Month: July 2014

other

Smoked Salmon and Whitefish Salad Melts

Smoked Salmon and Whitefish Salad Melts

Sometimes you wake up feeling depressed and heat up some frozen macaroni and cheese for breakfast, schlep to the couch to watch America’s Test Kitchen reruns, and don’t move for hours except to refill your Coke Zero. Around 2 pm, you start to feel lazy and that compounds your bad mood, but you’re also paradoxically too tired to do anything. So you take a nap. Then you wake up too late, having wasted the whole day, eat more food, and watch more cooking shows.

(Right? This happens to you, right?! Or at least something similar?)

And then you look at a friend’s Facebook profile or Instagram feed and notice they woke up at the crack of dawn; canned 18 tons of blueberry jam; renovated their bathroom; fed their beloved backyard chickens, who all have carefully chosen names like “Huckleberry;” took their kids to the botanical gardens; went for a 14-mile run; enjoyed a green smoothie for lunch; and are now heading off to the farmers’ market to buy some squash blossoms for the dinner party they’re hosting tonight next to their gorgeous outdoor fire pit.

Smoked Salmon and Whitefish Salad Melts

(more…)

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news

Willow Bird Baking Reader Survey!

Willow Bird Baking Reader Survey

Willow Bird Baking has just turned 5 YEARS OLD. That’s nuts! Willow Bird has been featured by Ladies’ Home Journal, SAVEUR, Fine Cooking, The Charlotte Observer, Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, and more. I’ve gotten to work with some of my very favorite brands, meet Ina Garten (!!!), share my wedding with all of you, be part of your celebrations, join in baking challenges with you, and develop new recipes.

To make the next 5 years just as awesome as the past 5 years have been, will you take a few minutes and fill out a reader survey for me?

CLICK HERE TO FILL IT OUT.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading!

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other

Crêpes with Roasted Berries and Coconut Whipped Cream

Crêpes with Roasted Berries and Coconut Whipped Cream
Crêpes with Roasted Berries and Coconut Whipped Cream

Thanks, PAM, for sponsoring this post!

What’s your “healthy”? For some people, “healthy” is about eating low-carb or low-calorie. For others, it’s about eating whole, unprocessed foods. For others, it’s about moderation in all things while maintaining an active lifestyle. For others, it’s about rejecting any personal tracking at all, since that tracking (of weight, calories, or wholesomeness) may have fed into unhealthy compulsions.

Some people take vitamins. Some swear by fish oil. Some folks eat a raw food diet. Some people eschew trans fats. No healthy is the right healthy and no healthy is the wrong healthy — as long as it works for you. So what’s your healthy?

Crêpes with Roasted Berries and Coconut Whipped Cream

I’m a total pinball. I bounce from low-carb to low-calorie to trying not to track (I have a history of eating disorders, so every now and then I need to step away from counting anything.) I try to stay active. I feel like my definition of healthy changes from week to week, though. And to be honest, I can’t imagine ever being too obsessed with finding health perfection, since I nurse a few vices here and there (soda, I’m looking at you!) that I don’t want to let go of.

Considering my obsessive past, that tinge of apathy might actually be pretty healthy!

This week my healthy included making a lighter, bright dessert with fresh, seasonal ingredients. After eating crêpes hot off the griddle on the streets of Paris (swoon), I knew I wanted to make them at home. The wonderful thing about crêpes is that they’re low on flour and sugar and form this amazing flavor base for fresh summer BERRIES.

Crêpes with Roasted Berries and Coconut Whipped Cream

But not just any berries. JUICY, CONCENTRATED, INCREDIBLE ROASTED BERRIES. Strawberries and Blueberries, when roasted, yield up rich syrups and slouch into the perfect splushy texture. And instead of a dense mound of dairy whipped cream, I paired the berries with heavenly coconut whipped cream made from the solids of coconut milk. A little coconut cream and a few berries went a long way toward making this relatively healthy dessert taste completely indulgent.

If you’ve never made crêpes before, don’t worry. The recipe below uses tried and true America’s Test Kitchen techniques. The most important points are heating your pan appropriately, testing your pan before starting, timing the cooking process so you’ll know when to flip, and keeping your pan sprayed between crêpes.

Crêpes with Roasted Berries and Coconut Whipped Cream
Lovely golden splotches.

Crêpes with Roasted Berries and Coconut Whipped CreamI used PAM Cooking Spray to keep my skillet ready and also to coat my berry-roasting dishes. I’ve been PAMming it up since I was a wee lass! Leaving up to 99% less residue, PAM is your ally in the kitchen and allows you to save time during prep and clean up. It’s perfect for making crêpes, where nonstick needs to really mean nonstick!

