35 posts tagged “homemade”
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!
Yes, it's been half a year since my last update... medical school has been eating up all my time and not having my own kitchen nor my cooking and baking supplies is seriously hindering my ability to make things. I am loving it here in medical school though, so it's good that it's keeping me busy. I've learned so much in just the first semester of my first year... and even though I don't feel even remotely close to being competent enough to take care of anyone yet, I can definitely see myself getting better and better as I learn more things each day. It's an amazing and exciting feeling.
Unfortunately, living in a dorm again and sharing a kitchen between 2 floors is not very convenient, so I've been more or less cooking my meals in the comfort of my own room by using my rice cooker, steamer tray, and microwave, as well as raw foods to get in all the necessary food groups. It's pretty healthy, but I sure miss the creativity of cooking on my own. Luckily I had a chance over the last semester to form a "cooking club" with some of my classmates in the dorm, and we cooked a bunch of meals for each other about once or twice a week depending on our schedules, so it was good to have some homecooked food and mess around with new recipes together from time to time. I put up a blog to showcase some of our meals at http://www.olincookingclub.blogspot.com if you want to see them :)
I finally got a break over Christmas vacation to go home and enjoy the pleasures of having a kitchen and all the baking supplies I could want. I certainly didn't waste a minute! So the next few entries will be catching up on a few things I made for the holidays.
One pastry that I was introduced to in college was rugelach, a Jewish pastry that is similar to a cross between shortbread and croissant, with a filling that's usually fruit preserves and crushed nuts. Its cream cheese dough is buttery and has a hint of cream cheese flavor that gives it just the right amount of tartness. The textures and flavors all come together in a pastry that is neither too sweet nor too rich, which is really nice. I have had the Costco variety that is often spiraled with raspberry jam, apricot jam, or chocolate paste. For my first try at rugelach, I made it with apricots, pistachios, and a cinnamon sugar mixture, and it was absolutely delicious. The texture of the pastry is like that of a soft (but not chewy) cookie, and it's conveniently bite-sized so it's great for impressing at parties. I made some over Christmas break to give to a friend recovering from open hip surgery, and he loved them! The dough can easily be frozen and stored for later (I baked some from a frozen batch to bring to my boyfriend in California the following week and he also loved them :) The hardest part is rolling out the dough and making the crescent shaped cookies ready to bake, but it is well worth the effort!
Rugelach with Apricot and Pistachio Filling (makes 4 dozen)
adapted from Barefoot Contessa and Diana's Desserts
Ingredients:
Dough:
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 lb. butter (2 sticks), at room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
Filling:
6 tbsp granulated sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup shelled unsalted pistachios, finely chopped
1 1/2 cup dried apricots, cut into halves
1 cup water
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon milk, for egg wash
Directions:
1. In a large bowl, cream together softened cream cheese and butter with electric beater until light and fluffy. Beat in the 1/4 cup sugar, salt, and vanilla.
2. Mix in flour on low speed until just combined. Take out dough onto a floured surface and roll into a ball. Cut into quarters and shape each quarter into a disc before wrapping in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
3. Meanwhile, prepare the apricot for the filling. In a small saucepan, combine dried apricots and water, on low heat. Stir ocassionally until all the liquid is absorbed, about 15 minutes. Cool briefly, then puree in a food processor until smooth.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the 6 tbsp of white sugar, the brown sugar, cinnamon, and chopped pistachios. Set aside 3 tsp of this mixture for later.
5. When the dough is chilled, remove one disc at a time and roll out into a circle on a well-floured surface or between 2 sheets of wax paper, until about 1/8" thick (approximately a 9-inch circle). Spread 1/4 of the apricot puree in a thin layer over the circle, leaving a 1/2" border on the edges. Sprinkle evenly with 1/4 of the sugar and nuts mixture. Gently press the nuts into the dough to help it stay. Your dough should look much like a pizza now :)
6. Using a pizza cutter or a knife, divide circle into 12 equal wedges. To help make them even, divide circle into quarters first, then divide each quarter into 3 wedges.
