Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Black and White pt. 2

Crinkle Cookies

Cookie number two is Crinkle Cookies apparently also known as Black and Whites (how appropriate!). They are a fudge-y chocolate cookie that is rolled in powdered sugar before they are baked. As they bake and expand it forms all the nooks and crinkles as the chocolate peeks through the sugar coating. These were my favorite of the two cookies because they were moist inside, but the dough wasn't too sweet and the powdered sugar added that extra sweetness.

The recipe comes from Joy of Baking.

The Holidays in Black and White


It's a yearly tradition for my girlfriends and me to do secret santas. We are all on a budget so this is a great way for us to give and receive without breaking the bank. Of course, we have to include a cookie exchange as well. Everyone brings their gift and cookies to dinner/lunch and after we eat we exchange gifts and cookies.

The cookie exchange is simple. Bake and bring enough cookies to give to everyone else. For us, we bring 7 cookies/sets of cookies (or 8 if you want one of your own). Then we all trade cookies and can enjoy a variety of cookies for the next few days.

This year my cookies have a black and white theme. The first of two cookies I made for the exchange were Chocolate and Vanilla Moonstones. First you make the vanilla dough and then take part of it out and add melted chocolate to make chocolate dough. When you form the cookies you mix both colors together and it when bakes they come out half and half. They didn't come out exactly how I expected they would, but they tasted pretty good.

Here is the recipe for the cookies. I don't have a picture of the cookies I baked becaused I was in rush and now I'm too lazy to take the cookies out of the tupperware and take pictures. They do look pretty similar to the ones on the recipe's website though.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Cranberries Part 2




Here are pictures of my second recipe with cranberries. They are Cranberry Upside Down Muffins from Joy of Baking. These two pictures are from the ugly batch. The other ones were prettier, but I didn't have time to take pictures of them before I took them to a potluck.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

It's Cranberry Season!

For me, Thanksgiving means cranberries! I don't eat them during the rest of the year, but at Thanksgiving the stores of full of bags of fresh cranberries. The only things I've cooked with cranberries are cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving and cranberry-orange scones once, maybe twice. This year I got really excited about the cranberries for some reason and planned to make two cranberry recipes this week. First, this buttery and delicious Cranberry-Orange Scone and later this week a Cranberry Upside-Down Muffin.

This recipe is adapted from Ina Garten's recipe. I followed it relatively closely...the major difference is that I took out an entire stick of butter! Reviews for the recipe said that it was still tasty even without the extra stick of butter. With this alteration I thought that the scones were as buttery as they needed to be.

The recipe, with my changes, follows after the pictures...and I'll be sure to post the recipe for the Cranberry Upside-Down Muffins soon after I make them =)




Cranberry-Orange Scones
adapted from Ina Garten

Ingredients:
4 cups plus 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar, plus additional for sprinkling
2 tbs baking powder
1 tsp salt
2-3 tbs grated orange zest
2 sticks cold unsalted butter, diced
5 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup cold heavy cream
1 1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 egg beaten with 2 tbs milk, for egg wash
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, plus 2 tbs
4 teaspoons freshly squeezed orange juice
Directions:
  1. In an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, mix 4 cups of flour, 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder, salt and orange zest until thoroughly combined.
  2. Add butter and mix slowly until the butter is in small bits.
  3. Combine the eggs and heavy cream then add the mixture to the mixer on low speed. Mix until just blended.
  4. Mix the dried cranberries with 1/4 cup of flour.
  5. Dump the dough onto a well-floured surface (you don't want it to stick!), add the cranberries to the dough, and knead cranberries into the dough. Form the dough into a ball.
  6. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a 3/4-inch thick square. Make sure to flour the rolling pin and your hands.
  7. Measure out an 8x8 square and cut out with a knife. Cut into 4 squares, cut the squares into triangles and lastly, cut each triangle in half (to make two triangles). You'll have 16 small triangles. (Alternately, use a square or circle cookie cutter to cut out your scones to your desired shape and size.)
  8. Collect the dough scraps, rollout again and cut more scones of equal size.
  9. Place the scones on a baking sheet sprayed with non-stick spray.
  10. Brush the tops of the scones with the egg wash (egg and milk) and sprinkle lightly with sugar.
  11. Bake scones for 18-22 minutes, until the tops are lightly browned and the insides are firm to the touch.
  12. Allow the scones to cool for 15 minutes.
  13. In the mean time, whisk together the confectioners' sugar and orange juice. Add more sugar, if necessary, to get the right consistency.
  14. Drizzle as much as you want over the scones.
Enjoy!



