"whoopsie" pies - an accidental success

Now that I'm home on Mondays instead of Saturdays, I try to make my day off a mix of a few things: relaxing and occasionally staying in bed until noon, running my errands, and doing some serious damage in the kitchen.

A few weeks ago, I decided to do another test run on the cakes I'm baking for a friend's wedding this summer. I was pretty sure I had locked into a cake recipe, but wanted to try another just to be sure. I chose this recipe from Pioneer Woman.

You'll notice the title of this post isn't "really awesome test run cupcakes." So, clearly a few things went wrong.

First, I somehow ran out of cupcake papers, so I was forced to use my silicone cupcake tray. I'm not a huge fan of this, because it usually makes squat little cakes rather than nice fluffy ones.

Next, and more importantly, I somehow managed to leave the leavening agent out of the cake batter. So my first batch of "cupcakes" came out like little hockey puck cakelettes. I halved the baking soda in the recipe and added it for the second batch.

My second batch stuck to the silicone pan and were mostly ruined, until I decided to lop off the bottoms and just use the tops to make whoopie pies.

So, I sliced all the little flat cakes in half, and paired them up along side the more cake-like tops of the actual cupcakes. I whipped a batch of the peanut butter mousse I will probably use for the wedding this summer and my "whoopsie" pies were born.

 

The  slightly smaller ones are the ones without baking soda, and the larger ones on the upper right are the more cakelike ones. 

Overall, they were still really delicious. I think I like my original whoopie pies recipe better but this was definitely a decent way to save this recipe. 

PEANUT BUTTER MOUSSE FILLING:
Mix 1 stick of butter with 1 cup of peanut butter on high. Slowly add 1 tsp vanilla and about 2 cups of powdered sugar.
If filling is too crumbly, dribble up milk one teaspoon at a time. Add 1 more cup of powdered sugar, or until fluffy.

LetsLunch: Lucky recipes edition

OK, I'll admit I *knew* it was LetsLunch week at some point last week but when Friday came around I totally spaced...

We decided our February LetsLunch date would be "lucky" foods, in honor of the lunar new year celebration during the first-ish week the month.

 

The lunar new year is kind of a weird thing for me. In the last couple of years, I have learned more about my Korean heritage, so I know the basics of  traditions during the Korean New Year (Seollal)-- I've just never actually put them into play. 

What's definitely clear to me is the importance of eating tteok guk for luck in the new year. This suits me perfectly, since tteok guk (Korean rice cake soup) is one of my very favorite Korean foods.

Some Korean recipes call for beef stock (I used my pho broth last January) but I really like to make mine with a mix of kelp, bonito flakes and dashida (Korean beef stock powder).

I forgot to take photos this month when I made tteok guk last week, but there are step by step photos here and here.

Korean Rice Cake Soup - (2 big bowls or 4 appetizer size)
Ingredients:
1 pack bonito flakes (about 2 TBS)
4-6 pieces kelp
2 TBS dashida (Korean beef stock powder)
1/2 to 1 cup sliced beef (marinate in 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1 scant TBS each: sesame oil, rice vinegar, sugar)*
2 cups sliced rice cake** (tteok guk tteok -- as opposed to tteok bogi tteok, which are shaped like tubes)
3-4 eggs, beaten
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp toasted sesame seeds, divided
2 sheets kim/nori (seaweed sheets -- the kind for sushi or kimbap), cut into matchstick size strips
2 green onions, sliced thinly

