I am kind of in awe of how my blog’s following has grown over the past few months. For so long it seemed like nobody outside my immediate family and circle of friends read it, and even then it was only because I nagged them. But to all of you out there who come here and read what I have to say, THANK YOU!!! I really appreciate everyone who stops by, whether or not you leave comments (although I do LOVE comments!)
One of the perks of having more than a small handful of readers is that a few offers for free stuff start to trickle in. I generally have no interest in them (meat rubs? Um, I don’t eat meat), but when Oh Nuts offered to send me stuff, I couldn’t turn them down. I use nuts all the time! A few days after I responded to the email, these beauties showed up on my doorstep:
Raw cashews, pecans, macadamias, and almonds! Thank you so much, Oh Nuts! I picked raw nuts so I had the flexibility of using them raw or roasting them myself.
When I decided to use the cashews first, I googled a bit and found this recipe, which I instantly knew would be delicious. I changed a few things about the recipe — adding tomatoes and using light coconut milk rather than full-fat and water — and it was fabulous. I still haven’t gotten around to making my own curry powder, but it’s on my list of things to try!
Recipe:
(adapted from 101 Cookbooks)
1 1/2 cups light coconut milk
2 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 large red onion, chopped
1 large tomato, diced
2 medium garlic cloves, chopped
8 ounces extra firm tofu, cut into 1/2″ cubes and stir-fried until golden
2 cups green beans, cut into 1-inch segments
2-3 cups cauliflower florets
a pinch or two of cayenne pepper
1/2 cup cashews, toasted
Bring half a cup of the coconut milk to a simmer in a dutch oven over medium-high heat. Whisk in the curry powder and salt, then stir in the chopped red onion, garlic, and tomato and cook for about a minute.
Stir in the remaining coconut milk. Cook down the liquid for a couple minutes before adding the green beans,cauliflower and tofu. Cover and simmer for about 5 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender. Stir in the cayenne. Taste and adjust seasonings, adding more salt, curry powder, or cayenne if necessary
Remove from heat and stir in the cashews.
OK we’re taking steps in the right direction here…away from desserts and back towards (moderately) healthier things. These aren’t perfect, but with half whole wheat flour, they’re much better than Wonder Bread, and I really can’t resist anything with zaatar. If you normally serve pita with Middle Eastern food, this is a nice change and it makes a great appetizer!
I love that these only rise an hour, and bake in 15 minutes. I served mine with labne (which is SO easy to make – just dump a quart of whole milk yogurt into a strainer lined with cheesecloth and let drain for 8 hours or overnight), cucumber, and tomatoes and it was a perfect light lunch. If you have trouble finding zaatar you can make your own or order it online.
Recipe:
(adapted from Alice’s Kitchen)
makes 8 6″ breads
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 1/2 tbsp active dry yeast
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp sugar
2 cups white whole wheat flour
2 cups bread flour
1/2 cup zaatar
1/4 cup olive oil
Put the water in the bowl of a stand mixer and stir in the yeast. Add the sugar and let stand for about 5 minutes, or until the yeast has foamed up. Stir in the flour, one cup at a time, then the salt. Mix with the dough hook for about 5 minutes, gradually working up from low to medium speed. The dough should be smooth, elastic and just slightly sticky – you may need to add a little water or flour to get the right consistency, but it should not stick to the bowl and all the flour should be absorbed.
Divide the dough evenly into 8 pieces. Roll them each into a ball and let rise on a floured counter, under a towel, for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 375 F (put a baking stone in the oven if you have one). Mix the olive oil and zaatar together.
Pat each ball of dough into a 6″ circle and top with a spoonful of the zaatar mixture. Spread it to within 1/2″ of the edges. Bake on the stone (or a baking sheet lined with parchment) for about 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Cut into wedges to serve.
