Rachael Ray Book Signing in San Jose

For those of you who live in the bay area and are a fan of Rachael Ray, she'll be coming to Sur La Table in Santana Row in San Jose for a signing of her latest book 2, 4, 6, 8: Great Meals for Couples or Crowds. I'm not Rachael Ray's biggest fan and although I do enjoy watching her show, 30-minute meals, I would never really buy one of her books... although for this appearance I had to buy her latest book to get a "ticket" in to see her talk. I flipped through the book and it has some tasty looking menus but the bad thing is that its completely printed in lime green. Yes, lime green font, lime green boxes, and light blue for the font. It's really not pleasant on the eyes but I'll try some of the recipes out and write up a review about it later. I'll also write about her appearance which is going to be on December 10th at 1:00pm.

Corn Muffins

For dinner, I had tried out this crockpot chili verde recipe from a Williams & Sonoma book I got last weekend. Normally I don't think you'd eat corn muffins with chili verde but I just got the oddest craving at the very last minute. So I went to my ever-so-trustworthy Cook's Illustrated and quickly found a recipe for these fabulous muffins (Note: You won't be able to access the recipe unless you're a member but I'll be posting it anyways here.) I hadn't any sour cream to spare so I used buttermilk in place and it came out very tender and moist. It has an intense buttery fragrance with a strong corn bread taste that is mildly sweet. I'd have to say I was most pleased.

Corn Muffins

2 cups flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
8 tbsp butter, melted
3/4 cup sour cream (or buttermilk)
1/2 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 400F. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin or line with paper cups.

This is quite an easy recipe and since I was rushing I finished making the batter within 10 minutes. You just whisk all the dry ingredients in one bowl and then in a separate bowl whisk the eggs and sugar together until well thick and yellow. Add the melted butter, sour cream or buttermilk, and milk. Combine the dry ingredients in with the wet ingredients and stir until just combined. As with most quick breads, try not to overmix. Mound into your muffin tin and don't bother flattening them out. Mounding messily into the tin makes for wonderfully shaped muffin tops. Bake for about 18 minutes or until muffins are golden brown and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let rest in pan for about 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack. After 5 minutes enjoy warm with a pat of butter.

Curled up

My cat, Princess. :)

Pancakes in the news

My boyfriend alerted me to this article about how a local IHOP was making customers hand over their IDs before getting served. Of course, everyone complained because it is an unnecessary breach pf privacy and just opens up the can of identify theft worms. I can understand why someone might have thought of such an idea but is "dine and dash" really that rampant? This reminds me of how people got so irritated at Sony for putting spyware on their cds. Its really ridiculous if you ask me. Can't we just enjoy our pancakes and music in peace without Big Brother looking over our shoulder?

See the original article here.

German Apple Pancake

Of course, this website would not do its name duty by not having at least one pancake recipe, right?? Well today, since I hadn't anywhere to go in the morning and I had some leftover Granny Smiths from the Thanksgiving apple pie, I decided upon German Apple Pancake or Apfel Pfannekuchen (I make pancakes all the time, by the way, just hadn't since I started this website.) I've made dutch babies before and they are quite fun watching them puff up in the oven. I used a Cook's Illustrated recipe for this one and I must say they fail to disappoint, as usual. It was full of tart, apple-ly cinnamon flavor in a soft, pudding-light bread of a pancake... which I could literally not stop eating. I have dishes to do but I dare not enter the kitchen lest I eat the rest of this heavenly dish!

I did think that the granny smiths were a bit too tart. I'd try using the Braeburn apples next time for a much sweeter pancake.

Note: I highly recommend you pick up Cook's Illustrated's Holiday Baking issue which is out in stores now. Lots of great recipes!

German Apple Pancake

For the batter: 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour 1 tbsp sugar 1/2 tsp table salt 2 large eggs 2/3 cups half-and-half 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the Apple filling: 1 1/4 lbs Granny Smith or Braeburn apples (3-4 large apples), peeled, quarted, cored, and cut into 1/2-inch thick slices 1/4 cup packed light or dark brown sugar 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon 1 tsp juice from 1 lemon Confectioners' sugar for dusting

Prep:
Set rack on upper-middle position and preheat oven to 500F.

Make the batter:
Whisk dry and wet ingredients in separate bowls. Then combine and beat until smooth.

Make the filling:
Heat the butter in a 10-inch ovenproof nonstick skill over medium-high heat until sizzling. Add the apples, brown sugar, and cinnamon and cook for about 10 minutes or until the apples are a golden brown. Take off the heat and stir in the lemon juice.

