Sugar High =)

Happy Turkey Day!

2011-11-25T21:10:00.001-08:00

I know its been forever and a day since I last posted. Honestly, ever since I started the business side of Sugar High and full time work, I just haven't had anytime. But I've missed blogging. More than I thought I would. I have baked A LOT since my last post, don't worry. And quite a bit has been actual paid orders too! But this post is about our Thanksgiving feast =) It was pretty much all me and Sophie. Here was our menu:

Herb Roasted Turkey
Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes
Cheddar Bay Biscuits
Green Bean Casserole
Turkey Stuffing
Corn Bread Muffins
Cranberry Sauce
Pumpkin Cheesecake
Pumpkin Pecan Pie
Salad

I had wanted to make some pumpkin soup and sweet potato's and maybe even some kind of creamed spinach and corn on the cob. But it was basically just the direct family, and we still have a lot of leftovers. But its yummy leftovers so we don't mind. And we all love turkey sandwiches and won't get tired of them even if that's all we do with the leftovers.

The spread of sides...

Sophie's Cheddar Bay Biscuits. Even yummier when slathered with Sophie's herb butter!

Cheddar scalloped potatoes

Stuffing with ground turkey, mushrooms, bell peppers, celery, rosemary, thyme, sage and parsley.

Corn bread muffins

Green bean casserole with mushrooms, bell peppers, corn, french fried onions and herbs

Home made cranberry sauce! Mommy and Sophie love it especially with their leftover turkey sandwiches.

One of mommy's famous salads

My cross between two classics: pumpkin AND pecan pie. Why choose?

And yummy pumpkin cheesecake! I didn't know how much I'd like it but its not an overwhelming flavor and is super smooth with a perfect balance of richness. Mmm I think I'm going to go have a slice now.

I think some of my favorites were of course the turkey and then the green bean casserole. But everything was super yummy. We didn't get to go around the table and say what we were thankful for, which I really missed. The concept of Thanksgiving, and just appreciating what we have is something I really love, and I wish we had slowed down to remember that this year. Since I didn't get to say it out loud at the dinner table, I'm going to go ahead and say it here.This year, I am extremely grateful for the wonderful people who have made me feel like my life is practically perfect the way it is right now and who are so extremely patient with me and love me with all their hearts despite all my shortcomings. All these people know who they are and were a part of my Thanksgiving in some way or another, except for my Abu-man who is traveling in Pakistan for work right now.

I already can't wait for Thanksgiving next year!

Sugar High

2011-09-21T11:06:00.001-07:00

The new website is www.sugarhighoc.com

Sugar High Menu

2011-07-31T17:15:00.000-07:00

Sugar High strives to bring the sweet aroma of home baked goodness to your doorstep. Using unique recipes and only the freshest ingredients, we deliver quality desserts that both impress and satisfy.

In our opinion, every palette deserves its own flavor. If it's not on our menu, ask us anyway! We will take requests and substitute with specialized ingredients that match your preferences.

Holidays and special occasions deserve their own brand of indulgence, so treat family and friends to seasonal treats, personalized and decorated per your specifications. Whether for the dining table, a party, or simply the odd guilty pleasure, Sugar High is there to meet all the sweeter needs of life.

Call or email to place an order:
orders@sugarhighoc.com
(714) 227-6134

Below you'll find my current menu, with links to blog entries (aka drool worthy pictures) of what I have to offer so far. Don't be scared to make a special request if you don't see what you'd like on my menu, it doesn't mean I haven't made it or won't be willing to try!

Bars

Tahitian Blondies
Coconut Cookie bars
Blueberry lemonade bars
Strawberry lemonade bars
Browned butter blondies
Chunky blondies: with any mix-ins
Cookies n' Cream blondies
Boyfriend Brownies: fudgy brownies with any mix-ins
German Chocolate Brownies
Smore Bars
Samoa Bars
Oatmeal Gianduja Bars
Oatnut Carmelitas
Walnut Date Bars
Mmmm bars: oatmeal chocolate caramel
Peanut Butter brownies
Turtle blondies
Honey nut brownies
Cashew oatmeal bars
Yum Yum bars: white chocolate macadamia caramel
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cream Cheese bars
Pecan Cinnamon streusel topped pumpkin bars
Chipster topped brownies: chocolate chip cookies mixed with brownies
Apple Oat bars
Magic Bars: graham cracker crust layered with chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, walnuts and coconut and condensed milk (can use other mix-ins)
Banana nut cinnamon bars
Hazelnut Cappuccino Brownies
Cinnamon Coffee Bars
Coconut shortbread
Red Velvet cream cheese bars

Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies: milk or dark chocolate
Mocha Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chocolate Chip Walnut
Triple Chocolate Chip
Mint Chocolate Chip
Oreo stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies
Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip
Ginger Chocolate Chip
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip
Cookies n' Cream Cookies: chocolate chip cookie dough with oreo mix-ins
Candy Cookies: any candy e.g: toblerone, snickers, mnms, etc.
Double Chocolate Chip
Oatmeal
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip
Cornflake Cookies
Sesame Cookies
Peanut Butter Cookies
Red Velvet Cookies
Sugar Cookies: decorated, with or without icing
Snickerdoodles
Biscotti: almond, walnut, pecan, macadamia nut, hazelnut, chocolate chip
Rugelach: any fruit flavored filling, honey almond, chocolate hazelnut, chocolate
Shortbread: poppyseed, sesame, chocolate chip, any nuts
Cranberry Macadamia
Cashew Butter Cookies
Coconut Macaroons

Breads

Scones
Banana Bread
Yogurt Bread: almond, vanilla or coconut
Mango Bread
Muffins: banana, blueberry, chocolate chip, chocolate
Almond Honey Cake
Pound Cake
Orange Coffee Cake
Nutella Bread
Walnut Date Bread
Cinnamon Rolls

Cake

Dessert

Tiramisu
Cheesecake: red velvet layer, coconut, marble, strawberry, caramel
Brownie Trifle
Tres Leches
Appleberry crumble
Red Velvet Crème Brulee: layer of red velvet cake topped with crème brulee
Souffle: chocolate, almond
Molten Lava Cake
Crème Brulee
Pie: blueberry, cherry, strawberry, apple, pecan, pumpkin, peach, chocolate
Smore puffs
Eclairs
Chocolate Mousse
Chocolate Calzone
Chocolate Walnut Pie
Truffles: red velvet, oreo, milk or dark chocolate, cookie dough, mocha

Yoshi's Bridal Shower

2011-07-24T09:09:00.000-07:00

My best friend since 4th grade just got married this weekend. For her bridal shower I was in charge of all the desserts. Since I was coming from California the day of her shower (in VA) I decided to make all the cookie dough ahead of time, freeze it and bring it in my carry-on. Yasmin's bridal shower cookies extravaganza included Coconut Pecan, White Chocolate Mint, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip and Double Chocolate cookies.

It was a garden theme bridal shower, so I decided to make coconut cupcakes and decorate them with flowers and piped green icing for grass. I had limited decorating supplies and did what I could with what I had here. It's so much easier to bake and decorate in your own kitchen with all your things...

Oatmeal Cinnamon Chip Cookies

2011-07-07T22:52:00.000-07:00

These are the cookies I also made for 4th of July. Erum loves oatmeal cookies, and she loves cinnamon. So I thought I'd make some oatmeal cinnamon chip cookies. My uncle's daughter absolutely loved them, and they're the kind of thing you just keep reaching for. Especially when they're just sitting in front of you, taunting you. They're just the right amount of chewy with a bit of crispiness too and the perfect texture for an oatmeal cookie. Without the yuckiness of raisins of course =)

I haven't really experimented with oatmeal cookie recipes recently, and used my go to for now, just subbing with cinnamon chips instead of chocolate.

French Yogurt Bread

2011-07-07T22:36:00.000-07:00

I absolutely love Dorie Greenspan. For my birthday, JC sent me her new cook book which I cannot wait to try out =) Even though it has more cooking than baking stuff, absolutely everything looks insanely yummy. Except for the things with raisins. Yucky. I tried teaching my niece that raisins are yucky (and that penguins are awesome and monkeys are horrible creatures). Yes, I'm going to brainwash her to love everything I do =) She's so going to love vanilla over chocolate if I have anything to do with it.

For our family get together on the lake for 4th of July, I decided to take some cookies and something sugar free for my two uncles who are diabetic too. Dorie's french yogurt bread works perfectly for my DF baking options, so here's my adapted version of her recipe to make it DF (Diabetic Friendly).

I didn't get a lot of good shots before we left for my uncles unfortunately...

Boyfriend Brownies & Donuts

2011-07-03T02:42:00.000-07:00

Boyfriend Brownies. I know it sounds weird, but there's a story behind it. I'm not sure if I've told this one before, so if you've heard it before, I apologize. It started when I first moved in with Sophie and she was on this super healthy diet, which totally didn't work with my baking hobby. So I would bake and take things to my other friends to fuel my addiction. Sophie would get upset when I'd take my baked goods to other people and started calling them her boyfriend brownies because she compared it to those girls who don't actually want to be with a guy, but want all his attention and don't want him to be with anyone else. So she doesn't actually want to eat my brownies (cuz they'll make her fat) but she doesn't want me to make them for anyone else either. Hence, the boyfriend brownies were born.

Anyway, so Amar bhai wanted brownies and since I don't let anyone in my family use mixes, that means I'm supposed to make them for him whenever he wants them. I have no problem with that =) I just didn't have any walnuts or anything fancy so I had to go with just basic brownies. And the key to amazing brownies is to not use too much flour.

These have a wonderful crackly, papery crust but are gooey and fudgy and chewy and soft (and yummy!) on the inside.

I also lost a bet a long time ago and have owed my friend Imran donuts ever since. Today was his birthday so I finally paid my debt. Not that I minded that either.

Cookies N' Cream Blondies

2011-06-17T23:29:00.000-07:00

Oh how I've missed you measuring cups and mixing bowls and wonderful oven and SLR camera. It's been a while. We're setting up our new house and I put away some of my baking supplies today and my eyes lit up over things I forgot I had. I can't wait to be completely moved in so I can start baking in my new double ovens!!!

But since we're not completely set up yet and the container hasn't come in yet, I decided to bake something for Amar for father's day at their house. I still need to buy a mixer and mixing bowls etc. for our house (aka for ME). Any suggestions on the perfect hand mixer are greatly appreciated. I have yet to buy myself a kitchenaid stand mixer, and that will probably be a gift to myself when I get a job. So for now, a hand mixer will do. But I still want a nice one because I'm going to use a regular hand mixer even when I get my stand mixer.

I had seen this recipe for oreo brownies a while back, but I personally think that will be too intense since brownies are so rich and chocolatey already. I know they'll be good but I just didn't want to make brownies. So I decided to make cookies n' cream blondies instead. I was worried it might be too dry as a mix-in, but trust me, they're not. These are absolutely amazing. Especially if you like the cookies n' cream flavor, and who doesn't???

They are a little on the thin side because I didn't use the right proportions for the pan I used (it wasn't quite half of a 9x13 but I cut the recipe in half). Normally I would double this recipe and use a 9x13 for nice thick blondies.

Neiman Marcus CCC

2011-06-09T02:24:00.000-07:00

I can't wait to get back to an electric oven. Gas is just so unreliable. At least the one's I've been dealing with for a while now that use cylinders where the pressure has its own mood and you never know what temperature you're really baking at. That being said, this was the last thing I baked in Kuwait since I leave for LA tonight. I can't wait to get back home =)

Erum's friend is allergic to nuts (I feel bad for him since I'm obsessed with them). So I made half of these cookies with just chocolate chips and the other half with walnuts. I've been wanting to try this Neiman Marcus recipe out for a while. They are pretty good if you just want a reliable cookie. But its not the Jacques Torres cookie. That one is just amazing. I don't quite understand baking this for 20 minutes at 300 though. And I didn't quite follow that instruction especially because my oven wouldn't really stay on if it was only at 300 so I'm not sure if this is a fair judgement of this recipe. So I will definitely be trying it again at my new house soon to see.

Like I said, still super yummy. Chewy and soft on the inside, a little too crispy on the outside for my taste but it depends on how you like your CCC's. Still addictive. And definitely the kind of cookie that makes you want to just sit there with a jug of milk next to you. Oh and the inspiration behind these cookies is that I was watching the Top Chef episode where they're judged by sesame street characters (including the cookie monster and Elmo!) for their cookies. And he kept saying 'cookie, cookie, cookie' in this adorable cookie monster voice. So for the rest of the day Erum and I went around saying 'cookie' like him. Say cookie enough times and you'll start craving them too.

Banana Date Bars

2011-06-08T03:49:00.000-07:00

The recipe I was originally using is from Cooks illustrated. Except I decided not to follow the instructions, so its nothing at all like it was meant to be. The CI recipe calls for releasing all the water from the bananas and straining it out and further reducing it. I didn't do that. And I added some dates that we had leftover, but you can barely taste them since we only had about 1/2 a cup. Oh and walnuts and cinnamon. Because you can't have banana bread/bars without walnuts and cinnamon. Its blasphemous.

