talida bakes

New Look and Site!

2011-08-05T11:54:00.006-05:00

Dear friends and family of Talida Bakes, please note that this site has moved! It took me a tad bit longer than I anticipated, but I've finally said goodbye to Blogger, and I've embraced WordPress with an awesome custom theme made by my childhood friend and owner of Do Good Media Jane.

I'm excited to be back to blogging as I've got tons of recipes and events to share with y'all. Please update your RSS subscription and go visit my new site!

Made-with-Coffee Coffee Cake

2011-04-15T12:15:00.006-05:00

If you knew me back in college, this cake may look familiar to you. It was one of my most requested baked goods, and it was on the short list of things I baked at the time. Until last month, I had always made this cake with instant coffee - it's what the original recipe called for, and it gave the cake its coffee flavor without hassle.

Now, this coffee cake is different from all the ones I've made in the past. This one is made with Bolivia Fair Trade Organic coffee from the Coffee Foundry. When helping Norm and Wilson for the Bloggers' Coffee Cupping Event last month, I knew this was the perfect cake to offer at the event since it incorporate both loves of coffee and cake.

The main thing I modified to make this cake with real coffee was replacing the regular yogurt with Greek yogurt. I mixed the brewed coffee into the Greek yogurt, creating a coffee yogurt to bake with. Pecans and chocolate chips are optional in this recipe, but they add nice texture to this moist coffee cake.

Thanks again to all the bloggers that came out to the event last month, and for those who asked for the recipe, here you go!

Made-with-Coffee Coffee Cake
adapted from previous recipe

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons instant coffee (optional - I added this for extra coffee flavor)
5 tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 cup Greek yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup strongly brewed Bolivian coffee
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup chocolate chips (optional)
3 tablespoons chopped pecans (optional)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Grease a 8"x8" pan, dust with 2 teaspoons flour.
3. Combine brown sugar, cinnamon, and optional instant coffee in a small bowl. Set aside.
4. Fold in strongly brewed coffee into Greek yogurt until well mixed.
5. In a stand mixer, cream together butter and granulated sugar.
6. Mix in eggs, one at a time. Then add in coffee yogurt and vanilla.
7. Add flour, baking soda, salt, mixing just until flour disappears. Fold in optional pecans and chocolate chips if desired.
8. Pour half of the batter into prepared pan, and sprinkle with half of the brown sugar mixture. Carefully spoon remaining batter over brown sugar mixture, and sprinkle with remaining brown sugar mixture.
8. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack.

Kurogoma (Black Sesame) Shortbread Cookies

2011-04-06T09:41:00.008-05:00

Guess what, y'all? Last Saturday, NYC raised $4644 for Peace Winds America/Japan in our Bake Sale for Japan! And the Bake Sales across the nation have raised over $120,000! I wasn't as involved as I wish I could have been, but I hope my shortbread cookies helped raise a tiny sum towards this awesome amount. Another BIG thank you goes out to Lillian from Sweets by Sillianah and Celia from Cookbook Archaeology for coordinating a wonderfully run bake sale.

Check out their posts for pictures and details of the sale at Brooklyn Flea.

For the bake sale, I chose to make matcha, azuki, and kurogoma shortbread cookies because they are all prominent Japanese flavors that I love working with. Matcha, azuki, and kurogoma are simply the Japanese terms for green tea, red bean, and black sesame. I've made all varieties of the cookies before, but the kurogoma shortbread cookie happens to be one of those recipes I never got around to posting. Until now, that is.

The ingredients I used to flavor the shortbread cookies: black sesame paste, sweetened red bean paste, and green tea powder (tried out a new green tea product - not bad!).

And here are the wrapped shortbread cookies!

Kurogoma (Black Sesame) Shortbread Cookies
adapted from previous recipe

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cup flour
1 cup butter
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup black sesame paste

Directions:
1. In a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together on medium speed for about 3 minutes, until the mixture is smooth.
2. Add flour, cornstarch, and salt to butter mixture, until flour mixture is incorporated into the dough. Be sure not to overwork the dough.
3. Fold in black sesame paste.
4. Transfer the dough to a gallon-size plastic bag. Put the bag on a flat surface, leaving the top open, and using a rolling pin to flatten the dough into a rectangle about 1/4 inch thick. Roll carefully, making sure not to leave creases in the dough. Seal the bag after rolling into proper size and press out as much air as possible. Place in freezer for about 30 minutes, up to 2 days.
5. Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or Silpat.
6. Put the plastic bag on a cutting board and slit it open. Turn the firm dough out onto the board (discard the bag) and, using a ruler as a guide and a sharp knife, cut the dough into 2 inch squares. Transfer the squares to the baking sheets and carefully prick each one four times with a fork, gently pushing the tines through the cookies until they hit the sheet.
7. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point. Transfer the cookies to a rack to cool. Yields 20 cookies.

NYC Bake Sale for Japan

2011-04-01T14:51:00.008-05:00

As I know many of you have been doing recently, I've been praying for Japan. Not only for protection and physical recovery, but for emotional and spiritual restoration as well. And I pray for what I don't understand because frankly, there sure is a lot of that.

One other thing I'm doing is baking for Japan. If you've followed my blog for a while, you'll know that's what I do. I bake, and I bake for others. When I don't know what to say or what to do when people are hurting, I want to meet their basic need of eating. Okay, so maybe eating comfort foods like cookies and cake isn't quite a basic need, but when eaten in moderation, I know it helps.

I'll be busy baking a few of my favorite cookies tonight (can you guess what they are?), and tomorrow we'll be selling a LOT of baked goods at the Brooklyn Flea in Fort Greene, come rain or shine. All proceeds will go to the charity Peace Winds Japan.

If you're in the NYC area tomorrow, please visit the Bake Sale for Japan at the Brooklyn Flea, and look for our setup in front of the fence outside on the sidewalk. Special thanks to Lillian of Sweets by Sillianah for organizing the NYC sale and to the many volunteers involved around the nation who are graciously donating their time and efforts for a great cause.

NYC Bake Sale for Japan at Brooklyn Flea
April 2, 10AM-5PM
176 Lafayette Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11238

Maple Frosted Pumpkin Scones

2011-03-30T14:46:00.004-05:00

These days I've been so busy NOT baking, I haven't had a lot of baking material to write about. I'm happy to say that's not the case today.

I covered the Bloggers' Cupping Event at The Coffee Foundry earlier this month, and I want to share with you all what I was happy to share with the bloggers at the event.

These maple frosted pumpkin scones. Well, until the day arrives we can send real food through the Internet, I'll just be sharing my recipe with y'all. I'm sorry I can't send over a warm scone to you right now, but if you have some time on your hands this weekend (and don't we all have tons?), I highly urge you to consider making these delicious scones. And if you do, let me know how they turn out!

Maple Frosted Pumpkin Scones
adapted from previous recipe

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup cold butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup canned pumpkin
Maple Frosting (recipe below)

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, spices and salt.
3. With a pastry cutter, work the butter into the dry mixture until it is thoroughly incorporated and has the consistency of fine breadcrumbs.
4. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and pour the buttermilk and canned pumpkin into the well. Combine the ingredients until all the dry mixture is wet. Be sure not to knead.
5. Turn the mixture onto a floured surface and gather the dough together. Gently pat the dough to make circles about 1" thick and around 4" in diameter.
6. Using a knife that's been run through cold water, cut the circle of dough into 6 wedges, and lay them on a baking sheet covered with Silpat or parchment paper.
7. Pop scones in freezer for 15 minutes prior to baking.
8. Bake scones for about 20 minutes, or until lightly browned.
9. Place baked scones on drying rack and drizzle with maple frosting.

Maple Frosting

Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:
1. In a small saucepan melt the butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar and heavy cream.
2. Bring mixture to a low boil, then turn off heat.
3. After syrup has cooled down, whisk in powdered sugar and vanilla until reaching a smooth consistency.

Khun Ya's Massaman Curry

2011-03-25T10:47:00.010-05:00

Did you think I forgot? What on earth is she talking about? I'm a little embarrassed to admit, but there have been a number of times I said I would post something on this blog, but it never happens. Forgetfulness, ADD, whatever may be the cause, I want to make things right and follow up with all the promises I once made on this blog.

First thing I'm following up on has to do with my grandmothers. I wrote about the big birthday bash celebrating my maternal grandmother Arpor, and now I'd like to introduce you all to my paternal grandmother, Khun Ya. I relate to Khun Ya in a lot of ways. She loves to cook, she loves talking about cooking, and she is known for overwhelming house guests with tons of food. Several years ago, hip surgery made it hard for her to cook at home, so the family arranged for live-in help to take care of the cooking. This took some getting used to, but Khun Ya took it in stride when she realized she was the boss of the kitchen.

When we visited Khun Ya at her house last July, I asked what was her favorite dish to cook. If you read the title of this post, you'll know what her answer was. And while she didn't give me thorough instructions on how to make it, she did give me the ingredient list. I came up with the rest based on what I've learned from my mom. It may not be too different from other recipes out there, but knowing that it came from my family makes it special to me.

Khun Ya's Massaman Curry

Ingredients:
1 lb. beef cubes
1 lb. potatoes, cubed
1 large onion, chopped
2 cups string beans or other vegetables
1 small can massaman curry paste (Khun Ya said not to bother making my own, the store-bought kind is good enough)
1 can coconut milk
1 tablespoon tamarind paste
palm sugar, to taste
fish sauce, to taste

Directions:
1. In a large pot, cook coconut milk and massaman curry paste over low heat, and stir until well-mixed.
2. Add beef and stir enough to coat meat with curry mix. Add water to cover meat in pot.
3. Mix in tamarind paste.
4. Keep curry on low heat for roughly an hour, or until beef becomes tender. Refill water as needed during this time.
5. After beef is tender, add potatoes and onions. Add sugar and fish sauce to taste at this point. If needed, add more tamarind paste too.
6. Keep on heat for another 20 minutes or so.
7. Before serving, check taste and add more fish sauce if needed.

Bonus fact about Khun Ya: Just like my maternal grandma, she also had 11 children! Here's most of us (not everyone since some have passed and some couldn't make it) at our past family reunion.

Bloggers' Cupping Event at The Coffee Foundry

2011-03-13T10:26:00.016-05:00

I know I already mentioned it the other week, but I'll say it again. I'm proud to be friends with coffee geeks Norm and Wilson, and I want others to know what they're doing at The Coffee Foundry is very cool.

A couple Saturdays ago, Esther of Ambitious Deliciousness and I held a Bloggers' Cupping Event at The Coffee Foundry to do just that. We invited a few bloggers to come out and experience what coffee cupping is all about. What happened exactly? Norm led us through a sensory journey as we sniffed and sipped their coffee in different stages it went through from bean to drink.

I had the pleasure of supplying breakfast for the event, which included pumpkin cardamom scones, pecan coffee cake, Greek yogurt parfaits, and fruit salad. Visit back because I'll be posting the scone and coffee cake recipes!

During the cupping, we tasted a Brazilian Cerrado and an Ethiopia Sidamo and were asked to describe the aroma, acidity, body, flavor and finish in terms like carbony/nippy/fat/rough. Luckily we were supplied with a whole glossary of terms to choose from (because I wouldn't normally describe the taste of coffee as nippy or fat), and those terms were just among dozens of others.

We learned about all that goes into the science of brewing coffee well. New to me was the fact that ground coffee blooms when hot water is poured over just as it should if the grounds are fresh. Also, speaking to freshness of coffee, Norm taught us about the Rule of 15. The Rule of 15 refers to three rules about coffee:

1) Green coffee should be roasted within 15 months of harvest, or it goes stale.
2) Roasted coffee should be ground within 15 days of roasting, or it goes stale.
3) Ground coffee should be brewed within 15 minutes of grinding, or it goes stale.

Coffee geeks might already know that rule, but it was new to me. I think I can speak for most of the attendees that we all learned a significant amount about coffee last Saturday. It's easy to overlook the complexity it can take to arrive at your daily cup of coffee, so participating in a coffee cupping was a refreshing way to understand the precision (and balance of art and science) in making a good cuppa joe.

The Coffee Foundry is having special promotion for blog readers! Get $1 off any beverage when you mention "Foundry Coffee Cupping" upon ordering. This promotion is good until April 15, 2011. And if you're interested in participating in future cupping events, either comment below or send me a quick email.

And a big thanks goes to Albert Cheung Photography for supplying the photography for this post!

Happy Texas Independence Day! Round Up Texas BBQ

2011-03-02T15:46:00.016-05:00

While Texas Independence Day is the celebration of the adoption of the Texas Declaration of Independence on March 2, 1836, I tend to treat it like Texas Pride Day. Sure, it's been ten years since I've lived in Texas, but I hold the state near and dear to my heart.

Quite literally, since I wear this awesome pendant on a regular basis.

I didn't get to bake anything to celebrate the day, so instead I want to highlight a recent experience that gave me the warm fuzzies.

The story starts last fall with a scenic train ride up the beautiful Hudson Valley. (No pictures, sorry!) It's Saturday morning, and I find myself on Main Street in Beacon, NY. As soon as I see the store window to home and crafts store Clay Wood & Cotton, I know I'm in for it. I go in and gush over the store, and only after I pick up every handmade piece in the store do I start to chat with store owners Kristy and Kristen. I find out Kristy and I share Houston as a hometown, and she recommends visiting a Texas BBQ joint down in Cold Spring. I can't that day, but I say I'll check it out in the future.

The future didn't come until two weekends ago. I'm back upstate, and Round Up Texas BBQ is the last stop of the day's (secret) mission. We swing open the door, and Linda, Bill, and Round Up's Texan decor greet us. My Texan accent senses the surroundings and feels safe enough to come out. I mention the recommendation from Clay Wood & Cotton, and Linda shares her BBQ adventures. She's proud of her story, and we're eager to taste her hard work. We sample everything they had that day, and I leave as a happy camper.

Brisket should always be that moist. Photos taken by Albert Cheung.

They have their sausage made by a local culinary institute, but it tastes like it could be Texas-made.

Clockwise from the top left: Potato Salad, Green Stuff, Cole Slaw, Mac & Cheese (Linda's own recipe with 4 cheeses, 4 pastas, and jalapeños)

Their BBQ chicken doesn't steal the show, but it's still tasty and juicy.

On this day, why don't you raise a cold Lone Star or Shiner Bock with me, and let's give it up for Texas!

Round Up Texas BBQ and Tumbleweed Saloon
2471 Route 9
Cold Spring, NY 10516

Also check out Metromix Hudson Valley for a detailed slide show feature on Round Up Texas BBQ.

Coffee Foundry

2011-02-11T14:09:00.006-05:00

Here's a blurb I use when describing my interests: I love coffee, cake, and coffee cake. Cake and coffee just go so well together, right? Well, meet my friends Norm and Wilson. They've been roasting single-origin coffee locally for the past several years, but within the last year, they opened shop at The Coffee Foundry in the West Village. This video by local menswear label 3sixteen highlights cool things being done in their jeans (and they did a whole series featuring other creative professionals).

Singularities: The Coffee Foundry from 3sixteen on Vimeo.

Now, I've definitely come a long way from my hatred of coffee at first taste. Me - hate coffee? Yes, I was 8 years old, and what I thought was a glass of iced Coke was in fact my mom's glass of olieng, or sweetened black coffee. But since then, I've had quite the coffee journey, and it looks a little like this:

My coffee journey can be summarized as disguising the coffee with sugar and cream to learning to appreciate the coffee itself and simply experience it. Last year I discovered a lot of West Coast roasters with the help of Citizen Bean, but I'm also lucky to have access to locally roasted beans by Norm and Wilson. The Coffee Foundry is a place where I can sit back and have their roasts brewed on the spot, and like 3sixteen, I think what they're doing is really cool.

The Coffee Foundry
186 West 4th Street
New York, NY 10014
coffeefoundry.com

If you're an NYC blogger interested in joining a cupping event at The Coffee Foundry please email me at talidabakes at gmail dot com.

Azuki (Red Bean) Filled Mochi

2011-02-03T09:24:00.008-05:00

新年快樂! Happy Chinese New Year! I wish you all a prosperous year, and may your celebrations be filled with lots of food and warmth!

It's been terribly frigid here, and in the city that never sleeps, I'm still expected to go into work as long as the subways are running. Luckily my commute only involves strapping on my boots and walking (though with this week's weather, ice skates would have been more fitting).

In these frosty conditions, nothing warms me up like food, friends, and family. Tonight we will feast on lots of Chinese food, and I'll be snacking on this azuki mochi throughout the day.

Tiny Urban Kitchen featured a post of Chinese New Year recipes, and the nian gao (年糕) post spoke to me. I love making (and eating) mochi, but I usually cook it using steam. So I thought I'd try out a baked mochi cake, stuffed with red bean paste. Thanks for the idea and the recipe, Jen!

If you haven't eaten anything like this before, think of it like a super-chewy-Asian-flavored-brownie. Or blondie. It's super easy to make, and even easier to eat!

Azuki (Red Bean) Filled Mochi
adapted from Tiny Urban Kitchen

Ingredients:
1 lb sweet rice flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups and 1 tablespoon milk
1 egg yolk, beaten
2 cups azuki (red bean) paste

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease a 9"x13" baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, salt.
3. Add 2 beaten eggs and 2 cups milk into flour mixture and stir together until well combined.
4. Spread about half of the mochi batter into greased baking pan. Spoon the azuki paste on top of mochi layer and spread evenly. Cover with remaining mochi batter.
5. Whisk together egg yolk and tablespoon of milk to make egg wash. Brush top of mochi with egg wash.
6. Bake in oven for 60 minutes until golden brown.
7. Let cool 10-15 minutes then slice into squares.

Arpor's 90th Birthday

2011-01-28T14:19:00.028-05:00

My favorite memories of my maternal grandmother (Arpor) revolve around her birthday. I seem to always visit Thailand in the summertime when it just can't get any hotter, and about once a decade, we celebrate Arpor's birthday in a big way with a family reunion. I don't know what your family reunions are like, or if you even enjoy them, but these reunions have always been a real treat for me. We feast on great food, and Arpor sits back as we perform endless acts of music* and dancing for our beloved grandma.

Flashback to 1991's family reunion. Oh boy.

I want to share with y'all some pictures from the latest family reunion celebrating Arpor's 90th birthday on July 3, 2010. These are mostly professional photos from the celebration in the Novotel Bangkok in Siam Square. Those who came numbered 200, making it a bigger party than my wedding. And as you'll soon see, we showered Arpor with our love through our musical acts.

Meet my dear grandma Sumitra Boonsermsuwong, or as I call her, Arpor.

The tables were named after her kids as they were all given tables to seat their own friends and family.

This is a fun fact I love telling people. Can you believe my grandmother gave birth to 11 children?! Here they are, happily reunited. Oldest to youngest from right to left. 7 live in Bangkok, 3 in the USA, and 1 is in Hong Kong.

And here's the entire family. Each of the 11 got married and had children. Some of those children got married and had children. In total, there are 69 of us in the family, spread throughout 5 different countries.

My beautiful cousin Dara performing a traditional Indian dance.

Some of the granddaughters join together in a hip-hop-fan dance.

My dad and Tim played Jim Croce's Time in a Bottle while food was served.

Singing to Arpor is a must-have act.

Three generations of daughters danced to the Girls' Generation HaHaHa song, choreographed by cousin Jent.

A 90th birthday is well-deserving of a tiered cake and mantou tower.

Birds' nest soup is a popular present for the elderly, believed to be a health tonic.

My paternal grandmother (Khun Ya) even came out, and I don't know what my oldest uncle is doing, but that's just classic behavior of our crazy uncle.

