Halloween 2010

Brains, witch broom cookies, chocolate spiders, and Halloween Pie!


This is my Halloween Decorations Table -- Jack, Creepy Tree, Eyeball, Coffin, and Fuzzy Bat get to enjoy the living room once a year.




All of these pictures are out of focus because I accidentally had the camera set on macro the entire weekend. Why I didn't think to check the setting after having significant trouble getting it to auto-focus, I don't know.



While shopping for something entirely different, I bought a brain mould. The first brain I made was marshmallow -- definitely the sturdier of the two. The second, gelatin like the mould's box suggested. In a regular climate, the gelatin brain would have survived longer. Both brains looked gross and awesome!



Halloween Pie was an orange-dyed milktart with a variety of candy and chocolate shapes. I bought a LOT of chocolate and candy moulds for Halloween, and only got to use a few. I did discover semi-sweet chocolate does not set the same way as candy melts or white chocolate, and cracked a mould getting one dark skull out.



Chocolate spiders started vanishing quickly:



I also tried to make bones out of meringue. As with all of my previous meringue experiments, they pretty much failed. The brain-bite cupcakes were a decent success, I think. I made half of them dirty pink and the other half greenish for zombie brains.



The bones didn't look too bad stacked up in a pile, but they were very difficult to pull off the parchment paper and most were gooey, not stiff. On the bottom right, the corner of the pretzels that became witch broom cookies. On the top left, brain mould box.



I also made pumpkin chili, which was delicious!



Happy Hauntings!
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Mischief the Fuzzbutt

Mischief the Fuzzbutt, a ferret memorial


A friend of mine lost one of her ferrets shortly after a move. I quickly located and purchased an awesome pattern for an amigurimi ferret from Planet June: Ferret Pattern. Eyelash yarn, or fuzzy yarn, is not as easy to find these days in all the colors of the rainbow (specifically, tan), so I acquired the body color from her mom in regular acrylic. After figuring out how to modify the pattern to look more like Mischief, I got to crocheting. Longer face, slightly longer body, and mostly blue eyes. My reference was my memory and one picture from Facebook. For my first amigurimi animal ever, I think Mischief turned out rather well =)

I have since discovered there is a brushing technique to get acrylic to look kind-of fuzzy. Might look into this in the near future.

Happy Fall!
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Angel Crochet, take two

More presents!

My boss's favorite color is purple. For her birthdate present, I made another angel crochet, starched it, sprayed it with a lighter coating of shellac, and tied a purple wired ribbon around it in a pretty design.

Here's the two angels together:


The one with the bow on it is noticeably whiter and less stiff, which means less waterproof. These have been good practice for what I anticipate making for this year's holiday gifts -- orange and green themed starched snowflake ornaments. Perhaps I should get started on those.
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Independence Day Treats

Happy 4th of July!

The above picture is fondant-covered brownie (all 9 x 13 of it). I made spice brownies by putting a couple pinches of cayenne pepper powder into a batch of dark chocolate brownies. The fondant is leftover from a friend of mine's cupcake-making extravaganza. I have a tile counter top and no rolling pin, so I forwent making cool cut-out shapes. Instead, I used the fondant like stretchy clay, dying clumps at a time, elongating them, and flattening them in my hands until I had what looked like an American flag. No stars on this one, but the colors exist. I have discovered that lining the glass pan with aluminum foil makes the brownies easier to lift out. It also reduces cook time, or temperature, or both.

For the most part, people took the fondant off and piled it in a corner of the aluminum foil. Good to know.

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes!

These gloriously fuzzy photos were taken with my cell phone camera. Not too bad. The cupcakes are Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes, linked to me by another culinary friend. The recipe can be found here: Chocolate Whiskey and Beer Cupcakes. The photos on the original site are much better, but here are mine anyway.

