The Perfect Pancake

No Need to Knead Focaccia

2007-01-24T21:38:00.000-08:00

My camera is still broke but thank goodness my oven isn't! Today I baked focaccia bread from Suzanne Dunaway's No Need to Knead book on Italian breads. Since the NY Times No Knead Bread baked so successfully, I was delighted to find that there were more recipes just like it. Even though the book says that most of these bread recipes could be done in 90 minutes or so, I preferred letting my focaccia dough rise in the refrigerator for about 18 hours. Bread couldn't get any easier than this! :)

Focaccia
(from No Need to Knead by Suzanne Dunaway)

2 cups lukewarm water (85 to 95F)
2 tsp active dry yeast (or 1 1/2 tsp instant yeast)
4 cups unbleached bread flour
2 tsp kosher salt

olive oil
fresh chopped rosemary
sea salt

In a large bowl, mix the warm water and yeast together until dissolved. Stir in the salt and 2 cups of the bread flour and mix for about 2 minutes. Then add in the remaining 2 cups of flour and mix for another 2 minutes. I basically just stirred until the dough was well combined (didn't really bother looking at the time). Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in the refrigerator overnight. Two hours before baking, take the focaccia dough out and let it do its second rise in a warm place.

Preheat your oven to 500F. There are a variety of shapes you can do for focaccia but I did the traditional one in the jelly roll pan. Just pour your dough into a oiled jelly roll pan and with your fingers dipped in cold water, make dents in the dough and spread it outwards to fill the pan. Sprinkle the dough with the olive oil, sea salt, and rosemary to your liking. Turn down the oven to about 450F and then bake the focaccia for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Blog Update with a side of Coffee "Tea" Cake

2007-01-22T14:14:00.000-08:00

My camera has been out-of-service over the last week so even though I have been cooking and baking, I haven't been motivated to post without having any pictures. I baked french bread, a jelly roll cake, ham and onion fritatta, timbale, and most recently Coffee "Tea" Cakes. These turned out absolutely wonderful and delicious and if any of you are scone fans, you'll definitely have to try these out.

Coffee "Tea" Cakes
(from Fine Cooking)

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
2/3 cup plus 1 tsp firmly packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 tbsp finely ground coffee beans (from about 1 heaping tbsp whole beans)
1/2 cup (1/4 lb) cold butter, cubed
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup cold brewed espresso or double-strength coffee
1 tsp granulated sugar

Preheat your oven to 350F.

For mixing all the ingredients, I used my 12-cup food processor. You can use a standing mixer or just a regular bowl but you'll need a pastry cutter to cut in the butter. Anyhow, combine together your dry ingredients namely the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, brown sugar and ground coffee into your food processor and give it a whir until it is well combined. Add the butter in and pulse until the piece of your butter are the size of marbles (or so the recipe states but I just pulsed until it was like small pebbles like how I do with my pie pastry).

Next add your cream, vanilla and cold espresso and blend until just combined and your mixture has become like a dough. Put it out onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and pat into a round about 6-8 inches wide. Sprinkle some brown sugar on top (you could also add some white granulated sugar as well) and cut the circle into 8 equal pieces. You won't need to separate them from each other as you do normally with scones.

Bake until firm but still springy, 40 to 50 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack and then recut your wedges to serve.

Yeast-Raised Pancakes

2007-01-14T21:58:00.000-08:00

After trying these out, I'm a bit interested in making some yeast-raised waffles. These pancakes are not too sweet and so need generous amounts of maple syrup for a sweeter breakfast.

Yeast-Raised Pancakes
(from Pancakes: From Morning Till Midnight by Dorie Greenspan)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 packet active dry yeast or instant yeast
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup warm water
1 1/2 cups milk
3 tbsp unsalted butter
2 large eggs, beaten

1. Whisk together the flours and salt in a medium bowl. Proof (if necessary) your yeast and sugar in the 1/2 cup warm water. Warm the milk and butter together either on the stove or in the microwave to about 105F. Combine the yeast mixture in with the milk/butter mixture and then pour into the flour mixture. Mix until thoroughly combined. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and either let it rise overnight in the refrigerator or for an hour or two at room temperature. If you had done the former, let it rest for 20 minutes at room temperature before adding the eggs.
2. Stir down the batter and add in the beaten eggs. Your batter will be smooth and not your typical lumpy pancake batter.
3. Ladle onto a medium-hot skillet and fry until the surface is bubbly and golden on the bottom. Flip over and cook for another minute or two until golden brown.
4. Serve with butter and maple syrup.

Polenta Pie

2007-01-11T21:21:00.000-08:00

Since my boyfriend adores anything with a lot of tomato sauce and cheese I thought I'd give this recipe a shot since finding it at Epicurious. I had some store-bought polenta (from Trader Joes) hanging around and thought this would be a good time to use it. I don't particularly find the taste of store-bought polenta that good so it might be better to make some homemade polenta next time.

You can find the recipe for it here.

Instead of using a jar of tomato sauce for this recipe (I had none), I decided to make some all-purpose tomato sauce that's quite easy to make. It makes for a good dipping sauce for breadsticks as well.

All-Purpose Tomato Sauce
(from Cooks Illustrated)

1 large garlic clove, minced
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp tomato paste
28 ounce can whole tomatoes, chopped/crushed and juice reserved
Table salt and ground black pepper to taste
2-3 fresh basil leaves, shredded or 1/2 tsp dried

In a large saucepan, warm garlic in 2 tablespoons oil over low heat until soft, but not colored. Stir in tomato paste, then the tomatoes and their liquid. Simmer, uncovered, until the sauce coats the back of a spoon, about 25 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper; before serving, stir in basil and remaining tablespoon oil.

Chocolate & Vanilla: Cream Cheese-Stuffed Chocolate Cupcakes

2007-01-11T15:25:00.000-08:00

Sorry about the lack of posts recently. School has started and we have been apartment hunting all week. We've finally narrowed it down to 2-3 places which have all the amenities that I need (that most importantly a dishwasher). Unfortunately, we probably won't be getting a place with a gas stove like I had wanted but we'll be having a dishwasher and a washer and dryer which are pretty important as well.

I haven't been cooking as much either but I did bake these chocolate cupcakes which turned out to be only slightly disappointing. They are, of course, from Gale Gand's Chocolate & Vanilla book, and although everyone liked them here I was pretty disappointed with the "cream cheese-stuffed" part. With 4 ounces of cream cheese only, it could hardly "stuff" 24 cupcakes. If I ever made this recipe again, I would definitely double the filling.

Another thing is that the frosting really wasn't frosting; it was definitely more of a ganache and the recipe made way too much for 24 cupcakes. Plus it asks for 1 1/2 cups of cocoa which I think is a little excessive (I hardly see recipes calling for more than 3/4 cup of cocoa). 1/4 cup or 1/2 cup probably would have been sufficient and reducing the sugar as well. In fact, I don't think I could tell the difference between this ganache and just a regular cream and chocolate made ganache so I highly recommending just making the frosting with 1/2 cup of cream with 1/2 cup of chopped chocolate (or more if it doesn't frost enough cupcakes).

