Summing Up the Last Month

Hello again. It's been a while. Don't be mad, life's tough and kept me far away from the yummy stuff in the kitchen. Instead, it's been locking me in the lab a lot with non edible toxic horrible stuff. So really I'm the victim here. All that aside I do have a large array of goodies to share with you all. I think I'll work backwards and start with my most recent endeavors.

BROWNIES

About a week ago I had to make brownies. I mean it, I HAD to. So off I went looking for the best recipe I could find. While stumbling through www.foodgawker.com I found this fantastic recipe. Now as amazing as this recipe is, I can't leave a recipe as is (also I had a boy begging for some hazelnuts), so I modified it. What I have learned was that a chocolate and butter mixture can be replaced by nutella in a 1:1 ratio without consequences. So do it!

This is what you need:

(The recipe below is roughly converted to cups. This may seem like a problem but really I found there wasn't a crucial quantity of chocolate/butter mixture necessary. Roughly close is good enough.)
About 1 cup chocolate chips (high quality is always better)

1.5 sticks butter
200 g (I think I put in about a cup) nutella
2.5 cups sugar
6 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour
2 cups hazelnuts

Preheat over to 340 degreed F.

Melt the butter, chocolate, and nutella in a small sauce pan until smooth and glossy. Make sure not to burn your chocolate. A good method if you don't have a double boiler is to melt the butter first and add the chocolate in after while keeping the pot off the heat. The idea is that the butter will melt the chocolate all on its own without burning it.


Add your vanilla and let the mixture cool. In a separate bowl whisk together eggs and sugar until they are a pale yellow and smooth. Add in the cooled chocolate mixture and mix thoroughly.

Now add your flower little bits at a time. The online recipe asked you to fold it in but I felt lazy and didn't want to dirty another dish so I just whisked it right in and it was just fine. Lastly, mix in your nuts.

Now you're ready. At this point you will start realizing you've made WAY too much of this batter. About 3 times too much. Do not worry, they will be devoured quickly. I think my giant pan and a half got eaten within a 3 day span.

Now grease up some pans generously and pop them in the oven for about 40-45 minutes. The brownies are done with a toothpick inserted into the center comes out dry or with a few cooked crumbs.


I have several testimonies claiming these are some darn good brownies :) So enjoy!

NINJA COOKIES

I don't have a good picture of these. You can blame school for that, but they did come out looking a lot like the picture from the website where I found this recipe. I basically stole this one down to the t. Please keep in mind, this is not my own recipe, I did not modify it, and all credit goes to the owner of that blog.

Okay! Continuing back in time.

CRINKLE COOKIES!

I took this recipe from another person as well. I used vegetable oil as described in the recipe. I urge you not to do this! Vegetable oil is very flavorful, and though it might just be me being picky, it's also not very yummy. Stick to butter where you can. Having said this, no one but me seemed to say a word about the oil flavor and they all seemed to enjoy them quite a bit. Without further ado, here is a link to the recipe (which was again stolen :)

And at last we come to a little present I made for my boyfriend Sam after I made the companion cube and a saw a little twinkle of jealousy since he never got to even see that cake. Behold....

TETRIS CAKE

This cake is far more complex than its simple shape would lead you to believe. It was inspired by a caramel macchiato I was drinking while coming up with this compilation. It has a caramel coffee marble cake base soaked in a homemade coffee syrup with caramel butter cream between each layer and coffee butter cream under the fondant. To give it that extra bit of wonderfulness I also hid some heath bar bits in the inner layers. To put it simply, this cake took forever to make but was so very worth it!

