Cranberry Buttermilk Scones

I love baking with buttermilk. I find buttermilk baked goods to have awesome moisture as well as flavour.

Since buttermilk comes in 1 L cartons, whenever I buy it to bake 1 item, I end up baking a whole bunch of items to use it all up.

This scone recipe is very easy and fast to make.

They turn out moist and fluffy and helps me use up the buttermilk :)

Usually I always measure out the ingredients by weight but I find that it's not necessary for the scones

Just need measuring cups, spoons, a fork and a bowl to make the scones

Ingredients

3 cups all purpose flour 

1/3 cup Brown sugar 

2 1/2tsp baking powder 

3/4 salt 

1/2 tsp baking Soda 

3/4 cup cold butter (170.25g) 

1 cup buttermilk 

1 cup dried cranberries 

1tsp grated orange peel (Optional)

Directions

1. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl 

2. Cut in butter until crumbly 

3. Gently stir in buttermilk until just combined 

4. Fold in cranberries and orange peel

5. Turn onto table and make 2 6in disks or make them into 4 smaller disks

6. Put them on a pan and cut each into 6 wedges but leave them together. 

7. Brush with buttermilk and sprinkle sugar on top. The sugar is optional. I typically don't add it but it can add a nice crunch. 

8. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 mins or until golden brown. The smaller disk will cook faster. 

2 tier Birthday cake

Catching up on posting.  :)

I have a niece born before Christmas and one after Christmas.
So we celebrate their birthdays during Christmas dinner

This year, I made a 2 tier cake so they each get a layer.

The bottom layer is a white chocolate strawberry buttercream cake

The top layer is a dark chocolate pistachio buttercream cake.

For the buttercream,  I liked the butter to egg white ratio from Keiko Ishida's book but I don't like how she doesn't cook her egg whites.
So I'm still experimenting with the right syrup ratio so I can add more liquid type of flavor (ie strawberry puree) before the cream breaks.
Both cakes are from Rose's Heavenly Cake book.

The decorations are made of fondant. I used cookie cutters for the shapes but I used a sharp knife to cut out the words myself. I think I'll go invest in Alphabet cookie cutters soon. Took too long to do the knife work.

How to make stack the cakes:

You need to build structure for the bottom layer so the top cake doesn't sink in.

I use bubble tea straws as support.
I like to use 5 because my 6in cake is heavy.

Put the straw beside the cake and cut to the right height.
Cut all your straws.
Use your 6 in pan and lightly press on the top of the bottom cake with it too make and indent for where you want to place your cake.
Stick the straws you cut inside the 6in circle indent evenly spaced apart.

Move your top layer on top and your done.  :)

Cast Iron Skillet Baked Eggs

One of my favourite meals of the day is Brunch :)
I love breakfast food and making big breakfasts

One time for a school project, my group mate made an awesome brunch for us to eat while we were working.
One of the brunch items was baked eggs with asparagus, peppers and some other veggies.
She baked them in muffin pans so they were nice bite size treats.

They were so good I had to try making it myself and it turned out to be really simple to make!
Honestly, it is basically an omelette but you bake it instead so the ingredients in it is very flexible.

Since I was only cooking for myself, I decided to try mine in the small Cast Iron Skillet I had and it turns out very nicely every time (make sure your cast iron is well seasoned before you try this!!)

This particular one I made was for a full meal. There was a side of baked homemade frieds :)

Bacon
Green Onion
Mushrooms
Celery
2 eggs (you can probably do 1 for 1 person but it'll depend on your pan size and you'll want to add some milk)
Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Cut all your ingredients into smaller pieces and cook them.
Preheat small conventional oven to 350 degree F
~Alternatively you can cook on stove top at slow heat so you do not burn the bottom~
Whip your eggs and add a pinch of salt and pepper to the eggs.
Pour eggs into your skillet
Top with Cheese

Honestly when I make these, I use any breakfast type of ingredients I find in my fridge that I would put in an omelette.

If you want to use muffin pan because you're making several of them for multiple people, it's the same process except you pour the eggs into the pan and then drop in the meat/veggie mixture.
Don't forget the cheese! Even if you're only going to put in a little bit, it is the secret ingredient that makes it so yummy! :)

Have a good brunch

Mango Ice Cream Cake - 6 inch

My brother has a basic ice cream recipe that he uses for his ice cream that uses 5 yolks, 10% and 35% cream and he eyeballs everything.

But whenever we tried to add fruits or anything that is in liquid format, it always turns out icy.

So after examining some other recipes on the internet, some of which are basically like his, I altered what he normally does based on what I've seen with other recipes and what I think will work.

I replaced the 1 cup of 10% cream that he normally uses with the 1 cup of Mango puree. I figured, this way we might be able to reduce the water content and reduce the chance of iciness

It actually turned out quite well so we're happy with this result. Going to try berries next.

