#38: Would you like a biscotti with that?

i decided to make biscottis for a colleagues birthday to go along with a coffee plant i bought from trader joe's. after browsing through allrecipes.com, i landed on a this recipe. the photo looked tasty and the idea of a brownie biscotti sounded delicious. i'm not a huge biscotti fan but i was hoping for a sweet, chocolately biscuit cookie to pair along with the "coffee". for my first time making biscotti, i was pleasantly surprised at the simpleness of the recipe. combine all dough ingredients and then form 2 rectangular loaves on a baking sheet and throw into the oven. after the loaves bake, let them cool and then slice into small biscottis. place the sliced biscottis onto the baking sheet again flat side down, and cook in the oven until they harden. i decided to garnish with semi-sweet and white chocolate drizzling. the extra chocolate drizzle made this a more indulgent treat. surprisingly, it was firm but not teeth-breaking hard like most biscottis. i don't drink coffee so i can't say if this biscotti goes well with coffee...but it's good enough on its own so that's good enough for me.

#37: Bread for Monkeys (Monkey Bread)

my dad sent me a link to a monkey bread recipe on a blog and it looked absolutely scrumptious. i decided that if i woke up early enough in the morning, then i would try to take the 4 required hours to make this monkey bread. low and behold i woke up at 7:30...perfect timing for making monkey bread (before I had to be somewhere by 11). i didn't have yeast at home so i decided to run over to safeway (yes, literally run) to buy some - this delayed my start time a bit. i assembled the dough and let it rest so the yeast could do its work. after 1 hour of wait time, i cut the dough into 64 pieces and rolled them into balls. i then dipped each ball into melted butter and rolled in a cinnamon/brown sugar mixture. i layered the balls into a bundt pan and then let the 'cake' rest for another hour to rise. after the balls expanded, i put the pan into the oven for about 30 minutes. after cooling for about 5 minutes, i used a whisk to dress the cake with icing.

you might be thinking, what the heck does monkey bread mean anyways?? well, according to wikipedia, the origin of 'monkey bread' is uncertain. the name could be from 1. resembling a monkey puzzle tree (? not sure what this is) or 2. people picking from it is reminiscent of monkey behavior.

after bringing some monkey bread to my friends this morning - i'd say the latter might be the more appropriate reason behind the name. i was very happy with how the bread turned out. it reminded me of little donut holes (but baked, not fried). some people thought it was similar to cinnabons. whatever it's like...it's absolutely delicious and i will definitely keep this recipe in my collection.

#36: Fresh From the Vine Strawberry Pie

now that berry season is upon us, i decided to plan a berry picking trip with fchang. with 'berries' and 'organic' being the two main criteria for the location, there were only so many places to choose from that were in a 1-2 hour radius. after finding out that the palo alto farm that i was planning to go to had closed early due to a july 4th weekend rush, i chose Swanton Berry Farm, an organic strawberry farm in Davenport (near Santa Cruz). this was my first time picking fruit at a farm, so i was quite excited. strawberries were everywhere! i considered everything i could do with my fresh picked strawberries as i walked up and down the rows, tasting the juicy, plump, red berries. (yes, of course i had to taste them!).

after picking about 4-5 lbs worth of strawberries for myself (@ $2.50/lb), i loaded them up in a cooler to transport home. i snacked on the strawberries when i got home, but ultimately decided that the fate of the majority of the berries would be to be baked in my first attempt ever at a homemade pie. we made the crust (with shortening and butter) and then popped the dough balls in the fridge. 3 days later i took the dough out and rolled out the bottom crust. I then took about 3 cups of strawberries and tossed them in a sugar, cinnamon, flour mixture and poured it into the bottom crust. i then rolled out the top crust and cut strips to create the lattice top. i baked the pie for about 30 minutes in a 425 degree oven. i was very happy with this pie and i look forward to making another fruit pie some time soon with leftover dough i have in the freezer (or perhaps a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving). there's almost nothing better than a fresh fruit pie, warm from the oven...made from seasonal hand picked organic strawberries.

