Cardamom spiced Flourless cake.
Winter storm Jonas 2016 baking.
The east coast was hit by a blizzard this weekend and in Takoma Park we got a bit over 2 feet!
My boyfriend and I bravely went outside in an attempt to dig out our cars (which were completely buried) while it was still snowing. We gave up and I came in and started searching for a recipe!
I went back through Bake and found a flourless cake recipe which was perfect because I didn't have a lot of flour.
Here's the recipe!
Basically, you melt the butter and chocolate together in a double boiler first. If you don't have a double boiler you can easily make one. I used a pot of hot water and placed a sauce pan on top, worked perfectly.
In a separate bowl you mix all the other ingredients together. Once the melted chocolate and butter has cooled for 10 minutes you mix them together.
If you don't have parchment paper I buttered a cake pan (or you can use spray) and the cake came out nicely.
This recipe says to bake for and hour and 10 minutes at 325 but I would check it before hand. I think mine was cooked through at about 40 minutes!
My cake came out a little broken but it was still delicious! I think what happened is that the pan I was using was a bit too small. My boyfriend, sister, brother in law and I ate this with whipped topping. The cake is very rich so don't forget to pour yourself a glass of tea !
NOTE: I ground the cardamom by hand and the smells brought back memories of my childhood. It was so wonderful. We used to eat this hard candy Ahb-Nabat and it had cardamom seeds in it. So cool how this smell reminded me of that memory.
Freshly ground cardamom.
Cardamom candy!
Let it snow!
Blooming tea.
My aunt recently gave me a little package containing a blooming tea! For those of you who aren't familiar, this is a tea that is dried and opens (blooms) when put in hot water.
There's a huge snowstorm coming my way this weekend so I thought it was only appropriate to try this blooming tea that happens to be called, Let It Snow!
You can get the same exact one I tried at Teaposy .
Here is what it looked like dry. I would suggest using a bowl to brew this or a glass teapot if you have one. This little ball is enough to brew 6-8 cups of tea so brewing it in a small glass is a waste, I think.
This thing really is compact! It looks like a little mushroom. I couldn't put my finger on the smell, it was It almost had the same aroma as a fig.
I attempted to take a video of it brewing and of course my phone crapped out on me at the beginning which is the coolest part to watch!
Once bloomed out fully, it started to release parts of the top as if it was spitting out little leaves to brew, it was beautiful!
According to teaposy the tea actually contains chrysanthemum, coconut fruit fiber, silver needle white tea and is scented with jasmine flower.
This tea had a surprising nutty flavor, sort of like macadamia nuts!
Look at this beauty!
I took the flower out after brewing, love how beautiful it is. I'm thinking about drying it out and putting it in a mason jar as decor!
Cinnamon Swirl Muffins
Cinnamony swirl goodness.
I was looking in my bake magazine and found a recipe for muffins!
I didn't have pecans so I used walnuts. I didn't have buttermilk so I combined one teaspoon of lemon juice with almond milk.
Check out the ingredients below!
Preheat oven to 425.
Combine the baking powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl combine the sugar and butter. Once that's light and fluffy add the eggs and vanilla. Alternate mixing in the dry mixture and the buttermilk.
Making the topping mixture with sugar, cinnamon and pecans (or walnuts).
Fill the baking cups half way then spoon in some of the toppings mixture. Fill in the rest of the batter then take a toothpick shaped tool and swirl the ingredients. Top off everything with the cinnamon sugar mixture.
Bake for 5 minutes then lower heat to 350 and bake for about 20 - 30 minutes.
Let cool on a wire rack.
DEVOUR.
Chai Spice Snicker doodles
Chai Spice.
Move over pumpkin spice....Chai spice is here to take over!
If you're a fan of chai tea or anything with spices ...you're in for a treat! I'm a huge fan of A cozy Kitchen and her recipes! I saw this recipe for chai snicker doodles and I had to try it!
I substituted some of these ingredients but Ill give you the original recipe. These turned out delicious and spicy! These were wonderful with tea.
When this is baking your whole house fills up with the smell of cardamom, cloves and cinnamon!
Tip: keep an eye on these so they don't burn. If you like cookies to be chewy, I would take them out a minute or two early!
Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 2 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and warm
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Topping
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of cardamom
Bake these babies:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, allspice and pepper.
In the bowl of your electric mixer, add the sugar, cream cheese and butter. Beat until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Beat in the oil. Add the egg, milk and vanilla extract untiled combined and smooth. Add the flour in two additions.
Mix together the topping ingredients (sugar, cinnamon, cardamom). Roll the dough into balls and roll in the topping then place on the baking sheet. Flatten the cookies then sprinkle some of the toppings on each cookie.
Bake the cookies for 11 to 12 minutes.
Zoolbia. Bamieh.
Sugary goodness.
One of my favorite Iranian sweets to have with tea is Zoolbia Bamieh. These are two sugary treats, one shaped like a ball and one shaped like a pretzel.
