The Cobbler Clobber

Strawberry - White Chocolate Mousse Tart

2011-06-13T10:39:00.000-07:00

Reasons why this post will be short:

1 - 12 page paper on community interventions for adjudicated youth

1 - 12 page paper on the effects of parental involvement on the academic achievement of ELL students

4 - powerpoint presentations

6 - hours of site visits

2 - school counselor interviews with accompanying summaries in the form of papers

2 - wedding showers

2 - baby showers

1- impending out-of-town wedding that I will be participating in

1 - insane Lego wedding cake that I need to make for another wedding

2 - finals in the six days in between the aforementioned wedding and the aforementioned cake

3- weeks to do it all

Reasons why I made this tart:

1. My husband is a big fan of white chocolate.

2. Strawberries were on sale for a mind-bogglingly cheap price.

3. I am a big fan of strawberries.

4. We had friends coming over.

Reasons why you should make this tart

1. It looks pretty.

2. It is easy to make.

3. It is yummy. Very, very yummy.

Seriously. What could be better than two pounds of sweet, juicy strawberries nestled on a cloud of vanilla-scented white chocolate mousse, which itself is nestled inside what is essentially an enormous shortbread cookie receptacle of goodness?

It's a rhetorical question. Don't try to answer it.

That is all.

Strawberry - White Chocolate Mousse Tart

Tart Crust
Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
9 tablespoons butter (very cold and cut into small pieces)
1 large egg yolk

Combine flour and powdered sugar in a bowl, stirring to combine. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients (you can do this with your hands) until the mixture resembles wet sand (the pieces of butter should be no larger than a pea). Stir the yolk to break it up, and add a little of the time, stirring it in with a spatula until the dough forms clumps and curds. Knead the dough lightly just to incorporate any dry ingredients.

Press the dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch tart pan. You might want to save a little bit of dough to patch any cracks after the crust is baked. Freeze the crust for at least 30 minutes before before baking.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375 degrees Farenheit. Butter the shiny side of some aluminum foil and fit the foil tightly against each crust, butter side down. Put the tart pans on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Carefully removie the foil. If the crusts have puffed, press it down gently with the back of a spoon. Bake for another 5 minutes until it is firm and golden brown. Cool the crust to room temperature before filling.

White Chocolate Mousse Filling

4 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon powdered gelatin, sprinkled over 3 tablespoons water
1 cup heavy cream
12 ounces white chocolate

In a medium bowl, over simmering water, melt the white chocolate until smooth. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

In large bowl, whisk egg yolks with sugar until very light.
In a large saucepan, bring milk to boil over medium heat. Slowly pour milk over yolks, whisking quickly constantly so the eggs don't curdle. Pour mixture back into saucepan over medium heat and cook until the mixture coats the back of the spoon, mixing continuously. Add softened gelatin and stir until completely melted into the mixture. Stir in the vanilla. Let cool to room temperature.

Stir in the white chocolate and mix until thoroughly combined.

Whip the heavy cream to soft peaks and fold into the cooled white chocolate mixture.

Strawberry Topping
2 pounds strawberries, rinsed and halved.
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons sugar

Gently toss the berries in the lemon juice and sugar, until evenly coated. Let macerate at room temperature for 30 minutes.

To Assemble the Tarts

Coat the inside of each tart with some melted chocolate - this will prevent the crust from getting soggy. Let the chocolate harden. Spoon the white chocolate mousse and gently spread it to the edges. Top the tart with strawberries. Refrigerate for one hour before serving.

Lemon-Raspberry Tarts

2011-05-31T08:01:00.000-07:00

When my friend Lauren Carmen San Diego came to visit this spring, she brought the sunshine with her. It was glorious. Summer had given us a sneak preview, and we were determined to make the most of it. We went to the beach and attempted to frolic in the waves, until we realized the water was too cold and we were better off sunbathing. We wore sundresses and flip flops, and in my case, yellow plastic sunglasses. We walked around in the sunshine with ice cream cones in our hands. We went out for Mexican food and ate at a picnic table outside as the sun began to set.

And we ate these lemon-raspberry tarts, which tastes like an edible bowl of crisp buttery goodness filled with summery sunshine. Looking back on it, the lemon cream might be too soft and runny to put into a tart shell, but it is so, so yummy. I had a large bowl of unused lemon cream in a bowl in my fridge, and every 10 minutes or so, I would scoop a huge spoonful of lemon cream straight from the fridge just to satiate my lemony lust. Seriously. It is really, really good.

In short: make these tarts. Or at least make the lemon cream. If you're too lazy to make tart shells, just layer the lemon cream and raspberries in a glass to make a parfait. Actually, that sounds really good. I think I'm going to go do that now.

Lemon Raspberry Tarts

Tart Crust

Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
9 tablespoons butter (very cold and cut into small pieces)
1 large egg yolk

Combine flour and powdered sugar in a bowl, stirring to combine. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients (you can do this with your hands) until the mixture resembles wet sand (the pieces of butter should be no larger than a pea). Stir the yolk to break it up, and add a little of the time, stirring it in with a spatula until the dough forms clumps and curds. Knead the dough lightly just to incorporate any dry ingredients.
Divide the dough into six portions. Press each portion of dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of 4-inch tart pans. You might want to save a little bit of dough to patch any cracks after the crust is baked. Freeze the crust for at least 30 minutes before before baking.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375 degrees Farenheit. Butter the shiny side of some aluminum foil and fit the foil tightly against each crust, butter side down. Put the tart pans on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Carefully removie the foil. If the crusts have puffed, press it down gently with the back of a spoon. Bake for another 5 minutes until it is firm and golden brown. Cool the crust to room temperature before filling.

Lemon Cream
Adapted from Tartelette

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
zest of one lemon
3 egg yolks
2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup lemon juice

In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, cornstarch, lemon zest, and egg yolks until pale. Slowly add the milk and whisk well. Bring the mixture to a boil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan placed over high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer til thick. Remove from heat and slowly add lemon juice. Return to medium-low heat and let cool.

Raspberry Topping

2 pints raspberries
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons sugar

Gently toss the berries in lemon juice and sugar until evenly coated. Let macerate at room temperature for 30 minutes.

To Assemble Tarts

Coat the inside of each tart shell with some melted white chocolate. Let the chocolate harden. Divide the lemon cream among the tart shells. Place plastic wrap over the top to prevent skin from forming and refrigerate for at least one hour.

When ready to serve, top with the raspberries.

Lentil Shepherd's Pie

2011-05-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

I know this may seem shocking, but between the pounds of butter, sugar, and eggs that I go through each week, I occasionally make dishes involving vegetables. Vegetables that are not hidden in muffins. Because as adorable as those floating blob-people were in Wall-E, I do not aspire to be one of them.

Despite the fact that this involves 7 - 8 different kinds of vegetables (depending on whether you consider potatoes to be vegetables), it was really, really tasty. It even tasted meaty. I think it was the Worcesterschire sauce. Or the mushrooms. So add the mushrooms, even if you don't like them. David hates mushrooms, and he had no idea they were in there. Though I guess he does, now.

This dish is ridiculously filling, so even if it looks like there are four servings, there are actually probably enough servings to last two people an entire week. I am not kidding. As delicious as this was, by the time David and I finished all the leftovers, we never wanted to see another lentil again. So if there are only two of you, and you're not big eaters, do yourself a favor and halve this recipe.

Lentil Shepherd's Pie
Adapted from Ezra Pound Cake

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped finely
4 ounces (1 1/2 cups) shiitake mushrooms, chopped (I used baby bellas.)
1 zucchini, diced small ( 1 1/2 cups)
3 cloves garlic, minced (I skipped this, as I am not a garlic person)
1/2 teaspoon oregano
2 teaspoons thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 cup carrots (about 3), peeled and diced small
3/4 cup du Puy lentils (also called French lentils), rinsed (I used green lentils.)
3 cups vegetable broth
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 recipe Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes (recipe below)

Heat the oil in a 4-quart pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the onions, and saute them until translucent, about 4 minutes.

Add the mushrooms, zucchini, garlic, tarragon, thyme, salt and pepper. Saute for 5 minutes.

Add the carrots, lentils and broth. Cover and bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer and cook for about 25 minutes, stirring every once in a while.

By this point, the lentils should be tender, and most of the broth should be absorbed. (If that hasn’t happened, then keep the pot covered and simmer the lentils a while longer. Conversely, if the broth has evaporated and the lentils are not soft, then add a bit of water and simmer.)

When the lentils are soft, stir in the Worcestershire sauce, corn and peas. Let the mixture sit off the heat for 10 minutes or so for maximum flavor. Taste and adjust the seasonings.

To Serve: Spoon a cup of Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes into a bowl, and top it with a cup of lentils.

Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes

2 russet potatoes, cut into 3/4-inch pieces (about 1 1/2 pounds)
1/2 head cauliflower, cut into florets (1 pound, or about 3 cups)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 to 4 tablespoons vegetable broth
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Place the potatoes in a 4-quart pot, and fill it with enough cold water to cover them, making sure there are about 4 inches of extra water on top (for when you add the cauliflower). Bring the potatoes to a boil.

Once the water is boiling, add the cauliflower, and lower the heat to a simmer. Cook for about 15 minutes, until the potatoes and cauliflower are tender.

Drain them in a colander, return them to the pot, and use a potato masher to mash them a bit.

Add the oil, 2 tablespoons of broth, and the salt and pepper. Mash a bit more. Use a fork to make sure all the seasoning are mixed well.

If needed, add another 2 tablespoons of broth. Taste, and adjust seasonings. Serve warm.

Carrot Apple Muffins

2011-05-16T08:00:00.000-07:00

As much as I love eating desserts (and trust me, I love to eat desserts), I find the process of baking just as enjoyable as the end product. In fact, I often get the urge to bake without even knowing what it is that I want to bake. I usually end up scrounging through my pantry and refrigerator for inspiration. On Thursday night, my refrigerator was pretty bare, but I did end up finding a few carrots and an apple. I figured that between those two ingredients, I could make a delicious and healthy breakfast muffin.

While these muffins are delicious fresh out of the oven, I enjoyed them even more the next few mornings, when I toasted them before slathering them in butter and honey. Have you tried toasting muffins before? You should. It's delicious.

Some notes: I had shredded the carrots coursely, and I think next time I would shred them more fine - the carrots were still a little crunchy right out of the oven, though they softened after sitting for a couple of days. Also, if you want, you can pack the muffins even more full of healthy goodness by adding dried fruit or nuts.

Carrot Apple Muffins
Adapted from Gourmet, 1998

1 cup AP flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 cups shredded carrots
1/4 cup sweetened shredded coconut
3 large eggs
1 cup corn oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 large apple, shredded

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Farenheit. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin.

In a large bowl, Combine flours, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Whisk in both kinds of sugars. Add the carrots and coconut; stir until completely combined.

In a medium bowl, combine the eggs, oil, vanilla, and shredded apples. Add the apple mixture to the carrot mixture and stir until just combined.

Divide equally between the muffin cups. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Cool muffins for 5 minutes in the tin before turning out onto the racks to cool completely. Muffins keep in an airtight container at room temperature for 5 days.

S'mores Cookie Bars

2011-05-10T10:40:00.000-07:00

It pains me to admit this, but I have never been one for the great outdoors. For my family, camping meant going to a cabin in the mountains, complete with electricity, a fully functioning kitchen, and furniture...though I still slept in a sleeping bag, if that counts for anything. During the day, we went hiking in the forests, had picnics in parks, picked plums from trees, and, if we were brave enough, swam in the ice-cold fresh water streams. At night, we retreated back to the cabin, played board games, and made s'mores, not over a campfire, but in the cabin's fireplace. I have to admit, I never got my marshmallow in between the graham crackers and chocolate, as I usually ate my charred, gooey marshmallows straight off the stick I toasted them on.

I haven't been camping in a while, in any sense of the word. One day, David and I will go camping for real, with tents and bug spray and the whole sh'bang. But until then, I am content to recreate camping memories with these s'more cookie bars.

These are best when cooled but still slightly warm - if it's still too hot when you slice into it, the filling oozes out, but if you let it cool too much, the chocolate re-hardens.

S'more Cookie Bars
Adapted from Baking Bites

1 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 2/3 cups flour
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 king-sized chocolate bars
3 cups marshmallow fluff

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit. Grease a 9 x 13 pan.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light. Beat in eggs and vanilla.

In a small bowl, whisk flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder, and salt. Add to butter mixture and mix until combined. Divide dough in half.

Press half of the dough into an even layer on the bottom of the prepared pan. Place chocolate bars over the dough. Spread marshmallow fluff over the chocolate. Place remaining dough in a single layer on top of the fluff.

Bake for 30 - 35 minutes, until lightly browned.

Cool before cutting into bars.

Blackberry Banana Muffins

2011-04-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

I cannot study at home. It's impossible. There are way too many distractions. I might want to go back to bed and take a nap. I might pull up a movie on Netflix to watch instantly. I might wander over to the kitchen and spend my entire morning making cookies.

No, it is much better for me to walk around the corner to my favorite cafe, with its incredibly creamy chai lattes and assortment of brownies. Or one and a half more blocks from there to another amazing cafe, with their on-site roasted coffee, madeleines, and Nutella rolls. Yes, these places are much more conducive to studying.

While the second cafe definitely wins out in the breakfast pastry category, their muffins leave something to be desired (and I'm sure this goes for all bakery muffins). I was initially excited to try their Blackberry Banana Muffins, but the muffins weren't very banana-y, and the blackberries had all sunk to the bottom, creating a hole in the middle of the muffin. Fortunately, those two problems are pretty easy to fix, and I set about making my own version of the muffins.

These muffins were a success. They were best fresh out of the oven, of course, but they also made a pretty tasty breakfast the following two days. I lightly coated the blackberries in flour before adding them to the muffin batter to prevent them from sinking, and it definitely did the trick - needless to say, muffins are much better when they're whole instead of hollow. The whole wheat flour added a slightly nutty flavor to the muffins, as well as an excuse to eat them for breakfast. I sprinkled the tops of the muffins with turbinado sugar before baking them, and I loved the extra crunch and sweetness it contributed.

Not a fan of blackberries? Neither is David. I substituted the blackberries in half of the muffins for a combination of white and semisweet chocolate chips, and he gave them two big thumbs up.

Blackberry Banana Muffins
Makes 12 muffins

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large bananas
1 large egg, room temperature
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 ounces blackberries (defrost if using frozen)

Turbinado sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease or line a 12-muffin tin.

Whisk together the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, mash the bananas. Mix in the egg, melted butter, milk, and vanilla extract. Stir the banana mixture into the dry ingredients until just combined (don't overmix).

Lightly coat the blackberries in flour and gently fold them into the muffin batter. Divide equally among the muffin tins. Sprinkle each one generously with the turbinado sugar.

Bake until the tops are pale golden, about 28-32 minutes. Transfer to rack to cool.

Churros con Chocolate

2011-04-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

In my junior year of college, I studied abroad in Granada, Spain. From my first day there, I heard about churros con chocolate, but didn't know what they looked like or where to get them. I went to bakeries and asked for churros con chocolate, but they didn't have any. I checked the coffee shops, only to find out that the coffee shops were actually primarily bars. Halfway through my semester, I finally found some at a place called Cafe Futbol. The treat was not, as I had originally suspected, like Mexican churros filled with chocolate. They were more donut-like, smooth instead of rigid, unadorned and accompanied by the thick Spanish hot chocolate that you were supposed to dip it into. It was love at first bite. My friends and I went there about once every other week to eat churros con chocolate, though we started going more and more during finals as we realized that we would soon have to leave everything in Spain behind.

Once we returned to San Diego, I searched for Spanish restaurants and cafes in the area that might have churros con chocolate, to no avail. It didn't occur to me to try making them myself until three years later, when I was searching for a recipe for my host mom's chorizo lentil soup and stumbled across a recipe for churros con chocolate. I excitedly tried the recipe, trying to improvise and use a cookie press, as I didn't have any large frosting tips. It did not turn out so good.

Cafe Futbol churros

I shelved the idea in favor of new projects, until a tapas bar opened near my apartment and reminded me of my favorite Spanish treat. I decided to try again, using a different recipe and a large coupler instead of a star tip.

These churros are smaller, but taste just like I remember - crispy on the outside, soft and custardy on the inside. The hot chocolate is rich and thick - almost like a cross between fudge sauce and pudding. Served together, they're as warm and comforting as cookies and milk.

Churros con Chocolate
Adapted from Chocolateria San Gines, Madrid, Spain

Churros:
8 cups vegetable oil
1 cup water
1/2 cup butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup flour
3 eggs
1/4 cup sugar

Heat oil to 360 degrees Farenheit.

Heat water, butter, and salt to rolling boil in a 3 quart saucepan. Add flour and stirr vigorously over low heat until it forms a ball (about 1 minute). Remove from heat.

Beat eggs until smooth, and add to saucepan while continuously stirring mixture.

Spoon dough into piping bag. Squeeze 4-inch strips into oil. Fry for 3 or 4 minutes until golden brown, turning once halfway through. Drain on paper towels.

Spanish Hot Chocolate

2 ounces dark chocolate
1 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons sugar

Place chocolate and half of milk in saucepan and cook over very low heat, stirring, until chocolate has melted. Dissolve cornstarch and sugar into remaining milk and whisk into the chocolate. Cook on low heat, whisking constantly, until chocolate thickens (it will take about 5 minutes). Remove from heat and whisk til smooth; pour into mugs.

Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread

2011-04-11T11:15:00.000-07:00

The only compliment/encouragment I ever got from my piano teacher is that I'm very "stick-to-itive". I'm not sure if she thought that was a good or bad thing. At any rate, my stick-to-itiveness came in handy when making this cinnamon sugar pull-apart bread.

