Raspberry Brownies

Hi guys! As you may have read in my post from Sunday, I went raspberry picking on Friday and brought home like, five pounds of raspberries. Off the bat that doesn't actually sound like that much, but it's a lot. Like two giant tupperware containers a lot.

So when I started thinking up ways to use them (ya know, other than just shoving them straight into my mouth), the first thing that came to mind was chocolate. Chocolate and raspberries are a match made in heaven. I mean really, can you think of a better combination?

Since I had a lot of raspberries to get through, I wanted to make a quick and easy chocolate recipe so I decided on these Raspberry Brownies. They're a little cakey and a little fudgey, with a rich chocolatey flavor that's balanced by the tart, fruity raspberries.

Here's how to make them!

Raspberry Brownies: Serves 9-16 depending on how big or small you cut the brownies. Mine were cut to serve 9, obviously.

Ingredients:

• 8 tbsp butter cut into 1/2" cubes
• 4 oz 70% dark chocolate. I used Theo Chocolate Pure 70%, which is one my favorites, and goes really well with raspberries. For a really good chocolate flavor, it only makes sense to use really good chocolate!
• 1 c sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 c flour. Since it's such a small amount you can use any kind you like. I used a gluten free blend from King Arthur Flour since I had it in the cupboard!
• 1 c fresh raspberries

1. Preheat your oven to 400°F and grease an 8x8" non-stick baking pan. Don't use a glass pan since the oven temperature is pretty high.

2. Break your chocolate into pieces about the size of your cubes of butter and combine in a heat proof mixing bowl.

3. Melt the chocolate and butter combination in the microwave. I know, I know, I should really use a double boiler. I know. For some reason I have some weird aversion to double boilers, so I use the microwave. But! I use the microwave very carefully. I melt my chocolate in the microwave in 10-15 second bursts, stirring thoroughly between each one. You should probably use a double boiler, but if you really don't want to, just be careful. Burnt chocolate is gross.

4. In a second large mixing bowl, combine the sugar and the eggs, and whisk vigorously until well combined.

5. Add your vanilla extract and salt to the mixture and whisk until well combined.

6. Next up, add your flour to the mixture and whisk until (no surprise here) well combined.

7. Next up is the best and prettiest part of the cooking process! Pour your chocolate and butter mixture into the egg mixture and stir it up with a rubber or silicone spatula.

8. Once the chocolate and egg mixture are well combined, pour your brownie batter into your greased 8x8" pan and smooth it out with your spatula.

9. Ok, this is the part where you go from having standard awesome brownies to having extra awesome raspberry brownies. Drop your raspberries down into the batter, being sure to distribute them evenly.

10. Once your raspberries are on there, put your brownies in the oven and let them bake for 25 minutes.

11. A couple of minutes before your raspberry brownies are done baking, fill your sink with about 1" of cold cold water. Ice water is even better, but somebody I know always forgets to make ice cubes...

12. After 25 minutes, remove your raspberry brownies from the oven, place the pan in the ice water, being careful not to splash any water on top of the brownies, and let them sit until cool. This will prevent the brownies from overcooking so you still get some nice fudgey action.

Once cool, cut the brownies and serve. They are awesome on their own and obviously even better with a scoop of vanilla ice cream! If you can be patient, they are even tastier after sitting in the fridge overnight.

I hope you enjoy these raspberry brownies!

Til next time!

-Becca

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PB&J Cupcakes

Hi guys! Today I'm going to share a work-in-progress recipe for PB&J cupcakes. And ya know what? Even though these are a first attempt they turned out great! 

My friends are getting married this summer and asked me if I could make the cake, so I'm trying out some recipes. I'm super touched that they asked me to make it, so I obviously want it to be ultra amazing, and overall, I think this recipe might be a strong contender.

Ok, so the main objective here is delicious cake, but there are a couple of other factors to consider in figuring out a great recipe or two for this wedding.

1. It needs to be gluten free and vegan
2. It needs to hold up without refrigeration at a campground in August. Overnight. And all day.
3. There needs to be enough for 50-100 people, so I'd like to keep the ingredients good quality but inexpensive, which can be tough for gluten free and vegan baked goods!

Gluten free is easy! I do that all the time! But admittedly, I'm not extra super skilled at gluten free AND vegan. Also, when it comes to vegan butter, that shit melts at way lower temperatures than dairy butter, which is a definite concern.

So I racked my brain, thought it over, thought about delicious cake flavors, and decided to try this out. Plain yellow cake, raspberry filling, and peanut butter buttercream. My thought being that the cake and jelly will both hold up totally fine, and the peanut butter in the buttercream should help the vegan butter hold up in the heat.

Here's the recipe I used for my first attempt!

