Simple Egg Drop Soup

This was a recipe I was so excited to make! Simple egg drop soup is a food that as the tittle suggests is...simple. I already had all of the ingredients which made it even simpler. So first I brought some homemade chicken broth to a boil and put some fish sauce in it to give it a little more flavor.

While I waited for that to boil I cracked an egg into a bowl and put some fish sauce in their as well. I LOVE SLATY THINGS!

I mixed that together and by that time the chicken broth was boiling and I slowly poured the egg mixture into the pot. VERY SLOWLY! The second the egg hit the broth it cooked. I made sure that it was soft a fluffy not hard or over cooked.

I poured it into bowls and put some scallions on the top.

My sister was not a huge fan but the rest of my siblings loved it. I would recommend it for a quick and easy dinner.

What meal do you think this should be cooked for and what would you put on top?

Chia Muesli Parfait

Do you often wake up in the morning a miss breakfast because you have to get to school on time? Well fear to more because you can make a healthy,tasty, and quick breakfast ahead of time. Chia Muesli Parfaits are very easy to make and are dairy,wheat, and gluten free.

To make this recipe you will need Chia seeds, orange juice, almonds, almond milk ,cinnamon,and a fruit of you choice.
I choose pineapple. Very first thing i learned was READ THE DIRECTIONS  COMPLETELY!! I mixed some of the ingredients before i was supposed to. OOOPS. I had to put the chia seeds in the fridge over night but it was so worth it.

The next day I put the chia seed into cups and put pineapple in between the layers.

Over all this was a tasty, super simple and super healthy. I had enough breakfast for the rest of the week. I would have other pictures but my laptop is having issues with putting the rest of them. What fruit would you add to this delectable treat?

Sear!!

Upscaling Comfort Foods

Elevating Your Everyday Cooking

BY: Sienna Scheer

Comfort food. This phrase brings up various images for everybody, that ooey gooey cheesy homemade macaroni and cheese your mom makes, or that warm apple pie that as soon as it comes out of the oven fills your house with the smell of cinnamon. Well those are exactly the kind of foods that are included in Upscale Downhome by Rachel Hollis. Her book is all about how to take basic foods and present them in a way that is higher end. (Hollis, 7) 

I have always been interested in baking, but have never been big into cooking. Higher end presentation has never been my strong suit either. I decided to start out like every meal does, with an appetizer. I made pigs in a blanket. Instead of just wrapping hot dogs in crescent rolls, I wrapped the mini hot dogs into buttery, flaky puff pastry and topped it with a little bit of egg wash and freshly ground pepper before they went into the oven. Because like Rachel Hollis said "Go one extra step further. Add one unexpected ingredient or take the extra minute to put your dish on a pretty tray." (Hollis, 8). I also created a homemade honey mustard dipping sauce to go along with the dish. I decided to plate the dipping sauce in the center of the bright white platter and to surround the pigs in a blanket around them, to make it look as pretty as possible. This book has made me realize the taste of the food is not the only thing that matters but also how you present it.

Do you think that the way your food looks affects how good it tastes?

                           Hollis, Rachel. Upscale Downhome: Family Recipes, All Gussied Up. Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin's Griffin, 2016.                                                   

Japanese Cuisine- Miso Soup

For this blog post, I made Miso Soup with Tofu and Mushroom. This soup wasn’t extremely challenging, but finding the ingredients was (mainly the Red and White). The recipe consists of Katsuo Dashi, White miso, Red miso, Mirin (rice wine that is similar to sake), silken tofu, and Shitake Mushroom. Katsuo Dashi is the standard stock for Japanese soups, made out of dried Bonito (atype of fish) and water (Dekura 144).

In order to make this soup, I first prepared the mushroom and tofu by cutting it up. Most of my tofu go smashed in the package so it was challenging to cut it. In addition, the mushroom was chopped a little smaller than I expected, since I thought it would expand more. After that, I squeezed two tablespoons of Red and White miso into a pot of water. When the miso dissolved, I threw in the mushroom, tofu, Mirin, and Katsuo Dashi. Finally, I “turned off the heat to allow each ingredient to simmer” (Dekura 45).

