There is so much to be thankful for, this year in particular, and I want to let each of you know that I am thankful to you for reading this blog and helping me share what I love to do.
Happy Thanksgiving!
9 years ago
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Happy Thanksgiving!
Just a quick note to wish everyone out there a wonderful, restful, relaxing, delicious-food-filled Turkey Day.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Crock Pot Cheesesteaks on Pretzel Rolls
As you have probably noticed, if you have seen a post or two of mine, we love trying new recipes here. And learning new things. And trying things in new and different ways. So when daddy asked last week if I thought I could figure out a way to make cheesesteaks in the crock pot, I didn't hesitate to promise that I would figure something out.
The first step was the meat. As I have mentioned
before, the crock pot is excellent for transforming even the cheapest cuts of meat into delicious and tender meals. I put the roast into the crock pot with nothing more than a sprinkling of onion soup mix and some water. I then put the lid on the pot, turned it on low, and let it sit. So far, so simple.
A few hours later, it was time to begin thinking about how I was going to serve the cheesesteaks. Cheesesteak being such a Philly tradition, we thought we would dive head-long into the Philly style and make pretzel rolls for the sandwiches. I
have a fantastic recipe for pretzel bread, so decided to prepare that recipe and shape the dough into rolls rather than into loaves. Little miss, as always, was glad to help me measure, pour, mix and knead. The hardest part was figuring out counter space in my little kitchen to run the KitchenAid while the crock pot was going. It was a little crowded, but we soon had a soft, smooth dough ready to rise.
And then it was time to wait. Little miss's ballet class was the perfect length of time to let to dough rise, and when we came back home, it was time to get down to the real work. The dough was shaped and set to proof. As it
proofed, I set a pot of water to boil. Once the water came to a boil, it was time to add baking soda to the boiling water, to make it alkaline, which helps the pretzels (rolls) develop their deep brown crust. The rolls, once proofed, were boiled in the alkaline water for about 30 seconds apiece, then transferred to a baking sheet. Just under 20 minutes in the oven and a quick brush with melted butter and we had some beautifully browned, delicious smelling rolls just waiting to be made into sandwiches.
So now it was time to work on the meat, which had been dutifully simmering away all day long, making the house smell delicious. The first step was to shred my now-tender beef. Once again, the crock pot is wonderful, an made this extremely easy - two forks and barely and pressure, and the beef practically shredded itself. I had to drain off some of the liquid, but we were soon ready to go
from shredded beef to cheesesteak. In our house, that requires two things (aside from the beef, of course) - onions and cheese. Half a (large) sweet onion was sliced and caramelized, then spread on top of the shredded beef. Then the whole thing was covered with coarsely shredded provolone cheese. I returned the lid to the crock pot and let the whole thing heat together until dinner time, which wound up being about 40 minutes.
And the result?
Absolutely delicious (though daddy and I both agreed that next time we will use more cheese!). I don't think that anyone would confuse our sandwich with that of one of the famous Philly chains, but we all really enjoyed them. The meat was delicious and flavorful, the onions and cheese went so well with it, and the rolls were absolutely fantastic. We all agreed that this is a definite repeat.
The first step was the meat. As I have mentioned
before, the crock pot is excellent for transforming even the cheapest cuts of meat into delicious and tender meals. I put the roast into the crock pot with nothing more than a sprinkling of onion soup mix and some water. I then put the lid on the pot, turned it on low, and let it sit. So far, so simple.A few hours later, it was time to begin thinking about how I was going to serve the cheesesteaks. Cheesesteak being such a Philly tradition, we thought we would dive head-long into the Philly style and make pretzel rolls for the sandwiches. I
have a fantastic recipe for pretzel bread, so decided to prepare that recipe and shape the dough into rolls rather than into loaves. Little miss, as always, was glad to help me measure, pour, mix and knead. The hardest part was figuring out counter space in my little kitchen to run the KitchenAid while the crock pot was going. It was a little crowded, but we soon had a soft, smooth dough ready to rise.And then it was time to wait. Little miss's ballet class was the perfect length of time to let to dough rise, and when we came back home, it was time to get down to the real work. The dough was shaped and set to proof. As it
proofed, I set a pot of water to boil. Once the water came to a boil, it was time to add baking soda to the boiling water, to make it alkaline, which helps the pretzels (rolls) develop their deep brown crust. The rolls, once proofed, were boiled in the alkaline water for about 30 seconds apiece, then transferred to a baking sheet. Just under 20 minutes in the oven and a quick brush with melted butter and we had some beautifully browned, delicious smelling rolls just waiting to be made into sandwiches.
So now it was time to work on the meat, which had been dutifully simmering away all day long, making the house smell delicious. The first step was to shred my now-tender beef. Once again, the crock pot is wonderful, an made this extremely easy - two forks and barely and pressure, and the beef practically shredded itself. I had to drain off some of the liquid, but we were soon ready to go
from shredded beef to cheesesteak. In our house, that requires two things (aside from the beef, of course) - onions and cheese. Half a (large) sweet onion was sliced and caramelized, then spread on top of the shredded beef. Then the whole thing was covered with coarsely shredded provolone cheese. I returned the lid to the crock pot and let the whole thing heat together until dinner time, which wound up being about 40 minutes.And the result?
