My 30th Birthday Party

Posted on September 18, 2011 by Kiesha

Yes, it’s true. I’m finally finally 30! I’ve been waiting since I was about 12 to turn 30 and I’m pumped that I’ve finally made it.

To celebrate, I threw myself a county fair themed birthday party. It was basically an excuse to do a ton of baking and make a dessert table. I also organized a few games of skill and a 1981 trivia contest.

I won’t bore you with the details, but I will bore you with lots of photos* from the day. Here we go!

The dessert table

Whiskey Apple Pie

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie (this was the hit – not even crumbs left!)

Vegan Blueberry Pie

Vegan Cotton Candy Cupcakes

Vegan Ice Cream Conecakes

“Caramel Apple” Cakepops

* Some of these photos were taken by my sister-in-law Megan Duffy, but I can’t remember which are which. Obviously, any with me IN them were taken by her.

Upcoming Events Where You Can Find My Baked Goods!

Posted on September 13, 2011 by Kiesha

September is a busy month for me! Not only did I spend Saturday baking for seven straight hours in anticipation of my 30th Birthday Party (more on that soon), but I am also baking for two different events at Word Bookstore in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

The first event, “An Evening with Craig Thompson” is this Saturday. Craig Thompson is an incredibly talented graphic novelist who is responsible for some incredible books, including “Good-bye, Chunky Rice and my favorite graphic novel “Blankets”. He has just recently completed his first book in about seven years, “Habibi”. It’s the tale of two refugee child slaves and, as Amazon tells me, “at once contemporary and timeless, “Habibi” gives us a love story of astounding resonance: a parable about our relationship to the natural world, the cultural divide between the first and third worlds, the common heritage of Christianity and Islam, and, most potently, the magic of storytelling.”

Tickets for the event are $40 and include a copy of the book. There will be a question and answer session, as well as a cocktail hour in which attendees can meet and mingle with Craig Thompson. This is where I come in. I will be baking two different Middle Eastern cookies for the cocktail hour; Baraziq cookies, which are cookies coated on one side with sesame seeds and on the other with pistachios and Hab el Hal, which are Cardamom cookies.

I understand tickets are going fast, so get yours today!

The second event at Word will be another Largehearted Lit event sponsored by blogger Largehearted Boy. You might remember that I previously baked Doukhobor treats for an event featuring Alina Simone. This time around, the authors are Libba Bray and Steve Brezenoff. Bray is promoting her new book “Beauty Queens” and Brezenoff is promoting his book “Brooklyn, Burning”.

For this event, I will be baking vegan Pink Lemonade Cupcakes and (non-vegan) Brooklyn Blackout Cupcakes. This event is free and both books are young adult friendly!

Come on out, check out some great books and eat some goodies!

Beet Ice Cream from “Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home”

Posted on August 13, 2011 by Kiesha

Well, Ice Cream Week has come to a close here on the ol’ blog. If you only take one thing away from this week’s posts, let it be this; Beet Ice Cream is PINK.

This recipe intrigued me the first time I saw it in the cookbook. In addition to the milk/cream/sugar base that the majority of the ice creams in Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home use, this one combines two roasted, pureed beets and mascarpone cheese and throws an orange peel into the mix to steep. Jeni calls for poppy seeds to be added while the ice cream is churning, but my texture issues with bits in food put the kibosh on that.

And there in lies the problem. I pureed my beets and forced the puree through a fine mesh sieve, but the ice cream is still full of tiny little beet bits. My husband Rob didn’t have a problem with the beet bits, but I sure did. Even though I enjoy the flavor of this ice cream quite a bit (it’s so interesting and not at all what you think it might taste like), I only had one bowl because I couldn’t deal with the beet bits. I wish there was some way to OBLITERATE bits in food so that everything could be completely super smooth. But until that magical device finds its way into my home, I’ll stick to the creamy recipes.

So that wraps up Ice Cream Week! I will definitely still post all the recipes I try, but autumn is in the air and there are MANY baked goods on my horizon. In fact, there are a couple of pies cooling in my kitchen as I type this. More about those later.

