Delicious Mistakes and Vegetarian Thai

Hey Guys!!

April has been such a busy month!  So I've been a little slow with the baking, but I made some pretty awesome things last week.  I wanted to be a little more adventurous with my cooking so I tried cupcakes with an unusual frosting and some Thai food, which I have never made before.

Chocolate Sour Cream Cupcakes with Chocolate Mousse and Fudge Drizzle

CUPCAKES

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped up
1 stick salted butter (you can use unsalted)
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Melt the chocolate in a double boiler and set to the side to cool slightly.  Beat the butter and sugar together.  Add the eggs, one at a time.  Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and stir until well blended.  Add the sour cream and water.  Then add the vanilla extract.  Line the cupcake tins with cupcake liners and fill the liners with about 1/3 of the batter.  Here is the mistake that I made..I kind of filled the cupcake liners all the way to the top.  This batter makes about 18 cupcakes, but I only had 12 cupcake liners and I didn't want to waste any batter.  After baking the cupcakes for about 18 minutes my cupcakes looked like this:

As you can see, these cupcakes are massive.  They overflowed and this would normally be fun, but the cupcake I was trying to make was supposed to have the top cut off and put back on after mousse was put int he middle.  There was no way I was going to successfully cut that top off without the cupcake completely breaking, unless I had some sort of magical powers...which I don't (?)

CHOCOLATE SAUCE

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons salted butter
1 1/2 cupcs semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat the cream and butter in a medium-sized saucepan on medium-high heat until the mixture begins to bubble, but do not let it boil.  Take the mixture off of the heat and add the chocolate chips.  Let the chocolate chips sit in the mixture for about a minute and mix the chocolate chips and cream until it is smooth.  Add the vanilla extract.  I let this mixture cool at room-temperature for about an hour before using.  It should look like this.

CHOCOLATE MOUSSE

3/4 cup Chocolate Sauce from before
1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar

Beat the heavy cream with the powdered sugar until you form stiff peaks.  Add the chocolate sauce slowly while mixing on low speed.  Some people fold the whipped cream into the chocolate, but my wrists are very weak and so was that excuse.  Anywho..I use a mixer.

Instead of putting the mousse on the inside I just spread it on top of the cupcakes and then drizzled the cupcakes with the remaining chocolate sauce by putting the chocolate sauce in a plastic bag, cutting the tip off, and drawing lines on the cupcakes.  They didn't look how I wanted them to, but I still think they looked pretty and they were, by far, the best tasting chocolate cupcakes I have ever made.

Refrigerate the cupcakes in order to solidify the mousse.  Mousse tends to run.

Thai Red Curry Tofu with Green Beans

I love Thai food and I love tofu, but it is really difficult to make tofu actually taste like something other than tofu, especially for people who aren't vegetarians, like my family.  A lot of people do not like tofu, but I think that this dish would be able to please anyone.

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 large onions, finely chopped
12 oz firm tofu, cut into 1 inch cubes
2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste (you can find this in the foreign food section of any grocery store)
14 oz tomato puree (I used tomato puree because I hate big chunky tomatoes, which the recipe called for..use whatever you prefer!)
11 oz green beans, trimmed and cut into half

Heat the oil in a wok (or a large frying pan) on high heat.  Add the onions and the tofu and saute for about 5 minutes, or until the tofu is golden.  Remove the onion and tofu.  To the pan, add the curry paste and cook for about one minute.  Add the tomatoes and bring the mixture to a boil.  Add the green beans and the tofu and onion mixture.  Heat this for about 5 more minutes and you're ready to eat!

This meal was so easy to make and it was really really tasty (and, may I add, SUPER healthy)!  If you don't want to eat tofu then you can just cut whatever meat you want.  It's very versatile.  Add however much salt you want at the end.

Tomorrow is Easter so I will be cooking up a storm for the family!!

See you then!