This is what the final product looks like; I’m impressed by how it tasted since I thought the Katsuo Dashi would taste funny considering how it was made out of dried up fish. What foods have you been surprised by after tasting the food?

Dekura, Hideo, and Danny Kildare. Contemporary Japanese Cuisine: Classic Recipes, Fresh Flavors. New York: Weatherhill, 2001. Print.

Japanese Cuisine- Nori Roll

Making sushi roll is one of the hardest food that I have made from this book. Many aspects of this food are challenging. From cutting all the ingredients to rolling the sushi together. Using Cucumbers are the easiest ingredient for sushi rolls (Dekura 93). Instead of using only cucumbers, I chose to challenge myself by using more ingredients. Since I have had a decent amount of culminating experience, I decided to improve my skills by giving myself a challenge. I took a recipe from my mom, which includes Cucumbers, Yellow radish, Crabmeat, Spam, fish sticks, rice, seaweed, and salad dressing. The main challenge of this recipe was cutting everything, but rolling it up was not as hard.

To start this Recipe I cut the Spam, Crabmeat, Yellow Radish, fish stick, and Cucumber into long strands. From my amount of experience, I could cut these ingredients without a struggle. However, from the amount I made, it took a long time. I cooked the rice while I was cutting the ingredients in order to save time. After the rice finished cooking, I “combined rice vinegar, sugar, salt” (Dekura 146). When I finished mixing the ingredients, I left the rice cooker open in order to cool off the rice.

When all the ingredients were finished, I took out my sushi mat (a bamboo mat) and laid it on the counter. According to Dekura, you should, “spread a handful of rice thinly over the nori without squashing it” (93). I used a water-vinegar solution to soak my hands, in order to avoid rice sticking on my hands. After getting all the ingredients onto the nori, I lifted the edge of the sushi mat and rolled up the sushi while pushing all the ingredients towards me (Dekura 93). Finally, when all the sushi is rolled up, I cut each piece by, “[cutting] it into halves, then fourths, then eighths” (Dekura 93).  

I'm extremely proud of my product, and I felt very accomplished after I finished doing everything. What foods have you been proud of making?

Dekura, Hideo, and Danny Kildare. Contemporary Japanese Cuisine: Classic Recipes, Fresh Flavors. New York: Weatherhill, 2001. Print.

Japanese Cuisine- Green Tea Tofu

         For my fifth post, I wanted to try something new; something that I’ve never tasted, nor have I ever heard about it. I want to expand my culminating experience by exploring new tastes, foods, techniques, and skills. Therefore, on this post, I created something called Green Tea Tofu. The name is self-explanatory as to what it is. I was intrigued by this dish because; I questioned how it would taste. Would it be bitter? Sweet? Salty? My curiosity drove me to create this dish myself.

               The dish consists ingredients such as silken tofu, Matcha Green Tea, agar agar powder, and Mirin. This dish isn’t time-consuming; It would take around 10-20 minutes or so. To start this dish, I place the silken tofu in a pot. Then I, “mash the tofu with a potato masher until it’s semi-liquid” (Dekura 77). When it becomes a thick paste, toss in 3 tablespoons of Green Tea powder. Again, continue mashing/mixing the solution until you have a consistent green paste. I messed up the next step, which was adding the agar agar powder. I forgot to mix it in water before adding it in the tofu and heating it up. After the mixture is heated up, strain the mixture through a sieve onto a rectangular mold (Dekura 77). Place the content into a refrigerator for roughly 30 minutes.

               As for the sauce, I used a combination of soy sauce, mirin, and Katsuo Dashi. Allowing the tofu to have a sweet, bitter, and salty taste. Additionally, some accompaniments you can use for this dish is ginger or pickled radish. Since I didn’t like either of those ingredients, I left them out of my dish. I added seaweed onto the tofu in order for it to look better.

