Never Bashful with Butter

And necessity.. it is the mother of invention.

First, I’d like to say thank you to everyone who wished me well over the past week while I was sick. I spent a week away from my kitchen, but it was a much needed respite.

But the kitchen called! And in more ways than just a shout. A week away from the fridge means strange things start piling up, and strange things start.. well, you know what happens when you leave things in the fridge too long.

Needless to say, I had a stockpile of ricotta that was screaming to get used. Rather than go and buy all new stuff, I decided to go ahead and use the pantry staples for this recipe. Its cold outside, can you blame me for not wanting to go to the store?

And what does one make when they have too much ricotta and a very big sweet tooth?

Sicilian cheesecake.

Its just like regular cheesecake, only completely different. *smile*
Just like the language. So close to Italian, yet so completely different.

Not that I know for personal experience. I’m not Italian or Sicilian. I’m not Greek.. I’m in no way Mediterranean at all, actually, not even by heritage. My family is Irish and German for the most part, although there may be a little sprinkling of Italian in there, since my mom does have beautiful olive toned skin.

..but you wouldn’t know that looking at me. I’m pasty white, cant catch a tan to save my life. I freckle. I have reddish brown hair. I have green eyes.

Still, I have dreams of living on the Mediterranean sea. I see myself dressed in a loose white cap sleeve dress, ballet flats with my hair loose, flowing in the sea breeze. Maybe I’d tuck it behind my ears, or maybe I’d tie it back with a bright red ribbon. I’d ride my Vespa through the towns, delighting in the sounds of the tires against the cobblestone streets.

I’d smile at the people walking along the street. Perhaps an elderly woman with a cane and specticles, wearing a dark coloured sweater over her brightly coloured and festively patterned dress would walk into view and smile back at me. Perhaps an elderly man would tip his hat.

I’d see lovers speaking their special language by fountains, followed by tourists who eagerly snap their photos as souvenirs of such a magical place.

Of course it goes without saying, I would stop at one of the many open air markets and marvel at such glorious goods. Fresh artesian breads, buffalo mozzarella, all the fruits and veggies and meats and just so many delicious offerings. Stopping into a small bakery, tucked between the cannoli and tiramisu, perhaps I’d find one of these-

And I’d buy it, and subsequently eat the whole thing.

…I have a feeling that if I did in fact live anywhere near Italy, after a few trips to “the local bakery” I’d have to trade in my Vespa for a Hoveround, and my cute little cap sleeve dress for something more like a muumuu.

Sicilian Cheesecake

Shortbread pastry *recipe following this one*
3 cups ricotta cheese (1-1/2 lbs.)
1/3 cup sugar
4 eggs, separated
1 tablespoon almond extract
1/4 cup chopped dried fruit (optional) I just threw in a handful of finely chopped dried apricots.
confectioner’s sugarSteps
Preheat oven to 375° F.

Line a deep, 9-inch pie pan with rolled pie pastry.

Force the ricotta through a fine sieve. Mix in the sugar and the almond extract.

Mix the egg yolks one at a time into the ricotta, add the dried fruit, and blend well. In a separate container beat the egg whites until fluffy and stiff, then mix them into the ricotta. Fold together well.

Pour this filling into the prepared (unbaked) pie shell.

Bake in a preheated 375° F. oven for 45 minutes, or until set (for me, this ended up being about an hour). Turn off the oven, open the door, and let the pie cool in the oven for about 20 minutes. Allow to fully cool on a cooling rack before refrigerating over night.

Spread the top with your choice of fruit preserves. I used a low sugar apricot preserve. It only took about a quarter cup to cover the top. dust with powdered sugar and slice to serve.
Shortbread pastry

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup butter
Milk (if needed)

Toss together the flour and sugar. Cut the butter into cubes, and working with one half first, pinch the butter into the flour/sugar mixture as you would for any pie crust. After breaking down the first half of the butter into what looks like corn meal, add the second half of the butter. This should bring the mixture together. If you find that the mixture is still crumbly, add cold milk by the tablespoon until the dough gathers into a ball, but isn’t sticky.

You’ll use about half of the dough for your Sicilian cheesecake, and you can keep the second half in the fridge for up to 3 days. You can roll out the second half and make it into shortbread cookies. Just bake at 350 for about 10 minutes, or until golden brown.

A few things of note about this cheesecake.

It has quite a different texture than typical cheesecake. Ricotta is more granular than cream cheese, so.. the cheesecake retains much of that textural difference. I must say though, it is still quite creamy, and the flavour is so smooth and light. Also, unlike typical cheesecake, this cake is lighter and fluffier, and no where near as dense. I didn’t feel laid out after taking a few bites.

