Bad Bucky

So I went to NYC for the last four days of spring break. NY is the one place that I love enough to move to in a heartbeat. I would pick up everything and move there right this second if I could, but alas, college stands in the way. So, I settle with going there with my boyfriend and his family and doing a modified BEST THING I EVER ATE tour around NYC. 

IPUDDO (65 4th Ave): 

- Appetizers- Hirata Buns w/ Pork, Ippudo Teba Gyoza 

-Ramen- Karaka Miso Ramen w/ Onsen Tamago (poached egg)

Thoughts… This was by far my favorite place that we ate in NYC. I wish I could go back. Though the ramen featured on The Best thing I ever ate was the Akamaru Modern, I ventured out and decided to go with the spicy one, and honestly I’m not sure you can go wrong. 

Rice to Riches (37 Spring St):

-ordered- almond, cake batter, 

Thoughts… I don’t care for rice pudding, or sweets really. So, I can’t say I really enjoyed Rice to Riches as much as I should have however everyone else who I was with raved about it. I would say it’s a little on the pricier side of things for what you get.

Tasty Hand-Pulled Noodles (Chinatown):

-ordered- I got the chicken hand-pulled noodles (not made into soup)

Thoughts… this restaurant came in a close second to being my favorite. Watching them hand pull the noodles in the kitchen at one of their five tables inside this cramped little asian restaurant in chinatown was definitely a highlight, and the food was delicious as well. 

Doughnut Plant (379 Grand St):

-ordered- pistachio, peanut butter and jelly, creme brulee, tres leche, vanilla bean

Thoughts… I don’t like doughnuts. I just wanted to point this out before I say my next bit. I LOVED THIS PLACE. We went back twice it was so dang good. My mouth was watering just thinking about going back. This place definitely renewed my faith in doughnuts! The one on Food Network that was featured was a tres leche cake doughnut, I thought that was just mediocre – this might be due to the fact that I apparently have something against cake doughnuts. The doughnut I went back for, and would continue to visit for is the creme brulee (YUMMMY). 

There were other restaurants that we attended from the show but these were definitely the highlights!

Spring Break – Day 4 – Leftovers

What to do with leftover buttercream icing and red velvet cake batter? Make red velvet cupcakes stuffed with cream cheese frosting! Only problem now I have leftover cream cheese frosting… plan backfired but cupcakes are delicious.

Cream Cheese Frosting Stuffed Red Velvet Cupcakes – That’s a mouthful (pun intended)

NOTE: If you do not have leftover red velvet cake and/or buttercream icing, double the cream cheese frosting recipe.

Leftover red velvet cake or if you need the recipe

Leftover buttercream icing or if you need the recipe

*you may have to scroll down to find both of those

The following cream cheese frosting

Heat oven to 350ºF. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full of batter. Bake for 20-30 min (mine took exactly 25 min). Allow to cool.

Cream Cheese Frosting – Taken from Terri Wahl Recipe (On Throwdown w/ Bobby Flay)

• 12 oz cream cheese, room temperature
• 8 oz butter, room temperature
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract

Whip the butter and cream cheese together in a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until creamed. Gradually add powdered sugar to the mixture and scrape down the bowl as needed. Add the vanilla and mix until combined.

The frosting can be used right away, or stored in the refrigerator up to a week.

Return to cupcakes. Scoop out top of muffin using a spoon. Scoop out a little bit of the inside to make room for cream cheese filling. Save top of muffin.

Put cream in plastic bag and cut off corner.

Squeeze into the hole that you scooped out.

Put top back onto cupcake.

Cover tops of cupcake with buttercream frosting. Have some fun and try new techniques! If you don’t have enough buttercream use the extra cream cheese frosting to cover cupcakes.

YUM!

Spring Break – Day 3 Continued – Dinner Guests

We never eat dinner in my house unless I cook it or it’s take out. Needless to say I was great with a take out menu and a telephone by the time I was five. I attribute my love for ethnic foods to growing up on restaurant food rather than home cooking and I wouldn’t trade that for the world. But again, we never eat a home cooked meal unless I’m the one doing the cooking. So when my mom tells me she invited my grandmother, aunt, and uncle over I was gritting my teeth and frantically trying to figure out what to cook. I sifted through the freezer, fridge, and cupboards and found sweet potatoes and turkey breast cutlets. Then came an hour on the internet searching for recipes that everyone would enjoy eating (my aunt is gluten intolerant so sometimes this can get a little tricky). Here’s what I came up with:

 

the table

NOTE: There are only three photos and I apologize for this, but I was racing around the kitchen trying to finish everything and I forgot about taking pictures.

