Food & Memories

Sometimes life gets a little hectic, and this is one of those life moments.  AP exams, sports, food, and life - there's no time for anything! So I GREATLY apologize for the lack of posts, and I will try to get back to a regular blogging cycle soon! But for now...

Food has the magical ability to connect itself with memories, especially from your childhood.  It's able to grab your emotions by the threshold and do whatever it takes to get that comfort of being a kid again.  I recently just returned back to my old hometown, and can you guess where I wanted to eat for lunch & dinner?  Yes, the places I went out to eat at as a kid.  The waitresses and chefs were the same, the decorations were only updated, and the food - never been better.  As I was explaining to our waitress about the time we sat at this exact table and there was a power outage, as result from the thunderstorm, all the lights went off, but luckily there were backup lights so we were able to finish our meal in peace.  6 years later, the waitress still remembers that too, and remembers us :)

But anyways, enough about me, let's get on to food.  Cupcakes & Cakes seem to be a popular item that I bake, and it's true, but thats because I'd find a new variation of a cupcake that I'd want to try, and all the other recipes get shafted.  Sorry savoury recipes, but you just don't taste as delicious and sinful.

One that I recently tried (and loved) was the S'more cupcake (or as Martha Stewart calls it, the Chocolate Graham Cracker Cupcakes).  The graham cracker topping with gooey melted marshmallows was addictive, and with the chocolate cupcake with graham cracker crusted bottom - to die for.  Instead of making the Marshmallow Topping, I just put marshmallows on the top and also put a chunk of chocolate in the middle of each cupcake so that it would melt and be even more s'morey!  And boy was I right.

I had some batter left over (I halved the recipe) so I made a souffle type dessert in a ramekin (I put marshmallows inside the left over batter and topped it with a graham cracker).  Which I found was just as good (or even better possibly) than the cupcakes. It was like a souffle/lava cake/s'more/heaven in a remekin. 

S'more Cupcakes (Chocolate Graham Cracker Cupcakes)

Adapted from Martha Stewart


Yield: 2 Dozen  (this is the full recipe)
Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon cocoa powder (not Dutch-processed)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (from about 20 squares)
• 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 9 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 standard muffin tins with cupcake liners; set aside.
2. Sift 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together into the bowl of an electric mixer. Using the paddle attachment, mix ingredients together on low speed.
3. In a large bowl, mix together eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla. Add to flour mixture and beat on medium speed for 30 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl and continue mixing on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add boiling water and stir to combine; set cake batter aside.
4. Place graham cracker crumbs, remaining 1/4 cup sugar, and melted butter in a large bowl; stir until well combined.
5. Place 1 tablespoon graham cracker mixture into the bottom of each prepared muffin cup. Use the bottom of a small glass to pack crumbs into the bottom of each cupcake liner. Reserve remaining graham cracker mixture for topping.
6. Place 2 teaspoons chocolate in each muffin cup. Transfer muffin tins to oven and bake until the edges of the graham cracker mixture is golden, about 5 minutes. Remove from oven and fill each muffin cup three-quarters full with cake batter. 
   Fill each cupcake with marshmallows, and chocolate chunks. Sprinkle each with remaining chocolate and graham cracker mixture. Return to oven and bake, rotating pans halfway through baking, until tops are firm and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer muffin tins to a wire rack and let cupcakes cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan and let cool completely.
   Eat and enjoy your campfire treat, without the hassle of making a fire.
   

   

   

   
   

Les petits gateaux au chocolat

One of my favourite snacks ever is "jumbo" or "giant" corn, which I've only found in Japan or Japanese stores (like Daiso).  It's like a Japanese version of kettle corn, without the saltyness.  The ingredients are: corn, sugar, sea water, corn syrup, and honey.  Soo you can extract that its sweet.  BUT it's the perfect combination of sweetness and crunchyness - It's not too sweet at all, and I'd much prefer indulging in a bag of Jumbo Corn than Kettle corn or Caramel corn. I suggest you go out and buy a bag yourself (Warning: it is VERY hard to find.  I've had it shipped to me from Japan till a couple days ago when Daiso JUST started shelving them).  In fact, I consumed a whole bag this afternoon.  Once I start eating Jumbo Corn, I can't stop.. no joke.


