Vanilla Extract

In case you haven't noticed, I have a mild, yet healthy obsession at the moment with homemade vanilla extract. Not only does it show through on several of my recent blog posts, but my apartment has a very specific designated vanilla resting place where I have several labeled bottles either ready to be used, or in the process of becoming extract.

Could someone please explain to me how something so easy to make costs about $10 for a small bottle at my grocery store? 

Not only is my homemade extract saving me money, but there is such a huge difference in the vanilla flavor quality in my creations now. I like to keep my extract un-strained so that I can see all the little vanilla flecks in everything I make. 

I have been ordering my vanilla beans online. I've used the following sources with good results: Amazon.com and  The Organic Vanilla Bean Company



Homemade Vanilla Extract
From Eating, Etc. 

1 750-ml well-sanitized, dark-colored glass wine bottle
1 wine bottle stopper or clean cork
2c vodka 
8+ good quality vanilla beans, split & snipped in ½” pieces

1) Pour vodka into wine bottle.
2) Place split, snipped vanilla bean pieces in the vodka or rum.
3) Cork & shake well.
4) Let sit for approximately 30 days, shaking the bottle, daily, to distribute the tiny vanilla seeds well for maximum flavor. (This is very forgiveable; even if you don’t shake it that often, it still turns out fine.)
5) After 30 days, begin using.

Mocha Brownies

These brownies are saving my life right now. Allow me to explain: I had surgery on my foot last week. Wait! Don't freak out (I think I did enough of that for everyone)! But it was planned and hopefully I will be dancing again soon. I made these brownies before the surgery and now that I am recovering on the couch, with my "toes above my nose", I look forward every day to eating one of these splendid morsels of awesome-ness after I eat dinner.

The brownies themselves are super chocolatey and definitely on the fudge end of the spectrum. I am usually not a "frosting on my brownies" type of person, but I listened to The Pioneer Woman (as I always try to) and smothered a healthy layer of mocha frosting on top. 



One bite was pure heaven! I have kept them in the refrigerator to keep the frosting a little bit harder. The coffee flavor of the frosting with the fudge brownie....WOO! Out of control! Thanks, Pioneer Woman, for giving me 5 extra brownie-pounds since I can't work out right now. Love, Sugar.



Mocha Brownies from The Pioneer Woman's Cookbook

Four 1-ounce squares unsweetened chocolate

1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs

3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

11/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, softened

5 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/2 to 3/4 cup brewed coffee, cooled to room temperature

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Grease a 9 inch square pan. 

To make the brownie batter, place the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. Melt the chocolate in the microwave in 30-second increments, being careful not to let it burn. Set it aside to cool slightly.

In a medium mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs.

With the mixer on low speed, drizzle in the melted chocolate. Add the vanilla extract and mix.

Add the flour to the bowl and mix just until combined; do not over mix.

Pour the batter into the baking pan. Spread it to even out the surface. Bake at 325°F for 45 to 50 minutes, until the center is no longer soft. Set the brownies aside to cool completely before icing.

To make the icing, in a large mixing bowl, combine the butter, powdered sugar, cocoa powder, salt, and vanilla. Mix until slightly combined, then add 1/2 cup of the coffee.

Whip until the icing is the desired consistency. If the icing is overly thick, add 1/4 cup more coffee. It should be very light and fluffy.

Ice the cooled brownies, spreading the icing on thick. Refrigerate until the icing is firm, then slice the brownies into squares.

Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes

Yesterday was a VERY special person's Birthday. This person loves food, friends, trashy VH1 reality TV shows, drinks, cooking, True Blood, Olsen Twin movies, Chelsea Handler, shopping, shoes and most of all: cheese. Have you guessed who it is, yet? My lovely, but absent, co-blogger Spice!

Seriously, this girl loves cheese. So for her Birthday, to thank her for being born the awesome person she is, I made her Macaroni and Cheese and Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes. The macaroni and cheese was heavenly, but this post is about the Cheesecake. =)

Spice didn't want a whole cheesecake that she had to eat, so she asked for individual cheesecake cupcakes. This recipe, however, made 30. So we now have a plethora of these guys taking over our fridge! AHHH! Cheesecake invasion!

Just kidding. I'm sure they will be gone by the time I get home tonight.

