Beef & Leaf

I'm not sure what's happened to me.  For some reason, since we got to Korea I can't find time to do much of what I want.  This is despite the fact that I don't actually have a job.  I'm kind of a volunteer maniac.  The pace here is crazy and I fall into bed exhausted each day confused about what I did all day.  Having a job is easier than this.

A couple months into this business I will say I'm enjoying it, I've met some amazing people and seen some pretty cool stuff, but I won't say it's not difficult living in a foreign country where everything is more difficult.  For example, yesterday I attempted to find this ceramics store only to have the map lead me to a person's home.  In the US I could call this business and tell them that I'm lost, but considering that I know 2 words in Korean (hello and thank you) it wouldn't have helped me.  Therefore, we spent 4 hours in the car for absolutely nothing.

Or when I went to a Korean bakery on 4th of July attempting to broaden my exposure, purchased what I thought were hot dog buns to go with the Bratwurst we were grilling only to find out right before serving time that they were filled with some sweet buttery substance.

Then there was that time I got on the bus going the wrong direction and ended up at the bus depot or when I missed ONE turn on a road and ended up in crazy pants traffic in Seoul because you can't just turn around here.  I know I'm complaining but I'm a little grumpy today because I just wanted to buy some freakin' plates yesterday!

I did however have a pretty great dinner at an Indian Restaurant last night which is not what I'm here to tell you about.  What I'm going to tell you about is what the Americans here call "Beef & Leaf".    It's essentially a grilled meat lettuce wrap.  We first ate this right after we got here and I'm just telling you about it.  Sorry about that.  See above.

This particular restaurant is called Hwa Hwa and caters to the Americans on our base.  They speak English and print the menu in English which makes it very convenient for us Westerners who can't speak or read the language.  I have serious guilt about not being able to speak to people, but haven't had the time to remedy it.  See above.

You start with burning hot coals which they carry around in large buckets all around the restaurant using thongs.  It's freakin' scary.  CA went totally "Safety Officer" on me and thought someone was going to get burned.  He was visibly concerned for all the children in the restaurant.  In the US, they would probably put up a 10 foot safety screen but not here.  If you get burned, then it's your own fault.  Survival of the fittest.

The bucket of coals gets put in the middle of your table ready to receive some raw meat. 

Once of the things I like about Korean food is how much they love their side dishes.  This meal comes with five sides plus rice which is actually a relatively small number.  Usually the whole table is packed.  This time we got cucumbers with chili sauce, pickled radish, pickled onions, some kind of creamy cole slaw and a spicy bean sprout slaw.

We ordered the largest combination of meat available.  Marinated beef, bacon and sausages.  Plus one sad little slice of mushroom.  They bring you the plate of raw meat and you cook it yourself on the grill. 

Once it's cooked, they give you scissors where you can chop it all up and make your wraps.  A little rice, a little meat and a little sauce all wrapped up in a lettuce leaf.  I usually get bored of the wraps and after a couple of them I just eat the meat with chopsticks.  I'm getting better with chopsticks but it's slow and messy.

Beef & Leaf is pretty awesome.  We have been to several places around that serve it and it's all been very good.  The biggest problem is that you're sweaty when you're done with dinner.  Those coals are freakin' hot and they're sitting about a foot from you so I don't look quite as fresh faced when I'm done eating as I did when I started.  Luckily CA doesn't mind when I have mascara running down my face as long as the food's good.

Enjoy!
Julie

Nutella No Bake Cookies

I've been going through baking withdrawal.  We've been in Korea for three weeks which means I've been living in a hotel which, luckily, has a cook top and a microwave in it, but unluckily, has no oven or mixing bowls or spatulas or any of the things that bring me calm when I'm stressed.  Am I the only person who thinks folding ingredients together with a spatula is like meditation?

Maybe.

Anyway, I couldn't take it anymore and decided that I had to make some kind of treat or I was going to cave into myself from pent up stress and anxiety.

Or I was just craving sugar that didn't come from a package of Oreos or Iced Animal Crackers.

Regardless, after searching through my Pinterest board called "Indulgent Yummies" I decided that No Bake Cookies were something I could pull off with limited ingredients and equipment.

I didn't want to make regular old No Bake Cookies so I did a quick Pinterest search on other people's boards and found this recipe for Nutella No Bake Cookies.  Nutella + Peanut Butter + Sugar + Oatmeal = Yes Please!