Cream Cheese-Stuffed Chocolate Cupcakes
(from Chocolate & Vanilla)

Filling:
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cupcakes:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder, preferably Dutch-processed
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups hot water
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp white vinegar
1 tbsp instant coffee crystals (optional)
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract

Chocolate Frosting:
8 tbsp unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups superfine sugar
1 1/2 cups cocoa powder, preferably Dutch-processed
Pinch of salt
1 cup heavy cream
1 tsp instant coffee crystals (optional)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Make the filling: In an electric mixer, beat the softened cream cheese until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add in the egg yolk and vanilla and beat on medium until well blended (scrape sides of bowl if necessary). Put mixer on low and mix in the sugar and chips. Set aside.

Make the cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350F and line 2 muffin pans with cupcake paper liners. In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt) and then in a large measuring cup, combine together the hot water, oil, vinegar, coffee, and vanilla extract. Combine the wet ingredients into the large bowl of dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Lumps are okay. Fill each cupcake liner to about 2/3 full. Add a dollop of the cream cheese mixture into the center (be careful about portioning out the cream cheese mixture if you hadn't doubled the recipe). Bake for about 30 to 35 minutes or until the cupcakes have puffed up and are firm to the touch. Remove from oven and cool (I removed them from the tin and cooled them on a wire rack).

Make the frosting: Melt the butter in a saucepan . Stir in the sugar, cocoa, and salt. Then whisk in the heavy cream and instant coffee crystals and cook over low heat until the sugar has dissolved. The mixture should never simmer or boil. Take off the heat and stir in the sour cream and vanilla. Let the mixture cool until the frosting thickens and becomes spreadable (about 1 hour). If too thin stir in some powdered sugar. When cupcakes are cool, spread the tops with frosting.

Note: When I made the frosting, it came out to be too thin and I ended up adding a lot of powdered sugar to the mixture. This frosting does not taste too different from normal ganache made with equal parts heavy cream and chocolate so next time I would make that instead since this recipe is a little on the "expensive" side using so much cocoa powder.

Cloverleaf Dinner Rolls

2007-01-02T21:15:00.000-08:00

Tonight we had delicious leftover pot roast and gravy with warm goat cheese salad and these heavenly buttery biscuits you see on the left. I have to say that the photo does not do these rolls justice. So you'll have to make them yourself to see how you won't be able to stop eating them. :)

Beth's Favorite Buttermilk Dinner Rolls
(from The Bread Bible by Beth Hensperger)

1 tbsp (1 package) active dry yeast
pinch of sugar
1/4 cup warm water (105F-115F)
1 cup warm buttermilk (105F-115F)
2 tbsp sugar or honey
Grated zest of 1 lemon
4 tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted, or olive oil
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 tsp salt (kosher)
4 to 4 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
Rich Egg Glaze (Mix 1 egg with 1 tbsp of milk)
3 tbsp sesame, poppy, or fennel seeds

1. Combine your yeast, sugar, and warm water in a small bowl and stir to dissolve. Let stand 10 minutes to proof if necessary.
2. In a large bowl or electric mixer, combine the buttermilk, sugar, lemon zest, melted butter, egg, salt, and yeast mixture. Add 1 1/2 cups of flour and mix until smooth and creamy. Switch to the dough hook attachment (if you are using an electric mixer) and add in the rest of your flour 1/2 cup at a time until the dough clears the sides and no longer looks overly batter-like (yes, batter-like is a technical term :P). Knead the dough by hand for about 4-7 minutes or 3-4 minutes if kneading by mixer. Knead briefly by hand if doing by mixer.
3. Place dough in a oiled bowl and let rise until double, or about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. If kitchen is not warm, place in a slightly warmed oven (make sure oven is not on while dough is there).
4. Place dough onto a lightly floured work surface. There are many different ways to shape rolls but I've made cloverleaf rolls so that's what I'll explain. You divide your dough in half and then divide those two halves into 8 pieces. For each piece, split into 3 equal pieces and place in a oiled muffin tin making sure they are touching each other. Cover with plastic and let rise for about 30 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 375F. Brush each roll with your egg glaze and sprinkle with seeds if you please. Bake in oven for about 15 to 18 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer to wire rack but these are best eaten warm with a generous slathering of butter.

French Bread V 2.0

2007-01-01T13:08:00.000-08:00

Finally a success! The bread rose very well and after baking ended up with a very crunchy crust and super soft inside. I could definitely tell the difference between my previous batch and this batch. This batch you could squeeze the bread and it would give way indicating a lovely soft dough inside. This recipe is based upon the Minimalist loaf (New York Times No Knead Bread) and some advice I got from the forums.

French Bread

2 cups bread flour, preferably King Arthur's Flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp instant yeast
1 1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 cups tepid water

1. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl with a wooden spoon or your hand. Add in the warm water and mix until combined and doughy. Put in a clean, oiled bowl and let rise about 12-15 hours. Room temperature should be 70F or so but just make sure it rises to about 10 cups.

2. Put dough out onto lightly floured surface. Cut into two pieces and flatten out. Doing this to both pieces, take the end nearest you and fold forward. Using the side of your hand or palm of your hand and seal the seam. Repeat with side farthest from you. Turn dough over, smooth top, and shape into a long, loaf-like shape by rolling it on the surface (make sure most of the dough is of even thickness). Place in a french bread pan or make-shift one with some heavy towels (make folds inbetween loaves). Cover with towel and let rise about 2 hours or until puffy.

3. Preheat the oven to 450F-500F (the hotter the better). If you are using a baking stone or tiles (I highly recommend it), preheat the oven for about an hour to get the stone good and hot. Spritz your loaves with water and then put in the hot oven. After 2 minutes, spritz loaves again with water. Repeat 2 more times every two minutes. Then bake for 20-25 minutes. Let sit for about 30 minutes before slicing.

French Toast with Chocolate Babka

2006-12-30T22:18:00.000-08:00

So with all the leftover chocolate babka I had I needed to do something with it. It won't do as breadcrumbs or croutons but perhaps it would make a very nice french toast, I had thought. Well it turned out quite good and the bit of chocolate made it dessert-like.

French Toast (using Chocolate Babka)
Serves 2

4 slices chocolate babka, sliced thickly (you can also use brioche or challah; you can also stale the bread the night before if your bread was freshly made)
3/4-1 cup whole milk (you can use cream or half-and-half but not non-fat or low-fat milk :P)
2 eggs
1/4 cup vanilla sugar (or regular granulated sugar)
1 tsp vanilla extract (depending upon your taste)
2 tbsp butter, for frying

In a big glass measuring cup, pour in your milk and add in the eggs. Whisk until well-combined (your liquid should be quite yellow and not too white) and then add in your sugar and vanilla extract. Pour the custard into a shallow pie plate.

Soak your bread slices in the custard for about 30 seconds on each side.

Heat a large skillet on medium and melt your butter in it. Fry each side of the bread slices until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side.

Enjoy with a side of whipped cream and a sprinkling of powdered sugar.