I've never worked with yeast before. I've always been a bit scared, as there are certain things you need to do when yeast is involved, like kneading, rising, and waiting, and those are three things that I am not very good at. Plus, there are so many opportunities for things to go wrong. For example, what if while the dough was rising, I left my apartment to run an errand and got distracted by a butterfly and chased it all around town? The dough would just sit there, and it would keep rising and rising, getting bigger and bigger, until the confines of my apartment complex couldn't contain it anymore, and it would become so big that it gained sentience like The Blob and it would plop its blobby self around the city proclaiming, "Feed me! Glluuurgh!" and it would just completely smother the entirety of California. I do not want to be responsible for the destruction of civilization, no siree.

Still, I knew that I had to conquer my fear of screwing up if I ever wanted to eat this cinnamon sugar pull-apart bread. Seriously - how could you not persevere when the end goal is this browned-butter-and-cinnamon-sugar-slathered loaf that you pull apart, sheet by delicious sheet? I love peeling things, like dried glue off of fingernails and sunburnt skin off my shoulder. So this? It's like having a sheet of scratch-and-sniff stickers that you can eat. Plus, if cats can knead, then I should be able to do it, too. Right?

As it turns out, maybe not. After letting the dough rise for the first time, I tried kneading the dough, following the instructions given in an eHow article. After a while, I realized that I still had no idea what I was doing. It said to turn the dough, but was I supposed to make a quarter turn? Turn it halfway around? Flip it over? And it said to push the dough forward with the palm of my hand, but how far forward? So confusing! Then I got the brilliant idea of checking YouTube, and found this very helpful video from Epicurious. Note to self - check to see if there's an Epicurious tutorial before trying anything new again.

As I kneaded the dough, I realized that the dough wasn't becoming elastic, like the tutorial said it would. Then it occured to me that maybe when the instructions told me to let the dough rise somewhere warm, it meant a place more warm and humid than my San Diego living room. And you're probably thinking how I could possibly not notice that the dough hadn't risen, but like I said, I've never done this before! I wasn't sure how it was supposed to look. I was just glad that it hadn't gained sentience yet.

After reading some internet comment boards, I decided to bring some water to a boil in the microwave, and afterwards, stuck the bowl of dough in with the steaming cup of water, and let it rise for another hour.

So at this point, I had already messed up quite a bit. I might have overkneaded the dough. I added the last of the flour before the dough had a chance to rise. I let the dough sit around for an hour at room temperature. I wasn't sure if I had completely messed it up or not, but I figured I could try going through with the bread anyways, and try again if it didn't turn out.

I ended up rolling out the dough to 22 inches instead of 20 inches. Instead of having pretty little squares to stack into the pan, I had crooked rectangles. Oh well.

I let it rise again, using the same microwave technique. I got distracted on the phone with my mom and let it rise a little too long. I forgot to preheat the oven. The loaf sat for a while before going in.

In the end? It tasted the way it was supposed to taste (delicious). Did it look pretty? Not really. Did I care? Definitely not. After all, it's not the outside, but the warm, soft, cinnamony, buttery inside that counts.

Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread

Adapted from Joy the Baker

Dough

2 3/4 cups + 2 tablespoons AP flour

1/4 cup sugar

2 1/4 teaspoons (1 envelope) active dry yeast

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 ounces unsalted butter (half stick)

1/3 cup whole milk

1/4 cup water

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Filling

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 ounces unsalted butter, melted until browned

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together 2 cups flour, sugar, yeast, and salt. Set aside.

Whisk together eggs and set aside.

In a small saucepan, heat the milk and butter until the butter has melted. Remove from heat and add water and vanilla extract. Let stand until the temperature of the mixture reduces to 115 - 125 degrees Farenheit.

Pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture and mix with a spatula. Add the eggs and mix until the eggs are incorporated. Add 3/4 cup flour and mix with spatula until incorporated. The dough will be sticky.

Transfer the dough to a large, greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and a clean kitchen towel. Place in a warm space and let rise until doubled in size, about one hour.

*The dough can be risen then refrigerated overnight for use in the morning. If you do this, allow the dough to rest at room temperature for about 30 minutes before continuing to the next step.

While the dough rises, whisk together the sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg for the filling. Set aside. Melt 2 ounces of butter until browned. Set aside. Grease and flour a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. Set aside.

Once the dough has risen, transfer to a lightly-floured surface. Deflate the dough and knead the last 2 tablespoons of flour into the dough. The dough won't be sticky anymore, and when you poke the dough with your finger, the indentation will stay. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rest for 5 minutes.

Use a rolling pin to roll the dough out to 12 inches tall and 20 inches long. Use a pastry brush the spread the browned butter across all the dough. Sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar mixture evenly over the dough. Yes, it's a lot of sugar. Yes, you should use it all.

Slice the dough vertically into six equally-sized strips. Stack the strips on top of each other. Slice the stack into six again. You'll have six stacks of squares. Layer the dough squares on the loaf pan like dominos. Cover the pan with a kitchen towel and put it in a warm place to rise again for 30-45 minutes, or almost doubled in size.

While it's rising, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Farenheit. When the dough has finished rising, place the loaf in the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes, until the top is very golden brown.

Remove from the oven and let the loaf rest for 20-30 minutes. Run a butter knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the bread and invert it onto a clean plate. Place your serving plate on top of the upside-down loaf and carefully flip it over again, so it's right side up.

The loaf can be wrapped in plastic and kept at room temperature for up to two days. But it probably won't last that long.

Puppy Cake Pops

2011-04-04T12:27:00.000-07:00

Remember how in my last post, I mentioned that my sister-in-law asked me to make either an airplane or puppy cake for my nephew's first birthday? And remember how I cut up a 9x13 cake into the shape of a plane, leaving me with quite a bit of scraps and crumbs?

Well, with the leftover cake scraps, I made some adorable puppy cake pops!

I mixed the cookies & cream cake crumbs with about 1/4 of a canister of store-bought cream cheese frosting (I have no idea why, but store-bought seems to do a better job of holding them together). I rolled them into quarter-size balls. I dipped the lollipop sticks in candy coating before sticking them into the cake balls so that the cake wouldn't fall off the sticks.

Once you have your cake pops, here's how you make your puppies:

Puppy Cake Pops
Adapted from Cake Pops

Ingredients:

Peanut butter candy melts
Chocolate candy melts
Candy writers (dark brown)
Mini M&Ms
Lifesavers (I used the gummi ones, because I didn't want the toddlers to choke on the hard ones)

Tools

Edible ink pen
Sharpie
Clear plastic spoons
Squeeze bottle
Styrofoam block

Dip the cake pops in melted peanut butter candy coating - dunk straight down, lift staight up, and allow the coating to drip back into the bowl. Stick the pop into the styrofoam block to dry.

To make the ears:
-Draw an elongated tear drop with a Sharpie on the back of the clear plastic spoon.
-Flip spoon over. On the inside of the spoon, trace and fill in the tear drop with either the candy writer of a squeeze bottle filled with melted chocolate candy coating.
- Place in the freezer a few minutes to set
- Remove and pop the ears off the spoon and store in a dry place until ready to use

To make the nose:
- Cut a brown mini M&M in half
OR
- Use a candy writer to draw a nose on wax paper. Let dry and set aside until ready to use.

To assemble:
- Use the candy writer or melted chocolate coating as glue to attach the pieces to the pops.
- Place a drop of chocolate on the back of the pre-made nose and attach to the pop.
- Use the edible ink pen to draw the eyes and mouth
- Use glue method to attach the ears and the Lifesaver collars.
- Allow the pops to dry before serving.

Advice from Alli:
- I actually had a very difficult time with the squeeze bottle method - the candy kept solidifying after a couple minutes in the bottle, blocking off the opening. I would recommend trying the candy writers. Try to make the ears thick - mine were too thin, which made it difficult to "glue" them to the pops.
- Do not refrigerate the pops before assembling and decorating. The chocolate "glue" would harden before I got the chance to add the appendages. Furthermore, the condensation on the pops made it hard to draw the eyes and mouth.
- If it's a warm day and you need to transport them somewhere, try putting them in a cooler. The day of the party was very sunny, and the ears and collars ended up melting off the puppies on the way!

Cookies & Cream Cake

2011-03-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

When my sister-in-law asked me to make a cake for her son's first birthday party, I asked her what kind of cake she wanted, and she said she wanted a plane or a dog. When I clarified that I wanted to know what kind of flavor she wanted, she said that it was up to me.

My husband and I spent some time debating the merits of vanilla and chocolate until it occured to me that it would be fun to combine them. While marbled cakes are always delicious, I thought that a Chuck-E-Cheese birthday party would be the perfect opportunity to try out something more playful: Cookies & Cream Cake.

In this cake, crushed Oreos (cream and all) are folded into a vanilla cake batter. When baked, the chocolate cookies soften a bit and the cream melted into the cake. I actually used Trader Joe's Jojos instead of Oreos - I'd like to say that it's because the absence of hydrogenated oil makes it a healthier alternative to Oreos, but that would be like saying that fidgeting is a better form of exercise than watching T.V. The real reason is that there are vanilla bean specks in the Jojo cream, which makes it seem fancier to me - probably because I'm too much of a cheapskate to buy my own vanilla beans. Though adding cookies to cake batter is a small and simple step, it's enough to bump a cake from boring to novel.

This cake is more dense than cakes made from boxed cake mixes - my husband's family likes their cakes to be "hefty" (in the words of my father-in-law). However, if you like your cakes to be fluffier, you can take your favorite recipe (or vanilla cake mix) and just fold in some cookies.

Some notes about the pictures:

- If you would like to make an airplane cake, Wilton has very thorough instructions, as well as stencils for the propeller, wing, and tail. I did not want to buy their paisley pan, so I just cut the cake into the shape with a serrated knife and brushed away the crumbs with a pastry brush. Also, I used light blue for the windows instead of black - there's just too much food coloring involved in making black frosting.

- This slice of cake above is a couple days old, so it looks very dried out. Your cake will look more moist when it is fresh. I just included this so you could see what it looks like with cookie bits in it.

Cookies & Cream Cake
Adapted from Baking Bites

2 1/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup sugar
10 tablespoons butter, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup whole milk
12 crushed Oreos

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 pan.

In medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt. In large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla. Beat in eggs one at a time, fully incorporating the first one before adding the next.

Stir in a third of the flour mixture. Stir in half of the milk. Stir in half of the remaining flour mixture. Stir in the last of the milk. Stir in the last of the flour mixture.

Bake for 27-32 minutes (depending on your oven and what kind of pan you're using). Let cool.

Quick Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
(I doubled this to frost and decorate the cake and cookie attachments)

1/2 cup butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup milk

Beat butter until fluffy. Add vanilla, milk, and half of the powdered sugar and beat with an electric mixer until creamy. Add the rest of the powdered sugar a little bit at a time until it reaches your desired consistency.

(I read that adding the powdered sugar really slowly - a couple tablespoons at a time - helps the frosting to firm up without needing as much sugar. I have yet to test this technique.)

Coffee Chiffon Cake with Nutella and Bananas

2011-03-21T08:00:00.001-07:00

My friends invited David and I over for a crepe party on Pancake Day/Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras. Needless to say, I am a fan of any party involving a steady stream of fresh crepes and an extensive topping bar. I had three crepes that night, playing around with combinations of berries, slivered almonds, lemon juice, powdered sugar, freshly whipped cream, and Nutella. It was a delicious, delicious night.

It wasn't until two days later that I realized that I had forgotten to make my favorite: Nutella and bananas.

What had I been thinking? This was a mistake that had to be rectified as soon as possible. But not with crepes. With cake.

I wanted to recreate the experience of eating Nutella and banana crepes, but in the form of a cake. I chose to use thin layers of chiffon cake, for several reasons. Chiffon cakes are a bit on the eggy side, and are usually not very sweet. They're not fluffy or dense or crumbly or buttery - they're airy and light, which means that they can balance out the decadence of three layers of Nutella and bananas.

This cake has a lot going on, so I opted not to frost or top the cake. If you did want a bit of oomph, for presentation purposes, I think it would be wonderful with a light dusting of powdered sugar or swathed in barely-sweetened whipped cream...though if you want top it with another layer of Nutella and bananas, who am I to stop you?

Coffee Chiffon Cake with Nutella and Bananas
Chiffon cake recipe adapted from Bon Appetit, June 2002

1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup strong coffee, lukewarm
1/2 cup vegetable oil
5 large eggs, separated
1 tablespoon vanilla extract.

Nutella
4 bananas, sliced about 1/4 inch thick

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Farenheit. Butter and flour two 9-inch round cake pans.

Sift flour, 3/4 cup sugar, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat the coffee into the dry ingredients until just combined. Beat in oil, egg yolks, and vanilla extract.

Using clean, dry beaters, beat egg whites in a medium bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually add 1/2 cup sugar, beating until stiff but not dry. Fold whites into batter in three additions.

Bake 30 minutes or until tester comes out clean. Cool pans on wire cooling racks for ten minutes. Cut around the cakes and turn out onto racks to cool completely.

Once the cakes are completely cooled, cut each cake in half with a serrated knife or cake cutter. Place one layer on your serving plate. Spread an even layer of Nutella onto the cake (make sure to go all the way to the edges) and top with bananas. Put another layer of cake on top of it and repeat until your cake is finished.

Rolled Sugar Cookies

2011-03-14T08:00:00.000-07:00

While I love experimenting with new flavors, I also think that classics are classics for a reason. The gooey comfort of a chocolate chip cookie, the crisp buttery goodness of shortbreads, the creamy vanilla flavor of sugar cookies...yup, there are many reasons that we return to the classics again and again.

It's really quick to make the dough, and as it needs to be chilled ahead of time, it's really easy to do different parts during several pockets of precious free time. For example, I spent 15 minutes making the dough one day, another 15 rolling and cutting it the next day, and another 10 minutes just popping it into the oven and baking it later that evening.

This is probably my favorite sugar cookie recipe - it uses all butter (I hate shortening) and is really easy to roll out. I think it has the perfect crisp-outside-chewy-inside texture - I'm not a fan of the cakey grocery store sugar cookies. I like it better after it's been sitting around for a couple of days, as it gets softer as time goes by. I actually transcribed the recipe while watching Martha Stewart (which is weird, because I never watch it). It's actually pretty entertaining, as her guest was just enamored by Martha and Martha wasn't really interested in her guest's stories of how much she loves her work. I thought it was kind of funny. I love Martha's recipes, but I can't be the only one who finds her a bit abrasive, right?

Rolled Sugar Cookies
Adapted from Martha Stewart

2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons milk

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the egg, vanilla, and milk. Add the flour mixture and mix until thoroughly combined.

Divide the dough into two disks, cover in plastic wrap, and chill for at least an hour or up to three days.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Flour your rolling area and rolling pin. Roll the dough until 1/8 inch thick. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters, occasionally dipping them in flour to avoid sticking. Try to cut out as much as possible at one time, as the dough gets tougher each time you re-roll it.

Bake for about 10 minutes, until lightly golden. Transfer to wire racks to cool.

Cascaron (Bitsu-Bitsu)

2011-03-07T21:43:00.000-08:00

Cascaron is a Filipino dessert that my mom often made for get-togethers when I was growing up. It's fairly simple to make, though I had a hard time figuring out how to make it for myself as my mom never uses a recipe, and most of her instructions to me were pretty vague. For example:

Me: How much coconut milk am I supposed to add?
Mom: Oh, you know, you want to put enough, but you don't want to put too much.

Me: How long am I supposed to cook it?
Mom: Oh, I don't know - just be sure to take it out before it explodes.

I eventually figured out that the dough should be similar to cookie dough and that if you cook the dough in medium-high heat until the outsides are golden brown, the insides should be sufficiently cooked. Thankfully, cascaron is pretty forgiving, and you don't need the exact measurements required in most baking.

So by now, you're probably wondering, "What the heck is cascaron?" The best way I can explain them is to say that they are like fried coconut mochi balls. And now you're probably wondering what mochi is. Mochi is a Japanese cake, traditionally made by pounding rice into a paste and molding it, but can now be made with mochiko flour, which can be found in the Asian section of most grocery stores. Most people have had it in the context of mochi ice cream, and if you live in Southern California, you've probably seen it as a topping option in most frozen yogurt shops. It's hard to describe the texture, but I'd say it's denser than a marshmallow, but lighter than gummies, but even then, that doesn't fully capture the essence of mochi. I guess you'll just have to try it for yourself! :)

Cascaron

Vegetable oil
1 box mochiko flour (it will look like this)
1 13.5 oz. can coconut milk (I like Chaokoh brand best)
1/2 - 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup water

In a wok or wide pot, pour vegetable oil until it's about 3-4 inches deep. Set the stove to medium-high heat.

Line a pan, tray, or large plate with paper towels

Combine the mochiko and shredded coconut in a large bowl. Slowly add the coconut milk - you might not need the entire can - and mix until it's the consistency of cookie dough. If you use the full 1 cup of coconut, you might need to add more liquid - in that case, add some water to the empty coconut milk can, swirl it around a bit so it picks up some of the leftover traces of milk, and slowly add more water to the dough.

Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and fry it in the oil until golden brown. Don't overcrowd the cascaron - they expand as they cook. The balls might start to crack, which is okay, just make sure to take them out before they explode ;) When done, transfer to paper towels to cool.

In a small saucepan, combine the sugar and water. Cook until it reaches the soft boil stage. You can test whether it's ready by placing a drop of syrup in cold water - if it retains its shape and is soft, then it's ready.

Place the cascaron in a pan or tray lined with wax paper (I recommend a 9x13 pan). Drizzle the syrup evenly over the cascaron, and gently stir them around so that they're fully coated.

Note: I tried to do this in a bowl, and it didn't work out to well - the syrup hardened before I could finish mixing them.

Let cool before eating.

Brown Butter Apple Cake

2010-11-16T12:37:00.000-08:00

Every year, come autumn, my obsession with apples hits me like a ton of bricks. Last fall, my friends knew that if they came over, they would be greeted with apples in some form of baked good - apple chai cake, apple pie cookies, apple pear crisps, apple oat muffins...my experimentations were endless. More often than not, though, I fell back on apple chai cake and made it for every potluck, party, and holiday celebration I went to. While I will always love apple chai cake and I have very fond memories of our time together, I felt suffocated in our monogomous relationship and decided that I wanted to play the field a little bit. Don't worry - apple chai cake let me know that it will always be around if I need something reliable I can depend on.