Regardless, these were yummy. Especially when they're warm out of the oven. And when you toast them up a little with a cup of coffee. Yummmm.

Erum decided to be dorky and put our initials in, again

Ingredients:
1¾ cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
5 bananas
8 tbsp butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 large eggs
¾ cup packed light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup chopped dates
1 tbsp cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Prepare 9x13 baking pan (spray with cooking spray, oil, butter...) In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt; whisk together and set aside.
Place 5 bananas in a microwave safe bowl; cover with plastic wrap and make several slits in the wrap to act as steam vents. Microwave on high until the bananas are soft and have released liquid, about 5 minutes. In a large bowl, mash bananas with a potato masher or whisk until fairly smooth. Whisk in the melted butter, eggs, brown sugar and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients to the bowl with the banana mixture. Fold together gently, just until all of the dry ingredients are incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth with a spatula.
Stir in walnuts, cinnamon and dates. Sprinkle more cinnamon on top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 55-75 minutes.

Almond Honey Cake

2011-06-05T03:45:00.000-07:00

For something so incredibly simple with minimal ingredients, this is surprisingly delicious. Just be careful to whip the egg whites properly till they're good and stiff. And going that extra length to toast the almonds first really does make all the difference.

Sorry again for the bad pictures. But I had to post anyway because I absolutely love this recipe.

Nutella leftovers

2011-06-03T05:09:00.000-07:00

I think I have OCD. I have this overwhelming need to finish things. Well, food specifically. So if there's a half empty jar of nutella, I have to make sure it gets used. I really didn't plan on baking today, especially since we still have brownies sitting around. It was just me and Erum at home the past couple of days and I don't actually like the overly chocolate brownies myself. And there's only so much Erum can eat on her own. But when I walked into the kitchen I could just hear all the half used, almost empty jars and boxes screaming out to me.

So I threw a bunch of leftovers together and made some kind of nutella bread. Don't ask me how much of what I used because I just used whatever we had. It could totally use some more nutella but that's ok. It had that perfect crunchy crumbly crust but was super moist on the inside. I also didn't mean to eat a slice while I was taking pictures, whoops.

Cocoa Brownies

2011-06-01T05:43:00.000-07:00

Some recipes should not be messed with. I should just stick to my brownie recipe. But I needed/wanted to use up the cocoa sitting in the pantry so decided to try a new one. It's not that these are bad, but I think I messed up in two ways. I used a little more cocoa than called for since I just wanted to finish it, and I also over cooked the sugar and butter in the first step. And I'm not a fan of all cocoa brownies in the first place. So the flavor is just too intense for me since I'm not a huge fan of just intense chocolate. Plus, its not like I was using good quality cocoa which would have made all the difference.

That being said, if you like that intensely chocolatey flavor, and super dense brownies, these are for you. They are chewy and dense and rich. Too much for me, but I know Sophie would absolutely love them. Sigh, I miss her.

I found the recipe on the King Arthur Flour website.

Erum decided to be cute and carve our initials into the batter before we baked it, hence the E+S. When I asked why her name got to go first, she said it was cuz otherwise it would look like I had carved the initials for her when it was really the other way around. Punk. I love her.

I also have to make a disclaimer about my pictures lately. The kitchen here has no windows. Literally, there's like one door on the side which opens into a tiny courtyard-ish sort of thing. So I basically rely on the harsh fluorescent kitchen lights which are not cute for pictures. So, my apologies. I'll be back home soon though. Can't wait to see how my new oven in the new house is!!!

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups cocoa
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp espresso powder
1 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
2 cups chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9x 13 pan.
Melt the butter, then add the sugar and stir to combine. Return the mixture to microwave briefly, just until it’s hot. Don't let it start bubbling (be careful not to overcook it, I accidentally read this as heat it until it starts bubbling...)
Stir in the cocoa, salt, baking powder and vanilla. Whisk in the eggs, stirring till smooth; then add the flour and chips, again stirring till smooth. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake for 29-32 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, or with just a few moist crumbs clinging to it. The brownies should feel set on the edges, and the center should look very moist, but not uncooked. Remove them from the oven and cool on a rack before cutting and serving.

Peanut Butter Cookie Sandwiches

2011-05-31T01:47:00.000-07:00

I felt like baking. Who am I kidding, when do I not feel like baking? But anyway, we had a jar of leftover peanut butter that needs to be used up. And foodgawker had me stumble upon these pretty yumwiches (yes I just turned yummy into a noun). Also, today is my Moomsbhai's birthday, and even though I'm not there (and I don't think he really cares for peanut butter either) I still had to bake. Yes, I use whatever excuse I can. I could probably come up with a reason for why I HAVE to bake every single day: 'because its raining', 'there's an oven in this house', 'the sugar is staring at me'. Don't judge me.

The recipe is originally from Martha Stewart.

Berry Crumble

2011-05-26T07:14:00.000-07:00

Mommy, once again last minute, told me she has a dinner to go to tonight, and it would be nice if I baked something for it. So even though I had already turned the oven off and everything was cleaned up, when do I say no to baking?

Since Mommy's taking it for dinner, I can't take a pretty picture of it being served all yummy. But here's where you can see it from times I've made a similar version...

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup bisquick

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 cups corn flakes
2 tbsp cinnamon
1 stick butter

1 can apple pie filling
1 can blackberry pie filling
2 tbsp cinnamon

Directions:
Mix together flour, sugar and butter until crumbly. Mix in cornflakes, they will crush on their own while you mix them in. Grease a 9x13 baking pan. Place 1/4 of the crumble mixture on the bottom. Combine pie fillings and cinnamon. Normally I use my own stew but I'm trying to empty the pantry. Layer with the rest of the crumble mixture. Add sliced and slivered almonds on top. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes depending on your oven. You'll see the mixture bubbling, and the crumble turning golden brown.

Coconut bars

2011-05-26T04:51:00.000-07:00

Erum is the secretary of her school's National Honor Society (NHS). Today is the induction ceremony for the new members, so it's her last duty to fulfill with them I guess. All the older (and graduating) members are bringing 'finger' foods. Mommy told me last minute that I needed to bake something for them, and since we have limited (VERY limited) equipment to work with at home, bars it was. We had a whole bunch of shredded coconut to finish up, and after consulting with friends (Erum was being no help), I decided to make these coconut cookie bars.

I had more coconut and less chocolate though. I ended up with probably about 2 1/2 cups of coconut and barely 3/4 cup of chocolate. I also ran out of brown sugar, and vanilla extract. Aside from the essentials (flour, sugar, eggs, butter- yes butter is essential) we have a whole can of cocoa powder, cans of apple and blackberry pie filling, a bunch of random sprinkles, some walnuts and almonds, some buttermilk, 2 cans of evaporated milk, a can of coconut milk, a mix for caramel creme, 2 packets of yeast, a can of oats, some bisquick, half a box of muffin mix and another half of yellow cake mix (I don't know why mommy just uses half of a mix?) There might be some other goodies hiding in the back of the cupboards that I'm too short to see into; although I had no shame and climbed on the counters to peek (OK, OK, rummage) through.

Any suggestions on what to bake to use up these random ingredients will be greatly appreciated.

Also, have I mentioned how much I miss having my own kitchen? Where I know where all my baking supplies are (and I actually have all my baking equipment). Not having measuring cups means that these bars came out more cake like than cookie-ish. Thankfully they still tasted awesome.

Coconut rice pudding

2011-05-24T07:27:00.000-07:00

When we were in France, I discovered that Abuman is apparently a fan of rice pudding (I'll have to take him to Rice to Riches in NY!) Mommy told me to make some dessert for him yesterday since he came back from Dubai, so I decided to try and make some coconut rice pudding for him (since he loves coconut like me!)

Abuman wasn't a huge fan of the toasted coconut on top and preferred it without that. He said it made it too intense, but judging from the fact that mommy kept reaching for more of the topping I kept in a separate bowl, I think its just about your preference (I personally liked it and have ideas on how to add to it next time).

Ingredients
1/2 cup short grain rice
2 cups water
1 can coconut milk
1 can cream of coconut
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup shredded coconut (unsweetened)

Topping
Toasted sliced almonds and shredded coconut

Directions
Parboil rice in water for about 10 minutes. Drain water and add coconut cream and milk. When it begins to boil, reduce heat and let it simmer. Add shredded coconut and sugar (I suggest starting with less and adjust according to your preference). Cook for about 25 minutes until the rice has absorbed most of the liquid (depending on how thick or liquidy you prefer your pudding). Cover tightly and chill in fridge for at least a couple of hours. Serve with topping.

Bloochers

2011-05-23T06:34:00.000-07:00

When I asked Erum what her favorite was from all the things I've baked she didn't really give me a definitive answer. Instead she said, 'those blueberry things you made were really really good' (or something along those lines, I can't remember now). We found some blueberries on sale at Dean & DeLuca (LOVE that place), so I decided to make them for her. This time, they came out more like a crumble than bars because I was multi-tasking and making coconut rice pudding for Abu-man at the same time and took them out earlier because I didn't want to risk burning them.

I've said that when I open my bakery one day (iA), the people that are really special to me will have something named after them. Or they'll have named a dessert or something along those lines. Since I call Erum my 'Doochers' and these are blueberry bars, they've been named 'Bloochers'.

Espagne

2011-05-22T08:24:00.000-07:00

Overall, I have to say that I am not a fan of Spanish food. The concept of tapas is great, but there is pork in pretty much everything and the seafood makes you think you're eating it alive. I don't understand how you can eat something when its eyes are right there looking at you.

Regardless, that didn't stop us from finding some yummy dessert =)

This place called Mauri's was right on La Rambla de Catalunya, near the Passeig de Gracia with some of the Gaudi buildings. It's known for its chocolate filled croissants and other gourmet desserts, and filled with locals. I absolutely love that feeling of being the only tourist in a place full of locals, as if I'm in the know how and am a part of the city.

Our chocolate croissant with La Pedrera in the background. Yes, I had to be obnoxious like that.

That is all chocolate. Yep. Every bit of it. For someone who doesn't like chocolate, I'm oddly obsessed with it. Everywhere I saw chocolate in Europe, I stopped in my tracks because that meant it had something to do with dessert or baking. When I found out there was a chocolate museum in Barcelona, I absolutely had to go.

The irony of there being a huge gorilla made of white chocolate; I believe I said something along the lines of 'nyanya I'm going to eat you'.

The La Sagrada familia in chocolate! And the mosaic gecko you can see all over the Palau Guell.

Anyone that knows me, know that I'm more of a frozen yogurt soft serve kind of girl. BUT, Amorino's has changed my life. It is pure goodness on your tongue and the only thing I tried more than once in Europe. It's the best gelato store in the world and they have branches throughout Europe. I'll admit I became semi-obsessed with it and would it eat it everyday of my life if I could. That might have been the hardest part about leaving Barcelona, because none of the cities we went to afterward had a chain.

Can you just see those flecks of vanilla bean? The service is great and they let you choose as many flavors as you want regardless of what size you choose without charging more and you can taste as many flavors as you want first! I'm drooling over the memory of this place, and am sad knowing I can't have it this very second.

The line at this place was pretty long, but SO worth it. St. Gines in Madrid, famous for their chocolate and churros, with good reason. It was literally melted chocolate and really really REALLY good (I might be a closet chocolate lover after-all).

The aftermath =) I actually drank whatever was left after dunking my churros. I personally think it needed two orders of churros for one cup of chocolate and under normal circumstances should probably be shared. Its pretty intense.

La Mallorquina is a classic pasteleria has been around seen the 1800's and is right on the corner of Puerta del Sol. They are known best for their napolitana's and rosquilla's, both of which we tried of course. We also tried a handful of biscuits.

So that's the end of my Europe dessert review. Everyone kept saying I'd probably walk it all off, but in all honesty, I think for every step I took, I had two bites =)

Paris

2011-05-21T07:48:00.000-07:00

We found the oldest bakery in Paris! Boulangerie Patisserie Au Grand Richelieu to be exact =) Its on this small street sort of near the Louvre and there's no way I could leave Paris without going there.

And of course I had to see if they made one of the best croissants or not. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the best ones I had in Paris, which was at this cute bakery near the first place I stayed with my family.

These were good if it weren't for the intense layer of sugar on top. I have to admit though, that I was disappointed in the oldest bakery in Paris. That's about all they had going for them...

But guess who we found right after that to make up for the disappointment?!?!? I'm actually NOT a fan of the infamous french macarons, but Pierre, you could just change my mind. The olive oil macaron was just... (I'm trying to think of a word that describes me drooling and licking my lips as I remember it).

I was also on a mission to try beignets while in France, and also had an obnoxious habit of walking into absolutely every single boulangerie or patisserie we passed. So on our way to the Marmottan Museum (huge fan of Monet, but disappointed that most of his stuff was overseas at exhibitions, which I think they could have told me BEFORE we bought our tickets) I grabbed a mini beignet at a place that was super crowded (cuz it had to be good then, right?)

