5 posts tagged “baked”
So a few weekends ago, my friend was having a birthday potluck that I was going to attend. I made plans to make these cookies and cream cupcakes that I have seen on many others' blogs. I found a recipe on We're So Starving for these cupcakes (came from the Edmonds Cookery Book), and I used the cupcake portion of the recipe while substituting in a buttercream frosting adapted from Cupcake Project that sounded simply amazing. Turns out that I had a headache the day of the potluck, so I ended up making these cupcakes and sending them off to the potluck with another friend (after keeping a handful for myself, of course).
These cupcakes were indescribably amazing, I think my eyes rolled to the back of my head with the first bite. The cupcake itself is moist and soft, and not too sweet. But better yet, with the chunks of oreos mixed into the cupcake batter, they baked up to be soft and cakey surrounding pieces of still somewhat crunchy oreo chunks, which made for the most wonderful texture combination I have ever had in a cupcake. And really the showstopper for this cupcake is the frosting. It is simply perfect - smooth and buttery, with the perfect amount of sweetness that makes each bite of the cupcake just right. It's the kind of cupcake that you could eat one of and want at least 3 more, because it's not overly sweet or rich at all. Not kidding at all, but at least three people who tried these told me that they were the best cupcake they've ever had, and I got requests to make more of them right away. Try these cupcakes for yourself, I promise you'll be glad you did!!
Cookies and Cream Cupcakes (makes 34 cupcakes)
cupcake recipe adapted from Edmonds Cookery Book "Fail-safe Cupcake" recipe
frosting recipe adapted from Cupcake Project
Ingredients:
Cupcakes:
2 stick + 2 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup granulated sugar
4 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup milk
1 package Oreo cookies, crushed (divided amongst cupcake and frosting)
Buttercream Frosting:
1 stick + 6 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 cups confectioner's sugar
2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk
crushed Oreo cookies
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line cupcake pans with cupcake liners.
2. Cream butter, vanilla, and sugar together until light and fluffy.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Don't worry if the eggs start to separate out from the butter after it sits for a few minutes, just stir it back together.
4. Sift flour and baking powder together, and fold into creamed mixture.
5. Stir in milk, then add crushed oreos. Choose the bigger oreo chunks for the cupcakes and leave the smaller chunks as well as the cookie dust for the frosting. I used maybe 4/5 of the crushed oreos from 1 package for the cupcakes, and the remaining for the frosting. Adjust as you see fit.
6. Spoon batter into cupcake liners until about 2/3 full. Bake for 15 minutes or until cakes spring back when lightly touched (they will be a bit browned on top). Transfer to wire rack to cool.
7. Meanwhile, prepare the frosting. Beat together the butter and powdered sugar until smooth.
8. Add the vanilla and milk, and beat for 1 minute more. Finally, fold in the oreo crumbs left over from the cupcakes, saving a handful to sprinkle on top of the cupcakes. The more you stir the oreo crumbs into the frosting, the darker it will get, so don't stir too much if you'd like your frosting to be more white (mine came out quite gray).
9. When cupcakes are completely cooled, frost them with the buttercream frosting, and sprinkle the tops with any leftover oreo crumbs. Serve the same day, or refrigerate to store (don't want to leave them out because of the butter in the frosting, but you can warm them to room temperature anytime and they will still be just as good) Enjoy!
I was visiting my family in Massachusetts the week before summer vacation ended, and I just had to bake them something delightful that could be enjoyed in the sweltering heat that captured our town during that time. I didn't have a whole lot of ingredients on hand, so I turned to something I've done before in cream puff form... the eclair. I adore eclairs! They are so wonderful to bite into when fresh... the delicate crunch of a pastry shell filled with cold and creamy custard, and sweetened with just enough chocolate. Perfection. Luckily for me, elcairs use the same dough as cream puffs, which needs only basic ingredients found in every kitchen. The same goes for the pastry cream filling as well.