Cupcakes:


The Belgian dark chocolate I used to make the ganache and the Guiness Extra Stout I used to make the cupcakes:


Cupcakes, cored and ready to be filled:


Dark chocolate whiskey ganache, just after mixing:


I used 2 (perhaps 3) tablespoons of whiskey in the ganache and only later discovered the recipe had called for teaspoons. Whoopsies. Turned out delicious, just needed some extra cooling time.

Ganache after cooling in the fridge:


Filled cupcakes:


I had a terrible time trying to use parchment paper to pipe the ganache. I finally zipped off to the grocery store to pick up a re-usable plastic piping bag and finished the cupcake filling and icing.

Blue buttercream icing with Bailey's:


The Irish cream slightly dulled the blue color, but the taste is worth it.

Beating in the Bailey's:


And tada, some iced cupcakes:


Bonus picture: part of the mess I made in the kitchen beating powdered sugar into butter to make icing:


The cupcakes flew off the tray once enough people discovered how tasty and alcoholic they are. A surprising amount of brownies vanished as well. This was the third batch of brownies I made using cayenne pepper powder and I think I got the amount just right on them. The first batch came out way too spicy -- half a teaspoon of pepper powder. The second batch was a bit too spicy -- two big pinches. This batch got two little pinches -- delicious!

Next batch of brownies will have, as suggested by two of the 4th of July partygoers, melty chip of some kind -- chocolate, butterscotch, peanut butter, etc. -- and pecans instead of walnuts.
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Strawberry Cheesecake Bars

My digital camera has ceased to function. These tasties vanished so quickly I was unable to acquire a photo through other means. Here is an artistic rendering of these delicious treats. By "artistic rendering" I mean "mediocre sketch thrown together in a few minutes in GIMP."


Evil Bitch-Monster of Death's Fruit Preserves Cheesecake Bars recipe

Cheesecake Bars Instructions:

1 – Make about half a recipe of cookie dough OR a bunch of crumb crust and bake according to directions. Cool.
2 – Spread 3/4 c. fruit preserves* evenly onto top of cooled crust.** Let it sit there a while and soak into the crust. A few hours should do it, more if storing in the fridge.
3 – Make Cheesecake Bar Filling and pour / spread evenly over jam-covered crust.
Bake at 335 degrees for 40 minutes. The middle will be a bit jiggly. If it looks too jiggly, bake ~10 minutes more. Cool.
4 – Make Sour Cream Fruit topping and pour / spread evenly over cooled cheesecake.
Bake whole thing again at 350 degrees for 7 minutes. Cool.

Refrigerate until set (overnight, at least 8 hours). Refrigerate some more so the preserves and cheesecake soak into the crust. Make a day or so in advance, or have a springform 9 x 13 and ignore this part.
Try to cut into bars. Expect about 1/4 of them to come out wonky and in need of immediate consumption. The nice ones will indeed look very nice.

* You don't have to make your own fruit preserves. Just make sure to use fruit preserves and not jelly.

** Optional: instead of spreading fruit preserves onto crust, beat them into the cheesecake bar filling.

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Cookie Dough:

1/2 c. butter, softened (1 stick)
1/2 c. sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
-- cream all together
1 c. flour
3/4 c. chocolate chips
-- add, mix well

Press dough into greased 9 x 13 pan evenly. Bake at 350 degrees for ~15 to 20 minutes. Let cool.


Crumb crust:

1 c. flour
1 c. finely chopped nuts
1/3 c. packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon powder
1/4 tsp. salt
-- mix all together well
1/3 c. butter, melted
-- add, mix well with fork

Once crumb crust is evenly moistened by melted butter, press evenly into greased 9 x 13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for ~15 minutes. Let cool.

