Tag food

50/50 Week 16: The Netherlands Bitterballen

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I didn’t enjoy this one. You’ve been warned.

These are not a 1 day make, allow for at least 2 or start in the morning.

Ingredients:

Meatballs

  • 8 T butter (unsalted)
  • 1 cup AP flour
  • 3 cups beef broth
  • 2 T parsley
  • 1 small onion minced
  • 1 lb ground beef
  • 1/2 t salt
  • 1 t black pepper
  • 1/4 t nutmeg

Breading

  • 1/2 cup AP flour
  • 3 eggs (beaten)
  • 1 cup panko breadcrumbs

+ vegetable oil for frying

Melt butter over medium high heat in a large skillet. Once melted, add your flour little by little, whisking until a thick paste forms. Slowly stir/whisk in the beef broth, making sure to stir thoroughly. You want all of the broth incorporated in your roux (pay special attention to the sides of your pan) Your gravy will be smooth and get quite thick. Simmer for a couple minutes and add your parsley, onion, and raw ground beef. Stir well, season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Adjust seasoning as needed. This will look all sorts of wrong and frankly disgusting. It is what it is.

Transfer your meat/gravy mixture to a tupperware container and refrigerate overnight or until it has solidified (4 hours probably)

⭐⭐ It’s worth noting at this point that I refrigerated mine overnight and it was still not solidified..however I think that’s because I opted to use the lean ground beef instead of 80/20. I think the higher fat content would have made it tighten up better. ⭐⭐

Assuming your mixture is solidified, line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Put flour in a plate, bread crumbs in another, and your eggs in a pie pan. Shape meat mixture into 1 inch balls and place on baking sheet. Roll in flour, then eggs, and then bread crumbs. Repeat for all and then place pan in fridge while your oil heats. You want your oil to be about 375F

Fry 5 meatballs at a time until they’re golden brown. This will take about 4-5 minutes. If you have enough oil in your pan, the meatballs will actually float when they’re done. Drain and repeat until you’ve cooked them all.

I learned quite a bit while making this. Mainly I learned that I fucking hate frying things. Well, breading and frying. Fuck that. I hate it. It’s messy and to me, just not worth it. Not to say that these weren’t good, because I think they were quite delicious. I just don’t think they were worth it.

Serve with spicy mustard.

50/50 Week 15: Canadian Butter Tarts

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Ingredients:

Crust

  • 2 1/2 cups AP flour
  • 1 T sugar
  • 1 t salt
  • 1 cup cold butter
  • 3/4 cup cold water

Filling

  • 1/4 cup butter (room temp)
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs (room temp)
  • 1 cup maple syrup
  • 1/4 t salt
  • 1 t vanilla extract

This goes super quickly if you use a food processor for the crust. Put your flour, sugar, and salt in and add your cold butter in chunks. Pulse until the butter is in small pieces..about 8 times. Slowly add your cold water and pulse until the dough starts to come together. (It will still be a little crumbly but should hold its shape if you press it together)

Wrap your dough in plastic wrap and pat into a disc. Refrigerate for at least an hour.

While your dough is chilling, work on the filling. HA wow..unintentional rhyme 😅

Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, cream together your butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well between each. Add maple syrup, salt, and vanilla. This will look…well, frankly it will look curdled. Its not, I promise. It makes everything easier if you put your filling in a large glass measuring cup with a pour spout for later. If you make the filling and let it sit for a while until you’re ready to use it, you’ll need to give it a good whisk before using it.

Preheat oven to 350F

Now back to that dough! Separate into 2-3 portions. Put the dough you aren’t actively working on back in the fridge. Flour your counter and roll out until its about 1/8 of an inch thick. Use a biscuit cutter that’s about 4 inches across (I used a glass and cut around it) Grease a muffin pan and place your dough rounds in each cup. If you’re a slow cutter/its warm, place your muffin pan in the fridge while you work.

Now whisk up your filling and pour just over half way up for each cup. Do not overfill/spill. It will be a mess and is not gonna be a fun time. I have 2 – 6 cup muffin pans so I placed them on a cookie tray in case of any spillage/stability. Bake for 25 minutes and let cool for 5 minutes before removing and placing on a cooling rack.