The Darkest Chocolate Ice Cream in the World from “Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home”

Posted on August 11, 2011 by Kiesha

Day three of Ice Cream Week! This time, it’s chocolate.

I made three recipes out of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home before diving into chocolate. So when it was time to go chocolate, I decided to really GO chocolate and chose the recipe titled “The Darkest Chocolate Ice Cream in the World.”

This ice cream gets its intense chocolately flavor from a chocolate sauce that combines cocoa powder, bittersweet chocolate, brewed coffee and sugar.

Jeni notes that this ice cream has a slightly chewy texture, which is true. I sort of love it. I like chewing my ice cream; it makes it seem like a meal.

The only issue I had with this ice cream was my own fault. Pretty much every ice cream recipe in the book calls for a little cream cheese and I was using cream cheese from a small tub. I think I pushed the tub too far back in my freezer and froze the cream cheese, which then thawed back out. My cream cheese had tiny little ‘beads’ in it, like tapioca, which I thought I got all smoothed out, but which reappeared upon freezing the ice cream. It didn’t affect the taste or texture in the least, but it was a little strange to see ‘bumpy’ ice cream in the dish.

Tomorrow I’ll finish out Ice Cream Week with Beet Ice Cream! Think pink!

Watermelon Lemonade Sorbet from “Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home”

Posted on August 10, 2011 by Kiesha

Ice Cream Week continues! Today I’m spotlighting the Watermelon Lemonade Sorbet I made using the recipe from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home.

I love lemon. It’s one of my favorite flavors. There’s a lemon frozen yogurt recipe in this book that’s calling my name, as soon as I get the time I need to prep that thing (you have to let yogurt strain for at least 8 hours in advance!). I’m also a fan of watermelon, as long as I eat it with a fork so I can pick all the seeds out. I hate taking a big bite of watermelon and ending up with a mouthful of seeds.

Therein lies the problem with this recipe. You are instructed to cut watermelon into chunks, remove the seeds and then puree it. Removing seeds from watermelon isn’t the easiest task. The black ones come out all right, but those little yellowy ones do not want to let go. Then you’re instructed to remove one cup of the puree and reserve the rest for another use. I’m not sure what that other use is, so I just cut a little at a time and pureed it, until I ended up with a cup. And that cup was mostly liquid.

I don’t know about you, but when I think of ‘puree’, I picture applesauce. Or baby food. A thick, pudding-like substance. I put my watermelon chunks in my food processor and two pulses later, I had watermelon juice. There was very little by way of watermelon ‘puree’.

I went ahead with the recipe and churned the liquidiness in my ice cream maker. 20 minutes later, I had a good-looking consistency, but when I stopped the machine and started to scoop it out, I noticed there was still a lot of liquid in the bottom of the machine. I churned for about five more minutes, but I started to get nervous that I was going to make my sorbet crumbly, so I stopped the machine, poured it all into a container, gave it a stir to incorporate the liquid, threw it in the freezer and said a quick prayer to the baking gods.

Well, it froze solid. There was no scooping of this sorbet. It was more like a granita. I had to chip at it to get a bowl full.

But man, oh man, it tasted fantastic. Slightly tart, a little bit sweet, big lemon flavor mixed in with that watermelon. We served it to friends and one of them (a vegan chef!) told me it was the best sorbet she’d ever had.

I posted my problem on the forum at Jeni’s website to see if I could get any pointers. I was told that the sorbet should not be liquidy while churning and that the puree consistency will depend on the sweetness of the watermelon. Great. I can’t very well tell how sweet the watermelon is without cutting into it and eating it. A few other people posted, commenting that they had the same problem, so maybe Jeni will look into this one and tell us all what we’re doing wrong.

Stay tuned! Coming up next will be the Darkest Chocolate Ice Cream in the World!

