Citrus Circus

I’ve learned to love the simplicity of citrus fruits – both in baking and in cocktails (although the latter category will require a later post where I can really try some interesting concoctions).

Most recently I’ve made some Lemon Drop Meringue cookies and a batch of Anna’s Orange Marmalade. On deck first are the Lemon Drop Meringues – oh meringue-based cookies, why have I thus far forsaken you? Meringues are so delightfully easy and super elegant if you only have a piping bag handy.

Lemon Drop Meringue Cookies

6 egg whites

1/2 tsp cream of tarter

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup sugar

4 tsp lemon zest*

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whip attachment (or by hand if you have the biceps of a Hungarian shot putter) whip the egg whites, cream of tarter, and salt until medium peaks form. Then, gradually add the sugar, a couple tablespoons at a time, until it’s fully incorporated and the meringue is standing at stiff, firm peaks. Fold in the lemon zest and fill a pastry bag fitted with a cute little rosette or other decorative tip.

Pipe onto parchment paper (or a silicone mat) and place baking sheets (you should probably have two full baking sheets – very little space in between them is necessary as no expanding happens during baking.

Bake at 200 degrees for 1½ hours, changing the baking sheets halfway through to ensure even baking. After the time is up, leave the oven door closed, turn the oven off, and leave the meringues alone for 1 hour. After the hour, remove the pans from the oven and let the meringues cool on their sheets before removing (or tasting as the meringues, right out of the oven, will still have a slightly sticky texture).

There – easy as cake… well, easy as meringues. Give it time, it’ll catch on as a phrase ;) Also, this recipe can be halved in a pinch. In fact, I’ve only ever halved it.

*The large amount of lemon zest is as reflective of the volume of the whipped egg whites as it is reflective of the lack of other lemon flavors available. While you could use lemon extract, I doubt other flavorful ingredients would work – lemon oil would probably prevent the egg whites from whipping, and I can’t imagine that the acid from lemon juice would be good either – but I am always interested in getting the most intense flavor possible so I will experiment with these guys more. As it stands, the zest is certainly enough for now.

Next up is Anna’s Orange Marmalade. This recipe comes from the wonderful Ina Garten and, more specifically, from one of her Barefoot Contessa cookbooks. As it stands, I don’t think any other Food Network chef can beat Alton Brown in terms of entertainment or raw, animal, sex appeal, but Ina Garten comes close (on both counts). Say what you will, I have yet to make a Barefoot Contessa recipe that hasn’t turned out both beautifully and tasty – that kind of talent deserves respect. One of her first recipes I tried that really won me over was Eli’s Asian Salmon. Go on, find it online and check it out, it’s a wonderful party recipe, and the blend of Asian ingredients has lead to so many other amazing recipes I’ve created.

Anna’s Orange Marmalade

4 navel Oranges, preferably juicy and seedless

2 lemons

8 cups sugar

Cut the oranges and lemons in half cross ways. Then slice them into incredibly thin half-moons and place, with any collected juices, into a large stainless steal pot. Add 8 cups of water to the pot and bring to a boil, stirring often. Once the mixture has boiled, remove it from the heat and stir in the 8 cups of sugar until it all dissolves.

Leave the mixture in the pot over night. (Don’t you love when recipes have this kind of step? I feel like, at some point in the initial development, the original chef just forgot about it altogether… until the next morning at least.)*

The next day, bring the mixture back to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and let it simmer, uncovered for 2 hours. Turn the heat up to medium and boil gently, stirring often, for another 30 minutes. Cook the marmalade until it reaches 220 degrees on a candy thermometer. To check the doneness, place a small amount of the marmalade on a plate and put it in the refrigerator until it’s cool but not terribly cold. It should be firm neither runny nor hard. If it’s runny, cook it down a bit more. If it’s too hard, add more water.

Pour the marmalade into clean, hot mason jars and process in a water bath to preserve the marmalade. Stores for up to a year.

*I love asterisks. I should note that, at the time I publish this post, I am only at this step and have yet to finish cooking down the marmalade. It’s looking rather amazing though :)

Wow

I have to say, I started this blog as a way to catalogue my own experiments with cooking. It's provided a great repository of recipes (and trials and errors) that I've returned too frequently. Towards the end of this past quarter though, things were getting crazy with school and grad school applications and all the extra cooking I wanted to do became more like a chore than a nice relief. I definitely plan on continuing my blog and hopefullyI can keep up with the "something sweet and something savory" each week eventually. After I get into the swing of things, I'll be happy to have regular, weekly updates for a bit though.