#35: Navy Blue and Yellow

i was asked to make cupcakes for a bridal shower last weekend and i wanted to use the wedding theme colors: navy blue and yellow. after brainstorming, i considered both lemon and banana as my 'yellow', but ultimately decided on lemon. i tested out the cupcakes the weekend before to decide on the final concept. i chose a lemon mini cupcake (from Martha Stewart cupcake book) and vanilla buttercream frosting. i decided to make some candied lemon slices as garnish, and then added on some fresh blueberries. figured lemon and blueberry would be a nice combination of flavors while simultaneously fulfilling the navy/yellow theme. funny thing...my test batch was much more dense...and i realized when i made the final cupcakes that my test batch lacked baking powder! i did enjoy the denser version, but i think people also appreciated the lighter, fluffier version. now i know the effect of adding or removing baking powder!

#34: The Magic Factor

i made these cupcakes for k.lu's birthday. i caught an episode of barefoot contessa and watched her make these chocolate ganache cupcakes. the episode title was "the magic factor", in which she tested a single recipe out, one with the magic ingredient and one without. she had a few people taste test and choose which one they preferred...and in each case the group chose the item that included the magic ingredient. the cupcake recipe had great reviews so i was eager to try out the recipe. the cake is very easy to make...just throw the ingredients into a mixer and then pop into the oven. the topping was a chocolate ganache - not quite a frosting, not quite icing. it was ooey and gooey on top of the cupcake. now, what was the magic ingredient you might ask? coffee. apparently the coffee brings out the chocolate flavor so it is richer and stronger to the taste buds. i managed to find a small sample packet of starbucks via - the perfect amount i needed for the cupcakes. not much coffee, only about 1.5 teaspoons for the cake/ganache. when i tasted the cupcakes i was surprised because i was a little distracted by the coffee flavor. perhaps it's because i don't drink coffee so i am more sensitive to the flavor. after the taste test, i decided to refer to the cupcakes as more of a mocha flavor rather than purely chocolate. good recipe, but i think the coffee was a bit overpowering...but maybe that's just me.

#33: Cupcake on a Stick

another birthday (for c. wong this time), so alas another baked good. i started looking through my cupcake book and web sources and nothing was inspiring me. somehow i thought of the cupcake lollipop idea and decided to search for a recipe in how to construct it. after seeing this helpful blog i started right away. the blog post made it seem fairly straight forward, but as it turns out it's quite tricky to make cupcake lollipops. i started with making a Magnolia Bakery vanilla cake in a square pan. after the cake cooled, i chopped it up and ground the pieces in a food processor. meanwhile, i made a Magnolia Bakery vanilla buttercream frosting. i then mixed the frosting into the crumbled cake and then formed into cake balls. after freezing the balls, i melted some semi sweet chocolate in a double boiler and then coated the balls in the chocolate and stuck a lollipop stick on the bottom (from Richards in Alamo) and then chilled in the refrigerator. after the lollipops were completely cooled and the chocolate was solid i packaged them in small cellophane treat bags and tied a yellow ribbon on them (both also from Richards).

i was happy with how the lollipops turned out (tasty and rich), but they look nothing like the blog post i was using. i think i'll definitely keep these in mind for the future and hopefully next time i can decorate them with more color and sprinkles.

#32: Peppermint Chocolate Cupcakes

i made some peppermint chocolate cupcakes for m.lyons birthday yesterday, adopted from my Martha Stewart cupcake book. first step: i started making the mint chocolate leaf (the garnish on top). the leaves were surprisingly very easy to make and almost fail proof! i bought some organic mint leaves from Trader Joe's and then washed and dried some of the smaller leaves. i then melted some semi sweet chocolate and then "painted" one side of the leaf with chocolate using a spoon. i then rested the leaves on a wooden skewer on top of parchment paper, and then let them chill in the fridge for 15 minutes. after the leaves were cool, i peeled the mint leaf off and then the leaf imprint was leftover on the chocolate. kind of like fossils! i then placed the chocolate back into the fridge to prevent them from softening. second step: i then made the cake with cocoa powder and some of the extra melted semi sweet chocolate. i also added peppermint extract into the batter. third step: lastly, i made the buttercream frosting and used peppermint extract as a substitute for the vanilla. to decorate, i piped the peppermint frosting onto the cupcakes, drizzled some melted some more semi sweet chocolate, and then placed a chocolate mint leaf on top. ta da! here is the finished product.