If you're wondering where the food pictures are, then you might be missing my point. While some memories involve food, this is about family itself. If I didn't snap this picture of the menu, I wouldn't have known what we ate that night. I know it all tasted great, but experiencing this kind of love beats even the best steamed garoupa [sic] in Bangkok.

*Wondering why the big emphasis on music and dancing at our family reunions? My grandfather had a deep love for music and performing, having led a big band for many years, and he sent his children to music lessons. He passed away in 1997, but we continue to honor him by displaying the love for music he passed down to all of us.

Grandmothers

2011-01-24T17:47:00.007-05:00

Over the weekend, I attended the wake of our Poh-Poh, Ing-Fen Hsu Jeng, who died January 15, 2011 at the age of 85. Technically she's my husband's sister's husband's Poh-Poh (maternal grandmother), but I'm calling her Poh-Poh because she was a woman who loved everybody as her own family. I didn't know Poh-Poh terribly well, but I see and know the fruits of her love through her family. I'm thankful I had the chance to attend her and Gong-Gong's 60th wedding anniversary a few years back, and it was the sweetest celebration to join in, especially as a newlywed at the time.

A snapshot of their 1948 wedding.

One after another, family and friends relived stories about what a big heart she had towards others, and some of her grandchildren shared how they always found it weird that Poh-Poh never cooked for them (the cooking was Gong-Gong's job). Hearing these stories made it so sad to say goodbye, but we pray with great hope that God's mercy has brought her and Gong-Gong together again in eternity.

After coming home from the service, I immediately thought about my own grandmothers, and how fortunate Tim and I are to still be able to talk to and Skype with all four of ours today. And how happy were we to visit Thailand last summer to celebrate Arpor's (my maternal grandmother) 90th birthday and Khun Ya's (my paternal grandmother) 92nd birthday with them!

Having lived my whole life in the States with most of my extended family residing in Bangkok, I only saw my grandmothers once every 3 years at best. Still, I have many fond memories of them, and food plays an important part of those memories. I'll be posting a few of those memories (as well as new memories from this past trip) in a mini-series to come. In anticipation of those posts, I'd like to ask y'all...

What are some of your fondest memories of your grandmother(s)? I look forward to reading your stories!

Chocolate Banana Loaf

2011-01-18T17:25:00.005-05:00

We had a wonderfully tiring weekend, visiting friends from all over. We drove over 700 miles, stopped in 5 different cities and met adorable baby Joseph, played with a bunch of little kids, chatted with a handful of college friends, had dinner with my old church small group, and even saw a few friends from our high school days. There were many more we wish we could have seen, but we're saving them for another trip.

I made this chocolate banana loaf for Jon, one of the coolest friends we have. Thanks for hosting us and for treating us to some great soondubu! Glad you were able to eat some Sunday morning, and I hope you've enjoyed more since. :)

Among all the catching up, we were asked how our families are doing, and we heard some great compliments about our family members. Specifically, we heard from Tim's high school buddy how he recalls my mother-in-law, Mama, being the sweetest person he's ever met. Mama, I hope that you're reading this and that you realize you've touched many people's hearts with your love and kindness. Happy Birthday to my dear mother-in-law!

Chocolate Banana Loaf

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips
2 large eggs
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
4-6 ripe bananas, mashed well
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Butter and flour the bottom and sides of a loaf pan.
3. In a large bowl mix the dry ingredients together (flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt)
4. In another bowl combine the wet ingredients: bananas, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla.
5. Fold the banana mixture into the dry ingredients until just combined. Then fold in the chocolate chips.
6. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake about 60 minutes until bread has risen and a cake tester comes out clean.
7. Let cool slightly, remove loaf from pan, and serve warm.

Baba's Mantou 饅頭

2011-01-14T11:36:00.002-05:00

Happy Birthday Baba! It's my father-in-law's birthday today, and I'd like to take some time today to share one of his recipes with all of you. I had the pleasure of visiting Fort Wayne, IN for Christmas, and I was delighted to help my father-in-law makes these for the big Christmas Eve gathering their church held at their home. Christmas Eve is just one example of my in-laws' hospitality towards their community. I hear many stories of their lovely home gatherings, inviting over church friends, neighbors, as well as students from North Side High School (where my mother-in-law teaches), and I was blessed to participate in one of their parties during Christmas.

For our Christmas dinner, we doubled the recipe below and made close to 80 buns! I certainly pulled my weight in eating them up as I must have eaten at least a dozen during our time there. Thanks for sharing your recipe with me, Baba, and I hope to learn many more recipes from you!

Baba's Mantou 饅頭
makes around 40 buns

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons yeast
3 tablespoons sugar
4 cups warm water
1 tablespoon baking powder
12 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon shortening
1 cup red bean paste
40 - 2" squares of cut wax paper

Directions:
1. Sprinkle yeast and sugar over the the warm water, let stand for about 30 minutes until yeast bubbles.
2. Meanwhile, mix together flour and baking powder, and cut shortening into flour mixture.
3. Make a well in the flour mixture, pour in yeast mixture, and start mixing to form a dough.
5. Knead dough on floured surface until smooth, then cover with moist paper towel and let stand for about two hour in a warm place until the dough doubles in size.
6. Punch down dough and knead one more time and let stand for another 20 minutes.
7. Prepare steamer and begin to boil water.
8. Knead dough to shape into long rolls and cut across the roll to form mantou.
9. To make red bean paste filled mantou, roll one section of dough into a flat circle, put 1 tablespoon of red bean paste in the center, and pinch dough closed, forming a bun.
10. Stick one square of wax paper to the bottom of each shaped mantou and cover with damp paper towel until dough is used up.
11. Place mantou carefully in steamer, leaving enough space in between. Steam mantou for 10-12 minutes.

Alice's Tea Cup Cookbook Giveaway Winner

2011-01-10T11:37:00.004-05:00

As you may have guessed, this post's purpose is to say, we have a winner for the Alice's Tea Cup Cookbook Giveaway! I modified my random dish generator to tell me who the lucky reader is. (That's the little spreadsheet I wrote to give me dinner ideas when I'm fresh out)

And the cookbook goes to...

Congratulations Michelle! You'd make a wonderful breakfast companion, and I hope you enjoy your copy of Alice's Tea Cup Cookbook! Please email me your mailing address at talidabakes at gmail dot com, and we'll send your copy out.

Thanks to everyone who participated this giveaway. I realized I have many favorite breakfasts as I read through each comment; I guess I don't discriminate when it comes to this much-loved meal.

Alice's Tea Cup Peppermint Stick Scones and Cookbook Giveaway!

2011-01-02T11:51:00.008-05:00

Like many others living in the New York area, I love Alice’s Tea Cup. I love their selections of scones and tea, I love the flavorful potato-chicken hash, and the sense of whimsy I feel each time I visit. When I read through Alice’s Tea Cup Cookbook, I was even more charmed to learn that many recipes incorporate tea as key ingredients!

*

I shared these peppermint stick scones with my in-laws while visiting Indiana for Christmas. They were the perfect biscuit for the holiday, and I’ll take any excuse to have candy for breakfast. I’d also love to share a copy of this cookbook with one lucky reader! Just leave a comment on this post, telling me your favorite breakfast to share with others. You have until January 9, 2011 at 11:59PM, EST. A winner will be picked at random. One entry per person, and giveaway is limited to US residents only.

*These may look more like doughnut holes than your typical scone because we shaped and baked them in mini-muffin pans. Following the cookbook’s recipe below will give you a classic scone shape.

Peppermint Stick Scones
makes 10-12 scones

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 cup crushed Brach's peppermint Star Brites (or similar candy)
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup heavy cream (for brushing)

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
3. With clean hands, work the butter into the dry mixture until it is thoroughly incorporated and has the consistency of fine breadcrumbs. Add 3/4 cup of the crushed peppermint candy and combine well, so that it is evenly distributed throughout the dry mixture.
4. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and pour the buttermilk and vanilla extract into the well. Combine the ingredients until all the dry mixture is wet, but do not knead!
5. Turn the mixture onto a floured surface and gather the dough together. Gently pat the dough to make a rectangle about 1 1/2 inches thick. Using a dough cutter, cut the scones into wedges measuring about 3 1/2 x 4 inches, and lay them on a nonstick baking sheet. Gather the remaining dough together lightly to cut out more scones - just don't knead the dough too much.
6. Brush the top of each scone liberally with heavy cream, and sprinkle them with the remaining 1/4 cup crushed peppermint candy.
7. Bake the scones for about 12 minutes, or until lightly browned.

FTC Disclaimer: I received free copies of Alice's Tea Cup Cookbook to review/giveaway from HarperCollins Publishers.

Happy 2011!

2011-01-01T16:57:00.004-05:00

And just like that, it's January 1, 2011.

*

In addition to wishing y'all a Happy New Year, I'd like to take a moment to wish this little blog a Happy 4th Birthday. Or are we calling them blogiversaries? Whatever we're calling it, it's been 4 years of documenting my baking adventures with lots of breaks in between. I've said this before, but my resolution for the year is to blog more. And this year I really mean it. I want to share more kitchen creations as well as food experiences with y'all. I love the food blogging community, and I want to stay active among a great group of people. I still have a pile of posts from last year to publish, so I'll be working through those first.

I'll spend the next couple days organizing my thoughts and photos, but I plan on kicking the year off with an exciting giveaway tomorrow, so stay tuned!

*Tim and I didn't really celebrate this blogiversary with a cake; that was one of his birthday cakes from this year, and the photo was taken by Josh, an old Texan buddy of mine who's living in NYC for the year!

Summertime

2010-09-03T09:12:00.031-05:00

And just like that, summer is [edit: almost] over. I’ve had quite an adventure the past couple months, and I feel like I owe you all an explanation for my silence. Maybe I don’t owe you an explanation, because that makes it sounds like I’ve done something very wrong, but I’d like to reconnect with you as a reader of this blog. I appreciate that some of you check in with me and ask, “Have you been baking?” which I usually respond to by spewing excuse after excuse why I have not been baking. If you’ve asked me that question this summer, you might have gotten one (or all) of these answers:

“I’m going to Thailand!”
“I’m in Thailand!”
“I’m jet lagged!”
“I’m busy preparing for a company conference!”
“I’m at a company conference!”
“We’re getting ready to move!”
“We’re moving!”
“Well, we haven’t moved yet, but my stuff is in storage!”

That is the rundown of my summer. Tim and I flew to Bangkok for a family reunion, celebrating both of my grandmothers’ birthdays and eating nonstop. I’m saving those juicy details for another post. Right before we traveled to Southeast Asia, we found an apartment we love in Long Island City and signed a contract to buy it. And because our plans don’t always work out accordingly, we had to vacate our previous apartment before closing on the new apartment. Where am I living now, and where is my stuff?

Well, my gracious sister-in-law and her husband are letting us stay with them until we close, and our stuff is packed away in storage. We’re lucky to have them in our lives, and it’s been a lot of fun staying with them. Our two-week-long slumber party has consisted of playing Mafia II (Tim is really good at action-adventure games by the way), watching Mad Men, Skyping our parents, and most fun of all, playing with the silliest Yorkie-Poo I’ve ever met.

It’ll be bittersweet when we do close on our new place. I’ll get back to baking and you’ll see more posts from me, but then I won’t have a family of four to cook for, and I’ll also have to say goodbye to this adorable little guy. Woof!

Homemade Hamburger Buns

2010-07-30T14:15:00.003-05:00

It's been high barbeque season for a while, and though I've been a little quiet this summer, I'd like to share a hamburger bun recipe for your next barbeque. Sure, it takes more time than going out and buying a bag of pre-made buns, but it's more fun to make things from scratch. Oh, don't tell me I'm the only one. I used a recipe from Nicole of Baking Bites, so clearly I am not alone.

Sure, it takes some time to let the dough rise, but if you let that happen in the fridge overnight, you can avoid spending hours watching dough rise. Now I may be the only one who does that for entertainment, but that is why I used the fridge trick this time.

The original recipe calls for whole wheat flour and brown sugar, and I swapped it with all-purpose flour and honey. The buns were soft and sweet, and I would make them again. If not in this barbeque season, then certainly in the next one. You should really consider making them too!

Hamburger Buns
adapted from Baking Bites

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups warm water
2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup oats
2-3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1-2 tablespoons black sesame seeds

Directions:
1. Combine 1/4 cup of the water with the yeast in a large bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer. Let stand for 5-10 minutes, until foamy. Stir in the rest of the water, honey, oats, salt and 1 1/2 cups of flour.
2. Using the dough hook attachment on the mixer, mix the dough together. Add in the remaining flour 1/4 cup at a time until the dough comes together into a ball and pulls away from the sides of the mixing bowl.
3. When the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl, turn it out onto a lightly floured flat surface. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes, until it is smooth and elastic. Place in a lightly greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place for about 1 hour or overnight in fridge.
4. Let dough rise until doubled in size. If left to rise in fridge overnight, let thaw for about 1 hour. Once doubled in size, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and press into a rectangle. Divide into eight equal pieces.
5. To shape the buns, draw up the corners of each piece of dough and pinch together, forming a tight ball. Place, seam side down, on a parchment/Silpat lined baking sheet, spaced about 2 inches apart.
6. Sprinkle the tops with black sesame seeds and let rise for 45 minutes, covered with a clean dishtowel, until almost doubled in size.
7. Bake at 375F for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown. The rolls will sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before serving. The rolls will soften slightly as they sit. Recipe makes 8 buns.

Lazy Lavender Loaf

2010-06-20T09:53:00.009-05:00

I'm celebrating Father's Day by writing this post for both my dad and my father-in-law. I've mentioned before how lucky I am to have two wonderful mothers, and in line with that thought, I'm just as proud to have two outstanding fathers. Baba, my father-in-law, has a huge green thumb that comes from his family's background in Taiwan. Dad, my own pop, gave me a love for all music and has quite the collection of stories from his youth in Bangkok, ranging from street fighting to khao soi seeking adventures with his own dad.

Both have a lot in common too: they came to the States for their doctorates, worked ever so hard for their families, and have guided their families through love and wisdom. I have so much respect for both fathers and want to thank them for everything.

Why honor them with my lavender loaf? Well, the lavender came from Baba's own garden in Indiana. Also, I have fond memories of cooking gourmet foods at home with Dad, things Mom didn't particularly like or care to cook. I've named this loaf lazy because I paid no attention to the recipe. Here's what the original plan looked like:

*I was feeling experimental, and I also ran out of some ingredients, so below is the actual recipe I came up with. And Happy Father's Day, Dad and Baba. As John and Paul wrote, "In my life, I love you more."

Lazy Lavender Loaf

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup flour arbitrarily mixed with rice flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 stick butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lavender
2 eggs
1 cup yogurt, vanilla flavored
1 teaspoon vanilla, omitted if using vanilla yogurt

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Melt the butter since you're too impatient to wait for it to soften. Put in a large mixing bowl.
3. Using a rubber spatula, mix sugar into the melted butter, stir for a little while.
4. Add lavender, eggs, and yogurt at this point. Don't bother with alternating wet and dry ingredients.
5. Forget the sifting, just measure out the dry ingredients and dump it all in.
6. Mix until combined, but since mixture will remain lumpy, give up after a minute.
7. Pour mixture into greased loaf pan and bake for 1 hour.
8. Let cool, slice, then serve. Be surprised the loaf turned out well without following the original plan!

* I also followed in Dad's footsteps by studying Computer Science, so my lists start from zero instead of one. Thanks for the inherited nerdiness, Dad!

Mini Dan Ta

2010-05-21T09:55:00.005-05:00

You must know by now that it's springtime. Okay, so it may already be borderline summertime, but I haven't written a proper spring post yet.

Springtime brings new growth in the form of plants and love. From my experience, I can agree with that. Seven years ago during Spring Break, Tim and I started dating. Two years ago, we got married in the spring. Just this month there were two engagements among my friends (Congrats Rich+Tonnie! Congrats Yedeh+Quyen!), and we've already attended three weddings this year.

Last weekend, I attended a college friend's lovely bridal shower upstate in Beacon, and thinking about bridal showers made me realize I never posted the dan ta recipe I made for Tina's bridal shower. Oh, the horror! You can imagine me hitting myself like Dobby for going against the master that is blogging. Not really, but Harry Potter's been on my mind for whatever reason.

I made mini dan ta for Tina's bridal shower because she loves circles and the color yellow. She also makes delicious dan ta, but ironically her husband does not eat eggs (along with many other things). I've eaten many, many dan ta in my life, but this was my first time making them, and I was pleased with their ease. In the future, I'd like to try using lard for the tart shell in place of butter to attain that super flaky texture. How dangerously delicious would that be?

Mini Dan Ta (Chinese Egg Tart)
adapted from various sources

Tart Shell Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup butter
1 egg, beaten
pinch of salt

Egg Custard Ingredients:
4 cups milk
5 large eggs
1/3 cup granulated sugar
pinch of salt

Directions:
1. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and salt.
2. Mix in the butter until reaching a crumbly mixture.
3. Stir in egg and mix until forming a dough.
4. Shape dough into 1/2 inch balls, flattening each ball into tart mold (or mini muffin pan). Be sure to cover the bottom and shape dough against the sides of the mold so that dough is higher than the sides.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
6. Combine all custard ingredients into a medium saucepan over low heat.
7. Whisk custard gently until all sugar is dissolved.
8. Strain egg custard through a sieve and let cool.
9. Fill the tart shells with the egg custard to be 3/4 full.
10. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.
11. Let cool slightly and remove from molds before serving.

Azuki Shortbread

2010-05-09T12:55:00.003-05:00

I'm so happy to be celebrating Mother's Day this year with both my mothers in Fort Wayne, IN. My in-laws live in Fort Wayne, and my own parents flew in from Texas to join us for the weekend. On Friday, the huge storm system in the Midwest challenged our intended celebration, but when two out of three flights from Chicago to Fort Wayne were canceled, we decided to rent a car and road trip the rest of our journey. Tim drove through the storm and got us in town in time for dinner on Friday night.

I am tremendously blessed to have two wonderful mothers, and this weekend was a great reminder of that fact. We cooked together, talked a lot, looked through some old photographs; it was a relaxing weekend and a good break from the busyness that is our typical life.

Both mothers love shortbread cookies, so I wanted to honor them (as well as the mothers at the Chinese Christian Church of Fort Wayne) with these azuki shortbread cookies. I was toying with the idea of making shortbread cookies filled with azuki paste, but in the end I folded the paste into the dough. At a glance, you could mistake these for chocolate chip cookies, but those chips are in fact red beans! Still sweet, but without the extra cholesterol. This recipe was adapted from a Cook's Illustrated recipe, but I used the shortcut shortbread cookie method that I've posted about before.

Happy Mother's Day! Please call home to your mothers and let them know how much you love them; I don't think our mothers will ever tire of hearing that from their children. So Mom and Mama, I love you both.

Azuki Shortbread
adapted from Cook's Illustrated and previous post

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 cup unsalted butter, cold
1 cup azuki bean paste

Directions:
1. With a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together on medium speed for about 3 minutes, until the mixture is smooth.
2. Add flour, cornstarch, and salt to butter mixture, mixing only until it disappears into the dough. Don’t work the dough much once the flour is incorporated.
3. Fold in azuki paste.
3. Transfer the soft, sticky dough to a gallon-size zipper-lock plastic bag. Put the bag on a flat surface, leaving the top open, and roll the dough into a 9 x 10 1/2 inch rectangle that’s 1/4 inch thick. As you roll, turn the bag occasionally and lift the plastic from the dough so it does not cause creases. When you get the right size and thickness, seal the bag, pressing out as much air as possible, and refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours or freeze for 30 minutes. You may keep the dough in this stage up to two days.
4. Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or Silpat.
5. Put the plastic bag on a cutting board and slit it open. Turn the firm dough out onto the board (discard the bag) and, using a ruler as a guide and a sharp knife, cut the dough into 1 inch squares. Transfer the squares to the baking sheets and carefully prick each one four times with a fork, gently pushing the tines through the cookies until they hit the sheet.
6. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point. Transfer the cookies to a rack to cool. This recipe makes about 40 cookies.

