lemon ginger madelines

black and white packaging design here and here
floral packaging parts one
two
some more black and white packaging design from graphic designer, ashley r. tipton
a coffee shop website
one last designer a series of black and white business cards
black and white branding with a pop of color.

lemon ginger madelines
1 1/2 sticks clarified butter
3 lemon ginger teabags
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon brandy
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 3/4 teaspoon fresh lemon peel
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
You will need a madeline pan for this recipe. I prefer not to use the non-stick type, as this is more authentic, but do what you can.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees farenheit. Melt butter in a small saucepan. Once melted, place teabags in butter and steep for 20 minutes and allow butter to cool. Heat eggs and sugar atop a double broiler until lukewarm; stir constantly. Remove from heat and beat until thick but light and creamy. When cool, sift and gradually add the flour, melted butter, brandy, vanilla, lemon peel, then juice.
Grease and flour a madeline pan, bake for about 8-10 minutes. Cool on a rack, shell side up.



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Plum Crumble with Strawberry Ice Cream

School is coming to a close, which means I have tons of work to do. Ah! I have under 3 weeks of school left, but the day after I get out of school I'm leaving to go to the Ashland Shakespeare Festival. It's one of my favorite places and the theater is wonderful. If you've never been, I recommend you go at some time in your life.





Then, just a few days after I get back from that, I'm off to Rhode Island to spend 6 weeks at the Rhode Island School of Design to study graphic design. I've never been more excited about anything in my whole life! I probably won't be baking much during those 6 weeks, so there won't be many/any new recipes. But I will try to update Pâtisserie Natalie with my graphic design work that I do in my classes, and other photography that I do.





I'm working on a baking project that I hope to show everyone at the end of the summer, but for now, enjoy this plum crumble with strawberry ice cream and the beginnings of summer!

For the strawberry ice cream, go to my Neapolitan Ice Cream Cakes.

Plum Crisp

Crumble
200 grams unsalted butter, chilled
200 grams sugar
200 grams flour
100 grams roasted almonds
1 teaspoon salt

In a food processor, combine sugar, flour, and salt. Pulse several times to mix. Add almonds and pulse twice, just to break up the nuts. Add the butter in small cubes and pulse until crumble is sandy with small chunks of butter.

Filling
3 lbs prunes
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 F. Peel prunes, then cut into slices. In a medium bowl, combine sliced prunes, sugar, spices, and lemon juice. Toss until fruit is lightly covered. Let macerate at room temperature for 30 minutes. Pour into a 8" by 8" square glass baking pan.

Pour crumble topping on top and bake for 35 minutes, or until the filling is bubbly and the crumble is golden brown, darker towards the edges of the pan. Remove from oven and let sit at room temperature for at least 1 hour before serving with homemade strawberry ice cream.

Items I used:



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Sorry for the delay

I've missed my blog so much! What with reconnecting with friends after the summer and losing my camera charger, the amount of posts being put up has gone down. I promise to put something up as soon as my new charger arrives in the mail. Until then, I'm sorry and I hope you're enjoying the last few days of nice weather.

EDIT! With the shortage of posts, I decided right now would be an excellent time to put up the new layout I've been developing. It's not so different from the last one, but I wanted to keep the same sort of style, but updating for the fall. Hope you like.
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Earl Grey Honey Madelines

It's hard to believe the summer went by so fast. I still have a couple weeks left until school, but I start soccer next week, and from there, the hours of free time begin to shrink. The summer always goes by in a flash, but it still takes me by surprise. I got to work on this blog a lot, which has been a gift. I'm glad I could continue to develop and understand my interests. I think that's really important. Once you figure out that you love to do something, it will only continue to become more fun, and the product will be better. However, I am still a teenager, and enjoy things like seeing friends and..Getting my license! I've been putting it off for a while. I'm not that into driving, and I could have gotten it a while ago if I'd really cared about it, but I just didn't get around to it. But now I'm seeing the perks of not having to take the bus everywhere. Driving is pretty scary when you think about it. It's a big responsibility to keep yourself and other people safe. But that's part of getting older, as is figuring out who you are and what you like. This year of school is pretty big in terms of really starting to make decisions about the future. This blog has really helped me figure out what I want to do, so thanks to everyone who encouraged me along the way. These madelines weren't really inspired by anything in particular, other than trying to get a recipe right. I've been working on tea-infused madelines and was having some issues with texture, and getting "the lump". I once read on David Lebovitz's blog that true Parisian madelines have a little "hump." I finally got that down, and success after many fails is always nice.



