#28: Churritos!

my friends and i planned for a taco party today and this morning i spontaneously decided that i wanted to make some churros. i tried a food network recipe in the magazine about a year ago - but did not have much luck with it. the churros were more like old fashioned doughnuts thick and doughy - not crispy and light. i browsed around allrecipes.com and found a highly rated recipe. i read through the reviews and decided to modify the recipe a bit based on people's feedback. the recipe itself is quite easy, but you have to be good at multi-tasking. after making the dough (sugar, water, salt, oil, and flour), i put the dough into a piping bag with a wide flower tip. i heated up the pan of oil and then started piping the dough into the hot oil. after waiting for the churros to turn golden brown, i set them on a paper towel and then later coated with cinnamon sugar mixture by shaking them in a paper lunch bag. i'm calling them churritos because they were much smaller than the average churro (or at least the ones i've had from disneyland or costco). i made mine about 4 inches long.

overall i thought this recipe was great. you just have to be prepared to work quickly. i doubled the recipe because the reviews said one recipe would only be enough for 2-3 people. 1 recipe probably makes 20 churros...so if that's only enough for 2-3 people, they must be eating quite a few. however, the deep fried goodness is so delicious, that it might actually be believable. great recipe, and i have officially bookmarked it for future use!

oh, and for your viewing pleasure, here is a peek at our taco party spread (including korean bbq tacos, carne asada tacos, ground turkey tacos, homemade guac, mexican rice, dulce de leche cookies, and all the fixings!) thanks k.lu for hosting us!

#27: Lemon Curd on Cupcakes

i was asked to make some cupcakes for a brunch last weekend so i flipped through my Martha Stewart cupcake book to see what caught my eye. Lemon always seems like a good choice, especially in the spring (even though supposedly they are a winter fruit - seems counter-intuitive, i know), and it's always nice to use some of the lemons from the tree in the backyard. I chose a lemon curd cupcake recipe. I made the lemon curd the night before to chill over night. Lemon curd seems intimidating to make, but it was actually pretty easy and turned out well. The next morning I made the cupcakes; they were more dense than your typical cupcake. I think this was due to adding cream cheese into the cupcake batter (which I have never done before). I topped the cupcakes with powdered sugar and then piped the lemon curd on top. The cupcake resembles an egg (with yolk and white), which seemed kind of fitting for a brunch. However, the decadent and rich cupcake was definitely a dessert.

#26: Croquemb-what?

I met up with a couple of my girlfriends, C.Lee and K.Wong, for a baking day. After brainstorming potential recipes, we decided to try out the Martha Stewart Croquembouche. I've seen croquembouches in pictures and on television - but i've never attempted one myself. If you've never seen one before, click on the link - it's basically a giant Christmas tree tower of cream puffs. We started off making the caramel cream (to be filled inside the puffs). After one failed attempt, the second time we managed to get a tasty caramel mixture. We then made the puffs and piped them onto a parchment-lined pan and popped them in the oven. After waiting 25 minutes, there was no "puff" to the puffs. We figured that maybe they would puff up after we filled with the cream. We took some whipping cream and whipped it until stiff peaks formed. We then took the caramel cream from earlier and folded it into the whipped cream. Unfortunately, the mixture kind of fell apart and became liquidy - not quite fluffy. After experimenting and trying to make the cream more stiff, we decided to try filling the puffs. This picture was the result. The puffs did not puff up enough so it was very difficult to fill. We even started making cream puff sandwiches (like oreos!). Needless to say, we didn't manage to assemble our tree. This recipe was quite hard, even though it felt like we followed the recipe.

Although the cream puffs didn't really work out, the puff and the cream both tasted good. If you ever try out this recipe, and it doesn't turn out...try freezing them...that's what we did!

#25: It Don't Matter if You're (Black & White)

i decided to make some black & white cupcakes in celebration of my manager's upcoming wedding. i've been wanting to make b&w cupcakes for awhile now (since being reminded of the creamy delectable treat from sprinkles). i figured this would be the right occasion to try it out. i photocopied some cupcake recipes from a Magnolia Bakery cookbook I borrowed from a colleague awhile back. i've tried the vanilla cupcake recipe from the book before, and i was quite pleased, so i decided to try out the chocolate cupcake recipe. i also used the vanilla buttercream frosting recipe from the same cookbook...amazingly delicious! to decorate the cupcake i melted some semi-sweet chocolate chips and scooped it into a home-made parchment paper cornet. i played around with a few designs, and decided on this one.

i overcooked the cupcake slightly because i neglected to reduce the time due to the smaller cupcake size. (these were mini cupcakes). the frosting definitely compensated for the dryness of the cake, so together, it was perfect.

#24: Daan Tat (Egg Tart)

it's been awhile since my last post, so i figured i better come up with something to make ASAP. i'm not sure how i came up with egg tart...but i researched some recipes and chose one from allrecipes.com. since i didn't have the traditional egg tart foil cups, i used a mini muffin tin. i started with the crust first. i used the 1 cup measuring cup to cut circles of dough to put in the muffin tin. after all the cups were filled, i made the custard - very easy - and then popped the tarts in the oven. luckily i read some of the comments to the recipe because i found out that the baking instructions on the recipe were no good. the recipe said to bake at 450 for 20 minutes (too hot for too long). instead, i baked the tarts at 425 for 10 minutes, then 295 for 7 minutes. a couple of the tarts browned a little too much, but the rest turned out golden brown.

i'm glad i decided to make mini tarts. they are nice and bite size, perfect to pop in your mouth.

#23: When given lemons, make...Lemon Cupcakes!

i was feeling inspired to bake some cupcakes before heading to a brunch to meet up with some college friends. this ambition actually caused me to be late to my brunch...but at least i had some yummy cupcakes in hand. these are lemon cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting. I used fresh lemons from the lemon tree in my backyard. the first batch of frosting was actually a swiss meringue strawberry frosting that went incredibly wrong (too chunky). i was pretty embarrassed of the frosting so i made another batch of vanilla buttercream (an easy, and reliable recipe to execute).

i tried out the kitchen aid mixer for the first time which was a lot of fun. also, i had better luck with the silicon cupcake molds after using some non-stick baking spray. i have been trying to push myself to try new frosting recipes - but i seem to always mess them up and waste a lot of butter/sugar. next time i'll need to pay closer attention to the recipes. at least i can always count on buttercream frosting...easy to make...and tasty to eat.

#22: Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day is a great holiday excuse to bake! I looked for inspiration from my Martha Stewart cupcake book, and then blended a few recipes together to come up with these Valentine's Day cupcakes. Vanilla cupcake (Magnolia bakery recipe), with strawberry frosting (adaptation from Ms. Stewart), and a truffle brownie on top (from my own personal collection of recipes). I used frozen strawberries - pureed, and added to a buttercream frosting. The consistency of the frosting turned out kind of strange with the addition of the strawberries...I'll need to work on that. However, the cupcakes came out nice and moist, and the truffle brownies always seem to taste great. Overall, tasty cupcake.

I also tried out my new cupcake stand for display :)