Get Your Bake On

I have always really liked baking. And then The Great British Baking Show came in to my life, and I am a woman obsessed. Recently, I have been baking cookies and practicing piping techniques. I'd never worked with royal icing before, so I felt like it was a skill that should be developed.  I'm a beginner and not awesome at it, but it sure is fun.  The picture above is some Thanksgiving cookies. I cut out with a knife the shape for the turkey pilgrims, because they don't sell that cookie cutter anywhere. Shocker.


 Then I also made some leaves and monochromatic acorns.

And a few weeks ago for Halloween I made ghosts, bats and pumpkins. This picture was taken by my friend Rosanna after I dropped off cookies at her house. Because that is what you have to do with cookies, give them away.

I've actually learned a lot whilst making sugar cookies and icing them. For example, the best tasting sugar cookie recipe is from my high school friend Julie's mother, but for me, they didn't ice well and they spread like crazy - I actually turned a few bats in to pumpkins because they were unrecognizable as bats. Then I switched to the Joy of Baking sugar cookie recipe, which was fine, but things got really delicious when I threw in almond extract. That is where it's at people, that is where it's at.

I'm so sad that PBS just aired the finale of what is the US' season 2 of TGBBS. I miss all of the puns and self-deprecating humor all ready. ABC is going to be airing an Americanized holiday version with Mary Berry, hopefully they won't really Americanize it, and go crazy cut-throat and lose all of the charm the original is absolutely dripping with.  I'm off to make some crackers and a pumpkin cheesecake for Thanksgiving.  Have a great holiday, everyone!

Bake Something: Orange Carrot Cake Cupcakes

I have long been a lover of the combination of orange and carrot. How it took me so long to combine the two flavors in to a baked good, I'll NEVER know. I recently had ten pounds of carrots in the fridge, and when I wasn't going through them as quickly as I should, and there was a finger food party on the agenda, I decided that carrot cake cupcakes it was. But why not add in orange? They were so delightful and well-received that later that week when our Relief Society Presidency went out to meet some new sisters, I decided to make them again to deliver. I've been asked for the recipe several times, and since I made it up, I thought I'd better share. Here it is.

Orange Carrot Cake Cupcakes:
For the cakes:

• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 1/3 cups vegetable oil
• 3 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 cups raisins, soaked
• 1 pound carrots, grated
• Zest of one large orange
• Juice of one large orange
• 1 teaspoon orange flavor

For the frosting:

• 1/2 pound cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/4 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 pound confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 1 teaspoon orange flavor

First, before anything else, start soaking the raisins, (you can do this hours before hand, to really make them plump up.) then resume your mise en place and preheating your oven to 350 F. Sift together all of the dry ingredients into a bowl. In a separate bowl, whip oil, eggs and sugar together, then add vanilla. Slowly incorporate dry ingredients. Last, toss in the grated carrots, and using an ice cream scoop, fill muffin tins. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. When they are completely cooled, spread or pipe the frosting that you whipped together - whipping it for 5-8 minutes, or until it is lighter and fluffier than any you've seen before. Cream cheese and butter make for an artery clogging experience, so if you incorporate more air, it is less terrible for you, right?

Vegan Chocolate Ice Creams

I am not a vegan. I'm not even a vegetarian. But I do believe that there are many reasons to generally avoid animal products a good deal of the time - for me religion, the ecologic impact and trying to avoid animal cruelty are good enough reasons to find alternatives. Plus, while I love ice cream and cheese - dairy products are just weird. I don't like to think about it too much. But let me climb down from this soapbox and share with you two recipes for vegan chocolate frozen goodness.

I made the first one for our Relief Society's Ice Cream Social last week. I literally just googled "vegan chocolate ice cream" and found a vegan rocky road that I altered.  But instead of tasting ice creamy - it tasted like a sorbetto (the more intense and flavorful version of a sorbet. home girl knows her ice creams.) and it was super chocolatey.