Note on the type of mango. I like to use Ataulfo mango because I find they have the best mango flavour. I live in Canada so I really only have 2 choices of mango available to me based on what's imported. I find the "Apple mango" or "Red Mango" (depends on what store you go to for what they call it) doesn't have that strong mango flavour and the texture of the flesh is harder.

Ingredients 

3 Ataulfo mangos (about 1 cup puree) 

375g 35% Cream 

100g (0.5 cups) sugar 

3 egg yolks 

Splash of vanilla   

Make the custard 

1. Slowly heat the cream in a pot until it is warm 

2. In a bowl, whisk together the yolk and sugar until it is light yellow 

3. Pour the warm milk slowly into the yolk while whisking 

4. Transfer mixture back into the Pot and mix @ medium heat until mixture thickens. It should coat the back of a wooden spoon nicely

5. Pour mixture into a bowl, cover and cool mixture in the fridge.   

Mango puree 

1. Cut the Mango flesh into chunks 
2. If you have a blender, use it and make the puree then pour the puree through the strainer. Alternative 2. Put the chunks into the strainer and press the mango through into the bowl.
(yes I used the strainer method this time to test it out and it works...but now I think I would rather blend it to save time and just wash the blender after...)

  

 Ice cream 

1. when the custard is @ room temperature, mix the vanilla and mango puree into the custard. 
When I combine everything together, the total mixture volume is slightly over 3 cups

2. Refrigerate overnight prior to putting it into the ice cream machine 
3. Use ice cream machine according to the instructions. My Ice Cream machine can fit 3 cups of liquid. A little bit more then 3 cups is ok but anything more then that and it will overflow when the ice cream expands.

4. pour into lined cake mold. This mixture makes 1 - 6inch round 3inch tall cake.
Put the ice cream in some sort of air tight box after and freeze.

Or you can pour into any container you like to keep ice cream in and freeze if you don't need it in a cake pan :)

Have fun, I think we're trying the berry one this weekend

Honey Ginger Tea

The first time I had Ginger tea was in HK after eating Hairy Crab....
Hairy Crab is considered to be very cold and many people are actually allergic to it.
I didn't know I was because it was my first time eating it...
So I felt really super sick after....surprisingly the Ginger Tea helped push back the ache for a time period until my allergic reaction broke out....

Now I drink when my tummy hurts and it helps it feel better (I think some people drink Ginger Ale and it does the same thing...but this is healthier :))

Also, according to Chinese Hot/Cold theory, since Ginger "hot/warm" it's good when you're starting to get sick with a cold too.

It's really super simple to make as long as you have ginger at home...(since I'm Chinese I always have ginger at home)

Ingredients
2 slices of ginger (medium size)
1 Mug of water (A little bit more since you'll loose some to steam)
~ 1 tsp honey or to your taste

Cut 2 slides of ginger from the root, fairly thin is fine.

Put it in a pot/kettle and fill it with your cup of water and bring the water to boil.

Boil for ~30secs and turn off the stovetop.
Let it sit there and steep for about 10 mins.



Add about 1 tsp of Honey into your cup before you pour your tea into the cup.

Stir and you're ready to drink :)

I hope it helps

Lavender Honey Shortbread Cookies

So I've been wanting to make cookies from Lavender for a while. I remember the horrible lavender Gelato I had in Italy because they over used Lavender but I couldn't help but wonder how would it taste like if I use the right amount of Lavender.

So, I finally made an effort and went to Nora's Natural Food store to pick up some lavender.

I looked through several different recipes and decided to use this one with a bit of adjustment
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2008/09/honey-lavender-shortbread-cookies-recipe.html
The recipe still needs a little bit of tweeking. I'm actually unsure if the saltiness was due to the lavender or if I added too much salt.

I'll post what I actually ended up doing when I finish tweeking the recipe.

On a whole, the lavender is a unique taste. I would adjust to have slightly less lavender.
If you don't over use lavender, it won't taste like you're eating perfume.  
I will definitely try making these again but after some tweeks.

Recipe with minor tweeks thus far

Ingredients
2 Cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking poweder
2 tsp lavender (I liked a little bit less as lavender is very strong)
6 ounces of butter
2 tbsp honey
1/2 cup icing sugar

Grind lavender in a spice grinder, add some of the flour to the grinder if you find that it's not grinding well. I grind the lavender until it was fairly fine

Mix the flour, baking powder and lavender together in a medium size bowl

Cream the butter, honey and sugar. Beat until well mixed
Add the dry ingredients and mix until it's combined

Place onto parchment paper and roll it out (I like to use Gordan Ramsey's technique that he does for the beef wellington to make my roll, video 5:50 mark)

Place into fridge and wait for it to firm up.
Cut into 1/5 inch thick disks.

Cook for 15min or until light golden brown in a 350 degree F oven.

First post

I've been meaning to start a blog for a while but never got around to doing it.

Even though I've been cooking and baking while I'm in school I haven't had time to blog.

Now that I'm getting close to graduation I want to try to blog.