Solar eclipse

Made myself a pinhole box thing. I know why they told us all not to look directly at the sun but to be honest, the sun was so freaking bright I couldn't even see it if I wanted to (I was just gonna peek ok >.>). Anyways, here's my attempt at a progression, I appear to have missed the climax eating dinner and cutting strawberries.

  

Isn't it odd, the path I expected the moon to take was from right to left but it kind of made a detour.

Next I had it suggested to me to place multiple holes:

Then I learned that if I angled it right, it would project out of the box and onto my wall.

This was a lot easier to see, take pictures off etc etc but it was already nearing the end.

I set the box up on a chair and set up my camera to film, but instead of watching the moon move away from the sun, all I got was the sun moving off my wall. I would fast forward if I were you, it moves fairly slowly. Also, once it's off it's off, I wasn't paying attention to it film so the vid goes a bit longer.

Vegan Mexican Chocolate Cupcakes with (non-Vegan) Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

I looooove mexican chocolate flavored things. Maybe I just like cinnamon.....and that cayenne kick at the end mmm, so when I found a vegan mexican chocolate cupcake recipe I jumped all over it. I'm not vegan meself if you couldn't tell, but I love being able to feed stuff to my buddies. I just ate one and yuuuum. The great thing about this recipe is how easy it is. Dry ingredients in one bowl, add all the wets and mix lightly then bake. There are going to be more of these in my future. The cupcake recipe is from Strawberry Pepper a vegan blog. The only adjustment I made to it was halving the recipe because I only own 1 muffin tin.

The frosting recipe came from Myrecipes and I also halved this recipe. It's not in the title but this is actually a browned butter cream cheese frosting and after using browned butter in the Mille crepe I thought it would taste really good and it does. As per usual, pulled the recipes from elsewhere and my notes will be in bold.

Mexican Chocolate Cupcakes
24 cupcakes

3 cups all-purpose white flour (or 1/2 whole wheat pastry, 1/2 white)
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp cayenne pepper (or less if you’re very sensitive to spice)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 cups water
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp apple cider or white vinegar

Directions:
preheat oven to 350 ºF and place liners into a muffin pan
1. In a large bowl mix flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, cinnamon and cayenne pepper together. I added a little bit less than the recommended cayenne and I think that's a good amount for me personally. Instead of 1 tsp it was more like 3/4 tsp, again halved recipe.
2. Add the vegetable oil, water, vanilla, and vinegar to the dry ingredients and stir. Do not over mix; a few clumps are okay. I happened to use apple cider vinegar.
3. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 of the way, bake for 15-20 minutes or until a knife pulls out clean. Seriously, was that not easy or what?

Browned Butter-Cinnamon-Cream Cheese Frosting 

Southern Living DECEMBER 2011

• Yield: Makes 5 cups
• Hands-on:15 Minutes
• Total:1 Hour, 15 Minutes

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 (8-oz.) packages cream cheese, softened
• 2 (16-oz.) packages powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preparation

1. Cook butter in a small heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly, 6 to 8 minutes or until butter begins to turn golden brown. Immediately remove from heat. Pour butter into a bowl. Cover and chill 1 hour or until butter is cool and begins to solidify. Be careful because as it browns the butter starts foaming up so it becomes difficult to see the liquid portion of the butter for color. I had left the butter overnight so when I took it out today it was too hard for my mixer to process. Try doing the hour thing or take the butter out ahead of time to give it time to soften a little.

2. Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy; gradually add powdered sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Stir in cinnamon and vanilla. I only used about 9.5 oz powdered sugar by weight because I had 2 packages that were open and that's what they added up to. Upon tasting I thought that it was a good sweetness so I didn't open another package. 

Sunshiney Lemon Bars

I locked myself out of my apartment last weekend ;_;. I do leave a spare with a buddy but I used the spare last week when I left the keys at my aunts so I hadn't returned them to her. I had to study pharm over at CrystAlLine (3 friends that are roommates) on a borrowed laptop. Landlord managed to call the next day and he let me in. To thank my favorite ladies I made Lemon bars!

 Ok so not the prettiest picture. I don't have any pics of the lemon bar out of the pan ah well. 

