Baking With Unicorns - a baking adventure

But of course she was PHENOMENAL!

May 11, 2014 by Baking Unicorn Leave a Comment

I have been waiting for last night to occur, probably since I was born. Perhaps even before that. I would not but surprised if I have been waiting since the big bang, just waiting for all the right lil molecules to come together.

Regardless, Cher’s performance was outstanding. That woman can still belt it out with the best of them, and she can do it in her Turn Back Time Outfit! Also, she was hilarious! Ugh…. I cannot wait until her 4th farewell tour. I don’t know how she can top this one, but I have no doubts that she’ll find a way. And if Cher wasn’t enough, Cyndi Lauper opened for her!!! And Cyndi brought Liza Minnelli and Rosie O’Donnell onstage with her. And the three of them sang “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”. Mind blowing.
Sigh.
THANK YOU, MAMA!!! Last night was all I have ever dreamed of and more!!!
Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MAMA!!!!!
and because I won’t be posting tomorrow, HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY, MAMA! And to all other mom’s, including Cher!!!!

This song was not performed last night, but I am a huge fan, even if Lady Gaga decided it wasn’t worth releasing. It seems like an appropriate Mother’s Day/Birthday song, and clearly appropriate for Cher:

Now for the baking.
I know I haven’t actually posted in a while, but I have been baking. This particular treat was made 2 weeks ago, but I’m only now getting to it (I blame finals!!!!). Interestingly, when my friend tasted this, she was convinced that there was coconut in it (she loves coconut) and was shocked when she learned that it’s actually hazelnuts that give it the taste and texture that it has (she doesn’t like hazelnuts). What that says about my baking and the treat as a whole is unclear, but… I’m amused.
The hazelnuts give it an interesting texture which I was a bit put off by. I was a little lazy (and pressed for time) when I made this, so did not grind the nuts quite as much as I would have liked. But everyone seemed to like the texture. GREAT!
The recipe called for Calvados-Poached Figs as well, but it was April when I made this. How many fresh figs do you think there are?
On a final note, I TRIED to blanch the hazelnuts (removing the skin and all) and got about 1/3 of the way through the nuts and gave up. It’s not fun, nor easy, to remove skins, despite having blanched them. Almonds are much easier in my opinion.

Chocolate Hazelnut Torte
From BonAppetit, December 2013 Issue

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temp
1 cup sugar
8 oz bittersweet chocolate
12 oz blanched hazelnuts (worst!)
1/4 cup flour
2 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp. salt
6 large eggs, separated
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tst cream of tartar

1. If you are going to blanch your hazelnuts, do that first. Here’s how one does that: Blanching!

2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease (butter) a 9″ springform pan. Line with parchment and set aside.

3. In a double boiler, melt chocolate until smooth. Set aside to cool a bit.

4. While chocolate is cooling, place (blanched) hazelnuts in food processor with flour, cocoa powder, salt and 1/4 of the sugar. Pulse until well ground (but not till it becomes hazelnut butter!!!). The original recipe says the mixture should be able to pass through a medium-mesh sieve, but in my world, there’s only one sieve size, and that’s the one that I have. Needless to say, I did not pulse to quite that mesh size. Mine was a bit bigger and I said” F*** it! I’m lazy!” and went with what I had.

5. In a medium bowl, beat butter and remaining sugar until fluffy. Then add in the egg yolks one at a time, beating batter after each yolk gets added. Next, stir in the cooled (but still melted) chocolate and vanilla extract. Finally, add in the dry ingredients bit by bit until all is incorporated into the batter.

6. In a small mixing bowl, beat egg whites until stiff white peaks form! Then, take ~1/3 of the whites and mix into the batter to “loosen” it up (whatever that means). Then, once sufficiently loose, fold in the remaining egg whites, GENTLY, using a spatula. Once all is incorporated, transfer batter to prepared springform pan and bake for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and bake for anther 30-40 minutes (I think I took the full 40 minutes). Test with toothpick! There may be some crumbs that come with toothpick when pricked, but it should not be gooey inside.

7. Remove from oven and allow to cool on wire rack for ~30 minutes before releasing springform pan. Then allow to cool completely!!!

8. Serve to unsuspecting people who think hazelnuts taste like coconut. You’ll blow their minds!

Vegan Girl Scout?

March 24, 2014 by Baking Unicorn Leave a Comment

Sigh.
Spring break 2014 is done. It always amazes how quickly this one week in the year goes while all other weeks of the year seem to drag one. Amazing! Somehow time just moves differently for this one week. Tricky Tricky.
But even though the week sped by, it was a great one. Lots of amazing friends, food, wine, whiskey, and yoga! I also checked back in with the music scene for a moment, and found “Headlights” by Eminem featuring Nate Ruess. I’ve always been a fan of Eminem, and I’m a HUGE sucker for any song with a featured artist. Gets me every time!

