flaky croissants

I'm We made Chicken Salad again because I'm obsessed. While we were making it, I thought to myself, this would be excellent with some croissants. Well, most croissants aren't dairy-free, so I pulled a few things together and wow these croissants are amazing.

Initially, thinking about making croissants seems rather daunting. I read a few blogs about it, and found some examples, and then put together my own simplified version. I was a little worried about the dairy free adaptations, but it worked wonderfully.

First you proof the yeast. Then stir in the flour and salt. Add the egg last. You should get some nice dough from that.

Let it raise for 20-30 minutes. It won't double in size, but it'll get bigger. Roll out the dough on a floured surface and then put the shortening on half of it like so.

It will be pretty thick. That's the point. Also I really suggest butter flavored shortening for this one. It makes a difference.

Fold the dough in half and roll it out again. What you're doing here is making lots of layers of shortening that will melt while it cooks, leaving you with airy, flaky layers in each croissant. So you really can't shortcut here, unfortunately.

Fold the half into thirds. 

Flip it over so the ends are on the bottom (this makes it easier to roll out). Roll it into a rectangle again.

And repeat. Fold it into thirds, roll it out, fold it into thirds, roll it out, fold it into thirds, roll it out. This last time roll it out larger and cut it into 16 wedges.

Roll them up into croissant shapes. Start with the large end of the triangle and stretch while you roll. If you want them to be c shaped, cut a small notch in the base of the triangle when you roll it, and then shape it as you go.

Mine weren't perfect, so don't stress of yours aren't either. Let them raise for another 20 minutes or so while the oven preheats. Then bake them, and eat them. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.

And another:

Look at all those layers!

Flaky Croissants
2 1/4 tsp yeast (or one package)
1 cup warm water
1 egg
1 tsp salt
2 cups flour
1/2 cup butter flavored shortening
1 TBSP sugar

Proof the yeast with the water and sugar. Add flour, and salt. Stir in the egg. Let it raise for 30 minutes. Roll out on floured surface. Shape dough into a rectangle. Spread all of the shortening across half of it. Fold the dough in half. Roll it out a bit thinner. Fold it into third, and roll it out. Repeat this three times. Each time you fold it, you are making one of the flaky layers in the croissant. Go rather quickly to keep the shortening from melting and making a mess. The last time, roll the dough out into a large rectangle. Cut it into 16 little wedges. Roll the edges up. Let them raise for 20 minutes. Bake at 425 for 10 minutes or until golden on top.

I adapted a lot of this from here.

french macarons

One of my core beliefs about college is that you need to make cookies regularly in order to survive. No joke. My roommate and I had a standing 2am date on Friday nights this past summer just to make chocolate chip cookies. It was one of the foundations of our friendship. This semester we've been taking class and working so it's been more like 9:30pm dates, which basically feels like 2am if I'm being real with you. Lately we've been switching it up from strictly chocolate chip and this week I decided to take a stab at French macarons.

I'll be honest, I've never actually had macarons, I've just seen plenty of Facebook and Instagram posts about them, and I was a little curious about what they actually were. I had no desire to pay exorbitant prices for them, so I read a ton of recipes, did a bit of research, and put together these babies. 

This was a great distraction from homework because it took quite a while to get the meringue just right, and then the almonds didn't blend smoothly...anyways. After some trial and error I have some good tips for ya too.

So start by putting your almonds in the blender. I started with my magic bullet blender, and the blender struggled quite a bit. I switched to my ninja blender and that made a huge difference. So stick the almonds in the blender, and blend it until they are a find flour-like powder. 

Add the powdered sugar and blend it until it's all combined. It'll get a little lumpy, and that's okay. Pour it from the blender into a mixing bowl and break up the big clumps with a fork. 

The next step is important and tricky. You're going to pass the mixture through a colander (or sieve, your choice, both work fine) into another bowl.

As you sift it through the colander, it'll roll up into little balls. You don't want the balls to fall in, so when it does that, dump the colander back into the first bowl, and repeat the process. Does that make sense? The goal is to get it as finely sifted as possible so it's not clumpy or heavy. Once you're done, set it aside. 

Now you're going to make the meringue part. This is tricky, so let me break it down for you. Making a meringue is different from just whipping egg whites. 

1. Separate your eggs. (You won't use the yolks in this recipe)

2. Whip the whites on low for a bit until they are bubbly. 

3. Continue whipping, adding granulated sugar a tablespoon at a time.

4. When all the sugar is added, beat on medium speed for 2 minutes.

5. Increase to high speed and beat until stiff peaks form (about 4 minutes).

If you're making flavored or colored macarons (I didn't this time) you'll add the flavor and the food coloring here.

