Patriotic Desserts

I recently joined another food challenge of sorts, Whip It Up.  Each week a topic guideline is given, and I have to prepare a new-to-me recipe and post it.  I’ve already been posting a recipe each week, so this just means that I’ll have to make something NEW, rather than posting from my constantly increasing stash of recipes and food photos waiting to be posted.  I figure that between Whip It Up, Daring Bakers, and Daring Cooks, it will at least guarantee that I’ll be trying 6 new recipes a month, which should help me from losing my touch in the kitchen now that I am no longer living with Husband.  I suspect that, rather than my routine cooking 7 nights a week, I will be resorting to cereal or popcorn for dinner since my hours in the lab are going to increase even more in an effort to finish as quickly as possible.

This week’s theme is “Holiday Food”.  And, given that today is a holiday (and one of my favorites, to boot – I am a huge sucker for a good fireworks show, and living in D.C., I have the best at my doorstep!), I opted to make some appropriately colored desserts for a gathering I am attending pre-fireworks festivities.  (I’m also bringing a triple batch of my spinach and artichoke dip – recipe here, for those who missed it the first time.)

First up, a red, white, and blue colored trifle.  The inspiration for this came from Sandra Lee, but her ‘semi-homemade’ concept is a little too semi for my tastes – if I’m baking, I want to bake.  So, I used my own most favorite devil’s food cake recipe (rather than box mix) and made my own vanilla pudding and mixed it with the CoolWhip (rather than just two tubs of cool whip).   But, if you want to cheat and use premade cake mix, I won’t judge (too harshly). :)  And then, because it sounded like fun, I decided to try my hand at chocolate covered pretzels.

4th of July Trifle

Ingredients (red for cake, blue for pudding):

• 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 stick butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 oz. bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
• 1/2 cup buttermilk, room temperature
• 1/2 cup water, warm
• 2/3 cup chocolate chips
• 1 bottle red food coloring (if you want a reddish tint to the cake)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 3 eggs, separated
• 2 cups milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 (8-ounce) tub frozen whipped topping
• 2 quarts blueberries
• 1 quart strawberries

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease 9x13 inch cake pan.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
3. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars until light.  Beat in eggs one at a time, followed by vanilla and melted chocolate.
4. Combine buttermilk and water.  Working in two or three additions, alternate adding liquid mixture and flour mixture to the mixing bowl.  Add bottle of food coloring.  Mix just until combined.  Stir in chocolate chips.
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool cake in pan.
6. To prepare pudding, mix sugar, flour, and salt in top of a double boiler.  Blend in 3 egg yolks and milk.  Cook, uncovered over boiling water, whisking constantly for 10 to 12 minutes or until thickened.  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.  Cool in refrigerator.
7. Once cool, slowly fold frozen whipped topping into vanilla pudding.
8. Cut cooled cake into 1” squares.
9. To assemble trifle, layer bottom of trifle bowl (or large glass mixing bowl, if your trifle bowl is in storage of your parents’ basement…) with half of the cake squares.  Squish down with hands to form a solid layer.  Spread half the pudding mixture over the cake.  Top pudding with 1 1/2 quarts of the blueberries.  Top the blueberries with the remaining cake squares, followed by the rest of the pudding mixture.  Cut tops off strawberries and place, cut side down, around the perimeter of the bowl.  Pour remaining blueberries into center.

Chocolate Covered Pretzels

These were so simple to make, and so delicious!  Dip pretzel rods in melted modeling chocolate for candy making (I found the Melt ‘n Mold brand at Safeway).  I melted the chocolate in a tall and skinny juice glass, and then tipped the chocolate to the very edge and rolled the pretzel in it.  Lightly scrape the sides of the pretzel on the lip of the glass to remove excess, then sprinkle with desired toppings (sprinkles, nuts, etc.).  Since I was going for a 4th of July theme, I used red, white, and blue colored sugar crystals and piped on frosting, which I tinted red and blue with food coloring (I fear my hand will be blue for days!).  The icing didn’t stick as well to the chocolate as it does to cookies or cakes, so it wound up sliding a bit and looking messy… but… they’re fun, festive, chocolate covered pretzels, and that’s all that counts!

Bakewell Tart (Daring Bakers’ Challenge)

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

Before seeing this as the monthly challenge for the Daring Bakers, I had never heard of a bakewell tart.  But I can assure you that I will certainly be making this again – I loved it!

I made this the day Husband moved, figuring that baking would help cheer me up (plus, Husband dislikes almond flavors and any fruit based sweet, so there was no point for making it for him).  Due to some unexpected circumstances, we were out of town until the day before he left, and we did not have the chance to make one last grocery trip using his car, so I made several substitutions with what was already in my kitchen.  The frangipane called for 4.5oz icing (confectioners) sugar, but I only had half a cup… so I subbed the rest with regular granulated sugar.  I also needed 4.5oz of ground almonds, but after tossing all the almonds I had into my food processor and came up short – since I had no idea what the texture would be with fewer nuts, I just filled the rest with ground walnuts and added extra almond extract to mask any walnut flavor.  And you know what?  It was great!  Confession: I ate a piece for breakfast every day this week!

