chocolate souffle cupcakes with lime cream topping

Continuing my cupcake stint (I wrote stink the first time, cracked up a little, and corrected it, but I still had to share), I found this recipe on SK and just had to give it a whirl. I couldn't find peppermint extract here, so I went with some semi-mysterious "citron aroma" that I found in the baking aisle and remembered using the vanilla aroma for our Thanksgiving apple crisps. The batter had a surprisingly strong coffee flavor, but the cupcakes turned out to be less coffee and more chocolate flavor. I was surprised that the recipe didn't call for any flour, but I also don't know much about souffles. Thanks to the Oxford English Dictionary on my macbook (which I use like a fiend and love everything about it - well, both the computer and dictionary):
soufflé |soōˈflā| |suˈfleɪ| |ˈsuːfleɪ|nouna light, spongy baked dish made typically by adding flavored egg yolks to stiffly beaten egg whites.• any of various light dishes made with beaten egg whites.ORIGIN French, literally ‘blown,’ past participle of souffler (see souffle).

So, the recipe makes so much more sense. I wish we had an OED screen on the side of my whiteboard in class so that I could just punch in any word and my whole class could read the definition and origin. I have been teaching them word parts this year, so now they love to ask me the origins of words and what the word parts are. They still can't punctuate a sentence correctly, though, for the most part, and I'm about to start pulling my hair out.

But I digress. These cupcakes are heavenly. They are light, fluffy, creamy, and chocolatey. They are a little crispy on the outside and are moist and warm on the inside. The lime aroma really worked out quite deliciously, and I'm really enjoying them even aesthetically, sitting next to the spread sitting on the baking rack.

SK claims that it makes 9 cupcakes, but I got 12 out of the recipe and was happy with the sizes.

6 ounces (170 grams) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped [I had about 65% here, I think]
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) (86 grams) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
Heaping 1/4 teaspoon (1 gram) espresso or instant coffee powder [I just used the nescafe we had]
3 large eggs, separated
6 tablespoons (97 grams) sugar, divided
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

White Chocolate Cream
2 ounces (56 grams) white chocolate, finely chopped [I'm not sure that my white chocolate was really white chocolate, but it was the only similar thing around, and it worked]
3 ounces heavy whipping cream
1/8 teaspoon peppermint extract [as mentioned, I used 'lime aroma' and didn't measure]

Get the white chocolate mint cream ready for later:
Place the white chocolate in a small bowl. Bring the cream to a simmer, pour it over the chocolate and let it sit for a minute to melt the chocolate. Whisk well. Add the peppermint extract and whisk again. Lay a piece of plastic wrap on the surface of the cream. Chill until very cold, about two hours [I left mine for only about an hour, but it was still fine, though not as firm of peaks as it maybe could have been if I had waited the full 2 hours].

Make cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 9 [or 12] standard-size muffin cups with paper liners. Stir chocolate, butter and espresso powder together in heavy medium saucepan over low heat mostly melted, then remove from the heat and whisk until it is fully melted and smooth. Cool to lukewarm, stirring occasionally.

Using electric mixer (a hand mixer, rather than a stand mixer, actually works best here because the volumes are so small) beat egg yolks and 3 tablespoons sugar in medium bowl until mixture is very thick and pale, about 2 minutes.

Briefly beat lukewarm chocolate mixture, then vanilla extract, into yolk mixture. Using clean dry beaters, beat egg whites in another medium bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually add remaining 3 tablespoons sugar and all of the salt, beating until medium-firm peaks form. Fold whites into chocolate mixture in 3 additions.

Divide batter among prepared cups, filling each three-fourths of the way.

Bake cakes until tops are puffed and dry to the touch (some may crack) and a tester inserted into the centers comes out with some moist crumbs attached, about 15 to 20 minutes. Cool in pan on a cooling rack, where the cupcakes will almost immediately start to fall. It will be all the better to put your cream on them.

Finish your masterpiece:
Beat mint white chocolate cream with electric beaters until soft peaks form. Remove cupcakes from pan, arrange on a platter. Fill each sunken top with a healthy dollop of white chocolate cream.

