Lavender Panna Cotta

I have a soft spot in my heart for Panna Cotta. It reminds me of when I worked in Maui and the Executive Chef of the hotel I worked at would make batches and batches of different flavored Panna Cotta's for the staff to try. He made ones with flavors of basil, passion fruit, coconut, etc. But my favorite was lavender.

There are a good number of Lavender Panna Cotta recipes online, but I decided to try this one. I wanted the most traditional recipe I could find, and I think this one is a fairly good choice.

Recipe (serves 8):
5 cups heavy cream
1 1/3 cup milk
2 tablespoons dried lavender flowers
1 1/2 cup sugar
Two 1/2 ounce packets powdered gelatin
Honey, for garnish

Directions:
1. Combine cream, 1 cup of the milk, and lavender in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Take pan off the heat and stir in the sugar until it dissolves. Strain out the lavender.

2. While cream mixture is cooling, pour the remainder of the milk into a small bowl and sprinkle the gelatin over it. Let stand for 5 minutes.

3. Stir the dissolved gelatin into the cream mixture. (If the mixture becomes too cool to dissolve the gelatin, set it back on a low flame, stirring continuously, until the gelatin is completely incorporated into the cream.)

4. Pour the mixture into individual serving vessels or one large dish. Let it sit for at least 6 hours in the refrigerator, undisturbed, on a flat surface. Drizzle with a few drops of honey for garnish, and enjoy.

 My apologies...I had no flowers to garnish my dessert with, only strawberries. So though it may look like a Strawberry Panna Cotta, it is indeed a Lavender Panna Cotta. Cheers!

Limoncello Mini Cakes with Limoncello Glaze

Busy. Busy. Busy. That's how I like things. So, in terms of getting over a breakup, it's more like cook, bake, work, do it all over again. I'm staying busy over here searching and finding yummy recipes in lieu of moping around the house and eating masses of chocolate (aka Reese's Peanut Butter Cups) that could equal my weight. And trust, with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, anything is possible.

So, last week, I made Lemon Crinkle Cookies. I was so disappointed in the flavor that I feel the need to to find an amazing recipe to remind me how great lemons really are. I guess we can call it Redemption Week? I am fully aware that Limoncello is not the equivalent of lemons, but it is a lemon liqueur, and that's close enough for me!


Please note: I do not recommend using muffin pan for this recipe like I did.

Cake Recipe:
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
4 large eggs
lemon zest of 1 lemon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup Limoncello
1 teaspoon lemon extract or lemon oil


Glaze Recipe:
3/4 cup confectioner's sugar
2-3 tablespoons Limoncello
fresh raspberries or any berry for garnish, optional

Directions for Cake:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour the muffin pan (I used a king size muffin pan, which makes 6 muffins), mini bundt pans, or 1 regular sized bundt pan. You can also use non-stick spray in lieu of butter.

2.  Mix together sugar and butter until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, and mix well.

3. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Add to the batter, alternating with Limoncello. Mix in lemon extract/oil and zest.

4. Bake king size muffin pan and regular bundt cake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Bake mini bundt cakes for 20-30 minutes depending on mini pan size, or until toothpick comes out clean.


Directions for Glaze:
1. Combine confectioner's sugar and 2-3 tablespoons Limoncello and stir until smooth, or to desired consistency. Drizzle over cooled cakes. Garnish with berries (optional).

Needless to say, the lemon has been redeemed. :)

**These cakes can be freezed. If freezing, defrost the cake before glazing**

Apple Scrapple

I love when friends share family recipes with me. I feel like family recipes are the hidden gems of amazing food, since these are recipes that are passed down from generation to generation.

This recipe in particular comes from my co-worker Sarah's family. Apple Scrapple is her grandmother's version of an Apple Crisp, but her version is so much easier to make, with probably half the ingredients.

What both Sarah and I love about this recipe, is that it is simple. More specifically, in most desserts that use apples as an ingredient, many other spices and sugars are added to give the apples more flavor. This dessert keeps the integrity of the apple by only adding one other ingredient, which is to enhance its flavor.

Ingredients:
4-5 Granny Smith Apples, peeled and thinly sliced
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
3/4 cup White Sugar
1 Egg
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 cup flour
3 tablespoons Unsalted Butter or Margarine, room temperature
Cinnamon

Ingredients

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Butter the bottom of the pan that you will use. Layer with the sliced Granny Smith Apples. Once all of the apples are placed in the pan, sprinkle the apples with cinnamon.

3. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a bowl. These ingredients will make Scrapple - this mixture should be crumbly.

4. Crumble the Scrapple and spread evenly over the apples.

5. Bake for one hour.

I highly (read: highly) recommend serving with vanilla ice cream. YUM!

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

I was originally going to bake these cookies in celebration of my boyfriend and mine's anniversary this past weekend...but seeing as how difficult it was for me to find one of the ingredients, I made them tonight!

I wanted to make these cookies because I associate lemons with being refreshing and light (in flavor). And even better? It only uses four ingredients!