I try to keep food on my food blog and running on my running blog, but there’s a running-related back story for these little treats. I ran the San Francisco Marathon on Sunday (my fifth marathon) and qualified to run the Boston Marathon! This was my 5th marathon, and before this, my best time was 3:46. You need a 3:40 to run Boston, and I knew this would be a really tough course, so I figured it was a long shot. Somehow everything came together perfectly and I covered the 26.2 miles in 3:32:46, so I will be running the Boston Marathon on April 18th! I’ve had this as a goal since I ran my first marathon 5 years ago, so I’m pretty ecstatic.
I was debating between a Boston Cream Pie and Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes, but I’ve been pretty obsessed with whoopie pies lately, so when Mike suggested I give them a try, it seemed like a brilliant plan. He’s so smart.
These have soft vanilla cookies, vanilla pastry cream, and chocolate ganache – 3 things that are marvelous on their own and even better together. I think they’re probably best assembled right before you plan on eating them, but if that’s not possible they might keep in the fridge for a few hours. The pastry cream is not as sturdy as frosting, so these can be a little messier than the average whoopie pie.
And yes, I know that I’ve been posting way too many desserts and far too few vegetables lately…I’ll work on that!
Recipe:
makes about 24
cookies
(adapted from King Arthur Flour)
1 stick butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
vanilla pastry cream
(adapted from The Secrets of Baking by Sherry Yard)
1 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar, divided
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 Tbsp corn starch
2 eggs
2 tsp softened butter
chocolate ganache
(adapted from The Secrets of Baking by Sherry Yard)
2 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup heavy cream
To make the cookies, preheat the oven to 375 and line a few cookie sheets with Silpats or parchment. Get a pastry bag ready with a wide round tip (I used Wilton 12).
Beat the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together onto a sheet of wax paper and add in two additions, alternating with milk. Mix on medium just until smooth.
Transfer the batter into the piping bag and pipe circles about 1 1/2″ – 2″ in diameter. Bake for 8-10 minutes, watching carefully to make sure the cookies don’t color at all. They need to come out of the oven when the tops are just set. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely, then match up in pairs by size.
To make the pastry cream: Whisk the eggs, 2 tbsp of sugar, a pinch of salt, and the cornstarch together in a medium bowl. Have another clean bowl ready.
Put the milk and remaining sugar in a saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Pour about half the simmering milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly, then transfer all the eggs and milk back into the saucepan. Whisking constantly, cook over medium for about 5 minutes (it should be boiling), or until it it thick and pulls away from the sides when you tip the pan. Turn off the heat and beat in the vanilla. Transfer to the clean bowl and stir in the butter, then place the bowl in an ice bath and stir every few minutes until cool (or, if you don’t need it right away, press plastic wrap onto the surface of the cream and chill in the refrigerator for a few hours, until completely cool).
To make the ganache: Place the chopped chocolate in a small bowl. Bring the cream to a boil (it should foam up a lot when boiling) in a small saucepan, then pour over it over the chocolate. Let it stand for one minute, then gently use a rubber spatula to mix the cream and chocolate. Keep mixing for about 2 minutes, so they’re thoroughly combined. Let cool for about 5 minutes, then begin assembling cookies.
To put the whoopie pies together: Spread a little ganache on one of the cookies in the pair. Place a small spoonful of pastry cream on the other, then gently set the ganache-iced cookie on top. Serve as soon as possible.
You probably don’t really need a recipe for M & M cookies, since it would be completely fine to just use M & Ms in place of chocolate chips in just about any chocolate chip cookie recipe. But for some reason when I got inspired to make these, I decided to go looking for a recipe that specifically called for M & Ms rather than chocolate chips.
I know shortening has gotten a terrible reputation, but sometimes it actually comes in handy. I like how it makes chewy cookies that don’t get as flat and crisp as all butter cookies sometimes do. Plus now you can find non-hydrogenated shortening that doesn’t have trans fat, so your chances of an instant heart attack after eating these are dramatically lower. Definitely not a bad thing.
