French Macarons: My Personal Baking Mount Everest

A few weeks ago, I went to a French macaron making workshop at Dessert Truck Works at the Lower East Side.  Tucked away on Clinton St. and E. Houston, it’s a cute little space with a laid-back but cozy sitting area where patrons can enjoy desserts with cups of coffee or tea.  Within the same space is the area for the workshop.

Their name on the wall by the entrance.

Work area.

The workshop was very helpful and I took away a lot of knowledge when it comes to making these little suckers.  I went to the workshop because my first attempt at making macarons a little over two years ago resulted in this mess:

Macarons are very fussy and require a lot of patience if you’re ever going to get them right.  A lot of patience and trial and error.  Today I attempted making some on my own, and they did not turn out the way mine turned out at the workshop (which were perfect if I do say so myself!), but they turned out much better than the little monsters above:

Macarons, attempt #2 at home. – baked at 300F, 12 minutes (6 min, rotate pan, then another 6 min.), dried for about 1 hour.

The recipe at the workshop said to bake them for approximately 7 minutes at 300°F , but I have a feeling you need to adjust according to the idiosyncrasies, quirks and temperament of your oven at home.  I got mine to look like this after baking for 12 minutes at 300°F.  I also have a feeling that I should have dried them for longer than an hour, and the meringue may not have been stiff enough.  Next time, stiffer meringue, longer drying time.  The “shell” was a little too thin, but I was happy to see that they had feet, or pied (pronounced peeh-YED) — the ruffle around the edges that you see in the picture above.  Apparently, getting this ruffle to appear is one of the trickiest achievements in baking, so I’m glad I was able to get my little macarons to grow them.  I think it has to do with the drying of the batter and the way the batter was mixed.

I’m going to try making them again perhaps next week.  I have to age the egg whites first.  For those who are curious, this recipe used a Swiss meringue technique.  The meringue is, I think a crucial part in macaron making — the first crucial part that comes before the other crucial parts.  Macarons are incredibly hard to get right and that’s why I call them my baking Mount Everest.  It will be quite an achievement for me once I get to make perfect macarons.  I’m pretty happy with the way these turned out, considering this was my first try at making them without the supervision and moral support of the instructor.

I’m pretty excited at experimenting next time with the next attempt!  I can also see why making macarons can make a person obsessive, trying to keep track of what went right, what went wrong and why, why, why?!  But it’s all part of the fun.  Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t, and then you have to make adjustments.  And then once you find your groove, you stay with what works for you.  Until you have to make adjustments again.  A lot like life. 

Vegan Baking Class at Haven’s Kitchen

To further my education in the world of baking, today I took a day off to attend a vegan baking class at Haven’s Kitchen, near Union Square.  It’s a cute little culinary escape on 17th St., between 6th and 7th Av. with an unassuming black and white storefront.  Upon entering, you see a small specialty shop filled with gourmet ingredients, and a little reception area just inside, right before the entrance to the small kitchen classroom in the back:

This image above came from this article on the opening of Haven’s Kitchen, where there are other pictures of the space.  It was a very clean, very tranquil and friendly atmosphere.

But on to the meat and potatoes of this post — a funny choice of words, considering my class was for vegan baking!  The class was taught by pastry chef Archana Rao, of Love Street Cakes, whose own background was pretty impressive.  She attended pastry school at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) and worked for two years under renowned pastry chef, Ron Ben-Israel, whom many of you may be familiar with through his Food Network show, Sweet Genius, before going into business on her own.  You can see her creations on her web site, to which I’ve previously linked.  I should’ve asked her if he was just as crazy in person as he seems on the show, but it slipped my mind. 

The class was quite informative and I learned a lot.  She talked about the different flours and how when it comes to vegan baking, the more natural the ingredients, the better.  I learned about the differences between the many different sweeteners used in vegan baking.  Table sugar originates from either the sugar cane plant or from beets.  Refined cane sugar isn’t considered vegan because animal bone char is used in its processing.  Beet sugar, on the other hand, does not require the use of bone char.  This fascinating article explains in further detail — http://www.vegsource.com/jo/qa/qasugar.htm.  As for sugar substitutes, I didn’t realize that Truvia was more natural than Splenda, which is a hybrid of artificial and natural sweeteners.  Truvia comes from the stevia plant, and you can’t get any more natural than a plant.

