Sourpuss

I had a conversation the other day with a friend who is thinking of starting a family.  He asked me, "Kids--they're worth it, right?"  My response?  "Most of the time."  I love my girls, and I can't imagine life without them.  But sometimes, like tonight, they just push all my buttons.  Awhile back I decided that Thursday is invariably the worst day of the week--prime time for some sort of meltdown.  Everyone is tired.  We're tired on Friday, too, but by that point, the end of the week is definitely in sight.  On Thursday, we're almost as cranky, and still have to find a way to get through another day.  

Fortunately there wasn't a homework meltdown from B this evening.  (That was last night.)  And at least G didn't wait until right before bed to have her every-other-day marathon bathroom session.  (Sorry, I know it's mostly a food blog, but anyone have any great solutions for 4yo constipation?)  But by now, I really just wish they'd finish up with the fooling around in the bathroom (they're supposed to be brushing their teeth) and go to bed already...  Though on the plus side, I did manage to feed them something for dinner that they both ate without complaint.  And it wasn't macaroni and cheese--there were actual vegetables involved. =)

Oddly enough, although I'm feeling tired and decidedly cranky, I have no interest in one of my usual stress remedies, chocolate.  (I know, crazy, right?)  I do, however, wish I had some of this frozen yogurt left.  It would really hit the spot right now.  It's lemon frozen yogurt with raspberry sauce, from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home.  

I've made about a dozen recipes from the book so far--some that I've posted, and some that I haven't.  (There's some Milkiest Chocolate with Marshmallows and Fudge Swirl in the freezer right now, for instance.)  But it really hadn't occurred to me to try any of the frozen yogurt recipes.  Then I went to a class that Jeni did here at Central Market last month.  She mentioned that the lemon frozen yogurt was her favorite, and we got to sample it at the class.  So I put it at the top of my list to try next.  

More than with Jeni's ice cream recipes, you have to plan ahead a little for the frozen yogurt.  The recipe calls for draining the yogurt for at least 6-8 hours to remove excess liquid.  I didn't have cheesecloth, so I improvised.  I lined my medium strainer with coffee filters, put it over a bowl, and added my quart of lowfat yogurt.  I covered the top with plastic wrap, and stuck the whole contraption in the fridge overnight.  By the way, can I just say that it's harder than I expected to find lowfat plain yogurt?  I saw plenty of nonfat, and several brands of whole milk, but not a lot of choices for lowfat.  I used Wallaby for the lemon.  I think I'm going to try Stonyfield for the next batch, and see which I prefer.  Another thing to note--you won't need all of the yogurt for this recipe, but the extra can be used for other things, like in place of sour cream in dips.

Besides draining the yogurt, you make a lemon syrup with lemon juice and sugar.  The zest from the lemons gets added to the milk/cream mixture, which is similar to the ice cream, but with smaller amounts to account for the volume that will be added by the yogurt.  Once the milk mixture is boiled and thickened with cornstarch and whisked into the cream cheese, the strained yogurt and lemon syrup are whisked in.  I did add a pinch of salt that wasn't called for in the recipe.  I also chilled my finished mixture in a regular ice bath rather than in a ziploc bag.  Once the mixture was thoroughly chilled, I churned it and then layered it with Jeni's raspberry sauce as I packed it into a freezer container.

The verdict? I think I have a new favorite flavor.  Much as I love chocolate, and the salty caramel (when I don't overcaramelize it), the lemon frozen yogurt is to die for.  I do want to try the Lemon Cream ice cream as well, for comparison.  What's actually up next is lime frozen yogurt with blackberry sauce.  I'll keep you all posted on how that goes.  Molly of Orangette says that she likes to eat this frozen yogurt from a teacup.  I'd have to say my favorite way to eat this flavor is in a cone.  You have the tart, refreshing tastes of lemon and raspberry with the crisp texture and browned butter-vanilla flavor of the cone.  Mmm.  I admit, I polished off most of the quart all by myself.

