Archive for the ‘Baking’ Category

Bites from other Blogs

• A dessert could not look more perfect for a summer picnic than In Katrina’s Kitchen‘s Picnic Tablecloth Cookie Bars. This tray of buttery sugar cookie bars is topped with a sweet layer of vanilla and almond frosting, but the fun of the dessert comes from the decorations. The frosting is sprayed with edible food coloring to give it a red and white checkerboard effect and make it look like a tablecloth. The “tablecloth” is decorated with an ant trail and cookie crumbs, giving it a very cute and whimsical look.
• Barcelona is a very inspiring city, especially because of the fantastic food that the city is known for. Bittersweet used a bit of Spain for inspiration in creating a Saffron Cashew Ice Cream, rich with a intense spice of saffron. The nondairy ice cream starts with nondairy milk that is infused with saffron until it has captured its strong flavor and bright color. The milk is combined with roasted cashews and lightly sweetened with sugar to highlight the saffron flavor before being churned into ice cream.
• The Highway to Heaven Cupcakes that Sweetapolita baked up are definitely over the top – and that is what will keep you coming back for more. The moist chocolate cupcakes are injected with salted caramel sauce and splashed with coffee syrup before being topped with a velvety chocolate ganache. Then, as if that weren’t enough, the cupcake is then topped with salty ruffled potato chips and drizzled with even more caramel sauce. Yum.
• Kugelhopf is really just another word for bundt cake, but it definitely makes the cake sound a little more elegant than your standard bundt. This beautiful Coffee Kugelphof from Cook Republic is definitely not your standard bundt. The rich sour cream batter is divided into two parts, and a generous amount of melted dark chocolate and instant coffee is added to one portion of the batter. The chocolate batter is poured on top of the plain batter, and because it is more dense, it sinks to the bottom of the pan during baking. When the cake is ready to be sliced, you’ll find that the delicious chocolate-coffee swirl is now on top of every slice.
• Philadelphia-style ice cream is the common name for ice creams that are made without eggs or egg yolks. This style of ice cream is a little lighter than those made with an egg-rich base, and a little easier to put together, but just as delicious. Zoe Bakes‘ Philadelphia-style Chocolate Ice Cream is definitely rich, eggs or not. The ice cream is flavored with cocoa powder and with dark chocolate, and is made with a combination of heavy cream and milk. It’s a great base and can be used to make many variations by adding other flavors – such as orange zest or mint – or mix ins – such as chocolate chips or oreo cookies.

5 Recipes That Use Up Leftover Egg Yolks

There are many recipes out there that call for separating your eggs and when they do, there is a good chance that you are going to have leftover egg yolks or leftover egg whites as a Fortunately, both leftover egg whites and leftover egg yolks can be stored until  you need them. But that still leaves you with the question of how to you use up leftover yolks when you have a few of them on hand? Egg whites are easier to use up, because they can make a great addition to a scramble or an omelet, and most people don’t want to add several extra yolks to an omelet without the whites. Fortunately, here are 5 great recipes that put extra egg yolks to good use.

• One or two extra egg yolks are often included in Yellow Cake Recipes, to give the cake batter that buttery yellow tint. To make a basic yellow cake more yellow, you can even substitute one whole egg for two egg yolks to enhance the yellow color of the cake
• If you have two yolks to use up, a simple Vanilla Pudding is a nice recipe to make. Yolks add a lot of richness to the pudding, giving it a silky texture. They can make a nice addition to other puddings, including chocolate and Butterscotch Pudding, as well.
• Classic Creme Brulee is the ultimate custard dessert – and a wonderful way to use up three egg yolks (some recipes may call for more or less). As in the pudding, the yolks give the creme brulee a very delicate texture and make the custard seem to melt on your tongue. The finished dish will be rich, but will feel oh-so-light.
• If you find yourself with four egg yolks, consider picking up a few limes and a graham cracker crust at the store to make a Key Lime Pie. This zesty, creamy pie is easy to make and very refreshing on a hot day.
• When you have more than five extra egg yolks, consider making a batch of Tocino de Cielo. This delicate flan-like custard is made with lots of yolks and no dairy. The flavor and texture are incredible – and you might find yourself saving yolks just to make up a batch.