-------------------------------
Fruit Preserves:

1 quart fruit
3/4 to 1 cup sugar
2 to 3 tblsps lemon, lime, or pineapple juice

Put fruit and sugar in a stove-top safe stainless steel pot, mix up, and let sit about 4 to 8 hours. The sugar keeps it from spoiling -- don't fret.
After 4 to 8 hours, mix up again and slowly bring the sugar-fruit mixture to a boil. Make sure all sugar is dissolving.
Once boiling and sugar is dissolved, add lemon, lime, or pineapple juice. Boil until 220 degrees F (about 15 minutes, until translucent and thick).
Remove from heat and cool in a shallow pan for about a day.
Store in fridge or jar/can.

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Cheesecake Bar Filling:

2 packages 8 oz. cream cheese (16 oz. total), softened
2/3 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
-- beat all together with electric mixer, ~2 minutes
3 eggs
-- beat on low until well-blended

Note: this is one more egg than typical cheesecake recipe of this ratio, because bars need to be more firm to hold up to cutting.

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Sour Cream Fruit topping:

version 1:
1 c. sour cream (8 oz.)
1 yogurt, fruit-flavored (about 4 oz.)
1 tsp. vanilla extract (optional)

version 2:
1 1/2 c. sour cream (12 oz.)
1/4 c. fruit preserves (not jelly)
1 tsp. vanilla extract (optional)

Mix all ingredients together util well blended.
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Strawberry Crepes

Crepes with Nutella and strawberry sauce.


First, mix up the crepe batter. It needs to sit out for about twenty minutes to become room temperature. While it sits, I cut up the strawberries and set them to simmer on low heat with honey.


Changed pans, added pure cacao nibs for crunch.


Whisk up the batter again and start heating the pan with a small amount of butter/oil. I set my electric stove to just below 4 (it goes to 10).


Start making crepes. I use a 1/4 c. measuring cup to pour the batter in the center of the pan, then swirl it around by tilting the pan.


Crispy edges, time to flip the crepe. This usually takes about 1-2 minutes.


Crepe is ready. This takes another minute or so, depending on crepe thickness.

Once the crepe is ready, set it flat on a plate. Pour another 1/4 cup crepe batter into the pan and let cook while spreading Nutella inside the cooked crepe and rolling it up.


Nutella-filled, strawberry sauce-topped crepes.


Delicious!

Evil Bitch-Monster of Death's Crepe Recipe
1/4 c. milk
1/4 c. water
1/2 c. flour
1/8 tsp. salt
1 egg
1 tblsp oil, or melted butter
1-2 tblsp sugar (optional)

Protein modification:
replace 1/4 c. milk with 1/4 c. water (or keep milk and add a couple tblsps water -- this is mostly to dissolve the protein powder)
replace 1/2 c. flour with 1/4 c. flour, 1/2 c. protein powder
-- these tend to be more sticky than regular crepes, so be sure to butter the pan and cook slightly longer.

Mix all ingredients together with a fork or whisk until smooth; let sit 20 mins or so (fold some laundry, do some dishes, make some fruit compote). Heat a little butter or oil in pan on almost-medium heat, pour 1/4 cup at a time in center and rotate pan to spread into flat crepe shape. Cook 1-2 minutes, flip, cook 1-2 minutes more. Makes 4 crepes (double or triple recipe for more crepes).

Evil Bitch-Monster of Death's Fruit compote (can be made while letting crepe batter sit):

take out some cream cheese to soften, 2-3 oz. (optional)
frozen or fresh fruit (1/3 to 1/2 cup is plenty to fill 4 crepes)
honey or granulated sugar (2-3 tblsps, more if you like it really sweet or are using bitter fruit like raspberries)

Boil fruit and sugar/honey on medium heat in a pan, reduce to simmer for about 10 mins, stirring and mushing so nothing sticks to the pan. Pour into bowl, beat in optional cream cheese with fork or something, fridge to chill. (Clean pan, cook crepes).
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Strawberry Pies

Fresh strawberries make delicious treats.

This is a sugar-free white chocolate pie I made with instant Jello pudding mix. Ignore the ratios on the package and use at most 2 cups cold milk to 2 packages Jello pudding mix. I poured it into a shortbread Ready Crust.


