Oh Suga Suga...

RIP Pastillage box :( (It got dropped in the hallway)

Gum Paste Flowers

On Friday, October 22nd, 2010, I wrapped up my last day in Confections and Specialty Cakes class at The Culinary Institute of America. The class was three weeks long and my baking group and I learned SO MUCH in that short amount of time. We tampered with pastillage, chocolate, sugar, royal icing, fondant, buttercream, and gum paste. My favorite part of the class was making individual cakes using buttercream and sponge cake; my cake was shaped like a PB&J and it tasted OUT OF THIS WORLD!! Check out the photos and tell me what you think :)

Breakfast Bricks

SUPER DENSE... too much flour (whoopsie daisy)

This is pretty brave of me... but I would like to share one of my failed products with you. I decided to try and create a breakfast cookie by combining a couple of recipes together and adding a few of my own touches. The result could have been GREAT, but there were a few reasons why it was a bust:

1) Instead of using volume measurements (like cups) I just assumed that all the ingredients weighed 8 oz for each cup... but in reality that is wrong. Flour weighs less than sugar if you compare a cup of flour to a cup of sugar. So I used WAY too much of some ingredients like flour, and not enough of other ingredients.

2) I think I tried to change the recipe too much at once. I wanted to make something healthy so I used peanut butter instead of butter and agave nectar instead of sugar (this makes creaming impossible; creaming butter and sugar in a regular cookie recipe adds air to the cookie dough which gives it a lighter crumb structure). I also used egg whites and made a meringue with the agave nectar which I folded into a blended pumpkin and peanut butter mixture to give it air since I hadn't used the creaming method. In the future, I think I will start with one good cookie recipe and change one ingredient at a time.

3) DON'T PUT PUMPKIN SEED IN COOKIES! They are tough and poke the inside of your mouth! hahhaha

Making this flop of a recipe taught me that I need to be very aware of ingredients differences in volume and weight and that creating a new recipe takes time and should be done in steps to avoid wasting expensive and good quality ingredients. Research and development is a field that I am really interested in as far as the food industry goes, so I will continue to try and create new recipes.

Roasted Applesauce

I cannot believe it has taken me so long to post a new blog!! My sister Christina has been on me like white on rice to put up a new post, so here I go!

A couple of weeks ago, my friends and I went to Rose Hill Farms north of Hyde Park, NY and picked a bunch of juicy Honey Crisp apples. It was my very first time apple-picking and I LOVED IT!!! Tasting as you pick was the best part :P Anyway... We ended up bringing home almost 30 apples so I decided to make applesauce. One of my fellow bloggers (Closet Cooking) had posted a recipe for roasted applesauce and it sounded really yummy so I gave it a try and it turned out marvelous! From the smell of spices to the rich taste of freshly picked roasted apples, this recipe is one I will definitely hold on to.

Ingredients:
4 apples (peeled, cored and chopped)
1/4 cup apple cider (I used cranberry apple cider and it added some tang!)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

Directions:
1. Toss everything in a bowl.
2. Bake in a preheated 400F oven until the apples are very soft, about 30-50 minutes.
3. Mash the apples.

...then EAT!