Earl Grey Honey Madelines

5 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons loose Earl Grey tea
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/3 cup +2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

In a small saucepan, melt butter completely. Add tea leafs and cover with tin foil for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl and mix thoroughly.

Using a stand mixer, beat eggs and sugar until thick and slightly lighter in color. Do not over-whip. Add honey and vanilla, and beat for 1 additional minute.

Gently fold the dry ingredients into the mixture.

Strain the butter through a fine sieve to clarify the butter and remove tea leafs. Then fold in the the butter. Drop a teaspoon of the tea leafs that were in the butter into the batter and mix.

Cover the batter with saran wrap and chill in refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

After chilled, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Brush a madeline tin with butter and lightly flour. Drop about 1 tablespoon of the batter into each mold. It will spread in the oven. Bake madelines about 7-9 minutes, depending on your oven. They should be golden brown around the edges and a large lump should form in the middle of the cake.

Remove from tin shortly after they are out of the oven. Cool for at least 1 hour before serving.
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Guest Post for Cakespy!

Hi everyone! After a few days of hiking in storms at Mount Rainier, I'm back with a guest post for cakespy. I've long been a reader of cakespy, so when Jessie asked me to do a post, I can't even describe how excited this made me. I made lemon poundcake cupcakes with raspberry and blackberry buttercream frosting. Go check it out at cakespy.com, here.
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Chocolate Coffee Ice Cream Bars

The Seattle weather is finally back. It's overcast and cold. My favorite. This last Friday was the last day of my 5 week art program. I'm said to say goodbye to some of the amazing people I met, and it was overall a great experience. My class' work will be up at the Seattle Art Museum starting in September or October, so you should take a look. There are some really talented young artists in the class. I will get a more specific date soon. Now that I have more time, I will try and make up for the dwindling number of posts that went up this last month. I figured a good place to start would ice cream sandwiches. I wanted to do something less like a sandwich, so I did a layer of brownie on the bottom, coffee ice cream layered on top of that, and covered in a dark chocolate shell. I've made something similar to this in the past, but I changed one big thing: the coffee flavor. So often in coffee ice cream, I feel like I'm only getting a little taste of coffee, with some cream. I wanted this ice cream to scream, "This is coffee ice cream!". I think I got a nice flavor in the end, and these are a great summer treat. The days are getting colder, so make them while you can.

Brownies

2 sticks unsalted butter
5 1/2 oz unsweetened chocolate; chopped
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup AP flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a square cake pan with walls, flour the sides. Line with parchment, leaving a 2" overhang on the long side of the pan. Grease and flour the parchment. Spray sheet-pan with nonstick spray, line with parchment, spray parchment. Melt butter and chocolate in a double broiler. When melted, set aside and let cool to room temp. Meanwhile, beat the eggs and sugar until mixture is thick and lemon-colored. Next, add the vanilla. Fold the cooled chocolate mixture into the eggs and sugar, mixing thoroughly. Sift flour and fold gently into batter, mixing just till blended. Pour into prepared pan, and bake for about 12 minutes, depending on your oven. Allow brownies to cool in pan for 20 minutes before taking out of pan.


Coffee Ice Cream

1 cup whole milk
6 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tablespoons instant espresso powder
2 teaspoons coffee extract
2 cups heavy cream

In a saucepan over medium heat, warm the milk until steam begins to rise from the surface.

In a heatproof bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and salt until blended. Gradually add 1/2 the hot milk, whisking constantly until fully incorporated. Transfer the mixture back to the saucepan and set over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or spatula, until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon and leaves a clear trail when a finger is drawn through it, do not allow the custard to boil.

