Restaurant Week, I think I'll pass next time.

Not about cupcakes or cooking, but dining out. Its restaurant week in Baltimore. I feel obligated to take advantage of a supposed bargain, however I can't decide if $29.00 for a three course dinner is really a bargin... The menu is pre-fixe, not always the restaurants best showing, but the most economical way to pump out a lot of dinners. We had a perfectly acceptable dinner at The Wine Market in Locust Point last night. I had flat iron steak and DH had roasted chicken, we both started with a field greens salad and finished with desert - DH an apple cobbler and me a flour less chocolate cake (read brownie with sauce.) We both had a glass of wine. $73 + tip. I'm not complaining about the cost but the meal was just okay, not WOW, not wonderful, just okay. We've had fabulous lunches there in the past, I'm sure the dinners are just as good outside of restaurant week. I didn't walk away hungry, but portions were smallish and the service seemed rushed, very rushed. (I may have wanted a second glass of wine, but was never asked.) I left without a good feel for the restaurants capabilities.

Restaurant week rolls around again in the summer, I think I'll find my bargain elsewhere.

Cupcake 4 - Chocolate Chip Orange Cupcakes

Still in search of a solid yellow cupcake, while this was very good, not a stand alone yellow cupcake.

Thoughts - Nice flavor combo, the chocolate and orange work well together. (note to self: this might work well with other citrus) The texture was more muffin than cake. I purposely made the ganache bitter and it worked well with the sweet cupcake. Scale of 1-10, I'd give these an 8.5, worth revisting.

Chocolate Chip Orange Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache
10 T unsalted butter, softened
1 c sugar
2 large eggs
finely grated zest of 2 navel oranges or manderian oranges
1 t vanilla
2 c AP flour
3 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 c (or buttermilk)
2 1/2 c semisweet mini chocolate chips (15 oz)
1/2 c heavy cream
Special equipment: a muffin tin with 22 (1/2-cup) muffin cups, plus paper liners (could not eke 24 cupcakes out of this reciepe)

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°F.

Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, then beat in egg, zest, and vanilla. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt and mix into butter mixture at low speed, alternating with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Fold in 1 1/4 cups chips and divide batter among lined muffin cups.

Bake in middle of oven until pale golden and a tester comes out clean, 18 to 22 minutes. Turn cupcakes out onto a rack to cool completely.

Bring cream to a simmer in a small heavy saucepan and add remaining 1 1/4 cup chips, whisking until smooth. Cool in refrig until desired consistancy Spread frosting on cupcakes.

Adapted from Gourmet Magazine, Feb 2002

The search is ongoing

Not sure what to make this week, I'm trolling around for a solid yellow or white cupcake with a good crumb, somewhat dense, sweet, but not too sweet. A "go to" kinda cupcake. I seem to be shying away from recipes with milk, I'm not sure what it is about the cake, it feels heavy in the mouth, almost dry. I hate to say it, I'm looking for the texture of a box cake without the additives and stabilizers. A much smaller crumb, something light and spongy.
And then I'm stuck on the frosting, buttercream and cream cheese seem so cloyingly sweet (and tired.) I get it, two fats and sugar make for good mouth feel, but I want a little more. Maybe not as creamy more of a whipped texture. I'd like a frosting I can pipe.

The search is ongoing.

An aside, I made a quick ganache last night, to use the "overrun" of naked cupcakes from Sunday. (I hate to let anything go to waste.) Easy -- dark chocolate, a little cream (1 to 1 ratio) heated to a simmer, a pinch of salt and a little sugar. I let it set up in the refigerator before I dunked them, it set to hard topping. The bitter chocolate with the sweet cupcakes worked well, good yin and yang.

Maybe I'm looking for more of a cupcake topping than a frosting....

Cupcake 3 - Sour Cream Cupcakes with Plum White Chocolate Frosting

The corn starch in this recipe caught my eye. Always curious as to how an unusual component affects the end product I decided to give these cupcakes a try. The original recipe called for cream cheese frosting which I'm quickly getting bored with I opted to mix it up a bit.

Thoughts - they were okay, a little sweet for me, nice dense buttery cake. The frosting was lighter than the cream cheese, which compliment the sweeter cake well, but only made enough for 14 cupcakes. I've got 10 naked cupcakes and am not all that gung-ho to frost. Scale of 1-10, I'd give these a 6.75.


18 T unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 c sugar
6 extra large eggs, at room temperature
1 c sour cream, at room temperature
1 1/2 t vanilla extract
3 c AP flour
1/3 c corn startch
1 t salt
1 t baking soda

Preheat oven to 350° and line cupcake pans with paper liners. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add eggs two at a time on medium speed of electric mixer. Add sour cream and vanilla.