Share in the comments: What’s your healthy?

One year ago: Easy Taco Grilled Mini Pizzas
Two years ago: Elvis Presley Bars (Peanut Butter Banana Bacon Bars)
Three years ago: Pretty Italian Pressed Sandwiches
Four years ago: Buttermilk Cranberry Scones
Five years ago: Mexican Lasagna (plus freezing instructions)

Crêpes with Roasted Berries and Coconut Whipped Cream


Recipe by: Willow Bird Baking using crêpe recipe adapted from America’s Test Kitchen
Yield: 10 servings of 1 crêpe each

Thin crêpes with clouds of coconut whipped cream and rich roasted berries! Before you begin, take a quick peek at the excellent post on Oh She Glows! about making coconut whipped cream. You want to use a brand of coconut milk that separates into liquid and solids (I used Geisha brand) and chill the cans, mixing bowl, and whisk overnight.

Crêpes Ingredients:
PAM Cooking Spray
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 1/2 cups whole milk
3 eggs
2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled

Topping Ingredients:
1 pound strawberries, quartered
1 pint blueberries
6 tablespoons sugar, divided
lemon juice
3 cans coconut milk
7 tablespoons powdered sugar
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
toasted coconut (optional)*

*To toast coconut, spread shredded coconut on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 6-8 minutes, tossing frequently.

Directions:
Make crêpe batter: Whisk together flour, sugar, and table salt in a large bowl. In a separate small bowl, lightly whisk together eggs and milk. Whisk half of the egg mixture into the flour mixture. Whisk in the melted butter. Finally, whisk in the rest of the egg mixture. Allow this batter to rest for at least 30 minutes while completing the rest of the recipe.

Roast your berries: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Spray two baking dishes (big enough so the berries can sit in a single layer) with PAM cooking spray. Toss blueberries in one and strawberries in the other. Sprinkle each baking dish with 3 tablespoons sugar and toss the berries to coat. Bake the blueberries for 13-15 minutes and strawberries for around 30 minutes (you’re looking for the berries to be slouchy and releasing syrup but not entirely broken down) before removing them from the oven, spritzing them with lemon juice, gently tossing, and setting aside to cool.

Make coconut whipped cream: While berries are in the oven, turn the cans of coconut milk upside down gently and open them. Pour off coconut liquid and reserve for another use. Place coconut solids into the chilled bowl of a stand mixer. Add powdered sugar and vanilla extract and beat on high until your coconut cream reaches the consistency of whipped cream. Cover this and set it in the fridge.

Make your crêpes!: Heat a 10-inch nonstick skillet over low heat for 10 minutes. Turn the heat up to medium and heat the pan for 1 more minute. Spray your skillet with PAM Cooking spray. Test your skillet’s heat: put a teaspoon of batter in the center of the pan and time it for 20 seconds before flipping. If it’s nice and golden, you’re ready to cook! Otherwise, you may need to adjust your heat up or down, let your skillet heat for another minute, and re-test. Take the time to get the heat right at the beginning!

Now you’re ready! Scoop a scant 1/3 cup of the batter into your pan, swirling immediately to thin it out into a wide circle. Time your cooking for 20 seconds before using a spatula and your fingers to flip the crêpe. Cook for 20 more seconds before transferring to a wire rack to cool. Between each crêpe, re-spray your skillet and let it heat for 10 seconds. Keep crêping until you finish your batter. You can then reheat the crêpes you made by placing them on a plate, inverting another plate over them, and microwaving them for 30 seconds. Slather coconut cream, roasted berries, and toasted coconut on your crêpes, fold them into quarters, and enjoy!

Disclosure: Compensation was provided by ConAgra via Mode Media. All opinions are mine and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of ConAgra.

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cakes

Hot Raspberry Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream

Hot Raspberry Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream

Soooo, MAUVE. What an awesome color, right? Let’s talk about the many reasons mauve is so wonderful.

1. What color would your great-aunt Ida choose for her bath mat if mauve hadn’t been invented? She’d probably be steppin’ out onto a bright yellow mat that would give her indigestion. It wouldn’t even match the soap.

2. Without mauve, how would we describe the color of old, well-chewed bubble gum?

Hot Raspberry Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream

3. There was even a book written about mauve, believe it or not, and how it paved the way for synthetic dyes. We’d all still be dying our clothes with berries if it weren’t for mauve!

4. It was apparently “all the rage” in 1858, according to said book. They called its eruption of popularity the “mauve measles.” COME ON, YOU KNOW YOU WANT THE MAUVE MEASLES. And we all aspire to Victorian fashion, right?