My absolute favorite place in Paris: Rue Cler. Its a typical Parisian open market street where you can buy absolutely everything you need, fresh. We assembled our own little picnic by buying some amazing fresh french bread from the boulangerie, cheese from the fromagerie, the best turkey I've ever had from the epicerie fine, and even bought a big bottle of water from the supermarche making it one of the best AND cheapest meals we had.

And of course we had to get a crepe (we went with cheese) as well!

Italia

2011-05-21T07:39:00.000-07:00

Finally back from my Eurotrip! First I was in France with my family for about 10 days, then in Italy with Abu-man for another week or so. Then I continued through more of Italy, Switzerland and Spain with friends. I'm not going to try and review all the food because that would take forever, but I am just going to write about some of my favorite dessert places =) Starting with Italy...

You have no idea how excited I was when we found this little bakery called La Zagara in Positano. They had THE best coffee tiramisu, coffee, and selection of biscuits and pastries ever! To top it off, the waiter was really nice AND we had the most gorgeous view in one of my favorite cities from the whole trip. The tiramisu was light but rich and flavorful and just absolutely amazing. Different from what I'm used to because it had more cream than most, but I wouldn't change a thing.

For dinner we went to this authentic Italian trattoria, a family owned restaurant called Da Constantino with fabulous views and one of the sweetest waiters named Luigi. They serve some amazing bruschetta with dinner (don't be afraid to ask for more) and Luigi told us stories throughout.

He even gave us some dolce del giorno (dessert of the day) for free! It was so good I had to ask him what it was and he wrote it down on a card for me: pera ala ricotta (pear and ricotta tart). I'm going to try and make it as soon as I find a decent looking recipe!

Sheep's cheese drizzled with honey at Cava Tappi in Venice. So simple but SO good. But I'm also obsessed with cheese.

The display at Pasticceria Gobbetti, where we got...

We saw these zaletti at pretty much every bakery in Venice. The most common variations included chocolate and pistachio (which I'm not a huge fan of). This was kind of dry and not my kind of cookie, but I guess that's why their called 'biscuits' instead?

Apparently the tiramisu at Paticceria Rizzardini is supposed to be amazing, so of course I had to check and make sure. Honestly, it was good but it wasn't GREAT. But hey, to each his own, right?

Smore bars

2011-05-20T00:44:00.000-07:00

Somehow, I managed to be able to bake while in Europe. I can actually say I've baked in a couple of different continents, how neat is that? While we were in Switzerland staying with a friend (I was having withdrawals) a request was made for my smore bars. Unfortunately, we couldn't find marshmallow fluff or graham crackers. So I had to substitute with digestives and decided to make the cookie base and top it with nutella instead.

My friend's daughter, Jiyon helping me in the kitchen!

Then when I came home, mommy had some marshmallow fluff and a box of digestives that needs to be finished before we leave. I'm basically trying to use all the ingredients we have before I leave on the 10th. So I decided to make the smore bars again, but with the fluff this time. Erum took them to a hangout with her friends, and needless to say, they are all gone.

I also tried a new recipe for chocolate chip walnut cookies. BUT, since everything was packed up and sent in our container, I have no measuring spoons, cups, mixing bowls or baking pans to work with. Therefore I don't think these cookies were a fair assessment to the recipe, although those too, are gone. I can make bars without measuring instruments, but cookies and cakes require precise measurements and eyeballing it just doesn't cut it. At least not for me, yet.

Leftover Brownies

2011-03-27T02:19:00.000-07:00

To finish off all the ingredients left in the pantry, I decided to make brownies using a little of this and a little of that to finish off whatever I had lying about. I had about a cup of unsweetened coconut, a cup of chopped almonds, and a few pieces of chopped chocolate to throw into my brownie batter. I'm sad to say that in all my time here, I never figured Baboo Khala's oven out. In my defense, I was staying at our own house till the first week of January. Then I was in Lahore for 2 weeks, another three weeks at our own house in February when Abu was here, and then another 2 weeks there in March when Mommy came. And I just got back from a wedding in Sialkot and a stopover in Lahore again. So I didn't actually bake here as much as I thought I would.

Point being, even though I took them out early, they still ended up with crispy edges and bottoms. Still super good and chewy, and I know its not the recipe because I've used it before. It's a spin off of one of David Lebovitz's brownie recipes. Btw, chopping whole almonds is a real pain!

Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup chocolate, cut into small pieces
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup flour
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 cup chopped almonds

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare 8 inch square pan.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Add the chocolate pieces and stir constantly with a whisk over very low heat until the chocolate is melted. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar, then the eggs one at a time, and then the vanilla. Stir in flour and salt. Beat batter vigorously for 30 seconds, until it begins to form a smooth ball. Stir in your mix-ins.

Scrape the batter into prepared pan, smooth the top, and bake for about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool

Flavored Sugar Cookies

2011-03-20T07:44:00.000-07:00

I think I've told you all about how I have yet to make sugar cookies better than Zareen Aunties (my little sister, Erum's best friend's mother). Erum is on the verge of being obsessed with these cookies which she only gets on Valentine's Day or very special occasions. She has the recipe but they somehow don't come out the same when she makes them (I haven't tried the recipe myself). Regardless, just like any baker, I am on a quest for THE recipe for a lot of things. Chocolate chip cookies, red velvet cupcakes, yellow cake, and sugar cookies being the typical list. The only recipe I have stopped experimenting with is chocolate cake, because I've found my perfect recipe that does not need to be messed with. I have 'go-to' recipes for the rest, but I love experimenting and trying new recipes too much to settle just yet (I act like I'm talking about a man here).

I had promised to bake with the girls from Saba Homes, so I thought I'd make the cookie dough ahead of time at home (because teaching 30 girls how to make cookie dough would be a little hard). I took the dough over with icing and sprinkles, etc. so that we could roll out the dough and cut out different shapes, bake and decorate the cookies together. And eat a little cookie dough while we're at it =) I think the girls had a good time getting dough and icing and sprinkles in their tummy along with on their clothes and in their hair. For more on my baking with the girls, check out my other blog: http://sairajkhan.blogspot.com/2011/03/cookies.html

Chocolate Walnut Pie

2011-03-19T07:41:00.000-07:00

My time in Pakistan is coming to an end, which also means that there's some leftover ingredients that need to be used. I came across a version of this recipe that used different mix-ins and decided to make it my own so that I could use what was in my temporary pantry here. My cousin Haris has a knack for walking into the kitchen just as I pull something out of the oven, so he got to try the first piece with some freshly whipped cream. When Baboo Khala walked in he said something along the lines of 'the filling and crust and nuts and cream...' They all balanced each other out wonderfully. The crust is really nice and buttery and crumbly and even though I'm not a chocolate lover at all, this is like crack pie. Its seriously addictive. Don't let yourself near the pan with a fork or spoon because one bite leads to another, and another, and another... you get my point. This pie is a union of sweet-salty-buttery flavor packed in one bite. If you can limit yourself to just one.

Next time I want to try using a mixture of walnuts and pecans, adding more coconut, and using cinnamon chips instead. And also making a thicker crust. Because that's what pie's all about. But that's whats great about this recipe, you can omit or add whatever you like according to your flavor preferences. Just throw in whatever you want. Since this recipe has plenty of sugar, there's no need to use sweetened coconut. If that's all you have, I'd suggest cutting the sugar down to 3/4 cup.

Normally desserts are best warm right out of the oven. But with this pie, I personally think it's better at room temperature. That gives everything a chance to settle, especially the chocolate. If you eat it while its still warm, the chocolate is still melted and oozing and overwhelms the rest of the flavors a little too much. If you wait till its cooled, you can really appreciate it all together. But that's just my two cents...

Swedish Pear Cake

2011-03-15T03:52:00.000-07:00

I like eggs. In any shape or form; boiled, scrambled, sunny side up, omelets. All except fried with the yolk cooked (this has absolutely nothing to do with baking btw). But for some reason, I have never mastered the art of making an omelet. I always start out with the intention of making one, and just scrambling it in the end. But, I think I am slowly getting better and keeping it intact and flipping it over. Key word being slowly, because I'm not quite there yet. The reason I brought up eggs is because I managed to make a relatively decent looking omelet for myself this morning =) But I won't put any pictures up until I successfully make a pretty one.

Ingrid made a wonderful Swedish pear cake for my farewell in St. Kitts. I've been wanting to try it for myself ever since, and finally got my hands on some pears! As everyone knows, I don't like going places empty handed, and we're going over to a friend of mommy's for tea this afternoon. My Baray Mamoo is also visiting Islamabad and he has a crazy sweet tooth. So I thought it would be easier to just double the recipe and make two. Ingrid gave me the ingredients in metric though, so I kind of messed up the conversion and doubling and ended up using more butter than was called for (that normally doesn't sound like such a bad thing). After already adding the butter, I recalculated and realized my mistake, so I adjusted the rest of the ingredients accordingly, the best that I could anyway. I'm just going to post the accurate measurements for one cake though. I didn't have enough almonds to grind, so I ended up using about 3/4th of the amount of almond flour and substituted the rest with all purpose. I also used two different pan sizes and need to ask Ingrid exactly what size she uses.

Ever since I was a kid, I've been obsessed with cake batter. I would always get mad at mommy for not leaving some of the batter for me to lick when ever she made cakes. Sophie and I would fight over who got the spoon or the beaters and would actually choose sides of the bowl. For some reason I'm not a huge fan of cake batter ice cream though, its just not the same. Today, especially since I messed up the proportions and had more batter than I needed I think, I decided to leave myself some batter to eat =) Taste testing while I bake is my weakness. Can I just say, OMG. I don't know how to quite describe how good this tastes.

Thank you David & Ingrid for this amazingly yummy recipe! It was just as good as I remembered, and definitely worth Julie Ann's licking of the cake pan after wards =) I whipped some cream to go along with it, although it was completely unnecessary. The ground almonds give it an added texture and flavor, and of course the generous amount of butter helps! I normally am a very impatient person and don't sit to just taste and enjoy my food. I was going to wait for mommy to come home before trying this, but it just smelled so good! That perfect piece of cake was too tempting while I was taking pictures, so I put my camera down and took a bite. And another. Followed by yet another, until the whole slice was gone. And I just sat and savored every bite.

Sigh... I love baking.

Cinnamon Oatmeal Biscuits

2011-03-12T06:56:00.000-08:00

My Nomi Khala is visiting from Lahore, and since I didn't get to bake anything for her while I was there, I had to redeem myself by making sure she had more than one dessert while in Islamabad. She requested some chocolate mousse, and Mommy said to make something kind of snack-ish. So I went with cinnamon oatmeal biscuit/scones. They aren't really sweet, and I think would go great toasted with some cream =) I think I'll add some brown sugar and more cinnamon next time. I also was a little short of a cup of oatmeal. Regardless, they were still good if you want more of a biscuit, whereas I wanted more of a sweeter scone.

I was playing around with the different settings on my camera during different times of day, btw.

Ingredients
2 cups flour
1 cup oats
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
1tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, chilled and cut into pieces
3/4 cup milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2 tbsp ground cinnamon, divided

Directions:
Heat oven to 425°F. Grease or line a baking sheet with parchment.
Combine flour, oats, 1/4 cup granulated sugar, 1 tbsp cinnamon, baking powder and salt; mix well. Cut in butter with pastry blender or your fingers until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. In a separate bowl, combine milk, egg and vanilla; blend well. Add to dry ingredients all at once; stir with fork or rubber spatula until dry ingredients are moistened. In small bowl, combine remaining sugar with nuts and cinnamon; mix well. Sprinkle evenly over dough in bowl; gently stir batter to swirl in cinnamon mixture (Do not blend completely.) Drop dough by 1/4 cupfuls 2 inches apart on cookie sheet.

Bake 11 to 13 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm with cream to dip in or drizzle over.

Apple-berry Crumble

2011-03-03T09:44:00.000-08:00

Baboo Khala requested an apple crumble. Well, sort of. She mentioned how much she liked them, so that translated into a request to me. The strawberry season just began here too, and I've been drooling over them whenever we pass men selling them in the market. So I decided to mix it up a little and make an apple strawberry crumble instead.

Mommy has this one go to 'recipe' that she always uses for her apple crumble. I use quotation marks because she never really follows recipes, whether it be cooking or baking. I was sitting and going through Baboo Khala's old stained recipe book that is falling apart right now, and laughing at the ingredient lists. 2-3 eggs, milk, a few almonds. That's how mommy works too. She doesn't go with exact amounts, its just whatever looks right. So the first time I tried playing with her apple crumble recipe, it didn't work at all because she insisted it was enough for a 9x13 pan, when really and truly it was for an 8x8 MAYBE.

So this time I think the only thing I really took from her original recipe was the cornflakes. Regardless, it was really really good, especially warm right out of the oven served with vanilla ice cream! Baboo Khala had to talk out loud to herself to make sure she didn't get up for seconds =) I think this is the best thing I've baked since being here.