French Bread: Attempt #1

2006-12-29T13:56:00.000-08:00

So I attempted my first batch of French Bread yesterday with some success. They came out golden with the characteristic crunchy crust but the taste was a bit on the salty side. The recipe is a Julia Child one and goes as follows:

3 1/2 cups flour
1 package active dry yeast
2 1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups tepid water

I guess bakers normally use sea salt or kosher salt but I thought since it was only 2 teaspoons and she didn't specify kosher salt that I could use just normal table salt. I'm still investigating into this but I've looked at Chris Kimball's recipe for European bread (from Cook's Bible) and his proportions are just about the same. In fact, he calls for 1 tablespoon of kosher salt and 2 teaspoons of table salt if you don't have kosher.

The only other factor that I can think of is that I used King Arthur's Select Artisan Organic All Purpose Flour that has a protein level of 11.3%. Its supposed to be ideal for european breads which use an all-purpose flour lower in protein content than normal american all-purpose flour. If anyone has input on this problem, please let me know. I'll make another batch of the bread possibly tomorrow with kosher salt.

I also bought Chicago Metallic's French Bread pans for baking the bread and they worked wonderfully. The perforated bottoms gave it a real professional look.

Peanut Butter Cups

2006-12-28T21:16:00.000-08:00

I bought a new baking book from the used bookstore today entitled Dessert Circus by Jacques Torres. I've actually had my eye on the book for several weeks now having first seen it at Border's Books. It isn't new (1998) and is actually based upon the Pbs show by the same name. Most of the desserts are pretty fanciful ranging from meringue snowman to chocolate sculptures. Its a good challenge I think but sometimes when I look at the pictures I wonder, "How the heck would you eat that?" :)

Anyways, on to the peanut butter cups which come from this same book. It was my first time tempering chocolate and I am so glad that Jacques Torres believes in tempering chocolate by microwave (which is the easiest by far) instead of the traditional tabliering which involves heating the chocolate and cooling it on a marble slab (too much work and too much mess!) I used 3-inch fluted nonstick tartlet pans to make the chocolate cups and they came out quite easily. This isn't a very "sweet" dessert so much as it is "rich" (very rich I might add). I actually did not make a full recipe as I did use smaller tarlet pans than he had recommended and I still had batter left over. I also omitted the praline paste (since I had none) and increased the peanut butter to 1 cup. More variations at the end of the recipe.

Peanut Butter Cups

(from Dessert Circus by Jacques Torres)

For the chocolate cups:
10.5 ounces Bittersweet chocolate, tempered

For the filling:
5.2 ounces Bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup praline paste

Prepare the chocolate cups: Place a wire rack over a baking sheet and set aside. Use 4-inch fluted nonstick tartlet pans to make the chocolate cups, but you can use any small nonstick tartlet pan you like. Make sure the pans are clean and dry before you begin.

Fill each tartlet pan with tempered chocolate. Make sure the chocolate covers the sides of the pan. Then hold the pan upside down over the bowl of tempered chocolate and allow the excess chocolate to drip back into the bowl. Wipe the top edge of the pan against the rim of the bowl to clean off the edge. Place the chocolate-coated pans upside down on the wire rack. This will allow any remaining chocolate to drain. Wait until the chocolate begins to set, 4 to 5 minutes, then use a paring knife to scrape the edge of the pans clean again to give the finished cup a nice straight edge and to make it easier to unmold the chocolate cups.

Place the tartlet pans right side up in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes. This will cause the chocolate to retract from the sides, making it easier to remove the cups. You should be able to invert each pan and have the chocolate shell fall into your hand. If not, rest your thumbs on the outside of the pan and place your first two fingers on the inside of the cup. Gently begin to life the chocolate from the pan. Do not press or pull too hard, or you will break the chocolate. If you've used a deeper pan, you may need to apply this lifting pressure all around the inside to loosen the chocolate from the pan. Set the chocolate cups aside on a baking sheet until ready to be filled.

Prepare the filling: Melt the chocolate either in the microwave or in a double-boiler setup. Make sure the chocolate doesn't burn and once melted stir until smooth and set aside until cool to the touch but not so cold that is begins to harden and set.

Combine the peanut butter and praline paste in a medium-size mixing bowl. Add the cooled chocolate and whisk together. This mixture will be stiff and begin to set quickly, so whisk vigorously and thoroughly to combine.

Place the peanut butter mixture in a pastry bag with a large opening (no tip). Fill each chocolate cup to about 1/8 inch from the top. Very lightly tap the filled cups against the work surface to remove any air bubbles. Let the peanut butter cups set at room temperature for about 1 hour, then serve. If you are in a hurry, you can place the peanut butter cups in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes. They can also be frozen for two weeks if well wrapped in plastic wrap. Thaw at room temperature before serving.

Variation: If you prefer, omit the praline paste. In that instance, use 2 cups of peanut butter and 5.5 ounces of chocolate. To make an even lighter dessert, add about 1 cup of Rice Krispies to the filling. Also try garnishing the dessert with whipped cream and fresh peanuts.

Christmas Cakathon

2006-12-27T00:38:00.000-08:00

Happy Belated Christmas everyone. :) I was kind of dead yesterday after all the baking and cooking I had to do so here goes the 'belated' Christmas baking post. I'm eager to see what everyone else had made too. :)

Cake #1: Buche de Noel (Yule Log Cake)

I was quite pleased with how this turned out. I didn't have time to make the meringue mushrooms but all was well anyways. I used a Cook's Illustrated recipe that included a rich, dark chocolate sponge cake with an espresso mascarpone filling. The filling was most especially delicious and although I had thought about substituting the mascarpone with cream cheese I am glad I hadn't. The mascarpone lended a creamy velvety texture to the filling without the tangy 'cheesy' taste. I did have a bit of a problem rolling the cake as it immediately started cracking but that was fixed with extra ganache. I think I may have overbeaten the egg whites again (those darn egg whites!)

Cake #2: Creme Brulee (actually not a cake)

I decided to accompany this creme brulee with the chocolate cloud cake (see below) for the Christmas Eve party at my dad's house. One of his good friends is celiac (meaning he can't have any wheat) so I always find it a fun challenge to bring unique non-flour desserts when he is there. For this creme brulee, I used Nigella's recipe from Nigella Bites. I was originally going to use Cooks Illustrated but it was way too much for only 5 people so I paired down with Nigella's recipe. Plus, Nigella's is cooked on the stovetop which I thought would be much better than setting up the water bath for an creme brulee oven bake. However, the first time I started making this my custard split and I did see it coming but did not (although highly recommended by both recipes) keep cold water nearby to stop the cooking. So I had to make it a second time (and kept a roasting pan full of ice and cold water) and cooked it over low heat making it nearly 15 minutes before it had thickened enough to my liking. And it did set nicely after it had chilled with a very smooth vanilla taste. It was a lot of fun torching the sugar on top but it did take some practice. In fact, mine ended up being the only one that was torched properly. Oh well, everyone still thought it to be quite good.

