Journey to another blog

Hey all, I've decided to switch blog providers and can now be found at:

http://bakeyourcakeandeatittoo.wordpress.com/

Sorry for the inconvience but I hope to see you all at my new foodblog!

Daring Tuiles

What better to start the new year off than something totally different for the January Daring Bakers Challenge! Karen aka Baking Soda at Bake My Day! (from the Netherlands) and Zorra aka Kochtopf at 1x umrühren bitte (originally Swiss now in Spain) gave us this creative challenge.

I have worked with Tuile before in school but both times they were in combination with a jaconde cake base layer, more of a cake, less of a delicate cookie. So instead of using a stencil like I always had, I decided I would try it using my ever so unused pastry tips and bags that I brought for a competition at school. There were both pros and cons I found in using tips rather than a stencil. It was definitely more time consuming using tips because I piped my butterflies using lines. So basically I piped all the vanilla tuile batter first, leaving gaps for where I wanted the chocolate tuile batter to go. I hope that makes sense. What I found was that the details were definitely more delicate in a way, less uniform but more delicate and unique. The other problem I had with using the tips was that the tuile batter was not as thin as it needed to be in order to form it into shapes and such after baking. The very last picture shows a better view of the tuile shaped at an angle for the wings. I had fun with it for sure and as for the taste, I definitely didn't like the intense butter flavor. It left my mouth with an unwanted aftertaste.

“The Chocolate Book”, written by female Dutch Master chef Angélique Schmeinck.

Recipe:Yields: 20 small butterflies/6 large (butterflies are just an example)

Preparation time batter 10 minutes, waiting time 30 minutes,

baking time: 5-10 minutes per batch

65 grams / ¼ cup / 2.3 ounces softened butter (not melted but soft)

60 grams / ½ cup / 2.1 ounces sifted confectioner’s sugar

1 sachet vanilla sugar (7 grams or substitute with a dash of vanilla extract)

2 large egg whites (slightly whisked with a fork)

65 grams / 1/2 cup / 2.3 ounces sifted all purpose flour1 table spoon cocoa powder/or food coloring of choice

Butter/spray to grease baking sheet

Oven: 180C / 350F

Using a hand whisk or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle (low speed) and cream butter, sugar and vanilla to a paste. Keep stirring while you gradually add the egg whites. Continue to add the flour in small batches and stir to achieve a homogeneous and smooth batter/paste. Be careful to not overmix.Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up. (This batter will keep in the fridge for up to a week, take it out 30 minutes before you plan to use it).

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease with either butter/spray and chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. This will help spread the batter more easily if using a stencil/cardboard template such as the butterfly. Press the stencil on the bakingsheet and use an off sided spatula to spread batter. Leave some room in between your shapes. Mix a small part of the batter with the cocoa and a few drops of warm water until evenly colored. Use this colored batter in a paper piping bag and proceed to pipe decorations on the wings and body of the butterfly.

Bake butterflies in a preheated oven (180C/350F) for about 5-10 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown. Immediately release from bakingsheet and proceed to shape/bend the cookies in the desired shape. These cookies have to be shaped when still warm, you might want to bake a small amount at a time or maybe put them in the oven to warm them up again. (Haven’t tried that). Or: place a bakingsheet toward the front of the warm oven, leaving the door half open. The warmth will keep the cookies malleable.If you don’t want to do stencil shapes, you might want to transfer the batter into a piping bag fitted with a small plain tip. Pipe the desired shapes and bake. Shape immediately after baking using for instance a rolling pin, a broom handle, cups, cones….

Fly away butterflies, Fly!

Gone Fishing

It is way later than I had wanted to post this but this post is for the Brandon and Sean. Sean, Brandons younger brother was able to come visit us this past Christmas and despite the fact that Brandon had to fly and that Corpus isn't exactly the place to "be" they were able to get some brotherly bonding in. What better than to go ... FISHING!