Another thing, this cheesecake isn’t NEARLY as sweet as typical cheesecake. I added the preserves on top because it was almost disturbingly UN-sweet. This is definitely something you could make for someone who isn’t a fan of sweets, but still would like a dessert. A little dark chocolate sauce, and you’re set.

Also, the top of the cake will crack. This is fine. When the cake cools, the top of the cake will shrink more than the base, so the sides of the cake will sort of angle inward. Thats normal too. The preserves and the powdered sugar cover all of those sins, so don’t worry about appearances.
I’m actually pretty impressed with this cheesecake. Its not something you’d want to make if you wanted a regular cheesecake, but rather something you’d make if you wanted something a little different.

If you want a regular cheesecake, may I recommend this recipe- The best cheesecake on the planet- because I made it last year, and I’ve made it a few times since, and it really is the best cheesecake recipe on the planet.

This one is pretty darn good too though!

-A.

So, apparently when I thought I was getting lemons, I was really getting Sweet limes.

For appearance sake, they did look like lemons when I first got them, but after sitting in the fridge for a few days, they started turning green in spots, which seemed sort of strange, since, at least in my experience, when things ripen, they tend to turn MORE yellow, not more green (unless they’re molding, but these definitely weren’t molding). Some of the limes were still a spring green kind of colour, but most of them darkened slightly, and were just a few shades more yellow than a regular lime, only they’re bigger.

Anyways, These cupcakes were originally intended to be Pink Lemonade cupcakes, but they ended up being Cherry Limeade cupcakes, which is just fine by me, since I happen to be a bigger fan of limes myself, and being a big lime fan, I always have a couple extra cans of limeade in the freezer.

I also just so happened to have a jar of Maraschino cherries in my fridge left over from the NYE drink-fest.

Anyways, so I thought these cupcakes were pretty cute, so I took a ton of unnecessary photos of them.

…Ok, also, I got a new camera late last week (long story involving crows en masse a set of slippery stairs and my cute, sweet and slightly equilibrium challenged husband) so I’ve been trying to get used to it by taking tons and tons of photos of stuff.

…But come on, they’re cupcakes. Its not like you really mind looking at photos of them. *smile*

Cherry Limeade Cupcakes***:
This recipe should make about 24 cupcakes

3 cups cake flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp limeade concentrate
3 eggs
3/4 cup plain yogurt (you can use milk, but I think the yogurt adds a nice TANG! to the flavour.)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mix together the flour, salt, baking soda and powder and set aside. In a medium sized bowl, cream the butter until smooth then add the sugar and cream together. Once the butter and sugar are creamed add in the limeade concentrate. Mix in one egg at a time. Add in flour mixture 1/3 at a time. When flour is thoroughly mixed, mix in the yogurt. Batter will be slightly lumpy, but should be smooth kind of like pancake batter. Divide the batter evenly into lined muffin tins and bake for about 15-20 minutes. Allow to cool.

Once the cupcakes have cooled, poke a few (5ish) holes in the top of the cupcake, not quite to the bottom of the cake. Mix together the remainder of the limeade concentrate (about 3/4 cup) with about 1/2 cup powdered sugar (You can add more or less, depending on how tart you would like your cupcakes to be I like tart, so I went with about 1/4 cup.) Whisk the mixture well, so there aren’t any lumps. Pour about a tablespoon of the syrup over the holes in the cupcake, slowly, so that the syrup absorbs into the cake. You can add more if you like, just go back over the cupcakes a second time if there is any syrup left.

For the icing I made a standard buttercream, but I used the maraschino cherry juice in place of the milk and vanilla extract. I added a little extra food colouring to the icing to make it even more pink, but you can make it with just the juice and it is still a delightfully pale pink colour.

Keep the cupcakes refrigerated, if only to enhance the flavour. They can be left at room temperature for a day or two once iced, if kept in an airtight container, but I wouldn’t suggest leaving them out any longer. They taste best cold!

I decorated my cupcakes with some white sprinkles, a slice of lime, a maraschino cherry half and a plastic drinking straw, since they are drink inspired.

*** If you want to make what I originally set out to make (Pink lemonade cupcakes rather than Cherry Limeade cupcakes) just substitute lemonade concentrate (or even pink lemonade concentrate if you wish) where I used limeade concentrate, and for the icing, follow the original recipe and use either lemon extract or strawberry extract in place of the vanilla extract.

Oh, and a tip about icing-

If you want really smooth icing, first, make sure your icing is just slightly below room temperature. Warm icing usually turns oozey, and cold icing is usually too hard. After you’ve finished icing your cupcakes, put them in the fridge for about half an hour.