Don't overbeat! Then your cookies will be flat, which would be lame. Once the meringue is done, add it to the almond/sugar mixture you have in your other bowl. Use a spatula to lift the almond stuff up from the bottom and press down slowly and firmly in the middle. 

You'll keep doing this, about 40 ish times, (I didn't count) until the dough is the texture of molten lava. This sounds like a weird description, but you'll do it and it'll make perfect sense. Once the dough is finished, you'll put it into a bag. You can use something fancy, but honestly, it worked just fine with a ziploc and and some scissors.  I put the ziploc inside a cup, then scooped the dough into the ziploc. Why, you ask? Lots of reasons. First, less mess. Second, gravity helps take out air bubbles. Third, way way easier than trying to smoosh that sticky stuff in while the bag was flat. 

Next you'll cut off one corner of the bag. You want about a 1/4 hole.

Swirl the bag as you pipe the dough . The cookies will flatten a little as you cook. They will also get quite large, so make 1/2 inch to 1 inch circles if you want to keep them the traditional size. 

Bake 'em! Experts say you need parchment paper and stuff, but I'm all about simple and easy, and these still turned out quite authentic and very fabulous. To top them, let the cookies cool completely. Gently hold the cookie so you don't crush it and spread a generous amount of whatever filling you want on top of it. (Options include jam, nutella, various kinds of frosting, whatever you want. I used colored frosting here.)

Top it off with another cookie. Again, be very gentle, they are easy to crush.

As you can see, I wanted my cookies to be kind of textured, so I swirled them a little more when I piped the dough. If you want yours to be smooth, swirl it a little less. Eat them! 

EASY FRENCH MACARONS 

2/3 cup sliced almonds

1 cup powdered sugar

2 large egg whites, room temperature

1/4 cup white granulated sugar

filling

flavoring or food coloring as desired.

Blend almonds in food processor until very finely ground. Add powdered sugar and blend into a fine almond flour. Break up large chunks, then use a colander to sift the flour even more finely into a bowl. Repeat this process at least twice until there is a fine powder.

Make a meringue out of the egg whites and the sugar: 

1. Separate your eggs.

2. Whip the whites on low for a 2 minutes until foamy. 

3. Continue whipping on low, adding granulated sugar a tablespoon at a time.

4. When all the sugar is added, beat on medium speed for 2 minutes.

5. Increase to high speed and beat until stiff peaks form (about 4 minutes).
If desired, add food coloring and flavoring, then beat on high speed for 30 seconds.

Add dry ingredients to meringue all at once so as not to create any clumps. Fold up from the bottom of the bowl with a spatula, then press the flat side of the spatula firmly through the middle of the mixture. Repeat until it resembles molten lava (40 ish strokes).

Transfer dough to a bag. Cut off a 1/4 inch hole and pipe batter into 1 inch round cookies on a pregreased cookie sheet. Space rounds 1 inch apart. Tap sheets firmly on counter to remove air bubbles.

Bake at 350 for 13 minutes, rotating halfway through if they are baking unevenly. Cool completely, then fill.

oatmeal banana muffins

It's been a really long week with a ton of homework. Seriously, every October I contemplate dropping out of college. There's something about the stress of October that just gets me every time. I don't ever drop out, but I definitely give serious thought to why I value my education so much.

So, since it's October and we are quite stressed, my roommate and I made a last minute decision to go out of town for the weekend. Which meant I needed to whip up some snacks real quick so we'd have something to eat while we were traveling. I've been on this muffin kick lately, as noted by my last post involving pumpkin muffins, and my grandma makes these really amazing banana muffins that I was craving, so that's what I picked.

Except here's the thing - I have issues with bananas. They're this really awful texture and when you smush them up, they look real vomity. I love banana bread and banana muffins and hummingbird cake (which is this incredible southern fruit cake thing), all of which have bananas, so usually I find a way to smush them without looking, but today that wasn't working out, so I used applesauce instead. Also, advanced apologies that I again forgot to take pictures.

The secret of these wonderful muffins is that you cook the oatmeal first. My mom always saved oatmeal from when we had oatmeal for breakfast and would just use the leftover oatmeal, which works just fine. 

So you put the oatmeal, almond milk, and shortening in a small saucepan and bring it to a boil. You can melt the shortening first if you're worried about it, but it melts fine if you just toss it all in there. Once it boils, take it off the heat and let it sit.