Now, when I say limited equipment, I mean it.  I didn't have any measuring cups or spoons or a spatula so I used the coffee mug in the room, a random spoon and my eyeballs.  Close enough - as long as the ratios of the ingredients are right these will turn out fine - they're very forgiving.

If you haven't made No Bake Cookies before, they're pretty darn easy.  You boil together butter, sugar, milk and cocoa powder for exactly 1 minute.  I don't know what the magic is that happens in that 1 minute but it's pretty specific and likely has to do with science.  After it boils, peanut butter and/or Nutella is mixed in and then oatmeal is mixed in.  That mixture is simply dropped on a piece of waxed paper and as it cools it hardens into a cookie.  No baking required.  Obviously.

No Bake Cookies are one of my brother-in-law's favorite cookies and I think he would like these just as well.  They are definitely less peanut buttery more chocolatey than the traditional recipe which just uses peanut butter and not Nutella.  I also think using the dark chocolate cocoa powder that I like made them even more chocolatey.  

The only problem with these cookies is that they're really good and I don't have any method by which to share them.  In fact, I don't even have a method by which to store them - therefore they are sitting in a skillet with the lid on them which does not help stop me from eating six of them every day because I can smell them when I walk by.

Nutella No Bake Cookies
Adapted from Shugary Sweets

Ingredients
2 cups Granulated Sugar
1/4 cup Cocoa Powder (I used Hershey's Special Dark)
1/2 cup Milk (I used Almond Milk)
1/2 cup Butter
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
pinch of Salt
1/4 cup Peanut Butter
1/4 cup Nutella
3 1/2 cup Quick Oatmeal
Instructions
Over medium heat, cook sugar, cocoa, milk and butter until it comes to a full boil.  Boil one minute and remove from the heat.  Stir in the vanilla, salt, peanut butter, and Nutella until the peanut butter and Nutella are melted.  Stir in the oatmeal until combined.  Drop onto wax paper and cool (I use about 2 tablespoons of dough per cookie).

Enjoy!
Julie

Around Town

We ventured out into the city a few days ago and I'll be honest with you, I was scared.  Not because I felt unsafe, Korea is just as safe as the U.S., but I was pretty much petrified that we'd get lost and never find out way back or that someone would try to talk to me and I wouldn't understand what they were saying.

The first thing didn't happen. (CA would never let us get that lost!)

The second thing happened the whole time.

We took a bus from our house to downtown Pyeongtaek, the city that is closest to us.  The bus was pretty easy - we had good directions on how to get from Point A to Point B and again from Point B to Point A.  My favorite part was that to get home, we had to catch the return bus in front of McDonald's.  Because McDonald's is everywhere.

The first thing we did was walk around AK Plaza which is basically Nordstrom.  It was super pretty inside with tons of designer clothes, cosmetics, etc.

After walking around AK Plaza went into the basement and discovered a grocery store.  It was very shiny, like the Korean version of Whole Foods.  Obviously, this made me very happy.  Of note were some really cool and different looking produce as well as some seafood that I was unable unwilling to identify.  However, my favorite part was seeing Oreos and Captain Crunch in the "International Foods" section.

Luckily, there were some food bars in the basement so we snagged a seat and ordered a couple steamed dumplings and a couple of fried dumplings and feasted.  They were tasty, but I forgot to take a photo for you.

Fail.

After tackling AK Plaza we walked around Pyeongtaek rather aimlessly just to check it out.  There were a lot of sketchy looking streets (we went back a few nights later for dinner with friends and it, strangely, looks less sketchy at night) and a really cool market called the Tongdon Market.  I hope to spend more time there at a later date and tell you all about it.

A few days later I decided I was super confident about using the local bus system and ventured out on my own to go to Lotte Mart which a few friends described to me as the "Korean Target".

I made it there without any major incidents (I did get off the bus one stop too early, but managed to make my way to Lotte Mart anyway).  Lotte Mart was pretty cool and exactly what I excepted - Target.  It was a little different in a lot of ways - one being the abundance of Hello Kitty merchandise.

Another being an entire aisle in the grocery section devoted to Seaweed.  I didn't realize there were so many different kinds.

Getting back from the store was not as easy as getting to the store.  I assumed that the bus route went in a big circle because the bus route looks like a big circle on the map.  This is not true.  I got on the bus where I should have gotten off (and was prematurely proud of myself for not screwing this up) and ended up at the Bus Depot at the end of the line.  The driver was very nice but didn't speak English and I was trying not to cry.  Luckily, they found a driver who spoke English and put me on another bus that retraced my route and got me back home.  Honestly, I still don't know what I did wrong, but it prompted me to sign up for a class that teaches you how to use the bus which would have been helpful before I used the bus.