Cake #3: Chocolate Cloud Cake ** no picture unfortunately :( **

This was the accompanying flourless chocolate cake that I made for Christmas Eve and boy am I glad that I used the best chocolate I had (Green & Blacks) because that's all you could taste with this cake: a rich, truffle-like with a lightly sweetened cloud of whip cream to just mildly counter the chocolate rush that hits your mouth when you take a bite. Of course, this was out of Nigella Bites (although this particular one is not her's) and because of that turned out to be absolutely delicious. :)

Cake #4: Snowman Cake

Sorry for the lack of better quality pictures (these were taken with my boyfriend's cell phone camera). This is my fourth year in keeping up with the snowman cake tradition so this year I decided upon buying the 3-d snowman mold from Williams & Sonoma. Well, I'm not sure I would do it again because the cake was a little hard to bake in the mold. Because the mold has various depths and widths to accommodate the shape and outline of the snowman, the cake was overcooked in the shallow ends and a bit underbaked in the more deeper ends. Then when I tried to frost it the two parts of him kept coming apart but I might have remedied that by letting it set for a bit before standing him up. Anyways, here is a picture of last years snowman and this years snowman.

Chocolate Babka (burnt)

2006-12-22T19:13:00.000-08:00

I have to say that I am once again disappointed by one of Gale's recipes. Normally Chocolate Babka is served during Easter (or at least that's what I've read) but since I'm not Eastern European I figured tradition wouldn't hold a grudge against me for baking it around Christmas. Well... I burned it. It is still edible but I think I might have to trim the crust which is a shame because some of the filling is closer to the crust.

The recipe calls for 5 egg yolks and 1 whole egg. And this is supposed to make a cake or dough with only 2 cups of flour!? I ended up adding 2 more cups just to make it kneadable.
The filling composed of 4 oz of bittersweet chocolate, 1 egg white, 1 tbsp of butter, and 7 oz of almond paste. My super-duper-never-has-a-problem-with-anything food processor couldn't get this filling together. It was so sticky and unspreadable that I basically just dotted clumps of it onto the dough which is why most of it ended up concentrated in certain parts.
The dough would not cook all the way! This batter was just way too much for a single snail roll in a 9-inch cake pan. It rose like Mt. Everest and even after 45 minutes, the insides were far from done. And I was right too because when I opened it up the insides were just right. But pretty much the crust got ruined.

Martha has a recipe for this in her Baking Handbook (and it even had a strudel topping!) and now I wished I had baked that one. Poop.

Crazy Cooking Day: Rugelach, Creamy Pumpkin Cookies, and more

2006-12-21T11:13:00.000-08:00

So on Tuesday I had blogged about my Sweet Potato and Cheese Souffles but little would I know that my boyfriend's office was having a potluck and that I would definitely want to make something for it. So this is what I ended up cooking that day (not all of which was for the potluck):

Sweet Potato and Cheese Souffles
Danish Pastries
Creamy Pumpkin Cookies with Pumpkin Frosting
Rugelach
Creamy Potato Gratin
Lumpia (Filipino spring rolls)
Crispy catfish with steamed rice and peas (a bit of a rushed dinner hehe)

Cheese Danishes

The danish pastry recipe was from Nigella's How to Be a Domestic Goddess book. It's probably one of the easiest ways to make danish pastry dough as the butter is cut into the flour with a food processor and once you have chilled it overnight, you then fold and and roll out only three times without having to rest the dough inbetween. After that you let it rest for about 30 minutes before rolling it out again and cutting into squares for the actual pastries themselves. The longest part probably being that once you have formed them, you have to let them rise for about 1 1/2 hours before baking them. Much too long for making them in the morning unless you like to get up 2-3 hours before breakfast time (I normally get up at 10am hah.) For some reason, I couldn't get them to hold their form so they pretty much came undone in the oven. But as Nigella would say, that's okay because they are homemade. :)

Rugelach

This is actually the first time I had made this sweet and fruity Jewish pastry and I was very pleasantly surprised. At the Nigella board they were talking about how both Nigella and Ina Garten had wonderful recipes for this cookie so be as it may I decided I'd give them a try. I decided I'd try out Ina Garten's recipe since it was so conveniently online at Food Network (Click here for the recipe.) I'm normally not a dried fruit and nut fan but these cookies were fantastic! I guess you had to know since the dough is made up of 1/2 pound of both cream cheese and butter. :D My boyfriend especially liked them and I find myself sneaking in a cookie everytime I walk into the kitchen (which is still a mess haha!) So after having made these cookies, I am considering getting the Barefoot Contessa Parties! book. Can never have too many cookbooks, I say! :D

Creamy Pumpkin Cookies

This recipe I got from a holiday cookie magazine published by Land O Lakes (my favorite butter company :) All the cookies in this magazine are creative and festive and since I had some leftover canned pumpkin from making the pumpkin pie pancakes I decided this might be a perfect fit for the potluck. The pumpkin frosting nicely complemented the pumpkin flavored cut-outs and added just the right amount of sweetness and spice. This batch makes quite a bit (I think I made about 4 dozen cookies).

For the Cookies
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (Note: To make pumpkin pie spice, combine 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, 3/4 tsp ground ginger, 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg, and 1/4 tsp ground cloves)
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt

For the Frosting
3 oz cream cheese, softened
2 tbsp butter, softened
1 tbsp canned pumpkin
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice (see above for recipe)
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 to 2 tsps milk or half-and-half

To make the cookies: In an electric mixer (or use a hand mixer), mix the butter and sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the egg making sure to scrape down the sides to fully incorporate. Then add the canned pumpkin and vanilla and beat until well mixed. Reduce the mixer to low speed and add in the rest of the ingredients (flour, pie spice, baking powder, and salt). Note: I sifted the dry ingredients together prior to added them to the butter mixture

Divide the dough in half and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate until firm or at least about 2 hours.

Preheat your oven to 350F. Roll out 1/2 dough onto a lightly floured surface to about 1/8-inch thickness (not too thin as I mistakenly did on my first batch.) Cut with favorite cookie cutters and place about 1-inch apart on cookie sheet. Bake for about 8 to 10 minutes or until the edges start to brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting: Combine all the frosting ingredients except for the confectioners' sugar and milk. Beat at medium speed until creamy. Reduce speed to low and then add in your confectioners' sugar. Add the milk gradually until you have the consistency that you want (for me, I hardly added any at all.) Spread the frosting on the cookies and sprinkle with decorative sugars.

Creamy Potato Gratin, Lumpia, and Crispy Catfish
(picture coming soon, I swear! :)

The creamy potato gratin recipe comes from Nigella Bites and is one of the most amazing comfort foods ever. Especially if you love potatoes, the creaminess will blow you away.

For the lumpia, I kind of make this intuitively as I've watched my mom make this ever since I could remember. The recipe goes kind of like this and you can improvise as needed. The lumpia skins you'll have to get at an asian supermarket unless they sell them in the frozen section at your local supermarket.

Lumpia

1 lb ground pork (or you can use 1/2 lb ground pork and 1/2 lb ground beef)
1 cup shredded cabbage
1/2 cup shredded or finely minced carrots
1/2 cup green onions
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
To taste: soy sauce, garlic powder (optional), salt and pepper

Fresh or frozen lumpia skins

Other vegetables you can add are 1/2 cup peas, 1/2 cup chopped green beans, 1/2 cup cooked bean sprouts, 1/2 cup canned bamboo shoots, etc. You can even add raisins as my mom has done (I'm not too particularly keen on this though) and you can make them vegetarian by omitting the meat and adding more vegetables.