Whisk the instant espresso powder into the cream until dissolved. Pour the custard through a fine-mesh sieve set into cream and stir in the vanilla and the coffee extract. Refrigerate until cold [at least 2 hours]

Transfer the custard to an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.



Chocolate Coating
6.5 oz bittersweet chocolate
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Melt chocolate in microwave in 30 second bursts, stirring in between until melted. Stir in vegetable oil thoroughly. Let cool

Assembly

Once the brownies are cool, use a knife to loosen the edges from the pan, and remove from cake pan. Place back inside cake pan. Once ice cream has gone through the ice cream maker, spread evenly on top of brownies in cake pan. Freeze overnight.

When the ice cream has hardened, make the chocolate coating. Take the cake pan out of the freezer and remove brownie/ice cream onto a cutting board. Cut into even squares, then return to freezer for 15 minutes. Prepare a pan lined with parchment and a cooling rack resting on top. Place ice cream bars on the cooling rack and ladle chocolate coating on top of bars. Top with crushed almonds if desired.
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Cupcake Duo

This was definitely one of the more frantic baking orders I've done. It's all thanks to this darn heat. It's not supposed to get this hot here. Several things went wrong, starting with the frosting. Seeing as it rarely goes above 70 degrees here, I didn't plan on any difficulties with making buttercream frosting at 2:00 in the afternoon. Wrong. I made two batches of peach frosting, using my delicious, ripe peaches from Pike Place Market, only to find the butter breaking down. I didn't figure that out until the second batch of frosting. I'd already made the cakes earlier in the day, before it got too hot, but I couldn't make the frosting until late at night when it cooled off. I also needed to make recipe cards, as it was for a little in-office cook off at the University of Washington, for my aunt. It was too hot to do anything (for me, at least), so I slept. Then I realized I hadn't made the recipe cards, and did so frantically. They were all printed and ready to go when I realized I would have to make different frostings because of the heat and my wasted peaches :( . I quickly made new ones, after I had frosted my cupcakes with their final frostings: chocolate peanut butter and lemon (with drops of peach puree on the cake). While the recipe cards ended up being kind of ugly, due to it being 12:30 at night, the cupcakes turned out well, which is what mattered in the end.


Lemon, Peach & Blueberry Cupcakes

Vanilla Blueberry Buttercake

1 stick unsalted butter
1- ¼ + 2 tablespoons cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup whole milk
1 cup fresh blueberries
2 medium peaches

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a muffin tin, or mini muffin tin with paper liners. Sift 1-1/4 cups flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl and whisk thoroughly. In a stand mixer bowl, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well in between. Add the vanilla and beat for 2 minutes. On low speed, add the flour mixture in 3 parts, and the milk in 2 parts, starting and ending with the flour. Beat just intil combined. Toss the blueberries in 2 tablespoons of flour to coat. Add the batter and mix in by hand. Fill each cupcake liner to the top (whether standard or mini sized). Bake standard cupcakes for about 18 minutes and minis for 12 minutes.
In a food processor, puree peaches until liquid consistency. Pour through a sieve to remove chunks. Spoon ½ teaspoon of peach puree on tops of cupcakes.

Lemon Buttercream Frosting

1-1-½ stick unsalted butter
1 cup powdered sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1-1-½ teaspoons lemon oil
Sanding sugar (for sprinkling)

In a stand mixer, beat softened butter and powdered sugar, then salt, and mix thoroughly. Add in lemon oil and mix. Transfer to a piping bag and pipe onto cupcakes. Sprinkle sanding sugar.



Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Chocolate Cake

4.25 oz unsweetened chocolate
1 cup AP flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter; softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder

Preheat oven to 350F.

Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over simmering water. Stir until melted. Remove from water and let cool.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a bowl.

In a large bowl, mix the butter and sugar until smooth and creamy. On low speed, add the melted chocolate until incorporated. On medium speed, add the eggs, one at a time. Add the vanilla and beat until the mixture has changed to a slightly lighter color. Mix in the yogurt until completely blended. Dissolve espresso powder into water and pour into batter. Mix on low speed just until smooth. Line a muffin tin with paper cups and spray the whole pan with vegetable oil [to prevent sticking]. Fill each cup almost to the top. Bake regular sized cupcakes for aprox. 12 minutes, minis for 8 (depending on your oven.)