Recipes to come once I find them :P

The Cake Is Not a Lie, It's in the Companion Cube

My friend recently graduated (that lucky bastard) and I decided her deserves something yummy and fun. I decided then to make a cake and get some experience working with fondant. Being the nerds we are while trying to maintain a minimal skill level requirement I decided to make a Rubik's cube cake. So I mixed up the cake batter and poured it into three pans and baked them to perfection. This recipe is fantastic. It's a moist yellow cake with a medium denseness. Someone said it reminds a little of cornbread but it's a lot gentler both in texture and flavor. Unfortunately, I only made enough batter to fill the pans half way and I thought it would rise a good bit. It rose but not enough for a Rubik's cube so I had to rethink my plan. I didn't want to make more cake and it was already pretty big so I changed one cube into half of another and aimed for a Companion Cube from the game Portal. The cake ended up being a three layer yellow cake with strawberries in syrup and orange butter cream in between the layers all covered in fondant. Here is what I've managed.

So before you even look at the recipe let's go over some things you should think of ahead of time. First off. What do you want to make? How much is your cake going to rise and how tall is your pan? How many layers do you need? Are you planning to move the cake from the spot where you make it? How do you plan to move it? Just keep asking questions, it's a good habit.

Recipes

Yellow Cake
(Taken from Smitten Kitchen)
Yields three 8 inch squares 1 inch tall or two 9 inch rounds 2 inches tall.

4 cups plus 2 tablespoons cake flour (not self-rising)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups buttermilk, well-shaken

Cream the sugar and butter. Add a the eggs in one at a time. Mix in the rest of the wet ingredients in. In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients and whisk them together to break up the clumps and add some air in for smoother mixing. Add the dry ingredients in to the wet ones and mix just till incorporated in several batches. Pour into your pans and bake at 350 degrees for about 35-40 minutes.
Before using make sure you cool it thoroughly and possibly even get it near frozen. Cold is good

Strawberry Syrup
 
Meanwhile, you can start your strawberries. I bought about a pound of strawberries (could have used half as many) and put them in a pot with a little bit of water, just enough to cover them, and about a cup of sugar. Let it cook till the strawberries give up their juice and the syrup is red and thickened a little. Once done let it cool as well.

Buttercream
 
You can also mix together the buttercream while your cake is cooking and cooling. Now there are many recipes but I was feeling lazy so I kind of eyeballed this and kept it super simple. It was nothing more than 2 cups of butter with enough confectioner's sugar to get the consistency I wanted. Keep in mind that it will harden when cooled and softened when heated so be careful of extreme temperatures. I also added a bit of orange extract for a nice citrus tang.

You are now ready to assemble the first part. First thing first, get a nice working surface that's sturdy enough to withstand the 10-15 lbs your cake will weight. IT'S HEAVY! I didn't think ahead of time and goodness did it start to crumble and break. Transferring it later was a pain!

Once your cake is baked and cooled I recommend at least cooling it in the fridge but possibly freezing it. This will make it easier when you're frosting it and will keep it from crumbling. Cakes are not particularly sturdy creatures. I find the more moist and delicious they are the more they crumble.

Now you have your cake and a base but don't cut the sides yet. Level all layers to the same height. find some dishes that are of the desired height as a template. Now start adding your strawberries and butter cream between the layers. I did the strawberries on bottom so they soak through the cake and then butter cream over that. Keep the wet layer away from the edges though. This will make it easier to handle the edges later. Once you have your layers and filling assembled, you can cut your cake into the shape you want. Mine was a flat square the height of half of a cube. Cover this with a generous layer of buttercream. The outer layer matters. It is what's keeping a nice barrier between your fondant and the wet stuff that will kill it. Also, you should keep in mind that the shape and smoothness of your buttercream layer will determine now nice your fondant drapes the cake. Once done, set it to chill in the fridge while you make yourself some fondant.

