Monthly Archives: July 2012

Chocolate Hamantaschen- SRC POST!

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Another month of the Secret Recipe Club! It’s been an awesome several months of finding new blogs to read and get to know people a wee bit better :)

One of my favorite things about SRC is that sometimes it kind of forces me to get outside of my comfort zone. This month I was assigned to post from Koreafornian Cooking, written by Tammy. She seems to have a pretty large passion for Korean food and has loads of recipes with words I can’t pronounce in them! Everything looks super delicious!! I was pretty intimidated by the recipes, I’m usually pretty loyal to my cupcake and cookie recipes.

So I found a cookie recipe ;)

I decided to go with Chocolate Hamantaschen. It’s a Jewish cookie that is often made for Purim. I’m not Jewish…and Purim starts March 19, so I pretty much made these mostly because chocolate is delicious and so is shortbread which is kind of like what these babies are.

They remind me of little pie crusts with a filling that is a bit brownie-like. Delicious little cookies that satisfy a chocolatey and sweet craving. The way how they are traditionally shaped is sort of in a triangle, but I had a few…um, difficulties with that. None of mine stayed in the triangle form, so unless you know how to shape them and keep them like that, I would recommend just doing the thumbprint cookie technique.

They may not be the prettiest things in the world, but they sure were tasty ;)

Chocolate Hamantaschen

(From Koreafornian Cooking)

FOR COOKIE:

1 3/4 cups flour

pinch of salt

2 Tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

8 Tablespoons (1 stick plus 2 Tablespoons) (5 oz.) unsalted butter

1 egg

FOR FILLING:

1 cup chocolate chips

1/3 cup white sugar

1 Tablespoon butter

1 Tablespoon milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 eggs, beaten

  1. Mix flour, salt, sugar, and vanilla extract. Cut the butter into small pieces and mix into flour (I used my super clean hands for this). Mix in the egg and press it into a ball. Refrigerate covered dough for at least a few hours. I kept mine in the fridge for a whole day.
  2. Roll out dough on a floured surface until it is about 1/8 inch thick. Cut into 3 inch rounds with a cookie cutter. Repeat until all the dough is used up. Shape the dough into a triangle and be sure to pinch the edges well. You may also choose to roll dough into balls and press with your thumb to make an indentation like a thumbprint cookie (I HIGHLY recommend doing it this way!).
  3. To make the filling, melt the chocolate in the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring after each heating. Once it’s melted, add the sugar, butter, milk, and vanilla. Return to the microwave for 15-30 seconds to make sure it’s all melted and mixed. Gradually add the beaten egg until it’s completely mixed in. Immediately fill the cookies with the chocolate filling. Bake in 375 degree F oven for 15-20 minutes.
Random Fact of the Day: Baskin-Robbins introduced the flavor “Lunar Cheesecake” to commemorate America’s landing on the moon on July 20, 1969.



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Corn Chowder

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Do you wish that you had an accent? Do you have an awesome accent and are in denial about it and still want a new accent?

That’s how I feel we all are. Because if you think about it, I guess it sounds like we have an accent to someone from somewhere, but we don’t notice it because we’re surrounded by the same accent all the time! Deeeeep…

What got me thinking about accents was chowder. I made some corn chowder the other day (more about that later), and every time I hear or think of the word chowder, it seems like it should be said “choowwwwwdaaaaa”, like with a thick New England accent.

I’m glad we had this talk.