In the meantime, it's been a really long time since I updated last. Being home comes with it's ups and downs.

Ups

• large, warm, cozy bed and I don't have to pay the gas bill to keep it warm and cozy
• I get to see all of my friends from undergrad and get to see my family for more than a couple days
• I get to enjoy Lexington, Chinese places that deliver, and good pizza-and-beer places to eat.
• I don't have to work (first break in more than two years, though I haven't calculated how long exactly).

Downs

• No decent internet connection that lets me update or correspond with any sort of regularity. (Thankfully Danville is only a 20-minute drive from home)

I don't think I'll be able to completely update until I return to school, shortly after Christmas, but I definitely have some great recipes I want to log on here: starry starry night cookies from Confections of a Closet Master Baker, lime snowball cookies, cranberry bliss bars, and lemon drop meringues for starters. My dining room table (where all of the sweets are getting ready to be gift wrapped and given to friends and family) looks a little like a winter wonderland of Christmas confections - and I couldn't be happier with them :)

I also really want to try this dessert I saw on a some show or another. Basically, the chef made a large meringue snowman, half-baked it, scooped out the uncooked insides, returned the shell to the oven to crisp up, then filled the shell with chocolate mousse. TOO CUTE and I bet delicious as all get out.

My oh my oh, when I return to Ohio, great things will come :)

Super Mega Update

Well, November is half way over and I've done a terrible job of updating lately. The past few weeks have been pretty crazy. Hopefully, this mega-update will suffice. I'm not sure how much I'll get to cook at home over the break. Scratch that - I'll get to cook a metric shit ton - but I don't know how often I'll be able to update.

Onto some of my more interesting recent endeavors. Tomato Soup with Ricotta Dumplings. Good, not great and probably not worth my time in the future. It was easy enough, but the dumplings were either too tough or too silky - they seemed to either be stones or they would simply melt into the soup.



Next up... mmm two delicious pomegranates become...



Beautiful, delicious pomegranate seeds: yay antioxidants!!! (Also, if Persephone ate only six of these to tide her over while she was in Hades, honky bitch was anorexic).



By reducing the amount of brown sugar, I actually have created some gluten-free peanut butter cookies that are both chewy and wafer thin - perfect for sandwiching with peanut butter mmmm... also, Reduced-Fat Jif = AMAZING



Finally, on this mega-update post: what won't I do for my class? Space Invader Cupcakes? Check... I'm kind of super proud of these guys. Fondant + Scissors = heaven. Period.

Cranberry Raisin Bagels

It's been about 5 days since I made these guys, so I suck at updating, but still... I so love bagels...

I used the same recipe from last week (or a few posts ago). Only I substituted half of the bread flour that I normally use for all of my baking purposes, for whole wheat flour. This provides a nuttier flavor and texture.

Then, with the flour and salt, I added 3/4 cup each raisins and cranberries. Everything else about the recipe was the same as before - knead, let the dough rise, make bagels, boil, bake. After I boiled the bagels but before they went into the oven, I sprinkled oats on top - more for affect than anything.



I have to say, these bagels well exceeded my expectations. They were so much better than last weeks. I think I may have been a little more liberal in my use of water and thus my used of flour. In the end though the dough itself seemed softer. I definitely want to recreate these results in the future.



Coming up, more bagels, this time I' making jalepeno-cheddar bagels for my friend Jess, and tomato basil soup with ricotta dumplings. If I'm feeling extra awesome this weekend, I may make some peanut butter and jelly cookies.

Beer Ice Cream

Featuring the best ice cream base I think I've ever made:

Beer Ice Cream

1 cup sugar
6 egg yolks
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 1/2 cups half and half

1/2 cup whole milk
1 tsp vanilla

2/3 cup dark stout (I used Founders Breakfast Stout)

For the base:

Whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, and corn starch. In a medium saucepan heat the half and half until it's boiling. Temper the egg yolk mixture with the hot cream, then return the mixture to the sauce pan and stir constantly, until thick. Then strain and chill. This is the best ice cream base ever, from here you can add 1 cup of milk and vanilla and whatever flavorings you want. Once you have the custard down, everything else is just making sure the liquids measure out correctly. For this recipe I also added 1 tsp instant coffee granules to the egg sugar mixture to give it a slightly coffee flavor.