Let these cool or they will be like fucking lava in your mouth. You’ve been warned!

These were so delicious and I’ve never been happier to send things to work with my wife. They were all gone before lunch 😉

50/50 Week 3: Pastel de Nata

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What a week….

This recipe was challenging to say the least. This is the recipe I followed:

https://leitesculinaria.com/7759/recipes-pasteis-de-nata.html

A few pointers….don’t re-roll your dough. You’ll end up with something hard to roll out and ultimately will ruin your pastry. Learn from my dumbass mistakes, children. .

The custard went off without a hitch. Delicious. 10/10

Since these tarts are typically cooked in an 800F oven and home ovens usually don’t go much passed 500F its a little bit dicey. I tried a combo of the 500F oven and the broiler. *Spoilers* the fire alarm was set off 3 times and I have to clean my oven due to some butter spillage.

Definitely the most challenging thing I’ve made yet and I’m sad to say it defeated me a little. I will definitely try these again though because the custard was very good.

If you’d like to watch the shitshow, watch below 🙂

50/50 Week 1: Pavlova

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Ingredients are pretty simple here 🙂

For the pavlova:

  • 6 egg whites
  • 1 1/2 cup sugar (granulated, not powdered)
  • 2 teaspoons of corn starch (sifted to ensure no lumps)
  • 1/2 Tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1/12 Tablespoon vanilla extract

For the whipped cream:

  • 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
  • 2 Tablespoons sugar (granulated)
  • optional: splash of vanilla extract

Fruit or whatever else you wish to add. I used kiwis and blueberries and the kiwis added just the right amount of tartness to cut the sweetness of the pavlova. (highly recommend)

This recipe is definitely more about technique than anything else since the ingredients are pretty simple. There’s not much room for experimenting here unless its with your toppings.

The key is low and slow. Preheat your oven to 225 F

You can either line a baking tray with parchment paper or like me, a silicone baking mat. I had mixed results when I was trying to research which I should use, but my silicone didn’t fail me 🙂

Aside from technique, you need patience. I would HIGHLY recommend using a stand mixer but a hand mixer will work as well. I definitely wouldn’t suggest someone do this manually. You’ll start by whipping your egg whites until soft peaks form. For me, I whipped it until it was passed the foamy stage. Then slowly add in your 1 1/2 cups sugar. Slowly. This is where the patience starts to come in. Once all your sugar is added, you’ll continue to whip until you get stiff peaks which will be a good 10 min or so.

Once you’ve reached stiff peaks, get out a spatula because the rest of this is manual. Add your lemon juice, and vanilla and gently fold to incorporate. Now sift in the cornstarch and gently mix it in. Now, you can certainly pipe your mixture onto your baking mat/parchment or you can do as I did and just plop it on there. I kind of shwooped up the sides to make some peaks and just ensure there’s a little bit of a well in the center. (that’s where your whipped cream/fruit will go later)

Now just pop that bad boy in the oven and forget about with for an 1 hour and 15 minutes. DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN. Just leave it be. Once that time has elapsed, turn off your oven. KEEP THE OVEN CLOSED. Leave it until the oven has completely cooled. We’re talking several hours or even overnight. It will be fine. The longer you leave it, the less cracking you’ll have.

Once everything has cooled. Seriously, all the way cooled. Go ahead and make your whipped cream and cut up your fruit as needed.

I would recommend transferring the pavlova to whatever you wish to serve it one since I didn’t do that and well…that was a mistake. Add your whipped cream and fruit to the top of your pavlova and voila!

Once you’ve added the toppings, you have to eat within a few hours. Your pavlova will lose its crispiness if you put it in the refrigerator. I didn’t know this until I made it…I still put the leftovers in the fridge, I even put some in the freezer as an experiment. I’ll let you know how that goes..