Sunday, November 1, 2009

Cheesecake on a Stick!

Cheesecake Pops with Caramel, Chocolate
and Graham Cracker Crumbs


mmm

I've been looking forward to making these Cheesecake Pops for awhile. I knew I wanted to make them for a Halloween potluck because they resemble caramel apples, but are a delicious cheesecake. This recipe is from a book called Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor. It was the first time I've actually made cheesecake and I was nervous that it wouldn't come out right, but the end result was pretty and tasty, too. I think that these pops are pretty forgiving in terms of cooking the cheesecake correctly because there are so many additions to the outside of the pops.

This recipe allows you to decorate them in any way you want to and I chose to cover mine with caramel followed by milk chocolate and then I rolled them in graham cracker crumbs and drizzled them with white chocolate. I halved the recipe and used an overflowing tablespoon to portion the cheesecake pops and made 25 pops. Before the chocolate step I made a caramel and dipped the pops into the caramel and froze them before dipping them in the chocolate. Here is the original recipe!


Cheesecake Pops


Ingredients:
5 8-oz. packages cream cheese at room temperature
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
5 eggs
2 egg yolks
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup heavy cream
Boiling water as needed
Thirty to forty 8-inch lollipop sticks
1 lb chocolate, chopped – you can use all one kind or half and half of dark, milk, or white
2 tbs vegetable shortening
Assorted decorations

Directions:

  1. Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F.
  2. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer set at low speed, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. Add the whole eggs and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well (but still at low speed) after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and cream.
  3. Lightly grease a 10-inch cake pan (not a springform pan). Pour the cheesecake batter into the cake pan and place in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly golden on top, 35 to 45 minutes.
  4. Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to overnight.
  5. When cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 – 2 hours.
  6. When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate. In the top of a double boiler, set over simmering water, or in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, heat half the chocolate and half the shortening, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and chocolate and shortening are combined. Stir until completely smooth. Save the rest of the chocolate and shortening for later dipping, or use another type of chocolate for variety.
  7. Alternately, you can microwave the same amount of chocolate coating pieces on high at 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth.
  8. Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate.
  9. If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations. You can also drizzle them with a contrasting color of melted chocolate (dark chocolate drizzled over milk chocolate or white chocolate over dark chocolate, etc.) Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set. Repeat with remaining pops, melting more chocolate and shortening (or confectionary chocolate pieces) as needed.
  10. Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

More Brownies!

Brownies (on my CMM plate!)


I made brownies for a couple of friends because it was their birthdays! I used the King Arthur Flour recipe to start with but I reduced the amount of chocolate (the original recipe has A LOT) and I tried using a half sheet pan to bake them. Next time I will use 1.5x the recipe because the brownies came out a little thin because of the size of the pan.

These brownies are pretty chocolate-y even with the reduced amount of chocolate. The recipe has both cocoa powder and chocolate chips. I used Hershey's cocoa and semi-sweet chocolate chips. The recipe here is the one with the alterations I made. You can find the original King Arthur Flour recipe here.


Fudge Brownies

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbs vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a half sheet pan (18x13x1).
  2. In a saucepan set over low heat, melt the butter. Add the sugar and heat the mixture until it is hot, but not bubbling and stir until the some of the sugar as dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
  3. Crack the 4 eggs into a bowl and beat with your stand or hand mixer with the cocoa, salt, baking powder and vanilla until smooth.
  4. Put your mixture on low and gradually add the butter/sugar mixture, stirring until smooth.
  5. Add the flour gradually and mix until just combined.
  6. Let the mixture cool for a few minutes, then using a spatula, stir in the chocolate chips.
  7. Transfer the batter into the pan and smooth out the top with a spatula.
  8. Bake the brownies for 15-17 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
  9. Let the brownies cool before cutting them into pieces.
Enjoy!

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Brownie's relative...the Blondie!

