Baking Bouchon - Recipe 63: Bran Muffins

I'm not sure how I feel about bran muffins.  When I worked in the bakery we sold a TON of bran muffins.  I think maybe people believe that they're healthy and while they might have more fiber in them than regular muffins, they're still loaded with as much sugar and fat as regular muffins.

Despite the smorgasbord of ingredients it takes to make these muffins, the batter comes together pretty easily. 

Butter and sugar are creamed together.  To that you add eggs, honey and molasses followed by alternating the dry ingredients with the buttermilk and half and half.

The completed batter also has pears, golden raisins and pumpkin seeds in it. 

The pears are supposed to be poached pears like the ones used in the pear feuillette but I was not about to go through that process for 1 1/2 tablespoons of pears so I used regular, fresh pears.

The raisins are raisins.  They're gross.

The pumpkin seeds are great, but I'm confused by them.  Every time I clean out a pumpkin to make my Halloween Jack-o-Lantern the pumpkin seeds are white.  Even after they're roasted they're white.   So why is it that when I buy pumpkin seeds they're green?  I'm not alone in this question, the cashier at the grocery store asked me the same thing and I didn't have an answer for her.

These muffins didn't bake up as fluffy as some of the other ones in the cookbook.  I'm not really sure why.  It's probably the fiber.

These are not my favorite muffins in this book.  The best thing about them are the green pumpkin seeds.  They add a good crunch to the muffin that I enjoy.  They are definitely the most filling muffins so far but filling does not a great muffin make.

I had a friend visiting and she claimed to like these muffins.

CA disliked these entirely.  He didn't even finish one.  He thought the worst part was the pumpkin seeds.

Opposites attract.

Enjoy!
Julie

Turkey Plantain Lasagna (Turkey Pastelon)

I went to Puerto Rico a couple of years ago and came back with an obsession with plantains.  There is a dish there called Mofongo that is essentially mashed, fried plantains served with some kind of sauce and protein.  It is amazing!

CA even made it for me a few months ago and it was just as delicious as I remember.  It had shrimp and a spicy sauce on it.  He really does like me.

Plantains are not bananas.  They look like bananas and have a subtle banana-like sweetness but they're much starchier like a potato.  I love them.  They come in either green which is less sweet or ripe which is a bit sweeter but still not as sweet as our bananas.

The plantains in this recipe essentially replace the pasta in this "lasagna". 

They are peeled, thinly sliced and seared on each side in a non-stick skillet.

In between the plantain layers is a turkey picadillo which is the "marinara sauce" of this lasagna.  It is a combination of ground turkey, onion, garlic, tomatoes, bell peppers, cilantro and tomato sauce seasoned with cumin and oregano.  That's all fairly regular, but the special addition here are alcaparrado peppers.  I'd never heard of these until I read this recipe and I was totally shocked when I actually found them in my grocery store.  It's a mixture of green olives, capers and pimentos.  A couple tablespoons of these along with a couple tablespoons of the brine go into the picadillo and it had a huge impact on the flavor!  The sauce almost has a Spanish flavor with the salty olives and capers.

Did I mention there's also cheese?  It can't be lasagna without cheese.

A mixture of eggs, egg whites and milk are used to bind the whole thing together.

This is a really yummy variation on lasagna.  I love the flavor of the olives and of course I love the plantains.  It also reheats really well - especially with a little salsa on top. 

Did I mention this is a light recipe?  I know, right???

This recipe is from one of my favorite blogs - Skinnytaste.  She does an awesome job lightening up some classic dishes using real ingredients.  I've made so many great recipes from this site - you should check it out.

Enjoy!
Julie

Hasselback Potatoes

I may never make a regular baked potato again.  This little technique is so easy and really gives a plain old baked potato a little bit of pop!

I've been scouring the internet trying to figure out why these are called hasselback potatoes and all I get are references to Matt and Elisabeth Hasselback and a million recipes for hasselback potatoes so maybe they're not named after a stegosaurus' cousin and that's just what they are.