So here’s some corn chowdaaa for you, and all the great corn that is around now! Enjoy :)

Corn Chowder

6 ears of corn

2 Tablespoons butter

1 onion, finely chopped

1/3 cup bacon bits

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons thyme

3/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 basil leaf

scant 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

4 1/2 cups water

4 Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1 cup half-and-half

1/2 Tablespoon white sugar

  1. Remove the husks and silk from the corn. One at a time, stand each ear of corn up in a large bowl and use a chef’s knife to cut the kernels from the corn. Then, hold the ear over a second bowl, and use a vegetable peeler to firmly scrap any remaining pulp from the cobs into the bowl. Repeat with the rest.
  2. Spread a clean cheese cloth over a medium bowl. Transfer the pulp to the towel, and then wrap the towel tightly around it and squeeze as much corn juice as possible into the bowl. Discard the pulp that’s left in the cloth.
  3. Set a large Dutch oven over medium heat and add the butter. Let it melt, then add the onion, thyme, salt, and pepper. Cooke for about 6-8 minutes, stirring frequently, until the onion has softened and is just starting to brown at the edges. Add the flour and cook for another minute or so, stirring constantly. Gradually add the water, keep stirring. Bring the mixture to a boil, then stir in the corn kernels and potatoes. Bring the chowder to a simmer, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.
  4. Transfer a little less than 2 cups of the chowder and the basil leaf to a blender and puree until smooth. Stir the puree back into the dutch oven. Add the half-and-half then return the chowder to a simmer. Mix in the bacon bits. Turn off the heat and add the reserved corn juice. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and mix in the sugar. Enjoy!

Random Fact of the Day: Per capita, Canada has more doughnut shops than any other country.

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The “Joe” Cupcake

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You curious about the name of this cupcake? Good, good, that was the idea! If you weren’t then sorry, have fun looking at the pictures here.

My dad is a coconut fan. A fanatic really.

It feels like literally every time we are on vacation and go to an ice cream shop, the first thing he goes for is anything with the word coconut in it. When I was younger I was totally and completely disgusted with the thought of coconut in ice cream  any dessert. It was like a waste of dessert in my mind. 

Anywho, I have my dad to thank for helping me come around and appreciate coconut and all it’s goodness. So here is his cupcake. (By the way, his name is Joe)

He particularly enjoys coconut accompanied with chocolate. So I decided to make a cupcake that would make him happy. These cupcakes start out with a dark chocolate cake, topped with coconut cream cheese frosting, drizzled with chocolate.

Some of the cupcakes I stuffed with coconut cream Hershey kisses, when there was 2 minutes left to bake, but most of them don’t have them just because the idea came to me with 2 minutes left in the second baking pan’s turn. Oh well ;) good idea for next time!

The “Joe” Cupcake

DARK CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES

(Makes 12-16 cupcakes)

1 cup boiling water

1/2 cup cocoa powder (I used dark cocoa powder)

1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons white sugar

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease or line regular cupcake tins.
  2. In a small bowl, pour boiling water over cocoa powder, and whisk until smooth. Let mixture cool. Into a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
  3. Cream butter and sugar together with a mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs. Stir in vanilla. Add the flour mixture. Add the cocoa mixture. Pour batter into prepared cupcake tins.
  4. Bake in preheated oven 15-18 minutes. Allow to cool in tins, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. When thoroughly cooled, frost with frosting below.

Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

6 oz. cream cheese, softened (I used neufchâtel)

1/2 stick butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

2/3 cup shredded coconut

milk, as needed

  1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the cream cheese, butter, vanilla extract, and salt. Add the powdered sugar and mix until desired consistency is achieved. Add milk as needed to thin frosting out if it gets too thick, or add more powdered sugar if frosting gets too thin. When desired consistency is achieved, fold in the shredded coconut. Frost cupcakes as desired.
  2. Melt 1 cup chocolate chips in plastic bag in 30 second intervals, snip tip of bag when chocolate is melted and drizzle chocolate over frosted cupcakes. Place cupcakes in fridge until ready to serve.

Random Fact of the Day: All porcupines float in water.

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Homemade Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Sandwiches

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One of my favorite treats in the summertime when I was younger, was ice cream sandwiches. Particularly the kind with vanilla ice cream smashed between two chocolate chip cookies.

I decided to make chocolate chip cookies just about a week ago, and the recipe made a bit more than we needed laying around the house, so I figured I would try my hand at making my own ice cream sandwiches.

