I can't express how much I miss baking

So, I know we are supposed to write about all of our fantastic ideas here, but it has been eight months in China without an oven and without baking supplies and I really miss getting in the kitchen and seeing what I can make.

Baked goods here are entirely different from everything we have in America, when I expect something to be sweet it i salty and covered with meat flakes or some strange substance. When I expect something to be salty it turns out to be sweet and full of too much sugar.

The only baking I've done during the year has been in a toaster oven and without any real baking pans, which has been a great challenge. At the same time this has all been teaching me how to improvise and learn to work with what I have in front of me. I made some baked french toast for Easter that was way different from the original recipe but my friends kept asking for seconds, thirds and eventually fourths. On the other hand, we've had some major flops ... foods cook and cook and never get done or they cook for almost no time and burn in an instant. It's all a game and I'm glad I'm learning how to play by some new rules.

I'm missing cupcakes a lot, I tried explaining cupcakes to some of my Chinese friends and how KShaw and I like to stir things up and see what we come up with. I'm excited to get back in the kitchen and stir the pot a bit when I finally get back to America.

P.S. I finally figured out how to use a proxy server, which explains my long absence from the blog and now, finally, my return.

Picky Palate

Lindsey, my official taste tester for the month, wasn’t too impressed with culinary experimentation. Might have been the throat-scratching, ginger-infused coffee I concocted. Her face twisted when she sipped on the spicy drink and, without hesitation, shoved the drink aside. But when I handed her my Cuisinart standing mixer’s wire whisk caked with piña colada cupcake batter and she wiped her finger into the creamy rum and pineapple, her face didn’t purse up. My sugary experimentation was a success.

Roughly Following the guidelines of a piña colada cupcake recipe from a recent Christmas present, “Cupcakes Galore,” I created a fairly decent batch of cocktail cakes. I tossed in a few different ingredients—I replaced shredded coconut with almond slivers since Lindsey doesn’t like the white flakes and in place of crushed pineapple I added the same amount (1/3 cup) of apple sauce, which added a sweet lightness to the batter and softened the pineapple juice. I would additionally suggest adding at least ¼ cup of vegetable oil to ensure the cake stays moist.

¼ pound unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1/3 cup pineapple juice

1 Tablespoon rum

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 large eggs

1 ½ cups flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

1/3 cup crushed pineapple (or 1/3 cup applesauce)

1/3 cup shredded coconut (or 1/3 cup slivered almonds)

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease the muffin pan or line with paper cups. In a large bowl or standing mixer, beat together the melted butter, pineapple juice, rum and vanilla extract. (Add the ¼ cup of oil here.) Beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. In a separate bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, ½ cup at a time, until combined. Fold in the applesauce and almonds. Fill the cupcake liners three-quarters full. Bake 20-25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Biscotti Surprise

Mystery meat is, hands-down, the most dreaded thing to creep onto the plates of school children everywhere. In fact, any sort of unrecognizable food item was usual suspect to being pawned off on unsuspecting classmates or stuffed inside empty milk cartons.

But mystery ingredients can add an interesting flair in the kitchen. While recently cleaning out the pantry, my roommates stumbled on an unmarked eight ounce can. Just the silver, ribbed metal, no label, no indication of its contents. I snagged the can before it hit the garbage and, early one morning, decided I would use the mysterious ingredient, regardless of what it was, in some sort of baked good. Determined I could incorporate anything into a muffin, at least, I eagerly opened the can to a gooey, golden sauce. It smelled sugary, reminded me of caramel sauce and after licking a small glob off my pinky finger, determined the substance to be a sort of creamed butterscotch filling. I pawed through some of my recipes and picked a classic biscotti, using some of the basic ingredients and then improvising after adding the leading role in this theatrical production. With the initial base recipe, the dough was too moist, so I altered the flour measurement to give it more cohesion. Here’s what I conjured up in the kitchen:

Butterscotch Walnut Biscotti

Honey, walnuts and vanilla blend nicely to soften the harshly sweet of the butterscotch.

½ cup butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

4 eggs

2 Tablespoons vanilla

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil

2 Tablespoons honey

3 ½ cups all-purpose flour

½ Tablespoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup crushed walnuts

1 (8 oz) can butterscotch

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat and cook until browned. Remove immediately and place in a medium bowl, adding the brown sugar and vanilla, stirring until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in another bowl and combine with the egg mixture. Mix in the walnuts and the creamed butterscotch. Combine well. If mixture is too moist, add more flour by the Tablespoon. Divide the dough into two loaves on a cookie sheet and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until sides are golden. Remove from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before cutting the loaves into 1 inch slices. Flip the slices on their unbaked sides and return to oven for an additional 10 to 15 minutes, turning the slices once until toasted on all sides. Cool completely and store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Inspiration

It only makes sense that neither of us made a post in about a month and now within 24 hours we are both back on the blogging scene. I was watching Food Network last night and they had one of their famous cake challenges on where they had to make cakes for the premiere of the Simpsons Movie. I don't know if you've ever seen these challenges but these chefs make incredible cakes all around a particular theme. Last night's winners happen to work in Chicago so I thought I'd check out their Web site. To see some really creative, clean cakes check out their site at www.thecakegirls.com. Also, check out the menu link because it has some great ideas for flavor combinations. I recently made a silly purchase for B&C so I'll post a picture soon.

