THINGS ARE COMING.
That’s right, folks, I’m bringing back the blog. I just need to get through finals week, but once I’m out the world is my oyster and the deliciousness is yours to ogle.
12.05.2012
05.19.2012
KidCakes! Peanut butter and banana cake filled with raspberry jelly, topped with marshmallow frosting and dark chocolate M&Ms. If your dream sandwich as a kid had been made into a cupcake, this would be it right here.
04.21.2012
Birthday cheesecake, thanks to my fabulous mother! It’s made I cream cheese, ricotta, /and/ sour cream so it’s craazy smooth. The red goo is a strawberry-mint syrup.
04.18.2012
Lastly, dinner. The pizza was called the Merguez, and this is what the menu has to say about it.
Spicy Merguez Sausage housemade with Adams Farm Lamb, Saffron Tomato Sauce, Aged Ossau-Iraty Sheep’s Milk Cheese topped with chopped Marcona Almonds, Preserved Lemon and Fresh Parsley.
……it was really really good.
We also went to Sweet afterwards, which is a) a cupcake bakery and b) a bar so that was pretty fabulous. Had a vanilla cupcake with strawberry buttercream and a Skinny White Bitch: vanilla vodka and diet coke.
GOOD BIRTHDAY.
04.18.2012
Next: my fruity drink. (Excuse the picture of me looking silly). It was called the Wonderland; muddled ginger, bitters, lime juice, and white whiskey. So good.
04.18.2012
I’m blogging my birthday food, what are you going to do about it. We went to a place called Armsby Abbey— superb gastropub, even superb..er beer. (Had a stout called the Sea Monster, and it may have been the best beer of my life.)
ANYWAY. We started out with a Mediterranean slate; you get all the following served up on a stone slate: house-made hummus and olive oil, kalamata olives, house-made pita chips, crostini, the most amazing feta cheese I’ve ever had in my life, fresh salad greens, and locally-farmed prosciutto. And almonds, oh my god, best almonds in the world. This is me plus crostini plus prosciutto plus feta.
02.06.2012
Dinner tonight! Not at all glamorous, nor did I cook it. But tonight’s an eating-at-work night, so NEH.
Fage Greek yoghurt with strawberry goji, and chamomile mint green tea. That’s what I call the dinner of champions.
02.05.2012
Perfect for the dead of winter, when all you want is a nice piece of fruit. Not too complicated, either, except for when my pastry shell cracked and I tried to pour the custard in and it oozed all out the sides and onto the floor.
Dog liked that bit, though.
Here’s EVERYTHING you’ll need:
PASTRY SHELL
ϟ 1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
ϟ 1/8 t salt
ϟ 1/2 c unsalted butter, at room temperature
ϟ 1/4 c granulated sugar
ϟ 1 large egg, lightly beaten
CUSTARD
ϟ 2 c milk
ϟ 1/4 c granulated sugar
ϟ 1/4 t salt
ϟ 1 c pineapple juice
ϟ 1 T cornstarch
ϟ 2 egg yolks, lightly beaten
Aaand a sizeable amount of fruit: I used one can of pineapple and a pint of blueberries, with leftovers of each, and a little bit of coconut I had on hand.
Shell first:
Whisk together the flour and salt in a large bowl.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter until softened; add sugar, beat; gradually add egg. Add your dry ingredients all at once and mix until a nice ball of dough forms. Pour out onto a piece of clingfilm and shape into a disk; refrigerate for 15-30 minutes until the dough firms up a bit.
Preheat your oven to 400°F. Grease an 8-9 inch tart pan (with removable bottom!) and set on a cookie sheet. Press chilled pastry onto the bottom and up the sides of the tart pan; refrigerate 15 more minutes.
Remove pastry; prick the bottom of the crust with the end of a fork to keep it from puffing up. (Alternately; line your pastry casing with parchment paper and fill with dried beans to reach the same effect.)
Bake for five minutes; reduce temperature to 350 and continue to bake for 15 minutes more.
Let pastry cool completely before caaarefully removing from outer form.
ON TO CUSTARD.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter until softened; add sugar, beat; gradually add egg. Add your dry ingredients all at once and mix until a nice ball of dough forms. Pour out onto a piece of clingfilm and shape into a disk; refrigerate for 15-30 minutes until the dough firms up a bit.
