A Long Overdue Update, plus Chocolate Covered, Coconut Stuffed Stawberries

I took a break from posting to my blog for awhile, but I definitely haven't stopped cooking! Here's a sample of what I've been making for the last few months...

This Filet Mignon with Caramel-Brandy Mushroom Sauce was delicious, with a sweet sauce that complimented the tender filet. My only mistake was substituting some re-hydrated dry mushrooms for fresh mushrooms, since they ended up being a little tougher than they should have been.

This Spinach Gratin was decadent - cheesy and creamy, with a hint of nutmeg to compliment the spinach. It was also really easy to make. If you are in the mood for something rich, I definitely recommend it!

Inspired by the lentils in the Crispy Salmon with Warm Lentils and Balsamic Essence recipe, these lentils with chicken were hearty and flavorful, but I do think the dish needed something sweet to go with it, like the balsamic essence in the salmon recipe.

This mushroom risotto was yummy, but my favorite part were the roasted carrots. They are incredibly easy to make and the carrots get really tender and sweet. You can compliment the carrots with your favorite herb - in this case I used parsley.

This started out as a good concept: scrambled eggs, with sundried tomatoes, spinach, and onions, on some crusty french bread covered with goat cheese. Then I realized I had some leftover turkey and decided to add that in to the mix.  Wow, it was terrible!  There was something about the flavor of the turkey and the eggs that completely clashed - maybe they are too similar? Trust me: turkey and eggs is not a good idea.

These chocolate covered strawberries stuffed with coconut are really easy to make and very yummy!  Since you can make them in advance, they are great as a dessert when you have company over.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries Stuffed with Coconut

10 strawberries

about 5 ounces white chocolate (or dark, whatever you prefer)

1 vanilla bean

1/2 cup shredded coconut, just enough to fill the strawberries

Cut the stem off of each strawberry. Instead of cutting the whole top off, angle the knife and cut just around the stem and the white part of the strawberry.

After you remove the stem, this should reveal a hole in the middle of the strawberry.  Fill liberally with shredded coconut.  (Or, try your favorite ingredient as a filling instead.)

Line a cookie tray with wax paper, to hold the strawberries after they have been dipped in chocolate.

Melt the chocolate in a metal bowl over boiling water, or in a double broiler. Cut the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out the seeds. Add the seeds to the melted chocolate and mix well.

Dip each strawberry in the chocolate, large end down, using a toothpick to hold the strawberry steady, and spooning the melted chocolate up the sides to coat. Optionally, leave the top of the strawberry uncovered.

Place each strawberry on the cookie sheet, large end down, and chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes, or up to 24 hours, before serving.

Spicy Fennel Cupcakes with Date Buttercream Icing

I came up with the idea for these cupcakes when I saw the theme of this cupcake roundup: "Re-Invention". I had just made the lamb tagine, and when I saw the theme it occurred to me that the date and fennel flavors in the tagine might actually translate well to a dessert. If you've been following my blog, you'll recall that the first time I experimented with a baking recipe wasn't that long ago. So, I approached the project of creating my own cupcake recipe with excitement and a bit of trepidation.

I began by doing a little research online to find out what mix of ingredients is usually used as a base for cupcakes. I discovered that most recipes have a similar proportion of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour, so I started out with that base as well. Since I love the spicy/sweet contrast of the tagine, I wanted that flavor to resonate in the cupcakes. To achieve this contrast, I decided to put fennel in the cake part, with some of the tagine spices, and to use the dates to enhance the sweet flavor of the icing.

I ended up trying this cupcake recipe 3 times before settling on a version that I liked. You may think I'm crazy, but one of the biggest surprises to me was that none of the tries actually flopped! I mean, I was always taught that you need to be very careful about measuring everything when you bake, but the more I experiment the more I realize that you can play around with many of the ingredients without compromising the end result.

The biggest challenge for me in making this recipe was creating the flavor profile that I wanted. For example, a decision I struggled with was which spices I should add to the cake. Ginger and cinnamon seemed like obvious choices, as they are commonly found in Moroccan food, and they are also often used in sweet recipes. I was pretty hesitant at first with spices like coriander and cumin, since I wasn't really sure they belonged in a dessert. However, I ended up increasing the amount of these spices as I tested the recipe, since I found that they made the final product really unique and spicy.