Maybe I should also learn Hangul.

Talk soon.
Julie

How We Got Here

The following is the not so harrowing tale of how our trip to Korea.  I expected it to be a total debacle, completely miserable and horribly draining - but it was not.  I'm moving forward with the following mantra...

Except the worst, hope for it to be not quite so terrible.

CA, Sconnie, my Mom and I departed Alabama at 4:00 AM.  My mom's car was loaded with 1 ginormous dog crate, 8 large suitcases and 4 carry ons.  Thank goodness for SUVs.  We drove four and a half hours to the Atlanta airport.  The drive was uneventful, probably because I was still sleeping with my eyes open.  Luckily CA was driving and awake with his eyes open.  My saintly mother then had to turn around and drive straight back to AL because my dad was having surgery that same afternoon... because big things can't possibly happen on separate days.

I really expected to be a wreck when I said goodbye to my Mom at the airport, but I held it together.  I think it was due to the fact that I was focused on the logistics of getting 12 bags and a dog into the airport while figuring out where my dog could use the restroom before I had to lock him away for 18 hours.  There were tears later when I really thought about what was happening - it is very likely that we will not see our families for two years and that's a huge deal for me - but in the moment I was all business which kept me from becoming a face faucet... yet.

We found a lovely man with a very large cart to drag all of our stuff into the terminal to check in for our flight.  We arrived about 3 hours early, which we were instructed to do in order to ensure they could get Sconnie checked in and on the flight.

While CA was doing the check in thing, I took Sconnie to the "pet relief" area of the airport to get one last go before his imprisonment.  I was instructed to get there by taking the escalator.  If you've met my dog you know he's scared of everything (the vacuum, anything that looks like a vacuum, anything that's out of place, anything that moves and he can't understand why such as feet moving under a blanket) and a moving staircase was not happening.  He looked at it and I looked at him and we both knew there was no way.  Luckily, there were stairs that were really slippery which he proceeded to drag me down (maybe because he'd been stuck in a car for 4.5 hours and needed to go out or maybe because he knew he was about to be stuck in a crate for 18 hours and wanted to escape as quickly as possible).

The "pet relief" area was a joke.  It was an 6'x6' piece of pavement that was covered in AstroTurf and had a tiny, fake, red fire hydrant on it.  Luckily, my boy has a good nose on him and immediately knew how many thousands of other dogs had been here and did all of his business with efficiency.  Meanwhile, I was trying not to gag.

Sconnie dragged me back up the slippery stairs where I only tripped and nearly cracked my head open twice.  CA was done checking us in which meant we were relieved of 8 of our 12 bags.  We then had to travel down to the cargo check-in to drop off Sconnie.  This is when I lost my mind.

Exactly how can I be expected to take my little Sconnie boy, stuff him in a crate and allow some random person to wheel him away only to know that he's going to be placed in the belly of the airplane with so many loud and scary sounds and movements for a 14 hour plane ride?  Remember that I wouldn't even put him on an escalator because I thought he'd be scared?  Yeah, this was not a good moment.  I started crying and totally embarrassed myself in front of the other people who were checking their golf clubs at the International terminal on their way to some island resort destination.

To be fair, I think all the crying was a compounding of a lot of things - the dog, saying goodbye to family and friends and knowing I was going to have to sit on an airplane for 14 hours to live in a different country where I don't know anyone and can't speak or read the language.

After having my moment, I went to the restroom and pulled myself together.  CA and I then made it through security without incident, got breakfast without incident and then walked laps up and down the terminal for an hour because we knew that we'd be sitting for a very long time.  I also bought myself a nerdy but very comfy neck pillow that was too expensive and saved my life.

Upon entering the airplane I was ready to be crammed into a tiny little seat without enough leg room to cross my legs, but I was pleasantly surprised.  While the seat wasn't roomy and certainly didn't lay down flat like the seats of those lucky jerks in Business or First Class, it did have enough space for me to cross my legs without lifting one completely over my head and I had my own TV which I could control.  Score!

The 14 hour flight went faster than I expected.  CA and I stayed up long enough to be served our first meal (choice of chicken, beef and bimimbap which is a Korean dish that we decided to eat and didn't hate) and wash down an expired Ambien with two tiny glasses of wine (this practice is not recommended by anyone's doctor or me but it's totally the way to go).  We both passed out for 5 hours and woke up unrefreshed.  I then watched two movies - Frozen & Saving Mr. Banks.  CA watched two movies that I've never heard of and had no interest in watching which is why everyone should always have their own TV on an airplane.  We ate another meal (chicken, beef or pasta), read my book and a few magazines and POOF it was time to land.

