flavor and not too sweet, which makes it slightly dangerous because you can only eat more. If you have anyone in your life that has an egg allergy, this should be an excellent treat.

What I am looking forward to is now adapting this base recipe to make different flavors, and seeing how it holds up. With berries, liquor, and mix-in’s like peanut butter cups, or mini chocolate chips, or coconut. No worries, I will share it all with you. I can only suggest very strongly you make this, and I hope you do give this a try for mocha lovers it is a dream so, Enjoy!

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

Usually there is something that inspires me to cook, a memory, an event coming up. This time it was just to get rid of ingredients in my pantry. The bonus is it’s something that my husband can take to work for breakfast with a yogurt. Also, it turned out a lot better than I thought, the spices were great and subtle, and it isn’t an overly sweet cake. This would make a lovely addition to your brunch table or tea/coffee with guests. Hope you enjoy.

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

I wanted to give these cookies a try. I have not made these cookies in probably 20 years. They are almost like a brownie. There is so much chocolate flavor and amazingly rich yet just so different at the same time. With things I have learned about textures, and spices I added my own little touch to these cookies. A good quality cocoa powder is key to letting the cinnamon and cayenne do their job to the fullest. They don’t stand out as much as just enhance the flavor of the cocoa. Making the cookie just fantastic. It was like biting into chocolate happiness. The outside was firm with a sweet slight crunch when you bite, and the inside was soft and chewy. The flavor was just amazing. Frank bit into one and “Oh wow… wow, yeah you have to make these again,” a good sign of success, I feel.

Now that I have been rewriting all of my recipes down to a more realistic size, meaning only making a dozen or less cookies or half dozen cupcakes. I am having so much more fun. The biggest advantage is that by making less, means I can make more types. How can that be bad? Think about all those times when you want to have that fresh homemade cookie, but you do not want to make 2-4 dozen of them. This way you make a small batch, for just a few people or just you. They will last around 2 weeks in an air tight container, but good luck seeing them last that long. I am sure these will not last until morning.

Adapted from Williams Sonoma

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

I spent the last week thinking of something cute and fun to take to my sister in-laws for Easter. I had tons of ideas on my mind, from sugar cookies to cupcakes with little fondant bunnies, to just a pretty cupcake with some cut out flowers of marbled white and pink fondant. Every time I had one that I was quite sure was “the one” I had another idea. Finally I gave in and went with my first instinct. Which in my home has become our motto, follow your gut, go with your first instinct.

Yeah, so I didn’t go with such an original idea as I was planning on. However, I am quite proud of these little birds. They turned out lovely, and so damn cute. Also, I did learn some things which is always a plus, and ended up creating an amazing vanilla cupcake recipe. We will say that this vanilla cupcake recipe makes up for my lack of originality with the decorations. You cannot see the cake and I was having a blank moment and didn’t take a picture of it but it its speckled with vanilla beans and the flavor is rich and sweet. The taste of the toasted coconut, the smooth frosting with a hint of buttery white chocolate, and the intense vanilla flavor in the cake. I can honestly say, these are probably my new favorite cupcake, it is just the perfect vanilla cupcake. I am pretty sure this is my go to for vanilla cupcakes now. It’s moist, soft, delicate, and visually it is stunning, like bean speckled vanilla ice cream.

The frosting is a white chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream. I used my standard buttercream and omitted the vanilla and added 3.5oz of white chocolate. I insist it be a good quality chocolate bar too. I love Black & Green, so I used their white chocolate bar and melted to add in to the basic Swiss meringue. It absolutely made it superb. I toasted the coconut for 10 min, gently tossing it every three minutes to get it a nice color. I used a wide round tip for the nest and while it was wet dipped it in the coconut which made it stick well and have nice pieces sticking out looking very organic and natural. Ended up the tricky part was the beaks, but after I figured it the pressure and angle to use, it turned out better. The eyes are just a single melting chocolate button, and a toothpick used to make little dots. I think you should try this vanilla recipe, it is amazing. I used some vanilla sugar I had on hand and it just was all it needed to go from good to amazing. I included my vanilla sugar recipe at the bottom. It’s fantastic in baking. Just replace no more than 1/4 cup of the required sugar with this sugar, it is just wow. You have to try it.

Vanilla Sugar

Don’t buy vanilla pods that are dry and hard – buy them fat, sticky and squashy. What we want to do is infuse the natural vanilla flavor of the vanilla pods into the sugar. It is perfectly fine, and obviously quicker, just to pop the pods in an airtight container with the sugar; you will achieve a more subtle flavor. I really like this recipe, though, because you get the maximum flavor from the pods.

• 1 pound sugar
• 2 vanilla beans

You need a food processor for this one. Put your vanilla pods in the mixer, blitz, scrape the sides and blitz again. Add all the sugar and blitz for about 2 minutes. Sieve the mixture into a bowl, return any lumps to the food processor and blitz again. (You may want to repeat this process if you want it really fine). The result will be a slightly ashy-colored mixture – now that’s real vanilla sugar! Store it in an airtight container. It should last you for ages.

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

I have never been a fan of red sauce on pizza. That is until I tried one that was spicy, had a great tomato flavor, and had some sweet notes in it as well. This is my replication of that. Tonight I made it into calzones with our favorite toppings; chicken, red peppers, and olives. I used a pizza dough recipe I make and freeze into portions. It turned out perfect for this. It was on a whim that I switched it to calzones from just a basic flat pizza. Glad I did! The sauce was really what pulled it all together and made this so great.

I started out with this post just wanting to share this pizza dough that I like to have on hand, mostly because it can freeze well and when you want it just take it out to thaw and it will finish rising. Problem is, I lost the recipe! So I turned this into a pizza sauce recipe post instead. Super simple and spicy sauce, just takes a minute to cook and come together and you will have an amazing go-to sauce for all of your homemade pizzas.

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots

Who doesn’t like tacos? Well, I don’t like tacos with ground beef, but I don’t count that. I just prefer ground turkey or chopped up chicken breasts. Heck, I even made it with ground chicken once which wasn’t bad, but I like to know what part of the beast I am eating and that left me feeling, a little dirty. This is super simple and spicy and so much better for you to have on hand then those prepackaged seasonings.

A few years ago we switched to the low sodium type but still had insane amounts of salt, so I have been looking for a homemade version. I made the original version which had way too much chili powder, and didn’t have that cumin & garlic taste I was looking for, and well.. needed salt. So, made a few changes and they are reflected below. Now, getting anyone in my family to try and eat heather, that is a challenge. I just hope one of them adapt this recipe and enjoy it. Yep, little brother I am looking at you.

Taco Seasoning

Makes enough seasoning for 4 to 6 uses

• 3 tbsp chili powder (I used 1 tbsp chippole powder, and 2 tbsp smoked ancho chili powder)
• 3 tbsp plus smoked paprika
• 4 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 1/2 tbsp onion powder
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tbsp garlic salt
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Combine all ingredients and store in an airtight container.

When making tacos use 2 tbsp’s per pound of meat. I love this for chicken tacos!

Adapted: Use Real Butter

© 2012 Sugar & Snapshots