Culinary Goods

So, this cake would have looked much better as trifle. But, it tasted great—I would give this a 9. Essentially, Hadley wanted to make an Oreo cake, so I told her we would just wing it. We used the Devil’s Food cake recipe I have blogged about 10 times now, and then I made a white chocolate oreo mousse for the layers and the outside. See, this is where things fell apart. I should have been smart and done a whipped cream and cream cheese frosting on the outside, and then decorated it with Oreos. Another option that my friend Lisa suggested is to make it into trifle (what is hilarious is that my friend Amie always jokes that when her cakes don’t work out, they get turned into trifle). Either option would be great, but you need to do something else on the outside or else it will be as ugly as this one. At least it tasted good. Anyway, here is the mousse recipe we made up White Chocolate Oreo Mousse 8 oz. cream cheese, softened 2 T. milk 1/2 tsp. vanilla shake of salt Mix this togeth

So, Stef blogged this recipe a few weeks ago, but I just wanted to add my own personal changes I will make next time I make it. This was an 8 according to our group, but it has potential (and, my version could have tasted much worse than Stef’s for no apparent reason): First, I will double the brownie layer Second, I will put a caramel/pecan layer on top of the brownie layer Third, I will remove the coconut flavoring from the cream and instead omit the cream altogether and either do ganache or maybe a caramel cream

So, I thought these were like a 5. Very not awesome. However, the recipe said to fry them and we baked them, so that absolutely could have something to do with it. I would not make these again, but I’m not giving up on baked doughnuts.   260 g Granulated sugar (1 ¼ cups + 2 heaping tablespoons) 42 g butter, room temperature (3 tablespoons) 90 g egg yolks (about 5 large yolks) 453 g sour cream (1 ¾ cups, this is 1, 16oz container) 480 g pastry flour, All-Purpose flour is fine (3 ¾ cups) 120g Dutch processed cocoa powder ( 15 g baking powder (1 tablespoon + ¾ teaspoon) 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon kosher salt 96 fl oz Oil for frying (I used canola) Recipe found at link below: http://americanheritagecooking.com/2016/04/old-fashioned-chocolate-cake-donuts/

These were good, but didn't really taste like doughnuts. They tasted more like cinnamon rolls, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but when you want a doughnut, you want a doughnut. They get a 7 and the recipe came from melskitchencafe.com. 1 1/3 cups warm milk, 95 to 105 degrees 2 teaspoons instant yeast I used active and proofed it in the warm milk 2 tablespoons butter 2/3 cup granulated sugar 2 large eggs 5 cups all-purpose flour A pinch or two of nutmeg, freshly grated 1 teaspoon salt Topping: 1/2 cup butter, melted 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar 1 tablespoon cinnamon Here's the link to the instructions:  http://www.melskitchencafe.com/baked-doughnuts/

These were yum and get a 7.5. The recipe called for a whiskey caramel sauce, which I couldn't make since I didn't have whiskey, so I used this one instead: http://www.melskitchencafe.com/caramel-pear-crisp/. The recipe came from canadianliving.com. 2  tart apple (such as Braeburn or Spy), peeled, cored and chopped I used 3 gala apples 1/4 cup granulated sugar (approx) I used 2 TBS since my apples weren't tart 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon I used 1/2 tsp. 1/4 teaspoon allspice 1  egg Pastry: 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour 1 tablespoon granulated sugar 1/2 teaspoon  salt 1/2 cup unsalted butter cubed 1/3 cup Ice water (approx) I put Turbinado sugar on top Whiskey Caramel: 1/4 cup  unsalted butter 1/2 cup  packed brown sugar 3 tablespoons  whipping cream 1 pinch  salt 3 tablespoons  rye whisky 3 tablespoons  bourbon 1/4 teaspoon  vanilla Here's the link to the instructions:  http://www.canadianliving.com/food/recipe/warm-spiced-apple-galettes-wit

  Doesn’t this look good? It’s not. It sucks. It’s just blech. To be fair, I didn’t actually follow the recipe entirely, but I didn’t realize that until after the fact. The problem is I used plain greek yogurt, and it called for vanilla. It’s probably full of artificial sweeteners that make it much sweeter. Anyway, I would give this a 4. BOO.   1 Yoplait Greek 100 Vanilla (~1/3 cup) I used plain, but it needs to be sweetened 1 tablespoon peanut butter 1.5 tablespoons cocoa For serving: strawberries, banana, mini chocolate chips I used bananas Instructions and recipe found at link below:   http://fitfoodiefinds.com/2016/04/video-healthy-chocolate-peanut-butter-mousse/

I really liked this and gave it a 7. The recipe came from cooking classy.com. I will leave the chicken out next time since I didn't think it needed it. 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast, cooked and shredded (3 cups) 8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled* 1/4 cup butter, diced into 1 Tbsp pieces 1 large red bell pepper, diced (1 1/2 cups) 1 medium yellow onion, diced (1 1/4 cups) 1 - 2 jalapenos, seeded for less heat if desired, finely chopped 4 cloves garlic, minced 1/3 cup all-purpose flour 6 cups low-sodium chicken broth 3 medium russet potatoes, peeled and diced slightly less than 1/2-inch thick (3 cups) 2 bay leaves Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste 2 1/2 cups fresh or frozen corn 1 1/2 cups half and half Green onions and seeded, finely chopped jalapenos (optional), for serving Here's the link to the instructions:  http://www.cookingclassy.com/2014/08/creamy-chicken-corn-chowder/

So the blog this recipe was from had super annoying instructions (from a super happy, perky girl), but these were actually awesome. They get a 7 and the recipe came from wallflourgirl.com. 1 egg, room temperature 1 cup dark brown sugar, packed I used 3/4 C. 3/4 cup heaping cup peanut butter 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened to the point of melting 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips Here's the link to the instructions:  http://www.wallflourgirl.com/2014/02/22/my-favorite-puffy-chewy-peanut-butter-chocolate-chip-cookies/

The picture I took of these was terrible, so I'm leaving it out. Anyway, these were good and get a 6.5. The recipe was a David Lebovitz recipe. 8 tablespoons (115g) salted or unsalted butter, cut into pieces 6 ounces (170g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped 1/4 cup (25g) unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder 3 large eggs 1 cup (200g) sugar I used 3/4 C. 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 cup (140g) flour optional: 1 cup (100 g) toasted pecans or walnuts, coarsely chopped 1 cup  Dulce de Leche  (or Cajeta) Here's the link to the instructions:  http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2006/06/dulce-de-leche/

We really liked this because it had good flavor. The recipe came from simplyrecipes.com and it gets a 7. 1 cup peanut oil, lard or other vegetable oil I used 1/2 C. canola oil 1 cup flour I used 2/3 C. 2 cups chopped onion 1 cup chopped green bell pepper 1 cup chopped celery 4 cloves garlic 2 bay leaves 1 Tbsp Cajun seasoning (see below) 1 ham hock (optional) I left this out 10 cups water I used chicken broth 3 pounds assorted greens (i.e. kale, collards, mustard greens, turnip greens, spinach, chard, parsley, dandelion greens, beet greens), chopped (about 14 cups) I used about 4 C. swiss chard Salt 1 pound smoked andouille sausage (optional) File powder to taste (optional) I left this out Cajun Spice Blend 1 teaspoon black pepper 1 teaspoon cayenne 1 teaspoon celery seed 1 teaspoon dried thyme 2 teaspoons dried oregano 1 Tbsp garlic powder 2 Tbsp sweet paprika Here's the link to the instructions:   http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/green_gumb