Eatyet’s Weblog

Originally I was going to have a few more posts of savory food but the closing of Tastespotting king of caught me off guard (I couldn’t bring myself to post) and I’m still stunned and sadden. It was what compelled me to start food blogging. I hope somehow there will come something that can fill the void in the online food world.

edit 6/28… Tastespotting is back!!!!!!!!

The heat wave let up a bit so I’m able to bake again. Here’s another quick variation on madeleines.

Raspberry Lemon Madeleines

• 1/3 cup organic shortening or butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup raspberries or 2 tbsp raspberry preserves (cut back on the sugar a bit)
• zest of half lemon
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 3/4 cup almond flour/meal
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• powder sugar to dust (optional)

Cream together sugar and shortening, then incorporate one egg at a time, add lemon zest/juice and raspberries. Mix till completely blended. Add in almond flour, and mix thoroughly. Then add flour and baking powder, mix briefly till smooth. Preheat oven to 350º. Grease pans with shortening or butter. Try to under fill the molds, and you can get make 2 batches of the full sized pans or about 3 batches of minis. Bake for 18-20min (for full sized pans, 13-15 for minis) when the edges just turn golden brown. Cool for 5min before popping them out. Dust with powder sugar.

-L

I will eventually get around editing (photos) and writing up more soon (I have a backlog). But here’s another quick madeleine recipe for the time being.

It’s also my addition to Mansi’s Monthly Mingle over at http://funnfud.blogspot.com/

 Orange Hazelnut Madeleines

• 1/3 cup organic shortening or butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup hazelnut flour/meal
• 3/4 flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• zest of 1 orange or 1 1/2 tsp orange oil
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Cream together sugar and shortening, then incorporate one egg at a time. Mix till completely blended. Add in hazelnut flour, orange zest (or orange oil), vanilla and mix thoroughly. Then add flour and baking powder, mix briefly till smooth. Preheat oven to 350º. Grease pans with shortening or butter (or cooking spray). You can get make 2 batches of the full sized pans or about 3 batches of minis. Bake for 18-20min (for full sized pans, 13-15 for minis) when the edges just turn golden brown. Cool for 5min before popping them out.

If you have some kind of hazelnut extract or liquor (1-2 tsp) you can leave off the vanilla and really up the hazelnut flavor.

-Lina

These are my first batch of full sized madeleines. Even though it’s easier to grease and fill (the full sized pans), I think I prefer the minis; they are cuter, easier to eat, and you get more surface area per batch.

This recipe uses the ‘red bean and green tea madeleines’ base with different flavoring. I had only used 1 teaspoon of fresh grated ginger, and the ginger flavor wasn’t strong enough to stand up to the lemon zest. So I think 1 tablespoon of grated ginger would bring it up to the level of the lemon zest. Maybe I should also employ some dry ginger. But then again I still want the lemon at the forefront and ginger as a secondary note.

Lemon Ginger Madeleines

• 1/3 cup organic shortening or butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup almond flour/meal
• 3/4 flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp grated fresh ginger (or 1 tsp dry ginger)
• zest of 1 large lemon
• pinch of salt

Cream together sugar and shortening, then incorporate one egg at a time. Mix till completely blended. Add in almond flour, lemon zest, ginger and mix thoroughly. Then add flour and baking powder, mix briefly till smooth. Preheat oven to 350º. Grease pans with shortening or butter. Try to under fill the molds, and you can get make 2 batches of the full sized pans or about 3 batches of minis. Bake for 18-20min (for full sized pans, 13-15 for minis) when the edges just turn golden brown. Cool for 5min before popping them out.

 -Lina

I had bought some dark chocolate bars that I didn’t like very much. They were too strong at 75% cocoa without any vanilla and scant sugar in it. So I melted them down with some almond milk, sugar, and vanilla into a ganache-like consistency. I was keeping it in the fridge for a while (wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it). Then I got my mini-madeleine pan just when I ran out of eggs. But I went ahead and made madeleines anyway. So they are vegan now.

Vegan Chocolate (mini) Madeleines

• 11 oz dark chocolate (approximately)
• 1/2 cup almond milk or soy milk
• 1/3-1/2 cup sugar (depending on the sweetness of the chocolate and liquid)
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup flour

Heat liquid and dissolve sugar. Break chocolate into small chucks and melt in liquid over very low heat. Add vanilla, once incorporated, let cool till lukewarm or room temp before stirring in flour.

Preheat oven to 350º. Spray madeleine pan with oil, optional but they will probably come out easier (I didn’t spray my pans and there was minimal sticking). I tried not to over fill the molds. Bake for 15-17 minutes. This made exactly four batches with my mini madeleine pan (I only have one pan that makes 24 at a time).

I found out that I didn’t have to clean out the pan after each batch. Let it cool for 5min, and pop them out. Just refill pan when it’s cooled to the touch even if there’s a crumb layer stuck on. It pops out about the same each time. They have a fudgy brownie texture. After 15min of baking they are very moist, another minute or two will dry them more and give them a crispier edge.

