Oct.
11

Angel food Cupcakes

Posted by Em at: 10:06 pm | 9 Comments

I’m not a real fan of angel food cake.  I won’t go so far as to say I dislike it but I’ll state for the record that I’m not a real fan.  It is rather popular though… and it’s definitely something DH just goes ga-ga over.  Go figure.  For his most recent big “milestone” birthday he specifically asked for an angel food cake with chocolate frosting.  He just really likes it.  So the other night I whipped up a few angel food cupcakes and he was very very happy :)  They turned out a lot better than I had expected and while I still won’t say I’m a fan, I will say these really are quite good!

These are pretty darn easy to make, especially if you have a stand- or hand mixer.  I don’t even want to think about the effort required to whip egg whites into peaks by hand – wow – just too much for for me!   And with just a few ingredients to pull together, these are nice to try out.  They’re light… they’re fluffy… and not spongy/chewy like I find most angel food cake to be. And topped with some of this wonderful buttercreme (recipe found here) I’d certainly eat them again :)

 

Angel food Cupcakes

 Yields 8 standard size cupcakes

Ingredients
1/4 cup cake flour
7 tablespoons vanilla sugar  - divided use
2 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt


Method
Preheat the oven to 325F
Line a muffin pan with 8 cupcake liners

In a small bowl, whisk the flour and 1 tablespoon of the sugar.  Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, and using high speed, whip the egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt until peaks form – you want them stiffer than soft peaks but don’t go so far as to have stiff peaks.  Reduce the speed to medium and slowly add 1 tablespoon of the sugar at a time until all remaining 6 tablespoons have been added then continue to beat for 1 minute. Add the vanilla extract and combine. With the mixer on low speed, add small amounts of the flour mixture into the egg whites, beating after each addition to incorporate all of it.

Spoon the batter into the unlined muffin cups. These will rise to form domes.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes until the tops are golden and spring back when lightly touched (if an indentation remains, they are not done)

Remove from oven and cool on wire racks. 

If you like angel food cake, you’ll really like these.  I think they’d be great as the cake part of a fantabulous strawberry shortcake… not that I’ve got that on the brain or anything ;-)

Have a delicious day!

Posted in cupcakes, recipes, vanilla | 9 Comments »

Sep.
30

Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee – TwD

Posted by Em at: 7:05 am | 32 Comments


No matter where, no matter when, créme brulée has always been one of my absolute favorite desserts. I think it always will be :) It’s Tuesday… we’re baking with Dorie… and the recipe is créme brulée. It does not get better than this!!!

This week’s host of Tuesdays with Dorie was Mari at Mevrouw Cupcake and I’m so glad she chose this specific recipe. I’ll admit I’ve made créme brulée countless times but I could make it countless more and still never get enough. Many people think of this as being a rather high end dessert and feel too intimidated to even consider making créme brulée. If you’re one of them, I encourage you to shake off your inhibitions and give it a try because it’s a lot easier than you think. The basic ingredients are heavy cream, milk, egg yolks, sugar and vanilla extract. Not low in calories but it’s a special treat for a special occasion (like, uhm, the last Monday of the month? yeah, that’s the ticket!!) so let yourself indulge just a little :)

Traditionally, créme brulée is a baked egg custard with a caramelized (burnt) sugar “shell” that, if you ask me, is the best part. Breaking thru that crunchy brulée to the silky custard below is just heaven on a spoon :) I’ve previously posted a recipe for Lavender Créme Brulée using a method that differs from Dorie’s. I’m used to baking these in a water bath that keeps the custard from scorching. Not so in Dorie’s recipe as she does not use the water bath. But it’s all good, she bakes them at an extremely low temperature (200 F) so the custard doesn’t burn. The recipe says to bake for 50-60 minutes but realistically it takes more like 90 minutes to reach the correct consistency to remove them from the oven. There are so many variations and flavors that can be created but I chose to go the classic route and use vanilla bean – it just gives such a tremendous flavor.