We froze most of the fish cause they caught quite a few and I made fish and chips last night for Brandon. He said the batter was good, but the fish wasn't too great. It's weird, supposedly it is a tilapia but it was so crumbly and it kept breaking apart. Eh?

While Sean was here, we visited the USS Lexington and it was definitely alot cooler than I thought it would be but it was SOOOOOOOO dirty. Like there were so many stairs in this thing and they were mega steep with these nasty old ropes to hold on to while you go up and down them. Of course, I had to go and wear a skirt and high heels. Go figure.

Sean and Brandon. Are they pretending to read or actually reading???

Who really reads the information boards?

I hate taking pictures. Can you tell?

Sean and I. Ugh, I HATE pictures. hahahaha.

Brandon begged us to go and sit on this machine gun thingie but no one wanted to, so he had to.

Sean got arrested while on the boat.

and his accomplices...

Yeah... I guess we never grew up huh?

Don't ask me what we're standing in cause I still do not know.

I'm still puzzled as to how Sean fit into this thing.

Bling bling scones

Growing up in New Zealand I enjoyed afternoon teatime with cucumber sandwiches and english scones with my cup of tea. Here, unless you make it yourself english scones are not heard of. So what does a girl do but try to find a good American scone recipe since I can't seem to find an english scone that I like. I don't really have an issue with american scones but that they are on the drier side and like everything not homemade, you never can tell what's inside.


So, I flipped through my "bread bible" book and found a scone recipe that didn't require me dragging my post-Christmas body to the grocery store. I made half with chocolate chips and half with blackberries. Have you guys noticed the price of blackberries?????? So although they are not million dollar berries, they are quite expensive for the number of berries you get. Aside from the price they were delicious but this is the last fattening recipe that I will be gobbling down myself. I'm going to try to bake healtheir in 2009!!!!!

FLAKEY SCONES - The Bread Bible

Rose Levy Beranbaum

Unsalted butter, cold - 1 C

All purpose unbleached flour - 4.5 C

Sugar - 1/2 C

Baking powder - 2ts

Baking soda - 1/2 ts

salt - 1/4 ts

heavy cream - 2 C

currants (I used chocolate chips and blackberries) - 1 C

1. Cut butter into 1 in cubes and place in freezer for 10 minutes
2. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add butter with fingertips until size of small walnuts. Stir in cream to just moisten flour into large clumps. Stir in chocolate chips and knead together. (For blackberries I added them when I shaped the dough)
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F 30 minutes prior to baking and have baking stone inside oven as it preheats.
4. Flour top of dough and counter lightly and roll out into rectangle 1 in thick. I added a few blackberries on the dough now. Then fold dough like you would croissant dough. (Fold right side to the center and then the left side ontop) Repeat 2 more times adding blackberries everytime you roll out dough.
5. Cut the dough into triangles and place onto parchment time baking stone and bake for 15-20 minutes until edges begin to brown and tops are golden brown and firm enough when pressed lightly with a finger. Let cool.
   
   
   

Stuffed full of Christmas!

It's been a looonnnng and exhausting month this December. The older we get and the more married couples that have entered our lives, we see ourselves attending more and more couples activities. It doesn't get as event oriented as December.

Ladies of VT-35: Me, Hye Sung, Megan, Andrea

VT-35 Squadron had a mandatory Christmas Party. Mandatory and Christmas together seems uninviting but because all of our good friends would be there it seemed less daunting. It actually turned out to be super fun and Brandon even won two free meals at a Mexican Restaurant.
Christmas morning baby Leben got to sniff the presents and was the first to open a present. He sure loves Christmas but he is still getting the hang of opening up the presents.
This picture of Leben should belong in a movie of some sort, perhaps one about the Mafia. He actually stole my candy cane I had sitting on the table and was shocked when he got caught.



