Dark Chocolate Gelato

(this is the best I can do with a laptop touchpad, okay?)
I have no picture. Shocking, I know, but this stuff was so good, it never had a chance to pose.
Normally, I am not a fan of chocolate ice cream. This contains 3/4 a cup of cocoa, making it super rich, yet…freaking fantastic. It’s based off a Sicilian gelato recipe- no cream, no eggs. Super simple, and the possibilities to add flavors are endless.

3 cups whole milk
2/3 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup Hershey’s special dark cocoa
1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
Note: if you are going to put the gelato in the freezer after putting it in the ice cream maker, I would highly recommend adding a tablespoon or two of vodka in so that it doesn’t become rock hard.

In medium saucepan bring 2 cups of the milk to a simmer. Meanwhile, whisk the remaining cup of milk with the sugar, cocoa, and cornstarch. Scrape the cocoa mixture into the hot milk. Cook, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens and bubbles a little at the edges. Stir and cook for a minute longer.

Strain through a fine wire-mesh strainer into a clean bowl and cool. Cover the surface of the mixture with plastic wrap and chill overnight. (You may also set the bowl over an ice bath and stir the hot gelato mixture frequently until cool).

Freeze according to the instructions with your ice cream maker.

Variations!
For mint dark chocolate, I added about 1/3 a cup of chopped up mint leaves to the heated milk and let it sit for about 40 minutes.
For a strawberry or raspberry dark chocolate, I’d add maybe 1/3-1/2 a cup of a berry puree.
For cinnamon dark chocolate, maybe add a couple cinnamon sticks to the heated milk and let it infuse for half an hour?
The possibilities may be endless, but the gelato won’t be, I can tell you that for sure.

Chocolate chip vanilla bean cheesecake bars

I am now out of vanilla beans
I have vanilla extract and vanilla sugar in the making, and more vanilla beans = totally necessary.
I was trying to decide what to do with my last half a bean…more ice cream or cheesecake bars…guess what won ;D
I decided to add some chocolate chips to the top, as chocolate chip cheesecake is most definitely my favorite.

Recipe from Baking Bites:
Vanilla Bean Cheesecake Bars
Crust
1/3 cup sugar (pref. vanilla sugar)
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

Filling
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup half & half/light cream
2 (8-oz) packages plain cream cheese, room temperature
3 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 vanilla bean or 2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 9×13-inch baking pan (or used the Baker’s Edge).
Begin by making the crust. In a large bowl, cream together sugar and butter, until smooth and fluffy. Working at a low speed, gradually beat in flour and salt until mixture is crumbly. Press evenly into prepared pan and bake for 15-17 minutes.
While the crust bakes, combine sugar, half & half and cream cheese in the bowl of a food processor and process until smooth. Add in eggs one at a time, waiting until each in incorporated before adding the next. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the mixture (or add extract) and add the flour. Pulse until smooth.
Pour the filling over the hot crust when it has finished baking. [I sprinkled mini chocolate chips on top afterwards!] Return pan to oven and bake for 23-26 minutes, until the filling is set (baking time should be reduced slightly if using a 9×13-inch, as the filling will be slightly thinner) and not jiggly. [Mine was done after 19 minutes.]
Cool completely before slicing (don’t be alarmed if the cheesecake appears to deflate somewhat as it cools), or refrigerate until ready to serve.
Makes 20-24 bars.

Also, I went to the Kangaroo Conservation Center in Dawsonville, GA, this weekend. Check out pictures of kangaroos, wallabys, and some Australian birds here!

Blue Moon Cupcakes

Since I still needed to come up with something for this month’s Iron Cupcake competition, and I still had a lot of bottles of Blue Moon…I figured it was only suitable to kind of turn those cookies into cupcakes.
The theme for this month is savory, and idk…savory can still be more of a cake than a muffin. In fact, that’s how I’d describe it: a flavor that I’d more expect in a muffin, but with the fluffiness of a cupcake. I absolutely love the flavor of coriander (and ABSOLUTELY HATE cilantro). In fact honestly, the only things I could think of as savory were beer and cheese. Therefore, we have beer in the cupcake and cream cheese as the topping….but with the addition of Blue Moon and some cinnamon.

Blue Moon cupcakes
3/4 a stick/6 tbsp butter, melted
2 eggs, room temperature
4 oz buttermilk
6 oz Blue Moon or other Belgian white style beer
2 tsp vanilla
zest of one orange
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups flour
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp baking soda

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Melt butter and set aside to cool down.
- Whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, beer, vanilla, and orange zest in one bowl, and mix together the sugar, flour, coriander, and baking soda in another.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in two parts, using a mixer to combine. Add the melted butter and combine.
- Pour batter into cupcake cups and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool.

Cream cheese “frosting”
- 8 oz cream cheese, softened
- 4 oz butter, softened
- 4 oz Blue Moon
- zest and juice from 1/2 an orange
- 1/2 tsp ground coriander
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

- Mix together with a hand mixer until combined. Top cupcakes with the frosting.