Before they turned the fasten seat belt sign back on, I went to the restroom again because I wasn't sure how long we'd be at baggage claim, customs, etc. only to have to wait for a woman who was practically taking a shower in there.  She was in the bathroom FOREVER and came out looking perfectly quaffed, teeth freshly brushed and make-up perfectly applied.  All 6 people waiting in line to get in the restroom looked far less fresh or amused.  Seriously, if you're going to be in the airplane bathroom forever, do it earlier.  Maybe I was more easily annoyed because I'd been trapped for 14 hours or maybe this lady was just rude.

Customs was easy and all of our eight bags made it to baggage claim - SCORE.  We loaded them onto two luggage carts which I stood and watched while CA proceeded to the livestock area to pick up our boy.  We then managed to get all three carts out the terminal exit where two very nice men who will work with CA were waiting to take us to the base.

Let me just take a minute to brag on my pup for a minute.  Not only was Sconnie his happy, sweet self when he was released from his 18 hour captivity (he totally freaked and jumped and licked both of us when he was let out which made me feel so much better because I was convinced he would be angry with us and never love us again) but the dog didn't make any sort of mess in his crate.  NONE.  Let's just say that if I was confined for that long I couldn't say the same thing.  My dog is amazing.  However, when we let him out of his crate I was reminded of the scene in Austin Powers when Austin Powers is thawed after many years and proceeds to urinate for an aggressive amount of time.  There was no designated pet relief area so this happened right outside the airport exit doors.  I'm sure everyone appreciated that.

Before proceeding to our final destination, we had to stay one night in Seoul so CA could do some work stuff there the next morning.  The drive from the Incheon airport to Seoul was harrowing - luckily we were not driving but the crazy drivers in DC have nothing on Korea.  Unfortunately, we arrived in Seoul about ten minutes after the dog kennel closed so Sconnie had to spend the night in his crate on the loading dock of the hotel.  I was not pleased about this and he was not pleased about this but I was so freakin' tired by the time this occurred I really couldn't care all that much.  I think Sconnie cared.  Before locking him away, we took him for a good, long walk.  After locking him away, I ate chicken fingers, chugged two glasses of wine and passed out.

That's it - that's how we got here.  We are living in a hotel for the next few weeks until we get our apartment and our household goods are delivered.  I hope to give you guys updates on what we're up to, but there won't posts coming your way on a regularly scheduled basis for a while.  I personally prefer the predictability but I'm already beginning to realize that things are on a bit of a looser schedule around here so you'll have to adjust as well.

Julie

Triple Chocolate Marshmallow Brownies

Wow - this is the last thing I baked in my old house in Virginia.  It feels like yesterday and a lifetime ago when this happened but in reality it was the end of February when I made these.  Did it seriously take me over two months to write about them?

These brownies were a pantry clearing dream!  Multiple kinds of chocolate, half a bag of marshmallows, powdered sugar, milk and cocoa powder were all taken care of in one fell swoop...

I just looked up that expression to make sure I was spelling it right and my whole life I thought it was fowl swoop - like swooping birds.  It is not.

I think my version makes more sense.

The base of these brownies comes together pretty easily without any special equipment - just a couple of bowls and spoons.  What I like about this brownie base is that it is made with just cocoa powder. 

Why???

Because I never plan to make brownies.  Brownies occur in my house based on a sudden and immediate craving for chocolate and my pantry is far more likely to contain cocoa powder than it is to contain other types of chocolate (except chocolate chips, I always have chocolate chips).  The great thing about this recipe is that I very likely have everything required to make it just lying around and when I want brownies, I want them now... there's no time to go to the store.

Besides the brownie base, I amped these up with some frosting (which had everything to do with getting rid of the random chocolate lying around) and marshmallows (which had everything to do with the half a bag of marshmallows staring at me).

I was very pleased with how the frosting turned out - it set up enough that I didn't worry about it getting all gooshy when I put the leftovers in a plastic baggie to give away because I was about to pack all of my storage containers.

These are pretty great brownies - the base is easy and fudgey which is my brownie preference (as opposed to cakey).  The frosting is also sweet and rich.  These are great staples to use together or separately and putting marshmallows on top of chocolate is never a bad idea.