Hot Raspberry Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream

5. We need a color we can use for the plasticky wrappers of feminine products that we don’t have to then use elsewhere and be reminded of feminine products. VOILÀ: MAUVE.

6. Nail salons need dozens of colors to fill up their shelves. Most of those need to be good colors, obviously, but wouldn’t it be nice to have a few bottles that would always stay full? (Oh, and a few that they could use on your great-aunt Ida, should she ever come in for a manicure.)

7. You can pronounce it moh-ve or mah-ve. Isn’t that fun? Isn’t it??

Hot Raspberry Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream

OKAY LISTEN, I KNOW MAUVE IS NOT EXACTLY THE MOST APPETIZING COLOR. I don’t know why this stupid glaze decided to turn mauve. I’ve tweaked the recipe below a bit (adding whole raspberries and making it in a food processor) in hopes that yours won’t turn mauve. You can even add some red food coloring if you’re really particular.

BUT I HAD TO POST THIS CAKE BECAUSE IT’S ONE OF THE BEST THINGS I’VE EVER EATEN. We can’t be fussy about colors at a time like this, y’all. It’s HOT RASPBERRY CAKE. And that glaze, while decidedly mauve, is also delicious. You have to make this super easy cake right this second and eat it with vanilla bean ice cream (on the balcony, straight from the skillet; you know the deal.)

One year ago: Strawberry Lemonade Cheesecake Bars with a Shortbread Crust
Two years ago: Shredded Wheat (or Weetabix) Breakfast Scramble
Three years ago: Soft Sugar Cookies and Cookie Decorating with Freedom School
Four years ago: Spicy Peach and Cucumber Salsa

Hot Raspberry Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream


Recipe by: Willow Bird Baking, adapted from the Blueberry Coffee Cake by Sweet Anna’s
Yield: 6-8 servings

This cake is absolutely to die for. It’ll come out of the oven seeming biscuity on top, but inside it’s the most tender, soft, buttery hot raspberry cake. It’s so easy, too!

Cake Ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup buttermilk
3 cups frozen raspberries (do not thaw)

Glaze Ingredients:
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoon seedless raspberry jam
8-9 fresh raspberries
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
milk to thin (I used around 3 tablespoons)
fresh raspberries and vanilla bean ice cream for serving (optional)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Reserve about 1/4 cup of this mixture in a small bowl.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the egg and extracts and blend until just combined. Add the flour mixture and buttermilk alternately, beginning and ending with the flour. Toss the raspberries in the 1/4 cup reserved flour and then fold them (and the rest of the reserved flour) into the batter. (The dough is quite stiff, so be patient as you’re folding in the berries. It’ll seem like it’s mostly berries, but just trust me. It’ll be awesome.)

Spread the batter into a 10-inch skillet (I used the back of two spoons to work it around.) Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs (cooking time in a cast iron skillet can be variable, so check early and often.) While the cake is still hot, purée the jam and raspberries together in a food processor. Add the extracts. Slowly add the powdered sugar as you process. Add milk slowly to get the desired consistency — I ended up adding about 3 tablespoons. Pour your glaze (which is hopefully NOT mauve) over the hot cake. Serve while still warm with fresh raspberries and vanilla bean ice cream.

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cookies

Shortbreads with Dark Chocolate Frosting

Shortbreads with Dark Chocolate Frosting

Let’s talk books. We’ll talk shortbread and chocolate and everything, too; don’t worry. But let’s start with books.

I was telling Mike this story the other day and thought you might like to hear it. When I was a child, I was a voracious reader. I read a minimum of 3 books at a time, putting one down and picking another up for a “break,” scrawling the time it took me to finish each book inside the front cover. No one ever informed me there wasn’t an ongoing competition for who could read the most books the fastest.

Sometimes my parents would drop me off at the bookstore in the mall while they shopped, but it was risky: when they came back, I’d have a list of a dozen or so books I’d want them to buy me. Other times they’d just bring home a stack of young adult novels. It’s funny that no matter what books they brought home, I always loved them. I guess they just knew the section of the bookstore I liked.

I particularly loved horror novels. I didn’t realize at the time that I had an anxiety disorder (I used to have panic attacks, but I didn’t know what they were and never told anyone! Oops.) and that horror probably wasn’t the best genre. I’d devour R.L. Stine, Caroline B. Cooney, Christopher Pike, and eventually Steven King novels, and then lie awake in bed for hours afterward, too terrified to even walk the hallway to the bathroom. If I finally did manage it, I’d have to run and jump back into bed like a ninja to avoid the murderer who was doubtlessly hiding under my dust ruffle.

Shortbreads with Dark Chocolate Frosting
Photo from my Instagram feed.