tomato and corn pie

I first tried this recipe back for Abby's birthday in September, so it was an early cooking in Bulgaria experience. For Abby's birthday, we were having a southern themed dinner party, so I thought that a corn and tomato pie would fit the bill. It ended up being quite a production at the time, but after making it a second time, I am not sure if it was easier this time around because I only did 1x the recipe this time (and had made 1.5x for the bigger dinner party), because I forgot/intentionally left out a few several ingredients, or just because I was familiar with what I was doing. At any rate, it was a really big hit the first time, and everyone was excited to see it on the dinner table again, accompanied by chicken breasts baked in my Greek spice mix from Athens. We finished off the whole pie between 5 of us and felt very happy about that.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 3/4 teaspoons salt, divided
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons or 3 ounces) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes, plus 2 teaspoons melted
3/4 cup whole milk [I used my almost-skim]
1/3 cup mayonnaise*
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice*
1 3/4 pounds beefsteak tomatoes [I used 4 tomatoes]
1 1/2 cups corn (from about 3 ears), coarsely chopped by hand (my preference) or lightly puréed in a food processor, divided [I used a 250g can of corn, drained]
2 tablespoons finely chopped basil, divided*
1 tablespoon finely chopped chives, divided*
1/4 teaspoon black pepper, divided*
7ounces coarsely grated sharp Cheddar (1 3/4 cups), divided

*I left out these ingredients this time, to no one's notice or disappointment. I did sprinkle some dried basil to make up for forgetting the fresh basil, but otherwise no substitutions.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and 3/4 tsp salt in a bowl, then blend in cold butter (3/4 stick) with your fingertips or a pastry blender until it resembles coarse meal. Add milk, stirring until mixture just forms a dough, then gather into a ball.

Divide dough in half and roll out one piece on a well-floured counter (my choice) or between two sheets of plastic wrap (the recipe’s suggestion, but I imagined it would annoyingly stick to the plastic) into a 12-inch round (1/8 inch thick). Either fold the round gently in quarters, lift it into a 9-inch pie plate and gently unfold and center it or, if you’re using the plastic warp method, remove top sheet of plastic wrap, then lift dough using bottom sheet of plastic wrap and invert into pie plate. Pat the dough in with your fingers trim any overhang. [I had to make this ahead of time because I had rehearsals, and so I just stuck the rolled out dough into the fridge to wait for me, and it seemed fine later]

Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle. Whisk together mayonnaise and lemon juice.

Cut an X in bottom of each tomato and blanch in a large pot of boiling water 10 seconds. Immediately transfer with a slotted spoon to an ice bath to cool. [Judging by the difficulty I had with this, I think more than 10 seconds may be necessary]. Peel tomatoes, then slice crosswise 1/4 inch thick and, if desired (see Notes above recipe), gently remove seeds and extra juices. Arrange half of tomatoes in crust, overlapping, and sprinkle with half of corn, one tablespoon basil, 1/2 tablespoon chives, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon pepper and one cup of grated cheese. Repeat layering with remaining tomatoes, corn, basil, chives, salt, and pepper. Pour lemon mayonnaise over filling and sprinkle with remaining cheese.

Roll out remaining piece of dough into a 12-inch round in same manner, then fit over filling, folding overhang under edge of bottom crust and pinching edge to seal. Cut 4 steam vents in top crust and brush crust with melted butter (2 teaspoons). Bake pie until crust is golden and filling is bubbling, 30 to 35 minutes, then cool on a rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

cupcakes on my mind

Why are cupcakes on my mind? Because I can't find cupcake/muffin tins here, so while I was home, I bought like 300 various adorable cupcake/muffin paper cups to bring back here to use for baking. Now it is March and I haven't really used that many up, so I am on a mission to bake through my cute silver big cupcake liners or party themed or pretty red swirl mini cupcake liners. That is the real reason, folks, that I have started a muffin and cupcake streak in the kitchen.

But who's complaining? Not my roommates, yet. So yesterday, unbelievably just yesterday, I made those black bottom cream cheese centered cupcakes. There were 12, the number was down to 6 by bedtime, and the rest were eaten for breakfast or taken in for lunch. Today was a lovely spring day (as was yesterday, so we had our Vonnegut elective outside), so after watching the 10th graders kick the teachers' butts in soccer on the asphalt court (ugh, yeah) and playing a game of bocce outside around the woodsy field between our homes and the campus school buildings, I decided to bake another batch of cupcakes before going out to dinner in Studentskigrad. These were on SK and looked fairly straightforward, so I decided to give them a try. The only thing that didn't turn out so great was that I tried to use food coloring and they didn't really look cute once cooked. What can I say? I've always loved food coloring and my mom has always made fun of me using it in my ice cream and pancake batter and whatnot. It only fits that I would try to turn nice cupcakes into pink and purple blobs.

*I made half the recipe and got 12 regular cupcakes plus 9 small ones


18 tablespoons (2 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 2/3 cups sugar
6 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup sour cream, at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin pans with paper liners.

Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on high speed, until light and fluffy. On medium speed, add the eggs, two at a time, then add the sour cream and vanilla. Scrape down the sides and stir until smooth.

Sift together the flour, cornstarch, salt, and baking soda in a bowl. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture until just combined. Fill the cupcake liners to the 2/3-level with batter. Bake in the center of the oven for 20 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool to room temperature.

For the icing, I used a different recipe for a very simple butter cream icing.


