Nom...Nom..Nom..Yummy waffles

I am crazy about waffles! It all started over a ski/snowboard weekend in Collingwood, ON, a few months back. We had lunch at Café Chartreuse when a friend ordered yeast waffles for dessert. I was told it was the best waffle they have ever had and they always order it whenever they're there. I thought nothing of it - how can a waffle be that good?! Don't get me wrong - I like waffles as much as the next person, but I never found them to be that spectacular or very memorable...until that day. I was offered a bite - literally, one bite, and that was it - I was in love. All I can say is - it was the best waffle I have ever eaten.

Now months later, I am obsessed with waffles. I finally bought myself a Stove-Top Belgium Waffler and now I am in search for the best waffle recipe I can get my hands on. My task is to serve the same group of friends waffles that at least elicit the same feelings as those made at Café Chartreuse. I have until late September to make this happen since we'll be travelling together again at that time, but this time, to a place where we won't have access to electricity (hence, the stove-top waffler).

I'm a little late at tracking my progress, but I figured I'd start now. The waffle I made today is not made with yeast - it's chemically leavened, but still delicious. The original recipe is from Fine Cooking - Light, Crisp Waffles, but today, I made a few modifications which includes:

• Reduced the amount of salt by half
• Made my own version of "buttermilk" by using 1 part 10% cream, 1 part water, and 3/4 tbsp lime juice.
• Replaced the milk with evaporated milk.
• Reduced the amount of oil to 5 tbsp., instead of 6.
• Added almond extract in addition to the vanilla

Results: 

Waffles were delicious (if I do say so myself). Light and crisp as the recipe promised. They're a bit on the oily side, so next time, I plan on reducing the amount of oil further. The almond extract didn't come through, so I'm thinking of reducing the amount of vanilla and increasing the almond, just because I love almond flavouring.

Luckily today I had some friends over to help eat them. I've been eating way too many waffles lately...

Donut Challenge #1 - Baked Lemon Honey Mochi Donuts

  

*Dusts off blog* It's been over a year since I posted anything here and I felt it was high time that I got back to what I'm most passionate about which is food and photography.  I can’t improve if I don’t practice right?

To get things started again, I was inspired to bake my own donuts again.   After eating several fried, yeast raised glazed donuts (that I got for free) over the last week, I was really craving for a Pon de Ring donut from Mister Donut in Asia.   If you haven't heard of Pon de Ring, you must go to Asia and try it yourself!  I’m tempted to fly to Taiwan right now to do just that.  These donuts I speak of have a slightly chewy texture, but they’re also airy and not as sweet as the typical North American donuts.  

So anyway, I’ve been searching for a recipe that would give me that same chewy texture and finally came really close.  I came across a posting for Baked Lemon Honey Crème Mochi Donuts from Fuji Mama and was really excited to try it.  I made a few adjustments to the recipe since I didn’t have any Lemon Honey Crème on hand.  The outcome was pretty good – not quite like a Pon de Ring donut, but still delicious.  It had a nice chewy texture – not as chewy as a typical mochi, but slightly more chewy than a Pon de Ring donut.  The donut was also not as airy as I would have liked it to have been but that could be my fault.  I forgot to increase the amount of mochiko since I had added lemon juice which was not part of the original recipe.  Overall though, pretty good, but I would need to make some adjustments to make it more airy.  Here’s the recipe I used to make 6 small donuts:

Baked Lemon Honey Mochi Donuts

Makes 6 small donuts

Adapted from Fuji Mama's Baked Lemon Honey Creme Mochi Mochi Donuts

1 large egg, beaten

1/8 cup honey

1 tbsp sugar

1/3 cup milk

1/2 tsp lemon zest

2 tsp lemon juice

85 g Mochiko sweet rice flour

1 tsp baking powder

35 g butter, melted and cooled

Extra sugar for dusting pans

PREPARE OVEN AND PANS

Preheat oven to 350 deg F.  Grease pans with butter and dust with sugar.

PREPARE BATTER

Whisk together the egg, honey, milk, lemon juice and zest in a bowl until well combined.  Whisk in mochiko and baking powder until combined. Lastly, whisk in butter.

ASSEMBLE

Scoop batter into a pastry bag fitted with a large plain tip.  Pipe batter into donut pans and bake in a preheated oven for 18-20 minutes, until golden.  Let stand for a few minutes, then run a toothpick or knife along the edges to loosen donuts.  Remove donuts from pan to cool. 