Absolutely delicious (though daddy and I both agreed that next time we will use more cheese!). I don't think that anyone would confuse our sandwich with that of one of the famous Philly chains, but we all really enjoyed them. The meat was delicious and flavorful, the onions and cheese went so well with it, and the rolls were absolutely fantastic. We all agreed that this is a definite repeat.Pretzel Bread/Rolls
(from Two Bites in Suburbia)
(original recipe can be found here)
2 1/3 teaspoons yeast
1 cup warm water (110-120 degrees)
2 tablespoons milk at room temperature
1 tablespoon brown sugar
3 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 - 3 cups bread flour
4 quarts water
1/2 cup baking soda
Kosher salt to taste
2 tablespoons butter, melted
Add yeast, water, milk, brown sugar and three tablespoons of butter into a large bowl, whisking until all ingredients are combined. Let the mixture rest for 10 minutes for the yeast to activate. Mix in salt. Mix in two cups of flour, combining it with the other ingredients. Add more flour as needed, kneading until you have a firm but slightly tacky ball of dough.
Allow the dough to rest, covered, for 30 minutes in an oiled bowl. After 30 minutes, knead the dough for 5-10 minutes (either by hand or by mixer) until the dough is elastic and satiny. Cover the bowl again and allow the dough to rest for an hour.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and bring 4 quarts of water to a boil. When the water is boiling, slowly (and carefully) add the baking soda.
Remove the dough from the bowl and knead it gently to deflate it. Divide the dough into two (for two loaves) or six (for six rolls) pieces and shape them as you want them (though round is easiest). Drop each piece into the baking soda bath for no more than 30 seconds, turning it once to guarantee that both sides are covered. Drain the excess water from the dough and place it on an oiled baking sheet. Repeat with each piece of dough.
Sprinkle each bread with kosher salt to taste and use a knife to cut a small incision on the top to allow for expansion.
Bake for 22 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through.
Once removed from the oven, immediately brush the top of each loaf/roll with melted butter.
Enjoy!
Saturday, November 13, 2010
November Daring Cooks Challenge - Souffle
Part of the reason that I joined the Daring Kitchen was to learn new recipes and techniques, and to try things that I otherwise wouldn't. And it's not called the Daring Kitchen for nothing - each month's challenge is designed to test the members' skills, creativity and courage in the kitchen, and this month's Daring Cooks' challenge is no exception.
Dave and Linda from Monkeyshines in the Kitchen chose Soufflés as our November 2010 Daring Cooks' Challenge! Dave and Linda provided two of their own delicious recipes plus a sinfully decadent chocolate soufflé recipe adapted from Gordon Ramsay's recipe found at the BBC Good Food website.
I am not going to lie - I was pretty worried when I read this. I have never made a soufflé before, mostly because of the reputation that they have for being complicated and tricky, and for the fact that most of the stories you hear about amateur cooks making them end with some variation of "and then it collapsed before I could get it to the table."
That being said, I really like Dave and Linda, our hosts, from reading their blog and "seeing" them around the Daring Kitchen forums, and I knew that they wouldn't pick something destined for failure. So I trusted in our hosts and in the recipes, and decided that I would persevere.
My fears and insecurities got the better of me for the first two weeks of the challenge, and I pretty much did nothing more than scan a few recipes online, wonder what I would use as a soufflé dish (I don't have a real one), and worry about how I would keep an eye on my baking soufflé without opening the door of the oven (a classic no-no in soufflé baking) using my home oven, which does not have a window.
The answer to the last question came when my in-laws invited us over for brunch on Halloween morning. Their oven, as luck would have it, has a window. So I bit the bullet and offered to provide all of the food for our brunch, as long as they would let me use their kitchen as my soufflé test kitchen. They agreed and I knew I would have to figure out the rest!
I started by finding a recipe for a straightforward (not to mentio
n, breakfast-appropriate) cheese soufflé. I did as much of the prep work at home as I could, so as to be as prepared as possible to tackle the actual assembly when I arrived at the in-laws' house. Other than gathering and measuring the ingredients, the main step that I had to do to prepare in advance was to grate the cheese, which little miss was more than happy to help with.
Cheese grated, eggs counted, milk, flour, butter and spices measured and packaged, we were ready to pack up our ingredients (as well as a couple oth
er brunch-y type foods we'd prepared for the occasion) and head on over to begin our endeavor.
The preparation of the soufflé is actually very straightforward, but I was still pretty nervous. I read and re-read the recipe countless times, and performed each step as meticulously as possible. I carefully separated my eggs, then began preparing the, well, batter, for lack of a better word. The initial steps of preparing this batter do not differ very much from the way I make cheese sauce for macaroni and cheese - butter is carefully melted in a saucepan, then an equal amount of flour is whisked in to create a roux. To this, milk is whisked in, creating a
basic bechamel or white sauce. The grated cheese is then melted into the sauce. This is the point where the process changed. In a separate bowl, the egg yolks from my previously separated eggs were whisked, then tempered by whisking in small amounts of the warm cheese sauce at a time, slowly raising temperature of the yolks to ensure that I didn't wind up with scrambled eggs. The tempered yolks were then fully incorporated into the sauce, and voila - I had the base to my soufflé.