Almond Bread

2011-02-25T00:58:00.000-08:00

I miss my kitchen. Well, Sophie's kitchen. The counter space and pantry filled with ingredients and baking tools. But most of all, I miss the oven. I just knew how it worked, and it baked everything evenly. I also don't think I'm a huge fan of recipes that use almond extract. Maybe because almond isn't my favorite flavor.

Nevertheless, this bread was still really good. Moist and yummy despite all my complaints. I think I'm my worst enemy because I'm overly critical.The bottom browned a little too much for my taste, so I cut that layer off. Maybe that's why I feel a little turned off. But, still amazing regardless. I wish I had some whipped cream to serve it with. Mmmm. I also would have liked my nut chopper, and some slivered almonds for the top layer. I think it needed more nuts. Like at least 3/4 cup.

Browned Butter Blondies

2011-02-18T06:38:00.000-08:00

I don't like showing up anywhere empty handed. Especially when I go somewhere with fans of my baking. Browned butter is just an absolutely amazing flavor, as is brown sugar, so combine them together and you just can't go wrong. So I used what I had in the kitchen, and even though the power went out and I had to mix by hand, these turned out really yummy and you can smell them walking up the stairs =)

Walnut-Almond Biscotti

2011-02-14T06:39:00.000-08:00

You know something is really good when I make it multiple times. You know its even better when I make it multiple times in a short amount of time and actually blog about it too. Grandma Murray's biscotti are really easy to make, super good, and impress people too since their not just cookies. That's kind of blasphemous though since there's no such thing as 'just' cookies in my mind.

If it weren't for the fact that I'm working in the office all day and am pretty worn out when I come home and want to spend the time after work with my dad, I would be baking a lot more. Don't worry, I've baked a couple of times since my last entry. I was having withdrawals and while I was in Lahore, I made my really good (if I do say so myself) chocolate mousse cake, and banana cinnamon bars. Bumpy Chachee had requested something chocolate but then Dado and Pupoo Chacha don't like chocolate at all. I didn't get any good shots of either, because it was all gone within minutes!

Happy Valentines Day btw. I'm spent my Valentines Day with my Abu-man =) How many girls are lucky enough to have a father cool enough to take them to Vegas on their 21st birthday, spend a couple of weeks vacationing in Italy with them (I can't wait for April!), and take their daughters out for Valentines Day dinner? So of course I had to bake him something, especially since I haven't made anything especially for him since he's been here. He likes things that can be had with his chai, and he hasn't had these before and I know he'll like them. So I combined both almonds and walnuts this time but used the same tried and tested and (now a favorite) recipe: http://sugarhighsaira.blogspot.com/2010/11/almond-biscotti.html

Thank you Grandma Murray! I still need to try some of the other recipes she gave me... if theyre half as yummy, I can't wait!

Baked Donut Muffins

2011-01-19T05:24:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to try making baked donuts for a while. Unfortunately, I don't have a donut pan (yet), so I tried making them in a muffin pan instead. The middles were a little more dense than the rest, which makes sense, so I'm just going to have to try this recipe again in a real donut pan. I can't wait, because these still tasted really good and were nice and fluffy =)

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 egg (lightly beaten)
3/4 cup yogurt
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp canola oil
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp butter (melted)

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss the cinnamon and sugar together and set aside. In a large bowl whisk together all the dry ingredients. In another bowl stir together oil, lemon juice, honey, maple syrup, egg and yogurt. Make a hole in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into the hole. Gently fold everything together until combined. Divide half of batter evenly into greased pan. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for a few moments and then dip each donut in butter and then cinnamon sugar mixture to coat. Makes 12 mini muffin donuts or 6 real donuts in a donut pan.

Walnut Biscotti

2011-01-09T03:24:00.000-08:00

From one grandmother to another, I used Grandma Murray's Almond Biscotti recipe to make something for my Nano (my mother's mother) who has an incredibly sweet tooth. I have yet to try another one of the wonderful recipes Grandma Murray gave me, but I bought walnuts that were calling out to me. Drinking chai is a big thing here in Pakistan, and having some kind of biscuits to eat with your chai is just as important. So I thought these would be perfect. I doubled Grandma Murray's recipe a little and doubled it so I could take some over to a family friends and to my aunts and still have plenty left at home for Nano to nibble on.

There's a major issue with power outages and load shedding here, so I had to hand mix everything today. I had to switch to my left arm when beating the eggs and sugar, and hey, it got the job done. Reminded me of when I was baking in St. Kitts before bringing a mixer back. Because of the load shedding with gas, the oven doesn't heat up as well as it should and I had to keep checking on these because they took longer than normal. But once again, it got the job done!

Hazelwalnut Cake

2010-12-25T07:20:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas! Today is also my uncles birthday, and he requested that I make something NOT chocolate (oh these next few months are going to be great since I'll get to experiment with non-chocolate desserts!) and something 'nutty'. We had hazelnuts, walnuts and slivered almonds at home. But I didn't have enough hazelnuts to just use that flavor and I thought using all three would be a little over kill.

I have to make the disclaimer that this cake did not turn out at all the way its supposed to, but that it was still completely gone within an hour. My egg whites did not form stiff peaks for some reason (I think I might have accidentally gotten some egg yolk in there) so it didn't rise or become fluffy the way I had wanted. Instead it had more of a dense texture. Then, instead of buying whipping cream, my mom got thick cream. Which has a very strong distinct flavor of its own and was not the light whipped cream that I had wanted. Once again, despite these roadblocks, everyone loved it.

Ingredients
1/2 cup hazelnuts
1/2 cup walnuts
1 cup butter
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cups flour
6 egg whites
3 tbsp granulated sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 °F. Prepare 10" baking pan.
Spread the nuts on a baking sheet, and toast 12 to 15 minutes, until they’re golden brown and smell nutty. Let them cool.
Melt butter in a medium saucepan and add vanilla. Stir for about 6-8 minutes on low heat until browned.
Grind the hazelnuts with the confectioners’ sugar in a food processor until they’re finely ground. Add the flour and pulse to combine.
Beat the eggs whites and granulated sugar on high speed 4 to 5 minutes, until the mixture forms very stiff peaks (when you turn the whisk upside down, the peaks should hold).
Alternate folding the dry ingredients and the brown butter into the egg whites, starting and ending with dry ingredients.
Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan, and bake for about 40 minutes.

I covered the cake with the thick cream whipped with a little sugar and vanilla. It can be served with just powdered sugar sprinkled over, with a glaze, ice cream, whipped cream or just plain if you like.

Bana-nut Cinnamon Bars

2010-12-17T03:05:00.000-08:00

We're going to visit one of my aunts (in our culture you call everyone your aunt regardless of whether or not your related) today. I haven't seen her in a really long time, and I don't go anywhere empty handed. Mommy had bought a bunch of bananas knowing that I would either eat them or bake with them. I did both, but that's not the point. Banana's and cinnamon and walnuts just always go together, and bars are insanely easy to make and don't take long at all. So this is what I came up with.

They have the same flavors as banana bread but are really light and moist instead of dense like bread. And they take a lot less time. They are pretty darn amazing, so next time you're craving banana bread but don't feel like waiting for them to bake (although I guess you could do muffins and bake for less time) these are the way to go. I think next time I'll make them with white wheat flour and splenda blend instead to make them healthier.

Rugelach

2010-12-16T11:52:00.000-08:00

Mommy requested something with dates and walnuts. I was going to make some kind of bars again, or a puff pastry filled with date puree or something. But for some reason I remembered the rugelach I made a long time ago and thought a date paste with walnuts would be pretty good. I had more rugelach dough than dates so I made half of them with dates, one fourth with honey and slices almonds (my favorite) and one fourth with nutella and hazelnuts. These were really really really good, and pretty easy to make too.

Oatmeal Gianduja Bars

2010-12-16T01:32:00.000-08:00

I think I have this unconscious need to bake in every kitchen I enter. And its just expected of me now, so when I don't bake after being here 2 days, people start asking whats wrong. Mommy bought a bunch of random ingredients, knowing how much I love to experiment. And she also knows my obsession with nuts, so she bought me hazelnuts, and walnuts and almonds =)

Erum loves nutella, and she requested some kind of bars. So I went with gianduja flavored (chocolate and hazelnut) bars. I made an oatmeal cookie base, topped with nutella, hazelnuts and some hazelnut syrup mommy found, with another layer of cookie. They were gone by the next day. The cookie is nice and chewy and crumbly with a nice crunch from the nuts in the middle. And if you bite into a piece with a nice drizzle of sauce, it has an awesome kick.

Last one

2010-12-16T01:09:00.000-08:00

I'm actually not going to review absolutely every single place I went, but I think this will conclude the places I thought were notable enough. You can see why I wanted nothing but fruit and salad afterwards. Not that it lasted long. And I'll be back in NY to go to my favorites and try the rest of the places on the list.

Baked by Melissa has tiny bite size cupcakes. Which I think is perfect because 1) you can try a bunch of different flavors (good for indecisive people like myself) 2) you don't get lost in the frosting and its just the perfect ratio. So Sameer and I got a dozen (6 of each) and tried them all while riding the subway on our way to the MOMA. I'm not kidding, we were that impatient. And had no water to wash them down.

The flavors we tried were: red velvet, mint chocolate chip, cookie dough, chocolate chip pancake, cookies & cream and then I can't remember what the last one was but it had coffee in it and I believe it was the flavor of the month. I also remember it being both of our least favorite. My rankings were 1) mint chocolate chip 2) chocolate chip pancake 3) red velvet 4) cookies & cream 5) cookie dough 6) mystery coffee flavor.

The only thing good here was that they had something on the menu called the penguin! Which I didn't actually try though.

Milk & Cookies bakery was sadly a huge disappointment. With a name like that, you'd expect a lot more. But the cookies were thin and crisp and not my cup of tea at all. In their defense, we went late night so they weren't fresh. But once again, a real good bakery should not ever have a bad cookie and they should keep good for days! We tried the chocolate chip, white chocolate macadamia, and I think the milk chocolate caramel.

Sameer's absolute favorite place in New York is Veselka. It's a diner/restaurant that's open 24 hours, and according to him has the best apple crumb cake. Personally, I am loyal to Kramer's cafe in Georgetown which I think has the best apple streusel pie served with cinnamon ice cream. And I still maintain that after trying Veselka's (sorry Sameer!) But this was still pretty darn good. I think mine wasn't warm enough either, and thats just what makes apple crumb cake. The warm cake with the contrast of cold ice cream.

This is the last place I'm going to review from my Sugar Trail trip. Alice's Tea Cup was actually one of my favorites too, and I will definitely go back here. If you like tea, and scones, this is the place for you. We went for brunch and the wait was about an hour. Being impatient (and hungry) we ordered some type of vanilla tea (it was really hard to choose) and a cinnamon walnut scone and ate it at Central Park while we waited. Then we ordered the scones benedict which I believe we had with the sourcream chive scone. We had to share because we were already a little full from the huge scone and tea earlier, but it didn't make this taste any less delicious. Oh, and to top it all off, being the disney fan that I am, the place is all in the theme of Alice in Wonderland! I loved it and can't wait to go back =)

Sugar Trail favorites

2010-12-16T00:39:00.000-08:00

From the entire Sugar Trail, there were three places that I absolutely loved and was willing to try again on this trip despite the list of new places to try. If I absolutely had to choose my favorite desserts, it would be between tiramisu and cheesecake. And I make pretty darn good versions of both, if I say so myself. I have no shame haha. But Eileen's cheesecake in New York is by far the best cheesecake I have ever had in my life. Beats Juniors handsdown any day. It's not your typical thick NY cheesecake, and somehow it manages to be rich and intense and light and fluffy all at the same time with the perfect mix of flavor.

And theyre in mini versions so you don't have to limit yourself to one flavor! I think they are the perfect size. Sameer and I tried the mango and the classic strawberry topping cheesecakes. I would have to say I liked the strawberry version just a little bit more, because that's just what cheesecake is supposed to be. No frills or added drama. Perfectly creamy and smooth and light and mmm-ness all around. My dad's favorite dessert is cheesecake too, so I can't wait to take him here one day. That or order it for him. Oh, and Eileen, the owner is absolutely wonderful. She's the sweetest lady ever and I want to talk to all my customers at my bakery one day just like she does.

The 2nd place (which I happened to go to right after Eileens btw) was Rice to Riches. I've always liked rice pudding enough, but I am in love with this place. If I lived in New York I would skip meals just to be able to have this all the time. Heck, I might just forget food and live off this. Well, no I like food too much for that. But you get my point. And its got these super cute containers to eat out of too, but I'm a sucker for that kind of thing.

Look at the insane variety! Apparently they switch it up a bunch, especially with seasonal flavors. Everyone knows I have a really hard time making decisions, but I finally went with the coconut coma with an oatmeal coconut crumble topping. Sameer tried the coast to coast cheesecake with the same topping. Insanely rich but just as insanely good. The pudding itself was so smooth and the topping just added that perfect texture. I can still taste it. I'm making myself drool thinking about it.