Let donuts cool completely before decorating.

"Red" Velvet Cupcakes with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

Happy Birthday Little J!  

After months of nagging, I finally made these "red" velvet cupcakes for my sister and on her birthday no less.  If you're wondering what is up with the quotations around "red", well, it's because they're supposed to be red, but I decided to opt out from adding the red food colouring and so they're just regular chocolate brown.  And, since red velvet cake is usually paired with cream cheese frosting, I made a strawberry cream cheese frosting to finish them off.

The recipe for these cupcakes was taken from The Golden Book of Baking which has over 300 recipes.  This would be my second time using this book.  The first time, I made Portuguese Custard Tarts which were alright.  So far, I feel that this book gives recipes that work but are mediocre at best. 

 

Thoughts on the results:

Texture & Appearance: The cupcakes themselves didn't quite turn out to have that velvet look to them - they had quite a few air pockets making it look more like a sponge than a luxury piece of cloth.  I did however like how their dome-shape held up, which is probably due to all the flour that was used.  In terms of texture, they were somewhat moist, but fairly dense despite all the air pockets in them (which is again, probably attributed to the amount of flour used).  As for the frosting, it was a bit too thin/soft which is due to the added strawberry puree (I used 4 teaspoons), but at least it held its shape. 

Taste: A bit too sweet for my mother's liking (which is what many Asian parents would say), but I thought the sweetness level was OK.  In terms of chocolate, I find it lacks depth, but it was still alright.  Maybe the addition of some spices would give the chocolate a little more oomph.  As for the frosting, it has a slight tanginess from the cream cheese that isn't overwhelming and has a really nice strawberry flavour that reminds me of strawberry ice cream.

Would I make this again? Maybe.  I know this recipe works for a regular chocolate cupcake (not so much for a red velvet cupcake though).  So IF I really needed a chocolate cupcake with a lot of structure, I'd use this recipe again.  I did find that regular sized cupcakes were too big being domed and all, so next time, I would use a mini cupcake pan instead so that there's a good cake-to-frosting ratio.  Probably not.  The cupcakes are too dry and dense.  They are only semi-OK just after they come out of the oven.  They seem to only be good for pictures. 


"Red" Velvet Cupcakes
Makes 15 regular-sized cupcakes
Adapted from The Golden Book of Baking

300 g all-purpose flour
75 g unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
125 g unsalted butter, room temperature
300 g sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 large eggs
250 ml buttermilk
2 tbsp red food colouring (optional - I left it out)
1 tbsp white vinegar


PREPARE OVEN and PANS

Preheat oven to 325 degF.  Line cupcake pans with paper cups.  

PREPARE CAKE

Combine and sift flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. 
In a separate large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar, and vanilla on medium-high speed.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until just blended after each addition.  
With the mixer on low speed, gradually beat in the dry ingredients, alternating with the buttermilk, food colouring (if using), and vinegar.  Now by hand, scrape the bowl using a spatula or bowl scraper to ensure that all the dry ingredients have been incorporated (make sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl).  

ASSEMBLE

Using an ice cream scoop, scoop and release batter into prepared pans filling approximately 3/4 the way up for each cup.  
Bake in a preheated oven for 25 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Let cool before frosting.


Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
Makes about 2 1/2 cups


1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
4 oz (1/2 brick) light cream cheese
2 cups icing sugar
2-4 tsp strawberry puree
1/2 pk of Crystal Light Singles Drink Mix in Strawberry Orange Banana Flavour (optional)


In an electric mixer, beat butter and cream cheese until pale and creamy.
Using a sieve, sift icing sugar into butter-cream cheese mixture and beat until creamy.
Add drink mix (if using) to strawberry puree, then add puree 1 teaspooon at a time to frosting mixture and beat until well incorporated.  Be careful not to add too much puree as this will result in a very thin frosting which will be difficult to use for piping.

Sour Cream Apple Coffee Cake..Donuts!

Lately I've been pretty obsessed with the donut shape.  I don't know what it is about donuts that makes me so happy.  Maybe it's because the thought of donuts conjures up images of Homer Simpson or maybe it's because I'm on a quest to make all my desserts individually sized and donuts fit the bill perfectly.  Whatever it is, donuts are wonderful!

