general failure

As my friend just pointed out, the state of this website makes it fairly clear that I don't like it anymore. But I have a prettier one now! Please follow me to http://onecaketwocake.com/ , where I will soon be posting photos from our ill-advised housewarming barbecue!

teaser photo below:

lessons learned from butter pecan ice cream

Lesson 1: Butter pecan ice cream is incredibly, spectacularly delicious.
Lesson 2: Don't overfill your ice cream machine.

I've been away at my father's cottage this week, and one upside (beyond the lake, the forest, seeing my family, and all that other minor stuff) is that he owns an ice cream machine! Not having one myself, I jumped at the opportunity to experiment. I wonder how much ice cream I can cram into a single week...

Anyhow, this recipe was absolutely fabulous. If you're looking for a rich ice cream to make, this is definitely one to try. The ice cream is sweet and creamy and flavoured with brown sugar and vanilla, and it's perfectly offset by the buttery, salty nuts. I know that sentence had too many adjectives, but they were all well-deserved.


Although it turned out amazing, there definitely were a couple glitches along the way. The first one was pretty minor, and basically just amounted to me being nervous. I cooked the custard at higher and higher heat, waiting for it to thicken. It never really did and I just gave up - next time I won't worry so much, and just take it to the recommended temperature.


The other issue was that the poor little ice cream machine couldn't quite cope with the vast quantities of liquid I poured into it, despite what it and Epicurious respectively claimed about the number of quarts involved. The result was that the ice cream never got quite cold enough - I think the photos make it pretty obvious that it ended up pretty liquidy (but you can pretend it's gelato!). It's also obvious that I have not mastered the art of photographing ice cream, but that should surprise no one, given that I don't seem to have mastered the art of photographing anything in particular.

In the end, though, this ice cream really was fantastic (after an overnight freeze it firmed up nicely), and I'd recommend it to anyone, especially with those corrections. Here it is!

Butter Pecan Ice Cream - Adapted from Epicurious

• 1 1/3 cups pecans, finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons salted butter, softened
• scant 1/4 teaspoon salt (go easier on the salt if you don't like the salty/sweet combination)
  
• 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 4 large eggs
• 2 cups whole milk
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Toast pecans in a shallow baking pan in middle of oven until fragrant and a shade darker, 7 to 8 minutes. Add butter and salt to hot pecans and toss until butter is melted, then cool pecans completely (they will absorb butter).

Whisk together brown sugar and cornstarch, then add eggs, whisking until combined. Bring milk and cream just to a boil in a 3- to 4-quart heavy saucepan over moderately high heat, then add to egg mixture in a stream, whisking constantly, and transfer custard to saucepan.

Cook custard over moderately low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until thick enough to coat back of spoon and registers 170 to 175°F on an instant-read thermometer, 2 to 3 minutes (do not let boil). Note: I ended up taking this to 180 and it still didn't really thicken, so don't stress too much.

Immediately pour custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl and stir in vanilla, then cool, stirring occasionally. Chill custard, its surface covered with wax paper, until cold, at least 3 hours.

Freeze custard in ice cream maker until almost firm. Stir together ice cream and pecans in a bowl, then transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden.

Note: I would freeze the custard in two batches, unless your ice cream maker is superior to ours (which is likely).

on nut-toasting

I realized that after being somewhat preachy about the importance of toasting nuts, I didn't actually mention how I do it. Silly me. So, here is an honest rundown of my usual process:

Step 1: Spread nuts on tray and put in preheated oven.

Step 2: Forget there's anything in the oven, and wonder what that odd burning smell is.

Step 3: Throw out charred remainders of nuts and start over, paying slightly more attention this time.

I encourage you all to start with step 3.

But really, it is easy. Just spread the nuts on a tray - for easy clean-up, use whatever you'll be baking in next - and stick them in a 350 degree oven. Check from time to time, and you'll know they're done when they're fragrant and have a crisp snap when you break them in pieces. Usually I find that takes around 7 minutes, but it'll vary depending on your oven and your nuts. So be alert!

blondies

Wow.

These were wonderful.

They were also kind of ugly. They don't make for spectacular presentation, as can be seen in the photo. I think blondies are sort of inherently unattractive, because a yellow block with dark chunks just isn't going to look super appetizing.

I had never made blondies before, having tasted one a couple years ago and written them off as dry and boring. But I'm moving soon, and I wanted to use up my various types of chocolate chips. Ignoring the fact that I would have to buy even more ingredients to bake these, I settled on this blondies recipe that includes them both!

Anyhow, if you like gooey, buttery desserts (this is obviously rhetorical), then these are the absolute perfect things to make. I loved them and couldn't stop eating them and had to rapidly give them all away. They turn out as slabs of what is basically melty butter cookie, studded with pecans and white and semisweet chocolate chips.