Azuki (Red Bean) Paste
Ingredients:
1 cup dried azuki beans
1/3 cup sugar
3 cups water

Directions:
1. In a small bowl, cover beans with water and soak overnight.
2. Drain beans. Simmer beans and 3 cups water for an hour or until soft. Continue to simmer until the beans absorbs most of the water. Add sugar and mix beans until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat.
3. Put beans in food processor and blend until it becomes a smooth paste.
4. Add sugar and continue blending until desired sweetness and consistency.

Chocolate Babka

2010-05-04T11:55:00.005-05:00

On Sunday morning, I tweeted that I was at Temple Beth Sholom with a chocolate babka in the oven. As Jewish as that may sound, I am not Jewish. I just happen to find myself at the temple each Sunday because the temple rents their space out to Living Faith Community Church, the church I attend.

With Mother's Day approaching, we celebrated our congregation's mothers with a tea social and jewelry making session led by the talented Juyon. Everyone contributed to a great assortment of treats and teas; I even spotted a matcha chocolate swirl cake made by Sumin. When brainstorming what to bring, I wanted something that would feel at home in the temple. One particular Seinfeld episode came into mind, and that's when I knew what I had to make: babka. Not the "lesser [cinnamon] babka", but a chocolate babka.

This yeasty chocolaty cake is divine. With all the butter, sugar, and chocolate that goes into it, how could it not be? I made one large babka and a three mini babkas the night before, and I let them rise in the fridge overnight. The babkas baked so wonderfully in the temple's kitchen, I think they knew exactly where they were.

Now, it doesn't matter what faith you belong to or where you worship, you really have to make this babka. My mind's already brainstorming what other flavors I can marry the delicious babka with. I hope that will be the content of another delicious future post.

Chocolate Babka
Gourmet, December 2006

Dough Ingredients:
3/4 cup warm milk (105–115°F)
1/2 cup plus 2 teaspoons sugar
3 teaspoons active dry yeast (from two 1/4-oz packages)
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour plus additional for dusting
2 whole large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into pieces and softened

Egg Wash Ingredients:
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon heavy cream or whole milk

Chocolate Filling Ingredients:
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, well softened
8 ounces fine-quality bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used 1 1/2 cups mini chocolate chips)
1/4 cup sugar

Directions:
1. Stir together warm milk and 2 teaspoons sugar in bowl of mixer. Sprinkle yeast over mixture and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. (If yeast doesn't foam, discard and start over with new yeast.)
2. Add 1/2 cup flour to yeast mixture and beat at medium speed until combined. Add whole eggs, yolk, vanilla, salt, and remaining 1/2 cup sugar and beat until combined. Reduce speed to low, then mix in remaining 2 3/4 cups flour, about 1/2 cup at a time. Increase speed to medium, then beat in butter, a few pieces at a time, and continue to beat until dough is shiny and forms strands from paddle to bowl, about 4 minutes. (Dough will be very soft and sticky.)
3. Scrape dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled in bulk, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
4. Line each loaf pan with 2 pieces of parchment paper (1 lengthwise and 1 crosswise).
5. Punch down dough with a lightly oiled rubber spatula, then halve dough for large loaves. Separate dough into 6 pieces for mini babkas. Roll out 1 piece of dough on a well-floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into an 18- by 10-inch rectangle and arrange with a long side nearest you.
6. Beat together yolk and cream. Spread 2 1/2 tablespoons softened butter on dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border all around. Brush some of egg wash on long border nearest you.
7. Sprinkle half of chocolate evenly over buttered dough, then sprinkle with half of sugar (2 tablespoons). Starting with long side farthest from you, roll dough into a snug log, pinching firmly along egg-washed seam to seal. Bring ends of log together to form a ring, pinching to seal. Twist entire ring twice to form a double figure 8 and fit into one of lined loaf pans.
8. Make another babka with remaining dough, some of egg wash, and remaining butter and chocolate in same manner. Chill remaining egg wash,covered, to use later. Loosely cover pans with buttered plastic wrap (buttered side down) and let babkas rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until dough reaches top of pans, 1 to 2 hours. (Alternatively, let dough rise in pans in refrigerator 8 to 12 hours; bring to room temperature, 3 to 4 hours, before baking.)
9. Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F.
10. Brush tops of dough with remaining egg wash. Bake until tops are deep golden brown and bottoms sound hollow when tapped (when loaves are removed from pans), about 40 minutes, 25 minutes for mini babkas. Transfer loaves to a rack and cool to room temperature.

Chocolate Butterscotch Cookies

2010-04-23T13:37:00.003-05:00

Jury Duty 4/12/10 - 4/22/10. Yes, that's exactly what the frame around the picture says. The past two weeks of my life were spent serving as alternate juror #1, and it was an experience that certainly was interesting. Sure, it took much too long, and sure, I didn't even get to contribute to jury deliberation, but it gave me a first-hand look into our judicial system.

What surprised me most was how much our jury bonded. And as much as we bonded, I still don't know all their names. We didn't bother with formal introductions because we were all hoping each day was our last day. We didn't know each others' names, but we knew all about each other. We shared about our professions, hobbies, background, and faith. To keep each other awake during the trial, we brought candy and gum and shared with one another. Juror #1 noticed when alternate juror #2 was unusually quiet one morning, and asked if everything was okay with her. I found a great lunch buddy for the week, and after the trial ended, we're still playing a game of Words With Friends.

We sensed our last day would be the 22nd since closing statements finished the 21st. The very talkative teacher insisted on taking a group picture, and we found it too funny to pass on. She gathered our email addresses and said she'd email us the picture. Instead of emailing, she printed out copies with that silly frame for each of us. She distributed them to us on our last morning together, while I brought cookies and my lunch buddy brought brownies for the group. It was like a grade school party for the last day of class.

Who knew jury duty would feel like going away to a weird adult camp? Maybe instead of a boring summons, the state should send out flashy mandatory invites to "Jury Camp." Surely then, people wouldn't try so hard to get out of it. Maybe?

Chocolate Butterscotch Cookies
adapted from Martha Stewart

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups butterscotch chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. In a small bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, and baking soda; set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter with both sugars; beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low; add the salt, vanilla, and eggs. Beat until well mixed, about 1 minute.
3. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Stir in the butterscotch chips.
4. Drop heaping tablespoon-size balls of dough about 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
5. Bake until cookies are golden around the edges, but still soft in the center, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cool on baking sheet 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.

Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24: Crawfish Boil in NYC

2010-03-28T10:48:00.012-05:00

I'd seen 24, 24, 24 proposal requests from Foodbuzz many times, but was always busy the day it was to happen. This month was different; I checked my schedule to find I was free, and I really wanted to participate.

What's 24, 24, 24? Foodbuzz, a food blogger community I belong to, showcases posts from 24 bloggers around the world, highlighting 24 unique meals happening around the world, all within 24 hours. When I got the email asking for proposals this month, I had only one thing on my mind. Crawfish.

Much like a beloved food blogger in New York City, I am a fellow Homesick Texan. I miss the variety of foods from around the Gulf Coast. Among the many foods I miss, crawfish is at the top. I remember St. Patrick's Day marking the start of crawfish season in the area, and there were many times my family bonded over buckets of the well-seasoned crustacean among a bed of spiced corn on the cob and potatoes.

For this month's 24, 24, 24, I wanted to share that favorite pastime with extended family members in New York by flying in live crawfish from Louisiana and having a crawfish boil in my own apartment in Long Island City. I invited my sister-in-law Jenn, her sister-in-law Nina, and all the husbands to join the fun. Nina brought her Flip to document the process, and I even had my friend Irene help photograph the event.

If you're interested in having your own crawfish boil in an apartment, follow the steps below. You won't regret it one bit.

Update: Nina just sent me her video, and it rocks! Thanks a bunch, Nina!

Crawfish Boil With Talida from Christina Jeng on Vimeo.

Crawfish Boil

Ingredients:
Live crawfish (3-5 pounds per person)
Large steamer pot with basket
Seafood boil
Red potatoes (at least 2 per person)
Corn on the cob (at least 2 per person)
Newspaper, bibs, paper towels

Directions:

1. Order live crawfish from the Louisiana Crawfish Co. Get the party pack if you won't be able to make the spices on your own; I did and it tasted pretty good. Upon arrival of crawfish, immediately open and inspect for movement to make sure the crawfish are mostly alive.

2. Fill steamer pot with water and bring to boil. Once boiling, dump in seafood boil according to package directions. Add potatoes and corn and boil for 15 minutes.

3. While water is boiling, purge the crawfish. This cleans the bayou goo from the critters. Dump crawfish into a sink or big bin, fill with water and drain. Add salt liberally to the soak, and rinse a couple more times as wanted.

4. Boil the crawfish for 5-10 minutes in the steamer basket. Potatoes and corn should be ready along with the first batch of crawfish.

5. Put on some Zydeco music. You can't eat crawfish without it. I used Pandora to create a Zydeco playlist, and it really set the mood. Serve a lot of beer (we had a great assortment of hefeweizen) and continue to boil crawfish in batches.

6. Instruct friends and family how to eat crawfish, complete with sucking all the good stuff from the crawfish heads.

7. Eat, drink, and enjoy. Here are the newlyweds enjoying their first crawfish boil!

The seasoned married couple and crawfish eaters going at it.

The women were still eating so the husbands graciously shelled the rest of the crawfish for later use.

Oh, the aftermath of the crawfish boil. Lining all eating surfaces with newspaper makes for a really easy cleanup.

I was very pleased with the quality of service from Louisiana Crawfish Co. They were fresh, they were huge, and the spices were spot on. From now on, when I start to complain about not being able to get crawfish in the Big Apple, I'll look back on this post and remember that a good ol' fashioned crawfish boil is not impossible, even in a tiny apartment in LIC.

Chocolate Honey Cake

2010-03-26T15:28:00.010-05:00

I've been driving in the Fast Lane the past couple of weeks. Literally, I mean just that. After helping with Tina's bridal shower, I've been sent to Marlborough, MA twice for work and have driving back and forth on the MassPike in the Fast Lane. Amidst the work trips, throw in helping coordinate Tina and David's wedding, gathering over wine and cheese, and hosting friends, and you've got busy me. I love doing all of it, so I wouldn't have it any other way.

In my previous post, I said I would go into more detail about the different desserts I made for Tina's bridal shower, so I will stay true to my word. The bridal shower had a prominent theme and even the dessert fell in line. If you were tasked with finding yellow, white, and circle desserts, what would you come up with? Well, here's what we had at the bridal shower:

Lemon and vanilla macarons from Ladurée. If you bring these back from Paris or elsewhere, just keep them in an airtight container in the freezer, and they'll last for weeks.

"Yellow and White" cookies, a version of the Black and White cookie, a recipe I tried a while back.

Mini profiteroles with fresh whipped cream. I used the same choux recipe as my matcha profiteroles.

Mini dan ta, or Chinese egg tarts. I'll save this recipe for my next post.

A polka dot chocolate honey cake. "This isn't yellow!" you may say, but just hush. I could have made a yellow fruit tart, but I felt the need to vary the flavors. I knew Tina loves honey and chocolate, so it still fit in terms of her favorite things. Drizzling honey over the cake while warm would increase the amount of moisture in this cake, but to better fit the theme, I wanted circles of powdered sugar to top the cake. I had Cheryl make a template out of parchment paper with a circle paper cutter. It was tricky keeping the parchment paper steady, but it worked. The cake itself was easy to bake and was really moist; join me in welcoming a great addition to my list of cake recipes.

Honey Chocolate Cake
adapted from Super Food Ideas, April 2005

Ingredients:
2/3 cup butter
1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
2/3 cup honey
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoons baking power
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup powdered sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and sift cocoa powder covering a 9-inch round cake pan.
2. In a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar together. Slowly add in eggs, one at a time. Add in honey, and beat well.
3. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
4. Whisk together milk and vanilla in a small bowl.
5. Add flour mixture to butter mixture, then add in milk mixture. Alternatively add in until well mixed.
6. Pour into greased pan and bake at for 20-25 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean.
7. Let cake cool in pan for 5-10 minutes. Invert cake and sift powdered sugar on top of the cake, using any desired template.

Happy Pi Day! (Azuki Matcha Meringue Pie)

2010-03-14T21:55:00.003-05:00

The day isn't over yet, so I can still wish you all a Happy Pi Day!

I took a chance and made a complete experiment of a pie. Remember the dessert I had in Paris I kept raving about? The azuki matcha duomo from Pâtisserie Sadaharu Aoki? This pie is inspired by that dessert. The fillings I made went well together, but I have to work on the pie construction and topping. I also hope to find a way to make it look appetizing. It's certainly not an appealing pie, but the flavors worked.

My recipe for Pi Day is a work in progress, but if you're looking for a simple azuki paste recipe or a matcha curd recipe, I've got them below.

Azuki Matcha Meringue Pie

Ingredients:
1 baked pie shell
3/4 cup azuki bean paste
1 recipe warm matcha curd, recipe below
1 recipe meringue

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Spread a thin layer of the azuki paste in the baked pie shell.
3. Pour the still warm matcha curd over the azuki paste, completely covering the paste.
4. Top the pie with the meringue, also completely covering matcha curd and making sure it reaches the edge of the crust. Add peaks to the meringue with a rubber spatula as desired.
5. Bake pie for 10-12 minutes or until meringue topping turns golden.
6. Remove from oven and let completely cool before serving.

Azuki (Red Bean) Paste
Ingredients:
1 cup dried azuki beans
1/2 cup sugar
3 cups water

Directions:
1. In a small bowl, cover beans with water and soak overnight.
2. Drain beans. Simmer beans and 3 cups water for an hour or until soft. Continue to simmer until the beans absorbs most of the water. Add sugar and mix beans until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat.
3. Put beans in food processor and blend until it becomes a smooth paste.
4. Add sugar and continue blending until desired sweetness and consistency.

Matcha Curd
Ingredients:
4 egg yolks
1/3 cornstarch
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup matcha powder, sifted

Directions:
1. Whisk egg yolks first in a separate bowl.
2. Whisk together cornstarch, water, sugar, matcha powder, and salt in a saucepan.
3. On medium heat, stir together until brought to a boil.
4. Remove from heat, and gently add hot mixture to egg yolks spoonful at a time, whisking together until at least half of the hot mixture is added.
5. Return egg and cornstarch mixture to saucepan and on low heat, stir mixture together for 1 minute.
6. Remove from heat and gently stir in butter.

Meringue Topping
Ingredients:
4 egg whites
1 pinch cream of tartar
2 t sugar

Directions:
1. Place egg whites and cream of tartar in the bowl of a stand mixer using the whisk attachment.
2. Beat egg whites on medium until soft peaks form and add sugar little at a time.
3. Continue beating until stiff peaks form, approximately 1 to 2 minutes.

Tina's Bridal Shower

2010-03-12T10:23:00.018-05:00

Last month, I had the privilege of helping out with a former roommate's bridal shower. When the maid of honor (Tina's sister) asked me if I'd like to make some dessert for the shower, I was honored to be asked and immediately said yes!

I've had many roommates in the past, and Tina is one of my favorites. Is she even better than my current one? Hmmm.. that's a tough call. She cooked for me, sometimes cleaned up after me, was a great workout buddy, gave me tennis lessons, got me into baseball, and taught me a great deal about home style Taiwanese food. To bake for her bridal shower was my way of showing appreciation for her friendship and presence in my life.

Can you tell the bridal shower had a theme? Well it did, and the theme was Tina's favorite things: the color yellow, the color white, and polka-dots. Cheryl did all the decorations and crafted together paper pom-poms, yarn pom-poms, paper banners, balloon banners, and strew paper circle cut-outs all around the apartment. She really transformed David's apartment into a ray of sunlight. Update: Not that it wasn't already wonderfully decorated by the groom..

How awesome is it that guests brought presents wrapped in the same style as the decorations? We made no kind of announcement or demands for this; Tina's friends simply know what she likes.

Kelly, the maid of honor, took care of the food, and she prepared as many yellow foods as she could think of. We had tamago sushi, assorted cheese and crackers, corn salsa on tortilla chips, deviled eggs, a yellow vegetable platter, chicken salad sandwiches, and sweet potato fries. We had quite the assortment of food, and it looked great altogether.

In addition to this honey chocolate polka-dot cake, I made a few other desserts in the same theme, and I even brought back lemon and vanilla macarons from Ladurée in Paris. I'll be sure to write more about the desserts in future posts, so check back next week!

Even more polka-dots! This is the only present picture I'm going to post. But let me say we certainly saw more white, yellow, and polka-dots among the presents.

The bridesmaids sent us home with these adorable pots of honey as shower favors. They skillfully tied various Burt's Bees items to each honey pot with cute yellow yarn. I heard it was a great feat, so job well done, ladies.

And here the bride is with her lovely bouquet for the wedding rehearsal. Cheryl came prepared with her glue gun and craft supplies and made this fabulous gift wrap bouquet that could be fit for the actual wedding.

I can't believe Tina will be marrying her fiancé David in just one week! The bridal shower was so bright and cheery, and I hope their wedding will be filled with even more sunshine. Congratulations, you two!

Snacking in Paris

2010-03-08T17:52:00.005-05:00

Today is a very special day! This is the day I wrap up my Paris posts. It's also Tim and my two-year wedding anniversary, but I will spare you all by leaving the sap out of this post.

I had grand plans for snacking in Paris. I took many notes from Robyn's amazing Paris trip and thought we'd be able to tackle all the pâtisseries she photographed and wrote about. Alas, her blog isn't just "The Girl Who Ate Something"; it's called "The Girl Who Ate Everything" for a reason. I don't know how you did it, Robyn, but I salute you.

First on my list was Pâtisserie Sadaharu Aoki. My friend Janice lent me The Patisseries of Paris by Jamie Cahill to plan for the trip, and I read it cover to cover many times. Sadaharu Aoki jumped out at me from the pages because I absolutely love Japanese flavors in dessert form, so I could imagine nothing better than French-style pastries with Japanese flavors. It met all my expectations, and I wanted to buy the whole store. Instead, I walked out with the matcha azuki duomo pictured above (a must try!), an assorted box of macarons, a jar of matcha azuki jam, and various chocolates in all flavors. See more drool-inducing photos captured by Béa and "the chocolate guy."

We went to the Louvre on our first full day, and after spending most of the morning in the Denon Wing, we needed to refuel. We went to the nearest cafe and ordered un café gourmand and a Coke. If anyone's ever advised you against buying a Coke in the Louvre, take the advice. Otherwise expect to pay about 4 euros for the Coke. We knew it'd cost us, but Tim had a thirst only Coca-Cola could satisfy. The macarons were tasty, but I probably would've been okay eating sugar cubes to last me through both Sully and Richelieu wings.

Yes, we visited McDonald's on Champs-Élysées. Tim and I quickly became accustomed to having espresso every afternoon, so while walking along Champs-Élysées, we popped in the McCafé to enjoy deux cafés gourmand. The WSJ recently ran an article on the recent popularity of the macaron, highlighting their appearance in McDonald's in Paris. The article poses the question, "Now chains like McDonald's have added them to the menu. Can Parisians really tell the difference?" I'm not Parisian, but I believe there's a difference. McDo's version was significantly chewier than Ladurée's, and the chocolate and caramel flavors were only so-so. Seeing macarons at the McCafé on Champs-Élysées is one thing, but what if we saw them at McD's in Penn Station? Now that's a scary thought.