It's been pretty gloomy this week so I thought they yellow and citrus could make up for it a little. That and I asked one of the gals what she likes to eat haha. Recipe came from who manages to take such lovely pictures. My pics put the recipe to shame but it was still really really tasty. Also note that this is a lighter recipe so only 190 cal per 3x3 in square (ok I dunno if that calorie count is good or bad but I do know that this recipe does not use a whole stick of butter and has less at least 1 egg yolk). The other reason I chose this recipe was because I happy to be a fan of America's Test Kitchen!

copy/pasted from Patty's food, my comments in bold

Ingredients and Directions for Meyer Lemon Bar Cookies with Rosemary
Adapted from America's Test Kitchen Light & Healthy 2012

For the crust
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into bits and chilled
1 tablespoon low fat vanilla yogurt

For the filling
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg and 1 egg white, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
6 tablespoons lemon juice from 2-3 Meyer lemons
1 tablespoon powdered sugar(for dusting on top)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare an 8" square pan by lightly spraying the inside of the pan with baking spray before lining it with 2 long sheets of aluminum foil folded to fit inside and placed perpendicular to each other in the pan.  Cut the sheets long enough to hang over the sides to use as handles to lift out the baked lemon bars before cutting into squares.  Spray the inside of foil lined pan with baking spray. I used a 9 in diameter cake pan because that was the closest thing I had in terms of area to the 8in square pan. I did not spray the inside of the pan and it was fine with the foil, kinda which I remembered to spray the foil haha. My lemon bars were quite flat so I would next time make more dough or use a smaller pan.

Please note- this is an extra step that I think gives the bar a more lemony flavor- in a small bowl mix the lemon zest into the granulated sugar for the filling and set aside. Do it, if nothing else it smells soooo good.

For the crust process the flour, powdered sugar, cornstarch, lemon zest, rosemary, baking powder and salt until well combined.  Add all the butter and vanilla yogurt to the flour mixture at once and pulse at least a dozen times before turning out into the prepared pan and pressing into an even layer.  See photo below (footprints in the sand!) notice the size of the butter pieces, they can be fairly big and press into a nice buttery but light crust.

I dunno why mine was so much more dough like than in Patty's but it was still good when I ate it. Most likely I pulsed it more/longer? I didn't put any rosemary in it because I didn't have any. I don't generally like rosemary but I think it would be very nice here.

So this is proof that I need a new food processor. It's just too small. AND THERE'S FLOUR EVERYWHERE. It doesn't work for what things either because of a stupid hole placement in the center of the bowl for the blade. rant over.

Bake until evenly browned about 20 minutes.  Cool the crust on a metal rack for at least 20 minutes.  Reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees.

The edges got a littler darker than the middle, I didn't think this was the brownest but I felt like this was done.

Prepare the filling by whisking together the eggs, granulated sugar mixed with lemon zest, flour and the salt in a medium bowl. Stir in the lemon juice and pour over the cooled crust.  Bake until filling is set- about 20 minutes.  Cool completely on a metal rack before lifting the bars out of the pan with the foil.  Cut into 9 squares(190 calories each) and dust with confectioners sugar.
Makes 9 bars

 

Ooh shiny pool. I made a mistake here and shoved the lemon juice in at the beginning because I wasn't paying attention. Also, I didn't wait for the crust to cool all the way because it was late and I wanted to finish so I could sleep. I don't like that I had the filling so ready before I poured it in cuz I didn't know if it sitting would affect anything. 

They were quite tasty and I don't even like lemon sweets that much. If I did the filling correctly I wonder if it would make the filling less sticky. Either way I liked these, light crust and sweet lemony filling. Try it.

Lemon Gateau au Yaourt

These used the same recipe as I had before with the nutella marbled Yogurt Cake. I decided that it was a lot easier to distribute the cake to people in cupcake form rather than trying to slice up a normal sized cake. This time I went for using the lemon zest (or lime in my case)even though I'm not as crazy about it in my sweets. The whole sugar zest rubbing step smells SO GOOD. I feel like the zest ends up really lightening the cake. The cupcakes bake faster than the cake so I ended up checking 15 or so minutes before the recommended baking time for the cake. I referenced the recipe before but since I have it I thought I'd post it this time.