One day when I was probably around 10, I decided that I was no longer a kid. Young adult novels were for kids, so it was obviously time for me to graduate to grown-up novels. I bravely walked to the hallway bookshelf and selected one of my mom’s books — a slim one with a red cover and a title that had something to do with Christmas. I settled in to embark on my new reading life as a non-kid.

IT WAS TERRIBLE.

IS THIS THE KIND OF CRAP ADULTS READ? It was sappy, clichéd, boring, and decidedly devoid of serial killers. WHAT WAS WRONG WITH ADULTS.

After struggling for an hour or so, I shoved the book back on the shelf. I was apparently too immature to enjoy adult’s literature. The only conclusion, in my mind, was that I only loved reading because I was a kid, and that as I got older, I would have to stop loving it altogether. My heart was slightly broken, but I couldn’t imagine ever liking a book like that.

Shortbreads with Dark Chocolate Frosting

It didn’t even occur to me that I’d picked out a stupid book — that there were stupid books! Mike has talked about this same phenomenon with video games. For some reason as kids, we didn’t realize that if we didn’t like books or games, it wasn’t that something was wrong with us. Sometimes writers (and game designers) just weren’t that great, or weren’t our style.

This hiccup interrupted my reading groove for a bit, but soon I was right back at it. I realized that I might have to shop around as my taste evolved. I don’t read quite as much now as when I was a kid (I don’t know how or why, for instance, I ever juggled 3 books at once) but my love for books is still strong. I like a little bit of everything, but my favorite thing to read is… young adult lit. Take that, growing up.

One lovely thing my experience taught me is that kids who don’t love reading are probably trying to read the wrong things. That’s why I maintain a huge, kid-created list of book suggestions on my class website, and why I consider it my duty as an English teacher to help each kid find something they love to read.

Shortbreads with Dark Chocolate Frosting

What books do you love? I recently read Brunelleschi’s Dome after my trip to Florence and loved it. It offers a broad view of Florence at the beginning of the Renaissance and tells the fascinating story of Il Duomo (the largest brick dome ever constructed.) Now I’m reading Christian theology. Before these, I read and loved Dune, a sci-fi novel from the 1965. Want more reading suggestions? Cup of Jo just published a book review of Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? which looks great, and my friend Kristen does a regular book review post on her blog, Dine & Dish. You can also follow me on Goodreads.

While you’re reading, you’ll need a snack — a buttery one with the fudgiest, best chocolate frosting EVER, perhaps? I’ve got you covered.

One year ago: Cherry Lemon Rosemary Shortbread Cookies
Two years ago: Lemon Raspberry Squares
Three years ago: Straw-Raspberry Basil Fruit Leather
Four years ago: Angelic Cherry Mousse Cloud Cake with Mascarpone Whipped Cream

Shortbreads with Dark Chocolate Frosting


Recipe by: Adapted from the shortbreads recipe by Baking Bites
Yield: 25 bars

What’s better than buttery, thick shortbread bars? Buttery, thick shortbread bars with rich dark chocolate frosting, of course!

Shortbread Ingredients:
3 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter (I use Plugrá), chilled

Frosting Ingredients:
7 tablespoons cocoa powder
7 tablespoons warm water
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
8 ounces dark chocolate chips (I use Ghirardelli 60% cacao chips), melted and cooled

Directions:
Make the shortbreads: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line an 8-inch square baking pan with a a foil sling (just fold 4 long sheets of aluminum foil in half and arrange them so two line the pan one way and two line the pan the other way. They’ll overlap and hang over the sides of the pan, which helps you pull the bars out at the end.)

In the bowl of a food processor, pulse together flour, sugar, and salt. Add the chilled butter and process on low speed for a full minute. You want the butter to be very tiny and the dough to start to clump together. Pour this into your prepared pan and use the bottom of a glass or ramekin to press it firmly into the pan, creating a smooth top to your bars. Use a sharp knife to score the dough (5 rows in one direction, 5 in the other, making 25 bars) and a fork to dock the dough. Bake it for 30-35 minutes until it’s lightly browned. When you pull it out of the oven, use your sharp knife to cut the shortbread all the way through. Allow it to cool completely before gently lifting it out of the pan and breaking the pieces apart.

Make the frosting: In a small bowl, whisk together the cocoa and warm water. In a separate bowl, beat together butter, powdered sugar, and a pinch of salt until pale and fluffy. Gradually beat in the melted, cooled chocolate and the cocoa mixture. Let this sit for exactly 30 minutes (no really, exactly 30!) before you use it to obtain the perfect texture. You can just slather a big dollop of frosting on top of each bar if you’d like, but I thought it was cute to stuff the frosting in a piping bag and pipe a squiggle onto each bar with a 1M star tip. Store in an airtight container.

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