Eggy Pancakes

Pancake is my favorite breakfast on the weekends- the time I actually have patience to stand next to the stove and fry a bunch of pancakes and enjoy them with a drenching of Kirkland Signature maple syrup. I have experimented a lot of different pancake recipes, often changing the milk used- soy milk, almond milk, and walnut milk. The recipe I used was from NY Times http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1893-everyday-pancakes and goes back to traditional using whole milk. I made a half batch, and it was plentiful enough for breakfast. I sure am inspired to make this again, as it is simple and easy to follow. 

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1/2 tablespoon sugar

1 egg

1 cup milk

1 tablespoons melted butter

How to Make:

1. Mix flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a bowl until well combined.

2. Add the egg, milk, and melted butter (making sure it's cooled down!)

3. Pour a tablespoon of oil into a pan, and cook the batter, turning the pancake when bubbles form.

Orange Marmalade

This year's orange harvest from the orange tree in my backyard was plentiful- a total of 133 pounds of oranges! Each year the fruit gets sweeter, and this year the taste sure did not disappoint. The sweet, yet tangy orange, paired with my aunt's home-grown lemons, made for a great orange marmalade. I adapted the Sure-Jell recipe to make this orange marmalade.

Ingredients:

4 oranges

2 lemons

3.5 tbsp pectin

2.5 cups water

1/8 tsp baking soda

5.5 cups sugar

How to Make:

1. Slice the oranges and lemons into quarters, then into thin slices. (Some recipes call for peeling off the rinds, then boiling the oranges to remove the white fiber part of the fruit. I went for the faster approach, which is to include all parts of the orange into the marmalade.)

2. Boil the sliced fruit in 2.5 cups water and 1/8 tsp baking soda.

3. Add the pectin into the mixture.

4. When the mixture is in a full rolling boil, add all the sugar.

5. Bring the mixture back to a full rolling boil. Once full rolling boil, keep stirring for 1 minute. 

6. Remove from heat and ladle into hot, sterilized mason jars. Seal tightly.

7. Put the mason jars back into the stock pot and boil for 10 minutes.

8. Remove from heat and let cool.

Grape Jelly

Ingredients:

≈3.5 lbs grapes (about 5 large clusters of grapes), [need 5 cups grape juice]
3 cups white sugar
4 cups brown sugar
1.5 cups water
3.5 tbsp Ball classic pectin

How to Make: (takes about 2 hours)

1. Wash and remove grapes from stems.

2. Blend grapes on low setting in blender/ food processor, just enough so that skins are removed and grape juice released.
3. Boil the grape juice and 1.5 cups water in a pot for 10 minutes. Grape juice color should darken to a deep purple color.

4. Remove from heat and strain the juice to separate from the seeds and skin.

5. Boil the strained juice and add pectin.

6. Once mixture is at a rolling boil, add the sugar. Heat to rolling boil for 1 minute.

7. Remove from heat. Scrape off foam, if desired.
8. Ladle hot jelly into hot, sterilized jars. Seal lids and bands.
9. Place jars into stock pot and boil for 10 minutes if you are in a low altitude area.
10. Remove jars from pot and let cool. Seals should "pop," indicating a proper seal. Refrigerate or store in cool, dark place.

Peach Jam

     

This year's harvest from the peach tree in my backyard was massive! The peaches ripened around July 10, and by the time I picked them, they had ripened a bit much. I had wanted to learn how to make homemade jam for quite a while, and this became the perfect opportunity. I adapted the Sure-Jell package recipe to make this jam.

I have no idea what our peach variety is called... it has either dark red or white color on the inside.

Ingredients: (Makes 3 pint-sized jars)

4 cups diced peaches (about 12 whole peaches, peeled and pitted)
2 tbsp lime juice
5 cups white granulated sugar
3.5 tbsp Ball low or no-sugar needed pectin

I used Ball brand pectin. Got this from Safeway for about $5.

This is how pectin looks like. It helps solidify the jam and makes it set.

Tools:

Stock pot
Tongs
3 pint-sized Ball jars
Strainer
Non-stick pot (A non-stick pot is ideal for cooking the peaches, since the sugar doesn't stick to the bottom, as in a stainless steel pot.)

How to Make: (Takes about 2 hours.)

Pre-step: Remove lids & bands from jar. Sterilize glass jars in a stock pot filled with boiling hot water. Simmer lids and bands in separate pot.

1. Wash peaches. Cut an "X" on each peach (for easier peeling). Boil peaches in hot water. Transfer to ice water bath. Peel off skin. Dice peaches into either small or large chunks.

Boiling peaches in hot water to remove the fuzzy skin

2. Drain the excess water from the diced peaches through a mesh strainer. (You don't want too much water in the fruit, otherwise the jam will become like syrup.)

3. Boil peaches, lime juice, and pectin, STIRRING CONSTANTLY. 

4. Add sugar, STIRRING CONSTANTLY. Bring to boil for 1 minute, then immediately remove from heat. (You must boil for 1 minute, or the jam will become like syrup. Do not let the sugar stick to the bottom of the pan. Remove from heat once boiled, otherwise you will get burnt jam!)