Though our snacking wasn't comprehensive, we did more than what I just mentioned. We ate more macarons from Ladurée, madeleines from Boulangerie Eric Kayser, Nutella crêpes from what I think used to be Crépuscule, assorted snacks from Monoprix, assorted cheeses from Fromagerie Quatrehomme, éclairs au chocolat from La Maison du Chocolat, and more éclairs from Angelina.

Here's the list of places we did not get to try: Boulangerie Poilâne, Pierre Hermé, Gérard Mulot, Berthillon, Mariage Frères, and many, many more. In a way, I'm glad we still have a list of things to do in Paris. (Always look on the bright side, right?) We will certainly be back, and we'll be able to enjoy them more in what I hope will be warmer weather.

If you have any must-see recommendations for Paris, please let me know! I know some friends visiting later this year, and I'd love to be able to give them more recommendations.

Les Papilles

2010-03-05T11:23:00.006-05:00

Dinner at Les Papilles was our favorite meal of the trip. I'd read all about the mandatory prix fixe dinner from "the chocolate guy" and had decided we will eat there while in Paris. I was psyched once the decision was made, but then I realized we needed a reservation. I speak zero French. What did I do?

I actually love learning languages, so I took this as an opportunity to pick up a few French phrases to prepare for the trip. I searched around and found this site to be the most helpful one because of its audio tools. Once I pieced together what I was going to say, this site was helpful in pronouncing words for me. When it came time to call and make a reservation, I froze and asked in an apologetic voice, "Parlez-vous Anglais, s'il vous plait?" and the rest of the conversation was completed in English.

Back to Les Papilles. This place was amazing, from the service to the thought put into each course, and though we sat elbow to elbow next to an Irish couple, they made lovely neighbors and even offered us a taste of their wine when we had to choose ours.

This was the market menu for February 13, 2010. Even if you can't read French, like me, you can tell only delicious words were written on that chalkboard. "Retour du marché" means "back from the market." After figuring that out, it made me feel even more love for this place.

These were the chips, croutons, bacon, and chives that went with the soup. I was tempted to eat them alone, but a server motioned for us to pour the soup over it all.

I'm so glad we did. "Velouté de patates douces, quenelle de crème à l'huile d'olives, chips de patates douces, croutons, lardons frits, ciboulette" wouldn't have come together otherwise. In English, that would be sweet potato soup with a dollop of olive oil cream over sweet potato chips, croutons, bacon, and chives. This soup was full of flavor, and we loved all the different textures in it.

"Poitrine de porc braisée, haricots coco, carottes, pois gourmands, tomates confites oignons nouveaux et sa sauce au pistou" is braised pork belly with white beans, carrots, snow peas in a tomato confit and pesto sauce served on the side. This entire meal was so comforting, but the arrival of this dish especially warmed us up.

We loved all the vegetables that came with the pork as we were afraid we wouldn't be eating enough fruits and vegetables in Paris. Since Tim switched jobs into the healthcare industry, we've been more intentional about eating healthy. I hope you all are eating your greens too!

"Fourme d' Ambert, pruneau au vin rouge" is simply Fourme d 'Ambert cheese served with a prune in a red wine reduction. The combination of this cheese with the prune was perfection. I ate the entire thing, and Tim suffered for the next 24 hours. I am sure that is way too much information for you, but I will happily endure the aftermath of eating stinky cheese because I love stinky cheese! Although really, this wasn't all that stinky.

"Panacotta clémentine et caramel" was a very nice clementine panna cotta with caramel sauce. We were stuffed at this point in the meal, but the flavors of the panna cotta were so vibrant, we continued to feast on the last course of the market menu.

This place is also a wine bar and has a cellar that contains even more wine than on their walls. We are far from wine connoisseurs, so we asked for a light red wine recommendation and we were presented with a nice pinot noir from the Domaine Ganevat winery in the Côtes du Jura AOC. I can't remember the specific notes or tastes of the wine... so why don't I point out the faces in places instead? What a cute monkey face on the wine bottle.

We wanted to eat at great places in Paris without the fuss of dressing up or caring about being seen. Les Papilles was exactly that. Leaving the question of what to eat in the hands of those who know best is always fine by me, so if you feel the same, definitely visit Les Papilles.

Les Papilles
30 rue Gay Lussac
Paris, France 75005
01 43 25 20 79

Bouillon Racine

2010-02-26T17:32:00.007-05:00

We dined at Bouillon Racine on our last night in Paris. The decor is absolutely gorgeous, but you will have to take my word for it since I only took photos of our dinner.

The previous night's dinner was rather stressful (highlights of the story include a lost reservation and a piece of lamb flung towards the French woman next to me), so our dinner expectations we reset to enjoy anything as long as we were able to relax.

I read somewhere that Bouillon Racine serves lame and dreadful food, but as I just mentioned, we didn't have high expectations so we enjoyed our dinner very much. This was our menu that night:

The soupe du jour was a carrot soup that was just lovely. I love all kinds of cooked carrots, and the creamy warmth of this soup was a big dose of comfort to me.

Tim ordered the pork rillettes that were flavored with Coteaux du Layon. Spreadable fatty pork? Who wouldn't love some of that? I'd love to try to make it one day.

I had the tartare de boeuf as my entree. As a Texan, I like my steak bloody, and I also like it uncooked. It was a good tartare, though there wasn't anything exceptional about it. And I would have preferred McDonald's french fries over the pommes Pont Neuf that were served. Yes, I'm being serious.

Tim ordered the confit de canard, and he loved it. The small taste I had was great: crispy skin and juicy meat dripping with duck fat. Those mashed potatoes were so rich I could taste the butter and cream in it, but that makes it crazy delicious to me.

For dessert, I had the pear poached in red wine and spices. It was refreshing to just eat fruit at that point in the trip, but the pear was masked by all the spices, it wasn't quite the same as eating my usual fresh fruit for dessert.

Tim ordered the crème brûlée flavored with maple syrup, and I will confess to what I'm sure everyone of you did while eating crème brûlée in Paris: I imagined being Amélie while delightfully cracking the shell with a silly smirk on my face. Admit it, you did it too! The crème brûlée was good, but we had a lavender flavored one the night before that sticks out as the better one.

Tim and I had our most relaxed meal at Bouillon Racine, and the food was pretty good. We were able to laugh about the meal we had the night before, and we learned fantastic food isn't the only thing that makes a fantastic dinner. Company and conversation are even more important, and I had the best company and conversation in the world that night.

Bouillon Racine
3 Rue Racine
Paris, France 75006
01 44 32 15 60
www.bouillon-racine.com

Paris Breakfasts

2010-02-24T15:35:00.008-05:00

Next to family, breakfast is the most important thing. For all the walking Tim and I did, it was important to start our day right with a Parisian breakfast. While staying in the Montmartre area, we started our days with a cup of café crème* and either a pain au chocolat or a croissant. They were perfect; those flaky, buttery layers of pastry. I woke up every morning looking forward to the croissants.

On our last morning in Paris, we only had time to get breakfast because we had to make our way to the airport to catch an early afternoon flight. There were several things still left on our list of things to eat, so that morning we decided to forgo the simple croissant breakfast in search for a croque monsieur. We couldn't go too far, so we walked around our hotel near the Porte Maillot station in the 17th arrondissement and knew we found our place when we saw a chalkboard sign advertising croque monsieur! The bistro was lovely, with chairs lined up to watch over Avenue de la Grande Armée; it made for a fine last meal in Paris.

We ordered a café crème each, and a croque monsieur for the monsieur and a croque madame for the madame. Tim ate all of his and half of mine, but that happens at most meals for us. They were fantastic sandwiches, and when eaten with some mustard, mmm, even better. I was satisfied, Tim was stuffed, and we were both happy.

Our last meal was at Tabac Le Maillot, and the name makes sense after I mention that there was a large tobacco stand in the bistro. Does it? I'm not sure. I'm just the girl who asked "Ou est la toilette?" properly but could not understand the response spoken back in rapid French. It turned out I had to pay 20 cents to use la toilette.

Tabac Le Maillot
78 Avenue de la Grande Armée
Paris, France 75017
01 45 74 41 42

*I'm italicizing words I like to pronounce the French way now. Please oblige me by doing the same.

J'aime Paris

2010-02-19T13:58:00.004-05:00

J'aime Paris. My visit has come and gone, all too quickly. I am so very thankful for the opportunity Tim and I had to experience Paris this winter. Our senses were saturated while we walked the city, we grew as a couple as we learned more about each other, and I've returned so inspired. Inspired by the meals we ate, the beauty we saw, by everything... people told me I'd love Paris, but I didn't think I'd be this hooked.

When people ask me how Paris was, the first thing that comes out of my mouth is, "cold." I knew it was going to be cold there, but my goodness, it was COLD. Some of our plans were shot because we didn't have the strength to stay outside for long, and really, was I going to have ice cream in 20F degree weather? (The answer was no.) But I learned it's okay to not do it all. How could you possibly in less than five days? I consider this trip a first taste, because I hope to be back for more.

We brought back as many Parisian treats as we could fit in the extra bag we packed. We have all kinds of treats from Patrick Roger, Fromagerie Quatrehomme, La Maison du Chocolat, Ladurée, Fauchon, Chocolat De Neuville, Jeff de Bruges, McDonald's, Pâtisserie Sadaharu Aoki, Monoprix, and La Grande Epicerie. I hope these last us longer than a week. ;)

Now, I normally don't post about eating out on Talida Bakes, but because Paris was so inspiring, I will prepare special posts on Paris eating over the next week. Thanks to everyone who lent me books and gave me recommendations on what to see and eat, I wouldn't have fallen in love without your help!

Au Revoir...

2010-02-11T19:45:00.005-05:00

The day has finally come for me to leave for Paris. No, not forever, just for 5 days. It feels like I've talked about this trip for ages, but I suppose it has been a good seven months. Yes, I booked it that far in advance.

As this day got nearer, I've become so antsy to experience the city of lights for the first time. The sights, the smells, the food, ah the food. I cannot wait to eat everything in sight and capture it all in photos.

The macarons posted above are the chocolate macarons with Nutella ganache I made last winter. I will definitely be eating many macarons over the next 5 days, and I hope to share some photos with y'all when I get back. Au revoir, my friends!

Nanaimo Bars

2010-02-03T12:34:00.004-05:00

Last week, many Daring Bakers published posts featuring the Canadian treat Nanaimo Bars. Contrary to what you may think, this post does not qualify for participation. Why on earth not? Well, I didn't make my own graham crackers, and that, dear friends, was last month's Daring Bakers' challenge.

I made these bars to welcome the upcoming Winter Olympics to Canadia, a place I don't know too much about. Canadian things I love include maple syrup, Japadog, and these bars. Nanaimo Bars have an American cousin that sometimes goes by the name Magic Cookie Bar, and other times Seven Layer Bar. I've been making those since high school, but I find the Canadian version more sophisticated, so I might forever replace Magic Cookie Bars with Nanaimo Bars.

This is an easy no-bake recipe filled with rich and sweet ingredients; I just don't know who wouldn't like them. If you have tree nut allergies, please omit the almonds and increase the coconut/graham cracker crumb amount. Give them a try, eh?

Nanaimo Bars
adapted from The City of Nanaimo

Bottom Layer Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup sugar
5 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1 large egg, beaten
1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup finely chopped almonds
1 cup shredded coconut (can be sweetened or unsweetened)

Middle Layer Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons heavy cream
2 tablespoons vanilla pudding mix
2 cups confectioners sugar

Top Layer Ingredients:
4 ounces dark chocolate
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Directions:
1. Making the bottom layer: Melt unsalted butter, sugar and cocoa in top of a double boiler. Add egg and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in crumbs, nuts and coconut. Press firmly into an ungreased 9 by 13 inch pan.
2. Making the middle layer: Cream butter, cream, custard powder, and icing sugar together well. Beat until light in colour. Spread over bottom layer.
3. Making the top layer: Melt chocolate and unsalted butter over low heat. Cool. Once cool, pour over middle layer and chill.
4. Once chilled, cut bars into 2 inch squares or diamonds. Bars freeze well; keep leftover portions in freezer for later use.

Welcome, Baby Nathaniel!

2010-01-25T11:29:00.005-05:00

Congratulations, Steve and Alice! Yesterday afternoon, my friends' first child Nathaniel came into the world, and I can't wait to meet the little guy. I helped host their baby shower back in December, and I can't believe he's already here!

It's always an honor to help out with showers, and I had a blast working with my usual party-planning-partner Cheryl to decorate the lounge in my building for the ocassion. Pennant banners have popped up all around the blogosphere over the past year, and we wanted in on the fun. We combined various shades, prints, and textured blue paper with knotted ribbon to decorate the dessert and candy bar area. Alice's sister Nancy arranged an assortment of blue and white candies for guests to take home, and I made vanilla bean mini-cupcakes iced with blue vanilla frosting. Did I mention they had a boy?

I don't regularly make cupcakes, but I was happy to make a classic vanilla bean cupcake dressed in blue for the occasion. I reduced the sugar amount in both cake and frosting recipes, but they were just sweet enough and full of vanilla flavor. Vanilla is anything but plain, amen? Here's the recipe.

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 vanilla beans, seeds scraped out

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
2. Line mini-muffin tin with mini-cupcake papers.
3. Beat butter, add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat until well combined.
5. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl.
4. In a separate medium bowl, scrape out the vanilla bean seeds and stir into the milk.
5. Using the alternating wet/dry method, add flour mixture and milk mixture into the butter mixture, a third at a time. Continue adding dry and wet ingredients until finishing with the dry.
6. Spoon batter into tin, filling about 2/3's full. Bake cupcakes for about 13-15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Makes about 60 mini cupcakes.

Vanilla Frosting
adapted from Cook's Illustrated

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch table salt
2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 cups confectioners' sugar
few drops blue food color gel

Directions:
1. Stir the cream, vanilla, and salt together in a small bowl until the salt dissolves.
2. Beat the butter with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until smooth, 30 to 60 seconds.
3. Reduce the speed to medium-low, slowly add the confectioners' sugar, and beat until smooth, 2 to 5 minutes. Beat in the cream mixture. At this point add in the blue food color gel. Add gel one drop at a time until reaching desired color.
4. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy, 4 to 8 minutes.
5. The frosting can be made up to 2 days ahead and refrigerated, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap. Before using, let stand at room temperature to soften, then whisk briefly to re-fluff. Makes about 3 cups.

Taro Rice Flour Balls in Coconut Milk (Bua Loi Phueak)

2010-01-05T12:15:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year! We're already five days into the new year, but I'm still going to say "Happy New Year" since this is my first post in 2010.

This little blog has been around for three years now, and this year I resolve to give it a little more attention than in years past. From now on, you may see posts without recipes (gasp! - I'm still getting used to this), posts that deal more with entertaining and hosting food parties, and more recipes that explore my Thai and Chinese heritage. This has always been a self-expression project of mine, so I'm excited for the new things to come for this blog.

While I spent the holidays in Houston with my family, I spent some quality time with my mom in the kitchen. She wanted to make a Thai dessert for us, so I jumped at the chance to help her. She gave direction to make taro balls out of mashed taro and glutinous rice flour, and I followed. The dessert we made is actually a mix of bua loi pheuak (taro rice flour balls in coconut cream) and pheuak kaeng buat (taro in coconut milk), but I will simplify and call it by the rice flour ball name. I plan on making this again on one of those cold, cold nights to come. And I'm sure we'll be having plenty of those this winter.

Taro Rice Flour Balls in Coconut Milk (Bua Loi Pheuak)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups taro, steamed and mashed
1/2 cup taro, chopped into 1/2 inch cubes
2 cups glutinous rice flour
4 cups coconut milk
1 cup palm sugar (regular sugar will substitute fine)
1 teaspoon salt

Directions:
1. Either by hand or using the dough hook on an electric stand mixer, knead the rice flour with the mashed taro to form a soft dough, for about 5 minutes.
2. Use your hands to form small balls out of the taro dough, making them approximately 1/2 inch in diameter.
3. In a saucepan, heat coconut milk on medium-high. Once the coconut milk boils, add in sugar and salt.
4. Turn down the heat and add taro pieces to coconut milk and boil for 5-7 minutes or until taro is cooked, stirring continuously.
5. Gently add in taro balls to coconut milk and stir occasionally. Once the balls float atop the coconut milk, they are done. Serve warm.

Gingerbread Alamo

2009-12-25T20:22:00.005-05:00

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challengeDaring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.
Merry Christmas from Texas! This year Tim and I are celebrating the birth of Jesus with my side of the family in Houston, and we've been having fun with our traditions of puzzle making, carol singing, and eating everything in sight. I took a break from the puzzles by making this gingerbread Alamo for this month's well-timed Daring Bakers' challenge.

I take no credit for the idea. Lisa of the Homesick Texan blogged about her gingerbread Alamo a few days ago, and I used her awesome templates for this challenge. Lisa and I have a few things in common: we reside in New York, home to us is Houston, our first gingerbread structure was made this year, and that structure would be the Alamo covered in snow. I'm actually headed to San Antonio this weekend, and I'll double check, but somehow I doubt it's covered in snow. Looking back, I should have used simple syrup instead of royal icing for the glue. Royal icing does not hide well.

I snacked on the bits of the gingerbread, and I was not a fan. It seemed to be too dry and lacked not only the chewy texture but some flavor as well. It made for a decent structure, but I would not recommend making it for taste.

I hope y'all had a wonderful Christmas today. I love the holiday because of its meaning and also for the quality time I get to spend with family. I'm off to get back to them and the puzzles!

Scandinavian Gingerbread (Pepparkakstuga)
from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book by Beatrice Ojakangas

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar, well packed
2 tablespoons cinnamon
4 teaspoons ground ginger
3 teaspoons ground cloves
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup boiling water
5 cups all-purpose flour
Gingerbread Alamo templates

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until blended. Add the cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Mix the baking soda with the boiling water and add to the dough along with the flour. Mix to make a stiff dough. If necessary add more water, a tablespoon at a time. Chill 2 hours or overnight.
2. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
3. Cut patterns for the Alamo: front, 4 sides, back, and roof.
4. Roll the dough out on a large, ungreased baking sheet and place the patterns on the dough.
5. Mark off the various pieces with a knife and cut shapes out of dough. Place on baking sheet and chill in refrigerator until dough hardens slightly, about 5-10 minutes.
6. Take baking sheet out of refrigerator and bake for 12 to 15 minutes until the cookie dough feels firm. After baking, trim edges to make straight if necessary. Let gingerbread completely cool before assembling.

Royal Icing
Ingredients:
1 large egg white
3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon almond extract

Directions:
1. Beat all liquid ingredients until smooth.
2. Add the powdered sugar gradually to get the desired consistency.

Assembling the Alamo
Directions:
1. Wrap a large piece of cardboard with parchment for the Alamo grounds.
2. Generally apply royal icing to bottom of the front Alamo wall, hold it in place on the parchment covered cardboard until it stands on its own.
3. Continue the process with the four side pieces (two go in the middle to support the roof) and the back. Let the royal icing dry on the Alamo.
4. Add the roof, generously applying more icing between cracks. Hold in place until dry, using cans if you have to.

Ovaltine Shortbread Cookies

2009-12-18T10:48:00.003-05:00

Today's post is my 100th post on Talida Bakes! That means in the past three years, I've baked nearly 100 new recipes. I know that may not be a lot to some of you, but it's an accomplishment to me, to know that my hobby and passion has only grown stronger since I started this blog.