The 3rd place, one that I was really really excited about, was Momofuku's Milk Bar. I absolutely love my cereal. Even though I like cooking and baking, sometimes there's just nothing better than a good old bowl of cereal. And call me boring, but I love corn flakes. It's just classic. Milk Bar has cereal milk flavored soft serve ice cream! And I love my soft serve ice cream too (over real ice cream or gelato anyday). They had a crunchy cornflake topping too! It was sooo yummy. I had to try the momofuky crack pie of course, but that was just way too much sugar for me to really enjoy. It kind of reminded me of a chess pie. Too much, but thats just because of my personal taste.

So if you only have a day in New York, make these three places your breakfast, lunch and dinner. You won't regret it.

And there's more

2010-12-15T13:13:00.000-08:00

I got to try another Bobby flay throwdown bakery =) The dessert truck works with their famous bread pudding. We tried that along with the creme brulee, when eaten together, are like a party in your mouth. No joke. On its own the bread pudding was a bit much for me, but thats because it's a chocolate bread pudding.

We also went to the Doughnut Plant. Even though I love all things fried, I'm not a huge fan of doughnuts. But omg these are not just doughnuts. Just look at the choices: pumpkin, apple cinnamon, creme brulee?!?! We tried the carrot cake, creme brulee, coconut creme, and brooklyn blackout doughnuts. Although I didn't try the brooklyn blackout knowing I wouldn't care for it. The creme brulee and coconut creme were insanely amazing. I don't know how they managed to get those exact flavors in doughnut form. But there's a reason this place was on the list. I didn't expect to like it or care for it much. Maybe because I don't think doughnuts really count as dessert, and I feel like its cheating because frying anything (almost) makes it good.

ST continued

2010-12-15T12:40:00.000-08:00

I finally went to the famous Levain Bakery! You don't understand how insanely excited I was to go here, and finally try the infamous cookies that lost to Bobby Flays throwdown. I was so excited I didn't even bother taking my jacket off before biting into the chocolate chip walnut cookie.

I was sadly disappointed. Sameer thinks I got a bad cookie, but I don't think a truly good bakery should have such a thing. Maybe its because I prefer more of a dough to chocolate ratio? Maybe its because it was too crisp on the outside and kind of raw in the middle and only chewy in between the two? It was still really really good, but I think I had hyped it up so much and expected more than should ever be expected from a cookie.

We also tried the valhorna chocolate sourdough rolls, and the butter cinnamon brioche. Just eehh. I wouldn't bother trying anything else at this place, and I do feel this need to go back to make sure it wasn't just a bad cookie.

Sadly, I somehow lost the pictures of my Jacques Torres cookie. It was AMAZING. Warm and chewy and gooey. Even though there was a crazy intense amount of chocolate in it, I can't explain how this cookie just melts in your mouth and asks for milk just so you can swallow and take another bite of its amazing deliciousness. LOVE it.

We went to Led Zeppole's for their famous zeppole's. Which I had never heard of until Sameer. He teaches me a lot about food and desserts. He blames me for making him gain weight with this Sugar Trail while I was there, but in my defense, I think it was his idea. And he was responsible for most of the list. So, yea.

Zeppole's are an Italian pastry that is basically deep-fried dough balls (and you all know my love for anything fried!) topped with powdered sugar. So essentially, their version of a doughnut. I had mine steaming hot, and it was pretty darn good. The dough was light and fluffy with a nice crisp outside. Another good thing about this place, it's right next to this AMAZING pizza place called Artichoke. Try the spinach and artichoke pizza. I'm normally a fan of deep dish pizza, but this was probably the best pizza I've ever had. No joke. Will definitely go there again.

Sugar Trail

2010-12-15T11:56:00.000-08:00

This review is long overdue. I spent about 2 weeks visiting my friend Sameer in New York, eating my heart out and trying out as many of the baked goods and dessert places I could. It was in the name of research, checking my competition out. How can I say I'm the best if I haven't tried all the top rated places, right?

Maybe not the best idea for a diabetic, just fyi. I sadly could only take so much before all I wanted was fruit and salad. So I didn't get to try all the places on our list, but that just means I'll have to go back for more.

So the night I got there, we went to the Spot Dessert Bar: http://www.spotdessertbar.com/

OMG.

It was like Top Chef style desserts. It's a fusion dessert bar mixing Asian flavors with American desserts in the form of tapas. Sameer and I had eyes bigger than our stomachs and decided to start with a bang. So we went all out instead of having to try and decide from the extensive menu and went with the option where you choose 4 tapas, 2 ice-creams/sorbets, 2 cupcakes, and 2 cookies. Except they also included 2 chef specials for the night meaning we ended up 6 tapas instead.

This was the Soft Cheesecake. It was basically a deconstructed cheesecake beginning with a passion foam, then a mixture of goat cheese, cream cheese and creme fraiche, followed by a walnut soil cookie crumble, a blueberry compote finished off by a seasonal citrus (valencia orange supremes in our case) to cleanse the palate. Yumminess galore in a sophisticated glass. I've never had anything deconstructed before, and it was absolutely amazing the way they turn dessert into a science and art at the same time.

Then there was the Mont Blanc Baked Alaska. Sorry not all the pictures are that great. It was composed of chestnut noodles, meringue kisses, a baked caramelized meringue topping, buttermilk cake topped with chocolate caramel ice cream all swimming in vietnamese coffee. Personally, too much chocolate and intense flavors for me. I might have been able to handle it better if the ice cream had been vanilla or a lighter flavor. And I don't really like meringue. Also, vietnamese coffee is not a flavor I like, at all.

The mocha & malted ovaltine roll was topped with a rice krispie garnish and a mini malt ball, drizzled with chocolate ganache, with a side of valencia orange supreme, kabocha puree and condensed milk ice cream. I loved the mixture of mocha and malt combined with the condensed milk ice cream, which I had honestly thought might be too rich, but it wasn't. It sounds like a lot of flavors but it was an amazing mixture that balanced out.

White Miso Semi-freddo: an olive oil genoise with a semi frozen miso cream in the middle drizzled with miso caramel served with rasperrry tea sorbet, a sesame tuile, walnut crumble and a blackberry. By far my favorite from the night. I haven't tried yet but I really want to make an olive oil cake. I've never tried miso before either, but I absolutely loved the salty and buttery mixture. I think I'm developing a taste for that hint of salt added to desserts that helps bring out flavors.

Before and after of our chocolate molten lava cake with red bean salted caramel, chocolate pearls and powdered sugar. It was served with a green tea tiramisu icecream on top of a walnut crumble which I was honestly hoping to like more than I did, seeing as I love tiramisu. There was also a side of blackberries. The red bean caramel was too overwhelming a flavor for me, I think I left most of this dessert for Sameer.

The last tapas was the kabocha cake. It was one of the chef's specials for the night and was served with cheesecake icecream, 99% chocolate sauce, a green apple kabocha salad, all sprinkled with powdered sugar. Since I didn't like the kabocha puree from the mocha and malted ovaltine roll, I didn't expect to like the taste of this Japanese pumpkin. But this was actually my second favorite from all the tapas. And you just can't go wrong with cheesecake icecream, they did an amazing job of making sure the texture and flavor worked perfectly and it wasn't too intense. I think that's the key to getting me to like a dessert, nothing too intense with a balance of flavors.

We chose the vietnamese coffee ice cream and the coconut sorbet. I really didn't like the vietnamese coffee, way too bitter and strong for me. But I developed a deep love for coconut while in the Caribbean and this was absolutely wonderful. We couldn't even think about trying anything else at this point, so we took the Chinese Walnut cookie and the Coconut Chocolate Chip cookie along with the Vanilla Yuzu Lemon cupcake and Mocha Maldon Salted Caramel cupcakes home. I don't think we can give accurate reviews of these seeing as they weren't eaten until a couple of days after, but I will say that I absolutely loved the Chinese Walnut cookie. But I am obsessed with walnuts too.

So yes, that was all in one night. You can see why we couldn't finish. Here are my rankings for everything, in order:

Tapas-1) White miso semi freddo 2) Kabocha cake 3) Cheesecake 4) Ovaltine roll 5) Baked Alaska 6) Molten Cake
Ice cream- 1) Coconut 2) Coffee
Cookies- 1) Chinese Walnut 2) Coconut CCC

I didn't even try the Mocha Maldon cupcake so I can't even say which I liked more here. But Sameer said it was really good, and he's got amazing taste. Aside from the fact that he's obsessed with chocolate. We agree to disagree about that. Actually he just thinks I'm crazy and I choose to ignore that.

Leftover Blondies

2010-12-06T00:46:00.000-08:00

We're had a game night on Friday, which means I, of course, had to bake something =)
There were some leftover baking ingredients from when I was here that I decided to try and use up and clean out of Sophie's pantry. One of the most versatile recipes ever is blondies, because you can throw practically anything in there. So I used coconut, walnuts, cinnamon chips, butterscotch chip and cappucino chips! A little over the top maybe but they tasted amazing!!!

Walnut Shortbread

2010-11-18T10:35:00.000-08:00

I've been having baking withdrawals. Being back in a kitchen with absolutely everything I could need was too tempting, so I had to bake something. Asad Uncle is a type 2 diabetic as well, so I thought I'd make something DF that he could have with his chai. These walnut shortbread cookies were perfectly buttery and crumbly with not too intense a walnut flavor. There's a nice crunch from the nuts too. Pretty darn good if you ask me, but I'm a fan of shortbread, and walnuts, so what's not to like?

Almond Biscotti

2010-11-03T05:58:00.000-07:00

Grandma Murray was kind enough to share her almond biscotti recipe and bake with us this morning. This day consisted of baking fresh almond biscotti in the morning, sushi for lunch, a movie and then some deep dish Giordano's pizza for dinner, all in a reunion of RPCVs. If it weren't for the cold out here, I would say it was a perfect day =)

And yes, I realize that my day revolved around food and how fat that makes me sound. Don't judge! I'll be blogging about my food adventures in NY soon!!!

Grandma Murray gave me a folder of a bunch of family recipes that I'm really excited to try out =) This also means I have a new CCC recipe to add to my collection!!!

And of course I had to add a picture of me with the famous Giordano's pizza. It doesn't take much to get me excited!

Smore Bars

2010-10-29T07:06:00.000-07:00

I lost a bet, and the condition was that I bake these bars. Not like I mind, it was a win/win for me! If you like marshmallows, chocolate, graham crackers a.k.a the flavors in smore's, you will love these. These are amazing when they are fresh out of the oven because everything is gooey and melted. You can always get the same effect by microwaving them for a little bit too, and they go perfectly with some hot chocolate. Trust me, these are really, really good. The cookie layer is perfectly chewy and stays that way too. Although you won't have much time to find out because they won't last long!

October Desserts

2010-10-29T07:04:00.000-07:00

Don't worry, I've been baking since I've been here. Come on now. Blogging just hasnt been my priority, because whatever free time I have has gone towards hanging out with my friends that I don't have much time with anymore. But I don't want to start crying...

Lets go over some of the list shall we? Of course I had to show up with a baked good, so I came with German Chocolate Brownies. It used your basic brownie recipe swirled with a mixture of cream cheese, coconut, brown sugar and pecans. Insanely good and moist and they traveled well too!

There's been chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, tiramisu...

Coconut Yogurt Bread

2010-09-29T18:45:00.000-07:00

I love using sour cream and yogurt in baked goods. It just adds that extra zing in the flavor and that beautiful moistness that you can't get any other way. Mommy had bought this huge tub of yogurt, that she barely even used. Meaning I have a huge tub of yogurt to use for baking. But not many recipes use THAT much yogurt so I'm going to have to bake a lot to use it up. I don't mind, but I think my sister and brother in law will (Sophie's diet is not good for me).

A little coconut extract goes a really long way. As does almond but I'm not as big a fan of the almond flavor (too strong) as I am of coconut. I think the amount I used in this was just perfect, it wasn't overwhelming. The texture of this bread was perfect. It came out beautifully and just melts in your mouth. Moist, rich, flavorful. It was like a lighter healthier version of a pound cake. Btw- I forgot to mention this last time but a friend had come over as I was pulling something out of the oven and he said: "It smells like disneyland in here!" That totally made my day =)

Gluten Free Experiment

2010-09-25T21:32:00.000-07:00

First off, let me say that medium eggs are not good for baking. I should have stuck with the large. I experimented with a new recipe with gluten-free flour because I have a friend with gluten intolerance. I don't know if that had anything to do with how these spread but I think more of it had to do with the smaller eggs which means that they didn't hold the dough together the way they should have. I tried making them as cookies at 375, but the edges crisped up a little too much while the middles were really soft. So I baked them as bars at 350 instead, which was successful.

The flavors themselves, I must say, are absolutely amazing. We had some leftover ferrero rocher (I know, is there really such a thing?), which was perfect because I've always wanted to bake ferrero rocher cookies. But I should have just used my tried and tested CCC recipes instead of experimenting with new stuff. Regardless, they were still dubbed 'delicious' by Sophie. That's the third time in a row! The amount of brown sugar gives it a really rich flavor and hazelnut and chocolate just always goes together.