Fondant
Again this is something I eyeball. Fondant isn't much more than marshmallows and confectioner's sugar. Other recipes aren't that different, they just make the marshmallows from scratch more or less. Melt the marshmallows carefully in the microwave in a well greased bowl. I prefer using butter than crisco, mostly because I never have any crisco in the house, but I melt a generous chunk in the bowl and just leave the excess in there to mix with the marshmallows. I ended up using about a bag and a half of marshmallows total though maybe I could have used just one bag. Half a bag went into making the gray layer which I rolled very thin. 1/8 of an inch or 3/16. Something like that. Melt your marshmallows carefully in the microwave (they will puff so watch out). Once melted, this is a good time to add color. Use gel food coloring. The liquid stuff is not concentrated enough AND water is bad for your fondant. Now add some powdered sugar in and mix with a greased spoon. Once you feel like that spoon just isn't doing it for you dump the whole thing on a pile of your confectioner's sugar and start kneading with your hands keeping a generous layer of powdered sugar between you and the fondant. While it's hot, the consistency should not be tough. It should be pliable and kind of like playdoh. Pretty soft even. It's up to you how hard you want to make this stuff. More sugar leads to tougher fondant which is better for shaping, harder for handling. Repeat this for the other colors and remember to keep all of your fondant in air tight bags or containers. Don't worry, you're nearly at the finish line. Keep shaping, molding, and rolling out some more until all the details are made.

I got many many complements!!! Came out great!!

Cheddar Scones

Last time I talked about an exciting fondue night for which I made Angel Food (Cup)cake. Unfortunately, it got rainchecked and I ended up with all these ingredients - two huge bags of white and sharp cheddar and of course the angel food cake and bread. Solution? Like a good girl I brought it all to my parents house and the angel food cake simply evaporated. Even on the second or third day, if you keep it refrigerated, it maintains its texture perfectly for about a day and then slowly gets a little wetter though it retains its tastyness for up to 4 days (I haven't checked beyond that). The bread I brought back got eaten as bread does but the cheese posed a problem...almost.

Saturday brunch has always been a big meal in this family. We sit down together under a bright sunny skylight and eat cheeses, eggs, or anything else that strikes our fancy. One of my mom's best brunch recipes is for these savory scones. You can put anything in them and they always comes out flaky, filling, delicious, and never too fatty or soggy or dry. They're this beautifully balanced thing. So this morning a whole bag of cheddar went in and here is what came out.

The recipe as she described it was as follows:
2 Cups flour
1.25 Cups heavy cream
nearly a table spoon of baking powder
Salt to taste
And of course any kind of cheese, vegetable, or flavor you desire

Ingredients are mixed together and kneaded by hand, folding the dough over on itself as often as you have patience in order to produce that flaky texture. Warning! This dough is going to be tough, you will sweat. Roll out the dough into about 1/2 inch thickness and cut into squares. Bake at 400 F for 10-15 minutes. I believe she made about 18-24 of these.

Now you might wonder how long these guys keep. Clearly they're best right out of the oven but they aren't super dry on the next day either. Unfortunately, things like this really aren't meant to survive for more than 24 hours and in this house they usually don't, so I'm not sure how long till they actually go bad, but past 48 hours they just aren't the same.

I promise to post a more precise recipe once I have a chance to get my hands dirty and make a batch.

Angel Food (Cup)Cake

Alright, so tomorrow is one of my weekly-ish game nights. It's gonna be some risky business with a lovely game of Risk which, coincidentally, was put off last time due to food business. So this time we are making food business simple, fast, and really fun for the group. Therefore I'm setting up a fondue night!
Now you might think "oh no, I have no fondue pot". I've been thinking this for most of the day, but that's not a big problem. You get a double boiler or a bowl sitting comfortably on a pot and use that instead of the fondue pot. To keep things warm a little longer keep everything assembled when you bring it out. Plus, if it needs more heating, it's easy enough to stick it back on the stove for a couple minutes.

Now I know that's not a very fancy way to present the food but alas I am a poor college dummy who happened to get rid of the only fondue pot she ever owned.

Enough on that though, tonight I'm just focusing on prepping for tomorrow. The cheese fondue is simple with some veggie, apples, hot dogs, and bread dippers. For the dessert portion there will clearly be berries and banana, but I also wanted to have angel food cake. It's light and sweet and requires only egg whites. Oh wait, that last one sucks. So here are some improvements.

First off try to really estimate how much people will be eating. With everything else that I have going on tomorrow and a fairly small crowd of about 5-8 people I figure I don't need much. So I took a basic recipe and halved it.