Making your own ice cream sandwiches could seriously not get any easier. I was a little freaked out by getting the ice cream to look all nice without making a complete mess, but I figured out my own little way.

I’ve seen people soften the ice cream, put it in a rectangle baking dish, refreeze, then cut with a cookie cutter which I’m sure is a great method and all but…I think my way is better. Then again my way always feels better! My mess-free method (what’s up alliteration) is where you take a muffin tin, lay a piece of saran wrap across and stick it down in the crevices, fill muffin tins with ice cream, freeze, pop ice cream out of muffin tins, stick a cookie on each end of ice cream, EAT your face off! Of course you can get fancy and dip them in chocolate (drooool!) or roll in chocolate chips and other goodies. This is hardly even a recipe, pretty much just a method :)

Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches

Cookies, I used this chocolate chip cookie recipe from Kitchen Misfit

Ice Cream (any flavor will do, of course, but I used good ‘ol vanilla)

  1. Be sure cookies are baked and cooled before assembling. Soften ice cream
  2. Line muffin tin with saran wrap, scoop ice cream into muffin tins. Be sure ice cream gets into crevices and smooth the top. Lay a sheet of saran wrap on top of muffin tin when done before putting muffin tin in the freezer. Freeze ice cream until firm.
  3. After about 2-3 hours, take ice cream out of freezer and unwrap ice cream from muffin tins. Sandwich ice cream between two cookies, wrap in plastic wrap and keep in freezer until ready to eat. Enjoy! :)

Random Fact of the Day: When painting the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo used both hands to paint.

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Pumpkin Granola

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I really wish I could take little videos of what goes on at my work everyday and show you all. There is some pretty funky stuff that goes on there.

I work at the pool, in case I have not said that before (pretty sure I have, though). It is quite the hot spot for the middle schoolers. Side note- I really, really, really hope I was not nearly as annoying as the middle schoolers now a days, when I was in middle school.

Back to the story. Not only do we have endless amounts of middle schoolers at the pool, we also have nursing mothers. For some reason the sand pit tends to be quite the hot spot for that kind of business. Now I understand babies have to eat and what not, but these ladies could at least be a bit more subtle. Or more private. I don’t know…I’d just feel a bit uncomfortable taking half my swimsuit off in front of a boatload of people. They are really just quite comfortable with themselves I guess.

Back to the middle schoolers. They think everything that is against the rules is like the funniest thing in the history of the world. Honestly the “I need a catch at the bottom of the slide” joke is not that funny. Really. Because some of these middle schoolers look like they are 4, which is a totally reasonable age to get a catch, but I never really totally know how old they are. So it ends up being a predicament for me. They also like to make these little kissy kiss sessions on the hill where it is totally completely awkward for me to break it up. But that is not just them, it’s also people my age, and adult people. THAT is when it is awkward for me to break it up. It’s really hard to yell at someone older than you to stop making out. Just try it once.

Anyways I made pumpkin granola and it is very delicious. I LOVE granola and this is delicious version that [unsurprisingly] tastes like pumpkin granola bars-also delicious ;-) . Laterzz

Pumpkin Granola

5 cups oats

1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon allspice

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

1/4 cup maple syrup (or honey or corn syrup)

1/4 cup applesauce

1 cup chopped walnuts

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly spray a rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray.
  2. In a large bowl, mix together oats, salt, and spices. Set aside.
  3. In a medium bowl, whisk together brown sugar, vanilla extract, pumpkin puree, syrup, and applesauce. Whisk until smooth. Pour this mixture onto the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Stir in chopped walnuts. Spread mixture onto the prepared baking sheet.
  4. Bake for 20 minutes in preheated oven. Remove from oven and stir slightly. Bake for an additional 15-20 minutes or until the granola is golden and crisp. Remove from the oven and let cool completely. Store in an airtight container until ready to eat!

Random Fact of the Day: Fireworks were originally invented in 7th century China to scare away evil spirits.

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