Fortune Cookies

One of my favorite treats to make for friends and family are homemade fortune cookies.  They are a great birthday gift, anniversary gift, and party appetizer; plus adding a handwritten fortune puts the icing on the cookie!

The batter couldn't be simpler, but the baking method requires patience and practice.  If you set out to make fortune cookies, just make sure you have about 2-3 hours to spend actively at your oven. 


Ingredients: 
5 tbsp Butter
4 Egg whites
1 cup Super fine sugar
1 cup Cake flour, sifted
1 pinch salt
3-5 tbsp Heavy cream
1 tsp Almond extract (can substitute vanilla extract, orange extract, lemon juice & zest, etc)

Method: 
1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Line a dark cookie sheet with a silpat OR, use a light cookie sheet and flip over.  Spray well with non stick cooking spray.
2.  Heat butter in microwave in 15 sec intervals until melted completely.  Meanwhile, beat egg whites and sugar for 30 seconds.
3.  Add in SIFTED cake flour and salt, beat until mixed.  Add heavy cream, extract and melted butter and beat until mixed.  The mixture should be thin enough to leave a ribbon when the beater is lifted from the batter.  Add heavy cream 1 Tbsp at a time until desired texture is reached.
4.  Portion batter by putting a little less than 1 Tbsp of batter into a 4 inch biscuit cutter or a tuna can with both ends removed.  Batter should be spread thinly, but evenly.   To start, I would only put one or two cookies on the sheet at a time. Bake cookies for 4-6 minutes, or until golden around the edges.

5.  When you remove the cookies from the oven, you need to have a few things ready:  a small spatula, your fortunes, a mini muffin pan or regular muffin pan, thin gloves (if desired).

Carefully remove cookies from the oven and working quickly, place a fortune on 1/2 of the cookie. 

Using your spatula, flip the half of the cookie that doesn't have the fortune on top of the fortune,  and then quickly fold in half the opposite direction.  Place ends of cookie face down in muffin cup to hold shape while they cool. 

Truly Coconutty Cream Pie

A year ago, I started an experiment with www.allrecipes.com.  I submitted two of my original dessert recipes to see how long it would take to get them up.  Just today I got a response saying that my recipe for coconut cream pie was accepted, but it was still in the editing process.  Rather than wait another year, here's the Sugar Lovin' truly coconutty cream pie recipe. 

Ingredients

Crust:

• 1 cup flour
• 3/8 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup cold, unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 2 Tbsp butter-flavor shortening
• 1-2 Tbsp coconut water
• 1-2 Tbsp coconut rum

Filling

• 18 oz cocounut milk
• 1 cup sugar, divided
• 1 cup coconut, flaked, sweetened, toasted
• 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
• 1/3 cup cornstarch
• 6 oz whole milk
• 2 whole eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 Tbsp butter

Topping:

• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 cup confectioners sugar
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• Flaked, sweetened, toasted coconut

Directions

1. For the crust: Combine first 4 ingredients in food processor and blend until you have pea sized pieces. Place mixture in bowl and slowly add coconut water alternating with coconut rum, 1 Tbsp at a time. Only add enough so that mixture forms a solid ball. Knead about 10 times. Cover dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. Allow dough to come to room temperature before rolling out.
2. Preheat oven to 350 F and grease an 8 in pie pan. Roll out dough on a clean well floured surface until it fits the pie pan. Using a fork, prick holes in the pie crust. Weigh down the pie crust using dry beans or pie weights and bake for 15 minutes. Set aside.
3. For the filling: Combine coconut milk, 1/2 cup sugar, flaked coconut, vanilla bean seeds and pod in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium low heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Bring mixture to a boil, then remove from heat.
4. Whisk together remaining sugar, cornstarch and milk. Gradually whisk in eggs and egg yolks until fully blended.
5. Slowly add 1/3 cup of hot coconut milk mixture to egg mixture by pouring it down the side of the bowl. Then add the whole egg mixture in with the remaining coconut milk mixture and cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat until it reaches a boil. Cook for an additional 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Remove vanilla bean pod and whisk in butter until smooth. Pour into prepared pie crust.
6. Chill pie for 1 hour. Meanwhile, place mixer bowl and whisk in freezer for 15 minutes. In chilled bowl, combine heavy cream, lemon juice, and vanilla extract. Begin whipping on high speed and slowly add in confectioners sugar. Beat until stiff peak stage. Pipe onto chilled pie and top with coconut flakes.

