Posts tagged dessert
that's what she baked.
Adventures (and misadventures) in the kitchen from a novice baker.
On ice cream making…
For Christmas, I got an ice cream maker attachment for my Kitchen Aid. It’s not something I would ever buy myself (I’ve got other things to save up for, like a second pair of jeans and new tires for my car) but something I’ve had the desire to own and experiment with. Now, when you use the ice cream maker bowl, you’re supposed to freeze it at least 12 hours or something ahead of time, I think mine is just going to live in the fridge when not in use, so it’s always ready.
I’ve made 3 different kinds in the past three weeks. And I just love it! Ice cream, like pizza, is not one of those things I’m crazy about, in the way that people are crazy about ice cream and pizza (you follow?) but when it’s good, it’s sooo good. And it’s great to make at home.
Ice cream number one was Candy Cap Burnt Caramel. Candy caps are mushrooms that are often used in desserts as their smell and flavor is a lot like maple syrup. Yes, Tyler had a lot to do with this, and yes, we put mushrooms in our ice cream. It was great.Ice cream number 2 (the top two pictures) was Matcha Tea. The color of the ice cream wasn’t coming out that good in pictures, but it was beautiful. Ice cream number 3 (bottom 2 pictures), Strawberries and Cream, was a flop at first, because I was following the methods of the first two recipes but failed to realized the recipe was quite different and for a number of reasons the ice cream was not forming in the ice cream maker. I was super bummed. But when life gives you cream and milk and egg yolks and sugars and things that won’t churn into an ice cream, make popsicles! (bottom 2 pictures). Sorry the pictures as a whole aren’t so great, or that there’s none of the actual finished (normal) ice cream. I’ve been enjoying it for dessert, and the lighting is no good at night. Also, it’s hard to take a good picture of a creamsicle.
We’re all about homemade ice cream these days.
A Just Because Cake (Peanut Butter Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and mini chocolate chips) sitting on top of my new cake stand that I found at Goodwill for quite a steal!
One of my baking resolutions this year is to get better at making cakes. I haven’t shared my resolutions with you, but I’ll get to that at some point.. before the month is over, maybe. I love making cupcakes, I love the idea of cupcakes. Once it’s made, you have a single serving of cake, no cutting or forks required, you can bring one to a friend easily, etc. I think cupcakes are just so great, I haven’t really felt the need to dive into the world of cake making/decorating. I have made a couple in the last 2 years or so, but definitely have a lot of room for learning and improvement.
The cake above is not the best example of me practicing my skills in decorating. I didn’t make a crumb layer while frosting and I should have waited a little longer for the cake to cool down but I wanted it to be done and was being impatient so I finished it a little on the messy side. I found both cake and frosting recipes from Joy the Baker’s book (I know, I’ve been using it a lot lately, I’m a little obsessed) and they were fantastic!
Even though the cake is little, Tyler and I couldn’t finish the whole thing (don’t worry, none of it went to waste) but I’m gonna need some help for all these cakes I’m going to try and make this year.
My first Bread Pudding. Also, GO VOTE.
Bread Pudding is American, right? No, not really, a lot of different cultures have their own versions and it’s probably been around much longer than this country has, but I didn’t make anything patriotic (I might later today) so you should still GO VOTE, regardless. Anyway, I’ve never made Bread Pudding before, I didn’t even know what it was until one or two years ago… Honestly, I’m still not really sure what it is. But I made some last week and wanted to share…
I looked up a ton of different recipes. Some involved a lot of eggs, some had just a couple, a lot called for bourbon and a sauce that you added when it was done in the oven. I took a bunch of things out of the fridge, some spices that sounded like a good idea, and mixed it with the gazillion, now toasted, rolls that we had taking up space in our freezer (I don’t know why we had so many rolls). I had no idea what it was going to taste like, if it would even be palatable. But it was. It was comforting, and moist, and lovely.
Here’s what was inside:
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 1/4 cup butter
- 2 cups vanilla almond milk
- 7+ cups old rolls, toasted and cut (or ripped) into small pieces
Thanks for VOTING today. It’s important. You’re important.
Vegan Pear Crisp.
Seen recently here… I adapted this recipe (found at finecooking.com). I used vegan margarine instead of butter, because I had some in the fridge. Also, none of the other ingredients call for things that come from animals, so I figured I’d make it vegan! I also tweaked the recipe a bit because I only had 2 lbs of pears, so I roughly under-measured all the ingredients and then altered to taste. Click on the pictures for further explanation. It’s so much work pealing and chopping up fruit, but it’s definitely worth it. I totally thought I had more pears than that, but since they were what was left from my pickin’ I didn’t have a lot to work with.