We started off with a vegan peanut butter cookie:

Vegan peanut butter cookies.

In addition to sweeteners, she got into the topic of using flax seeds mixed with water to substitute for eggs.  I’ve heard of this before, but I’m not sure if I’d be willing to use this substitution.  Perhaps one day.  I’m sure nothing works like the real thing, but of course in vegan baking, that’s going to be a no-no.

As for a butter substitute, coconut oil (which was in a jar in solid form) is used in many recipes.  I had asked if the use of the coconut oil would give the finished product a distinct coconut taste, but apparently the coconut flavor is so subtle that it’s pretty undetectable.  The coconut butter was used in the black pepper vegan biscuits that we also made in class:

Black pepper vegan biscuits

In addition to being a butter substitute in vegan baking, coconut oil is used in India as a hair treatment and also a skin moisturizer.  In fact, some of the ladies in class took some coconut oil out of the jar and started rubbing it into their skin.  I love multi-purpose baking ingredients.

The highlight of the class for me was probably the vegan chocolate cake and the tofu chocolate mousse.

Tofu chocolate mousse

I’d heard of making mousse out of tofu before, but I’d never seen it done nor have I ever tasted the end result.  She basically took 1 package of firm tofu, added some maple syrup, put it all into a blender and added 10 oz. melted dark chocolate.  I forget if the recipe called for anything else (we’re supposed to get the recipes e-mailed to us later on).  She blended it all until the mixture was super smooth.  I tasted it and was pretty impressed — not bad for something with a slightly unappealing description — honestly, tofu mousse???  But throw in the chocolate and baby, I’m a believer.

The mousse was used to fill and frost the vegan chocolate cake, and the combination of the mousse and cake was very good.  By itself the mousse might be a little overwhelming in large quantities without the chocolate of the cake to break it up, but together, the cake and the mousse make an excellent flavor combination.

Vegan chocolate cake

 

Vegan Cake + Vegan Mousse = Vegan Love

If I had to rate the things we made today, I’d say my ultimate favorite was the vegan chocolate cake with the tofu chocolate mousse.  In the middle is the peanut butter cookies, and my least favorite was the biscuits.  The biscuits, while not bad in flavor (we didn’t hate it), were lacking a little something in terms of texture and were a little dry.  I described them as “savory cookies” and the instructor agreed with me.  After class was finished, we sat down to a light lunch and enjoyed our vegan desserts.

In conclusion — vegan baking, yay or nay?  I’d say definitely “yay.”  Being a relatively new sub-genre within the larger field of baking, it requires a lot of experimentation and a lot of trial and error.  I’m eager to take the recipes we used today and improve upon them, tweaking them here and there.  A lot of people think “yuck” with the word “vegan,” and I think this isn’t entirely fair.  You can’t compare the real thing with its vegan cousin, because you have to approach vegan baking as an entity all on its own.  You have to take it for what it is, and not for what it isn’t.  There will never be anything like the real thing made with butter, cream and eggs, of course, but you can try to come pretty damn close.  And that’s the challenge that is presented to bakers who dare to try vegan baking.  And what I love about it is that there’s plenty of room to discover new things that work.

Now, gluten free and vegan…that’s a whole other story for a whole other post. 

A New Direction

Last Friday when I came into my yoga studio for practice, I was greeted by my friend Ashley, who was manning the front desk where people sign in.  After I signed in, she presented me with a box of vegan oatmeal cranberry cookies that she made.  I made the mistake of only taking one — they were amazing!  Of course, by the time I realized my mistake it was too late because I waited until I got to my office that morning to try it.  I just googled the recipe and I think it may be this one.  I haven’t tried to make it yet, so don’t quote me on that.

I googled for other vegan baking recipes and found a recipe for vegan peanut butter chocolate pillows, which I will be trying very soon.  I’m wondering if I can also make this gluten-free using my substitute mix.  Speaking of gluten-free, I made my mom’s brownies the other night using this flour mix and it came out very nicely — fudgier, even.  I just used a 1-1 substitution.  So that makes 1 “regular” recipe in which I substituted my gluten-free flour blend and the results came out great.  Sorry, no pictures this time.  You guys know what a brownie looks like.  A gluten-free brownie doesn’t look all that different, really.