As for the recipe, I honestly wouldn't change a thing, I'm terrified to mess with something so delicious. My only notes are that the edges have a bit of a gummy texture, so I cut them off before slicing into squares (and then devoured all said edges! MWAHAHA!). I also think that toasting the nuts makes a real difference - I never used to, because I'm lazy, but it turns out it's super easy and very much worth it.

Voila!

Blondies - from The New Best Recipe

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 scant teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 sticks salted butter, melted and cooled
• 1 1/2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
• 1 cup pecans, toasted and coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 13- by 9-inch baking pan with 2 pieces of foil or parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk the melted butter and brown sugar together until combined. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well. Using a rubber spatula, fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixture until just combined. Do not overmix.

Fold in the semisweet and white chocolate chips and the nuts, and turn the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with a rubber spatula.

Bake until the top is shiny and cracked and feels firm to the touch, for 22 to 25 minutes. (Don't overbake!) Place the pan on a rack and let cool completely, then cut into squares (discarding edges if desired).

lemon-raspberry muffins

Today was swelteringly hot and overwhelmingly muggy. Obviously, then, the sensible thing to do was to go home and bake not one but TWO separate recipes, leaving the oven at 375 degrees for the better part of three hours. Luckily I am a very sensible young lady.

At any rate, my friends are moving this weekend, and I’m out of town so I can’t help. Instead I’m contributing snacks! Probably better that way anyhow, I have little to no arm strength so I’m pretty useless with the boxes.






I’ll stick with the first recipe for now, one I’ve tried before and already love. The other (blondies!) I’ve never tried, and they’re still in the oven, so I’ll report back later. Tasting the batter has given me pretty high expectations though!

So, at hand we have raspberry-topped lemon muffins, by way of Smitten Kitchen, by way of Epicurious. These muffins are honestly more like little cakes, sweet and light, but because I don’t frost them I feel entitled to call them muffins anyhow. And eat them for breakfast.

The pictures are a little iffy, because I forgot to borrow Sangyu’s camera and had to use my tiny one. But I think they get the point across.



It’s very warm in my apartment now, and it’s making me sleepy, so I’ll stop here. Recipe below!


Raspberry-Topped Lemon Muffins - Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Yield: 18 muffins

• 1 1/8 cups sugar, divided
• 4 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel (from two large lemons)
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter, room temperature
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 half-pint containers fresh raspberries, divided
  

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line 18 standard muffin cups with paper liners. Mash 1/8 cup sugar and lemon peel in small bowl until sugar is slightly moist. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat remaining 1 cup sugar and butter in large bowl until smooth. Beat in egg. Beat in buttermilk, then vanilla and lemon sugar. Beat in flour mixture. Set aside 18 raspberries, and gently fold the rest into the batter.

Divide batter among muffin cups. Top each muffin with a raspberry. Bake muffins until lightly browned on top and tester inserted into center comes out clean, around 20-25 minutes.

Red, white and blue tart

hmm... after weeks of inertia, I've been forced into action by the fact that Melissa is now following this blog... kinda mortifying to not actually have anything on it. But I'm also too tired to write anything intelligent, so I will just put up a pretty picture! Demonstrating my extreme patriotism.

Okay, maybe I'm motivated enough to include the recipe too... after all, that was kind of the point of this whole thing.

Red, White and Blue Tart (adapted from various Epicurious recipes)

Crust:

• 8 whole graham crackers, coarsely broken
• 1/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted

Filling:

• 6 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping:

• 2 large strawberries, hulled, sliced
• 2 1/2-pint containers blueberries
• 1 1/2-pint container raspberries

*** Note: This recipe makes a 9-inch tart. I actually roughly scaled these amounts up for a 10-inch pan, it worked beautifully and tasted amazing. Also, if you tuck the strawberries into each other like a fan, people think you're really fancy...

Make crust:
Preheat oven to 375°F. Grind crackers and sugar in processor until coarse crumbs form. Add butter and process until crumbs are evenly moistened. Press crumb mixture firmly onto bottom and up sides of 9-inch-diameter tart pan with removable bottom. Bake until crust is firm to touch, about 8 minutes. Cool crust on rack.

Make filling and topping:
Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar in medium bowl until smooth. Beat in sour cream, lemon juice and vanilla. Spread filling in cooled crust. Chill until firm, at least 4 hours. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; keep chilled.)

For topping:
Arrange strawberry slices in star pattern in center of tart. Arrange raspberries in star pattern. Surround with blueberries. Cover loosely and chill until ready to serve. (Can be made up to 6 hours ahead.)


Oh, and this picture, while less pretty, gives a better idea of how to arrange the berries: