17 posts tagged “baking”
Earlier this week when former Voxer Erin (who now lives at Erincooks.com) posted the recipe for these awesome treats on her blog. As soon as I saw them I knew I had to make them.
I got some static from the kids around the house about my plan to make these, "why would you make something that you could just buy for twenty cents at the store?!" I decided I was going to make them anyway, criticism be damned.
After tracking down all the ingredients (paraffin wax is surprising hard to find) I got to work.
In her notes on this recipe Erin says to beware, it is very sticky.
Man, was than an understatement.
On a scale of 1-10 of stickiness the batter was at 20. I had to keep
kneading and kneading and adding sugar, I thought it would never form
the right consistency.
Eventually it did and all was well but for a good 15 minutes I was worried that I was going to have to throw the towel in.
I won't go into the details on how to make these, instead I'll just link you to Erin's post.
http://erincooks.com/2009/02/02/heart-patties/
I saw this cake while I was thumbing through an issue of Martha Stewart Living one morning while I was avoiding work and knew I had to make it.
The result: Delicious!
Ingredients
Makes one 9-inch cake
- 4 to 5 medium Satsuma mandarins (1 1/2 pounds), thinly sliced and seeded
- 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped, pod reserved for another use
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed Satsuma mandarin juice (from 1 mandarin) (Fish note: juice 1.5 oranges)
- 1 1/3 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
- 1 tablespoon finely grated mandarin zest
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1/2 cup whole milk
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook mandarins in a large pot of boiling water for 3 minutes. Drain. Arrange slices in a single layer on paper towels.
- Place 1 stick of butter in a 9-by-2-inch round cake pan. Mix half the vanilla seeds and 1/2 cup sugar, then sprinkle over butter. Place in oven until butter melts, about 7 minutes. Carefully whisk in 2 tablespoons mandarin juice.
- Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Cream zest and remaining 1 stick butter, 1 cup sugar, and vanilla seeds with a mixer until light and fluffy. With mixer running, add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Reduce speed to low. Add half the flour mixture, then the milk and remaining 1 tablespoon juice. Beat in remaining flour mixture.
-
Arrange mandarin slices in a circle over sugar in pan, starting
in the center and spiraling outward, overlapping slices slightly. (Use
slices that are completely intact.) Gently spoon batter on top of
mandarins, and spread evenly. Bake cake until golden brown and a tester
inserted in center comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Let cool in pan
on wire rack. Run a knife around edge of pan to loosen cake. Invert
onto a serving plate, and let cool before serving.
Is it S'More or S'Mores? I've seen and heard it both ways. I'm partial to S'Mores because...well I don't know it sounds more euphonious to me.
Well, it all started with Jody (who some of you may remember as my Office Wife from back when i used write here regularly) sending me a link to a cooking site called Smitten Kitchen. I totally become smitten with the site and one recipe in particular; S'mores pie.
I mentioned the pie at dinner that night and everyone around the house thought it sounded good so after a week of teasing and taunting them about it I decided i had better make it before I get hurt.
The only thing I agree with this recipe about is the pie crust. Next time I make it I'm changing things up.
Recipe from Smitten Kitchen (Orig from Gourmet magazine):
For crust
5 tablespoons salted or unsalted butter, melted, plus additional for greasing
1 1/2 cups cookie crumbs (10 graham crackers or 24 small gingersnaps;
about 6 oz, pulsed in a food processor until finely ground)
2 tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt (omitted if you use salted butter)
Make graham cracker crust:
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly butter pie 9- to 9 1/2-inch pie plate.
Stir together all ingredients in a bowl and press evenly on bottom and up side of pie plate. Bake until crisp, 12 to 15 minutes, then cool on a rack to room temperature, about 45 minutes.
For chocolate cream filling
7 oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not more than 70% cacao; not unsweetened), finely chopped
1 cup heavy cream
1 large egg, at room temperature for 30 minutes
Make chocolate cream filling:
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Put
chocolate in a large bowl. Bring cream just to a boil in a 1- to 1
1/2-quart heavy saucepan, then pour hot cream over chocolate. Let stand
1 minute, then gently whisk until chocolate is melted and mixture is
smooth. Gently whisk in egg and a pinch of salt until combined and pour
into graham cracker crumb crust (crust will be about half full).
Cover edge of pie with a pie shield or foil and bake until filling is softly set and trembles slightly in center when gently shaken, about 25 minutes. Cool pie to room temperature on a rack (filling will firm as it cools), about 1 hour.