This was the first time I’ve ever tried Pavlova (making and eating) and it did not disappoint. The textures are amazing. Nice crisy shell and that soft, pillowy center. *chefs kiss*

10/10 would recommend

French Fucking Macarons

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Learn from my mistakes please.. This was a trial by fire but we made it out alive. Just do yourself a favor and buy almond flour…

Ingredients

Macarons

  • 100 grams egg whites
  • 50 grams granulated sugar
  • 200 grams powdered sugar
  • 110 grams almond flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
  • pinch of salt

Buttercream

  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  • optional: 2 teaspoons of homemade raspberry jam (or literally whatever flavoring you want)

Step 1: Assemble all of your essentials. Silpat or Silicone baking mat..or two. and get your scale ready and set for grams. You could theoretically make this with american measurements, but I’m personally going with the “if it ain’t broke” method and weighing everything out..when in Rome and all that

Beat your egg whites until foamy. Gradually add in your granulated sugar, cream of tartar, and pinch of salt and then beat until glossy, fluffy, and holding soft peaks. At this point, I added the coloring as well.

Sift together powdered sugar and almond flour

Gradually fold into your egg whites..as few strokes as possible to avoid deflating your mixture

Now this is where is got a little dicey for me..you want to incorporate it in as few strokes as possible but you also want it to be mixed well enough that it will flatten down into itself…so…just play with it and hope for the best

Put your mixture into a piping bag with a regular round piping tip..or if you’re fancy..a large ziploc with the end snipped off 🙂

I recommend keeping your sploops of batter fairly small…1 1/2 inch diameter-ish. The smaller ones definitely seemed to work a lot better.

After you’ve piped out all of your batter, put your baking sheets in a semi warm, non drafty area to sit for an hour. Your macarons need to dry and form a skin. You’ll know they’re good to go if you can lightly touch them and not have your finger stick.

Preheat your oven to 285F

Bake for 10 min. They should be set but not browned.

Once they’re done, put them on a cooking rack to cool completely. Don’t try to peel them off immediately..you’ll regret it. Once they are COMPLETELY cooled, gently..GENTLY pry them off your baking mat. About half of mine got jacked up because I made them way too big. But you know what? They still tasted the same.

Make your buttercream by creaming together your butter and powdered sugar. Add in your flavoring (jam in my case) and voila!

Pipe your buttercream on your macarons and make lil sandwiches. Easiest part of the whole process!

Don’t come for my sizing hahaha Do as I say..not as I do.
As you can see, the little ones did the best. The little ridged part at the bottom is what you want to see. Letting them sit and dry is essential to form the “foot”

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

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Ingredients Needed

Preheat oven to 350 F

Cupcakes

  • 1 1/2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup melted butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 3/4 cup buttermilk
  • mix about 1/2 tsp of sugar with 1/4 tsp of cinnamon and set aside

Filling

  • 1 med green apple (or any other tart apple)
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 small lemon
  • 1/8 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp corn starch

Buttercream

  • 1 cup butter softened
  • 2 cup powdered sugar
  • 2 tsp cream
  • 1/2 – 2/3 cup caramel + extra for drizzle

I’ve always hated when I’m trying to find a recipe and have to scroll and scroll and scroll to find it. So, there ya go! Right up top 🙂

  • Start by whisking your flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt together – set aside
  • Beat butter and sugar until creamed
  • add eggs one at a time, making sure they’re incorporated before adding the next
  • add vanilla
  • Alternate adding flour mixture and buttermilk (should take roughly 3 installments)

Don’t overmix. Fill your lined cupcake tray about 2/3 full. Sprinkle the cinnamon/sugar mixture over your unbaked cupcakes

Bake for 15-20 min (check around 12 min)

While your cupcakes are baking, start by dicing up your peeled and cored apple

  • In a pan, combine diced apple, brown sugar, and lemon juice ( you may adjust sugar and lemon amounts by taste)
  • when apples start to get soft, use a potato masher to squish them down to an almost applesauce consistency( think chunky applesauce)
  • add cornstarch to thicken

Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 min

The buttercream is just a basic buttercream recipe. No frills.

  • Cream together butter and powdered sugar
  • add cream
  • Slowly add caramel and taste as you go

You can use homemade or store bought caramel sauce. I personally just used store bought because we had it in the house and what else was I going to use it for?

For the drizzle, I used roughly 1/4 cup of the caramel sauce and added salt to taste. Heat it in the microwave for 10-15 second bursts so that the salt will melt. Put as much or as little on top of the cupcakes as you like. You can also omit this step completely if you prefer.

Thats it! If you make this, let me know how it goes 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKRSwaz7J4E&t=31s