Directions:
- Bring 8 cups of water to a boil. Add bonito flakes and kelp. Boil 10-15 minutes.
- While broth is boiling, fry bulgogi until rare to medium rare (the meat will continue cooking in the soup).
- Strain the broth to remove the bonito and kelp. Return to stovetop and whisk in dashida.
- Bring the broth back up to a boil and slowly add the rice cake. When the rice cakes float they are done (about 3-6 minutes, longer if they were frozen)
- Use a slotted spoon and remove the tteok (if you do not think you will have leftovers, you may skip this step). Toss the tteok with the sesame oil to keep from sticking.
- Keeping the broth at a boil, slowly pour in the beaten egg. Count to 10 (seriously, all the way to 10) then use a fork or chopstick to make egg ribbons. Cook 1-2 more minutes.
- Split the tteok and beef into bowls, then ladle the broth over. If you did not remove the tteok from the broth, split the sesame oil in each bowl too.
- Garnish the tteok guk with strips of nori, sesame seeds, green onion and lots of freshly cracked pepper.

Notes:
* I often use leftover bulgogi I already have, so the amount varies. But each person should have 1/4 cup of meat at the minimum up to as much as you have (no more than 1 cup... be reasonable!)
** I like a lot of tteok in my tteok guk! You might increase this to 3 cups if you like a lot too.

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LetsLunch is a monthly meeting for food bloggers and is the brain child of Cheryl Tan. Our group chooses a date and a theme, then we all post our recipes on the same day (or at least we try to... mine is 3 days late this month).

If you'd like to join us, we'd love to have you! send a Tweet to us using #letslunch (I'm @emmacarew).

Find the other posts on Cheryl's blog or by searching #Letslunch on Twitter.


See you next month for "Thank Goodness It's Spring!" recipes.

"A Tiger in the Kitchen" launch day: family recipes

Today I'm part of a group who are posting their favorite family recipes to honor our friend Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, who releases her book, A Tiger in the Kitchen, today.

Cheryl put her talents as a cook and a journalist to good use for the book, learning recipes and family stories from her relatives in Singapore. She has asked us to share a family recipe today in that spirit of family and cooking.

My recipe is a simple one, and one I've shared before. My Nan's Irish Soda Bread is still one of my very favorite recipes and it's one that I learned when I was first starting to cook, back in my tiny college kitchen, with a crappy temperamental and bakeware that had seen finer days.

The first time I made Nan's bread was a complete failure -- but it had nothing to do with the quality of my kitchen. No, in my haste to copy the recipe from the e-mail my aunt had sent me, I had written 450 degrees instead of 350.

Miraculously, the bread wasn't too burnt, just hard as a rock. A big "350" is now scrawled across the top of the recipe in my notebook, so I never forget.

Nan's Irish Soda Bread:
4 c white flour
1/4 c sugar
1 tsp salt
1 heaping tsp baking powder
1/4 stick  butter broken into tiny pieces
optional: 1 c soaked raisins (I never use these -- always had to pick them out as a kid)

1 2/3 c buttermilk
1 egg
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp baking soda

Mix the first 5 ingredients in a mixing bowl. Mix the wet ingredients separately with the cream of tartar and baking soda, then add slowly to the flour mixture.

Knead gently and shape into a large round loaf.

Place on an oiled cookie sheet, cut a 4" X on the top, and brush with beaten egg.

Bake 60-70 mins at 350 F. Cool for as long as you bear to wait (I can usually only wait about 10 minutes!).

Serve with butter and enjoy!

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So, raise a glass to Cheryl's success with the book. I'll try to update the post with other family recipes as I find them. (scroll to end of the post)

Go home and cook a meal with your family tonight. (or stop at your favorite locally owned bookstore and pick up Cheryl's book, like I am)

Call your favorite grandparent, aunt or uncle and ask for a family recipe. Share one of your own with your son, daughter, niece or nephew.

I hope I'm fortunate enough to have an adventure similar to Cheryl's with my Korean birth family some day. In 2007, I learned the basics of Korean cooking from the cook at Ae Ran Won home for unwed birthmothers. The stress of everything else going on with my birth family meant I didn't get the chance to cook with my halmonie and ohmma and learn from them. Hopefully I'll get that chance someday.

