Hey, check out my new blog! Now that 52 Weeks of Baking is over, I’ve decided to do less baking overall and more exploring of my new city, with all it’s bakeries, baking supply stores and various cool stuff!
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(This week’s recipe came from the awesome blog How to Eat a Cupcake.)
So last week’s cookies went over pretty well with my coworkers, but I decided this time around, I needed to step it up a bit and do something a little more dramatic. So I decided cupcakes would be the way to go. I trolled around on the Internet for a while, looking for an exciting cupcake recipe when I found the S’mores Cupcakes at How to Eat a Cupcake. They looked pretty simple to bake, but were showstoppers once decorated. Winner!
The recipe started with crushing up graham crackers. My food processor unfortunately is in storage right now, so instead I filled up plastic zip-top bags with crackers and rolled them with my rolling pin:
The graham cracker crumbs were mixed with flour, baking powder and salt. Butter and sugar were creamed together in the mixer and four eggs were added one at a time, followed by some vanilla. The graham cracker crumb/flour mixture was added, alternating with milk. Finally, mini chocolate chips were added to the mixture:
The batter was doled out into cupcake tins and baked for roughly 18 minutes until they were nicely browned:
Once the cupcakes were cooled, I went to work mixing eight egg whites with sugar over a double boiler. Once this had reached a temperature of 160 degrees F, it was transferred to my stand mixer which was fitted with the whisk attachment, and whisked for about ten minutes until it was light and fluffy and spreadable:
I put the marshmallow-y mixture into plastic bags and cut off the tip to form a makeshift piping bag. Each cupcake got a generous swirl of meringue, a dusting of crushed graham cracker crumbs and a square of Hershey’s chocolate:
I think they came out quite cute:
I had a ton of the meringue left over, so I thought I’d make myself a little snack:
These cupcakes went over very well at my work. One of my coworkers remarked that they were better than Crumbs, which is a highly regarded bakery in the city. Quite the compliment!
It was quite an adventure getting them there. I take a bus from where we are temporarily staying in New Jersey into Port Authority in New York City. From there, I walk about three blocks to my job. On the walk, as I was stopped at a crosswalk, a guy leaned over my cupcake carrier (which is clear plastic and see-through) and said, “Are those cupcakes? Is that chocolate in there?” to which I replied in the affirmative.
“Are they for a party?” he asked.
“No,” I said. “I’m taking them to work, just because.”
“I wish I was at your job!”
This prompted the guy on the other side of me to ask, “Can I have one?” I probably would have given him one if I could have gotten that carrier open with one hand, which I couldn’t. So I told him that unfortunately, I needed them all for my coworkers.
“Let’s just follow her to her job!” the first guy said.
Further up the street, where people lurk, waiting to hand you a flyer or ask you, “Hey, do you like comedy?” I was confronted by yet another person.
“Hey! Do you like come…whoah! Cupcakes! Those look awesome! Enjoy!”
So, word to the wise. If you don’t want people to hand you flyers, carry cupcakes.
This week one of my coworkers requested a baked good with caramel, so I found something that looks pretty awesome. More next weekend.
(This week’s recipe came from “The America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book”.)
This week marked the first time I’ve brought baked goods into my new coworkers in Times Square. Now that I’m not driving myself to work, the baked goods I take in for my coworkers have to be fairly easy to transport. I don’t know if any cakes will make their way into that building. Pies, maybe, but the idea of taking a cake on the subway makes me cry.
So, for the first experiment, I thought cookies would be good. And what’s more sturdy and stable than a sugar cookie? But I couldn’t make just a boring old sugar cookie – and my cookie cutters are in storage, so I couldn’t even make cute shapes. I’d have to amp up the flavor.
Luckily, “The America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book” had variations on their sugar cookie recipe that included a Lime Sugar Cookie. Sounded pretty delicious to me!
The recipe started with rubbing some lime zest into sugar, which the cookie dough balls would be rolled in prior to baking:
Next, a fairly straightforward cookie dough was made, with the addition of some more lime zest:
The first batch of cookies didn’t turn out so hot. I made the balls way too big and forgot to flatten them out before baking. So they turned out like this:
I made the cookie dough balls smaller the second time around and remembered to flatten them out. I also sprinkled some additional lime sugar on top to give them an extra crunch:
Much better. Unfortunately, I didn’t take very many pictures as I needed to get out the door with these cookies! My coworkers seemed to enjoy them quite a bit:
Last night, I made the next baked good in my series: S’mores Cupcakes. I plan to write about them this weekend. Highlight: Check out the reviews of Crumbs Bakery on Yelp! One of my coworkers said my cupcakes were better than the ones at Crumbs.
Tags: america's test kitchen family baking book, lime sugar cookie
Yes, I do have some baking from this week to post. I baked breakfast goodies for the set up crew at the Comfest Band Merch Booth on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I’m uploading my photos to Flickr right now, but because the food ones are mixed in with the regular Comfest ones, it’s going to take a while to get everything uploaded. And I’m so tired from this weekend, that I may go to bed before they’re finished which means I’ll post them here tomorrow.