Bites from other Blogs

• Strawberry season is here for the summer and there are lots of ways to put those juicy berries to good use. One way is in Tide and Thyme‘s Strawberry Yogurt Cake. This moist bundt cake is packed with bright, red berries that give each slice a very summery look. It is flavored with a bit of lemon and  vanilla, which compliment the strawberries nicely. It is a rich and satisfying cake, made with butter, yogurt and buttermilk, and would make a good base for other berry cakes, as well.
• The Creme Brulee Donuts that I Am A Food Blog look completely irresistible. The classic french custard dessert is reimagined in a bite sized ball of fried dough – and that is a good thing. These little round donuts are made with a yeast dough and are deep fried until golden. Each one is stuffed with vanilla pastry cream and topped with a little bit of glaze and sugar, which is caramelized to give the donuts the look and flavor of a well-prepared creme brulee.
• Ibarra chocolate is a brand of Mexican table chocolate, which is made with coarse sugar and cinnamon, and comes in tablets that are meant to be used for cooking or making hot chocolate. The tablets can be used for all kinds of recipes and infuse a great flavor into a dish, such as the Mexican Chili Fudge from Macheesmo. The fudge uses Ibarra chocolate and semisweet chocolate as its base, to give the fudge a strong chocolate flavor, and is flavored with a generous pinch of cayenne to add some heat to the spice already found in the Mexican chocolate.
• Peanut butter pie is a very decadent dessert that is loved by many – but it is so rich that sometimes you might not want to make a whole pie for yourself. A solution is to make up a batch of Peanut Butter Pie Shooters, instead. A Pinch of Yum made these delightful mini-desserts for a baby shower recently. The shooters pack in a satisfying portion of creamy peanut butter pie filling on top of an Oreo cookie crumb “crust” in small, elegant glasses. They’re beautiful to look at and are a great way to dress up a homey cream pie for a party – or break a whole pie down into smaller servings for regular events.

Bites from other Blogs

• You can mix a lot of things – from fruit to nuts – into a batch of brownies for added texture and flavor. You can also mix in a whole candy bar, which is what My Baking Addiction did to create these Twix Brownies. Regular brownie batter is prepared and it is filled with a layer of chopped up Twix bars. The candy bars’ combination of shortbread cookie and caramel layers adds both texture and flavor to the brownies. To further highlight the caramel, the brownies are drizzled with an easy-to-make caramel sauce before serving.
• A cupcake is sure to put a smile on your face, but a brightly colored cupcake will do the trick even faster. Culinary Concoctions by Peabody‘s Pink Ombre Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream. These pink cupcakes are dyed with several, graduated shades of pink that give them a very dynamic effect. The cakes themselves are simple vanilla, but they’re topped with strawberry buttercream frosting that ties in very nicely with the color. You could try for the same effect with other colors, as well.
• Dulce de leche is a thick, sweet milk caramel that can be downright irresistible. The Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Squares from Technicolor Kitchen are just one of many great ways to utilize the caramel in the kitchen, and unlike some other recipes, this one really allows the dulce de leche to be the star. These bars start out with a buttery cookie crust that is topped with a dulce de leche and cream cheese mixture. The filling is baked in a water bath, but it has a little gelatin to help it set up as it cools, so you know it is tender. The finished cheesecake is very rich and creamy, with a strong flavor of dulce de leche to it.
• Peanut butter, Nutella and Biscoff spread are three very popular sandwich and snack spreads. All are addictive on their own, but when you put them together, you get something over-the-top. Mississippi Kitchen‘s Layers of Love Torte is made with three mousse-like layers that are made with Peanut butter, Nutella and Biscoff spread. The mousse is contained by an Oreo cookie crust, which adds a nice contrast in color and flavor to the dessert. It looks elaborate, but the torte is actually quite simple to make, though it must be prepared ahead of time and refrigerated or frozen until ready to serve.
• Rocky road ice cream is chocolate ice cream that is studded with pieces of almonds (or walnuts) and fluffy marshmallows. The flavor combination can be extended to all kinds of other sweet treats, too, and the Rocky Road Donuts from Steph’s Bite By Bite are a perfect illustration of this. These chocolate donuts are topped with a layer of marshmallow frosting and topped with a coating of finely ground almonds. The cake-like donuts are baked in a donut pan before being frosted and have no added fat in them, unlike deep fried donuts. They’re suitable for breakfast, dessert or any time you need a snack to go alongside a cup of coffee.

What is carob?

Carob is a power made from the carob pod and is commonly used as a substitute for chocolate. Carob pods are dried and the pulp of the plant is roasted and ground into powder, which can be used in baking or to make carob chips, which are an alternative to chocolate chips. Carob is not as bitter as cocoa, although it has some background flavors in common with it, but it does have a distinctly vegetal note to it that takes a bit of getting used to.

Carob doesn’t contain any caffeine or theobromine, two mild stimulants found in chocolate, which means that it is popular with people looking for chocolate substitutes. It went through a period of being hugely in vogue in the 1970s, but is a bit less commonly seen these days. It also lacks the antioxidants found in chocolate, so people are much more likely to dark about dark chocolate as a health food than carob these days.

Still, carob is readily available in natural food stores as both non-chocolate carob chips and as carob powder. Both can be used in recipes in much the same way as real chocolate chips and cocoa powder can be, for a not-quite-chocolatey treat that uses no chocolate. It is worth noting, however, that carob chips will start to burn at a lower temperature than chocolate chips will, so keep that in mind if using them for a batch of cookies,