Freakin' Delicious!

I have moved!

celebrity_soup — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:19:47 -0700

Hey guys!

You’re probably all like "WTF?" by now with all the hold up on the site, no sign of life or new recipes, etc.

For this, I apologize. I have been away for the summer holidays and exams and school and all other crap kept me from posting anything.

So I have done some changes for the better.

I bought a domain!.. and changed hosts, so the new site is no longer a Onsugar website.

Go to www.freakindelicious.com to see the new and improved blog.

This time there will be more updates and recipes, don't worry.

All I ask is your support and lotsa comments! :P

Thanks,

Maia

Daring Bakers: Chocolate Mallows and Milano Cookies

celebrity_soup — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 05:51:51 -0700

I don't know what happened to this post...

I had written a lot about the whole experience of making this recipe, along with the recipe itself of course.

I'm so pissed that it got messed up and completely blanked out on everything that I wrote!

So I'm just going to keep this simple.

These are my chocolate mallows that I made for the July Daring Bakers Challenge.

For the July challenge we had the choice of making either one recipe or two.

The Chocolate Mallows and Milano Cookies.

I chose to make both of course. My mallows turned out really well, a success.

They were soooooo good, the marshmallow inside stayed fluffy and creamy, while the chocolate outside stayed dry and yet shinny.

The cookies to my chocolate mallows' base are like shortbread cookies, they have crunchy layers inside and must go really well plain with some tea, or you can simply take your cookie and dip it half way in the chocolate sauce. I used dark chocolate to cover my mallows and would always add milk into it as the liquid in the sauce evaporated in the broiler.

Chocolate Mallows

INGREDIENTS:

Cookie base:

3 cups (375g) all purpose flour
1/2 cup (112.5g) white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/8 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
12 tbsp (170g) unsalted butter
3 eggs, whisked together

Homemade marshmallows:

1/4 cup water
1/4 cup light corn syrup (I used glucose, works just as well)
3/4 cup (168.76 g) sugar
1 tsp powdered gelatin
2 tbsp cold water
2 egg whites , room temperature
1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

Chocolate glaze:

12 ounces semisweet chocolate
2 ounces cocoa butter or vegetable oil

DIRECTIONS:

Cookie base:

1. In a mixer with the paddle attachment, blend the dry ingredients.
2. On low speed, add the butter and mix until sandy.
3. Add the eggs and mix until combine.
4. Form the dough into a disk, wrap with clingfilm or parchment and refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 3 days.
5. When ready to bake, grease a cookie sheet or line it with parchment paper or a silicon mat.
6. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
7. Roll out the dough to 1/8-inch thickness, on a lightly floured surface. Use a 1 to 1 1/2 inches cookie cutter to cut out small rounds of dough.
8. Transfer to the prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Let cool to room temperature.

Homemade marshmallows:

1. In a saucepan, combine the water, corn syrup, and sugar, bring to a boil until “soft-ball” stage, or 235 degrees on a candy thermometer.
2. Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water and let dissolve.
3. Remove the syrup from the heat, add the gelatin, and mix.
4. Whip the whites until soft peaks form and pour the syrup into the whites.
5. Add the vanilla and continue whipping until stiff.
6. Transfer to a pastry bag

Chocolate glaze:

1. Melt the 2 ingredients together in the top of a double boiler or a bowl set over barely simmering water.

Putting it all together:

1. Pipe a “kiss” of marshmallow onto each cookie. Let it set at room temperature for 2 hours.
2. Line a cookie sheet with parchment or silicon mat.
3. One at a time, gently drop the marshmallow-topped cookies into the hot chocolate glaze.
4. Lift out with a fork and let excess chocolate drip back into the bowl.
5. Place on the prepared pan and let set at room temperature until the coating is firm, about 1 to 2 hours.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The Milano Cookies were the first ones to be made and they turned out great, except for the part where the cookie stuck to the parchment paper and would NOT peel out.

So guess what? They were eaten with the paper stuck to them, no one noticed, because of the chocolate filling inside. So next time, I’ll have to butter my parchment paper and so should you, if you ever plan on making them.

Now don’t get the sticky parchment paper get to you, the cookies are very tasty and worth making, just remember about buttering your pan or parchment paper!

Milano Cookies

INGREDIENTS:

Cookies:

12 tablespoons (170 g) unsalted butter, softened
2 1/2 cups (312.5 g) powdered sugar
7/8 cup egg whites (from about 6 eggs)
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons lemon extract
1 1/2 cups (187.5 g) all purpose flour

Filling:

1/2 cup heavy cream
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 orange, zested

DIRECTIONS:

Cookies:

1. In a mixer with paddle attachment cream the butter and the sugar.
2. Add the egg whites gradually and then mix in the vanilla and lemon extracts.
3. Add the flour and mix until just well mixed.
4. With a small (1/4-inch) plain tip, pipe 1-inch sections of batter onto a parchment-lined sheet pan, spacing them 2 inches apart as they spread.
5. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes or until light golden brown around the edges. Let cool on the pan.

Filling:

1. While waiting for the cookies to cool, in a small saucepan over medium flame, scald cream.
2. Pour hot cream over chocolate in a bowl, whisk to melt chocolate, add zest and blend well.
3. Set aside to cool (the mixture will thicken as it cools).