Update: here's a running list from Twitter of recipes posted so far:

Kitchen sink pasta

This past weekend I finally got to see my brother play hockey at his home rink at the Academy, in Colorado Springs. Unluckily, our flight got delayed by four hours coming home. I really needed to go grocery shopping, so by the time I was headed for home, I was hungry and unwilling to cook. Sadly for me, it was about 9 p.m. on a Sunday. Nothing was open (which we learned the hard way... driving from place to place).

So, a quick peek at the pantry staples turned up a few things I was pleasantly surprised to find and threw together to make the following dinner.

When I saw my pasta (I found this in a bag in the back of my cupboard.... my pasta supply dangerously low), I felt like I was living out Adam Robert's recent "Weary Traveler's Spaghetti" post. I dressed the pasta with a little oil and some chili flakes.

With the water from the pasta, I blanched a couple handfuls of spinach:

And defrosted a some frozen shrimp from Trader Joe's:

I also found a half jar of pasta sauce in my fridge. The shrimp and sauce were lucky finds. I probably would have used diced tomatoes out of a can otherwise.

All of that, paired with some leftover Italian pesto bread I found in the freezer made for a perfect late night dinner after a long, and fairly crappy, day.

So, no... this didn't turn out to be an "everything but the kitchen sink" dinner. It's actually something I would probably make again. I tried to throw chop up some zucchini to toss in, but after a long weekend and then some, it was feeling a little squishy and funky. Fresh vegetables are NOT a pantry staple when you haven't grocery shopped in a couple weeks.

#LetsLunch: Healthy recipes for 2011 (January)

After really falling off the bus and going a little treat crazy following Thanksgiving, I'm definitely ready for some focus in 2011 on my eating and exercising.

Last year was a great start -- I really learned how to lose weight for the first time. When I went to the gym 5 days a week, tracked calories and drank 1 liter+ of water a day, I lost weight. Regularly. In all, I lost 20 lbs last year (net loss, only 14 lbs, after having to re-lose 6 lbs when we moved).

So, I was excited to land on the theme of "healthy recipes for the new year" for this month's #LetsLunch.

#letslunch is a monthly "gathering" of food-loving writers from all over, hosted by Cheryl Tan, of A Tiger In The Kitchen.

We agree on a date and a theme, then each blogger presents his or her recipe on the chosen date (today).

If you are interested in joining, please send a Tweet using the hashtag and introduce yourself!

I made a dish from my friend Thea today. She's been dating my brother for about six years now, and we made this together last month for my mom's birthday.

Thea's Quinoa with Veggies Salad:

                                        

I made the quinoa salad yesterday for an office potluck -- at the office. I started the quinoa in the rice cooker, and prepped the veggies while it cooked. This is 2 cups of pre-rinsed quinoa and a quart of low sodium chicken stock.

About 1 teaspoon of salt and powdered garlic (don't judge me.... I was doing this in an office kitchen. Thea used real garlic -- about 2 cloves)

Then let the rice cooker work its magic.

Next, grab your veggies. I used two bright bell peppers and 1 1/2 zucchinis. Thea also uses asparagus, which I'm not a big eater of, so I skipped it here.

If you're cooking at home, dice the veggies and pan fry with the garlic, maybe a little onion until tender.

If you're cooking in an office kitchen, grab the Foreman (yes, we keep a Foreman Grill in our kitchen at work), slice the veggies and grill them.

Toss your grilled and diced veggies with the cooked quinoa, season with some smoked paprika, freshly cracked pepper, fresh chopped parsley and feta cheese. This recipe makes a pretty large bowl-ful!

Check out everyone else's offerings below:

Linda's Mesquite Date Muffins at Free Range Cookies
Steff's Frittata attempt at The Kitchen Trials
Cheryl's Watercress soup at A Tiger In The Kitchen
Mai's Spicy Roasted Cauliflower at Cooking In The Fruit Bowl

Sopes, a first attempt

I recently picked up a small sack of masa corn flour thinking I would try to expand my cooking horizons a bit. Pupusas maybe, or after seeing a few recipes posted on blogs I frequent, sopes.