I've recently been participating in Food Network Canada's Cooking Club Challenges and this month's challenge is to make Anna Olson's Apple Sour Cream Coffee Cake.  I was pretty excited as a cake would mean I would be able to transform it into a baked donut!  So over the weekend, I made this coffee cake using a donut pan and although the picture above shows two fairly nice looking donuts, I have to admit that these were the only two out of the twelve that I made that came out actually looking like donuts.  The thing with coffee cake is that it has a really delicate crumb, so when using something small like a donut pan, it can be extremely difficult to de-pan without it just falling apart.  I suppose had I properly greased the pan, I wouldn't have had this problem.  

Despite the crumbly mess I made, these cake donuts were really delicious.  Crispy and sweet outer layer, crumbly on the inside and topped with sweet apples and brown sugar..very yummy.  I will definitely make this again!

Note: When greasing the pan, I used butter and coated it with granulated sugar.  The granulated sugar gives the bottom a nice crispy and bubbly texture.  Be sure to grease the pan completely so that there are no spots left bare.

I'm going to attempt to make this again sometime before the month-end, but I'll probably grease the pan and coat with flour instead of sugar...maybe!  I do love the effect the sugar has on the bottoms of these donuts though.

May 21, 2010 - UPDATE:

OK, so I made these donuts again today, this time really greasing the pans well, I mean, REALLY.  I used a cooking spray to really coat the donut moulds then dusted one pan with flour and the second pan with sugar.  The result: The donuts came out of the pans in a cinch from both flour and sugar coated pans but they all had super crispy bottoms.  Why: I sprayed way too much cooking oil onto the pans such that there was this thick layer of sugar/flour on the bottoms of the donuts (kinda gross actually), plus it was as if the bottoms were deep fried, in other words, really crispy.  Was it good?  Eh. The bottom half was not the best, I will stick to using butter but knowing to ensure that I don't miss any spots the next time.  The top half was moist though, so at least it was half good :D

Sour Cream Apple Coffee Cake...Donuts

Makes 12 donuts

Adapted from Anna Olson's Sugar

FOR THE PANS

Granulated sugar

Butter/shortening/pan grease

FOR THE CAKE

1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup 14% m.f. sour cream

1 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

FOR THE APPLES & TOPPING

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

1 tbsp all-purpose flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup walnut pieces

1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

1 cup apples, diced

PREPARE PANS

Grease donut pans completely with butter/shortening/pan grease.  Dust with granulated sugar to coat.  Remove excess sugar.

PREPARE THE TOPPING

Combine brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, walnuts and butter in a bowl and stir.  Pour half of the mixture into a separate bowl and mix with diced apples.

PREPARE THE CAKE

Preheat oven to 350oF.   In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until smooth and pale.  Beat in egg until well incorporated.  Add vanilla and sour cream.  In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients (flour, baking  powder, baking soda, and salt) and stir into wet ingredients until just incorporated.

ASSEMBLY

Fill a pastry bag fitted with a large plain tube with the cake batter. Pipe a thin layer of the batter into each donut mould.  Sprinkle with walnut-sugar topping (no apples) then pipe another thin layer of batter overtop the topping.   Sprinkle tops with apple topping.

Bake in a preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until tops have turned golden and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool and carefully remove cake from pan.

Avocado Milkshake

I love avocados.  Although I've never had an avocado milkshake before, I really wanted to try it by making some at home.  After doing some research online on it, I found that the main ingredients are: avocado, milk, sweetened condensed milk, and ice. The amount of milk and condensed milk you add is really up to you.  For my milkshake, I made mine fairly light tasting - not too sweet (although I did add quite a bit of condensed milk compared to some recipes), refreshing, with a subtle grassy/avocado taste = yummy!  To intensify the grassy flavour, let the milkshake sit in the fridge for about 10 minutes before drinking.

My recipe for an avocado milkshake (serves 1):

1/2 Ripe Avocado (skin removed)
50 mL (3 Tbsp + 1 tsp) Sweetened condensed milk
60 mL (4 Tbsp) Partly skimmed milk
Roughly 3/4 cups Ice cubes

1) In a blender, blend all ingredients until smooth. 
2) Taste and adjust by adding more condensed milk or skimmed milk as needed. 
3) Pour into a tall cup and enjoy! 

There are other variations of this avocado milkshake that I'll be trying in the near future such as adding chocolate syrup, using coconut milk, or adding vanilla extract.  Very exciting!  I should really go get myself an authentic avocado milkshake one day so I know what it's supposed to really taste like...