The next step is to whip the egg whites - the aspect that gives a soufflé its airiness, its lift, its rise - basically, the part that can make or break the soufflé. I actually contemplated lugging my KitchenAid over to my in-laws' house for this part of the process
, but thought that might be overkill, so I borrowed my mother in law's hand mixer and set to whipping the whites into stiff, but not totally dry, peaks. The beaten whites were then carefully and slowly folded into the prepared base, and we were just about ready to go.
In lieu of a single, large soufflé, I decided to use my five-ounce ramekins to make individual-sized soufflés for each of us at
brunch. While I was preparing the batter, my husband and mother in law helped by generously buttering the ramekins, which I then filled as carefully and neatly as I possibly could. I was lucky that my mother in law also has a set of five-ounce ramekins, because I was amazed to find that my six-egg recipe more than enough to fill my six ramekins, and I had to borrow four of hers for the leftover batter.
And then came the real test.
It was time for the soufflés to go into the oven. And I assumed what I can only imagine is the position of almost every soufflé baker, especially on their first attempt:
(and no, that is not a real spider on my shoulder - remember, this was brunch on Halloween morning...)
It was fascinating and nerve wracking to watch these rise in the
oven. I seriously watched them through the window with more interest than I do half of the television shows that are on these days... And after about fifteen minutes, I was rewarded in a way that no television show can duplicate. What came out of the oven were beautiful, puffy, cloud-like concoctions that none of us could wait to try.
We each took one on our plate and excitedly dug in. I have to say, I was pretty amazed - the texture was so light and airy, and the flavor was really good - like a really good cheese omelet, only lighter, fluffier, and a lot more fun to eat. I was really glad that everyone enjoyed them, too, because, no matter how many times I told everyone to go ahead and get started on the other brunch foods while these baked, everyone waited. And everyone told me that it was worth the wait.
I was so excited by this first soufflé effort, and so encouraged by the success, that I actually wound up, a couple of days later, doing something that I never ever expected to do - I decided, on a last minute whim, to "whip up" a soufflé to accompany our dinner that night.
During my initial search for soufflé recipes (in my attempt to put off making one, due to my nerves), I had come across this recipe for sweet potato-apple soufflés.
Remembering that I had two small leftover baked sweet potatoes in the fridge from dinner the previous night, I took it as a sign and, while the rest of dinner was cooking, pulled together the remaining ingredients for a second go at soufflé.
Much like the first recipe, the process involved making a base, into which whipped egg whites are carefully folded. Unlike the first recipe, though, the base for these soufflés did not require any cooking.
Rather than preparing a bechamel sauce, to be flavored and then puffed up, the base for this soufflé was simply the sweet potatoes and apples, pureed well, combined with some brown sugar, spices and an egg yolk. Super easy to prepare. The egg whites were once again carefully folded in to the base in small batches. The finished batter was carefully spooned into my well-buttered ramekins, and after fourteen minutes in the oven (into which, I am very proud to say, I did not peek at all, despite my lack of window and almost overwhelming desire to...), they transformed from this:
into this:
I was actually really amazed not only by the rise I was able to get out of these soufflés, but also at how cleanly they rose. I will say that these
deflated much more quickly than the cheese soufflés did, but that did not affect either the taste or the beautifully airy texture of the dish. It was actually very interesting to eat such a light sweet potato dish, since usually potatoes of any sort are pretty dense and heavy. That certainly wasn't the case with these.
My only disappointment with this challenge, if you can even call it that, is that I didn't have the opportunity to try the recipe for the chocolate soufflé that Dave and Linda posted. If you had told me, when I first read the challenge, that not only would I succeed in making a soufflé, but that I would be disappointed that I didn't have the opportunity to make three of them, I probably would have laughed. Now I am seriously looking forward to whipping up more egg whites and trying as many variations as I can!
Dave and Linda, I cannot thank you enough for giving me the push I needed to finally try this amazing dish. I have no idea how long it would have taken me to overcome my fear without this challenge, and for that, I am truly grateful!
If you would like to see some of the truly impressive soufflés whipped up by the other Daring Cooks, check them out here.
And keep your eyes peeled - I will absolutely be making a chocolate soufflé in the not-distant future, and will definitely post it here for you to see!
Dave and Linda from Monkeyshines in the Kitchen chose Soufflés as our November 2010 Daring Cooks' Challenge! Dave and Linda provided two of their own delicious recipes plus a sinfully decadent chocolate soufflé recipe adapted from Gordon Ramsay's recipe found at the BBC Good Food website.
I am not going to lie - I was pretty worried when I read this. I have never made a soufflé before, mostly because of the reputation that they have for being complicated and tricky, and for the fact that most of the stories you hear about amateur cooks making them end with some variation of "and then it collapsed before I could get it to the table."
That being said, I really like Dave and Linda, our hosts, from reading their blog and "seeing" them around the Daring Kitchen forums, and I knew that they wouldn't pick something destined for failure. So I trusted in our hosts and in the recipes, and decided that I would persevere.
My fears and insecurities got the better of me for the first two weeks of the challenge, and I pretty much did nothing more than scan a few recipes online, wonder what I would use as a soufflé dish (I don't have a real one), and worry about how I would keep an eye on my baking soufflé without opening the door of the oven (a classic no-no in soufflé baking) using my home oven, which does not have a window.