I can’t even tell you how much I love these. They are so tasty, not sweet, and just…ugh perfect. And honestly I like them better without the frosting, but adding the cinnamon flavor to the blue moon is good too. If you’d prefer something sweeter to top the cupcakes, I would highly recommend an orange cream cheese frosting!

So, hopefully you’ll be voting for me when the time comes! Here’s what there is to win:
* A sweet cupcake ID bracelet by INSANEJELLYFISH, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5021935
* something sweet and dangly from CHERRYCREEKCHARMS at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6686445.
* a sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin’ Cakes Cupcakery, http://www.acupcakery.com/
* PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice – sweet!
Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, http://www.fiestaproducts.com, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com, JESSIE STEELE APRONS http://www.jessiesteele.com; TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM http://www.upwithcupcakes.com/. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers, http://www.1800flowers.com .

White Beer Cookies

It’s a fact: I love Belgian white beer. So when I see someone on TV making cookies with white beer, you know I went and found the recipe immediately. Since coriander is an ingredient, and for some reason wasn’t in grocery stores around here, I made a trip to the Dekalb Farmer’s Market in Decatur, GA, last weekend and …oh my god I am glad I went there. Think of what you get in a bottle of spices at the grocery store…now divide that price by ten. I got over 3 ounces of ground coriander for a total of THIRTY-SEVEN CENTS. 3-7! And it smells sooo good.
Also if you’re ever in Chattanooga, or you live in Chattanooga, you need to get yourself over to the Terminal Brewhouse and have their Belgian white. DELICIOUS~

These cookies are pretty tasty. I made the mistake of tasting the beer/honey reduction and I was starting to wonder if this was worth it…but it is. I didn’t bother with the icing, and opted to top them with some powdered sugar instead. So tasty.

White Beer Cookies from Food Network (you can find the icing ingredients there)

Ingredients
Cookies:

* 2 bottles (12 ounces each) Belgian style white beer (recommended: Hoegaarden) (I used Blue Moon, like I’LL USE WHAT I WANT, SIR.)
* 5 tablespoons honey
* 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
* 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
* 1 large egg
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 medium orange, zested
* 2 teaspoons ground coriander
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Directions

Put the beer and honey to a medium saucepan and reduce over medium heat until you have about 1/3 cup of liquid. You will occasionally have to skim the foam off the top of the beer. You will know you have hit 1/3 of a cup of liquid as the liquid will suddenly begin to aggressively foam due to the high concentration of sugar (This looks different from foaming due to carbon dioxide, the bubbles are much larger with the sugar foaming). Let this reduction cool to room temperature.
(This took FOREVER for me…I don’t know why, but it did eventually come down to a nice 1/3 of a cup…after about 40 minutes of waiting.)
Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the egg and blend thoroughly. Then add the vanilla, orange zest, coriander, and beer reduction and blend again. Mix the flour and baking soda together then slowly add to the batter.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Using a uniform scoop (I use a 1-ounce disher) scoop mounds of cookies onto an aluminum cookie sheet lined with parchment. Make sure you do not overcrowd the cookies; you should be able to fit about 12 cookies on a half sheet pan. Bake for 20 minutes (depending on your oven it may take more or less time, for some ovens it could take 15 minutes for others it could take 25; 20 minutes is an average time).

Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet until they are cool enough (about 10 minutes) to transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Formula Drift

Last Friday, Joe and I went to Road Atlanta to watch the practice sessions for a round of Formula Drift. We couldn’t go for the actual competition on Saturday because of other things to do (for me that was make madeleines, gelato, black bean soup, and that awesome grilled cheese from before.) but practice is good enough to watch.
First up were the pro/am drivers…almost all in 240sx’s. If you want to see those pictures, wait until the end. It was 90% 240 and ..to this day I still do not want to see one for about another week or two. The Formula D drivers weren’t going to practice until 3:30pm, and after a run-in with an apparent black widow spider, we headed out for lunch and some other things for a couple hours and then came back.
There honestly is no reason for them to spread this event out over 2 days, or at least don’t say it starts at 10am cause…ugh.
Anyway, the FD drivers were split up into two groups for practice, which they did in tandem, that is, two drivers drifting at once, and still a lot of Nissans.



The weather was great, it was cloudy with a breeze, and only my nose was sunburned in the end. However, my throat, nose, and eyes were not happy when we left as the fine shreds of tire and smoke had finally started to get to them after a couple hours.
My shirt and skin almost seemed to collect a good amount of little rubber beads, but it was worth it, because it’s really fun to watch…at least to me. My mom thought drifting had died in popularity several years ago…guess not!
For more pictures, here’s the flickr set.

Red Bull Racing Cupcakes

I’m certain that shoes probably aren’t supposed to inspire you to make cupcakes, but that’s the case for me…hahahaha. I love these shoes. Sebastian Vettel is one of my favorite F1 drivers, and so I bought some Scuderia Toro Rosso shoes on clearance. STR is the sister team of Red Bull Racing, and he was on that team last year, so that’s why I chose them rather than Red Bull shoes…they are still Red Bull shoes though.
I decided to go with a red cake though, and blue frosting…as well as RED BULL IN THE CAKE! My first idea was Red Bull Velvet…but honestly I couldn’t figure out a way that could possibly taste good. For the frosting I just decided a simple..Red Bull buttercream will be excellent. You’re going to need more than a whole 8.4 oz can for this.