The song is rather intense and sad, but it’s been on repeat all day. It reminds me how lucky I am to have my amazing mom and family. Thank you, family, for being amazing! I’ll never be able to identify with this song because of you guys 🙂

Also this Spring break has found me obsessed with “Gaycation” by DWV

Detox, Willam, and Vicky are (almost too) fabulous. They’re clever, sassy, and unapologetic drag queens. What’s not to love?!

And with that, I’ll conclude my music run down and move onto the baking.
This recipe was originally inspired by a smoothie I had at Juice Generation called the Joyful Almond. I was honestly skeptical that it would be good, but I tried it (mostly because I was tired of the other option) and fell in love with it. So I set out to make a cookie version of the smoothie. And it’s vegan, so it must be healthy, right? yeah….

Anyway, these turned out to be pretty good. They also turned out to be a vegan version of the Samoa Cookie that girl scouts like to get you with (I have a box in my freezer from last year still…. I should probably use that up). There’s sadly no caramel in my cookies (I have no clue how to do a vegan caramel… butter is key to delicious caramel), but the coconut and chocolate are there!

Vegan Almond-Coconut Cookies (a girl scout knockoff)
yield: ~4 dozen

after 30 seconds

Ingredients:
16 oz (1lb) roasted, unsalted Almonds
2 tablespoons Olive Oil
1 tablespoon baking soda
3/4 cup flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup applesauce
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
~1 cup shredded, unsweetened Coconut
3.5 oz dark chocolate (I used Green and Black’s Organic Dark Chocolate, 70%)
1 tablespoon agave nectar

after 90 seconds

1. Preheat oven to 35o degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment or Silpat.

2. Place almonds in food processor and add olive oil on top. Blend on high (if you have different speed settings) for ~30 seconds. Scrape down the sides. Repeat blending and scraping 2-3 more times, until almonds and oil have become almond butter. (you can also skip this step by buying a jar of almond butter….)

3. Place almond butter, baking soda, flour, sugars, apple sauce, vanilla and 1/4 cup shredded coconut into a large mixing bowl and mix it all up together into a dough. The dough should be slightly crumbly but can be formed into a ball.

4. Make ping-pong sized balls of the dough and roll them in the extra coconut. Place on prepared baking pan ~ 1 1/2 inches apart. They spread out a bit (especially if you drop them on the counter to make them chewy rather than crispy). Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, or until they start to crack at the top. Remove from oven, allow to cool for 5 minutes, and then transfer to cooling rack.

5. While cookies are cooling, place chocolate and agave nectar in double boiler and melt completely, stirring constantly. Allow to cool for 5 minutes while you get the cookies ready. Place the cooling racks on a piece of foil or another pan. Make sure the cookies are touching one another but not overlapping. This will reduce chocolate waste.

6. Once cookies are ready, drizzle the chocolate over the cookies using a spatula or a spoon. Allow chocolate to cool completely. Because of the added agave nectar, the chocolate will not become hard when cooled. Instead, it will be more fudge like.

7. eat! or sell them as girl scout cookies and make a killing.

The next step for this Unicorn

March 8, 2014 by Baking Unicorn Leave a Comment

Chocolate Wedding Send Off!

March 6, 2014 by Baking Unicorn Leave a Comment

Oh! goodness! This year has been so long already, and we’re only just starting the third month!
But I attribute that to this whole grad-school process. It’s so draining. Interviews are exhausting… and unpleasant really. BUT I’m all sorts of done now! YAY! And plan to make a final decision by Friday. Also, on one of my interviews, I got to play this game. The best game ever!!!! (if you can’t tell, that’s a Dolly Parton Pinball machine!)

So, the following baked good was actually from a couple of weeks ago (don’t worry, it’s been eaten. Just haven’t posted it till now). My dear friend, Anuya, had a little “I’m bout to get hitched in India” party with her lab and my lab (my lab is Anuya’s former lab). It was great! I finally got to say more than a few words to her husband-to-be (March 8th is their official wedding date), and this was actually one of the few times in the two years I’ve been at the Lab that I’ve hung out with lab members outside of the lab. Always want to. Rarely can. So this was a rare opportunity for me. So. Much. Fun!

The whole thing was a bit silly. We played a “wedding” game where we took paper towels and tried to make a sari out of them. It was lab against lab, but of course, my lab won! AND we won by making a sari for the soon-to-be-husband. With a turban. Sigh, why didn’t I go into fashion design?

Anyway, this cake was created for Miss Anuya. She says she likes my baking, so I asked what I should bring to this wedding bash, and chocolate was the request. I had limited time, so I came up with this. A chocolate Bundt cake. Simple, but yummy. There are a few kinks I think I need to iron out, but overall, the texture was super moist and dense, and the flavor was a lot of chocolate, so… mission accomplished!

When I baked it, a dent formed in the middle of the cake. It was just a ring of cake that was indented compared to the inner ring and the outer edges… not sure why…. OOPS! but again, still chocolatey, so… whatevs!