Triple Chocolate Marshmallow Brownies
Adapted from Food

Ingredients

For the Brownies 
1 cup Canola Oil
2 cups Sugar
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 Eggs
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
2/3 cup Cocoa Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1 cup All Purpose Flour

For the Frosting
1 oz. Unsweetened Chocolate
3 oz. Milk Chocolate
4 T Butter, at room temperatue
1 1/2 cup Powdered Sugar
3 T Milk

2 cups Marshmallows

Instructions

For the Brownies
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 9"x13" pan with non-stick cooking spray.

In large bowl, mix together the oil and sugar until combined.  Add the vanilla and eggs and mix until combined.

In a small bowl, whisk together the baking powder, cocoa powder, salt and flour.

Add the flour mixture to the oil mixture and mix until just combined.

Spread the batter in the prepared pan.  Bake for 30 minutes, until set in the middle.  Cool completely before frosting.

For the Frosting
Melt the chocolates together in a microwave safe bowl by microwaving in 30 second intervals and stirring in between heating sessions until melted.  Add the remaining ingredients (except the marshmallows) until smooth.

Preheat the broiler.

Spread the frosting on top of the cooled brownies.  Sprinkle evenly with marshmallows.  Broil for 30 seconds until the marshmallows are lightly toasted.

Enjoy!
Julie

Baking Bouchon - Recipe 101: Soft Pretzels

I want balloons and a cake and presents and a keg to celebrate the fact that I finished baking every single recipe in the Bouchon Bakery Cookbook.  Who is throwing me a party?

Bueller?

Cricket, Cricket.

Fine - I'll celebrate by myself by eating a frozen meal because I'm still living in a hotel with no real kitchen so I can't bake myself a cake.  I will, however, have a drink to celebrate.  Because that's different than every other day.

When I set the goal for myself to bake everything in this cookbook, I had no idea that I would end up finishing so quickly.  I though it would take me at least two years to get this done, but it only took about 15 months.  Most of that was due to the fact that we found out we were moving to Korea and I was unsure whether I would be able to get the stuff I needed to bake all of this overseas (I was right).  I work far better under a deadline so in the end it was a blessing that crunch time hit and forced me to become a baking maniac for the last couple of months.

Fittingly, the last recipe in this cookbook that I tackled was a bread recipe.  It was probably the scariest of the bread recipes but also my favorite.

The dough itself is not scary and is similar to some others in the cookbook but with a starter that is much drier than the poolish and levain that is used in the other recipes.

Once the dough is ready it is divided, rolled into logs and shaped into a traditional pretzel shape.  I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get the pretzels shaped correctly, but it was much easier than I expected.  I think Auntie Anne's would hire me if I'm ever desperate for employment / decide I need a discount on carbs.

I mentioned that this recipe is scary and that's because it comes with a warning that if you screw it up you'll be blind or erase your fingerprints.  For real.

Before the pretzels are baked they are soaked in a solution of water and food grade lye.  Lye is like baking soda on steroids and comes with a warning label that tells you how caustic it is.  It also tells you that you must wear gloves when handling it and not to splash it in your face.  I almost wore safety goggles, but I didn't.  If CA had read the warning label, he would have made me because he acts like the household safety officer.  Luckily, there was no splashing so I can still see you.

What the lye solution does is create a chemical reaction that gives pretzels their brown color when they're baked.  This is because of science so I don't understand how it works. 

I can't tell you how excited I was about how well these pretzels turned out.  First of all, I didn't injure myself.  Second, they look like real soft pretzels.  Third, they taste like real soft pretzels.  I'm so glad that the last thing I baked from this cookbook turned out really well.

I'm really proud of myself that I accomplished the goal of baking everything in the Bouchon Bakery Cookbook.  I learned A LOT and have some new skills and recipes to keep in my pocket for future use.

I feel like I need to set a new baking goal, but considering I don't have an oven or a mixing bowl or a spatula at the moment, that will have to wait.  Details.

Enjoy!
Julie

Almond Scones

I don't know how I ended up with so many almonds in my pantry before I left, but I had a giant bag of sliced ones lying around and these scones were very helpful in using them up.

I created these scones using the Bouchon Bakery Plain Scones recipe as a base and making some adjustments based on the ingredients I had on hand.  I love the Plain Scones recipe in this cookbook - they are much lighter than many scones (which I often think are too dense) because of the cake flour that is used.  You can ignore the all purpose flour in the photo above because I didn't use any of it.  I went all in on the cake flour for this recipe and was very pleased how they turned out.

