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).

Easy Cheesecake Cupcakes

Though I didn't make this delectable and ridiculously easy cupcakes this evening (I had only one package of cream cheese), I promised an eager baker I would post this recipe for future reference. So here it is, easily the simplest cupcake recipe ever.


Cheesecake Cupcakes

2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
box of 'Nilla wafers

Preheat the oven to 350. Cream the cheese and sugar together in a medium bowl, adding the eggs one at a time and beating until smooth. Line a muffin tin with paper cupcake cups and place a wafer in the bottom of each cup. Fill the cups 1/2-3/4 full with cheesecake mixture and bake for 15-20 minutes. Let cool for a half an hour or until cheesecake sets.

Topping ideas:
fruit pie filling
flaked pecans
chocolate curls/chocolate chips
coconut
drizzled caramel
drunken raspberries (raspberries soaked in Bailey's)

It's just meant to be

What are the odds? Seriously? Of all of the cupcakes in the whole world what are the chances we would be sharing almost the same recipe at almost the same time? I haven't made any cupcakes since I've been home and I'm going crazy. Today I'm making chocolate dipped pretzels, but it just isn't as much fun. Did your boss like the cupcakes?

serendipitous cupcake

Just wanted to let you know that I was working on the Lemony Sweet post as a draft just before you published yours.

Strawberry Lime Stuffed Cupcakes

I'm currently obsessed with the Food Network (the shows, the books, the Web site, everything), mostly because there isn't a whole lot to do around here and everyone goes to bed at 9 p.m. So I've been watching the shows and browsing the site for some recipe ideas that might be appropriate for Books and Crannies. Today I stumbled across this one and I think it sounds delicious. I'm still looking for another one that Paula Dean made, so I will be sure to post that when I find it.

Strawberry-Lime Stuffed Cupcakes From Food Network Kitchens

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
2 large eggs, room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
Icing:
1 1/3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 1/2 tablespoons finely grated lime zest
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
1 drop green food coloring
6 large ripe strawberries, hulled
Green sanding sugar
Fresh mint leaves or candied leaves

Equipment: 6-cup jumbo muffin tin

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line the muffin tin with cupcake liners.
Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl.

In another medium bowl, beat the eggs and sugar with an electric mixer until light and foamy, about 2 minutes. While beating, gradually pour in the butter and then the vanilla.

While mixing slowly, add half the dry ingredients, then add all the milk, and follow with the rest of the dry ingredients. Take care not to over mix the batter. Divide the batter evenly in the prepared tin.

Bake until a tester inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool cupcakes on a rack in the tin for 10 minutes, then remove. Cool on the rack completely.

For icing: Mix the confectioners' sugar and lime zest in a medium bowl. Add the lime juice and mix with an electric mixer to make a firm but pourable icing. (If needed, add up to 1 teaspoon more juice, but take care if the icing is too loose it doesn't set properly.) Add food color to make a pale pastel green icing.

To assemble: Remove cupcake from its liner. Cut and remove a strawberry (coned) shaped portion of cupcake from the top of each cupcake, leaving about 1/2 to 1-inch of cake in the bottom. Stuff each cake with a strawberry and cover with a little bit of cake. Spoon and spread icing over the top of the cupcakes. Sprinkle with green sanding sugar. Top with small mint leaves or candied leaves.

Copyright 2007 Television Food Network, G.P. All rights reserved

Lemony Sweet

What are the odds that we were thinking of nearly the same exact cupcake at the same time?

I recently discovered that my boss loves coconut. So I decided to try a simple cupcake recipe with a coconut frosting. Well, I saw this recipe online (okay, so it's "borrowed"). I thought they looked amazing with the strawberry just jammed right in the center. I put so much effort into these babies (handmixing is a pain. Note to self: before opening B&C, get an electric mixer.) But they turned out amazing with the coconut frosting.

Erin, I think the fact that we thought of the same recipe at the exact same time is a sign. Call me crazy, but I think maybe, just maybe, this whole cupcake thing is meant to be.