The answer to the last question came when my in-laws invited us over for brunch on Halloween morning. Their oven, as luck would have it, has a window. So I bit the bullet and offered to provide all of the food for our brunch, as long as they would let me use their kitchen as my soufflé test kitchen. They agreed and I knew I would have to figure out the rest!
I started by finding a recipe for a straightforward (not to mentio
n, breakfast-appropriate) cheese soufflé. I did as much of the prep work at home as I could, so as to be as prepared as possible to tackle the actual assembly when I arrived at the in-laws' house. Other than gathering and measuring the ingredients, the main step that I had to do to prepare in advance was to grate the cheese, which little miss was more than happy to help with.Cheese grated, eggs counted, milk, flour, butter and spices measured and packaged, we were ready to pack up our ingredients (as well as a couple oth
er brunch-y type foods we'd prepared for the occasion) and head on over to begin our endeavor.The preparation of the soufflé is actually very straightforward, but I was still pretty nervous. I read and re-read the recipe countless times, and performed each step as meticulously as possible. I carefully separated my eggs, then began preparing the, well, batter, for lack of a better word. The initial steps of preparing this batter do not differ very much from the way I make cheese sauce for macaroni and cheese - butter is carefully melted in a saucepan, then an equal amount of flour is whisked in to create a roux. To this, milk is whisked in, creating a
basic bechamel or white sauce. The grated cheese is then melted into the sauce. This is the point where the process changed. In a separate bowl, the egg yolks from my previously separated eggs were whisked, then tempered by whisking in small amounts of the warm cheese sauce at a time, slowly raising temperature of the yolks to ensure that I didn't wind up with scrambled eggs. The tempered yolks were then fully incorporated into the sauce, and voila - I had the base to my soufflé.
The next step is to whip the egg whites - the aspect that gives a soufflé its airiness, its lift, its rise - basically, the part that can make or break the soufflé. I actually contemplated lugging my KitchenAid over to my in-laws' house for this part of the process
, but thought that might be overkill, so I borrowed my mother in law's hand mixer and set to whipping the whites into stiff, but not totally dry, peaks. The beaten whites were then carefully and slowly folded into the prepared base, and we were just about ready to go.In lieu of a single, large soufflé, I decided to use my five-ounce ramekins to make individual-sized soufflés for each of us at
brunch. While I was preparing the batter, my husband and mother in law helped by generously buttering the ramekins, which I then filled as carefully and neatly as I possibly could. I was lucky that my mother in law also has a set of five-ounce ramekins, because I was amazed to find that my six-egg recipe more than enough to fill my six ramekins, and I had to borrow four of hers for the leftover batter.And then came the real test.
It was time for the soufflés to go into the oven. And I assumed what I can only imagine is the position of almost every soufflé baker, especially on their first attempt:
(and no, that is not a real spider on my shoulder - remember, this was brunch on Halloween morning...)
It was fascinating and nerve wracking to watch these rise in the
oven. I seriously watched them through the window with more interest than I do half of the television shows that are on these days... And after about fifteen minutes, I was rewarded in a way that no television show can duplicate. What came out of the oven were beautiful, puffy, cloud-like concoctions that none of us could wait to try.
We each took one on our plate and excitedly dug in. I have to say, I was pretty amazed - the texture was so light and airy, and the flavor was really good - like a really good cheese omelet, only lighter, fluffier, and a lot more fun to eat. I was really glad that everyone enjoyed them, too, because, no matter how many times I told everyone to go ahead and get started on the other brunch foods while these baked, everyone waited. And everyone told me that it was worth the wait.I was so excited by this first soufflé effort, and so encouraged by the success, that I actually wound up, a couple of days later, doing something that I never ever expected to do - I decided, on a last minute whim, to "whip up" a soufflé to accompany our dinner that night.
During my initial search for soufflé recipes (in my attempt to put off making one, due to my nerves), I had come across this recipe for sweet potato-apple soufflés.
Remembering that I had two small leftover baked sweet potatoes in the fridge from dinner the previous night, I took it as a sign and, while the rest of dinner was cooking, pulled together the remaining ingredients for a second go at soufflé.Much like the first recipe, the process involved making a base, into which whipped egg whites are carefully folded. Unlike the first recipe, though, the base for these soufflés did not require any cooking.
Rather than preparing a bechamel sauce, to be flavored and then puffed up, the base for this soufflé was simply the sweet potatoes and apples, pureed well, combined with some brown sugar, spices and an egg yolk. Super easy to prepare. The egg whites were once again carefully folded in to the base in small batches. The finished batter was carefully spooned into my well-buttered ramekins, and after fourteen minutes in the oven (into which, I am very proud to say, I did not peek at all, despite my lack of window and almost overwhelming desire to...), they transformed from this:
into this:
I was actually really amazed not only by the rise I was able to get out of these soufflés, but also at how cleanly they rose. I will say that these
deflated much more quickly than the cheese soufflés did, but that did not affect either the taste or the beautifully airy texture of the dish. It was actually very interesting to eat such a light sweet potato dish, since usually potatoes of any sort are pretty dense and heavy. That certainly wasn't the case with these.My only disappointment with this challenge, if you can even call it that, is that I didn't have the opportunity to try the recipe for the chocolate soufflé that Dave and Linda posted. If you had told me, when I first read the challenge, that not only would I succeed in making a soufflé, but that I would be disappointed that I didn't have the opportunity to make three of them, I probably would have laughed. Now I am seriously looking forward to whipping up more egg whites and trying as many variations as I can!