Stacey

Long time...Some Healthy Food, And Some Not-So-Healthy Food: Cupcakes, Baklava, and a Vegetarian Meal

Hi Guys!!  I have been so busy and unable to update my blog in a while, but that does NOT mean that I have stopped cooking and baking.  In fact, you should probably brace yourself because I am sure this post will be a little on the lengthy side.

Chocolate Dipped Chocolate Cupcakes with Fluffy Marshmallow Frosting
 
Three weeks ago, I found a really beautiful cupcake in a book called cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans, that she calls "chocolate-covered hi-hats."  I really wanted to recreate these because they looked challenging and delicious.

CUPCAKES

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup warm water
1 cup chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate, but you can use any kind that you like)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line your cupcake pans with aluminum cupcake liners.  Beat the butter and the sugar together in a bowl.  Add the eggs one at a time.  Mix together the flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda, and baking powder together in a separate bowl.  Slowly add the buttermilk and the flour mixture to the butter mixture.  Add the water and then the vanilla extract.  Stir in the chocolate chips.  The mixture should look like this:

Fill the cupcake pan 3/4 of the way up and then bake the cupcakes for about 18-20 minutes (depending on your oven).  You can tell they are done by sticking a toothpick into the cake.  The toothpick should come out clean and they should look something like this:

MARSHMALLOW FROSTING

1 3/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup water
3 large egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

I love using my big mixer that you all have seen in my posts, but I have had it for over 5  years and in that amount of time I have lost the metal whisk attachment for it.  If there is anything I learned from making this frosting is that sometimes I cannot just slide on by just using the paddle that I have been using for everything.  Because of this my frosting didn't come out as it should have.  The way to make this frosting is very simple with the right tools.  First, you have to set up a double boiler.  This is a pot of water and a glass or metal bowl on top.  You want it so that the bowl is resting inside the pot but the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water.  Mix together all of the ingredients in the bowl while the water is boiling.  Set your hand-mixer (mind you, one with metal whisks) on high until you form stiff peaks.  This means that when you pull the mixer out and hold the whisk upside-down, the marshmallow will keep its shape in a delicious peak.  Mine looked like this:

Frost the cupcakes and put the cupcakes in the fridge for about 30 minutes, or until the marshmallow becomes hard enough to dip in chocolate.  Mine looked like this:

CHOCOLATE COATING

2 cups semisweet chocolate
3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Set up another double boiler and melt the chocolate and oil together until it reaches a nice, silky consistency.  Dip the cupcakes into the chocolate until the marshmallow is covered.  My final product looked like this:

Personally, I thought they still looked pretty, but they weren't as pretty as the picture in the book!  Also, if I were to make this again I would not put the almond extract in the marshmallow frosting.  I think it would have tasted a lot better if the flavoring was simply vanilla.

CHICKPEA PATTIES AND PEA SOUP

I try to cook a full-on vegetarian meal for my family at least once a week to show them that you can have delicious, nutritious food without having to consume meat.  However, I find that it's very hard to make meat-lovers enjoy vegetarian cuisine.  My brother and sister are big meat eaters so I figured I would be able to convince them to eat vegetarian food by making it look familiar.  SO..what's more familiar to a meat-eater than a burger?  I found an interesting recipe for a veggie pattie made with chickpeas and thought this would at least make my siblings interested in a vegetarian meal.  To couple this, I decided to make some pea soup.  I love anything that is green and I can't imagine anything greener than a cup of pea soup.  Plus, soups go really great with sandwiches.

CHICKPEA PATTIES

21 oz. chickpeas (drain them and rinse them if you are using canned beans)
3 tablespoons water
1/4 cup olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic (if you are using a food processor then just crush the garlic cloves, but if you aren't then you should mince them)
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 cup baby spinach leaves, chopped
1/2 cup grated cheddar
1 carrot, grated
2 eggs
1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Bread of choice

Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a large frying pan on medium heat.  Cook the onions and garlic until they are soft.  Add the cumin and cook for about a minute.  Add the spinach, cooking for an additional minute and then remove it from the heat.