I wanted to make a cookie that meant something special to me, so I came up with Ovaltine shortbread. Ovaltine is my absolute favorite childhood drink. I associate it primarily with my visits to my grandparents in Thailand, and I keep a jar of the stuff in my cabinet when I want to taste my maternal grandmother's kitchen. I drink it with condensed milk, and on one visit to Thailand, I mistook an unlabeled squeeze bottle of mayonnaise for condensed milk. I drank that Ovaltine-mayonnaise concoction for two days before realizing why my Ovaltine tasted off. It tasted much worse after I knew what I had done, and now I double check before adding anything to my Ovaltine.

I also mailed these cookies off to my group for Vané's Brooklyn Bride Card Swap - hope you enjoyed them, ladies! And here's hoping my next 100 posts won't take another three years!

Ovaltine Shortbread Cookies
adapted from previous recipe

Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup Ovaltine
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions:
1. With a stand mixer, beat the butter and confectioners’ sugar together on medium speed for about 3 minutes, until the mixture is smooth. Beat in the vanilla and reduce the mixer speed to low.
2. Sift together flour, Ovaltine, and salt, then add to butter mixture, mixing only until it disappears into the dough. Don’t work the dough much once the flour is incorporated.
3. Using the spatula, transfer the soft, sticky dough to a gallon-size zipper-lock plastic bag. Put the bag on a flat surface, leaving the top open, and roll the dough into a 9 x 10 1/2 inch rectangle that’s 1/4 inch thick. As you roll, turn the bag occasionally and lift the plastic from the dough so it does not cause creases. When you get the right size and thickness, seal the bag, pressing out as much air as possible, and refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours, or for up to 2 days.
4. Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or Silpat.
5. Put the plastic bag on a cutting board and slit it open. Turn the firm dough out onto the board (discard the bag) and, using a ruler as a guide and a sharp knife, cut the dough into 1 inch squares. Transfer the squares to the baking sheets and carefully prick each one four times with a fork, gently pushing the tines through the cookies until they hit the sheet.
6. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point. Transfer the cookies to a rack to cool. This recipe makes about 40 cookies.

Molten Chocolate Cake

2009-12-11T11:04:00.005-05:00

My dear husband's birthday fell on the Sunday after Thanksgiving this year, which meant we got to celebrate with his side of the family while they were in town for the holiday. We ate some noodles together, not the specific longevity noodles dish, but it still symbolized our wish for longevity in Tim's life. In addition to the noodles, I cooked him a breakfast of Thanksgiving leftovers including fried cornbread stuffing cakes, fried chorizo, and fried eggs. Hmm, after typing that out, I suppose my breakfast canceled out the longevity wishes.

Lastly, we celebrated his birthday with these molten chocolate cakes. This guy loves his dark chocolate, so I gave it to him in this oozy cake form. Molten chocolate cakes are really just undercooked brownies, so I used Tim's birthday recipe from two years ago and put it to the test. I halved the recipe (made some slight modifications), put the batter into ramekins, cut down the baking time, and out came these great cakes. Inverting the cakes was harder than I thought, so after the first one fell apart during the process, I decided to keep the rest in their ramekins. If anyone has a trick to keep them intact, I'd love to hear it!

Molten Chocolate Cake
adapted from previous recipe

Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter + 1-2 tablespoons unsalted butter for the ramekins
4 ounces dark chocolate (Valrhona 70%)
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons flour + flour for dusting

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Butter 4 ramekins (4-ounce) and lightly flour.
2. In a double boiler, melt together the butter with the chocolate.
3. Beat together the eggs, egg yolks, and sugar while chocolate and butter mixture is still melting. Pour egg mixture into the melted chocolate along with the flour and quickly beat until just combined.
4. Divide batter into ramekins. (To bake at a later time, store cakes in the fridge, and bring back to room temperature before baking) Bake for 10 minutes until the sides are set while the center is still soft.
5. To serve without ramekin, invert ramekin onto a plate and let sit for a few minutes. Lift mold carefully so the cake should fall out on plate. Serve immediately.

Pumpkin Chiffon Dessert

2009-12-04T12:35:00.006-05:00

Yikes, this "pie" is not photogenic at all. I don't even know what to call this dessert. I initially intended on making a pumpkin chiffon pie, but a few things got in the way. As usual, let me throw out a bunch of excuses to explain myself.

Excuse #1: I couldn't make a proper pie because I couldn't find my pie pan. Last time I baked a pie was fall 2003. I've moved 7 times among 3 states since then, so is it any wonder it's missing?

Excuse #2: I tried to make mini-pies in my mini-muffin pan, but the shells didn't hold up. Note below in step 2 where it says "Let cool 5 minutes." I let them cool for something like 30 minutes. They cooled completely and stuck to the pan, so I had to crush them to get them out. That's when I decided to use some nut cups and make individual trifle-like desserts.

Excuse #3: I didn't photograph this until this morning, so the filling had all week to dry out while turning the crust into mush. No one will be eating this dessert.

With that out of the way, let me say that these still tasted pretty good. An added benefit was that it was so easy to serve! This makes a great pumpkin pie alternative, and had it been in pie form, I'm sure it would photograph lovely.

Pumpkin Chiffon Dessert
adapted from Martha Stewart

Crust Ingredients:
32 gingersnaps, coarsely broken
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
4 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons unsalted butter, melted

Filling Ingredients:
1 envelope unflavored gelatin (1 tablespoon)
1/4 cup cold water
1 1/4 cups canned pumpkin
3 large eggs, separated
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Process gingersnaps, granulated sugar, and salt in a food processor until finely ground. Add butter, and process until combined.
2. Divide mixture among mini-muffin pan, pressing into bottom and up sides. Place on a baking sheet, and bake until darkened and firm, 11 to 13 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes. Using an offset spatula, carefully unmold crusts, and return to sheet to cool.
3. Sprinkle gelatin over cold water in a bowl. Let stand until softened, about 5 minutes.
4. Combine pumpkin, egg yolks, 1/4 cup granulated sugar, milk, salt, and spices in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, until mixture begins to thicken, about 8 minutes. Do not boil. Remove from heat. Stir in gelatin mixture until dissolved. Let cool completely.
5. Beat egg whites with a mixer until soft peaks form. Gradually add remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar, beating until stiff peaks form.
6. Whisk one-third of beaten egg whites into cooled pumpkin mixture. Gently fold in remaining whites. (Filling can be refrigerated, covered, overnight.) Spoon into pie shells, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 2 hours.

Chocolate Hazelnut Cannoli

2009-11-27T20:47:00.008-05:00

It may sound odd, but I don't really like cannoli. It's fried dough filled with sweet cheese, and yes, I've had authentic cannoli, but eating them never moved me in any way. So when I found out this month's Daring Bakers' Challenge was to make cannoli, I thought to myself, "Eh. I suppose I could make a batch for Thanksgiving dinner." And that is what I did. I made a batch for the Thanksgiving dinner I shared with my college roommates last Saturday. Those who like cannoli said they tasted great, so I will take their word for it. I enjoyed the chocolate-hazelnut flavor combination though it's not a traditional way to make cannoli.

Special thanks to my Italian co-worker who lent me her cannoli tubes that were only used once. I'm glad to have put more mileage on the tubes, but I doubt I will ever have a need for them again. Make cannoli from scratch? Check. Now I'll be moving on to more enjoyable recipes.
The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.
Lidisano’s Cannoli
adapted from Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen and The Sopranos Family Cookbook
makes 22-24 4-inch cannoli

Chocolate Cannoli Shells
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon unsweetened baking cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
approximately 1/2 cup sweet Marsala or any white or red wine you have on hand
1 large egg white
2 quarts vegetable oil for frying
1/4 cup melted dark chocolate for garnish
confectioners' sugar for garnish

Directions:
1. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer using the dough hook, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in the oil, vinegar, and enough of the wine to make a soft dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and well blended, about 2 minutes. Shape the dough into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge from 2 hours to overnight.
2. Cut the dough into two pieces. Keep the remaining dough covered while you work. Lightly flour a large cutting or pastry board and roll the dough until super thin, about 1/16 to 1/8” thick (An area of about 13 inches by 18 inches should give you that). Cut out 3 to 5-inch circles. Roll the cut out circle into an oval, rolling it larger and thinner if it’s shrunk a little.
3. Oil the outside of the cannoli tubes for the first batch only. Roll a dough oval from the long side around each tube and dab a little egg white on the dough where the edges overlap. Press well to seal. Set aside to let the egg white seal dry a little.
4. In a deep heavy saucepan, pour enough oil to reach a depth of 3 inches, or if using an electric deep-fryer, follow the manufacturer's directions. Heat the oil to 375 degrees F on a deep fry thermometer, or until a small piece of the dough or bread cube placed in the oil sizzles and browns in 1 minute. Have ready a tray or sheet pan lined with paper towels or paper bags.
5. Carefully lower a few of the cannoli tubes into the hot oil. Do not crowd the pan. Fry the shells until golden, about 2 minutes, turning them so that they brown evenly.
6. Lift a cannoli tube with a wire skimmer or large slotted spoon, out of the oil. Using tongs, grasp the cannoli tube at one end. Very carefully remove the cannoli tube with the open sides straight up and down so that the oil flows back into the pan. Place the tube on paper towels or bags to drain. Repeat with the remaining tubes. While they are still hot, grasp the tubes with a potholder and pull the cannoli shells off the tubes with a pair of tongs, or with your hand protected by an oven mitt or towel. Let the shells cool completely on the paper towels. Place shells on cooling rack until ready to fill.
7. Repeat making and frying the shells with the remaining dough. If you are reusing the cannoli tubes, let them cool before wrapping them in the dough.

Cannoli Filling
Ingredients:
2 lbs ricotta cheese, strained
1 2/3 cups confectioner’s sugar, (more or less, depending on how sweet you want it), sifted
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 tablespoons hazelnut praline paste

Directions:
1. Line a strainer with cheesecloth. Place the ricotta in the strainer over a bowl, and cover with plastic wrap and a towel. Weight it down with a heavy can, and let the ricotta drain in the refrigerator for several hours to overnight.
2. In a bowl with electric mixer, beat ricotta until smooth and creamy. Beat in confectioner’s sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and blend until smooth. Transfer to another bowl and stir in hazelnut praline paste until well mixed. Chill until firm. (The filling can be made up to 24 hours prior to filling the shells. Cover and keep refrigerated).

Assembling the Cannoli
1. Press or dip cannoli shells in melted chocolate and let dry before filling.
2. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain or star tip (or use a Ziploc bag as substitution) with the ricotta cream. If using a Ziploc bag, cut about 1/2 inch off one corner. Insert the tip in the cannoli shell and squeeze gently until the shell is half filled. Turn the shell and fill the other side.
3. Dust with confectioner’s sugar and/or drizzles of melted chocolate if desired.

Spicy Cornbread Stuffing

2009-11-26T10:27:00.007-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving! This year I'm celebrating Thanksgiving day without a turkey. That might sound crazy, but be assured I will have plenty of turkey this week. This past weekend I had two complete turkey dinners, and this coming Saturday I'll be celebrating with yet another turkey dinner with my extended family in Port Washington. This past Saturday I made this spicy cornbread stuffing to accompany an adobo turkey. Unfortunately I forgot to snap a shot of the cornbread before I made it into stuffing. The spicy cornbread reminded me of Kettle Jalapeño Potato Chips, and it's a recipe that I can see myself making again.

I've used a lot of Martha Stewart recipes lately, and I sort of have an explanation. I haven't spent as much time in the kitchen as I would like recently, so I haven't been as inspired to come up with my own recipes. Also, since my sister-in-law and I sat front row in a Martha Stewart Show taping last month, I've been reading a lot of her recipes so it's natural it's her recipes I want to make.

It's about time to go start our Thanksgiving hot pot, so I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and whatever you may be feasting on!

Spicy Cornbread Stuffing

adapted from Martha Stewart

Makes about 10 cups, enough for a 16- to 18-pound turkey

Ingredients:

3/4 cup pine nuts

1 Jalapeño Cornbread (recipe below), day old

1 pound cured chorizo sausage, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 small onions, coarsely chopped

6 ribs celery, coarsely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup homemade chicken or turkey stock, or low sodium canned chicken or turkey stock

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1 bunch cilantro leaves, washed well, dried, and roughly chopped

Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Spread pine nuts in one layer on a baking sheet. Bake until golden brown and fragrant, 2 to 4 minutes. Transfer to a shallow bowl, and set aside. Cut cornbread into 3/4-inch cubes, and spread evenly on a baking sheet. Bake, shaking pan periodically, until golden brown on edges, about 20 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl, and set aside.

2. In a food processor, pulse sausage until coarsely chopped; do not overprocess. Set aside.

3. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions, and cook until translucent, about 4 minutes. Add celery and garlic, and cook until celery is soft, about 5 minutes more. Add sausage and pine nuts, and cook for 1 minute more. Add stock, and cook until absorbed, about 2 minutes.

4. Pour sausage mixture over cornbread, and mix well. Add butter and cilantro, and mix to combine. Let cool completely before stuffing turkey.

Jalapeño Cornbread

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus more for pan

1 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup yellow cornmeal

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup buttermilk

2 medium jalapeños, diced, with seeds

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1/3 cup sugar

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly butter an 8-inch square pan. Set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and pepper.

3. In another bowl, whisk together buttermilk, jalapenos, egg, sugar, and 2 tablespoons melted butter. Add to dry ingredients, and stir until just combined.

4. Pour batter into prepared pan, and bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven, and cool for 10 minutes. Invert onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Apple Crisp

2009-11-20T10:09:00.005-05:00

Happy Friday, y'all! I've gotten feedback that my recipes here are way too elaborate and involved for the average baker. Considering my posts have been mostly Daring Bakers' posts as of late (this post is for you Audrey!), I completely agree with that statement. I chronicle challenging recipes so that one day when I'm a grandmother of old age, Lord willing, I'll have proof of what my hands were capable of. That'll show the grandkids that crazy grandma isn't just making up stories again. About food, at least.

Here is a really easy recipe that is especially great when you have a bushel of fresh picked apples in the fall. The baking part is certainly easy, but let me warn you that preparing the ingredients will consume a good chunk of time. I recruited an old high school friend to help me in the kitchen for making two of these apple crisps. When she said yes, little did she know she'd be peeling and coring 6 pounds of apples with me! Thank you Judy, for contributing to this delicious apple crisp with your rockin' peeling skills.

Apple Crisp
from Martha Stewart

Ingredients:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut into small cubes
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
3 pounds apples, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a large bowl, mix together flour, brown sugar, salt, and 2 tablespoons granulated sugar.
2. Cut butter into flour, using a pastry blender or two knives, until mixture is the texture of coarse meal. Add oats, and use your hands to toss and squeeze mixture until large, moist clumps form. Transfer to freezer to chill while you prepare apples.
3. In another large bowl, toss apples with lemon juice, cinnamon, and remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar. Transfer to a shallow 2-quart baking dish, and sprinkle with topping mixture.
4. Place baking dish on a rimmed baking sheet, and bake until golden and bubbling, 55 to 65 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.
5. For best results, serve with vanilla ice cream.

Caramel Apple Macarons

2009-10-27T12:04:00.004-05:00

October's Daring Bakers' challenge was to make delicious macarons with the choice of flavoring and filling left up to us. Being that it's now fall and given I had over 10 pounds of apples from the apple picking trip I did couple weekends ago, I chose to make a vanilla macaron cookie filled with a caramel apple puree. My choice of filling became a collaboration of past Daring Bakers' challenges (namely the Danish Braid and Caramel Cake), and it was pretty fun to remake those recipes. My filling is more of a caramel flavored applesauce than I hoped for, so if you're looking for a creamy filling, you'll need to do some tweaking to my filling recipe. Perhaps a caramel apple buttercream?

These macarons didn't turn out as expected due to some over whipped egg whites. And like I've said before, this is not a quick recipe to breeze through. If I were to give a lesson in patience, I would assign the task of making macarons. The day I master the macaron will mark the day I become a patient woman. Or maybe not, we'll have to see about that one.
The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.
Caramel Apple Macarons
adapted from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 cups almond flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
5 egg whites (brought to room temperature)
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 200°F. Put both the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a food processor or blender and grind until thoroughly combined.
2. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
3. Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. Add seeds scraped from vanilla bean. If you are planning on adding other flavoring to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t over fold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.
4. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip. You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.
5. Pipe one-inch-sized mounds of batter onto a baking sheet lined with Silpat.
6. Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375F degrees. Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.
7. Cool on a rack before filling with caramel apple filling (recipe below).

Caramel Apple Filling

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup water (for "stopping" the caramelizing process)
Apple Filling (recipe below)

Directions:
1. In a small stainless steel saucepan, with tall sides, mix water and sugar until mixture feels like wet sand. Brush down any stray sugar crystals with wet pastry brush. Turn on heat to highest flame. Cook until smoking slightly and color is a dark amber.
2. When color is achieved, very carefully pour in one cup of water. Caramel will jump and sputter about! It is very dangerous, so have long sleeves on and be prepared to step back.
3. Whisk over medium heat until it has reduced slightly and feels sticky between two fingers. Please wait for it to cool on a spoon before touching it. Note: For safety reasons, have ready a bowl of ice water to plunge your hands into if any caramel should land on your skin.
4. After caramel syrup has cooled, blend together with apple filling in a food processor or blender until mixture becomes a sticky puree.

Apple Filling

Ingredients:
1 apple, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Directions:
1. Toss all ingredients except butter in a large bowl.
2. Melt the butter in a saute pan over medium heat until slightly nutty in color, about 6 - 8 minutes.
3. Add the apple mixture and saute until apples are softened and caramelized, 10 to 15 minutes.
4. Let cool to room temperature or cool in an ice bath.

Kinako Ice Cream

2009-10-09T11:18:00.003-05:00

The news about Gourmet closing is already old news, but that doesn't make it any less sad. Many bloggers have already captured common sentiments about it, and I don't have more to add than a big nod in agreement.

Today I'm posting a recipe for a kinako ice cream that was inspired by a classic ice cream recipe published in Gourmet in September 1998.

"Gourmet showed us the real possibilities of food: It wasn't just to nourish the body or excite the palate, but to engage the mind and imagination, to magnify our experience, bringing us more fully into our senses, allowing us to be more completely alive." -Diana Abu-Jaber

Goodbye, Gourmet.

Kinako Ice Cream
adapted from Gourmet, September 1998

Ingredients:
3 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1/3 cup kinako powder

Directions:
1. In a heavy saucepan, stir together cream, milk, and sugar. Bring mixture just to a boil, stirring occasionally, and remove pan from heat.
2. In a large bowl lightly beat eggs. Add hot cream mixture to eggs in a slow stream, whisking, and pour into pan.
3. Gently mix in kinako powder and cook custard over moderately low heat, stirring constantly, until a thermometer registers 170°F. Do not let boil.
4. Pour custard through a sieve into a clean bowl and cool over ice bath. Chill custard, its surface covered with wax paper, at least 3 hours, or until cold, and up to 1 day.
5. Freeze custard in an ice-cream maker, according to manufacturer's instructions. Transfer ice cream to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden.