But enough about apple chai cake. This cake involves a cake batter made with brown butter and infused with maple syrup, layered in a loaf pan with chunks of cinnamon-coated apples. It has the most amazingly tender crumb, and a deep, toasty flavor, thanks to the brown butter (and for all my talk about my apple obsession, probably 25% of my posts involve brown butter. How's that for an obsession?).

I made the cake in a loaf pan because I wanted something small that David and I could keep all to ourselves. However, if you want to share, I suspect that the recipe could be doubled and baked in a 9x13 pan. The recipe does not make a lot of batter - in fact, when you slide your pan in the oven, you'll probably think that it will bake into the flattest cake in the history of ever. But have no fear - even though the batter is sticky and dense, it rises beautifully up around the apples and results in the aforementioned tender crumb.

Brown Butter Apple Cake

3 apples

2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 1/2 tablespoons sugar

1 1/4 cups flour, sifted (sift before measuring!)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
3/4 cup sugar
1/8 cup maple syrup
1/8 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a loaf pan.

Brown the butter in a small saucepan - click here for a tutorial. Set aside to cool.

Peel, core, and chop apples into 1-inch chunks. Toss with cinnamon and sugar. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.

Whisk together the brown butter, sugar, maple syrup, milk, and vanilla. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir in eggs one at a time.

Pour half of the batter into the loaf pan. Scatter half of the apples over the batter. Pour the rest of the batter over the apples, and top with the rest of the apples - drizzle the juices from the apples over the top. Bake for 1 1/2 hours, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

2010-11-02T10:06:00.000-07:00

These are pretty much brownies in the form of a cookie. I love making these because the dough is extremely simple to make and one recipe makes a huge batch of cookies. While these cookies are fantastic as-is, I think next time I'll try stirring in some mini chocolate chips for extra chocolate-y gooey goodness.

I don't remember where I got this recipe from - I found it in a pile of index cards tucked away in an envelope in a cabinet above our sink. I tend to write down recipes on scrap pieces of paper and leave them lying around the house for David to find and and eventually put away, until I want to make the recipe again and tear the house apart looking for it. I think I need a better recipe filing system. Chocolate Crinkle Cookies seems like one of those universal cookies that everyone makes, like sugar cookies or shortbread cookies, where there's a basic recipe that everyone uses, so I might not need to give anyone credit for this, but just in case: if this recipe looks identical to one in a cookbook, website, or blog, let me know so I can give the creator credit.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar

In a medium bowl, whisk the cocoa powder, white sugar, and vegetable oil together. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla extract. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; stir into the cocoa mixture. Cover dough, and chill for at least 4 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mat. Scoop the dough with a tablespoon, and roll into balls with your palms. It helps to lightly oil your palms with vegetable oil, so that the dough doesn't stick to your hands so much. Word to the wise - do not spray your hands with Pam, because you'll definitely be able to taste it in the finished product. Roll each ball of dough in powdered sugar before placing them onto the prepared cookie sheets.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Let stand on the cookie sheet for a minute before transferring to wire racks to cool.

Double Apple Bundt Cake

2010-10-22T10:39:00.000-07:00

I love fall. Even though the leaves here don't change color, it still feels different - the dropping temperatures, the morning mist, the smell of wet pavement, the promise of pumpkin-spice lattes, the Christmas decorations that go up in stores the moment Halloween ends - every moment feels festive.

I think part of it also has to do with the anticipation of holidays that involve being in community with each other, whether it's going door-to-door, as with trick-or-treating and Christmas caroling, or gathering around the dinner table for a ridiculously heavy meal. And this cake is perfect for any occasion or visit that may arise: it's quick and easy (in other words, perfect for my busy grad school schedule), feeds a small crowd, and with it's assortment of spices and the inclusion of apples in two incarnations, it tastes like autumn. As a bonus, it tastes better the day after it's baked (though it's very tasty the day of, too).

This cake includes fresh, shredded apples and apple butter - the recipe says that either plain or spiced apple butter is fine. I used an apple butter that was spiced with cinnamon and cloves, and I loved the extra flavor it gave the cake. The shredded apples kind of melted into the cake, so you couldn't really tell they were in there, which disappointed me a little - I thought there would be small bits of apple in each bite. Still, though, I can't complain - after all, this cake makes it possible to get the cinnamon-apple goodness of homemade apple pie in a fraction of the time.

Double Apple Bundt Cake

Adapted from Dorie Greenspan

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teapoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated (or ground) nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

1 cup store-bought apple butter (I used Tropical brand)

2 medium apples, peeled, cored and grated

1 1/2 cups pecans, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit. Butter and flour a 9- to 10-inch Bundt pan (unless it's silicone - then there's no need).

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed with a hand mixer, scraping the bowl as needed, for 3 minutes, or until the mixture is smooth, thick and pale. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the apple butter. Add the grated apple and mix to completely blend. Don't worry if the batter looks curdled - that's normal. Add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they disappear into the batter. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the pecans.

Pour the batter into the Bundt pan and smooth the top of the batter with the spatula. Bake for 50-55 minutes. Transfer the pan to a rack to cool for 5 minutes before unmolding and cooling the cake to room temperature.

Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Store at room temperature. Wrap well with plastic.

Wedding Cake Part 3: Putting it Together

2010-10-17T12:52:00.000-07:00

When preparing to make this cake, I got advice from lots of how-to articles, blog posts, comments on blog posts, and a friend of a friend. I kind of picked and chose the bits of instruction that was most convenient from each one.

Note: Blogger is being kind of wonky at the moment, so there are certain pictures that I wanted to show you that didn't get on here. I'll hopefully come back and add them later.

Assembling the Cake

1. White Chocolate Shavings
I used a pound of Callebaut white chocolate to make shavings to cover the cake. At first, the shavings were very skinny and looked like toothpicks. It took me a while to figure out how to make the big rose-petal-like shavings - as it turned out, the chocolate was too cold. I warmed the edges of the chocolate with my hands before shaving off a thin sliver of chocolate with a kitchen knife - I was worried that warming them using a method other than body heat would result in too-soft or melted chocolate. I ended up liking the combination of large and small shavings on the cake.

2. Cake boards

The top cake tier sat on a round cake board that was slightly smaller than its bottom. The bottom tier sat on a cake board that was slightly larger. In hindsight, it would have been a good idea to check with the bride and groom to see if they would be providing a cake stand, but as it was, I sat the bottom cake board directly on the table and covered the parts that jutted out with icing and white chocolate shavings.

3. Wooden and plastic dowels

I inserted four wooden dowels into the bottom tier before setting the top tier on it - this prevents the cake from collapsing into itself. I first inserted a dowel into the bottom tier, marked it about 1/8 inch from the top of the cake, and removed it from the cake. I then cut all four dowels at the mark. I used wooden dowels, and they were very, very difficult to cut. I unfortunately couldn't find plastic dowels, but I heard that plastic straws could also work in a pinch.

4. Cake Assembly Kit

I assembled the cake at the reception site - luckily, both tiers fit side-by-side inside my cake carrier. I knew that the frosting would definitely get messed up during transportation, so I brought a kit with me so I could make all necessary repairs. I brought piping tips, piping/ziploc bags, paper towels, an offset spatula, a butter knife (which is what I usually use to repair small sections of cake), scissors, extra icing, and a really big spatula, which I used to lift the top tier from the cake carrier to the top of the cake.

After stacking the two tiers, I frosted over the damaged parts and piped little pearls in between the tiers (to cover the small gap) and at the bottom of the cake (to cover the board). Then I covered the whole thing in white chocolate shavings.

Wedding Cake: Part Two - The Frosting

2010-09-18T17:22:00.000-07:00

Holy cow, is this post way overdue. But! I have an excuse: school and work has been kicking my butt. Fortunately, I am now on a part-time work schedule, so juggling everything should be more manageable from now on.

But enough about me. On to the frosting!

As I mentioned before, I made a white chocolate cream cheese frosting, as the groom is a big fan of white chocolate. When making the frosting, it is very important that all of the ingredients are at room temperature. If the cream cheese and butter are too cold, the white chocolate will harden into chunks. If the white chocolate is too warm, it will melt the cream cheese and butter.

Instead of making a separate batch of frosting for the strawberry filling, I simply mixed some strawberry puree into some reserved white chocolate frosting. It ended up being very tasty.

I chose to use white chocolate chips in the frosting, figuring that the same oils (which are used instead of cocoa butter) that help the chips retain their shape when baked would give the frosting added stability. I'm not sure if success of the frosting could be attributed to the chocolate chips, as I haven't tried making the frosting with real white chocolate, but as written, this frosting holds up amazingly well. I wouldn't recommend chilling the frosting in the fridge, as it will become way too hard to spread and could possibly curdle if you try to beat it afterwards.

I love this frosting because it's very creamy and not too sweet. The cream cheese flavor is very mellow and allows the vanilla notes of the white chocolate to shine.

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

28 ounces (3 1/2 blocks) cream cheese, softened
26 tablespoons (3 sticks + 2 tablespoons) butter, softened
24 ounces white chocolate chips
4 cups powdered sugar

Melt the white chocolate chips, using either a double-boiler or a microwave. If using the microwave method, stir the chocolate well after each 15-second interval. Let cool to room temperature.

Beat the cream cheese and butter until well-combined and fluffy. Add the white chocolate and beat until thoroughly combined. Add the powdered sugar one cup at a time, mixing well after each addition. Set aside two cups of the frosting for the strawberry filling.

Strawberry White Chocolate Frosting

2 cups white chocolate cream cheese frosting
1/4 cup strawberry puree

Mix the puree into the frosting until thoroughly combined.

Wedding Cake: Part One - The Cake

2010-09-06T18:52:00.000-07:00

Well, friends, I did it. I made a wedding cake. Granted, it was small, but it was a wedding cake nonetheless. And let me tell you, I did a LOT of research, even making a practice tier the week before.

The bride and groom sent me a picture of a six-inch cake perched on top of an 8-inch cake, swathed in white buttercream that had been swirled and swooped. They told me that they wanted the cake to be in those dimensions, but covered in white chocolate shavings. The bride told me that she likes chocolate and raspberry and that the groom likes white chocolate and strawberry. I decided to make a chocolate cake with white chocolate cream cheese frosting. In between the cake layers, I spread a thin layer raspberry preserves and a thick layer of strawberry white chocolate buttercream. Then, I coated the whole thing in almost a pound of Callebaut white chocolate shavings.

It turned out great. I was surprised at how smoothly everything went, though I think that most of it could be attributed to the cake recipe I chose. During my two weeks of research, I read Smitten Kitchen's blog posts about her experience making a wedding cake, and she highly recommended a Chocolate Butter Cake recipe from the Sky High cookbook. When I did my trial run, I tightly wrapped the cakes and left them in the fridge for two days. Then I covered it in frosting and served it to my husband and friend, and we were delighted to find that the cake hadn't dried out a bit. Then, the cake sat on the table for 5 days, at the end of which the cake was still insanely moist, dense, and fudgy. Furthermore, the batter is insanely quick and easy to make. Also! In the middle of my cake-making marathon, I ran out of wax paper with which to line the bottom of the pan, so I made sure to grease the pan well and prayed that the bottom wouldn't stick. Unfortunately, a couple chunks of cake stayed stuck to the bottom of the pan when I turned the cake over. However, I took the pieces of cake, stuck them back in their respective gaps, tightly wrapped the cakes and prayed that the chunks would miraculously glue itself back in the cake, and you know what? It did!

Because I'm still pretty tired from a weekend of cake-making (and because I have quite a bit of homework to catch up on), I'm dividing my experience into three parts, the first of which is the cake recipe.

Chocolate Butter Cake
Adapted from Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes
Makes a 3-layer 8-inch round cake and a 3-layer 6-inch round cake

4 cups cake flour
4 cups sugar
2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
4 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 sticks (one pound) salted butter, room temperature
2 cups buttermilk
4 eggs
2 cups freshly-brewed coffee

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit. Grease cake pans, line bottom with wax paper, and butter it. Lightly coat with cocoa powder.

In large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and cinnamon. Blend on low for 30 seconds. Add butter and buttermilk. Blend on low until moistened. Raise speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Make sure to mix way at the bottom of the bowl, to ensure that no bits of dry ingredients sneak away unmixed.

Whisk coffee and eggs together. Add the coffee mixture to the batter in three additions, scraping down sides of bowls and beating only until blended after each addition.

Divide batter among pans: each 6-inch layer gets 2 cups and each 8-inch layer gets 3 1/2 cups. Bake the 6-inch layers for 25-30 minutes and the 8-inch layers for 30-35 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Carefully turn them out on wire racks and let them cook completely. Remove paper liners when cool.

If assembling cakes later, tightly wrap the cake layers in 2 (or 3) layers of cling wrap and store in the refrigerator.

Strawberry Mini Cupcakes

2010-08-23T22:45:00.000-07:00

I honestly don't know where my head has been lately.

There's been a lot of changes going on lately. First of all, I'm going back to school! I'll be getting my Masters in Education with an emphasis in school counseling, and I'm very excited. Secondly, I quit my job! I'm in the midst of my last week of work, and while it will feel weird to not be working (actually, I will soon be working for free as an intern at schools), I'm looking forward to this transition. Lastly, I am on my way to becoming a domestic goddess. This whole loss-of-income thing has been freaking me out, and I've been budgeting, creating spreadsheets, uncluttering, rearranging furniture, menu-planning, scanning weekly sale ads, and clipping coupons like crazy.

Unfortunately, this newfound household organization has caused some disorganization in other areas of my life, namely in my ability to keep track of recipes, especially since I scribble recipes and measurements on Post-it notes as they enter my head. I spent half an hour tonight searching high and low for my recipe for these Strawberry Mini Cupcakes, to no avail, then figured, heck, I created this recipe, so I should be able to remember it, right? Thank goodness my previously organized self had typed the recipe into a rough draft, because I don't think I would have gotten it right. I probably should have checked my list of drafts before I tore the apartment apart. By the way, if this post seems a little, oh, I don't know...rushed? It's probably because I've gotten back into "school-mode" and I've been creating imaginary deadlines for myself, because if I don't blog about these cupcakes tonight, it probably won't get done for another three weeks, due to the fact that I'm making a wedding cake. By the way, did I mention that I'm making a wedding cake for the weekend after my first week of school? If in the coming weeks it seems that I've dropped off the face of the earth, that is why. That will also be why this post will probably make no sense, because really, proofreading? What is that? And who has time for it?

But in all seriousness, these mini cupcakes are awesome. Sometimes, strawberry-flavored treats can taste artificial, but these were made with ripe summer berries, and the proof is definitely in the pudding...err, cupcake. They're not too sweet, so you can go crazy with the strawberry buttercream. I had eaten 1/4 of the cupcakes before I got to the frosting stage, and I didn't quite have enough to pile the frosting high on all of them, the way shown in the pictures - I had to smear a thin layer on the last few. The recipe as written would probably be enough to smear a healthy layer of frosting on all cupcakes, but if you want to pile the frosting high, you'll have to double it. Which, you know what? Do it. After all, what's a cupcake without frosting?

Strawberry Mini Cupcakes
Makes 18-20 cupcakes

3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened
1/3 cup pureed strawberries
1 egg
1/8 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Farenheit. Line a mini muffin pan.

Cream the butter and sugar together until combined. Stir in the pureed strawberries until light and fluffy. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda, and add half of the mixture into the strawberry batter. Stir until combined. Add the egg and milk into the batter; stir until combined. Add the rest of the dry ingredients and stir until combined.

Divide the batter into the mini cupcake liners, filling each one about 3/4 full. Bake for 15 minutes.

Strawberry Buttercream Frosting

1/4 (1/2 stick) cup butter, room temperature
3 tablespoons strawberry puree
3/4 - 1 cup powdered sugar

Stir together the butter and strawberry puree until combined. Beating continuously, slowly add powdered sugar until the frosting reaches your desired consistency. Spread onto the top of your cupcakes.

Hawaiian-Style Fried Rice

2010-08-19T22:01:00.000-07:00

No, there's no pineapple or ham.

What's your favorite comfort food? Usually the words "comfort food" conjures up images of pot roast, mac and cheese, and apple pie. I've found that my favorite comfort foods are very different from that of my friends who grew up on the "mainland." I seek chicken katsu, breaded in panko and fried until golden brown. Banana lumpia, crispy on the outside, gooey on the inside, and coated in sticky melted sugar. And best of all, my mom's fried rice, which she made many Sunday mornings for breakfast. Yes, breakfast.

Fried rice is one of those dishes that everyone in Hawaii claims that their parents make best. I'm no exception. I was thinking about it a couple months ago, when I was making fried rice for dinner (my mom always finds it odd when I make it for dinner instead of breakfast) for my friend, Lauren Carmen San Diego, who interestingly enough, claims that I make the best fried rice. I omitted the veggies I usually add (because Lauren hates veggies), and it occurred to me that maybe everyone likes their parents' fried rice best because their parents only included the things they like. For example, my uncle always made his with onions and chives, which I abhorred, while my mom made hers with Spanish chorizo, which I love. All this to say that fried rice is so extremely customizable, and as long as you include things that you love and omit things that you hate, you're going to love it.

I will say that there is one thing that will take your fried rice from good to great: BACON. This is what makes fried rice "Hawaiian-style," because nobody in Hawaii makes their fried rice without bacon (that I know of, at least). Sure, if you're a vegetarian or you don't eat pork, you don't have to add it, but oh my goodness, you are missing out on the salty, smoky flavor that it imparts on the rest of the ingredients. In fact, my mom always drained the bacon renderings, added the rest of the ingredients, then drizzled a couple tablespoons back into the wok. I always thought that the secret ingredient was the oyster sauce, but I ran out once and just used soy sauce with a pinch of garlic salt and ground ginger, and I didn't even notice the difference.