This was my first time trying the cream puff recipe from JoyofBaking, which sounded like it was going to bake for a really long time. The eclair shells actually turned out quite well, with just a slight problem, which was that the bottoms were so thin and delicate that when I tried to peel them off the wax paper I lined them with, the bottoms broke right through, leaving me with a gaping hole on the bottoms of my eclairs! Thus I decided to simply turn them upside down and fill them with pastry cream as is, since the work to make a hole had already been done for me, clearly. I used the pastry cream recipe for the fruit tart from the same website. I've made the filling once before for mini fruit tarts, and they were delicious. Drizzled with melted chocolate on top, these eclairs were just wonderful, even though they looked funny. I wish I knew of a good way to make cream puffs or eclairs without always having to worry about the bottoms breaking. Does parchment paper really make that much of a difference? I thought wax paper or foil would do it, but those have not saved me from the breaking bottoms. The trial and error continues! And deliciously so :)
Eclairs Filled with Vanilla Pastry Cream (makes 12) recipe adapted from JoyofBaking.com
Ingredients:Eclair Shells:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp granulated sugar
1/4 tsp salt
4 tbsp (half stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup water
2 eggs
1 egg white, beaten
Pastry Cream Filling (adapted from JoyofBaking.com)
1 1/4 cups milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 egg yolks
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp water (more as needed)
Chocolate Icing
handful of semisweet chocolate chips
1 tsp vegetable oil
Directions:
Eclairs
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place rack in center of oven. Line baking sheet with parchment paper (I used wax paper).
2. Stir together flour, sugar, and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.
3. Combine butter and water for the eclair shells into a heavy saucepan over medium heat, bring to a boil. Remove pan from heat and immediately stir in the flour mixture all at once, stirring until a ball of dough forms in the pot. This should happen pretty quickly.
4. Let the dough cool slightly (you can stir it up to release the heat), then add the eggs one at a time, stirring well after each addition until the egg is well-blended to form a smooth batter.
5. Spoon the dough into a ziplock bag and snip off the tip to about 1 inch in diameter. Pipe the dough into 3-4 inch long stripes onto the lined baking sheet, spacing the eclairs 2 inches apart.
6. Gently brush the surface of the piped eclairs with the beaten egg white.
7. Bake for 15 minutes, then turn down oven temperature to 350 degrees F to continue baking for another 30 minutes. The shells should be a nice golden-brown color. Turn off the oven and leave door ajar, with the eclairs sitting inside for another 10-15 minutes to let them dry fully. Remove from the oven to cool on a wire rack, peeling eclairs off carefully (this is where all of my eclair bottoms broke off). They will have a wonderful cracked appearance on top.
Pastry Cream
1. In a medium-sized stainless steel bowl, mix together sugar and egg yolks.
2. Combine flour and cornstarch in a separate bowl, then add to egg mixture and stir until a smooth paste forms. Add vanilla.
3. In a saucepan (preferrably stainless steel, I find non-stick pans to be awful for making custards), heat milk on medium until just boiling. Remove from heat and slowly whisk into egg mixture, careful not to let egg curdle.
4. When fully incorporated, place egg and milk mixture back onto the stove to cook on medium heat, whisking constantly until it starts to boil. Keep stirring and it should thicken up very quickly. When it has reached a desired thickness (I prefer mine to be pretty thick), remove from heat immediately and whisk in the water. You can add more water if your pastry cream is too thick.
5. Chill pastry cream in fridge for several hours, covered with a layer of plastic wrap touching the surface of the pastry cream to prevent a skin from forming.
Assembly
Normally you would slice the eclairs open by cutting horitzonally on each one to cut off the tops. Since mine had holes in the bottom I just pried the holes open until they were the same size as the eclair and piped in the pastry cream (using the same ziplock bag trick that I used for piping the elcair dough). Fill each eclair with enough pastry cream to fill out the shell, but not so much that it bursts. If using cut open shells, replace the tops once the filling has been added.
Finally, melt the chocolate chips in the microwave, and stir in the vegetable oil to thin out the consistency enough to drizzle. I just eyeballed this, so you can adjust the chocolate icing how you like. Take a fork and dip it into the chocolate to drizzle it over the eclairs. Serve immediately for the best taste and texture. If not serving right away, I suggest you not fill the shells so that they don't get soggy. Fill them just before serving and you will wow your guests with how fresh they taste, nothing like the pre-filled ones you buy at stores!