Ever since I started practicing Ashtanga yoga regularly, I’ve made some changes to my dietary habits.  While it’s not necessary to become vegan or vegetarian to have a good yoga practice, I find myself wanting to eat less meat — mainly because of the way I feel after I’ve eaten meat, which is heavy.  And because I practice yoga at 6:30 in the morning, I don’t want last night’s steak dinner causing a little bulge in my stomach when I’m doing twists — it makes it a lot harder.  Plus, I feel heavier when I eat a lot of meat.  I don’t think I can commit to becoming a full-fledged vegetarian (much less vegan), so I keep it to 1 or  2 meals a week where I can eat meat.  I saw this really interesting documentary on Netflix called Forks Over Knives, promoting a plant-based diet.  While I think there are certainly merits to the research presented in the documentary, I think you need to take it with a grain of salt.  The way the evidence was presented was just a little too…”pushy” for my liking.  However, I do agree that eating a little less meat can go a long way towards better health.

All that being said, my dietary changes have somewhat influenced my baking.  In short, I’m doing a lot less of it.  Partly due to my yoga practice which does not permit me to stay up late baking big projects anymore, and partly because having a regular yoga practice has made me be a little more mindful of what and how much I eat.  But all that aside, I still have a SWEET TOOTH and an ADDICTION TO ALL THINGS CHOCOLATE, so I doubt the baking will ever stop.  I’ll still make super-indulgent, decadently rich things from time to time of course (because sometimes it’s just more fun with all the fat!), but I’m thinking I’m going to explore more of what I call “alternative” baking because of the challenges it presents — baking things and making them taste good without the use of conventional baking ingredients.

A Brownie For Grown-Ups

Christmas is 2 weeks away, and I am on schedule with my cookie shipping for a change.  This year I decided to give two kinds of baked goods — chocolate-covered Mexican wedding cookies and my newest thing, Guinness brownies.  Yes, I said “Guinness.”

Considering that I’m not a drinker at all, it’s funny that I have quite a stash of various alcoholic substances.  I’ve collected these bottles over time as I’ve tested out recipes that called for various liqueurs and even vodka.  My most popular liqueur of choice is Kahlua.  I love Kahlua for baking.  But today I’m going to talk about beer.  Not only do I have stronger alcohol in my cabinets, I now also have beer.  Guinness, to be exact.  And Guinness found its way into my home because I wanted to make beer bread, which I had the pleasure of eating while I was visiting with a friend’s (who also happens to be one of my yoga teachers) family in Maine.  His grandmother makes this fantastic bread that became my breakfast for the whole time we were there.  Ingredients?  Self-rising flour, a pinch of salt, and one bottle of beer.  Any beer.  And that’s it.  You throw the ingredients together, mix with a wooden spoon (well that was my utensil of choice) til the dough is wet, and throw into the oven.  No kneading.  Who knew making bread could be so simple?  It goes very well with soup, or by itself, slathered with butter.  Lots of butter.

I made this beer bread for the first time using Guinness.  Extra stout.  I figured, go big or go home.  What I found was that Guinness imparts a very strong (though not unpleasant) flavor of beer to the bread — I know it’s beer bread, but the taste was a little strong for my liking.  The next time I made this bread, I went with Yuengling and the flavor was much more subtle.  You can have a lot of fun with this bread, experimenting with different beers.  And the best part is how little work and how very few ingredients you need to make it!

But I’m not here to continue rambling about beer bread.  I was merely explaining how Guinness made it into my home via beer bread making.

Having decided never to use Guinness for beer bread again, I was now stuck with 5 remaining bottles of the stuff.  I wasn’t going to drink it because I don’t drink, and I didn’t want to give it away either, having spent my money on it already.  So, what to do?  Google to the rescue.  Having read that Guinness has a “chocolate” taste to it (really?  I don’t taste it), I found a recipe for a Guinness brownie.  What sold me on trying it out was the picture.  I saw a close-up of a very moist, very fudgy-looking brownie.  I am a sucker for moist, fudgy brownies.