Pulled from the New York Times: French Yogurt Cake With Marmalade Glaze
Yield 8 servings Time About 1 hour and 20 minutes
Ingredients
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup ground almonds (or, if you’d prefer, omit the almonds and use another 1/2 cup all-purpose flour)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup sugar
• Grated zest of 1 lemon
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 3 large eggs
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup flavorless oil, such as canola or safflower
• 1/2 cup lemon marmalade, strained, for glazing the top (optional)
• 1 teaspoon water, for glazing the top (optional)

Method • Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter an 8 1/2-x-4 1/2-inch loaf pan, place the pan on a lined baking sheet and set aside. Whisk together the flour, ground almonds, if you’re using them, baking powder and salt and keep near by as well.
 • Put the sugar and zest in a medium bowl and, working with your fingertips, rub the zest into the sugar until the sugar is moist and aromatic. Add the yogurt, eggs and vanilla to the bowl and whisk vigorously until the mixture is very well blended. Still whisking, stir in the dry ingredients, then switch to a large rubber spatula and fold in the oil. You’ll have a thick, smooth batter with a slight sheen. Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top.
• Slide the baking sheet into the oven and bake 35 to 40 minutes for the round cake or 50 to 55 minutes, or until the cake begins to come away from the sides of the pan; it will be golden brown and a knife inserted into the center of the cake will come out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack, cool for 5 minutes, then run a blunt knife between the cake and the sides of the pan. Unmold and cool to room temperature right-side up.

• To make the glaze: Put the marmalade in a small pot or a microwave-safe bowl, stir in the teaspoon of water and heat (on the range or in the microwave oven) until the jelly is hot and liquefied. Using a pastry brush, gently brush the cake with the glaze. I skip this part because I don't want as much lemon flavor in the cake but I'm sure it's very tasty for those who enjoy it. I have tried some strawberry jam with the cake but I prefer the taste of plain cake yum.

• Serving: In France, this cake is usually served with a little sweetened crème fraiche, but it lends itself to other toppings as well. Fresh soft fruit, like sliced peaches or plums, is a natural with this as is berries with a touch of sugar. And, because the cake is plain and just a little tangy from the yogurt, it pairs happily with lemon cream, curd or mousse and is delicious with chocolate mousse or chocolate sauce.
 • Storing: Wrapped well, you can keep the cake at room temperature for at least 4 days and, like many pound cakes, it will be better one day later than it was the day it was made. If you do not glaze the cake, you can wrap it airtight and freeze it for up to 2 months; glazed it’s best not to freeze the cake.

I once made the cupcakes and accidentally added the oil at the same time as the eggs and yogurt and it really messed up the texture of the cupcakes so watch out for that. It made the batter thicker and rubberier and less crumbly. You could see the rising bubble tracts in the crumb.

The proper crumb. I need to stop taking pictures in my dim kitchen or get a better lamp.

Mille Crepe

A dessert with the name one thousand crepes? How does that not sound delicious? And so I began my search on the internet for a good recipe and all over the place many signs pointed to the recipe in the 5.15.05 New York Times, adapted from "The Joy of Baking". I did opt to use both their crepe and creme patissiere recipes even though I have my mom's creme recipe that I usually use. I did omit the later additions of whipped cream and kirsch etc. that were part of the creme patissiere because I was quite tired by the end of everything. Be forewarned: components are supposed to be mixed ahead of time because they are supposed to be chilled.

Sorry it's kinda dark, my kitchen lighting is poor and I hate flash. This one is a bit small, one of my first few. Add a little more batter than this and move it all around the pan till it stops flowing.

Isn't it pretty after the flip? 

Layer and spread.

 The end!