5 oz (150g) Butter - softened
8 oz (250g) confectioners (icing) sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp hot water

Beat together the butter and sugar with an electric beater.
Once well combined, add the vanilla and water. Beat until smooth and creamy.

cream cheese centered chocolate cupcakes

These are so rich! They are decadent, in the true sense of the word, which (fun fact) is, courtesy of the Oxford English Dictionary on my computer, one of my favorite aspects of the macbook alongside that screen exploder key that lets you click whatever window.

decadent |ˈdekədənt|adjectivecharacterized by or reflecting a state of moral or cultural decline.• luxuriously self-indulgent : a decadent soak in a scented bath.nouna person who is luxuriously self-indulgent.

So, back to food. I had bought a bunch of cupcake/muffin tin liners while I was home, and so I was feeling like I needed to put them to use and bake, since it would take some effort to bake through a couple hundred cupcake wrappers. I found a recipe for cupcakes that looked quite delicious on SK and took off to the HIT with grocery list in hand. I haven't really made a lot of cupcakes before, and this middle filling was an interesting concept to me. All in all, I think it turned out pretty well, and as over half are gone already, I'd say they have been received with enthusiasm.

For the filling:
8 ounces cream cheese, regular or reduced fat, at room temperature
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

For the cupcakes:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
5 tablespoons natural unsweetened cocoa powder [SK says not Dutch-process, but that is all I had, and it seemed to work just fine]
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
1/3 cup unflavored vegetable oil
1 tablespoon white or cider vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Make the filling:
Beat together the cream cheese, granulated sugar, and egg until smooth. Stir in the chopped chocolate pieces. Set aside.

Make the cupcakes:
1. Adjust the rack to the center of the oven and preheat to 350°F (175°C). Butter a 12-cup muffin tin, or line the tin with paper muffin cups.

2. In a medium bowl sift together the flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together the water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla.

3. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and stir in the wet ingredients, stirring until just smooth. Stir any longer and you will over mix the batter and end up with less-than-tender cupcakes.

4. Divide the batter among the muffin cups. Spoon a few tablespoons* of the filling into the center of each cupcake, dividing the filling evenly. This will fill the cups almost completely,** which is fine. [Mine cooked over quite a bit but also rose quite a bit, so it ended up being okay. I think it was almost just barely too much for 12 cupcakes though.]

5. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the tops are slightly golden brown.

Two notes by SK:
* If you choose to go mini for these, keep the filling at a tablespoon or less, lest you run out, as, ahem, someone else may have.
** Though I’ve only made this recipe one, and therefore don’t think you should take my input as absolute authority, I’ve got to advise against actually letting these guys fill up. Not an issue if you’re going full-size, but if you go mini, aim for 90 percent full.

apple sauce

I was looking back through our recipes a bit and saw Katie's apple sauce that she made in the fall. Not being from Massachusetts, I have never made, or maybe even eaten, homemade applesauce before. The recipe looked simple, not actively time consuming, and had ingredients that were available to me here. I wanted to bake something today anyway, and so was going to the store, so I decided to add this to my afternoon activities list. When I got to the HIT, I saw a bag of about 10 apples on sale for 2 лева or $1.35 and just couldn't think of a reason not to.

I basically just followed Katie's instructions. I had about 10 apples, so I halved what she said she used for her 25 apples, except I think I accidentally added the same amount of nutmeg, which explains why my applesauce is so spicy. Also, brown sugar is a bit odd here in Bulgaria - you can either get light brown sugar, but it comes in big granules like normal sugar, or you can get very dark brown sugar that is the same texture as brown sugar in the states, but it has a much stronger rum-molasses flavor. So anytime I use brown sugar, I generally just use the dark brown to have the right consistency but the result is a darker mixture and a stronger flavor.

All in all, the recipe was a success and made the kitchen smell wonderful. My roommate was excited about it (but not as excited as she was for the cupcakes I was also baking) and helped me blend them up, and now I have a container of dark, spice-flecked, homemade applesauce in my fridge for breakfast and snacks. Definitely worth the 10 minutes of prep time and hour of back burner time.

Plus it was sunny and nice today, so in addition to having my Vonnegut elective outside in the garden/mini amphitheatre, I walked to the HIT, jamming to my ipod, enjoying the sun.

 I really love the way brown sugar sort of melts and and expands and moves on its own as you pour it out. It is almost liquid, and I find it really beautiful...