Assemble:
Pour batter around and over apples (make sure the batter is more on the sides than in the middle as the puffing can push the apples overboard onto your oven floor!). Put the skillet in your 500F oven but then quickly turn the temperature down to 425F and bake the pancake until it is golden and puffy -- around 18 minutes. Mine actually got a little charred on one side so I would watch it and move your pan around if it gets too brown on one side.

Eat!:
Remove pan from the oven and loosen sides with a rubber spatula. Invert onto a plate and dust with the confectioners' sugar. Serves about 4 but serves 1 if you can't control yourself. :)

Chicken Cream Puff Pie

I keep an rss feed of Epicurious.com on my google homepage and this popped up yesterday as one of their latest recipes... Turkey Cream Puff Pie. I was instantly intrigued and went to take a look. Sure enough, the picture shown looked delicious and visitor comments were positive so I decided that I would give it a trial for Monday's night dinner. Pate a choux has to be one of the easiest doughs to make as all you have to do is cook the flour and butter together on the stove, mix in the eggs one at a time and you're done (well you have to bake it afterwards of course). The fluffy, cheesy golden pastry is well worth whatever minimum effort you have to expend into making the pate a choux so don't be afraid. It was excellent with the meat mixture, although I used chicken instead of turkey... can you believe I haven't any turkey leftovers this Thanksgiving!? Its a true pig pen here and the only non-pig being my cat (who hardly eats much of anything... except for tuna).

I won't post the recipe here as it readily available in its full glory at Epicurious.com. I will say that I didn't add the tomato as some of the visitors had suggested... it did seem a little out of place. Another thing would be that I would try and make the meat mixture a little more creamier next time... perhaps adding a dash of cream or the sort to make up for the time it has to be in the oven.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Ever since I've finally had success with baking white bread using The King Arthur Flour Baking Companion recipe for White Bread 101, I've decided to continue my baking training further with more of their recipes. This here is a soft, rich, and absolutely delectable sweet bread. I baked it yesterday (I absolutely had to bake something being that the apartment was under 50 degrees) and pray tell the wonderful smell that filled the apartment foreshadowed the imminent bread eating that would make the bread less than half a loaf today. I'm quite pleased with myself, more so because the bread did not come out dense as it had raised (rised?) quite nicely in a warmed oven. Which I might add, has been my saving grace ever since my bread starting coming out well.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Dough 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour 1/4 cup potato flour 1/4 cup nonfat dry milk 1 1/4 tsp salt 1/2 tsp cinnamon 3 tbsp sugar 2 1/2 tsp instant yeast 4 tbsp butter 1 cup water, warmed to about 110 degrees F

Filling 1/4 sugar 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/4 cup raisins or currants (optional) 2 tsp unbleached all-purpose flour Egg wash, made from 1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water Topping 2 tbsp butter 2 tbsp sugar 1/4 tsp cinnamon 1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

Make Dough:
In an standing electric mixer, combine all the dry ingredients and give it a whirl to mix it up. Melt your butter in the microwave or on the stove and let cool a bit. Then dissolve your yeast in with the warm water. While mixing on low, pour the butter into the flour mixture and then the yeast water. Go on low until dough comes together (if its too crumbly add a little warm water at a time) and then switch to medium (about 3 on a KitchenAid mixer) for about 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and satiny. Knead by hand for about a minute and then transfer the dough into a oiled bowl, cover with oiled plastic wrap, and set in a warm place to rise for about an hour to an hour and a half.

Make filling:
Mix filling ingredients together in a small bowl (except for the egg wash). Set aside.

Assemble:
Flatten dough into a long rectangle; about 16 x 8 inches. Brush the dough with some of the egg wash (reserve some for the topping) and press the filling onto the dough. Then starting with the short end, roll dough into a log making sure to pinch the ends so the filling will not leak out. Place dough in a lightly greased loaf pan (I used a 9 x 5) and let rise for about an hour or until the dough has risen about an inch over the rim of the pan.

Make topping:
Combine all topping ingredients in a small bowl. Brush top of bread with reserved egg wash and gently press the topping on.

Bake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake the bread for about 45 minutes or until inner bread has reached about 190 degrees. If the bread gets a little too brown during baking, tent lightly with foil. Remove from the oven and let rest in the pan for about 5 minutes. Then gently remove from the pan onto a cooling rack. Some of the topping will fall off but don't worry too much about it. Let the bread sit for about 10 to 15 minutes before slicing and devouring.