Hasselback potatoes are essentially potatoes that are thinly sliced about 4/5 of the way through so that they have slits in them but the slices are all still connected together... like an accordion.  The idea is that you increase the surface area of the potato that gets direct heat and the potato gets crispier on the outside while still staying soft and baked potatoey on the inside.

I elected to put a slice of garlic in between every other slice of my potato because I love garlic and I'm pretty sure that all food slits are meant to be stuffed with something extra delicious.

After stuffing them with garlic, I brushed a combination of melted butter and olive oil all over them, including inside of each slit and then seasoned it generously with salt and pepper.  (I really mean generously - it's hard to over-salt a potato!)

After baking, the slits opened up a little and I sprinkled them with a little Parmesan cheese and popped them back in the oven for a few minutes to make sure it melted.  A sprinkle of freshly chopped chives and these potatoes are done.

These guys are pretty great!  I wish they had turned out a little bit crispier so next time I make them I'm going to crank up the heat a little bit (I baked them at 425 so I might bump it up to 450). There are a ton of possibilities with these potatoes... perhaps a little bacon and sour cream for a loaded hasselback potato or some sauteed mushrooms and blue cheese.  You could really dress these little guys up.

Hasselback Potatoes
Makes 2 potatoes

Ingredients
2 Baking Potatoes
1 T Butter, melted
1 T Olive Oil
1 large or 2 small cloves of Garlic, thinly sliced
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Pepper
2 T grated Parmesan Cheese
2 T chopped Chives

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees (or 450 degrees for crispier potatoes).  Thinly slice each potato accordion style, leaving the bottoms in tact.  Push a slice of garlic in between the slits of the potatoes.

Combine the butter and olive oil.  Brush each potato with the mixture making sure to get in between the slices.  Season with salt and pepper.

Place the potatoes in a baking dish and bake for 45 minutes - 1 hour until the insides are soft and the outside is browned and crispy.  Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and return to the oven for 5 minutes.  Remove the potatoes from the oven and sprinkle with chives.

Enjoy!
Julie

Baking Bouchon - Recipe 62: Speculoos

Speculoos are a simple spice cookie from Belgium.  The spice in them is all cinnamon which makes them perfect for Fall.

These cookies are made in a typical cookie dough fashion...

Butter is creamed with white sugar, brown sugar and honey.  That is combined with a mixture of regular flour, cake flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda and salt.  Done.

I think it's interesting that there is whole wheat flour in this recipe.  In the end I think it pairs really well with the cinnamon and gives some weight to the cookie.

The dough needs to be chilled for a while so that you can roll it out - there's quite a bit of butter in here (fine by me) so it needs a chance to harden back up.

I cut these into what I'm claiming are leaves, although I have a sinking suspicion that this isn't actually a leaf cookie cutter, but a clover cookie cutter meant for St. Patrick's Day.  Oh well.

Thomas gives two suggestions for topping these cookies - either with powdered sugar after they are baked or with crystal sugar before they are baked.  I opted for the latter with turbinado sugar and I'm glad I did.  The sugar adds a nice crunch.

I really liked these cookies - the cinnamon makes them very warm and comforting and perfect as the weather is getting colder.  CA liked them too even though he doesn't like spice cookies.  He's full of surprises.

Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Enjoy!
Julie

Baking Bouchon - Recipe 61: Madeleine Cake

Somebody bring me a tissue.  I'm bored to tears by this cake.  After making rum cake, coffee cake, gingerbread and parfaits, I was expecting the cakes in this chapter to get more complex.  This one is not.  It's just lemon cake.

To be fair, I think it's just in the cookbook because there is a scaled down version of this recipe that makes a thinner cake that is used in the Lemon Meringue Tarts that are coming up in the tart chapter.  I thought about skipping the big cake and just making this when I make the tarts but CA convinced me that it was cheating.  He's so honorable.

I made a pretty big substitution in this recipe replacing all of the Glucose syrup with Light Corn Syrup.  I did a lot of research online before making the decision to do this.  I was out of Glucose syrup and last time I bought it I had to order it online and I am too impatient to do that again.  My research suggested that corn syrup could replace glucose 1 for 1 so I went for it.  I turned out just fine.  I kind of figured that it would be a disaster and I'd have a great story for you, but no dice.