Breakfast Vol au Vent

2009-09-27T15:49:00.003-05:00

Since I joined the Daring Bakers, this is the second time I've seen pastry dough incorporated into the challenge. Last year, the Danish Braid was my first tackle with pastry dough. Yes, it was a daunting task, but after making the Danish Braid, I felt like I could easily do it again. Well, I've done it again, but it wasn't exactly by choice. This month's Daring Bakers' Challenge was the French Vols Au Vent, made with our choice of filling. I chose to make a breakfast Vol au Vent, filled with an Italian sausage and egg scramble. I do love pastry dough, but because it's so time-consuming to make, it looks like I'll stick with only making it for Daring Bakers' Challenges.
The September 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon. She chose the French treat, Vols-au-Vent based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking With Julia by Dorie Greenspan.
Breakfast Vols Au Vent

Ingredients:
Chilled pastry dough (recipe below)
egg wash (1 egg or yolk beaten with a small amount of water)
Scrambled eggs cooked with Italian sausage

Directions:
1. Line a baking sheet with parchment and set aside.
2. Using a knife or metal bench scraper, divided your chilled puff pastry dough into three equal pieces. Work with one piece of the dough, and leave the rest wrapped and chilled.
3. On a lightly floured surface, roll the piece of dough into a rectangle about 1/8 to 1/4-inch thick. Transfer it to the baking sheet and refrigerate for about 10 minutes before proceeding with the cutting.
4. Using a ¾-inch cutter for small vols-au-vent, or a 2- to 2.5-inch round cutter for large, cut centers from half of the rounds to make rings. These rings will become the sides of the vols-au-vent, while the solid disks will be the bottoms. You can either save the center cut-outs to bake off as little “caps” for you vols-au-vent, or put them in the scrap pile.
5. Dock the solid bottom rounds with a fork (prick them lightly, making sure not to go all the way through the pastry) and lightly brush them with egg wash. Place the rings directly on top of the bottom rounds and very lightly press them to adhere. Brush the top rings lightly with egg wash, trying not to drip any down the sides (which may inhibit rise). If you are using the little “caps,” dock and egg wash them as well.
6. Refrigerate the assembled vols-au-vent on the lined baking sheet while you pre-heat the oven to 400ºF (200ºC). (You could also cover and refrigerate them for a few hours at this point.)
7. Once the oven is heated, remove the sheet from the refrigerator and place a silicon baking mat or another sheet of parchment over top of the shells. This will help them rise evenly. Bake the shells until they have risen and begin to brown, about 10-15 minutes depending on their size. Reduce the oven temperature to 350ºF (180ºC), and remove the silicon mat or parchment sheet from the top of the vols-au-vent. If the centers have risen up inside the vols-au-vent, you can gently press them down. Remove the sheet on top and continue baking until the layers are golden, about 15-20 minutes more.
8. Remove to a rack to cool. Cool to room temperature for cold fillings or to warm for hot fillings.
9. Fill with eggs and sausage and serve.
Note: Although they are at their best filled and eaten soon after baking, baked vols-au-vent shells can be stored airtight for a day. Shaped, unbaked vols-au-vent can be wrapped and frozen for up to a month (bake from frozen, egg-washing them first).

Michel Richard’s Puff Pastry Dough
from Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan
yields 2-1/2 pounds dough

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups (5.0 oz/ 142 g) cake flour
1 tablespoon salt
1 1/4 cups ice water
1 pound very cold unsalted butter
extra flour for dusting work surface

Directions:
Mixing the Dough
1. Check the capacity of your food processor before you start. If it cannot hold the full quantity of ingredients, make the dough into two batches and combine them.
2. Put the all-purpose flour, cake flour, and salt in the work bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade and pulse a couple of times just to mix. Add the water all at once, pulsing until the dough forms a ball on the blade. The dough will be very moist and pliable and will hold together when squeezed between your fingers.
3. Remove the dough from the machine, form it into a ball, with a small sharp knife, slash the top in a tic-tac-toe pattern. Wrap the dough in a damp towel and refrigerate for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, place the butter between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and beat it with a rolling pin until it flattens into a square that's about 1" thick. Take care that the butter remains cool and firm: if it has softened or become oily, chill it before continuing.

Incorporating the Butter
1. Unwrap the dough and place it on a work surface dusted with all-purpose flour with your rolling pin, press on the dough to flatten it and then roll it into a 10" square. Keep the top and bottom of the dough well floured to prevent sticking and lift the dough and move it around frequently. Starting from the center of the square, roll out over each corner to create a thick center pad with "ears," or flaps.
2. Place the cold butter in the middle of the dough and fold the ears over the butter, stretching them as needed so that they overlap slightly and encase the butter completely. (If you have to stretch the dough, stretch it from all over; don't just pull the ends) you should now have a package that is 8" square.
3. To make great puff pastry, it is important to keep the dough cold at all times. There are specified times for chilling the dough, but if your room is warm, or you work slowly, or you find that for no particular reason the butter starts to ooze out of the pastry, cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate it . You can stop at any point in the process and continue at your convenience or when the dough is properly chilled.

Making the Turns
1. Gently but firmly press the rolling pin against the top and bottom edges of the square (this will help keep it square). Then, keeping the work surface and the top of the dough well floured to prevent sticking, roll the dough into a rectangle that is three times as long as the square you started with, about 24". With this first roll, it is particularly important that the butter be rolled evenly along the length and width of the rectangle; check when you start rolling that the butter is moving along well, and roll a bit harder or more evenly, if necessary, to get a smooth, even dough-butter sandwich.
2. With a pastry brush, brush off the excess flour from the top of the dough, and fold the rectangle up from the bottom and down from the top in thirds, like a business letter, brushing off the excess flour. You have completed one turn.
3. Rotate the dough so that the closed fold is to your left, like the spine of a book. Repeat the rolling and folding process, rolling the dough to a length of 24" and then folding it in thirds. This is the second turn.

Chilling the Dough
1. If the dough is still cool and no butter is oozing out, you can give the dough another two turns now. If the condition of the dough is iffy, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes. Each time you refrigerate the dough, mark the number of turns you've completed by indenting the dough with your fingertips. It is best to refrigerate the dough for 30 to 60 minutes between each set of two turns.
2. The total number of turns needed is six. If you prefer, you can give the dough just four turns now, chill it overnight, and do the last two turns the next day. Puff pastry is extremely flexible in this regard. However, no matter how you arrange your schedule, you should plan to chill the dough for at least an hour before cutting or shaping it.

Peach Cobbler

2009-09-24T08:26:00.005-05:00

Summer has come and gone, and it sure went by fast. My summer lacked the usual baking, due to the very little desire I had to actually turn on the oven. So what did I do? I grilled and I cooked. And grilled. Nothing encapsulates summer better than grilling, right? I'd go into the stories and recipes behind my summer food if this blog were called Talida Grills, but since this is Talida Bakes, I'll stick with the baked goods.

Way back for Labor Day, my friend Christina of Recette (new restaurant coming soon!) had a BBQ at her new place and stuffed us silly with ribs, chicken, hanger steak, bratwurst, and duck, and even forced us to take the mound of leftovers home with us. After all that meat, it was a miracle people saved room for dessert. But I'm so glad they did, because I prepared a peach cobbler I made as a last hurrah to summer. Now that the weather's cooled down some, I'm ready to turn on that oven and get back to baking.

Peach Cobbler
adapted from Cook's Illustrated

Ingredients:
for the filling
2 1/2 pounds peaches, ripe but firm
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon lemon juice
pinch table salt

for the topping
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon table salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter (cold), cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1/3 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon granulated sugar

Directions:
1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. For the filling: Peel peaches, then halve and pit each. Cut each half into 4 wedges. Gently toss peaches and sugar together in large bowl; let stand for 30 minutes, tossing several times.
3. Drain peaches in colander set over large bowl. Whisk 1/4 cup of drained juice (discard extra), cornstarch, lemon juice, and salt together in small bowl. Toss peach juice mixture with peach slices and transfer to 8-inch-square glass baking dish.
4. Bake until peaches begin to bubble around edges, about 10 minutes.
5. For the topping: While peaches are baking, in food processor, pulse flour, 3 tablespoons sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to combine. Scatter butter over and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal, about ten 1-second pulses.
6. Transfer to medium bowl; add milk and toss with rubber spatula until cohesive dough is formed. (Don't overmix dough or biscuits will be tough.) Break dough into 6 evenly sized but roughly shaped mounds and set aside.
7. To assemble and bake: After peaches have baked 10 minutes, remove peaches from oven and place dough mounds on top, spacing them at least 1/2 inch apart (they should not touch). Sprinkle each mound with portion of remaining 1 teaspoon sugar.
8. Bake until topping is golden brown and fruit is bubbling, 16 to 18 minutes. Cool cobbler on wire rack until warm, about 20 minutes. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Peppermint Dark Chocolate Milan Cookies

2009-07-27T11:23:00.004-05:00

I've definitely eaten my share of store-bought cookies as a kid. I ate them all day, in school lunches to afternoon snacks, and even for breakfast. Yes, breakfast. My mom was the type to give me birthday cake and Rice Krispies Treats for breakfast, because, you know, they're just pastries. I've changed my habits since then, but I still don't see the difference between having birthday cake for breakfast versus having multiple jelly-filled chocolate-glazed doughnuts for breakfast.

Back then, my favorite breakfast cookie was the Pepperidge Farm Milano Cookie. I was psyched to see that this month's Daring Bakers' Challenge was to recreate this classic cookie! The recipe called for a lighter orange flavored chocolate filling, but I mixed things up with a peppermint dark chocolate filling. The recipe was so easy, resulting in a cookie so decadent. Try having them for breakfast next time. It's okay, because Mom says so.
The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.
Peppermint Milan Cookies
adapted from Food Network

Ingredients:
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
7/8 cup egg whites (from about 6 eggs)
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

For the cookie filling:
1/2 cup heavy cream
8 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
1 teaspoon peppermint extract

Directions:
1. In a mixer with paddle attachment cream the butter and the sugar.
2. Add the egg whites gradually and then mix in the vanilla extract.
3. Add the flour and mix until just well mixed.
4. With a small (1/4-inch) plain tip, pipe 1-inch sections of batter onto a parchment-lined sheet pan, spacing them 2 inches apart as they spread.
5. Bake in a preheated 350 F degree oven for 10 minutes or until light golden brown around the edges. Let cool on the pan.
6. While waiting for the cookies to cool, in a small saucepan over medium flame, scald cream.
7. Pour hot cream over chocolate in a bowl, whisk to melt chocolate, add peppermint extract and blend well.
8. Set aside to cool (the mixture will thicken as it cools).
9. Spread a thin amount of the filling onto the flat side of a cookie while the filling is still soft and press the flat side of a second cookie on top.
10. Repeat with the remainder of the cookies.

Bakewell Tart/Pudding

2009-06-27T17:08:00.009-05:00

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

When I saw that this month's Daring Bakers' challenge was a tart, I laughed out loud. I had plenty of practice making tarts last month, so I sure was ready for this challenge! This recipe sounded delicious as I love anything almond flavored, and this tart had almond both in the pastry dough as well as in the frangipane. Some call this a tart, some call it a pudding, I would actually call it a cake-tart. The frangipane did turn out semi-spongy, but I couldn't see any resemblance to a pudding. Whatever you wish to name it, it paired mighty well with both blueberry preserves and Nutella.

Thanks, Jasmine (Confessions of a Cardamom Addict) and Annemarie (Ambrosia and Nectar) for hosting this month!

Bakewell Tart/Pudding

Ingredients:
Sweet shortcrust pastry (recipe below)
Frangipane (recipe below)
1 cup blueberry preserves OR 1 cup Nutella, warmed
Bench flour

Directions:
1. Place the chilled dough disc on a lightly floured surface. If it's overly cold, you will need to let it become acclimatized for about 15 minutes before you roll it out. Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to ¼ inch thickness, by rolling in one direction only (start from the center and roll away from you), and turning the disc a quarter turn after each roll.
2. When the pastry is to the desired size and thickness, transfer it to the tart pan, press in and trim the excess dough. Patch any holes, fissures or tears with trimmed bits. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 400 F degrees.
4. Remove shell from freezer, spread as even a layer as you can of preserves or Nutella onto the pastry base. Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart.
5. Smooth the top and put into the oven for 30 minutes. Five minutes before the tart is done, the top will be brownish. Remove from oven and strew flaked almonds on top and return to the heat for the last five minutes of baking.
6. The finished tart will have a golden crust and the frangipane will be tanned and a bit spongy-looking. Remove from the oven and cool on the counter. Serve warm, with crème fraîche, whipped cream or custard sauce if you wish.

Sweet Shortcrust Pastry
Ingredients:
1 cup flour
2 tablespoons sugar
½ tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold
2 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoons almond extract
1-2 tablespoons cold water

Directions:
1. Sift together flour, sugar and salt.
2. Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the large hole-side of a box grater. Using your finger tips only, and working very quickly, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Set aside.
3. Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract and quickly mix into the flour mixture. Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough.
4. Form the dough into a disc, wrap in cling and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Frangipane
Ingredients:
9 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup icing sugar
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoons almond extract
1/2 cup ground almonds
2 tablespoons flour

Directions:
1. Cream butter and sugar together for about a minute or until the mixture is primrose in color and very fluffy.
2. Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The batter may appear to curdle, but that's alright.
3. After beating the eggs in, pour in the almond extract and mix for about another 30 seconds and scrape down the sides again.
4. With the beaters on, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour. Mix well. The mixture will be soft, keep its slightly curdled look and retain its pallid yellow color.

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes

2009-06-26T11:44:00.003-05:00

Like I promised, this will be my last post from the baby shower series. Inside the boxes set on the table were these adorable cupcakes as shower favors. Since the mother-to-be is expecting a boy, I decorated the cupcakes by placing little blue fondant animal cut-outs in the middle of the chocolate frosting.

One thing to note about this recipe is that it does double very well. Cooks Illustrated recommended making two separate batches and baking each separately as to not compromise the cupcakes' rise. Another tip for cupcakes is to refrigerate them unfrosted overnight, then let them come to room temperature before frosting and serving. This helps give cupcakes that moist texture that make biting into a cupcake so enjoyable.

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes
from Cooks Illustrated

Ingredients:
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa
3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sour cream

Directions:
1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position; heat oven to 350 F degrees. Line standard-sized muffin pan with baking-cup liners.
2. Combine butter, chocolate, and cocoa in medium heatproof bowl. Set bowl over saucepan containing barely simmering water; heat mixture until butter and chocolate are melted and whisk until smooth and combined. Set aside to cool until just warm to the touch.
3. Whisk flour, baking soda, and baking powder in small bowl to combine.
4. Whisk eggs in second medium bowl to combine; add sugar, vanilla, and salt and whisk until fully incorporated. Add cooled chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Sift about one-third of flour mixture over chocolate mixture and whisk until combined; whisk in sour cream until combined, then sift remaining flour mixture over and whisk until batter is homogenous and thick.
5. Divide batter evenly among muffin pan cups. Bake until skewer inserted into center of cupcakes comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes.
6. Cool cupcakes in muffin pan on wire rack until cool enough to handle, about 15 minutes. Carefully lift each cupcake from muffin pan and set on wire rack. Cool to room temperature before icing, about 30 minutes.
7. Frost with chocolate cream frosting, recipe below.

Chocolate Cream Frosting
Ingredients:
12 ounces semisweet chocolate
1 2/3 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup light corn syrup

Directions:
1. Break up chocolate and pulverize in food processor until it is the texture of coarse sand.
2. Bring heavy cream to a boil, and with machine running, pour hot cream over the chocolate. Add corn syrup; process until just combined.
3. Turn mixture into a bowl and refrigerate until spreadable, stirring with a wooden spoon every 15 minutes; about 1 hour.

Nutella Tartelettes

2009-06-18T16:24:00.007-05:00

Am I still posting about that baby shower I catered? Yes, and hang tight, I'm almost done. After this, there's only one more post left, I promise.

This Nutella tartelette was truly decadent, filled with three varying layers of chocolate. First, Nutella lines the bottom of the tartelette shell. Next is a dark chocolate pudding, and finally, the tartelette is topped with a dark chocolate ganache. This was not the design of the original recipe, but I decided to mix things up a bit. Actually, the truth is, my pudding didn't turn out quite right (I manhandled it and also overcooked it just a tad), and I had to serve something presentable to the ladies at the shower, so on went the dark chocolate ganache topping. After tasting it myself, you couldn't even tell the pudding was a little off.

If you're a dark chocolate lover, then oh boy, you definitely want to try making and eating this tartelette. Be sure to watch the time when you're baking the tartelettes, and you'll be on your way to rich, chocolatey bliss.

Nutella Tartelettes
adapted from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme

Ingredients:
2/3 cup Nutella
4 3/4 oz bittersweet chocolate
7 tablespoons butter
1 large egg, room temperature, stirred with a fork
3 large egg yolks, room temperature, stirred with a fork
2 tablespoons sugar
4 baked tartelette shells (recipe below)

Directions:
1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 F degrees.
2. Spread the Nutella evenly over the bottom of the crust and set aside.
3. Melt the chocolate and the butter separately - either by using a double boiler or in the microwave. Allow both chocolate and butter to cool slightly.
4. Whisk the egg into the chocolate, stirring gently in circles and taking care not to agitate the mixture as you don't want to beat air into the ganache. Little by little, stir in the egg yolks, then the sugar. Finally, still working gently, stir in the warm melted butter. Pour the ganache over the Nutella in the tart shell.
5. Bake tart for 11 minutes. Center of tart will not be completely set, but that's how it should be. Remove the tart from the oven, and cool on a cooling rack to room temperature.
6. Additional step: If the pudding turns out too hard and crumbly looking, simply add a layer of dark chocolate ganache to hide the flaws. It's definitely still edible, and the extra layer of chocolate will add to this tart's decadence.

Tart Pastry
adapted from Cook's Illustrated

Ingredients:
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups flour
2/3 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon table salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, very cold, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

Directions:
1. Whisk together yolk, cream, and vanilla in small bowl; set aside. Pulse to combine flour, sugar, and salt in bowl of food processor fitted with steel blade.
2. Scatter butter pieces over flour mixture; pulse to cut butter into flour until mixture resembles coarse meal, about fifteen 1-second pulses.
3. With machine running, add egg mixture and process until dough just comes together, about 25 seconds.
4. Turn dough onto sheet of plastic wrap and press into 6-inch disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 48 hours.
5. Remove dough from refrigerator (if refrigerated longer than 1 hour, let stand at room temperature until malleable). Unwrap, divide dough into 4 equal pieces, and roll out between lightly floured large sheets of parchment paper or plastic wrap to 4-inch rounds. (If dough is soft and sticky, slip onto baking sheet and refrigerate until workable, 20 to 30 minutes.)
6. Transfer dough to tart pan by rolling dough loosely around rolling pin and unrolling over 4 tartelette pans with removable bottom. Working around circumference of pan, ease dough into pan corners by gently lifting dough with one hand while pressing dough into corners with other hand. Press dough into fluted sides of pan. (If some edges are too thin, reinforce sides by folding excess dough back on itself.) Run rolling pin over top of tart pan to remove excess dough.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 to fill 4 tartelette pans with dough.
8. Set dough-lined tartelette pans on baking sheet and freeze 30 minutes.
9. Meanwhile, adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Take dough-lined tartelette pans out of freezer, press 4-inch square of foil inside frozen tartelette shells and over edges and fill with pie weights. (Beans or rice may be used as a substitute.)
10. Bake until golden brown, about 15-18 minutes, rotating halfway through baking time. Remove from oven and carefully remove foil and weights by gathering edges of foil and pulling up and out.
11. Continue to bake until deep golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes longer. Set baking sheet with tartelette shells on wire rack to cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.

Fruit Tartelettes

2009-06-12T09:31:00.004-05:00

At the baby shower I catered, I provided two options for dessert and the popular option was the fruit tartelette. It being almost summer, and summertime bringing fresh berries probably contributed to the majority's choice.