So, I consulted Serious Eats, The Kitchn, and Googled for another recipe.

Shaping them turned out to be the most difficult part. The dough was easy enough (although, I suspect it would have benefited from resting a bit)

Little guy on the griddle, getting warm on both sides.

When hand shaping didn't seem to stick, I tried pushing them into muffin tins, or shaping them around little sauce bowls. Mostly this worked, but a few tore and had little holes in them.

The other issues is that I've never actually had a properly constructed sope, so I had little to go on.

But, there they are, after being warmed, shaped and fried on the bottoms. Not too bad for a first attempt...

The final product, black beans, carnitas, a little cheese, cilantro, salsa and avocado.

This was also the first time I had made my own black beans (from dried beans). This took way longer than I expected but they were super delicious with a little tequila and lime mixed in.

I think I will definitely try these again, but if anyone has made these with any success or has tips, please let me know!!!

Sopes dough: I used the recipe on the back of the bag (but about 1:1 masa to water + pinch of salt).

Carnitas: slow cook pork (I actually oven roasted this one, because they were already sliced) with garlic, onions and cumin. Pull apart and chop into small pieces.

Salsa: 1 large can of tomatoes, drained, + garlic, onion, sugar, splash of vinegar, cumin, jalapeno in a food processor. Chill before serving

Black beans: soak beans over night, cook for 1-2 hours in a crock or large sauce pan. Smash about 3/4 of the beans (I used a mortar and pestle), then stir in about 1/3 cup tequila, salt to taste and squeeze 1-2 limes over. Continue cooking until soft.

Holiday gift recipes: a rundown

I've been a little remiss in my holiday baking this year (partially owing to the fact I'm trying hard not to eat holiday baking this year, and partially owing to the fact I'm about to go to my 5th potluck in 6 weeks)

But, here's a quick look at some of the holiday gift cooking/baking I've done:

First up, and probably most successful in terms of a) money spent, b) time spent and c) ease of process.

Homemade spiced rum: I found a recipe on this on Serious Eats a few weeks ago and immediately decided to make it. About half of the spices, most people will already have in their kitchens. I thought I had almost all of them, but then realized a few more had fallen casualty to the move over the summer.

I started with a 1.75 bottle of Bacardi Gold and used the following: cloves (whole), all spice (whole), nutmeg (ground), star anise (whole), black peppercorns (whole), cinnamon sticks (I broke mine in half), vanilla bean (1 - split down the middle, seeds scraped), ginger (two 1-inch sized pieces, peeled) and the orange peels from half an orange (remove the pith really well with a paring knife).

When I measured out as the Serious Eats recipe called for, however, I thought it looked pretty pathetic, so amped up to about 1 teaspoon of each spice. After tasting the second day, I removed about half of the orange slices. They had given off a sweet, fragrant taste quickly, and I didn't want it to overpower the rum.

The whole project, after straining, made about 4 of these pint-sized flasks. I loved really cute glass ones on Crate and Barrel, went to Ikea to search for similar ones, and ended up finding these at the Rainbow Foods liquor store (they're "unbreakable" plastic), so I attempted to cheer them up with a fabric wrapping.


Next up, a recipe I found on The Kitchn blog: hot cocoa on a stick. I thought, oh fun! how cute! I bet those will be a snap!

This is basically 8 oz of tempered chocolate, mixed with powdered sugar and more cocoa powder to make it fudge-like. You pipe into molds (I spooned mine in since I only had 6 molds to fill), stick a stick in it, and let them harden.

Sounds, oh-so-easy.

I took a few liberties with the instructions, such as using candy canes for the sticks (it's a blizzard, people... you do not run to the store in 17 inches of snow for coffee stir sticks) and using these cute snow-men molds that I picked up instead of standard size ice cube trays.