I don’t know why I haven’t made a lot of crisps before (a “crisp” sounds funny by itself, it doesn’t work like just calling something a “pie”). They’re so simply and so yummy. It’s also the right season right now. I’m hoping to be making more pies too, now that I can try and make the dough with my fancy new food processor. I look forward to heating our kitchen with baked goods in the oven as the days get shorter and the temperature continues to drop.
Vegan Blueberry Cobbler (what I was making when I instagramed this)
The other day I had a lovely dinner with Brittany (this lovely lady) and my favorite vegan, Kirsten (you’ve seen her before, here). As close as I live to Brittany (she resides directly above me), I hardly see her much these days (it’s very silly) and Kirsten recently moved to the neighborhood (which I’m so happy about) but I haven’t hung out with either of them in quite some time, so a get together was in order. I offered to make a salad (because that’s something I know how to do) and attempt to make a vegan dessert (something I have less experience with).
I decided to make a blueberry cobbler, adapted from this recipe, by Chef Cloe (check out her website, there’s lots of vegan recipes and instructional videos). The berry part was absolutely delicious, and super simple to make. I only had blueberries in the house, so that’s what I used. I also halved the recipe since I was only making dessert for 3. The dough was super weird, and I should have spread it out more, I’m not really sure. I also didn’t get a chance to try making the whipped cream myself (which is supposed to be easy), but the coconut milk at the store wasn’t going to be cold enough, so I bought vegan pre-made vegan whipped cream. It turned out to be a nice closer to our meal, following salad, something delicious Brittany made and a good amount of wine.
I’ve never made a cobbler before, so that was a first, but I can’t wait to try again. I need to get myself some more berries before the farms around here run out.
Last night I went to Providence, RI with Tyler and Corey to visit a friend of ours. We went mostly to visit Lindsay, and experience Water Fire, but as an added bonus… I asked if we could also visit this wonderful place I had heard about, that calls itself a snuggery. The Duck and Bunny is a place from my dreams. So cute and tiny, located in a small house, they serve full meal options, light bites, sweets, tea, beer and wine. At night it’s dimly lit (hence the not so great lighting for pictures) and so cozy. We tried one their scones, 5 different flavors of cupcakes, and split a pot of tea. I was in heaven. I do like cupcakeories, but if I were to ever have my own place, it would need to be something more. To me, the Duck and Bunny was perfect.
The whole ride home we were trying to decide what we shall do with all these strawberries… and of course, we decided on Strawberry Shortcake.
We soaked the rinsed and cut strawberries in simple syrup* (I will do a post on this sometime soon) and baked biscuits from scratch (I didn’t have a biscuit cutter so we used a canning jar lid) and made whipped cream. The treat was well worth all the driving and work we had to do earlier in the day.
*Tyler and I enjoyed these strawberries for the rest of the week on yogurt for breakfast. A great way to elongate the life of fresh strawberries.
Strawberry and Rhubarb Frankenpie
by Cora and Tyler
I used this great website to figure out how to make the lattice top. I highly recommend it. The pictures and instructions are very helpful and clear.
Rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb
(it’s a theater thing. right? someone please tell me I’m not making that up)
Last week I baked in my old apartment for the last time. Well, maybe not the last time, that kitchen is just upstairs and maybe I’ll have a crazy baking project where I need 2 ovens and my old roommate will be okay with it, but that’s beside the point. It was the last time that I baked there while it was the kitchen to the apartment that I lived in.
Tyler and I made another collaborative pie with rhubarb from his parents garden.
He worked on the filling and I made the crust. I didn’t have my simple pie dough recipe, because I put all my baking books in a box and the book with the recipe was at the bottom so I googled a simple pie dough and kind of improvised from there.
I couldn’t fully remember what I was supposed to do… making the dough by hand, what it was supposed to feel like, etc. (only having experience making 2 or 3 pies before) It was really warm in the kitchen, too, so that also played a factor in what I was calling our FRANKENPIE!
But that’s okay, because nobody sees that once the filling is in. I also wanted to try to make a lattice top (a first for me), and the dough was a little finicky for that too.
However, the pie made it into the oven fine, and despite it’s messiness, it came out tasting great!
