New York In 5 Days - Day 1

We started our trip on a early Monday morning flight to the east coast, landing in New York at 7:00 pm.

We arrived at our clean and comfortable room at The Hampton Inn North, put our bags down and ran right out the door to get our first taste of the city. Our first priority was to find something for dinner. Making our way down the busy sidewalks, we found ourselves at 53rd & 6th, right by the Halal Cart I had read about on yelp. Although it looked questionable, the ground beef, rice, pita bread and some of the spiciest sauce I have ever had, was delicious. It also allowed me to cross off my list of New York experiences - eat off a food cart.

With a good base layer of "real food" it was time for the main event, dessert.

Now my original plan was to walk to Serendipity3, put our name on the waiting list then head over to Dylan's Candy Bar to pass time, but as we became closer to 3rd avenue the glow of Dylan's came into view. Like a three year old, I was too excited to come back in 5 minutes, and just had to go in now.

Dylan's was my dream shop: candy wallpaper, large candy decorations and candy theme music echoing though the store. (Lets be honest, I would fill my own bathtub with gumballs if my husband would allow it.)

Out of the 3 floors of candy goodness and cute non-edible items, my daughter picked out a package of Peanut Butter Moon Pies??? I picked out a cute sweatshirt for camping and a Sugartarian T shirt. I Love the T shirt!

After oohing and aahing over everything in the candy shop, we walked further down the street to the picture perfect New York restaurant Serendipity3. Like I originally thought we should have put our name in before we went to Dylan's, because at 10:00pm there was a a 30 minute wait.
It was hard for us to decide which two desserts we would try. Serendipity is best known for The Golden Opulence (a $1,000 sundae) and the Frrrozen Hot Chocolate, because you have to order the Golden Opulence 48 hours in advance we decided on the Frrrozen Hot Chocolate. (OK, so maybe we didn't order it because it was a little out of my price range.)

Not being able to decide on something to share, we ended up getting two desserts as well as the Frrrozen Hot Chocolate. My daughter, being a peanut butter lover ordered a Hot Fudge Sundae???, so I ordered the Humble Pie, a peanut butter pie with a graham cracker crust.
The Frrozen Hot Chocolate was gross. It was like a chocolate frappuccino my daughter gets from Starbucks, which I think are disgusting. Chocolate milk with chips of ice, no thank you. The Hot Fudge Sundae was OK but nothing special, but the Humble Pie was wonderful. The cool and creamy peanut butter filling, in a peanut buttery graham cracker crust was especially good with a few spoonfuls of my daughters fudge sauce.

We walked back to our hotel in a sugar haze, with more fun and sweets awaiting us in the morning,



* Tip - Put name in at Serendipity3, then walk back to Dylan's Candy Bar to wait.
* Cost - Serendipty3 Frrrozen Hot Chocolate, Hot Fudge Sundae, & Humble Pie $28.80

Planning For New York

How do you plan trip to New York around food, when you are super picky? I am not sure but I am trying. Besides seeing the necessary New York icons, like the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, and Tiffany & Co., you have to eat at their great restaurants, at least that's what I hear. The problem is that I don't eat gourmet food.(Not even gourmet desserts!) I am not refined enough I guess to appreciate a giant white plate with a few splashes of sauce and a small dollop of pate or something else of a questionable texture. So with those limitations, finding "New York" places to eat is a challenge. (I know foodies are rolling their eyes and calling me names.)
Even more important than finding good restaurants, is finding good non frou-frou desserts. I scoured Yelp and Urbanspoon, watched Food Network, and searched a few helpful website like Dessert Buzz, trying to make a list of desserts I must try. I am determined not to miss a single delicious dessert, even if that means I will have to wear something with a elastic waist band for the plane ride home.

After mapping out step by step what to see and were to eat, I printed out my three page itinerary and am ready to conquer New York. (Yes I know I have more issues than just how I eat)

Water For Elephants...Cupcakes For Pigs

This post is a little late but after my caramel hand incident, I have just regained use of my hand and can now type.
I was just beginning to make my cupcakes inspired by the movie and the book Water for Elephants, when I burnt my hand. (Since my kids are grown I will use any excuse to throw a themed party.)

I decided to make circus food instead of cutesy animals as my circus theme. With my hand heavily bandaged, I was only able to make four different circus flavors, Circus Peanut Cupcakes, Caramel Popcorn Cupcakes, Root Beer Cupcakes, and Pretzel Cupcakes.  If I could have, I would have made a few additional cupcake flavors like red licorice and cotton candy.
The cute circus cupcake wrappers and circus goodie bags at Michaels, and I made the popcorn wrappers with red and white striped scrapbook paper.
I loved the way they turned out, even if a little left-hand sloppy, and they tasted yummy. (Pretzel was the best) 

Caramel Popcorn & Pretzel Cupcakes:

I made the Caramel Popcorn topping the day before, and used chocolate cupcakes for both, for better time management. (Don't make the Pretzel frosting the day before or else the pretzels will get mushy.)