But in the meantime, I’ve stolen another quiz from a baking blog. Danae over at The Busty Baker posted this one and I couldn’t resist. Here they are: Six unimportant things I love.
1. Laura Ingalls Wilder
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I have a somewhat unhealthy obsession with all things LIW. I’ve cleaned out the bookstore where I work of LIW-related books and have ordered the ones we don’t stock. I own all but one season of “Little House on the Prairie” on DVD. I’ve read all of LIW’s books at least twice (my favorites are “Little Town on the Prairie” and “These Happy Golden Years”), and I’m bound and determined to visit Mansfield, Missouri to see Rocky Ridge Farm where Laura and Almanzo Wilder lived.
2. Giant Eagle Market District Unsweetened Black Iced Tea
I have a problem when it comes to this iced tea. I buy four or five of them at a time and they never last beyond two days. Once when we driving to New Jersey for a visit, we stopped at a GetGo in Pennsylvania and they had my iced tea in the little convenience store. I did a happy dance.
This is probably a good time to mention that I’m going to be moving to New York in about a month!!! This is happy news, aside from the fact that there are no Giant Eagles or GetGos in New York, so I’m going to be without my delicious iced tea. I’m seriously considering buying about twenty of them and packing them for the trip. They’re only $1 apiece.
3. My iPhone
Rob and I got matching iPhones about a week before our wedding so we would have them for the honeymoon. I don’t know what we would have done without them. This thing is seriously magical and I’m eternally grateful to be embarking to NYC with it.
4. Comic Strips
Once upon a time I wrote and drew a comic strip. I thought I had a chance at maybe becoming a syndicated cartoonist. Alas, those days are over, but I still love comics. “Pogo” is one of my favorites, even if you have to study 1950’s history to get it. My contemporary favorites include “Get Fuzzy”, “Zits” and, of course, “Retail”. I’ve been known to spend hundreds of dollars on classic comic strip collections. I dropped about $60 on two first-edition Sunday “Pogo” books at Powell’s in Portland, Oregon. Worth it.
5. Cerulean
I love the color, I love the word. I love that in an episode of “The X-Files” called “The Pusher”, a guy convinced a policeman to drive into a cerulean-colored van by repeating, “Cerulean is a gentle breeze.”
6. Hounddog’s Pizza
My husband will kill me for saying this, but man, I’m going to miss Hounddog’s Pizza when we go to New York. I know I’ll be living in the land of awesome pizza, but I’ve really come to love and depend on Hounddog’s meatball and green pepper pizza. I just had it for dinner tonight. Sniff.
Things other people wouldn’t find important that I totally do that I also love:
Jeni’s Ice Cream
My Pink KitchenAid Stand Mixer
Corgis
Cupcakes
Baking books
Miranda Sound
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists
Tags: quiz, unimportant things I love
Shamelessly stolen from How To Eat a Cupcake. Be sure to post it on your baking blog as well!
Here goes!
Metal or non-stick? I think my pans are non-stick…but I still use parchment paper or My Precious.
Cast iron or stainless? Stainless steel. Cast iron is too heavy for me.
Cutting board: silicone or wood? Wood. I’ve got two of ‘em.
Knife: carbon steel or stainless? I have no idea what mine are. They’re Faberware. They were a wedding gift from my Best Woman. She loves giving me knives as gifts.
Kitchenaid or hand mixer? I won’t even dignify this with an answer. Any baker worth her salt has a Kitchenaid stand mixer. I do covet the pink Kitchenaid hand mixer thought, just so I could have a matching set.
Cooktop: gas, electric, induction? Gas. I’ve used electric before though. Electric takes a little longer, but you don’t have to worry about blowing yourself up if the pilot light goes out.
Side-by-side, freezer on top, fridge on top? Boy oh boy, do I want a side-by-side. I’m stuck with the freezer on top.
Apron or whoops? I have two aprons (soon to be three), and I rarely wear them. I probably should. I tend to get stuff all over me.
Mashed potatoes: by hand, ricer, or mixer? I do it by hand. I really want a ricer though.
Sandwich or wrap? Wraps fall apart too easily. Gimme a good ol fashioned sandwich.
PB & _________ ? Smucker’s Grape Jelly. Anything else is a crime against nature.
Pancakes: syrup or applesauce? Applesauce on pancakes??? I’ve never heard of such a thing. I do really like the apple compote you can get at IHOP. But I prefer a little butter and a little syrup.
Cake: scratch or mix? Scratch. I actually have a really difficult time with box mixes now that I know how to bake from scratch.
Chili: beans or no? Only if they’re black beans.
Napkin: cloth or paper? Paper. I know it’s bad for the environment, but I really don’t feel like learning how to use bleach.
BBQ: takes the whole weekend to make or take out? Ehh, I’m not the biggest BBQ fan.
Chicken: white or dark? White.
Ice cream: cone or dish? At home I usually just eat it out of the container (we buy pints, and I don’t eat the whole thing in one sitting, don’t freak out), if I’m out, it’s gotta be in a cone. Mmmm….now you’ve got me thinking about Jeni’s….
Tags: fun, getting to know you, quiz
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