Tea Experimentation

When I drink tea, I almost always reach for a black blend, either some kind of English or Irish Breakfast or the like. Lately, my mornings have been very standard with a cup of O’Sullivan’s Favourite, a Cut, Tear, Curl, Irish Breakfast Blend from Tea Gschwender.

In the afternoons and evenings, though, I try to stay away from the higher caffeine content that black tea has. Green tea has about half as much caffeine as black tea, so I might have green tea or an herbal tea in the afternoon or the evening. Last night, I was thinking about teas and tea blends, and I decided it might be fun to try to blend some of my own. In one of my giant mugs, I mixed about three grams of Formosa Jasmine Tea and three grams of Lavender Butterfly Tea. They’re both from The Tea Table and are two different green tea blends. I brewed it for just two minutes, and stirred in a the slightest bit of creamed honey at the end.

It was divine.

Anyone else mix their own tea blends at home?

Art & Baking Giveaway Winner

Sorry I’m a bit late posting the winner to the giveaway! I had a super busy weekend including an engagement party for some dear friends (of course I baked a cake – I’ll post the recipe soon) and, believe it or not, an event at Brooklyn Bowl with a bunch of different bands performing the complete discography of the Beatles… featuring ukuleles.

Anyway, I know you’ve been waiting in suspense to see if you won this really cool art print from UUPP…

So I’ll get on with it…

The winner is Nicole!

But wait! If you’re not the winner, you get a consolation prize. Carrie Hartman, the artist who makes these fanciful creations, is generously offering the people who participated in this giveaway a one-time 30% off coupon for use in her Etsy store, UUPP. So for those of you who are thinking that you really need that print adorning your kitchen, drop her an email at up@carriehartman.com, and she’ll hook you up with a coupon code. Thanks, Carrie!

And thanks to everyone who participated. If you found me through a giveaway site, I hope you enjoy some of the recipes you find here. I’ve also got another giveaway planned in the upcoming weeks, so stay tuned!

Nicole, I’ll be sending you an email to get your information, and you have until Saturday, 1/22/11, to claim your prize. If I don’t hear from you by then, I’ll have to pick another winner.

Deep Dark Chocolate Cake

Thanks to my Uncle Dan for this great photo!

Cakes are not usually my thing.

I make a good cookie, a tasty muffin, and a damn good brownie, but I usually don’t put the time and energy into making awesome cakes. Sometimes I’ll make cupcakes, but whole cakes with fancy frosting, definitely not. They’re just not easy to cut up and pass out, and in a small household, we’re not going to eat a whole cake.

But a few weeks ago, I sent my mom a simple, one-line email asking her if Christmas Eve dinner was going to be at her house as usual. It’s a tradition that the immediate family gets together the night before the holiday so that everyone can spend some time together and open presents before everyone has to travel on Christmas.

My mom sent me back about five paragraphs about how hectic the week was. This brother had to be picked up from college out of state, that brother was coming home on this day, the next day we were doing that, and, since my mom is a social worker, she had to actually work on Christmas Eve. So, she said, she wasn’t sure when she was going to have the time to cook.

Since just reading her email was stressing me out, and I didn’t even have to DO any of the stuff that she had to do, I suggested that Charlie and I be in charge of cooking. My sister ended up getting involved, and my brother who just graduated college was around and helped, and even my littlest brother, who is 11, felt pretty important with some of the things he was tasked with (like helping me make lasagna) that day.

But almost more important than the actual dinner was the dessert. My family loves chocolate. They think I’m the weirdest kid around for preferring more delicate flavors like fruits, teas, or vanilla. I made sure to prepare something I’d enjoy, but I also knew I had to really bring it in terms of dessert.

I recently bought some black cocoa from King Arthur Flour, and I wanted that to make an appearance in the dessert I made, and it ended up in the cake itself.

This dessert looks complicated, and my family thought it was downright professional, but when you break it down into steps, it isn’t that difficult.

• Chocolate cake (based very loosely off of a Texas Sheet Cake) made with black cocoa
• Raspberry jam filling
• Whipped semi-sweet chocolate ganache
• Poured darker chocolate ganache

This was my first time making ganache, and it went very well. I also made sure that this cake wasn’t too sweet so that I was really featuring the richness of the cream, the depth of the chocolate, and the layers of the chocolate.

P.S. The Art & Baking Giveaway is open until Friday, so hop over there for a chance to win!

Ingredients
1 cup of butter
2 cup of all purpose flour
3/4 cup of white sugar
1/2 tsp of salt
3 tbsp of tablespoons cocoa
3 tbsp of black cocoa
1 cup of boiling water
1/2 cup of buttermilk
2 eggs
1 tsp of baking soda
1 tsp of vanilla
3/4 cup of raspberry jam

For the whipped ganache:
1 cup of heavy cream
8 ounce of semi-sweet chocolate

For the poured ganache:
1 cup of heavy cream
10 ounce of 65% dark chocolate

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Prepare a 12″ x 17″ sheet pan by greasing the edges of it and putting a piece of parchment paper, trimmed to size, in the bottom.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and salt.