Mix the egg, brown sugar, and applesauce (or banana) in a bowl. Stir in the oatmeal mixture.

Add the rest of the ingredients and stir it up. Tada! You have muffins! Bake em and eat em. 

Note that there are only 2 left - we are all of them on the trip. They're that good.

Grandma's Banana Muffins

1 cup rolled oats

1/3 cup shortening

1 cup buttermilk (or 1 TBSP vinegar with 1 cup almond milk)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 mashed banana (sub 1/3 cup applesauce, or shortening)

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

Pinch of salt

Put the oatmeal, butter, and milk in a small saucepan and bring it to a boil. Set aside. In a bowl, combine egg, banana, and sugar. Stir in the oatmeal mixture. Add remaining ingredients, and stir until combined. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes.

pumpkin stuff

So today it was cold. Which is fine. Because I really like cardigans and blankets. But I also hate coats. And shivering. So it's up in the air how I feel about the situation right now. I went to school early this morning, because I had to finish a final project for a class. I'm in this PE Teaching class and we had to record ourselves teaching a few times this semester, then put together a final video...it was complex but not too challenging. The bottom line is, when I was walking to the lab at 7:30 this morning to work on the video I wasn't super pleased about the whole situation.

The one good thing is that after I came home, I discovered a stray can of pumpkin in my basement and I had some free time to experiment, so I put some stuff together and voila! this wonderful creation came out if it all. The beauty of this gem is that it's easily adapted to be bread, muffins, cupcakes, cookies, cake, you know, whatever you want. I'm always looking for easier ways to cook, so this is perfect. Just to be sure the adaptations worked, I made all the varieties today too. Wow. Truly wonderful. This post is just about the muffins because they were my favorite, but the adaptations are on the recipe at the bottom.

So first, dump the whole can of pumpkin into a bowl.

Add the eggs. I only had one egg in my fridge today, so I added a little extra oil and some more baking powder. (For future reference, that's a good substitute for an egg when you're baking. Use like a tablespoon of oil and an 1/8 tsp of baking powder.) Also put the oil, shortening, and sugars in with the pumpkin and stir it up. The shortening will be a little chunky, but that's normal. Don't stress it too much.

 If you're not using buttermilk or half and half,  here's the place where you'll prepare your substitute. Today I used a half and half substitute. Set it aside and let it sit for a bit. In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. The spices looked really pretty all together. And they smelled pretty great too.

Stir in the wet ingredients and add the milk. If you used a substitute, like I did, it should be chunky. Keep stirring until it's well combined. If your shortening was chunky before, this is where it will blend into the batter.

Add the chocolate chips. I was extra generous time and just dumped all that was left in the bag in there. You can adjust accordingly based on your chocolate preferences.

Since I was making muffins, I measured it into my muffin tin. I like my muffins to be real big and puffy, so I filled the tin very full.

Then bake 'em! Y'all. Just making these improved my feelings about the cold and fall. Now I'm eating really really good soft and muffins in a blanket watching tv on my couch and that's going well.

Oh and one more just because you have to see how great these are.

Look at that chocolately goodness! And just so you know, I made these muffins and a whole loaf of bread. There's just so much batter in this recipe, because you can't use a partial can of pumpkin.

Enjoy!

Basic Recipe for Pumpkin Stuff**
1 15 oz can pumpkin
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup shortening (or softened butter)
2/3 cup buttermilk or half and half* (to make this dairy free, use one of the substitutes. I suggest    
      almond milk for this one)
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cloves
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

*Sub 2 tsp vinegar and 2/3 cup milk for butter milk, or 2 tsp melted butter and 2/3 cup milk for half and half
**To make this into cookies, add another egg, to make this into bread take out the butter, 1/2 cup of the chocolate chips, and add a half cup of flour.

Mix the pumpkin, eggs, oil, shortening, buttermilk substitute, and sugars in a small bowl. The shortening will be chunky. In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients and mix well. Stir in the chocolate chips.

If making muffins, fill muffin cups 3/4 the way full. Bake muffins at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

If making bread, divide between 3 loaf pans. Bake bread at 350 for 50 minutes.

If making cookies, drop spoonfuls onto the cookie sheet. Bake cookies at 350 for 8-10 minutes.

chicken salad

Y'all. I love chicken salad. Like a whole freakin' lot kind of love. No really. There are not words for this. The bakery at my college sells chicken salad sandwiches that are perfection. One time for my finance class I had to save up to buy something I really wanted for a project. The stipulations were that it was something that I really wanted, and that it was less than $20, and I had to save the same amount every week for the whole semester and then buy the thing and bring it to class. Obvs, I chose to save for a chicken salad sandwich. (There's something beautiful on campus called they sell actual foods like sandwiches from the bakery in the vending machines, which makes it real hard not to spend my life savings on these things.) My TA thought I was kidding, but I was dead serious.

