Cranberry and Vanilla Bean Sorbet

If you are looking for ideas for those fresh cranberries available all over right now, definitely try this cranberry sorbet. Vanilla bean surprisingly rounded out the tartness of cranberries - making the sorbet perfectly sweet, tart and smooth.

I pureed the cooked cranberries in a food processor and didn't strain the mixture despite the recipe. The sorbet was most delicious and refreshing especially after a heavy meal.

Delicious Food of Japan

Eating was more than half of my trip to Japan. Everything was so delicious we (my brother, my cousins and I) practically did not stop eating until we left each other for our flights home.

My brother took a bunch of pictures of some of the food we ate.

My favourite? Other than all the fresh seafood, the glutenous rice dough filled with sweet red bean paste. They came in all shapes an forms. Sometimes the red bean was inside, sometimes outside. Most of the time they are round, but they can also be cube, or even fish!

Tomato Quick Bread

This is way up in my list of what not to bake.

The idea was exciting, at first. People make all kinds of zucchini baked goods. I successfully made eggplant muffins. So why not tomato bread?

The execution was simple, I replaced zucchini in this excellent with chopped tomatoes.



The bread looked beautiful and tasted weird. Tomato seeds and gooey chunks of tomatoes in a slice of quick bread are not very appetizing.

To improve it, one might need to chop the tomatoes more or peel them. I simply won't mix fresh tomatoes with baked goods ever again.

Not in my kitchen...

... in Japan.

Vanilla Brown Butter Pear and Apple Crisp

I got 6 pears bosc pears and 6 empire apples from my CSA last wednesday. On top of 3 pounds of peaches and 2 pounds of plums, I can't finish all my fruit before I leave for a vacation today. So I made this.

Based loosely on Pear Crisps with Vanilla Brown Butter from Epicurious.com, I mixed my sliced pears and apples with vanilla brown butter and brown sugar.



For the topping, I doubled my own crisp recipe with oatmeal, almond flour and sliced almonds (gluten-free!).

And it worked! I consumed baked goods faster than fresh fruit. That can't be good but for now food is not wasted.

Honey Lavender Cake with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

I can't remember the last time I made a cake - not cupcakes. But this was for a festive situation - a semi-formal surprise birthday party! It must be a cake with proper candles and everything.

This cake is pretty marvelous. It is delicate and complex. White chocolate compliments but doesn't over power lavender. The lavender comes on very subtly after the first bite. Since I have lavender scented hand soap and dish liquid, I was afraid the cake would taste like soap. But not at all. In fact, I was so good I had to stop eating. I, who's possibly the fastest cake eater in the whole wide world, slowed down so that I could appreciate all the flavor notes from a bite of this cake. It's that good.


I need more practice frosting a cake...

I started with half my usual vanilla cupcake recipe because this cake would feed only 10 people. I added 2 teaspoons of dry lavender, substituted 1/4 cup of honey for 1/4 cup of sugar and omitted vanilla extract. The cake is baked in two 9-inch cake pans in 350 degrees oven for 33 minutes. The cakes was totally brown within 30 minutes but they weren't cooked. My friend, Hannah, suggested that I bake them at 300 degrees for longer time to get lighter color cake and flatter layers. I'll remember to do that next time.

Cupcakes

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour


• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder


• 1/4 teaspoon salt


• 1 stick of butter - at room temperature


• 3/4 cup sugar


• 2 eggs


• 1/4 cup honey


• 2 teaspoon dry lavender


• 1/2 cup buttermilk

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.


2. With an electric mixer, beat butter with sugar for a couple of minutes until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Beat well after each egg. Add honey and lavender.


3. Sift a third of flour mixture into the wet ingredients alternately with buttermilk. Stir (the mixer's lowest setting) until no streaks left.


4. Divide the batter onto 2 lined and greased 9-inch cake pans. Spread the batter to cover the pans surface. Bake for 33 - 35 minutes. Rotate pans after 15 minutes.


5. Remove from the pans and let cool on cooling racks.

White chocolate cream cheese frosting

• 1 stick of butter - at room temperature


• 1/2 cup of confectioner sugar


• 1 package cream cheese


• 1 cup chopped white chocolate or white chocolate chips

Directions

1. Melt the white chocolate. I did with a microwave. If you don't have a microwave, melt it in a pot over boiling water. Be careful not to burn. White chocolate burns easily because it has a lot of sugar. Also make sure that everything is dry and no water drips on the chocolate. It seizes up really easily. Let cool a little.


2. With an electric mixer and wire whisk attachment, beat butter with sugar. Add cream cheese. Add white chocolate. Beat at high speed until light. Add more sugar if you want it sweeter. If it's too runny, refrigerate for 10 - 20 minutes before frosting.