Burnt jam resulting from sugar sticking to bottom of stainless steel pot

This is good-looking, non-burnt jam.

5. Remove jars from stock pot. Ladle hot jam into hot jars. Seal the lids and bands on the jars.

6. Boil the filled jars for 10 minutes, if you are in a low altitude place. Increase boiling time if you are in higher altitudes.

7. Remove from pot and let cool. Jars should make a "pop" sound, indicating the jars are sealed. 

8. Refrigerate or store in a cool, dry place.

Vanilla Cupcakes (no butter)

I was so amazed when I found a recipe for vanilla cupcakes that does not require butter at all! The recipe I followed is here: http://natashaskitchen.com/2012/06/29/perfect-vanilla-cupcake-recipe/. I love how I have all the ingredients the recipe requires in my pantry. There is no last minute grocery shopping just for one thing. The light cupcake requires only oil, and it makes you feel good. The cupcakes turned out to have an elastic, bungee-like texture and moist, full of vanilla flavor interior. 

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups cake flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup milk + 1/2 teaspoon vinegar

2 large eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup vegetable oil

How to Make:

1. Beat eggs, sugar, vanilla, and oil in mixer. 

2. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and milk.

3. Pour into baking cups, halfway full.

4. Bake for 12 minutes in a 350 °F oven.

5. Top with buttercream icing.

Chocolate Soufflé

I love how deliciously fancy this recipe is. It is chocolatey, airy, and sweet- topped with blackberries and powdered sugar, it is French gourmet dessert at home. I love French desserts and how they are delectable, distinguishable, and yet refined. With a touch of a spoon, the chocolate liqueur gushes out and you can't help but eat it in time before it all drips away.

Ingredients:

1/2 stick butter

1/3 cup granulated sugar + 1 tbsp per ramekin

3 eggs, separated

Cream of tartar, a pinch

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Powdered sugar, for dusting

How to Make:

1. Brush ramekins with butter & sugar

2. Whisk egg whites & cream of tartar

3. Melt chocolate & butter in a saucepan. Remove from pan. Let cool and add egg yolks.

4. Fold chocolate liqueur mixture + egg white mixture.

5. Bake approximately 15 minutes.

Green Tea + Flan Layer Cake

Is there such thing as an "Impossible" Cake aka the Chocoflan? The chocoflan is basically a chocolate cake with a flan layer on top. The moniker is ascribed to the fact that, how can the cake, when inverted, turn out to be on the bottom, when the cake and flan mixture were mixed together and baked together at the same time? Magic, right?

Previously, I made flan just by itself: http://cookingbanana.blogspot.com/2013/08/flan.html.

It was delicious, silky, and creamy all at once. Having succeeded in making flan, I wanted a new challenge. The mission impossible.

It was time to challenge myself on the actual date of my cousin's birthday. I was the designated cake chef, and I was running late. OH MY GOSH. Literally, it was 12 noon, and we were leaving for dinner at 4 PM. Was it possible to make a cake that I had never prepared before so soon?

Adding to the challenge, I wanted to make a green tea cake with flan. I knew my dessert devourers' palate was green tea, not chocolate. I couldn't find a recipe to appease my and my guests' appetite, so I decided to combine my knowledge of making green tea cake and flan, and hoped that the buoyancy principles did not only apply to chocolate but also green tea cake.

Most definitely, possible.

First steps:

1. Oil the fluted pan that you will bake the cake in. (Yes, you will need a fluted pan so that you can invert the cake later.)

2. Make the caramel. Medium heat the white sugar until melted. Be careful not to boil it too much, as the sugar easily burns.

3. Immediately remove from heat when melted and pour into prepared fluted pan.

4. While the caramel cools and hardens, make the Green Tea Cake layer next.

Ingredients for the Green Tea Cake layer:

Group A:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup cake flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp green tea powder

Group B:

1 1/4 cup sugar

1 cup oil

3 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 cup plain yogurt (or substitute 1 tbsp vinegar + 1 cup milk)

How to Make the Green Tea Cake layer:

1. Sift together Group A in a mixer.

2. Beat in Group B into Group A.

3. Pour cake batter into the fluted pan. 

4. Set aside while making the Flan layer next.

Ingredients for the Flan layer:

3 eggs

1 can condensed milk

1 can evaporated milk

1 tbsp vanilla

How to Make the Flan layer:

1. Beat all the ingredients- eggs, condensed & evaporated milks, and vanilla- until incorporated. 

2. Pour the flan mixture into the fluted pan that already contains the Green Tea Cake layer and caramel. (Now here's the impossible part to this: the cake and flan mixtures are infused together for the moment, but after it gets baked in the oven, it separates into two distinct layers, inverted!!)

How to Bake the Cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

2. Prepare a hot water bath by pouring hot (not boiling) water into a larger pan that can hold the fluted pan. 

3. Place the fluted pan into the hot water bath.

4. Cover the fluted pan with aluminum foil.

5. Bake for approximately 1 hour.

6. Take the cake out of the oven and let it cool. 

7. Run a knife along the edges of the cake to ease in letting the cake out, and invert the cake onto a larger plate. 

The result: 

Two distinct layers- top: flan, bottom: cake. 

How possible is that?!