7. Gently remove one wedge at a time, using a spatula as necessary, and roll from the wide end towards the pointy end to make a pastry crescent. Set onto a baking sheet lined with a piece of parchment or wax paper, with the seam side down, 1 inch apart from one another. You can curve the points on either side to get a more cresent shape if you would like. Chill for 30 minutes on the baking sheet in a refrigerator.
8. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Brush each rugelach piece with the prepared eggwash, and sprinkle some additional sugar and nut mixture on top from the reserved portion.
9. Bake rugelach for about 15-20 minutes, until lightly golden brown. Let cool for 2 minutes on baking sheet, then carefully transfer over to a cooling rack, using a spatula to help as needed (the filling tends to bubble out and stick to the baking sheet, so do this before it cools and hardens).
10. Dust with confectioner's sugar if desired, or serve as is. Yum!
Making rugelach takes a little bit of effort, and seems confusing the first time around. But once you get the hang of it on the first disc of dough, the rest will fly by easier, I promise. I had a little cycling system going where I would prep the second disc of dough while the first batch of cookies were chilling in the refrigerator before baking. It works out better if you can have 2 or more baking sheets ready to use at a time, but I didn't, so I had to rotate using just 1 sheet, making it a bit more time-consuming (took me the better half of an afternoon). Definitely plan ahead, you can't rush making rugelach! You'll be glad you spent that time when you take your first bite... they are simply heavenly :)
Catching up on a few things first that I made before my trip to China... I never realized how difficult it would be to get back into blogging once you've taken a long break heh. That plus the fact that using dialup internet to upload food photos is just a pain!
I've always found homemade pound cakes to be incredibly delicious in a way that no store-bought equivalent could match. And it was those rare moments of delight, when a co-worker or friend brought in a homemade pound cake that made me want to try my own hand at it. I have heard great things about the use of sour cream in pound cakes, so I went in search of a simple sour cream pound cake recipe. I was looking for a classic, somewhat dense cake that was moist not but greasy, and rich in that buttery vanilla flavor so typical of pound cake. Of course, the recipes I encountered all seemed a bit on the scary side in terms of the amount of butter, sugar, and eggs that were used, so I tried to find a compromise between taste and healthiness.
By cutting the butter and sugar, and boosting moistness with extra sour cream, I found the results to be a much less guilty deliciousness :) The texture of the cake was a little lighter than regular pound cake, sort of like a combination of pound cake and angel food cake, yet it was still very moist. But it was the rich vanilla butter flavor that remained that pulled everything together for a satisfying experience. I put together an effortless apricot glaze to go with the pound cake, but I actually found it to be most delicious eaten alone, especially when fresh out of the oven, when the outer crust has a light crunchiness, yielding to a warm and soft melt-in-your-mouth cake inside. Oh, it's making my mouth water just to describe it. The cake is still great after it has cooled off, though you want to keep it sealed to retain the moisture, which thus softens the crust. So choose your own adventure... or have it both ways!
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sour cream (use fat-free sour cream for less calories, may also substitute with plain or vanilla yogurt)
Directions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour a 6 inch tube pan.
2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and smooth, about 7 minutes. Beat in eggs one a a time, mixing for a minute after each addition. Stir in vanilla.
3. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Fold dry ingredients into creamed mixture just until smooth. Gently fold in sour cream. Spread batter into baking pan.
4. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes in oven. A toothpick poked into the cake should come out mostly clean. Remove from oven and cool cake in the pan for 10 minutes, before inverting gently onto a cooling rack. Dust with powdered sugar before serving if desired. Optionally, make an easy fruit glaze by stirring some fruit preserves with water to reach a glaze consistency, and spoon over slices of pound cake to serve.
