Sinterklaas Cupcakes

For some weird reason, we had a super early Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas) themed Hallway dinner yesterday. Sinterklaas is usually celebrated on December 5th... Being truly out of ideas, I decided to go with cupcakes, and let the theme be made out of decorations.

The cupcakes are plain, vegan cupcakes in which I added a dash of cinnamon and a hint of nutmeg. I made some spéculoos (speculaas in Dutch) flavored  frosting by making a batch of frosting and mixing in a couple of large scoops of spreadable spéculoos (also known as cookie butter in certain places). I also crushed a spéculoos cookie and sprinkled that on top of the frosting.

The decorations are piped white chocolate (that started melting and not holding shape as I was putting them on the cupcakes. They represent the hat and staff that Sinterklaas usually sports.

Bread Pudding Topped with Caramelized Pears

For a last dinner among friends before the fall break, I opted for a dessert that not only reminds you of fall, but also used up the pears sitting in my fruits basket.

I adapted the recipe from Delish, but instead of making the pudding myself, I used a pudding packet from the supermarket. The procedure itself was fairly simple.

First, I cut some dried bread into cubes, and made the pudding according to the instructions in the packet. I mixed bread, pudding, some raisins, and cinnamon and nutmeg together and let that rest in a mixing bowl a bit.

Then I caramelized the pears (a task made difficult by the overly soft pears), then laid them out at the bottom of a large springform pan. I poured in the bread pudding mix, and baked the whole thing for 45 minutes. After that, I flipped it onto a plate, so that the caramelized pears were on top~

It was a little sweet out of the oven, but after a night sitting out on the counter, it was perfectly fine.

Banana Bread

What to do when you have bananas ripening in your fruit basket, and you can't eat them all? Make banana bread of course!

This recipe (from Veg Recipes of India) is very very easy to make. On top of that, it is absolutely delicious. I made it on Sunday (Oct. 12th) for the first time, then quickly made another one for the next day's Hallway dinner. It's that easy to make!

The first time I made it, I topped it with walnuts. The second time, with cashews. Instead of having it plain, I mixed in chopped dried figs into the batter for extra texture and flavor.

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RECIPE

  Ingredients

• 3-4 ripe bananas
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• nuts and/or dried fruits, chopped (optional)
• cinnamon (optional)

  Procedure

1. Mash bananas (a fork works well enough).
2. Add oil, sugar, and vanilla. Mix well.
3. Sift in flour, baking powder, baking soda.
4. Fold in well, then fold in nuts/dried fruits is using.
5. Pour into prepared pan and sprinkle with nuts if using.
6. Bake at 180°C for 40-45 min.

Tiramisu in Jars (2)

On October 11th, my cousin requested I make more tiramisus. Just like last time, I fell in love with the idea of mini tiramisus in jars.

This time, however, I made a full batch of ricotta-cream mix -- more than I could contain in the 4 small jars that remained in my cupboard. I had to enlist the help of some short drinking glasses that are roughly the same size as the mini jars.

Some of the hearts are unfortunately off-center due to my haste while decorating them. That did not affect the taste in the least.

Head over to this post for a tutorial on how to make this super easy dessert. It's only down point is that you cannot eat it right after making it!

Choc-Chip and Walnut Cookies

I had this very sudden urge to bake some choc-chip and walnut cookies for my academic counselor (yes, very random). So as I was preparing dinner on Thursday, I got the dough ready for these, and then baked them after eating.

Surprisingly, they didn't spread as much as I expected. They have a somewhat crumbly texture... I can never truly predict how these cookies turn out, since I always treat the butter differently each time (this time I was a bit short on time, so I zapped it in the microwave). Also, I usually beat the dough with egg-beaters, which I don't have with me now, so I just used a wooden spoon to mix everything.

The recipe can be found here, I just used dark choc chips and no lemon, with added walnuts (the lemon in that recipe was to curb the sweetness, which is done by using walnuts in this batch.)

