Almond-oatmeal crisps

For the holidays, we wanted to make a collection of cookies to share at work and with friends. Inspired by recipes we saw in last month's issue of Bon Appetit, we decided to try them out. I had never tried making oatmeal crisps before, but I remember eating them when my family bought them at Costco. They are still delicious, by the way. This particular recipe is super easy, and the results were super too. And they're pretty, and dainty, who are we kidding?

Ingredients(Makes 24):

1/2 cup whole almonds

2 tbsp oats

3/4 stick unsalted butter

6 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp honey

1 tbsp flour

1/4 tsp salt

Melted chocolate to brush on

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. 

2. In a food processor, chop and pulse the almonds and oats until a coarse meal forms.

3. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the sugars and the honey and whisk until well blended and the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat. Add nut mixtur, flour and salt. Stir until well-blended.

4. Spoon the batter into 2 tsp portions onto baking sheets, spacing around 2 inches between each cookie portion. Bake the cookies for 12 minutes until they are dark golden and form a think layer.

5. Slide cookies onto parchment paper and let cool.

6. Brush half of each cookie with melted chocolate. Let stand until the chocolate is set, about 2 hours.

Chocolate Espresso Kahlua mini-cupcakes

For my friend Miranda's birthday, we decided to surprise her at midnight with cupcakes. I personally think that regular cupcakes are way too big and rich, but mini-cupcakes almost always do the trick for me. They are almost bite-sized, and quite a bit cuter too. I also wanted to recipe that had a considerable amount of alcohol in it, and seeing as how I love Kahlua, I figured this recipe would do the trick.

Ingredients (for 24 mini cupcakes):

For the mini-cupcakes:

 3/8 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tbsp. instant espresso powder

3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cups sugar
3/4 tsp. baking soda
3/8 tsp. baking powder
3/8 tsp. salt
1 large egg

3/8 cup warm water
3/8  cup buttermilk

1 1/2 tbsp. vegetable oil

1/2tsp. vanilla extract

Kahlua, for brushing the mini-cupcakes

Frosting:

1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
5 tbsp. Kahlua liqueur
1 1/2 tbsp. heavy cream

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line the mini-cupcake pan with liners. 

2. Combine the cocoa powder, espresso powder, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a mixer. Then add the egg, warm water, buttermilk, vegetable oil and vanilla extract to the mixer and mix on on Medium for about 2-3 minutes until the mixter has a runny and smooth consistency. 

3. Using an icecream scoop or spoon, divide the batter evenly into the 24 mini-cupcake liners. It should be about 2/3 full. Bake for about 18 minutes, and rotate the pans halfway through baking. Let the mini-cupcakes cool for around 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack. 

4. Using a fork, poke holes on top of each mini-cupcake. Brush on the kahlua onto each mini-cupcake while still warm. Then allow the minis to cool completely.

5. To make the frosting, beat the butter in a mixer, until the butter is smooth and fluffy, for around 2 minutes. Mix in the confectioners' sugar. Add in the Kahlua and beat some more until the Kahlua is well-blended. Add in the heavy cream and beat on medium-high for around 4 minutes, until the frosting is light and fluffy.

5. Frost cupcakes and serve.

Baklava with pistachios, walnuts and almonds

This particular recipe has been in our family for a few years now. My aunt had made home-made Baklava and I had no idea how easy it was to make until I got down to actually making it myself. Not only is Baklava relatively easy to make, it is also fun to make! Making the filling and preparing the layers is easy and somehow makes for great stress-relief. I typically use a little rose essence in the syrup but you can substitute it with flavor of choice.

Ingredients:

Filing:

2 lbs mixed nuts. (I used a mixture of pistachios, almonds, walnuts and pecans)

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp allspice

Other Ingredients:
1/2 lb sweet butter

1/2 lb phyllo pastry

Syrup:

1 cup honey

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

1 cinnamon stick

1/2 tsp grated orange peel(optional)

1 tsp rose essence

Directions:

1. In a food processor, grind or chop all the nuts to make a coarse nut mixture. I personally like my Baklava a little crunchy, but you can make it smooth, based on preference. Add in the cinnamon, allspice and sugar and set aside in a bowl. 

2. Melt the butter such that you can brush on the butter with a brush. Brush a 9x13 pan with some butter. Lay a sheet of the phyllo pastry on the bottom of the pan. Brush the sheet of phyllo with a layer of butter. Add another sheet and repeat brushing it on with butter. Every part of the phyllo sheet must be brushed with butter to bring out the flakiness.

3. For every 2-3 sheets of phyllo, add the nut mixture evenly throughout the pan. Repeat until you have used up around 9-12 phyllo sheets. I typically have 2-3 layers of nut mixture.

4. With a sharp knife, cut into the phyllo sheets and cut the phyllo sheets to make triangles or diamond shaped pieces. Insert a clove on the edges of the pieces, if you like. 

5. Bake at 350 F for 1 hour until the baklava has browned.

6. In the meantime, combine all the ingredients for the syrup in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer for 10 minutes. Strain, if you like, and let it cool.