Backyard Mint Ice Cream from “Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home”

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Kiesha

So my friend Danae over at The Busty Baker has declared it Ice Cream Week on her blog, so I am shamelessly stealing the idea. I’ve made three different ice creams since my last post (Jeni’s The Buckeye State ice cream) and I’ve just been sitting on the photos. All the recipes have come from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home and I’ve had great success for the most part.

Up first: Backyard Mint!

My favorite summer seasonal flavor at Jeni’s scoop shops was always Backyard Mint. It’s a delectable mix of cream and mint with nary a hint of vanilla in sight. It hits you in the face with mint and it was always fantastic on its own or paired with Belgian Milk Chocolate. Insert Homer Simpson noise here. I hope Jeni opens a shop in Park Slope soon.

Putting this ice cream together is super simple, probably among the simplest in the entire book. The only problem is adding the mint. The cookbook calls for a ‘small handful’, but that’s a fairly subjective amount. I went with about 10-15 mint leaves and it might have been a touch much. I love mint, but hooooo boy, was this minty! Next time I think I’ll tone it down just a smidge.

Out of the four flavors I’ve made so far, this is our second favorite. The Buckeye State is still winning and I’m planning to make a second batch this week!

Stay tuned, next up will be Watermelon Lemonade Sorbet!

Jeni’s The Buckeye State Ice Cream

Posted on July 11, 2011 by Kiesha

There are a few things I miss about Ohio. Friends top the list, but Jeni’s ice cream is in the Top 10.

If you’ve never been to Columbus, Ohio, you may never have experienced Jeni’s. Let me break it down for you; it’s the best ice cream you will ever eat. I know, I know, you think your local ice cream joint is the best, but you’re wrong. Jeni’s transcends ice cream and becomes something altogether different, wonderful and heavenly.

So when Jeni Britton Bauer announced that she was releasing a cookbook revealing all her ice cream secrets, a cheer went up in Columbus and around the country. Finally a chance to do it ourselves! And for those of us who have moved away, a chance to experience that taste fresh and not packed in pints and shipped to us in dry ice.

I ordered my cookbook and the day it came, I spent an obscene amount of time lusting over the pictures and the recipes. And I was thrilled to discover so many recipes for flavors that don’t have chunks or bits, which is one of my pet peeves. I can handle flecks of chocolate, but I absolutely hate chunks of fruit or seeds or nuts or anything that requires chewing. Here was Dark Chocolate and Backyard Mint and Apple Cider Sorbet and so many other smooth, creamy homogenous flavors.

I got my cookbook the week before we were leaving for a week-long vacation, so I decided to wait to make something. Yesterday, I settled on The Buckeye State; peanut butter ice cream with a touch of honey and dark chocolate freckles. I never liked peanut butter ice cream as a kid, but the first time I tasted The Buckeye State, I fell in love.

The recipe was very easy to follow, although it did require quite a few bowls. But doing dishes was worth it. It turned out perfect.

Luckily, we left the house for quite a few hours right after I put the ice cream in the freezer. I don’t know how I would have contained myself if I’d been home with that not-quite-solidified ice cream in the freezer. As soon as we got home last night, we dug into it.

Rob took one bite, looked at me and said, “You can’t tell the difference.”

Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at home, indeed.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Posted on June 27, 2011 by Kiesha

This weekend was definitely a Jerseylicious weekend. We spent Saturday with friends and Sunday with family. As the food front was covered in spades with our family, I decided to bring dessert to the friends’ gathering.

Lately I have been trying to bake things that I’ve never made before. It’s my goal for the rest of the year to make a lot of stuff that is off my beaten path. So I decided to bake a pie that was neither apple nor pumpkin. I’d bake a Strawberry Rhubarb Pie.

I’m not the biggest fan of strawberries. I love the flavor, but the texture always bothers me. I tend to find those little seeds in my teeth for days. And rhubarb? I can’t say that before Saturday I ever ate it in my life. It certainly doesn’t look like something that would be good in a pie.

Nevertheless, I busted out Martha Stewart’s Pate Brise recipe from her Baking Handbook and found a fairly simple filling recipe over at Epicurious.