Layer shot. Mine was 20 crepes tall

copy/pasted from the article with my notes in bold:

Gâteau de Crêpes
For the crepe batter:
6 tablespoons butter
3 cups milk
6 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
7 tablespoons sugar
Pinch salt

For the vanilla pastry cream:
2 cups milk
1 vanilla bean, halved and scraped
6 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch, sifted
3 1/2 tablespoons butter

For the assembly:
Corn oil
2 cups heavy cream
1 tablespoon sugar or more
3 tablespoons Kirsch
Confectioners' sugar.
1. The day before, make the crepe batter and the pastry cream. Batter: In a small pan, cook the butter until brown like hazelnuts. This makes it taste really really good. It's hard to see the color of the butter underneath the foamy bubbles that appear so be careful. Set aside. In another small pan, heat the milk until steaming; allow to cool for 10 minutes. I have no idea what this step is for but I did it. In a mixer on medium-low speed, beat together the eggs, flour, sugar and salt. Slowly add the hot milk and browned butter. Pour into a container with a spout, cover and refrigerate overnight. Or in my case chill for like an hour and a half while you eat dinner and read emails.

2. Pastry cream: Bring the milk with the vanilla bean (and scrapings) to a boil, then set aside for 10 minutes; remove bean. I used an older vanilla been that I had been using in making vanilla sugar. Fill a large bowl with ice and set aside a small bowl that can hold the finished pastry cream and be placed in this ice bath. Skipped this step.
3. In a medium heavy-bottomed pan, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch. Gradually whisk in the hot milk, then place pan over high heat and bring to a boil, whisking vigorously for 1 to 2 minutes. Press the pastry cream through a fine-meshed sieve into the small bowl. Set the bowl in the ice bath and stir until the temperature reaches 140 degrees on an instant-read thermometer. Stir in the butter. When completely cool, cover and refrigerate. This is where things got weird. One minute I'm stirring soup, the next there are solids EVERYWHERE. I can't tell if I heated it too much or this was normal or what. I thought I had made it into scrambled eggs but I whisked it really hard and it was actually smooth if very thick. Since it looked ok I didn't bother with temperature and added the butter in after a good whisking. The seiving didn't work because it was so thick so I skipped that. Since the butter was already in I skipped the icing, left it on the counter to cool and then put it in the fridge.
4. Assemble the cake the next day: Bring the batter to room temperature. Place a nonstick or seasoned 9-inch crepe pan over medium heat. Swab the surface with the oil, then add about 3 tablespoons batter and swirl to cover the surface. Cook until the bottom just begins to brown, about 1 minute, then carefully lift an edge and flip the crepe with your fingers. Cook on the other side for no longer than 5 seconds. Flip the crepe onto a baking sheet lined with parchment. Repeat until you have 20 perfect crepes. Hints for the crepe making are nonstick pan, high heat. I shoved a spatula underneath and pushed because it was too hot for my fingers ;_; . It would sort of rumple on itself like a rug, and then I would flip it and shake the pan to smooth it back out. I left it on the second side for more than 5 seconds because I liked the browning I got out of it. I didn't time the crepes so much as look at them. The edges would get pretty brown and then I'd check the bottom.
5. Pass the pastry cream through a sieve once more. Whip the heavy cream with the tablespoon sugar and the Kirsch. It won't hold peaks. Fold it into the pastry cream.
6. Lay 1 crepe on a cake plate. Using an icing spatula, completely cover with a thin layer of pastry cream (about 1/4 cup). Cover with a crepe and repeat to make a stack of 20, with the best-looking crepe on top. Chill for at least 2 hours. Set out for 30 minutes before serving. If you have a blowtorch for creme brulee, sprinkle the top crepe with 2 tablespoons sugar and caramelize with the torch; otherwise, dust with confectioners' sugar. Slice like a cake. Batter adapted from ''Joy of Cooking.'' Pastry cream adapted from ''Desserts,'' by Pierre Herme and Dorie Greenspan. Serves 10.Ok I skipped this addition also because I was so tired but I bet it would have made the pastry cream pretty nice. Out of the fridge it was quite thick, consistency btwn jello and pudding, it held it's own shape but was spreadable....weird. I wish I had a torch.

Next time I might add some extra flavor layers like a nutella layer here and there or maybe fruit or...coffee...maccha.. the possibilities are endless. I could also maybe have added an alcohol like frangelico to the pastry cream. Or maybe pour a crepe suzette style sauce over the top? Still, yum.