Everyone who loves cheesecake thought these were fantastic. And who doesn't like Oreos?! I must say they were very easy to make, too. You ground some Oreo's, put them in the cream cheese and you shake 'em all about!



Or something along those lines.

The only issue I ran into was that the recipe said to keep the cheesecakes in the muffin tins until you serve them. I only have 2 muffin tins, though. I just made sure that they were completely cooled before I removed them and immediately transfered them to the refrigerator and they were fine.



The Oreo at the bottom of each cupcake got a cheer from every eater. I was afraid they would get soggy sitting on the bottom of all that cream cheese, but several days later, the Oreo's were still crunchy!

Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes from Martha Stewart's Cupcake Book

42 cream-filled sandwich cookies, such as Oreos, 30 left whole, and 12 coarsely chopped
2 pounds cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
1 cup sour cream
Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup.

With an electric mixer on medium high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Gradually add sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in vanilla.

Drizzle in eggs, a bit at a time, beating to combine and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in chopped cookies by hand.

Divide batter evenly among cookie-lined cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until filling is set, about 22 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate at least 4 hours (or up to overnight). Remove from tins just before serving (or take them out after they are cooled like I did).

Vanilla Bean Scones

Before a few months ago, I had not had the pleasure of working with vanilla beans. I was perfectly happy unscrewing the vanilla bottle I bought at the grocery store and using it to my heart's content.

Then, I got it in my head to make my own vanilla extract, so I ordered some vanilla beans online. After my vanilla extract was finished, I used it with such frequency that I had to start a new bottle brewing almost immediately. I couldn't believe how much of a difference homemade vanilla extract made!

So, when I saw The Pioneer Woman's vanilla bean scones, I knew they were in my future. I've made scones before, but the addition of vanilla beans in these really took them above and beyond the call of scone duty. With the glaze on these, they are really almost like a dessert! I ended up glazing them about 3 times because I really wanted them to be coated in the sweet vanilla.

As always, PW has an excellent tutorial on her site, so I wont even try to walk you through it. I don't however, have a pastry cutter, so I used the old trick of using a cheese grater for cutting the cold butter and then working it with my hands. Works like a dream!



Every step in these scones had me pausing to marvel at the little vanilla bean speck throughout...its the small things in life. =)



These scones stayed fresh for a very long time! I had them in a tupperware container and they were still every bit as good a week after I made them!

Vanilla Bean Scones

3 cups All-purpose Flour

⅔ cups Sugar

5 teaspoons Baking Powder

½ teaspoons Salt

2 sticks (1/2 Pound) UNSALTED Butter, Chilled

1 whole Large Egg

¾ cups Heavy Cream (more If Needed)

2 whole Vanilla Beans

3 cups Powdered Sugar, Sifted

½ cups Whole Milk

1 whole Vanilla Bean

Dash Of Salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Split the vanilla beans down the middle lengthwise and scrape out all the vanilla “caviar” inside. Stir caviar into cream. Set aside for 15 minutes.

Sift together flour, 2/3 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt.
Cut cold butter into pats, then use a pastry cutter or two knives to cut the butter into the flour. Keep going until mixture resembles crumbs.

Mix vanilla cream with egg, then combine with flour mixture; stir gently with a fork just until it comes together.

Turn dough onto a floured surface and lightly press it together until it forms a rough rectangle. (Mixture will be pretty crumbly.) Use a rolling pin to roll into a rectangle about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch thick. Use your hands to help with the forming if necessary.

Use a knife to trim into a symmetrical rectangle, then cut the rectangle into 12 symmetrical squares/rectangles. Next, cut each square/rectangle in half diagonally, to form two triangles.

Transfer to a parchment or baking mat-lined cookie sheet and bake for 18 minutes, removing from the oven just before they start to turn golden. Allow to cool for 15 minutes on the cookie sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

To make the icing, split one vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape out the caviar. Stir caviar into milk; allow to sit for awhile. Mix powdered sugar with the vanilla milk, adding more powdered sugar or milk if necessary to get the consistency the right thickness. Stir or whisk until completely smooth.

One at a time, carefully dunk each cooled scone in the glaze, turning it over if necessary. Transfer to parchment paper or the cooling rack. Allow the glaze to set completely, about an hour.

Marshmallows

I have distinct memories of my childhood, plopped in front of a fire pit with a long stick and a marshmallow on the end of it. I remember adults helping me to roast and then eat the warm, gooey marshmallow. I always felt so comfortable in front of the warm fire, like I belonged in that moment.