Appx. 10 apples
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tbsp nutmeg
water as needed

As per Katie's advice, I left the skins on, which I wanted to do anyway because I am lazy. I diced the apples and tossed them in the pot, dumped the spices on top, mixed it around, and set it on the back burner on low. I let them cook for about an hour, stirring randomly and adding water when it looked like it was thickening up. My roommate mashed them a bit towards the end, but I decided I wanted fairly smooth applesauce, so I got our immersion blender out and quickly buzzed through it. Very tasty!

no school bread

So I have been really MIA for a while. The deal is that things have been busy with Faculty Follies Rehearsals (talent show fundraiser, I'm dancing!), teaching/grading (my classes got 50% on their last test, grrr), and whatever else it is that I do with my time. Last Monday, I "cooked" premade ravioli, warmed up a jar of pasta sauce, and made a salad. It was okay, but I felt pretty lame. I just haven't cooked anything in a while. We didn't have school today because the teachers all proctored the school's entrance exam for 7th graders yesterday, so after I stayed up until 5 am skyping one of my really good friends and watching the DIVA channel, I woke up and decided that I better bake something today. I was planning on something like cookies or cupcakes or muffins, which still tempt me, but then I was revisiting SK after a long hiatus away and decided to try out this bread recipe because it looked simple, not terribly long term, and she claimed it was delicious. Off I went to the kitchen, blasting and dancing to classic hits like Ke$ha, Pink, and whoever sings that g6 song [kids, that is an example of a noun clause, which you clearly still haven't learned in spite of a test and quiz on the material].

2 cups (250 grams or 8 3/4 ounces) all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons (25 grams or 7/8 ounce) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon (5 grams) table salt
1 1/8 teaspoon (1/2 packet or 1/8 ounce) active dry yeast
3/4 cup (177 ml) milk
4 tablespoons (57 grams or 2 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg plus 1 large egg yolk

In a large bowl, mix 3/4 cup flour, sugar, salt and dry yeast by hand or with an electric mixer.

In a saucepan, heat the milk and butter together until the mixture is warm (105 to 110 degrees); don’t worry if this butter isn’t completely melted. Gradually pour the warm ingredients into the dry mixture and mix with an electric mixer for 2 minutes or stir vigorously by hand with a wooden spoon for 3 minutes. Add the egg, yolk and another 1/2 cup flour and beat again for 2 minutes by machine or 3 by hand. Add the last of the flour and beat or stir until smooth. [I found that it didn't really come together using my electric mixer on the last step, so I floured my hands and just dug in until the dough came together.]

Scrape down bowl and cover the top with plastic wrap. Let rise for one hour or until doubled. Meanwhile, butter and flour a 9×5x3-inch loaf pan. Once the dough has doubled, scrape it into the prepared pan. Cover with buttered plastic wrap and let rise for a total of 30 minutes. After 15 minutes, however, remove the plastic and preheat your oven to 375°F.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Heatter says the bread should make a hollow sound if tapped with your fingertips but I haven’t weathered mine enough yet that I didn’t find it unpleasant.

Cool in pan for 5 minutes then turn out to a rack to cool. Eat it warm and with some lightly salted butter. 

strawberries

This isn't a recipe, but they were just too beautiful. The HIT grocery store was selling strawberries for 2 лева or about $1.33, so I just had to buy some. Fresh strawberries as a snack is so delicious, and they were so brilliantly red that I couldn't resist a picture.

couscous salad and greek chicken

When I was in Athens at the end of October, I bought a pack of various spice mixes from a street vendor. I stuck them on my shelf and promptly forgot to ever use them. I've been telling myself to remember to get the few ingredients necessary to put the spice blends into action, and I finally got around to it today. My vegetarian roommate was out, so I looked at the chicken recipe (chicken, lemon juice, spice mix, salt & pepper; cook in oven) and decided to give it a whirl. As a backup supplement, I also wanted to make a couscous salad, in part because of the box of couscous I bought however long ago that is also sitting on my shelf collecting dust. Tonight, in short, was an evening of 'use that stuff that you bought and forgot.' Unlike the packages of butter in my fridge, which I go through frighteningly quickly with baking projects. I digress.

So that chicken recipe isn't so much of a recipe, and I have no idea what spices are in the blend; I do not have that kind of a palate yet. But the couscous salad is a simple recipe that I found with a google search. Both turned out pretty well. I threw some cyrene (like feta) into the couscous salad to make it just that much more yummy.

2 cups cooked whole wheat couscous
1 cup chopped cucumber
1 cup chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1 cup canned garbanzo beans, drained
1/3 cup fresh mint, chopped
Juice of two large lemons
1 tbsp olive oil

Cook the couscous first; this is simple. Check the directions, but I'm pretty sure its equal parts couscous to water, plus a bit of olive oil. I used 2/3 cup couscous. Boil water, add olive oil, mix in couscous with a fork, cover and let sit for 5 minutes, fluff again, and it's ready to go.

Combine couscous, cucumber, tomatoes, onion, garbanzo beans and mint in a large bowl. Whisk together lemon juice and olive oil. Pour over couscous salad and stir well. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours [I only put mine in for about 40 minutes without consequence].