Get a mug of very hot water. Take your cupcakes out of the fridge and working quickly, dip your icing knife into the hot water, remove it, shake it off and very lightly go over the icing again with the knife, pressing with gentle, long, flat strokes from the center of the knife.

Be careful doing this with darker coloured icing, as they tend to streak, and if you have too much water on the knife when you use it, the water will absorb the colour of the icing and drip, leaving a lighter shade underneath it. It may take a little practice, and you might have to perfect your “shake” a bit, but you’ll get to the point where there is just enough water to keep the blade from sticking to the icing, and not so much as to drip all around the cupcake.

If you do notice that there is too much water on your cupcake after you’ve smoothed it out, get yourself a paper towel and lightly touch the edge of the paper towel to the wet spot, and it will absorb the extra water.

I’ve noticed over the years that a lot of people ice cakes with the edge of a knife rather than the center of the knife. Its always best to hold the knife flat and press from the center. Using the edge will just create a scraped, straggly edge and form bubbles in the icing (especially if you’re icing a cake rather than a cupcake.)

But really, the water trick works. Back when I worked in a bakery and iced wedding cakes, that was our little trick for making the icing perfectly smooth.

Enjoy!
-A.

Oh, and don’t worry, I’ll be making some non-cupcake recipes shortly, I just haven’t been feeling so well lately, and cupcakes are.. well.. They’re easy and fun and pretty.

Next week I think I’m going to try making my own version of eclairs and possibly some more “fun with phyllo”…

Ok, so there will definitely be more fun with Phyllo. I love that stuff. Also, fun with puff pastry, though it just doesn’t have quite the same ring to it that “fun with Phyllo” does. hehe..

I’m not sure if it is entirely truthful to call these “Caramel Apple Pie” cupcakes.

Yes, there is pastry involved. Yes, they are cupcakes. And yes, they are filled with a cooked apples and cinnamon filling, and topped with apples and caramel.

…But they could also be called “Manzana pastel Tres Leches cupcakes con dulce de leche*” (Apple pie three milk cupcake with dulce de leche) Because they’re actually filled with a tres leches filling of sweetened condensed milk, heavy cream and evaporated milk, mixed with diced granny smith apples, brown sugar, cinnamon and butter.

Also, there is just something to be said about a dessert whose name is spoken in another language. Saying the name in English, you’d expect to find them at a county fair or at a backyard picnic, and although there is nothing wrong with that… saying their name in Spanish… it could be a romantic dessert you indulge in while vacationing on la playa in Puerto Rico*.

I’m all for daydreamy desserts, so why not. Its been so cold here in the Seattle area, that my husband worked from home yesterday and this morning, because the slight incline from the road to our apartment turned into THE ICY MOUNTAIN OF DOOM overnight on Monday night, and although things outside have thawed a bit, its still REALLY COLD. I really wouldn’t mind a nice tropical climate right about now…. *daydreams*

*half an hour later*
Oh. Um.. Anyways-

They taste like caramel apple pie, but with a soft texture, cuz *duh* cake. They’re moist and apple filled and topped with a piece of butter pastry which adds that familiar crunch that you get when you eat a regular apple pie slice. Trust me. They’re amazing, and I’m not just saying that because I made them, or because I’ve recently decided to cut back on sweets, and therefore this was the first “sweet” I’ve had in a little over a week.

Nope. They really are delicious.

Anyways, so to make this, I used the Magnolia Bakery vanilla cupcake recipe, because I like that it is a pretty dense cake, and it absorbs the moisture from the filling really well, which is important, since the filling is pretty liquidy, except for the apple pieces.

You’ll want to make the cupcakes the day before you plan to serve them.

Here is the Magnolia vanilla cupcake recipe-

1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.Line 2 (1/2 cup-12 capacity) muffin tins with cupcake papers.

In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside.

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about 3/4 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.

Cool the cupcakes in tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.

After allowing the cupcakes to cool, I used the cone and scoop method to hollow out a space in the center of the cupcake so to have enough room for the filling. Just use a sharp pointed knife to cut an inverted cone (think ice cream cone) into the center of the cupcake from the top, and remove the cone, cut off the point of the cone, and use a spoon to sort of scoop out some of the inside of the cupcake. You don’t want to remove too much cake, but just a little.

Then I filled each of the cupcakes with this filling that I made while they were baking-

Apple cinnamon three milks filling-

2 medium granny smith apples
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon allspice
1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
scant 1/4 cup evaporated milk
scant 1/4 cup heavy cream
2 Tablespoons brown sugar

A little while before you plan to fill the cupcakes (you should probably do this while the cupcakes are baking) mix together the sweetened condensed milk, the evaporated milk and the heavy cream. You can do this in any bowl, just mix them together with a spoon and set aside.