I also have distinct memories of being an idiot as a child. My friend, Melissa, and I decided one lazy Saturday that we needed to remake the old "Lemonade Stand" idea. After rummaging through my pantry, we happened upon a bag of marshmallows. Being the creative (but stupid) kids we were, we decided that we could make taffy by working each marshmallow with our fingers and then sell it on the street near my house.

There are several things wrong with this scenario. First, who is going to buy marshmallows? And more specifically, who in their right mind is going to buy marshmallows that have been turned inside out by two grubby third graders?

Second, I lived on a very busy and windy road where SUV's aplenty were known to have gone 30 mph over the speed limit. If we had set up a stand on my street, our business and our bodies would undoubtedly have been run over.

Creative? Yes. Smart? Most certainly not.

Thank goodness common sense prevailed: My dad, upon arriving home and finding wads of mushy marshmallow everywhere nicely directed our attentions elsewhere and our idiot project was forgotten.


As I made these marshmallows, I couldn't help but  think about both a warm campfire, and my 3rd grade idiotic idea of the century. My ideas, apparently, have grown a bit with age. I decided to make s'mores with the marshmallows over a candle flame. This idea actually panned out. My friend, Kali, came over to partake of my hairbrained idea. But it actually worked this time! The roommates, Kali and I all roasted marshmallows from kabob sticks over a candle flame!



These marshmallows were awesome. All of us couldn't believe how much better they are than the store-bought ones. They have a very distinct vanilla flavor, which could be due to the homemade vanilla I've been using. They are also very easy to make if you have a stand mixer. This would be a super fun thing to make for a chocolate fondue pot and a girl's night in!

Marshmallows from One Ordinary Day via Alton Brown

3 packages unflavored gelatin
1 cup ice cold water, divided
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
nonstick cooking spray

Place the gelatin into the bowl of a stand mixer, along with 1/2 c. of the cold water.  Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine the remaining 1/2 c. water, granulated sugar, corn syrup, and salt.  Place over medium high heat, cover and allow to cook for 3-4 minutes.   Uncover and clip a candy thermometer to the side of the pan.  Continue to cook until mixture reaches 240 degrees, approximately 7-8 minutes.  Once the mixture reaches the correct temperature, immediately remove it from the heat.

Now turn the mixer on low speed with the whisk attachment in place.  While running the mixer, slowly pour the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl into the gelatin mixture.  Once all the syrup has been added, increase the mixer speed to high.  Continue to whip until the mixture becomes very thick and is lukewarm, approximately 12-15 minutes.  Add the vanilla during the last minute of whipping.

While the mixture is whipping, prepare the pan.  Combine the powdered sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl.  Lightly spray a 9×13″ metal baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.  Add the powdered sugar/cornstarch mixture to lightly cover bottom and sides of pan.  Reserve the rest for later.

When ready, pour the marshmallow mixture into the prepared pan, using a spatula that has been lightly sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.  Spread evenly.  Dust the top with enough of the powdered sugar/cornstarch mixture to lightly coat.  Reserve the rest for later.  Allow the marshmallows to sit uncovered for at least 4 hours or up to overnight.

Turn the marshmallows out onto a cutting board and cut into squares using a pizza wheel dusted with the powdered sugar/cornstarch mixture.  Once cut, lightly dust all sides of the marshmallows with the remaining mixture.  Can store in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks.

Lemon Bars

When the weather turns warm, I find my taste-buds adapt accordingly. Gone are the cravings for carbs, warm soup and creamy pasta. I find myself gravitating towards fruity dishes, lots of fish and especially citrus! 

When the weather began warming up last week. And by "warming up" I mean to say that New York had record-breaking highs for most of the week. For some people, that meant time spent playing frisbee in the park and enjoying margaritas at outdoor restaurants. To me, that meant a 90+ degree office because the building won't turn on the air conditioning before Memorial Day and we can't open any of our windows. I sat melting away in a stuffy office for most of the week. 

In retaliation, I made lemon bars.

These are great, gooey lemon bars that pack a pucker-worthy citrus punch! I doubled the lemon filling and baked for a few extra minutes, which I showed below. The crust is a great building block for the filling and compliments it without being too much like shortbread (which I think sometimes overtakes lemon bars). 