Recipe (makes ~24 cookies):
1 box               Lemon Cake Mix
1                       Egg, lightly beaten
2 cups              Cool Whip (or Whipped Topping), thawed
1/2-1 cup        Powdered Sugar

Ingredients

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Combine the Lemon Cake Mix, Cool Whip/Whipped Topping, and Egg in a bowl. You will end up with a very sticky mixture.

3. Form dough into tablespoonfuls and roll thoroughly in the powdered sugar.

4. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until edges are golden. Allow to cool for 1 minute, then transfer to wire rack to cool thoroughly.

**Because my tablespoonfuls were quite large, I left the cookies in the oven for a few minutes longer than the said 8-10**

UPDATE: As easy and refreshing as the cookies were, I'm not compelled to make them again. There was just no "Wow!" factor to them...no memorable flavors or textures that would make me want to bake them again. 

Vegan Banana Ice Cream Part 2 (Strawberry Compote Included)

A mere 24 hours have passed since the making of Vegan Banana Ice Cream (original post here). I would show you a picture of the ice cream itself, except nothing is too exciting when its just frozen in tupperware.

Instead of sprinkling cinnamon on top of the ice cream before eating it, I opted to make a strawberry compote (I adapted a recipe from here) There are many different compote recipes that you can find online, but in a traditional sense, a compote is essentially fruit cooked in sugar or spices.

Recipe (makes 1 cup):
1 lb (the equivalent is one box)             Strawberries, washed, dried, cubed
1/3 cup                                                     Sugar
1/2 cup or 2 tbsp                                    Grand Marnier or Lemon Juice (respectively)

Ingredients

Alteration #1:

I cubed the fruit instead of slicing it. Anytime I've ever had compote, the fruit has been cubed. Also, the uniformity in shape guarantees that the strawberries will be cooked evenly.


Instructions:

1. Warm a non-reactive saucepan over medium-high heat. Combine all of your ingredients.

2. Bring liquid to a boil, reduce the heat, and let the fruit simmer until it is soft, about 8-10 minutes. 

**Note: the mixture will appear to be very soupy. I stirred the mixture every once in a while so that nothing would stick to the bottom of the pan**

3. Remove from heat and cool.

Alteration #2:

The original recipe continues with instructions and tells you to place the fruit in a food processor, but I prefer to eat the compote as is.

4. Pour over your favorite ice cream, and enjoy!

 UPDATE: The Vegan Banana Ice Cream turned out delicious! Since there is no custard (as there is in regular ice cream), the ice cream turned out icier than expected (not that that is a bad thing). This would make for a great summertime treat, because it is light, healthy, and refreshing. There are also plenty of other fun and fruity vegan flavors that you can make (more of that to come!)

Vegan Banana Ice Cream

There's something about winter that makes you want to eat ice cream. I'm not lying! When the blizzard hit two weeks ago, one of the first things to sell out in the grocery store was ice cream. Strange, indeed.

Now, I've been wanting an ice cream maker for quite some time, but I can't quite seem to justify the cost of buying one just yet. I found this recipe via Pinterest, and all you need is a food processor or blender!

Also, I'm lactose intolerant, but refuse to take Lactaid pills. So when I found a vegan recipe, all I could think was Hallelujah!!! :)

Recipe (makes 3-4 servings):
5                   Ripe Bananas
2-3 cups      Vanilla Almond Milk
1/2-1 tsp     Vanilla
Sprinkle of Cinnamon (optional)

Ingredients

1. Place all items in a blender/food processor until smooth and creamy.

**I used 2 cups Almond Milk and 1 tbsp of Vanilla**

2. Take out of the blender/food processor and pour contents into a container to freeze overnight.

.....follow up with the next post on how it turned out!

Cupcakes to the Rescue!

My boyfriend texted me earlier today to tell me how horrible of a day he was having. Since he would be getting out late, and I wasn't get out of work early, I decided to pick up some Georgetown Cupcakes on the way to his place before dinner. It's both his and my favorite cupcake place in Boston, so hopefully it will perk him up!

Clockwise starting from top right corner: Lemon Blossom, Strawberry, Chocolate Squared, Strawberry Champagne

Chocolate Truffle Making

On Saturday I had the chance to attend a chocolate truffle making workshop led by none other than Food Network's Sweet Genius winner Dorian Mccarron. (Very exciting, indeed!) We discussed the history of chocolate, the cocoa bean process, tempering chocolate, and how to make ganaches. After all that, we rolled ganaches that Dorian made the night before, and we dipped and made our own chocolates. (I happily walked away with 40 truffles)

 

Cocoa Bean Process: 1) A cracked cocoa bean, 2) cocoa butter, 3) cocoa nibs, 4) milk chocolate morsel, 5) dark chocolate morsels

Dorian teaching the class about piping bags

Pre-made caramel, milk, and raspberry flavored ganaches for our use

After hand rolling the ganaches into mini balls

For the class, Dorian made an earl grey ganache for each person to try

Dipped chocolates

Finished chocolates

The end of the class with Dorian!