1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs @ room temp.
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup whole milk
6 oz Red Bull (I would recommend against using the sugarfree one, based on how things in the past have turned out for me when using things containing fake sugars)
1 oz red food coloring (or more or less, depending on if you want Chinese Red or not)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix butter and sugar in a bowl until fluffy. Add eggs, mix again, and then add vanilla. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together in a separate bowl, as well as pour the milk and Red Bull together (I know…gross. Don’t do this until you’re about to pour it into the batter, I’m not a chemist so I can’t explain what happens if you wait…). Alternate between adding the dry ingredients and the gross Red Bull concoction to the batter. Add food color to your heart’s desire.
Fill your cupcake pan up, as much as you’d like. Bake for 20 minutes, then let cool. Brush tops with more Red Bull, if desired. Prepare to frost!

If it wasn’t for Sweet and Sassy’s entry for Iron Cupcake last month, I probably would have never gone through with my plans to make Red Bull cake. But based on her Red Bull frosting, I HAD TO.

Red Bull Buttercream
1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
2-3 cups sifted powdered sugar (add to your taste…I am so weird about sweetened things)
2 oz Red Bull (more or less for a different consistency and taste too, of course)
Royal blue and Black icing dyes from Wilton

Cream butter, add half the red bull, then add powdered sugar 1/2-1 cup at a time, mixing as you go. Add the rest of the Red Bull for flavor/consistency as desired.
As for the color, you do not want too much black. It also apparently has a funny taste, so really you do not want much. The directions for icing colors from Wilton says to dip a toothpick in the color and then swirl it in. However, it’s kind of hard to get navy so I had to settle with a kind of dark blue, along with blue spots on my hands.
Frost cupcakes as you’d like. Before serving if you’d like, add “gold” colored sugar on top…I took a couple drops yellow to one drop red and mixed it with sugar. It’s darker than on the previously posted lemon cupcakes.

I’m not too fond of the icing…the Red Bull makes it way too sweet. I also don’t really want blue hands, but the cake is SO GOOD. Nice and spongy. And at least Mark Webber got a podium position this weekend, wish Sebastian would have won to make these cupcakes extra awesome!

Lemon Cupcakes

So I started off my Friday evening by buying a bottle of probably the best red wine I have ever tasted in my life (also, it was $12 and from Argentina…the only other red wine I like is from Argentina too. Go figure.) and bought to try making blackberry red wine cupcakes. Well, the recipe I was following kind of…didn’t contain much cocoa, and it made the cake taste so weird, almost like the Coke Blak ones when I used Coke Zero rather than regular Coke. Also it didn’t help that my cupcake book lied to me, because I put some jam on top hoping it would sink like the book claimed…and it didn’t. And it was a mess. So I just drank my wine and plotted what I’d do next.
Saturday morning! I wake up and instantly decide to start on cupcakes. I usually am baking because I’m stressed out so when baking leaves me more stressed out, you can count on me not stopping until I get what I want.
And I did finally get what I want.

Since I was too lazy to really figure out how to make a cake, I took this recipe for vanilla cupcakes and just threw in all zest from a lemon and juice from half of that lemon. (Don’t throw out that other half!)
So if you’re too lazy like me to leave a blog for another recipe that goes something like this:
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/4 cups milk
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1/2 lemon

I think I stopped following the directions for those immediately because I baked them at 350 degrees for 18 minutes. Oh well. I’m not going to post the directions then because it’s easy you know…Beat butter and sugar, add vanilla; mix flour and salt and baking powder in another bowl, then mix it in with the milk in the other bowl, and then add the lemon zest and juice. Then bake how I said cause it worked. Except maybe the cake is too dense but it still tastes really good.

As for the frosting, it’s a lemon cream cheese frosting.
1 package cream cheese
1/2 stick of butter
zest of 1 lemon
juice from that 1/2 of a lemon before, plus at least half of the juice from this newly zested lemon. (I used the whole thing)
2 cups powdered sugar
Mix together butter and cream cheese, add in lemon zest and juice. Add in powdered sugar until it reaches your desired level of sweetness, which for me was 2 cups. Then frost the cupcakes. I added some yellow sugar on top. I made it by taking regular old granulated sugar, putting it on wax paper, adding a couple drops of yellow food coloring, and stirring it around with my finger. Yes, your finger will turn the color of the food coloring for a short time.

And then give them away to people you know via Twitter. But of course save some.

Coming up soon like..this week…I will be attempting Red Bull cupcakes. They will resemble my favorite pair of shoes in Red Bull Blue and Chinese Red, which are technically Scuderia Toro Rosso shoes but hey, that’s just Red Bull in Italian.