Peanut Butter Frosting

1 stick unsalted butter; softened
2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1- 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Combine butter and peanut butter until smooth. Add powdered sugar and mix thoroughly.
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Rainier Cherry Tarts

Phew. It is hot here. Being a Seattle "shade plant", I really have no tolerance for heat. But that hasn't stopped me from baking! I may have to take a break this week because I am sweating just typing this post. The inspiration for these tarts came from...no where. They were completely spur of the moment. My parents and their friend went out to dinner, and I decided to make a secret dessert for them when they came back. They had no idea what was coming, although I did have to warn them not to get dessert at the restaurant. I'd been to Pike Place Market earlier in the day to get ingredients for a cupcake order for Monday. But once you get to the market, it's sort of hard to control yourself from buying all the amazing fruits there. We ended up buying 2 lbs of rainier cherries. While some might complain that living in Seattle means too much rain (not me), there are many perks. One of which is that we get the best rainier cherries, not to mention, delicious apples all year long. I can't eat fruit, and we had 2 lbs of cherries in the fridge. They were calling to me! I decided to make a cherry-centered tart. I hope you try this if you can get rainier cherries (or any other type of cherries, really).

Sweet Tart Dough
From Tartine

1 cup+ 2 tablespoons unsalted butter; room temp
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs; room temp
3 1/2 cups AP Flour

Using a stand mixer with paddle attachment, combine the butter, sugar, and salt and mix on medium speed until smooth. Mix in 1 egg. Add the remaining egg and mix until smooth. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add the flour all at once and mix on low speed until incorporates.
On a lightly floured surface, divid the dough into 4 equal balls and shape each ball into a disk 1/2" thick. Wrap well in plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours or overnight.




Cherries

3/4 lb rainier cherries
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Take 1/2 lb cherries and puree in a food processor until smooth. Pour through a sieve into a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil, and continue to boil for 4 minutes (this will make the puree denser).

Combine 1/4 lb cherries, sugar, and cinnamon in a medium bowl and let sit at room temperature for at least 1 hour before serving.

Vanilla Cherry Pastry Cream
Adapted from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook

2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 vanilla bean, split lengthwise, seeds scraped
Pinch of salt
4 large eggs
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

In a saucepan, combine milk, 1/4 cup sugar, vanilla bean seeds, cherry puree, and salt. Cook over medium heat until mixture comes to a simmer. In a medium bowl, whisk together egg yolks, cornstarch, and remaining 1/4 cup sugar. Whisking, slowly pour about 1/2 cup of the hot-milk mixture into the egg-yolk mixture, 1/2 cup at a time, until it has been incorporated. Pour mixture back into saucepan, and cook over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, until it thickens slightly, about 2 minutes.
Add the butter, and beat on medium speed until the butter melts and the mixture cools, about 5 minutes.
Cover with plastic wrap, pressing it directly onto the surface of the pastry cream to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate until chilled, at least 2 hours or up to 2 days. Just before using, beat on low speed until smooth (you can also whisk by hand).


Walnut Crumble

85 grams of unsalted butter; chilled, cubed
85 grams of flour
40 grams of sugar
40 grams brown sugar
135 grams of walnuts

Combine flour and sugar in a food processor. Add butter cubes until cornmeal consistency. Add the almonds and pulse, but don't make it into almond flour, you want the chunks. Spread on a sheet pan and freeze for 20 minutes. Bake in a 425 degrees F oven for 5 minutes. Use tongs to move around the crumble and bake for additional 3-4 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool at least one hour before using.



Assembly

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Roll out the chilled dough to 1/4" thick. Cut a circle with a 2" overhang to fit your tart pan. Gently press into tart pan and remove excess from the top. Chill in freezer for 1 hour. Once chilled, remove from freezer and use a fork to make holes in the bottom of your tart. Blind bake for 9 minutes. Remove pie weights/filling and bake for an additional 6 minutes. Cool on a rack for at least 2 hours.