Peel, core and chop the apples into small pieces (remember that you’re using them to fill cupcakes, so.. probably no bigger than your pinkie fingernail) and swish them around in a bowl with the lemon juice so they retain their tartness and don’t brown too quickly.

Using a medium sized saute pan with high sides, melt the butter over medium heat. Once the butter starts to brown a little, pour in the apple chunks. Sweat the apple chunks, not allowing them to brown, just soften a little. Turn the temperature down if you need to, to prevent overbrowning. Once the apples chunks have softened, and a lot of their moisture has been wicked out, add the brown sugar, cinnamon and allspice to the apples on the stove. Stir to combine. The liquid in the pan may begin to caramelize a little. Pour in the three milks mixture and stir. Be careful not to overfill the pan (you can do this in a saucepan, but I didn’t want to make another dish to wash) and allow the liquid to reduce and thicken until it is the consistancy of a thin pancake batter. The mixture will have darkened slightly, but will be more beige than brown. Remove from heat and allow to cool before using.

I used about a tablespoon of the filling for each cupcake, but you may use more or less depending on the size of the hole in the cupcake. Use the spoon to press the filling down into the cupcake, since there is a lot of space between apple chunks, and the moisture will be absorbed into the cake, leaving holes if you do not compact them. Replace the top of the cupcake and press down again. You will probably have extra filling left over, just store it in the fridge for up to a week. You can make some extra pastry rounds and use it as a topping for those, or you could just make more cupcakes to fill it with! hehe..

After I filled the cupcakes, I iced them with an almond buttercream. Feel free to use Vanilla or whatever other flavour you feel would go well with caramel, apple, cinnamon and vanilla.

Almond Buttercream:1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
6 to 8 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup milk
2 teaspoons almond extract

Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Add 4 cups of the sugar and then the milk and almond. On the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency. You may not need to add all of the sugar. Icing can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

After I iced the cupcakes, I put them in the refrigerator overnight. This is kind of an important step, as it allows the moisture from the filling to fully absorb into the cupcake and it allows the flavours to co-mingle enough to where each bite of the cupcake tastes just like the others, rather than having a disjointed feel and flavour. Also, a cold cupcake is a delicious cupcake.

The next day (or about 8 hours later) I made some butter pastry rounds using my *blue ribbon apple pie crust recipe* only after I rolled out the dough I cut rounds out with a 3inch cookie cutter, laid them out on a non-stick cookie sheet and poked holes in the top with a fork before baking at 350F for about 10 minutes. (Note- You can use the extra pastry rounds as sandwich cookies with the apple mixture as filling. Just use a fork and strain off the extra liquid from the apples.)

The final part of this cupcake comes in the form of Dulce de leche, or caramel sauce. Feel free to use either. You can make the *caramel sauce* or the *Dulce de leche* yourself, or you can use a store bought version.

To assemble, I just put the pastry round on top of the iced cupcake, tucked a few apple slices under the edge of the pastry round, and drizzled about a teaspoon of the caramel on top of the whole thing. Wait until the last minute to do the assembling, since the caramel will be oozy, and the apple will brown if you leave it out for too long before serving.

Anyways..

So after I took a little bite of one of the cupcakes, I walked away for a moment to upload my photos to my computer, when I turned around and saw this-

Apparently Rodney decided to teach the new robot on the block how to eat a cupcake.

I don’t speak their language, but from what I could discern, The new robot prefers using a fork. I guess this new robot is slightly more civilized…

…Or perhaps its just that he has opposable thumbs and articulated fingers.

Yeah, that’s probably it.

-A.

*I do not speak Spanish fluently, so my translation is probably off. My apologies.

Some things come easier than others.

Breakfast this morning, for example, was one of those things. I don’t have any particular recipes to share that go along with this post, I just felt like spreading the love, and fanning the flames of desire that we all feel for a nice, full, hot and delicious breakfast.

I woke up fairly early today, snuck out of bed, careful not to wake my husband.

I didn’t even have to change out of my Pajamas! I love that about breakfast at home.

After a quick spruce-up of the kitchen, I set to making some French toast, fried eggs (scrambled, for my husband) sausage links and bacon- The thick sliced kind. I feel I should share with you one of my favourite breakfast making tips, even though you’ve probably already heard it.

Instead of making your bacon in a skillet, bake it in the oven!

Lay the strips out flat on a non-stick baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit until the bacon looks almost done, then flip them over and bake until they start to foam a little. It takes only like 20 minutes to make perfectly crisp, evenly done, FLAT bacon, and the only mess you have to clean is the non-stick baking sheet, rather than having to clean up the whole stove top and the skillet if you pan fry the bacon.

