blueberry instead of mango

After the failure of the mango cupcakes, I still had time to try some other ones, so since I had blueberries, I decided to try making blueberry cupcakes instead. I find that it is always good to follow failure up with success as quickly as possible. These were lovely. I had an idea that they would be something like blueberry pancakes in cupcake form. Once more from Ming Makes Cupcakes. My adjusted recipe:

Blueberry Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups flour (I used unbleached all-purpose for this one)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 stick butter, melted
3 Tbsp. applesauce
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup milk (I used almond milk)
1 cup blueberries (I guessed, so I may have been a bit over or under)

Combine dry ingredients. I believe I added some cinnamon, and possibly a sprinkle of nutmeg.


In a separate bowl combine applesauce with melted butter.


Add buttermilk and almond milk to the butter mixture and combine.


Pour into dry ingredients and combine.


Now this is important to maintain the integrity of the blueberries. Toss the blueberries in about a Tablespoon or so of flour before adding them to the batter.


Fold the blueberries in gently. You don't want to bruise them or damage them. Blueberries are very sensitive creatures. . .in case you didn't know.

Bake at 350* for 20 minutes.

Brown Butter Frosting with Honey
1 stick butter
1 tsp. (ish, I didn't really measure, just sprinkled) cinnamon
1/4 cup milk
3 Tbsp. honey (once again, didn't measure, just poured)


Melt the butter in a skillet with cinnamon and cook until browned.

Pour in a bowl and add the other ingredients and mix until smooth. This frosting is another one that I just fell in love with (but I do love butter a lot!!). I'm incredibly sorry that I don't have pictures of the finished product. I was in a bit of a hurry and forgot to take one later.

After icing the cupcakes, I topped them with blueberries. Remember what we talked about garnishing cupcakes. . .it makes the entire experience so much better.

Oh, remember what I said about thinking these would be like blueberry pancakes. . .one bite confirmed my thought. They were deliciously like blueberry pancakes. Yummy!!

cupcake madness continues. . .

I'm not even kidding you. . .I am obsessed with making cupcakes right now. . .now if I could just get someone to pay me to make them. . .

I decided to make some to take to a group I go to with church, and decided to make mango cupcakes with buttercream frosting and coconut off of mingmakescupcakes.yolasite.com.

My recipe with changes is as follows. . .fair warning: this recipe did not turn out, so I'm going to have to try it again as I have a fairly good idea what went wrong. I also was making this so that my roommate could eat them, so the recipe is adjusted for that as well.

Mango Cupcakes
1 cup flour (I used tapioca flour. . .that was my big mistake)
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup + 3 Tbsp applesauce
1/2 cup sugar (I used coconut sugar)
approximately 2 mangoes diced and mashed
1/4 cup water

Combine all ingredients.

Bake at 350* for 20 minutes


The result. . .no bueno! I will be trying these again with different flour as I think that was the major problem. Since the cupcakes did not turn out, I did not end up making the frosting.

More cupcakes to come. . .

prepare yourselves. . .

. . .for some cupcake madness. It is March after all. The NCAA has basketball, why shouldn't I have cupcakes? A friend put me onto this website: Ming Makes Cupcakes and I may or may not have gotten slightly obsessed with it.

*Note: these are not all recipes that I am making so they fit with my roommates dietary needs. This is something I am doing more for the fun of baking than for experimenting with changing recipes, although I am still doing that. My roommate also happens to be gone right now, so I am baking to give away.

The first recipe I tried was the Coconut Rum Cupcakes with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting. Here is my recipe with changes to the original. I actually also decided to use a different frosting because I already had mascarpone so I decided to try her recipe for mascarpone frosting instead.

Cupcakes

2 cups flour (I did use unbleached all purpose)
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup brown sugar (I used dark brown)
1 stick butter
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup coconut rum

For the cupcakes, start by combining the dry ingredients in a bowl. I added cinnamon to the mix because I love cinnamon. The end. In another bowl cream together the butter and sugar.

Add the egg and mix well.


Then alternately add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk.



This was the point where I realized that the recipe did not call for chocolate. WHAT?! Cocoa powder was immediately added to the dry ingredients. Who makes a coconut rum cupcake without chocolate? Seriously.


Then add in the coconut rum. Now, I don't like to advertise for companies, but this is my favorite brand of rum. Cruzan is made in the US Virgin Islands on the island of St. Croix, and I have been there. I may be slightly biased, but this is good rum. Use whatever kind you want; I just like this kind.