Other than some simplifications, the only difference between these scones and the ones in the cookbook is the addition of sliced almonds in the dough and sprinkled on top.

One of my favorite things about this recipe is that it makes 16 scones.  That means there's enough for me and enough to share. 

I highly recommend this recipe and advise you to add it to your repertoire.  Feel free to experiment with this and include other types of nuts, dried fruit (not my cup of tea, but to each his own), citrus zest or even some chocolate chips.

Almond Scones
Adapted from Bouchon Bakery Cookbook
Yields 16 Scones

Ingredients
3 1/2 cups Cake Flour
2 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) Unsalted Butter, cold and cut into 1/4" cubes
1/2 cup + 5 T Heavy Cream (divided)
1/3 cup Sour Cream
1 3/4 cups Sliced Almonds (divided)
Coarse Sugar for Sprinkling

Instructions
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar on low speed until combined.  Add the butter and mix on low speed until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Add 1/2 cup + 3 T of Heavy Cream and Sour Cream and mix on low speed until the dough just comes together.  Add 1 1/2 cups Sliced Almonds and mix on low speed until just incorporated.

On a lightly floured surface, pat the dough into a 10" x 10" square.  Cut into 16 squares.  Place the scones on two baking sheets lined with parchment paper or a silpat.  Brush each square with remaining 2 T of Heavy Cream.  Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup Sliced Almonds and Coarse Sugar.  Freeze the scones for 20 minutes until firm.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Bake the scones for 30-35 minutes until golden brown.

Enjoy!
Julie

Baking Bouchon - Recipe 100: Gluten Free Brioche

This is the first post I'm writing from Korea.  We've been here a few days now and I'm still a bit fuzzy and disoriented and unable to sleep through the night, but I know I'll become more clearheaded soon.

Some things are a little bit different and most things are a lot different as evidenced by what happened the first time I logged into Blogger from our hotel room and saw this...

Yeah, I can't read that.  I especially can't read the part that tells you where the drop down button is to change my default language from Hangul to English.  Ten minutes later all was well, but I had a panic attack for a minute.

I still have a few more recipes left that I prepared before our departure from the States so we'll talk about those most of this week before I tell you about our long trip here.

This is almost the last recipe in the bread chapter and the second to last recipe in the whole entire Bouchon Bakery Cookbook.  I'm not at all surprised that the breads lingered toward the end of this baking experience because there are so many of them in the cookbook but I am surprised that they included a Gluten Free bread.  I shouldn't be because what I didn't know is that the bakery developed a Gluten Free Flour blend that is sold at Williams Sonoma which I was supposed to use in this recipe but did not because it comes in bags larger than I required for this recipe and I didn't want to waste it when I moved.

In my limited Gluten Free baking experience, I've found that using Gluten Free Flour blends is the easiest way to execute GF recipes but there are really large differences between the different blends so you can to find one you like.  I've had good experience with the King Arthur Flour blend and have heard good things about Pamela's and Cup-4-Cup (the Bouchon blend at Williams Sonoma).  For this recipe I bought the Betty Crocker blend which isn't my favorite but was all the store I went to had.

The dough for these brioche rolls is totally different from the dough used in regular brioche.  I used to get freaked out making GF stuff when the batter or dough looked weird but I've come to expect it now and just wait and see what the end result looks like.  I've also found that GF batter and dough doesn't not taste nearly as good as glutenfull batter and dough which is probably good because I don't eat so much of it.

These baked up pretty nicely....

They also tasted pretty darn good.  Not exactly like brioche but more like a dinner roll.  They've also got coarse chunks of salt sprinkled on top which add to the savory, dinner roll feel.

My only complaint about these was that they did not store well.  I left a few in a tupperware container on my counter overnight and the next day they were very dry and crumbly.  However, I gave most of these away to my Gluten Free Friend (I delivered them to her in a giant plastic baggie in a restaurant tempting her to take one out and eat it during the meal.  She didn't, but I kind of wish she did) and she stored them in the freezer.  She said they reheated really well and didn't get all dried out so I guess the freezer is the key.

Enjoy!
Julie

Peanut Butter Coconut Oil Cookies

I have not jumped on the coconut oil bandwagon.  Apparently it's full of all sorts of health benefits, etc.  I bought a jar of coconut oil on a whim and used it one other time which meant that it was sitting in my cabinet.  I had every intention of trying to cook with it, but I did not.  I'm an olive oil girl and given that this single jar of coconut oil sat in my pantry for at least a year while I went through multiple jars of olive oil, I don't imagine that is changing any time soon.

