The Perfect Creme Brulee

I was standing in my good friend's pantry a little while ago and I noticed some chamomile tea. I stood there thinking, "Hey, wouldn't it be cool to do a dessert with chamomile and honey?" Then I forgot about it. Until a few days ago when I really wanted to bake. Then I remembered my little epiphany and pioneered this brainchild:

Chamomile and Honey Creme Brulee

Makes four 6 oz creme brulees

You will need:

A kitchen torch

Four 6 oz ramekins AKA those cute little ceramic dishes --> check out bed, bath and beyond or willams sonoma if you have trouble finding them

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5 egg yolks

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup honey

1 pint heavy cream

3 chamomile tea bags

Extra sugar for the tops

1. Measure out your ingredients. Separate the egg yolks into a bowl. Save the whites for something delicious like chocolate mousse. :) Pour the cream into a small pot and add the tea bags. Turn the cream on low heat so the tea bags will steep and the cream can scald.

2. While the cream is scalding, add the honey and sugar to the egg yolks and beat vigorously with a whisk until the mixture is pale and smooth.

3. Remove the tea bags from the cream (squeeze all of the flavor out before you throw them away!) and pour slowly into the egg mixture, whisking continuously.

4. Pour into ramekins that have been placed in a baking dish. Pour water halfway up the ramekins. Cover with foil and bake at 325* for 35-45 minutes, or until the centers are set, but still jiggle slightly.

Just after removal from the oven

5. Chill the creme brulee in the fridge for at least 4 hours, or overnight.

6. To caramelize the tops: Pour sugar on top of the creme brulee and move it around, dumping out the excess sugar. Using a kitchen torch hold the flame just above the top and move it around slowly to caramelize. Be careful not to burn the sugars, especially around the edges where it burns more easily.

Serve in the ramekins. Fresh berries on top are a nice touch!

Cupcake obsession

Lately I've made a lot of cupcakes. I guess you could call me cupcake obsessed. I've been playing around with some new flavors. Here is the latest one I've done:

Maple Cupcakes

Makes 1 dozen cupcakes

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup buttermilk

1/3 cup maple syrup (Use real maple syrup. Grade B is best because it has the most intense flavor)

1. Cream the butter and brown sugar together.

2. In a separate bowl, sift the dry ingredients together.

3. Add the eggs and vanilla to the creamed mixture and beat to combine. Scrape down the bowl once combined.

4. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.

5. Add the buttermilk and maple syrup.

6. Fill cupcake cups 2/3 full and bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

For my friends of the gluten free persuasion

I have had a couple requests of late to post some gluten free recipes. This seemed like a good idea to me, seeing as I know a couple people who have Celiac's disease, some who are just slightly sensitive to gluten, and then there are those who just want to be trendy and not eat gluten. Whatever boat you may be in, I did some experimentation, some research and here is the kick butt gluten free bread recipe I ended up with: OH! P.S. You can buy all of these ingredients at Sunflower Market. I bought Bob's Red Mill brand because it's excellent. If you don't have a Sunflower in your area, first of all, WEEP! But you can find Bob's Red Mill stuff in most grocery stores or health food stores.

Buckwheat Bread

Despite it's name, buckwheat is actually not wheat, contains no gluten, and is safe for celiacs to ingest. :)

1 cup sorghum flour

1 cup potato starch (NOT POTATO FLOUR!)

1/2 cup buckwheat flour

2 tsp xanthan gum

1 1/4 tsp salt

1 packet rapid rise yeast (or 2 1/4 tsp)

1 1/4 cup water

3 TBS olive oil

1 1/2 TBS honey

1/2 tsp lemon juice

1 egg white, whipped

1. In a stand mixer, add the yeast to the water. Add the dry ingredients, mix briefly, then add the remainder of the wet ingredients.

2. Transfer to a greased loaf pan, smooth and cover with a towel. Let rest for 20 minutes.

3. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes or until the loaf generates a hollow sound when thumped.

If you like your bread to be more crusty on the outside, you can remove it from the pan at this point and place it straight onto the oven rack for a few minutes.

4. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Be sure to cool it for at least 10 minutes, or it will be hard to slice evenly.

*NOTE* The dough will actually be of a consistency more like muffin batter rather than an actual wheat based dough. This is due to the fact that is contains no gluten which is what lends dough its elasticity. So don't panic if your bread dough is like batter. It's supposed to be that way.