Just before serving, fill the tart shells with the pastry cream, then the macerated cherries. Top with the walnut crumble.
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Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

When I first started blogging, I didn't realize how much I'd love it. I'm doing an intensive art program right now for 5 weeks, 8 hours a day. Do I have a lot of extra time to bake? No, not really. It's a very hard balance trying to get exercise, enjoy the summer, have fun, stay sharp, and do the things you love. And I really do love baking, food styling, and photography. I've been wanting to make something, anything. I don't have the time or energy to make the things I want to during the week, and I've been enjoying the great outdoors on the weekends. But this weekend I am staying home, and I have an order for cupcakes, so expect a new post Sunday or Monday.

I thought I would throw in a picture I took on the beautiful Olympic Peninsula, in the good ol' Pacific Northwest.



My little cousins are coming to visit soon, and my aunt wanted some cookies to have for them. Oatmeal raisin? NO! Raisins are gross, kids don't like them. :) I went with chocolate chips instead. I've tried at least 6 different variations of recipes to find the perfect oatmeal raisin/chocolate chip/whatever cookie, and this time I found it. Crunchy on the outside, a little soft and chewy with the oatmeal. Mmm...



Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

A teensy bit less than 2 cups AP flour [will replace this with weight in g soon]
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter; softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 cups rolled oats
2 cups dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F. Sift together dry ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Combine butter and sugars in stand mixer until smooth. Beat in eggs one at time, beating well in after each one. Scrape down the paddle attachment and remove bowl from mixer. Hand mix the oats and chocolate chips into the batter [this prevents the oats and chips from getting broken into small pieces]. Line 2 sheetpans with parchment. Using a batter-scoop, scoop even size cookies into the tray, getting about 12 on each sheet with a 1.5" scoop. Bake for about 12 minutes, rotating the pan after 6 minutes. Once golden brown on the tops, remove from oven and let cool.
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Nectarine Cherry Almond Crisp & Maple Butter-Pecan Ice Cream

Hi, from the east coast! I got in yesterday, and I had some free time this morning, so I thought I'd finish up my post. I had recently gotten some nectarines from Whole Foods (yum!) and some Tieton cherries from the farmer's market by my house. I couldn't remember ever trying something that combined those two, and what better way to combine fruits than a crisp? I went with an almond crisp because almonds give great texture, but don't have an overwhelming flavor. The only thing about crisps is that in order to really enjoy it, there must be ice cream along with it. I went with a maple butter-pecan, as it has great subtle flavors, but really lets the fruits from the crisp shine.

Nectarine Cherry Almond Crisp

Almond Crisp

85g flour
85g butter
80g butter
110g whole almonds

Combine ingredients in a food processor until a coarse meal.

Filling

4 medium nectarines
3/4 lb cherries
1/4 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350F. Cut nectarines into small pieces and pit cherries. Toss in a bowl with sugar and let macerate for 30 minutes. Pour into a 9"x9" glass/ceramic pan. Sprinkle crisp over fruit and bake for 25-30 minutes, depending on your oven.



This was the first time I felt a made a successful ice cream. The other times I'd made ice cream the custard either got over cooked or undercooked, and this time it was just right. Everyone who tried it thought it was rather addicting, so I guess they thought it was a success, too.

Maple Butter-Pecan Ice Cream

3/4 cup whole pecans
2 tablespoons butter; unsalted
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup maple syrup
6 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups heavy cream

For the buttered pecans, chopped the pecans into small pieces. In a small frying pan, melt two tablespoons of butter. Once melted, add chopped pecans and mix, to coat the pecans. Stir frequently so the pecans don't burn. Once you smell the slightly toasted nuts and they have browned a little, immediately remove from pan and put into a bowl to cool.

IN A SAUCEPAN OVER MEDIUM HEAT, WARM THE MILK UNTIL STEAM BEGINS TO RISE FROM THE SURFACE.

