Tag: honey

Baking

Green Tea Cupcakes with Honey Buttercream Frosting {Cupcakes!}

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Oh hey, did you know I like cupcakes?

I like to balance out my addiction to moderate intake of coffee with equal amounts of antioxidant-rich green tea. My current obsession is The Republic of Tea’s Double Green Matcha Tea. It’s more robust in flavor and less bitter than your standard run of the mill generic green tea bags (and will run you roughly $14 for a canister. But it’s an investment in your health, right? 😉 )

{yummy green tea}

When I took a chance with a Vegan Green Tea Cupcake from Tender Greens, I fell in love…and immediately googled a recipe.

These are almost like a savory cake–think zucchini bread–with just a touch of sugar. The added honey buttercream frosting adds the sweetness that rightfully belongs in a cupcake.

{ingredients}
{batter dispenser!}
{green tea cupcake}

Cupcake recipe via Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (Yes, they’re vegan. No, they don’t taste like cardboard.)

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup soy yogurt
2/3 cup rice milk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3 to 4 teaspoons matcha tea powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350°F and line cupcake pan with liners
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the yogurt, rice milk, vanilla, oil and almond extract, beating well to blend in yogurt. Sift in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, matcha powder, salt and sugar. If using rice flour it will be a little lumpy. Beat a little longer to break up any large lumps Fill liners two-thirds full and bake 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted through the center of one comes out clean. Cool on racks before frosting.

Frosting recipe via my brain! (this recipe uses butter, which obviously negates the vegan-ness of the cupcakes)

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup honey
1/4 tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS
In a stand mixer with the beater blade attachment, blend the butter and sugar until smooth. Add honey and vanilla and mix until combined. Adjust the amount of honey to suit your liking.

Cooking

Giada’s Balsamic Chicken Drumettes

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A few months ago, I walked into Crate and Barrel  just to “browse,” and walked out with some new kitchen goodies, including a recipe card courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis.  I love me some balsamic vinegar, and this recipe for caramelized  chicken sounded too good not to try:

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup soy sauce

5 sprigs rosemary

5 cloves garlic, halved

10 to 12 chicken drumsticks

2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Combine the balsamic vinegar, honey, brown sugar, soy sauce, rosemary springs and garlic cloves in a large, re-sealable plastic bag.  Shake and squeeze the contents of the bag to dissolve the honey and the brown sugar.  Add the chicken drumsticks to the bag and seal with as little air as possible in the bag.  Place in the refrigerator and marinate for 2 hours.

Place the chicken drumsticks on a foil-lined baking sheet.  Bake until the skin is caramelized and very dark in spots, about 30to 35 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the marinade in a small saucepan.  Bring the marinade to a boil (in order to ill bacteria).  Reduce the heat to simmer and cook over low heat until thick, about 15 minutes; reserve.  Brush some of the cooked marinade on the coked chicken.  Place the chicken on a serving platter.  Sprinkle with the sesame seeds and the chopped parsley.

Note from Giada: I like the subtle rosemary and garlic flavors.  Brushing the cooked drumettes with the reduced marinade helps the flavors along.  Also, re-moistening helps the parsley and the seeds to adhere.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings

The ingredients lined up and ready to go (minus the chicken and toasted sesame seeds)

The chicken drumsticks going for a swim in the marinade

These little sesame seeds toasted very quickly.  Keep an eye on them in the toaster oven, or you might end up with blacked seeds instead!

Yum, raw meat

Boiling and simmering the marinade made my kitchen smell wonderful–a thick atmosphere of balsamic vinegar and rosemary.  Seriously, I can’t get enough of it.

The 2 hour marinating time was perfect for a late and lazy Sunday afternoon.  It was enough time to get some laundry done (and of course, watch some “Everyday Italian” that was backed up on my DVR:))

The title of the recipe says drumettes, but the ingredient list asks for drumsticks.  Definitely go with drumsticks.  There is more than enough marinade to go around for 12 drumsticks.

The finished product.  I love the fresh, crisp smell of parsley, so I put a little more on than the recipe would dictate.

Post-dinner verdict: the chicken is incredibly moist, and even with all of the flavorful ingredients, the taste isn’t overwhelming.  Most take a subtle backseat to the balsamic vinegar (which I am of course incredibly happy about) and rosemary.

I’m curious to see how the fresh parsley holds up through refrigeration and reheating for tomorrow’s lunch.  I’ll pack a few of these up in some foil and toss them into the toaster oven at work.

Musings

Helado de Miel…it sounds prettier in Spanish

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One of my many food-related Christmas gifts this year is a lovely little cookbook called Flavors of Chile.  Flipping through the postres (desserts) section, I came across a simple but stunning recipe for honey ice cream:

2 cups light cream

1 cup milk

2 eggs

3/4 cup honey

1. Pour the cream and milk into a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat.  Remove from the heat and set aside.

2. Mix the eggs and the honey in a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until evenly mixed.  While beating, add the warm cream mixture.  Return to the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly until the thermometer reaches 158° F (70° C); do not allow to boil.

3. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve and place in a metal container.  Allow to cool and cover with plastic film.  Freeze for 4 hours or until solid.

4. Whip the ice cream until smooth in a food processor.  Return to the container and freeze again until serving time.

I barely had enough honey for this.  I was squeezing the bottle dry into the measuring cup (isn’t it pretty?)

Folks, cream and milk boils very quickly.  I leave the stove for a few minutes to whip the eggs and honey, and I come back to the pot bubbling over.  Oops!

A meat thermometer works extremely well to get the cream/milk/eggs/honey mixture to 158°.  (I cheated and only got it to 155°…what’s 3 degrees?)

I ended up leaving the mixture in the freezer overnight, and the next day found a rock hard frozen concoction.  The little spoon couldn’t scoop anything out, but I did get it to stand up straight!

I started scooping the frozen mixture into the food processor like the recipe says to, but it wasn’t cutting it.  Only the bottom half was getting whipped, and the top half was staying rock solid.  A blender does the same job much more quickly.  The mixture becomes much more creamy and takes on a smoothie-like consistency (read: you can’t eat it just yet; it hasn’t taken on its fluffy ice cream form).  I poured the honey ice cream smoothie into plastic containers and tossed them in the freezer, and an hour or so later, I had a mouth-watering just-sweet-enough ice cream.  I haven’t tried it yet (since I ran out of honey making this!), but I would imagine drizzling just a little bit of honey would be the perfect way to top it off.

The finished product.  Looks just like the picture:)

This is a fantastic, so simple to make dessert that has a little bit of Chilean flair to it.  Enjoy!