During winter break when I was thinking about what Christmas-y things I wanted to bake, a lot of things that came to mind had really nothing to do with the holiday. (Have I mentioned yet that I'm really slow to update btw?) But something that I really really wanted to make again were the black and white cookies that NYC is known for, because I just really adore them. Their soft cakey cookie topped with a sweet and mildly tart combination of vanilla lemon and chocolate icing that has a perfect little crunch when you bite into it. It's divine really, especially when fresh. I've made black and white cookies once before, in the traditional giant cookie size. But for Christmas, I thought I would switch it up a little with mini cookies, sprinkled with Christmas colored sugars on the white side to jazz it up with some holiday spirit! I also decided to give a different frosting recipe a go, which turned out much better than the first recipe, in my opinion. These disappeared fast... I think their small size makes them really tempting to reach for whenever someone passes by the platter in the kitchen :P Anyway, with these cookies you can substitute any type of colored sugar for various holidays (pastels for Easter anyone??), or leave them naked for any occasion.
Mini Black & White Cookies (makes about 50) recipe from Epicurious
Ingredients:
Cookie base
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup buttermilk (substitute with 1/3 cup milk + 1/3 tbsp white vinegar or lemon juice, mixed and left alone for 5 min.)
1/2 tsp vanilla
7 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
Icings
2 3/4 cups confectioners sugar
2 tbsp light corn syrup
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla
4-6 tbsp water
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
colored sugar for decorating as desired
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350deg F. Grease baking sheet or line with foil.
2. Combine dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, and salt) in a bowl. Separately, mix together buttermilk and vanilla.
3. Beat butter and sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer on med-high until pale and fluffy (~3 mins). Add egg and beat until smooth. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture and buttermilk mixture in alternating batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mix just until smooth.
4. Drop batter by rounded teaspoonfuls, 1 inch apart onto baking sheets. Bake until tops are puffy and edges are a pale golden (cookies should spring back when touched, see picture below, in the back). About 6-8 minutes total. Transfer to cooling rack with the flat sides up, the bottoms will be a golden brown.
5. Meanwhile, make the icings. Start with the vanilla icing: stir together confectioners sugar, corn syrup, lemon juice, vanilla, and 2 tbsp of water in a small bowl until smooth. Add more water (1/2 tsp at a time) as needed until icing becomes a spreadable consistency.
6. (This departs from the original recipe, but trust me from experience, it makes sense). Transfer 1/3 of the vanilla icing to a second bowl, and stir in cocoa powder. Add more water, 1/2 tsp at a time, to reach the same consistency as the vanilla icing. Cover surfaces of icing with saran wrap if not using right away.
7. When cookies are cool, use a butter knife or small spatula to spread vanilla frosting on one half of all the cookies, on the flat side (that's right, the rounded dome side is the bottom of the cookie!). If you frost the rounded side by accident the frosting will just slide off. Sprinkle on colored sugar as desired. Set on wire rack to harden a bit.
8. Finally, frost the other halves of each cookie with chocolate icing and let set completely. Happy munching!
So for the weekend after my graduation, I was relaxing at home. I love busting out my baking whenever I'm at home, because it's where the possible baking supplies I would need are most complete. I was looking around for a new but no-fuss recipe that I could try out when I found this sinfully simple recipe for gourmet-tasting chocolate chip cookies. There are many styles of chocolate chip cookies, and I'm quite fond of the type that are nice and chewy. These are also the kind that are sold most often at bakeries and cafes. But I remember fondly a special kind of homemade chocolate chip cookies that I've mostly only tasted at bake sales while growing up. They were not chewy, but rather a more cakey type of cookie...soft and full of rich vanilla flavor. In all the years I've been baking, I've mostly only made the Toll-House style of CC cookie, so now I was determined to try this award-winning recipe that has a deceptively simple secret ingredient that makes all the difference.... If you like your chocolate chip cookies cakey, this is the recipe you've been looking for!
Award-Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies (makes 4 dozen)
Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 (3.5 oz) package of instant vanilla pudding powder (this is the secret ingredient!)
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 deg C).
2. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars. Add pudding mix, eggs, and vanilla. Combine flour, salt and baking soda; add to creamed mixture and mix well. Fold in chocolate chips.
3. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned at edges and ridges of cookie.
Notes: For this recipe, I made it as shown above, which is modified from the original recipe I was trying to follow. I cut down the amount of sugar and chocolate chips that was originally called for. It was supposed to be 3/4 cup of brown and 1/4 cup of white sugar, along with 2 cups of chocolate chips. A few other changes I made were to include the salt, which was not originally called for, and to increase the vanilla from 1 tsp to 2 tsp. See Allrecipe's "Mom's Chocolate Chip Cookies" recipe for the original formula if you are interested. I prefer to make my cookies not too sweet because my family doesn't like things too sugary, and they don't want too many chocolate chips.
While preparing successive batches to go into the oven, I experimented a bit with batter drop size, shape, and length of cooking. I originally dropped them by tablespoons, and did not flatten them at all, because I'm used to cookies that spread somewhat. However, these cookies really don't spread at all, they just puff up. Thus, I highly recommend that you drop by rounded teaspoonfuls and then flattening them to about 1/3" thick before sending them into the oven.
10-12 minutes was good enough for my oven, but rather than wait a specified amount of time, start to check the cookies at around 8 minutes for a golden browning along the edges and ridges of the cookie. The rest of the cookie will still be a bit pale, but trust me this means they're done. If you wait until the whole cookie surface starts to turn golden, you'll have overbaked them, and they will be crispy rather than soft.
There were so delicious, especially with a cold glass of milk. My brother ate 6 of them during the time I was churning through the batches haha. I managed to make more than 48 cookies with this recipe, but you can adjust based on the size of cookie you desire. Mine were about 2 inches in diameter. The way I made it, there were maybe on average 4 chips in each cookie, which I thought was plenty of chocolate for a small cookie. You can alter this to your liking.
From the batter for these cookies, I set aside about 1/5 of it and mixed in about 1 cup of quick oats to make an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie version of this recipe. These oatmeal cookies were firmer than the originals, mainly due to the oatmeal, but the soft batter holding it all together still had its cakey texture. I actually liked the crunch that the oatmeal added, though I still prefer my non-oatmeal indulgences :) These cooked for about the same amount of time, and I only made a dozen, so I didn't have a chance to experiment much. My family loved both of the cookies, and I'm happy to have found such a great recipe that brings back those fond childhood memories of bake sales. These cookies store exceptionally well, and will stay just as soft as they started off even a week later (that is not to say that they will last this long, I just happened to have brought back a bunch to school for myself to eat). I hope you enjoy them as much as I did :)
I apologize for having disappeared for a while, I was a busy bee studying for my MCAT retake, then with MIT's senior week, and finally with graduation this past Friday. The good news though is that I accrued many pictures of food, friends, and sights during the past few weeks. So enjoy while I slowly update highlights from where I left off. I would like to get everything up to speed before I become more backed up. I will try and group things together into certain periods of time.
Week I was at Home Studying for MCATs
(5/26) Continuing from where we last left off... at our dinner party that my mom cooked up tons of food for, one of the guests brought us a box of mini desserts from the local wholesale club. There were four different dessert types in the box: chocolate swiss rolls, white chocolate mini eclairs, chocolate hazelnut cream puffs, and strawberry vanilla napoleons. I of course had to try some of them that very night... :) I think my favorite was the white chocolate eclair, which doesn't look too impressive but tastes dreamy (it's the upper right dessert). White chocolate is actually one of my favorite flavors, and the eclair was topped with white chocolate, filled with bavarian cream, so the combination was very elegant and pleasing. I prefer it very much over regular chocolate topped eclairs that are filled with Boston cream. The chocolate hazelnut cream puffs were also quite interesting. The outer surface is covered with a layer of chocolate studded with toffee bits (oh yum!), and inside the puff itself was a light chocolate mousse.