Fried rice is a great way to use up the leftovers in your fridge. The last time I made it, I added the last bits of meat from a leftover rotisserie chicken, the last of my arugula, and about 1/3 of a cup of corn left from a dinner party with friends. My mom likes to go all-out - we once ate fried rice with leftover steak and shrimp. It was glorious. While adding leftover meat and vegetables is optional, using leftover rice is essential. Using rice that has gotten a little hard makes it easier to mix with the rest of the ingredients, and not to worry, it softens during the cooking process. Conversely, using just-cooked rice will result in mushy fried rice, and trust me - nobody likes mushy fried rice.

I like a 1:1 rice to meat/vegetable ratio, but if you like your fried rice with more, well, rice, feel free to make that adjustment. The recipe below isn't necessarily my favorite version - it's just the version I have pictures of. Again, adjustments and substitutions are encouraged. (For the record, my favorite version involves bacon, Spanish chorizo, julienned carrots and celery, and a fried egg on top. Yes, it's very healthy.) I never use a recipe, so these are approximations.

Hawaiian-Style Fried Rice
Serves 4, or, spread out over a couple of days, one very hungry Alli

3 cups leftover cooked rice, cold
1 package bacon, coursely chopped
2/3 cup shredded leftover rotisserie chicken
2/3 cup julienned carrots
4 ounces arugula
1/3 cup corn
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
5 tablespoons soy sauce

Heat a wok to medium-high heat. Cook the bacon until very crispy. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to another bowl and scoop out as much of the bacon renderings as you can (though leave a couple teaspoons in the wok to cook the rest of the stuff in).

Add the carrots to the wok and cook for three minutes, stirring frequently. Add the chicken, corn, and arugula. Cook until the chicken is heated through and the arugula is barely wilted. Add the bacon back in. Add the rice - the cold rice will have stuck together, so crumble it with your hands over the meat and vegetables. Stir well - make sure that the meat and vegetables are evenly distributed throughout the rice. Drizzle a couple tablespoons of the bacon fat back over the rice and stir well, until evenly distributed.

In a small bowl, mix together the oyster sauce and soy sauce. Spoon the mixture over the fried rice a little at a time, stirring well and tasting in between, to make sure you don't add too much of the soy sauce mixture. When it's flavored to your liking, the fried rice is done.

For maximum presentation points and tastiness, tightly pack the fried rice into a small bowl and unmold onto a plate. Drape a sunny-side-up egg on top. Yum!

Brown Butter Plum Cake

2010-08-16T08:28:00.000-07:00

The past few Thursdays, the moment I arrive at the farmers market, I gravitate towards the same stand to buy a basket of their insanely good plums. I've never finished a basket, but this week, I had decided to make Dorie Greenspan's Dimply Plum Cake. It had been on my list of things to make for about a year, and I had only been waiting for plums to be in season.

However, when I saw that Elissa of 17 and Baking had chosen brown butter as the theme of this month's Sugar High Friday, I knew that I wanted to 1) participate, and 2) make a dessert somehow involving both plums and brown butter.

My idea came to me pretty quicky: a Plum Upside-Down Brown Butter Pecan Cake. For obvious reasons, I've shortened the name.

I don't mean to brag, but this was a delicious cake. The cake was tender and moist. and the ground pecans really highlighted the nutty notes of the brown butter without overpowering it. The plums added a touch of tartness to an otherwise sweet cake, and the bright red slices looked very pretty embedded into the top of the cake (especially if you wait for it to cool completely before unmolding it, unlike me, who lost all the plums in the center of the cake and futilely tried to make it look nice again). I think the cake would be amazing with apple or pear slices in the fall, but I also think that it would be the perfect simple everyday cake without the fruit, topped only with a dusting of powdered sugar.

I stored the cake in the fridge overnight, and was pleased to find that the cake was still moist the next morning, if a tad bit denser. However, as it warmed to room temperature, the cake regained its tender crumb.

Brown Butter Plum Cake (or Plum Upside-Down Brown Butter Pecan Cake)

10 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
1 cup flour
1/2 cup ground pecans (about a heaping 1/2 cup of pecan halves)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup + 3 tablespoons brown sugar, divided
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 small or 4 medium plums, cut into slices about 1/4 inch thick.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Farenheit. Grease a 9-inch round cake pan.

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter and cook until it becomes amber in color (click here for a tutorial on how to brown butter). Pour most of it into a bowl or glass measuring cup and set aside to cool - leave a couple tablespoons of browned butter in the pot. Add the plum slices and 3 tablespoons brown sugar, and toss until completely coated. Arrange the plum slices in the bottom of the cake pan in concentric circles.

In a food processor, grind the pecans, adding a tablespoon or so of flour so that it doesn't become a nut butter. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, ground pecans, baking powder, granulated sugar, and a 1/2 cup of brown sugar. Whisk to combine.

In a measuring cup, whisk together the milk, eggs, vanilla extract, and cooled brown butter until combined. Pour into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Pour the cake batter into the pan, gently spreading it evenly over the plums.

Bake for 25-30 minutes. Let cool for 20 minutes, then invert the cake onto a plate. If some of the plum slices stick to the cake pan, just arrange them onto the cake again.

Keep refrigerated up to 3 days.

Salted Caramel Brownies

2010-08-13T11:27:00.000-07:00

This is probably the best mistake I've ever made.

These were supposed to be Salted Caramel Swirl Brownies. But, as it is apt to do, the caramel sauce liquified in the heat of the oven. To be honest, I had a feeling it wouldn't swirl (though I hoped it would magically defy science), and I luckily thought to use unsalted butter as a precaution. As you can see in the picture above, all the caramel rose to the top of the brownies, forming a pool of sticky goodness on the surface and infusing the brownie batter with its glorious burnt sugar flavor on the way.

These brownies came out perfectly. While they are a bit of a melty mess right out of the oven, once they cool, they are dense, fudgy, amazingly chocolate-y, and in the words of David, "fantastilicious". The edges were a bit crispier than they normally would be, due to the caramel bubbling up around the edges, but David and I enjoyed it. I kept the brownies in the fridge to keep the caramel firm, and I have to say, these brownies were amazing on the second day, straight out of the fridge. On the third day, David said, "These brownies get better every day. Like wine, or something."

Salted Caramel Brownies

Adapted from David Lebovitz

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces

12 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

6 large eggs

2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups flour

2 cups salted caramel sauce

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Line a 9x13 inch with a long sheet of aluminum foil that covers the bottom and reaches up the sides. Grease the bottom and sides of the foil with a bit of butter or non-stick spray.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Add the chocolate pieces and stir constantly over very low heat until the chocolate is melted. Remove from heat and whisk in the cocoa powder until smooth. Add in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the sugar, vanilla, then the flour.

Scrape half of the batter into the prepared pan.

Drop one-third of the caramel, evenly spaced, over the brownie batter, then drag a knife through to swirl it slightly. Spread the remaining brownie batter over, then drop spoonfuls of the remaining caramel in dollops over the top of the brownie batter. Use a knife to swirl the caramel slightly.

Bake for 50 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool completely.

Salted Caramel Sauce

2010-08-11T10:20:00.000-07:00

I love salted caramel. Love it. I can't even wax poetic about it, because it reduces me to a blabbering idiot.

I made a salted caramel sauce. I have plans for it. Yummy plans. But you'll have to wait til the next post to see what those plans are.

I made a double recipe of the sauce. I wanted to have enough to pour over ice cream. Yum. But first I need to buy ice cream. I might just eat the sauce straight out of its container with a spoon.

But in all seriousness, I highly recommend measuring all the ingredients and having them ready to go before you start making the sauce, because caramel demands your utmost attention. I've forgotten to pre-measure my ingredients before, and it has resulted in burnt caramel, which besides the whole inedible caramel thing, also involves layers of burnt sugar on the bottom on your saucepan, so trust me on this: burnt caramel = no bueno.

The best utensil to use when making caramel is a wooden spoon. It doesn't conduct heat, which prevents crystallization, and sugar doesn't stick to it as much as it would to metal utensils. (I don't remember where I learned that. Probably from Alton Brown). Most caramel sauce recipes tell you to let the sugar boil without disturbing it. When I have done this, it has resulted in burnt caramel. However, when you stir continuously, the sugar takes forever to turn into caramel. I recommend frequently (but not continuously) scraping the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon, just to make sure the sugar doesn't get stuck to the bottom and burn. One more tip, courtesy of the Baked cookbook: When you're done with the sauce, boil some water in the pot with your utensils inside - it will dissolve the sticky, stuck-on sugar. It will make clean-up way easier. You're welcome.

Salted Caramel Sauce
Adapted from Food and Wine
(Makes 3 cups of caramel)

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 1/2 cup heavy cream
8 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 teaspoons flaky sea salt (The recipe recommends a grey salt, such as Maldon, but my dad gave me some Hawaiian salt the last time I visited. Don't use table salt! It's way too strong!)

In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, water, and corn syrup. Bring the mixture to a boil. Using a wet pastry brush, wash down crysals on the side of the pan. Boil over high heat, frequently scraping the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon, until it turns a deep amber color, about 6 minutes (it took me about 15, but I was very worried about burning it). Remove the saucepan from heat and carefully whisk in cream, butter, and salt. The caramel will probably seize when you stir in the cream, but just keep stirring (return the pot to low heat if necessary) and the clumps will eventually dissolve. Let caramel cool to room temperature.

The caramel can be refrigerated for up to two weeks. Rewarm the sauce before serving.

Cherry Plum Pecan Crisp

2010-08-09T22:06:00.000-07:00

It seems that I spent all winter making mental lists of all the treats I would make this summer, all involving some combination of cherries, berries, and plums. However, I usually end up eating them all before I get the chance to experiment with them. The fruit this season have been so sweet and perfect, that it seemed like a crime to do anything but eat them just the way they are.

I noticed yesterday that I had a carton of cherries on the brink of going bad. Wanting to use them, I decided to make a cherry crisp. I've heard of people using paper clips or chopsticks to pit cherries, but I couldn't figure it out. I ended up cutting each cherry in half around the pit and prying them out. It seemed to work fine, but if I ever come across a recipe that necessitates leaving the cherry whole, I might have to invest in one of these.

I didn't quite have enough cherries for even a little individual crisp, so I supplemented them with a couple of tiny plums that I had gotten at the farmers market last week. I made a topping using some pecans that my friend gave me this weekend, and the combination of the sweet cherries, the slightly tart plums, and the nutty, crunchy pecan topping made me wish that summer would last forever.

I made a lot of topping because I wanted to have some crunch in each bite. If you like your crisps with a higher fruit to topping ratio, you can halve the topping quantities. I made the crisp in a 16-ounce ramekin, though I think that dividing them between two 8-ounce ramekins would make for a really cute presentation. You could share with a friend/roommate/significant other...but I chose to eat mine all by myself.

Cherry Plum Pecan Crisp

Filling

1 cup cherries, pitted and halved

2 small (or one large) plum, pitted and sliced

2 teaspoons cornstarch

2 tablespoons brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Combine all the ingredients in a 16-ounce ramekin. Toss gently until the fruit is evenly coated.

Topping

1/8 cup pecan halves

2 tablespoons flour

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons butter, cold, cut into pieces

Combine the pecans, flour, and brown sugar in a food processor. Pulse until the most of the pecans are ground, with a few larger pieces. Add the butter, and pulse until the mixture resembles wet sand and the pieces of butter are no larger than a pea.

Sprinkle the topping over the filling. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown and the fruit juices are bubbling around the edges. Let cool slightly; serve warm.

15-Minute Meal: Mahimahi with Brown-Sugar Soy Glaze

2010-08-06T08:18:00.000-07:00

I had ambitious plans for this mahimahi. My parents have had a newspaper clipping of a complicated recipe for macadamia-nut-coconut-crusted mahimahi posted on their fridge for two years now. I ask them about it every time I visit, and they haven't made it yet. I wanted to give it a try.

Unfortunately, this week has just been one of those weeks. (You can tell, because it doesn't get more generic than that.) I had a few deadlines at work, and every single piece of office equipment decided to break down on me this week (unfortunately, that is not hyperbole). David and I have been in the middle of reorganizing the apartment (more on that later), which is tiring, but also very rewarding. But I knew that I couldn't let the mahimahi go bad, so I decided to go with a much simpler (but still very tasty) recipe.

David thought the dinner seemed pretty elaborate, but in all honesty, it was super quick and easy. I served the fish with rice and lightly steamed broccoli, which are two sides that require little preparation or attention. The sauce is only composed of three things (well, four, but I decided to omit the scallions): brown sugar, soy sauce, and lemon juice. I was apprehensive about the lemon juice at first, but I really liked it - it gave the glaze a really bright flavor without making it too citrusy. I forgot to halve the sauce (since the original recipe called for four mahimahi instead of two), but David and I both liked the extra sauce - we swished our rice and broccoli around in it, which made them extra-tasty!

Mahimahi with Brown-Sugar Soy Glaze

Adapted from Gourmet, October 2005

3 tablespoons packed brown sugar

2 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 6-oz pieces of mahimahi filet

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Pat fish dry and sprinkle with salt. Heat oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then cook fish on 1 side until browned, 3 to 4 minutes. Turn fish over and brown 1 minute.

While the fish is cooking, combine the brown sugar, soy sauce, and lemon juice. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Pour over the fish and simmer, covered, until fish is cooked through, about 4 minutes. Transfer fish with a slotted spatula to a platter.

Boil the sauce, stirring occasionally, until the glaze is very thick and has reduced to less than 1/4 cup. Spoon glaze over fish.

Strawberry Spinach Salad with Fried Tofu and Goat Cheese

2010-08-04T19:13:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know what you're probably thinking. Fried tofu sounds weird (though fried goat cheese sounds delicious, at least to me). I've been craving chicken katsu lately, but didn't have any chicken breasts around, and due to my competition with myself to make the grocery bill lower every week, did not feel like shelling out for them. Instead, I decided to cook some tofu katsu-style, which involves dredging it in flour, dipping it in egg, and coating it in panko (Japanese bread crumbs). And because things that are fried are not the healthiest things to be eating, I paired it with a salad (because when you eat healthy things with unhealthy things, they cancel each other out, right?). And lest things get too healthy, I decided to fry the goat cheese as well.

As it turns out, David eats a lot more spinach when he gets something crispy and cheesy in every bite. In my opinion, the salad tastes best when you get a little bit of everything in each forkful. I really liked using the soft tofu for this salad - the crispy outside combined with the custardy inside was delicious - but medium or firm would work well, too. I would avoid using silken tofu, though - it's too fragile to stand up to the coating and frying process.

Strawberry Spinach Salad with Fried Tofu and Goat Cheese
Serves 2

1/2 cup strawberries, hulled and quartered
5 ounces spinach
2 ounces goat cheese (half of a 4-oz log), sliced into 4 rounds
1/4 of a block of soft tofu, cut into 4 squares (about an inch thick)
1/4 cup flour
1 egg
3/4 cup panko
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar, divided
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
Handful of pine nuts, toasted

In a large bowl, combine the strawberries with half a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar. Toss gently to coat evenly, and let sit for 5-10 minutes.

In a small bowl, stir together the other half tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, salt, and pepper. Set aside.

In a medium skillet, heat the other two tablespoons of olive oil. Put the flour, egg, and panko in three separate, shallow bowls. Lightly season the flour with salt and pepper; stir to combine. Lightly whisk the egg. Dredge each square of tofu in flour mixture, dip it in the egg, and coat in the panko. Place the coated tofu in the skillet. Repeat with the goat cheese. Cook the tofu and goat cheese until golden brown on both sides.

While the tofu and goat cheese are cooking, combine the spinach, vinaigrette, and the pine nuts in the bowl with the strawberries. Toss until everything is evenly coated. Distribute onto two plates. Place two tofu squares and two goat cheese rounds on the top of each salad.

Snickerdoodle Blondies

2010-08-02T08:24:00.000-07:00

The other day, I had just settled into my desk at work when my coworker, A- who is in charge of our facilities and maintenance, walked in and asked me if I knew I had a flat tire (I didn't). Apparently, I had accidentally driven over a nail on the way to work, and while the tire still had enough air at the moment to make its way to a mechanic, it would have been completely deflated by the time I took my lunch break. My coworker, who often runs errands around town as part of his job, offered to take my car to a mechanic to see if they could plug the hole. I was surprised at the generous offer, and accepted, giving him my car keys. Later, I got a call from him, saying that the mechanic couldn't plug the hole and that my car would need a new tire. I told him to have them put in the new tire, and that I would send David (who is on summer break) over to the mechanic to take care of the bill. A- told me that it wouldn't be necessary to call David, as he had enough cash on him to take care of it, and I could just pay him back whenever I had the money. He brought my car back good as new - he even had the mechanic rotate my tires!

I don't think I've received such an extraordinary act of kindness before. I hate dealing with car problems, so A- dealing with it for me, even though it may have seemed simple to him, was a huge blessing. To express my gratitude, I made these snickerdoodle blondies for him.

I was stuck on snickerdoodles, because I don't think I know a single person who doesn't like them. However, I wanted them in bar form so that I could cut them into the perfect size to fit into the little treat boxes that I keep on hand (I like to fill the boxes as full as possible, which is hard to do with round cookies).

These cookies are delicious: they're dense and chewy, with crispy edges (which, in my opinion, are the best parts of brownies and blondies) and are full of yummy vanilla flavor. The dough is very simple and quick to make - it probably took me 5 minutes. This recipe makes a small batch, but it was the perfect amount for us. We had enough to give away and still had a couple bars left to snack on, whereas a larger batch would have left us with too many cookies.

Snickerdoodle Blondies
Adapted from Baking Bites

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 egg
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon sugar + 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease an 8x8 pan.

Cream butter and sugar until light. Beat in salt, egg, and vanilla. Add flour and mix until there are no traces of flour left. Pour dough into baking pan, spread evenly, and smooth the surface. Combine the cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle evenly over the dough.

Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool before slicing.