Chocolate Chip Blondies

Mmm. I love brownies, but these Chocolate Chip Blondies are a nice change from the traditional brownie recipe. To me, they are a closer relative to chocolate chip cookie bars than to brownies but delicious nonetheless. I made these now because my boyfriend doesn't care for blondies so it would be a waste to bake them when he will be around. It's his loss.

I followed the recipe from Everyday Baking with a few changes. The main changes were that I left out the walnuts, added some white sugar and I also didn't melt the butter like the recipe stated. This might have been a bad choice because the batter was definitely a bit tricky to spread into the pan and melted butter might have made it a bit looser. This recipe was easy and super quick!

Chocolate Chip Blondies
adapted from Everyday Baking

Ingredients:
8 tbs (1 stick) butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Directions:
  1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8x8 baking pan and set aside.
  2. In a stand mixer, cream together butter and both sugars until combined.
  3. Add the egg and vanilla extract.
  4. Slowly add in the flour and salt and mix until just combined. Make sure not to over mix.
  5. Using a spatula, fold in half of the chocolate chips.
  6. Spread the batter into the pan and smooth out the top. Top with the rest of the chocolate chips.
  7. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. (I've found that I tend to bake a lot of things for less than the recommended amount of time. I think I'm scared the will become dry.)
Yield: 16 bars


Thursday, October 1, 2009

I'm Back...with Coffee Cake!

Cinnamon Coffee Cake

I'm not doing a very good job at posting recipes on a regular basis. I am going to try to take more time out to bake something and actually get it on here!

I've been craving sweet breakfast baked goods. Making a decision between cinnamon buns and coffee cake was difficult, but in the end coffee cake won...mostly because I had all the ingredients and it is a lot quicker to make. This coffee cake has a crumb topping with cinnamon and walnuts and I added a layer of cinnamon and sugar in the middle.


Cinnamon-Walnut Coffee Cake
adapted from A Taste of Home

Ingredients:
Cake
1/4 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk
Middle Layer
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
Topping
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3 tbsp cold butter
1-1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Directions:
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x9 square pan.
  2. In a mixing bowl, cream together shortening and sugar until fluffy.
  3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one. Beat in vanilla.
  4. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl.
  5. Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with the milk until just combined.
  6. In a small bowl mix together the sugar and cinnamon.
  7. Transfer half of the batter to a greased 9 in square baking pan.
  8. Sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon mixture evenly over the batter.
  9. Pour the rest of the batter into the pan and spread it out evenly.
  10. In a bowl combine the flour, sugar and cinnamon; cut in butter until mixture resembled coarse crumbs. Stir in nuts. Sprinkle over the top.
  11. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Enjoy!

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Mmm Brownies!

Brownies with Cinnamon

I haven't made anything in a couple weeks. There wasn't anything I wanted to make and I've been busy on the weekends. This week I decided that I needed to bake something and decided that brownies would be perfect. I found a recipe, but I didn't have all the right ingredients so I improvised and this is what I came up with. They have cinnamon in them, which is a little different than the usual brownie.

I've been reading about how to freeze brownies since I don't want to eat a whole pan of brownies by myself. It kind of scares me to freeze them because I don't want them to get really dry after they thaw. Supposedly, if you wrap them in saran wrap, then aluminum foil and put them in a plastic zip bag they will be fine. Then just thaw them before eating. I will try this and see if it works.

Ingredients:
3 oz unsweetened chocolate
8 tbs (1 stick) unsalted butter
2 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tbs cocoa powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
Directions:
  1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8x8 baking pan with non-stick cooking spray.
  2. In a small saucepan, combine unsweetened chocolate and butter. Mix over low heat until everything is evenly melted together, stirring frequently. Take off the heat and let cool slightly.
  3. While butter and chocolate are melting, whisk eggs and sugar in a medium bowl. After they are combined add cocoa powder, cinnamon, vanilla extract and salt.
  4. Slowly mix in butter and chocolate mixture into the egg mixture. Then mix in flour until just combined.
  5. Fill baking pan with the batter.
  6. Bake for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
  7. Let brownies cool in the pan for at least half an hour before cutting.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Blueberry Muffin Cakes

Blueberry Muffin Cakes

I've been wanting to make blueberry muffins for awhile now. Yesterday, I finally went to the grocery store and bought blueberries! And even though it's really warm today I decided to turn on the oven and bake these.
These blueberry muffins are more cake-like than muffin-like. They didn't puff over like muffins usually do, but just rose slightly in the middle. Apparently, since they more cake than muffin they can sit for a day or so and still be moist. I found the recipe on One Perfect Bite . I've already eaten three muffins...I think that's a good judgement of how tasty they are.