 -L

also check out red bean and green tea madeleines 

I was making these for my dad and I wanted to make them as healthy as possible. They taste similar to almond cookies you’d find at Chinese bakeries but better. Olive oil made the cookies crunchy and added another level of nuttiness. Best part, how quick and simple it is to throw together.

Olive oil almond cookies

• 1 1/2 cup almond flour/meal
• 1 cup flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• pinch of salt
• slivered almonds to garnish (optional)

Preheat oven to 355º. Mix everything (except slivered almonds) together in a bowl till completely incorporated. Take about 2 1/2 tablespoons of dough, rolled in your hands (small ping pong ball sized) and flatten out to patties; place on parchment lined cookie sheet, press slivered almonds on top. Makes about 18 cookies. Space them out, they will expand. Bake for 20 minutes, should be lightly golden all around.

Thinking back on it, I could’ve used whole wheat pastry flour or graham flour. There’s always a next time.

 - L

Donna Hay’s Double Choc Cookies

Preheat oven to 325 °. Place the butter and sugars in a bowl and beat until light and creamy. Add the eggs gradually and beat well. Add the flour, baking powder, cocoa and chocolate and mix well. Shape 2 tablespoons of the mixture into rounds. Place on baking trays lined with non-stick baking paper, allowing room for the cookies to spread, and flatten slightly. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until dark brown on the bottom. Cool on wire racks. Makes 28.

I halved the recipe, used organic shortening and only 1 egg. And I used mostly white chocolate with very little dark. I liked the contrast and the taste of the white chocolate more in this cookie.

I finally finished up with work this week and have much food to share. Here are some blueberry cookies I made last week. They are really best done with fresh blueberries.

Almond Blueberry Cookies

• 3/4 cup organic shortening or butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1/8 tsp cinnamon
• 1 egg
• 1 cup almond flour
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup blueberries

Preheat oven to 350°. Cream together shortening, sugar, cinnamon and almond extract. Then incorporate the egg, followed by almond flour and flour with baking powder and pinch of salt. When the dough is done, gently mix in the blueberries so not to break them. For a neat cookie, take about 2 tablespoon of dough and form into a ball with your hand (will make about 20). Or you can do a drop cookie and just scoop dough straight to baking sheet. Remember to space them out, they will spread. Bake for 20mins, should be light golden brown all around.

When they are warm and soft, they are kind of like muffin tops. When they cool, they become crispier.

After the Green Tea Pound Cake, I wanted to bake something else with the green tea powder and it couldn’t be cake, and bread would require hours of rising. So I went with cookies, I was trying to make a shortbread type cookie but it spread out and is a bit on the crunchy side.

Green Tea Cookies

Preheat oven to 325°. Cream together shortening, sugar, salt, green tea and 1 tbsp of water, when incorporated, gently mix in the cornstarch and flour (it will fly everywhere if you turn on the mixer suddenly). It should look like wet sand when mixed. Try pressing the dough together in the bowl. And then grab a small handful and try to form it into a small ball, it should feel like Play-Doh (clay). If it’s too crumbly, add in another tbsp of water and remix till you can form the balls. It should make a batch of 20. Pat down the balls of dough a little (try not to form cracks on the sides), place on a lined cookie sheet. I made the indentations on top with a fork. I originally baked them for 25mins, resulting in a crunchy texture. I think that 15-20mins would probably work better with a finer texture, unless you prefer the crunchy.

 -L

Vanilla Chai Cookies

spices:

rest:

• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup of organic shortening(but u can use 1 stick of butter)
• 1 tsp of baking powder
• 1 1/2 cup of hazelnut(or almond) flour /or 1 1/4 cup of raw hazelnuts(or raw almonds) ground finely in food processor*
• 2 cup regular white flour
• 1 1/2 cup brown sugar(light or dark)
• 1 to 4 tbsp of water(to bind)

In the food processor, throw in all the spices (and tea) + sugar, pulse then blend till the vanilla and ginger r incorporated.
Next add in all the butter, blend till it’s all incorporated.
Add the hazelnut flour and blend.
Add in the egg and blend.
Add in all the flour and pulse, adding some of the water, the dough should ball up.
Get out some plastic wrap and split the dough into 2 pieces.
Form it into 2 logs, wrap and twist up the ends. Maybe doubling the plastic wrap in case it doesn’t cover the ends. Each log should be roughly about 2 x 1.5 x 10inches.
Put it in the freezer for 15-20mins. When it comes out it should be firm enough to slice up into quarter inch pieces. If it’s too hard, leave it out for a few minutes. You can use one log and save the other in the freezer for quite a while.
Preheat oven to 350; place cookies on parchment lined cookie sheet. They might expand up to 50%, so space them out accordingly. Baking time should be about 10-13mins, keep an eye and nose on it; the smell is a good indicator for doneness. If the dough was warmed by the time it goes into the oven, it could be done under 10min. If it’s a wider log or thicker slices it might take up to 15mins or more.

* If you just don’t have or want nuts in it, use an additional 1 1/4 cup of regular flour + 1 tbsp of shortening/butter + 1/2 tsp of baking powder.

To make them more festive I dipped them in white chocolate and sprinkled with pink sugar.

  -L