Mix together the other ingredients in a food processor (you could just stir it together, but I find a food processor easier).  Add the onion, garlic, and spinach mixture to the other ingredients.  Heat the remaining oil in the frying pan.  Form your mixture into patties (each patty should have about 1/2 cup of the mixture) and fry the patties, about 2-3 minutes on each side.

PEA SOUP

1 tablespoon butter
3 leeks (for this recipe you only use the white parts), chopped into rings
1 medium onion, finely chopped
5 cups vegetable stock
3 cups frozen peas
5 little potatoes (the original recipe I found called for 2 Russet potatoes, but we usually don't have those in my house so I used those little red potatoes), diced
1 tsp salt

***I would like to start this by telling people how to wash leeks.  Leeks have many layers and are incredibly dirty so you will want to clean them thoroughly before use.  I find it easiest to fill a large bowl with water, chop the leeks into rings, and then soak those rings in the water.  The dirt will fall to the bottom of the bowl and the leeks will float on top.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium-low heat.  Add the onion and the leek and cook until they are soft.  Add the stock, peas, potato, and salt.  Bring this to a boil and reduce the heat so that the soup is simmering.  Let it simmer for about 15-20 minutes.  Then puree the soup in a blender (or with a hand blender) until you reach the desired consistency of the soup.  I like mine with some texture so I leave some chunks in the soup.  Reheat the soup and then serve.

My meal ended up looking like this:

I added a little side salad because I opted to not eat the bun with the burgers.  My brother and sister really liked the chickpea patties, but only after putting a lot of ketchup on.

BAKLAVA

My mom has been dying for me to cook her some baklava.  I realized that I had some phyllo dough already in my freezer so I figured it's now or never; I was going to attempt to make baklava.  For those of you who have never had baklava I request that you slowly walk away from your computer and go get some baklava (unless you are allergic to nuts)!  Now that you have either indulged in some baklava or are eating some at this moment while reading I will tell you how I made baklava.

FOR THE PASTRY

1 package of phyllo dough (you can find this in the frozen foods part of your grocery store)
1 pound of chopped nuts (I prefer walnuts, but you can probably use your favorite nut)
1 cup of butter, melted
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.  Butter a pan and cut your phyllo dough so as it is the same size of the pan.  I used a pan that was approximately the same size of the phyllo sheets to make things easier (about 9"x13").  Take 2 sheets of phyllo dough and place them on the bottom of the pan.  Brush the melted butter onto the phyllo sheets.  Layer with 2 more sheets and repeat this and slathering the sheets with butter until you have about 8 sheets down.  Mix the nuts and the cinnamon together.  Butter the 8th sheet and then sprinkle on the nut mixture.  Put 2 more sheets down and repeat this until you only have about 8-10 sheets of phyllo dough left unused.  This is what mine looked like half-way done:

Take the last 8 sheets and do the same as you did in the beginning; put two sheets down, butter, and repeat.  This makes 16 ridiculously large servings.  Cut the dough in to triangles like this and bake for about 50 minutes, or until it looks like this:

While your baklava is baking, prepare the sauce.

FOR THE SAUCE

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Boil the water and sugar together in a medium saucepan on medium-high heat until the sugar is dissolved.  Add the honey and vanilla extract.  Bring the mixture to a simmer and let it simmer for about 20-30 minutes.

When the baklava is done baking, spoon the honey mixture over the top.  Mine looked like this:

These have probably been my favorite item that I have EVER baked.  They were so yummy and pretty.  But (SUPER WARNING) if you want to serve them the way I did you may want to advise the person to share their piece.  These were seriously huge and I can't even imagine how wonderfully horrible they are for your body.

My birthday is coming up this week and I have a feeling I am making my own cake..so I'll talk to you guys after to tell you how that goes!!

Stacey