This is where I started to call the whole thing into question. I like dark and bitter sweet chocolate, I would take it over trashy milk chocolate any day but it is totally out of place in this pie. It's too, rich. S'mores aren't and should not be some rich gourmet treat. Next time I'll use semi-sweet or maybe even dreaded milk chocolate [shudder].
For marshmallow topping
1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin (from a 1/4-oz package)
1/2 cup cold water
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Vegetable oil for greasing
Special equipment: a candy thermometer
Make marshmallow topping:
Sprinkle gelatin over 1/4 cup cold water in a large deep heatproof bowl and let stand until softened, about 1 minute.
Stir together sugar, corn syrup, a pinch of salt, and remaining 1/4 cup water in cleaned 1- to 1 1/4-quart heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil over moderate heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved, then boil until thermometer registers 260°F, about 6 minutes.
Begin beating water and gelatin mixture with an electric mixer at medium speed, then carefully pour in hot syrup in a slow stream, beating (avoid beaters and side of bowl). When all of syrup is added, increase speed to high and continue beating until mixture is tripled in volume and very thick, about 5 minutes. Add vanilla and beat until combined, then immediately spoon topping onto center of pie filling; it will slowly spread to cover top of pie. Chill, uncovered, 1 hour, then cover loosely with lightly oiled plastic wrap (oiled side down) and chill 3 hours more.
This was the second place where I was like "really?" I found this recipe incredibly hard to make for some reason. Pouring the boiling sugar into the gelatin mix greated these hard globules of sugariness that were impossible to break up.
I made the part twice becuase I thought I did it wrong the first time. After carefully following the instructions the second time and getting the same results I just decided to pick out the sugar clumps and move on.
As you can see from my photos the marshmallow layer is very thin. This was dissapointing to me. I wanted something a little more substatial considering how much chocolate there was in the middle.
Next time I make this I'm either going to go the lazy route and melt store bought marshmallows and pour it on top or just figure out a way to make real marshmallow and get it on top of the pie. I really haven't given it too much thought yet.
Brown topping:
Preheat broiler.
Transfer pie to a baking sheet. Cover edge of pie with pie shield or foil and broil 3 to 4 inches from heat, rotating pie as necessary, until marshmallow topping is golden brown, about 3 minutes. Cool pie on a rack 10 minutes. Slice pie with a large heavy knife dipped in hot water and then dried with a towel before cutting each slice.
When it was served we all agreed it was too rich and the layer of marshmallow was not satisfactorily thick compared to the layer of chocolate. Not that it stopped any from eating the whole thing in short order.
The other day I saw a post on Anna's blog that inspired me to once again try my hand at candy making.
About 6 months ago I made rosemary caramel shortbread cookies. The caramel was delicious, the cookies not so much.
I started by using the recipe she linked to for Fleur De Sel Caramels on Epicurious and it was going well until the candy thermometer went from 210 degrees to over 250 in less time than it took me to shoo the dog out of the kitchen.
Suddenly molten candy was bubbling and jets of it were shooting out of the pot and before I knew it a big glob of it landed on my finger and took with it what felt like a pretty sizeable chunk of skin.
Oh it hurt; but once I washed it off it off it look as bad as I was expecting.
I powered through pain, poured out the caramel into the pan and within seconds it was hard as glass and tasted like burnt something or other.
So I tossed that and decided I would make my rosemary caramel instead. This time things went off without a hitch.
When it was done, I cut them into individual pieces, covered them in bittersweet chocloate and sprinkled some Kosher salt on top (because, you know, I didn't have any Fleur De Sel.)
I found this recipe in an ad published in Bon Appetit magazine, it turns out to be from a website run by dairy producers in Wisconsin
.
From butterisbest.com:
Rosemary Caramel
1/2 cup butter
4 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Melt butter over low heat in a heavy sauce pan. Place sprigs of rosemary between two sheets of waxed paper and pound until flattened. Place sprigs in butter and cook over low heat for 10 minutes. Remove sprigs from butter. Add remaining ingredients; mix well. Increase heat to medium-high and bring mixture to a boil, stirring frequently. Reduce heat to medium and continue boiling, stirring frequently, until caramel reaches 242°F (use candy thermometer); remove from heat.
Made for my homies office potluck.
Four layers of Devils Food Cake, two and a half layers filled with vanilla cream filling (which tasted like vanilla butter cream frosting, butter cream frosting being one of my least favortie things to taste) covered in choclate ganache.
As seen on the Internet.
Made these last night for the work baking contest.
I didn't win this contest. Instead the top prize when to my office baking rival.
Really I should say it went to his wife because his wife does the baking, he just brings the stuff to work.
I'm not bitter or anything, you can't win 'em all, right?