Dave and Linda, I cannot thank you enough for giving me the push I needed to finally try this amazing dish. I have no idea how long it would have taken me to overcome my fear without this challenge, and for that, I am truly grateful!
If you would like to see some of the truly impressive soufflés whipped up by the other Daring Cooks, check them out here.
And keep your eyes peeled - I will absolutely be making a chocolate soufflé in the not-distant future, and will definitely post it here for you to see!
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
How cute are these??
Are these not the cutest kitchen tools you have ever seen??Little miss received these as a gift from our awesome neighbor, who just happens to have the coolest job in the world. He is a food stylist, and does a lot of work for a locally-based home shopping cable network. He stopped by yesterday with these adorable gadgets, saying that they'd been used in a demonstration that day, and that he automatically thought of little miss when it was time to close up the shoot (seeing as they could no longer be sold, having been used once).
Little miss wanted to test them out as soon as possible. Since yesterday was a pretty busy day, "as soon as possible" was actually this morning for breakfast, when we decided that, in order to use as many of these utensils as possible, we'd make pancakes.
She started by measuring the flour. With "Cuppy." Oh yes, they all have names. Cuppy was almost "Measure-y," but she
changed her mind...The dry ingredients were whisked together with "Whisker." Who was almost "Whiskey," but I sort of steered her towards a name fewer people would misunderstand... or give me funny looks upon hearing...
The wet ingredients were then mixed in with, you guessed it, "Spoony."
Once the batter was ready, it was my turn to take over, since I think that four is a little young to be working a griddle pan... But she did request that, when flipping
the pancakes, I use "Flipper" rather than own utensils. I have to admit - it was definitely fun. I did have to reposition his arms and legs a little bit in order to get a good grip on him, but that was actually fairly amusing.The only guy we didn't get to try out making these pancakes
was the orange spatula, appropriately named "Spatulie" (I have no idea how to actually spell that...), but that doesn't mean that he was ignored. The whole gang had front row access to our setup and cleanup.Speaking of cleanup, seeing these guys in the sink waiting to be washed was pretty funny...
A huge thank you to our awesome, generous neighbor - these are a huge hit.
And in case you are interested, I did happen to find them online. And am seriously tempted to complete our collection...
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Happy Halloween!
Ah, Halloween. The holiday where we take candy from strangers, stay up past bedtime and sugar up our kids beyond what we would ever reasonably do.
So what better way is there to celebrate Halloween than to make extra sweets?? Little miss and I decided to have a little bit of fun this weekend and make some ghoulish goodies.
We started by making ghost-pretzels, which are basically pretzel rods dipped in melted white chocolate and decorated with Halloween sprinkles. We originally intended to actually decorate them as ghosts, but little miss was having way too much fun with the sprinkles to try to be
precise, and we just went with it. The funniest part is that little miss actually claims to not like pretzels... yet somehow managed to eat a few these guys. Maybe it's the chocolate, maybe it's the sprinkles, maybe it's the Halloween spirit, but somehow she managed to enjoy them.
For our other Halloween treat, I decided to try something I have seen all around the food-blog-world recently - ghost cupcakes. I modeled my cupcakes on these cute gh
osties, using the cupcake recipe listed there, but not the frosting. I was planning on making a marshmallow frosting, but at the last minute switched to a simple cream cheese frosting. Since the ghosts are basically a huge swirl of frosting, we decided to make only half of our cupcakes into ghosts, and to just frost and decorate the other half of them with our trusty Halloween sprinkles.
Our ghosts didn't really look to ghostly, but overall, the cupcakes were a ton of fun to make and were a super cute way to celebrate the day. We shared them with the family at Halloween
brunch, and for whatever they lacked in ghostiness, they made up for in fun.
I hope you all had a fun, festive and sugar-high filled Halloween!
We started by making ghost-pretzels, which are basically pretzel rods dipped in melted white chocolate and decorated with Halloween sprinkles. We originally intended to actually decorate them as ghosts, but little miss was having way too much fun with the sprinkles to try to be
precise, and we just went with it. The funniest part is that little miss actually claims to not like pretzels... yet somehow managed to eat a few these guys. Maybe it's the chocolate, maybe it's the sprinkles, maybe it's the Halloween spirit, but somehow she managed to enjoy them.For our other Halloween treat, I decided to try something I have seen all around the food-blog-world recently - ghost cupcakes. I modeled my cupcakes on these cute gh
osties, using the cupcake recipe listed there, but not the frosting. I was planning on making a marshmallow frosting, but at the last minute switched to a simple cream cheese frosting. Since the ghosts are basically a huge swirl of frosting, we decided to make only half of our cupcakes into ghosts, and to just frost and decorate the other half of them with our trusty Halloween sprinkles.Our ghosts didn't really look to ghostly, but overall, the cupcakes were a ton of fun to make and were a super cute way to celebrate the day. We shared them with the family at Halloween
brunch, and for whatever they lacked in ghostiness, they made up for in fun.I hope you all had a fun, festive and sugar-high filled Halloween!
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
October Daring Bakers' Challenge - Donuts
It's that time of month again, and I have to warn you - this is going to be a long one!