See what I mean?

Another view in case it wasn't clear how fudgy they are.

Moist, chewy, chocolate goodness with hints of Guinness.  I don’t like the taste of beer by itself, but the Guinness paired quite well with the blend of chocolate I used in the recipe (I used 2 bars of Lindt 70% dark and 4 ounces of Callebaut white chocolate).  I found that the flavor develops more after a day or two, with the Guinness blending better with the chocolate.  And since I had so many bottles left, I decided to make more batches for giving away.  Recipe below:

Guinness Brownies (from A Mingling of Tastes)

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 8 ounces dark bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 4 ounces high quality white chocolate, chopped
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/4 cup Guinness Stout beer, at room temperature
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I left these out)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a 13 x 9-inch baking pan with nonstick foil (or regular foil coated with nonstick spray); or, use a nonstick pan coated well with nonstick spray.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa and salt; set aside.

Melt the chocolate in the microwave: In a medium glass bowl, or other microwave-safe bowl, combine the dark chocolate, white chocolate and butter. Microwave on medium power for 45 seconds and stir. Continue microwaving and stirring at 30 second intervals, reducing to 15 second intervals as the chocolate is nearly melted. Stop just when the chocolate is smooth (all microwaves are different, so take care not to burn it). Set aside.

Combine the eggs and sugar in a large bowl and mix on high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add melted chocolate in two additions, beating on medium speed until combined. Add flour mixture in two additions, beating on medium speed until combined. Add one-third of the Guinness and the vanilla and whisk until combined. Repeat two more times with remaining Guinness.

Pour brownie batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over top. Bake for 23 to 27 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (mine took exactly 25 minutes). Cool completely in pan, cut into 24 squares and serve.

Instead of using a 13 x 9 pan, I used two 8 x 8 inch square pans.  I also baked at 350 degrees for 25 minutes instead of at 375 degrees.  While they can be stored at room temperature, I preferred to store them in the fridge.  They’re very good when cold!

Gluten-Free: The Secret’s In The (Gluten-Free) Flour

Back when I first heard of gluten-free, I thought that it was only for those who were celiac or had low tolerance to gluten.  But it seems that gluten-free is becoming more and more popular as a dietary lifestyle, for even those who don’t have to avoid gluten.  I myself am not eating a gluten-free diet, but I have had some experience in gluten-free baking.  Why?  I like the challenge.

I’ve done some reading on gluten-free baking and substitutes for all-purpose flour, and many of the articles I’ve read mention that flour substitutes consisting of bean flours often have an aftertaste that most people find unpalatable.  I myself have never tried baking with flour substitutes consisting of bean-based flours, so I wouldn’t know.  But I’ve read enough reviews and complaints to believe it’s probably true.

When baking gluten-free, I use my own blend of flours.  Before you credit me for creating this unique blend, I have to say that I came across this blend accidentally.  I was making gluten-free vanilla cupcakes for a friend using a gluten-free vanilla pound cake recipe from Land O Lakes, which included a recipe for a gluten-free flour blend.  The cupcakes turned out so amazing in texture and in taste that you wouldn’t even be able to tell it was gluten-free unless you were told!  And best of all, no funny aftertaste!

So what’s in this flour blend already?!

Here it is (for those who didn’t click on the link to the Land O Lakes pound cake recipe):

Gluten-Free Flour Blend

• 2 cups rice flour (I used brown rice flour)
• 2/3 cup potato starch
• 1/3 cup tapioca flour
• 1 teaspoon xanthan gum

Mix it all together with a whisk for even blending of the ingredients, and voila!  You’ve got yourself your gluten-free flour blend.  It’s a bit more expensive to buy the separate components as opposed to just buying a bag of gluten-free flour (which is often made from a blend of bean flours), but well worth-it when you see and taste the results.  One recipe of this flour blend makes about 3 cups.