Seasoned Ingredients

There’s a lot to be said about seasonality of foods. Thick, savory foods are more satisfying in the winter when the body is beefing up for warmth. And in the summer, those same foods feel heavy and cumbersome on the body. Eating hot tomato basil soup in the July heat can turn summer laziness into miserable lethargy.

Last summer, Peter was badgering his mother as she stocked the fridge with fresh local produce each week despite a bulging pantry.
“Look at all this food,” he’d implore, yanking open the double wooden doors. “There’s so much food here already. Y2K is over; there’s no reason to stock up on so much food!”
His mom effectively ignored him and continued to fill the cold shelves with bags of crunchy veggie snacks and creamy-sweet fruits.
I also ignored him until one afternoon when, on one of his tirades, he pulled three or four large cans of pumpkin puree from between minestrone soup. Maybe he’s right, I thought, there’s already plenty of food (who keeps four cans of pumpkin puree just lying around?) I decided to cater to Peter’s eat-what’s-already-in-the-house motto and bake with the copious amounts of pumpkin.

Successfully I made dark and deeply rich pumpkin-molasses muffins…

…which sat on the counter for at least a week or two. “No thanks. It’s too hot.” Too hot for a cold muffin?

These puppies were so filling, so dark and heavy, that no one, not even Peter, wanted to eat them.

I should’ve learned.

But just last night I baked raspberry-cappuccino cupcakes. The idea sounded delicious: fresh raspberries and espresso in a cupcake—a marvelous breakfast. Somehow (somehow!) a couple tablespoons of cocoa powder and cup of semi-sweet mini chocolate chips also ended up in the batter and my cupcakes, once thoroughly baked, looked frustratingly like last summer’s pumpkin molasses bricks. Delicious but heavy. Most cakes sat lonely on the desk at work, uneaten.

It’s easy to see now why those cans of pumpkin puree sat uneaten in the pantry.

Leave the heavy stuff to winter.

Here’s the recipe for the cupcakes. Add cocoa powder and chocolate chips at your own discretion.

Raspberry Cappuccino Cupcakes

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

½ c. sugar

2 ½ teaspoons baking powder

2 tsp instant coffee powder

½ tsp salt

½ tsp cinnamon

1 c milk, scalded and cooled

½ c butter, melted and cooled

1 egg, slightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 pkgs (8oz) fresh raspberries

about 24 pecans

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

On the stove melt the butter. Let cool.

Also on the stove, scald the milk. Let cool.

In a medium bowl combine the dry ingredients. Set aside.

In a large bowl combine the cooled milk and butter. Add the egg and vanilla extract. Add the dry ingredients. Fold in the raspberries.

Spoon batter into muffin cups. Let bake for 12-14 minutes. Add a pecan to the top of each cupcake, bake another 5 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

A non-baking thought

Since our last few posts have been about goodies, I thought I'd write a bit about paper and cards for a bit. I was shopping tonight (I bought a new laptop) and after I finished buying all my goodies from the Apple Store I decided to go across the mall to a smaller store called Papyrus that specializes in unique paper, cards and custom invitations. There was some really pretty paper in there, although I thought there could have been a lot more. They had a lot of funny cards, but they seemed relatively generic and I know we could do better. I wasn't at the store very long because they were getting ready to close the mall, but I think my favorite part of the store was the custom invitations area. They didn't have many samples and I know our friends are much more talented designers than the work they were showing, but the idea was right. I love the idea of doing custom stationary/cards/invitations, etc. This has always been my favorite part of most paper stores (like Pure Paper in DSM). I think invitations and cards can be so personal and how better to express that than having them custom made? Thus, I think this is something we should really think about for B&C. I know we've talked about doing cards, but I think other custom work could be great too (and a good way to possibly establish ourselves first). I know Pure Paper has cut their actual store in size, but they have expanded their custom printing because there is a high demand for the work they do. Mull this over the next time you are baking and let me know what you think.

Speaking of cheesecake ...

This was the recipe I saw on Paula Dean the other day that I promised I would find. It is for cheesecake cookies, though they are really more of a bar. Again, super simple and they look really good ... I'm looking forward to making them.

Savannah Cheesecake Cookies

Crust:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
1 stick butter, melted
Filling:
2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla or almond extract
Fresh berries and mint leaves, for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine flour, brown sugar, pecans, and butter in bowl. Press dough into an ungreased 13 by 9 by 2-inch pan. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

For filling, beat cream cheese and granulated sugar together in a bowl until smooth, using a handheld electric mixer; add eggs and extract; beat well. Pour over crust. Bake for 20 minutes. Cool completely. Cut into squares before serving. Decorate tops with berries and mint leaves.

She also put powdered sugar on top of hers and I bet almost any fresh fruit would be delicious (I'm thinking peaches or mangos, but that is mostly because I just bought some and I'm trying to think of what they would be good with).