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
3/8 tsp salt (I used about 1/4 tsp)
3/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon zest
3/4 cups milk
2 cups fresh blueberries, or
frozen blueberries, thawed
powdered sugar, for dusting
Directions:
  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray muffin tin(s) with non-stick cooking spray (original recipe says 2 six-muffin tins. I used a 12-muffin tin and the recipe made almost 24 muffins. I think my muffin tin is smaller than normal, but not mini muffins.)
  2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Set aside.
  3. Combine butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and lemon zest in a bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. About 5 minutes.
  4. Turn speed to low. Alternately, beat in flour mixture (in fourths) and milk (in thirds) starting and ending with the flour mixture. Mix until just combined.
  5. Using a spatula fold in blueberries until just combined.
  6. Fill muffin cups about 2/3 full (I filled my first batch 2/3 full and the second batch almost to the top, which made bigger muffins, but didn't overflow).
  7. Bake 25-30 minutes until golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean (mine were done in a little less than 25 minutes. Start checking a little early.)
  8. Yield: Original recipe: 12 large muffins. I got 22 small muffins.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Tea Time!


Petit Fours from Lovejoy's Tea Room

Today, I went to Lovejoy's Tea Room in San Francisco with a group of 6 girls. Between all of us we ended up with a selection of 5 different teas, assorted sandwiches, scones, fruit and a crumpet (we were wondering what exactly a crumpet was). I thought the scones were one of the best things (especially when smothered with the double cream). All the teas were yummy, the blood orange herbal tea in particular.

The tea room itself was really cute. It was decorated with all sorts of teapots, teacups and antiques all over the walls and in display cases. None of the tea cups or teapots matched, but that definitely added to the charm. Overall, it was a lovely place to spend a Sunday afternoon with the girl friends.


Sunday, August 16, 2009

More s'mores bars, please!


S'mores Bars (Photography: Ryan Mak)

This weekend my friend had a potluck/housewarming at his house. I always like to bring dessert so I chose s'mores bars. This was actually my second attempt at this recipe - the first one was a disaster. And it was my fault...I didn't follow the recipe and I used actual marshmallows instead of marshmallow fluff. They melted out too thin and created a toffee-like sugar bar thing instead of ooey, gooey s'mores.

This time I made sure to buy the marshmallow fluff (which, I realized is much more expensive than a bag of marshmallows) and it resulted in a delicious treat, very reminicent of your usual campfire s'mores.
I got this recipe from Lovin' From the Oven and followed it to the letter (well, this time).

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 king-sized milk chocolate bars (e.g. Hershey's)
1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme/fluff (not melted marshmallows)

Directions:
  1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.
  2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg and vanilla. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture and mix at a low speed until combined.
  3. Divide dough in half and press half of the dough into an even layer on the bottom of the prepared pan. Place chocolate bars over dough. 2 king-sized Hershey's bars should fit perfectly side by side, but break the chocolate (if necessary) to get it to fit in a single layer no more than 1/4 inch thick. Spread chocolate with marshmallow creme or fluff. Place remaining dough in a single layer on the top of the fluff (most easily achieved by flattening the dough into small shingles and laying them together.
  4. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool completely before cutting into bars. Yield: 16 bars.
I discovered that the bars were much easier to cut if after being refrigerated until solid. The recipe says it makes 16 bars, but I ended up cutting each bar in half because I found out that there would be a lot of guests attending the potluck. Overall, a very successful recipe - they came out with a distinct layers of graham cracker, marshmallow and chocolate and were delicious.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Introduction

I've decided to start a food blog. Inspired by Julie and Julia (although I have yet to see the movie), my friends' blogs (food and otherwise), TasteSpotting (LOVE this website), my new camera (Canon SD780IS) and my boss.

My goal for this blog is to post a recipe I tried at least once a week. Hopefully more. I'll also try to post/write about restaurants, food shows, and other interesting food related things.

My first "real" post will probably be this weekend - I'm making s'mores bars for a potluck!

<3 Annaliese