7. When the Baklava has browned, remove from the oven, and pour the syrup over it evenly such that it penetrates into the layers. Let cool and then serve.

Tequila peach pie

My family celebrated Diwali this past weekend. Diwali, as is the case with all Indian festivals, necessarily includes lots of food and sweets. My sweettooth was only willing to oblige. For my part, I decided on peach pie. I had seen pictures of this beautiful peach pie my friend had made, so I couldn't wait to try out a similar arrangement. For recipes, I modified Not without Salt's awesome Tequila peach pie recipe and added some spices. The tequila gave the right amount of kick to the recipe. I was very pleased!

Ingredients: 

Pie crust (see below)
3 peaches
3 tbsp tequila
2 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp lime juice
1/4 cup sugar syrup
3 cloves

1. Prepare the pie crust. Bake the pie crust for around 20 minutes at 350 F until brown.

2. Slice peaches into thin pieces and arrange on pie crust. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

3. Mix in the rest of the wet ingredients and pour over the pie.
4. Preheat oven to 385 F. Bake for 45 minutes.

Vegetable pot pie

I have to admit, I did not know much about pot pies, and they didn't seem too interesting to me, until I had my friend's delicious pot pie that blew my mind away. They are simple, delicious and easy to make, and what can top a great buttery, flakey crust? This particular recipe probably doesn't count as pot pie, necessarily, but was delicious nevertheless. Next time, I would probably add more ingredients to the filling. The filling was rather dry, here.

Ingredients:

Pie crust
2 cups of an assortment of root vegetables- I used carrots, beets and sweet potato
1 Onion
2 cloves, garlic
tarragon

1. To make the pie crust, I followed Martha Stewart's pie crust recipe. 
2. Cut up the vegetables into 1 inch pieces. Cut the onion sideways to give long pieces. Cut up the garlic.
3. Season the vegetables with the tarragon, garlic, and salt and pepper.
4. Roast the vegetables for 30-45 minutes until vegetables are soft at 400 F.
5. Bake the pie crust for 20 minutes until brown.

6. Place roasted vegetables on pie crust and bake for 35 minutes at 385 F.

Egg-less chocolate hazelnut cake with LAYERS!

 Mapcap Cupcake 's amazing blog and this particular recipe got me into food blogs, in a big way, as I have mentioned elsewhere on this blog. I had been looking for a vegan (read egg-less) cake recipe for a while. I simply converted the vegan recipe to vegetarian by using buttermilk. I tried out this particular one, and I don't think I have had such delicious cake- with or without egg. This one is a keeper. I've made the cake at least three times before, and I have to say, it still hasn't lost any of its glory.

Ingredients:

Hazelnut Cake 

1 cup buttermilk
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup hazelnut flour
2 tbsp corn starch
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour two 6-inch pans, and line bottoms with parchment paper. In a separate bowl, sift dry ingredients together and combine. Add buttermilk with remaining wet ingredients and then add the dry ingredients to we ingredients. Bake for around 22 minutes. 

For the praline:

1 cup hazelnuts, skinned and toasted.
2/3 cups sugar

Line a baking sheet with parchment and lightly grease. Place sugar in a skillet and heat for around 10-20 minutes until the sugar stars to melt. After 20 minutes, if sugar has not melted, stir lightly.  Return to low heat and stir in the hazelnuts, making sure that the nuts are thoroughly coated. Pour mixture on parchment paper and let cool. Once cooled(it should be brittle) chop into small pieces, using a food processor. 

Hazelnut Buttercream:

1/2 cup butter
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup praline
1 cup milk powder

Using a mixer, blend sugar and butter. Add milk powder and water and combine. Add in the praline bits.

Ganache Glaze:

4oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp maple syrup

Heat the heavy cream, butter and the maple syrup(maple syrup can also be skipped) until the mixture starts to boil. Remove from heat and add in the chocolate chips. Mix thoroughly. 

To assemble the cake, carefully split the cake horizontally into 2 layers. Add the buttercream on the first layer and then place the second layer on top it. Glaze the cake the chocolate ganace, and decorate with more of the hazelnut buttercream, if desired. 

Hiatus, part two; and some pictures

Once again, for the second time this year, I've been away from from this blog for longer than 2 months. That doesn't make for a very good blogger, I suspect. I am still having trouble getting into the rhythm of blogging, and being comfortable enough to share it all so openly on a public platform. I suspect that is also my issue with writing. I can feel that there is a lot in me I want to express, but I sometimes struggle with how best to do it, or get bogged down while beginning to do it. I am going to try to make this blog a more personal blog from now on- with writing vignettes and other random postings about things I find interesting. It is after all about expressing myself- not to show anyone else, but see what I can do and achieve with this space, at least for myself.

I struggle with being organized and disciplined. Therefore, it is hardly surprising to me, that I cannot remember some of these recipes. Most are simple enough that a picture can inspire me enough to recreate, I hope. Here is a photolog of my food adventures only through pictures in the last couple months.


Tomato pesto goat cheese pizza

Beignets

Pasta with a tomato corn salsa