To make the butter the glucose/corn syrup is melted with better and then mixed with whipped eggs and sugar.  Flour, baking powder and milk are added and then, finally, fresh lemon juice. 

The batter gets spread onto a quarter sheet pan and baked.  Thomas recommends refrigerating or freezing the cake before using it.  I chose a day wrapped in plastic wrap in the refrigerator.  Unfortunately, when I unwrapped it, it got ugly.

Thomas recommends serving this with seasonal fruit.  I happened to find some rather large blackberries and some raspberries at the store and they paired nicely with the cake.   A little dollop of whipped cream finished it off.
 
The texture of this cake is nice, tender and fluffy.

The flavor of this cake has nice and lemony.

The color of this cake is nice and golden.

It's nice...

BUT I'M SO BORED BY IT!

CA liked it - but he liked it better without the whipped cream and berries, he said they took away from the lemony flavor.

I ate a slice so I could say that I did and put the rest of it in the freezer.  I plan to crumble it up eventually and make cake balls out of it.  Cake balls are not boring.

Enjoy!
Julie

Fall & Halloween Subway Art

There's been a significant craft drought around this blog lately and I shall remedy that directly.

I finally busted out all the Fall decorations last weekend (a little later than usual) and remembered that I hadn't created any subway art for this particular season.  If you remember this post, I shared my creations for summer which seems like ages ago!  I've fully adopted sweaters, boots, soup and pumpkins - even if it still is in the 70's most days.

I created two different printables for this season - The first is for regular old Fall... which is safely tucked away until November 1st.

The second is currently on display and is dedicated to Halloween.  BOO!  I'm particularly fond of the tiny little bats that are strategically placed in this one.

I love these printables because they add a lot of festivity without a lot of work.  Print it out on your regular old computer printer, grab an 8"x10" picture frame and go.


You can download the final products by clicking on the links below.

Fall Subway Art

Halloween Subway Art

You're welcome!
Julie

Banana, Walnut, Chocolate Skillet Cake

This recipe surprised the heck out of me.  I made it one random Wednesday night when I was bored and when I get bored, I bake. 

Looking around the kitchen and pantry to see what I wanted to make, I spotted two spotted bananas that I had been meaning to peel and stick in the freezer so I figured I might as well use them up.

I didn't feel like having regular old banana bread or muffins - I wanted chocolate.  So, I did the most obvious thing I could think of and turned to Pinterest.

Luckily, over a year ago I pinned this recipe for Banana, Walnut & Chocolate Cookie Cake, which I have renamed a skillet cake because that's what it is and it's freakin' delicious!

One of the best things about this cake is that it is made entirely in a cast iron skillet.  The whole thing gets mixed in the skillet and baked in it too which made me super happy.  First of all, I love my cast iron skillet - it's the Southern girl in me who thinks you should use cast iron whenever possible.  Second (and possibly more importantly) this means that you don't have to dirty a bowl which means less dishes which I'm a fan.

First you melt butter in the skillet, then turn off the heat, add the sugar and stir that around.  Next the eggs and vanilla extract go in (stir it up fast so the eggs don't cook), followed by the bananas and cinnamon.  The rest of the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda and salt) round it out.  The very last thing that goes in are walnuts and chocolate chips.  As the original recipe suggests, I used dark chocolate chips which I think are very important in this recipe.  In fact, I may just start using them all the time instead of semi-sweet chips - they just taste better.

The batter was probably a little too warm when I stirred in the chocolate because it melted a little bit.  It wasn't a huge deal but if I made it again, I'd let the mixture cool a bit more to keep it the chips from melting.

Oh my, this cake is so yummy.  I really loved it.  CA really loved it.  CA's coworkers really loved it.  It disappeared as fast as anything else I've ever made.  Plus, it's so easy to make and requires few dirty dishes.  It doesn't get much better than that!  The cinnamon in here really adds something special to the cake - I was a little leery of it but I think I would have missed it if it hadn't been there.

This recipe can be found at Joy the Baker (which, by the way, is one of my favorite blogs).  I doubled the recipe and cooked it in a 12" skillet instead of an 8" skillet and increased the baking time to about 30 minutes.  You'll definitely want to do that too because you'll want to have much, much more of it.