Putting it all together:

1. Spread a thin amount of the filling onto the flat side of a cookie while the filling is still soft and press the flat side of a second cookie on top.
2. Repeat with the remainder of the cookies.

Pumpkin Bread

celebrity_soup — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 10:27:14 -0700

Hello fellow foodies, once again I bring you yet another SWEET recipe!

Yay, because you can never have enough sweet recipes… especially baking recipes.

I like to bake, its that whole chemistry and measuring, mixing and kneading that makes it all so fun.

The best part is seeing how that little experiment turned out after baking in the oven.
Sometimes good, sometimes bad, it can all be very unpredictable.

Luckily, you won’t have an issue with this recipe, because its so easy to make and always turns out perfect.

Not only that, but while it’s doing the baking in the oven, your house becomes infused with the smell of cinnamon, ginger and cloves together.

You’re probably a little confused as to why I’m posting a winter/fall recipe, pumpkin being in season during winter and fall…

Well I live in the southern hemisphere so, tis the season!

So, if you’re living up North, save this recipe for the chilly months to come, they’ll be here before you know it.

INGREDIENTS

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree

4 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

2/3 cup water

3 cups white sugar

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Grease and flour three 7x3 inch loaf pans.

In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger.

Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended.

Pour into the prepared pans. Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

This recipe is from Allrecipes.com

Bite From The Past: Crumbly Topped Banana Muffins

celebrity_soup — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 09:07:58 -0700

Hello fellow foodies!

I’m trying my best to keep those recipes coming, my goal is to post 2 recipes per week for now.

The last time I posted a “Bite From The Past” entry was about 4 months ago!

If you’re not familiar with my “Bite From The Past” posts, well they’re simply recipes I have posted before a long time ago in a different website, teamsugar.com.

This recipe is more of a breakfast one for me, waking up and warming these babies in the microwave, eating them along with some coffee or tea is delightful.

Biting into the crunchy topping and sinking your teeth down into the soft banana infused muffin is oh so yummy! For me, when it comes to sweet things, there has to have crunch in there, it can’t just be all soft or all crunchy, you have to combine the two textures to create that special something!

Ok, enough of me fantasizing about eating these babies and making you drool like crazy, end your misery and GO BAKE THEM. :D

INGREDIENTS:

Muffins

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 heaped tsp baking soda
1 heaped tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 bananas, mashed
1 cup sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup butter/margarine, melted
1/2 cup of any kind of nut (I used cashews) - optional

Topping

1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
2 tbsp oats
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tbsp butter/margarine

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
Lightly grease 24 mini muffin cups/12 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.

In a large bowl, mix together 1 3/4 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter.

Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 3 tbsp flour, oats and cinnamon. Cut in 1 1/2 tbsp butter/margarine until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Cover muffin completely with topping.

Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

Chocolate and Lime Tart

celebrity_soup — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 12:53:44 -0700

Hello everyone, today I have yet another sweet recipe and boy is this one good.

The last time this was made was in Easter of 2006.

I have no idea why it was never made ever since, it really is a good tart.

This recipe has already been posted in my Teamsugar account, but I just had to post it again in my food blog!

This recipe was taken from a Brazilian food blog called “Rainhas do Lar”.

It has a layer of chocolate and lemon, that go really well together.

It truly is an indulgent and decadent tart I really liked.

I’m thinking of more that I can say about it but all I can think of is... simply delicious.

INGREDIENTS:

Pie Crust

200 g graham crackers

4 tbsp melted unsalted butter

Chocolate Filling

300 g semi sweet chocolate

1 can of cream

1 tsp unsalted butter

2 tbsp hazelnut spread (Nutella)

½ a packet of flavorless gelatine (about 1 full tsp)

Lime Filling

1 can of condensed milk

1 can of cream

½ a can of lemon juice

½ a packet of flavourless gelatine (about 1 full tsp)

DIRECTIONS:

Pie Crust

Preheat your oven to 180ºC/350ºF

The easiest and fastest way to make graham cracker crumbs is by using a food processer, blend the graham crackers into crumbs and viola. You could also put the graham crackers in a big zip lock bag, zip it closed and with a rolling pin, crush the graham crackers by rolling the bag, banging on it, sitting on it, be creative. Dump the crumbs in a bowl, along with the melted butter and mix together, its best to use your fingers. Now, with this wet crumby stuff, press it into a 24 cm pie pan with a removable base. Bake for 10 minutes and set aside.

Chocolate Filling

Using a double boiler (bowl over a pan of boiling water), melt the chocolate, remove from heat and add the cream, unsalted butter, Nutella, and gelatine (that has been already dissolved in 1 tbsp of warm water). Pour this mixture into the already baked pie crust (still in its pie pan).

Put it in the refrigerator for now.

Lime Filling

Using either a food processor or a whisk and a bowl, beat together the condensed milk, cream and ½ a can of lemon juice (by just using the condensed milk or cream can and pouring in lemon juice half way) and the already dissolved gelatine. All that’s left now is to pour this on top of the chocolate layer and leave in the refrigerator for 4 hours, covered on top with plastic wrap. After that, carefully remove the base of the pie pan, remove the rest and decorate your pie with some lime rind.