When you pair this with your tea there is no need for a sweetener! Zulbia Bamieh combine the delicious ingredients of saffron, honey, rosewater and sugar to create a delicious and beautiful dessert. Watch out these are anything but healthy as they are mostly made of sugar and then fried!
I found this video of how to make zulbia from a Persian food blogger. It is a fairly simple recipe but does require saffron as well as rosewater which are items not every household has on hand.
If you have an Iranian or middle eastern market near you I strongly suggest these! If you like them you can buy saffron and rosewater online to make at home. People get creative with shapes, especially for the zulbia and one great addition is crushed pistachios on top!
A note about saffron: I don't think it's clear in the video but when you have saffron threads (the best) the way you get the flavoring is by puting a few threads in boiling water so that it "brews." The liquid is what you use in the recipe not the threads!
Dainty little things.
Great to enjoy with Bat-Moose pjs !
Chocolate Mint Tea.
Ice cream anyone?
Mint chocolate chip ice cream is my favorite flavor. I'm not talking about any mint chocolate chip ice cream. I'm talking about the green colored ice cream and shaved chocolate. Taking a whiff of this tea made me dream up that flavor. My mouth even watered a little bit.
The intense smell of chocolate penetrates the air as you're brewing the tea.
I let this tea brew while I was eating dinner and when I poured it I was somewhat surprised by how light the color was considering how long it brewed. I didn't sweeten this tea at all. It's definitely not sweet but I think you'd lose the mint chocolate taste if you added sugar or honey.
The taste of this tea is exactly how it smells! There is a minty flavor that stays on your tongue after you've finished the sip.
This is from Capital Teas here in the district but you can buy online! I wouldn't call this my favorite tea but it was delicious. "Dessert without the calories" they say on the site!
This tea is a combination of black tea and peppermint leaves!
A classic Persian breakfast
Noon o panir o gerdoo.
This right here is heaven, a typical Persian breakfast. I often ate this before school, hmm maybe that's why I was a chubby kid. This is also a great snack. It's very hearty when you put walnuts on it. I usually like to roll it up like wrap and eat it.
I'll tell you a secret. When I was a kid I was very shekamoo and used to sneak downstairs at night and eat this cheese. Plain. Hmm now I know that's why I was a chubby kid :)
I try my best to not eat this every morning but my sweet mom recently got me some and I couldn't resist. By the way...this is no where near as good when it's not paired with sweetened tea!
Bread: Taftoon. Many people confuse this for pita, no offense pita but you don't hold a candle to taftoon. There are many breads in Iran that are made in a really cool way. Here's a video of how Taftoon is made! Apparently you can also buy Taftoon online!
Cheese: Sheep's milk cheese. Many people confuse this for feta but it's softer and richer. I much prefer this to feta, I think sometimes feta can be a bit dry. The one thing that you may not like about this cheese, depending on your taste it that it definitely is saltier than feta. You can buy Valbreso French Sheep's Milk Cheese online, this is the brand I've always enjoyed :)
One pound chocolate brownies
So chocolate, much rich.
I recently got a wonderful baking magazine with a lot of different recipes. I wanted to try something simple, then I stumbled upon a brownie recipe!
Recipe
- (2) 4 oz 70% Cacao bittersweet chocolate, chopped
- 1 cup unsalted butter, cubed
- 1/3 cup orange marmalade (I used fig jam which worked fine)
- 1/3 cup half and half
- 2 1/4 cup sugar ( I used packed brown sugar)
- 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- (2) 4 oz 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate, chopped
Preheat the oven to 350 and line a 13 X 9 inch pan with parchment paper or grease with butter.
Using a double boiler or having one pot on top of the other melt the chocolate and butter together. Once this is smooth, remove it from heat and add marmalade as well as half and half.
In a large bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together. Add in the chocolate mixture as well as the vanilla. Stir in the chopped chocolate. Bake for about 30 minutes and cool before cutting!
mmmmmmmmmmmmm
Madelines
Absolute yum.
The name of these say it all. Brown Butter Orange Madelines. Are you jumping up and down just thinking about it?? I found this recipe browsing A Cozy Kitchen's Instagram and I had to try them. I was especially intrigued by the orange zest and the way you brown the butter. I have no experience making madelines so I was excited!
Note: I didn't have a madeline pan so I used a cast iron pan I have for making cornbread which is in the shape of corn :)
Check out the recipe on her blog!
I doubled the recipe and put it in the fridge for several hours, it worked perfectly.
Cream Earl Grey Black.
Trying a new tea again and this time I'm reporting my thoughts as well as my mom's!
Today's Tea: Cream Earl Grey Black from
This tea includes a slight hint of vanilla and cornflower petals!
Mom's thoughts: She decided to not use a strainer when pouring her tea
- It has a strong, bold flavor (Maybe I brewed it too long hehe)
- Love the fragrance
- If the petals and fragrance weren't there I wouldn't have liked it as much
My Thoughts:
- Incredible fragrance, it almost smells like perfume
- This is almost like a dessert tea
- The cream flavor is very strong and tastes like you're drinking a cream coffee or dessert
