Toaster pastry experiment #2, still not what I’m looking for. These turned out like mini fruit pies and not pop tarts. The crust is perfectly flaky and quite tasty, but too flaky and brittle for this purpose. Also, too much dough-to-filling ratio. And the dough puffed too high, much like in the baking of an apple pie.
I used a pate sucre dough recipe and strawberry jam–3″ biscuit cutter-too small.
Playing around with a recipe for chocolate/Nutella toaster pastries, this one was too rich and too sweet. This is the recipe, mostly notes so I can change sugar/cocoa amounts.
1 1/4 c flour
1/2 c + 1 Tbl butter
1/3 c cocoa powder
1/3 c granulated sugar
2 - 3 Tbls ice water
Nutella
450 degrees 7-8 minutes
I made cherry limeade cupcakes for cupcakecamp.
The recipe for the cupcake is here, as noted in the post I use all butter and no shortening. That’s the only difference to my recipe, oh, and I don’t add nuts. Then frost.
Buttercream Frosting
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 cup butter
3 tablespoons lime juice (fresh)
zest of one lime
In mixer, combine sugar and butter on low speed until blended. Then increase speed and beat for for a few more minutes until smooth
Add lime juice and zest and mix until creamy. I use an Ateco #823 pastry tip to frost.
Edited to add: I injected this batch with lime Jello. To do, bake cupcakes as directed and let cool. Then poke holes in cake and inject warm jello into the cupcake. Put in fridge and let cool before frosting. Photos of process here.
There were hundreds of cupcakes today–some pics up on flickr. Now I must sit down and digest!
I’ll be attending CupcakeCamp on Sunday here in SF. I’m making the cherry limeade cupcakes for the event–with lime buttercream, of course. Hope to meet some new folks and talk all things geekery and cupcakes!
I add 2 teaspoons of instant espresso powder to boxed chocolate cake mix and prepare as usual.
Chocolate frosting:
1 cup butter
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons cream
In mixer: cream butter, sugar and cocoa until blended. Add cream and vanilla and whip until smooth.
Piped with an 823 star pastry tip
I adapted this recipe from one of my favorite Food Network hosts, George Duran.
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cake flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts
Pre-heat oven to 350 degreesIn mixer, beat butter until smooth. Slowly beat in white and brown sugar until mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time. Then add in vanilla and pumpkin puree.
In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves.
Slowly beat flour mixture into the wet batter. Stir in the nuts and chocolate chips. Scoop the cookie dough by heaping tablespoons onto silpat lined cookie sheets. Bake for 15 minutes.
What did I change from the original recipe? I used a combination of AP flour and cake flour to make sure the dough stayed tender. I also substituted semisweet chips in place of the milk chocolate. The cookie is fairly sweet and the milk chocolate chips overpowered the cookie the first time I made these. I also added nuts.
After doing a tiny bit of research on how to make my own beignets, I realized there are two varieties; yeast and no yeast. Does anyone know if one recipe is more “authentic” than the other?
I’ll have to do some digging on the history and current variations.
The Craftland opening party is on Friday and I’ve decided to make these brightly decorated petite fours for the festivities. I plan to make the cake tomorrow or Tuesday and keep in the fridge until Friday morning when I’ll cut the little shapes and frost.
We made a quick trip to Rochester for Thanksgiving dinner of turkey, chicken, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, artichokes and rice stuffing. And then there was dessert - pie, cakes and cookies…
Grandma’s sugar cookie recipe, icing by me:
Cream in mixer:
1 C softened butter
1 ½ C sugar
4 eggs
4 tblsp cream
2 tspn vanilla or lemon ( I use lemon)
Slowly add
5 C flour
1 tspn salt
½ tspn baking soda
Chill dough for several hours. Roll out to approx 1/8 ” and cutout. Bake at 400 for 6 - 8 minutes.
The new cookie cutters have arrived and I’m making this sugar cookie recipe from Alton Brown. I’ll probably also make the royal icing recipe, too. I usually just do a simple glaze, but I need a heavier consistency for decorating the fine veins in the oak leaf, and detail in the squirrel.
Comments(1)