               Finally, the dish tasted sweet yet salty (which I didn’t expect), and it seemed not stiff enough. I felt like I could’ve added more agar agar powder in order for it to harden up more. But all in all, I found this dish as a great learning experience, and I tried out a new dish.

So my question to you is: What dishes have you failed on making?

Dekura, Hideo, and Danny Kildare. Contemporary Japanese Cuisine: Classic Recipes, Fresh Flavors. New York: Weatherhill, 2001. Print.

Meal Planning 101

Something I have done recently is planning my meals. This means writing everything you’re going to eat down on paper, typed or other ways you could write this down so you have a physical form of what you’re going to eat. This has really helped me get healthier because it’s something I can look at for my meals like dinner to know and not end up eating a frozen pizza or frozen dinner, which seems to happen too often.

In The teen eating manifesto, Stollman includes a section about meal planning and provides templates for the reader to see. The section also includes around how many calories should be eaten for genders which showed for females about 1500 calories and for men about 1800 calories (Stollman 178). For the meal plans, it even planned snacks along with the 3 major meals.

Not only does it show examples of “menus” but it also said how often you should be eating, “Try to eat every three to five hours. If you don’t eat regularly, you may find that you get excessively hungry and then eat too much at the next meal” (Stollman 177). I hope some of you consider meal planning and try out being a healthier you! Thanks for checking out my blog posts.

Do you believe in calorie counting when trying to eat healthier/ lose weight?

MLA: Stollman, Lisa, MA, RD, CDE, CDN. The Teen Eating Manifesto: The Ten Essential Steps to Losing Weight, Looking Great and Getting Healthy. Northport, NY: Nirvana, 2012. Print.

Chocolate IS Healthy. . .

Have you ever been told: “Chocolate isn’t good for you!!” or “Try something healthier, chocolate is too sugary!”? According to the latest research, chocolate, in moderation hold extremely beneficial properties for our bodies. Michael Van Straten, author of Low Carb Super Drinks is a medical practicion and has been a doctor for many years. He has done a plethora of research on foods and their benefits and has created a book to help people find healthy recipes. The first line in the ‘Mealtime Drinks’ chapter reads: “Here’s some delicious chocolate, with the feel-good factor it always brings- and, according to latest research, heart benefits too” (Straten 70). Yes, chocolate is actually good for you. . . in proportions. No one is saying have a chocolate each day, but every now and then, a small piece of dark chocolate actually proves to help your body and in the latest research, has even proven to help reduce heart problems. Straten explains that even though there is delicious chocolate in this drink, that it is low in carbs because dark chocolate has far less fat and sugar than milk varieties. He says that mint is also one of the olderst remedies for indigestion (Straten 70). The drink he refers to is called ‘Bittermint Chocolate’, and it sounds delicious. It is made of:

3 oz of organic, good-quality plain mint chocolate

400 ml or 14 fl oz skimmed milk

4 small sprigs of fresh peppermint, washed

To cook and prepare:

1.      Grate about 15g of the chocolate and reserve

2.     Break the rest into chunks and put into a saucepan with the milk and two sprigs of peppermint

3.     Bring slowly to the boil, stirring until the chocolate is dissolved

4.     Fish out the mint

5.     Whisk or froth with a cappuccino wan

6.     Pour into mugs and serve with the grated chocolate and extra mint floating on top.

Straten emphasizes the fact that foods can help our bodies as much as medicines can. Foods are as healing as medicines and sometimes, medicines are even made up of many herbs and other foods. I know that this drink is calming and enjoyable since it contains mint, and I am more than curious to know how beneficial this drink really is beyond any immediate feelings. It tastes absolutely delicious too!

                

Do you agree with Straten that foods eaten in proportion, like dark chocolate, can be good for you even when you are cutting out all ‘unhealthy’ foods from your diet?

