Baking

Irish Soda Bread with Whiskey Butter

Irish Soda BreadIrish Soda Bread Bob's Red Mill

Irish or not this Bob Red Mills Soda Bread turned out ‘dealicious’ (The Deal: only $3.00 at Big Lots). This bread tastes so nutty, rustic and somewhat sweet. It was even tastier the next day.

Inspired by A Cozy Kitchen recipe, I made some whiskey butter and it went perfect with the still warm bread. I simply whipped/mixed by hand the following ingredients:

  • 8 tbsp (1 stick) of room temperature (soft…very soft) unsalted butter
  • 2 tsp of  Whisky
  • 1 tsp of sea salt
  • 1 tsp of confectioners sugar

The best part of these bread it’s the crust. Love it! It’s the perfect texture. Not too crispy. Not chewy. So good that even my ‘non crust eater’ kids ate it.

Bob's Red Mills Irish Soda Bread

 

Pão de Queijo For the Gluten Free Valentine

Pão de Queijo

This is what sexy looks like right now. Pão-de-queijo or Brazilian cheese breads…puffs…balls. Crispy in the outside, cheesy and airy in the inside these delicious puffs are love at first bite.

Warning: Maybe be highly addicting but at least they are gluten free.

Happy Valentines Day!

BRAZILIAN CHEESE BREADS – Gluten Free

  • 1 large egg
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup canola oil
  • 1 1/2 cup tapioca flour (sometimes labeled tapioca starch. I used Bob’s Red Mill.)
  • 1 tbsp salt
  • 1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese (preferably medium or sharp. you can play around with the cheese. Monterey Jack, low-moisture mozzarella, Swiss, smoked Gouda and even gruyere in place of the cheddar. All great!)
  • 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place egg, milk, oil, tapioca flour, and salt in blender (yes, a blender!) and blend until smooth. Add Parmesan cheese and pulse. Add cheddar and mix a bit by hand. Immediately pour batter into a mini muffin tin (if your muffin tin isn’t non-stick, spray lightly with non-stick spray first), filling each well about ¾ full, or just slightly less.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until puffed and golden. Remove from oven and cool for a few minutes before removing puffs from pan. Serve warm. These actually don’t re-heat well so I recommend making and eating fresh (not that there’s ever any puffs left anyway!). Muito Bom!

French Macarons: My scariest baking nightmare

It seems like every other food blog out there has a picture or entry about these colorful pastry delicacies. Sure, French Macarons are a food photographer’s indulgence. Even a polaroid photo of these pretty little things will make your mouth water.

I love cooking but I’m baking-challenged. Cooking is a flexible improvisational exercise. Baking is a precise no-room-for-error business. But life is full of challenges, right? So I attended a “How To Make French Macarons” hands-on class at The Grove’s Sur La Table yesterday.

And the French Macaron marathon started. I’m still exhausted from the almost 3 hours that it took to make 30 chocolate Macarons…and all prep work was done for us…and I had a partner.

My quick take on it is that I don’t feel right about aging egg whites for 3 days in my counter or expending a mini-fortune buying essential items to make these little baking nightmares.

Although the class was fun and it’s always a blast to meet new people especially in the kitchen,  I was relieved to come home and share the experience with my family. The kids enjoyed the colorful treats and enthusiastically asked: “Can you make more for us tomorrow?”

“No”, I said. “But we can certainly buy them.”