After the custards are baked and refrigerated it’s time to create the brulée… sprinkle a tablespoon of sugar over the top and hit it with a blowtorch. As the sugar heats it will liquify, change to a gorgeous golden color and then harden as it cools. If you don’t have a blowtorch, in the recipe Dorie gives instruction for creating the brulée under the broiler. And speaking of the recipe, it can be found at our host’s blog Mevrouw Cupcake. Also check out the other TwD bakers to see their creations as well.

Have a delicious day!

Posted in Dorie Greenspan, Tuesdays with Dorie, creme brulee, vanilla | 32 Comments »

Aug.
31


The end of another month means it’s time to reveal the Daring Bakers Challenge. For August it was Chocolate Éclairs by Pierre Hermé and what a delicious choice this was! The hosts for this month were Tony and MeetaK and what fun I had with this.

Sure, I’ve made this before but never using Pierre’s recipe (which can be found on either Tony or Meeta’s blog) so this was a change. The basic elements are the pate-a-choux (puff pastry), the cream filling and the chocolate on top. Sounds easy, huh? :)

Having made pate-a-choux a few times before, I thought this would be a rather easy task. Although, yes, I had learned a few things from my previous experiences it didn’t stop me from having problems this time around! LOL! The first thing is to make the pate-a-choux dough and get it to the proper consistency… you want this beautiful “V” shape coming off your paddle attachment… when you’ve got that, you know you’re on the right track :)

Pipe out the dough approximately 4-5″ long… and bake at the correct temp for the correct time and you’re supposed to have beautiful puffed pastry. I say “supposed to” because if they’re not really all the way done on the **inside** they’ll deflate as they cool… just as my first batch did here (with the exception of the one that actually came out fine… eh, go figure)
(pay no attention to the oddly shaped ones on the right side… we-won’t-even-go-there! LOL)

Now, if you bake them thoroughly, they don’t deflate as they cool… as you can see with this batch here. These I actually baked on Sil-Pat and not parchment… and I thought I’d cooked them waaaaaaay too long because of how brown they got. But you can see they didn’t deflate. So… lesson here is to actually cook them longer than you think since just because the outside looks done, the innards might not be. In addition to the éclair shapes, I also piped a bunch of cream puff shapes too. Hey, same dough, same filling, same process… same fantaaaaaabulous taste!

Speaking of the filling… I made a few different kinds of filling… vanilla pastry cream… chocolate pastry cream (adding chocolate to the vanilla pastry cream)… and diplomat cream (which is a bit lighter than pastry cream but not as light as whipped cream)

For some reason I forgot to take a photograph of the chocolate pastry cream. Totally slipped my mind. But you know I made it and you know I used it, otherwise how else would I have this gorgeous baby right here

To fill, you can either slice in half or just stick the pastry bag tip right into the end of the eclair and squeeze it in. The innards of the baked pate-a-choux is relatively hollow. Then give it a dousing of the chocolate glaze and voilá you’ve just made chocolate éclairs!

Please drop by and visit the other daring bakers and see how they did with this month’s challenge as well.

Have a delicious day!

Posted in Chocolate, daring bakers, recipes, vanilla | 12 Comments »

Aug.
29


If you are a fan of cookbooks and haven’t checked out the list of what’s on my shelf (located in the right-hand sidebar) you might want to take a peek. I love cookbooks and this year have added more than I think previously ever even looked at! LOL! One of my latest additions is Baking At Home With The Culinary Institute of America… and slowly but surely it’s becoming absolutely one of my favorites.