The original recipe called for a whole cup of shortening, but I used half shortening and half butter for better flavor. I’m sorry but I just can’t face the idea of a cookie with NO butter at all. These cookies were a huge hit, and a nice colorful change from my standard chocolate chip.
Recipe:
(adapted from All Recipes)
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups M & Ms
Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Cream the butter and shortening together in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the sugars and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.
Combine the flour, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl and mix with a wire whisk. Stir into the butter mixture, and mix until all traces of flour disappear. Stir in the M & Ms.
Drop by the spoonful onto Silpat-lined cookie sheets and bake for about 10 minutes, or until just beginning to color at the edges. Cool on the cookie sheet for about 2 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.
I adore pickles of all kinds, but like bagels and jam, they were on that (ever-shrinking) list of things I’d never tried to make myself. For some reason cucumber pickles still intimidate me but these were insanely easy, and I love them.
Pickled onions may not seem like a particularly practical ingredient to keep on hand, but since I first tried them, I’ve started craving their tangy crunch on salads and sandwiches. This salad lets them be the star of the show, with just a drizzle of olive oil, a few curls of Parmesan, and some freshly cracked black pepper to compliment their flavor.
Recipe:
onions
(adapted from Mango & Tomato)
1/2 red onion, cut in half and thinly sliced
10 coriander seeds
10 peppercorns
1 bay leaf
red wine vinegar to cover
Combine all ingredients in a clean jar. Seal the jar, shake it a few times, and refrigerate for at least 3 days.
salad
2 hearts of romaine, sliced crosswise at 1″ intervals
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup pickled onions
Parmesan cheese curls (use a vegetable peeler)
freshly cracked black pepper
Rinse the romaine and dry thoroughly with a salad spinner. Place in a bowl and drizzle with olive oil. Add the pickled onions and toss, then add Parmesan and black pepper as desired.
Somehow I ended up promising my students I’d make cupcakes for Open House. I’m not sure how that happened, but I guess it’s a good sign that the persuasive writing techniques I’ve been teaching them weren’t falling on deaf ears (or maybe I volunteered because I saw a golden opportunity to bake AND immediately get the products out of the house).
Either way, when I thought about what would appeal to 12 year olds and their families, I immediately thought of Oreos. Originally I was thinking of doing a chocolate cupcake with Oreo frosting, but when I found this recipe, it looked too good to pass up. For some reason the idea of combining cream cheese frosting with Oreos didn’t really appeal to me, so I just made a standard vanilla buttercream and added some crushed cookies to it. I loved these and so did all the kids!
Recipe:
(adapted from Beantown Baker)
cupcakes
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups flour, plus 2 tbsp
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 2/3 cup sugar
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
1 package Oreo Cookies (about 45 cookies)
frosting
6 tbsp softened butter
3 cups powedered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Oreo crumbs
2-4 tbsp milk
Preheat over to 350F. Line 24 cupcake tins with paper liners.
Twist apart 24 Oreos. Place the cookie with filling on it, filling side up, in the bottom of each cupcake pan. Cut 12 of the filling-less cookies in half for garnish, and crush the others in a plastic bag with a rolling pin to make fine crumbs. Reserve these crumbs to mix into the frosting.
Roughly chop the remaining Oreos and toss with 2 tbsp flour.
Cream the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in the milk and vanilla.
Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together into the butter mixture. Stir a few times, then mix in the sugar and beat with the mixer on low for about 30 seconds. Add the egg whites. Turn the speed up to medium and beat for two minutes. Fold in the roughly chopped cookies
Divide the batter evenly among the prepared pans and bake for about 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of cupcakes comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
To make the frosting, beat the butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer and add milk 1/2 tsp at a time until it has a smooth, spreadable consistency. Add the Oreo crumbs and mix well. Put in a piping bag and pipe onto the cooled cupcakes, then top with half a filling-less cookie.
After baking 50 cupcakes for a summer school event, then following that up with cake, frosting, and fondant this weekend, I was ready for a good, healthy meal.