Another treat that's hard to stop eating is the Classic Chocolate Cupcake. Who doesn't love a good chocolate cupcake? Especially when they're decorated with buttercream and sprinkles.

This simple recipe for the cake and icing is a perfect base recipe - you can add chocolate chips, peanut butter, marshmallow filling, caramelized banana's, almond flavoured buttercream - anything your craving at the time you're making these!  You can alter, taste, and test - then perhaps tell me your new concoctions for me to taste & test.


Chocolate Cupcakes or Cake
Makes 12 Cupcakes or 1 8" cake

Ingredients

3/4 cup white sugar

3/4 all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup cocoa powder (I use Fry's cocoa powder - not Dutch processed)

1/4 cup room temp butter, shortening, or half of each (I prefer all butter)

1/2 cup milk or 1/4 cup buttermilk & 1/4 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

(for cupcakes only: 12 baking cups)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2. Grease the 8" pan, or line up a muffin pan with the baking cups
3. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder
4. Add the butter, milk, and vanilla
5. Mix with a wooden spoon around 300 hand strokes or for 2 minute on medium speed with an electric mixer, constantly scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl
6. Add one egg at a time
7. Beat for another 2 minutes
8. Evenly disperse the batter into the muffin tins with an ice cream scooper or spoon, or scrape all the batter into the cake pan
9. Bake for about 25min for the cupcakes, or 35min for the cake (insert a toothpick in the middle, about 5 min before, to see whether its done or not) - its better to check because ever oven is different, and you don't want an overbaked cake!
10. When the inserted toothpick comes out dry, take the cupcakes/cake out of the oven, and let cool completely before frosting

Vanilla Butter Icing

Makes enough to ice 12 cupcakes or 1 8" cake

Ingredients

1/2 cup room temperature butter

2 and 1/2 cups icing sugar

2 tablespoons milk (or more if necessary)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

optional: food colouring

Directions

1. In a large bowl, beat butter with a wooden spoon or electric mixer until light and fluffy
2. Add icing sugar 1/2 cup at a time, making sure that the mixture is smooth before you add the next 1/2 cup
3. Beat in milk and vanilla
4. Spread onto the cake or pipe onto cupcakes
5. Icing will slightly harden, but it'll still taste good

This isn't necessarily the BEST icing I've ever had, its just the one I used for this recipe.

So there you go, you have another simple chocolate recipe.  Nothing special, but it will cure those chocolate cravings, so go ahead, indulge :)

Duffin (noun): a donut muffin

Choices: One of the most difficult things to make in this world.  For instance, should I have a donut or a muffin for my after school snack?  The decision could take from an instance to 26 minutes, because after all you have to weigh the pro's and con's.  A donut has a texture that no other baked good has - it's light, fluffy, yet dense (yes, that was a total contradiction but I don't know how else to explain it).  

A muffin is moist, crumbly, and both can be filled, or topped with sprinkles, icing, chocolate, jam, sugar, cinnamon, fruit, did I mention a combination of sugar & cinnamon?  This is where my brain came to aid, as it recalled seeing a recipe for "Donut Muffins" before while searching through recipes of some of my favourite food blogs, and a smile crept up on my face when I realized, I can make a duffin :)

The cake itself is moist, fluffy, with the hint of nutmeg giving it that donuty taste.  Then the topping - Mmm.  I've been having an obsession with cinnamon lately so I absolutely adore anything with cinnamon.  Though this duffin may not taste exactly like a donut, it's a good alternative to the deep-fried treat, and perhaps even better.  Another alternative for the topping would be a streusel type topping with brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon baked right onto the muffin.  Next time, I gotta try that.  But that is how I spent my afternoon, eating duffins.