Be sure not to skip tempering the eggs with the hot coconut milk mixture before combining the whole egg mixture with the hot coconut milk mixture- otherwise, your eggs will curdle! Freezing the mixing bowl before whipping the cream makes it whip up faster and keeps it more stable. This pie can be made ahead of time and kept refrigerated before serving.

National Sticky Bun Day

I love this person who came up with National Specific Food days.  Like National Pie Day.  Or National Doughnut Day.  Or National Drink Wine Day (that was last Friday, 2/18.  And yes, I did partake of a few glasses). 

Today, is National Sticky Bun day, a sainted day in Sugar Lovin scripture.

What's not to love about a sticky bun?  When made right, they are gooey, sticky, sweet, soft, warm, and have just a hint of the yeasty flavor of a delicious fresh roll. 

The best sticky buns, according to the website, http://www.beststickybuns.com/, are from Fritz's Bakery in Pennsylvania (most locations are near Philadelphia).  Actually, http://www.beststickybuns.com/ is Fritz's website, so if you go to that site, you might find it a little biased.  That said, I've never had a Fritz sticky bun, but according to Yelp and  Urban Spoon , they really might be the best.

Here's a shortcut recipe to fast and delicious sticky buns from Ina (and yes, this is how I came up with my shortcut cinnamon rolls with puff pastry).

If you want to go the traditional route, here's a different recipe for the adventurer.  Julia Childs happened to think that this recipe yielded the best sticky bun she'd ever had in her life. 

Either way, I'll likely be stopping at a bakery on my way home (or maybe during lunch, you never know) for some sticky bun deliciousness.

English Muffins- experiment 1, not so great

I do so love an English muffin.  A lot of people talk about the nooks and crannies and how it's the butter inside those nooks and crannies that makes an English muffin stand out amongst a crowd of biscuits.  For me, it's not just nooks and crannies- it's everything that an English muffin becomes. 

A stage for eggs benedict, a platform for my version of bagels and lox, and a simple way to enjoy butter and jam without eating it with just a spoon.

When I decided to try English muffin recipes, I went with the All Recipes version found here.  I of course changed the recipe a little:  I substituted 4 cups of the 6 cups of flour for whole wheat flour and salted butter for shortening.   Maybe if I had followed the recipe to the letter of the law, it would have come out better.  But let's digress a little on what I didn't like.

This recipe came out more dense than I would have liked; a partial by-product, I'm sure, of using whole wheat flour.  It tends to give you a denser texture than regular flour.  However, the proportion of liquid to dry seemed off to begin with and I had to add a little water and a little flour to get the dough texture just right.  In addition, the dough was really kind of tough.  I think I probably overworked the dough in an attempt to get it to flatten and combine the way it should have.  But ultimately, even if I had worked the dough less or used a different kind of flour, I'm fairly certain, even from the reviews, that I would only have gotten me "kind of" close to where I wanted to be with these English muffins. 

Next week, I'll be trying this recipe.  It's a completely different method, but the reviews have been fantastic thus far.  Plus, who better to trust on the scientific end of baking than Alton Brown?

Chocolate chip cookies and sunshine!

Happiest of happy Fridays!  It might be February, but today, it officially feels like spring has sprung in Raleigh. The next 10 days show it's going to stay above 50 degrees.  I can really get behind that.  Even in snowy Pittsburgh, 60 degree weather has shown it's mysterious February face. 

What goes best with spring weather and sunshine?  Flip flops and sundresses and...chocolate chip cookies.  Ok, well maybe they don't go well together, but last night just felt like a night to make chocolate chip cookies.  I've experimented with this recipe a hundred times.  I've used shortening, butter, lard, combinations of the two, a hint of crumbled bacon, and more to play with this recipe and make it unique, but it always comes back to the same place-  Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies. 

Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies:

1 cup Butter, softened
1 1/4 cup Dark brown sugar (or brown sugar with 2 tbsp of molasses stirred in)
1/4 cup Granulated sugar
2 Large eggs
2 tsp Vanilla bean paste
2 1/4 cup Flour
2 tsp Baking soda
2 tsp Kosher salt, plus extra for sprinkling
1 11.5 oz bag Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate chips
Optional- freshly grated lemon or lime zest

Method:
1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Line cookie sheets with parchment paper, set aside.
2.  Cream butter and sugars together until light and fluffy in stand mixer with paddle attachment.  Add in eggs 1 at a time, making sure to fully incorporate before adding another.  Scrape down sides of bowl with spatula and add in vanilla.  Mix well.
3.  Add in flour, baking soda and salt, mix until just combined.  Add in chocolate chips and mix until just combined.  Place mixer bowl in refrigerator for 1 hour OR roll dough into 3 equal logs, wrap in wax paper and chill in refrigerator overnight.
4.  Using a cookie scooper or tbsp, portion out cookies 1 inch apart on lined cookie sheets.  If you chilled the cookies overnight in wax paper logs, unwrap logs and slice cookies about 3/8 thick and place 1 inch apart on cookie sheets.  Bake for 7-8 minutes in preheated oven.  Cookies should be formed on the outside, but still soft on the inside.
5.  Immediately sprinkle a pinch or two of kosher salt over the cookies when you remove them from the oven. If desired, grate fresh lemon or lime zest and sprinkly lightly over cookies. Leave cookies on sheet and allow to cool on sheet (this will help to cook the inside a little more without it being intense heat.  It leaves you with soft, chewy cookies, instead of dry and crispy). 

Yields- approx 36-42 cookies

Breakfast goodies

Breakfasting while on vacation is a necessary.  And if you hadn't figured it out yet, I'm a recipe hoarder.  (its going to take me years to go through and try all the recipes I've collected, literally).  So this Valentine's Day weekend, not only did I make dessert, but I made breakfast pastries.

On the first day, I made my cinnamon rolls from puff pastry (found here) and then I mixed it up a bit with raspberry sweet rolls.  Its essentially the exact same recipe, except I used raspberry preserves instead of a cinnamon sugar filling. 

(and no, those aren't what my rolls looked like.  I was working in an efficiency kitchen with no rolling pin. )

The next day, I brought the puff pastry out again (limited space & tools), and made a blueberry puff pastry breakfast sweet treat.  I macerated the blueberries (a little lemon juice, a little sugar, and blueberries) and then stuffed them neatly into a little pocket of puff pastry.  After it baked, it smelled great, but it tasted flat.  It needed marscapone or cream cheese.  So for a blueberry cheese danish, here's what I would do:

1.5 cups Fresh blueberries
3 Tbsp Sugar
2 Tbsp Lemon juice
1 sheet Puff pastry, thawed
1 cup Marscapone or cream cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Combine the blueberries, sugar and lemon juice in a bowl and let it sit for about 10 to 15 minutes.  Roll out the puff pastry just a little and then spread the Marscapone cheese in an even layer across, leaving an inch at each edge.  Mash the blueberries a little with a fork and then pile a little in the center.  Take the edges of the puff pastry and fold toward the center, overlapping a little and gently pressing to form the edges together.   Place on an unlined buttered cookie sheet and bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until the pastry gets puffy and golden brown.

Valentine's Day Desserts

This past weekend was spent cooking with only 1/4 of the kitchen tools I normally have at my disposal.  It was Valentine's Day weekend at the beach and our little efficiency apartment really lacked some of the finer points of bakeware.  That said, it was still necessary to get my bake-on.  Here's what I made and how I changed it up:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/sweet-roasted-grapes-recipe/index.html

This recipe I pulled out of Food Network Magazine ages ago and had been really interested to try.  Grapes aren't something you see baked a lot and lets face it, it was suggested that you serve it with cheese and bread.  There is very little you need to change about this recipe- the only thing I would add to this is that it doesn't need to roast for 25 minutes in the oven.  15 minutes should work for you, with a nice stir at 7.5 minutes.  Also, it is super necessary to buy a high quality cheese to set the flavors right.  We chose a super-soft French brie, though a gruyere would have worked nicely as well.

