Life Without Baking

Theres that saying that you don’t realize you love something/someone until its gone. I knew that I loved to bake but it is just dawning on me that I am essentially kitchenless for an entire year. I am at Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington Dc for my senior year. While the training is really superb there are many aspects of home that i miss. My boyfriend, my room, occasionally my family :b and my kitchen…

So because I am kitchenless this year my blog will have to take a slightly different direction for a while. I am going to be finding wonderful recipes from other food blogs and posting them for you all to enjoy. In return I would appreciate it if you also commented food blogs that you like so that I can at least marvel at other peoples wonderful creations.

There are a few things that I have realized being kitchenless. I really really would like to do something with baking later in my life. Now I am only 17 and so my interests could change in a few years or even a few months but at the moment here is my plan.. Get into a company this winter (keeping my fingers crossed and working very hard of course), now everyone knows being a dancer doesn’t exactly pay well so I would like to spend my time when I am not dancing working in a bakery or coffee shop of some sort. That way I can see how they run and get a feel for the business aspect of the baking world. Then once i retire or maybe even during my dance career depending on how much time I have I would like to go to culinary school. I would like to not only learn how to bake every pastry on this earth but I would also like to learn how to run a business. Then finally I want to open my own bakery/coffee shop. That is my dream.

I was in georgetown the other day and I went to Sprinkles one of the most famous cupcake bakeries in DC. I got a carrot cake one and a red velvet one to save for later. They were absolutely delicious. Its in someplace like that, that I could see my self easily working even if it was just behind the cash register. In the meantime though I am here working on just dancing so really any blog suggestions would be wonderful and I will in turn find scrumptious things to show you too!

 

A view of sprinkles courtesy of http://highheeledtraveler.blogspot.com/2012/02/sprinkles-cupcakes-washington-dc.html

Fresh Blackberry Pie

After spending 7 weeks in NYC it is unbelievably nice to be home. It is green and lush and there are berries galore. One of my favorite things to do is pick blackberries. I enjoy eating them too but I go into an almost meditative state when I pick them which is kind of cool. Anyways one of the days this past week I went out behind my house and picked a huge container full of them. They are all wild bushes but the berries are still huge and juicy and perfectly ripe.

Since I am not dancing this week I decided to go for a healthy recipe. My dad got me an incredible cookbook for my birthday. It is Rodale’s Basic Natural Foods Cookbook. There are a limited number of copies available and so while my dad was in NYC one weekend he stopped by the Strand bookstore where he was luckily able to pick one up. I only modified this recipe a tiny bit because i figured that when you are dealing with healthier ingredients there is more room for “error”. I got positive feedback from all of my family members especially the day after it was made. Hope you all enjoy it as well.

Basic Rolled Piecrust

• 2 2/4 Cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 4 to 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoon honey
• 1/4 cup ice water

Measure flour into a medium sized bowl/ an electric mixer. Cut butter into the flour while mixing.  Add oil and continue to mix until the dough looks crumbly. Add honey and then slowly add ice water while mixing until it can be gathered into a ball. Split dough in half and set one aside for later. Place half the dough onto a piece of floured wax paper. Flatten dough with your hands. Sprinkle a little flour over it and place another piece of wax paper over it. Roll it out until it is about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick. Remove top piece of wax paper. Hold a buttered 9in empty pie plate over the dough and turn over the plate, dough and bottom piece of wax paper allowing the dough to easily be transferred into the plate. Remove wax paper. Line the plate with dough, pressing lightly with your fingers. Cut off any excess dough.

Black Berry Filling

• 4 cups fresh blackberries
• 1/4 cup tapioca
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. In a medium sized bowl mix berries, tapioca, honey, and butter together. Pour into pie plate. Roll out the remaining dough and place over filling. take a fork and press down all of the edges sealing the top dough to the bottom dough. Cut several steam vents in the top crust with a knife. Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees F and bake for another 45 to 60 minutes. Cool to room temperature on a wire rack before serving. ( That allows the tapioca to set up and hold the insides of the pie together. I neglected to wait because I am impatient like that and I just had a messier pie. tasted fine to me!)

Chocolate Cupcakes with Brown Butter Vanilla Frosting and Sugared Brown Butter Popcorn

Being a ballerina, every summer I participate in a summer intensive. This year I am spending 6 weeks training with Ellison Ballet. I am living in a dorm room with 2 other girl and the only appliances available to me are a mini-fridge that we all share, a microwave and a small “stove” down the hall.I put stove in quotations because the biggest burner on its highest setting looks like a normal burner turned to low, its pathetic. As you can imagine baking is a difficult task when you have no kitchen. I have been yearning to just make cupcakes, looking at foodgawker every night, drooling over the amazing creations. (If you haven’t heard of foodgawker you should fix that.)

I would like to take a moment and express my love for my mother. As a parent it is your job to be supportive of your children no matter the direction they choose to go. Therefore when my brother decided that our home ballet studio was too small and he wasn’t getting good training, my mother whole heartedly made the commitment to come live in NYC with him and support his dreams. At the beginning of the summer she went apartment hunting and found a newly remodeled beautiful apt on the upper west side. Although she returned to vermont she trusted me with the keys so that if I wanted I could go bake in the beautiful new kitchen. And so thats exactly what I did.