Vegan Chocolate Sorbetto
3 cups coconut milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 T arrowroot
1 t vanilla extract
1 t chocolate extract

Combine 1/4 cup coconut milk with arrowroot powder in a small bowl and set aside. Put remaining 2 3/4 cup of the coconut milk in a saucepan with sugar and chocolate chips over medium heat, stirring enough to not burn the chocolate.  Have the mixture just come to the boiling point, then remove from heat. Immediately add arrowroot mixture and vanilla and chocolate extracts. Stir until well incorporated. Then chill completely and put it in your ice cream maker.


Then last night, I was hanging out with my good buddy Birgitte and she made almond milk chocolate ice cream that was SO, SO, SO tasty. I thought about going back over today to steal some more. She was good enough to email me her recipe.

Chocolate Almond Milk Ice Cream

2 c almond milk-- chocolate is best

3/4 C sugar

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp xanthum gum

 

Combine  1 cup milk, sugar and cacao in a saucepan over medium heat.  Whisk to get the cocoa and sugar to dissolve.  Bring to a slow boil.  Remove form heat and sit for one minute.  Mix in the rest of the milk and vanilla extract.  Pour into blender, add xanthum gum into blender. Mix for 1 minute.  (Here's where Birgitte was so much smarter than me. To cool it off, she poured the mixture into a shallow pan and put it in the freezer for a few minutes. Worked like a charm.) Pour into ice cream maker.

 

Two totally different textures and depths of flavor, two totally delightful ice cream substitutes. 

The Relief Society broadcast.*

*An all too rare venting blog post.

Last Saturday was the Relief Society broadcast for my church. For the occasion, the women of my stake got together and all watched it together. When Mormons get together, there is always food and because many hands make light work, assignments went out to all of the different wards of our stake to make a recipe each.

I volunteered to make whatever it was our ward would be assigned. I received an email riddled with grammatical and  typographical errors along with several patronizing comments for a recipe that sounded super gross. With instructions to make 200-225 of them, I called in some reinforcements, i.e. two other members of my ward's relief society presidency and my friend Adrianna.

My disdain of the task stemmed from the email. I tried more than twice to actually read the recipe all the way through before I actually could stomach it. I immediately took a dislike to the person who sent me the email. She touted this recipe as "super simple" several times (for the super simple singles, no doubt,) and then asked in the email, and three times in subsequent emails if I understood the task in front of me.(I don't like the implication of baking something makes it too complicated for us to handle, nor do I lack the skill set to temper white chocolate.)

My rebellious nature ruled my decision making process. Just to branch out from the condescension, and because I've never been able to rebel properly, I opted for boysenberry jam instead of raspberry, almond milk instead of cow's milk, and shortbread cookies instead of 'nilla wafers. And the greatest rebellion of all -  WE BAKED THE CRUST- HA!  TAKE THAT, WOMAN WHO EMAILED ME!

The morning of the broadcast, we all - Rachel, Rachel, Adrianna, Joanna and I - gathered in Joanna's kitchen to make a super rich and artery clogging dessert. How do I know it was artery clogging? After we made the crust of the first batch I had to sop up the extra butter with three paper towels. We then cut the butter down by 3/4 and made successful crusts from thence forth.

When we came to the broadcast and dropped our little "treats" in the kitchen, the author of the email was pointed out to me. I recognized her from an art class I took earlier this year, when my mom told me that she was the author of a popular blog. A little googling on my iPhone during one of the hymns confirmed my suspicions. She is the author of a popular blog about all things domestic. 