This year I decided to test my craft skills. I really didn't have any craft skills to be honest. I'm not the perfect homemaker and I don't sew nor own a sewing machine but I found the sewing kit my mom gave me like 3 years ago and after a trip to Joanns fabrics, the stockings above popped out after a month.
I also decorated the stems of the wine glasses with frosted cranberries and a tiny ribbon. I didn't know what else to do with the extra cranberries I had.
My other crafty thing that I attempted to do was make a Christmas centerpiece for our dining table. Considering that I've never done this before, it turned out ok even though it was hard to wrap everything around everything else. But with my arms of steel, I managed. :-)
Here is the dinner table with the ham, double baked potatoes with scallions, onions, green peppers and cheese, and green bean casserole. Cye brought over the mac and cheese and a beautifully presented salad.

I made a selection of breads. From left to right I made soy dinner rolls and mini challahs and on the right normal butter dinner rolls.

When all was quite in the Adams household and all their guests had finally left, a baby Rotti fell asleep on the couch, wrapped in his favorite blanket of all.

It is done!

There's not alot of beauty that can be found here in the Texas scenery. The palm trees are nice but knowing that roaches breed in them make them unappealing. The beach is beautiful if you can visually ignore the big oil barrels and trash washed up from Alabama. The one thing I have found that is amazingly beautiful is the rising and the setting of the sun. It's pretty breathtaking seeing the intensely different colors blending together. The day I took this picture was the day I finished my last final for my last class for my pastry degree! WHOOOHOOOO!!!!!! (dancing around in a circle)

So folks, I am officially done! As Neo from the Matrix would say "It is done." (DORK!) So what does all this new free time have instore for Val? Hmm...well I am working 5 days a week now but other than that I get to actually read "Persuasion." Though, you know how things go. You want to read and you want to do all these things when you have no time then when you finally have the time, you don't want to anymore. So is life.I've decided this year to make our own stockings and christmas cards. The first stocking that I conquered is for Leben our Rotti. I sewed those paws onto the material and I even handstitched them because unfortunately I am not a superhuman housewife and don't own a sewing machine nor do I want to own a sewing machine until maybe I am 70. Speaking of 70, I heard on the radio this morning that a couple in India who are in their 70's gave birth to their first child. It's amazing! I was amazed anyways but then amazement turned into 'uhhh.' I felt bad for the poor kid. I'm sure they'll be great parents but they can never run around with them and play soccer with them. By the time they're 10, whos to say their parents will be also? So how fair is it to the child?

Right now I am actually blogging in bed! Sweet! I also did a facial mask. That hasn't happened in like 2 years. Seriously folks. School, work, dog, and a family takes so much of your time. Now that school is over and I don't have to study anymore I can pay more attention to Brandon and Leben. I have felt like a terrible wife these past year and a half. Between school and work, it was hard to keep the house clean and make time for others. Brandon did so much to help around the house so now I am glad to say I can finally take care of him again. He's actually flying right now. He was suppose to get home around 3pm but it's 4:30pm and he's not back yet. It always scares me when he is flying. You just never know but I really don't have to worry because I know God listens to my prayers.

Okay really, I will talk about baking. I got my dirty little hands on a can of pumpkin. It's been sitting in my pantry for like 3 weeks. It's my own recipe and I really thought it was quite tasty! It's healthy too ;-)

Soy Flaxseed Pumpkin Bars

Recipe by Valerie Adams

1 C soyflexseed cereal
1 C all purpose flour
1 1/2 ts baking soda
1/2 ts nutmeg, ground
1/2 ts cloves, ground
1 ts cinnamon, ground
1/4 ts salt
1 C sugar
3/4 C canola oil
1 egg, beaten
1 ts vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven 350 Degrees F and line a 10 in square pan with parchment paper and oil the sides of the pan.
2. Combine the dry ingredients together
3. Mix the liquid ingredients together and add to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
4. Pour into prepared pan and sprinkle some chocolate chips over the top if you would like
5. Bake 20-25 minutes or until done
   

Caramelicous

Well well if it isn't that time of the month again! I swear this month has been cake after cake after cake so going into it I was not too thrilled. So with that, I thought I would make them into cupcakes and then I saw that alot of people had already done so. So I whipped out my mini cake pan and the rest was history.