Tiramisu in Jars (1)

Last week, I had some remaining ricotta to use up, so I went and made 2 small tiramisus in these little jars that I bought corn in.

As usual (see tutorial), I layered coffee-soaked Spéculoos cookies with a cream-ricotta mixture, then used a stencil to dust chocolate powder on top. I remade the stencil, because the one I had made out of scrap paper in the past bent too much for continuous use. Therefore, I made a new one out of a large index card.

Italian-Style Lunch

For this quick Italian-style lunch, my cousin and I had some homemade minestrone soup, accompanied by a mushroom and cheese panini, and an iceberg salad with balsamic vinaigrette.

Thought I'd share ^^

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MINESTRONE RECIPE

  Ingredients

• 1/2 to 1 block tofu
• 1 can white beans in tomato sauce
• 2-3 tomatoes, diced
• vegetable broth (I just cooked some diced carrots and celery in water, adjusted with salt, and used it all into the soup)
• seasoning
• 1 small zucchini, diced
• ~40g small pasta (macaroni, etc.)

  Procedure

1. In a large saucepan, crumble and cook tofu with seasoning over medium heat.
2. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil.
3. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 15-20 minutes.

  Tips

     If, like me, you tend to not have broth laying around, and want to add more vegetables to the minestrone, you can do the following: Dice up some carrots and celery, and cook them in water. Adjust the broth flavor with salt, and add it all together into the soup.

Spanish Chickpeas with Spinach

For a Spanish-themed hallway dinner, I made these chickpeas with spinach, flavored with cumin and sweet paprika powder.

This was my first time cooking with dried chickpeas (that required soaking and boiling beforehand).

You can find the recipe here~

Dried Cherry Tomatoes

These are from about a month ago. My cousin and I bought these cheap cherry tomatoes at the weekly open market. Unfortunately, they weren't that tasty on their own.

So I decided to make oven-dried cherry tomatoes. It's really easy!

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RECIPE

  Ingredients

• cherry tomatoes, as many as desired
• salt
• pepper
• dried herbs
• olive oil

  Procedure

1. Line a pan with baking paper.
2. Cut cherry tomatoes in halves.
3. Lay them out in a single layer. Sprinkle with some salt, pepper, herbs.
4. Bake them for about 2 hours at about 90-100°C. How long you leave them in depends on how dried you want them.
5. Enjoy~

Birthday Apple Cake

Part 2 of my mom's birthday! I figured that an apple tart would not be very convenient for candles. At my brother's request, I made an apple cake (well he wanted an apple and pear cake, but I was short on time, so I just went with apples).

The recipe is very similar to the one I used in this cake, but I did not have any whipping cream, so I just topped it with lightly caramelized apples. The whole cake is glazed with the remaining glaze from the apple tart. Inside the cake, there are diced apples that I tossed in some flour to keep them from sinking too much (but I forgot to take a picture...)

I also added some leftover homemade applesauce to the batter for extra moistness.

Birthday Apple Tart

For my mom's birthday this year, I scribbled a few ideas during one of my classes (shhh don't tell my professor). I know from over the summer that she loves the apple tarts I make (see here and here). So at least one of the desserts was decided on.

I could not really take my time to make desserts this time, since I had spent the first half of the afternoon helping my brother. Afterwards, I left him to go to the kitchen and cook and bake. I made a spinach lasagna for the main dish, accompanied by a simple lettuce and corn salad.

It was my intention to start with the dough I still had in the freezer from one of the previous tarts. Unfortunately, it did not defrost on time (lack of foresight on my part), so I quickly made a new batch. I used a whole recipe for a thicker crust this time, after my parents mentioned wanting more crust in the tarts.

My parents bought Boskoop apples, which are a bit more sour, but one of the best varieties to cook. Due to the additional sourness, however, I had to sprinkle some brown sugar on top of the apples before baking. Besides these modifications to the crust and the apple type, the recipe is much the same as all the other times I made apple tarts!