I was at Barnes & Noble one evening and had already picked up two or three other cooking/baking books when this one caught my eye. It’s “coffee-table book” size and has gorgeous photos (oooooh ya know how good food photos just get me all drooly! LOL). A couple of the really nice things are the fact that it’s a great mix of instructional/technique-based and recipes… and … it lays flat when you open it (a really great feature for when you’re laying it on a work surface or standing it up in a book holder)

In the book there’s this beautiful photo of a finished cake. It’s simple. It’s elegant. It’s stunning. I had to make it. Had to. But I’m not all into making full sized layer cakes, especially when it comes to an untested recipe… my preference is cupcakes. So the recipe for the Yellow Butter Cake was halved and the result was without a doubt the most amazing “plain” cake I’ve ever tasted. Ever. Ever in my whole life. And I’m not some teeny-bopper here. And I’ve consumed vast quantities MORE than my fair share of cake over the years! LOL. So believing this Yellow Butter Cake is the best “plain” cake I’ve ever tasted is saying a lot. A whole lot! It was so good that I consumed half a dozen cupcakes without frosting! Okay okay… they were 5 mini cupcakes and 1 regular sized so please don’t think I ate six big ol honkin cupcakes! LOL But… I COULD HAVE! hahahah

After proclaiming these cupcakes to be “amazingly perfect” I thought they should be the cornerstone of something special…. hmmmm…. but what? Well, In checking out Tastespotting the other day someone had posted Napoleon Cupcakes and they looked so pretty. Among my favorite pastries/desserts is the classic Napoleon. Decadent amounts of delicious pastry cream between layers of delicate phyllo topped with a vanilla glaze and those cute little chocolate designs. It’s my idea of a heavenly food product! I just knew my “amazingly perfect yellow butter cake” cupcakes would be perfect for this! I’d previously made the pastry cream from this fantastic CIA book and knew it was a definite winner that would complement the butter cake nicely. For “frosting” I used some melted (and thinned) vanilla coating that I use for making peppermint bark. And the cute little lines are just some melted chocolate :) The cake and pastry cream are made ahead of time and cooled before “assembly” takes place.

Really, you can use any recipe you like for pastry cream – tons are available to you. Heck, use vanilla pudding if ya like!! You can also use any cake recipe you like for the cupcakes. Have a favorite poured fondant or vanilla coating? Go for it. I’m sharing this recipe for the cake because I personally find it to be a knockout that I think everyone should have in their baking repertoire. After the cupcakes are baked and cooled… and the pastry cream is made and chilled… just load a pastry bag fitted with your choice of tip and poke it into the cupcake and fill it with the cream. If you fill the cupcake with an excessive amount of cream, it will start to back up out of the top of the cupcake… uhm… not that this happened to me or anything ;-) After your vanilla glaze is melted and at the consistency you wish, just take ahold of the cupcake and dip it in upside down. Let some of it drip off into the bowl before turning it right side up… otherwise it will just dribble down the sides of your cupcake wrapper. Once the top is “set” (and I stuck them in the freezer so they’d set more quickly… I’m impatient! LOL) take your melted chocolate and pipe three lines of it on each cupcake… drag a toothpick thru a total of three times. The first time in one direction, next in the opposite direction, and the third one in the same direction as the first one. That creates the signature “napoleon brackets” :)

Yellow Butter Cake
Baking at Home with The Culinary Institute of America
makes two 8″ layers

Ingredients
3 ½ c cake flour
2 c sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 c (2 sticks) butter, unsalted, diced, at room temperature
1 c whole or low-fat milk (divided use)
4 large eggs
2 large egg whites
2 tsp vanilla extract

Method
Preheat the oven to 350F. Coat two 8” cake pans lightly with cooking spray

Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or a large mixing bowl. Add the butter and ½ cup of the milk. Mix on medium speed until smooth, about 4 minutes, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.

In a separate bowl, blend the eggs, egg whites, the remaining ½ cup milk and the vanilla extract. Add to the batter in 3 additions, mixing for 2 minutes on medium speed after each addition. Scrape down the bowl between additions.

Divide the batter evenly between the two pans. Bake until the layers spring back when touched lightly in the center, 35-40 minutes.

