Sunday, September 19, 2010

Tres Leches

Cake:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
3 eggs, separated
1 cup granulated sugar
6 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Three-Milk Topping:
2/3 cup evaporated milk
2/3 of a (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup sour cream (room temp or slightly warm)

Whipped Cream Topping:
1 cup cream
¼ cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. If using a glass pan, use 325 degrees F. Grease a 9 inch metal square pan or 9 inch glass pan (My pan was ugly, so I just lined the whole thing in Release Foil).

Sift flour with baking powder and set aside. In a large bowl with clean beaters, beat egg whites until fluffy. Add sugar gradually, beating to form stiff peaks. Add yolks, one at a time. Fold in flour mixture and milk; mix well but don’t beat. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake until edges are golden brown, about 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from oven; let cool on a rack.

Prepare Three-Milk Topping by combining all 4 ingredients. Using a skewer, make little holes all over the cake. Pour Topping over cake and let sit until all mixture is absorbed, 20 to 30 minutes. After it has sat for 30 or so minutes at room temperature, go ahead and refrigerate it.

Prepare Whipped Cream Topping Chill cream, bowl and beaters thoroughly. Beat cream with electric mixer until it begins to thicken. Gradually add sugar and vanilla and beat until stiff peaks form. Cover cake with whipped cream with a spatula or knife. Chill until ready to eat (tastes best the next day).

Topping, cut cake into squares and serve, or spread Whipped Cream Topping over squares of cake.

Cut cake and serve. Or cut the cake in squares and top with whipped cream when it is served.

*When doubled this recipe fits well into a 9x13 pan.
** Would add some almond extract to cake next time.

About 9 servings
Cookie Madness

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Vietnamese Lime Leaf Chicken

Marinade
2 Tbs of Kafir lime leaves in water (fresh would work too)
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons Asian fish sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
4 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon Asian sesame oil

Sauce
6 tbs Fresh lime juice
3 tbs Asian fish sauce (preferably nuoc mam)
1/4 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Warm water
1 Garlic clove forced through press

2 breasts of chicken, sliced thinly
1/2 lb rice vermicelli noodles
handful of fresh basil leaves
handful of fresh mint leaves

Marinate chicken for 30-60 minutes.

Fry chicken until sauce evaporates and chicken begins to caramelize on the outside. Cook rice noodles and place on plate, drizzling with prepared sauce. Dress with torn mint and basil leaves. I'm too tired to write this properly.

(kinda) Cinnamon Ice Cream

1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
3 3 inch cinnamon sticks, broken up(should be 10 sticks)
2 cups heavy cream
5 large egg yolks

Warm the milk, sugar, cinnamon, salt and 1 cup of the heavy cream. Once warm, cover and let steep for 1 hr at room temperature.

Rewarm the cinnamon mixture. Remove cinnamon slivers with a mesh strainer and discard. Pour the remaining cup of heavy cream into a medium sized bowl.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks together. Use some warm milk to temper the eggs then proceed in making a custard. Once it coats the back of a spoon, pout into the remaining cup of cream using a strainer to catch any bits of scrambled egg. Stir over an ice bath until cool.

Freeze and mix in oatmeal cookie chunks.

**I think this is a bit too sweet and will make sweet cream ice cream for the cookie bits next time.

Great Oatmeal Cookies

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted room temperature butter (I keep mine cold so that the cookies hold their shape better)
2 cups tightly packed light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large eggs
5 cups rolled oats
1 1/4 cups dark raisins (I replaced this with 1 1/4 cups each shredded coconuts and chopped walnuts)

**I made half and had 59 cookies (after eating some dough)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly spray cookie sheets with cooking spray or line them with parchment paper. Sift the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt into a bowl and set aside.

In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter, sugars and vanilla extract on medium speed until smooth and light in texture, 2 minutes. (If your butter is cold like mine, this will take a bit longer) Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. On low speed, mix in the dry ingredients, oats and raisins until just combined. (This would not have fit into my stand mixer) Scrape the bowl as needed to blend evenly. Chill the dough for 10 minutes.

The recipe called for the dough to then be rolled into logs for cutting. I prefer the free form of scooping the dough and dropping onto the cookie sheet, using a small ice cream scoop. In batches, bake until the cookies are cracked on top but slightly moist, rotating the pans (half way through baking) as necessary to bake evenly, 14-15 minutes. Transfer to wire racks and let cool completely.

I am using these as a mix in for cinnamon ice cream.

CIA