Okay. Now that you have a clear understanding of how I feel about chicken salad, let me tell you about the journey I've been taking to find the essential concoction of spices to recreate this perfect chicken salad. I've tried so many different recipes, made up at least a zillion combinations, and found some decent but not quite perfect variations of this recipe. But this weekend I was craving chicken salad as usual, so I gave it another shot and stumbled upon this masterpiece. No. You don't understand. This salad was to die for. I hurried to record my results so that I could share them with you because everyone needs this kind of goodness in their lives. The secret is the balance between the paprika and the basil. It sounds odd, but trust me on this one. These are essential for true chicken salad production. Let's get started.

First, fill a large pot with water, and put in the raw chicken breasts. You may not know this, because not everyone reads the bag the chicken comes in, but before you cook it you should rub off the ice glaze under running water. So do that. Then put them in and bring it to a boil. Boil those chicken breasts until the juice runs clear when you cut into them.  When they're ready, take them out of water, save the water for broth if you want, and then cut the chicken into small cubes. Think like 1/4 to 1/2 inch cubes.

Slide the chicken off the cutting board and into your dish of choice. I just mix everything together in a large tupperware so I save myself from a ton of dish washing, but use whatever suits your fancy. Don't reuse your cutting board because chicken is germy and gross. Get a new cutting board and dice up that apple. Keep the peel because it's pretty. Slice the celery into really thin slices so it'll be more evenly distributed in the salad. Same with the green onions. Slide all of that into your dish as well. Add the cranberries.

I never measure things, but I put some starter measurements down there for you. Don't feel limited. The key to the perfection of this recipe is the balance of the spices, the rest of it is up to your preference.  If you like lots of celery, slice up an extra rib, or use larger slices. If you love on those cranberries, throw in an extra handful. Add some almonds for good measure as you desire. Mix it around a few times so it's mixed up, not layered.

Measure the mayo into a separate dish. Mixing the spices into the mayo helps to evenly distribute them throughout the salad. I just mix it all up in a liquid measuring cup. Stir all the spices in. 

Stir really well so it's well blended. Then use a rubber spatula to scrape it all out and stir it in to the salad dish. Serve it out to eat it!

Ta da! Seems so easy because it is. You can eat it on croissants, on regular bread, or I have honestly just grabbed a fork and eaten it out of the tupperware. It's that good.

Most Perfect Chicken Salad
2 chicken breasts, cubed
1 apple, cubed
2 celery ribs, sliced
3 green onions, sliced
1/4 cup cranberries
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 1/2 tsp basil
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp garlic

Cook the chicken. Chop the apples, celery, and onions. Put the chicken, apples, celery, onions, and cranberries in a bowl. Measure the mayo into another bowl, and and mix the spices into the mayo. Stir the mayo mixture into the rest of the salad.

apple cake

I love apples. I went through a phase my first semester in college where I ate 10 or more in a week. Delicious.

Then I got a little burnt out of apples. I have this thing where I can't bite into an apple, (I don't know, my mouth is shaped weird or something. Whatever.) so I got a little tired of cutting the apples to take them to class every day and I sort of phased out of buying them.

A couple weeks ago, my friend and I went and helped my aunt and uncle make and can some homemade applesauce. Wow, that stuff is so addicting. Seriously. And there's no sugar added, so I feel completely guilt-free about eating it like ice cream. So I've been trying to find new ways to cook apples in stuff so I can use that wonderful applesauce in basically everything.

But, I'm poor, because college, so my options have been limited to the ingredients I already have in my house.

Yesterday I was craving cake real bad. I googled all kind of cake recipes, and the cravings intensified, so that didn't help much. I didn't really need cake, so I got this idea that maybe if I made apple cake it would be healthier. It was a good idea....but I found all these great apple cake recipes, and they weren't exactly healthy...

So after reading a ton of recipes, I threw some stuff together and created this fabulous and totally not healthy apple cake, and even worked in some homemade applesauce. If you don't have homemade applesauce, that is totally fine. Regular old applesauce will do, or even shortening, or vegetable oil, or butter, you choose.

I used Jonagold apples because that's what I had. Feel free to mix it up and substitute some of your favorites. That's the best part of cooking - making it into your own thing, you know?