One-Ingredient Ice Cream

2010-07-29T20:15:00.000-07:00

This is quite possibly the coolest thing since sliced bread. This ice cream is fat-free, dairy-free, and definitely guilt-free. It doesn't require an ice cream machine - just a blender or food processor. It's super cheap, super easy, and get this: it's actually good for you. So what is this one magic ingredient that can turn into ice cream in less than two minutes?

Frozen bananas.

Apparently, when frozen bananas are broken down in a food processor or blender, it becomes treat with the same consistency as soft serve ice cream. There's no recipe for this - just freeze some bananas (I recommend peeling them first - take it from me, it is rather difficult to peel a frozen banana), cut them into chunks, drop them into a food processor, and press the button. You may have to scrape down the sides a few time, but it still comes together very quickly.

I'm definitely looking forward to playing around with flavors and mix-ins. Next time, I might add some peanut butter, Nutella, or melted chocolate to the bananas before creaming them. I bet it would also taste great with some caramel or Reeses peanut butter cups swirled into them.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have some frozen bananas to peel.

Linguine and Shrimp with Macadamia Nut Pesto

2010-07-27T12:13:00.000-07:00

"She tried pesto for the first time. Imagine that, 92 years old, and she never tried pesto. It was wonderful. Just wonderful." -Lucille Bluth, Arrested Development

I was taking a mental inventory of my refrigerator and pantry the other day, trying to think of what I could make for dinner with things I already had on hand. I thought of all the basil I had in the fridge, and was trying to think of what I could make with it. Maybe pesto?

And here's where I made my first confession: I have never eaten pesto before. This certainly isn't for lack of exposure, as my parents made it all the time when I was in high school. So why didn't I ever try it? Well, most pesto recipes involve lots of garlic aaaand...

Confession number two: I hate garlic. Even when it's crushed into tiny little pieces, even when it's soaking in butter and brushed on toasted bread or balls of dough, even when it's slivered into skinny shards and fried in oil and sauteed with spinach, I will not eat it and you can't make me.

But is garlic even integral to the deliciousness of pesto? I mean, pesto is made with herbs, nuts, olive oil, and occasionally Parmesan, all things that are very flavorful on their own. Having persuaded myself that I could make a delicious pesto without any garlic, I decided to give it a try.

I used some macadamia nuts that I had brought back from my visit to Hawaii, and a mixture of basil and arugula. Since I used pre-cooked frozen shrimp and made the pesto while the pasta was cooking, it only took about 15 minutes to get dinner on the table. The only thing quicker and easier would be to dump a jar of store-bought sauce on the pasta, but really, where's the fun in that?

Linguine and Shrimp with Macadamia Nut Pesto

1/2 pound dried linguine
Handful of frozen baby shrimp, defrosted

Pesto
2 ounces macadamia nuts
1 cup arugula
1 cup basil
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
3/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Bring a pot of well-salted water to boil and cook the pasta according to the package's directions.

While the water is heating, make the pesto: Pulse the nuts in the food processor until well-ground. Add the basil, arugula, and parmesan cheese. Grind until it forms a paste. Slowly add the olive oil, and pulse until it reaches your desired consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Add the shrimp to the pasta pot in the last 30 seconds, then pour everything into a colander to drain the water. Transfer the pasta and shrimp back to the pot and toss with the pesto until the pasta and shrimp are completely coated and the pesto is evenly distributed.

Berry Tartlets

2010-07-22T20:46:00.000-07:00

When I was in the second grade, the girls in my class would gather together during recess to combine our snackage powers, in hopes that the sum of our snacks would be greater than its parts. One girl would bring a store-bought graham pie crust (still in its aluminum pan), and the rest of us would empty out our Ziploc bags of goodies - gummi worms, chocolate chip cookies, potato chips, miniature candy bars, etc. - into the pie crust. We would then divide our snack pie into pieces for a dessert that only a second-grader would love.

What I love about making tarts is that once you have a tart crust, you can use our elementary school technique and still end up with a seriously sophisticated dessert. Any combination of leftover nuts, chocolate, caramel, shredded coconut, fruit, mousse, pastry cream, and cookie crumbs can be layered into a tart crust for a dessert that's so good, it will make people think you spent all day in the kitchen. As for me, I used some leftover egg yolks to make a simple vanilla pastry cream, and topped it with fresh summer berries. The combination of the crisp and buttery tart shell, the creamy and cool pastry cream, and the sweet and tart berries made for a delicious and refreshing dessert, perfect for warm summer nights.

Berry Tarts
(Makes 6 4-inch tarts)

Sweet Tart Dough
Adapted from "Baking: From My Home to Yours"

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
9 tablespoons butter (very cold and cut into small pieces)
1 large egg yolk

Combine flour and powdered sugar in a bowl, stirring to combine. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients (you can do this with your hands) until the mixture resembles wet sand (the pieces of butter should be no larger than a pea). Stir the yolk to break it up, and add a little of the time, stirring it in with a spatula until the dough forms clumps and curds. Knead the dough lightly just to incorporate any dry ingredients.

Divide the dough into six portions. Press each portion of dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of a 4-inch tart pan. You might want to save a little bit of dough to patch any cracks after the crust is baked. Freeze the crust for at least 30 minutes before before baking.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375 degrees Farenheit. Butter the shiny side of some aluminum foil and fit the foil tightly against each crust, butter side down. Put the tart pans on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Carefully removie the foil. If the crusts have puffed, press it down gently with the back of a spoon. Bake for another 5 minutes until it is firm and golden brown. Cool the crust to room temperature before filling.

Pastry Cream
Adapted from "Baking: From My Home to Yours"

2 cups whole milk
6 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup cornstarch, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into bits at room temperature

Bring the milk to a boil in a small saucepan.

While the milk is heating, in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan, whisk the yolks together with the sugar and cornstarch until thick and well blended. Still whisking, drizzle in about 1/4 cup of the hot milk (this tempers the eggs, which will prevent them from curdling). Whisking continuously, slowly pour in the rest of the milk. Put the pan over medium heat and bring the mixture to a boil, whisking vigorously and continuously, making sure the get into the edges of the pan. Keep at a boil, still whisking, for 1 - 2 minutes, then remove the pan from the heat.

Whisk in the vanilla extract. Let sit for 5 minutes, then whisk in the butter, stirring until the butter is fully incorporated and the pastry cream is smooth and silky. Transfer the cream into a bowl. Press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of the cream (so a "skin" doesn't form) and refrigerate the pastry cream until cold.

Berry Topping

1/2 pint raspberries
1/2 pint blackberries
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons sugar

Gently toss the berries in the lemon juice and sugar, until evenly coated. Let macerate at room temperature for 30 minutes.

To assemble the tarts:

Coat the inside of each tart with some melted chocolate - this will prevent the crust from getting soggy. Let the chocolate harden. Spoon some pastry cream into each tart and gently spread it to the edges. Top each tart with berries.

Yellow Birthday Cake

2010-07-20T19:23:00.000-07:00

Last month, my nephew asked me to make a birthday cake for him. He didn't care what flavor it was, but was very specific as to how if should be decorated.

So here is his cake, with Mickey and Minnie and lollipops and butterflies and gummies. I'm pretty proud of my Mickey and Minnie, considering that art has always been my second-worst subject in school (after P.E.) I made two layers of a basic 9 x 13 yellow cake, filled it with chocolate mousse, and covered and decorated it with buttercream frosting. Mickey and Minnie were made with Rice Krispie Treats - I printed out pictures of them to trace out their silhouettes in the treats. I decorated them with melted chocolate and royal icing (basically just powdered sugar and milk).

Yellow Cake (I doubled this recipe to make two layers)
Adapted from Baking Bites

2 ½ cups cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 ½ cups sugar
½ cup butter, softened
3 eggs
1 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 9×13 inch sheet pan.

Sift cake flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Add sugar and mix on low speed to blend. Cut butter into 4 or 5 chunks and drop into the bowl with the flour. Mix on low speed until mixture looks sandy and no large chunks of butter remain, 1-2 minutes.

In a large measuring cup, combine eggs, milk and vanilla. Beat lightly with a fork until combined. With the mixer on low, pour 1 cup of the egg mixture into the bowl. Turn speed up to medium and beat for 1 ½ minutes. Reduce speed back to low and pour in the rest of the egg mixture. Continue to beat at low speed for an additional 30 seconds, until liquid is fully incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat for a few more seconds, if necessary.

Pour into prepared 9×13 pan and spread batter evenly with a spatula. Tap gently a few times to eliminate any bubbles.

Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes, until a tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Let cool for 30 minutes in the pan before turning out onto a rack to cool completely.

Buttercream Frosting
Adapted from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, soft but cool, cut into small pieces
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

In a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan, whisk the sugar and flour together. Add the milk and cream and cook over medium heat, whisking occasionally, until the mixture comes to a boil and has thickened, about 20 minutes.

Transfer the mixture to a large glass or metal bowl. Beat on high speed with an electric mixer until cool. Reduce the speed to low and add the butter. Beat until thoroughly incorporated. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy.

Add the vanilla and continue mixing until combined. If the frosting is too soft, transfer the bowl the the fridge to chill slightly, then beat again until it is the proper consistency. If the frosting is too firm, place the bowl over a pot of simmering water and beat with a wooden spoon until it is the proper consistency.

To assemble the cake:

Using a cake leveler or long serrated knife, level the top of the cakes. On one layer, spread a thick layer of chocolate mousse. Place the other cake layer on top. Spread a thin layer of frosting over the top and sides of the cake - this is your crumb coat. Refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes. Spread another layer of frosting on the cake. Decorate as desired.

Chocolate Mousse

2010-07-12T12:04:00.000-07:00

I've never really been much of a chocolate mousse fan. It always seemed bland, boring, and insubstantial to me, something I'd most often see at the dessert line at cheap dinner buffets.

But the chocolate mousse I've been acquainted with must have been melted chocolate mixed with Cool Whip, or something, because the chocolate mousse I made last week? It was heavenly. I was licking my spatula, my bowl, my fingers, anything that had come in contact with the chocolate mousse and moaning, "Mmmmn, this is so good. David, you have to try this - it's the best chocolate mousse I've ever eaten," which was rather unbecoming considering that I was the one who made it. Humility FAIL.

The recipe calls for fine-quality bittersweet chocolate, but since this mousse was for the under-10 crowd, I used semisweet chocolate chips. You'll also need a candy or instant-read thermometer - the mousse base needs to reach a temperature high enough to cook the egg yolks, but not so high as to curdle the egg yolks.

I used this to fill a birthday cake for my nephew. I'll post the cake recipe when I get the pictures from my sister-in-law; until then, here's the recipe for the mousse.

Chocolate Mousse
Adapted from Gourmet, December 2002

2 cups heavy cream, chilled
4 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
7 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped (or semisweet chocolate chips)

Heat 3/4 cup cream in a heavy saucepan until hot. Whisk together yolks, sugar, and a pinch of salt in a metal bowl until combined well, then add hot cream in a slow stream, whisking until combined. Transfer mixture to saucepan and cook over moderately low heat, stirring constantly, until it registers 160°F on a candy thermometer. Pour custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl and stir in vanilla.

Melt chocolate in a double boiler or a metal bowl set over a pan of simmering water (or in a glass bowl in a microwave at 50 percent power 3 to 5 minutes), stirring frequently. Whisk custard into chocolate until smooth, then cool.

Beat remaining 1 1/4 cups cream in a bowl with an electric mixer until it holds stiff peaks. Whisk one fourth of cream into chocolate custard to lighten it, then fold in remaining cream gently but thoroughly.

Spoon mousse into a bowl and chill, covered, at least 6 hours. If you want a pretty presentation, you can spoon it into wine glasses or ramekins instead of a bowl. Let stand at room temperature about 20 minutes before serving.

Carrot Coconut Ginger Soup

2010-07-07T18:50:00.000-07:00

One thing that David and I like to do together is go on walks. Unfortunately for David, we live in an urban area, and he usually has to stop and wait every 20 feet so that I can peruse the menus that restaurants post outside their doors.

On our recent trip to Kauai, we decided to stroll along the "historic" main road in Hanapepe (which, by the way, makes an appearance in Lilo and Stitch) and visit the art galleries and souvenir shops (one of them had a collection of children's books written by my old pediatrician - neat!). We only passed by one restaurant, but their menu was filled with dishes that I really wanted to try. The dish that stood out to me the most was Carrot Coconut Lemongrass Soup. We unfortunately didn't have time to go in and eat (plus, the weather was way too hot and humid for soup) so I made a mental note to try it the next time we visit.

When we returned to San Diego on Friday, I was bummed to see that June Gloom had extended into July. I really wanted my Fourth of July weekend to be filled with sunshine. I wanted to wear tank tops and shorts and get popsicles from the neighborhood ice cream truck. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate.

On the bright side, I had the perfect opportunity to try making the soup that I had missed out on! I couldn't find lemongrass, so I decided to make it with ginger instead. The soup was super delicious. There was a lot of sweetness from the carrots and sweet potato, which brought out the flavor of the coconut milk, but the sweetness was balanced with the saltiness of the broth and the spicy kick of the ginger (gingery-spicy, not mouth-heat-spicy, if that makes sense). David isn't much of a soup fan, but he really enjoyed this soup (or he at least claimed to).

Carrot Coconut Ginger Soup
2 tablespoons ginger, sliced thinly
2 cups sliced carrots (about 1/4 inch thick)
1 medium sweet potato (cut into small cubes)
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
3/4 cup coconut milk
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
salt and pepper to taste

Saute ginger in 1 tablespoon of broth in a medium soup pot for one minute, or until ginger is soft. Add carrots, sweet potato, and the rest of the broth. Simmer on medium high heat until the vegetables are tender (about 15-20 minutes). Add coconut milk and stir. Transfer the soup to a large bowl and let cool. Set the pot aside - you're still going to need it. When the soup has cooled, blend it in batches (don't fill more than 1/4 of the blender) until silky smooth. Transfer back to the soup pot and reheat. Add salt and pepper until the soup is to your liking.

Lemony Fourth of July Cake with Coconut Buttercream Frosting

2010-07-05T20:14:00.000-07:00

My mom usually makes a flag cake every Fourth of July. You know, the quintessential 9x13 cake rectangle with blueberries in one corner and slices of strawberries forming neat stripes across the rest of the cake. And while I have nothing against those berry flag cakes, I did want to try something different to bring to our Fourth of July barbecue with our friends.

I got the cake design from 17 and Baking - I had seen this cake on the website last year, and have been itching to make it ever since. The cake is a lemon white cake - I used only egg whites so that the white layers wouldn't look yellow and so the blue and red colors would come through bright and clear. The cake is very moist, tender and delicious - my only complaint is that I had trouble cutting and layering the cakes. If I could do it over, I would probably use a sturdier cake, like Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake. I used concentrated gel coloring to dye the cake batter - you'll need a lot to make the colors bright. I used a little more than a quarter teaspoon. One more thing: the frosting is very sweet. Because I was already making a time-consuming and relatively complicated cake, I made a basic buttercream frosting. It's very quick and easy to make, but it relies on powdered sugar to make it thick, which unfortunately also makes it very sweet. Lucky for me, my husband is of the opinion that, "There is no such thing as too-sweet frosting."

(Thanks to Naree for taking pictures!)

Lemony White Cake

3 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 1/4 cup sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 teaspoons lemon zest
9 large egg whites
1 cup milk

Red and blue food coloring (I used Wilton's icing colors)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease three 9-inch round cake pans and line the bottom with wax paper.

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Mix well. In another bowl, whisk milk and egg whites until combined (don't use an electric mixer).

Cream butter and sugar on medium speed until soft and fluffy. Beat in vanilla and lemon zest. Reduce speed to low, and beat in 1/4 of the flour mixture, then 1/3 of the milk mixture in alternating batches, ending with the last of the flour mixture. Scrape down the bowl and beaters after each addition. When batter is combined, transfer 1/3 of the cake batter directly into the cake pan. Transfer 1/3 of the cake batter to another bowl and dye it blue. Dye the remaining cake batter red. Pour the dyed batter into their pans.

Bake for 30-35 minutes. Cool layers for 5 minutes, then unmold to finish cooling right side up. While cooling, make the frosting:

Coconut Buttercream Frosting

1 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
7 - 8 cups powdered sugar

Beat the butter until light and fluffy. Beat in 1/2 cup of the powdered sugar. When smooth, add the coconut milk, vanilla extract, and 1 cup of powdered sugar. Beat until smooth. Slowly add the rest of the powdered sugar, until the frosting reaches your desired consistency.

To assemble the cake:
(It's a bit difficult to explain in words, so if this doesn't make sense, check out this video of Elissa from 17 and Baking. She does a great job of explaining everything.)

When the cake layers have cooled, level the top of each cake layer. Split the red and white layers into two layers. Do not split the blue layer. Set one layer of each the red and white cake on top of the blue cake. Using a bowl or stencil, cut a circle into the three layers of cake. You want the outer ring to be about 2 inches wide. Save the outer ring of the blue cake and the inner circles of the red and white cake - the rest are scraps.

Set the large white cake circle on your cake stand/serving surface. Surround the cake with scraps of wax paper, sticking it a little under the cake. Spread a thin layer of frosting on the top of both the large and small white cake circles, spreading it all the way to the edges. Set the large red cake circle on top of the large white cake circle, and the small red cake on the small white cake. Spread another layer of frosting on the large red cake layer. Set the blue cake ring on top of the large cake layers. Frost the inside of the ring. Set the small cake layers inside the blue cake ring.

Frost the entire cake with a thin layer of frosting. This is your crumb coat, so it's okay if crumbs get caught in the frosting. Just make sure that every part of the cake is covered, so that crumbs don't get in your final coat. Chill the cake in the refrigerator for a half hour. Frost the cake again with its final coat of frosting. Slip out the pieces of wax paper for a clean presentation.