If you'd like to try this one for yourself, you can find the recipe here at The Splendid Table.  But I strongly encourage you to get your hands on a copy of the book, so you can try lots of other fantastic recipes as well.

Wordless Wednesday - Raspberry sauce

The great debate

Welcome to Wednesday with Dorie! (Oops.)  The first couple days of the school year have been a bit hectic and tiring for everyone, so some things are running a little behind.  No homework yet for B, but other things have been worrying her.  She is -so- my child.  What 3rd grader worries about flunking on the second day of school?  That would be my 3rd grader.  She worries so much, and takes everything so seriously.  Gee, I wonder where she got that?  But is it nature or nurture?  I've always been the same way, so is it in the genes?  Or am I causing her to be this way, mainly because my parents influenced me the same way?  Either way, I've been there, so I'm trying to do what I can to relieve some of her anxiety.  Which is tricky, since I'm also trying not to let my own anxiety show, about whether I'm being a good parent--since I have a 3rd grader who worries about flunking on the second day of school... *sigh*  No one ever said this parenting thing was going to be easy.

Fortunately, some things are easier than they look.  Like this brioche.  Though it is another one of those things you can question--is it bread, or is it pastry?  Margaret of Tea and Scones picked this recipe for us to make for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie.  You hear the word brioche, and immediately think, "French! Complicated!" (or is that just me?)  I know I felt rather intimidated by it the first time I made it, back in March of 2008 (wow, has it been that long?), when we made the Brioche Raisin Snails.  But even if you're kind of scared of yeast, it really doesn't take a lot of skill--just patience, and hopefully a stand mixer (or food processor, if you're like my friend Nancy).  Some of the bread I make is dense enough that I forego the mixer--it's not getting any younger, and I don't want to overtax it.  But brioche is a soft, sticky dough, so it doesn't cause any problems.  Despite what Dorie says, mine never really pulled away from the sides of the bowl.  In fact, you may wonder how this buttery blob could ever turn into bread.  The answer?  Time.  And some serious chilling before shaping.  

I mostly followed the recipe as written.  I used instant yeast, rather than active dry, so I reduced the amount.  I actually used some of my SAF gold yeast, which is designed to work better in a sweeter, rich dough.  (I ended up using 10 grams, or about 3 teaspoons.)  I wanted to use my "Nancy pan," so I changed the shaping a bit.  I took half the dough, which was about 600 grams.  (I froze the other half.)  I divided it into 4 portions of about 150 grams each, and formed each piece into a ball, rather than a log.  I put them in the pan, and covered it with plastic wrap.  I let it rise until the dough was almost to the top of the pan.  I skipped the egg wash, but about 15 minutes in the top of the loaf was getting rather brown, so I tented it with foil.  I ended up baking the loaf for 30 minutes, at which point the internal temperature was about 190ºF.

The verdict?  I love pastries, and brioche really isn't far off.  My favorite part is the crunchy, buttery crust.  I'm happy with how the pan worked for this loaf--the small slices provide nice portion control. =) So far, I've just been snacking on the brioche, making little jam sandwiches.  Yum.

If you'd like to try this one for yourself, you can head over to Margaret's blog for the recipe.  And be sure to check out the Links to see how everyone else did this week.  I leave you with pictures from the first day of school.  G doesn't start kindergarten til next year, but of course we had to take her picture, too. 

Hidden treasure

Is it just me, or do these papers remind you of candy corn?

I mentioned in my last post that I'm happy to be a DBCB (designated birthday cake baker).  Of course, I bake lots of things besides cake, so I bring other things to work as well.  I do want to be respectful of people's nutritional goals, so I try not to bring really decadent stuff too often--not that I get many complaints. =)  So I'll bake things with fruit, or whole wheat flour snuck in, as a way to offset some of the recipes made with lots of chocolate and butter.  Breakfast items are always popular--they get eaten at any time of day.  So I figured these Tuesdays with Dorie Carrot Spice Muffins would be well-received.  This pick was actually supposed to be for last week.  I'm hoping my friend Nancy will forgive me for being late to the party. =)  (And my apologies to Gaye for not making this week's Tropical Crumble.)