Shouts to the site where I saw the recipe, Baking Bites.
When I was in high school I was really big into architecture. I was in advanced drafting and architecture classes. In the 10th grade I took second place in the San Diego county fair for a house I designed.
I used to always argue with my teacher about Form vs. Function.
Being stubborn and committed to my vision I would sometimes design a kitchen that wasn't normal. The work triangle (the distance from fridge, to sink, to oven) was all crazy, the sink 5 feet away from the stove, the fridge 10 feet away from sink, etc. But I was an artist dammit and the design had to be this way because it fit in with my vision of the area as a whole.
I wanted function to follow form when the rule is form follows function. Eventually I learned.
The other night I watched a couple of episodes of "Ace of Cakes" on the Food Network. Lots of people have told me about the show and how great it is.
Watching it I wanted to kill myself. To me the show is a good example of function following form.
Sure the cakes are technically edible but I would bet money that they aren't great, or even very good.
Seeing a few of their designs there is now way those cakes take only a day, some of them have to take the better part of a week and who wants to eat a plain old sheet cake after 3 or 4 days? Especially when it's covered in fondant (gross!).
Maybe this is just my haterism coming out...but I don't think putting PVC in your cake to make it stand up is all that great an idea. Or using PVC and wrapping it in fondant or chocolate to make unique shapes.
I get that it's supposed to be "extreme" and different; and from a design perspective it certainly is. But as far as baking goes, I don't see how it qualifies. I don't see how you can call yourself "the bad boy of baking" (or whatever) based on some crazy designs.
If he was making, I don't know, salmon blueberry scones, then maybe I can see using that title. I mean that would be some revolutionary baking, right?
Last Halloween I saw Matt Haughey make these from Ding-Dongs, or Ring-Dings depending on where you are, and the idea has stuck with me since.
I was able to successfully pull off Ganache frosting this time and it would look really, really good (smooth instead of kind of bumpy) if it wasn't for other problems with the cake.
For the cake I made Chocolate Pumpkin (recipe below) and decided it would be a good idea to put marshmallow between the layers of the cake. In high insight I don't know if it was such a good idea. The marshmallow layer kept shifting the top cake and before I knew it my cake was 1/2 an inch off center.
The legs are made from Pocky and held together with chocolate.
Chocolate Pumpkin Cake
1 ½ Cups Flour
2/3 Cups Cocoa
2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
1 Teaspoons Baking Soda
½ Teaspoon Salt
1/2 Cup Butter Milk
1 Cup Canned Pumpkin
2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
3/4 Cup Butter (1 ½ Sticks), Softened
1 Cup Dark Brown Sugar
1 Cup Granulated Sugar
3 Large Eggs, Plus One Yolk
Heat Oven to 375°F, grease and flour two 8-inch cake pans.
Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt together.
Stir in buttermilk, pumpkin and vanilla extract together in a small bowl.
Beat the butter and sugars together on medium speed until light and fluffy.
Beat in the eggs and yolk, one at a time.
Reduce speed to low and alternately beat in flour and buttermilk mixtures in thirds.
Divide batter equally into pans.
Bake about 35 minutes or until tester is clean.
I don't know if I've mentioned this before or not but I got a gig making a birthday cake for one of my co-workers kids.
His birthday is on Halloween and I'm thinking of making a spider cake, until today that is when I got an idea for a pumpkin cake.
I went to the craft store and bought a spherical cake pan and decided I would make a practice run at the pumpkin cake without actually making it, but what would I make? Outside of basket, base, soccer, golf and bowling balls what kind of round cake could I make?
The world!
Originally I had planned on making the cake with a white chocolate ganache frosting, I had never made one before and I hear its a good frosting. I put the cake in the oven and while it baked and cooled I made my ganache frosting. All the recipes called for it to cool, either at room temperature for a few hours or in the fridge for 30 minutes. I opted for the fridge.
Problem is the frosting never reached its full potential. Even after an hour and a half in the fridge the cake would just soak up the frosting and it would disappear. Thankfully my boy Duncan Hines and his sister Betty Crocker were on hand to save the day. (Look, I'm sorry people I just don't like butter-cream frosting, I've made it a few times and...well...blah...its gross to me.)
Once it was frosted in blue it was time to make some land and thats where things went a little off. I tried to start with North America but I think I made it too big as there was no room for South America when I got to the bottom. Next I did Europe and Africa and they just came out looking funny. Asia and Russia are disproportionally huge to me. I almost forgot Australia, Greenland and England.
When it was all done I took a bit of white frosting and made snow covered peaks on some of the appropriate places.
Should I ever make this again, I think I can do better.