Turkey Breast Cutlets – Roasted Turkey Breast w/ Peach Rosemary Glaze

You can use a whole turkey breast, for cooking instructions click on link.

• 2 cups apple cider, plus 2 tablespoons
• 1/4 cup salt, plus more for turkey
• 3 to 5 sprigs thyme
• 3 sprigs rosemary plus 1 teaspoon chopped
• 8 turkey breast cutlets *can use however many you want I would say up to 12
• 1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more for turkey
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 (10-ounce) bag frozen peeled and sliced peaches, chopped (pretty finely or won’t break down)
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar

Brine: In large bowl or large enough bag to fit turkey combine 2 cups of apple cider, salt, thyme, and rosemary (I did not chop any of the rosemary but added 5 sprigs instead). Add turkey breast to bowl/bag and enough water to cover. Place in refrigerator for 2 hours.

Sauce: In small saucepan saute onions until softened. Add peaches, honey, worcestershire, brown sugar, and 2 tbsp apple cider. Lower to simmer and cook for about 12 min until peaches break down.

Heat oven to 350ºF

Turkey: Remove turkey from brine and pat dry. Remove thyme and rosemary sprigs from brine. Brush turkey with oil and season with pepper. Place on roasting rack in pan. Place rosemary and thyme along side or in between the turkey breasts.

Cover roasting pan with tin foil and cook for 30 min. Remove from oven and remove thyme and rosemary sprigs. Brush with sauce. Cook for another 30 min, brushing with sauce again after 15 min. Turn oven to broil, brush with sauce, and broil for 5-10 min (make sure to be watching as it is very easy to burn) until there is some color on the top of the chicken.

Sweet Potatoes – Mashed Sweet Potatoes w/ Skins – Adapter from Tyler Florence recipe

• 4 large sweet potatoes, scrubbed
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter melted

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Prick sweet potatoes all over with a fork. Drizzle sweet potatoes with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast for 45 min until sweet potatoes are soft (I had to add another 10 min because one of my potatoes was very thick).

Put cream in sauce pan with bay leaves and heat until boiling. Keep warm until ready to use.

When sweet potatoes cool enough to work with, begin to peel off skins. Only peel off half the skin as the other half will go in the mashed potatoes. *If you don’t want peels in your potatoes take them all off. Roughly cut up the sweet potatoes and put in stand mixer. Mix for about 3 min. Add 1/2 cup of cream (bay leaves discarded) and spices. Mix until incorporated. If potatoes are not as creamy as you like, add some more. Add melted butter.

Vegetable – Brussel Sprouts w/ Pancetta – Adapted from Nigella’s Christmas Kitchen

• 2 1/4 pounds Brussels sprouts
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 9 oz pancetta
• 1 cup almonds
• 1/4 cup Marsala wine or port
• Freshly ground black pepper

Boil salted water. Slice off bottom of brussels sprouts. Heat another pan and toast the almonds. Add brussels sprouts to boiling water. Cook for 5 min or until tender but still retain a bite. Strain brussels sprouts. Heat oil. Add pancetta and cook until crisp and golden brown (do not dry out). Add toasted almonds. Turn up heat and add marsala wine. Cook until reduced and thick. Add sprouts, mix, and top off with some black pepper.

Dessert – Chocolate Soufflé Cupcake – Taken from Smitten Kitchen recipe

White Chocolate Cream – Frosting
4 ounces (56 grams) white chocolate, finely chopped
6 ounces heavy whipping cream

NOTE: I doubled this recipe to make sure that I had enough frosting.

Place chocolate in bowl. Heat up cream until boils. Pour cream over chocolate and whisk until cream is uniform. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 2 hours.