I decided to use this gluten-free flour blend when I made gluten-free red velvet cupcakes for another friend’s birthday.  I got very successful results.  Great texture, great taste, no aftertaste.  The recipe for the cupcakes is below:

Gluten Free Red Velvet Cupcakes (from Candace Nelson, owner of Sprinkles Cupcakes)

Ingredients

• 1 cup of butter
• 1 1/2 cups of sugar
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 1/2 cups of gluten-free flour blend
• 4 tablespoons of cocoa powder ( = 1/4 cup)
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 1/4 cups of milk
• 1 teaspoon of white wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons of red food coloring
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• Cream cheese frosting
• 8 ounces of cream cheese, softened
• 4 ounces (1 stick) of butter, softened
• 3 3/4 cups of powdered sugar, sifted
• 1/8 teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla

• Cream cheese frosting
• 8 ounces of cream cheese, softened
• 4 ounces (1 stick) of butter, softened
• 3 3/4 cups of powdered sugar, sifted
• 1/8 teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla

Preparation

For the cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Stir together dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt).

Mix together wet ingredients (milk, vinegar, food coloring, vanilla).

Add creamed butter and sugar, mix in eggs.

Alternately mix in dry, wet, then dry ingredients.

Fill 1 dozen cupcake cups and bake for 18-22 minutes or until tops are just dry on top.

 

For the frosting:

Mix cream cheese and butter.

Add salt and vanilla.

Slowly add in powdered sugar.

 

I also used this in a gluten-free pumpkin cupcake recipe that called for Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free flour and it performed flawlessly.

I have not yet tried to substitute this flour blend in place of all-purpose flour in a regular recipe, so I couldn’t tell you if you could just do a 1-1 substitution or if you have to do some fancy math to figure out how much of this flour blend you should use to substitute for 1 cup of AP flour.  It would be interesting to see though, and I’m hoping it will be a simple 1-1 substitution.  I’m also planning on using this flour blend in place of almond flour in my gluten-free, vegan chocolate chip cookies.

Bridal Cupcakes

It seems that whenever I try to walk away from baking, someone asks me to make cupcakes/cakes for them, and I never say no.  Because it happens every time I try to walk away.  A believer in signs (to some extent), I feel like I’m being told that I should not quit, and that I should continue baking, whether it’s for money or for pure love of baking.  And so, when given the opportunity to bake for a client, I usually say yes.

A coworker asked me to make cupcakes for someone in his group who recently got married.  25 cupcakes, chocolate, make it bridal.  I thought, “bridal”…well roses are bridal.  I also thought it would be nice to color the frosting the same color as her wedding colors.  I asked and was told that the bridesmaids wore champagne-colored dresses.  At first I thought, “Ok, that shouldn’t be so hard…”  Exercise over, lesson learned — champagne is a hard color to mix.

I researched some web sites and they said ivory gel paste + tan gel paste in a 2 to 1 ratio…but mmmmmnot really.  I stopped playing around with the color after a while, for fear of the color turning a strange, unappetizing shade.  Better to quit while you’re ahead, I say.  And it paid off.

 

Coming soon – baking with beer.

A New Blogging Home

I’ve decided to import my baking blog into WordPress to keep both my blogs on the same hosting site.   One login, two blogs…much easier.

Despite the lack of posting, I’ve actually been doing a bit of baking, but have been quite lazy about posting — I know, shame on me.  Hopefully with my new blog home, I will be motivated to create new posts about the things I’ve been up to.  Including a future post on baking with beer.

Anyway…Watch this space for developments!  As soon as I get to upload my pictures for posts, I will be back!

Pumpkin!

Pumpkins have many uses.  Other than serving as Cinderella’s transportation to the ball, pumpkins are carved into Jack-o-Lanterns around Halloween, and a pumpkin also served as the Headless Horseman’s “head” before he threw it at Ichabod Crane.  I neither have use for a Jack-O-Lantern nor a pumpkin for a head (mine is still in good condition), nor do I need a pumpkin for transportation (though it might be more fun than riding the subway…fun, but it wouldn’t get me anywhere)…  Luckily, pumpkins are also good for eating.

Fall is in the air, and along with the changing season comes a change in mood…  Specifically, I’m in the mood for pumpkin.  I know there’s a pumpkin shortage, but that’s not going to stop me when I’m seeing orange!  I recently made a couple of pumpkin recipes, both of which I made for the first time.