Ingredients
2 sticks cold and cubed unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 3/4 cup gluten free flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 cups chopped ferrero rocher

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare baking pan (I used an 8x11 but that's because I already used a whole dozens worth on cookies so I would suggest using a 9x13 instead)
Cream together butter and sugars until well blended and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mix in vanilla and beat until well incorporated. Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and mix in until just combined. Gently fold in chocolate.
Gently pat dough into pan and bake for 20 minutes until golden brown on top. Let cool and set completely before cutting into bars and serving.

Oatnut Carmelitas

2010-09-20T04:39:00.000-07:00

I went over to see my Farah auntie today, and I always take something baked for her. She commented on how good they were multiple times during my visit, and she's not easy to impress either. My biggest critic (Sophie, my sister) even went so far as to say 'mmm, theyre delicious' before she decided they had too many calories for her post pregnant diet.

Now I'd like to rant about the new 'Top Chef: Just Desserts'. Before the premier, I dreamed about maybe being on the show in one of the later seasons after going to culinary school for the baking and pastry program. But I'm a baker, not a pastry chef. Yes, I can do desserts like souffle, and cheesecake and creme brulee. But I'm more of a baker, favoring things like cookies and blondies and cakes. And I'm not that great at my presentation. So now, I think my new dream (along with the bakery of course) is to try for the next food network star and start my own baking show, because they don't have a show dedicated to home baking. But I have to say, another reason I don't think I could be on the show is because I think Johnny Iuzzini is SO cute and I'd be way too nervous to make anything in front of him.

Now for the recipe for these amazingly good bars.

Sweeta

2010-09-20T04:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my one of my really good friends birthday. She isn't a fan of cake, and therefore doesn't care for birthday cake. She, like me, also isn't a huge chocolate fan. Which is why its really funny that this is her favorite dessert of mine! She has asked me to marry her everytime I've made this =)

I posted about this dessert a while back: http://sugarhighsaira.blogspot.com/2009/06/sweeta.html
But I never put up the recipe, so here it is! Essentially you could use your brownie and pudding and whipped cream recipes and layer them as you like. You could even use flavored whipped cream or pastry cream (mmm, I should totally make a coffee/mocha flavored version).

Blueberry Lemonade Bars

2010-09-11T12:50:00.001-07:00

We had some blueberries leftover from the scones I made, so I decided to make a spin on crumb bars and made a blueberry lemonade filling for the middle. It was Suhail bhai's son's Aqeeqa and I figured there'd be enough adults to allow me to make something without chocolate for a change!

They were really flavorful and moist with the right amount of crumble, and I have to add, it wasn't just the adults heading to the dessert table for these! Unfortunately I wasn't able to get any good shots, but here's what I managed.

Blueberry Scones

2010-09-07T04:49:00.000-07:00

One thing I've had a couple of family members mention (in other words, hint that I should make), is scones. Either blueberry or chocolate chip. And I jump at any chance to bake anything without chocolate. That, and I don't get blueberries in St. Kitts! So I tried to make scones with what we had at home. They were pretty darn good.

They tasted amazing right out of the oven, especially served with butter =) Soft and moist yet buttery and crispy tops at the same time, not too sweet but the blueberries gave them the perfect kick of flavor.

Oh, I also sprinkled the tops with a little brown sugar.

Ingredients
1 egg
2/3 cup yogurt (I used a mixture of vanilla and plain yogurt)
2 cups flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
5 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and chilled
1 cup blueberries

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat.
Stir the egg and yogurt together.
Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl. Drop in the butter and, using your fingers, toss to coat the pieces of butter with flour. Quickly, working with your fingertips or fork, cut and rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is pebbly.
Pour the egg mixture over the dry ingredients and stir with a fork just until the dough, comes together. It will be wet and sticky. Still in the bowl, gently knead the dough by hand, or mix with a rubber spatula. Mix in blueberries.

Now most people will divide the dough and pat it into a circle and cut it into wedges. I just spooned them into circles.

Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, or until their tops are golden and firmish. (I had frozen my dough and baked them for 25 minutes).

Nutritional information: 12-13 small scones
Calories: 1781 Fat: 60.5 Carbohydrates: 242.6 Protein: 53.4
Per serving- Calories: 137 Fat: 4.6 Carbohydrates: 18.6 Protein: 4

Don't butter your finger cookies

2010-09-07T01:23:00.000-07:00

Sophie and Amar had bought this huge bag of candy from costco for the favors we've been giving out since my Lala-boo was born. They also poured a whole bunch into a bowl on the island. There's a lot of butterfingers that nobody seems to be eating, the twix and snickers are the first thing to go. And there's this butterfinger cookie recipe I had seen a while back saved in my bookmarks (have I ever talked about my insane folder of bookmarked recipes catalogued in different folders like cookies, bars, cakes, and within those there are subfolders for CCC, peanut butter, chocolate, etc? I'm a little OCD).

Everyone knows I don't like showing up empty handed. We were invited to iftar at my uncle's house, who happens to be diabetic as well, so I decided to try using my zero sweetener (which I LOVE baking with, especially with chewy cookies). It worked amazingly, you couldn't even tell. But the peanut butter and butterfingers are what upped the carb content. Imagine if I had used real sugar instead?

Now the story behind the name. When I was in 5th grade, the entire school used to put on a theater production with every grade putting on a play. But instead of a play, the kindergarten teachers had all their kids sit in a line on the stage and they asked each of them to announce something their parents had taught them not to do. One child in particular has a place in my family's memory. When it got to his turn, this child proudly turned to the audience and said 'My mummy always tells me, DON'T BUTTER YOUR FINGERS'. Now I have no idea why this kids mummy had to tell him not to butter his fingers, but I had this image of him sitting with his hands and face all covered in butter. Nom, nom, nom. Mmmm, butter. Years later, especially when we see butterfingers, one of us will always turn and say 'Don't butter your fingers'.

I guess you had to be there.

Yes, the one on the far right is missing because I made my sister sample one while I was fasting.

If you like peanut butter, you'll love these. They were soft and chewy, and they stay that way too. If you want to cut down on the sweetness, you could omit the butterfingers and use whatever mix-ins you want and could probably cut out the 1/4 cup sugar and even just use 1 cup of peanut butter instead.

Walnut Date Bars

2010-09-05T15:09:00.000-07:00

We had an absolutely amazing family iftar last night. Aside from direct family (parents and siblings) no one was my blood relative. But they are more my family than some of my blood. Aunts and uncles and friends that I have known my entire life. My father was able to fly in day before yesterday, so we were able to have a great reunion with all my best friends growing up.

I, of course, had to take dessert. I've been wanting to make a dessert with dates (we always open our fast with dates during Ramadan). But, my sister is a chocolate fiend and wanted a chocolate version. So I used half of the batter and added about 1/4 cup cocoa powder, chocolate chips and butterscotch chips to the other half and made a chocolatey version for her too. You could essentially add whatever you want, but these flavors worked great. Personally, not being a chocolate fan (and none of the adults at the iftar are either) that's the side I preferred. But the chocolate lovers adored them. I don't think the date flavor is overwhelming either. These are awesome served warm with ice cream, fyi.

Apple Oat Bars

2010-08-29T03:00:00.000-07:00

The other apple bars I made are already gone, so I had (yes HAD) to bake more. I had originally wanted these to be crispier crumbly bars but they ended up being more cake like. Regardless, they were pretty awesome and the oats add that little bit of extra texture without taking away from the moistness. I have to add that they can either be toasted or even warmed up in the microwave and served with whipped cream for that eyes roll to the back of your head kind of reaction.

Mocha Chip Cookies

2010-08-29T02:37:00.000-07:00

Apparently these are Sophie's favorite cookies from the insane number of recipes I have experimented with over the years. And being my pickiest and harshest critic, that means everything. And she's a chocolate fiend too, so they have to be amazing! They are soft and chewy and rich and full of flavor bursting with every bite and just have to be tried. One of our friends came over to see the baby and said he would only take half a cookie. Now I'm not really that confident in most of my abilities, but I have no shame when it comes to my baking so I said "You're going to want the other half, trust me". And no doubt, before he even swallowed that first bite he reached for the rest of it. Do I need to go on about how good these cookies are?

Amar had been asking for cheesecake since before I came, so the day they came back from the hospital I made strawberry cheesecake for him too. So yes, the day my adorable little Lala-boo was born, I came home and baked. What else would you expect from me?

Apple-nut Cake Bars

2010-08-29T00:49:00.000-07:00

With the new baby, we've gotten crates of fruit including apples, nectarines, grapes and oranges. And we also have people visiting, so I had to bake something to serve anyway. I thought about an easy apple crumble/crisp but in my opinion that is best served with ice cream or whipped cream and not a fast and easy thing to serve. So I went with an apple walnut cake in the form of bars instead.

This makes more than enough for a 9x13 pan, and I ended up using a second smaller pan that is probably the equivalent of a little less than an 8x8. You can just use half of this recipe and use a regular 8x8 instead. I took them to an iftar as well, and they were definitely a hit. I was a little surprised because I didn't think that many people liked apples. Both my mom and sister absolutely loved them and didn't want me to take the second tray over to last night's iftar.

Ingredients
4 cups diced peeled apples (I used Golden Delicious Apples)
2 cups sugar
1 cup/ 2 sticks unsalted butter, melted, cooled
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup chopped walnuts
Directions

Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter and flour your baking pans. Mix diced apples, sugar, butter and egg in large bowl to blend. Sift flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt over. Add chopped walnuts, craisins; mix thoroughly. Transfer mixture to prepared pan.

Bake until cake is brown and crusty on top and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Cool cake in pan on rack

Cinnamon Chip Cookies

2010-08-22T15:01:00.000-07:00

Ramadan is my favorite time of year. It's like christmas for a whole month because everyone is just so happy and much nicer in my opinion. Fasting during Ramadan is not just about refraining from eating food and drinking water from before dawn till after sunset. It is about restraining your anger, doing good deeds, exercising personal discipline and preparing yourself to serve as a good Muslim and good person overall both during and after Ramadan.

Nadia is having an iftar today, and I don't like going anywhere empty handed. Baking while fasting is a little hard so I have no idea how these cookies came out. I played around with a couple of recipes in my head, but I think I should have used both chocolate and cinnamon chips and added more of them.

Ingredients:
1 cup plus 1/4 cup bread flour
1/4 + 1/8 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 stick cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 + 1/8 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup cinnamon chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare baking sheets.
Sift flour and baking soda into a medium bowl. Stir in the salt.
Beat half the butter on medium speed until fairly smooth. Add both sugars and the remaining butter, and beat until well combined. Beat for a few minutes, until mixture is light and creamy. Scrape down sides of the bowl. Add egg, beating until incorporated and scraping the bowl as necessary. Add dry ingredients and mix on low speed to combine. Mix in chips.
Fold dough with a spatula to be sure the chips are evenly incorporated.
Using about 2 tablespoons per cookie, shape dough into balls. Arrange 8 cookies per pan, leaving about 2 inches between them, because the dough will spread. Bake for 12 minutes, or until the tops are no longer shiny, switching the position and rotating pans halfway through baking.
Cool cookies on the pans on cooling racks for about 2 minutes to firm up a bit, then transfer to the racks to cool completely.

I also made Tiramisu for Erum's birthday request finally. This is one recipe I will not post though, it's a secret =) I've converted people who don't like coffee or tiramisu with this.

I've been cooking and baking a lot more than what I've posted obviously. I made my brownie trifle a.k.a sweeta and coconut bars for the iftar we held the other day, and I made some guacamole and avocado egg rolls (all while fasting) because Moomsbhai bought a bunch of organic avocados that were going bad. I've never made either before but Sophie and Mommy liked em both.

Coffee flavored cake

2010-08-09T20:56:00.000-07:00

Firstly, Happy birthday to my little sister =) Erum, I love you more than words can say and I'm so sorry that I couldn't be with you to celebrate (and more importantly, bake your birthday dessert!) But you know I will be making that tiramisu for you asap when I get home!!!

August is full of birthdays, and tommorow is Tasha's. She wouldn't make a request, so I had to go off of what I know about her. And I know this girl loves her coffee. So I attempted another try at a coffee flavored cake (not to be confused with coffee cake, which is simply a muffin type cake eaten with coffee/tea- although in my experience it's just eaten because its good regardless of whether there's coffee or tea around!)

Personally, I am absolutely in love with this recipe and will definitely be making it again and again. It is incredibly moist and has just the right amount of coffee (unless you like your coffee super strong). It is fluffy yet simultaneously rich and flavorful. It is just yummy goodness and you'll have to try and make it yourself.

I actually almost didn't want to use frosting, but it looked a little bare without it. But I didn't lather it on either. Plus, I was impatient as usual and tried turning it out of the pan too early, resulting in broken bits and a not as smooth surface as I would have liked. Hence the messy frosting look to try and offset the fact that it tastes better than it looks! I used the same mocha frosting I used for Mike's birthday cake (my cream cheese frosting recipe with a hot chocolate powder mix)

It's also Alisa's birthday on Thursday. Her birthday request was brownies or cookies with chocolate or peanut butter. So I decided to make these same brownies I made for Chris's birthday... I accidentally overbaked them a little (because I was multi-tasking) but they still turned out awesome.