Make cupcakes…

Chocolate Soufflé Cupcakes
6 ounces (170 grams) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped (I used half and half and both were of the chocolate chip variety)
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) (86 grams) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
Heaping 1/4 teaspoon (1 gram) espresso or instant coffee powder
3 large eggs, separated
6 tablespoons (97 grams) sugar, divided
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Using hand mixer beat egg yolks and 3 tablespoons sugar in medium bowl until mixture is very thick and pale, about 2 minutes. Briefly beat lukewarm chocolate mixture, then vanilla extract, into yolk mixture. Using clean dry beaters, beat egg whites in another medium bowl until soft peaks form. Add remaining 3 tablespoons sugar extremely slowly and all of the salt, beating until medium-firm peaks form. Fold whites into chocolate mixture in 3 additions. Divide batter among prepared cups, filling each three-fourths of the way. *I recommend using muffin cups otherwise they don’t come out very well.

Bake cakes until tops are puffed and dry to the touch and a tester inserted into the centers comes out with some moist crumbs attached, about 15 to 20 minutes. Cool in pan on a cooling rack, where the cupcakes will almost immediately start to fall.

after they have fallen

Finish Making Cream

Take cream out of the fridge. Beat until soft peaks form. Fill each sunken cupcake with cream.

NOTE: My photo may look shoddy but I took it a day after I made them when I had no more cream left. These were my favorite desserts I have ever made. I’m going to make them over and over and over again!

Spring Break: Day 2 & 3

I was disappointed when I realized I wouldn’t be joining my friends on a bus tour/volunteer trip for spring break until I realized these two points: 1. I get to cook what I want with my mother paying for ingredients, 2. Queen sized bed. Day 1 of spring break was spent attending a funeral and eating my boyfriends cousin’s delicious homemade lasagna, which needless to say inspired me for my spring break goal: bake/cook at least one thing per day (this does not include my daily egg sandwiches). So, day two I started off pre-making the infamous cake pops (made famous by bakerella). Though the recipe I used called for boxed red-velvet cake and store bought cheesecake I enjoy making things hard on myself, and after all it is spring break. So day two (well the night of day two) was spent making red-velvet cake (courtesy of Bobby Flay) and a cheesecake (thanks to another food blog called simply recipes. If you are going to take on the task of making cake pops why not make your own cake?! But if you do decide to make the cakes from scratch I recommend doing them the night before you try to assemble the pops. With this project I have discovered that I lack talent in food photography. Part of the problem may be that I’m taking all the photos with my phone…

Note: Both the Red-Velvet Cake and the Cheesecake can be made simultaneously if you can figure it out.

DAY 1

Step 1: Perfect Cheesecake – Simply Recipes (edited to fit cake pops whole recipe can be found in link above)

• 2 lbs/32 oz cream cheese, softened (to about room temp)
• 1 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 4 large eggs
• 2/3 cup sour cream or 2/3 cup plain yogurt and 2/3 tsp baking soda
• 2/3 cup heavy whipping cream

I only made the filling part of the cheesecake because the pops don’t need crust or anything, however, if you are looking for a good cheesecake recipe I would recommend this one it turned out great!

NOTE: Spring foam pan is not needed but can be used but must be tin-foiled to ensure no water is allowed in.

Heat oven to 325ºF. Prepare pan. I used a 9 by 13 in. I would recommend a deep 9 in round pan (spring foam one works just see note above). If you use a rectangle you will get a lot of the brown top part in the cake pops (which does not alter the taste but does make them hard to form into the “perfect” little spheres). Place in roasting pan or bigger pan for later.

Cut cream cheese into chunks and cream in mixer for about 4 min (I suggest using a stand mixer). Add sugar and mix for another 4 min. *Make sure to scrape sides every once in a while to incorporate the ingredients the paddle is missing. Add salt and vanilla. Mix. Add eggs, one at a time , and mix after each addition. Add sour cream and mix. Here I used greek yogurt and baking soda because I ran out of sour cream and it worked perfectly. Add heavy cream. Mix.

Pour into pan. Place pan into larger pan (I suggest using a roasting pan but it just has to be bigger). Fill larger pan with water until about 1 1/4 in up the side of the smaller pan. Place in oven and bake for 1 1/2 hour.

Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 30 min. Then place in fridge for 2-4 hours until completely chilled (I suggest doing this overnight).

Step 2: The Red-Velvet Cake – Bobby Flay w/ some additions from yours truly

• 3 3/4 cups AP Flour
• 3 tablespoons Dutch processed cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 3/4 cups vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons red wine or regular vinegar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons red food coloring
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk, at room temperature

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Spray 9 in circle pan with baker’s spray  (or Pam whatever you have handy) and wipe with paper towel to get even coverage (the cake is going to be crumbled later so there is no need to worry about it coming out perfectly which is why there is no need to butter, flour, and place parchment paper down.

Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in separate bowl and set aside.

Using stand mixer, cream butter, sugar, and oil (I used canola oil) until fluffy. Add each egg one at a time, mixing after each new addition. Add vanilla and vinegar.

Alternate adding flour mixture and buttermilk. Mix well. Add food coloring. I recommend adding 1tbsp first and seeing if you like the color, if you don’t add another 1/2 tbsp and so on until the color you want is achieved.

Bake for 30-40 minutes (until toothpick comes out clean). Let cool, I suggest overnight just because it’s convenient otherwise about two hours is sufficient.*I only cooled overnight because I baked them around 9 pm the night before I was going to assemble the cake pops.

DAY 2

Step 3: Frosting – Basic Buttercream Icing

buttercream after it came out of the fridge

This is just a basic recipe for buttercream icing I pulled off the internet. It’s nothing special so if you have your own favorite buttercream recipe go with that. Also note that the cake pops recipe calls for either buttercream or cream cheese frosting (store bought but again I like to make my own), so, if you want to make cream cheese frosting here’s my go-to cream cheese frosting recipe for red-velvet cake (scroll down to the frosting part and give it a go).

• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk

NOTE: I made this the night before and then put it in the fridge with plastic wrap on top. The next day I put it in the microwave for about 15 seconds and it worked the same. So, if you would like to make it a day ahead of time that is an option!

Mix shortening, butter, and vanilla until all ingredients are incorporated. Add sugar one cup at a time (mixing after each cup is added). Add milk. Beat until light and fluffy.

Step 4: Cake Pop Time! – Red Velvet Cheesecake Pops – Steamy Kitchen

The pops on the recipe and the ones that can be found at bakerella look amazing mine turned out a bit shoddy but still yummy! If you  need more photos of the process I recommend looking at the original recipe which can be found above.

1 red velvet cake
1/2 – 3/4 cup buttercream or cream cheese frosting
7” plain cheesecake
1-2 cups honey graham crackers crumbled
1-2 bag of 10-12 oz. candy melts, your favorite color (I used vanilla candiquik because that was all I could find at the grocery store, but if you want to make a trip to Michaels they offer a large variety)
¼ – ½ cup of vegetable

lollipop sticks (I used bbq skewers and cut off the pointy ends)

NOTE: On the original recipe all the cake(s)/frosting is store bought, store bought cakes/frosting can be substituted.

crumbled red velvet cake

Crumble red velvet cake using a food processor (or hands). Add 1/2 cup of frosting and crumbled cake into mixer and mix. Add another 1/4 cup of frosting if you can’t easily roll into balls (this was necessary for me and I just kept adding a little bit until it got to a point where I could roll the “batter” easily).

adding the frosting

Measure out about 1/2 tbsp of “batter” and roll into a ball. Place on cookie sheet or in shallow pan. Repeat until all of the “batter” has been rolled into balls. Put red velvet balls into fridge for 30-40 min.

red velvet balls

Place tin foil in bottom of pan. Once balls are chilled take about 1/2 tbsp of cheesecake and form around the bottom of a ball. Then take about another 1/2 tbsp and form around top half. Roll until smooth-ish. Place on tin foil. Repeat until all of cheesecake is used up. (I had some extra balls which can just be covered with the candiquik at the end). Place in fridge for 30 – 60 min but can be left overnight to chill if needed.

adding the cheesecake

Crumble graham crackers using food processor (you can do by hand but it’s a pain). Remove balls from fridge. Roll each in graham crackers.

Melt some of your candy melts (if it dries in between steps it will easily remelt so don’t worry). Stick the ends of the sticks in and coat about 1 – 2 in of end of stick in candy melt. Insert stick into the balls. Be careful not to push stick all the way through the cake pops. Place in fridge for 30 min.

half with sticks half with grahams

Melt all of your candy melt and remove pops from fridge. Coat the pops in candy melt and place on tin foil with the sticks in the air. Twirl each one a little and tap it over bowl of candy melt to get the excess off.  Place on tin foil or parchment paper to dry. If you would like the pops to be perfectly round (without the inevitable flat part on top) you can stick them into foam blocks. I have yet to make perfectly round ones so if you have anymore ideas on how to make them round let me know!

covering with candy melt

Always refrigerate the pops until ready to serve them.

Cake Pops!

Enjoy!