On the healthy side of the equation we have carrots, and the fact that these muffins are made with oil rather than butter.  I didn't mess with the flour this time, but I'd like to try these with half white whole wheat flour.  I don't think anyone would even notice, with all the flavor from the cinnamon (I used Vietnamese) and ginger.  The original recipe also called for nuts and dried fruit, both healthy in moderation.  (No chance that these would be made with coconut in this house.)  I left those out--since I knew Brianna and Gillian would complain--but I'd be fine with some raisins or pecans, so I'll have to try that at some point.  

Since I was omitting the fun mix-ins, I figured I needed to come up with something to replace them.  I went browsing on the King Arthur Flour site, and found this recipe for Cream Cheese Carrot Cake Muffins.  I'll have to make the muffins at some point, but for now, I just borrowed the filling.  I actually reduced it a bit--I mixed together 150 grams of neufchatel (2/3 of an 8-ounce package), 35 grams of sugar (about 3 tablespoons) and a couple drops of Fiori di Sicilia (I'd just use a bit of vanilla extract if you don't have that).  I put some batter in the bottom of each muffin cup, added a small scoop of filling, and topped it with more batter, so the cups were almost full.  I baked my muffins for 20 minutes at 375ºF.

The verdict?  Sometimes it's hard for me to predict what the reaction is going to be at work.  Interestingly enough, it's often the non-chocolate goodies that get the best reception, and that was certainly the case with these muffins.  They were a huge hit!  I think we're all ready for fall flavors, and the cinnamon and ginger in these definitely made me think of autumn.  It might be time to find some pumpkin recipes, too. =)   

For the original muffin recipe, head over to Nancy's blog.  To see what everyone else made this week and last, check out the Links for the muffins and crumble.  

That's the way I like it

I've been trying to write this post for the past week, and just haven't been able to figure out what to write.  Then last night I opened up my Google Reader, clicked on the latest Baking Banter post, and started laughing.  Why?  Because I'm a proud DBCB, and have been for a long, long time.  What's a DBCB, you ask? A Designated Birthday Cake Baker, of course.  Meaning that I bake birthday goodies for all the people I work with.  I've been doing it for about 15 years, and it's always appreciated.  Sometimes it's cake, sometimes cupcakes.  I've made strawberry shortcake a couple times, and several cheesecakes.  I'll come up with something on my own if necessary, but I certainly take requests.  The one that sticks out most in my mind is the German Chocolate Cake I made a few years ago for one of my employees.  I absolutely detest coconut, so I didn't actually sample the topping or the finished cake.  Fortunately, it was  a hit.  And everyone was amused by the fact that along with the cake, I also brought the rest of the bag of coconut to work.  I wasn't about to let it stay in my house!

For this latest cake, I didn't have to do anything traumatic like buying coconut.  =)  I asked M, the birthday girl, if she had any special requests.  She commented on how much she liked the texture of the frosting on the cupcakes I'd brought in a while back.  They were topped with Swiss meringue buttercream, which I've made many times.  Her only other request was something non-chocolate.  As Brianna would say, she likes chocolate, but it's not her favorite.  So I decided to go with a classic vanilla cake topped with vanilla buttercream.  I thought M would be happy with it, and I suspected that no one else would complain.  It's kind of like my favorite plain cheese pizza.  Most people might not request it, but no one will turn it down if it's around!  

For the cake, I used my favorite white cake recipe from The Cake Bible, the White Velvet Butter Cake.  I added a tablespoon of rainbow non-pareils to the batter to make the layers more festive.  You just have to work quickly to fold them in, so you don't end up with streaks of color in the batter instead of just polka dots.  I wanted a taller cake, so I baked the batter in 8" round pans, rather than the 9" ones called for in the recipe.  The layers took about 40 minutes to bake.  