To assemble, drop a teaspoon of frosting on a cake board or serving plate to prevent the cake from sliding, place the first layer with the flat side up. Spread about half a cup of frosting on the first layer. Place the second layer on top with the flat side down. Smack the layers in place. Cover the entire cake with frosting. Sprinkle the top with shaved white chocolate.

Tofu Chocolate Pudding

This is possibly the most genius use of tofu ever: New York Times Mexican Chocolate Tofu Pudding. It's like something you watch on Food Network Iron Chef where they make dessert out of beef or something.

With such few and simple ingredients, it really works. I'm still amazed. The pudding is creamy and delicious. Chocolate totally over powers any hint of soy/tofu.



I did change the recipe a little because I wasn't in a mood for cinnamon. I added a pinch of salt, a teaspoon of vanilla extract and about 2 teaspoons of instant espresso. The only thing I would do differently next time (There will definitely be next time!) is to reduce the amount of sugar to maybe less than 1/2 a cup. I would prefer the pudding to be less sweet.

Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

I went to Boston and ate its cream pie (which is not actually a pie but a cake -- America is so confusing.) It was at that place that people waited 30 minutes in line just to buy pastries. I wasn't impressed. I thought I could do better. So I tried. I wanted to make the big cream pie but it will be for a party with 25+ people. A cake is too messy to eat. Cupcakes would do.

Not to brag, but I think my cupcakes taste better than the real thang....

I started with Creme Patissiere/Pastry Cream from JoyOfBaking.com. It made creamy, not too sweet and very vanilla scented cream. By itself, it tasted kind of bland but I trusted the people at Joy. So I pushed on. With all those steps and ingredients, the "creme patissiere" was actually pretty easy to manage and whisk out.

While waiting for the pastry cream to cool down, I baked a batch of my favorite vanilla cupcakes - recipe below.


After letting the cupcakes cool, I cut out cone-shaped hole from each cupcake. Filled the hole with about a teaspoon of pastry cream. Removed the 3/4 bottom of the cone and capped the top back on the cupcake.



I doubled this recipe for Satiny Chocolate Glaze. After letting the glaze cool down a bit so that it's not so runny, I spooned about a scant tablespoon on top of each filled cupcakes. The glaze hardened (but not like a rock) after it completely cooled and kept its shape and place on top of the cupcakes.

To quote a comment on my Facebook the day after the party from a friend:
Those were the BEST cupcakes I've had in my life.

Best Vanilla Cupcakes Ever!

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour


• 1 teaspoon baking powder


• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda


• 1/2 teaspoon salt


• 2 sticks butter at room temperature


• 2 cups sugar


• 4 eggs


• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract


• 1 cup buttermilk

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 muffin pans with paper liners.


2. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.


3. With an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar at high speed for 2 to 3 minutes until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Beat well after each addition. Add vanilla extract.


4. Sift a third of flour mixture alternately with a third cup of buttermilk into the wet ingredients. Stir (the lowest mixer setting) until just combined after each alternation. Scrape the bowl if needed.


5. Fill the prepared muffin pans up to 2/3 full as the cake will rise. Bake for 22 to 25 minutes. Rotate and switch the pan half way through baking. Let cool in the pans for a minute, then remove and cool on cooling racks. Make 32 cupcakes.

Martha Stewart's Black-bottom Coconut Bars

After all the disastrous gluten-free baking experience, I still needed to bake something to bring to a party. I looked through my del.icio.us and found the perfect candidate: Marthe Stewart's Black-Bottom Coconut Bars. After all, she's the queen of sinful desserts (well, I guess after Paula Deen but I don't want to kill my friends yet.)

I still didn't have all purpose flour and still didn't learn my lesson about substitution and so-called genius moments. I used whole-wheat flour and unsweetened coconut flakes in Martha's recipe. But to my credit, I did increase the amount of sugar even though I knew that Martha liked her sweets really really super sweet.



And it was a success! I love you Martha Stewart. <3 <3 <3



The bottom part wasn't so sweet which perfectly offset the sweet, crunchy and flavorful top part. Plus the whole thing was made from whole wheat flour!

Hmmmm.... Maybe I will try this with gluten-free flour... :P

Gluten-Free Disasters

I needed to bake something to bring to a party but I ran out of flour. Out of necessity, I came up with genius moment. I would bake treats with gluten-free flour! So I looked through my brand new cookbook, Gluten-Free Baking Classics, and found a recipe for brownies.

The recipe calls for 2/3 cup of flour mix which is 2 parts rice flour and 1 part starch. Usually, I would just measure out what I need. But I don't know how to measure 2/9 cup of starch... So I came up with another genius idea. I would mix up more flour mix than I need and use the rest for muffins!



The recipe was for chocolate ricotta muffins. I only had cottage cheese. That's an acceptable substitute, right?

As you can tell from the post title, those genius moments weren't so genius after all. The muffins overflowed and made a mess. Both the muffins and brownies came out gritty and weird. I guess my rice flour is not as finely ground as recommended. Or my baking angel was just not with me...