Making the tartelettes became a day-long event for me as I've still got a lot to learn about making pastries. One rookie mistake I'll never make again: forgetting to line the tartelette shells with parchment paper before baking with beans as pie weights. What happens when you forget the lining? The beans sink into the dough, and you've got to individually pick out the beans while you're left with a tartelette shell filled with many little bean-shaped holes. I didn't plan on spending Friday night picking out beans from the shells dough, but if you know me, you'll recall I've done more daring things.

The tartelettes shaped up nicely in the end, and thanks to the poll results from my Twitter followers, I made the exact quantity of fruit and Nutella tartelettes needed, and the Nutella version will be the subject of my next post.

Fruit Tartelettes
adapted from Cook's Illustrated

Ingredients:
Frozen tartelette shells (recipe below)
Pastry cream (recipe below)
strawberries, washed and sliced
blueberries, washed
Apricot Glaze (recipe below)

Directions:
1. Remove the tartelette from the fluted sides of the pan, by placing your hand under the pan, touching only the removable bottom not the sides. Gently push the tartelette straight up, away from the sides. The fluted tartelette ring will fall away. If you want to remove the bottom of the pan, run a knife or thin metal spatula between the crust and metal bottom.
2. Spread a thin layer of apricot glaze over the bottom and sides of tartelette to prevent the crust from getting soggy. Let the glaze dry between 20 - 30 minutes. Spread the Pastry Cream into the tart, filling about 3/4 full. Level with an offset spatula.
3. To decorate the tartelette you will need 2 to 3 cups of prepared strawberries and blueberries (you may use other fruits like kiwi, pineapple, oranges, melons). Arranging the fruit on the tartelette can be done either randomly or in concentric overlapping circles, starting at the outside edge. Try to cover all the pastry cream with fruit so that no pastry cream is showing through.
4. After arranging the fruit, rewarm the glaze, if using, and gently brush a light coat on the fruit. Do not put it on too thick or it will look like Jell-O. Try not to get any glaze on the tartelette shell. The idea is to make the fruit look shiny. If not serving immediately, refrigerate. Take out about 30 minutes before serving to give the fruit and cream a chance to warm to room temperature.
5. Fruit tarts are best eaten the same day they are assembled. Cover and refrigerate any leftovers.

Pastry Cream
Ingredients:
2 cups half-and-half
1/2 cup granulated sugar
pinch table salt
5 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons cornstarch
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into 4 pieces
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Heat half-and-half, 6 tablespoons sugar, and salt in medium heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat until simmering, stirring occasionally to dissolve sugar.
2. Meanwhile, whisk egg yolks in medium bowl until thoroughly combined. Whisk in remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and whisk until sugar has begun to dissolve and mixture is creamy, about 15 seconds. Whisk in cornstarch until combined and mixture is pale yellow and thick, about 30 seconds.
3. When half-and-half mixture reaches full simmer, gradually whisk simmering half-and-half into yolk mixture to temper. Return mixture to saucepan, scraping bowl with rubber spatula; return to simmer over medium heat, whisking constantly, until 3 or 4 bubbles burst on surface and mixture is thickened and glossy, about 30 seconds. Off heat, whisk in butter and vanilla. Transfer mixture to medium bowl, press plastic wrap directly on surface, and refrigerate until cold and set, at least 3 hours or up to 48 hours.

Tart Pastry
Ingredients:
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups flour
2/3 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon table salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, very cold, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1. While pastry cream is chilling, whisk together yolk, cream, and vanilla in small bowl; set aside. Pulse to combine flour, sugar, and salt in bowl of food processor fitted with steel blade.
2. Scatter butter pieces over flour mixture; pulse to cut butter into flour until mixture resembles coarse meal, about fifteen 1-second pulses.
3. With machine running, add egg mixture and process until dough just comes together, about 25 seconds.
4. Turn dough onto sheet of plastic wrap and press into 6-inch disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 48 hours.
5. Remove dough from refrigerator (if refrigerated longer than 1 hour, let stand at room temperature until malleable). Unwrap, divide dough into 4 equal pieces, and roll out between lightly floured large sheets of parchment paper or plastic wrap to 4-inch rounds. (If dough is soft and sticky, slip onto baking sheet and refrigerate until workable, 20 to 30 minutes.)
6. Transfer dough to tartelette pan by rolling dough loosely around rolling pin and unrolling over 4 tartelette pans with removable bottom. Working around circumference of pan, ease dough into pan corners by gently lifting dough with one hand while pressing dough into corners with other hand. Press dough into fluted sides of pan. (If some edges are too thin, reinforce sides by folding excess dough back on itself.) Run rolling pin over top of tartelette pan to remove excess dough.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 to fill 4 tartelette pans with dough.
8. Set dough-lined tartelette pans on baking sheet and freeze 30 minutes.
9. Meanwhile, adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Take dough-lined tartelette pans out of freezer, press 4-inch square of foil inside frozen tartelette shells and over edges and fill with pie weights. (Beans or rice may be used as a substitute.)
10. Bake until golden brown, about 15-18 minutes, rotating halfway through baking time. Remove from oven and carefully remove foil and weights by gathering edges of foil and pulling up and out. 11. Continue to bake until deep golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes longer. Set baking sheet with tartelette shells on wire rack to cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.

Apricot Glaze
Ingredients:
1/2 cup apricot jam or preserves
1 tablespoon Grand Marnier
1 tablespoon water

Directions:
1. Heat the apricot jam or preserves and water in a small saucepan over medium heat until melted.
2. Remove from heat and strain the jam through a fine strainer to remove any fruit lumps. Add the liqueur at this point. Let cool until it is only slightly warm.

A Catered Baby Shower

2009-06-05T13:25:00.011-05:00

Here are a few shots from the baby shower I catered last weekend. That's right, I don't just bake these days, I do catering too! After the success of Jenn's bridal shower, I kept thinking about how much I enjoyed every aspect of throwing it - working with others in planning and the coordination of food and logistics. What I loved most was that in helping, the guest of honor was left worry-free from the painstaking details needed to make the event successful.

My involvement in the shower kept coming up in conversation from time to time, so when my co-worker told me the news that he and his wife were expecting their first this summer, he had the grand idea of having me cater his shower. I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into, but I jumped at the chance to flex my planning skills.

They wanted an outdoors seated lunch which took some time confirming a venue, but in the end it worked out nicely on the rooftop of a Columbus Circle apartment. What did I come up with in terms of food, you ask? This.

My test run included half a steak roll and half a lobster roll, but the final menu only had full lobster rolls. Below is my menu, and I will have detailed posts on the baked goods in the near future.

Hors D'oeuvres
Smoked Salmon Mousse in Cucumber Cups
Prosciutto Cantaloupe Crostini

Salad
Field Greens and Basil with Balsamic Vinaigrette and Parmesan Crisp

Main Course
Lobster Rolls with Root Chips

Dessert
Fruit Tart/Nutella Tart

Favor
Chocolate Cupcake with Chocolate Ganache

An Unbirthday Shower

2009-04-24T06:51:00.007-05:00

It's been a while since I posted the monogrammed sugar cookies, and I promised to go into details of my sister-in-law Jenn's bridal shower, so here they are.

Jenn wanted to use the shower to celebrate the people around her who have helped shape the woman she's become. While we picked an Alice in Wonderland theme because of her deep love of the story, it also worked out to be a big unbirthday party for Jenn and all her friends.

All the decorations were taken care of by Cheryl, and she did a fine job from designing all the tags to making custom streamers to fit the occasion. Food was done by yours truly, and we had a variety tea sandwiches and stuffed mushrooms, and a chocolate raspberry cake to finish with.

Probably my favorite part of the shower was the time spent dressing up Jenn paper dolls in wedding garb uniquely designed by each of us. This was a different take on the typical toilet paper wedding dress game, and it was refreshing to have a creative outlet in this way. Everyone participated and there were some stunning designs!

Now the bridal shower has gone, and it's time for the actual nuptial celebrations. I'm heading out this morning to St. Thomas for the wedding, and I know everything will turn out great. Jenn, I love you, and I'm so excited for you and Chris! Congratulations!

Strawberry Cheesecake

2009-04-24T02:35:00.011-05:00

I'm still in St. Thomas where my sister-in-law just got married, and what a gorgeous wedding it was. She certainly made a beautiful bride in her lovely Vera Wang dress, and the scenery at Villa Botanica was perfect. It's a little ironic I'm writing about her in this post because not only does she have a traumatic cheesecake story, but she's allergic to strawberries. It's sad, and I wish she could have enjoyed this me. (I've briefly mentioned her story before, and it involves a sincere attempt at cheesecake using cheddar cheese.)

This month's Daring Bakers challenge was a bit easier than the previous ones, and I kept things fairly simple. The strawberry topping was an easy addition to a plain cheesecake, and it made for a classic dessert that Tim certainly enjoyed. He said he loved the creaminess of the cheesecake, but I'd say it was a bit too dense for my taste. I recently had my first taste of Eileen's Special Cheesecake, and I absolutely loved the light and airy texture of Eileen's.

I once said that I'm not really a cheesecake fan, but all this exposure to cheesecake is changing that. Perhaps I'll continue to make them as my inclination towards them grows. Tim, you'd like that now, wouldn't you?
The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.
Strawberry Cheesecake
adapted from Abbey's Cheesecake

Crust Ingredients:
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cheesecake Ingredients:
24 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon Cointreau (optional)

Topping Ingredients:
1 pint strawberries, cleaned and stemmed
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.
2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into a springform pan. Set crust aside.
3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and Cointreau and blend until smooth and creamy.
4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.
5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter.
6. Chop 1/3 pint strawberries in small pieces.
7. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine cut strawberries, sugar, and vanilla. Cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and puree in a blender to make a sauce.
8. Slice the remaining strawberries, and combine into sauce. Decorate top of cheesecake with strawberries, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

Lasagne Verdi al Forno

2009-03-29T09:34:00.008-05:00

This month’s Daring Bakers was a bit of a doozy. Worth it? Yes. Delicious? Doubly yes. Thing is, it took a lot out of me. I sacrificed nights of going out to work on this lasagna. Okay, it was just one night. When Tim was out that night and people asked where I was, he had to respond, “Oh, she’s at home making a lasagna from scratch.” You can’t even make up an excuse like that, so everyone knows I’m just crazy.

I’ve made fresh pasta before, but I’ve never tried making spinach pasta. I read some key tips only after I ran into problems, so if you dare try this recipe, listen up. When the recipe calls for fresh spinach, it really means freshly cooked spinach. Throwing this in a blender or food processor prior to mixing in the dough also helps achieve a uniform green color. I did that after throwing in freshly cut raw spinach. That meant having extra spinach in my lasagna, which was fine by me. Second note, rolling pasta for lasagna is hard work. My hands and forearms were sore the next day, and I didn’t even roll my pasta as thin as recommended. The lasagna had a doughy texture because of this, so in the future I will either use a machine to make it or outsource that step to my strong husband.

The other parts of the recipe weren’t so bad, just time consuming. Grinding meat, stewing sauce, making the béchamel sauce - a lot of love went into this dish. I’m sure a lot of love went into all the other Daring Bakers’ lasagnas too. Check out their experiences too.

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

All recipes below from The Splendid Table: Recipes from Emilia-Romagna, the Heartland of Northern Italian Food by Lynne Rossetto Kasper.

Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna (Lasagne Verdi al Forno)

Ingredients:
10 quarts salted water
1 recipe Spinach Pasta cut for lasagna (recipe follows) #1
1 recipe Bechamel Sauce (recipe follows) #2
1 recipe Country Style Ragu (recipe follows) #3
1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Directions:
1. Assembling the Ingredients
Have all the sauces, rewarmed gently over a medium heat, and the pasta at hand. Have a large perforated skimmer and a large bowl of cold water next to the stove. Spread a double thickness of paper towels over a large counter space. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Oil or butter a 3 quart shallow baking dish
2. Cooking the Pasta
Bring the salted water to a boil. Drop about four pieces of pasta in the water at a time. Cook about 2 minutes. If you are using dried pasta, cook about 4 minutes, taste, and cook longer if necessary. The pasta will continue cooking during baking, so make sure it is only barely tender. Lift the lasagne from the water with a skimmer, drain, and then slip into the bowl of cold water to stop cooking. When cool, lift out and dry on the paper towels. Repeat until all the pasta is cooked.
3. Assembling the Lasagne
Spread a thin layer of béchamel over the bottom of the baking dish. Arrange a layer of about four overlapping sheets of pasta over the béchamel. Spread a thin layer of béchamel (about 3 or 4 spoonfuls) over the pasta, and then an equally thin layer of the ragu. Sprinkle with about 1 1/2 tablespoons of the béchamel and about 1/3 cup of the cheese. Repeat the layers until all ingredients are used, finishing with béchamel sauce and topping with a generous dusting of cheese
4. Baking and Serving the Lasagne
Cover the baking dish lightly with foil, taking care not to let it touch the top of the lasagne. Bake 40 minutes, or until almost heated through. Remove the foil and bake another 10 minutes, or until hot in the center (test by inserting a knife – if it comes out very warm, the dish is ready). Take care not to brown the cheese topping. It should be melted, creamy looking and barely tinged with a little gold. Turn off the oven, leave the door ajar and let the lasagne rest for about 10 minutes. Then serve. This is not a solid lasagne, but a moist one that slips a bit when it is cut and served.
5. Working Ahead
The ragu and the béchamel sauce can be made up to three days ahead. The ragu can also be frozen for up to one month. The pasta can be rolled out, cut and dried up to 24 hours before cooking. The assembled lasagne can wait at room temperature (20 degrees Celsius/68 degrees Fahrenheit) about 1 hour before baking. Do not refrigerate it before baking, as the topping of béchamel and cheese will overcook by the time the center is hot.

#1 Spinach Egg Pasta (Pasta Verde)

Ingredients:
2 jumbo eggs
10 ounces fresh spinach, rinsed dry, and finely chopped
3 1/2 cups all purpose unbleached flour

Directions
1. Mixing the dough:
Mound the flour in the center of your work surface and make a well in the middle. Add the eggs and spinach. Use a wooden spoon to beat together the eggs and spinach. Then gradually start incorporating shallow scrapings of flour from the sides of the well into the liquid. As you work more and more flour into the liquid, the well’s sides may collapse. Use a pastry scraper to keep the liquids from running off and to incorporate the last bits of flour into the dough. Don’t worry if it looks like a hopelessly rough and messy lump.
2. Kneading:
With the aid of the scraper to scoop up unruly pieces, start kneading the dough. Once it becomes a cohesive mass, use the scraper to remove any bits of hard flour on the work surface – these will make the dough lumpy. Knead the dough for about 3 minutes. Its consistency should be elastic and a little sticky. If it is too sticky to move easily, knead in a few more tablespoons of flour. Continue kneading about 10 minutes, or until the dough has become satiny, smooth, and very elastic. It will feel alive under your hands. Do not shortcut this step. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, and let it relax at room temperature 30 minutes to 3 hours.
3. Stretching and Thinning:
If using an extra-long rolling pin work with half the dough at a time. With a regular-length rolling pin, roll out a quarter of the dough at a time and keep the rest of the dough wrapped. Lightly sprinkle a large work surface with flour. The idea is to stretch the dough rather than press down and push it. Shape it into a ball and begin rolling out to form a circle, frequently turning the disc of dough a quarter turn. As it thins outs, start rolling the disc back on the pin a quarter of the way toward the center and stretching it gently sideways by running the palms of your hands over the rolled-up dough from the center of the pin outward. Unroll, turn the disc a quarter turn, and repeat. Do twice more. Stretch and even out the center of the disc by rolling the dough a quarter of the way back on the pin. Then gently push the rolling pin away from you with one hand while holding the sheet in place on the work surface with the other hand. Repeat three more times, turning the dough a quarter turn each time.
Repeat the two processes as the disc becomes larger and thinner. The goal is a sheet of even thickness. For lasagne, the sheet should be so thin that you can clearly see your hand through it and see colours. Cut into rectangles about 4 by 8 inches (10 x 20 cm).
Dry the pasta at room temperature and store in a sealed container or bag.

#2 Bechamel

Ingredients:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 tablespoons all purpose unbleached flour
2 2/3 cups milk
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Freshly grated nutmeg to taste

Directions:
Using a medium-sized saucepan, melt the butter over low to medium heat. Sift over the flour, whisk until smooth, and then stir (without stopping) for about 3 minutes. Whisk in the milk a little at a time and keep the mixture smooth. Bring to a slow simmer, and stir 3 to 4 minutes, or until the sauce thickens. Cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes, until the sauce thickens. Season with salt, pepper, and a hint of nutmeg.

#3 Country Style Ragu (Ragu alla Contadina)

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 ounces pancetta, finely chopped
1 medium onion, minced
1 medium stalk celery with leaves, minced
1 small carrot, minced
4 ounces boneless veal shoulder or round
4 ounces pork loin, trimmed of fat, or 4 ounces mild Italian sausage (made without fennel)
8 ounces beef skirt steak, hanging tender, or boneless chuck blade or chuck center cut (in order of preference)
1 ounce thinly sliced Prosciutto di Parma
2/3 cup dry red wine
1 1/2 cups chicken or beef stock
2 cups milk
3 canned plum tomatoes, drained
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Heat the olive oil in a 12 inch skillet over medium-high heat. Have a large saucepan handy to use once browning is complete. Add the pancetta and minced vegetables and sauté, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon, 10 minutes, or until the onions barely begin to color. 2. Coarsely grind all the meats together, including the prosciutto, in a food processor or meat grinder. Stir into the pan and slowly brown over medium heat. First the meats will give off a liquid and turn dull grey but, as the liquid evaporates, browning will begin. Stir often, scooping under the meats with the wooden spatula. Protect the brown glaze forming on the bottom of the pan by turning the heat down. Cook 15 minutes, or until the meats are a deep brown. Turn the contents of the skillet into a strainer and shake out the fat. Turn them into the saucepan and set over medium heat.
3. Add the wine to the skillet, lowering the heat so the sauce bubbles quietly. Stir occasionally until the wine has reduced by half, about 3 minutes. Scrape up the brown glaze as the wine bubbles. Then pour the reduced wine into the saucepan and set the skillet aside.
4. Stir ½ cup stock into the saucepan and let it bubble slowly, 10 minutes, or until totally evaporated. Repeat with another ½ cup stock. Stir in the last 1/2 cup stock along with the milk. Adjust heat so the liquid bubbles very slowly. Partially cover the pot, and cook 1 hour. Stir frequently to check for sticking.
5. Add the tomatoes, crushing them as they go into the pot. Cook uncovered, at a very slow bubble for another 45 minutes, or until the sauce resembles a thick, meaty stew. Season with salt and pepper.
6. The ragu can be made 3 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate. It also freezes well for up to 1 month. Skim the fat from the ragu before using it.

Monogrammed Sugar Cookies

2009-03-27T14:48:00.023-05:00

If you can’t tell, those cookies say ‘W’ and ‘L’. WL doesn’t have any significant meaning, and it certainly does not stand for wavelength, wetland, or some programming language. W and L are simply the initials of two ladies in attendance at my sister-in-law’s wonderful bridal shower last weekend. The shower will be the subject of another post, so for now, let’s stick to the cookies. They were part of the favors given away at the shower, iced with the first initial of all the ladies’ names.

I used Stephanie’s (Joy of Baking) sugar cookie and royal icing recipe, and I was happy to find making the cookies from start to finish took me just over a couple hours, including the time to freeze the dough. This recipe was straightforward and resulted in firm cookies that were not too stiff. The icing was great for flooding, but not the best for writing. My icing was a bit on the runny side, so writing any more than one letter turned into a big pink blob.

For easier icing, I used a squeeze bottle (available at most craft and cake stores) and grew to love it. I didn’t get icing all over my hand, I could take a quick rest whenever I needed, it was great. I’m going to stock up on those for my future icing needs.