The sad news was, these little rich treats were the first treats to be gobbled up. These little gross things that none of us actually wanted to ingest after we made them were gone in lightening speed. So, before you even have to ask, here is the recipe, as it was given to me, for you to take what you will from it.**

**Be warned: she accidentally swears in this email, because she doesn't know how to spell fridge.***

***Don't believe me that frig is a word I wouldn't use in polite company? Well it is.  


You will be making White Chocolate Raspberry Bars.  This is a great recipe and super easy - no baking recquired.  It is made in a 8 x 8 or 9 x 9 pan.  They are very rich so we cut them small - 1 inch x 1.5 inches.  We need 200-225 bars so if my math is right we will bet about 40 squares from an 8 x 8.  So if you could make 5 batches that will give us plenty.  Also if you could have them pre-cut when you bring them that will help a lot.  Or if you want to do it in a 9 x 13 just double recipe for each batch and only make 3 batches  You should be able to get 78 bars from one pan.  Hope this is making sense.  They will be a bit thicker in the 9 x 13 but that is o.k. if you don't have access to enough 8 x 8 pans.

I found when I made the recipe that they are easier to cut if you let them sit at room temperature for a while.  You don't want them to get too soft but if you cut them straight out of the frig the chocolate layer on top cracks and falls apart.  I used raspberry jam that I bought at Trader Joe's - the TJ variety.  It is good jam. 

The vanilla chips I bought from the bulk food bins at Winco.  You do not want to use white chocolate chips and they don't melt well.  The vanilla chips work great.

If you have any questions about the recipe please let me know.

If you could deliver the food to the kitchen at the Stake Center about 20 minutes before the broadcast that would be great.  We will have platters there to put them on.


White Chocolate Raspberry Bars
Recipe for an 8 x 8

1/2 C butter
1 C vanilla chips
2 C vanilla wafer cookie crumbs
2 T softened butter
2 T milk
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 C powdered sugar
3/4 C raspberry jam
1/2 C finely chopped pecans

Lightly grease a 8 or 9 inch square pan.  In medium saucepan, combine 1/2 C butter and 1/4 cup of the chips.  Cook over low heat until melted, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat
Stir in cookie crumbs until well mixed.  Press mixture evenly in greased pan.

In small sauce pan, melt remaining 3/4 c of chips over low heat, stirring constantly.

In small bowl, combine 2 Tbsp butter, milk and vanilla; mix well.  Gradually beat in melted chips and powdered sugar until smooth.  Spread jam over crumb mixture gently.  Spread chip mixture over jam (the jam may bleed into this a bit but try not to get it to mixed in)  Sprinkle with nuts.
Refrigerate until set and cut into bars.  Serve bars at room temperature.

Carrot cake recipe for Adrianna.

For baby brother's first birthday party I made a carrot cake, because they are the greatest. Adrianna helped me with the frosting and sampling of the mini cake I made in ramekins and wanted the recipe, so here it is, it is super simple, and super yummy:

for the cake:

1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups flour
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground nutmeg
3/4 tsp ground ginger
3/4 tsp salt
4 eggs
2 1/2 cups FINELY grated carrots
2 cups brown sugar
3/4 cup raisins
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
optional: 2/4 cup walnuts

for the frosting:

8 oz cream cheese - softened
5 oz unsalted butter - softened
2 cups confectioners' sugar
2 tsp vanilla paste
1/2 tsp salt

Start by soaking the raisins in water, preheating the oven to 350 F and cutting out parchment paper for the bottom of the baking pans (two 8 or 9 inch rounds). Oil and flour the pans. Whisk dry ingredients together. Mix wet ingredients together, then slowly add dry ingredients, mixing on low until just blended. Divide batter evenly between pans. Bake until cake tester comes out clean, 30 - 33 minutes. Cool pans on rack for 20 minutes, then remove the cakes from the pans and let cool completely before frosting.

Beat the cream cheese and butter together, then add sugar, vanilla and salt and beat until fluffy. Frost and assemble layers of the cake, then refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving.

La recette des macarons à la fraise!!!

