Long Time, No Eat

If I ate as rarely as I posted, I would surely be dead. The insanity that junior year of college brings with it left me with little time to cook, let alone blog. I did, however, take as many pictures as I could of my food (when I remembered). Unfortunately, I can't seem to remember what some of the recipes even are... here are a few that I managed to figure out :)

Apple Strudel Muffins (yields 12 muffins)

Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
  
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup applesauce
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/4 tsp. vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups chopped apples

For the strudel topping:

• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tbs. all purpose flour
• 1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tbs. butter

Directions

• Preheat oven to 375°F. Thoroughly grease a 12 cup muffin pan or use liners.
  
• In a medium bowl mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
  
• In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugar and eggs until smooth. Mix in the vanilla. Stir in the apples and then gradually blend in the flour mixture. Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin pan.
• For the strudel topping: mix the brown sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles a coarse crumb. Sprinkle the topping over the batter in the muffin pans.
• Bake 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Allow to rest for 5 minutes in the pan and then remove muffins from the pan to cooling racks and allow to cool completely.

Raspberry Almond Shortbread Cookies (makes 3 dozen cookies)

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1/2 tsp. almond extract
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup seedless raspberry preserves (or blackberry or whatever preserves you love!)
  
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 3/4 tsp. almond extract
• 1 tsp. milk

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 350°F.
  
• In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and white sugar until smooth. Mix in the 1/2 tsp. almond extract. Mix in the flour until the dough comes together. Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls and place on ungreased cokie sheets. Using your thumb, make a small indent in the center of each ball and fill with preserves.
  
• Bake for 14 - 18 minutes, or until lightly browned. Let cook for 1 minute on the cookie sheet.
• In a medium bowl, mix together the confectioners' sugar, 3/4 tsp. almond extract and milk until smooth. Drizzle lightly over the warm cookies. I placed this into a pastry bag with my smallest tip and used that to drizzle the icing onto the cookies; a plastic sandwich bag or Ziploc bag with a tiny hole cut in the corner works as well.

Chocolate Mint Cookies (yields 3.5 dozen cookies)

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 egg
• 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1-1/2 (4.5 ounce) packages Andes mints

Directions

• Heat the butter, sugar and water in a small pot over medium heat; stir occasionally until melted. Remove from heat and pour in the chocolate chips. Stir until melted. Set the mixture aside to cool for 10 minutes.
• Pour the chocolate into a mixing bowl and beat in the egg. Mix the flour, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl and then stir into the chocolate mixture. Put the dough into the fridge for 1 hour to chill.
• Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease the cookie sheets.
  
• Roll the dough into 1-inch sized balls and place on the cookie sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake for 8 - 10 minutes, being careful not to overbake!
  
• When cookies come out, place 1 (or half) of an Andes mint on the top of each cookie. Let it melt slightly and then use the back of a teaspoon to swirl the Andes mint around to cover the top of the cookie. Let cool completely on wire racks.
  

Chocolate Cupcakes (yields 2 dozen cupcakes)

These decadent cupcakes are filled with a marshmallow creme and topped with a chocolate ganache. I still haven't figured out the perfect name for them yet, so "chocolate cupcakes" will have to do for now...

Ingredients
-- For the cupcakes

• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup water
• 4 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  
• 2 large eggs

--For the filling

• 4 tbs. unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 tbs. heavy cream
• 1 cup marshmallow creme

--For the ganache

• 6 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 c. heavy cream
• 1 tbs. unsalted butter
• 1 tbs. milk
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Place liners into the muffin pans.
• To make the cupcakes, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium sized bowl. Bring the granulated sugar and water to a boil in a saucepan until the sugar dissolves, stirring frequently. Pour the sugar mixture into a large bowl and add the chocolate and butter. Let sit, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate is melted. Stir in the vanilla and using a mixer, beat in the eggs. Mix in the dry ingredients. Divide the batter evenly between the pans, about 1/4 cup of batter per cupcake. Bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Move to a rack to cool completely.
  
• To make the filling, cream the butter with a mixer until light and fluffy. Carefully beat in 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar. Add the vanilla and 1 tbs. heavy cream, beating until smooth. Add the remaining 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar and 2 tbs. of heavy cream to the mixture. Beat in the marshmallow creme, mixing until smooth.
  
• To prepare the ganache, place the chocolate in a stainless steel bowl. Heat the cream and 1 tbs. butter in a small saucepan until just boiling and pour over the chocolate. Let stand for 5 minutes and then whisk until smooth. Add 2 tsp. vanilla and let stand until cool, but still liquid.
  
