Salted Caramel Whoopie Pies and Homemade Indian Food

Heather, Jasmine and I like to read all of the same cooking/food blogs-- Serious Eats (www.seriouseats.com), The Pioneer Woman Cooks (www.thepioneerwomancooks.com) and The Girl Who Ate Everything (www.thegirlwhoateeverything). We like to alert each other whenever we see good recipes and fun projects on these blogs, so when Jasmine and I saw a recipe for salted caramel whoopie pies on Serious Eats (http://www.seriouseats.com/2009/02/blogwatch-whoopie-pies-with-salted-caramel-bu.html) we knew it was going to be our next project when I was in San Francisco. Soft chocolate cookies + salted caramel buttercream = heavenly bliss!

The recipe wasn't hard-- make the soft cake-like cookies, then fill with buttercream. Ella was very excited to help us out. When she saw us getting everything ready, the first words out of her mouth here "I want to help"! Ella is already a very adventurous eater, so maybe these projects will spark a lifetime interest in cooking as well.

As you can see, Ella was a very good helper. She carefully helped Jasmine stir the cookie batter and helped me beat the caramel into the buttercream. Ella was always very careful to do exactly what Jasmine and I asked her to do, and followed directions very well. Hmmm... maybe I see an EZ-Bake oven in someone's future?! She loved tasting the buttercream after we were done making it.



Below is a picture of our finished product. We learned a very important lesson-- make sure the cookies are FULLY cooled before filling with buttercream! Otherwise, the butter will melt all over and make a mess, and you will be sad.


And here's Ella enjoying the fruits of her labor-- she looks like a satisfied cook:


Indian food is one of my favorite cuisines. However, my attempts to make it haven't been very successful. It always tastes not quite right, like something is missing. Jasmine also loves Indian food and has been raving about these spice mixes from Sukhi's (www.sukhis.com) that she buys at their farmers market. I was extremely skeptical because I am skeptical about all mixes in general. How can they be any good? They're prepackaged and often cheaply made.

Sukhi's blew away all of my skepticism. We went to the farmer's market and picked up a couple of different packets and made them for dinner my last night in San Francisco. We made a vegetable curry and two types of chicken curry. Wow! It tasted exactly like it came from one of my local Indian restaurants and were extremely easy to make. I liked how I was able to use fresh vegetables and meat to make a fast and healthy dinner.

Jasmine and John brought a bunch of these mixes when they were visiting me in New York. Thanks Jaz and John! Dalmau and I will now be enjoying delicious Indian dinners all Fall and Winter long.

A San Francisco Wing Ding

I loooove buffalo wings! Ever since Amy, my freshman year roomate at the University of Rochester (which is very close to Buffalo), first introduced me to the wonders of these savory, tangy and spicy morsels, they've been one of my favorite foods. In Rochester, a side of wings is always ordered with pizza, and a frequent weekend indulgence. Buffalo wings (and another favorite food, salt & vinegar potato chips, which Amy also introduced me to) were directly responsible for me gaining the freshman 15 lbs! However, that still hasn't stopped me from indulging from time to time.

After reading about a Super Bowl wing wrap up on Serious Eats (www.seriouseats.com), John, Jasmine and I held our own taste test during my visit. We put 3 brands to the test: KFC (buffalo and plain crispy); Extreme Pizza; and Original Buffalo Wings. Extreme Pizza and Original Buffalo Wings are local neighborhood spots. The local KFC was very sketchy. Each place we ordered 3 types of wings: plain, buffalo and barbeque.

The KFC barbeque didn't disappoint. It was crispy, sweet and smoky, just like we had remembered it. I also liked the slightly thicker breading (which is a no-no for buffalo wings, but perfectly acceptable for barbeque wings!). At the end of the night it placed second overall.

The plain category had a very weak showing. We didn't particularly care for any of the plain wings-- they were either too plain, or flabby and wimpy, or just too "blah".

The overall winner was the Original Buffalo Wings. Their buffalo wings were just right-- the correct balance of vinegar, spice and butter, on a crispy wing with very light breading. A special bonus are the homemade potato chips which are categorically delicious! The second place buffalo wing winner was KFC, and the loser was Extreme Pizza-- just not good at all.

Lazy Sunday Morning with a Dutch Baby

I had planned on a lazy Sunday and decided on making a carmelized apple dutch baby for a yummy treat. Pretty much nothing can be easier than a dutch baby (or dutch pancake) for a carb and sugar fix. I also got to use my Le Creuset cast iron pan, which I love.

Here's what it involved: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Melt some butter in the pan on top of the stove (don't be stingy). Toss about 2-3 cups of chopped tart apples (I used granny smith) with a healthy amount of sugar and cinnamon, and then throw them in the melted butter to start cooking. While the apples are cooking, mix a thin pancake batter using 5 eggs, 1 c milk, 3/4 c flour, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 tblsp sugar, and 1 tsp vanilla.