Unless it means that I get to make these cookies again.  I was super surprised by how delicious they were.  I'm a sucker for peanut butter cookies and I may have amped them up just a little bit by adding peanut butter chips which were fortuitously sitting adjacent to the coconut oil in my pantry.

The oil acts like the butter does in a regular peanut butter cookies but they need to be chilled really well after they're scooped to firm up the dough.  At room temperature coconut oil is solid, like butter is when its cold, so it has to be warmed up a little bit to mix up the cookie dough.  Once the dough is chilled it is quite firm and that keeps the cookies nice and round and puffy when are baked.

I am a big fan of these cookies and CA was too.  They do have a slight coconut flavor but its pretty subtle.  They are puffy and soft which is my favorite cookie status.  I might just pretend to convert to coconut oil again just so I can not use it for cooking and make these cookies again.

Peanut Butter Coconut Oil Cookies
Adapted from Averie Cooks

Ingredients

3/4 cup Peanut Butter (crunchy or creamy)
1/2 cup Coconut Oil, softened (softened but not melted)
1 cup Brown Sugar
1 Egg
1 T Vanilla Extract
1 1/4 cups All Purpose Flour
2 tsp Potato or Corn Starch
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Salt
1 bag Peanut Butter Chips 

Instructions

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment combine the peanut butter, coconut oil and sugar and beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 4-5 minutes. 

Add the eggs and vanilla extract and mix on low speed until just incorporated.

Add the flour, potato or corn starch, baking soda and salt and mix on low speed until just combined.  Add the peanut butter chips and mix on low speed until just incorporated.

Roll golf ball sized balls of dough and place them on a cookie sheet.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with a Silpat or spray with cooking spray. Place the dough balls on the prepared baking sheet, spaced at least 2 inches apart.

Bake for 7 to 9 minutes, or until tops have just set.  Even if they look slightly undercooked, they will firm up as they cook. 

Enjoy!
Julie

Lemon Thyme Roast Chicken

I'll keep this post short and sweet.

I read quite a few blogs on a daily basis.  Most of them make me feel like my blog is awkward and doesn't look nearly as nice as other blogs.  I use a standard design from Blogger and have only done a little bit of customization.  I've had thoughts of paying someone to design this space into something that looks more professional but haven't gotten there yet.

Looks aside (although her blog looks totally legit) I've been loving the recipes that are posted on The View From Great Island lately.  I can't remember how I stumbled on this blog but I've been really enjoying it.  (BTW, I don't know this lady at all and she doesn't know me so there's no particular reason for me to be telling you about her blog except that I like it and I got this recipe from her).

This roasted chicken is super simple to make and tastes awesome!  I served it to my book club ladies and was really happy with how it came out.  The lemon flavor is bright and fresh but it gets a little bit of a concentrated, richer flavor from being roasted.

You can find the recipe HERE.  The original recipe calls for a whole chicken that has been cut up, but I used all chicken legs.  I also removed the skin before cooking them to pump up the healthy factor.  Oh yeah, and I cheated and used regular lemons and not meyer lemons because my grocery store didn't have them.  I'm practical that way.

Enjoy!
Julie

Gluten Free Crepes

I talk a lot about my Gluten Free Friend (GFF) on this blog.  She's a pretty amazing person with a lot of qualities that have nothing to do with her Gluten Free Status, but she's really my only friend with this status so I have to talk about her a lot when it comes to food.  She's pretty useful that way and luckily she doesn't mind me using her as an example.

My GFF is part of my book club and since I made the Crepe Cake I told you about yesterday for my favorite book reading ladies I was adamant that she be able to partake so I found this recipe for crepes that contain none of those pesky glutens.  It is made with potato starch which I was highly skeptical of.  The other ingredients are the same as regular crepes - water, eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla and salt.

This experiment in crepes free of flour didn't start off all that well.  I mixed up the batter and proceeded to heat up my non-stick skillet.  Once hot, I poured in the batter and let it cook.  However, when I tried to flip it it completely fell apart (see photo above, right).  I was discouraged... sad face... but when I revisited my batter to try again I noticed that letting the batter sit for even a minute caused the potato starch to separate and settle to the bottom of the bowl.  Without the potato starch, I had essentially cooked milky eggs.  I re-whisked and immediately poured the batter in the pan.... so much better!  It stayed together and was significantly crepe-like.

I used these crepes along with the orange diplomat cream that I used in the Crepe Cake to make my GFF a Mini GF Crepe Cake.  She was pleased and I was pleased that she was pleased.

