Food Party

Today, my friend hosted a food party, and he let me make yummy chocolate soufflés! They turned out a lot better than I thought :)

Anyway, so my friend, Steven, has been a chef for a while now. He told me that he has been taking cooking classes for 9 years, a few at Le Cordon Bleu. Pretty impressive for a kid who just finished high school. It's even more impressive that he proudly will be attending Stanford this upcoming fall!

For lunch, we invited a few of our friends, and they willingly helped me and my friend with our dishes. I made soufflés and crepes while he planned on making four dishes: chicken wings, garlic knots, a three bean and corn salad (if I recall correctly), and carbonated fruit. Since Steven is very enthusiastic about chemistry, he incorporates chemistry knowledge with his cooking, which is called molecular gastronomy (Learn more here! http://stevenhowell2013.blogspot.com/).




To cook the chicken wings he brined 56 of them for 3 hours, put them in a sous vide for 1, and finally put them on the grill for 3 minutes. They were incredibly soft and really quite tasty. It was the first time I have eaten chicken wings. And to carbonated fruit, he bought dry ice from Fry's. When you bite into the fruit, the juice is actually really fizzy!

Afterwards, we just swam in the pool and played cards. Really interesting party idea :)

Soufflé recipe will be posted shortly!


Steven attempting to toss his chicken wings

 

Chocolate Cupcakes with Creamy Frosting

Assignment #8:

So yesterday was kinda awesome. I slept at 9:45 pm and woke up 12:30 pm. Then made this. This is probably the best cupcake I've ever made. Then got a great deal on a Windows Surface, which I bought, and I love it (I'm currently updating my blog with it). And stared at the beautiful Tesla Model S and learned about the upcoming Model X (which will probably be the most aerodynamic crossover ever). AND I got ramekins so I can make yummy souffle!

Anyway, the DELICIOUS cupcakes. The frosting tastes like my chocolate mousse, and it makes me happy. For this, I made some chocolate cupcakes and some Nutella cupcakes, and both were incredibly delicious. Recipe below! The darker, shorter one is chocolate, and the lighter, taller one is Nutella!

Ingredients for Chocolate Cupcakes: (yields only 9 cupcakes so double it if you want)
1 cup water
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder (NOT baking soda)
pinch of salt
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened to room temp
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Nutella (optional)

Instructions to Make Cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Put 9 cups in the cupcake pan thing.
2. Take the water and boil it. Then take HALF a cup of that water and stir in unsweetened cocoa powder until smooth (could be in a measuring cup or bowl, but I used a measuring cup so I wouldn't need to wash extra dishes). Cool this to room temp by putting it in the fridge.
3. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.
4. In a bigger bowl, cream softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy, using a mixer. Add eggs and beat until smooth. Scrape sides when necessary. Add vanilla extract. Then slowly add flour mixture. Do NOT overmix. When you overmix, the cupcakes will come out hard and dry. Just mix until just combined. Slowly stir in the cooled cocoa-water mix until smooth.
5. Fill each cupcake cup 2/3rds of the way. Place a tablespoon (or more!) on top each cupcake cup. Place in oven for 16-19 minutes. Cool before putting frosting!

Ingredients for Chocolate (or Nutella) Frosting:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup of cocoa powder OR Nutella... or 1/4 cup of both, but I didn't try that (but it sounds good!)
2 tablespoons heavy cream (for creaminess of frosting)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions to Make Frosting:

1. Beat butter until creamy (which takes a minute or two). Add powdered sugar and continue to beat. Add cocoa powder or Nutella and mix. Add heavy cream and vanilla extract.
• If too thin, add more powdered sugar (but not to much...maybe a tablespoon or two at a time). If too thick, add more heavy cream (maybe 1/2 a tablespoon at a time).
2. Frost cupcakes! Make sure the cupcakes have cooled or else the frosting will melt.

You can decorate it when you're done! Maybe with white chocolate chips, chocolate shavings, sprinkles, M&M's, or chocolate ganache! Deliciousness.

All Things Nutella: Nutella Drop Biscuits

Assignment #7:

So I've been trying to find recipes that don't need added sugar because I've been eating too many sweets lately. Luckily, I chose the perfect day to make this yummy breakfast as I woke up at 6:30am today. For this recipe, make sure your nails are cut because you'll be needing your hands. Also, since my brother is back from ASU, of course I would make non-Nutella biscuits :) Just remove the Nutella from the recipe if you can't consume Nutella. Image of non-Nutella biscuits are shown to the left.

Thank you to Two Peas and Their Pod for this recipe! (By the way, I cut the recipe in half because I didn't want to make too much)

Ingredients:

1 cup of flour

1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter (preferably cut into cubes)

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup Nutella

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. 
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Mix in cold butter with your fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal. It might seem a little weird, but it really does end up looking like that at this point.
3. Drop 1/2 cup (resulting in 6 biscuits) of dough onto prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle biscuits with sea salt of you want. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until tops are golden brown. Remove from oven, let cool to room temperature and serve. 

Short Update

It's been a while! Sorry I stopped posting but I needed to stop baking sweets for a bit. I needed to stop eating so unhealthily...

And sorry for this sudden news but I will be stopping the Nutella series for now because my brother is coming back from ASU tomorrow :) I made him the Fudgy Brownies to celebrate his arrival.

Thank you for reading! Will definitely start updating with more chocolate delights! :)