Strawberry Lime Cheesecake

Into my standard cheesecake ratios, I stirred blenderized strawberries and lime juice. This made a much less viscous filling that I baked for longer at a lower temperature (and tried not to spill on the way in the oven). About a cup and a half of chopped strawberries went in, and 1/4 cup lime juice. I left out the melted chocolate for this one. It is in a chocolate Ready Crust.


For the glaze on the strawberries, I melted orange marmalade and concord grape jelly in a pan with some honey and let it cool before applying. Next time I plan this, I will either beat chopped mint into the cheesecake batter or stir it into the glaze.


Evil Bitch-Monster of Death's Simple Cheesecake Recipe

The Pie (9")
    2 8-oz. packages cream cheese, softened
      (Neuf works fine, fat free does not)
    2/3 cup sugar
    1 tsp. vanilla or almond extract,
     or 2 tsp. liqueur (optional)
    seasonings (optional), tsps for strong stuff,
     tblsps for pumpkin pie spice, etc.
     -- Beat for about 2 minutes

    add 2 eggs
    add 3 - 4 oz. melted chocolate
    (white chocolate goes with everything)
     -- whisk (or beat a little more on low setting)

Pour in shell* and bake @ 335 for 40 - 50 minutes (for 10" pie, bake @ 325 for 60 - 70 minutes). Let cool -- when you can touch it without burning yourself, cover and set in fridge for 3 - 4 hours. (I have made this on a time constraint and used the freezer to set in ~2 hours. Just don't let it freeze.) *If using a dough shell instead of a crumb shell, bake the empty shell for about five minutes @ 375 to harden it before pouring in the cheesecake batter.

Chocolate topping:
However much melted chocolate you use (3 - 4 oz. is plenty to decorate the top), add 1 tsp shortening (Crisco) per 2 oz. chocolate. You can also melt enough chocolate to make a top layer. This looks great, until you cut the cake with anything other than a samurai sword and the chocolate falls apart.

Fruit topping:
If you use preserves, it mixes well during baking. For fresh fruit, I put it on after the pie cools or blenderize it for mixing in with the pie. Finely chopped fresh fruit can also go in the pie, just stir in carefully after adding the eggs and chocolate.
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Rice Crispy Treats with Chocolate and Butterscotch

Rice crispy treats of awesome!


I stirred butterscotch chips into the marshmallows as I melted them in the butter. I was planning to also use peanut butter, but I left my peanut butter at the office.


On top, I put melted chocolate chips, then melted butterscotch chips. I had left over rice crispies from making the marshmallow squares, so I put them on top, too. I thought they would stick in the chocolate/butterscotch, but not so much. For the top "layer," I put a simple sugar syrup to hold the loose rice crispies in place.

Note to self: lightly press in pan, not 'crush crispies into a solid brick.'

These were a big hit with the student assistants. A nice end-of-the-semester treat. Read More......

Apple Butter

Crisp apples cooked with sugar and spice and everything nice!

Chemical X is a combination of cardamom and ginger =)


Three of the 4.8 lbs of apples that went into this batch of apple butter. Most were red delicious. Some were fuji, others granny smith, others golden.


Chunks of apples in my slow-cooker. I remove the core and stem, but not the skin.


Some containers of apple butter. The top container is what I saved from the first batch of oops-butter. The sprinkler-lid came off my cinnamon as I was shaking some in, which resulted in a very dark, very spiced apple butter. I like it, but those with whom I plan to share the apple butter might find it a bit too spicy. Slow-cooker came back out, more apples went in, and tada! The bottom three containers of a closer-to-normal spice/apple ratio.


