Pies For Easter

Pies have become my current baking craze. Since most of my pie dough recipes make two shells, I like to embrace the opportunity to make two different pies. 

On the left is a pecan pie and on the right is a custard pie. What kind of Easter goodies did you have this year?

LA's Best Macarons According To EaterLA

EaterLA posted a list of the "Best Macarons in Los Angeles". Since I can only vouch for a few of them, it looks like I have some macarons to try in the near future!

Easter Treats!

I hope everyone had a good weekend! MH and I had a great time celebrating the Easter holiday with family and friends and had fun making treats to share...

Lemon Green Beans

 Rainbow Jello

 Italian Herb Boules

 Citrus Salad with Mint

 Brussel Sprouts with Bacon

To no surprise, the rainbow jello was the biggest hit. It took forever to make though so I don't think we will be making it again anytime soon. Each layer has to be made and set individually and we found that all shortcuts end in disaster. 

A New Take On Cupcakes

I typically prefer sweet over savory, so I'm not sure what to think about this one...

In spirit of the Super Bowl this weekend, Coccadotts Cake Shop invented chicken wing cupcakes! A cornbread cupcake with bleau cheese frosting and a chicken wing on top.

What will you be eating this Superbowl Sunday?

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday with family and friends!

This year MH was inspired to make a vegetable side dish for our holiday meals and he decided to make ratatouille. However, since traditional ratatouille is a stew served out of a giant bowl, he opted to make ratatouille a la Pixar's Ratatouille movie because the end result is much more aesthetically pleasing.

Ratatouille

It turned out to be a really tasty dish. We just wish it didn't take so long prepare, assemble, and bake!

Since I love baking for the holidays, I made a lattice top apple pie for our Christmas Eve family dinner, our traditional cinnamon rolls for breakfast Christmas day, and a banana creme pie for our Christmas day family dinner.

Apple Pie

I didn't bother snapping a picture of the cinnamon rolls or the banana cream pie since the cinnamon rolls look the same as the ones I made last year and the top of the banana cream pie was just a fluffy layer of whipped cream. I'm afraid you'll just have to take my word on it that they turned out well and were delish!

Salted Butter Caramels Fail

Caramels are one of my favorite candies and after making a salted butter caramel buttercream to go with a chocolate cake for Thanksgiving, I figured I would give making them a try. I followed the recipe as best as I could, and everything seemed to be going well until I tried to cut them into squares. The mixture hardened into a much harder candy than I had hoped and were more like a sucker/lollipop. Since they still tasted good, MH didn't want to trash them and now we have a giant caramel lollipop on our kitchen counter. Fail.

Making Mochi

I'm a big fan of mochi, so when I found out you can easily make it at home without having to use a rice pounding mallet and execute a carefully choreographed traditional dance routine, I figured it was worth a try.

Using mochiko, glutinous rice flour, eliminates the need to complete the labor-intensive rice pounding process, and you basically combine all of the ingredients together in a bowl, pour the mixture into a greased pan, bake, cool, cut, and voila!

I couldn't find potato starch at the store, so MH and I rolled our cut mochi in a rice flour and powdered sugar mixture. Our mochi absorbed the coating after a few hours and got a little gooey, but I'm not sure if it was because of the lack of potato starch or the humidity. Nevertheless, they turned out pretty well and the next time I make them I think I'm going to try to make a few different flavors.

Here is the recipe courtesy of AllRecipes.Com:

Ingredients

- 1 pound mochiko

- 2 1/2 cups white sugar

- 1 teaspoon baking powder

- 2 cups water

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- 1 (14 oz) can coconut milk

- 1/4 teaspoon red food color (optional)

- 1 1/2 cups potato starch

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 inch pan. Whisk together the rice, flour, sugar, and baking powder; set aside

2. In a medium bowl, mix together the water, vanilla, coconut milk and red food coloring. Blend in the rice flour mixture. Pour into the prepared pan.

3. Cover the pan with foil and bake for 1 hour. Allow to cool completely.

4. Turn the pan of mochi out onto a clean surface that has been dusted with potato starch. Cut into bit size pieces using a plastic knife. The mochi does not stick as much to plastic knives.