IN A HEATPROOF BOWL, WHISK TOGETHER THE EGG YOLKS, maple syrup AND SALT UNTIL BLENDED. GRADUALLY ADD 1/2 THE HOT MILK, WHISKING CONSTANTLY UNTIL FULLY INCORPORATED. TRANSFER THE MIXTURE BACK TO THE SAUCEPAN AND SET OVER MEDIUM-LOW HEAT. COOK, STIRRING CONSTANTLY WITH A WOODEN SPOON OR SPATULA, UNTIL THE CUSTARD IS THICK ENOUGH TO COAT THE BACK OF THE SPOON AND LEAVES A CLEAR TRAIL WHEN A FINGER IS DRAWN THROUGH IT, 8 TO 10 MINUTES; DO NOT ALLOW THE CUSTARD TO BOIL.

POUR THE CUSTARD THROUGH A FINE-MESH SIEVE SET OVER A CLEAN BOWL AND STIR IN VANILLA. NESTLE THE BOWL IN A LARGER ONE FILLED HALFWAY WITH ICE AND WATER AND COOL THE CUSTARD TO ROOM TEMPERATURE, STIRRING OCCASIONALLY. REFRIGERATE UNTIL COLD [AT LEAST 2 HOURS]

TRANSFER THE CUSTARD TO AN ICE CREAM MAKER AND FREEZE ACCORDING TO THE MANUFACTURER'S INSTRUCTIONS. Add the buttered pecans by hand, mixing thoroughly. TRANSFER THE ICE CREAM TO AN AIRTIGHT CONTAINER. CHILL AT LEAST 3 HOURS BEFORE SERVING. MAKES ABOUT 1 QUART.
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Salted Caramel Chocolate Cupcakes

It just hit me today that I only have 1 more day of school left until summer. This school year seemed to go by so quickly; I can't even believe it. It will be nice to have lots of time to bake delicious summery treats. I leave on Sunday for some East-Coast college touring, so no baking next week, but after that, I'm around for a while, so there will most likely be a lot of desserts. I bought some really fragrant nectarines today, and I'm dying to make something with them.

I decided on these salted caramel chocolate cupcakes because I find that combination really irresistible. However, I've never had a cupcake that was those flavors, and I wanted to try it. Caramel is one of my favorite candy/dessert flavors, but I didn't want to make caramel cake. I wasn't sure how the buttercream would hold up, with the caramel mixed directly into it, but it worked just fine.



Chocolate Cupcakes

4.25 oz unsweetened chocolate
1 cup AP flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter; softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder

Preheat oven to 350F.

Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over simmering water. Stir until melted. Remove from water and let cool.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a bowl.

In a large bowl, mix the butter and sugar until smooth and creamy. On low speed, add the melted chocolate until incorporated. On medium speed, add the eggs, one at a time. Add the vanilla and beat until the mixture has changed to a slightly lighter color. Mix in the yogurt until completely blended. Dissolve espresso powder into water. Add flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with the water, in 2 parts. Mix on low speed just until smooth. Line a muffin tin with paper cups and spray the whole pan with vegetable oil [to prevent sticking]. Fill each cup almost to the top. Bake regular sized cupcakes for aprox. 12 minutes, minis for 8 (depending on your oven.)

Caramel Buttercream

1/4 cup water
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter; softened
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Fleur de Sel

In a heavy saucepan, combine sugar and water over medium heat until dissolved. Once dissolved, let boil without stirring, only swirling the pan to mix. Add salt. Once amber colored, remove from heat.

In a mixer bowl, beat softened butter just to break down. Add powdered sugar slowly. Pour in caramel until thoroughly mixed. Add more powdered sugar if the consistency is too thin. Transfer to a piping bag and evenly pipe onto cupcakes. Sprinkle with fleur de sel, should you like.