In a small pot, melt the butter.

Add the cocoa, and mix into the butter. Add the boiling water. Let boil for a few seconds, then turn off the heat. Pour the cocoa mixture over the flour mixture and stir slightly. In a separate small bowl, mix the buttermilk, eggs, baking soda, and vanilla. Stir the buttermilk mixture into the cocoa mixture.

Pour into the prepared sheet cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Immediately when the cake has come out of the oven, flip the cake out onto another piece of parchment paper and peel back the parchment paper from the bottom. Let cool.

When the cake is completely cool, cut into four even pieces. Use a pastry brush to paint the layers on all sides with raspberry jam.

Next, make the whipped semi-sweet ganache. In a double boiler over medium heat, bring 1 cup of cream almost to a boil. Turn off the heat and stir the semi-sweet chocolate into the cream. Mix until smooth.

Set this mixture aside to cool at room temperature for about two hours. When cool, use a stand mixture to whip into a frosting. Stack the layers of the cake, then spread the whipped ganache around the outside of the cake.

Repeat the process of heating the second cup of cream, this time, using the dark chocolate.

When the mixture is smooth, let it cool and thicken for about three to five minutes, so that it is almost the consistency of honey. Then, pour the mixture over the frosted cake. (It will run over the sides, so you’ll want a pan underneath to catch it!)

Let the ganache set. Keep refrigerated until serving. Decorate as desired. (I used a thin glaze of confectioner’s sugar and edible glitter.)

Darling Clementines

Darling Clementines are a holiday cookie that I’ve been making for a few years now. They’re also one of the recipes I made for the cookie contest that we participated in over on Scrawl Zoom Stir. They combine seasonal clementines, sliced almonds, and dark chocolate for a beautiful treat. For a gorgeous, green holiday gift, package these in an upcycled clementines crate.

When I brought these to dinner at my aunt and uncle’s house a week or two before Christmas, my aunt actually cried out, “Oh my god,” when she tasted them. Definitely a lovely mix of flavors.

This is a vegan version of this cookie, but I’ve made it with butter and eggs before and it comes out perfectly either way.

While you’re here, don’t forget to check out the giveaway that I’m doing of a neat baking related art print!

Ingredients

1/2 cup of Earth Balance (or butter)
1/4 cup of vegetable shortening
1/2 cup of packed brown sugar
1/2 cup of white sugar
1 1/2 tsp of commercial egg replacer (or one large egg)
2 tbsp of water
1 whole (seedless) clementine, pulverized in food processor
1 zest of whole clementine
1/2 tsp of vanilla
3 cup of sifted all-purpose flour
1 tbsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of salt
1 tsp of ground cardamom seed
4 ounce of bittersweet chocolate
1/3 cup of sliced almonds

Directions

Cream Earth Balance, shortening, and sugar together in a stand mixer. In a separate small bowl, mix the egg replacer with the water until frothy. Add the egg replacer and vanilla to the mixing bowl and stir. Add the pulverized clementine and clementine zest, mixing well.

In a separate medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, cardamom, and salt. Mix well. Add to the clementine mixture and mix well.

Chill dough until firm. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Form 1″ balls of dough. Press sliced almonds onto the tops of each ball. Bake on a parchment lined baking sheet for 12-14 minutes.

Cool on racks. In a double boiler, melt the chocolate. Set the cookies on wax paper, then drizzle the chocolate over the top. Let the chocolate completely set before serving.

Art & Baking… Giveaway! (Closed)

Closed – Winner will be announced soon!

By now, you all know that I’m really into local food. You might have guessed that it’s also important to me to support small businesses. That’s why I really dig Etsy. If I were totally able-bodied, I might find it easier to scoot around to flea markets and craft fairs and things like that, but I find those exhausting. That doesn’t, however, mean that I want to do all my shopping at mega-corporation stores simply because shopping online is easier for me.

So, now, when I need to buy something, whether it be a holiday gift or something for myself, I try to check out Etsy before I automatically go to a bigger business.

The website says that “Etsy is a beautiful experiment in restoring community and culture to our commerce.”

They say it’s about having conversations, and conversations I have had, most recently with Carrie Hartman, who has a new Etsy shop, UUPP, of art prints.

Maybe I’ve spent a little too much time playing Rock Band 3 lately, which features this song, but when I saw this print, I wanted it!

Whip it good! How cool is that?

Anyway, since Carrie and I got a-talking about blogging and food and how cool her art is, she’s generously decided to let one of my readers have one of her neat prints, too. I got to pick out the one to give away, and the one that seemed the most appropriate was this one:

It’s an 8″ x 10″ original art print (matte and frame not included) with whimsical typography that reads Live Love and Bake Cookies.