Financial Crisis For The Future of Ice Cream

I can't say I am surprised by Dippin' Dots recent Chapter 11 Bankruptcy filing (WSJ article). Dippin' Dots prices itself alongside premium ice creams brands and clearly does not have the consumer base to support its business. However, my heart goes out to them and I wish they could pull out of their financial funk because I am one of their adoring fans! There is a Dippin' Dots store in Rancho Cucamunga that I like to visit any time MH and I are heading up or coming down the 15 and my road trips just won't be the same without it.

Scoops of Summer

Since we had some leftover buttermilk from making fried chicken I found a recipe for Strawberry Buttermilk Ice on epicurious and decided to give it a go. The recipe is pretty easy and is a refreshing summer treat. Since it is an "ice" the end result is similar to a sorbet and from the reading the other reviews it sounds like you can use this recipe with a variety of fruits.

Ingredients:

-2 12-ounce baskets of strawberries, hulled and halved

- 1/2 cup of sugar

- 1 cup of low-fat buttermilk

Directions:

Puree the strawberries and sugar in a processor. Add the buttermilk and process until smooth. Pour into a 8x8x2 inch glass dish and place in the freezer. Freeze the mixture until firm, about 3 hours.

Transfer the mixture to the processor and process until smooth. Spoon mixture into a plastic container, cover tightly, and freeze until firm, about 3 hours.

Here is the link for the original recipe: Strawberry Buttermilk Ice

Mmmmmm Donuts!

If you are ever in Glendora, or would like to make a slight detour on your way to Las Vegas like we did, you can stop at Donut Man and pick up one of these delightful fresh strawberry donuts!

It is the child of a fresh strawberry pie and a donut, the donut is split and filled with a generous portion of glazed strawberries. Boy oh boy is it good. Donut Man also offers a variety of other donuts as well. MH picked up a tiger tail (a donut twisted with chocolate) that he enjoyed and depending on the time of year, fresh peach donuts are available too.

Three Layers Of Happiness

If you are a fan of King's Hawaiian Rolls, give King's Hawaiian Restaurant and Bakery a try: 2088 West Sepulveda Boulevard, Torrance, CA 90505 - Phone: 310-530-0050.

MH and I most often go for breakfast since we particularly enjoy their King's Hawaiian French Toast, french toast made with their special homemade batter and King's Hawaiian bread, and their King's Burrito, a blend of scrambled eggs, fried rice, Portuguese sausage and cheddar cheese in a flour tortilla.

I am also a huge fan of their desserts! My favorite is their Paradise cake, a three layer (guava, passion fruit, and lime) chiffon cake with whipped cream filling and a three fruit nectar glaze on top.

Paradise Cake

Their other desserts/baked goods are great too. We've previously picked up other cakes from their bakery for family events/birthdays, and picked up an assortment of pastries for brunches. I recently tried their Paradise cheesecake, a three layer(guava, passion fruit, and lime) cheesecake with a graham cracker crust and whipped cream, and would gladly eat another slice! If you are ever in Torrance, you should stop in and try it for yourself.

Scoops Westside

A few years ago, MH and I discovered Scoops through Yelp and it quickly became my favorite ice cream shop in Los Angeles. Scoops isn't your standard ice cream shop, they do not carry vanilla, strawberry, or even chocolate. Every time you visit the shop you are bound to find new flavors that you've probably never had before e.g. chocolate lemon, espresso peanut butter, & cappuccino hazelnut. Some flavors are better than others, but I have always found a flavor (or two) that I liked.

My only complaint about Scoops is that it isn't particularly close to our house. Located by Los Angeles Community College at 712 N Heliotrope Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90029, going to Scoops isn't always a convenient trip. However, thanks to food blogger turned franchisee/entrepreneur Mattatouille aka Matthew Kang, my only Scoops complaint has been resolved. Scoops Westside is located at 3400 Overland Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90034 and is open for business!

