Cake Pops

If you've been around baking blogs at all, you are sure to recognize the cake pop made oh so popular by Bakerella and her inspiring baking website.  I have to admit that the first time I read the process of crumbling the cake all up and then mixing frosting into it I thought "huh?"  But these ultra cute cake pops just kept popping up all over the blogsphere and it was hard to resist their charm. That being said, I still wasn't quick to pick up her Cake Pops book despite the fact that everything in it was so cute, you couldn't turn your eyes away.  I have a cupcake book with quite possibly the cutest cupcake ideas ever, and still I can't find the motivation to make corn on the cob, or bunny tail cupcakes.  And quite frankly, cake pops seemed like a whole lot of work.  I try to avoid individually sized food of any kind.

My sister was evil though and picked up the book and we've been hooked all weekend.  As in we keep making batches hooked or we don't even eat them but we still keep making them hooked.  Have to admit it's a pretty fun activity when you are making them with someone else.

I won't explain the process since it's really Bakerella's to share--jump over to her site to see instructions. 

AND the cuteness only gets better--we have the CUTEST of the cake pops coming up in a future post.  Don't want to ruin the surprise, but I will say that Brooklyn is awfully cute, and cake pops are also awfully cute as well. 

Daring Bakers Panna Cotta and Nestle Florentine Cookies

The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.

What can I say about this month's challenge except....yippee.  I don't need a lot of motivation to make florentines.  They are one of the easiest and ever popular cookies.  There's just something about that crispy almost toffee like cookie and the (dark) chocolate filling that is so dreamy.   I was definitely on board witht eh challenge.

The other half of this month's challenge was a panna cotta--a completely new dessert to me.  It was such an elegant dessert and my friends loved it.  I however had the same issue I have with creme brulee...I love that first bite, and then it's just entirely too rich for me.  It actually was surprisingly similar to creme brulee.  It was a good month to be a Daring Baker. Fo sho.  You can check out the other Daring Bakers here.

Giada's Vanilla Panna Cotta

Ingredients
1 cup (240 ml) whole milk
1 tablespoon (one packet) (15 ml) (7 gm) (¼ oz) unflavored powdered gelatin
3 cups (720 ml) whipping cream (30+% butterfat)
1/3 cup (80 ml) honey
1 tablespoon (15 ml) (15 gm) (½ oz) granulated sugar
pinch of salt
I added 4 oz of melted white chocolate

Directions:

• Pour the milk into a bowl or pot and sprinkle gelatin evenly and thinly over the milk (make sure the bowl/pot is cold by placing the bowl/pot in the refrigerator for a few minutes before you start making the Panna Cotta). Let stand for 5 minutes to soften the gelatin.
• Pour the milk  into the saucepan/pot and place over medium heat on the stove. Heat this mixture until it is hot, but not boiling, about five minutes. (I whisk it a few times at this stage).
• Next, add the cream, honey, sugar, white chocolate if using, and pinch of salt. Making sure the mixture doesn't boil, continue to heat and stir occasionally until the sugar and honey have dissolved 5-7 minutes.
• Remove from heat, allow it to sit for a few minutes to cool slightly. Then pour into the glass or ramekin.
• Refrigerate at least 6 hours or overnight. Add garnishes and serve.

Nestle Florentine Cookies

 
Ingredients:

2/3 cup (160 ml) (150 gm) (5.3 oz) unsalted butter

2 cups (480 ml) (160 gm) (5 2/3 oz) quick oats

1 cup (240 ml) (230 gm) (8 oz) granulated sugar

2/3 cup (160 ml) (95 gm) (3⅓ oz) plain (all purpose) flour

1/4 cup (60 ml) dark corn syrup

1/4 cup (60 ml) whole milk

1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla extract

pinch of salt

1½ cups (360 ml) (250 gm) (9 oz) dark or milk chocolate

 
Directions:

• Preheat oven to moderately hot 375°F (190°C) (gas mark 5). Prepare your baking sheet with silpat or parchment paper.
• Melt butter in a medium saucepan, then remove from the heat.
• To the melted butter add oats, sugar, flour, corn syrup, milk, vanilla, and salt. Mix well. Drop a tablespoon full, three inches (75 mm) apart, onto your prepared baking sheet. Flatten slightly with the back of your tablespoon, or use a spatula.
• Bake in preheated oven for 6-8 minutes, until cookies are golden brown. Cool completely on the baking sheets.
• While the cookies are cooling melt your chocolate until smooth either in the microwave (1 1/2 minutes), or stovetop (in a double boiler, or a bowl that fits atop a saucepan filled with a bit of water, being sure the water doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl).
• Peel the cookies from the silpat or parchment and place face down on a wire rack set over a sheet of wax/parchment paper (to keep counters clean).
• Spread a tablespoon of chocolate on the bottom/flat side of your cookie, sandwiching another (flat end) cookie atop the chocolate.
• This recipe will make about 2 1/2 - 3 dozen sandwiched Florentine cookies. You can also choose not to sandwich yours, in which case, drizzle the tops with chocolate (over your wax paper).