• Spoon the creme filling into a pastry bag fitted with a medium-sized tip. Insert the tip into the center of each cupcake, filling until the cupcake feels heavier. Be careful to to overfill so that the creme is overflowing from the top! Dip the cupcake tops into the ganache or use a spoon to top the cupcakes with ganache.
  

Pie and Cupcakes!

I never thought that summer would be exhausting. Working full time and taking a 5 credit course is more draining that I thought it would be. I figured I could handle it easily, but I was wrong. I find myself with no time to do the one thing that I used to find enjoyable: I don't cook. I just took my first test though and decided to take the day off for once. The result? A strawberry rhubarb pie and some coconut cupcakes!

The lattice top for the pie proved to be harder than I thought. I ended up just rolling out a whole sheet and slapping it on top - next time I will get it though.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

I got the recipe from epicurous.com and I have copied it below.

Ingredients
For crust

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup chilled solid vegetable shortening, cut into pieces
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 10 tablespoons (about) ice water

For filling

• 3 1/2 cups 1/2-inch-thick slices trimmed rhubarb (1 1/2 pounds untrimmed)
• 1 16-ounce container strawberries, hulled, halved (about 3 1/2 cups)
• 1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg yolk beaten to blend with 1 teaspoon water (for glaze)

Directions

Make crust:
Combine flour, sugar and salt in processor. Using on/off turns, cut in shortening and butter until coarse meal forms. Blend in enough ice water 2 tablespoons at a time to form moist clumps. Gather dough into ball; cut in half. Flatten each half into disk. Wrap separately in plastic; refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep chilled. Let dough soften slightly at room temperature before rolling.)

Make filling:
Preheat oven to 400°F. Combine first 7 ingredients in large bowl. Toss gently to blend.

Roll out 1 dough disk on floured work surface to 13-inch round. Transfer to 9-inch-diameter flass pie dish. Trim excess dough, leaving 3/4-inch overhang.

Roll out second dough disk on lightly floured surface to 13-inch round. Cut into fourteen 1/2-inch-wide strips. Spoon filling into crust. Arrange 7 dough strips atop filling, spacing evenly. Form lattice by placing remaining dough strips in opposite direction atop filling. Trim ends of dough strips even with overhang of bottom crust. Fold strip ends and overhang under, pressing to seal. Crimp edges decoratively.

Brush glaze over crust. transfer pie to baking sheet. Bake 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F. Bake pie until golden and filling thickens, about 1 hour 25 minutes. Transfer pie to rack and cool completely.

Vanilla Coconut Cupcakes (Yields about 24)

Isabel and I were going to make a coconut cake using fresh coconut but our coconut was... fermented. So then we decided to make coconut cake using store-bough sweetened coconut but then we forgot to put the coconut milk in to the cake so we just made normal vanilla cupcakes instead and topped them off with some toasted coconut.

The cake recipe is Paula Deen's 1-2-3-4 cake recipe and the frosting is her 7 minute frosting.

1-2-3-4 Cake

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature

  

• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 3 cups sifted self-rising flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Line muffin pans with cupcake liners. Using an electric mixer, cream butter until fluffy. Add sugar and continue to cream well for 6 to 8 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour and milk alternately to creamed mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Add vanilla and continue to beat until just mixed. Divide batter equally among prepared pans. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until done. Cool completely and then frost with 7 Minute Frosting (recipe below).

7 Minute Frosting

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar or 1 tablespoon white corn syrup
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup water
• 2 egg whites
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Place sugar, cream of tartar or corn syrup, salt, water, and egg whites in the top of a double boiler. Beat with a handheld electric mixer at high speed for 1 minute. Place pan over boiling water, being sure that boiling water does not touch the bottom of the top pan. (If this happens, it could cause your frosting to become grainy). Beat constantly on high speed with electric mixer for 7 minutes. Beat in vanilla.

Toasted Coconut

Heat the oven to 350. Spread the coconut out in a thin layer. Toast for 2 minutes and then in 1 minute intervals until lightly browned.

Assembly

Frost cooled cupcakes and then sprinkle with toasted coconut.

Carrot Cupcakes

This is my first post! And my first cupcake of the summer - carrot cupcakes. I made these because the Olin HPVC team left a huge bag of carrots at my house after their stay. They had been sitting in my fridge for quite a while and I thought I should make something delicious out of them before they started to rot.

Carrot Cupcakes Recipe (Makes 24)

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup applesauce
  
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
  
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  
• 3 cups grated carrots
• 1 cup chopped pecans

For cream cheese icing:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line muffin cups with cupcake liners - you will need about 24.
2. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, applesauce, brown sugar, white sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into prepared muffin pan.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for about 22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean. Let cool in pans completely.
   
4. To make frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Frost the cooled cupcakes.