Another important decision was how to incorporate the fennel and date into the cupcake. One of the things I've heard about fennel is that roasting it can really bring out the flavor, so I decided to roast the fennel before adding it to the cupcake. I pureed the fennel in a bit of milk, which helped to incorporate it into the cupcake. For the date, I didn't want the peel to interfere with the smooth texture of the icing, so I ended up making a date puree.

One idea I had didn't work. You guessed it - I tried throwing some cilantro into the cake. Unfortunately, I found that the baking process dilutes the flavor to the point where you can't even taste the cilantro anymore, so I removed it from the recipe.

I think the color of these cupcakes could use some work. However, overall I was very pleased with the result of my first very own cupcake recipe!

Spicy Fennel Cupcakes with Date Buttercream Icing
(makes 12 cupcakes)

For the fennel cake:
2 fennel bulbs, about 1 1/2 cups after roasting
olive oil, enough to coat the fennel before roasting
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp ginger
1 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cinnamon

For the icing:
5-6 dates, chopped into large pieces, about 1/2 cup after chopping
1/4 cup water
1 cinnamon stick
1 stick butter, room temperature
2 cups confectioners sugar, or less if you don't like very sweet icing
1/2 tsp vanilla

First, roast the fennel. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Chop the fennel bulb in half and then into chunks about 1/2 inch thick. Place on a baking pan and drizzle with a bit of olive oil. Mix to fully coat in olive oil. Cook for 15-20 minutes, turning the fennel pieces over halfway through, until the fennel is soft and beginning to brown.

After the fennel cools, it needs to be chopped before adding to the cupcakes. Put the fennel in a food processor and pulse it several times while adding the milk. If you don't have a food processor, you can also chop by hand.

While the fennel is cooling, begin the batter for the cupcakes. Mix the butter and sugar and beat on high speed for a couple of minutes, until the butter begins to lighten in color and the texture becomes smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix until fully combined.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees for the cupcakes.

Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices in a separate bowl. On low speed, add the dry ingredients to the batter, mixing until just combined. Now add the fennel and milk mixture, stirring until just combined.

Use an ice cream scoop to portion the batter into 12 cupcakes. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

For the icing, first make the date puree. Put the chopped dates, water, and cinnamon stick in a small pot. Cook over low heat for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally until the dates begin to break down and fall apart. Set aside to cool.

For the icing, combine the butter, confectioners sugar, and vanilla and beat on high speed for 5 minutes until light and fluffy, stopping a couple of times to wipe down the sides of the bowl.

After the date mixture is cool, pass the mixture through a sieve. You should end up with about 1/3 cup of date puree that passes through the sieve. Add the date puree to the icing and stir just until combined.

After the cupcakes cool, ice them and enjoy!

Rich Rolled Cinnamon Cookies

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated Eid, the holiday marking the end of Ramadan. Traditionally, Muslims go to the mosque for a quick prayer in the morning and celebrate afterwards by eating with family and friends.

This year I made these cut out cookies for Eid, following a recipe that we used often when I was growing up. These cookies are thin and rich, but not too sweet, with a hint of cinnamon. There is something about their simplicity that makes them addictive.

I have so many childhood memories attached to these cookies. As kids, we painstakingly cut them out and decorated them, carefully adding details like a nose and eyes, as if they wouldn't be eaten hot out of the oven in 10 minutes. These days, I just use decorative sugar to add some color to the cookies.

The key to getting these cookies right is rolling the dough out to the right thickness. Too thin and they will be crisp and hard. Too thick and the cookies will not cook through. If you aren't sure that you have the right thickness, you can always try a few out before making a full batch.

I prefer to use plastic cookie cutters whenever possible, since I find them to be more durable and easier to maintain than the metal ones. Also, I've found that the cookie cutter shape actually makes a difference in the finished product. Choose a larger shape with fewer thin, sharp projections and it will result in a cookie that has a more even texture.

These cookies are perfect for any holiday and are especially fun for kids to decorate. Hope you enjoy!


Here is the recipe, adapted from Joy of Cooking:

Rich Rolled Cinnamon Cookies
(makes about 40 medium sized cookies)

For the cookie dough:
1 cup butter, room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 Tbsp cinnamon

For making the cookies:
cookie cutters
rolling pin
decorative sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Beat the butter and sugar on medium speed for several minutes until the butter lightens in color and becomes fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until combined.