Let me also stress that each ingredient is absolutely essential and should not be omitted or lessened in any way. You will have poop bread if you try to omit something from this recipe.

The Great Pumpkin

Fall food. Love it. I think I've mentioned that a time or two on this blog...So pumpkins. They're pretty awesome. And they are good for a lot more than just making jack o lanterns. Here are a few things you can try with pumpkin.

Pumpkin Wedges with Sage

Preheat oven to 400. Cut a small pumpkin (such as a sugar pumpkin) in half; scrape out seeds. Drizzle pumpkin with olive oil, season with salt and black pepper. Place cut side down on a baking sheet. Roast for 30 minutes. Remove from oven. Turn oven to broil. Cut pumpkin into 2 inch wedges; poke fresh sage leaves into flesh. Drizzle with more olive oil. Broil until wedges are sizzling and sage is crisp, about 6 minutes. Serve.

Indian Spiced Pumpkin

Roast pumpkin in the oven at 400 degrees for 45 minutes using the above method (you know, cut side down and all that). Scrape out pumpkin flesh. In a skillet over medium heat, warm about a tablespoon of olive oil. Add 1/4 tsp fennel seeds, 1/4 tsp cumin, and 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes. Cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add pumpkin and 2 Tbsp maple syrup. Cook for 1 minute, mashing to combine. Add 1 Tbsp unsalted butter and stir. Serve immediately.

Or one of my favorite ways to have pumpkin...

Pumpkin Spice Bread

2 cups pumpkin

3 cups sugar

1 cup water

1 cup oil

4 eggs

3 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

3/4 tsp cloves

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1. Combine sugar and wet ingredients in a bowl

2. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl and add slowly to the wet mixture.

3. Divide between 2 greased loaf pans and bake 60-70 minutes @ 350.

4. Cool on a rack for 10-15 minutes, then remove from pan to finish cooling.

This time around, I made my pumpkin spice bread into pumpkin spice cupcakes. It makes 34-36 cupcakes depending on how full you fill your cupcake cups. If you want to make cupcakes, they only take 20-25 minutes to bake. I topped mine off with some delicious cream cheese frosting. Here's the recipe:

Cream Cheese Frosting

Makes enough frosting for 1 dozen cupcakes

3 oz cream cheese

1/4 cup butter

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups powdered sugar

1. Cream the butter and cream cheese together

2. Add the remaining ingredients and beat for 10 minutes. No joke. Beat it for the full ten. That's how it gets so smooth and fluffy. :)

Jana Banana Fee Fi Fo Fanna....

...That's what my Uncle Dean calls me. Anyway. Bananas. We have about a zillion (okay, seven) of them in our freezer at my apartment. For some reason a couple months ago people felt inclined to give me their old, browning bananas. They were all, "Hey before you go, take these bananas! They're too soft for me to eat, but I'm sure you can make banana bread out of them or something right?" Well yes, indeed I can. So today I rescued our freezer from hostile takeover by brown bananas and made some banana-blueberry bread. :)

Banana Blueberry Bread

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar

2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp lemon juice

4 eggs

2 cups mashed banana

1 tsp salt

3 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

1 cup sour cream

About 2 cups blueberries *SEE NOTE

1. Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the rest of the ingredients in the order given.

2. Bake at 350 for 55 minutes. Makes two loaves.

*NOTE* Unless you want blue bread it is pertinent that you gently fold in your blueberries at the very end. Also, I find that using frozen blueberries lessens the color bleeding, and makes them a lot easier to fold in without accidentally mashing them.

The Burque Bunch

I am a proud native of the fabulous city of Albuquerque, New Mexico. I love everything about that place. The climate, the sunsets, the topography, the things you can do, places you can go....but I think what I miss the most about Albuquerque when I'm up at school is the people! Fortunately for me, this year a lot more people that I know from back home are up here in Utah. That and I've decided to be more proactive about organizing activities between friends. So a few weeks ago I decided to get a group of Albuquerqueans together for an impromptu dinner! Considering I invited people the afternoon before, it was a great turnout. Because I didn't want to spend a fortune on this dinner I assigned a few people to bring some food. I provided the entree, a side, and dessert. One friend brought drinks (actually he brought the ingredients. I made the drinks), another brought rolls, someone brought salad, and one brought mashed potatoes. For my contribution I made three lovely maple glazed pork tenderloins, some oven roasted asparagus, iced chai, and a delicious caramel apple cake.