Like most kitchen dabblers, I have a list. Well, not a written list, but a list none the less. It is a list of those things that I would like to try to make one day, but just haven't. The list is made up of things that are usually a bit complicated, or that require specialized equipment, or that I am just a bit scared to make. But crossing things off of that list is always so exciting. And I always feel extra accomplished when I make something from the list.
This month's Daring Bakers' challenge gave me the opportunity to knock something off of my list.
The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.
I was so excited to read this challenge. The main reason that I had put off making donuts is that I was pretty scared of the whole deep-frying thing. Something about dropping dough into a pot full of super hot oil, especially with my four year old kitchen helper, always had me... well... a little nervous. But I have wanted to try my hand at homemade donuts, anyway, and this challenge was just the incentive I needed.
Lori provided us with four different recipes, each looking more delicious than the next, so the first step was deciding which one to try first. I decided
to start with Alton Brown's recipe for yeast donuts, as, believe it or not, this was one of the recipes that originally peaked my interest in trying homemade donuts. Little miss was more than happy to help, and I was more than happy to let her help out with as much of the process as she could, since she wouldn't be able to help once we got to the whole hot oil part. She took a very active role in the dough preparation, from breaking eggs to measuring to mixing. The dough came together very easily, though is very different from other yeast-dough recipes that I have made. This is a high-hydratio
n yeast dough, and is thus much softer and "wetter" than most yeast-doughs that I have worked with. I was really glad to have my KitchenAid mixer to help out with the kneading, because it would have been very difficult to do so by hand. Once the dough was kneaded, the recipe calls for it to rise for an hour at room temperature. Like several of the Daring Bakers, I chose to allow my dough to rise in the refrigerator overnight, so that we could tackle the shaping and frying the next day.
The next morning, our dough had risen more than double, and had also become a bit easier to handle, so little miss and I were ready to try our hands at turning the dough into actual donuts. I gathered the necessary equipment and we set to work. As the dough was still a bit sticky, we lightly floured our counter and used our hands to gently press out the do
ugh, rather than rolling it with a rolling pin, then set out cutting our shapes. We used round cookie cutters to make traditionally shaped donuts, using an apple corer to cut out the center holes, and a couple of other cookie cutters to try our hands at other shapes, too, just to see how they would fry up in the 
oil. After much dough rolling (pressing), shape cutting and many sprinkles of flour, we soon had three trays covered in round donuts with holes, round donuts without holes in case we wanted to try filling them, the itty bitty donut holes, and a few assorted shapes just for fun.
And then it was time to bite
the bullet and heat the oil.
I am not sure if you can see it in the picture, but my candy thermometer actually has a little hash mark indicating "donuts," so minding the burner temperature and keeping a close eye, I was soon ready to pop the donuts into the oil.
Little miss's job for this (from the other side of the kitchen, of course) was to help me pick which donuts would go into the oil in what order. And after the first couple, I even began to feel confident about the whole frying process. These fried up really quickly (about 30 seconds per side was plenty), and we soon had trays of tasty looking golden donuts.
But were we done? No way! Our donuts, though delicious, were naked, and needed just a bit more... fun.
So we rolled our traditionally shaped donuts in cinnamon sugar.
Like most kitchen dabblers, I have a list. Well, not a written list, but a list none the less. It is a list of those things that I would like to try to make one day, but just haven't. The list is made up of things that are usually a bit complicated, or that require specialized equipment, or that I am just a bit scared to make. But crossing things off of that list is always so exciting. And I always feel extra accomplished when I make something from the list.
This month's Daring Bakers' challenge gave me the opportunity to knock something off of my list.
The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.
I was so excited to read this challenge. The main reason that I had put off making donuts is that I was pretty scared of the whole deep-frying thing. Something about dropping dough into a pot full of super hot oil, especially with my four year old kitchen helper, always had me... well... a little nervous. But I have wanted to try my hand at homemade donuts, anyway, and this challenge was just the incentive I needed.
Lori provided us with four different recipes, each looking more delicious than the next, so the first step was deciding which one to try first. I decided
to start with Alton Brown's recipe for yeast donuts, as, believe it or not, this was one of the recipes that originally peaked my interest in trying homemade donuts. Little miss was more than happy to help, and I was more than happy to let her help out with as much of the process as she could, since she wouldn't be able to help once we got to the whole hot oil part. She took a very active role in the dough preparation, from breaking eggs to measuring to mixing. The dough came together very easily, though is very different from other yeast-dough recipes that I have made. This is a high-hydratio
n yeast dough, and is thus much softer and "wetter" than most yeast-doughs that I have worked with. I was really glad to have my KitchenAid mixer to help out with the kneading, because it would have been very difficult to do so by hand. Once the dough was kneaded, the recipe calls for it to rise for an hour at room temperature. Like several of the Daring Bakers, I chose to allow my dough to rise in the refrigerator overnight, so that we could tackle the shaping and frying the next day.