Basic Recipe:
12 egg whites from large eggs
1.5 cups sugar (split in two)
1 cup flour
1.5 tspn cream of tartar
vanilla/almond extract (tspn or so)
Baked at 375 F for 20-30 minutes

What I used:
6 egg whites
~3/4 cups sugar
0.5 cup flour
little more than 0.5 tspn cream of tartar
and I eye balled some vanilla
Baked at 375 F for 15 minutes for the cake and 13 minutes for the cupcakes.

The cake came out great which means that perfect measurement isn't required in this cake. Thank goodness. Though personally I'd put in a little less sugar next time and add the almond extract. Also I might go as low as 3 eggs since my cake tin is only 5 inches in diameter and I had to use cupcake tins to finish off the rest of the batter.

The method is quite simple and you'll see this in many recipes involving egg whites. Simply whip up your eggs till frothy, add the cream of tartar and extracts, keep whipping to soft peaks and add half the sugar. Whip to hard peaks. Your eggs should hold their shape at this point and have a lovely gloss. If you added brown vanilla extract, you will notice your eggs will lose that color a bit as you keep whipping them so no worries.

In a separate bowl mix together the remaining sugar and flower and give it a quick whisk to loosen up the mixture and add in some air. Finally fold your flour mixture gently into your eggs. You often hear that folding is a gentle process and in no way am I saying it isn't, but don't be afraid to get it all mixed up. More folding and less squishing but get it all mixed up.

Finally, dump the whole thing into an ungreased pan. The pan should be oil free to allow the batter to climb up the sides as it cooks. Bake it at 375 F for about 15 minutes or until the top is golden brown and a little crisp. Once it's done I recommend placing it upside down on a cooling rack to cool. This will keep it from deciding to deflate as some of my attempts have done when I was young and naive. All that's left now is whipped cream and an empty stomach. Enjoy :)

Strawberries and Sour Cream

Hooray! Second post. This one is tiny though.

Lately I feel like so many desserts, although delicious, are too heavy especially after a large meal or for those sweet cravings late at night. So here is a simple, light dessert. Nothing closes off the day like this little treat and a nice cup of peach tea :)


Above are simply cut-up strawberries with sour cream and sugar dip. You can moderate your sugar by deciding how sweet you really want it or substituting it with artificial sweetners. Sour cream is again a great dairy product and though it is high in fat it is not high in trans fats and 2 tablespoons won't kill you. Most importantly it's delicious and like most yogurts it contains bacteria that is friendly to your stomach.

Light, healthy, delicious.

Bento Box

Finally I get to write my first post! Very exciting. The purpose of this blog, besides just bragging rights, is to discuss nutrition, explore recipes, and develop my cooking and baking skills while sharing with my readers any secrets I've learned.

So after a really lazy weekend of doing nothing but looking at food-porn, playing Katamari, and shopping, I've decided to make my day of classes and work tomorrow a little brighter. The result is a pretty little bento box to take with me.


So I'm no photographer....let's hope I get better in time. Either way, above is a compilation of a sandwich cut in half with cream cheese, basil, arugula, and tomatoes and scallions on the side ready to go in. Next is two onigiri filled with tuna and mayo. In the front left corner is a salad made with Israeli couscous, white beans, canned tomatoes, basil, and black olives all seasoned to yumminess with garlic, salt and pepper. In the back left corner are strawberries and blueberries because no meal is complete without something sweet :)

Okay, I'm done bragging but really consider all the things involved in this meal. In total there really isn't a ton of food here, but it's all very filling making it reasonable to take with you to work, school, or wherever. The bean and fruit salads are served at about 1/4 cup each and there is only 1/2 cup of rice total. More importantly, though, there is a full array of nutrition. There is your protein in the tuna, fruits and veggies for your vitamins, bread for grains and even a little bit of dairy.

All in all I feel that the Japanese know how to eat well and it might be worth taking some pointers from them.