PB&J Cupcakes- Gluten Free and Vegan!- Makes about 18 cupcakes

Ingredients:

For cake:

• 1 package Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Vanilla Cake Mix. I know, it's a mix, but it's awesome, inexpensive, and consistent so I say hooray for this one!
• 3 flax "eggs". To make a flax egg, simply mix 1 tbsp flax meal with 3 tbsp warm water. Let sit for 5-10 minutes, stirring a few times, then use away!
• 1/2 c vegetable or canola oil
• 1/2 c water at room temperature

For filling and frosting:

• Raspberry jam. I admittedly did not measure, but I ended up using about half of the jar pictured above.
• 1/2 c vegan butter, such as Earth Balance Buttery Sticks
• 1 c creamy peanut butter
• 2 c powdered sugar
• 3 tbsp (or more if needed) soy milk

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F.

2. In a large mixing bowl, beat the flax "eggs" and cake mix together at medium speed until well combined.

3. Add the oil and the water and beat on medium speed for 1 minute. Be sure to scrape down the sides a few times so everything gets mixed together well.

4. Line two cupcake pans with cupcake liners. I recommend using cute colorful ones as these cupcakes are awfully tan...

5. Fill the cupcake pans with batter. Don't overfill! You only want to batter to come up to about 1/2" down from the edge of the liner.

5. Bake at 325°F for 20-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, then remove from the oven and let cool.

6. Load your jelly into a piping bag fitted with a number 230 decorating tip and inject your jelly into your cupcakes!

 7. In a large mixing bowl (or in a stand mixer, a tool I don't normally have at my disposal...) beat the butter until smooth, then add the peanut butter and beat until well combined and slightly fluffy.

 8. Add about half the powdered sugar, beat to combine, then add the other half and beat on medium until well combined.

9. Add soy milk, beat to combine, then scoop into a piping bag fitted with a number 22 star tip.

10. Pipe frosting onto the cupcakes! And hey, if you don't have a piping bag (I didn't until this weekend) you can just spread the frosting on with a knife.

And... voila! PB&J cupcakes complete!

When I make these again, I'll make a couple of minor changes:

1. Cook the cake a few minutes longer! When I did the toothpick test it came out super clean, but once the cupcakes cooled there was a slight amount of residual gooeyness around the edges. Don't want that, so a couple extra minutes baking should take care of it. It also may have just been that I was using someone else's oven and wasn't used to it.
2. Use more jelly! I definitely found myself wanting more. Next time I think I would cut out some of the cake to make room for more.
3. Add more soy milk to the frosting. It tasted awesome, but boy was it hard to pipe. Especially since I am not yet skilled in the ways of piping.
4. Add some chopped up peanuts for a nice sprinkle garnish.

Overall, these PB&J cupcakes turned out great and were quickly devoured by my coworkers when I brought them in to work. I think with a little bit more work I'll have an amazing recipe that anyone would love!

Til next time!

-Becca

P.S. The frosting totally held up overnight in my 90°F kitchen. Success!

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Lemon Meringue Pie

Hi everyone! Today I'm going to share a recipe for one of my favorite desserts, Lemon Meringue Pie! In fact, I might even go so far as to say that Lemon Meringue is my favorite kind of pie. Yes indeedy, my heart just pitter patters over the combination of graham cracker crust, tart lemon filling, and pillows of fluffy, sweet, lightly caramelized meringue. So good.

To get started, you'll need a crust. Graham cracker crust to be exact. Here's how to make it:

Graham Cracker Crust- Makes 1 pie shell

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2c crushed graham crackers (I used gluten free, as usual).
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp melted butter

1. Preheat your oven to 325°F

2. In a food processor, process the graham crackers and sugar until fine.

3. Pour the butter over the crumbs, and pulse a few times until just combined.

4. Pour the graham cracker mixture out into a pie pan. Non-stick makes life a little easier when you're serving, but any old pan should work just fine.

5. Press the crumbs into the pan forming a crust. My super special trick for doing this without making myself crazy is to use a measuring cup to press the crumbs up the sides of the pan. I find it's approximately 90% more effective than using my fingers. While you're at it, use it to press the crumbs into the bottom of the pan, too!

6. Bake the crust for 5-10 minutes until fragrant, then remove from the oven and cool.

Now that we've got our crust, we can move on to the pie itself, glorious Lemon Meringue Pie!

Lemon Meringue Pie

Ingredients:

• 1 prepared graham cracker crust (see above!)
• For Filling:
• 1 c sugar
• 5 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 c water
• 1/2 c milk
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1/2 c fresh lemon juice
• 2 tsp freshly grated lemon zest (do your zesting first and your juicing second! I forget all the time, but zesting first makes life ten times easier, promise.)

• For Meringue:
• 4 large egg whites (ah, how convenient, we just separated the egg yolks from 4 eggs for the filling!)
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 c sugar

1. Prepare your pie crust and let it cool, then preheat the oven the 350°F

2. In a heavy sauce pan, whisk together the cornstarch and sugar, then add the milk and water, and whisk until combined. In a separate bowl, whisk together your egg yolks. Whisk whisk whisk!

3. Cook the milk mixture over medium heat whisking constantly until it comes to a boil.

4. Pour approximately 1 cup of the milk mixture into the egg yolks, whisking the yolks constantly while you do this. This process tempers the eggs so you don't end up with little bits of cooked egg throughout your filling. Gross.