In a large frying pan, cook the meat until no longer pink (add vegetable oil as needed depending on how lean your ground meat is.) Remove from the pan and then saute the onions and garlic together until soft. Add in your carrots or any other long-to-cook vegetable first and saute until softened (about 5 minutes or so). Then add in the cabbage, green onions, and meat. Season with soy sauce (I like to add in a generous amount), garlic powder, and salt and pepper. Cook for about 10 minutes or until vegetables have wilted and all ingredients are properly mixed. Pour mixture into a bowl or pan and let cool.

Once the mixture has cooled, you can wrap it as filling for the lumpia skins. Take the square lumpia skin and have one of the ends pointing towards you (it will look like a diamond shape). Put about 2 tablespoons of filling closer to your end but not on the tip. Flip the end closer to you over the filling and fold the sides in. Once the skin is aligned with the mixture length, roll to the other end and place seam-side down on a plate. Note: Sorry this isn't the best explanation of the rolling technique but if you have ever rolled burritos its the exact same thing lol!

Deep fry the rolls in peanut oil until golden brown. Serve with sweet chili sauce.

Crispy Catfish
This recipe is nothing special as you can probably find better recipes online. This is an easy and fast recipe and we used to eat this every Friday with peas and steamed rice when I was growing up.

Combine 1 cup flour with about 1 tbsp kosher salt, pepper, and a generous sprinkling of garlic powder inside a plastic ziploc bag. Shake your fish fillets inside the bag and then fry in peanut oil until golden brown. Serve with tartar sauce, peas, and steamed rice. :)

Sweet Potato and Cheese Souffles

2006-12-19T15:45:00.000-08:00

My first time making individual savory souffles and I think they came out okay! This recipe comes out of the UK magazine Olive and actually utilizes cheshire cheese but I used cheddar cheese instead. So because I used cheddar cheese, I think these came out a little under-salted since the recipe does not call for any salt. I'd add in some salt if you decide to use another type of cheese such as cheddar or gruyere.

Also, its good to try and mash the potatoes as well as you can. I mashed them by hand and they still came out a little chunky. Normally I like my mashed potatoes to be chunky but for this souffle dish I think it would be better if they were almost of puree quality. So the best way to achieve that would be to put them in the food processesor (but not for too long!)

Sweet potato and Cheshire cheese souffles
(adapted from Olive December 2006 issue)

25g/2tbsp butter
3 tbsp parmesan
350g/3/4lb sweet potatoes, peeled, cut, boiled, and then mashed
2tbsp plain flour
150 ml milk (a little over 1/2 cup)
75g cheshire cheese, crumbled
pinch dried chili flakes
1 tbsp chives
2 eggs, separated

Equipment:
4-6 6-oz ramekins

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan and stir in the flour. Cook for about 1 minute. The, gradually add the milk, mixing well, until you have a smooth sauce. Add the cheese, stirring until melted then stir in the chili flakes and chives. Remove from the heat and fold in the mashed sweet potatoes. Let cool slightly and then stir in the egg yolks.
2. Put your egg whites into a bowl and beat until stiff. Fold a quarter of the beaten egg whites into the potato mixture to loosen it up and then fold in the rest. Divide the batter among the individual ramekins (I used 4 6-ounce ones) and then put the ramekins onto a baking sheet.
3. Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes or until risen and golden.

Note: You might try baking the ramekins in a water bath. Put the ramekins into a baking pan and then once you've put them into the oven, fill the pan with boiling hot water halfway up to the ramekins.

Edit: I'd forgotten the cheese in the recipe. Silly me but I've now updated it! :D

Meron Pan

2006-12-18T23:20:00.000-08:00

For those of you that like Japanese sweets (e.g. manjuu, pocky, etc.), you might like meron pan (Melon Bread). Its basically a sweet bun with various flavors including melon and maple and there are some that have anko (sweet red bean paste) inside. We went to a Japanese market in Mountain View this weekend and I picked up a couple as sometimes they are hard to find.

I'm not sure where you can order them online but if you ever stop by a Japanese market and find them try them out!

Oh and a small little Japanese trivia for you. "Meron" is a japanization of the english word "melon" and "pan" is also a borrowed word from Portuguese meaning "bread".

Pumpkin Pie Pancakes

2006-12-16T14:37:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of good quality in the picture. I need to get a tripod for my camera so I can take better pictures.

So I decided to scrap the whole panna cotta thing since I didn't feel like getting more buttermilk. A poster at the Nigella board told me that it was probably because I did not melt the gelatin all the way which I think is entirely possible. I was reading a Cooks Illustrated recipe that said you needed to stir the gelatin and milk mixture for at least 10 minutes before chilling it. Gale's recipe just said to stir it in and then pour them into the ramekins so poopies on her (and me for not knowing I guess :P).

After the all-savory breakfasts last weekend, my boyfriend finally said he might like something sweet for breakfast so I made these pumpkin pie pancakes since he loves pumpkin pie so much. They actually do taste like pumpkin pie... at least just the custard part of the pumpkin pie and not the crust, mind you. :P They are very soft and fluffy (kind of a melt in your mouth type of pancake) but it was a big pain to flip them so I suggest making smaller versions of these.. not more than 4 inches wide (Personally I like my pancakes bigger than 4 inches but its hard to get away with that with this recipe.)

Note: This recipe is actually served with Spiced Pumpkin Ice Cream and has the recipe included. I don't have an ice cream maker (boo!) so I'm not going to post the recipe (scrooge, I am!). It tastes lovely with whipped cream and maple syrup though. :)

Pumpkin Pie Pancakes
(from Pancakes: From Morning to Midnight by Dorie Greenspan)

Dry Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 tbsp (packed) brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
Pinch of cloves
Pinch of salt

Wet Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
2 large eggs
4 tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
2 tbsp dark rum (optional)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

To fold in:
3/4 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin

Combine dry ingredients in one bowl, wet ingredients in another bowl. Make sure everything is at room temperature, otherwise your melted butter might scramble your eggs.

Combine your wet and dry ingredients together. Do not overmix! Lumpiness is good! Next, fold in your pumpkin.

Preheat your griddle or skillet to about 350F. I don't have an electric skillet so I just set my electric stove to medium heat. You can also lightly oil or butter your skillet but I've always found that to get in the way of a nice-evenly browned pancake. Only oil if you are using nonstick (IMO). Have your oven slightly warmed so that you can keep your pancakes warm while you are cooking the rest of the batch.

Spoon about 1/4 cup of batter onto the griddle for each pancake and allow space for spreading. When the bottoms are golden brown and bubbles are coming up to the top, flip over carefully.

Serve immediately with warmed maple syrup, fluffy whipped cream, and nice cup of joe. :)

Recipe #4: Buttermilk Panna Cotta with Strawberry Mash

2006-12-15T22:25:00.000-08:00

I am starting to lose faith in Gale. This is the third failure out of the four recipes I've tried in the book. I'm not sure what I did wrong but when I made this custard dessert, the gelatin totally separated from the custard leaving a clear liquidy mess speckled with my precious vanilla beans. I am a bit disappointed since the custard part still tasted good... but just a bit powdery (not sure why). Maybe the gelatin didn't soften enough before I added it to the buttermilk mixture (it was a least 3 or 4 minutes though) but why would it separate? Most of the recipes I see online are pretty similar to Gale's... I wonder why it messed up. Blah.