I told you that my favorite sugar cookie recipe of all time was coming up, and now I'm finally delivering. This chewy sugar cookie recipe is one that I hold absolutely dear to my heart. It was one of the first cookies that I made successfully when I was in middle/high school, and everyone that tried it loved it. Just loved it. I made dozens and dozens of them for my family and friends, and they were always gobbled up with delight. To this day, my ex still asks me to make him these cookies heh. Of course, I'm not going to pretend that I invented some amazing recipe because I was a child baking prodigy. But it is different from the most popular sugar cookies that you'll find when you google "chewy sugar cookies". Admittedly, it is based on the recipe found here, one of the first entries on google. What I did, however, was to adapt the recipe to suit my family's Asian tongue.
As some you might know, Asians usually don't have much of a sweet tooth, especially when it comes to things like cookies and cakes. When I wanted to bake something at home, I wanted to make sure that my parents were going to eat it - that's part of the joy of baking! For one thing, they didn't like chocolate chip cookies much, because it was too sweet for them. So when I came around to making sugar cookies, the first thing I was quick to reduce was the sugar. Out of guilt, I also reduced the butter in the recipe (it's a little shocking how much the recipe calls for...). But I keep all the other ingredients at the same proportions, and add some almond extract for aroma. I love combining vanilla and almond extracts in my baking - it gives everything that little something extra. It's funny, because I didn't really understand the science of baking when I was younger, so I didn't really think about how altering the proportions of sugar and butter can really change the texture of the cookie. As a matter of fact, a few times I went back to the recipe to make cookies for some friends, and figured I'd go for the full sugar and butter content, only to end up with surprisingly disappointing cookies that didn't have that incredible chew I always liked. For the longest time I couldn't understand why, but now I finally do. It's a real relief.
These cookies have a really satisfying chew that doesn't go away after a day. In fact, they stay just the way they are for nearly a week, if you can keep them around that long hehe. I like to make the whole batch of dough and just bake half of it for about 3 dozen cookies, then freeze the rest for quick and easy cookies when I want them. These are not the cookie cutter sugar cookies that you'd want for decorating, they're best for just eating :) So now I'm sharing my absolute favorite sugar cookie recipe with you, I hope you'll like it!
Lucy's Favorite Chewy Sugar Cookies (makes 5-6 dozen 2" cookies) Adapted from Robbie's recipe
Ingredients:
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt (use 1/2 tsp if using unsalted butter)
1 cup salted butter, softened
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
Directions:
1. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
2. In another bowl, cream softened butter with sugar until fluffy. Add one egg at a time and stir until incorporated. Stir in vanilla and almond extracts.
3. Gradually add the flour mixture into the batter, stirring until well-mixed. Don't be afraid to stir it a lot. (Stirring the dough well will develop the gluten in the flour, which is important for chewy cookies!) When everything is incorporated, the dough will be heavy and slightly sticky. Cover it up and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes to chill.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. When the dough is done chilling, scoop out balls of dough about the diameter of a quarter, and place them on foil-lined baking sheets about 2 inches apart from one another.
5. Grease the bottom of a flat glass and gently flatten the dough balls until they are small discs about 1/3 inch thick. This will help your cookies spread evenly instead of mounding in the middle.
6. Bake for about 10 minutes, until the edges are just very slightly starting to become a golden-brown. Immediately remove from oven and let sit on the cookie sheet to finish baking for another 2 minutes. While cookies are still warm, remove from foil using a spatula and finish cooling on a cooling rack. They will be perfectly chewy starting from the moment they are cool enough to eat, until they are all gone :)
Updates have been sparse lately because I had a wisdom tooth out earlier this week and was not up for cooking nor blogging, but I'm happy to say that I'm back to eating solid foods again :) Last night I found myself once again the usual predicament of having ripening bananas and no desire to eat them as is. As luck would have it, I also happened to have a few boxes of instant pudding mixes in the cupboard, which I bought for my widsom tooth recovery period, and my boyfriend gave me an idea to make some sort of cake and pudding trifle to use up the bananas. He said he wanted a light sponge cake to go with the pudding and bananas, and I immediately thought of the Bostini cream pie that I had seen the Daring Bakers make not too long ago - a similar concept of a small sponge cake with a custard and topped with chocolate sauce. I decided to use the orange chiffon cake from this recipe, with some alterations to suit my pantry, which came together with surprising ease. With the speediness of instant coconut pudding to shave off even more time, this became one of the simplest "complex" desserts that I've ever made! I love the combination of flavors, from the coconut to the bananas, to the orange, and the chocolate - everything pairs so well and none of the flavors overwhelm each other. And I find layered desserts so elegant-looking, so I'm definitely making this for company sometime :)
Coconut Banana Trifle with Orange Chiffon Cake cake adapted from Scala's Bostini Cream Pie
(makes 6 individual servings)
Ingredients:
Orange Chiffon Cake
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup confectioner's sugar
2 eggs, separated
2/3 tsp baking powder
1/3 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1/6 cup canola oil
1/3 cup orange juice
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
Filling
1 package instant coconut cream pudding
2 cups cold milk
2 ripe bananas, cut into slices
Chocolate Topping
1 oz. chocolate chips
1 tbsp salted butter
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray a 6-hole muffin pan with cooking spray.
2. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the egg yolks, oil, orange juice, vanilla and almond extracts, stirring together until just blended (dont' worry about lumps).
3. In a clean bowl, beat egg whites until frothy, and add in cream of tartar. Continue beating until soft peaks form. (I used a hand-held rotary beater for this in place of an electric one and it worked out great!)
4. Using a spatula, fold in the egg whites carefully into the batter in 3 separate additions. Ladle batter into the muffin pan, filling each well to the top.
5. Bake for 25 minutes, until tops of cakes spring back when lightly pressed with fingertips. Remove immediately from oven. Slide a knife around the edges of the cakes and flip over the muffin pan to release the cakes onto a cooling rack. They will have a golden brown skin around the edges, and you can either keep them for texture and color or trim it off for aesthetic appeal - I tried both and they both look and taste great.
6. While the cakes are baking, prepare the instant pudding according to directions and chill in the fridge. For the chocolate sauce topping, melt butter in the microwave, then stir in chocolate chips to melt. If they don't all melt, microwave for an additional 20 seconds and stir well.
7. To assemble dessert - slice up cakes into three layers. In a parfait glass or a goblet, alternate spoonfuls of pudding, banana slices, and cake layers, ending with a cake layer on top. Drizzle with chocolate sauce on top and garnish with banana slices. Serve immediately or chill until needed. Enjoy!
Although I strive to bake interesting and creative items when I can, there are certain classic baked goods that I want to make sure I've made at least once and succeeded at, if only to be able to whip out a simple dessert for a backyard BBQ somewhere down the road. I don't know how it happened, but I've never baked blondies before, even though I've eaten them countless times. And since I've changed my blog tagline to "everything tastes better homemade", well I'd better practice what I preach!
Blondies, like chocolate chip cookies and brownies, deserve a spot in every kitchen's recipe box. That's why I'm creating a new category of posts called "Essential baking repertoire" (or EBR for short) - nothing fancy, just simple, tried and true recipes that I can always turn to when I want something that is sure to please every time. So often food bloggers are so busy churning out new and innovative recipes that the traditional ones get left behind because they might seem "boring". But sometimes all I want is a good recipe for a no-frills, common dessert. Anyway, I'll slowly try and build up this category of posts (my favorite sugar cookie recipe is probably coming soon). I haven't decided if any other recipes I've posted thus far should be included. If you have any such recipes to share, or suggestions for things you'd like to see, please let me know! :)
So then, the main event of this week's baking was the blondie - sort of like a chocolate chip cookie in bar form. I have seen a zillion different variations of the blondie, some with coconut, some with white chocolate chips, some with nuts. I found my blondie EBR recipe on Allrecipes.com, one of my favorite places to go. A recipe site that has lots of reviewers is always useful in determining if a recipe will be a winner or a dud. The recipe calls for walnuts, which I omitted due to lack of availability (and also because I don't think traditional blondies should have nuts in them), and chocolate chips, for which I used half chocolate chips and half toffee chips, since I was low on chocolate chips. Other than that I followed the recipe down to the word, and boy does it make a sinfully chewy blondie...