The next morning, our dough had risen more than double, and had also become a bit easier to handle, so little miss and I were ready to try our hands at turning the dough into actual donuts. I gathered the necessary equipment and we set to work. As the dough was still a bit sticky, we lightly floured our counter and used our hands to gently press out the do
ugh, rather than rolling it with a rolling pin, then set out cutting our shapes. We used round cookie cutters to make traditionally shaped donuts, using an apple corer to cut out the center holes, and a couple of other cookie cutters to try our hands at other shapes, too, just to see how they would fry up in the 
oil. After much dough rolling (pressing), shape cutting and many sprinkles of flour, we soon had three trays covered in round donuts with holes, round donuts without holes in case we wanted to try filling them, the itty bitty donut holes, and a few assorted shapes just for fun.And then it was time to bite
the bullet and heat the oil.I am not sure if you can see it in the picture, but my candy thermometer actually has a little hash mark indicating "donuts," so minding the burner temperature and keeping a close eye, I was soon ready to pop the donuts into the oil.
Little miss's job for this (from the other side of the kitchen, of course) was to help me pick which donuts would go into the oil in what order. And after the first couple, I even began to feel confident about the whole frying process. These fried up really quickly (about 30 seconds per side was plenty), and we soon had trays of tasty looking golden donuts.But were we done? No way! Our donuts, though delicious, were naked, and needed just a bit more... fun.
So we rolled our traditionally shaped donuts in cinnamon sugar.
And then we took the round donuts without holes, piped in some raspberry jam, and rolled those in caster sugar.
These were so tasty. It was seriously difficult to not eat large, large q
uantities of them right away. It is actually really amazing how much better these were, especially right away, than any store bought donuts I have ever had. Little miss and I pretty much devoured all of the little donut holes instantaneously, as they were just so easy to pop right in our mouths. We immediately packed some up to share with various family members, and others went right into the freezer to be enjoyed later. They were just too dangerous to leave out.
But, once again, we were not done. Lori had offered up four different recipes for us to try, and I wasn't ready to call the challenge complete only having tried one of them. Being that it is fall, that it is the harvest season, I just had to try the recipe for pumpkin donuts, as well. I mean, how can you resist making cake donuts out of fresh p
umpkin puree? I sure couldn't, so we sure didn't.
Once again, little miss handled much of the dough-making for these donuts. This dough, much to my surprise, was even wetter and stickier than the yeast dough had been, which made it a bit easier for little miss to mix by hand, but made things a bit tougher when it came time to rolling and shaping. With generous amounts of flour sprinkled on the counter, our hands, the dough and, consequently, much of the kitchen, we were able to get started, though, and managed to shape our donuts. Little miss chose, very
appropriately, to not only use our round cookie cutters, but to also use our pumpkin shaped cookie cutters for these donuts.
These donuts, like the yeast ones, fried up very quickly, but that is pretty much where the similarities ended. This dough was much denser than the yeast dough, so the donuts sank into the hot oil a little bit more, so I had to be very careful not to allow the bottoms to burn. These donuts also soaked in more of the oil during the frying process than the yeast donuts did. I was glad that I had made the yeast donuts first, because they gave me the confidence I needed to more readily manage the frying of these slightly heavier donuts.
Once these donuts were fried and drained on paper towels, we decided to try a different method of finishing them, rather than rolling them in sugar like we did with the others. To compliment the flavor of the pumpkin donuts, we made a maple glaze using confectioners sugar, pure maple syrup and heavy cream.
The finished donuts were delicious, and tasted absolutely perfect for the season. Little miss has already request
ed that I make these again. I think that next time I make them, I will try baking them rather than frying them, as many of my fellow Daring Bakers had tremendous success baking their donuts, and it would definitely alleviate some of the guilt associated with eating as many donuts as having a full batch of them freshly made tends to lead to...
Lori, I can't thank you enough for this amazing and delicious challenge. It was just the kick I needed to try something that had been on my to-try list for quite some time, and it was so fun and delicious.
To check out some of the other amazing, delicious and creative donuts prepared by the other Daring Bakers, check them out here.
These were so tasty. It was seriously difficult to not eat large, large q
uantities of them right away. It is actually really amazing how much better these were, especially right away, than any store bought donuts I have ever had. Little miss and I pretty much devoured all of the little donut holes instantaneously, as they were just so easy to pop right in our mouths. We immediately packed some up to share with various family members, and others went right into the freezer to be enjoyed later. They were just too dangerous to leave out.
But, once again, we were not done. Lori had offered up four different recipes for us to try, and I wasn't ready to call the challenge complete only having tried one of them. Being that it is fall, that it is the harvest season, I just had to try the recipe for pumpkin donuts, as well. I mean, how can you resist making cake donuts out of fresh p
umpkin puree? I sure couldn't, so we sure didn't.Once again, little miss handled much of the dough-making for these donuts. This dough, much to my surprise, was even wetter and stickier than the yeast dough had been, which made it a bit easier for little miss to mix by hand, but made things a bit tougher when it came time to rolling and shaping. With generous amounts of flour sprinkled on the counter, our hands, the dough and, consequently, much of the kitchen, we were able to get started, though, and managed to shape our donuts. Little miss chose, very
appropriately, to not only use our round cookie cutters, but to also use our pumpkin shaped cookie cutters for these donuts.These donuts, like the yeast ones, fried up very quickly, but that is pretty much where the similarities ended. This dough was much denser than the yeast dough, so the donuts sank into the hot oil a little bit more, so I had to be very careful not to allow the bottoms to burn. These donuts also soaked in more of the oil during the frying process than the yeast donuts did. I was glad that I had made the yeast donuts first, because they gave me the confidence I needed to more readily manage the frying of these slightly heavier donuts.