Enjoy!
Julie

Baking Bouchon - Recipe 60: Caramel Apples

The first time I ever made caramel apples was last Fall when my friend Squirrel invited me over to make them.  She had all the trimmings... caramel (obviously), chocolate, nuts, Oreo crumbs, salt and much more.  It was really fun and the apples were super delicious! 

What I learned that day is that eating an entire caramel apple will make you sick. (I'm ignoring the fact that I also swiped a significant amount of toppings  in addition to eating my own decorated apple. I attribute my angry tummy only to the one apple.)  Therefore, when I saw the caramel apple recipe in this cookbook, I knew I wanted to make them smaller.  Unfortunately, my grocery store does not sell mini apples - which by the way, is an amazing idea that I should patent immediately - so I sliced up the apples before dipping them in caramel.

The caramel here is the caramel jam recipe that I used in the Caramel Nut Tart and the Fuhgeddaboutits and it's perfect for caramel apples.  It is just firm enough to hold onto the apple without being too hard when it cools.

What I did not consider when deciding to dip slices of apples in caramel instead of whole apples is that the sides of sliced apples are wet.  This meant that the caramel had trouble sticking to the sides.  I did the best I could and managed to get the majority of the cut sides covered.

These caramel apples get dressed up with a drizzle of chocolate and some toasted almonds.  Aren't they pretty?

Fair warning, that because the apples are cut into slices they only keep for one day until the juice starts leaking out and mixing with the caramel to create a lovely caramel water in the bottom of the Tupperware you're keeping them in in the refrigerator.  Not pretty.

Despite how temperamental the apple slices can be, I don't regret making these this way.  Giant apples would not have been eaten nearly as quickly.  In fact, I'm pretty sure no one at work would have snagged up a giant caramel apple and eaten it sitting over their computer.  Bad idea.

Overall, these are pretty awesome!

Enjoy!
Julie

Pear, Walnut and Blue Cheese Salad

I've never really thought of salads as having recipes... they're more like assembly instructions.

I also had no intention of sharing this salad with you because, like I said, it's not a recipe.

For those reasons I did not take pictures of the ingredients or the assembly.  In fact, I wouldn't have even taken a picture of the finished salad if CA hadn't asked if I'd taken a picture because it was so pretty.  Therefore, I snapped a few pics and dug in with my fork.

Much to my surprise this salad was freakin' delicious.  It came to be simply because my kind and thoughtful neighbor brought us a little jar of local walnut oil.  In light of the conversation we had yesterday about foods gifts, you will know how much I enjoyed receiving the walnut oil and had to find the perfect application for it.  This salad was the big winner.

So, here I will provide you with the assembly instructions for this salad because it was so darn tasty.  Even CA, who is not a fan of fruit in salad, liked this one.  I think it had everything to do with the blue cheese which is the perfect compliment to both the sweet pears and the deep flavor walnuts & walnut oil.

Pear, Walnut & Blue Cheese Salad
Serves 2 (as a main dish)

Ingredients
1 Shallot, minced
3 T Red Wine Vinegar
9 oz. Mixed Lettuces (about a bag and a half if you're lazy like me)
2 Pears, peeled and thinly sliced
2 Radishes, thinly sliced
2 oz. Blue Cheese
1/4 cup Walnuts, toasted
2 T Walnut Oil
Freshly Ground Pepper

Ingredients
Combine the shallots and vinegar in a small bowl and allow to sit in the refrigerator for about 1 hour.  Divide the lettuce, pears, radishes, blue cheese and toasted walnuts into two serving bowls.  Top each with half of the vinegar/shallot mixture and walnut oil.  Finish with freshly ground black pepper.

Enjoy!
Julie

Chicken Paprikash

I'm not shy to say that I love presents.  Gift giving and getting are two of my favorite things.  Christmas is the very best day of the year.  I love birthdays and showers of all shapes and sizes.  One of my favorite types of gifts are food gifts.  A banana bread for a new neighbor, a bottle of wine for a hostess gift, a couple nice bottles of olive oil and balsamic vinegar as a house warming gift... those are perfection to me.  