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Neapolitan Cakes

Phew! It is getting hot here. Hot for me anyways. Being a native Seattle-ite, I despise weather over 65 degrees and overcast is always a plus. But hot weather does create some good inspiration for ice cream treats. When I was really little, I would go to this outdoor pool with friends and I always wanted a neapolitan ice cream sandwich. Such a good combination: the chocolate cake/cookie(?) and the chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry ice creams. I wanted to make this a little differently, as I now despise the milky chocolate ice cream. I also wanted to make a thin flourless chocolate cake. Since the chocolate cake was so chocolatey, I decide to forgo the dark chocolate ice cream, as it seemed like overkill. These started out as cakes, but since their size seemed a little scary on their own, I made some half sized ones as well.

The chocolate cake recipe is from a past daring bakers challenge that I didn't participate in, but the recipe looked so good, I had to try it.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.

While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your sheetpan and line with parchment, then butter the parchment.

Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.
Whip the egg whites in a grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed, making sure not to overwhip, as this dries out the cake.
Beat the egg yolks together. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.

Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration}

Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan's bottom, and bake at 375F/190C for 8 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes on a rack. Once cool, remove the cake from the pan onto a clean work surface. Let cool for at least 1 hour. After an hour, use a circular cutter and cut as many shapes as possible from your sheet.



Strawberry Ice Cream

1 cup whole milk
6 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
2 cups hulled strawberries
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups heavy cream

Wash and hull 2 cups of strawberries. Place in a food processor until you get a smooth puree.

In a saucepan over medium heat, warm the milk until steam begins to rise from the surface.

In a heatproof bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and salt until blended. Gradually add 1/2 the hot milk, whisking constantly until fully incorporated. Transfer the mixture back to the saucepan and set over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or spatula, until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon and leaves a clear trail when a finger is drawn through it, 8 to 10 minutes; do not allow the custard to boil.

Pour the custard through a fine-mesh sieve set over a clean bowl and stir in the strawberry puree and vanilla. Nestle the bowl in a larger one filled halfway with ice and water and cool the custard to room temperature, stirring occasionally. Refrigerate until cold [at least 2 hours]

Transfer the custard to an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. Transfer the ice cream to a sheetpan lined with parchment and spread in an even, thin layer. Freeze until firm, at least 3 hours or up to 3 days, before serving. Makes about 1 quart.



Vanilla Ice Cream

Use the same instructions and ingredients above, but omit the strawberry puree. Split and scrape one vanilla bean. Put the seeds and pod into the milk when first heating. Make sure to remove the vanilla bean just before pouring into the ice cream machine. Use 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.

Assembly

Using the same cutter as you did for the cake, cut circles from the sheets of ice cream. Place on top of each other in alternating order.
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Bake Sale

I'm sorry! I baked 6 kinds of cookies for a bake sale I held on Wednesday for the Susan G. Komen breast cancer foundation, but it was too dark to photograph. I just didn't have time to do it in the morning, so instead, I post a photo-less entry. Makes me so sad. I made chocolate sandwich cookies, vanilla-lemon sandwich cookies, chocolate caramel shortbread, chocolate chip cookies (got help with these as I was about to fall asleep and cry from exhaustion at 10:00 pm), lemon bars, & vanilla raspberry sandwich cookies. I made some money for the foundation, which was great, but I still wish I'd been able to show how nice they looked all together. I hope I can make something soon, but these next couple weeks are my finals, so I'll be going crazy as is. Hope you're enjoying summer so far.
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Lemon Sandwich Cookies

Well, I'm back from my camping trip with my class. It was pouring rain the first night, and my tent was on the small side, but by the end it was sunny and warm. I had a good time, regardless of the little things that were unpleasant. Lemon seems like one of those spring+summer flavors. I don't really know why, since they're available all year long, but eating lemon desserts in December seems a little funny to me (although, you'd be hard pressed to find someone to turn down a dessert simply because it was lemon). It's been really warm these past couple days, so I decided to start using a bag of lemons I had in the fridge. I made some lemon pound cakes, but I haven't had the light to photograph them yet, so they're coming soon.
I'm having a bake sale at my school next week for the Susan G. Komen breast cancer foundation, so I've been testing out a lot of cookies. These were ones that I've been wanting to try for a while, with the interesting method of piping the dough. Apparently they were very tasty, so they might be in the running for the bake sale.