That was just a quick peek into the bridal shower, stay tuned to see how it all panned out.

Sugar Cookies (makes about 36)
adapted from Joy of Baking

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions:
1. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of your electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 3 to 4 minutes). Add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat until combined. Add the flour mixture and beat until you have a smooth dough.
3. Divide the dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap. Freeze for about 30 minutes or until firm enough to roll.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place rack in center of oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
5. Remove one half of the chilled dough from the refrigerator and, on a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/4 inch. (Keep turning the dough as you roll, making sure the dough does not stick to the counter.) Cut out desired shapes using a lightly floured cookie cutter and transfer cookies to the prepared baking sheet. Place the baking sheets with the unbaked cookies in the refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes to chill the dough which prevents the cookies from spreading and losing their shape while baking.
6. Bake cookies for about 10 minutes (depending on size) or until they are brown around the edges. Remove from oven and let cookies cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. Frost with royal icing. Be sure to let the royal icing dry completely before storing. (This may take several hours.) Frosted cookies will keep several days in an airtight container. Store between layers of parchment paper or wax paper.

Royal Icing
adapted from Joy of Baking

Ingredients:
2 large egg whites
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
3 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
drops of water, as needed
few drops food coloring gel (optional)

Directions:
1. In the bowl of your electric mixer, beat the egg whites with the lemon juice. Add the sifted powdered sugar and beat on low speed until combined and smooth.
2. Drop in water little at a time to create desired consistency. Add in food coloring gel and mix well to achieve color.
3. The icing needs to be used immediately or transferred to an airtight container as royal icing hardens when exposed to air. Cover with plastic wrap when not in use.

One Year After The Wedding

2009-03-08T09:44:00.003-05:00

Today we are eating this year-old matcha cake (still delicious, by the way) because it's our wedding anniversary. I cannot believe it's already been a full year since the wedding! I do remember that day as the best day of my life so far, but as great as the wedding was, the marriage has been better.

I don't want to induce any gagging here, but I have to say that Tim is perfect for me in many ways. I didn't say he was perfect, rather perfect for me. We both know we're only human, and we have realistic expectations of each other. Undoubtedly there will be times we will fall short or even hurt the other, but we forgive because of our commitment and love.

We're still young and have much to learn about marriage, I'm sure. I'm just looking forward to figuring it out each day with my wonderful husband.

Happy Texas Independence Day - Texas Sheet Cake

2009-03-02T01:48:00.009-05:00

Happy Texas Independence Day, y'all! If you haven't heard already, I'm a born and raised Texan. Houstonian to be exact. And to celebrate the day, I made a Texas sheet cake in the shape of Texas. Now you may not recognize the state as I had a slight mishap getting my cake out of the pan. I tried my very best to reconstruct the cake in its proper shape, but the unique shape of Texas made it a tad difficult.

See, I have proof that it was meant to be the Lone Star State.

And here we have a slice of West Texas. Who knew El Paso was so sweet and moist? I tried to find the origins of the cake's name, but nobody has a clear answer as far as I can tell. My best guess is that this chocolate cake is so good, it had to be named after the best state in America.

I have said that Texas is a state of mind, but I think it is more than that. It is a mystique closely approximating a religion. And this is true to the extent that people either passionately love Texas or passionately hate it ... For all its enormous range of space, climate, and physical appearance, and for all the internal squabbles, contentions, and strivings, Texas has a tight cohesiveness perhaps stronger than any other section of America. Rich, poor, Panhandle, Gulf, city, country, Texas is the obsession, the proper study and the passionate possession of all Texans.
- John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America

Texas Sheet Cake

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter
4 tablespoons cocoa
1 cup water
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions:
1. Sift flour and sugar together in a medium bowl.
2. Melt butter in a saucepan. Add in cocoa and water and bring to a boil.
3. Pour cocoa mixture over flour and sugar and mix thoroughly.
4. Add remaining ingredients to the mixture, mix until smooth.
5. Pour into a greased and floured Texas-shaped pan. Bake at 350 F degrees for 20 minutes.
6. Let cake slightly cool, invert cake, and pour Texas Sheet Cake Frosting on top.

Texas Sheet Cake Frosting

Ingredients:
4 tablespoons cocoa
1/2 cup butter
6 tablespoons black coffee
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Directions:
1. Melt butter in a saucepan. Add in cocoa and coffee and bring to a boil. Remove from heat.
2. Add in powdered sugar and vanilla. Beat until smooth.
3. Stir in pecans until well incorporated.

Chocolate Valentino Cake and Black Peppercorn Ice Cream

2009-02-28T23:44:00.006-05:00

February has reached its end, and that means it's time for another round with the Daring Bakers. This month we were to make a flourless chocolate cake and pair it with a homemade ice cream, and I'm afraid my cake turned out to be a flop, literally. I was impatient in waiting for the egg whites to form stiff peaks, and I went ahead and folded in the soft-whipped egg whites. My "cake" turned out to be one giant dark chocolate cookie. Fortunately, it tasted just fine, as as Wendy and Dharm mentioned, it tasted exactly like the chocolate used.

Making the ice cream was a complete experiment for me. I've never made ice cream before (frozen yogurt - yes, just not ice cream), but I was determined to make a peppercorn ice cream to pair with the dark chocolate cake. I used a recipe for pink peppercorn ice cream and substituted in black peppercorns, and I was pleased with the results.

I would eat neither the cake nor the ice cream on its own, but when eaten together, it truly is perfect harmony. Tim even described it as a very "adult taste." Whatever he meant by that, I'll take it as a complement.

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

Chocolate Valentino Cake

Ingredients:
10 ounces 100% cacao Ghirardelli chocolate
6 ounces 72% cacao Ghirardelli chocolate
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
5 large eggs, separated

Directions:
1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.
2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.
4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed.
5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.
6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.
7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter.
8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375 degrees F.
9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140 degrees F.
10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

Black Peppercorn Ice Cream
recipe adapted from Chika Tillman

Ingredients:
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups whole milk
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns, crushed
8 egg yolks

Directions:
1. Heat the heavy cream, milk, sugar, and pepper in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring mixture to a simmer, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar.
2. Remove from heat and let mixture steep for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, place the egg yolks in a medium mixing bowl and beat well with a wire whisk.
3. Return the cream mixture to medium heat and bring to a simmer again. Remove from heat. Temper the hot mixture into the eggs by slowly pouring the cream into them in a thin stream, while constantly whisking the eggs with a whisk.
4. Strain the egg-and-cream mixture through a fine-mesh strainer back into the saucepan. Return it to the stove and cook over medium-low heat, stirring often with a wooden spoon, until the custard base has thickened enough to coat the back of the spoon.
5. Cool the custard in an ice bath until it is completely cold.
6. Freeze the custard in an ice cream maker, according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Place in a covered plastic container and store in the freezer overnight.

Taro Mochi

2009-02-27T15:00:00.002-05:00

Last week's post featured the taro bread I made after reminiscing the food I grew up with in Houston. This week I took the same taro paste recipe and used it in this taro mochi. I've made mochi a time or two before, but I never successfully made a filled mochi until now.

There are so many different ways to eat mochi, I really can't pick a favorite way. I primarily make a simple sweet mochi to top my homemade frozen yogurt, but last year I started frying blocks of plain mochi, wrapping it in seaweed and dipping it in soy sauce for a delicious savory snack.

When making a filled mochi, you have to work fast to get it completely enclosed around the filling. A lot of pinching is involved to seal the ball, and I recommend being liberal with the potato starch to minimize the amount of mochi stuck to your hands.

You'll notice my mochi is purple, and that's because I added in some taro milk tea powder. I did so for an extra oomph of taro flavor, but also so that you can tell what kind of mochi it is by its color. That, and I do love the color purple.

Taro Mochi

Ingredients:
1 cup Mochiko sweet rice flour
1 Tb taro milk tea powder (as used in taro mousse)
1 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup taro paste (described in taro bread recipe)
potato starch, for dusting

Directions:
1. In a medium bowl, mix mochiko, taro powder, and sugar. Add in water and combine thoroughly.
2. Spread mochi mixture in 9 x 11 Pyrex or other microwaveable dish. Cover with plastic wrap.
4. Microwave on high for 4 minutes. Take off plastic wrap and let cool about 4 minutes. Mochi should still be warm yet cool enough to handle.
5. Cut mochi into 12 large squares (roughly 2"x2").
6. Taking one square at a time, spoon 1/2 teaspoon of taro paste in the middle of moch square. Pinch edges together to seal and mold mochi into a ball. Dust immediately with potato starch to prevent sticking.

Taro Bread

2009-02-20T17:37:00.007-05:00

Tim and I had a great time in Houston last weekend - we spent quality time with my parents, ate a lot of great food, and met up with some of my oldest and dearest friends. And when I say old I mean longest relationships.

Well, it's been about a year since my last visit to Houston, and I've got a couple things to note. First, I love I-10! Last I saw it, it was still one big mess, but now it's 18 wide lanes of a smooth Texas highway. While driving there, I told Tim that I miss driving, but he corrected me, knowing that I really miss driving on nice freeways like I-10. Tim's right, that's exactly what I meant.

Second thing to note - Houston's Chinatown keeps exploding everytime I visit. Why, I remember when the only supermarkets were Diho and Dynasty, but now there are dozens of them! Dozens! And all the bubble tea shops, cafes, and bakeries multiply right along with the supermarkets. Growing up, I remember our family would frequent a particular bakery solely for their taro bread. Now, it wasn't bread flavored with taro, rather it was a loaf of soft white bread baked with a generous amount of sweet taro paste inside. The loaf was also topped with a light glaze with coconut flakes. I very clearly remember the bread, but all I remember about the bakery is that it's located in Diho square. (I might have to ask around for more details) Well that bread was the inspiration for this post. I took Julia Child's classic white bread recipe and turned it into a taro bread by filling the inside with taro paste.

Making bread is a way to teach me patience. I clearly don't have any as I didn't wait the entire 45 minutes for the bread to double in size before sticking it in the oven, thus my bread didn't come out as full as it should have. I decided to go ahead with the batch to see how it'd turn out, and thankfully it was still tasty, just lacking in the desired texture. I wouldn't change a thing about the taro paste, and now that I have a go-to taro paste recipe, I'm brainstorming what other taro goods I can come up with. I hope you're intrigued. I hope.

Taro Bread
recipe adapted from Baking with Julia

Ingredients:
1/4 cup warm water
1 cup warm milk
2 tablespoons active dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3-4 cups bread flour or all-purpose flour
1 cup Taro Paste (recipe below)

Directions:
1. Pour 1/4 cup of the water into a bowl and mix with yeast. Let sit for 5 minutes.
2. Combine the milk, sugar, and butter. Blend well with the yeast mixture.
3. Using a stand mixer with dough hook, beat in 2 cups of flour into the mixture. Mix slowly until blended then add the rest of the flour.
4. Increase speed and scrape down the sides til the dough comes together. Add salt and mix at medium speed for 10 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic.
5. Turn dough out on lightly floured surface and shape it into a ball then place in a large buttered or oiled bowl.
6. Turn dough so it is completely coated in the fat, then cover in plastic for 45 minutes to an hour, til it has doubled in size at room temperature.
7. Butter a loaf pan.
8. Deflate the dough, and turn out onto a lightly floured surface.
9. Roll out into a 9 x 12-inch rectangle. Spread taro paste around the middle of the rectangle.
10. With the short end facing you, fold the dough into thirds over the paste, creating a roll.
11. Pinch the seam closed, and pinch the ends enough so it will fit in the loaf pan. Place in the loaf pan seam side down.
12. Cover the loaves with buttered plastic wrap and allow to rise again in a warm place for 45 minutes, or until they double in size.
13. Preheat the oven to 375°F and put the rack in the center of the oven.
14. Bake for 35-45 minutes until they are honey brown.
15. Immediately turn out of pans onto a rack to cool.

Taro Paste

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups small taro pieces (peel and cut fresh taro)
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup sugar (up to 1/2 cup, depending on desired sweetness)
1 tablespoon corn starch
2 tablespoons water

Directions:
1. Boil or steam the taro pieces until cooked. Taro is done when a fork easily pokes through.
2. In a food processor or blender, blend the cooked taro and 1/2 water until it becomes a puree.
3. Mix the corn starch with 2 tablespoons water to make a paste.
4. Combine paste into taro puree and pour into a saucepan.
5. Cook taro puree and paste over low-medium heat, stirring in the sugar. Keep adding sugar until taro paste reaches desired sweetness.
6. Constantly stir the paste, and reduce the heat when the paste becomes thicker. Stir over low heat an additional 10-15 minutes.
7. Remove paste from heat and let cool.

Orange Hazelnut Cake

2009-02-13T17:44:00.005-05:00

Many months ago, the lovely Suzana of Home Gourmets sent me a cookbook featuring recipes from the Alps for a little giveaway she did coinciding with her trip to Slovenia. (Thanks again so much, Suzana! I love it!) Still, many months ago, I read it through and marked a few recipes I wanted to try. It wasn't until this week that I actually tried one of them.

I took the original recipe for a walnut cake and transformed it into an orange hazelnut cake. I thought the flavors were fitting for the winter, but ironically we've been having very spring-like weather here in New York! I'm not complaining at all though, and if you know me at all, you know I'd pick hot and humid weather over the cold any day. I guess that's just the Houston gal in me.

And right now this Houston gal is at the airport waiting to board my delayed plane. Tim and I are spending the long weekend visiting my parents. However ya'll are spending the weekend, I hope ya'll enjoy!

Orange Hazelnut Cake
adapted from Cuisine of the Alps by Kay Shaw Nelson

Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2/3 cup sour milk
1/2 cup hazelnut paste
grated peel of orange
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
splash of Cointreau

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 F degrees.Grease a bundt baking pan.
2. In a large bowl cream the butter. Add 1 cup of the sugar and the eggs; blend well.
3. In a medium bowl mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. 4. Add flour mixture to the sugar mixture, alternating with the sour milk. Mix well.
5. Stir in hazelnut paste and orange rind. Mix to combine thoroughly. Pour into prepared pan.
6. Bake about 45 minutes, or until a tester inserted into cake comes out clean.
7. Meanwhile, make a thick syrup by boiling together 1 1/2 cups sugar with 3/4 cup water and 1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice for 15 minutes. Add in a splash of Cointreau.
8. Pour over the cake while it is still warm. Turn off oven and return cake to the oven for 5 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Mint Chocolate Brownies

2009-02-06T09:41:00.003-05:00

This week I received an earnest email from a coworker, pleading for our Girl Scout cookie purchases to support his daughter's first year as a Girl Scout. He spoke of how she's so close to reaching her goal, and that my purchase will help boost her self-confidence and then, only then, can she succeed in life. Maybe I made that last part up, but if he brought her in to the office, I'll bet she would have made a killing. Who can resist buying cookies from a little girl asking so sweetly? I certainly can't, so I opted for a couple boxes of thin mints. I love that mint chocolate flavor, and when they're frozen - yum.

The thin mints will arrive sometime next week, so in the mean time I made these mint chocolate brownies to have a little taste of what's to come. I used a previous brownie recipe and added a teaspoon of peppermint extract. A little bit of that stuff certainly goes a long way. I think I would like a little more texture in these brownies, but since I usually shy away from adding nuts (per some preferences), next time I'll add in some chocolate chunks to the mix.

Mint Chocolate Brownies
adapted from a previous recipe

Ingredients:
7 ounces dark chocolate (this time I used Ghirardelli's 72% cocoa)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into quarters
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
3 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 cup flour

Directions:
1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 350F degrees.
2. Spray mini muffin pan with nonstick vegetable cooking spray.
3. In microwave, melt chocolate and butter, stirring occasionally until mixture is smooth. Whisk in cocoa until smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.
4. Whisk together eggs, sugar, vanilla, peppermint, and salt in medium bowl until combined, about 15 seconds.
5. Whisk warm chocolate mixture into egg mixture; then stir in flour until just combined.
6. Spoon batter into muffin pan. Bake until slightly puffed and toothpick inserted in center comes out with a small amount of sticky crumbs clinging to it, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool on wire rack to room temperature.

Tuile and Lychee Panna Cotta with Raspberry Puree

2009-01-28T15:38:00.012-05:00

Happy New Year! Either I'm very late in saying that or I'm still celebrating the Lunar New Year, you can decide which it is. January certainly flew by for me, and I'm still surprised that my Daring Bakers post is already due. After returning from our marvelous trip out east, I've come back with much more flavor inspiration for my baking this year. Be on the lookout for more exotic desserts in 2009.

A little about tuiles: traditionally, tuiles are thin, crisp almond cookies that are gently molded over a rolling pin or arched form while they are still warm. Once set, their shape resembles the curved French roofing tiles for which they're named. The Dutch angle is that this batter was used to bake flat round cookies on December 31st, representing the year unfold. On New Years day, the same batter was used, but this day they were presented to well-wishers shaped as cigars and filled with whipped cream, symbolizing the New Year that's about to roll on.

In this Daring Bakers' challenge, we were to pair the tuiles up with something light, and I thought of panna cotta after one dinner last week. I decided to add some fruit to it, flavoring the panna cotta with lychee puree and adding raspberry puree as a garnish. The flavors went wonderfully together, and the tuiles were the perfect finish to the dessert.

This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Baking Soda and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.

Tuiles
from Angélique Schmeinck's The Chocolate Book

Ingredients:
1/4 cup softened butter
1/2 cup sifted confectioner’s sugar
1 teaspoon sugar
dash of vanilla extract
2 large egg whites (slightly whisked)
1/2 cup sifted all purpose flour

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
2. Using a hand whisk or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle (low speed) and cream butter, sugar, and vanilla to a paste. Keep stirring while you gradually add the egg whites. Continue to add the flour in small batches and stir to achieve a homogeneous and smooth batter/paste. Be careful to not over mix.
3. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up. (This batter will keep in the fridge for up to a week, take it out 30 minutes before you plan to use it).
4. Line a baking sheet with Silpat mat and chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. This will help spread the batter more easily if using a stencil. Press the stencil on the baking sheet and use an off sided spatula to spread batter. If foregoing the stencil, use a rubber spatula or piping bag and spread/pipe batter in desired shapes, making sure to leave room in between shapes.
5. Bake in preheated oven for about 5-10 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown. Immediately release from baking sheet and proceed to shape/bend the cookies in the desired shape. These cookies have to be shaped when still warm.

Lychee Panna Cotta
adapted from Gourmet, August 1997

Ingredients:
1 envelope unflavored gelatin (about 1 tablespoon)
2 tablespoons cold water
2 cups heavy cream
1/3 cup milk
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups lychee puree (from 2 cans canned lychee)

Directions:
1. In a very small saucepan sprinkle gelatin over water and let stand about 1 minute to soften. Heat gelatin mixture over low heat until gelatin is dissolved and remove pan from heat.
2. In a large saucepan bring cream, milk, and sugar just to a boil over moderately high heat, stirring. Remove pan from heat and stir in gelatin mixture and lychee puree. Divide cream mixture among eight 1/2-cup ramekins and cool to room temperature. Chill ramekins, covered, at least 4 hours or overnight.
3. Dip ramekins, one at a time, into a bowl of hot water 3 seconds. Run a thin knife around edge of each ramekin and invert ramekin onto center of a small plate.
4. Garnish the panna cotta with raspberry puree and tuile.

Raspberry Puree

Ingredients:
1/2 cup fresh raspberries
1/2 teaspoon sugar
drop of lemon juice

Directions:
1. Using a food processor or blender, blend raspberries, sugar, and lemon juice until it becomes a puree.
2. Strain puree through a cheesecloth, discarding the seeds.