Bakewell Tart

Ingredients:

For shortbread crust-

• 8 oz all purpose flour
• 1 oz sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 oz unsalted butter, cold
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1-2 tablespoons cold water

For frangipane-

• 4.5 oz unsalted butter, softened
• 4.5 oz icing (confectioners) sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 4.5 oz ground almonds
• 1 oz all purpose flour

For filling-

• 1 cup jam (I used apricot)

Directions:

1. Sift together flour, sugar, and salt for shortbread crust.  Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the larger grating side of a box grater.  Using your finger tips only, rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.
2. Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract and quickly mix into the flour mixture.  Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough.
3. Form the dough into a disk, wrap in cling wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
4. To prepare the frangipane, cream the butter and sugar together until very fluffy.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Batter may appear to curdle – normal!  Pour in the almond extract and mix for another 30 seconds.  With the beaters running, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour.  Mix well.
5. Place the chilled shortbread dough on a lightly floured surface.  Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 1/4” thickness.  When the pastry is the desired size for a tart or pie plate, transfer it to the pan, press in, and trim excess dough.  Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.
6. Preheat oven to 400F.
7. Remove shell from freezer and spread an even layer of jam onto the pastry base.  Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart.  Smooth the top and bake for 30-35 minutes.  The finished tart will have a golden crust and the frangipane will be tanned and poofy.

Temporary Delays

I apologize for all the delays in posting, but things have been kind of a zoo around here. I intend on updating about my grandmother, sharing some pictures from our vacation, lamenting about how all of my friends suddenly happen to be moving away from D.C. the same week as my Husband… but first, I have to finish helping him pack up all his belongings and load them into the car, as he moves back to Philadelphia this afternoon.

Who knew a year could fly by so quickly? Let’s hope the next two-ish years pass by even faster.

Potstickers (Daring Cooks’ Challenge)

This month, the Daring Cooks recipe was to stuff, pleat, and prepare either postickers or dumplings entirely from scratch (potstickers are pan-fried, while dumplings are boiled or steamed). Having never had a potsticker before, I was excited to give this one a try. The opinions were mixed in the end – I enjoyed them, a friend we had over for dinner loved them, but Husband said they were just “okay” and complained that they lacked flavor. However, he was in a foul, miserable mood, so I’m going to discard his opinion since he was in a “hating everything” mood, and go with the fact that the other two of us were quite pleased.

I altered the original filling suggestions slightly, and went with two versions – one containing pork and one containing shrimp. If Husband hadn’t been unimpressed, this would have been the perfect food option for us, since I won’t eat pork, and he is allergic to shrimp, but both use the same dough. I wound up making three batches of the dough and still had quite a bit of filling remaining, so I’m planning on using them to make some fried rice for lunch today.

pleated dumplings, waiting to be fried into potstickers

Potstickers
Adapted from Jen of Use Real Butter

Pork Filling:

• 1/2 pound ground pork
• 3 stalks scallions, minced
• 1/4 pound shitake mushrooms, minced
• 1/4 cup bamboo shoots, minced
• 1/4 cup water chestnuts, minced
• 1 1/2 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon corn starch

Shrimp Filling:

• 1/2 pound shrimp, peeled, deveined, and chopped
• 3 stalks scallions, minced
• 1/4 pound shitake mushrooms, minced
• 1/4 cup bamboo shoots, minced
• 1/4 cup water chestnuts, minced
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon corn starch

Dipping Sauce:

• 4 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• few drops sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons spicy mustard
• pinch sugar

Dough:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup warm water
• flour for work surface

Directions:

1. Prepare fillings by combining all ingredients and mixing well. (Minicing all the vegetables was my least favorite part of this by far; our old, dull knives were not up to the task.) Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
2. In a large bowl, mix flour with 1/4 cup water and stir until water is absorbed. Continue adding water one teaspoon at a time and mixing thoroughly until dough pulls away from sides of bowl. Dough should be firm and barely sticky to the touch.
3. Knead the dough for 20 strokes, then cover with a damp paper towel and let rest for 15 minutes.
4. Take the dough and form a flattened dome. Cut into strips 1.5 to 2 inches wide, and shape the strips into rounded long cylinders. On a floured surface, cut the strips into 3/4 inch pieces. Press palm down on each piece to form a flattened circle. With a rolling pin, roll out a circular wrapper from each flat disc, about 1/16th inch thick. Place a teaspoon of filling in the center of each wrapper and fold the dough in half, pleating the edges along one side. For a picture tutorial of how to form pleats, see here. Personally, I found pleating the dough to be quite relaxing.
5. Place dumplings in a frying pan with 1-2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Heat on high and fry for a few minutes until golden (pork took 2-3 minutes, shrimp took less than a minute because of lower fat content). Add 1/4 cup water (1/2 cup if you have a large frying pan and can fit lots of dumpings in at a time) and cover. Cook until the water has boiled away. Uncover pan and reduce heat to medium. Let the dumplings cook another 2 minutes to crisp up, and then remove from heat.
6. Serve with prepared dipping sauce.

frying to a crispy golden bottom

Lord Stanley’s Cup

I very well may have, at age 25, reached my ultimate peak… at least when it comes to sports.  It’s all down hill from here.

First, the Steelers win the Superbowl in February… the very first NFL team to acquire 6 Lombardi Trophies.

And then, tonight, on the very same night, just minutes apart, the Pittsburgh Penguins win the Stanley Cup and the Hershey Bears (AHL minor league hockey) win the Calder Cup.  As my father resides in Pennsylvania, he got to watch BOTH games simultaneously.  I cannot remember the last time I heard him so happy.  Three Stanley Cups in my lifetime – each more exciting than the next.  I’m not going to lie; I almost teared up when Mario Lemieux lifted the Cup over his head and brought it down for a kiss.  As I’ve already mentioned, watching the Penguins has always brought me closer to my father, and I am so thrilled to have been able to watch another Stanley Cup win “with” (over the phone) him.

Picture from the last Penguins game I attended with my father – March 10, 2001 (Jagr had just scored a hat trick, conveniently on free hat giveaway night)

Hot damn, it’s GREAT to be a Pittsburgh (and central Pennsylvania) fan.

 

LET’S GO PENS!!!

 

Penguins win Stanley Cup versus Detroit Red Wings:

 

Hershey Bears win Calder Cup versus Manitoba Moose:

 

And Julie rejoices.