As I mentioned, for the frosting, I knew I wanted to make a Swiss meringue buttercream.   I decided to try out a new recipe, from The Sweeter Side of Amy's Bread.  The main difference is that it uses about 20% shortening instead of all butter, which is supposed to help keep the frosting a bit more stable at room temperature.  As hot as it's been here lately, I wanted all the help I could get to keep the frosting from melting.  

When I was assembling the cake, I topped the bottom layer with vanilla buttercream, then had the idea to add something else.  I still had some of the raspberry "sauce" that I used for this ice cream, so I spread it on top of the frosting, before adding the second cake layer.  The whole cake got covered in buttercream, then I piped rosettes around the top (thanks to another Baking Banter post for the inspiration) and a shell border around the bottom.  The finishing touch was some rainbow sparkling sugar.

The verdict?  This cake was a huge hit with the birthday girl and everyone else who tried it.  The frosting was still rather soft, but I think it did hold up a bit better than my usual all-butter SWBC would have.  The raspberry filling in the middle was just what the cake needed--a tart contrast to all the sweetness.  I'll definitely be using that again.  

I had a lot of fun making this cake.  I love the way it turned out.  One of my favorite parts of baking is pulling together a bunch of components from different sources to make something new.  I might not make this exact cake again, but that's okay, since I'll enjoy making the next one just as much.  I encourage you to pull some books off your shelves (or find recipes online, if you prefer) and do the same thing.  Have fun!

Sundae Sunday - The round-up

Well, it took me a week, but I'm finally back with the round-up of all the delicious treats that my friends made for Sundae Sunday.  Ice cream month is just about done, but there's plenty more summer weather to come (especially around here--they're forecasting 107º for Tuesday!).  Check out all these tempting photos, then try to decide what to make first! =)

First up we have Mike of Living Out West.  He made what he referred to as "Plain Jim" ice cream.  What I'd call it is fabulous.  Vanilla, with both bean and extract, can be enjoyed as is, or become the perfect canvas for other things.  Check it out here.

Next we have a new friend, Elaine, invited by Mike to join in the fun.  She has a lovely blog, California Living.  She immediately won me over by mentioning one of my favorite restaurants from college, The Old Spaghetti Factory. =) She went all out and made three different flavors, which she then combined for some fantastic homemade spumoni.

I invited a fairly new friend as well.  Margaret of The Irish Mother is someone that I met through Adopt-a-Blogger.  She started her blog to share her collection of family and other recipes, and is doing a wonderful job of it.  In fact, she's about to celebrate her 1-year blogiversary next week.  For our Sundae event, she took a delicious-looking Chocolate Velvet ice cream recipe and made it even more decadent by adding cheesecake!  Go read all about it here.

Now we go from something totally decadent to something light and refreshing.  Leslie of Lethally Delicious shared this lovely mango sorbet with us.  She advises only using really good mangoes, and gives some great tips on finding them.  Check out her recipe!

Next up is more fruit and gorgeous color from Nancy of The Dogs Eat the Crumbs.  She has a couple favorite ice cream books, but was looking to try something new.  She searched her bookshelf using Eat Your Books, which is also a favorite tool of mine, and found a new recipe for Blueberry Ice Cream.  Read all about the service and the ice cream in her post.

Phyl from Of Cabbages and King Cakes continues our theme of fruity ice creams perfect for enjoying in a heat wave.  He went for a grownup concoction featuring Pimm's No. 1.  I've never tried it, but I definitely want to, now that I've read about Phyl's ice cream.  He uses it with lemon and lime curd to make a delicious citrus ice cream.  Read about it here.  

Margaret decided to borrow an idea from Phyl and feature Lemon Curd Ice Cream on her blog, Tea and Scones.  I'll be busy eating that with my friend Kayte, while everyone else can try the second ice cream she made....

...German Chocolate Pecan Ice Cream.  Sorry, we won't be making this one here, since no one likes coconut. More for the rest of you, right? =P  Be sure to head over to Margaret's blog for more about both of these great recipes.  