Either way, there is no arguing, bacon is DELICIOUS. hehe..

I had some little mini croissants, so we had those on the side with strawberry jam (I smuggled this jar out from a hotel we had room service in) and we drank some fruit juice and milk.

Eating breakfast always makes me feel like I’m a kid again. My family always ate breakfast together on Sundays, though we would usually have homemade waffles or pancakes, which were my dad’s specialty.

French toast WAS the first thing I ever learned to make in the kitchen though, so I’ve become quite the expert at making it, not that its very hard to make or anything. hehe.. Now that things are finally becoming more normal (5 months since relocating, not bad.) I’ll finally start sharing some more breakfast recipes. Until recently, breakfast on the weekends was more like Eggos and poptarts. Not the most nutritious or healthy of breakfasts, and not really even very tasty, either.

Nope, no more toaster strudel for us. We’re in the dead of winter, and there’s no better weekend recharge than a nice big tasty breakfast, so there are plenty more in store this season. Don’t you worry.

-A.

P.S. If you’re into breakfasts- be sure to check out one of my favourite food blogs (which I am lucky enough to be able to contribute to.) The Breakfast Blogger.

There are certain foods and food making ingredients that I just don’t feel comfortable not having on hand in my pantry, freezer or refrigerator.

I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in this.

I’m talking about stuff beyond “the staples”. Beyond flour and sugar and butter and milk. Stuff like fresh limes and at least three different types of cheese (I swear I have a panic attack when we’re only down to ‘just cheddar’), and a jar of black olives and a bottle of extra virgin olive oil. Stuff like apricot jam and dark chocolate chunks and wonton skins.

And above all of that, I always have phyllo dough waiting for me in my freezer.

Why? I’ve never really been sure. I know that from time to time I start to feel less creative in the kitchen, and this time, having phyllo dough on hand really helped me out.

Phyllo dough is super super super thin dough that is extremely fragile, but looks BEAUTIFUL in almost any application. You have to be pretty careful when handling it, but its totally worth it.

So today I made little phyllo bundles filled with cream cheese, apricot preserves and pecans.

They were super easy to make, and healthy, so far as desserts go. I used no sugar added “only fruit” preserves. Apricots are totally sweet on their own, so this dessert is free of any added sugar.

I sliced the bundles in half and garnished the plate with warmed apricot preserves and pecan halves.

Phyllo dough desserts always make me feel all special like a Grecian goddess.

Wrapped up in a toga with golden jewelry and doused in all sorts of exotic perfumes. Sort of like spirit days back in high school (yeah, I totally rocked the toga). I never got to experience a college toga party, since I didn’t go to a college with sororities and fraternities, let alone dorms, even. The closest I ever got to a toga party outside spirit days in highschool and the occasional towel toga during the mad dash from the bathroom to the bedroom back when I still lived with room mates, was the year I dressed up as Baubo- goddess of belly laughter, for halloween.

Having recently learned that Baubo wasn’t the goddess of belly laughter, but something rather different indeed, I’ve decided that I should probably work on my knowledge of Greek mythology a litte bit before announcing that I’m portraying a mythical character that I really just looked up in a book and did very little research about.

Perhaps this is just the snack to eat while reading up on my mythology. Perhaps this is the ambrosia, the nectar of the gods to which legend refers.

…Or not.

Its fun to pretend though! *smile*

Want to know how to make these Cream cheese and apricot phyllo bundles with pecans?

You’ll need-

Ingredients:
Phyllo dough
Apricot preserves
Cream cheese
pecans
melted butter

Tools:
short bladed sharp knife (paring)
pastry brush
non stick cookie sheet

Proceedure:
Before you handle the phyllo dough, its important to have everything prepped and ready to go. Since phyllo dough is extremely thin and lacks fat in its ingredients, it has a tendency to crumble and break when it dries out, which happens very easily. Keep the phyllo in its package until you’re ready to use it, just make sure that it is thawed out.

Meanwhile, prepare the cream cheese. I cut one brick (8oz ) into 10 pieces roughly the same size each. I melted about 4 tablespoons of butter and had it ready at my workstation. I had my pecans ready to go as well.
Once I had everything out, I removed two sheets of phyllo from the roll and laid them on top of each other on my clean, dry, workspace (a wooden cutting board) I brushed a thin layer of butter on top of half of the top sheet, and folded the two sheets together, in half (meaning I did not brush butter between each layer, only on half of the first sheet, where I folded the non buttered half on top of the buttered half.) Then I brushed a thin layer of butter on the top of the folded sheets. using my knife, I cut the layered phyllo sheets in half (two sheets folded in half makes it 4 sheets thick, phyllo, phyllo, butter, phyllo, phyllo, butter) widthwise.