Chocolate Chip Toffee Blondies (makes about 16 small squares) original recipe at Allrecipes.com
Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup butter
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup chocolate chips of your choice (I prefer milk chocolate here)
1/3 cup English toffee bits
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. Melt butter. Allow to cool briefly, and stir in brown sugar. Beat egg separately, and add to butter and sugar mixture. Stir in vanilla and mix well to get a creamy batter.
4. Gradually stir in flour mixture with the batter until well-mixed. Fold in most of the chocolate chips and toffee bits, reserving some to sprinkle on top of the blondies (or you can just add extra for the top).
5. Spread the batter evenly into an 8x8 inch baking pan (I used an 8" round pan because I don't have a small square pan). Sprinkle remaining chocolate chips and toffee bits on top of the batter if desired. Bake for 20-25 minutes until top is a light golden color and edges are crinkly and pulling away from the side of the pan. Remove from oven and cool completely before cutting.
Note: Recipe can be doubled to fit a 9x13 inch baking pan.
Every baker has a comfort zone. I am no exception. But every once in a while, I feel the urge to challenge myself to try a difficult sounding recipe or a difficult to achieve baked good - if only to be able to say that yes, I did try making XYZ once. Not only that, but so often I find that the things we think are difficult may not be quite so bad after all. Although, other times we just lack the experienced hands of someone who has been baking for a lot longer, but that doesn't necessarily mean we should give up either. If I actually had the time and the resources to participate in the Daring Bakers monthly challenge, I would have joined long ago, as their mission resonates with me quite well. But since I am someone who mostly bakes with what I have available due to lack of shopping convenience, it would have been impossible for me to participate. Thus, you find me from time to time coming up with some difficult project to tackle on my own, which I find rather satisfying, since my personal growth as a baker and a cook depends largely on how much I can push myself to try new things.
Anyway, this week I was at home for spring break, thinking of things to bake, when my boyfriend suggested that I make some egg custard tarts - the popular palm-sized tarts that you can find in any Asian bakery. They're well-known for their tender flaky crust with lots of layers (somewhat like a denser version of puff pastry), and their bright yellow sweet custard centers that have a slight jello-like bite to them, like flan. Best of all, these tarts are relatively cheap (usually about 60 cents apiece), and pretty consistent between bakeries. But like all things baked, I always strive to make them fresh in my oven, as I find fresh-baked goods to be leaps and bounds above those that have been made in advance. Maybe things just taste better to you when you make them yourself :)
Still, I knew this would be a challenge before I even began. For one thing, I have made them before when I was in high school. I remember the first time I made them, the crust was soft but much too crumbly, leaving me with tarts that I could barely get out of the muffin pan. The second time I made these was also in high school, using a different recipe, and this time they came out with a hard, almost crunchy crust that was barely edible. I moved onto other baking projects and soon forgot about making egg tarts. That is, until this week.
I did a bit of recipe scouring and realized that in the past, I always made the tart crust from a single dough that included both lard and butter. But according to those in the know, to make a light flaky crust, you have to make it from a combination of two doughs - commonly referred to in the Chinese recipes as a "water dough" and an "oil dough". The two doughs have different compositions, and when rolled into alternating layers in the crust, separate during baking and form those wonderful flaky layers that are so coveted in the egg tart crust. I followed a forum thread on eGullet that discussed the search for the perfect egg tart recipe, and learned a great deal through everyone else's trials and tribulations. Although they ultimately did not come to a consensus on the best recipe, I did find one through that thread which I attempted - twice in three days. The first time my results were so-so, but the crust was a bit harder than desired, and not as flaky. With just a few tiny alterations and a slightly more experienced hand, the second attempt came out nearly perfect (at least for my standards of bakery style egg tarts). I used the crust from one recipe and the filling from another, as I was lacking a few ingredients. The custard filling of my tarts were smoother and creamier than the store-bought tarts, more like a custard/creme brulee rather than a flan. I personally liked it better this way, but your opinions may vary. All I know is that these were heavenly right out of the oven... and the crust resembled the bakery egg tarts very closely. Success! Finally!