Caramel Corn
Adapted from allrecipes

1/2 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
3 bags natural microwaveable popcorn

Preheat oven to 250

Pop popcorn as directed on package. Sift through the popped popcorn removing all kernels, and placing the good pieces in an extra large bowl.

Heat butter, sugar, corn syrup, and salt in a sauce pan over medium heat. Stir constantly and bring to a boil. Boil without stirring for 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in baking soda and vanilla.

Pour over popcorn and stir until coated. WARNING IT'S HOT SO BE EXTRA CAREFUL :) Pour into large baking pan and bake for 1 hour, stirring ever 15 minutes.

Let cool completely before breaking into small pieces.

Chocolate Cupcakes
Makes 12 cupcakes

1 cup milk
1 tsp vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup oil
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Caramel Frosting:
From gimme some oven

Pretzel Vanilla Frosting
Adapted from Dorothy Tong, Food Network

8 tablespoons butter, softened
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp cream
 cups of small pretzels

Place pretzels in a sealed plastic ziploc bag, and crush with a rolling pin, Set aside.
Cream together the butter and vanilla until smooth. Add the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the cream until smooth. Stir in the pretzel crumbs.

Circus Peanut and Root Beer Cupcakes:
The Circus Peanut and Root Beer Cupcakes were both made with vanilla cupcakes. The Circus Peanut Frosting was a plain vanilla frosting, but if I was to do it again I would use a Marshmallow frosting like this Food Network. For the ice on the Root Beer Cupcakes I used clear rock candy.


Vanilla Cupcakes
Adapted from Cooking Light

12 oz sifted cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
2/3 cups butter softened
1 cup warm water
2 tsp vanilla
6 egg whites

Prepare cupcake tin. Preheat oven to 350

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt.
In a large bowl beat butter and 1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons of sugar on medium speed for 2 1/2 minutes.
Add flour and water alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with the flour.
In the bowl of a stand mixer beat egg whites on high speed until foamy. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.
Fold egg whites into batter and pour into cupcake tin.

Bake for 18-20 minutes.


Root Beer Frosting:

1/2 cup Root Beer
2 sticks butter
6 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp heavy cream
several drops of Root Beer flavoring
Brown food coloring

In a bowl of a stand mixer beat butter and sugar on medium speed until combined. Add cream and root beer. Turn mixer to high speed and beat until fluffy. Add flavoring and brown food coloring.

Vanilla Frosting
From Dorothy Tong, Food Network

8 tablespoons butter, softened
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp cream

Cream together the butter and vanilla until smooth. Add the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the cream until smooth.


The Caramel Popcorn and Pretzel Cupcakes were especially good, and I plan to make them on a more regular basis. Well, I might have to wait a little while for the caramel trauma to pass.

The Show Must Go On

While making a batch of caramel corn for an upcoming project, I ended up making caramel covered knuckles instead. 
WARNING: the next picture isn't pretty

When I poured the caramel on my hand I immediately put my hand under cool running water. (While I stirred the popcorn with my left.) Then I soaked it in a bowl of cool water for about 20 minutes. The next day I went to the doctor, where I cried like a baby when I got a tetanus shot, (I wasn't even close to crying when I got burned.) and they lathered some lotion on it and wrapped it up so I wouldn't stretch the blister.  I wasn't quite good as new, but I did manage to make another batch of caramel :)


This weekend I should have some really good cupcakes to show after all this drama.

Macaruins

Ugh! 8 batches of macarons and all I have to show for my work is a pile of macaron carcases on my counter top. I guess I was a little full of myself after the success of my first batch. Now, batch after batch come out horrible.

I like to refer to them as Hollywood Macarons, beautiful on the outside but hollow on the inside.

So what is my problem? Well, depending on the website or the cookbook, the answer was different. Was it the age of the eggs, or maybe their temperature? The moisture in the almond flour? Was I mixing the batter too much? Maybe I was mixing to little? Was it too humid? Maybe my oven temperature is off? I tried it all and nothing changed the hollow outcome. I am continuing to experiment, and hopefully soon I will get my perfect macrons back.