Remove the layers from the oven and cool completely in their pans on wire racks. Release the sides and bottom of the layers from the pans with a narrow metal spatula or a table knife before unmolding and finishing with fillings and icings.

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Okay so if Napoleon Cupcakes don’t float your boat, at least make the cake. Really. It’s the best “plain” cake I’ve ever had. It’s a holiday weekend so that means you’ve got plenty of extra time on your hands. Go ahead… make the butter cake. You’ll be glad you did.

Have a delicious day :)

Posted in cake, cupcakes, recipes, vanilla | 15 Comments »

Jul.
13

Frozen Vanilla Custard

Posted by Em at: 5:24 am | 3 Comments


Okay I’ll admit it… I have somewhat of a fascination with making ice cream lately. After getting the Ice Cream Maker attachment for my KitchenAid stand mixer, I’ve made lots and lots of ice cream. Plus it’s summer and to me this is a season tailor made for ice cream :) And I’ll also admit to having a rather insane crush on Alton Brown… the host of Food Network’s Good Eats. When I came across AB’s recipe for Vanilla Ice Cream well, come on, you know it simply was a MUST TRY.

This is decadent stuff. I’m talking straight out loaded with eggs, half-n-half and heavy cream. Since I’d never made a cooked custard ice cream with eggs, I decided to halve the written recipe. Just in case it really didn’t work out I didn’t want to waste a large amount of rather expensive ingredients.

Once you check out the recipe, you’ll see it’s somewhat labor intensive… and remember I’m laaaaaaaaazy… so this was quite a commitment for me ;-)

After cooking and chilling in the fridge overnight, it was time to let my ice cream maker work its magic. Usually it takes about 25-35 minutes before it’s completed enough for ice cream to be transferred to the freezer. Not so with this recipe. After only about 10-12 minutes AB’s Vanilla Ice Cream was done… done to the point of serious soft serve. And the taste was so good I immediately regretted not making the full recipe… I mean, I had trouble getting it to a container because I kept doing “quality control taste tests” baaaaaaaaahahahahah!

The taste was simply amazing. So rich… so creamy… so smooooooth. Really it’s more than ice cream… if you ask me, this is frozen vanilla custard!!! This is not one I’d make for the kids since they really wouldn’t appreciate all the goodness it contains. They prefer the quick stuff with just milk, cream, sugar and “stuff”… and truth-be-told that’s A-OK by me since those are easier and far less expensive :)

I decided such a fantastic vanilla ice cream was worthy of being the centerpiece of a hot fudge sundae – complete with rainbow sprinkles and a maraschino cherry.

Frozen Vanilla Custard
(Alton Brown’s Vanilla Ice Cream)

Ingredients
3 cups half-and-half
1 cup heavy cream
8 large egg yolks
9 ounces vanilla sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions
Place the half-and-half and the heavy cream into a medium saucepan, over medium heat. Bring the mixture just to a simmer, stirring occasionally, and remove from the heat.
In a medium mixing bowl whisk the egg yolks until they lighten in color. Gradually add the sugar and whisk to combine. Temper the cream mixture into the eggs and sugar by gradually adding small amounts, until about a third of the cream mixture has been added. Pour in the remainder and return the entire mixture to the saucepan and place over low heat. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture thickens slightly and coats the back of a spoon and reaches 170 to 175 degrees F. Pour the mixture into a container and allow to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. Stir in the vanilla extract. Place the mixture into the refrigerator and once it is cool enough not to form condensation on the lid, cover and store for 4 to 8 hours or until the temperature reaches 40 degrees F or below.

Pour into an ice cream maker and process according to the manufacturer’s directions. This should take approximately 25 to 35 minutes. Serve as is for soft serve or freeze for another 3 to 4 hours to allow the ice cream to harden.

Have a delicious day :)

Posted in alton brown, ice cream, recipes, vanilla | 3 Comments »

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