Straten, Michael Van. Low Carb Super Drinks. Great Britain: Mitchell Beazley, 2005. Print.    

A Remedy

Leading a healthy lifestyle is so important and there are many factors that play into achieving this lifestyle: meal planning, exercise, and especially nutrition. All of these aspects are really important but the most essential is meal planning. Most Americans stop out to grab a bite to eat because it is easy and quick; however, getting food on-the-go adds up and can be extremely harmful to our bodies; especially, unhealthy sugars and fats. Dr. Michael Van Straten is a medical practicion and has written a book called Low Carb Super Drinks that I have discovered. Dr. Staten says, “One common cause of fatigue and constant exhaustion is the poor absorption of nutrients due to faulty digestion. The essential oils in hops both stimulate the appetite and improve the digestive process so that by eating better and extracting maximum nutritional value from your meals, you’ll restore your vitality” (Straten 108). As part of the drink ‘Hopalong’, found in Straten’s book, dried hops are included. Faulty digestion can occur when you eat too many unhealthy foods that have bad properties in them. Restoring and keeping your body up to date with health is extremely important and is easily obtainable by meal planning.

 Meal planning is particularly important to helping keep your body healthy and happy, and, it isn’t as hard as everyone makes it out to seem. I especially love it because it means I only have to go to the grocery store once a week and I will have all the food I need for the week at home. Also, it allows you to be creative and find new recipes that could very well be new favorites. I can honestly tell you, I love using Straten’s book to find new recipes to make, and some of the recipes are surprising. After flipping through the book in search of a replenishing drink, I came across the ‘Hopalong’ drink and in it there is:

1 tbsp dried hops (or 1 hop tea bag) 

1 tsp maple syrup

  

It's really simple to put together-- all you have to do is slowly boil the ingredients together until ready. 

               Sometimes the ingredients in some of his drinks seem quite strange, yet Straten emphasizes the fact that no matter what symptom you experience: migraine, hangover, flatulence, flu, water retention, insomnia, wrinkles, stress and anxiety, or indigestion, there are an abundance of foods to help (Straten 107).  No matter if you want to reduce a certain symptom or just eat healthy foods, there is a food that contains a beneficial property for everything. Believe it or not, most medicines are actually made of natural plants and herbs (Straten 106) and dried hops are just one of them.

I highly recommend that you try this out or simply another food that will remedy any issues you are having that Straten talked about.

And, before you freak out because you’ve heard about ‘hops’ and beer, no, hops are not alcoholic. Dried hops come from a plant, and are used to flavor beer, but do not actually contain any alcoholic properties themselves.

    

Do you know of any strange foods that include some of the best healthy properties for our bodies and still taste good? Do you agree with Straten that there are foods that can help for almost every symptom or illness? 

Straten, Michael Van. Low Carb Super Drinks. Great Britain: Mitchell Beazley, 2005. Print.    

Find Joy in Salad Dressings

"Excuse me, what would you like for your appetizer?" said the waiter.
You replied, "I would like salad please."
"Okay sure. What type of dressing would you like?" asked the waiter.
"Ummm..."

Do you ever have that moment when you contemplate on what salad dressing you should choose? I know I do. This is why in this blog, I will be explaining about dressings and how you can also make them using the information I read from the book, All New Joy of Cooking, by Irma S Rombauer, Marion Rambauer, and Ethan Becker.

In my opinion, salad dressing is best described as an uncooked sauce to enhance the flavor of the food. It does not matter if the dressing is plain or fancy, salad dressing is a balancing act. Generally, no one wants a salad soaked in dressing or a salad that barely has dressing or taste at all. Salad dressing should have enough body to lightly coat the salad but never be heavy that the greens collapse under its weight.