Dinner was fabulous! I was so glad to share good food with such good company. I missed my friends from back home. I didn't realized how much I missed them until I actually started spending time with them again. Thank goodness I have started spending more time with them. I feel less homesick now that I have little bits of Albuquerque conveniently located in Orem and Provo. :)

Pork tenderloin and roasted asparagus

Our table scape plus Taylor and 90% of Bryce

Caramel Apple cake with green apple rose

Want some recipes? Okay, here you go! :)

Caramel Apple Cake

For the cake:

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup milk

1. Add the flour, salt, and baking powder to one bowl and stir to combine.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs with vanilla and milk.

3. In a third bowl or in a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until smooth.

4. Beginning with the milk mixture, alternate adding the milk and the flour mixtures to the creamed butter and sugar. Do this in three additions, making sure to scrape the bowl between additions.

For the Caramel

4 TBS unsalted butter

3 cups sugar

5 TBS light corn syrup

1 cup heavy cream

1. Cook the sugar and corn syrup in a saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is dark amber, 7-10 minutes.

2. Reduce heat to medium. Carefully add cream and butter (it will splatter -- don't freak out!), stirring until combined, about 3 minutes.

Assembly

1. Peel and core 2 granny smith apples

2. Slice the apples into rings, and press into the bottom of a greased 9 inch cake pan, overlapping slightly.

3. Pour half the caramel mixture over the apples.

4. Pour half the cake batter over the caramel.

5. Drizzle the remaining caramel over the cake batter and swirl through with a butter knife.

6. Pour the rest of the cake batter on top.

7. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes to an hour or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean

TO UNMOLD THE CAKE - after the cake has cooled (to allow it to set further), run a clean knife along the edge of the pan. Warm up the bottom of the pan (you can do this on your stove or dip the bottom of your pan in hot water) to soften the caramel. Place a plate on top of the pan and flip over so the cake unmolds onto the plate. Voila! Beautiful caramel apple cake. :)

*NOTE* When I made this cake I doubled the cake batter recipe and had a little too much. However, 1 recipe is not enough, so I would recommend making 1 1/2 the recipe.

Maple Glaze -This is great for pork, chicken, or duck!

*NOTE* I did not include measurements in this recipe simply because I feel it unnecessary. I feel that experimentation in the kitchen is very important and you should make this glaze to suit your tastes. Use this recipe as a guideline and an inspiration -- not as a absolute directive.

Maple syrup

Ginger

Dry mustard (don't use a lot!)

Cayenne pepper (a little goes a long way!)

Nutmeg

Cinnamon

Cornstarch

Water

1. Bring maple syrup, ginger, dry mustard, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, and nutmeg to a boil in a small saucepan, stirring occasionally.

2. After the mixture has reduced slightly, make a slurry (Add about 1/2 tablespoon of cornstarch to 1 1/2 tablespoons of water and mix) and pour into the sauce, stirring.

3. Allow sauce to return to a boil and let thicken to desired consistency.

4. Serve with pork, chicken, or duck!

Just Muffin Around....

If the only muffin top you've experienced recently is the one hanging over your jeans...well then that's just sad! I am a huge fan of muffins, the tops being the best part, especially if they're covered in toasted nuts....delicious!

Today I was in a bit of a baking mood (the question is, when am I not?), so I decided to make up a muffin recipe. Anybody who knows me at all, knows that I'm kind of a health freak. Recently, I've been on even more of a health kick than usual. So I wanted these muffins to be filling and healthy. That kind of thinking led me to come up with these.

The great thing about this particular recipe I've created is they're so simple. You can seriously add anything to them! Blueberries, cranberries, nuts, apples, cinnamon, you name it! For my purposes, I added a banana cut into teensy little chunks and some chopped almonds on top.

Oatmeal Muffins

• 1 c oats
• 1 c vanilla soymilk
• 1 egg
• 1/4 c vegetable oil
• 1/4 c agave syrup
• 1 c flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

Soak the oats in the soymilk for 20 minutes. Add the egg, oil, and agave, stirring to combine. Stir in dry ingredients and any add ins. Bake at 425 for 20-25 minutes. Makes 1 dozen.