Miguel's White Sauce

2010-06-29T17:46:00.000-07:00

I know that it's been almost a week since I've last posted. I have a good excuse, I swear - I'm on Kauai, visiting my family and celebrating my sister's high school graduation. I thought that I would have time to cook and share some of the recipes that I grew up on, but we have tons of food leftover from two consecutive graduation parties this weekend (my sister's was on Saturday, my cousin's was on Sunday) so there hasn't really been much of a reason to cook. Plus, I'm exhausted from all the setting up, decorating, serving food, tearing down, and cleaning that hosting parties entails. So while I rest for the remainder of the week, I'll leave you with this jalapeno white sauce.

Everyone I know in San Diego is crazy for the cheesy and creamy "white sauce" at Miguel's Cocina. In fact, a lot of my friends will go to the restaurant, order a taco, fill up on the complimentary tortilla chips and white sauce, and take the taco home with them.

As it turns out, you can have your White Sauce fix even when Miguel's is too far away, as it is super easy to make at home. I found out that if you ask a waiter for the white sauce recipe, they will give it to you on an index card...not that I actually asked for the recipe - I got it from someone who's much braver than I am!

White Sauce
Adapted from Miguel's Cocina

2 cups heavy cream
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp chicken base
2 tablespoons clarified butter
1 tablespoon flour
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
1 tablespoon jalapeno juice
1 oz shredded cheddar cheese
1 oz shreeded monterey jack cheese

Heat cream over high heat. When about to boil, add sour cream. Mix well until sour cream is dissolved and reduce heat. Stir in chicken base and jalapeno juice, and bring the sauce to a simmer.

While cream is heating, make a roux: warm the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, add the flour, and whisk until golden. Just before the cream mixture is about to boil, add the roux, whisking constantly until incorporated. Remove from heat. Stir in jalapenos and cheese until thoroughly combined and smooth.

Strawberry-and-Chocolate-Topped Cheesecake

2010-06-24T09:54:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, tragedy struck in the Cobbler Clobber kitchen.

They were so innocent. So helpless. So tiny. Yet, they were shown no mercy.

June 20, 2010 will forever be remembered as the day of the Teddy Graham Massacre.

Let us have a moment of silence to remember our fallen friends.

Now that we've had our moment of silence, let's talk about this cheesecake.

There was a chocolate crust, made with chocolate Teddy Grahams*.

There was a smooth and creamy cheesecake filling, with four blocks of cream cheese and no sour cream to cut the richness.

There was a shiny chocolate ganache glaze, which added more chocolatey goodness and (shhh!) filled and covered the cracks** in my cheesecake.

Finally, there were strawberries, artfully arranged on top of the glaze. I unfortunately have no evidence of the "artfully arranged" part, as I was in a rush to get the cheesecake to a party.

The result? A ridiculously decadent cheesecake. It was so rich that none of us could finish our relatively small slices, but believe me when I say that we really, really wanted to.

* I really, truly was going to follow the cheesecake recipe and went to the store for graham crackers. However, I passed by the Teddy Grahams on my way to the graham crackers and, rather impulsively, grabbed a box, remembering that Smitten Kitchen swears by them.

** I've heard several theories as to why cracks occur in cheesecakes. One is because of the sudden change of temperature when it goes from the oven to the open air. I tried to prevent this by turning off the oven about 15 minutes before it was set and keeping the cheesecake to cook in the slowly cooking oven. I then opened the oven door a crack to let some hot air escape. The other reason is because it is overbaked, which could very well be the reason why the cheesecake cracked. You would never be able to tell by eating it, though, because it was rich and creamy and not at all dry.

Strawberry-and-Chocolate-Topped Cheesecake
The recipe says it serves 12, but I cut it into 16ths.
Crust adapted from Gourmet, November 1999
Filling adapted from Bon Appetit, January 1998
Ganache glaze adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Chocolate Crust:
10 ounces ground chocolate Teddy Grahams
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup salt

Stir all the ingredients together and press into the bottom and sides of buttered springform pan. Fill right away or chill up to two hours.

Filling:
4 8-oz blocks of cream cheese, softened
1 3/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
3 tbsp flour
5 large eggs

Beat cream cheese, sugar, lemon juice, vanilla, and salt until very smooth. Beat in flour. Add eggs and beat until just blended. Pour batter into crust.

Bake cheesecake until outer 2-inch edge of cake is puffed and center is just set, about 55 minutes. When cool, top with glaze.

Topping:

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

2 ounces butter

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 tablespoon powdered sugar

16 ounces of strawberries, halved

Heat cream and butter until scalding. Remove pan from heat and stir in chocolate. Whisk until the chocolate has melted. Add vanilla and sugar; whisk until thoroughly combined. Spread over cheesecake while ganache is still warm. Arrange strawberry halves on top. Chill until ready to serve.

Grapefruit Chiffon Cupcakes

2010-06-21T11:38:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, David and I went to his sister's house for one of our nephew's birthday party. When the party was over, several of us went grapefruit picking. David's sister lives next to a grove of grapefruit trees that we assume doesn't belong to anyone because the ground is overgrown with thorny bushes and there are several overripe grapefruits decomposing under each tree. At any rate, we picked to our collective hearts' content. I picked one of each of the three varieties of grapefruit, but my father-in-law went a bit overboard and gave half of his loot to me, despite my protests that I'm the only one in the apartment who eats grapefruit and that the fruit will go bad when we leave to visit my family in a week. He insisted that they would keep, and this is how I ended up with a plastic bag so full of grapefruit that it's bursting at the seams.

A freakishly large grapefruit

I could probably be happy eating them broiled every morning, but I decided that I wanted to experiment with the grapefruit. Grapefruit is a fruit that doesn't show up very often in baked treats, probably because of its slightly bitter taste or because its zest isn't as pungent as that of lemons and oranges. I briefly considered recreating the Hollywood grapefruit cake, but layer cakes can be time consuming and aren't as easy to share (and boy, did I want to share - I've eaten way too much cake this week). After some consideration, I decided to do a variation of my family's favorite treat: chiffon cake.

Chiffon cakes are a lot lighter than their butter-based counterparts, but not quite as airy as angel food cake. I was a bit worried that they wouldn't turn out well, as I usually have a lot of trouble beating egg whites to stiff peaks. I've read so many tutorials that I should be able to do it with my eyes closed, but I guess that baking, as with most things, requires not only knowledge of theory, but lots and lots of practice. I can usually get the egg whites to stiff peaks, but then they separate for some reason. The top of the bowl would be foamy, but there would be liquid underneath. I'm still not sure why this happens - perhaps I've been overbeating them? At any rate, this is the first time I've beaten cream of tartar and sugar into the egg whites, and it really made a difference - the egg whites didn't separate this time! Yay!

I loved these cupcakes. They're light and airy, and not too sweet. The grapefruit flavor came through in the cupcakes, but it was really mild and subdued. David really liked the cupcakes a lot, and he doesn't even like grapefruit! We tried eating them with several different toppings. My favorite way to eat them was after dipping the top into granulated sugar. I really liked the crunch of biting into them and the little bit of extra sweetness it provided. I also liked them sprinkled with a little bit of powdered sugar. I tried piping some white chocolate cream cheese icing (leftover from the stuffed strawberries) onto the cupcakes, and while I thought that it slightly overpowered the cupcakes' flavor, my coworkers liked the frosted cupcakes best.

Grapefruit Chiffon Cupcakes
Makes about 40 cupcakes

2 1/2 cup cake flour
1 1/2 cup sugar + 3 tablespoons, divided
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
8 eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup fresh grapefruit juice
2 tablespoons grapefruit zest
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line muffin tins with cupcake liners.

Separate the eggs into whites and yolks. Set the whites aside in a large, clean bowl.

In another large bown, whisk egg yolks with 3/4 cup + 3 tablespoons sugar, until pale yellow and smooth. Whisk in oil, juice, and zest until combined. Sift in flour, baking powder, and salt; stir until throughly combined. The batter should be thick, and fall in thick ribbons.

Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs until foamy. Add the cream of tartar, and beat until soft peaks form. Slowly add the remaining sugar, little at a time, until stiff glossy peaks form.

Stir in 1/4 of the egg white mixture to the grapefruit batter, to lighten it up. Fold in the remaining egg whites gently until no streaks remain. The batter should be light and foamy.

Divide batter between muffin tins, filling each one almost to the top. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Stuffed Strawberries Dipped in White Chocolate

2010-06-18T09:33:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, David and I went to a great restaurant called Parkhouse Eatery. We had gotten a gift certificate for Christmas, and as I had never heard of it before, I decided to visit the website to determine whether I needed reservations and if I needed to dress up to fit in. I kind of snickered a little when I read the description, "casually elegant"- what does that even mean? (Rhetorical question) Surprisingly enough, the description actually fit the restaurant really well. It was fancy and cozy at the same time, and the food was delicious. I ordered steak wrapped in prosciutto with a pomegranate balsamic glaze and marscapone mashed potatoes. David ate penne with smoked chicken, sundried tomatoes, and walnuts. It was amazing. We were going to share a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake for dessert, but unfortunately, they were out.

I felt kind of bad, as David really likes white chocolate and cheesecake. I didn't have the time or energy to make a cheesecake, so I decided to recreate the flavors of the cheesecake by stuffing some strawberries with a white chocolate cream cheese mixture and dipping them in white chocolate. They were extremely tasty, and I may or may not have eaten half of the strawberries all by myself in the time span of 30 minutes.

Word to the wise: make sure that both the cream cheese and the melted chocolate are at room temperature before you try to combine them. Otherwise, the temperature change will "shock" the chocolate, and it will re-harden. Instead of having a white chocolate flavored cream cheese mixture, you'll have a cream cheese mixture with shards of white chocolate in it...which isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's just, you know, not the same.

Stuffed Strawberries Dipped in White Chocolate

1 pound strawberries
4 -6 ounces white chocolate

Stuffing
4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Melt the 1/2 cup of white chocolate chips in the microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring well between each interval. Let cool completely.

Cream together the cream cheese and the powdered sugar. Stir in the white chocolate until completely combined. Transfer the cream cheese mixture into a piping bag (a ziploc bag with a corner snipped off would also work).

Melt the white chocolate for dipping. While it is cooling, wash and dry the strawberries. Cut off the top of each strawberry and hull them: trace the white circle in the center of each strawberry with a paring knife and hollow out the strawberry. Squeeze some of the cream cheese mixture into each strawberry. Dip each strawberry into the white chocolate and place on a plate or tray lined with wax paper. Chill in the fridge until the chocolate hardens, about two minutes.

Broiled Grapefruit

2010-06-17T07:24:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've eaten grapefruit. I was obsessed with it a couple summers ago. I ate a grapefruit half every morning, the way my mom taught me: with salt sprinkled on top instead of sugar. It muted the bitterness and brought out the grapefruit's inherent sweetness. I must have gotten grapefruit fatigue, though, because after that summer ended, I didn't eat it again for two years.

My grapefruit renunciation ended during my honeymoon last year. David and I went to a restaurant that was supposed to be famous for its pancakes, but when I saw broiled grapefruit on the menu, my interest was piqued and I ordered it instead of the pancakes.

Fine, you got me. I ordered it in addition to the pancakes. I had coffee and orange juice, too. You happy?

The first bite was like breaking into the top of a creme brulee. Why had I been eating grapefruit with salt this whole time when I could have been eating with with a crackly topping of brown sugar and cinnamon? My world was rocked.

I made a silent vow that I would eat broiled grapefruit every day from then on. Sadly, I have not made it once in the past year. Grapefruit isn't a fruit I really think to buy very often - I usually buy fruits that are easier to eat on-the-go, like apples, pears, plums, and peaches (because I always forget about breakfast until it's time to leave for work). However, this week I have a large bag of grapefruit sitting on my counter, and they were practically crying out to me, "Broil us! Broil us!". And who am I to refuse?

I originally planned to smear some butter on the top of the grapefruit before topping it with the sugar and cinnamon, as though it were bread and I was making cinnamon toast. However, once I segmented the grapefruit, the juices starting flowing all over the place, and it would have been impossible to spread butter on it. Instead, I cut a cold pat of butter into tiny pieces and mixed it in with brown sugar, cinnamon. Then, just because the ground ginger was sitting next to the cinnamon, I added a smidgen of that, too. I didn't want it to feel left out of the party.

When I told my co-worker about my breakfast this morning, he recoiled a little and asked, "You cooked it? It was warm?" I know I've been saying this a lot lately, but trust me: it might sound weird, but it's really, really delicious. The heat in the oven caramelizes the grapefruit's natural sugars and brings its sweetness to the forefront. The grapefruit's bitterness is still there, but it's barely noticeable when the brown sugar and the spices are swimming with the juices. Best of all, the crackly layer of brown sugar on top...wait, I already mentioned the crackly topping? Well, it was worth mentioning again. Crackly topping.

Broiled Grapefruit

1 grapefruit, halved
1 tablespoon cold butter, cut into small pieces
4 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
smidgen of ground ginger

Move one of your oven racks to the top and turn on your broiler.

Remove the white pith from the center of the grapefruit. Segment the grapefruit (your future self will thank your past self for your thoughtfulness): trace your knife around the sections of fruit between the white membrane (if that's what it's called...I really need to catch up on my grapefruit anatomy).

Combine the butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and ground ginger. Sprinkle the mixture onto each grapefruit half. Broil the grapefruit for 4-5 minutes.

Nutella Cake Balls

2010-06-15T19:33:00.000-07:00

AKA How to Impress Your Friends with Cake Scraps and the Bottom of the Nutella Jar

As I mentioned in a previous post, my oven sits on an incline, causing cake batter and cookie dough to congregate near the oven door. I try to compensate for this by rotating my cake pans about every 15 minutes or so, and the cake usually seems to even out. However, I kind of dozed off while the third layer of my triple-layer double-chocolate cake was in the oven, and the cake came out very lopsided, which means...cake scraps!

When leveling layers of cake, I usually like to eat the pieces of cake that I scrape off. However, there was no way I was going to finish off all the cake scraps I made this weekend - I probably had three cups worth of cake that I had set aside in a Tupperware container. I decided that instead of eating the cake scraps (because really, why would you eat cake scraps when you could eat a 3-layer cake?), I would experiment with turning them into cake balls.

I was introduced to cake balls a few months ago by a friend and fellow baking aficionado. It's apparently really popular in the South, and are often made by making a cake with a boxed cake mix, crumbling it up, mixing in a can of store bought frosting, rolling them into balls, and dipping them in chocolate. I guess you could say that they're kind of like cake truffles. You can read a really fun article about cake balls here.

I decided to mix my cake scraps with some leftover buttercream frosting and the last of my Nutella. I figured that Nutella was close enough in texture to canned frosting that it would work. I ended up just drizzling some melted chocolate on top instead of completely coating the cake balls. The resulting cake balls were softer than I would have liked, but were a big hit with our friends. They really liked how the cake balls resembled chocolate truffles and melted in their mouths. Not bad for something thrown together on the fly.

The following is more of a suggestion than an actual recipe. I'm not going to tell you to make 3 cups of cake crumbs and 1/4 cup of buttercream frosting...but if you happen to have them around the house, you know what to do with them.

Nutella Cake Balls

2 1/2 - 3 cups chocolate cake crumbles
1/4 cup buttercream frosting
3 tablespoons Nutella
1/2 cup chocolate chips (use more if you want to completely coat the cake balls)

Mix together the buttercream frosting and the Nutella. Combine the frosting mixture and the cake until the cake crumbs stick together and the frosting is well-incorporated. Roll the cake mixture into tablespoon-sized balls.

Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave at 30-second intervals, stirring well between intervals. Drizzle or pipe the chocolate onto the cake balls.

Triple Layer Double Chocolate Cake

2010-06-14T15:39:00.000-07:00

My friend Tyler has the kind of fidelity that Jesse James could only dream of. I could offer him desserts made with the sweetest, ripest fruits - pear plum crisps, strawberry lemonade bars, buttermilk raspberry cake - and Tyler would stay true to his one true love: chocolate. So, naturally, when Tyler's birthday came around this year, there was only one thing I could make him: chocolate cake with chocolate icing.

I love making homemade birthday cakes for friends, but I admit that I had a bit of trouble with this one, not because it was particularly hard to make, but because of certain time constraints. First of all, the icing needs time to cool before it reaches a thick and spreadable consistency. I tried putting it in the freezer for 10 minutes, but David and I were late to meet our friends for dinner, so I frosted the cake while the icing was still thin and runny, figuring that messy frosting was better than no frosting at all. Secondly, the cake is very tender and has a very loose crumb, which is great while you're eating it, but not so great when you're trying to assemble it. I was kind of in a rush while putting it together, and a small part of the cake crumbled and avalanched down the side (which I'm sure you can tell by the top picture).

Even though the cake looked a bit messy and lopsided, it tasted so, so delicious. I've tried several chocolate cake recipes, and this one is by far my favorite. As I've already mentioned, it's amazingly moist and tender. It also has a deep and intense chocolate flavor. It was so decadent that none of us could finish our slices! Even though it's time-consuming to make, it's a relatively simple and straight-forward recipe.

The recipe is for two 10-inch layers. However, I only have 9-inch pans, so I divided the batter into three layers and baked it for slightly less time. I decorated the cake with a simple buttercream icing. There's no recipe, because again, I was in a rush, and I just mixed some powdered sugar into a little bit of softened butter until I deemed it thick enough and tinted it blue.

Double Chocolate Layer Cake
Adapted from Gourmet, March 1999

Cake:
3 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 1/2 cup hot coffee
3 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cup buttermilk (well-shaken)
3/4 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Grease cake pans, line the bottom with wax paper, and grease the wax paper.

Combine chocolate with the coffee. Let stand, stirring occasionally until smooth.

In a large bowl, sift sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In another large bowl, beat eggs with an electric mixer until thickened slightly (about 5 minutes). Slowly add oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and chocolate-coffee mixture, beating until combined well. Add the dry ingredients, and beat until combined.

Divide batter between pans and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour for 9-inch layers or 1 hour - 1 hour 10 minutes for 10-inch layers.

Cool completely before inverting (or else they will crumble).