(5/28) Several days later while I was taking one full length practice MCAT after another, I decided that I really needed a break. My comfort activity whenever I come home is to bake or to cook. But I didn't have the time or the energy to go in search of an interesting recipe to try, nor did I want to spend a whole afternoon in the kitchen. I was digging around in our pantry when I found an oven mitt with a package of brownie mix stuffed inside of it and a ribbon tied around the whole thing. It was one of those gift items that you can give to your friends. I asked my mom if she was keeping it for a gift later, and she said she bought it because it looked cute and told me I was free to use the brownie mix.
So off I went, and it was a rather interesting brownie mix compared to the others I've made before from Duncan Hines and Betty Crocker types. All I needed to add was an egg, a stick of butter, and a few tablespoons of water. But due to the utter lack of liquid called for, the batter became a big doughy mass, very stick and very heavy. The directions then said to spread the batter out into a square pan, which I did with much trouble. It didn't pour out like other brownie batters. I literally was pressing it into the pan as if it were semi-hardened playdough. Finally though, I stuck it in the oven, and they came out as thin, fudgey, chewy brownies that my whole family adored. There was a lovely vanilla flavor that really stood out, which I preferred over the heavy and forced chocolate flavor that some other brand name boxed mixes offer. Now I only wish I knew the ingredients in the mix that made such a unique brownie!
I was initially worried that the brownies would be too sweet on their own, since my family is not big on sweet desserts. So I wanted to make some whipped cream that could go on the side to lighten things up. Unfortunately, we never have heavy cream waiting for me in the fridge when I come home, because my family doesn't use it for anything. I did however, discover that our big container of non-dairy coffee creamer claimed to be "so rich that it whips!", and it even included a recipe for how to make whipped cream from the coffee creamer. All it needed was 2 parts coffee creamer powder to 1 part cold milk, with sugar and vanilla to taste, then beaten for 5-7 minutes. It was easy to blend the cold milk and creamer powder, but once I had it going, it was quite difficult to get a firmer consistency in the cream, which was never quite like the whipped cream I could make with heavy cream. I also had to keep setting it in the fridge to cool down before continuing to beat, since 5-7 minutes on the counter really heated things up more than I would have liked. The end result tasted rich and creamy (but not refreshing like the real thing), and lacked the ability to hold any shape of its own because it was too soft. It went well with the brownies though, even though I'm sure everyone thought it was weird that I was serving brownies with whipped cream haha.
(5/29) I was getting bored of making breakfasts out of oatmeal and milk, so I decided to have some jazzed up toast. I lightly toasted the whole grain bread in the house, and for a few days I tried spreading peanut butter on it and topping with various fruits, all of which I enjoyed. I started off with banana slices, then moved onto strawberries, and finally kiwis. I must say they were all amazing, and the different flavors made breakfast so much more interesting. It was also a healthy and hearty breakfast that kept me full until lunchtime, and I'm sure it was great food for keeping me energetic while studying for my MCATs.
(5/30) The night before my MCAT, my mom tried to make some dishes that she knew I would like for dinner. There was a lovely dish of two whole tilapia, cooked red braise style. I absolutely adore red braised whole fish, especially when my mom makes it. The fish meat is tender, and the red braise sauce gives it a lot of flavor, since fish tends to be one of the less flavorful meats. Most of the time I still enjoy fish as it is, for its light and clean flavor. But when you give me red braised fish, it is just so much more exciting to eat fish :)
(6/01) The day after my MCAT I finally had time to meet up with an old friend from high school, Reid. He and I are really close, and I love him so much. We met in my junior year of high school, when I switched to a magnet high school, and we became very close. After we parted ways for college, we rarely talked during semesters, but every time we were both back in town for the holidays and on break, we would always find time to see each other, and we always had a lot to talk about. It is so comfortable being with him, no matter how long we've been apart. There is never any awkwardness between us, and we share everything with one another. On this particular day, he had a lot to get off his chest about his recent breakup with his boyfriend of two years, and I really felt bad that he was so hurt by the breakup. I hope that our time together helped make him feel a little better. We went to Piccadilly Pub for lunch, where I got their Arizona egg rolls appetizer, which is like the firecracker chicken rolls I got before from Longhorn steakhouse, except these were filled with black beans, corn, some chicken, and other Tex-Mex-y items that I can't recall anymore. It came with a salsa ranch dip.
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