Sift together the flour, salt, and cinnamon, or mix so the cinnamon is evenly spread throughout the flour. On low speed, add the dry ingredients gradually, mixing until just incorporated.

The dough should be rather thick at this point. Divide into two pieces, form them into flat balls, and cover them with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least a couple of hours, until hard. If you don't chill it long enough, it will be sticky and the cookies will be difficult to cut out.

Place a piece of chilled dough between two sheets of wax paper and roll out to about 1/8 of an inch thick. Use your cookie cutters to cut as many cookies as you can from the dough, and then place each one on your cookie sheet. You should try to work rather quickly to cut them out, as the dough will become more difficult to work with as it warms up. Gather the remaining dough scraps, roll them into a ball, and return them to the fridge to keep chilled. Once the cookies are on the sheet, you can take your time to decorate them.

Alternate to the other dough piece still in the fridge, and repeat this process until you finish all the dough.

Bake for 6-9 minutes, until the cookie feels firm when you push on the top. If you can see visible brown spots around the side, you've taken it too far and may need to adjust the thickness of the dough or the cooking time.

Mini Banana-Peach Cakes

Let me just start out by saying that Alton Brown is a genius. I don't necessarily think he's the best chef out there, but he knows how to teach about cooking in a way that grabs your attention and sucks you in. His show Good Eats is unique, fast paced, and full of interesting information about food. The depth of his food knowledge is also demonstrated weekly when he hosts Iron Chef America. He's got to be the smartest person on the Food Network today.

There are also things about his philosophy on food that resonate with me. For example, let me share my favorite Alton Brown quote with you:
"You know we fixate on the food so much itself: 'Oh, the ultimate brownie or the ultimate this or that' -- well, let me tell you something: It’s all poop in about 12 hours, okay? The real power that food has is its ability to connect human beings to each other -- that’s the stuff right there and, to me, everything else is secondary to that."
Amen. I have to agree that this is exactly why food is such a powerful thing.

Anyway, back to the recipe. This cake is based on Alton Brown's Individual Peach Upside-Down Cake, a recipe that I picked up from an episode of Good Eats. I like it because it's really easy, but it looks great and it's pretty healthy for a dessert. Each cake is an individual serving, cooked in a ramekin. After baking, the ramekin is flipped upside down, and the vibrant orange of the peach makes for a pretty top to the dessert.

The juicy peach sits on top of a fluffy vanilla flavored cake. In my version, I added banana as a second layer of fruit under the peach, to add a bit more variety. I also used cinnamon instead of candied ginger, since its an ingredient I'm more likely to have around the house.

Another substitution I made was using yogurt and milk instead of buttermilk. I rarely use buttermilk in my cooking, and it's always annoying to have to buy an ingredient just for one recipe. So, after a little searching online I found that yogurt, thinned with a bit of milk can be a buttermilk substitute. I had some yogurt leftover from making pancakes so I decided to give it a try. It made the batter a little thicker, but worked great!

I like to eat the cake by itself, but it would also be great with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Mini Banana-Peach Cakes
(makes 4 cakes)

Fruit layer:
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 peach, peeled and cut into 1/3 inch slices
1/2 tsp cinnamon, or enough to generously sprinkle each ramekin
1 banana, sliced into 1/3 inch thick rounds

Cake layer:
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. butter, melted
3 Tbsp milk
5 Tbsp yogurt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Divide 2 Tbsp. of the butter evenly between 4 ramekins, cutting into small pieces to cover the bottom. Sprinkle brown sugar on top of the butter, dividing evenly between the ramekins.

Lay peach slices on top of the sugar, forming a layer of peach on the bottom. Remember that the peach slices will shrink when cooked, so make it a generous layer, overlapping as necessary. On top of this, sprinkle some cinnamon into each ramekin. Then add the banana on top, forming another layer.

For the cake, in a large bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl (I usually just use a liquid cup measure), mix together sugar, melted butter, milk, yogurt, and vanilla. Add the wet to the dry and mix until just combined. At this point, the batter should be relatively thick, but thin enough to pour. If it seems too thick, add some more milk until it's the right consistency. Pour evenly into the ramekins, filling just up to the top.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until top is beginning to brown and juices are bubbling. Warning: be sure to put something under the ramekins, since they are likely to leak fruit juice. I like to use a piece of tin foil on the rack below.

Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Run a knife around the outside edge to loosen and flip upside down on a plate. Enjoy alone, or with ice cream.