The Donut Muffin, or as I like to call it, "Duffins"

Adapted from Buns in My Oven who obtained it from Baking Bites

Makes approx 10-12 muffins (it made 11 for me)

Muffins

3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking power
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 cup oil
3/4 cup milk (I used evaporated milk because I had an excess amount of that)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Topping

2 tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar, for rolling*
1 tbsp of cinnamon, for rolling*

*NOTE: The topping is up to you! You can add/take out spices. Ex. if you don't like cinnamon, veto it.  Also, you can get away with using half the sugar- cinnamon topping mixture, because I had left overs from using half the amount above.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a muffin tin with cooking spray or oil.
2. In a large bowl, beat together sugar and egg until light in color.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Pour into egg mixture and stir to combine. Pour in oil, milk (in my case, evaporated milk) and vanilla extract.
4. Divide batter evenly into 10-12 muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full.
5. Bake for 15-18 minutes (the more muffins you have, the less time it will take - the muffins will be smaller), until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
6. While muffins are baking, melt butter and pour the topping ingredients (sugar & cinnamon) into a small bowl.
7. When the muffins have cooled for a bit, dip the top of each muffin in the melted butter, and roll in the sugar-cinnamon mixture.
8. Eat immediately, or wait till the butter has soaked through the muffin and the coating has become crunchy, or do both.  Either way, enjoy your duffin :)

Left: Without the Cinnamon-sugar Topping
Right: Donut Muff- I mean Duffin ;)

Birthday Brownies & Beauty and the Beast

Who didn't dream of being a princess as a little girl?  With a glistening tiara, heavenly voice, and gorgeous ball gown, Disney Princesses are idols for kids all over the world.  It just so happens that they aren't idolized by kids, but teenagers too.  Specifically high school drama students.  Since September, I have been practicing my ass off for our school production of Beauty and the Beast, which has taken up SO much time, especially in the past couple of months, that I haven't had any time to bake or post anything up in this blog. I'm sorry about that!  But what it has taught me was that magic does exist, and regardless of being such a time consuming project, in the end tears flowed from my eyes like water out of a fountain - they couldn't be stopped.  So for our last performance, I decided to get everyone sugar high on brownies - with icing! I used a recipe that I've previously tried, and succeeded! But since I ran out of time for decorating, I have no pictures of the Beauty and the Beast brownie cake.  (not really a cake but I'm calling it one because I made it in a 9 x 13 inch pan.

These brownies are delicious, I always get good remarks out of them.  The icing on the brownies were not needed because the brownies were so good on their own, but icing does make a difference and makes it more like a cake!

They were VERY tender, moist, with a crispy crust... everything that a brownie can ask for.  They weren't overly sweet, or as thick as a brick, they were the perfect combination of everything.  And I'm sure the other 72 040 people who saved this on Allrecipes agrees with me.

I found this recipe on Allrecipes, and decided to give it a try. It's called "Best Brownies", and though they were pretty darn delicious, I don't know if they were the best brownies I've ever had.  Mainly because I rarely have brownies, but also because this is just one recipes out of a million that I've tried.  Hopefully I'll get to another brownie recipe soon and I'll do a comparison.

Best Brownies

Adapted from Allrecipes

I made these brownies for my sister's advisory class for her birthday, everyone enjoys cake, and I enjoy baking so what a better excuse to stay up late baking? Especially for your sister because then she has to treat you nicely otherwise she knows you wont do something like this again.  But what she doesn't know is that I'll take any excuse to bake.

I'm sorry the lighting it terrible in the above picture 

(It's also my camera, I don't have a pro one yet)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
•  
• 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour an 8 inch square pan.