If you want to win this print, Live Love and Bake Cookies, all you have to do is comment on this post by Friday, January 14th. (Make sure that you provide your email address accurately so that I can contact you if you win!)

For extra chances to win…

• Subscribe to Measuring Spoons and leave an extra comment saying you did so.
• Tweet about this giveaway and leave an extra comment with the link.
• “Like” Measuring Spoons on Facebook and leave an extra comment saying you did so.
• Add UUPP to your Etsy favorites and leave an extra comment saying you did so.

Remember, I’m giving away the Live Love and Bake Cookies print, so if you want to be as cool as me and have the Whip It Good print, you’re going to have to hit up Carrie over at UUPP.

The fine print: No purchase necessary. This contest will run from today, Friday, January 7th, until next Friday night, January 14th, at 11:59pm. I’ll pick a winner on Saturday and announce it then. The contest, unfortunately, is only open to people in the USA. A winner will be chosen at random using random.org. And, as a friendly disclaimer, I’m not getting paid to do this giveaway… this is for you guys, my readers!

Cranberry Sauce Almondies

After NaNoWriMo was over, my friend Anna and I decided we wanted to keep challenging ourselves to do more creative, wild, ridiculous challenges. Between the two of us, we wrote over 100,000 words in a month! We started making lists of what we thought would be good challenges, and some of them were food related, some of them were art related, and some of them were completely random. But the first one we decided to do was to participate in at least three out of four weeks of a bake-off (weeks of pies, dessert bars, cookies, and cakes) that was happening in December, so the next few recipes you’ll be seeing here will be from that. If you want to see more about our process, or join us for the next challenge (that we’re still deciding on!), go to our new blog, Scrawl Zoom Stir.

Ingredients

3/4 cup Earth Balance
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 egg replacers
1/3 cup almond paste
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup toasted almond flour* (Available here or toast almonds at 400*F for 10 minutes then grind up!)
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup cranberry sauce
1 egg replacer

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350*F.

In a stand mixer, mix Earth Balance and brown sugar on low speed until creamy.

In a separate small bowl, mix the water and the 1 tbsp. commercial egg replacer until frothy.

Add the egg replacer/water mixture to the stand mixer bowl and stir. Add the vanilla extract and almond paste and mix until fully incorporated.

In a separate medium bowl, combine the whole wheat flour, the all-purpose flour, the salt, the baking powder, and the baking soda. Stir.

Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in the mixing bowl.

Spread the mixture into an 8×8 cake pan. Bake at 350*F for 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix the cranberry sauce (I like to use my homemade Clementine Cranberry Sauce, a little easy on the clementine for this one) with the remaining 1 1/2 tsp. of commercial egg replacer. Mix thoroughly.

When the initial 25 minute cook time is complete, remove the pan from the oven and carefully spread the cranberry sauce mixture in a thin layer evenly over the top. Return the blondies to the oven for about 15 more minutes, or until the surface of the cranberry sauce is tacky and the edges of the blondies are brown and crispy.

Cool completely before cutting. Garnish with almonds and pear slices.

Review of my CSN Loot

Now that the holidays are over, I’ve got a lot of catching up to do! For one thing, I wanted to tell you about the other neat things that I got to review from CSN Stores like the potato masher I used in Mom’s Sweet Potato Pie.

We go through a lot of parchment paper in our house, between cookies, cakes, kale chips, and other miscellaneous baked goods that do well with it. I’ve been really interested in having a silicone baking sheet, but I wasn’t quite sure if it was going to do the trick. Well, I got this one from the nice folks over at CSN Stores (though it came red, not blue, but that was ok, too).

We started using it right away for kale chips, which are very garlicky. I was worried that the garlic would be messy or leave a smell on the sheet that would interfere when I want to make cookies on it, but in fact, it’s easy to clean and retains no odor. It has also drastically cut down our use of parchment paper, which is great because not only is parchment expensive, but since we try to be respectful of the environment, we’d much prefer a reusable product. The one thing I’ll warn you is that baking on the silicone baking mat seemed to change the baking time of my cookies a little bit, so you might need to leave yours in a minute or two longer if you’re using one of these.

The other thing I got that I am so super excited about is an absolutely gorgeous green marble rolling pin. It’s the Creative Home Green Marble Deluxe Rolling Pin, and I love it.

You might think that getting something this heavy is counterintuitive for someone with disabilities, but actually, the weight of the marble presses into whatever I’m rolling out without me having to strain to put a lot of force behind it (which inevitably makes my back hurt). Charlie likes making pie crust with it because the marble is cold, which helps keep the dough you’re working with chilled. We’ve used it a few times already, but one day soon I’m going to challenge it with some rolled cookies, which I usually consider to be a hassle, but might be quite nice with this rolling pin. Plus, the thing looks really, really swank in my kitchen!

Stay tuned for a bunch of recipes that I made over the holidays!

Disclosure: I was given these products by CSN Stores in exchange for writing this review, though this is my otherwise unpaid, unbiased opinion.