Egg Custard Tarts - Hong Kong Style (港式酥皮蛋塔) (makes 24 regular-sized tarts)
crust recipe from Angie's Recipes - I made conversions from weight measurements to volume for this recipe
filling recipe from About.com
Ingredients:
Water dough:
2.5 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 egg, beaten
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp lard
about 10 tbsp water, or as needed
Oil dough:
10.5 tbsp butter, softened
1.1 cups lard, softened
2 cups AP flour
Filling:
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups milk (I used skim)
0.6 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Directions:
1. To prepare the water dough: place flour in a mixing bowl, make a well, add in sugar, beaten egg, and shortening. Mix well to get a crumbly mixture. Then stir water into the flour mixture until it just comes together to form a soft dough. DO NOT OVERWORK THE DOUGH (this is what made my crust tough in my first attempt). It's okay if the dough is a bit sticky, but don't stir it too much while you are adding water to form the dough.
2. To prepare the oil dough: place flour in a mixing bowl, make a well. Add softened butter and lard, mix well. Use your hands if necessary, as there is no liquid here to bind the dough. Just don't handle the dough for too long, otherwise you'll melt the fats.
3. Place both doughs in freezer until firm and solid.
4. While dough is chilling, stir together eggs for the filling in a bowl with a whisk until well-blended, but avoid creating bubbles. Stir in milk, sugar, and vanilla. Mix well and strain. Spoon off any remaining bubbles from the top.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a regular muffin pan with foil liners or make your own out of squares of foil.
6. You may choose to do this step in 2 batches, so that the rolling will be a big easier to do in a small space. On a floured surface (avoid using wax paper for rolling, since the dough will stick), roll out oil dough into a rectangle, and the water dough into a rectangle twice the length of the oil dough (about 1/4 inch thick). Place the oil dough in the center of the water dough. Fold over both sides of the water dough on top of the oil dough and touch just in the center, as if folding in the pages to make a book (this is called a book fold). Roll out the dough flat as large as possible, about 9 inches in diameter. Fold into quarters, roll flat again. Repeat twice more. Roll dough out into a big rectangle, about 1/4-1/5 inch thick.
7. Cut out circles from the dough using 3 inch cutters (or cups/bowls with thin rims). Lay circles into muffin pan and flatten against sides evenly. Using two fingers, pinch edges of crust into little A shapes along the rim, to give the final tart a slightly crimped appearance. Pour in egg custard into each tart crust until it is about 80% filled (do not over-fill, as they will bubble over).
8. Bake in oven for 25 minutes, or until the crust just started to turn golden, and the egg centers have puffed up slightly. Remove from oven and allow to cool briefly - these are best served warm!
I apologize for not having taken any pictures during the dough rolling process, which is probably the most confusing part. I had my hands in flour and dough, and wanted to roll them out quickly before they warmed up too much, so I couldn't whip out the camera. Plus my technique wasn't that great, I improvised a great deal when things didn't go smoothly hehe. All I can say is that you shouldn't worry about rolling the dough thin as you are rolling out the folds, and just envision that you are layering the oil dough and water dough into many many thin layers using this process, and it will make more sense. Look how beautiful the layers come out in the end... oh the fruits of your labor!