Lemon Cupcakes with Strawberries and a coconut creme icing

juice of 1 lemon, approximately 1/2 cup
zest of 1 lemon, or 1 Tbsp of lemon peel
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
fresh strawberries with tops cut off


Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, cream the butter, grated lemon peel and sugar. Add the lemon juice. Then add eggs one at a time, beating continuously for creamy texture. Add soy milk. Slowly add in flour at intervals of 1/2 cup, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Pour into muffin tin, filling approximately 3/4 full. In the middle of each cupcake, gently, insert a strawberry, point side down. Bake 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted outside of the strawberry comes out clean. Cool in pan before removing; cool completely on a wire rack.

Icing:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
3 cups confectioners sugar
2-3 cups shredded coconut
milk, as needed

In a medium bowl, cream the cream cheese and butter, gradually adding confectioners sugar one cup at a time. Add a couple Tablespoons of milk for extra creaminess, or extra powdered sugar if mixture is too moist. Spread generously on tops after cupcakes have fully cooled.

Mocha Strawberry Almond Cookies

Yeah, I want to take a class from this lady, but I don't know when I'm going to have time. I'm driving out to Denver this Friday, camping and backpacking with my mom and her family and with my dad and his girlfriend, going to a wedding, then flying out to Seattle to scope out apartments before driving back to DeMo then driving with the Emerald City as my final destination. Turns out I'm driving it alone. Sara can't come out just yet, so I'm forging the frontier with no place to live (yet) and no job (yet). But I'm optimistic, excited, slightly nervous but I really think this Books and Crannies will work out. Who knows, maybe I'm a fool, but I really think we can do this. I've been thinking about it a lot this summer and, I know you're busy thinking about China, as you should be, but I'm going to work in Seattle for a while and keep B&C in my sights. I've always wanted to own a bookstore and coffee shop. I think that would work into B&C's business really well.

In the meanwhile, chew on this:


Mocha Strawberry Almond Cookies

Ingredients:
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips, (reserve 1 1/2cups)
1 cup fresh strawberries, chopped
1 cup slivered almonds
2 Tablespoons (Tbsp) boiling water
2 Tbsp instant coffee powder
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoons (tsp) baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 F. Melt 1/2 cup chocolate chips in microwave or in double boiler. Cool to room temperature. In a small bowl dissolve instant coffee with the 2Tbsp of water. In a large bowl, cream butter and white sugar until smooth. Add strawberries, remaining chocolate chips. Beat in egg, coffee and melted chocolate. In another bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Mix into strawberry and chocolate batter. Add almonds. Drop dough by heaping teaspoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake 10-12 minutes, allowing 2-3 minutes to cool on the cookie sheet before transferring to wire rack.

B&C cards

I'm really excited you started this KShaw! I'm not as eloquent a writer as you, but I promise to post anything I think might be helpful for Books and Crannies. This will be a great way for us to bounce ideas off each other (and whoever else decides to join us) especially since we will soon be separated by an ocean. I'm thinking of taking a stamping and card making class with my mom at the scrapbook store in town. I thought it might help to give me some new ideas. Are you going to take lessons from the woman at the Farmer's Market?

B&C Initiation

I met a woman at the farmer’s market who runs a little card store from her basement. She sat shaded from the heat in her tent, the walls lined with eye-popping cards. At a small worktable she chatted with another woman while casually filling in the white meat of a stamped heart with swirls of watercolors. I asked if she teaches classes on how to create the delicious-looking cards. “Yes,” a brief pause, then, “You’re not allergic to rabbits are you? I have a rabbit at home where I usually hold my classes. I hold them at home because it's easier; I have 10,000 different stamps.” I wondered how someone could accumulate that many rubber stamps, how many stamps she had before starting her business and how a business like hers could thrive.

Books and Crannies’ ingredients are a still wisps of smoke, a vague notion as was THiNK Magazine before we started digging into the magazine like rabid gardeners itching to till a new patch of dirt.

This is our opportunity for conversation just to get the creative juices flowing. A place to keep B&C alive. I wanted to create a forum for card ideas, recipe ideas, business ideas, etc. Anyone invested in B&C can, and should, post their suggestions and thoughts here. B&C is not an idea that I want to gnaw on for awhile and eventually forget about, like a teething baby and its pacifier. I’m excited to start B&C. I’m excited to see Books and Crannies grow like THiNK Magazine grew from a much-deliberated and confusing idea, to a refreshing and innovative publication from a bunch of college students.