I also cut out hearts out of pie crust dough for the top of my pie, although the next time I do this, I’m going to buy a smaller heart cookie cutter. These hearts looked like I’d spooned biscuit dough on top of my pie and they sorta resembled hearts…

Epicurious recommends baking the pie for 20 minutes at 400 degrees and then lowering the temperature to 350 and baking for another hour and 20 minutes. I pulled my pie out 20 minutes early, because it had reached that point between smelling good and emitting smoke. I think I made the right decision, as the crust was a beautiful golden brown and the filling solidified within two hours.

And talk about solidifying! This was quite possibly the easiest chunky fruit pie I’ve ever sliced up. No oozing, no falling apart, just clean, smooth slices. Beautiful!

Everyone loved this pie. Even I liked this pie! The texture was good, chunky, but still solid and the flavor was great. Not too sweet, not too sour, but somewhere right in the middle. And I think it was my best pie crust to date.

I’ve also got to say I’m pretty pumped with my photos from this pie. I was working with less than ideal sunlight, but after a little Photoshopping, they came out looking pretty snazzy.

Vegan Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

Posted on June 22, 2011 by Kiesha

This past weekend Rob and I had a backyard barbecue for Father’s Day. We invited Rob’s dad as well as his sister and her fiance over on Sunday for some beer and grilled meats.

Well, grilled meats and a grilled black bean patty for my vegan sister-in-law.

I knew I’d be baking something vegan for dessert, so I pulled out my trusty copy of “Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World”. There was a very tempting lemon and blueberry number that I almost went for, until reading that it needed to be served immediately after assembling. I planned to bake the night before the barbecue, so I needed something that would hold up for 12 hours or more.

I flipped to the beginning of the book and looked at the chocolate cupcake and noticed the Cookies and Cream variation. It’s basically a chocolate cupcake with vanilla ‘butter’cream frosting with half a package of chocolate sandwich cookies crushed up and thrown in. Sounded like something i could definitely do.

I forgot to make a turn down the organic section at our grocery store and quickly discovered that that is probably where they keep the Newman-O’s, so I picked up Oreos instead. Yes, folks, Oreos are vegan! Which means that there isn’t anything even resembling milk in those bad boys. Hooray for chemicals! Tasty, tasty chemicals.

Anyhoo, everything went according to plan, save for the fact that I used a large round tip to frost them when I should have went with a star tip. It worked out okay, I think. Everyone was very happy with these cupcakes and four of us polished off two each in short order. Rob’s dad was the only one with any restraint.

Photos!

So stunning in black and white!

Doukhobor Baked Goods at Largehearted Lit

Posted on June 19, 2011 by Kiesha

As you might remember, a couple of weeks ago I posted about my friend Alina Simone releasing both a book and an album at the same time. Another friend, David over at Largehearted Boy, hosts a monthly event at Word bookstore in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. For June’s event, he welcomed Alina Simone as well as Wesley Stace and a special performance by Amanda Palmer.

You may also remember that Alina asked me to provide refreshments for the event, in the form of Doukhobor baked goods. I selected two items from her Doukhobor cookbook and crossed my fingers. Rob and I went over to Alina’s apartment (she has a bigger kitchen than I do) and about five hours later I had created Apple, Raspberry and Apple/Raspberry Fruit Tart Pastries as well as Orange Cookies. They got good reviews from Alina and Rob and on the night of the event, there were only four Apple tarts left out of the three dozen tarts and three dozen cookies. I would say they were a hit!

It was actually pretty cool hearing Wesley Stace (AKA John Wesley Harding) tell me that my Raspberry Tarts were delicious. Yay!

Some photos of the baked goods and the event:

Doukhobor Baked Goods

Orange Cookies

Fruit Tart Pastries

David from Largehearted Boy

Alina Simone

Wesley Stace

Amanda Palmer

As a side note, because we drove Alina to the event in our car, we ended up driving Alina, Amanda Palmer and Eugene Mirman home, as we all live in South Slope. It was one of the more surreal nights I’ve had in New York.

As a second side note, this post definitely wins for most links embedded in a post.