On the exposed buttered top of each half of the layered phyllo, I placed one piece of cream cheese, which I smushed a bit to elongate it a bit. On top of that I spooned about a tablespoon of the apricot preserves, and then topped that off with two pecan halves. I folded the whole thing like a burrito, folding the short ends up and over the filling, then folding the long ends up and over the previously folded phyllo ends as well as the filling.

Then I placed each bundle folded side down on an ungreased non-stick cookie sheet, and brushed the tops with a little bit more melted butter.

Once you’ve finished all ten, (or as many as you’re making) bake them at 350 for about 8-10 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown. Some of the preserves will have melted out through the seams, but don’t worry, this really isn’t preventable. Also, if you notice the ends crisping and turning brown but not the tops, turn the broiler on for a moment, but be sure to keep a very watchful eye on them, so they don’t burn. The broiler works quickly!

Once you’ve removed them from the oven, quickly use a fork or a spatula to lift them up and lay them down folded side UP on a wire cooling rack or parchment covered plate. If you let them cool on the baking sheet they will stick when the melted preserves harden, and they’ll break apart before you are able to pry them off. Also, if you lay them down folded side down, the bits of melted preserves will cool and harden onto the plate or wire rack, causing the same problem.

Now that the bundles are out of the oven, you can either serve them hot, with a little extra apricot preserves and some pecan halves on top of the full bundle (as pictured at the bottom of this post) or you can let them cool a bit and slice them in half on the bias, and serve them on a platter, cut end up, or two halves to a plate all pretty with some heated apricot jam and pecan halves drizzled on top.

Notes:
I made about 10 bundles, so I used 20 phyllo sheets. I still had some left on the roll, so I just rolled it back up, wrapped it in saran wrap and put it in the fridge. Phyllo keeps pretty well so long as its wrapped and in an area of the fridge where it won’t get damaged.

I used a no sugar added no preservative variety of apricot preserves. Apricots are naturally sweet, and their colour is vibrant enough to really perk up this dessert. I also tried making this with some homemade blueberry jam and found that the jam soaked through the phyllo dough slightly while it was baking, and though I prepared them exactly the same, they didn’t brown or crisp as well as the apricot ones. They were still SO GOOD though.

As well as trying this with different jams, I also tried different nuts. I greatly preferred the pecans, because they held onto their flavour. The almonds added the same crunch as the pecans, but their flavour was lost with the jam. Same with the filberts (hazelnuts). Really though, get creative here and use whatever type of nut you want, so long as its small enough to be bundled and soft enough to be bitten through.

If you wanted to cut the fat of this dessert, you could use neufchatel cheese, which has about 1/3 less fat in it (it is made with whole milk instead of cream, otherwise it is the same), although it tastes very very similar. Also, you could use cooking spray (Like pam) instead of melted butter between the layers of the phyllo, and that will cut some of the fat as well, though you’ll miss out on the flavour that the butter provides.

So go and get thee to thine grocers freezer and get some phyllo to play with! Who knows, maybe you’ll create some sort of delicious concoction that would make Zeus himself ask for the recipe.

…anything is possible!

-A.

Or: Why food blogging is close to my heart.

A year ago today, I began my journey into the world of food blogging, with this photo.

…Ok, so that’s not entirely true. The story actually started a few days before Christmas, 2006, when I took my first real food photos. I had made chocolate covered strawberry marshmallows as Christmas gifts, and I went out and bought frilly little silver boxes with food safe paper to house them in. I was so proud, I took some photos to remember it.

Cut to the day after Christmas, 2006.

My husband used to have a job where he was required to do a lot of travelling. I was lucky that I got to spend Christmas with him, since he had spent a week in North Carolina, coming home on the day before Christmas eve, only to leave and go to Seattle for a week, starting the day after Christmas.

I had just quit my job, and I was incredibly bored. It snowed off and on most of those days, and though it never stuck, it did keep me from really venturing out of the house much, for fear of crazy drivers and car accidents.

Time passed incredibly slow.

Between phone calls from my husband, sleep, and the occasional visit from my mom or my older sister, I did a lot of thinking. A lot of thinking about my life, my self, what I wanted out of life.

Somehow I got myself on the topic of treating myself better.

It wasn’t yet New Years, and although I never really have been the kind of person to make resolutions, I decided that in the coming year, I wanted to take better care of myself. I wanted to spend time treating myself to little luxuries, and enjoying everything about life.

Part of that was intertwined with my obsession with food.