The finished product, currently on its way to Canada, Jacksonville, and New Orleans. As you can see in the recipe below, it has preservatives (vinegar and citrus juice) -- it should make it =)

Evil Bitch-Monster of Death's Apple Butter in Slow-Cooker / Blender

Spice mix is estimated and given in ranges. If you don't like a particular spice, leave it out (if you don't like cinnamon, you don't like apple butter -- make apple sauce instead). If you like sweeter apple butter or your apples are really flavorless, add more sugar after the first cooking. If you'll be using a Vitamix or other super-blender, the apples do not need to be cored (but do slice them and take off the stems). If you don't have cider vinegar, leave the vinegar out. Limes can be used in place of lemons (or left out). Fresh and dried ginger have very different flavors, so keep this in mind if you have a preference. Apple skins stay on and get chopped up by the blender.

per 2 lbs sliced, cored apples, use:

3/4 - 1 c. sugar (half or more should be brown or raw sugar, if you have it)
1/2 - 1 tblsp cinnamon, ground (about a rounded 1/2 tblsp)
1/4 - 1/2 tsp cloves, ground
1/4 - 1/2 tsp allspice, ground
1/2 - 1 tblsp grated ginger, fresh (or 1/4 - 1/2 tsp dried)
1/2 tblsp vanilla extract
1/2 - 1 tsp cardamom, ground

1/4 c. apple cider vinegar (optional)
1/2 lemon, sliced or juiced (optional)

Start putting apple pieces into the slow-cooker. After a decent layer of apples, sprinkle/pour spices and other ingredients. If using 4+ lbs of apples, make two or more layers for spice sprinkling. For lemons/limes, if you don't mind digging out skins after cooking, slice/quarter and shove in different places around apples. Otherwise, pour juice over apple layers. Apples may mound over the top, but should stay under the lid. This mound will cook down, and more apples can be added during cooking.

With lid on, cook on high for about an hour (or longer if you need to fit more apples), then turn to low and cook 8 or so hours. Squish and stir the mixture. If apples still seem too firm, cook on low another couple hours.

With lid off, cook on high for 1-2 hours to reduce liquids and make your kitchen smell awesome. Turn slow-cooker off and let sit until apple mixture is cool enough to dig out the lemon/lime skins (sometimes a couple hours).

With a ladle, transfer apple mixture (minus lemon/lime skins) to a blender. This may need to be done in parts -- blend as much as will fit, set aside in another container, blend more. Taste-test the apple butter. If it needs more sugar, stir some in. Once all is blended, return to slow-cooker, stir well, and cook another 4 hours on low with lid on (optional). If you added more sugar during blending, do not skip second cooking.

Cool, store, eat, enjoy!
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Eggs and Fertility and Zombies, oh my!

Happy Zombie Jesus Day!

And Eostre, the Vernal Equinox, though it actually fell on my birthdate this year and those new-fangled carpenter-followers are doing it all late.


I made a batch of regular marshmallows for today that looked rather plain. I painted some dye designs on the top while they dry.


First use of my new electric mixer!


Sugar syrup cooking and gelatin blooming.


Starting to beat the syrup and gelatin together. I took this picture while the beater was whirring around -- go camera!


Halfway through the ten minutes of beating, again during the spin cycle.


Added vanilla extract after 10 minutes of beating, about to mix it all up.


All mixed!


All poured!

I'll update this post once I cut and color them.

Evil Bitch-Monster of Death's note: I find the marshmallows too sweet with 2/3 c. corn syrup. In the recipes in which I replaced most of it it with something else (chocolate, maraschino cherry liquid), the sweetness came out great. For plain batches, I suggest using only 1/3 - 1/2 c. corn syrup.

Eat chocolate (and eggs, they go so well together) and be merry!

Recipe reminder: www.cookingforengineers.com.

Update: I decided not to dip the edges in colors as that would have added drying time.


Cutting the marshmallow sheet.


Tapping the edge of Zombie Jesus Eye in corn starch. Photographic evidence of my inability to follow the instructions on the corn starch jar: "no mess."


Sharing tray prepared for work.
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