Lemon Bars from Eating, Etc.

Crust:
 2 cups all-purpose flour
 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Filling:
8 eggs 
4 cups sugar
12 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
8 tablespoons flour 
2 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of salt
Zest from 1 lemon 

Crust:
In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, butter and powdered sugar. Spread in a 9 by 13 inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. While crust is baking, work on the filling to be immediately poured over hot crust.

Filling:
In a large bowl, mix all filling ingredients together with a spoon (do not use a mixer). Pour filling over hot crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-28 minutes. While still hot, sprinkle with powdered sugar. Let cool for 15 minutes and then cut into squares. Store in the refrigerator.

Baja Fish Tacos with Mango Salsa

This week there has been a heat wave of epic proportions in New York. Okay, I may be exaggerating a teeensy weeensy bit. May I also add that I am a heat wimp. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, where summers were mild with little to no mugginess. Imagine my disgust at sticky, indian summers here in New York. Blech!

Well, in light of our recent heat wave, Spice was kind enough to make me something I have been begging her to make for months: Fish Tacos!!

And they sure did NOT disappoint! These really helped me embrace summer. The fresh fish, mango and fruity tang gave me so much to savor. The original recipe calls for halibut, but Spice and I could only find cod in our grocery store. I'm sure you could also substitute other white fish such as striped bass or turbot.

Baja Fish Tacos with Mango Salsa from Cooking Light Jan/Feb 2010

1 cup diced peeled ripe mango
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 jalapano pepper, seeded and minced
5 cups canola oil
3.38 ounces all-purpose flour (about 3/4 cup)
1 cup beer
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 1/2 pounds skinless halibut fillet, cut into 16  strips
8 (6-inch) corn (we used flour) tortillas

1. Combine first 6 ingredients; set aside.

2. Clip a fry thermometer to the side of a large, heavy saucepan. Add oil to pan; heat over medium-high heat until thermometer registers 375 degrees F. Be sure to heat the oil to the proper temperature and maintain the heat. Otherwise the fish will absorb unnecessary fat and calories as it cooks.

3. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, beer, black pepper, 1 teaspoon salt and garlic powder, stirring with a whisk. Add fish to batter, tossing gently to coat. Remove fish from batter. Carefully add 4 or 5 fish pieces to hot oil; cook 4 to 5 minutes or until golden brown and done, turning occasionally. Drain fish on paper towels. Repeat procedure in batches with remaining fish.

4. Heat tortillas according to package directions. Divide fish evenly among tortillas; spoon about 2 tablespoons salsa into each tortilla.

Fresh Coconut Cake

Spice and I have a tradition (is it a tradition if it is 2 years and counting?) of having people over for Easter dinner. This year was no different, except we had a few extra people who came over to help bag cookies (see previous post). In leafing through our latest copy of Cooking Light, Spice and I decided a Coconut Cake would be just perfect!

Because it is Cooking Light, they go out of their way to highlight the important flavors and try to diminish the calories and fat. Rock on, Cooking Light!

Since this cake has little butter and less than half the fat of a regular coconut cake, I think it is absolutely a must to use fresh coconut. I was a bit apprehensive about the whole draining coconut milk and cracking the coconut, but Spice jumped right in and did it with little trepidation. And with ease, I might add!

I thought the cake was a little on the dry side, and almost had the consisency of an angel food cake. The frosting is an Italian meringue that gives the cake a fluffier texture. For a lower fat cake, I really enjoyed it as a whole! The coconut is definitely prevalent, which is how I like it! =)

Fresh Coconut 101:



1. Use a nail and small hammer to make 3 holes in the eyes of the coconut; Pour coconut water into a clean measuring cup. Have patience. Set the coconut on top of the measuring cup and let it sit there for an hour or so.

2. Warm the coconut in a preheated 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes. Wrap the whole coconut in a kitchen towel. On a steady, hard surface, give the coconut several good raps all over to crack open. ( Cooking the coconut helps separate the coconut meat from the shell.)