So, I wanted to share the recipe for Macarons that Adrianna and I used/adapted last night. We both like to bake, and thought these little beauties were way less complicated than we had anticipated. In fact, if you haven't made these yet, don't be intimidated. Try it today. Or whenever. No Pressure.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
2 cups blanched almonds
3 egg whites (room temperature)
3/4 t salt
3 T granulated sugar
1/4 cream of tartar
food coloring

Filling:
5 T unsalted butter (room temperature)
pinch of salt
3 T strawberry jam
1 T confectioner's sugar
1/2 t vanilla paste

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 300 F. Trace circles onto the parchment paper with a pencil, then line sheet pans with paper, pencil marks down.
2. Grind confectioner's sugar and almonds in a food processor until it is a fine powder.
3. Beat egg whites with an electric mixer at medium speed until they get frothy, then add salt and cream of tartar. (The Ladurée recipe doesn't call for cream of tartar, but since it was raining, I added it for security, despite Adrianna's wishes. P.S.How do they make these in rainy Paris with no cream of tartar?) When soft peaks form, add granulated sugar slowly and turn up the speed to high, until they hold stiff and glossy peaks. Then add food coloring to desired color. (I am so anti-food coloring, but they are so cute all colored. Quandry.)
4. Fold almond mixture into meringue with a spatula, or by being a rebel and just switching your wire whip out for a quick spin with the flat beater on your kitchenaid.
5. Put into a pastry bag, then pipe onto parchment paper, filling the perfect circles you traced before. (If you fill the bag too full, kindly give the bag to a friend and make her pipe them, so she is the one with the mess all over her hands, that's what I do!)
6. Bake for 18-23 minutes, with the sheet pans on the top third and the bottom third of the oven, turning the pan around halfway through baking. Then LET THEM COOL COMPLETELY before removing them from the parchment paper. They are very fragile.
7. Whip all ingredients for the filling together, smear on the cookies, and then sandwich together for a super sweet, rich, colorful treat.
8. Share and enjoy.

Accomplishment:

I am someone who likes pumpkin. I like pumpkin pie okay, but for thanksgiving, a holiday only celebrated by social eating, why serve the same old pumpkin pie? Last year I made a pumpkin cheesecake with cranberry compote, which was super yummy. And this year, I decided to try something I saw on the Food Network. Ina Garten, aka the Barefoot Contessa, and my all time fave, made a pumpkin roulade with ginger butter cream. I thought I'd mix it up and put an orange cream cheese frosting inside it instead of the ginger butter cream, and boy howdy, it was rich, and delicious. Since my computer has yet to be replaced, I don't have a picture of it to post, but think of a really big hostess ho ho. In order to make it all roll uppy like roulades are by definition you flip it out of the pan onto a towel as soon as it comes out of the oven, then you roll it up and let it cool, (later to unroll it and add the filling). When I flipped that 13" x 18" cake out of the pan and rolled it up without anything breaking I had this huge sense of accomplishment. I would liken it to the time when Heidi taught me how to bust a coal, aka start a fire by rubbing sticks together. After rolling up that cake I had the rush of, "I have made fire! I have made fire!" (and by fire, I mean a cake, rolled up in a towel.)

Rhubarbs

Some friends let me borrow something this weekend that was super useful, so in order to thank them, I made one of their favorite pies, strawberry rhubarb. I really hate to give away things that I am making for the first time, so usually I make a miniature version to make sure it is good enough to say, yes I made this. Only, here's the thing, I'm doing a cleanse, and shockingly enough, strawberry rhubarb pie is not on the approved food list. So, I just went on a wing and a prayer and delivered an un-sampled pie. While I was chopping up the rhubarb I tried one of the pieces, and let me tell you, it was the most sour thing I have ever put in my mouth. (I used this recipe for the filling. And they loved the pie.)

As I tried the sour, sour rhubarb I thought of our friends, the Zoroastrians, whose creation myth involves a rhubarb from which the first human couple would be born. When I first heard that, I thought it was crazy -- but no more or less crazy than other creation theories and stories, (maybe a little more crazy...) -- but now that I know rhubarbs are sour, it kind of makes sense that that would be the plant that would provide humanity its beginning.