5. Return the yolk mixture to the milk mixture, and simmer the mixture, whisking constantly for 3 minutes.

6. Remove from heat, add lemon juice, lemon zest, and butter and whisk to combine. Once this is well combined, cover the filling (the filling, not the pan!)with saran wrap, and set aside.

7. In a large mixing bowl, combine the egg whites, salt, and cream of tartar, then beat using an electric mixer (or by hand if you're a masochist), until the egg whites hold soft peaks.

8. Slowly stream in the sugar while beating the egg whites, and continue beating until the egg whites hold stiff peaks.

Components complete! It's assembly time!

9. Remove the saran wrap and pour the lemon filling into your pie shell. Make sure to spread it evenly in the shell.

10. Next you're going to pile your meringue on top of the lemon filling and spread that shit out. You'll want to be sure to have the meringue meet the edges of the pie shell. Then once it's evenly spread, make it pretty! If you were extra fancy, you could totally pipe the meringue on top.

11. It's baking time! Bake that pretty pie in the oven for 15 minutes, or until the meringue is golden. Once it's done, remove it from the oven and let it cool. After it's cooled be sure to refrigerate it because, ya know, eggs.

As you can see, Lemon Meringue Pie is clearly the dreamboat of the pie world. Let's take a closer look:

Ah yes, crunchy graham cracker crust, tart gooey lemon filling, and sweet meringue so fluffy you kind of want to take a nap on it.

I hope you love it as much as I do!

Til next time!

-Becca

Weekly Wishlist: Kitchen Edition!

1. Tin Ceiling Tiles: Home Depot; 2. Stanley Thermos Flask: West Elm; 3. Ceramic Ice Cream Cone: Anthropologie; 4. Mini Ceramic Bowls: Anthropologie; 5. End Grain Cutting Board: Crate and Barrel; 6. New York Times Crossword Container: ModCloth

Well guys, this week I've got my kitchen on my mind. The space I live in has a nice bright and airy kitchen, so I love adding things that play that up.

I love the idea of adding wallpaper to my kitchen, but since I love how bright it is I would be interested in adding texture and pattern more than color. I've been obsessed with tin ceilings for years and think it would be lovely to use the tiles as panelling on the walls. Especially when it's a super cute pattern like this one.

Admittedly, I'm not a big drinker, but I love this flask so much I'd consider getting it just to carry around good maple syrup or something in case any emergency breakfast situations arose!

Also? Ceramic ice cream cone? Be still my gluten free heart! Sometimes you just don't want to have to use a spoon when you eat ice cream, am I right?

This set of ceramic bowls would make prep work in the kitchen breezy and beautiful. I used to always think it was crazy to pre-measure everything into little bowls like they do on cooking shows (so many extra dishes!), but once I started cooking more and making things like curry and pickles, I realized exactly how much time, energy, and stress it saved.

I've been using crummy IKEA cutting boards for ages, and they work just fine, but now that I'm doing more food photography I'd love to have a beautiful wood piece like this to work with.

Last, but not least, this adorable New York Times crossword puzzle jar. I can just picture myself doing a crossword at the kitchen table and drinking tea lightly sweetened with some sugar from my crossword puzzle jar! So fun!

What are you wishing for this week?

Til next time!

-Becca

Parmesan Crisps!

Hi guys! Today I'm going to show you how to whip up some parmesan crisps. Yum! 

Parmesan crisps are essentially parmesan cheese baked in the oven until golden brown, then broken up to make an absurdly delicious cracker-like creation. They are so good. And so easy!

Parmesan Crisps:
Ingredients:

• Parmesan cheese. The good stuff. None of that terrifying non-refrigerated stuff. And hey, not the refrigerated pre-grated stuff either. It doesn't behave the same (trust me, I tried). Use a hunk of Parmagiano-Regianno. I used about 4oz.
• Basil or other herbs of your choice. Or no herbs at all. You do you.

1. Preheat your oven to 400°F. Shred your cheese using the small holed side of a cheese grater. 

2. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and spread your cheese out on it. Don't spread it too thin. Keep the pile like, 1/8"-1/4" thick.

3. If you are using basil (or another herb), chop it until it's nice and fine.

4. Sprinkle the chopped up basil over the top of the cheese, and then mix it together with your hands. I did mine half with basil and half without. Variety is the spice of life, after all! If you wanted to do the whole thing with basil you could certainly add it and mix it before spreading everything out on the tray.

5. Put your tray in the oven and let bake. Depending on how thickly you laid out your cheese, this could take anywhere between 3 and 15 minutes (really.). You can tell it's done when it's golden brown. Now when I say golden brown, I don't just mean around the edges. I mean the whole damn thing is golden brown. If you don't let it all get there you'll have kind of half cooked bits of parmesan cheese that are neither crunchy nor soft. Trust me, you don't want that.

6. When done, remove from the oven, let cool, then break into smaller pieces and enjoy!

These parmesan crisps are delicious on their own, but would be great with dip (hummus anyone?), or used as the base for an appetizer. Heck, serve these with some tomato soup and it will probably make your whole day.

I hope you enjoy them!

Til next time!

-Becca

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