Scoops Westside Store Front

Only two months into business, the store is still growing into it's space. There are minimal decorations inside and out, however don't let that deter you. The ice cream is still great and although prices are a notch higher than the original, I thought of it as a premium for it's convenience.

Ice Cream Case

I had the pandan coconut and pina colada while MH had the black sesame banana and all were delish! You can follow Scoops Westside on twitter to read about their current flavors and treats. If you have the chance to try it, please let me know what you think.

Adventures in Yountville

For the past few years, MH and I have taken a mini-winter vacation to Vegas just before Christmas. However, with MH already working in SF, we decided to change our mini-winter vacation to SF this year.

Luckily, whenever we are in bay area, we get to visit with TOBE (The Official Baker Extraordinaire) and she never lets us or our tummies down. She took us on an adventure to Yountville for a delightful trip to Bouchon bakery and a scrumptious dinner at Ad Hoc.

Bouchon Bakery

Here are some of the yummy treats you can find at the bakery. Unfortunately, since we were flying back, we were unable to bring home as many treats as I would have liked. Good thing there is always next time.

Bouchon Macaron Assortment

Bouchon Nutter Butter and Gingerbread Cookies

Bouchon Holiday Shortbread Cookies & Red Velvet Cupcake Snowmen

Dinner at Ad Hoc was quite the treat. We started with a TFL garden broccolini bruschetta, followed by snake river farm's beef tri-tip, dungeness crab cakes, pata cabra, and then finished with pecan bars. All I can say is YUM! If you ever have the chance to go to Ad Hoc, I would definitely recommend it. Ad Hoc changes their menu daily, so you won't know what you're really going to get until they post the menu the day of, but don't worry, I'm pretty sure you won't be disappointed.

Mac Attack

A couple weekends ago, MH and I met with K&J for dinner and learned about Milk Shop's macaron ice cream sandwiches. I don't know about you, but I think ice cream is wonderful by its self and when you sandwich it between two macarons, it is a match made in heaven!

I'm not sure if you can get them at all of the Umami Burger locations, but we went to the one in Santa Monica to give them a try.

Milk Shop's Salty Caramel & Grasshopper Sandwiches @ Umami Burger

MH and I both thought that the grasshopper sandwich was better than the salty caramel, not saying the salty caramel sandwich was bad by any means. Nothing just seems to comes close to Bi-Rite Creamery's awesome salty caramel ice cream in my opinion.

Last night, we went to the Milk Ice Cream Parlor and tried the rocky road sandwich.

Rocky Road Sandwich @ Milk Ice Cream Parlor

The rocky road sandwich was also very delicious but I think the grasshopper sandwich is my favorite of the three.

Frozen Treats On A Stick

Now that the summer heat is finally here, MH and I made ice pops! MH's parents surprised me with a variety of ice pop molds and this nifty ice pop book for my birthday, so we flipped through the book and picked the strawberries & cream recipe for our first ice pop attempt.

Ice Pop Molds

The recipe is very simple: (1) Puree 2 1/2 cups of strawberries with 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of lemon juice. (2) Fill the ice pop molds by first pouring 1 tablespoon of plain whole milk yogurt into the molds and then 2 tablespoons of the strawberry puree, alternating between the yogurt and puree until the molds are full (leaving approximately 1/2 at the top for the ice pops to expand). (3) Swirl the mixture with a small knife to combine the layers. (4) Freeze the ice pops. (5) Serve and eat!

Popsicle Assembly

The book says the ice pops need to freeze for 4 hours to 3 days before serving and they aren't kidding. We tried eating them after 4 hours and although the ice pops felt like they were frozen, they wouldn't come out of their molds. However, after 24 hours, the ice pops were set and popped out of the molds easily.

Strawberries & Cream Ice Pops

If you don't have ice pop molds, you can make ice pops using cupcake trays, ice cube trays, or dixie cups, with sticks.

Stay cool and have a great summer (what is last of it at least)!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Ever since I had peanut butter chocolate cake at MH's cousin's wedding I couldn't stop thinking about it! Then, RAK told me about these awesome treats she had and I couldn't help myself. I had to make them to fulfill my peanut butter desires.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Whipped Cream

I changed the recipe by using box mix (sorry!) for the chocolate cake and made whipped cream instead of butter frosting.