May 2, 2010 - UPDATE:

I ordered an avocado milkshake over the weekend at a Vietnamese restaurant and I have to say, I do prefer my version more.  The one I had at the restaurant was still pretty good.  It had a really nice avocado flavour, but it was way too thick (could barely suck it up through my straw) and could have used a bit more sweetened condensed milk.  A friend of mine claims his is really good too, so he said he'll make one for me one day.  MMM..can't wait!

Mr. & Mrs. Strawberry

Ahhh..Strawberries. These days, they tend to look so big and so good, but after one bite into them, I'm dipping them in some sugar to sweeten them up. The ones that I purchased yesterday though were a pleasant surprise. They were small to medium sized, kinda sweet, and actually tasted much like a strawberry, but best of all, they were only $1.99 CAD at my local No Frills. Score! BTW, the strawberries in the pictures are the ones I bought yesterday. Don't they look good?

So why are the majority of our strawberries so sour? With strawberries, they're pretty fickle. Strawberries are not capable of ripening after they've been harvested, unlike some other fruits (e.g. bananas and apples). This means, if they're sour when they're picked, they'll be sour when you eat them. The only way for strawberries to get sweeter naturally is if they were allowed to ripen while still attached to the plant. But once ripened, the quality of strawberries goes downhill from there, and fast too! So when harvesting strawberries, they're usually not allowed to ripen further after they've turned red. This is especially important when they're being shipped from far-off destinations like the U.S.A. So what should we all do? Buy local strawberries! Despite my Pro-Local comment just now, I have to admit, the strawberries that I bought were a product of the U.S.A. What can I say, I'm a sucker for cheap fruit.

Although the strawberries I bought were pretty delicious eaten on their own, I really wanted to dip them in chocolate. Strawberry Tuxedos were something I learned in my Baking Arts class at George Brown College and I really wanted to try it again at home, but this time, with a special lady strawberry - a bride! Introducing, Mr. & Mrs. Strawberry!

For the white chocolate, I purchased Belgium White Chocolate wafers from Bulk Barn, but I think next time, I'll try using White Chocolate Coating. The Belgium chocolate took a long time to set and even when it was set, it wasn't as dry as I'd like it to be.

Things to note when melting chocolate. Melt slowly over a pot of simmering hot water. For white chocolate, be sure to stir frequently to avoid it from burning. Burning white chocolate will cause it to discolour.

Chili Chocolate Cookies

I love baking cookies. Been baking cookies since I was about 8 years old, but for some reason, I feel that after moving into my current house 10 years ago, my cookies haven't been turning out so great. Even the Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe that I started baking with doesn't taste the same. For years, I've been using all sorts of cookie recipes without one that really made me feel like no changes were needed and I would actually bake them again, that is until today.

My younger sister, we'll call her Little-J, introduced me to Food Wishes. They have a channel on Youtube and a blog,

http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/. She really wanted to try their Chili Chocolate Cookies, and for weeks she's been asking me when I'd actually make them for her. Today was the day. I finally came around to it and the results were De-lish. I have to say, it's a pretty darn good recipe. The texture of it is right up my alley - moist and chewy, very much like fudge. The taste, it's definitely yum-in-my-tum. Although there is chili in the cookies, it's not spicy. As Chef John said in his video for these cookies, the spices enhance the chocolatiness of these cookies.

You should know though, my cookies didn't quite exactly turn out the way Michele's (Chef John's wife) cookies turned out. Her cookies did come out looking wet, but also plump. Mine were flat and dry-looking (had a paper-thin film on top, like a brownie). Possible reasons for this may be: 

1. When heating the chocolate, I left the bowl of melted chocolate over the pot of steaming water (heat turned off though) and so when it came to pouring it into the egg mixture, it was still really hot. Luckily, it didn't seem to cook the eggs.

2. I used a light coloured, insulated cookie sheet (lined with parchment paper).

3. The batter when scooped onto the baking sheet was very thin, moreso than Michele's batter. The batter spread on the pan as if it was pancake batter.

4. Baked for 12 minutes, exactly. May have needed to bake for less time, since the batter spread quite a bit before putting it into the oven. Although, the next time I bake them, I would still bake them for 12 minutes, since I like how they turned out.

All in all, I'd make them again exactly the way I did.

For the full recipe, go to: http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2009/11/micheles-chili-chocolate-cookies-id.html.

I definitely recommend you try it!