About Dressings:
"The easiest way to dress a salad is to simply add oil or vinegar or citrus juice directly in with the greens and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper" (Becker and Rombauer 234). This is great advice because by doing this, the salad will not be drowning in dressing or lacking of it. It creates a well-trained sense of proportion. 

"More cooks prefer to make up a dressing before hand so that its flavors are more thoroughly blended and so that the oil-acid balance can be more easily adjusted if necessary" (Becker and Rombauer 234). I do not agree with this theory because I hypothesize that the dressing will just stay at the bottom and will not dress the salad as much. By putting it afterwards, there is more chances that the dressing will juice directly in with the greens. 
  
In the pictures I took above, I show how the left dressing is preferably a better choice in the kind of salad that will not drown in flavor. However, the right dressing will most likely be more thick and soak the salad greens.


What is your favorite type of dressing? Have you ever experienced the awkward moment of debating which type of salad dressing? Do you use salad dressing for anything other than salad? 

Bombauer, Irma Von Starkloff. Joy Of Cooking / All New All Purpose. NY, NY: Scribner, 1997. Print.
https://www.litehousefoods.com/

Find Joy in Cookies

WHO DOESN'T LIKE COOKIES? In my opinion, the smell of cookies is one of life's most satisfying pleasures! However, this blog will not be about how to bake cookies. I will be providing information on storing and packaging cookies.

Storing Cookies:
Cookies are very easy and traditional recipe to make. However, what do we do with the leftovers? You store them. This is how: "Plastic storage containers and seal-able plastic bags keep cookies airtight" (Becker and Rombeaur 815). However, as long as their lids fit tightly, old-fashioned cookie tins do the job nicely.

Although there is one thing that you must not do: "Never store cookies in any kind of container until they have completely cooled" (Becker and Rombeaur 815). Warm cookies produce steam, which will cause the entire batch to soften, and eventually to spoil. Cookies can generally be stored at room temperature for 1 to 2 weeks. Cookies that are sprinkled with or rolled in sugar, or that are to be frosted or glazed, should be frozen without these enhancements. Allow them to defrost completely before sugar coating, glazing, or frosting.

Packaging Cookies for Shipping:
Oftentimes, the best choices are small and medium cookies, at least 1/4 inch think and firm in consistency. An alternative is softer, brownies, blondies, and other bar cookies also usually ship well-with the exception of bars with sticky fillings or icings. "More delicate varieties can also be mailed successfully if they are packed carefully in tins or tough plastic boxes with plenty of crumpled wax or parchment paper added to keep them from jostling each other" (Becker and Rombeaur 815). After placing the cookies in a container, place them in a larger box filled with Styrofoam bits, plastic bubble sheets, crumped newspaper, or other airy filler to cushion the goodies inside from bumps and knocks.
As you can see in the picture I took from the grocery store, the cookies are in tough plastic boxes to secure the cookies.

What is your favorite kind of cookie? What is a technique you use to store cookies? Do you like soft or crunchy cookies?
Bombauer, Irma Von Starkloff. Joy Of Cooking / All New All Purpose. NY, NY: Scribner, 1997. Print.

Find Joy in Vegetables

IT IS A GLORIOUS TIME FOR VEGETABLE LOVERS!
First of all, I would like to give a huge thank you to the farmers at their markets, exporters, and seedsmen that are showering us with tastes, textures, and aromas we had never even heard of a few years ago. In this blog, I will be talking about the importance of vegetables, rules and preparing vegetables.

Importance of Vegetables:
Many people prefer not to eat vegetables. However, we can see the evidence that vegetables can change lives from the book, All New Joy of Cooking. "Scientists keeps confirming the age-old maternal admonition to eat your vegetables. The specific diseases you can avoid and miracle micro-nutrient of the moment might change with each new study, but the general advice stays the same: vegetables are good for you" (Becker and Rombauer 332). 

Rules for  Vegetables:
1. Just like fruits, if possible, buy vegetables that have been organically raised.
2. Do not wash vegetables until ready to cook them.
3. Look to see if vegetables have been waxed or sprayed.
4. If stored, check vegetables daily.