Once the batter is mixed, sprinkle a generous amount of brown sugar on top of the cooking apple mixture. Put a lot, since this is where the caramel is going to come from when it mixes with the butter. Then pour the batter over the apples (mixture will come up about 3/4 the side of the pan), and stick the entire thing in the oven for about 20 minutes or so. It will puff up dramatically, and then deflate sadly, resulting in a delicious crispy, buttery, custardy, pancake-y delight. Served with warm real maple syrup and turkey sausage, nothing could be better.

Peppermint Jumble Takes a Tumble-- First Culinary Disaster!

Christmas dinner at my parents' house is a group effort. Jasmine and I decided that our contribution would be two desserts-- a bread pudding and, as the main showpiece, a 4-layer peppermint chocolate layer cake. Jasmine found the recipe in Gourmet magazine, which was a delicious confection made up of 4 layers of dense chocolate cake, with each layer separated by a delicious 2-layer filling of dark chocolate ganache and peppermint butter cream, with the whole thing covered in a fluffy and slightly sweet peppermint marshmallow meringue.

"No problem," I said confidently to Jasmine. "We can do this-- I've made lots of layer cakes before!" In my mind I heard the crowd cheering as Jasmine and I were parading around the room our towering masterpiece of chocolate and peppermint. Little did I know what was in store for us.

Jasmine started with the chocolate ganache and peppermint buttercream-- piece of cake (ha ha! couldn't resist). Next, we tackled the two round cakes which would form the 4 layers. The batter was very chocolately and yummy. My job was to butter and flour the cake pans. Our first indication that something was awry was then the cakes took about 1 1/2 times longer to firm up in the center than the recipe called for. "Oh well," we thought, "that's just the way it is." While the gift unwrapping was going on, I went to flip the cakes out of their pans. I confidently turned over the first pan, fully expecting the cake to slide out with ease in all of its glistening, round, chocolately glory.

Instead, as I flipped over the pan, only about a 1/3 of the cake came out, and it didn't smoothly glide out, but instead plopped out while ripping away and leaving the bottom of the cake firmly attached to the bottom of the pan. "Hmmm... well, that's ok, the next one will be fine." Nope. The second cake also clung to the pan like a baby to its mother. Jasmine and I stared at the cakes in dismay. "No problem," I over-confidently told Jasmine, "this has happened to me before, we can just stick it together with frosting and no one will know the difference!" "Oh-kay," said Jasmine doubtfully.

I cheerfully started slicing the cakes in half to make the requisite 4 layers. Unfortunately, the cakes started to further crumble and fall apart in chunks. "No problem," I reassured Jasmine again. By this time Jasmine was highly suspect of my layer cake abilities, irrespective of how may times I reassured her that a load of frosting cures many sins.

We tried layering the cakes and holding them together with a dual cement of ganache and a second layer of buttercream. What we ended up with was this:
Which doesn't look bad, except that after about 30 seconds a slow avalanche started as the ganache buttercream cement gave way, and it turned into this:

Still supremely confident in my mortaring skills, like a fool I continued to tell Jasmine that it wasn't anything the frosting couldn't fix. Now Jasmine was starting to seriously question if we should just give up and have Mom defrost another dessert she had hidden away in the freezer.
"No, no, no," I said, "we'll be fine! Bring out the frosting!" So we did. We frosted and frosted. And frosted some more. And this is what we got for our efforts: The slow avalanche turned into a fast one, and the smooth and fluffy peppermint meringue frosting was no match for the tumbling layers of cake as they tore away from the mountain of cake and ganache/buttercream mortar. "What are we going to do," we thought as we stared at the slowly disintegrating heap as large chunks of cake continued their slow descent. We better get the other cake out of the freezer! We thought about it for a while, and then Jasmine came up with a brilliant idea. We would get a large glass bowl, put the cake in it, and pretend that all along it was a new type of pavlova or trifle! Hooray for creativity! No one would be know of our culinary disaster, and we would still be heroes!

I went to the garage and fetched our favorite large smoked glass bowl, which held many picnics worth of potato salad and ambrosia. We hefted the cake up, which was VERY heavy, and plopped it in. Suddenly, our plan didn't seem so genius at all, because this is what it looked like:

Instead of a lovely, multilayered trifle, it looked like what it was-- a failed cake dumped into a bowl. But we had nothing to lose at this point, so we removed the wax paper, kept smoothing the top, and removing the excess cake that was flopping over the side like dead fish.

And, voila, wouldn't you know, after a quick sprinking of crushed peppermint and chocolate shavings, it came out looking like this:

We decided to call it "Peppermint Dump Cake" because of its unfortunate provenance. Our dad came up with a much more PR-friendly name of "Peppermint Jumble." Regardless of what it was called, it sure was tasty with a mix of different textures. Rich chocolate cake with the slightly bitter dark chocolate ganache, sweet and rich peppermint buttercream, cut by the slightly sweet and fluffy peppermint marshmallow. It was hit at the party, although it didn't induce the envious stares that I had originally pictured in my mind.