Cookie Dough
Adapted from Modern Classics 2 by Donna Hay

6 oz butter; softened
1/4 confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon lemon oil
1 cup AP flour
1/4 cup cornstarch

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place the butter, confectioner's sugar, and lemon oil in the bowl of a mixer and beat until light and fluffy. Sift the flour and cornstrach into the bowl and mix until combined. Place the mixture in a piping bag with a fluted nozzle. Pipe 1" rounds onto a baking tray lined with parchment. Cook for 12 minutes (depending on your oven), or until golden.

Lemon Buttercream

2 sticks unsalted butter; softened
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon lemon oil
1/2 teaspoon orange oil

Combine the ingredients in your mixer until smooth and creamy. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a 1/4 plain tip. Pipe onto smooth side of cookie and sandwich together. Tada!
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S'mores Cookies

I've been trying to make these for a long time. For some reason, I just could not get the marshmallows to work. I realized it was that I couldn't get the temperature of the sugar/water/corn syrup to the soft-ball stage. I was using this small thermometer that involved holding it over the burner for long periods of time. I'd end up burned and frustrated. It hurt so badly, I'd just call it done. But this is a very important step, so buy yourself a good candy thermometer if you ever want to make marshmallows. As summer starts to make its appearance in Seattle, I start thinking about camping and being outdoors. I'm leaving for a school trip involving camping next week, which also inspired me to make these. While best served warm, these s'mores are a good cookie interpretation. Next time, I would make the marshmallow much thinner. These were sort of unmanageably large. But they worked, so I thought I'd post them.



Marshmallows
From Martha Stewart

2 envelopes (each 1 scant tablespoon) unflavored gelatin
1 1/2 cups sugar
2/3 cup light corn syrup
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Vegetable-oil cooking spray

Coat a 12-by-17-inch rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray; line with parchment paper. Spray parchment; set aside. Pour 1/3 cup cold water into the bowl of an electric mixer. Sprinkle with gelatin; let mixture soften, about 5 minutes.
Place sugar, corn syrup, salt, and 1/3 cup water in a medium saucepan. Cover; bring to a boil. Remove lid; cook, swirling pan occasionally, until syrup reaches 238 degrees (soft-ball stage) on a candy thermometer, about 5 minutes.
With mixer on low speed, whisk gelatin mixture, and slowly pour the syrup in a steady stream down the side of the bowl (to avoid splattering). Gradually raise speed to high; beat until mixture is thick, white, and has almost tripled in volume, about 12 minutes. Add vanilla, and beat 30 seconds to combine.
Pour mixture onto prepared baking sheet; smooth with an offset spatula. Let stand at room temperature, uncovered, until firm, at least 3 hours or overnight.
Coat cookie cutter with cooking spray to prevent it from sticking. Cut out as many individual marshmallows as possible; coat cutter with more spray as needed. Use marshmallows immediately or store in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.



Graham Crackers
2 1/2 cups AP flour
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup honey
5 tablespoons whole milk
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Combine ingredients in food processor in order of the ingredients listed above. Once combined, remove dough from food processor and shape into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 4 hours. Once chilled, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Roll out to 1/4" thickness on a floured surface. Using same cutters used for marshmallows, cut out the dough and place on a sheet pan lined with parchment. Bake for 12 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for at least 1 hour.

Chocolate Glaze:
8 oz dark chocolate
4 teaspoons vegetable oil

Melt chocolate over a double broiler. Once melted, add vegetable oil until combined completely.



Assembly:

Dab a little chocolate on the inside of 2 graham crackers. Stick one cut-out marshmallow in between and place on sheet pan. Do this for all your graham crackers/marshmallows. Place in the refrigerator for 20 minutes, so the chocolate can stiffen a little. After 20 minutes, take out your sheet pans, and dip the graham crackers/marshmallows into the chocolate glaze (dip however much of the cookie into the chocolate as you like, I did about half the cookie). Make sure your sheet pans have parchment or wax paper on them, and place the dipped cookies on the sheet pan. Place bake into refrigerator until glaze has hardened.

I didn't try heating them back up to serve, but I got that suggestion from a couple people, and thought that was a great idea.
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