The first one is a pumpkin mac & cheese…

I found the recipe on Broke-Ass Gourmet and tweaked it a little by using a blend of muenster, gruyère and cheddar cheeses.  I also used an entire can of pumpkin puree.  She doesn’t say it in her recipe, but I also sprinkled panko and Italian breadcrumbs on top along with cheese before baking to form the top crust.  Blending the three cheeses resulted in a more textured flavor to the sauce and a little bit of nuttiness that came from the gruyère.  It was a tiny tiny bit dry, so maybe I’ll use more liquid next time.  But the taste was pretty amazing, and the leftovers were even better the next day!

Pumpkin Mac & Cheese

• 8 oz. elbow macaroni, penne, shells or other small pasta shape
  
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter plus more for the pan
  
• 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup milk (any kind)
  
• 1 15 oz. can pumpkin puree
  
• 1/2 cup blend of gruyère, muenster and cheddar, plus a little more for topping
  
• dash nutmeg
  
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly butter an 11“x13” baking pan or 4 ramekins/oven-proof bowls

Cook macaroni in salted boiling water according to package directions.

While macaroni cooks, melt the butter in a medium pot over medium heat. As soon as it begins to brown, add the flour and whisk until you have a very sticky dough.

Slowly whisk in the milk to form a creamy white sauce.

Continue whisking as you add the pumpkin and 1/2 cup of the white cheddar. You should have a very creamy orange sauce. Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Drain the pasta and return it to its pot. Use a rubber spatula to scrape all of the sauce over the pasta and stir to coat the pasta evenly.

Scrape the sauced pasta into the prepared pan(s) and top with the reserved cheddar plus more salt and pepper.

Bake for 18-22 minutes or until the cheese is very bubbly and lightly browned on top. Serve hot.

The next pumpkin recipe was a chocolate-chip pumpkin blondie recipe from My Baking Addiction.  I didn’t do much tweaking except I added 1/2 a teaspoon of nutmeg to the recipe.  This recipe makes two 8″ x 8″ square pans if you don’t have a 13″ x 9″ baking pan.

The first thing I have to say about these blondies is that they were very very moist.  The pumpkin taste was just right, and I was glad I added the extra half teaspoon of nutmeg to give it a bit of a boost.  This recipe is definitely going to be a keeper!  Here it is as shown on the web site (with some notes on my additions and substitutions):

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Blondies

• 2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (my addition)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar (I use light brown)
• 1 large egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 (15 ounce) can pure pumpkin puree
• 2 cups dark chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup pecans; roughly chopped (omitted)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line bottom and sides of a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with parchment, leaving an overhang on all sides. Grease with nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars on medium-high speed until smooth; beat in egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in pumpkin puree. If the mixture looks curdled, do not fret.

Reduce speed to low, and mix in dry ingredients until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips and pecans.

Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Bake until edges begin to pull away from sides of pan and a toothpick inserted in center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely in pan.

Storage: Store the pumpkin blondies in a single layer inside an airtight container for up to three days.

Stay tuned for more pumpkin goodness…The fall season has just begun! 

Gluten-Free Vanilla Cupcakes

I’ve been wanting to jump on the gluten-free bandwagon for a while now, and the opportunity came when a friend’s birthday gave me the perfect reason to finally get cracking.  A while ago, I made gluten-free, vegan chocolate chip cookies and was introduced to the use of almond flour in baking as a substitute for all-purpose flour, agave syrup as a substitute for sugar, and grapeseed oil as a substitute for butter.  But one project doesn’t mean I can really bake gluten-free (or vegan, for that matter).  I wanted to bake gluten-free and have it taste good, have a nice texture, and be as close to the regular, made-with-all-purpose-flour cupcake/cookie/whatever.

Enter this recipe I found while googling for gluten-free recipes.  Yes, I realize it’s a pound cake recipe, but you can convert any cake recipe into a cupcake recipe.  Just put the batter in cupcake pans and bake at approximately 20 minutes (to start…most cupcake recipes I’ve used require only about 20 minutes of baking time).

Before I even came across this recipe, I never knew there was such a thing as gluten-free vanilla and gluten-free baking powder.  Luckily for me, I have a bottle of Nielsen Massey vanilla bean paste, which is certified gluten-free, so that saved me the trouble of looking for gluten-free vanilla.