The only problem was that it was a HUGE cake. We ate and ate, and then had some for breakfast and snack a couple of days after Christmas, until we both threw in the towel, admitted defeat, and threw away the rest.

It was a good lesson in improvisation, and how to make dessert from a dump.

Olympics and Chinese Cake

In honor of the Olympics, I decided to try my hand at Chinese cake as my weekend project. I tracked down the recipe in the "Secret Koyama/Gee Family Recipe Book." This was a high protein snack; one recipe called for 8-9 eggs! I enlisted my trusty KitchenAid hand-held mixer for the project, which required a grand total of about 1/2 an hour of active whipping of eggs and the batter.

Although the recipe called for baking the cake, I recalled that this cake could also be steamed, so I divided the batter among two round cake pans and baked one and steamed the other. The baked cake (on the left) came out toasty golden brown with a nice crust. The steamed one (on the right), made up for its lack in color with fluffiness.

I brought the cakes as a special treat for my ballet class. After a hard hour and forty-five minute class, I brought out the cake, and no one hesitated to pounce on it. I encouraged everyone try try both kinds. The results? About half and half. Some preferred the baked cake for its golden, slightly carmelized flavor. Others loved the tenderness of the steamed cake. Amazing that one ballet class can eat two cakes in about 10 minutes flat!

Devils on Horseback

Devils on Horseback are the easiest, most delicious hors d'oeuvres I've ever made. And quite a miracle in and of themselves, since normally I hate dates. Nothing makes me shudder more than dry, slightly grainy/mushy/ tough dried dates. But stuff them with goat cheese, wrap with bacon, and voila! Instant deliciousness. Just be careful to let them cool down after they come out of the oven -- otherwise these little molten lava balls of goodness will burn your tongue. *ahem*

This is a picture of the little guys before they went into the oven. I was so preoccupied with drooling that I forgot to take a picture when they came out of the oven all crispy and brown.

Homemade Pop Tarts

Homemade poptarts-- easy to make, and completely delicious. Will never go back to the store kind. From upper left, clockwise: blueberry, Nutella, raspberry, cherry. The tangy raspberry was the best. However, these were monster-sized (bigger than my hand). Next time I will try to get them a little bigger than a deck of cards so that I won't have a stomach ache after eating an entire one.

Black and Whites

"Black and whites" are a New York City speciality. It is an unusual cookie because the cookie part is more cake-like than cookie-like-- almost a very dense yellow cake with a light lemon flavor. The distinctive frosting is half vanilla/lemon, half chocolate.

A couple of weeks ago I had a craving for these treats and dug up a Martha Stewart recipe. I stopped by Sur La Table to pick up a small ice cream scoop, which is necessary to get the perfectly round shape. The saleswoman warned me that the frosting on black and whites was tricky. The batter was easy enough to put together, but needed an hour to sit undisturbed in the fridge while the flour absorbed the liquid. Bad news because I started making the cookies at 9:00pm!

I was very happy when the cookies finally came out of the oven. Perfectly round, smooth, and a golden yellow color. The frosting itself was not too difficult, but just took a little care and patience to let one half dry before starting the next half. I could hardly wait until they were dry enough to eat one!

Once the cookies were dry, I took one and eagerly took a bite. Blech! The lemon extract in the cookie batter and vanilla frosting gave the cookies a somewhat alcoholic, astringent flavor. I was somewhat discouraged, but decided to let the cookies rest overnight in the time-honored Koyama baked goods storage center-- the microwave (door closed, of course).

The next morning I decided to try the cookies again. After eating a healthy (ha!) breakfast of cherries and Triscuits, I did another taste test. I was happy to note that the lemon flavor had mellowed, and the cookies no longer had the unpleasant taste of pure alcohol. The chocolate side was yummy-- very chocolately. However, I was disappointed in the cookie part. I didn't think it had enough flavor, and was not enough to stand up to the strongly flavored icing, which was right on. I will have to research other recipes to see if I can improve the cookie. Martha let me down

Marshmallows!

I had never thought about making marshmallows before. Actually, I had never put much thought into them at all. But after reading a recipe online, I really wanted to try my hand at making them.

The directions were easy enough: make a sugar syrup, whip air into it using a mixer, and then gently stir in whipped egg whites.

I made the sugar syrup and then starting beating it with a hand mixer. I was suspicious because the sugar syrup looked kinda gray and thin. Hmmm.. this doesn't look like anything that would turn into marshmallows. But after about 10 minutes of hard work with the hand mixer, POOF! It was like magic-- suddenly the mixture turned bright white and fluffy. Hurrah!

I let the marshmallows set, and then used small cookie cutters to cut them out. I made 3 shapes: squares, circles and stars. I think next time I'll stick with just squares and circles, since the soft texture doesn't hold the star points very well. To be extra fancy I drizzled half with some chocolate. I think they turned out pretty good! These might be good Christmas presents this year. The marshmallows made a sweet treat each day (in the morning AND when I came home from work) for about a week until I had my fill of them.