  |
|||
|
| Thursday, November 22, 2007 Happy Gobble Gobble!
We're having a lazy Thanksgiving. We live in Holland, where it's not a holiday, so everyone went to work, school, etc. So what are we eating? Chinese takeout. That said, we are going to celebrate proper Thanksgiving over the weekend, so you can forgive me for eating chow fun today.
Friday, November 09, 2007In the meantime, I was looking at previous posts on Crispy Waffle, and have some suggestions if you haven't made dessert yet. Thanksgiving is one of those days where you want one of those 'ooh, ahh' desserts to hit the table. So here are some kickass tarts you can wow your family with. (And going along with my laziness theme, I will just link to the Crispy Waffle posts where the recipes are located.)  This linzertorte is both impressive and fast-- you can make it in a couple of hours, thanks to the sneaky cheaty lattice. Linzertorte with cheater's lattice  Mmmm, chocolate... Chocolate walnut tart with dulce de leche  Coconut makes a yummy tropical touch for Thanksgiving-- forget that tired old pumpkin pie! Coconut caramel tart Enjoy! Labels: recipes, the chocolatey, the sweet posted by sheryl | 4:30 PM | comments (0)
Quark ice cream  I haven't been doing a whole lot of ice cream experimenting lately, mainly because autumn has set in with a vengeance. You know it's fall when everyone riding their bikes in Den Haag have simultaneously busted out the ubiquitous wool scarves. (It's one of those things that makes you feel like the expat that didn't get the memo for the Opening Day of Scarf Season.) However, I had been having an interesting correspondence with Grant, a Crispy Waffle reader all about ice cream makers and textural improvements to ice cream. A topic I've alluded to before, one of my issues with homemade ice cream is that it never seems to have the 'chew' that I want, especially after being in the freezer overnight. I've been upping the sugar-- especially basterd sugar, which contains invert sugar. Invert sugar is sweeter but has the same role as corn syrup; it does increase chewiness in baked goods, and seems to have a similar impact on ice cream. The sugar helps lower the freezing point, keeping it from being too icy. However, the ice cream was getting too sweet for my taste. I mentioned this to Grant, and he suggested an increase in milk solids through the use of dried milk powder. This was a total "oh yeah" moment for me-- I remembered reading here that milk solids also play a role in lowering freezing point, but had only accidentally accomplished this through the use of sweetened condensed milk in some recipes. So thanks to my new ice cream buddy, the texture of my homemade ice cream has dramatically improved. One of the things I love about having a blog is that it connects me to like-minded people. I have bored the hell out of people when they ask, "Do you like your ice cream maker?" and I go on a rant and rave about textural quality and invert sugar. This is a pretty good way to get someone to start eyeing escape routes in the room. Not so when you have an email thread with someone willing to rhapsodize about the virtues of Philadelphia-style ice cream versus custard-style, the ratios of cream to milk, and the texture of super-premium ice creams. I don't have access to very 'neutral' flavored powdered milk, which Grant mentioned is important to usage in this case (you won't get that nasty dried-milk flavor invading your ice cream). I tend to use instead sweetened condensed milk and/or evaporated milk to increase the milk solids percentage, both of which have double to milk solids of ordinary milk. In the process, I've noticed that using other dairy products such as creme fraiche also naturally increases the percentage of milk solids in the mixture. Going further with this, I experimented with quark, a type of cheese that resembles a cross between sour cream and cream cheese. In fact, it is often used here in the Netherlands for making cheesecake. The results were really nice, and resulted in an ice cream that tasted kind of like cheesecake as well. You can go with this theme, adding mix-ins that are 'cheesecakey': lemon zest, or graham crackers or cherry jam swirled in. If you don't have access to quark, you can substitute with equal parts sour cream and cream cheese. I love this ice cream with just a classic shortbread, which is super easy to make and in a way, resembles a cheesecake crust. Quark ice cream makes about 1 quart Ingredients 1 cup quark 3/4 cup whole milk 3/4 cup heavy cream 1/2 cup sugar 4 egg yolks pinch of salt zest from one lemon (optional)
Classic shortbread Ingredients
posted by sheryl | 10:04 AM | comments (1)
Test post
Ugh, Blogger is acting up again. It may *finally* be time for my lazy ass to switch to proper blogging software.
Thursday, November 01, 2007posted by sheryl | 12:58 PM | comments (2)
No cookie recipe for you!  Whenever it starts getting close to the holidays, I start thinking about cookies. Not that I don't think about cookies all the time, but I start thinking about specific cookies. My favorite holiday cookies are butterhorns. They are crispy, sugary, and shaped like little baby croissants. Kind of like rugelach without the jam. My mom makes dozens and dozens of these every Christmas, to keep and give away as gifts, and they never lasted very long in our house. I was just up on my Flickr account recently and saw some pictures I took many months ago of a batch of butterhorns I had baked with my mom's recipe. I had wanted to post te recipe here, but when I phoned my mom, she was like, "No, you are not posting my recipe." I should have expected such a response. I've grown up with many Filipina cooks in my family, both on my dad's and mom's side, and every one is loathe to share recipes. When they do, you might as well throw the recipe away, because odds are they've left out 1) a crucial step, or 2) a crucial ingredient. As a result, your version of your Auntie's famed ensaimadas are too dry, or your pancit is just somehow a little bit off. I'm not sure what they're afraid of-- maybe that you will become the Pancit Queen of the family and their glory will be taken from them. They imagine you cackling and rubbing your hands together, "The pancit palabok fortune will be mine!" My sister and mom have been begging my Auntie for her suman recipe for years. (Suman is a delicious sweet rice and coconut dessert, wrapped in banana leaves.) It's gotten to the point where, not only will she not give the recipe, but she's not about to let anyone watch her make it. Yes, it is clear we won't ever get our grubby hands on that recipe. Maybe she's doing the right thing; it has certainly elevated the suman to family fame status. So no suman, ensaimada or butterhorns recipe will appear here these days, although here's a pic of said butterhorns to make you determined to get at it. Just like I'm determined to publish my very own pancit recipe. hOh yes, I will be the Pancit Queen.  Labels: the sweet posted by sheryl | 11:41 AM | comments (6)
|
|
Welcome to Sheryl's site dedicated to the humble waffle, among other sweet, savory and delicious things. I'm based in The Hague, Netherlands, and post recipes and travel (food, of course) photos. Mmmm...photos... Top Posts Categories Recent
Posts Food Links Personal Blogs January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 |
|||