This would be a great party appetizer, but also could be served as a slightly savory dessert if you wrapped some brie and grape dip in puff pastry, baked it and then drizzled the honey syrup on the pastry. 

Staying on my Food Network magazine kick, I also tried a Vanilla Poached Pear recipe I pulled a while ago and was waiting to try out.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/vanilla-poached-pears-recipe/index.html

I did make several adjustments to this recipe.  First, I did not buy a dry white wine.  This was merely because I didn't want a whole bottle of white wine I knew we were unlikely to drink (we both wanted red wine or beer).  So instead, I bought one of those small wines they sell in a carton (I know, so super classy) that only has about 2 to 3 glasses of whine in it.  It was Fox-something-or-another chardonnay, and it tasted supremely awful.  However, when you dump two great pears, a high quality vanilla extract, sweet sugar, and cinnamon in the mix and let it reduce for a long while, it was almost as if I had bought a quality wine. 

Vanilla Poached Pears:

Serves 2

1 large Bosc pear (Anjou might be ok too, but I like the natural juiciness of this variety)
1 cup White wine
2/3 cup Sugar
1 Tbsp Lemon juice
1 tsp Madagascar bourbon vanilla bean paste
1 Cinnamon stick

Peel, halve and core 1 pear. Put in a shallow skillet with 1 cup white wine, 2/3 cup sugar, 1 tbsp of lemon juice, 1 tsp of Madagascar bourbon vanilla bean paste, and a 1 cinnamon stick. Place over medium heat and stir until sugar dissolves.  Cover and allow to simmer and reduce 15 minutes.  Serve the pears with the reduced syrup; top with whipped cream, if desired. 

I did this on the stovetop instead of in the microwave for a little more control over how it cooked up.  Also, I substituted lemon juice for grapefruit zest, mostly because I had lemon juice on hand and partially because I am not a grapefruit person.  Finally, I added the cinnamon stick because I felt the pears needed a subtle layor of flavor beyond the vanilla- you know, some place for the pears to land when it was all done. 

And this was really just the dessert portion of our weekend.  Stay tuned for some quick raspberry sweet rolls, raspberry stuffed French toast with honey sauce and a blueberry marscapone danish. 

Valentine's Day goodies- coming soon!

This weekend I'm taking the opportunity to try out 3 recipes I've been dying to make- unfortunately, my stack of recipes to try still remains at 5 or 6. 

I know I'm making roasted grapes and walnuts with honey syrup and brie as 1.  The other two are TBD.  Should I make cherry clafoutis, vanilla poached pears with fresh whipped cream, grilled plums with hazelnut gelato, vanilla custard with caramel cream sauce, cinnamon rolls or raspberry sweet rolls?  I can pick 1 dessert and 1 breakfast item. 

Decisions, decisions.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Post holiday fall-out

After the holidays, it takes me so many months to get back on the wagon and back up to social media speed.   I neglect my blogging, my tweeting, my facebooking...

In some ways, it's so very nice to take a big, long, deep breath of computer and internet free air.  In other ways, I miss the discipline I place on myself to bake a lot, read a lot and think a lot about sugary, delightful goods.  But then again, after the holidays, I have to take some time away from the sugar.  So much sugar.  So many great cookies.  So many wonderful treats.  It starts to show on my middle, no matter how much crossfitting I do. 

So forgive me.  I have been baking here and there, but it's all stuff we've talked about before- basic brownies, red velvet cake, chocolate pepper truffle cake, snickers cupcakes, peanut butter cookies, etc.

I do have to decide on a Valentine's day dessert though, so I'll something to share for next week. 

Happy post holiday