On a more positive note, I jumped on the bandwagon and baked a Minimalist Loaf. Its actually my second once since my first one didn't get such a good rise. I'll post some pictures as soon as I've cut it open.

Ladyfingers with strawberries and cream

2006-12-15T00:11:00.000-08:00

I'm finally back to Gale's book. These turned out to be quite divine... they were like little cakes with a sweet, slightly crunchy exterior but a warm, soft, velvety delicate "cakeness" inside. They are definitely pretty different from the crunchy ones you can buy at like Trader Joes... I hope they will hold up in a tiramisu because I'm set on making one. :)

Since the only leavening in these cookies is the egg whites, I was pretty careful about not overbeating the whites. I did this by using an egg method I had read about in one of Chris Kimball's books. For soft peaks, a raw egg placed in the beaten egg whites will fall to the bottom; for medium peaks, the raw egg falls into the egg whites but not all the way to the bottom; and for hard peaks, the egg sits right on top of the beaten egg whites. I wouldn't recommend using this test each time you need to beat egg whites but if you're not familiar with the egg whites being at one of these stages you can try it. By the way, when I stuck my hand in the egg white foam it felt like I was touching cotton... or a cloud. It was actually something I wasn't expecting but nice. :)

Ladyfingers

(from Chocolate & Vanilla by Gale Gand)

5 large eggs, separated (Note: I think you will need to let these go to room temperature before beating them)

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup powdered sugar, plus extra for dusting the ladyfingers

1 scant cup cake flour

On a piece of parchment paper, draw 2 parallel lines 4 inches apart to use as a guide for piping the ladyfingers. Draw a second set of lines 1 1/2 inches from the first set. Turn the paper over and place pencil-side down on a cookie sheet.

Preheat the oven to 375F. Have a large pastry bag fitted with a large (1/2-inch) plain tip ready.

To make the ladyfingers, in a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the egg yolks and granulated sugar on medium speed until the mixture is light and thickened and falls back in a ribbon when the whisk is lifted from the batter, about 5 minutes. Stir in the vanilla.

In another clean, dry bowl, whip the egg whites on low speed until they're foamy, then increase the speed to medium and whip while adding the powdered sugar gradually, increase the speed to high and whip until the whites hold a stiff peak.

Sift half of the cake flour over the yolks and fold in the flour using a rubber spatula. Fold the whipped whites into the yolks and then sift and fold in the remaining flour.

Fill the pastry bag with the batter and pipe finger-thick stripes 1 1/2 inches apart between the sets of parallel lines.

Sift powdered sugar heavily over the tops of the lady fingers.

Bake until golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Let the ladyfingers cool on the cookie sheet before lifting them off the parchment paper.

Serve with sweetened whipped cream and strawberries. :)

Spanakopita

2006-12-13T23:48:00.000-08:00

I bought this lovely book I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence written by the comedian/actress Amy Sedaris. Its very entertaining and funny and has tons of recipes (that are not fake :). The best part that I like about this book is the retro-looking pictures of the food. It reminds me of my grandmother and all her old cookbook and recipe books from the 1960s. I highly recommend at least taking a look at this book the next time you go to the bookstore. The cover is gorgeous as well. ;)

So here is the recipe for Spanakopita or Greek Spinach pie. The filling turned out very tasty and didn't have an overly strong taste of greens. I actually used all fresh spinach for this recipe even though it calls for 30 ounces of frozen spinach. I don't really recommend this as you'll have to boil up a stockpot full of water and blanch all your spinach and then wring out the water. Well, you'll have to do that for the frozen spinach too but at least that's one less pot to clean. :P

Brushing each layer of the phyllo dough was very time consuming and as dinnertime was approaching fast I didn't do the whole entire 1 lb package. It still turned out fine and I've read some other recipes that used less phyllo dough.

Spanakopita

5 eggs
3 10-ounce packages of frozen, chopped spinach, defrosted (ring out any water using cheesecloth or dishrag) Note: You can use equal amounts of fresh spinach weighing it AFTER blanching them in boiling water
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
8 ounces crumbled feta cheese
Olive Oil
2 bunches of chopped green onions, sauteed
1 tbsp chopped parsley
Dill, fennel (optional)
3 tbsp of Parmesan cheese
1 1-pound of box of phyllo pastry
1/2 cup butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a mixer or food processor, beat the eggs until fluffy. Add all ingredients (except for phyllo) and process. Note: I would put the ingredients in this order after the eggs: cream cheese, feta cheese, cottage cheese.. blend... spinach, green onions, parsley, parmesan cheese, and a dash of the olive oil... blend.
2. Butter a 9 x 13 x 3 inch pan. One sheet at a time, lay the phyllo dough into the pan and brush the butter onto each sheet inbetween. After about half the box, spread your spinach filling on top of the phyllo pastry. Continue with rest of phyllo dough until box is finished (or until you get tired of doing it :)
3. You can precut the pie at this point and place in the freezer until ready to bake. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until top is brown and crispy.

Tyler's Videos

2006-12-13T00:45:00.000-08:00

Food Network has a series of holiday cooking videos done by Tyler Florence that you can view. It's actually pretty cool and his dishes look very yummy. I'm most especially interested in the chocolate mousse and chocolate bourbon pecan pie.

I didn't realize Tyler got a little chubby now. hah

Click here for the videos

Apple Crisp

2006-12-12T21:17:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was very lame. I decided to make a peach cream pie (one of Nigella's of course) but I forgot to add in the beaten egg to the filling so the pie came out of the oven too watery. Then, I was wondering why the crust tasted so grainy and wheaty and then I looked at my pastry flour bag and discovered that it was whole grain pastry flour. No wonder the dough was a doll to work with. Blech.

So today it was apple crisp and I had been craving it for some time now. I got the recipe from About.com Southern Food section since I was too lazy to go through my books. It turned out quite well and now I'm going to eat it with some vanila ice cream. :P

Get your Apple Crisp!

P.S. Lovely new cooking forum has opened up at Violets :)

Rachael Ray Crowd

2006-12-11T10:51:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately after the sauce hollandaise incident on Sunday morning (see last post), we got to the Rachael Ray book signing pretty late. It was supposed to start at 1pm but we got there around 1:30pm. It really didn't matter anyways because this is what we saw when we got there and I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have made much difference getting there on time! Unfortunately, this picture does not really show you the enormity of the crowd -- this line basically wrapped around an entire block. Most of the crowd were young women and a lot of them were holding 5 or 6 copies Rachael Ray's newest book. It was pretty crazy.

Well since getting my book signed was pretty much out of the question at this point, we decided to venture into the store anyways to get my pizza peel (ended up getting a Mario Batali one.) The place was a zoo and there were police officers and store clerks all over the place navigating crowds and barking at customers who were shopping in blocked-off aisles. We managed to get a glimpse of Rachael Ray signing books -- it was pretty much an assembly-line work -- people would walk up the table, Rachael would sign the book and an officer would rush them along so the next person could come up. People were yelling "I love you, Rachael!" all over the place -- it was quite funny.