On to more chocolate!  Abby of Stir it! Scrape it! Mix it! Bake it! decided to take a break from playing with her new ice cream machine and made us these awesome Chocolate Pudding Pops.  I'm definitely going to have to make these for my girls, since chocolate pudding is a favorite dessert of theirs.  Having it in frozen form will definitely go over well.  You can find the recipe for these chocolate treats here on Abby's blog.   

If you want some delicious items to mix into Mike's vanilla ice cream up above, look no further than Mary's blog, Popsicles and Sandy Feet.  She gives us not one, but two yummy treats that are just perfect for dressing up some homemade or store-bought ice cream.  I don't know which to make first, the Maida Hatter Palm Beach Brownies or the Peanut Butter World Peace Cookies.  Maybe just make both?  Head over to Mary's blog for more, including links to the recipes.  

If you're looking for something to serve alongside your ice cream, Jeannette of The Whimsical Cupcake has a great idea.  She made Buttercrunch Toffee, and then topped her Bourbon Vanilla Ice Cream with some Salted Bourbon-Caramel Sauce.  Sounds like a great way to beat the heat down here in Texas, where Jeannette and I both live.  She has all the recipes here.  

While Jeannette may be the closest to me geographically, this next treat comes from the person farthest away.  My blogging friend Marthe of The Baking Bluefinger sends us this lovely sundae all the way from The Netherlands.  She decided to make use of a gift from a Canadian friend, and made us a treat that features lots of maple syrup--Maple Syrup meringues topped with Maple Ice Cream, then topped with whipped cream and a drizzle of more maple syrup.  You can find out more on her blog (now that her internet is cooperating!).  

That brings us to my contribution, which also follows a theme.  Mine was caramel.  My sundae starts with a waffle bowl, which I filled with Salty Caramel Pecan Praline Ice Cream and topped with an amazing Butterscotch Sauce.  And don't forget some whipped cream and a cherry!  For more info and a recipe for the sauce, head over here.  

I hope you've enjoyed the showcase of our frozen favorites.  Next up will be an Autumn event--I'm still working on a theme--that will take place in late September or early October.  If you'd like to be part of the fun, you can email me at diskitchennotebook at gmail dot com and I'll send you the details when we get closer.  (I plan to contact all past participants unless you tell me not to.)    

We all scream for...sorbet?

Hopefully you aren't tired of ice cream posts yet. =)  This one is actually courtesy of Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon.  She's our hostess for Tuesdays with Dorie this week, and she picked Creamy Dark Chocolate Sorbet for us to make.  It could be debated whether this recipe is actually for sorbet, since it contains milk, and sorbet generally doesn't.  In fact, Dorie adapted this recipe from one by Pierre Hermé, which was made with just water, no milk.  The substitution of milk for part of the liquid is what makes this sorbet creamy.  The sorbet is pretty easy to make--you combine all the ingredients in a large saucepan, bring the mixture to a boil, and boil it for 5 minutes.  Then you thoroughly chill the mixture and churn it in an ice cream maker.  The result is a bit more "soft-serve" than usually, so it really benefits from several hours in the freezer (I left mine overnight) so it can firm up.  The only changes I made were to add a bit of salt, and to increase the recipe by a third.  I used a mix of chocolates, ending up with an average cacao percentage of about 62%, I think.

The verdict?  It's hard to believe that such a simple recipe can make something so delicious!  Chocolate ice cream is wonderful, but almost too rich sometimes.  This sorbet is extremely chocolatey, but refreshing at the same time.  I'm sure we'll be making it again very soon, since it's rapidly disappearing.  

Here's my ingredient list, since I scaled the recipe up by a third (easier to do after converting to metric) to make about a quart:

300 grams lowfat (1%) milk

300 grams water

200 grams granulated sugar

265 grams bittersweet chocolate

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

For the original recipe, head over to Steph's blog.  And to see what everyone else thought of the sorbet, check out this week's Links.