I love food.

I’ve always loved making food and cooking and baking and eating food. I realized that when I had people over, I’d get down to business and put so much effort into making the food look good, as well as taste good, where as when I made food for just “me”, I found that I would just slap a few things together and eat it for nutrition.

There were all sorts of reasons for my strange relationship with food. Part of it was how I was raised.. that food wasn’t necessarily something to enjoy, so much as something that needed to be eaten to survive. There are other reasons that I won’t get into here, as they’re much too personal to reveal on a public blog such as this, but I had my reasons. Plenty of reasons.

It had become achingly apparent that something needed to change in the days where my husband was traveling. I never once brought out a skillet or baking sheet. Almost everything I ate came out of a box or was something that could be eaten ‘on toast’.

I told myself right then that I needed to change that, and I did.

It wasn’t until my husband came back and we celebrated New Years, that I realized there was a very good way to keep myself accountable for my new resolution. For my birthday in September, my husband had bought me this shiny new camera. I’ve always loved looking at pictures of food, whether it be online or in a cookbook, why not take pictures of the food I make, and keep track of it all?

Slowly but surely, I began taking photos and posting them to my personal online journal. Over the course of a week, I realized I loved what I was doing, and I opened up my first food blog- A_Muffin_Story, on Livejournal.

I originally started posting food photos with stories that related to the food I was eating. I didn’t start this food blog until a few weeks later, and even then, it was just to keep track of recipes. I had no real intention of making this blog anything more than just a go-to site for the recipes I was using.

Anyways, my first real food blog post on A_muffin_story was a simple photo of one of my favourite foods- carrot slices that I had cut into little heart shapes with a knife. I loved it so much, and I still do. I often find myself looking back to it for inspiration when I can’t think of anything to make or take photos of.

Like this-

Its funny, because I started food blogging so I wouldn’t eat food from a box or stuff that I could just slap together, but I found inspiration in a little carrot cut into a heart shape. It was like it was meant to be.

Over time, the carrot motif became less important, but the heart motif stuck. If you notice, every now and then I throw a little heart into my photos. That’s all because I want to remember where I started. I want to remember why I am doing this… For me.

I’ve since closed A_muffin_story, but Never Bashful with Butter has become “The Big Blog” for me, where I’ve posted stories and recipes and all the photos that I take. I love it here.

So in memory and celebration of one full year of food blogging, I made a little cake for my husband and I to eat with dinner tonight.

Its a carrot juice and clementine cake.

I didn’t use a fancy recipe, and I decorated it simply, but appropriately and deliciously!

Here is the recipe that I used- It was originally a recipe for a simple vanilla butter cake, but I subbed out a few ingredients, and judging by the smell and the texture of the cake itself, it will be a delicious ending to a full year of food blogging… Oh, and a delicious ending to dinner tonight, too. *smile*

Carrot juice and clementine cake-

2-1/2 cup sifted cake flour
1- 1/4 cups sugar
3-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup carrot juice
1/4 cup milk + about a little extra (or what I lovingly refer to as “a glug”)
1-1/2 tsp. lemon juice
3 egg whites, at room temperature

Clementine mixture-
1/4 cup clementine juice
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons powdered sugar

PREPARATION:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 9″ round layer cake pans and line the bottoms with waxed paper; set aside. Sift flour, sugar, and baking powder into a large mixer bowl. Add butter, carrot juice, milk and lemon juice. If you really want to, you can add the carrot pulp to the mixture as well. I didn’t, but looking back, I wish I had.zSB(3,3)

Beat on slow speed until blended. Then beat on medium speed for 2 minutes, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl. Add unbeaten egg whites, and beat two minutes longer at medium speed.Pour batter into prepared pans and bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes or until cake is light golden brown and is beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan. Cool 15 minutes in pans, then carefully remove layers from pans and cool completely on wire rack. While the cakes are cooling completely, poke a few holes into the cake with a toothpick or skewer, and slowly pour the clementine mixture over the cakes so that it soaks into the holes you’ve poked. (you don’t have to use all of the mixture, so use your good judgement on this one)

Once the cakes have cooled, you’ll need to fill, stack and ice your cake. I chose cream cheese icing, only I added more milk to the mixture so that it was more like a cinnamon roll coating, and not so fluffy, like traditional cream cheese icing. You can choose whatever icing you’d like.

So, Happy 1 year!

This year I’ve decided to continue with this blog as it is currently, devoting it to baked goods and sweet things. Next month I’ll reveal a secondary blog dedicated to healthy, real foods and meals and a generally healthy lifestyle. I’ve asked a few of my friends to help me with it, so I’m expecting it will be a wonderful, interesting project!