Preparing Vegetables:
Number one rule: "Prepare vegetables as close to cooking time as possible" (Becker and Rombauer 333). Wash vegetables no more than is needed to remove dust and dirt. I also learned that tepid water relaxes the leaves just enough for them to let down hidden grains of sand. "The skin is a vegetable's seal, keeping nutrients in and microorganisms out" (Becker and Rombauer 333). If necessary, vegetables can be cut up and refrigerated in an airtight container several hours in advance.



Do you eat vegetables everyday? What is your favorite vegetable? What is your preparation technique?
Bombauer, Irma Von Starkloff. Joy Of Cooking / All New All Purpose. NY, NY: Scribner, 1997. Print.

Japanese cuisine - Sushi

          Before I started making sushi for this project, I assumed that cutting up a piece of fish and placing it on a ball of rice would be simple. But as I finally got hands on experience with creating sushi, I was wrong. Many knife techniques are contributed into the making of sushi. The technique I chose to use was Sogi-Zukuri which is "a technique for thin sushi tops" (Dekura 149). Whereas the Hiki-Zukuri technique is used for thicker pieces of fish. In order to perform the Sogi-Zukuri technique you must slice the fillet at a 45-degree angle and slice approximately 1 cm (Dekura 149). My first couple slices didn't work quite as planned. The angle was slightly off causing my fish to be chunky and unappealing.

         After a couple more tries I finally acquired the skill of Sogi- Zukuri. I wouldn't consider my skill to be perfection because, I can consistently make good cuts, but I still mess up at times. Cutting the fish wasn't the only thing that was challenging. Creating the rice was also challenging. The correct way of creating a ball of rice is by "Combine water and vinegar in a bowl. Wash your hands well, dip your fingers into the bowl of vinegared water, then clap your hands together to remove any excess water" (Dekura 92). On my first attempt my hands were too wet, disallowing the rice to form into a ball and causes it collapse. On my second attempt i used less water on my hands but that made the rice stick to my hands. On my third try it seemed better but i still cant get the right amount of water on my hands to where the rice will form without sticking.

         Assembling the sushi was probably the easiest part of this process. I held the fish on my left hand and slightly cupped my hand. Then, I grasped the ball of rice with my right hand and rested it above the piece of fish. Using slight pressure I folded my fingers causing the fish and rice to stick (Dekura 92). All in all my experience with making sushi taught me a lot about cooking. I learned new knife techniques which can be used in other foods that I make in the future. 

How have you used a knife in your cooking?

Dekura, Hideo, and Danny Kildare. Contemporary Japanese Cuisine: Classic Recipes, Fresh Flavors. New York: Weatherhill, 2001. Print.

Confetti Corn

For my last blog I decided to make something I had never tried making before, confetti corn. I found a page in my recipe book that was titled confetti corn, and I had never heard of anything like it so I decided to try it out. There’s different corn recipes that I’ve tried before but none of them had similar ingredients to this one.

The ingredients include

• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• ½ cup chopped red onions
• 1 small orange bell pepper, ½ inch diced
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 4 cups corn kernels
• 1½ tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. black pepper
• 2 Tbsp. julienned fresh basil
• 2 Tbsp. minced fresh chives

The first step is to heat the oil in a large sauté pan on medium heat.

Add the onions into the pan and sauté them for 5 minutes so that the onions become soft. Then stir in the bell peppers and sauté them for 2 more minutes (Garten, 160). First I added the onions and sautéed them for roughly 5 minutes on medium heat until the onions became slightly brown and soft. Then I added in the diced bell pepper to the pan and sautéed them for about 2 minutes.

Then add the butter to the pan and allow for it to melt.