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

2010-07-30T21:08:00.000-07:00

Kelsey's birthday request was my double chocolate chip cookies. I've made these at least 3-4 times this year, which speaks a lot for the recipe. I like experimenting with new recipes becuase there's just so many out there to try and so many yummy goodies to make! It's like my travel list, I don't think I'll go anywhere twice because there's too many new places to go. So when I make something more than once, it's got to be because it was requested (which logically means it's awesome!)

And FYI; you just can't go wrong with cream cheese in baking.

Btw in case you're wondering why I'm posting these all together all of a sudden, mommy was visiting so I didn't put baking blog updates at the top of my priority list.

Coconut Cookie Bars

2010-07-30T21:05:00.000-07:00

These are the other bars I said I made for the same day. I couldn't decide which ones to make! Regardless, they were both really chewy and moist and perfectly flavored (depending on if you like coffee or coconut), but too intense either.

Hazelnut Cappuccino Brownies

2010-07-30T20:58:00.000-07:00

We went on an island tour, so of course I had to bake something. I made these along with the bars I'll be posting right after. Depending on what their flavor preferences were, everyone chose favorites. But both got rave reviews =) A girl could get used to that. No wonder I dream of opening a bakery one day, who doesn't like the hand that feeds?

Mango Bread

2010-07-14T23:25:00.000-07:00

Mommy's here! And so of course I had to bake something, and since she loves mangoes which happen to grow in my backyard (she has a perfect view of them from her window with an amazing breeze), mango bread was naturally the first thing I thought of making. And I even made it healthy for her (although I forgot to make applesauce to replace the butter).

DF- Cranberry Macadamia Cookies

2010-07-05T15:29:00.000-07:00

DF standing for Diabetes Friendly. I've been wanting to make lower carb cookies for a while, so I tried using some leftover ingredients (a handful of macadamia nuts and craisins, yummy!) to try something out. I think I used too much baking soda and don't like the cornstarch because it made these more cake like cookies instead of the chewy kinds I love. But they still tasted awesome. It just depends on your cookie texture preference.

Inredients
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp baking soda
6 tbsp melted butter (I used salted)
1/4 cup splenda brown sugar blend
1/8 cup splenda granulated sugar blend
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chopped macadamia nuts
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt and set aside.
Beat together the melted butter and sugar blends. Beat in the egg and then the vanilla.
Gradually add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture until just moistened. Mix in the nuts and cranberries by hand.
Roll into balls or drop by spoonfuls onto prepared baking sheet, and slightly press down on the cookies with your palm to flatten. These cookies do not spread.
Bake for 15 minutes or until the edges look golden brown.

Nutrition Facts: makes 18 cookies
Calories: 1723 Fat: 120 grams Carbohydrates: 290 grams Protein: 22 grams
Per Cookie: Calories: 95 Fat: 6.5 grams Carbohydrates: 16 grams Protein: 1.2 grams

Chocolate & Mocha

2010-07-04T21:33:00.000-07:00

Today is Mike's birthday, which we celebrated along with our 4th of July BBQ. His birthday request was chocolate cake with mocha frosting since he is apparently a chocoholic (most people I know are). It wasn't much of a challenge, but it reinforced how much I absolutely love this chocolate cake recipe. It's probably the one thing I've baked the most and it's never failed to get rave reviews. Extremely moist and tender with just the right amount of chocolate without being overwhelming or intense (in my opinion).

Mmmm Bars

2010-07-04T21:24:00.000-07:00

That was the first reaction everyone had as soon as they bit into these bars. 'Mmmm', often followed by a more intense almost surprised 'Mmmmmmm'. So I think Mmmm Bars is an appropriate name. But if I had to go with a boring descriptive name, it would be oatmeal chocolate caramel bars? They are basically a layer of really chewy oatmeal cookie, followed by melted chocolate, caramel, and another oatmeal layer. They were extremely rich, and I think they could only be kicked up a notch by using good quality dark chocolate and adding a sprinkling of sea salt to the caramel.

Banana Cinnamon Bars

2010-07-04T02:37:00.000-07:00

Kim & Geoff invited us over for dinner and game night (taboo, woohoo!!!) so of course I had to take over some dessert. These were basically like a less dense version of banana cake in bar form instead. Super moist and yummy. You can add more nuts and even a streusel topping to make it more of a coffee cake if you want. It's a very forgiving and flexible recipe.

Ingredients:
6 tbsp butter
2/3 cup turbinado sugar
1 egg
1 cup banana puree/3 bananas
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8x8 baking pan.
Cream butter, add sugar and beat in egg. Stir in banana puree & vanilla. In a seperate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and cinnamon. Add dry ingredients to wet until just combined.
Add walnuts and bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool before cutting into squares.

Sesame cookies

2010-07-01T14:26:00.000-07:00

I love sesame seeds. On my chicken and fish, in my salad, in my bread (especially naan!). So I tried adapting a peanut butter cookie recipe to make sesame flavored cookies. And they turned out wonderfully. I was worried the tahini would make it too strong, but they were perfect.

PB and chocolate

2010-06-27T21:55:00.000-07:00

It was Chris's birthday on Saturday, and his birthday request was chocolate chip cookies or brownies. BORING. But it was his birthday, so that's what he got. I had to try and make something a little different than plain old brownies, so I experimented with a peanut butter swirl version. In hindsight, I should have checked to make sure he even likes peanut butter or wasn't allergic to peanuts before hand. Thankfully, neither was an issue.

It was the USA vs. Ghana world cup game that day, so Chris was over at the Ackee cafe with Kim and Geoff to watch. So that's where I took over the brownies for him. He was generous enough to share with everyone there, and as a result I got a couple of marriage proposals. One of the men there said he absolutely hates peanuts and peanut butter, but he loved these brownies. So I have now succeeded in coverting both coconut and peanut butter haters. Apparently the owner asked if the brownies had anything illegal in them, because of how much everyone was raving about them. Kim thinks that should be my slogan, theyre so good that you don't need drugs =) These had just the right amount of peanut butter to make sure it wasn't overwhelming. So for PB lovers, this may not be the recipe for you if you're hoping for a more distinctly PB taste.

I got a text from Kim today telling me that everyone at the Ackee was asking if their friend was coming with delicious brownies =) We went to shipwreck and played games on the beach. I, of course, took some cookies over with me to share with everyone. Chris said they smelled so amazing, he didnt want to eat it because that would mean that he couldnt smell them anymore. But when he did take a bite, his face was the epitomy of why I love to bake so much. I think he just might have beat Kelsey in being my biggest fan. According to him I must use cocoa from heaven. I think they were dubbed the 'how are these so good cookies'.

Ingredients: makes 2 dozen

2/3 cup flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
2/3 tsp sea salt
1/3 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup turbinado sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1/2 cup peanut butter chips
1/3 cup praline

Directions:
Whisk together dry ingredients: flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda. Beat butter at medium speed until smooth. Add sugars and beat until well-blended and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla. Add egg and beat for atleast one minute. Reduce mixer speed to low and add dry ingredients. Fold in chips and mix-ins.
Chill dough in fridge (overnight is always best, but this step is optional)
Preheat oven to 375. Prepare baking sheet and spoon dough by tablespoonfulls. Bake approximately 10 minutes or until edges are crispy and the centers are gooey.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

2010-06-12T10:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was two of my good friends birthdays. Sameer Ahmad and Laurent Fough, both of whom love oatmeal cookies. Difference being, like me, Sameer likes his oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips. Laurent likes raisins (which I can't stand). But I figured I'd make an exception and bake with them for his birthday.

This is the same recipe I used last time, but I think I baked them for a little bit longer so they were a little crunchier this time around. They were still pretty darn good, despite having raisins. Tasha loved the one she tried =) Haven't gotten Laurent's review yet.

Cheese and Bread

2010-06-12T10:01:00.000-07:00

I could live off of bread and butter and cheese. Fresh baked bread dipped in olive oil, mmmm. Tasha wanted to have a little cozy get together here last night. So we invited around 10 people, baked a couple of loaves of bread, made some cheese spreads, and got out cheese and grapes. It was a good group of people and a night of good food and good company.

So we made three different types of bread: mango bread, rosemary potato bread, and a three cheese garlic bread. Unfortunately the power was out most of yesterday so the last loaf came out just as people were arriving, and I wasn't able to get any pictures. The mango and cheese breads were the obvious favorites, because not even a crumb of either remains. They were both super moist and flavorful. I only barely got to try the cheese bread but it had amazing reviews. The mango one I can say was really really really good and I wouldn't change a thing about it, except maybe add nuts next time =) The potato rosemary bread was light and fluffy, but I'm just not a fan of rosemary. At least not that much rosemary. I would have liked more herbs and garlic in there.

Ingredients:
3 eggs
1/2 cup melted butter
1/4 cup applesauce
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cup turbinado sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp ground all spice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups diced mango

Directions:
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan, dust the inside with flour and tap out the excess.
Begin by dicing the mangoes. Set aside.
Whisk the eggs, butter and applesauce together.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt. Stir in sugar.
Pour the wet ingredients over the dry, switch to a sturdy rubber spatula or wooden spoon and mix until blended; the batter will be very thick (really more like a dough than a batter) and not easily mixed, but stick to it because it will come together soon.
Stir in the mango. Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.
Bake the bread for 1 1/2 hours, or until it is golden brown and a thin knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup chopped peeled potato
1/3 cup dairy sour cream/yogurt
Milk- as needed
Dough:
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp salt
3 1/2 cups bread flour
4 tsp chopped rosemary
1 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp yeast

Directions:
In a small saucepan, combine water and potato. Bring to a boil; reduce heat. Cook, covered, 8 to 9 minutes or until potato is very tender. Do not drain; cool. Mash potato in the water. Measure potato mixture. Add sour cream (or yogurt) and enough milk to make 1 1/3 cups.
Add potato mixture and dough ingredients to bread machine pan, wet ingredients before dry. Place on white bread setting, medium crust. This recipe yields a 1 1/2 pound loaf.

Chocolate Chip Coconut Blondies

2010-06-07T20:05:00.000-07:00

We went to a BBQ on Saturday with some really amazing food. I think I got an upset stomach because I ate 3 different types of meat that day: lamb chops, red snapper and roasted chicken (all cooked to perfection). There was homemade bean dip, garlic sauce and another insanely spicy hot sauce, corn bread, baguettes, coleslaw, salad, potato casserole... I'm probably forgetting something. It was all really really good.

Needless to say, I had to take dessert. So we made blondies; chocolate chip coconut this time. With only about 1/2 a cup of coconut you could barely taste it, but it added just the right amount of texture and chewiness. Normally I like to use a lot more mix-ins, but they get pretty darn expensive here...

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 sticks/1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
6 oz. chocolate chips
1/2 cup coconut

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 and spray 9x13 pan.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Beat the butter on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Add sugars and beat until well incorporated. Add the eggs one by one, then beat in the vanilla. Reduce mixer speed to low and add dry ingredients, mixing just until they disappear into the batter. Stir in mix-ins. Scrape the batter into a pan and use the spatula to spread and even the top.
Place the pan on a baking sheet and bake for 35-40 minutes, until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean, the blondies pull away from the sides of the pan a little and the top should be a nice honey brown. Let them cool completely before trying to cut them.

Estimated Nutrition Information:
4531 calories, 221 fat, 640 carbs, 44 protein
Makes about 24 bars

Walnut Date Bread

2010-06-07T19:42:00.000-07:00

Tasha and I have been trying to live healthier. We've been doing yoga almost everyday, going to the gym and cooking lighter food at home. We even made our own homemade applesauce (which I'll have another post for soon). So we've been trying to bake 'healthy' as well. Tasha had some dates lying around, so we thought we'd try and bake something healthy with it. Enter: our version of the walnut date bread.

We used our own recipe in her bread machine, and it had its own funky settings. I think it would have been much better if we just baked it on our own in the oven, and would rather make them as muffins next time. BUT it was incredibly moist and yummy especially for something without any butter or oil! It was all whole wheat flour and even wheat germ (which you couldn't taste), but lots of flavor from the dates, applesauce, and honey especially. None of which were overwhelming. There is plenty of texture from the oats and walnuts too. This bread tastes even better the next day and is absolutely divine when you toast it. One day we had it with melted cream cheese and this morning we had it toasted with some yogurt and applesauce. Mmmm =)

Coconanoats

2010-05-28T16:17:00.000-07:00

Yes, I tried coming up with a creative name for these. I'm not sure how much I like it. But it's better than saying Coconut Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (which is essentially what these are).

These little munchies have no eggs, sugar or butter! Tasha has inspired me to try healthier recipes, especially since she's trying to cut sugar and caffeine and everything bad for you out of her diet. This is the kind of recipe that only works if you like these particular flavors. Next time I might try subbing the bananas for applesauce and adding cinnamon and nutmeg. Mmmm.