So, imagine my happiness when my fantastic sister went to Turkey and returned with this authentic sweet and hot paprika.  She really loves me.

Now imagine the joy I felt a few months later when I received the October issue of Saveur magazine and smack dab on the cover is a beautiful photo of Chicken Paprikash.  I call that fate.

I feel like I've had chicken paprikash before but I can't pinpoint when so I also can't tell you exactly what it's supposed to taste like.  I can tell you how to make this version and what it tastes like.

This version starts with chicken, which I imagine all versions do.  A whole chicken to be exact.  Then you cut up the whole chicken into chicken pieces.  (You should read that to say that CA cuts up the whole chicken into chicken pieces because I don't know how to do that.  Technically, CA doesn't know how to cut up a whole chicken either but he looked it up on the Internet and did a pretty decent job.  I think he secretly wants to be a butcher.  I love that CA will tackle the tough jobs that I don't want to do.)  The chicken gets browned in my favorite Le Creuset dutch oven.

After the chicken is browned, in go minced onions which get cooked until soft.  Then you add the paprika.  The original recipe calls for all sweet paprika, but I used a combination of hot and sweet paprika which I highly recommend.  The chicken goes back in the pot along with chicken stock, tomatoes and peppers.  All that gets cooked together for about 30 minutes.

After that, it's done and you have paprikash.  It's surprisingly simple.  The key here is to have really good paprika because it's really the only flavoring in the recipe.

The paprikash is served with sour cream on the top which is a really good addition.  It smooths out the flavors and brings it all together.

All in all this recipe is great but I have one big problem with it.  There's not enough paprika in it.  As I was eating it, I kept adding extra paprika to my bowl until it was just right.  The recipe calls for 3 tablespoons of paprika which sounds like a lot but I would recommend using twice that amount.  I'm very serious about this so I've changed the recipe below to reflect the larger amount.  Paprika all the way!

Chicken Paprikash
Adapted from Saveur
services 4-6

Ingredients 
1/4 cup Canola Oil
1 (3–4-lb) Chicken, cut into 8 pieces 
Salt and Pepper to taste 
1 large Yellow Onion, minced 
3 T Hungarian Sweet Paprika, plus more for garnish 
3 T Hungarian Hot Paprika
2 cups Chicken Stock 
2 Plum Tomatoes, seeded and cut into 1" pieces 
1 Red, Yellow or Orange Pepper, cut into 1" pieces 
1/2 cup Sour Cream, for serving

Instructions
Heat oil in a 6-qt. saucepan over medium-high heat. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Working in batches, cook the chicken, flipping once, until browned, 8–10 minutes. Transfer chicken to a plate; set aside. Add onion to pan; cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 8 minutes. Add paprika; cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Return chicken and its juices to the pan. Add stock, tomatoes, and pepper; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, partially covered, until chicken is fully cooked, about 30 minutes. Transfer chicken and sauce to a serving platter; spoon sour cream over top and garnish with more paprika.

 

Enjoy!
Julie

No baking today... but I did go on vacation

Hey There!

I have no baking news to report today and probably won't until next week.  I went on vacation and while I have some yummy stuff to tell you about it will have to wait until I can catch up on regular life (grocery shopping, laundry, etc.)

CA and I celebrated our 10th Anniversary with a trip to Little Palm Island which is in the Florida Keys.  The island is only accessible by boat which is fine by me.  It's also only 5 acres in size so you can walk around it in about five minutes.  I spent the majority of my time lounging, eating and drinking cocktails.  My perfect kind of vacation.  We did spend a few hours on actual activities like snorkeling in Looe Key and stand up paddle boarding (and I'm proud to say I did not fall in the off!)

Before regular life finds me again, I'm going to post a gratuitous amount of pictures from my vacation in order to make you feel jealous or like you need a vacation too.

Where we ate dinner each night... right on the sand.

The pool where excessive amounts of lounging occurred.

My favorite kind of tree.

The paths that led all around the island.

Random hammock (I tried to get in one but fell on my head).

View of the dining area from the dock.

One of the docks.

Talk of cooking will recommence next week.

Enjoy!
Julie