Preheat your oven to 400°F. Grease an 8-9 inch tart pan (with removable bottom!) and set on a cookie sheet. Press chilled pastry onto the bottom and up the sides of the tart pan; refrigerate 15 more minutes.
Remove pastry; prick the bottom of the crust with the end of a fork to keep it from puffing up. (Alternately; line your pastry casing with parchment paper and fill with dried beans to reach the same effect.)
Bake for five minutes; reduce temperature to 350 and continue to bake for 15 minutes more.
Let pastry cool completely before caaarefully removing from outer form.
ON TO CUSTARD.
Bring pineapple juice to a boil in a small saucepan; reduce down to 1/4 cup. Remove and set aside to chill.
In a medium saucepan combine milk, sugar, and salt. Bring up to a simmer, stirring occasionally.
Dissolve the cornstarch into the cooled pineapple juice, stirring until there are no lumps! Add to milk mixture and whisk to combine. Let simmer until mixture starts to thicken— should take about 10 minutes or so.
Add about a third of a cup of the simmering milk to your egg yolks and MIX IT so you don’t scramble them! Then add all that back into the milk and mix again. Bring mixture up to a boil, stirring CONSTANTLY, and cook until you reach the relative consistency of pudding. Pour into your pastry shell and let chill until your custard reaches room temperature— or do like I did and just put it in the fridge for 10 minutes.
In a medium saucepan combine milk, sugar, and salt. Bring up to a simmer, stirring occasionally.
Dissolve the cornstarch into the cooled pineapple juice, stirring until there are no lumps! Add to milk mixture and whisk to combine. Let simmer until mixture starts to thicken— should take about 10 minutes or so.
Add about a third of a cup of the simmering milk to your egg yolks and MIX IT so you don’t scramble them! Then add all that back into the milk and mix again. Bring mixture up to a boil, stirring CONSTANTLY, and cook until you reach the relative consistency of pudding. Pour into your pastry shell and let chill until your custard reaches room temperature— or do like I did and just put it in the fridge for 10 minutes.
This is the fun/easy/terrible for those with OCD part. Take all your fruit and arrange it in pretty patterns on the cooled custard. The pieces should sink just into the custard, and they’ll stay there once the thing’s cooled completely.
Be careful. If you screw up here, there’s not much you can do about it except sob a little and keep going.
Be careful. If you screw up here, there’s not much you can do about it except sob a little and keep going.
Eventually you’ll finish your tart and it’ll look beautiful (or you’ll have come to terms with it). The end result is tasty, anyway.
02.05.2012
When I went home this weekend, one of my baking options was to make my sister’s birthday cake; she requested Mississippi Mud and I was happy to oblige. Only trouble is that her birthday is Tuesday and I’m unfortunately back at school— so I made one full sheet of cake and a tiny one in a cupcake liner for me!
MISSISSIPPI MUD CAKE
ϟ 1 ½ c granulated sugar
ϟ 2 c all purpose flour
ϟ 1 t baking soda
ϟ ½ t salt
ϟ 1 ½ c milk
ϟ 16 T unsalted butter
ϟ ¾ c unsweetened cocoa powder
ϟ 2 L eggs
ϟ 2 t vanilla
ϟ 1 c semisweet chocolate chips
ϟ 1 ½ c toasted pecan halves
ϟ 3 c mini marshmallows
GLAZE
ϟ 6 T whipping cream
ϟ 6 T dark corn syrup
ϟ 1 1/3 c semisweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 deg. Prep a 15x10 baking sheet or, for individual cakes, line a muffin tin with foil liners. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.
In a saucepan melt whisk together milk, butter, and cocoa until butter melts and mixture becomes smooth. Mix into dry ingredients, then add eggs and vanilla.
Spread (or spoon!) into pan/tins and sprinkle with chocolate chips. Bake 23 minutes for a full pan, 10 for individual cakes—or until a toothpick draws clean from the centre.
Remove from oven and poke cake with a fork to create uneven perforations—this’ll help the glaze and the marshmallows absorb into the cake!
Top with pecans and marshmallows and return to the oven for 2 more minutes.
Remove cake from oven and set aside; start immediately on the glaze! Bring whipping cream and corn syrup to a simmer. Add chocolate and whisk until chips have melted and glaze becomes smooth. Let sit up to five minutes before pouring over still-warm cakes.
Yields 24 servings of chocolatey deliciousness!
12.27.2011
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