My favorite weeknight dinners are always the ones that just require a single bowl and fork or spoon. This one is awesome because it’s full of protein, and it gets a nice kick from the salsa verde. I don’t know why I don’t keep tomatillos around the house more often because they make the BEST salsa!
Recipe:
salsa
4 medium tomatillos, papery husks removed, halved
3 garlic cloves, peeled but left whole
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 tsp salt
2 chopped serrano chiles (or less if you’re not into spicy food)
1/4 cup water
salad
2 cups water
1 cup quinoa
juice of one lime
2 cups black beans, rinsed and drained
1 large tomato, diced
1 avocado, diced
chopped cilantro, for garnish
First, make the salsa. Put the garlic and tomatillos under the broiler until softened slightly and browned in places. Transfer to a blender and add the cilantro, salt, chiles, and water. Blend until nearly smooth. Set aside.
Bring the water to a boil in a covered pan. Add the quinoa, stir, and turn the heat down to low. Simmer, covered, until all the liquid has been absorbed, about 15 minutes. Let stand for a few minutes, then add the lime juice and fluff with a fork. Let cool.
In a large bowl, toss the cooled quinoa with the black beans, tomato, and avocado. Stir in about half the salsa, taste, and add more if desired. Serve garnished with chopped cilantro, and pass the remaining salsa on the side.
I am doing cupcakes and cake for a wedding in a few months, and I have been using that as an excuse to try tons of new recipes. The last time I attempted a marble cake I stirred far too much and ended up with a light brown cake and no marble at all. Huge bummer. This time I gently dragged a spoon through the cake pans just a few times, and I was really excited to cut into the cake and see the pretty marbling I was hoping for!
This recipe was supposed to make a 2-layer 8″ cake but I made 2 6″ layers and 2 cupcakes. I like thick layers, so next time I might skip the cupcakes and just make the 6″ layers. The frosting is simple but rich, and plays nicely off the vanilla-mocha cake
This cake was also my first experience working with marshmallow fondant. I realize marshmallows are not vegetarian, but since I’m more in the not-eating-meat camp than the strict-vegetarian camp, I tasted a bite, and it was actually better than I was expecting. I think it really helped that it was right on top of a layer of rich chocolate frosting! My biggest piece of advice when working with fondant is to not be shy with the powdered sugar. I had it all over my counter and hands, but it definitely kept it form becoming a sticky mess. With the right amount of powdered sugar, it’s incredibly easy to work with. I found the recipe for the fondant at About.com.
Recipe:
(adapted from Zoe Bakes)
cake
2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 full-fat plain yogurt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 tablespoons milk
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
frosting
3 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 stick butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
milk
Preheat the oven to 350 F and line the bottom of two 6″ round pans with parchment.
Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt, and set aside.
Cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, yogurt and vanilla, and mix well. Add the milk 2 tbsp at a time, alternating with the flour mixture (mix until smooth after each addition).
Combine the chocolate and espresso powder and stir until smooth.
Divide the batter in half and add the chocolate mixture to one half. Spoon some of the vanilla batter into the bottom of each pan, then top with a few spoonfuls of mocha batter. Add more vanilla batter, then gently drag a spoon through to create a marble pattern.
Bake for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean. Cool in the pans for about 10 minutes, then run a knife around the edges and invert onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Once the layers are completely cool, make the frosting. Melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler, then let cool slightly.
Beat the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer for about 1 minute. Add the chocolate, powdered sugar, and vanilla, and beat until creamy and smooth. If the frosting is too stiff, add milk 1/4 tsp at a time, until the frosting is spreadable.
I think I was in about 4th grade when a new gourmet pizza place opened in our neighborhood. I was kind of shocked when our family looked over the menu. Potatoes on pizza? Pizza with olive oil and garlic instead of red sauce? What were they thinking?