Lemon Blueberry Tart

I've previously mentioned that I had an over abundance of citrus around my house, so I made my first lemon and lime curds. I followed Ina Garten's recipe for lemon curd, which I have to say, didn't really work for me. I have loved all of the other Barefoot Contessa recipes I've made, but this was too bitter, and here's why. She calls for the zest of 3 lemons taken off with a carrot peeler, being careful to avoid the white pith. I was really careful, but it still came out bitter, so after putting it through a sieve to remove all of the zest - which was a lot of zest because my lemons were big - it worked out beautifully. So for the lime curd, I used my microplane and only put 1 tablespoon in, and that was perfect from the get go. Overall, I decided curds are much easier than I thought to make, and that it is much cheaper than buying a jar at the store.

So what to do with a quart of lemon curd? Make a tart for Sunday dinner!

Pastry:
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
pinch of salt
1 stick unsalted butter - straight from the fridge, cut in small cubes
6-8 tablespoons ice water

Prepare it like you would any other pastry/pie shell. Refrigerate for about half an hour before rolling it out and putting it in a tart pan (I used a 9 inch square, but anything about that size will work) Then poke holes with a fork in the crust, add parchment paper and weights, and blind bake the crust at 350 for about 25 minutes. While that is baking and cooling, let's talk about the filling.

You have many options, here are a couple:
I combined 1 cup of sour cream with 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk and a teaspoon of vanilla paste (you can obviously use good vanilla extract, but I love vanilla paste), and put that as a first layer on the cooled crust.

I had some blueberries that were really tart, so in order to use those, I made a compote. But if you have delicious blueberries at your disposal, you could just put those on top of the sour cream mixture. To make the compote, I put in a quart of blueberries, probably 3 tablespoons of water, 1/4 cup of sugar, and 2 teaspoons of lemon juice. I put it over medium heat for about 10 minutes, but you'll know when it's ready. (You could put half of the blueberries in at the beginning and reserve the other half for after the heat, but my blueberries were too tart for this.)

After it cooled for about five minutes, I put the compote on top of the sour cream, then put that in the fridge for a while. Since I already had the lemon curd made, I just threw it on top right after the compote had set up a little bit. And voila, a great way to use lemon curd.

I am sorry I didn't take a picture of it, but I forgot. End of story.

Something like Key Lime Pie.

My aunt Marion taught me how to make Key Lime Pie when I was about 10 because I really liked it. Over the past sixteen years, I've been playing around with the recipe, and have made it about a dozen different ways with great success, but I always feel like there needs to be an occasion for pie. Pie seems like such a hassle, even a pie that couldn't be simpler to make, like a key lime pie. So, in order to use all of the limes and lemons that filled a trifle bowl as a center piece, I decided to make lime and lemon curds and a key lime pie type dessert.

Basic Key Lime pie filling is lime juice and zest, sweetened condensed milk and egg yolks. Then it is put into a graham cracker crust and topped with whipped cream. This is all fine and dandy, except, let's make it better.



1 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoons of lime zest
2/3 cup lime juice
1 8 oz package of neufchatel cream cheese - at room temperature
2 egg yolks - at room temperature

Blend together and pour into a graham cracker crust (give the crust time to cool before you do lest you want lime flavored egg pie) Let it chill in the fridge for a while, then, top with meringue, because meringue is far superior to whipped cream in just about every respect. You really need your egg whites to be at room temperature before you start to whip them up with 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar, and 1/4 teaspoon salt on high speed until frothy. Then, with the mixer still going, slowly add 1/2 cup of sugar and beat until the meringue is thick and shiny, about 2 minutes. (If it is raining outside, throw in the towel and opt for whipped cream.)

I threw all of this together into a couple pyrex dishes -- I didn't even pipe the meringue out -- because I wanted it to be really casual and not fussy when I took it to a friend's house for dinner and then the next night to a Gossip Girl gathering, which was unexpectedly sparsely populated (Becky liked it at least). But by all means put this in a pie shell, throw the old culinary torch at the meringue and enjoy your pie.

I'll tell you about my lemon curd fiasco as soon as I make a tart shell to put it in.