DESSERTS

So today, the pipe under my sink broke while I was washing the dishes. All of the sudden there was nasty water pouring onto my bare feet from the cupboard under the sink. It was gross. To make matter worse, I had plant food under the sink. The water totally ate through the cardboard making a nice, green plant food puddle. It was not fun to clean up. So I wanted to make something to make my stomach happy after the disgusting disaster. I decided to make raspberry and nutella  turnovers. It was really simple, really easy, and really good.  Basically I cut puff pastry sheets from the grocery store into 4″ squares. I blended some raspberries, honey, and lemon juice until it was smooth, and then microwaved some nutella to make it easier to spead. I then filled the squares with the nutella and raspberries, folded the pastry dough over, and pinched the sides together. Then I brushed the top with the egg, and sprinkled some sugar in the raw over the triangles. I popped it in the oven for 15 minutes and then ate them. They are so good right out of the oven, the raspberries and nutella is so warm and yummy. Be sure to let them sit for a couple of minutes to let them set.

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I have been buying a lot of bananas lately, and not eating them. So I have to bake with them. I decided to make these cookies that are like muffin tops. I have no idea where this recipe came from, as I have made them so many times I have the recipe memorized. They are banana oatmeal chocolate chip muffin top cookies. Don’t you just think the muffin top is the best part of any muffin?

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons on cinnamon
1 teaspoon of nutmeg
2 eggs
2 cups of flour
3 bananas mashed
2 cups of oats
1 cup of miniature chocolate chips
1/8 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of baking soda

( I know that I probably didn’t organize the list of ingredients appropriately but its from memory so I’m sorry)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1. Mix the butter and sugar together until creamed.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients together: Flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
3. Add the eggs to the butter and sugar.
4. Slowly add the flour mixture into the butter and sugar.
4. Add the mashed bananas.
5. Then add the oats.
6. Then add the chocolate chips.

Plop onto a cookie sheet and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. This recipe makes about 36 cookies if you put about two or three tablespoons of batter for each cookie.

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There was a MAJOR heat wave in Los Angeles over the last weekend. It was totally unbearable, and totally horrible. I had been waiting to use all these strawberries I bought from the market, and I really really desperately wanted a strawberry shortcake kind of thing. However, because of the heat, I was not willing to go through and make the actual cake part. I went over to the grocery store and bought some pre packaged pastry dough, popped it in the oven for 25 minutes, and ding, it was done. Then, I whipped up some cream, and blended some strawberries with some lime juice and Ta Da. Instant yumminess.

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Do you remember the band The Presidents of the United States of America? I do, and while I was making this peach bread pudding, I couldn’t help but sing their song Peaches in my head. I used to obsessed with them in the 5th or 6th grade. Peaches is a really good song, I have to say. Obviously very catchy. Anyway, so today I decided I really wanted peach bread pudding. Peaches are not really in season, but whatever. I didn’t use them from a can thought. I wanted to make a really thick custard kind of bread pudding. I looked up a bunch of recipes, but just ended up combining and modifying them. The results were ok. If I were to make this again, I would have added more peaches. I also made a raspberry compote which was really good with the pudding. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients for Peach Bread Pudding:
1 pound 4 oz of challah bread
3 cups of buttermilk
1 cup of heavy cream
15 large eggs

1 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar packed
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/5 pounds of peaches ( This is what I actually used, but next time I would use 2 or even 2 1/2 pounds)

Lightly coat two 9 by 9inch (2qt) baking dishes with vegetable cooking spray. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cube the challah bread in to half inch cubes. Peel and cut the peaches into small cubes. In a medium bowl combine milk, cream, sugars, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Pour mixture over bread, and let sit for at least 30 min, I let mine sit for almost an hour. Pour mixture into the two baking dishes. Set the dishes in a roasting pan and fill with about 2 inches of water. Cover the dishes with foil, and bake with foil for about 40 min. Take the foil off and continue baking for another 20-30 min or until the top is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

Ingredients for Raspberry Compote:
4 pints of fresh raspberries
1/2 cup of granulated sugar
2 tablespoons of lime juice

Put the raspberries, sugar, and lime juice in a blender. Blend until it reaches the desired consistency.

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I decided today was a good day for baking. I wanted to try and make green tea cupcakes with a meringue frosting. I have no idea if this will taste good, because I have yet to try one from today, but they sure do look good. To me, meringue is frosting that usually pairs itself well with lemon something or other. I don’t really like lemon stuff, so green tea sounded good. I did a really simple modification to this recipe found on the cupcake blog Chockylit. I just added 3 teaspoons of green tea matcha.

For the frosting, I used another Chockylit. recipe. Instead of using my fingers to make peaks, I used various tips with my mechanical pastry bag.

Ingredients:

2 sticks of unsalted butter, room temp.
2 cups of sugar
4 large eggs
2 3/4 cups of all purpose flour
1 1/5 teaspoons of baking powder
1/8 teaspoon of salt
3 teaspoons of green tea matcha powder
1 cup of milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla

Refer to the Chockylit blog for directions.

I used both regular cup cake papers and the party mix cups.

All done! I have to say, my favorite process of baking cupcakes is putting on the frosting. I wanted use meringue because I really really wanted to use the mini blow torch. It was so much fun!

Its sad because after all that work, I really don’t feel like eating a cupcake. This always happens. Someday my stomach will learn.

It was pretty fun to bake today and listen to some good music. Here are some of the artists I was listening to today:

The Black Keys

Feist

Led Zeppelin

Patrick Park

Check them out!

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