The interesting part of this recipe was really the gluten free flour blend, which consisted of potato starch, rice flour (I used brown rice flour.  The nice lady at the organics store told me that brown rice flour, as opposed to white rice flour, is better because it’s less carbs), tapioca flour, and xanthan gum.  I was most fascinated with xanthan gum, because it sounded so…mysterious.  Xanthan gum is “used by people who are allergic to gluten to add volume and viscosity to bread and other gluten-free baked goods. It is made from a tiny microorganism called Xanthomonas campestris and is a natural carbohydrate,” according to the Bob’s Red Mill web site (incidentally, I used Bob’s Red Mill xanthan gum for this recipe).  Apparently it’s also used as a thickener in sauces, gravies, etc.  Hmmm…fascinating.  Good to know.

Anyway, I know you’re really here for the pictures, so here they are:

 

 

I took that last picture because I wanted a close-up of the texture.  With gluten-free baking, what tends to be noticeably different is usually the texture.  In regular baking, flour is the ingredient responsible for the presence of gluten, a protein found in wheat-based food products which adds elasticity to doughs.  Gluten, which is not necessarily a bad thing to most people, is certainly a bad thing for people who have celiac disease or simply have a gluten intolerance.  Hence the need for gluten-free foods.  Anyway, the texture of this cupcake was almost exactly like the texture of a regular cupcake.  In fact, I can’t really tell much of a difference.

The taste of the cupcake itself was pretty good.  It was dense, but not too dense, and very moist and vanilla-y and buttery.  Now I know that if I want a dense cupcake, I should use a pound cake recipe.  I used an old standby for the frosting, a chocolate cream cheese frosting, which paired quite well with the cupcake.  Not having my 1M piping tip, I decided to use a different method of frosting a cupcake, what I would call the “dollop and turn” (I just made that up now).  I learned from this YouTube video (I love YouTube!) below:

I think this method of frosting is dependent on the consistency of the frosting.  They are clearly using a fairly stiff buttercream frosting in the video.  My frosting probably could have used a bit more stiffness for the design to have held more distinctly, but I think I did pretty good. 

Cupcake Flower Arrangements (Includes Instructions!)

It’s been so long since I wrote in this blog that I feel like it’s a resurrection.

I have two loves when it comes to interests and hobbies. Three if you count reading. My two great loves are yoga and baking. If you look at my favorite videos on YouTube, you will see videos on no other subjects but yoga…and baking/cake decorating.  Lately my love of yoga has tipped the scale in its favor, because it’s the summer and baking at 350 degrees + heat and humidity of summer = NO.  But heat + yoga practice = GOOD.  Well, to some extent.

Anyway, my sister is getting married this year, and her Jack & Jill shower was a couple of weeks ago.  My mom, who wanted to save some money thought of a great idea in which I could bake something for the party (to give it a more personal touch), AND she could save $300 in floral centerpieces for six tables.  And this is the result of her brilliant idea:

Cupcake rose “bouquets” (in quotes because bouquets technically aren’t in flower pots).  With the wonders of YouTube, anyone can make these things.  Really, the hardest part was figuring out how to do the piping technique used to make the frosting look like a rose.  And I share the video I used to learn here:

It was so easy, you didn’t even need words to explain.  You just watch and do.  You need to use a 1M size tip though.  That much I will add.  Otherwise, you really don’t need to know anything else.  Here is how my roses turned out:

Ain’t it pretty?  Looks just like a yellow rose.

This one was supposed to be a light lavender/gray, but I made the mistake of adding the purple coloring first before adding the black and so it became a deeeeeep purple instead.  Next time, add the black first.  But still they came out pretty.

To put the whole thing together, I made two kinds of cupcakes, ordered by my sister, the bride-to-be.  She loves funfetti cupcakes, so she asked me to make funfetti and chocolate with cheesecake filling cupcakes.  The concept of “funfetti” was originated by Pillsbury, and if you don’t know what it looks like, here is the packaging:

 (Image not my own)

At the risk of sounding elitist (but really that’s not my intention!), I refuse to use cake mix.  If I can help it, I will not use cake mix.  Ever.  I like the work of putting it all together from scratch.  And so I looked for a good funfetti recipe from scratch and found one at Cakespy.com.  You can find the recipe here.  It’s pretty much just a vanilla cupcake recipe with two tablespoons of sprinkles folded in.  But I would follow the recipe as-is anyway.