3. With a small, sharp knife, cut the creamy white fresh from the shell and tough inner brown layer. Shave into large, thin pieces. Spice and I shredded the coconut on a cheese grater. Don't laugh at us. The next day we saw Martha using a peeler to shred her coconut. It makes the coconut shreds longer and prettier. =)

Coconut Cake:

Cooking spray
1 tablespoon cake flour
12 ounces sifted cake flour (about 3 cups)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups sugar, divided
2/3 cup butter, softened
1 cup warm coconut water (from 1 small brown coconut)
1 teaspoon vanilla
6 large eggs whites

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Lightly coat 3 (9-inch) round cake pans with cooking spray; line bottom of pans with wax paper. Lightly coat wax paper with cooking spray; dust pans with 1 tablespoon flour.

3. Combine 12 ounces (about 3 cups) flour, baking powder, and salt; stir with a whisk. Place 1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed for 2 1/2 minutes or until well blended. Add flour mixture and coconut water alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat in 1 teaspoon vanilla. In a separate bowl, beat 6 egg whites on high speed until foamy using clean, dry beaters. Add reamining 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form (do not overbeat). Carefully fold egg whites into batter; pour batter into prepared pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 18 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes on wire racks; remove from pans. Discard wax paper. Cool completely on wire racks.



Frosting:

4 large egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups shaved fresh coconut, toasted

To prepare frosting, combine 4 egg whites, cream of tartar and 1/8 teaspoon salt in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until foamy. Add 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form. Combine remaining 1 1/4 cups sugar and 1/4 cup water in a saucepan; bring to a boil. Cook, without stirring, until candy thermometer register 250 degrees. With mixer on low speed, pour hot sugar syrup in a thin stream over egg whites. Gradually increase speed to high; beat 8 minutes or until thick and cool. Stir in 1 tablespoon vanilla.



To frost, place 1 cake layer on a serving plate, and spread with 1 cup frosting. Top with another cake layer. Repeat prodecure with 1 cup frosting and remaining cake layer, ending with cake layer on top. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake. Gently press shaved coconut onto top and sides of cake. I found that pressing a wet spatula in the shaved coconut and pressing it onto the sides of the cake worked quite well!

Baseball Sugar Cookies Part Deux

First off, Happy Easter!

Second, I disappeared last week. It was for a good reason, though. I was baking and decorating almost 400 sugar cookies for my friend, Rebecca's wedding favors. I sure had fun making all of these and was able to use a new technique I learned about too!

Over at Bake at 350, I learned that you can pipe royal icing onto wax paper, peel it off, and stick it onto wet icing on a cookie. While I was reading this post, I kept getting more and more excited thinking about the Yankees and Boston Red Sox logo I knew I was going to have to pipe onto a cookie. If I could be almost 100% accurate, I knew my life would be complete (well, relatively speaking). Given that when I did a test run of these cookies, I found that piping the logos directly onto the cookies made them appear pretty off-kilter. Imagine my excitement at my new use for wax paper!!

At work, I printed off pages of both the Red Sox "B", the Yankees "NY", and "R & S" letters. I made sure they were a dark color so that I could see them easily through wax paper. Then I taped the sheet to my work surface and taped the wax paper to the top of it. Using a size 2 tip, I traced and then filled each logo (about 130 of each).



After letting them dry overnight, I carefull peeled them off the wax paper and set then on plates to be used.

I'd made the cookies about a week beforehand to make sure I had them all baked before I started decorating. I ended up asking Meaghan over at The Decorated Cookie for advice on cookie storage and she told me that I could freeze both undecorated and decorated cookies for several weeks in the freezer. That made me feel a lot better about life in general. =)

After letting the cookies defrost in the plastic bags and tupperware I had froze them in, I layed them out on literally every open surface in our apartment. It was a cookie explosion!



Then I outlined each cookie, and filled them in as usual. Thank goodness Spice helped me fill some of the cookies or I never would have finished. Actually, I would have finished, there just would have been an all night cookies decorating excursion this past weekend.



After several cookies were filled and still wet, I placed one of the logos onto the icing. I couldn't believe my fortune because they looked great! The only issue I had was that the blue icing on the base of the Yankees cookies bled onto the white logo. Small potatoes.



Almost 400 cookies later, the bad boys were done. The next day, I stacked them up.



Miles upon miles upon miles of cookies. Ready to be bagged and taken away. Far, far away to Philly.



They turned out really well. My favorite were the Red Sox B's. I can't believe how many cookies I made and decorated. It was crazy to see them all lined up in bags ready to be hauled away for the wedding.



Hopefully everyone at the wedding will like them! Rebecca seemed to when she saw them! I used my usual sugar cookie and royal icing recipes here.