She was only signing until 3pm that day so I doubt everyone in the line got their book signed. What a zoo. hah

English Muffins and Sauce Hollandaise

2006-12-10T17:53:00.000-08:00

I was surprised that these turned out pretty well. It was my first time making english muffins and so I was totally unsure as to how the dough was supposed to be during the entire time. It was very wet and pretty much batter-like up until cutting them out into circles. These were a bit of a pain since it required about 3 different waiting times but I do think they were well worth it. The muffins were very tender, soft, and chewy. They even looked like those Thomas English Muffins you buy at the supermarket! :)

Note: Try saving up your tuna cans and cutting both ends off to use as the muffin rings. They tend to spread a bit if you don't have the rings in place. Also, I used a baking stone instead of a baking sheet and this proved to make the crust extra crispy as I like them. I highly recommend getting a baking stone if you do a lot of baking.

I made eggs benedict this morning just for these muffins so please see recipe for sauce hollandaise at end.

English Muffins
(from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook)

11 ounces (about 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 tsp instant yeast
1 cup warm water (about 110F)
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp nonfat dry milk
3 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 tsp coarse salt, plus more for sprinkling

Other Essentials:
Vegetable Oil for bowl, plastic wrap, parchment, and rings
Semolina flour, for pan
Anise seeds, for sprinkling (optional)
Unhulled sesame seeds, for sprinkling (optional)

In a medium bowl, combine 5 ounces (1 cup) all-purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon yeast, the warm water, and the honey; whisk vigorously until mixture is thick and slightly foamy, about 1 minute.

In another medium bowl, whisk together the remaining 6 ounces (1 1/4 cups) all-purpose flour, the remaining 1/2 teaspoon yeast, and the dry milk. Sprinkle over the wet flour mixture, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 2 hours. Refrigerate until chilled, about 1 hour.

Transfer to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook. Mix on medium-low speed until all dry ingredients have been incorporated into the dough, about 2 minutes. Add the butter and salt, and continue to mix on medium speed until combined (the dough should be smooth but slightly tack), about 5 minutes. If the dough is too dry, add a little room-temperature water, 1 teaspoon at a time; if the dough is too wet, add more flour, 1 teaspoon at a time.

Transfer dough to a lightly oiled large bowl. Cover bowl with oiled plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place until the dough has doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours.

With lightly oiled hands, gently knead dough in the bowl, covering all sides with oil. Turn out dough onto a piece of plastic wrap. Form dough into a flattened rectangle; wrap in plastic, and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 1 hour or overnight.

Line a baking sheet with parchment, brush with oil, and lightly dust with semolina flour. Lightly oil eight English muffin rings, and place on prepared sheet. Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface, and roll out to 3/4 inch thick. using a floured 3-inch biscuit cutter, cut out right rounds; place each round in one of the oiled rings. (Dough can be rerolled in order to cut all eight muffins.) Set aside in a warm place until rounds have risen slightly, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350F.

Sprinkle rounds with seeds or salt, as desired (about 1 teaspoon per muffin). In a large skillet over medium heat, melt enough additional butter to coat the bottom of the pan. When the butter is bubbling, carefully transfer rounds to the skillet with a wide spatula, leaving muffin rings in place. Do not crowd the pan; rounds should fit comfortably without touching. Cook muffins until golden brown, about 4 minutes. Flip them over, and cook until golden, about 4 minutes more. Return muffins to the baking sheet, and remove muffin rings. Bake until muffins are cooked through, 7 to 10 minutes. (They should reach and internal temperature of 190F.) Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Muffins can be eaten warm, or allowed to cool and then split open with a fork and toasted. The muffins can be wrapped in plastic and kept at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Eggs Benedict

Did you know the McDonald's Egg McMuffin was modeled after Eggs Benedict? They replaced the hollandaise sauce with the piece of cheese though. The eggs benedict I made this morning tastes similar to the Egg McMuffin... not sure if that's a good thing but it was definitely yummy. :) Basically you just toast a split english muffin, add a poached egg and slice of canadian bacon (back bacon), and then spoon over the hollandaise sauce on top.

I have to say that it took me 5 tries to make the sauce (I wasted quite a bit of butter and eggs this morning lol.) You have to be really careful not heat the mixture too much or the sauce will curdle or separate. Some ideas for troubleshooting after recipe.

Sauce Hollandaise

2 sticks (1 cup) butter (Note: You may not use all of this)
3 egg yolks
juice of half lemon
salt and pepper to taste

First, clarify the butter (Note: I personally think this step is optional but I've read that the hollandaise sauce is a lot thinner if you don't.) Melt the butter on low medium heat in a small saucepan. Remove the white scum that has floated to the top and then strain the butter. Set aside.

Fill a medium saucepan half with water and bring to a simmer. Put the egg yolks into a heatproof bowl (stainless steel) and spoon about 3 tablespoons of the hot water into it. Start whisking immediately over the heat until the egg yolks turned into the consistency of thick cream (ribbon stage). Immediately take pan off the heat (Note: This is quite important. I didn't do this the first four tries and my sauce split.)

Slowly pour the clarified butter into the egg yolks. Do not put it in all at once nor pour too slowly. Your sauce should start becoming the consistency of mayonaise. You don't have to use all your butter and please be aware that if you add too much butter, the egg yolk-butter emulsion will no longer hold and it will curdle. Add your lemon juice, mix, and taste with salt and pepper.

Hollandaise sauce doesn't store very well so try and use it the same day.

Please see an excellent video of this recipe here.

Troubleshooting:
If your sauce curdles, try several of the following methods:

If your sauce is too thin or has separated, try spooning a tablespoon of cold water into it. If that doesn't work, try the next tip.

Take a teaspoon of lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of the sauce and whisk together until thick. You'll have to pour the curdled sauce into this mixture slowly.

I've read in one book that you can mix 1 egg yolk with a tablespoon of water and combine your mixture into that. I haven't tried it though.

Jam Doughnuts

2006-12-08T00:02:00.000-08:00

I've been neglecting Gale's book because this next recipe should have been hers but I am always flipping through Nigella's books and all her recipes are all very warm and inviting so I couldn't help myself. :) They don't really taste like doughnuts but they are very yummy and rolling them in sugar gave it just the right touch. :)

Jam Doughnuts

(from How to Be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson)

1/2 cup milk

7 tbsp vegetable oil

1 large egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups self-rising cake flour (substitute 1 cup cake flour with 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt) Note: You can always use all-purpose flour here. I did at least and they came out still pretty tender.

1/3 cup superfine sugar

12 tsp strawberry jam (Note: Use any kind of jam. I used part Black Raspberry and part Red Raspberry)

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 well greased or nonstick 12-cup mini-muffin pan

Note: I actually used a normal muffin pan and there was enough batter. Just be careful in dividing the batter up and leaving extra for the tops.

Preheat oven to 375F.

With a fork, beat the milk, oil, egg, and vanilla extract. Stir this into the flour and 1/3 cup sugar to combine (just): the lumps don't matter and if you overbeat the muffins will be tough. Spoon the mixture into each muffin cup so that it's just under a third full. Then with a teaspoon add a dollop of strawberry jam-- about the size of a fat lima bean -- then top with more muffin mix so that the cases are just about full.

Put them in the preheated oven and cook for about 20 minutes or until the tops feel springy and resistant and the muffins have puffed up into little toadstools.