Fortunately my taste in pizza has changed a lot since I was ten. This is a ridiculously simple, red sauce-free pizza that makes the most of summer’s perfect tomatoes and basil. Now that we have a basil plant thriving on our porch and beautiful heirloom tomatoes are cheap and plentiful at the farmers market, we’ve been eating this pizza at least once a week for the past month.
The crust comes from The Big Sur Bakery Cookbook and I’m not sure that I’ll ever make a different one. You need to plan at least a day in advance, as it’s best when it’s had at least 24 hours in the fridge (but I’ve also let it rest for as few as eight hours and it’s still pretty good). If you’ve got a stand mixer, it comes together in less than 10 minutes!
Recipe:
(adapted from The Big Sur Bakery Cookbook)
crust
3/4 cup warm water
1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1 2/3 cups bread flour
1 tsp salt
cornmeal
pizza
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 tbsp olive oil
2-3 freshly picked heirloom tomatoes, thinly sliced
8-10 thin slices mozzarella
3 tbsp fresh basil, sliced into thin ribbons
Dissolve the yeast in water and let stand 5 minutes. Pour into the bowl of a stand mixer and add the flour and salt. With the dough hook, mix on low for 2 minutes, medium for 2 minutes, then high for 2 minutes. If the dough is too sticky, add a little flour. Divide into two equal balls and place on a plate, then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least ten hours. Remove from the fridge about 45 minutes before you plan to bake pizza.
Preheat a the oven (with a pizza stone if you have one) to 475 F. Sprinkle a cookie sheet or pizza peel generously with cornmeal. Carefully stretch the dough into a circle and place on the peel. Brush with 1 tbsp of olive oil, and sprinkle with half the garlic. Layer slices of tomato and mozzarella over that.
Slide the pizza carefully onto the pizza stone.Bake for about 12 minutes, or until the cheese is brown and bubbly. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with half the fresh basil. Repeat with remaining dough and toppings. Let pizza stand for about 5 minutes before cutting into slices
I wasn’t going to bake for a few weeks. I made those Double Ginger Cookies a few days ago, ate way too many of them, and realized it would probably be best for that marathon I’m running (in 11 days. OMG.) if I didn’t go crazy with sugar for awhile.
But today was my Sister-in-Law’s birthday AND Mike found out he got a new job (!!!) so the no-baking plans were scrapped and celebratory cupcakes were made. My sister-in-law drinks a lot of coffee, so dark chocolate mocha cupcakes with coffee buttercream seemed like a natural choice. The dark chocolate stars are just piped melted chocolate – easy but decorative and delicious.
Obviously, if you like either coffee or chocolate, these will be hard to resist. I think it’s easiest to use instant coffee for baking, so that’s what I did here, for both the cake and the frosting. If you’d rather brew some espresso, I’m sure that would work too.
Recipe:
(adapted from Evil Shenanigans)
cupcakes
3/4 cup cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 large egg
1 egg white
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 tablespoons strong coffee (or three tablespoons warm water mixed with 1 tablespoon instant coffee)
frosting
4 tbsp butter, softened
2 tbsp warm water
1 tbsp instant coffee
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups powdered sugar
a few ounces of dark chocolate, melted
Preheat the oven to 350 F and line a 12-cupcake pan with paper liners.
Whisk together all the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, and cocoa) in a medium bowl.
Beat the egg and egg white gently with a fork, then stir in the buttermilk, vanilla, melted butter, and coffee. Pour into the dry ingredients and mix until most of the lumps are gone. Divide evenly among the cupcake tins and bake for about 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
Transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.
To make the frosting, dissolve the coffee in the warm water. Beat the butter, coffee-water, and vanilla in a stand mixer. Add the powdered sugar and beat until creamy and spreadable, adding a few drops of milk if too dry. Pipe onto the cooled cupcakes.
To make the chocolate decorations: Put the melted chocolate in a piping bag with a small round tip and pipe designs onto parchment. Transfer to the fridge for about 30 mintues to set, then place the decorations on the iced cupcakes.
|
|
|