These are a great staple and I could see them filled with fruit and whipped cream or whatever your crepe pleasure may be.

Gluten Free Crepes
Adapted from Feel Good Eating
Makes 4 Crepes

Ingredients
3 T Potato Starch
1/2 cup Water
1/2 cup Milk
1 Egg
Pinch of Salt
1 tsp Sugar
1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract

Instructions
Whisk all the ingredients together, making sure to incorporate all the potato starch.  Scoop 1/4 cup of batter into a hot non-stick skillet coated with cooking spray.  Cook on one side until set and lightly browned, about 1 minute.  Flip and cook until the other side is lightly browned.  Repeat with the remaining batter.

Make sure to re-whisk the batter before making the next crepe to reincorporate any potato starch that has settled to the bottom of the bowl.

Enjoy!
Julie

Baking Bouchon - Recipe 99: Crepe Cake

I can't even count the number of Crepe Cakes that I've pinned on Pinterest (4).  They are made with multiple layers of crepes layered with sweet cream.  It seems to be a pretty popular and anything that has 20 layers of Pastry Cream in it has me sold.  This is the final recipe in the Cake chapter of the Bouchon Bakery Cookbook and I'm super excited about it.

I served this to some of my favorite ladies when I hosted my last book club gathering at my house a few days before the movers showed up.  As usual, it was a fun get together where we caught up on everything going on in each other's lives and the lives of our favorite celebrities.  We also spent at least 5 minutes discussing the book that we read.

A crepe cake obviously starts with a bunch of crepes.  I've only made crepes on one other occasion and the batter seems pretty similar to those I made before.  It is made up of what you'd typically put in pancakes - flour, sugar, eggs, milk and butter.  Plus it contains a tiny bit of triple sec to give them a mild orange flavor.

Crepe batter is very runny which allows it to spread out in a very thin layer in a non-stick skillet.  They're so thin I was worried about ripping them when I flipped them but that did not happen - yeah!

Making this cake required making nearly 20 crepes so there was a lot of pouring batter, swirling batter and flipping crepes.

While the crepes are lovely, the star of this dessert is the orange diplomat creme that is layered in between them.  The diplomat creme is pastry cream scented with orange peel, stabilized with gelatin and folded with whipped cream.  (I talked more about diplomat cream and my love affair with it in the post about dulce de leche eclairs.  My loved has not faded with time.)

The layering process took a little bit of time but is totally worth it.

I was so excited slicing into this thing and I was not disappointed.  This cake is awesome!  The crepes are nice and light and the orange diplomat cream is rich and creamy.  YUM!

Let's recap the cakes in this book, shall we?  I don't remember disliking any of them, but there were a few stand outs...

• This crepe cake for sure - it was freakin' good.
• The Oh Ohs didn't turn out perfectly, but they sure were a a tasty version of the Hostess Ho Ho.
• Bouchons were tasty little brownie bites.
• The Palet d Or was probably my favorite.  It had amazing chocolate flavor and looked so pretty and sophisticated.

Considering that 3 out of 4 of my favorites contain chocolate, I guess there's a trend.

Enjoy!
Julie

Baking Bouchon - Recipe 98: Cheese Puffs

This recipe marks the end of the puffy things chapter.  If I had my cookbook, I could figure out what the chapter is really called, but whatever it is, it is coming to a close on a savory note.

CA was really excited about this recipe.  I think I've been overloading him on sweets and the poor man needed some relief from his sugar coma.  Plus, my superhero is partial to anything that includes cheese.

The dough for the cheese puffs is made in the same way it made for the cream puffs and eclairs - butter is melted with water, cooked with flour and whipped with eggs.  Then comes the grated Gruyere cheese which makes these into cheese puffs.  There is also a good amount of pepper in batter which adds to the savory notes.

The dough gets piped onto a sheet pan and baked until they magically puff in the oven.  Every time I made Pate a Choux (the fancy name for the puffy dough) I'm surprised that it actually puffs when it's baked.

These are pretty darn good and completely addicting.  I made them as an appetizer for CA and I one night and had to hide them from myself to ensure I could actually eat dinner.

Looking back at the recipes in this chapter, I have a really hard time choosing a favorite - they're all pretty awesome.

- The Cream Puffs were super light and tasty
- The Eclairs - including the chocolate, coconut lime and dulce de leche versions were all fantastic.
- Paris-New York which was filled with peanut butter pastry cream was simply out of control.

This may have been the most consistently good chapter in the cookbook.

Enjoy!
Julie