Chocolate Ganache Icing:
1 pound semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (I've also used chocolate chips in the past)
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter

Bring cream, sugar, and corn syrup to a boil over medium-low heat, whisking until sugar is dissolved. Remove pan from heat and stir in chocolate. Whisk until the chocolate has melted. Cut butter into pieces, add to frosting, and whisk until smooth. Transfer the icing to a bowl to cool, stirring occassionally. To speed up the cooling process, you can put the bowl of icing in another bowl filled with ice and stir continuously.

To assemble the cake:

Level the cake layers with a long serrated knife or a cake leveler. On the first layer of cake, spoon some chocolate ganache in the middle. With a small spatula or butter knife, gently spread the icing outwards until you reach the edges, adding more icing as needed. Place the second layer on top of the first one, and frost with chocolate ganache. Place the final layer on top. Pour some ganache on the top and spread outwards, letting it fall over the edges. Frost the sides with the excess ganache from the top, working from top to bottom, adding more ganache as needed. I also highly recommend slipping pieces of wax paper halfway underneath the cake to catch the frosting dribbles. When you're done frosting the cake, you can slip them out for a presentation that's a lot less messy than mine.

Red Grape Pizza with Rosemary, Honey, and Pecorino

2010-06-10T14:48:00.000-07:00

Conversation earlier this week:

David: You bought grapes! [pause] Are they for eating?

Alli: Yes, they're for eating...though I need a few of the red grapes for a project.

David: I don't eat cooked grapes.

Alli: Hmmm.

David: Alli! I don't eat cooked grapes, okay?!

Okay, I know what you're thinking. You don't eat cooked grapes, either. But trust me, grapes on pizza? It may seem weird, but it totally works, especially when the sweetness of the grapes is combined with the salty bite of Pecorino Romano and the woodsy flavor of rosemary. Plus, the recipe came from Jamie Oliver, who has an amazing accent and is therefore worthy of my trust.

You may or may not notice that my grape pizza looks a little...rustic. This is because I didn't flour my cutting board and rolling pin as well as I thought I had. Also, I assembled the pizza on the cutting board and then tried to move it to the baking sheet, which was very difficult to do and somehow made it square. These were mistakes that I usually don't make, but I had just spent an hour in traffic, so I think I should get a pass. For proof that I'm not completely inept and that I do, in fact, learn from my mistakes, take a look at the thoroughly respectable (and round!) barbecue chicken pizza I made for David. Yes, I made personal pizzas so that David would not be forced to eat cooked grapes...cooked, roasted, crackly, juicy, gorgeous grapes.

So...the inevitable changes to the recipe: I confess to using pre-made, store-bought dough. I know that making pizza dough is supposedly easy and what not, and I will eventually conquer my fear of yeast and make pizza dough from scratch, but not on a weeknight, you know? Also, the recipe said to grind the rosemary and olive oil with a mortar and pestle, but really, who has a mortar and pestle? Not me, that's for sure. Instead, I finely chopped the rosemary, put it in a bowl, drizzled it with a couple tablespoons of olive oil, and kind of mashed it together with the back of the tines of a fork...it worked just fine.

Red Grape Pizza with Rosemary, Honey, and Pecorino

Adapted from Jamie Oliver

Makes two personal pizzas

1 pound pizza dough (homemade or store-bought)

A few sprigs of fresh rosemary

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons honey

A handful of red grapes

1/3 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese

Optional: I also used a vegetable peeler to make the large shavings of cheese pictured above

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a large baking sheet.

Remove the rosemary leaves from the sprigs and finely chop. Place in a bowl, drizzle the olive oil over it, and mash with a fork. Cut all the grapes in half and set aside.

Divide the pizza dough in half and, on a well-floured surface, roll each half into a circle. Transfer the dough to the baking sheet. Brush each pizza with the rosemary olive oil. Scatter the grape halves on the pizzas, and drizzle each pizza with a teaspoon of honey. Sprinkle with the cheese.

Bake the pizzas in the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until the dough is cooked through and the cheese has melted.

Giddy with Glee: Crisp Salted Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

2010-06-09T20:17:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure whether I'm pessimistic or just realistic, but I generally tend to keep my expectations pretty low. I find that it leads to less disappointment and leaves plenty of room for me to be pleasantly surprised. For example, I was expecting the season finale of Glee last night to be a train wreck. And while it was uneven and a little predictable (Liko called every plot twist, down to their dialogue), there were still some surprises, like having the glee club performing at Regionals (which was supposed to be the big event of the night) before the first commercial break. Or, having the scenes of Quinn delivering her baby interspersed with the competing team's performance of "Bohemian Rhapsody", a sequence that was both bewildering and impressive.

However, I forgot all about keeping my expectations low when I saw the pictures of these cookies. I daydreamed about eating these cookies all day at work yesterday before rushing home to make them. After reading the description of the cookies (they may or may not have involved the words, "scandalously good") and all the comments from the people who made them and were awestruck by their glory, I was expecting nothing short of transcendence from these cookies. Unfortunately, these cookies fell a little short of those expectations. The thing is, I know that my disappointment can mostly be chalked up to my expectations being unrealistic. If I went into it having low expectations, I probably would have found them transcendent.
Furthermore, I thought these cookies would be entirely hollow, which was intriguing enough for me to move the cookies to the top of my must-do list, but my cookies spread during baking, flattening them out a bit (though they did have some "bubbles" here and there that lended the cookies the same "shatter-y" effect in the recipe description).

Of course, the disappointment could also be attributed to the fact that I do not follow directions. Instead of using the white chocolate chunks so highly recommended, I used semi-sweet chips. Instead of fleur de sel, I used course sea salt (because if you think I can afford fleur de sel, you are nuts). While I'm at it, let me tell you that the size of these cookies are imperative to their outcome. While I initially followed the directions to make the cookies using two tablespoons of dough, I later tried to make smaller cookies that were half the size, and they were definitely not the same. Lesson of the day: follow directions.

So while these cookies aren't exactly the Second Coming, they aren't boring or ordinary either. The truth is, once I got over my initial disappointment, I realized that these are still the best oatmeal cookies I have ever eaten. They're the perfect combination of crisp and chewy, sweet and salty. I brought about 30 of them in to work today and they were all gone by the time I got back from my lunch break, which is pretty impressive when you consider that I work in a pretty small office. Now that I think about it, I suspect that our summer intern single-handedly ate half the plate. Not that I'm complaining - these cookies are dangerous to have around the house.

Crisp Salted Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

1 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon table salt
14 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cup rolled oats (do not substitute with instant oats)
6 oz semisweet chocolate chips
sea salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silpat mat.

Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.

In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, and beat until combined. Add flour mixture gradually and mix until incorporated. Gradually add oats and chocolate; mix until well incorporated.

Roll dough into 2-tablespoon-balls. Place 2 1/2 inches apart on the cookie sheet. Gently press to 3/4 inches thick. Sprinkle salt on each cookie. Bake for 13-16 minutes, rotating halfway. Cool on a wire rack until room temperature.

Taste Lab: Hazelnut Milk Panna Cotta

2010-06-07T22:12:00.000-07:00

I have been looking for hazelnuts for some time now. I've been experimenting with Nutella cookies lately, and the hazelnut flavor always gets lost during the baking process. I am convinced that I need ground hazelnuts to make it work. I have looked in every store I can think of, but no hazelnuts.

I did, however, stumble across hazelnut milk. I picked some up, hoping to find the perfect chocolate hazelnut panna cotta recipe.

Panna cotta is a cold italian dessert that is similar to a custard, but way easier to make - there's no tempering of egg yolks or baking in a water bath. I usually find that it's a bit firmer than custard, but softer than Jello. It's the perfect light dessert - no matter how full you are, you'll always have enough room in your stomach for a few bites of panna cotta. However, just because it's light in texture, doesn't mean it's light in calories: panna cotta literally means "cooked cream" in Italian, and most recipes only involve three ingredients: heavy cream, sugar, and gelatin. I don't make panna cotta very often because it's dangerous for my waistline, but I couldn't pass up the prospect of a good cooking experiment. After doing a lot of research, I channeled my inner Bill Nye and got to work.

Because hazelnut milk is pretty thin, I decided to cook it with some heavy cream to thicken it. I also cut down on the sugar because the hazelnut milk was already lightly sweetened. When I was done cooking the panna cotta mixture, I divided it into five glasses/ramekins. I left one plain, for comparison purposes. I added cocoa powder (which is a great way to add chocolate flavor without any additional sweetness) to two of them: one tablespoon to one and one teaspoon to another. Because I worried that the hazelnut notes wouldn't come through if I only added cocoa powder, I added half a tablespoon of Nutella to the fourth one. I added two drops of almond extract to the last one, for an extra nutty panna cotta.

Texturally, the panna cotta came out just the way I wanted it. It was on the softer side of panna cotta, probably more similar to custard than anything else. However, I don't think it would hold together if you tried to unmold it onto a plate. This was fine with me, as I prefer to eat my panna cotta out of a cup, a little bit as a time, and put it back in the fridge to finish later.

I am happy to report that all of the flavor variations turned out great. However, I noticed that when the panna cottas had set, the ones with cocoa powder had a darker layer on the bottom, while the one with Nutella had a dark skin on the top. I suspect that this won't be a problem if you cook the cocoa/Nutella with the panna cotta mixture instead of stirring it in afterwords, but it was delicious even with the different layers.

In my mind, the panna cotta with the smaller amount of cocoa powder was the winner. The chocolate and hazelnut flavors were perfectly balanced and a bit subdued, which is what I was hoping for. In the recipe below, I will refer to this is chocolate hazelnut panna cotta.

The panna cotta with Nutella was also very good - the Nutella flavor was very pronounced, and you'll probably prefer this one if you're a big fan of Nutella. However, because of the additional sugar in Nutella, this panna cotta was very sweet, so you should cut down on the sugar even more if you're planning on adding Nutella. In the recipe below, I will refer to this as Nutella panna cotta.

The panna cotta with 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder was delicious, with a deep chocolate flavor. However, the hazelnut flavor didn't come through at all. I think this amount of cocoa powder would be the perfect amount if you want to make chocolate panna cotta, which you could make with any other kind of milk. However, if you are using regular milk, you might want to add a little more sugar to the mixture, as regular milk is unsweetened. I will refer to this variation as chocolate panna cotta in the recipe below.

The panna cotta with almond extract was nice and nutty, but again, the hazelnut milk got overwhelmed by the almond extract. You could probably add almond extract to a panna cotta made with any other milk and get the same effect.

The plain hazelnut panna cotta was very delicious. The hazelnut flavor was there, but it was very subtle. I think that it would be great served with a tart berry compote or coulis, to offset the sweetness of the panna cotta.

Hazelnut Milk Panna Cotta

1 1/2 cup hazelnut milk (I used the Pacific Foods Beverage brand)
1 1/2 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup sugar
1 envelope gelatin*
2 tablespoons water

Variations:
Chocolate Hazelnut Panna Cotta: add 1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder
Nutella Panna Cotta: add 2 1/2 tablespoons Nutella and reduce sugar to 1/4 cup
Chocolate Panna Cotta: add 5 tablespoons cocoa powder

Directions:
In a shallow bowl, bloom the gelatin: sprinkle the gelatin over the 2 tablespoons of water.

In a saucepan, combine the milk, cream, sugar, and cocoa powder/Nutella (if using). Stir over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Remove from heat.

Heat the gelatin in the microwave for 8 seconds and scrape all the gelatin into the cream mixture, quickly stirring it all together. Let the panna cotta mixture cool for a little bit before dividing them into glasses or ramekins. Chill the panna cottas in the refrigerator for at least three hours or until firm. (I let it set overnight.)

* If you want a firmer panna cotta that you can unmold, use a ratio of 2 cups liquid to 1 packet gelatin. I would suggest 1 cup hazelnut milk and 1 cup heavy cream. Reduce the sugar according to your personal tastes.

Grilled Bread with Zucchini, Goat Cheese, and Basil

2010-06-04T15:02:00.000-07:00

Last week, I got the following e-mail:

"Alli! You haven't seen Julie and Julia yet?!!!! You have to!!! You would love the film and it reminds me so much of you and your cooking escapades :-) Please be sure to see it asap!"

The very next day I read an article about infuriating art in which a movie reviewer said that he had never been more agitated during a movie than during the Julie half of "Julie and Julia".

It was strange to read two strong and very disparate reactions to the movie, as "Julie and Julia" seemed like a fairly innocuous film. At any rate, I decided that it was time to finally sit down, pull the movie up on Netflix Instant Watch, and watch the movie.

I was surprised to find that I actually really enjoyed the movie. Sure, the movie has it's faults (which I'm not going to go into here), but it was entertaining and fun.

At the beginning of the movie, there's a scene where Julie is preparing dinner. Ironically, in a film about delicious French food, what appealed to me the most was the shot of slices of bread frying in a pan. My very first thought was, Fried bread! (What? Were you expecting something more cogent? It's fried bread!) My second thought was, Is that allowed?

My friends, I am happy to tell you that it is, indeed, allowed. The other day, I stumbled upon a recipe for Grilled Bread with Zucchini, Ricotta, and Basil in the Real Simple recipe archives. As I have a refrigerator full of zucchini and am constantly looking for new ways to prepare it, I took the discovery of the recipe as a sign that I ~~should~~ needed to make it as soon as humanly possible.

I made a lot of changes to the recipe. I don't have a grill, so I toasted the bread in a large skillet and roasted the zucchini in the oven. Instead of plopping the ricotta onto the bread along with the zucchini, I spread a thick layer of goat cheese on the toast before topping it with the zucchini. Also, since I didn't want to eat big raw basil leaves (the flavor can be very strong), I chopped the basil and cooked it with the zucchini. All in all, it was a very satisfying and tasty dinner.

Grilled Bread with Zucchini, Goat Cheese, and Basil

Adapted from Real Simple

6 thick slices of french bread

4 oz goat cheese

1 large zucchini

3 tablespoons chopped basil (about 7-8 large leaves)

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut the zucchini in half and cut lengthwise into thin slices. Toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, and basil. Spread out slices in a single layer on a large cookie sheet and roast in the oven for 15 minutes.

Brush both sides of each slice of bread with olive oil and toast until golden brown in a large skillet over medium heat. Transfer to a plate. Spread a thick layer of goat cheese on each slice and top with a pile of zucchini.

Note: I enjoyed the toasts with the thin zucchini messily piled high. David liked it better with thicker slices of zucchini laid flat on the toasts. Both ways are delicous.

Farfalle with Roasted Zucchini and Broccoli

2010-06-03T14:38:00.000-07:00

When I was little, I think my understanding of adulthood was that you could do whatever you want, whenever you want to. You can stay up til midnight on school nights and watch late night TV. You can take a day off and go to the beach. You can fill your home with cuddly puppies. You can use your bedroom floor as a shelf. You can eat breakfast for dinner.

Or, you could eat dessert for breakfast, which is what I did yesterday. I generally try to be healthy, but that morning, I decided that there really is no point to being an adult if I can't eat chocolate cake for breakfast. It was heavenly...and I regretted it 2 hours later. I wasn't necessarily sick, but it did feel like my stomach was asking me, "Why did you do this to me? Feed me real food!" Weird, right?

I don't think I have ever craved vegetables before this year. I abhorred them as a kid. As I got older, I started to appreciate the taste of fresh vegetables and how they made my body feel strong when I ate them, but I mostly ate vegetables because I was supposed to, not because they were especially delicious.

But after college, I discovered the joy of roasting vegetables. I found out that when you drizzle vegetables with a little bit of olive oil and cook them at a high heat for half an hour or so, something amazing happens. The natural sugars in the vegetables caramelize, the edges get a little charred, and vegetables become something you actually crave. Seriously, during dinner tonight, David compared the broccoli to bacon. It's that good. You can tell by my liberal use of italics.

Anyways, since I was craving vegetables, I roasted some zucchini and broccoli and tossed it with some pasta and parmesan cheese for a quick and easy dinner. And really, when you think about it? What could be more adult than eating vegetables voluntarily?

Farfalle with Roasted Zucchini and Broccoli

8 oz farfalle pasta (bowtie shaped)

1 medium zucchini, cut into thick half moons

1 broccoli crown, cut into small florets

1/4 cup finely grated fresh parmesan cheese

3 tablespoons olive oil

salt

pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bring a pot of well-salted water to a boil.

Toss zucchini and broccoli in olive oil. Spread them out on a cookie sheet, sprinkle them with salt, and roast them for 20-25 minutes.

While the vegetables are roasting, boil the farfalle in the water for 13 minutes. Save 3/4 cup of pasta water, and drain the pasta in a colander.

Dry out the pot that you were cooking the pasta in and drizzle a few tablespoons of olive oil in the pot (enough to coat the bottom, but don't go overboard). Put the pasta and reserved water back in the pot. Add the cheese and pepper and stir until combined. It may seem watery, but keep stirring, and the cheese and water will come together and thicken. When the cheese and pasta is combined, remove from heat and stir in the vegetables.

Serve with chopped basil and an extra sprinkling of freshly grated parmesan and pepper.

Giddy with Glee: Flourless Chocolate Cake

2010-06-02T13:53:00.000-07:00

Glee was not very good last night. But you know what? I'm okay with that, because I had lots of fun with my friends. We talked, we laughed, we made fun of commercials, we squirmed at Will Schuester's attempt to be sexy, we watched a very entertaining demon sheep ad, AND we ate this flourless chocolate cake. It was a good night.

I've noticed a lot of flourless chocolate cake backlash lately among the online food community. The consensus seems to be that the ubiquitousness of flourless chocolate cake on restaurant dessert menus has rendered it passé. However, there's a reason that so many restaurants sell flourless chocolate cakes: they are good. Plus, they're quick and easy to make, and next to impossible to mess up.

This flourless chocolate cake takes less than 45 minutes to make from start to glorious finish. It's dense, chocolatey, rich, and silky smooth. It would be great with a dusting of powdered sugar, topped with unsweetened whipped cream, or drizzled with raspberry coulis.

Some notes about the recipe: The original recipe was for an 8-inch round pan. I only had a 9-inch pan, so I increased all the ingredients by half. While the recipe says to add the eggs directly into the batter, I was afraid the eggs would scramble and chose to temper them first by adding a little of the warm chocolate mixture to the eggs. I also added a little bit of instant coffee to give the chocolate flavor some depth - you can't taste the coffee at all, and it's completely optional. When you take the cake out of the oven, it will still be a little gooey on top - don't put it back in or else it will overcook. Once the cake cools and firms up, it will be perfect. Of course, my friends and I were too impatient to let it cool and dug into the gooey goodness right away. (In the pictures, the gooeyness is on the bottom because I flipped the cake onto a plate.)

Flourless Chocolate Cake
Adapted from Gourmet via Epicurious

6 ounces of semisweet or bittersweet chocolate
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter
1/2 teaspoon instant coffee
1 cup sugar
5 eggs
3/4 cup cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9-inch cake pan. Line the bottom with wax paper and grease the wax paper.

Melt chocolate with butter in a double boiler (or in a bowl sitting above a pot of simmering water). When smooth, remove from heat. Whisk in instant coffee and sugar.

In a small bowl, beat the eggs together. Slowly add some chocolate mixture, whisking vigorously while pouring. When the egg mixture has warmed, pour it into the chocolate mixture, whisking continuously. Sift in cocoa and whisk until just combined.

Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake for 25 minutes. Let cool for 15 minutes before inverting it onto a plate.

Mocha Shortbread Cookies

2010-06-01T17:10:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my last post, my friend Julia asked me to mail some cookies for her and her roommates. As much as I love chewy and gooey cookies, I knew that shortbreads would be the most likely to make the trip to Atlanta without crumbling, squishing, drying out, or melting into a sticky mess. Yes, shortbreads are very hardy. Unfortunately, they can also be a little...well...boring (in my opinion...I know that statement will be nothing short of sacrilege to shortbread enthusiasts). How am I supposed to show off my baking prowess with something so easy to make that I have the list of ingredients memorized?

On the other hand, the fact that they are so simple to make should probably be considered a good thing. And even though they might not be soft and chewy and loaded with gooey chocolate chips, they do have a very agreeable crisp and delicate texture, melting in your mouth as soon as you take your first bite. And, amazingly enough, shortbreads don't even have to be boring!

Shortbreads are very versatile and easy to flavor. You can replace the vanilla extract with other flavored extracts. You can add lemon zest, orange zest, sesame seeds, poppyseeds, sunflower seeds, mini chocolate chips, chopped up bits of dried fruit, nuts, matcha, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, and/or instant coffee. You can substitute cocoa powder or ground nuts for equal amounts of flour. You can dip them in melted chocolate or drizzle them with a simple glaze made with fruit juice and powdered sugar. The possibilities are endless.

As for me, I added cocoa powder and dissolved instant coffee to make a mocha shortbread. And here's where I make a confession: I messed up. Even though I increased the amount of sugar to counteract the bitterness of the coffee, the coffee flavor still ended up being too strong. This problem could have been easily solved by dipping the cookies in melted chocolate, but again, I made these with the intention of mailing them, and sending chocolate-dipped cookies would have resulted in the aforementioned melty, sticky mess. So here's the thing: I'm going to post the recipe as I made it, but I'm going to recommend you do one of three things:

1. Reduce the instant coffee to one tablespoon

2. Add in a half cup of mini chocolate chips

3. Dip the cookie in melted chocolate

Now that I think about it, these cookies would be amazing if you did all of the above.

Now, a funny picture of my magical sliding cookies:

Riddle me this: How did my perfectly spaced rows of cookie dough result in this? Did these cookies mosey themselves down to the bottom of the cookie sheets? I mean, yes, my kitchen is kind of tilted, which means that my oven is also tilted, and I've learned to adapt when making cakes and other treats that start out as liquidy batter, but this has never happened with cookies before.

An open note to Julia: These cookies need to be eaten with a glass of milk. Also, if you can afford to splurge on chocolate chips and feel like undertaking a tedious task, please dip these in chocolate. Melt the chocolate chips, dip the cookies halfway in chocolate, and put the cookies on waxed paper to let the chocolate harden. You can put them in the fridge to speed up the process.

Mocha Shortbread Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 3/4 cups flour

1 tablespoon hot water

2 tablespoons instant coffee

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (optional)

Dissolve instant coffee in hot water. Let cool.

Beat butter with powdered sugar until fluffy and smooth. Beat in vanilla and cooled dissolved coffee until combined. Add the cocoa powder and flour and mix until combined. Mix in chocolate chips, if using.

Form the dough into logs, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge for at least 3 hours.

When you're ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Slice the cookies 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick. Bake for 11-14 minutes.

Brown Butter Shortbread Cookies

2010-05-31T22:27:00.000-07:00

David, being the terrible person that he is, did a little bit of cleaning around the apartment yesterday afternoon while I napped, exhausted from our strenuous day of hotdog-eating, kite-flying, and sun-bathing at Pacific Beach. Do you feel sorry for me yet?

I tell you this because he put a long-lost six-month-old issue of Real Simple on top of the toilet, the spine of which caught my eye as I was getting ready for bed that night. Alongside the name of the magazine and month of distribution, there was a quote by Charles W. Chesnutt (whoever he is): "We sometimes underestimate the influence of little things."

It made me think of my friend Julia, who is in Atlanta right now as part of a program called Mission Year. She and her teammates live in an inner-city neighborhood, and basically spend their time volunteering and trying to be good neighbors. The ways in which they help, like tutoring and giving neighbors rides to the grocery store, may seem small to some, but I know that they make a real and tangible difference in their community. Julia and her teammates have a limited food budget, so Julia asked me if I could send some cookies for her and her roommates/teammates. Of course, I was happy to oblige.

So, in celebration of "the little things", I am sending them these Brown Butter Shortbread Cookies. I took a basic shortbread cookie recipe, but browned the butter before making the dough. This was a small change that resulted in a shortbread cookie with lots of oomph, so to speak. I hope Julia and her teammates enjoy them.

Brown Butter Shortbread Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 cups flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt

Cut the butter into cubes and melt in a small saucepan. Cook the butter, stirring occasionally, until it becomes a golden, amber color. For more detailed instructions on how to brown butter, see my previous post. When the butter has been browned, pour into a dish and chill in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours or until just firm.

Cream the butter with the powdered sugar and salt until fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and mix until combined. Beat in the flour. At first, the dough may seem crumbly, and it may seem like it will never come together, but keep working at it until the dough is combined.

Roll the dough into a cylinder with a diameter of 1 1/2 inches. Chill in the fridge for three hours.

When you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Take the dough out of the fridge and let soften for a minute or two, so that you can slice it without it crumbling. Slice the dough into 3/4 inch thick cookies. Place on cookie sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until slightly golden at the edges. Cool on wire racks until it reaches room temperature.

How to Brown Butter

2010-05-30T18:34:00.000-07:00

Until about six months ago, I thought that butter was the most amazing thing in the world. It takes popcorn from something that threatens to impale your throat on the way down to something that is perfectly salty and delicious. When spread on toast, it melts into all the nooks and crannies, and when spread on bread before toasting, it forms a crispy layer of golden goodness on the surface of the bread. It's what makes cakes and muffins and cookies so rich and yummy and melt-in-your-mouth good. In a lot of cases, all it takes is a drizzle of butter to get kids to eat brocolli (they may not find it delicious, but they will find it entirely tolerable). There is nothing that can't be improved by butter.

There is, however, a way to improve butter itself: brown it.

Brown butter is made by cooking butter until the milk solids turn brown and the water cooks out. The melted butter goes from yellow to a golden-amber color, and smells nutty and toasty and caramel-y and all sorts of delicious.

It's best to brown butter over medium heat. It may take a long time, and you may be tempted to step away from the stove a bit, but browning butter requires constant monitoring. The change from yellow to toasty brown to burnt black happens very quickly, and it's important to get your butter off the stove as soon as you notice that it has become brown. Keep a heat-proof bowl or dish next to the stove so you can remove the butter from the heat right away.

How to Brown Butter:

Cut butter into cubes and place in a saucepan. Heat until melted, stirring occasionally. It won't take long for the milk solids to separate from the fats and form a white layer of foam on the top of the butter.

This made me a little nervous at first, because I couldn't tell what color the butter was underneath, but I just kept kind of pushing the foam to the side.

After a while, the white milk solids will cook off, leaving an unobstructed view of the butter.

This lasts for about a minute. Then, a foam will cover the top layer again - it will be harder to push to the side than the initial layer - and the butter will be brown underneath. I unfortunately didn't get a picture of this stage because I didn't want the butter to burn. Transfer the brown butter to another bowl or dish. Don't forget the brown bits - they're the best part!

Once you have brown butter, you can do all sorts of great things with it. You can toss it with pasta with a little bit of parmesan. You can substitute it in recipes that call for melted butter to give the dish a greater depth of flavor. What I did was put it in the fridge to firm up and used it in place of regular butter to make a basic shortbread cookie...but you'll have to wait until tomorrow to get the recipe!

See you then!

Giddy with Glee: Strawberry Lemonade Bars

2010-05-26T14:31:00.000-07:00

Every Tuesday night, David and I host a Glee party, when our friends come over to our apartment to watch Glee and eat dessert. Glee is far from our favorite show, but it's definitely a show that's better when you watch it with friends. Even at it's most tonally inconsistent, the show is a lot of fun to watch, and last night was no exception. The theme last night was "theatricality", which, in the eyes of the show, is synonymous with Lady Gaga. Even though I dislike the show's weekly themes (they usually lead to after-school-special moments, and the characters say the title of the episode every five seconds), I love Lady Gaga songs, even though I sometimes have a hard time admitting it to my friends. Don't judge me - they're really catchy!

I try to test out a new dessert every Glee night, mostly so I can get honest feedback. My friends aren't afraid to tell me when a dessert is "just okay", or if a cookie is too cakey or too sweet. Yesterday afternoon, I was having trouble deciding what I should make for Glee night. Luckily, the first thing I spotted when I walked into the grocery store was a display of strawberries for 99 cents a carton (apparently, they were super cheap all over. It's officially strawberry season, guys). As soon as I saw them, I knew exactly what I wanted to make: Strawberry Lemonade Bars. I had seen the recipe on Baking Bites last fall and had been itching to make them ever since, but wanted to wait until strawberries were in season.

These strawberry lemonade bars are essentially lemon bars with strawberry puree added. They are the perfect blend of sweet and tart, and trust me when I say that they are addictive. They remind me a lot of the strawberry lemonade at Souplantation (or Sweet Tomatoes, depending on where you live). These bars are super fast and simple to make if you have a blender or food processor - but even if you don't, they're well worth the extra effort. You can eat them cold or at room temperature, but I prefer to eat them after they've been in the fridge overnight. Next time, I might double up on the crust - not because I think the ratio was off, but just because I really, really liked the crust. And really, what more of a reason do you need?

Strawberry-Lemonade Bars

Adapted from Baking Bites

Crust:

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 1/2 cup flour

1/4 tsp salt

Filling:

1 cup fresh lemon juice

2-3 tsp lemon zest (I zested two small lemons and got about 2 1/2 teaspoons)

1/2 cup pureed strawberries

1 1/4 cup sugar

4 large eggs

1/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 pan.

Make your crust first. Cream butter and sugar until smooth and fluffy. Mix in flour and salt until crumbly. Press into pan in an even layer. Bake for 17 minutes.

While your crust is baking, make the filling. Combine lemon juice, zest, strawberries, sugar, and eggs in a blender. Blend until combined. Add flour, baking powder, and salt, and blend until combined. Pour filling into baked crust. Bake for 23 - 26 minutes until filling is set.

Cool completely before cutting. Store in the refrigerator.

Zucchini Bread with Pistachios and Chocolate Chips

2010-05-21T22:10:00.000-07:00

When I was little, I heard a story in church about how Jesus walked on water, and because Peter had faith, he was able to walk on water as well. Inspired by that story, the next time my dad took me to the community pool, I walked straight over to the deep end of the pool, focused intently on believing both in God and my possession of the ability to walk on water, and stepped off the edge. Needless to say, I sank like a boulder.

Sometimes my aspirations are a little unrealistic. I don't mean unrealistic in that my aspirations defy the odds, as in, "I'm definitely going to be one of the twelve out of 300 applicants who get accepted into this particular graduate program", but unrealistic in that they defy the laws of physics, chemistry, gravity, time, and everything that defines how the world as we know it operates.

Case in point: David thought it might be nice if I made a cake for his grandpa's 94th birthday, as his grandpa doesn't get to eat many treats and subsists mostly on frozen tv dinners. I excitedly began planning the cake - I was going to make him an almond 1-2-3-4 cake, because my father-in-law told me that Grandpa-Great used to make it all the time for Grandpa P. I was going to coat and fill it with chocolate ganache, and decorate it with swoops and swirls of blue and yellow buttercream frosting.

Unfortunately, I hit a few roadblocks. We were leaving early Saturday morning. "That's fine," I told myself. "I'll just make it Friday night."

But then I remembered how the last 1-2-3-4 cake I made got dry and stale the next day. "I'll wake up really early Saturday morning," said the girl who pressed her snooze button eight times the Saturday morning she had wanted to go to the Farmer's Market right when it opened.

"I guess I'll use a different recipe," I persisted. But then I thought that a frosted cake might not last the 3-hour trip to Grandpa P's house.

"Well, I'll just stop by Michael's on the way home tonight, and buy a cake carrier, and I'll put the cake in the cake carrier and put the cake carrier in a large cooler that I'll buy at Rite-Aid later tonight and surround it gallon-sized ziploc bags filled with ice...it will last."

And when did I land on this "solution"? Friday afternoon, the day before we were going to leave, two hours before dinner with my friend who was visiting from L.A. Needless to say, I did not end up making a two-layer cake for Grandpa P. There are not enough hours in the day, people.

All this to say, I made zucchini bread instead. It's tasty, easily transportable, and contains enough veggies to convince anyone that it's actually very healthy. I adapted a Martha Stewart recipe, which I have done before to great results. I made a few changes - I replaced the dark brown sugar with light brown sugar and the walnuts with pistachios and chocolate chips to accomodate what was in my pantry. I also didn't line the loaf pans with parchment paper, choosing to simply grease it instead.

I know the story made it sound like I settled (or that I made Grandpa P. settle) - how could zucchini bread possibly compare to a two-layer almond cake smothered in chocolate ganache? But as humble as zucchini bread is, it really is very delicious. The zucchini helps the bread to stay moist and tender for days, and the dark green flecks in the bread makes it pretty even when unadorned. The pistachios and chocolate chips add complexity in taste, texture, and visual appeal. Personally, I thought the saltiness of the pistachios and the sweetness of the chocolate complimented each other perfectly without overwhelming the cinnamony goodness of the zucchini bread.

This recipe yields two loaves. I left Grandpa P.'s loaf plain because I wasn't sure whether or not he was allergic to nuts. If you want to put pistachios and chocolate chips in both loaves, use the amount listed in the recipe; if you only want it in one loaf, half it. You could also leave them out altogether.

The pictures do not accurately display the amount of nuts and chocolate chips called for in the recipe. I put in a little less because I was worried that David wouldn't like the nuts. That being said, I really wish that I had added the amount called for, so do it, okay?

Zucchini Bread with Pistachios and Chocolate Chips

Adapted from Martha Stewart

2 zucchinis, grated
1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

3 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tbsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp almond extract

1/2 cup roasted and salted pistachios, roughly chopped

1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two 4 1/2 by 8 1/2 inch loaf pans.

Combine zucchini, sugars, oil, and eggs. Add dry ingredients. Mix well. Stir in almond extract. Fold in pistachios and chocolate chips. Split the batter between the two loaf pans. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Raspberry-Drop Lemon Muffins

2010-05-21T15:17:00.000-07:00

Hi friends,

Well, this is my very first blog post...and I want to talk about muffins.

When my friend Lauren Carmen San Diego, adventurer and world-traveler, lover of all things raspberry and lemon, said that she was coming to visit me and David in San Diego for one night only, I knew exactly what I wanted to make for her: tiny lemon muffins with a single raspberry plopped into the middle. Not that she wanted or asked for muffins - it's just that when I saw the recipe, I immediately thought of Lauren and how much I wanted to shove five or six of them into her mouth. (Side note: In the past five months, I've accumulated five or six more recipes involving lemons and raspberries in my mental Rolodex for the next time she visits.)

What I love about these muffins is that it's so easy to change up the flavors. The lemon zest can be replaced with the zest of just about any other citrus, and the raspberries can be replaced with any other berry (though if you want to use strawberries, you should probably quarter them). The muffins are pretty darn tasty as-written, but I'm still looking forward to playing around with the seemingly infinite number of possible flavor variations. Blood orange and blackberries. Lime and strawberries. Meyer lemon and blueberries (though I'm not really a fan of blueberries, so you're going to have to try that one out for me). I might even go crazy and try some grapefruit zest.

I'm not sure how long the muffins last, as ours were gone by the next night, but I think they could probably keep for a few days in the fridge.

Raspberry-Drop Lemon Muffins

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Makes 14 large or 56 mini muffins

1 1/8 cup sugar, divided
4 teaspoons lemon zest (I used 2 large lemons)

2 cups flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter (at room temperature)*
1 large egg

1 cup buttermilk**

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

56 fresh raspberries

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease or line muffin tins.

Mash 1/8 cup sugar and the lemon zest until it forms a sort of lemon-sugar paste.

Whisk flour, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl until combined. In a large bowl, beat butter and remaining 1 cup sugar until smooth. Beat in egg, then buttermilk, then vanilla and lemon-sugar paste. Beat in flour mixture until combined and no traces of flour remain.

Divide batter among muffin cups. Top each large muffin with four raspberries or each mini muffin with one raspberry. Bake large muffins for about 35 minutes or mini muffins for 17-20 minutes.

* If you only have salted butter, omit 1/4 teaspoon salt.

** If you don't have buttermilk, it's simple to make your own. Put 1 tablespoon of lemon juice in a measuring cup, and fill up to the one cup line with whole milk. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes, and you have buttermilk!