Sift together flour, corn startch, salt and baking soda. Add dry ingredients to butter and egg mixture. Mix until just combined. Fill cupcake pans 2/3 full. Bake 20 minutes or until tooth pick inserted comes out clean. Cool on wire rack before frosting.


Plum White Chocolate Frosting

2 envelopes (1.3 ounces each) whipped topping mix (such as Dream Whip)
2/3 c milk
1 c (6 ounces) white chocolate chips, melted
1/4 c plum jam
Using an electric mixer, mix whipped topping mix and milk low speed until just blended, increase speed to high and whip 4 minutes until peaks form. Adjust mixer to low speed and add melted white chocolate to topping mix until incorporated. Add jam and mix by hand until blended. Chill 15 minutes or until suitable frosting consistency.

Week 2 - Weekend Waffles, much more successful than the cupcakes

Russ Parsons published this article in the Los Angeles Times about waffles. Something in text that tagged these "life altering" naturally it caught my eye. Of course I'd give a receipe a try that might change my life, I've gone into receipes with much lower expectations.....

These waffles require a fair amount of planning, first of all you need to have yeast on hand and you need to start the receipe the night before. Maybe they should be called "Weekend Waffles." I know from experince that Eggos are the go to "Weeknight-I'm-too-pooped-to-cook Waffle."

The prep was minimal, just a little planning, light and airy, very buttery. Scale of 1-10, I'd give these a 8. And the bonus, they reheat nicely later on in the week, just pop them in the toaster for reheating.

Raised Waffles

Ingredients

1/2 cup warm water
1 package active dry yeast
2 cups milk, warmed
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 eggs
1/4 tsp. baking soda

In a large mixing bowl (the batter will double its original volume) Put the water in the mixing bowl and sprinkle in the yeast. Let stand for 5 minutes to bloom. Add milk, melted butter, salt, sugar and flour to the yeast mixture and mix until smooth and well blended. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let stand overnight at room temperature.

Just before cooking the waffles, beat in eggs and baking soda, stir until well mixed. The batter will be very thin. Pour 1/2 to 3/4 cup batter into a very hot waffle iron for the first waffle, bake until golden and crisp. Batter can be stored for several days. Makes 8 waffles.

Cupcake 2 - Rum & Coke Cupcakes

Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't... something went horribly wrong (see photos) they tasted good, not too sweet, but not too much lime or rum either. For some reason, maybe the cola they sank in the middle and spilled out onto the pan. No way, no how would they release from pan.

Scale of 1-10, I'd give these a 7 for taste and 1 for visual appeal.


Rum and Coke Cupcakes

2 c flour
2 c sugar
1 c coca cola
1 c butter (2 sticks)
1/2 c milk
6 T dutch processed cocoa
4 T rum
2 T lime juice
1 t lime zest
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1 t salt
2 eggs

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Line 2 cupcake pans with paper lines. In large bowl mix together flour, coca, baking soda, baking powder, salt and coca. In a small saucepan melt butter and rum until boiling. Allow to cool. In small bowl, mix together lime juice, zest and milk. Beat the butter and rum mixer in bowl of free standing mixing, adding eggs one at a time. Add cola, milk and flour mixutre alternately until well mixed. Fill each cupcake 2/3 full. Bake 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove cupcakes to wire racks as soon as possible to cool. Ice with cream cheese frosting with a hint of rum.

Cupcake 1 - Chocolate Merlot Cupcakes

Thoughts
Nice dense chocolate cupcake, good crumb. The wine helped to intensify the chocolate. I used cream cheese icing and thought it was a bit much, but I'm generally not an icing fan.

Scale of 1-10, 8.5

Chocolate Merlot Cupcakes

1/2 C Dutch process coca powder
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, broken in small pieces
1/2 C boiling water
8 ozs (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/2 C granulated sugar
4 eggs
1 1/4 C AP flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1 t salt
1/2 C medium to full bodied merlot

Icing
Two 8 oz containers mascarpone cheese at room temperature (or substitute cream cheese)
2 c confectioners' sugar
If substituting cream cheese at 1 t vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Line two cupcake pans with liners.

In medium bowl combine coca and bittersweet chocolate, whisk in boiling water. Mix until melted and combined.

Combine flour, salt and baking powder, set aside. In large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add flour mixture in batches, alternating with wine and chocolate. Mix well between each addition.

Fill each muffin cup 3/4 full. Bake 17-20 minutes, until tooth pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack in muffin pan.

For icing, lightly beat marscopone, add sugar, beat until creamy.

First one out of the gate

First post, wow. This is a site to catalog different receipes and food musings. And to follow through on my committment to make 52 different batches of cupcakes this year. And anything else.