Brown Butter Crepes

Crepes.  Enough said right?  But I'll say just a bit more.

Crepes are versatile little suckas.  They can be dainty and vegetarian, hearty and meaty and of course sweet and dessert like.  Though my sister swears my brother in law will eat anything, I feel almost a compulsion to ensure that there's something for everyone.  Crepes make this easy.

This version of crepes calls for browning the butter before adding it.  It's amazing how just toasting or browning ingredients adds a level of flavor.    Then you simply add all of the ingredients to the blender, blend and refrigerate for bit-the batter is that simple. And while making the crepes themselves seems scary, I've learned it's all about confidently pouring the batter and swirling.  If you hesitate, you get something like this.  Not so great.

But if you just pour the batter quickly so that you can start moving the pan around, it just works. Pas de problem. They also make those crepe machines that you dip right into batter--we used those in high school french class and they made crepes as easy as toast.  I've really been limiting the "one use" appliances so nonstick pan it is.  It's still not that hard.

Once you have all of the crepes made, you can refrigerate or use immediately and the filling is only limited by your refrigerator contents.  I opted for ham and swiss in a nod to the croque monsieur for the carnivores, ham, swiss and mushrooms for the omnivores and mushroom and swiss for, well, me. Dinner in 20 minutes is about as easy as it gets.

Brown Butter Crepes

Crepe Ingredients
3 tablespoons butter
2 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1 cup flour
Butter, for coating the pan

Filling Ingredients

deli ham sliced paper thin

shredded baby swiss

mushrooms

Directions

• In a small saucepan, heat butter over medium high heat until the butter is brown but not burnt--about 2-4 minutes depending upon pan used. 
• In a blender, combine all of the ingredients and pulse for 10 seconds. Place the crepe batter in the refrigerator for 1 hour. This allows the bubbles to subside so the crepes will be less likely to tear during cooking. The batter will keep for up to 48 hours.
• Heat a small non-stick pan. Add butter to coat. Pour 1 ounce of batter into the center of the pan and swirl to spread evenly. Cook for 30 seconds and flip. Cook for another 10 seconds and remove to the cutting board. Lay them out flat so they can cool. Continue until all batter is gone.

For filling

• Preheat oven to 300
• Sautee vegetable/s with garlic until tender
• shred cheese
• Lay crepe out flat, fill half of crepe with fillings of choice
• Fold crepe in half and then half again and place in large casserole dish and make remaining crepes
• Cover casserole with aluminum foil and bake for 15-20 mins or long enough to melt cheese.

 

Chipmunks and Quesadillas

Chipmunk love

I haven't completely abandoned food posts.  In fact, we are headed to the farmers' market in a bit with high hopes of some dinner inspiration.  Have to say I'm a big fan of any place that has farmers' markets in February.

Since I've been here, I've been in the kitchen just once and through that, I've learned that my sister and I have very different ideas of food styling for photography. I was going to spare you, but what is sibling love without calling your sis on things once and awhile.  ;)  The fork is my favorite touch.

My sister let me keep chipmunk home from daycare yesterday and we had quite the day of parks and walks and books and naps. Exhausting. 

I love nothing more than pointing a camera at a subject I adore.  Chipmunk may soon tire of the camera as Peanut did, but I sure had fun.  One munchkin and some sliding glass doors letting in ridiculous amounts of light = happiness indeed.

And just because this recipe was sooooo easy and so tasty, thought I'd throw in the link.  I won't pretend that I was clever enough to figure out that barbecue chicken would make a tasty quesadilla.  It's actually almost identical in flavor to  Barbecue Chicken Pizza--but without having to make pizza crust.  I went straight to Bobby Flay looking for a recipe after seeing an ad for his Mesa Grill restuarant on The Strip and as always, he came through. Since I didn't marinate the chicken, it took half an hour end to end at the most and that was mostly to cook the chicken.  Easy peasy.

Bbq Chicken Quesadilla with Buttermilk Dressing

Valley of Fire

I'm a big fan of wandering when I'm traveling.  I've been known to turn a 8 hour road trip into a 12 hour trip just by getting off the interstate and wandering down country roads or taking "little detours."  Moab is just a teeny-tiny 120 mile detour off of I-70 on the way from Denver to Vegas.  I was so tempted.  I even started to get off the exit. But then I realized I was already about 2 hours behind where I thought I would be because of a little detour in Glenwood Springs and another in Palisades, so I stayed on course.  I was a bit glad I did when I hit all of that snow as that alone added hours to my trip.  But there is still a part of me that was really sad to miss Moab...that is until I visited Valley of Fire State Park.  While not exactly the same, this little Nevada gem went a long way in satiating my need to see desert rock formations.  Truthfully, I'd never even heard of Valley of Fire until my sister recommended I head up there to hike instead of Red Rock Canyon.  It was a bit farther (55 miles) but well worth the trip.  Smart sister.

I don't know why she looks off into the distance when I take her photo or what she's looking at.  I'm pretty sure she thinks she's a supermodel.

Since I'm not so great with remembering place names, we'll just call this Rattlesnake Ridge.

This one was taken in Rattlesnake Ravine.

And I'm pretty sure this one is Rattlesnake Recline.

And here we have Rattlesnake Rock.

Well look at that, my paranoia is justified.  Sidewinder = rattlesnake.  Note that Tarantulas are "essentially harmless to humans."  No such claim is made in the Sidewinder's description.

Luckily we didn't run into snakes of any kind.  I would absolutely recommend this State Park if you are traveling to the Vegas area. 

Road Trip

Road trips can be a lot of fun with the windows down and the music blaring.  Or they can be a pain with the snow coming down like crazy across the high country.  I probably should have taken the longer south route down through New Mexico and Arizona, but the weather.com assured me I could expect 0% chance of precipitation on the I-70 and I-15 stretches on Saturday. 

But there were some pretty breathtaking sites...and we stopped at many of them for puppy breaks. 

Starting in Colorado...Glenwood Canyon is always a favorite.

Utah started off not too shabby either...

But then it became this for the remainder of the state....

But then off in the distance there's a bit of blue sky, right about where Arizona began. It was as if Arizona just refuses to acknowledge snow.

And finally we made it to the sunny blue skies of Vegas....to see a little Chipmunk. 

Fast and Easy Vietnamese-- Vietnamese Salad Rolls with Salmon

I have to admit that it's kind of fun cleaning out the pantry and freezer and using up ingredients.  Between cleaning and packing, I'm also making quite a dent in the kitchen stock.  Using on items on hand instead of shopping requires a bit of creativity.  I feel like Laura Ingalls.

A lot of salmon in the freezer, some rice vermicelli and rice paper, and it was a given that I needed to make Vietnamese summer rolls.  Or fresh spring rolls.  Or salad rolls.  Whatever you feel like calling them--they are one and the same. And for a salmon recipe I turned straight to one of my absolute favorite cookbooks: Salmon by Diane Morgan.  I'm definitely a fish eater and salmon is right up at the top of the favorite list.  An entire cookbook dedicated to just this, makes cooking salmon on the spur of the moment so easy.  I don't think there's a recipe in this cookbook I haven't loved.

Fresh spring rolls/salad rolls are about as easy as it comes.  While usually served as an appetizer, I think they make a perfect light dinner.  Like the pad thai from last week, they may require a trip to the asian grocer--not sure I've ever seen rice paper anywhere else.  They come packaged dry and require a quick 5-10 second soak in warm water before they are pliable enough to roll.  The elephant on the cover is just a bonus.

Rice vermicelli or bean thread noodles, require a slightly longer soak (20 mins).  They come in these 2 oz mini-packs all bundled together in packs of 8.  When I was a kid, I always begged my mom for the pink mesh bag they came in.  I don't know why except pink mesh is way cool.

Start off by getting these guys soaking in hot tap water.

 Make hoisin-peanut dipping sauce.

These can really be filled with any variety of veggies--just cut them long and narrow.  I used carrots and spinach because I need to put spinach in everything.  I personally think the cilantro sprigs make these rolls, but it is of course optional. That's the beauty of these.  The softened rice paper is almost invisible on the white plate--sorry should have used a colored one.  But it's there underneath the filling.  I promise.

Then you just roll them up spring roll style.  Or burrito style. (Roll one full roll over filling creating cylinder shape, fold sides in tight and continue rolling cylinder)  Ta-da.  That easy.

Vietnamese Salad Rolls with Salmon

adapted from Salmon by Diane Morgan

Salmon and marinade

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

2 tsp fresh grated ginger

12 oz salmon

Hoisin-Peanut Dipping Sauce

2 tbsp chunky natural peanut butter, slightly warmed to soften

1/4 c. hoisin sauce

1/2 c. water (the recipe calls for 1/4 but I found the sauce too thick)

1 tbsp fish sauce (this is probably optional)

1 tsp fresh grated ginger

1 tsp red pepper flakes (or to taste)

Rolls

1 two oz package of rice vermicelli

8 round rice paper wrappers

1 carrot thinly sliced lengthwise

1 cup spinach cut into long slices

16 sprigs of cilantro

Directions:

Soak rice vermicelli in hot tap water (not boiling) for 20 mins.  Drain in colander

Combine marinade ingredients.  Place salmon in shallow dish and pour marinade over the top.  Turn several times and set aside for 20 minutes

Combine all of sauce ingredients, stir until well combined.  Set aside until ready to use

Set and oven rack about 4 inches from broiler and preheat broiler.  Remove salmon from marinade and broil until bronzed, about three minutes.  Turn over and cook 3-4 minutes on other side.  Cool

Slice salmon into long strips

To assemble rolls, have a large bowl of warm water and clean, dry linen towel ready. 

Dip one rice paper into warm water for 5-10 seconds, turning to wet both sides. Dry off excess water with linen towel and lay rice paper on plate (or linen towel)

Top with samll mound of noodles, spreading them horizontally

Place a piece of salmon, carrots, spinach and two cilantro sprigs on top of noodles.

Roll and then place onto platter and continue rolling remainder. 

Serve with dipping sauce