The chocolate only made enough to fill these six molds, then the chocolate wasn't firm enough to hold up the weight of the candy canes.

Then when I went to pop them out, I accidentally broke two canes!

So, in all, not the favorite in terms of ease or gifts produced. But, the four little snowmen that DID survive are going to be a cute hostess gift for a friend.

Last, but not least, this is a repeat from holiday 2009: Brady's Christmas Caramels.

These are far less nerve wracking to make the second time around. Melt 2 stick of butter, add 2 1/2 cups brown sugar and a pinch of salt, stir in a cup of light corn syrup then a can of sweetened condensed milk, and keep the pot moving.

The caramel cooks for between 15 and 20 minutes, and needs to be stirred constantly. If you have a reliable candy thermometer (that you have used before with good results), clip it to the side of your pan and aim for about 240 F -- soft ball stage.

If your candy thermometer sucks (like mine) use it as a rough estimate, and start cold-water testing the candy at about 220 F. Take a fork, swirl a few drops of the caramel into cold water. The caramel is done when it holds it's form (a soft ball) when you retrieve it from the water.

Be careful though, because the caramel will continue to heat a little, even after you turn off the heat, so don't let it go past "hard ball" stage -- or it will be tough to cut up your candy (see last year's post on hard caramel)

Instead of using a buttered pan, I took a big sheet of parchment (bigger than the 9x9 pan) and laid it over the pan with a little oil spray. Pour the candy onto the paper and spread into the pan. This makes it incredibly easy to remove the caramels later (just lift the paper). Cut into 1 inch pieces and wrap with parchment.

This requires a little more work than the rum but a 9x9 inch pan makes a TON of caramels and they are a really fun treat. This remains one of my favorite holiday recipes!! Thank you SO much for sharing it, Brady!!

#LetsLunch: Holiday side dishes edition (December)

**updated! final bread photos
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I almost didn't make it to #letslunch this month.

On Wednesday, I was 100% blindsided by this:



First I panicked and wished I had just saved my Thanksgiving post on gougeres. Then I thought maybe I would just sit this round out. But driving home last night, I decided on a happy middle ground: Dave's peasant bread (Dave is Jake's dad and also an awesome cook). He made this bread for Thanksgiving and It. Is. Awesome.

So, here's the "cheat" -- my bread isn't done yet. In order to develop jaw-dropping-mmm-inducing flavor, this baby sits and sits and sits (first in the fridge, then just room temp) for 12 hours, then 18 hours. We're at about hour 7 of the second rise as I write...

So, the bread starts with a little yeast (I used about 1/2 packet), 1 cup wheat flour, 2 cups white/bread flour, and a pinch of salt. This is essentially a no-knead, long rise bread, so I just started all of my ingredients in my new red-and-polka-dot dutch oven.

 Mix in some water - about 2 cups. You want a wet, shaggy dough to form.

Mix together well until all of the flour mixture is absorbed. 

Put a lid on it, stick it in the fridge for 12 hours. (see, I told you my baker was cute! It might not be a "real" Dutch oven... but it was $20 at Home Goods)

 This morning, I took a quick peek at my dough, then left it out on the counter to rise. I'm so excited to bake it tomorrow!

***Updated: here's the final product:

I couldn't wait to taste it! 

Recipe: Daves Peasant Bread
(it turns out I tweaked this a bit / looked at the measurements wrong last night -- the ingredients call for 2 1/2 cups bread/white flour, 1/2 cup wheat flour... my bad)
* Combine ingredients in a large bowl, add water and cover with plastic. Refrigerate up to 12 hours. If you're in a rush, you can skip this step.
* Let dough rise 18 hours in a warmish/room temp place. Then sprinkle work surface with flour, and fold dough over itself to form a square or ball shape.
* Line a baking sheet with parchment and dust with flour. Place dough and cover with a kitchen towel. Allow to rise 2-3 more hours.
* Preheat a dutch oven (w/o the lid) for 30 minutes at 450 degrees. Transfer the dough to the pot, bake 30 minutes covered, then 15-30 minutes uncovered. Turn out and cool.