Meanwhile, melt the butter slowly in a thick-bottoms pan, and lay the remaining sugar out in a wide, shallow bowl. As soon as the muffins are ready, remove them from their cups, dip them in the butter, and roll them in the sugar. Eat warm.

Makes 12.

Clean clean clean!

2006-12-07T11:03:00.000-08:00

Sorry I just had to put this picture up. :)

Macaroons & Milk Bread

2006-12-06T23:29:00.000-08:00

No, these two don't really go together well but they will be together here in light of not having posted in the last day or two due to school projects and work (Why must these things get in the way of my blogging? :) Like I mentioned in my last post I'll be going through Gale Gand's Chocolate & Vanilla book doing each recipe and recording my experiences with them here. So let's start with the macaroons.

Recipe #2: Chocolate "burgers" with White Chocolate Filling
(technically #2 since I have already made the hot chocolate pudding)

Actually this recipe isn't going to make it here because it essentially failed. Like I had mentioned earlier, the recipe called for 1 egg white and 3 cups of confectioners' sugar rendering my batter white and crumbly and most definitely not "soupy" like it was supposed to be. On impulse, I added some water to moisten up the batter but when I put them in the oven they exploded... not a pretty sight.

The recipe's only saving grace was the white chocolate filling. It's actually a cream cheese base with added white chocolate. I don't normally like white chocolate so much but this filling was indeed exceptional. And I do think it would work well as fillings for other types of baked goods like a filling for a sponge cake or another type of sandwich cookie (just be sure to double/triple the recipe as appropriate). Try it!

White Chocolate Filling
3 oz white chocolate
3 oz cream cheese, softened
3 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

Cream the cream cheese and butter together. Melt the white chocolate in the microwave (or use the double boiler method) and let cool a bit before adding into the cream cheese/butter mixture. Whip until combined.

Nigella's Chocolate Macaroons

So I couldn't just have the filling and no macaroons now could I? My next attempt was Nigella's chocolate macaroon recipe in How to be a Domestic Goddess. These tasted wonderful except that they spread into something very thin in the oven. I'm not sure why but the batter was definitely "soupy" and perhaps a little too soupy that they couldn't hold any shape. The recipe calls for 4 egg whites and about a cup of confectioners' sugar. (See! 4 egg whites versus 1 egg white with a lot less sugar). Even though they spread very thinly I still used them with the white chocolate filling and they tasted fabulous. But they still didn't look like macaroons, dammit.

Next try: Martha Stewart's French Macaroons recipe

I actually really love this baking handbook and had success with two other recipes that came out of this book. This macaroon recipe calls for less egg whites but has a lot more almond flour than the previous two recipes (incidently, I decided against making the chocolate variation again.) The batter was definitely better and their shape held up pretty well when I piped them... but then they fell flat again once baked. I actually think that it was my fault this time. I must have overwhipped the egg whites because they were perfectly round and domed when I piped them onto the baking sheet.

Anyways, I made the swiss meringue frosting that goes with these cookies and they tasted fabulous despite not being so "macaroon-looking". As with Nigella's cookies, they didn't come out nice and smooth but rather bumpy and discolored. I think I'll have to start paying attention more to my egg whites and making sure I don't overbeat them.

Recipe for Martha's French Macaroons here. On a good note, I had my boyfriend take these to work and they were gone in an hour. :)

The Milk Bread

There is an "English bread" that they sell at the local Andersen's Bakery that I absolutely adore. Its not quite like your normal white bread as it is a bit richer and tenderer(?) (almost like brioche.) This craving struck me the other day and I searched high and low on the internet for such a bread. I found a link on the BBC food site that had a recipe for Milk Bread. The neat thing about this bread is that there is hardly any kneading involved and you do come out with a very nice bread. Instead of the fresh yeast it called for, I used instant yeast and this greatly shortened my rising times. In fact, my second rise went too far and my bread collapsed upon itself. It still was a decent loaf, just didn't look very pretty. At any rate, I would probably try using the fresh yeast or normal active dry yeast next time to see if the flavor comes out a little stronger and/or more complex. But this is an absolutely wonderful recipe for beginning bread makers since you basically knead for about 30 seconds in the entire recipe.

Check for the recipe here.

Chocolate and Vanilla by Gale Gand

2006-12-04T12:40:00.000-08:00

Chocolate and Vanilla

by Gale Gand and Lisa Weiss

This is a book review in a sense.. in the sense that I'll actually be trying each and every one of the recipes in this book and posting my experience and opinions about it. I've had some success with several of Gale Gand's recipes in the past and since I share her love for intensely sweet desserts I've picked her latest book as a beginning training ground. The recipes in this book are not particularly advanced except for a few of them... chocolate macaroons, ladyfingers... I'd say that most of them are pretty easy and straight-forward... vanilla malteds, fudgy brownies, etc. But its the holidays and good time for me to spread the "sweet" and since a lot of the recipes are pretty traditional, I figured it would be good. (I'm still making my gingerbread cookies though and snowman cake though!)

I've actually already tried a few recipes but I have to sadly report that they did not turn out well. The first one that I tried "Hot Chocolate Pudding" was just way too sweet that my boyfriend actually said it had a "burning sensation". It could have been because I used Ghiradelli 60% chocolate and the excess sugar in their chocolate might have been too much already.

The second recipe I tried was Chocolate "burgers" with white chocolate filling. To begin with, calling delicate french macaroon cookies "burgers" is a little bit of trashy usage for this type of cookie. When I think of burgers, I think easy and casual... not difficult and fancy which is what french macaroons really are. Anyhow, the recipe called for 1 egg white... 1 egg white with 3 cups of confectioners' sugar! The recipe then goes on to say that the resulting batter should be "soupy". Well mine was anything far from "soupy" or wet for that matter. It seemed kind of odd that 1 egg white (a mere 2 1/4 tablespoons of liquid) could make 3 cups of sugar "soupy" so I looked into more french macaroon recipes and found that a lot of them used at least 3 to 4 egg whites with a lot less confectioners sugar. I'm not sure if its a typo in the book or I am doing it completely wrong.

I tried out some other macaroon recipes and they turned out okay. I'll post more about this later.

Big Nose Princess

2006-12-04T11:10:00.000-08:00

Nigella on Epicurious.com

2006-12-04T10:42:00.000-08:00

I'm a huge fan of Nigella's and so I thought I would like to share Epicurious.com's little piece on her for Christmas. To be honest, I haven't bought this latest book yet (Feast: Food to Celebrate Life) but this article prints some of her recipes and tips out of that book. I have to say that most of the Nigella recipes have been quite successful and so I would recommend any of her books.

Note: I've been baking several recipes of macaroons lately and will post soon about it.

Edit: I noticed Nigella's Christmas show will be on Food Network starting December 9th. Can't wait!

Rachael Ray Book Signing in San Jose

2006-12-02T20:19:00.000-08:00

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

2006-12-01T00:09:00.000-08:00

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

2006-11-30T15:31:00.000-08:00

My cat, Princess. :)

Pancakes in the news

2006-11-30T14:22:00.000-08:00

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

2006-11-29T11:09:00.000-08:00

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

2006-11-28T15:24:00.000-08:00

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

2006-11-27T15:04:00.000-08:00

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.