Also, if I might direct your attention to that side panel over there…*clears throat and points to the upper right hand side panel*—>

If you notice, I’ve opened up a “ooh you tasty little things” merchandise shop over at cafe press! All you have to do is click on your preferred design and choose what product you want it on, buy it, and enjoy! I made the designs myself, and they’re all fun, original designs. I hope ya’ll like ‘em!

-A.

In case you’re curious as to what the title refers to, click here.
No, I don’t really get it either, but it sure is happy!

Peanut butter jelly! Peanut butter jelly!

But first, a note about new years resolutions.
Its a new year, and here at the muffin household, things, they are a changing.

For one, we’ve made it a goal of ours to eat healthier. I know, everyone is making resolutions to eat better, lose weight, exercise more.. whatever.. Health issues in both of our families have really pounded it home that getting into better shape and being healthy is very important if we want to live long, enjoyable lives.

That having been said, don’t worry, it won’t affect what you see here. I still plan on making one or two tasty little treats a week, not for me or my family, but so that my husband can take them to work for his co-workers. They seem to appreciate them, so why not keep them happy. Who knows, it might make my husband’s work day more enjoyable, and if I can help with that, I will.

However, if you are one of those whose new years resolutions (or just your own personal goals) include weight loss, healthy eating and exercise, keep an eye out on the sidebar over there- (points at the side of the page to the right) for an announcement for a new healthy food blog that I’ll be launching later this month, once I’ve built up the archives a bit. I’ll be updating it probably more often than this one, since I’ll be using it as a sort of motivational blog as well, for myself and those who want to eat healthy food that just happens to taste awesome and look pretty.

ANYWAYS. All of that behind us now, ONTO THE DELICIOUSNESS!

I made peanut butter and jelly chocolate cupcakes today.

Strange combination? nope. Not at all. Delicious? Definately.

The salty peanut flavour, the creamy chocolate taste, and the sweetness of red ripe strawberries combined. Its like the a triple threat of tastiness.

I made them mini sized and tried a few different decorating styles.
Some of them just had plain peanut butter icing on them, some with a drizzle of chocolate. Some had peanut butter icing and were dipped in chocolate before being sprinkled with lightly salted peanuts and some had the same treatment, plus a slice of strawberry. All four were pretty and simple, and easy to do.

I took a photo of the outside of the cake so that you could get an idea of the texture.

I wasn’t able to get a good photo of a dissected cupcake, because they were filled with strawberry preserves, which just looks shiny against the dark brown of the chocolate cake.

Also, they were very moist, and while they didn’t crumble, they sort of smushed down a little when I sliced into it.
Pretty to look at, tasty to eat, but not very attractive after the first bite. hehe..

Anyways, here are the recipes that I used-

Chocolate Chiffon Cupcakes

2 cups sugar, divided
1 1/2 cups cake flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
7 eggs, separated and at room temperature
3/4 cup cold water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Heat oven to 350°F (180° C).

Combine 1-3/4 cups sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt and baking soda in large bowl. Add oil, egg yolks, water and vanilla; beat until smooth.

Beat egg whites and cream of tartar in extra-large bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually add remaining 1/4 cup sugar, beating until stiff peaks form. Gradually pour chocolate batter over beaten egg whites, folding with rubber spatula just until blended. Spoon into prepared cupcake cups.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until top springs back when touched lightly. Allow to cool completely before removing from muffin tin (or you could do like me, and use freestanding cupcake cups). Fill, frost and enjoy

Makes around 18 standard cupcakes or 36 mini cupcakes.

I filled my cupcakes with some homemade strawberry jam that I recieved for Christmas. You can use any flavour of jam you think would go well with chocolate and peanut butter. I imagine grape would be DELICIOUS, but then again, I love grape flavoured anything. hehe..

I know I said I’d take photos of how to fill a cupcake using the cone method, but really, I think the best way to do it would be linking to The Cupcake Blog, where I actually learned how to do it. She has so many tips and tricks, not to mention delicious recipes. If you want to learn more about cupcakes in general (plus cupcake porn, omg) I’d take a peek over there. (a little ways down on THIS page, she shows how to fill a cupcake through step by step photos.)

Then I got a recipe for peanut butter icing from Southern food (about.com) and I iced my cupcakes before dipping half of them in melted chocolate, drizzling a few with the chocolate and then decorating them how they are shown.

This year, I challenge every one of you to become more daring with the food you eat. That is one of my goals as well this year, and I hope to show more adventurous, less blah foods on both here and the new blog.
-A.

P.S. Come back soon for a very special post! (hint, my blog-aversary is coming up very soon!)