This months challenge was from Shuna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater with cohosts Chronicles of Culinary Curiosity , Blondie and Brownie, Foray into Food, and Gluten a go go

I was incredibly surprised at how dense the cake itself was. I did decrease the amount of sugar that the recipe called for because everyone had said that the cake was way too sweet. I think the cake was really tasty the day after. It was more moist and less dry. I LOVED the frosting. The taste of the browned butter was delicious! When I read the recipe it seemed so complicated but once I started, it just flowed. I really didn't taste alot of caramel in it, perhaps next time I would use all caramel syrup instead of granulated sugar in the cake recipe. I wonder if that would give it a more caramel taste?

CARAMEL CAKE WITH CARAMELIZED BUTTER FROSTING
Shuna Fish Lydon's recipe

10 Tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature

1 1/4 Cups granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/3 Cup Caramel Syrup (see recipe below)

2 each eggs, at room temperatures

splash vanilla extract

2 Cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup milk, at room temperature

1) Butter one tall (2 – 2.5 inch deep) 9-inch cake pan.

2) In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth.

Add sugar and salt & cream until light and fluffy.

3) Slowly pour room temperature caramel syrup into bowl. Scrape down bowl and increase

speed.

4) Add eggs/vanilla extract a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down bowl

again, beat mixture until light and uniform.

5) Sift flour and baking powder.Turn mixer to lowest speed, and add one third of the dry

ingredients.

6) When incorporated, add half of the milk, a little at a time. Add another third of the dry

ingredients, then the other half of the milk and finish with the dry ingredients. {This is called

the dry, wet, dry, wet, dry method in cake making. It is often employed when there is a high

proportion of liquid in the batter.}

7) Take off mixer and by hand, use a spatula to do a few last folds, making sure batter is

uniform. Turn batter into prepared cake pan.Place cake pan on cookie sheet or 1/2 sheet pan.

Set first timer for 30 minutes, rotate pan and set timer for another 15-20 minutes. Your own

oven will set the pace. Bake until sides pull away from the pan and skewer inserted in middle

comes out clean. Cool cake completely before icing it. Cake will keep for three days outside of

the refrigerator.

CARAMEL SYRUP

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1 cup water (for "stopping" the caramelization process)

1) In a small stainless steel saucepan, with tall sides, mix water and sugar until mixture
feels like wet sand. Brush down any stray sugar crystals with wet pastry brush.
2) Turn on heat to highest flame. Cook until smoking slightly: dark amber.When color is
achieved, very carefully pour in one cup of water. Caramel will jump and sputter about! It is
very dangerous, so have long sleeves on and be prepared to step back.
3) Whisk over medium heat until it has reduced slightly and feels sticky between two fingers.
{Obviously wait for it to cool on a spoon before touching it.}Note: For safety reasons, have
ready a bowl of ice water to plunge your hands into if any caramel should land on your skin.

CARAMELIZED BUTTER FROSTING

12 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 pound confectioner’s sugar, sifted
4-6 tablespoons heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2-4 tablespoons caramel syrup
Kosher or sea salt to taste
1) Cook butter until brown. Pour through a fine meshed sieve into a heatproof bowl, set aside
to cool.
2) Pour cooled brown butter into mixer bowl.In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk
attachment, add confectioner's sugar a little at a time. When mixture looks too chunky to
take any more, add a bit of cream and or caramel syrup. Repeat until mixture looks smooth
and all confectioner's sugar has been incorporated.
3) Add salt to taste.

Note: Caramelized butter frosting will keep in fridge for up to a month.To smooth out from cold, microwave a bit, then mix with paddle attachment until smooth and light