Monday, April 23, 2012

Lemon cake pop

A cross between lemon cake and lemon fudge,
this was delicious!

Sunday, April 22, 2012

bagel grilled cheese  焼きチーズべーグル

In honor of the recent national grilled cheese day, 
BAGEL GRILLED CHEESE!

このあいだは焼きチーズサンドの日でした。
それで、
焼きチーズベーグル!
The contrast of the crunchy-chewiness of the bagel with the melted cheese is simply heavenly!


ingredients:

one bagel
a melty kind of cheese (like mozzarella)
rock salt or a flavorful salt

A sandwich press works best if you have one. 
If not, use a fry pan and something heavy to weight the bagel down.


how to:
1.  cut bagel in half lengthwise
2.  toast the insides of the bagel halves first  (for ultimate chewy-crunchiness)
3. put cheese in between bagel halves, and toast both sides of the sandwich
4. cut and sprinkle with rock salt

作り方:

材料:ベーグル
スライスチーズ (とろけるタイプ)
岩塩 

ホットサンドメーカーが一番いい。
ない場合は、フライパンで
ベーグルの上に重いものをのせて焼く。
(カリカリにするために)

1。ベーグルを縦にカットする
2。カットしたベーグルをトーストする
3。チーズを入れて、またトーストする
4。横切りカットして、岩塩を振りかける
エンジョイ!

Friday, April 6, 2012

sakura cupcakes

It's hanami in Japan, y'all!
That means lots of eating, sake drinking, and cupcake eating under the cherry blossoms with your friends.


It also may include, but is not limited to:


indulgent, bordering on obsessive picture taking
learning how to communicate in a (for some very drunken) communal language
finding previously unseen beauty in nature


But, for me, one of the best things about cherry blossom time in Japan is eating cake. 
Most notably cherry blossom-flavored cake.
(like this lovely sakura mont-blanc cake on the bottom-left hand side)


So, this year for hanami, I decided to make sakura cupcakes. 

sakura cupcakes

A tender and light cake topped with cherry buttercream icing and cherry blossom shaped marshmallows!
Luckily, if you aren't able to find sakura (cherry blossom) flavored extract, almond extract is very similar.

makes 12-15 cupcakes

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon almond or sakura extract
1-2 tsp juice from maraschino cherries jar (optional)
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups flour
cherry buttercream icing (see recipe below)
cherry blossom shaped marshmallows, or chopped maraschino or dried cherries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter cupcake tins or line with cupcake liners.
Stir baking powder and salt into flour.

In another bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
Add the almond extract and cherry juice (if using).

Add the flour mixture and milk alternately, starting and ending with one the flour. Stir just until the flour is incorporated.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 15-25 minutes, depending on the size of your cupcakes.


cherry buttercream icing



1/2 cup butter, softened 
11/2 to 2 cups powdered sugar
a dash of salt
11/2 tsp sakura or almond extract
1-2 tablespoons milk
pink food coloring


Beat butter and powdered sugar together with an electric mixer until the color of the mixture lightens slightly. Add cherry or almond extract, salt, and 1 tbsp milk and beat until light and smooth. 
If the icing is too stiff, add remaining milk. 
Tint half of the icing with pink food coloring, and decorate cupcakes in pink and white, 
topped with a marshmallow or chopped cherries.



decorate simply


or more elaborately!
Most of all, I love that each cherry blossom is unique. 
(And tasty!)

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Salted Almond Butter Bars

Recently, I've been in the mood for something sweet and salty. Something a little nutty. While reaching for the peanut butter, I remembered that I had bought some maple almond butter and forgotten all about it.

Now peanut butter is good, but almond butter is well, 
AMAZING!

In other words, you can't go wrong here. 
A creamy base topped with melted white chocolate and lots of salty chopped almonds.


Salted Almond Butter Bars
For the Base:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/4 cup cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup almond butter
1 1/4 cups light brown sugar
1 large egg at room temperature
1/2 tbsp almond extract (or vanilla extract)
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
For the topping:
3/4 cup white chocolate chips, or broken up white chocolate
2 tbsp heavy cream (adding a little more if necessary)
3/4 cup salted almonds, chopped
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (170 Celcius).
Grease and flour a square baking pan or a jelly roll pan.
In a large bowl, beat the butter, cream cheese, and the peanut butter with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the brown sugar and beat until very smooth. Add the egg and almond extract and mix well. Add flour and mix just until incorporated. Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with moist crumbs attached.  Be sure not to overbake. Let the bars cool to room temperature.
For the topping, in a small saucepan over low heat, melt the white chocolate chips with the cream, stirring constantly until smooth.  Drizzle the white chocolate mixture over the cooled blondies, then sprinkle the chopped almonds on top.
Cool to room temperature before cutting and serving.
That is, if you can wait that long.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

The easy like Sunday morning cupcake


Recently, I teach several private English lessons at my house. I serve coffee or tea and always some kind of sweet. I enjoy baking, so I usually make something new every week.  
But sometimes, I just run out of time.  This is when I use:

The easy like Sunday morning cupcake!

I generally keep a batch of vanilla cupcakes in the freezer and sometimes icing as well---very handy!

Ingredients:

vanilla cupcakes
strawberry jam
buttercream icing (or store-bought frosting)
colorful decorations

How to:

Split vanilla cupcake in half, bottom half slightly larger than the top. Generously spread a nice amount of strawberry jam (I recommend preserves with big chunks of fruit inside) on the bottom half and top with the upper half. If you are feeling creative, pipe miniature flowers with the buttercream icing using a pastry bag and star tip; alternatively spread icing on with a knife, swirling at the top. 
Top with colorful decor, nonpareils, or chopped nuts.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Coconut French Toast

Every once in a while, it's nice to have dessert in the morning.
That must have been the idea behind french toast, non?

It's freezing here in Kitakyushu and living in an old Japanese house with no insulation, I feel like I need to escape to somewhere tropical. Until I book my next trip to an island in Malaysia, this coconut french toast will have to satisfy my cravings.

Coconut French Toast

5 pieces of your favorite bread
2 eggs
1-2 tbsp condensed milk
2 tbsp butter
dash of milk or cream
shredded coconut
optional:  chopped nuts, cookie crumbs, whipped cream

Beat eggs lightly in a bowl, then add the condensed milk and dash of milk or cream. Melt a tbsp of the butter in a skillet (medium heat).  Dip bread on both sides into egg mixture and fry on both sides until toasty and lightly browned. Repeat with remaining butter/bread/egg mixture.  When ready to serve, cut bread into triangles, sprinkle generously with coconut, chopped nuts, cookie crumbs, and topped with a dollop of whipped cream. 

Tea-CupCakes

Jeeves, what is an equation?

Well, sir, it may go something like:
A cup of tea with a cupcake equals Bliss.
A tea infused cupcake is greater than or equal to Bliss.


Oh, Jeeves, that's simply genius.


Oh, no, don't thank me, sir.


Earl grey with bites of white chocolate, 
how could one possibly go wrong?
AND
Oddly enough, this cupcake reminded me of a buttery, fluffy pancake. 
I used a madeleine pan to make this one, but also made some with regular cupcake tins. Either way, they were delicious!

Tea-CupCakes

Ingredients:

3/4 cup milk (150 ml)
earl grey, or your favorite tea . . . 4 teabags
8 tbsp. butter, softened (110 g)
a generous cup of light brown sugar (about 220 g)
2 1/2 tbsp cream Cheese, softened (40 g)
2 eggs, at room temperature
a generous cup of flour (about 220 g)
a pinch of baking powder 
pinch of salt
1 bar of white chocolate, broken up into pieces

How to:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).

Warm the milk until almost boiling in a saucepan, then add tea bags and cover with plastic wrap. Let the tea infuse for about 30 minutes, then discard the tea bags. 

Cream the butter until fluffy with electric mixer. Add cream cheese and brown sugar and cream until very light and fluffy (this should take about 4 to 5 minutes--- keep in mind, you can't over mix at this point.) Add eggs one at a time, blending well. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. Alternate adding the flour mixture and milk, mixing on a lower speed and until just blended each time. 

In greased cupcake tins or cupcake liners, fill 1/4 full with batter, put in a good amount of white chocolate break-up, and then top with batter 
until cupcake tins are about 3/4 of the way full.  

Bake cupcakes about 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.



Serve cupcakes warm topped with whipped cream and chopped nuts. 
Or frost with a nice lemon buttercream icing!

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Handmade Flour Tortillas


‘Handmade Flour Tortillas?!’ you say.  
Actually, not so difficult. Not difficult at all, in fact.
I don't know about you, but when I'm having a good week, I make sweet things. . . cakes, brownies, whip up a batch of espresso buttercream ('No biggie!' I say flippantly).  

When I'm having a bad week, though, (and this was truly a bad, bad week), I make bread. I have never owned a bread machine; I've always wanted one, but in Japan, they're quite pricey and I always think, 'Well, I can knead.  I have hands!' (I also do not own a rice cooker, and make rice in a pan nearly everyday. In Japan, this can be seen as an abomination. People ask me 'How can you possibly make rice without a rice cooker?', and my answer is always 'It's easy.') That being said, bread is not always easy; there's the kneading, the rising, the rising, AND more rising.  


But tortillas?  A snap.  No yeast, no problem, so it goes. 
Also, no oil when cooking the tortillas makes for very easy clean-up.






 As you can see, I could not locate my rolling pin, hence the substitute 
(which happened to be a gift from my mother-in-law; it's a suction tool for a brand of tupperware.)











Handmade Flour Tortillas
Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1/3 cup (80 ml) oil
up to 1 cup (250 ml) warm water
Combine flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the center, and add the oil and warm water (only adding enough water as necessary) to form a soft dough. Knead for about 5 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and elastic. Cover with a towel and place in a warm place for about an hour.  Divide dough into small balls (depending on what size of tortillas you prefer). Cover the balls with a towel or plastic wrap so that they don’t dry out. On a lightly floured surface, flatten a small ball with the palm of your hand (this makes it easier to roll into a circular shape), and then roll out until fairly thin with a rolling pin. Heat a dry skillet (heavy iron skillet, if possible) over medium heat.  Cook the tortilla for about a half a minute to a minute on each side.  If bubbles start to form, press down with a  spatula. Repeat with all of the dough. The tortillas should be slightly browned but still soft. After cooking each tortilla, stack them, wrapping them in a towel and fold over.  (I learned this trick somewhere; it helps keep them more pliable.) Store tightly wrapped.

Use for quesadillas, burritos, or anything else you can dream up.
Like. . .Cherry Tomato-Oregano Tortilla Pizza!