My review: the coconut adds a great crunch and the oats add an awesome chewy texture. There's quite a few flavors going on, but the bananas ended up overwhelming everything. These are not your usual chewy dough like cookies (because theres no sugar or butter!) but they are still really good. The outside has the coconut crunch but the insides are moist and chewy. I actually had to bake them closer to 20 minutes because the middles still seemed wet and raw.

Ingredients: makes 2 dozen
2 medium bananas, mashed

1/4 cup canola oil
1/8 cup honey
1/8 cup dark brown sugar corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
2/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
pinch fine sea salt
1/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Prepare cookie sheet.
In a medium bowl, combine bananas, oil, corn syrup, honey and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine oats, flour, baking soda, coconut and salt. Add the banana mixture to the dry ingredients and blend until just combined (do not overmix). Fold in chocolate chips.
Drop batter by the teaspoon onto sheet, about an inch apart. Flatten mounds. Place in oven and bake 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and place directly n a wire rack to cool.

* Nutritional Information: per cookie
88 calories 4 grams fat 12.5 grams carbohydrates

Mango Crumble Bars

2010-05-24T17:10:00.000-07:00

It's mango season here. Which means it's insanely hot and I can literally say that my blood and sweat went into these. Haha don't worry, I promise I'm really good about cleanliness and safety with my cooking and baking.

It's Geoffs birthday on the 26th, so I asked Kim what his favorite cake/dessert is. She said he's not actually a fan of cake and loves things like lemons bars and crumbles, etc. So I figured I'd experiment with a mango crumble.

One of my mommy's signature desserts at all her dinner parties is her apple crumble, served warm with ice cream. Mmmm =) So I thought I'd tweak her recipe and try and make my own version of it. She normally only uses crushed corn flakes, but I added some oats in mine and made my own mango filling. She also uses cinnamon since apples and cinnamon just go hand in hand, but not so much with mangoes. And I wanted the mango flavor and then the crunchy texture of the crumble to stand out.

Ingrid reaching for a piece, she couldn't wait for us to finish taking our picture =)

Ingredients:
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup demerera sugar
1 cup corn flakes (I used an oatmeal crisp cereal because that's all I had)
1/2 cup oats
3 tbsp butter

Filling:
3 mangoes
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tbsp brown sugar

Peel and dice mangoes into small pieces and cook over medium heat with sugars. Since mangoes are such a pulpy fruit it doesn't exactly dice into nice clean pieces, so I got approximately 2 cups of mango chunks and pulp out of 3 large mangoes.
Sift together flour and sugar. With fork, crumble in butter. Crush cereal and mix in. Add oats.
In a greased 9x13 pan, layer 1/4 of the crumble mixture on the bottom. It should be a really thin layer because you don't want the filling to make it soggy. Add mango filling on top of that then layer the remaining crumble mixture and sprinkle the top with a little extra brown sugar or even streusel topping if you want.
Bake at 400 degrees for 25-35 minutes (depends on your oven) or whenever the filling starts bubbling and the top is golden brown.

Note: Mangoes are naturally sweeter than apples which I didn't take into consideration. The cereal I used had sweetened oat clusters, and I also decided to add extra streusel on top, which is basically sugar overload in my opinion. It's still addictively good, but I think whipped cream or ice cream make it amazing. It's all about your preference though. Next time I will either double the recipe or use a smaller pan and use more filling in proportion to the crumble mixture because I want it to be a bubbly kind of dessert instead of like bars. I think I'll also lower the temperature to 350. But if you want bars, this is the recipe to use. It got great reviews and George said I outdid myself =)

Blueberry crumb muffin

2010-05-16T18:11:00.000-07:00

I've been really really craving blueberry muffins for some reason. But I also wanted to make something semi-healthy and with less sugar so I could actually eat them without feeling insanely guilty and making my sugar levels sky rocket. So I tweaked something I found on allrecipes (I haven't used that site in ages!) and it turned out pretty darn good, perfectly light and fluffy. I even calculated the nutrition information, over-estimating a little because I'd rather be eating less than I thought than more!

I didn't use all the streusel topping that the recipe makes, because when I sprinkled it on the muffins before baking it looked like plenty, but I think next time I'll use it all. And I didn't actually have a full cup of blueberries (that's what you get for snacking while baking) and I would even suggest using a cup and a half for a more blueberry-ish kick.

Turtle blondies

2010-05-10T17:05:00.000-07:00

One of my really good friends hasn't had my dessert for a while, and I remember the first thing he ever tried of mine was some kind of turtle bar I experiment with. So I tried recreating those flavors with turtle blondies, and basically threw in chocolate chips, pecans and chopped pieces from caramel candy.

I considered drizzling some caramel sauce and chocolate syrup with some chopped pecans on top but since these are going in the mail, I figured it would be too messy. Plus, these were beyond rich enough as is. They are pretty darn ooey and gooey =) Personally I like the edge pieces the best because they are the chewiest most dough like.

Honey Nut Brownies

2010-05-06T21:26:00.000-07:00

Tiffany had a Cinco de Mayo potluck celebration at her house, so of course I had to take some kind of baked good the first time seeing a bunch of volunteers after my vacation. I've been wanting to try this recipe for a while...

They were super good. Rich, moist, chewy. Full of texture and flavor and yummy goodness. And I don't even like chocolate! I think using good dark chocolate made all the difference, as did the honey. If you're looking for a twist on your regular brownies, I definitely suggest these.

Cookies n Cream Cookies

2010-05-06T21:09:00.000-07:00

There were a lot of left over oreos from Sophie's baby shower, and I couldn't go over to Nadia's empty handed. CCC are always appreciated, and most people love oreo's too. So what if I use that standard recipe with oreos as a mix-in instead?

The oreos from the shower were dipped in purple chocolate, hence the purple peeking out. They were really hard to break up because of the chocolate!

These were really really good. Underbaking them just a little makes sure that they are really chewy. Nasir even said they were the best thing I've made so far, but I don't know if that's because he hasn't had anything I've baked in a while? I think he and Kelsey might have to fight for the title of being my biggest fan.

Baby Shower

2010-04-26T20:43:00.000-07:00

For Sophie's Pooh Bear themed baby shower, there was obviously a lot of baking involved =) The only dessert that wasn't made from scratch was the chocolate dipped oreo's, but even those we dipped in white chocolate dyed purple ourselves!

The cute chinese take out boxes in the corner were filled with cupcakes as party favors instead of useless things people would throw away... The dessert menu was red velvet cake, mini caramel cheesecakes, cookie dough cupcakes, double chocolate cookies, chocolate chip walnut cookies and chocolate dipped oreos. The double chocolate cookies were by far the favorite and the very first thing to go!

I made gum paste, and Erum and Nadia helped me dye it different colors and used pooh bear cookie cutters for the characters and flowers to decorate.

There's even a little trail behind the bee painted on with food dye...

It was red velvet, Sophie's special request.

Cookie dough cupcakes inside the favor boxes. This was a leftover that I managed to get a shot of, but the one's inside the box were frosted.

Mini caramel cheesecakes. I didn't get good shots of everything unfortunately.

Alton Brown's 'The Chewy'

2010-04-16T20:09:00.000-07:00

I know I just made CCC's the other day, but these were requested. William Murray, one of my closest friends from my fellow Peace Corps Volunteers here on the island might be medically separated. I started crying when he told me yesterday. But thankfully they are sending him to Washington DC to be tested first before they decide if he needs to be sent to another post instead (we're all crossing our fingers and ready to protest if need be!)

I want to make him a care package for his plane ride, and also just because he can't leave without getting baked goods from me. I may not be the best at saying how I feel, but this I can do. I know I bake a lot, but I only take requests from special people. And Will asked for standard old chocolate chip cookies. He asked me for a recipe the other day, so I think he's just been craving them recently. It works out for me because I have my list of CCC recipes to try anyway.

Lemon Poppyseed Cake

2010-04-12T21:23:00.000-07:00

I bought some lemon because when I made the strawberry lemonade bars a while back Kelsey started raving about how they reminded her of her mom cuz lemon bars are her favorite. So when her parents were visiting I had meant to make them for her, but I never got the chance. Now there aren't that many recipes that use as much fresh lemon juice as bars do, so I still have a couple sitting around staring at me to use them in something.

I ended up making this cake for after dinner when I had some volunteers over for a sewing project. I guess its not really cake, they would have been muffins but I decided to just use a cake pan and cut them into squares instead.

Innie, Meenie, Minie...

Mo!

Ingredients
Makes 16 servings

1/2 cup plus 1 Tbsp splenda blend (or you can use 2/3 cup sugar)
zest and juice of 2 small lemons
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sour cream
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup canola oil
3 Tbsp poppyseeds

Preheat oven to 400F. Prepare 8x8 baking pan.
In a large bowl, rub together the splenda mix and lemon zest until moist and you can smell the lemon.
Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
In another bowl, whisk together the sour cream, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice, and canola oil until well blended.
Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir gently and quickly to blend. Stir in the poppy seeds. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake for about 20 minutes or until the top is golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean. If baking muffins instead of cake reduce baking time.

Nutritional Information

10 g fat
190 calories
16 g carbs
3 g protein

Java 'crack' Cupcakes

2010-04-11T16:33:00.000-07:00

I fail. Somehow I didn't realize that I was practically out of all purpose flour. That's what happens when you store everything in the bottom shelf of the fridge and don't see how much you have. So I had to use more than half bread flour in this recipe, which is a total no-no for cakes. Arairnainrian (for those of you who don't know me, that's the noise I make when I'm annoyed!)

Somehow, the cupcakes still turned out pretty darn good. Geoff dubbed these 'java crack cupcakes' at yesterday's BBQ, where everyone was a little wired after having this mixture of caffeine and sugar. I'm sure the consistency will be even better when I use all purpose or cake flour. I wasn't impressed with the 'buttercream' recipe though. My friend Ali was the motivation behind these. He was raving about his favorite bakery in Bombay which makes some amazing coffee cake apparently, so I've been kind of wanting some myself. Ali, I'll have to make some for you so you can tell me if they even come close to the one's you love.

Those are actual coffee grounds, not poppyseeds!

Cupcakes:

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
2 cups plus 1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1 tbsp dark roast coffee grounds
1/2 cup strong brewed, dark roast coffee
1/4 cup
2 tbsp liquid coffee creamer (I used a hazelnut flavored one)
* Geoff: substitute 1 tbsp creamer for liqueur (or I guess you can use 2 tbsp liquer if you REALLY want)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.
Beat butter on high until soft. Add sugar. Beat on medium high until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beat until incorporated.
Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and coffee grounds in a bowl.
Measure out coffee, milk and creamer together.
Add 1/4th of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat to combine.
Add 1/3rd of the milk coffee mixture and beat to combine.
Repeat above, altering flour and coffee, ending with the flour mixture.
Scoop into cupcake liners about 3/4 full. These cupcakes shrink after cooling. Bake 20 minutes, or until cake tester comes out clean.

Frosting
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup cane sugar
3 tbsp instant coffee
2 tablespoons hot water
1/4 cup strongly brewed coffee

In a mixer, cream butter on medium speed. Add in both sugars and beat on high speed until light and fluffy (this didn't really happen for me). On low speed, slowly pour brewed coffee into the butter-sugar mixture. Increase to medium speed and beat until frosting is light and fluffy.
Dissolve instant coffee in hot water. Add this and the brewed coffee slowly so that you do not lose the desired frosting consistency. Frost the cupcakes.
I let my frosting chill overnight to firm up a bit first.

Thomas Keller's CCC

2010-04-04T18:48:00.000-07:00

On the right hand side, you'll see my list of CCC recipes that I want to try. Because everyone needs to have the ultimate go to CCC recipe, right? And even after you find it, it's just one of those things you can't stop trying . Because what if there just happens to be an even better one out there? So far, my favorite has been the Jacques Torres recipe. But I've seen so many good reviews (accompanied with drool worthy pictures) of these Thomas Keller cookies, I had to try them.

There were a couple of things that really made this recipe stand out for me. The lack of vanilla extract being the first. Anyone that knows me, knows how much I love overdosing on vanilla. So to completely omit this ingredient was REALLY hard but intriguing at the same time. The second was the use of cold butter instead of softened. The use of dark instead of light brown sugar made me expect an insanely rich flavor. And in addition, there was no chilling time required or suggested unlike most CCC dough's.

I didn't have the kind of good quality chocolate required by Mr. Keller (sigh... the life of a PCV), and had to use what I had in my pantry. I threw in a small handful of walnuts (that's all I had left), a small handful of leftover semi-sweet chocolate chips, and a whole bunch of Nestle Toll house swirled peanut butter and milk chocolate chips.

They were REALLY good. But at the end of the day, it all depends on what kind of cookie you like, and what kind youre in the mood for. These were really soft and chewy, no crunch at all. But I also underbaked them despite Mr. Keller's instructions. I think its from habit. The lack of vanilla really makes the chocolate flavor stand out. When I've tried out all the CCC recipes on my list, I'm going to end up mixing different techniques and coming up with my own perfect recipe by incorporating things like leaving no vanilla from Thomas Keller and using bread flour from Jacques Torres. But that doesn't mean I'll ever stop trying new recipes.