[Side Note:  I go to flea markets and arts and crafts fairs sometimes, such as the Renegade Craft Fair and the Brooklyn Flea, and Cakespy was at the Renegade Craft Fair umm...I think a month or two ago and I bought this very-appropriate-to-me tote bag:

 

It is appropriate because I bake (me represented by the cupcake), I'm short (represented by me as a cupcake standing on a ladder), and Diet Coke is my beverage of choice when baking.  It's true.  I almost always drink a Diet Coke whenever I bake.  If you like this tote and think it's cute, you can buy it here and also check out their other stuff.  ]

The other cupcake variety for the party was chocolate with cheesecake filling.  It was from an old Hershey’s cookbook my mom has, and fortunately, the fact that the recipe is available online saves me the trouble of typing it here!  Ah, don’t you love the internet???

I frosted the funfetti cupcakes with the darker purple frosting, and the chocolate cupcakes with the lovely golden yellow frosting.  Dark purple frosting + the brown of the chocolate = ehhh…not as aesthetically pleasing as a contrast of colors would be.

I’ve always wished I’d been able to claim that I had an artistic side.  A friend of mine recently asked me if I had any drawing skills at all and I said, not really.  I think I stopped drawing things after third grade.  I can draw, and probably very well if I really applied myself, but…it just never worked out that way for me.  Funny because I really liked my art classes in junior high.  I even still remember my art teacher’s name.  Anyway, though seemingly absent in other media, it seems that my artistic nature really comes alive when it’s applied to cake decorating.  Figures because I love food, so if I love my “canvas”, then it stands to reason that my imagination will come alive.

And now I will share how we put the whole thing together:

Materials:

6 cupcakes, frosted in the manner shown above in the YouTube video.

1 6-inch terracotta flower pot

1 6-inch flower foam ball (available in arts & crafts stores), cut in half

wooden barbecue skewers, cut into about 3 – 3 1/2 inch segments (we used bamboo)

fake leaves (used as fillers for the gaps between cupcakes)

artificial stones (put in the bottom of each pot to weigh it down and make it more stable)

Instructions:

Put one cupcake liner at the bottom of the pot to cover up the hole at the bottom (if there is one for drainage — ours did).  Fill the flower pot about 1/3 with artificial stones.

Place a flower foam ball half into the pot, flat side down so the domed part faces up.

Take a cupcake, pierce the bottom with a barbecue skewer and insert the skewer just deep enough into the cupcake that it goes all the way or more than halfway through the cake but doesn’t pierce through the frosting.  It should end up looking like a cupcake on a short stick.

Place the first cupcake at the very top of the flower foam dome (haha I rhyme) by gently inserting the “cupcake on a short stick” into the foam (stick end goes in the foam, of course…), pushing just until the bottom of the cupcake makes contact with foam.

Arrange the next 5 cupcakes in the same way, going around the center cupcake.

Fill any gaps by inserting fake leaves into the foam (we cut the stems of the fake leaves so they would fit according to our needs)

Note: A 6-inch terracotta flower pot with a 6-inch flower foam ball will comfortably fit 6 cupcakes.  5 around and one in the middle.  At least that’s the configuration we went with.  It is also important to frost the cupcakes before inserting into the arrangement.  If you frost after inserting, you risk having the leaves damage the frosting and if you frost after the leaves are inserted, you risk frosting the leaves.  The trick here is to use a sturdy frosting that stiffens to a degree that a slight touch will not ruin its look.  I would suggest going with a cream cheese based frosting.  These tend to form a very thin crust that holds up very nicely.  I used a recipe from Cupcake Project, which is really an Oreo cream cheese frosting, but I just omitted the Oreos and colored the white frosting as I needed.

Whew.  Writing instructions is very, very tedious.  Fortunately, assembling these cupcake flower arrangements shouldn’t be.