Chocolate Bundt Cake (Suitable for a wedding bash!)
Inspired by this

Ingredients:The cake:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1/3 cup cocoa powder
4 oz Dark Chocolate
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water
2 cups flour (may want to add an extra 1/4 cup)
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 eggs
1/2 cup plain (or vanilla) Greek yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

The Icing:
4 oz Dark Chocolate (chopped into small bits)
1 1/2 teaspoons agave nectar
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare 12 cup Bundt pan by buttering it and then dusting it with flour. I took probably 10-15 minutes to do this. SO MANY NOOKS IN A BUNDT PAN! yikes.

2. In a double boiler, place butter, cocoa powder, dark chocolate, salt, and water and heat it all up until chocolate is melted and everything is combined into a thin sauce. Remove from heat and set aside.

3. Place flour, sugar, and baking soda in a large bowl and mix. Then add ~1/2 the melted chocolate and whisk together. Unless you have one of the whisks with the balls at the ends instead of loops, it’s likely the mixture will get stuck inside. Fret not! Add the rest of the chocolate mixture and continue to whisk! Then add in the eggs, one at a time and whisk some more(not sure why it’s always one at a time with recipes… but I do it…). Finally, add in the yogurt and vanilla and whisk it all together. Now the batter should be smooth, and nothing should be stuck in your whisk. If it is, you may have a problem…

4. Pour batter into your prepared Bundt pan and bake for 50-55 minutes. Check if the cake is done with a toothpick and keep baking if it’s not clean (I may have gone up to 60 minutes. Again, that weird dent in my cake happened!).

5. Once the cake is baked sufficiently, allow to sit for ~20 minutes, then turn cake out onto a wire rack and let the cake cool completely. This, for me, took about 2 hours.

6. To make the icing, place heavy cream, sugar, and agave nectar into a double boiler. Allow the cream to get pretty warm and for the sugar to completely dissolve. Turn off heat and add the chocolate bits into the cream. Stir until chocolate is completely melted and the icing is smooth. I then allowed the icing to cool for about 20-25 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. I wanted the icing to stick to the cake rather than just dribble down the sides and pool at the bottom. Your call!!

7. Pour icing over the cake whenever you wish (I threw on some shiny balls after icing). Then serve! Or just take it to your room and eat it all by yourself. No judgements!

Warmth of Ginger in Winter

February 14, 2014 by Baking Unicorn Leave a Comment

Just got back from my interview with UC Berkeley. I had an amazing time. I went to a fun concert with my potential PI, learned my host is a burlesque performer, and got to learn about countless amazing and exciting research projects. To add to all that, at the beginning of the 2 days of interviews, I received a call (and email) from Washington University’s Movement Science program admitting me. WOO HOO! Someone’s going to grad school!!! This is how I’m feeling:

And this gif is especially pertinent as I returned from Berkeley only to find weather like this:

And of course someone was all cute and did this:
Also, because I mentioned it in my last post, here’s Pink’s performance at the 2014 Grammy’s. Oh, how my heart skips a beat when I watch it! In all seriousness, it takes some massive skill to do what she does here. Yipes!

Now, for those of you who don’t know, I loves the ginger. It’s spicy, kinda burns a bit, and yet soothes the stomach. It’s also delicious. So of course I added more ginger to the following recipe than was originally called for. And on top of that, if I make these again, I think I would like to add crystallized ginger bits. I honestly feel these cookies lack a little something, but I haven’t figured out what exactly. Perhaps a hint more molasses would do the trick. Or perhaps the crystallized ginger will give them that extra edge. Who knows? If anyone plays around with these and has suggestions, lemme know!

Vegan Ginger Molasses Cookies!
Based on this!
Yield: ~3 dozen

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 cup (1 stick) Earth Balance (vegan)
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup molasses
~1/4 cup water

How to:
1. Preheat oven to 35o degrees and prepare baking sheets with either SILPAT’s or parchment paper.

2. Mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and dry spices in a small bowl and set aside. Mix sugar, Earth balance, molasses and fresh ginger in mixing bowl until completely combined. Add in dry ingredients and most of the water. Combine completely. I added just over 1/4 cup of water because I prefer my cookies to be a bit thinner. If you prefer thicker cookies, then add less water (means the cookies spread out less when in oven).

3. Spoon dough onto cookie sheets, approximately the size of a ping-pong ball (some people may have pink ones from Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. I suggest using those as a reference). Make sure there’s enough room between spoonfuls so cookies have enough room to spread out (depending on how much water you added).

4. For chewy cookies: Bake for 5 minutes, remove from oven, and drop pan on counter from a height of ~3 inches above counter. Then place back in oven for another 5 minutes. Remove again and drop again. Then let cool for ~3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.
For crispy, crunchy cookies: Bake for 10-12 minutes and remove from oven. Don’t drop! Allow to cool for ~5 minutes and then transfer to cooling rack.
Dropping the cookies causes the air bubbles inside the cookies to burst. If these bubbles remain inside the cookies, then they continue to cook the cookies a bit, allowing them to become crispy.

5. EAT!

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