For this recipe I reduced the whole milk by 1/2 cup and replaced it with 2/3 cup beer. Originally I planned on doing a one to one replacement, but decided I wanted a slightly beer-ier flavor. More water based liquid = larger ice crystals, so be careful of doing this.

Then I let the coffee/beer ice cream mixture chill in the refrigerator until it was nice and cold and put it in my ice cream maker for about 35 minutes.



*Gorgeous*



*Delicious*

Up next... cranberry raisin wheat bagels :)

Recipe Redux

I've been terrible at posting this week. My laptop has been removed from my room to our kitchen which, one would think, would equal more posting. However, the opposite has been true.

So let's look back, shall we?

I made some banana bread using my recipe for banana muffins. However the only nut I had were some almonds. This was only moderately successful. I really do prefer muffins, but I just need to find my old banana bread recipe and make a loaf of that.

I failed miserably at a recipe of the ultimate chocolate chip cookies. This failure prompted me to purchase a hand mixer. When making those cookies by hand they only seem to work part of the time. A hand mixer is both affordable and will have multiple uses, potentially making my baking life easier.

Last night, I made a steak. I had just turned in my prospectus and had drink with the head of Rhet Comp and some other second year MA friends. I went home and fired up the range. I set a metal (not non-stick) pan on and let it get warm. Then I poured in a little oil and seared the hell out of it. Seasoning-wise I just put some salt and pepper on it. After I had seared both sides I put the steak on a pan and slid it into a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes. In the mean time I poured some beef stock and red wine into the pan to make a pan jus... poured it over the steak when it came out.

I haven't eaten any kind of meat in a few weeks. Not for any reason, I just don't keep it in my diet with any kind of regularity. This steak was heaven.

Up ahead, cinnamon raisin bagels and beer ice cream.

Bagels!

My friend Rebecca definitely has domain over these, but I had to give them a try.

I mean, they're amazing and so delicious, how could I not make them on my own? Also, I've been craving carbs like woah. I try not to keep many around the house - it helps keep the weight down - but once in a while certainly can't hurt. I think, before I get crazy, I'll start with some plain bagels - no frills, no bacon maple bagels, nothing crazy at first.

Bagels, plain and tall

2 tsp active dry yeast (1 package, but the measurement is handy for future reference in case of multiplying/dividing the recipe)
1 1/4 cups warm water
1 1/2 tsp sugar

3 1/2 cups flour (plus more for dusting)
1 1/2 tsp salt

Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the 1/2 cup of the water for 5 minutes. Don't stir the mixture. After the five minutes, stir the mixture. In another large bowl combine the flour and salt, and make a well in the center. Add the water/yeast mixture and half of the remaining water (3/8 of a cup for those keeping count). Mix and add more of the water until the dough comes together. It will be a little wet but still very firm.

Knead the dough for 10 minutes on a lightly dusted surface - a countertop works great, the back of your pet cat, not so much. After you've finished kneading, place the ball of dough (which should be smooth and elastic by now) in another bowl that's been lightly coated with oil. Cover with a damp towel and place in a warm, draft-free area to rise for about one hour.

Once the hour is over, punch the dough down. Yeah, I guess that means to physically punch the dough. Let it rest for 10 minutes. Divide it into 8 equal pieces (or as close to equal as you can manage). Shape each dough into a ball. Coat your finger in flour and press it through, slowly stretching the hole until it's about a third of the diameter of the entire bagel. The holes will close up when boiling so yeah, aim for width. Place bagels on an oiled baking sheet and let rest for 10 minutes.



In the mean time preheat your oven to 425 degrees and set a large pot of water on to boil. Carefully place the bagels in the boiling water and let boil about 2 minutes per side for delicious, chewy bagels. Remove to a paper towel or piece of parchment paper as you boil the rest. Very carefully place the boiled bagels on a lightly oiled baking sheet, and bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes until beautiful and golden brown.



Mmmm... part of a delicious an nutritious breakfast.



Considering my fear of doughs and kneading, I definitely think these guys were a success. In the future, I'll definitely be sure to add more water into the dough and more flour in the kneading process, and probably make sure to knead even more thoroughly, heh.

Still to come: banana bread, curry, cookies YUM!