During my attempt I found that I had some extra custard filling left over, so I filled a few ramekins halfway with the custard and baked it for about half an hour in a water bath just like creme brulee. These came out great and had that velvety smooth texture, with just enough sweetness that it did not need a caramelized coating of sugar like creme brulee does. These are great chilled, and don't have a strong egg-y flavor. As you can see, this filling recipe has very little egg in it for the amount of filling it makes, so if you are using skim milk like I did, it's not even that bad for you :)
So to share a little bit from my first attempt with this recipe... I overworked the water dough when I was stirring it together, as the recipe from the website did not give enough water for the dough to come together. I kept trying to stir it and definitely over-developed the gluten in the flour. I also made them in a mini muffin baking pan, using a 1.5 inch dough cutter, since I thought that bite-sized ones would be cute, like the ones I often see at dim sum places. However, I realized afterwards that the crust to filling ratio is too high in these tiny tarts, so they don't taste as good as the regular sized ones in normal muffin pans. And of course, as I mentioned earlier, the crust was harder than expected, and a little bit crunchy, sort of like a shortbread (many of the simple one-dough recipes online call for you to make a shortcrust, so beware if you are searching for the authentic crust). So the first batch was a definite bust, although they were still tasty to eat as a treat - they just weren't like the ones in the bakery. I had actually made double the amount of oil dough during the first attempt, so I saved that in the refrigerator, along with half of the filling mixture, and re-made the water dough recipe with more water this time and less stirring of the dough. So I know for sure that the only thing that changed between the first and second attempt was the forming of the water dough, and potentially a better dough rolling process. The only difference in the second dough rolling was that I made sure to flour my surfaces, allowing for easier rolling. The first time, my doughs were not fully chilled, and I used sheets of wax paper which caused a lot of sticking that was painful to deal with. You can probably tell from the picture below that the crust is a bit overbaked and the small size of the tarts (about the size of a half dollar coin) meant too much crust in each bite compared to the filling.
In hind-sight, I was pretty disappointed about the recipe after my first attempt, but after I did my second attempt and saw how wonderfully they came out, I came to appreciate the fine subtleties in executing a recipe that can result in a very different product. Being able to tweak these methods as a baker is essential for achieving the desired results. So for sure, I learned a great deal in making this recipe, and really impressed my family with my handiwork. Of course, it was quite laborious the first time, and I was pretty sore after all that rolling. It's no wonder that most people don't make egg tarts at home, since it is so much easier to just go to the local Asian bakery and buy them whenever you want to eat them. That said though, my boyfriend told me that my crust had a special richness that the bakery crusts lack (he said the bakery tarts have a certain greasiness in their crust, but doesn't have a buttery richness that my crust has). He also said that he liked the smoothness of my custard filling better than the jello-like bite of the store-bought ones. So maybe there are some merits to making it on your own after all, as long as you are willing :)
I think I must have had my first English toffee cookie at Au Bon Pain several years ago... their cookies are huge and always soft and chewy. While they were a special treat in the late afternoons when they are sold for half off, I wanted to try and make my own at home. Back then, as I searched for recipes, I kept coming upon ones that used an egg white wash on the tops of cookies whose dough base was essentially like a chocolate chip cookie. It baffled me that such cookies were called toffee cookies, and I actually went ahead and tried to make them. Of course, they didn't come out as I had hoped.
Fast forward several years, and I'm standing in a grocery store baking aisle, eying those bags of English toffee bits for baking that sit right beside the chocolate chips. No more egg white washes! I slapped down the $2.49 for an 8 oz. bag of Heath "bits o' brickle" English toffee bits, and I just knew that this time I would be able to make the toffee cookies I've always dreamed of - thin and chewy, crunchy at the edges, with bits of real toffee buried in the cookie. You always know that a cookie is going to be just the perfect amount of chewy when it's nice and flattened. I really didn't want to change this recipe, because I just wanted to get the classic toffee cookie experience. Now I share this mouthwatering cookie recipe with you as well :)
Chewy English Toffee Cookies (makes 4 dozen) recipe at Recipezaar.com
Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
8 oz. package of Heath toffee bits
Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease baking sheet, or cover with foil/parchment.
2. Mix together flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.
3. In a large mixing bowl, beat together butter, white sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla until well blended.
4. Add eggs and blend thoroughly.
5. Gradually add flour mixture to the batter, mixing until just incorporated. Stir in toffee bits.
6. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto baking sheet, and bake for 10-12 minutes until cookies are golden, and browning around the edges. They will have flattened and crackled on top.
7. Allow to cool for a few minutes before removing cookies to a cooling rack.
All I can really say is that these cookies are amazingly delicious. Whoever came up with this recipe is a genius! These cookies have the perfect amount of crunchy toffee bits in them, and every bite is just wonderful. Eat them with milk for the ultimate indulgence... mmm.....
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