Once these donuts were fried and drained on paper towels, we decided to try a different method of finishing them, rather than rolling them in sugar like we did with the others. To compliment the flavor of the pumpkin donuts, we made a maple glaze using confectioners sugar, pure maple syrup and heavy cream.
The finished donuts were delicious, and tasted absolutely perfect for the season. Little miss has already request
ed that I make these again. I think that next time I make them, I will try baking them rather than frying them, as many of my fellow Daring Bakers had tremendous success baking their donuts, and it would definitely alleviate some of the guilt associated with eating as many donuts as having a full batch of them freshly made tends to lead to...Lori, I can't thank you enough for this amazing and delicious challenge. It was just the kick I needed to try something that had been on my to-try list for quite some time, and it was so fun and delicious.
To check out some of the other amazing, delicious and creative donuts prepared by the other Daring Bakers, check them out here.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Cranberry Crock Pot Beef
I love my crock pot. It was a gift from my brother and his wife, and I think of them and thank them every single time I use it. I can't believe that I went so long without one!
I love finding new recipes using the crock pot, too. There is something so great about throwing a bunch of ingredients into the pot in the morning and having a full, delicious meal ready at dinner time, usually with little to no additional work.
Recently, watching some weekend PBS cooking shows, daddy saw what looked like an easy, delicious and seasonally appropriate recipe for the crock pot. Always up to try something new, easy, delicious and, well, seasonally appropriate, we tried it that very week.
The recipe, in a nutshell, called for three ingredients: beef (specifically, brisket, but, since it is going in the crock pot, I would recommend using whatever cut of beef roast is on the best sale), cranberry sauce (canned, according to the recipe) and onion soup mix. That is it.
I have been trying to reduce the use of canned goods around here, so decided to proceed with the recipe using our own homemade cranberry sauce, which is actually super easy to make, and tastes so much better than the canned alternative. Fresh cranberries are hitting the shelves in most of the local supermarkets and produce stands, and are so easy to turn into a delicious sauce or jelly. The rinsed berries are mixed with sugar and cooked down with the liquid of you
r choice - water, juice - it completely up to you. You can use white sugar or brown. You can add in other berries. This is a very forgiving and adaptable recipe. Fruit, sugar and liquid combined, the mixture is simmered until most of the berries have burst, at which point, all that is left is to wait for it to cool. That is it.
And guess what. Putting together the beef is actually even easier than that. All you have to do is p
ut the roast into the crock pot, pour the cranberry sauce on top (canned, fresh - whatever you have), then take one packet of onion soup mix and sprinkle that on top. Then put the lid on the crock pot, turn it on low and let it sit all day. Seriously - that is it. No extra liquid, no extra spices - it doesn't really get much easier than that.
So how does it turn out?
I love finding new recipes using the crock pot, too. There is something so great about throwing a bunch of ingredients into the pot in the morning and having a full, delicious meal ready at dinner time, usually with little to no additional work.
Recently, watching some weekend PBS cooking shows, daddy saw what looked like an easy, delicious and seasonally appropriate recipe for the crock pot. Always up to try something new, easy, delicious and, well, seasonally appropriate, we tried it that very week.
The recipe, in a nutshell, called for three ingredients: beef (specifically, brisket, but, since it is going in the crock pot, I would recommend using whatever cut of beef roast is on the best sale), cranberry sauce (canned, according to the recipe) and onion soup mix. That is it.
I have been trying to reduce the use of canned goods around here, so decided to proceed with the recipe using our own homemade cranberry sauce, which is actually super easy to make, and tastes so much better than the canned alternative. Fresh cranberries are hitting the shelves in most of the local supermarkets and produce stands, and are so easy to turn into a delicious sauce or jelly. The rinsed berries are mixed with sugar and cooked down with the liquid of you
r choice - water, juice - it completely up to you. You can use white sugar or brown. You can add in other berries. This is a very forgiving and adaptable recipe. Fruit, sugar and liquid combined, the mixture is simmered until most of the berries have burst, at which point, all that is left is to wait for it to cool. That is it.And guess what. Putting together the beef is actually even easier than that. All you have to do is p
ut the roast into the crock pot, pour the cranberry sauce on top (canned, fresh - whatever you have), then take one packet of onion soup mix and sprinkle that on top. Then put the lid on the crock pot, turn it on low and let it sit all day. Seriously - that is it. No extra liquid, no extra spices - it doesn't really get much easier than that.So how does it turn out?
So tender, so flavorful, and really quite delicious.
We served this with noodles and fresh, steamed brocolli, both very quick and easy side dishes, and it was quite a delicious meal. I will definitely keep this recipe handy for busy days.
We served this with noodles and fresh, steamed brocolli, both very quick and easy side dishes, and it was quite a delicious meal. I will definitely keep this recipe handy for busy days.
Cranberry Crock Pot Beef
1 beef roast (brisket, chuck - whatever you like and is on sale!)
1 can (16 oz.) cranberry sauce (whole berry or jellied, or make your own!)
1 envelope (1 oz.) onion soup mix
Place beef in crock pot. Top with cranberries and onion soup mix. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours (or high for 4 hours).
Enjoy!
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