Inside View

Unfortunately, MH was underwhelmed by them but I thought they were great. In retrospect, I should have anticipated MH's lackluster response since I was much more excited about the previous peanut butter chocolate cake than he was but oh well.

I would definitely make this again. However, a couple other peanut butter recipes have caught my eye so I might have to try those first. What do you think? (a) Peanut butter pudding, (b) peanut butter pie, (c) peanut butter cake with chocolate frosting, or (d) peanut butter cake filled with jelly.

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

A few weeks ago the Nana Queen's Pudding & Wings truck was parked across the street from my office and I have had banana pudding on the brain ever since.

Bakerella has a great post with instructions how to make it yourself.

Homemade Banana Pudding

The store was out of regular Nilla Wafers so MH bought Mini Nilla Wafers instead. Aren't they the cutest?!? You can't really see the pudding in the picture, but I promise it is down there beneath the stack of bananas and Mini Nilla Wafers. Yum!

I ♥ Macarons

I've jumped on the macaron band wagon and have become an adoring fan. I guess late is better than never. According to wikipedia.org, "Larousse Gastronomique cites the macaron as being created in 791 in a convent near Cormery. Some have traced its French debut back to the arrival of Catherine de' Medici's Italian pastry chefs whom she brought with her in 1533 upon marrying Henry II. In the 1830s macarons were served two-by-two with the addition of jams, liqueurs, and spices."

Last Christmas, my brother gave me I ♥ Macarons, by Hisako Ogita, and it launched my adoration for macarons. There are a variety of websites that have great macaron recipes, instructions, and images, but this book puts all of the basics in one place for you. The book introduces macarons at a beginner level and explains the baking process step-by-step. It also has helpful suggestions for various flavor combinations, gift wrapping, presentation, and left over egg yolk recipes.

A critical step in baking macarons is making the perfect batter. The goal is to make a batter that has a "magma-like" consistency, being careful not to over mix it. I'm not quite sure what magma looks like and haven't quite refined my eye for "magma-like" consistency, but this batter seemed to work well enough.

Chocolate Macaron Batter

I did some additional online macaron research, and discovered there are many ways you can skin a cat. Each baker has their own special trick to achieve consistent macaron success. Some used aged egg whites, rap the pans, dry the macaron batter, bake with double trays, baking with the oven propped open, etc. I think you just have to find what works best for you and your oven.

Drying My Macarons

My oven tends to run a little hot, so I choose to dry the macaron batter, bake them double trayed, and rotate them halfway through their baking time. I have found that my macaron results vary based on the consistency of my batter. A thicker batter tends to yield a better shape and macaron texture. While a thinner batter tends to yield flatter and less chewy macarons.

Chocolate Macarons with Dark Chocolate Mousse

The great thing about macarons is that in any case, perfectly shaped and baked or not, they are still delicious! I truly do ♥ Macarons.

Coolhaus!

This week Coolhaus partnered with the USA network to promote it's Emmy campaign. Coolhaus gave out free ice cream sandwiches and MH and I caught up with the truck this evening at Beverly & Fairfax to get our sweet treats. MH got a chocolate chip cookie mint chip ice cream sandwich and I got a snickerdoodle cookie cinnamon ice cream sandwich.

Coolhaus Ice Cream Sandwiches

The ice cream was better than the cookies (in both cases), but they were great ice cream sandwiches nonetheless. Coolhaas is better than Diddie Reese. Then again, you can buy 3 Diddie Reese ice cream sandwiches for the price of 1 Coolhaas ice cream sandwich. You can pick which one you would rather have.

Lollipop, Lollipop, Oh What A Lollipop!

After trying Just a Bite Cake Pops, I was inspired to make my own. Bakerella has a great posting on how to make red velvet cake balls, so you can put them on a stick and voila, cake pops!

Red Velvet Cake Pops

I am not convinced that they are better then a regular slice of cake, but they are novel and a fun twist to something traditional. Give them a try if you are looking for something a little different to bring/share at your next event.