When you finish mixing it up, this is what it should look like. Deliciousness!

Fill cupcake wrappers about 2/3 full. I was taught by my mum that whenever you had a cupcake pan that wasn't completely full you should fill the other cups with a little bit of water, so that's what I do. I cannot explain or justify it to you, that's just what I do.


Look at those little beauties!! All ready for frosting and garnish.

Frosting
8 oz. mascarpone
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar

For the frosting, combine all the ingredients and beat until smooth. I used triamisu mascarpone, so it had a slight coffee flavor to it.

The frosting makes this cupcake. I tried one without frosting and one with frosting. The frosting makes the cupcake. Trust me. And let me just tell you, this frosting is to die for. . .I may or may not have cleaned the bowl out with my fingers. Yum!



Let's talk about garnishing for just a moment. Garnishing is what makes a cupcake. It's the little flourish on the top that says: I'm delicious. . .eat me! It makes a cupcake look professional as well. I took these in for my small group and others at my favorite coffeeshop, and everyone kept asking if I made them. Yes, I did, but they look professional, no? Garnish away! And stay tuned for more cupcake madness.

bread of the bostonian persuasion

Yes, that is a fancy way of saying Boston Brown Bread (BBB, cause writing out Boston Brown Bread gets kind of time consuming after a while, ya know?). You know the stuff. Dense, slightly sweet, steamed in a can instead of baked. My mouth is watering for some more just writing about it. It has literally been years since I have made BBB. I'm quite certain that the last time I made it I was in early high school, so we are looking at a good 6 to 8 years ago.

Well, I was looking through my old recipe file from 4-H and spotted this gem once more. What really made me stop, though, was that this recipe has no yeast in it. Bread made without yeast is kind of my holy grail right now (hmm. . .monty python anyone?). I digress. Since my roomie is allergic to yeast, it makes bread a might difficult. So seeing that this bread doesn't call for yeast made my heart beat a little faster (literally I think it did). It's a simple recipe that is easy to whip up, although it does take a little while to steam.

The original recipe calls for yellow cornmeal, white flour and rye flour. Two of those are out, but easy to substitute for. I also substituted almond milk for cows milk.

Scant 1 c. oat flour
Scant 1 c. rice flour
Scant 1 c. rye flour
1/2 t. salt
1 t. baking soda
1/2 c. almond milk
1/2 c. water
1/2 c. molasses

Start by combining all of your dry ingredients in a bowl.


Set that aside and warm the milk and water in a saucepan. Once it is warm, add the molasses.

Add the dry ingredients and mix until it just forms a dough ball. Do not over mix. (I'm not sure what exactly will happen if you over mix it, but my guess is that it will become tough, and no one wants tough bread. . .just sayin').


Place in a greased can.


Cover with waxed paper and secure. I used a rubber band because I had one handy. You can also tie it down with string. Place the can on a trivet in a pan of boiling water. If you don't have a trivet you can just place it in the pan, but it will make noise and be annoying. I suggest using a trivet. (I need to get one before I make this again). Add water as necessary to keep about 2 inches of water in the pan.


It will cook for an hour to an hour and a half. Mine was about an hour. Remove it to a cooling rack and after letting it cool in the can for just a bit, loosen the sides with a knife and it should just slide right out. And volia! Delicious Boston Brown Bread!

This lasted for about 2 days. . .okay, maybe a day and a half in our house. Yum!

chili for chilly weather

The weather hasn't been very spring like the last couple of days, so today I made chili. Yum! This is how I make chili. . .

Start with about half an onion diced up and a clove of garlic and some olive oil in a pan. This time I added some celery and mushrooms because I had some on hand. You can also add Worcestershire sauce if you want (I happen to be out right now so I didn't).


Add seasonings. I like to season twice. Once when the base ingredients are cooking and once when all the ingredients are in the pan. I feel like it gives the dish a nice depth of flavor (but that could just be me, feel free to season however you want to).


Then add a pound of ground beef. You can also use deer or elk meat here for a slightly different flavor. The benefit of wild game meat is that it generally is much leaner than beef, but then again, we have lean beef, so it's whatever you like.


While the beef is browning, place three tomatoes in a pan of water on high. I use roma tomatoes because I like the flavor and the low acidity of them. This is just to blanch the tomatoes so that you can remove the skins easily. You don't want to overcook them or they will turn to mush.


Once the skins on the tomatoes have split, remove them from the heat and bathing them in cool water remove the skins. Chop them up and add to the meat mixture.