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#letslunch is a monthly "gathering" of food-loving writers from all over, hosted by Cheryl Tan, of A Tiger In The Kitchen.

We agree on a date and a theme, then each blogger presents his or her recipe on the chosen date (today).


If you are interested in joining, please send a Tweet using the hashtag and introduce yourself!

Here's what the others have presented so far:

Leek Gratin, at Bon Vivant
Kimchi Risotto Bake, at Cooking in the Fruit Bowl
A "slice of Americana," at GeoFooding
Gluten Free Green Bean Casserole, at Free Range Cookies
Parker House Rolls with Molasses Butter, at The Kitchen Trials
Mushroom Leek Quinoa Salad, at Cowgirl Chef
Festive Green Beans, at Hot Curries and Cold Beer

Thanksgiving 2010: Pecan Pie

My second offering for Thanksgiving was a pecan pie. I decided to pair Pioneer Woman's pie filling with a pie dough using Michael Ruhlman's Ratio app.

I decided to use half butter and half shortening for my pie crust after reading this tutorial on Epicurious.

Thanks, Chao for picking up the shortening for me!

Took some smart advice from blogs and retail reporters to stock up on baking essentials the week before Thanksgiving. Prices on ingredients like nuts and butter were way lower than normal.

Pie crust is another great use for the food processor. Fit the bowl with the dough blade and pulse the butter and fat together until crumbly. Then, add ice water bit by bit until a sticky dough forms.

My dough went into the refrigerator over night, then I rolled it out between two pieces of wax paper (harder than it sounds, actually).

Roll the crust over the wax paper, then lay into a pie dish. Trim the edges and cover until ready to fill.

(pretty good for my first real pie crust, huh?)

And again, we were a little pressed for time, so I just whipped up PW's pie filling in a tupperware and brought it with us. We baked the pie at Jake's while we were eating dinner.

It's entirely true that I should not have brought a pie to someone else's thanksgiving that I had never made before in my life. It's also entirely true that I should have listened to PW's note at the bottom of the recipe, where she clearly warns that the bake time for this pie is unpredictable:

"Required baking time seems to vary widely with this recipe. Sometimes it takes 50 minutes; sometimes it takes 75!"

And, indeed, the pie took about 75 minutes. It was soft and beautiful and had a really nice flavor.

Happy (late) Thanksgiving, everyone.

Thanksgiving 2010: gougeres

We spent our Thanksgiving this year with Jake's family, and I volunteered to add a pie and a roll to the mix.

Well, as previously mentioned, the seollangtang took up much more of my morning than expected, so I quickly realized I wasn't going to have time to let a yeast roll rise, so I switched gears for cheese gougeres.

I inherited a nice chunk of fancy Gruyere from a friend and tossed it through the food processor.

I folded this cheese into a big batch (double what I normally make, I think) of pate a choux.

Choux paste is painfully easy to make and so versatile. Melt butter and water together, then dump in flour and beat in a pot over medium heat until steam is mostly gone.

 

Beat the dough on medium to high speed to release heat, then beat eggs one by one. For this double batch I think I added 8 eggs total. Dough will be sticky and shiny. You can also use a hand mixer for this. 

I also added about 1 TBS of bouquet garni herbs to the dough with the cheese, then piped the gougeres onto parchment lined baking sheets with a star tip.

Bake the gougeres at 450 degrees for 10-15 minutes until they are puffed up and slightly golden. Rotate the pans and switch racks, then lower the heat to 350 (325 if the bottoms seem burnt) another 10-20 minutes. To test, break open a gougere. The inside should be mostly dry.

Cool the gougeres and serve warm or reheated in the oven at 200.