“Over medium heat, add the corn, salt, and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 to 7 minutes, until the corn just loses its starchiness” (Garten, 160). I first cooked the corn for 5 minutes then I checked if they were still starchy by pulling a few of them out and checking if they were still sticky, some of the corn kernels were still a little bit sticky. So I cooked them for about 2 more minutes and checked them again and they weren’t sticky anymore so I knew they were done cooking.

For seasoning add in the chives and basil, then serve confetti corn while its hot and enjoy.

The confetti corn turned out pretty good especially for my first time making it. I definitely will we be making it again. And I recommend you try.

Do you often modify your recipes and experiment with them, or do you like to stick to the original recipe?

Garten, Ina. Barefoot Contessa Back to the Basics. New York, Clarkson Potter, 2008. Print

Baked Potatoes

For my fourth blog I decided to venture out and try to make one of my favorite side dishes, a baked potato. My recipe book had a great recipe for baked potatoes paired with a yogurt and sour cream mixture.

The ingredients include:

• 4 large potatoes
• ½ cup Greek yogurt
• ½ cup sour cream
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh chives
• ½ tsp. salt
• ¼ tsp. pepper

The first step is to preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

The second step is to “Wash the potatoes and place them directly on the oven baking rack. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes, until very tender when pierced with a skewer” (Garten, 166).  I did exactly what Garten had said to do, I baked the potatoes first for 45 minutes then checked them to see if they were cooked, they weren’t fully baked so I baked them for 10 minutes more then checked them again by piercing the potatoes, they were finally fully baked and tender so I pulled them out.

Then combine the yogurt, sour cream, chives, salt, and pepper to make the chives dressing (Garten, 166). In the recipe it didn’t specify exactly how they wanted you to combine all the ingredients, so what I did was I put all the ingredients into a bowl and mixed everything with a spoon until all of it was thoroughly combined.

When the potatoes are done, cut them down the middle, and squeeze the ends. Then sprinkle them with some salt and pepper and then serve the hot potatoes with the cold chive and sour cream mixture.

The baked potatoes turned out great, and the chives dressing was really good as well, it tasted delicious with the baked potatoes.

What’s your favorite potato dish; mashed potatoes, French fires, hash browns, potato salad, etc.?

Garten, Ina. Barefoot Contessa Back to the Basics. New York, Clarkson Potter, 2008. Print.             

Honey Vanilla Pound Cake

For my third blog post I decided to make another baked good. The baked good that I decided to make was a honey vanilla pound cake.

The ingredients include:

• ½ pound unsalted butter
• 1 ¼ cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 2 Tbsp. honey
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups cake flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. baking powder

The first step is to preheat the oven to 350 degrees, then grease the bottom of a loaf pan and set it aside.

“In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed for 3 to 4 minutes, until light” (Garten, 208). I did exactly what Garten had said and I had achieved the light creamy texture of the butter and sugar combination.

 

Crack the eggs into a separate bowl. With the mixer on medium-low speed, add the eggs one at a time also add in the honey and vanilla extract. Then sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder. With the mixer on low speed add in the dry ingredients. Once the batter is completely mixed together then pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake the pound cake for 50-60 minutes. You know the pound cake is ready when you can insert a toothpick in the center of the cake and it comes out clean (Garten, 208). I baked the pound cake for 50 minutes and then tried the toothpick method, the toothpick came out with a tiny bit of batter on it so I baked the cake for 10 more minutes, then I tried the toothpick method again and it came out clean so I knew the cake was done baking.

 

After the pound cake is done baking then let the cake cool for about 15 minutes, then cut into slices and enjoy.

The pound cake was delicious it had just the right amount of sweetness and a perfect texture with a soft center and a stiffer outside. I highly recommend this recipe especially to those who don’t like too much sweet in there baked goods, this is a perfect simple delightful desert.

Do you use the toothpick method when baking? And do you prefer your baked goods to have a lot of sweetness or only a little bit?

Garten, Ina. Barefoot Contessa Back to the Basics. New York, Clarkson Potter, 2008. Print.