Then add one can each, tomato sauce, black beans and red beans. Give it a good stir.


Add the second set of seasonings, and check the flavor. I usually add a little more chili powder and cayenne pepper because I like a little spice. Depending on how spicy you want your chili you can add more or less of both these spices.


And there you have it. I like to let it sit and simmer for a little while so all the flavors mingle nicely, but this is also a great leftovers dish because the more it sits, the better the flavor gets (until it goes bad, then it's just no good).

coconut pudding

I have a small confession. . .I adore coconut. . .okay, maybe I'm mildly obsessed with coconut. I have been searching for a coconut pudding recipe for a while. I tried to make one using rice, but it didn't turn out well at all, so then I tried approach number two. I decided to alter a chocolate pudding recipe instead of finding a coconut pudding one. My only real concern with making pudding was the thickening agent. Cornstarch is out because my roommate is allergic to corn. I decided to try using rice flour instead of cornstarch. Rice is a thickening agent as well as flour, so I figured it would work well. I altered a recipe from allrecipes.com.

In a medium saucepan stir together:
1/2 c. coconut sugar
1/4 c. white rice flour
a pinch of salt


Add 2 3/4 c. milk of choice (I used about 1 3/4 c. coconut milk and 1 c. almond milk).



Stir over medium heat until it thickens so that it coats a spoon. Then stir in toasted coconut flakes (I think I used about a cup or 1 1/2 cups). I also added a dash of cinnamon (because let's be honest here. . .I'm mildly obsessed with cinnamon as well).


The result was delicious!! Coconut pudding success after a coconut pudding failure. It doesn't get much sweeter than that.

rainy morning baking

There are few things I love better than baking on a rainy morning. There is just something about rain outside that makes inside so cozy and warm. And what goes better with cozy and warm than a nice batch of freshly baked scones?

I started with a recipe from Alice's Tea Cup, a cookbook from the business of the same name in New York. My roommate got this book for Christmas, and I have been immensely enjoying it since then. Scones are one of my guilty pleasures, and I am always on the hunt for a good scone recipe. I have made their pumpkin scones a couple of times, but I decided to just use that as a starting place this morning and head off in a new direction. I guess we can call these honey applesauce spice scones.

3 cups flour (I used 2.5 of oat flour and .5 of coconut flour)
1/3 cup sugar (I omitted this because I added honey)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt (this is roughly what I put in)
ground ginger
ground cinnamon
ground nutmeg
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup honey

Start by mixing the dry ingredients and then chopping up the butter and tossing it in. Work the butter into the flour mixture with your hands. I guess you can use a pastry blender here, but then you miss the experience of it. I am a tactile person, so I like feel of working the butter in with my hands. . .plus that is what the cookbook says to do. Do what you like.

Then add the honey, applesauce, and buttermilk and mix into a dough, but do not knead or overwork the dough. That will give you a tough and unpleasant scone. I ended up adding a bit of rice flour to my dough at this point because it was a little too moist. I try not to use all oat flour when baking because it is rather dense. Putting in a variety of flours seems to help with the density as well as giving it some more complex flavor. Once it is in dough form, pat it down on a floured surface and using a round cutter, cut out the scones and arrange on a baking sheet.

Fully baked and delicious scones. . .well at least I think they are delicious. . .I haven't actually tried one yet. That will be breakfast after I go for a run.

I hope you all have a lovely rainy (or sunny) morning wherever you are.

chicken and mushrooms

I went to the True/False film festival this last weekend. It is all documentaries, and my favorite was one called El Bulli: Cooking in Progress. It has given me so much inspiration to be creative and try new things. Tonight for supper, I decided I wanted to try a chicken and mushroom dish with Marsala wine thrown into the mix.


I started with some butter, minced garlic, onion, and fresh ginger in a sauce pan. I wanted the onions to caramelize a bit, so I let them cook for a little while before I added some sliced mushrooms to the mix along with some Marsala. I let that all cook for a while. . .with these seasonings.
Note my lovely glass of red wine in the background. . .I always think that having a drink while cooking makes the experience even more enjoyable.

Some rice cooking for an accompaniment for dinner.

I love the Spanish tradition of eating late at night. . .still cooking dinner after 9 o'clock means dinner at 9:30. . .so much fun!!


Then I moved the onion and mushroom mixture to a plate and put the chicken breasts in the same pan with some more butter, Marsala and ginger and these seasonings.

The finished plate. Chicken and mushrooms with rice and a nice salad with feta, blueberries and cucumber. . .Delicious!!