1. In a large saucepan, melt 1/2 cup butter. Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat in 1/3 cup cocoa, 1/2 cup flour, salt, and baking powder. Spread batter into prepared pan.
2. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Do not overcook.
3. To Make Frosting: Combine 3 tablespoons butter, 3 tablespoons cocoa, 1 tablespoon honey, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 1 cup confectioners' sugar. Frost brownies while they are still warm.

I doubled the recipe (except I used 2-3 eggs) and made it into a 9x13 inch brownie. I also added a tablespoon (or more if preferred) to the icing to make it more spreadable since I found that it was too thick to spread.  The icing also was VERY sweet, so if you like a less-sweet icing I suggest trying this one instead:

Perfect Chocolate Icing

Adapted from Bakingdom, who got it from The Pioneer Woman's recipe "The Best Chocolate Sheet Cake. Ever." 

This was the icing recipe that I used for the second time I made this brownie.  The first time I used the icing recipe that came with the "Best Brownie" recipe, but I decided to change it up for this time and found this alternative recipe that I thought was better!

Ingredients

3/4 cup, plus 2 tablspoons (1 3/4 sticks or 14 tablspoons)unsalted butter

1/2 cup cocoa powder

6 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 cups confectioners’ sugar

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.

2. Remove from heat and stir in the cocoa powder until fully incorporated. Add the milk, vanilla, and salt whisking to thoroughly combine.

3. Add the confectioners’ sugar, 1 cup at a time, mixing until fully incorporated and smooth.

The original recipe said to use nuts in the icing, but I omitted the nuts and just made a plain chocolate icing.

So I challenge you to find a better brownie recipe (perhaps the one from Bon Appetit magazine is better?) and share your thoughts on this brownie recipe, other brownie recipes, and icing recipes.

Don't forget to watch the Disney classic Beauty and the Beast while enjoying your brownies :)

Creamy Goodness

It's been a while since I last posted something, sorry about that. I've just been overwhelmed with stuff, and I haven't had any time to post anything.


With that being said, I have more post ideas, but I still need to find the time to publish them all! But to start, I'll start small, I made this Fettuccini Alfredo recipe, which I must say was DELICIOUS.  With added pan fried chicken pieces... heaven.


I devoured it before I remembered to take pictures (I do that too often...). So I don't have any pictures BUT I slightly adapted this recipe from Smells Like Home.


Recipe for Fettuccini Alfredo:
Ingredients:
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup half and half
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter (may need more)
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
9 ounces fresh fettuccine (you can also use more if you would like, I used a whole box of fettuccine (500g))
1 1/2 ounces Parmesan cheese, grated (about 3/4 cup)
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Garlic and italian seasonings (such as basil) to taste


Directions:

1.  Bring 4 1/2 quarts of water (or however much you need for your pasta) to a boil.

2.  As water is coming to a boil, heat 1 cup of heavy cream and butter in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Bring to a simmer, then reduce heat and gently simmer until the mixture has reduced to about 2/3 cup, 12-15 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in half and half, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.

3.  Add 1 Tablespoon of salt to the boiling water and add pasta.  Cook until  al dente (or however you like to enjoy your pasta).  Reserve 1/4 cup cooking water and drain pasta.

4.  Return cream to a simmer over medium-high heat.  Reduce the heat to low again and add the pasta, Parmesan, nutmeg, garlic, and italian seasonings.  Toss gently with tongs to coat the pasta, and cook an additional 1-2 minutes.  Stir in the reserved pasta water.  Stir some more, and voila, your meal is done.

NOTE: The sauce might seem thin, but it will thicken as it begins to cool and is served.

This recipe goes great accompanied with Garlic Bread which I adapted the recipe from All Recipes. 

Instead of Normal bread I used Foccaccia, I pretty much used all the ingredients but not in the order, or following the directions at all.  I also toasted mine in the oven, but I found that the toaster oven set on "broil" did produce a more fluffy, soft texture for the bread.  Though the normal oven almost did the same job.

So I suggest you try this recipe, because I guarantee you will enjoy it.