Okay you're probably drooling just waiting for the recipe after that whole story, so here goes.
(one more comment. Well I'll probably have lots more comments, but one more comment for now. I only cook for one. Sometimes two. So the portions of this are kind of little. Make it bigger if you have more people.)

Start by mixing together all the dry ingredients. It's best if you dump them all in the bowl first, and then mix them around, so the soda and the salt get well blended. The brown sugar needs a bit of smooshing, and that's normal. You can use a whisk if you're picky, but a wooden spoon worked fine for me.

Chop up your apples. I made the pieces kind of little, smaller than I would for a salad, because I wanted them to be well spread out in the cake. I also left the peels on, but if that bothers you, peel em. Make a little well in the middle of your dry ingredients, and pour your applesauce in. Crack the eggs on the applesauce, pour in the vanilla, and stir it all up. As it all gets moistened, stir in the apples, then the nuts. I used almonds slices because I have this thing for homemade granola, and so I always have sliced almonds on hand. If you have other nuts, they'll work fine.

Pour the batter into a greased pan. You can use a 9x9 square pan, but I really wanted it to look like a cake, since that's what I was craving, so I used my nice round pan. (I have these really nice Calaphon pans I got for free when some people were moving. You might not care, but these are nice pans guys. The cake slides out so smoothly...)

Now for that wonderful crumble. This is my go-to brown sugar crumble for everything I can put it on - coffee cake, muffins, donuts, etc. The flour is an essential ingredient here because it makes it more crumbly and less grainy. The mixing process is also really important to the texture of the crumble. So melt the butter in a small bowl in the microwave. Stir in the flour and brown sugar with a fork immediately until it's all moist. Add the spices. I honestly didn't measure them exactly, I just shook some in until it was good, but if you're the measuring type, I put some measures on there for ya. Use your fingers to pinch up some crumble and crumble it all over the cake. There's plenty enough of crumble to coat the whole thing so don't be shy. Get all the edges and stuff.

Now bake it! When there are a few minutes left on the timer, you'll make the drizzle. This is a basic brown sugar glaze, but it was perfect. You can be fancy and brown the butter first, and then stir in the sugar, but the taste is fine if you don't want to do that. I just put all the ingredients in the pan, and put it on medium high heat. For my stove that was a 7, but you know your stove better than I do. Bring it to a rapid boil, stirring constantly. Keep it boiling for 3 minutes, and keep stirring. By that time, the cake should be done, so take that baby out and slip it onto your serving dish pronto. Drizzle the drizzle everywhere. It'll start absorbing, and sliding onto the side. I lifted up the bottom of the cake and let it slide down there too. Whatever you like.

You can eat it hot, you can eat it with ice cream, you can eat it with your hands, doesn't matter. It's too good to let it sit there. We saved it for breakfast, but ours was gone by this afternoon. As you can see, I didn't even wait to take the photo before we ate a few slices. This is a truly excellent cake.

Whew! That was a lot! Who knew I had so much to say about cake! Maybe another time I'll have pictures of the process, but this time I just have pictures of the product, sorry. Enjoy! (And please, if you share this, give me some credit :) Just link to my page instead of copying and pasting the recipe).

Buttery Apple Cake
CAKE:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup applesauce (if you change this to oil or shortening, I would suggest using only 1/2 cup)
2 eggs
1 large apple, diced
1/2 cup sliced almonds (or walnuts, or pecans, all are good here)

CRUMBLE:
2 TBSP shortening (or butter)
2 TBSP flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger

DRIZZLE:
2 TBSP shortening (or butter)
6 tsp almond milk (other kinds of milk will work here too)
5 TBSP brown sugar

Mix dry ingredients. Make a well in the middle, and put the eggs, the applesauce, the vanilla, and the apple in the well. Mix it all up. It will be the texture of cake batter with apple chunks in it. Stir in the almonds. Pour it into a 9in round cake pan.

In a small bowl, melt the shortening for the crumble. Stir in the sugar, and flour until it's all coated in the shortening. Add a lot of cinnamon, like heaping measurements because cinnamon is a wonderful pair for apples. Also add the rest of the spices. Generously crumble it with your fingers to sprinkle it around the entire cake.

Bake the cake at 350 for 40 minutes. When there are 5 minutes left, make the drizzle on the stove. Put everything into a sauce pan, and bring it to a boil, stirring continuously. Let boil for 3 minutes, constantly stirring. Take the cake out, put it on the serving dish of your choice, and drizzle the drizzle across the entire thing. Eat warm, or let cool.