Because I was baking in an all new kitchen I had to buy every ingredient.I decided to make a day of it since I also needed things like muffin tins and measuring cups. I did a quick internet search of places in the city where I could buy those things and the New York Cake looked to be my best bet. I dragged my boyfriend down there since I am not allowed to go anywhere by myself due to the dorm requirements. It was beautiful. It had everything from all of the hugely elaborate things needed for concocting professional grade cakes to simple little things for your basic cookie. After making my next stop to whole foods I was finally ready to go back to the apartment and begin the process!

I was incredibly happy with the way these came out. I love the combination of salty and sweet. Any one who does should most definitely try these out.

Original recipe courtesy of http://www.halfbakedharvest.com/

Ingredients

Cupcakes

• 1 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup strong brewed coffee, hot

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer or large mixing bowl combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugar. Whisk to combine. In a small bowl add the milk, egg, canola oil and vanilla extract. Stir lightly and then add to the flour mixture. Beat until the ingredients are well combined and then add the warm coffee. Beat well, until the mixture is very smooth. Line a muffin tin with liners and using a 1/4 cup measure, add batter to each cup. Bake for 15-18 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.

Brown Butter Vanilla Frosting

• 1/2 cup (stick) butter, softened
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 of a vanilla bean, beans scraped out ( I didn’t have this and it tasted just fine…)
• 2 teaspoon vanilla

1. While the cupcakes bake make the frosting. Add 4 tablespoons butter to a small saucepan and heat over medium heat. Whisk constantly until brown bits appear on the bottom, about 5-6 minutes, then immediately remove from the heat and add the cream and brown sugar. Return to the heat and bring to a boil, boil for one minute. Remove from the heat and add to the bowl of a stand mixer. Stir in the vanilla bean seeds and allow to cool for 15 minutes. Once cooled beat in the remaining softened butter. Add the vanilla and powdered sugar to the bowl and beat together until well combined.
2. This stuff is dangerously good. Beware you dont eat it all before yuo

Popcorn

• 3 cups air popped popcorn
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips, melted

1. To make the popcorn. Preheat oven to 250°
2. Pour popped popcorn onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
3. Add butter to a small saucepan and heat over medium heat. Whisk constantly until brown bits appear on the bottom, about 5-6 minutes. Immediately remove from the heat and pour over the popped popcorn. Stir until evenly distributed. Sprinkle salt and brown sugar over the popcorn. Bake for 10 minutes. Baking helps the brown sugar and butter stick to the popcorn a litte better. Allow to cool before topping the cupcakes.
4. To assemble the cupcakes: Frost the cupcakes using a knife and a good amount of frosting. (if it is a bit drippy dont worry about it, just as long as the popcorn stays in place it’s fine) Add a handful popcorn to each cupcake and use your hands to mold it together into a mound, making sure to push the popcorn into the frosting. Some will fall off, just do your best to keep most of the popcorn on the cupcakes. Drizzle the melted chocolate overtop the popcorn and place the cupcakes in the freezer for 5 minutes or let sit on the counter for 30 minutes so the chocolate can harden.

Flourless chocolate cupcakes with cherry compote and vanilla butter cream frosting

In my english class this year there was a tradition that every week someone would bring in cookies. For the last day of classes I decided to go all out and give the class something a little better than the boring chocolate chip cookies that they were used to getting.  Introducing a new desert that will blow your mind, flourless chocolate cupcakes with cherry compote and vanilla butter cream frosting. I originally was on food gawker looking for something special to bring to the class when I came across this recipe. It was on Blueberry Kitchen if you would like to take a look. I realized while making it though that I didn’t have alot of the necissary ingredients so I had to improvise a bit.

Making these without all the right ingredients was a bit frusterating especially trying to make the frosting. The initial recipe has these cupcakes with a mascarpone frosting. I didn’t have mascarpone and so thats why I decided to go with Buttercream frosting, something every baker should have experience making.

I got so much good feedback that I decided to share them with you all. So here it is, the best cupcakes of all time.

Flourless chocolate cake

4 oz dark chocolate, broken into cubes
3 oz/ 3/4 stick unsalted butter
2 tbsp strong black coffee
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
3/4 cup ground almonds
pinch salt
1/2 tsp baking powder

– Preheat the oven to 350F  and line a cupcake or muffin tin with cupcake cases.
– Melt the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl, over a saucepan of gently simmering water. Stir in the coffee and leave to cool. Once cooled stir in the sugar and vanilla.
– In a separate bowl beat the egg for about 3 minutes until really fluffy. Gently fold in the chocolate mixture, followed the ground almonds, salt and baking powder.- Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases, filling each one about 1/2 full. (these rise a lot so really be cautious when filling them). Bake for about 23 minutes until crisp on the outside, but still slightly gooey in the middle (insert a clean skewer into the middle to check.) Cool on a wire rack. Dont be alarmed if the middles fall. Thats where the cherries go.

Cherry compote

1 cup cherries, pitted

1 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp orange juice

– Put the cherries, sugar and juice in a heavy based saucepan and simmer for about 15 minutes – stirring and gently pushing the cherries down with the back of a wooden spoon fairly regularly – until the cherries have turned mushy and most of the liquid has been absorbed.

– Leave to cool, then fill the middle of each cupcake with a generous teaspoon of compote.Buttercream frosting

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons milk or cream ( I used rice milk)

-In a mixing bowl with electric mixer, combine the butter with confectioners’ sugar. Beat on low speed until sugar is moistened, then beat on medium to high speed for about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla and 1 tablespoon of milk or cream and beat until smooth. Beat in more milk or cream, as needed for spreading consistency.

Hope you all enjoy them as much as my english class did!