Here it goes......Macarons

It was bound to happen sooner or later, I was going to have to dive into the world of macaron making. I became interested in macarons after seeing the movie Marie Antoinette. They looked so pretty in the movie, but I was a little leery of their taste. Then on one of my trips to Bouchon Bakery I had my first taste of a macaron, and it was heaven. They were delicate, soft, and full of flavor. Since then I have tried others, Patisserie Philippe in San Francisco (eh),  Paulettes in San Francisco (yummy),  Jean Philippe in Las Vegas (I went back to LV just for the raspberry macaron, yum), Amour in Las Vegas (OK), but Bouchon still tops my list.
Until now I had made a conscious effort to refrain from making macarons. I heard the horror stories about difficulty in making a good macaron, so why put myself in the position of having a nervous breakdown in my kitchen when I can just go to Bouchon? Well, I started feeling a little peer pressure. I keep hearing macarons are the new cupcake, an idea I think started by Bon Appetite. So it was time for me to try.(Besides I really love a pushing myself towards breakdowns.) After reading blog after blog (Kitchen Musings was the most helpful), and cookbook after cookbook (America's Test Kitchen always comes in handy), I was ready for my first attempt. (Yes, I was already expecting several attempts.)

Kitchen Musings and America's Test Kitchen didn't steer me wrong. I was shocked how easy they were to make after hearing all the warnings about feet, no feet, wrinkles, cracking... My first attempt turned out amazing. Not only did they look good they tasted just like the macarons I had fallen in love with. The next day I took the cookies to work introducing my co-workers to the macaron world, and they loved them.(Granted, none of them have ever had a macaron in their life, so they have nothing to compare mine to.) Out of all the goodies I have made and brought in to share I have never had a reaction like this. They couldn't stop raving about them. I plan on making another batch this week for my partner in macaron crime, to get an experienced opinion on them, so we will see what she thinks. I would have let her try some from this batch, but they just didn't last long enough :)

Macarons 
recipe adapted from Kitchen Musings (I use the word adapted loosely, I only added vanilla and changed the baking of the original recipe.)

Shell:
100g egg whites (aged in the refrigerator 1 day and then microwaved 10 seconds)
125g almond flour
225g powdered sugar
25g granulated sugar
pinch of cream of tartar
1/4 tsp vanilla

Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
Prepare pastry bag with a 1/2 inch plain tip.
Using a food processor, pulse almond flour and confectioner's sugar until combined.
In the bowl of a stand mixer whip the egg whites and cream of tartar on low speed until foamy, about 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium high and beat 1 minute. Add granulated sugar and continue whipping until stiff peaks form, about 1 minute.
Gently fold 1/4 of the flour mixture along with the vanilla into the egg whites. Continue adding 1/4 and folding until all the flour is combined, making a thick batter. Fill the pastry bag with the mixture.
Pipe the batter into 1 1/2 inch mounds on the prepared baking sheets, spacing about 1 inch apart.
Let the macarons rest at room temperature for 2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 325. Bake the macarons for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Peanut Butter Filling:
9 oz cup peanut butter
2 oz powdered sugar
2 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted
1 tsp vanilla

In a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the peanut butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and melted chocolate on medium speed for 4 minutes.

Chocolate Filling:

1 cup heavy cream
8 oz bittersweet chocolate
1 Tbs corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla

Place chocolate in a medium bowl.
In a small sauce pan bring heavy cream and corn syrup to a simmer.
Pour heavy cream over chocolate, and let sit for 2 minutes.
Add vanilla and stir until combined and smooth.
Let cool in refrigerator, stirring and check consistency every 10 minutes. The chocolate is ready when thickened to a frosting consistency.

Fill 2 pastry bags, one with peanut butter filling, the other with chocolate ganache.
Pipe a small circle of chocolate ganache in the center of one of the cookies. Then pipe the peanut butter around the chocolate and sandwich with the second cookie.

The finished macarons can be stored in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Delicious!

Coconut Lemon Lime Bars

I am back from a quick trip to Mexico and have a dessert inspired by my mini vacation. Like usual I mixed a little of this recipe with a little of that recipe to come up with these deliciously tangy Coconut Lemon Lime Bars. A perfect blend of tart filling, slightly salty cookie crust and sweet shredded coconut topping.

Coconut Lemon Lime Bars

Cookie Crust:
2 sticks butter at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1/8 tsp kosher salt

Custard:
4 large eggs at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tbs grated lime peel
1/3 cup coconut

Preheat oven 350 degrees.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light, about 2 minutes.
Add the flour and salt to the butter and combine until just mixed.
Press into a 13x9 pan. (I used my vintage Pyrex that was 12x7)
Bake 15-20 minutes.
While crust is baking make custard.
Whisk eggs, sugar, lime zest, lemon and lime juice, flour and baking powder.
Pour over warm crust.
Turn down oven to 325 degrees and bake for 25 minutes.
Remove from oven sprinkling coconut on top.
Continue baking for 5-10 minutes longer.
Cool completely before cutting.

While in Mexico I did hear about the horrible earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan. I can't even imagine what they are going through. My heart goes out to all of the people in Japan.