Bite-Sized Treat of the Day: Churros

July 22, 2014July 22, 2014 birdibitesChurros, Dessert, TreatsLeave a comment

What better way to celebrate summer than with Churros?!

Finished Churros

They are a surprisingly quick and easy treat to make and of course, I make mine bite-sized. YUM!

All you need is flour, sugar, cinnamon, water, and a pinch of salt. You can bake them if you want to go the healthy route, but I just fried ’em – totally kept it authentic.

Churro Dough Fried Up Churros

Also a couple of tips:

1) Use a cloth pastry bag because Churro dough is very thick and a plastic pastry bag will probably rip apart. (Side note: your arms will feel noodle-y if you try to make about 40 Churros at once. It’s a lot of work to squeeze dough out of a pastry bag!)

2) If you want to go all out and get the textured lines then you can use a large star pastry tip.

Holiday Tradition Pie

April 3, 2014 birdibitesDessert, Holiday, pecan pie, Pecans, Pie, Sweet Potato, Sweet Potato Pie, sweet potatoes, ThanksgivingLeave a comment

If I had a Most Requested List for the treats I cook, this pie would take the cake. It is requested so often that I now ONLY make it during the holidays. No exceptions. Also, if you think that this bad boy is your basic pecan pie then you are in for a surprise! This, my friends, is a Sweet Potato Pie topped with Glazed Pecans. It is the most perfect combination of sweet, savory and nutty.

I have been making this dessert for a long time. When I first started baking this pie, I didn’t own a large food processor, so the holidays would consist of waking up at 5-6 am (holiday baking starts early) and going to my mom’s house to puree 4 pounds of boiled and peeled sweet potatoes. Now I have my own food processor and life is peachy!

I prefer to make my own pie crusts but you can definitely use store bought crust if you are pressed for time. You need sweet potatoes, eggs, brown sugar, maple syrup, bourbon (technically optional but why would you do that?), maple syrup, nutmeg, salt, cinnamon, a little almond extract and vanilla extract if you feel adventurous, heavy cream, butter and pecans. Mix everything up, pour it into your pie crust, and bake for 45-55 minutes. Make sure your pie has cooled completely before you add the pecans! To make the pecan topping, toss the pecans with a little butter, brown sugar, and heavy cream in a small saucepan. It will cook quickly. Spread them on top of the pie with a spatula. Refrigerate the pie for a bit to set the topping. And then enjoy!

Creme Brulee? YES, PLEASE!

April 1, 2014July 22, 2014 birdibitesCreme Brulee, Dessert, ramekins, vanilla beanLeave a comment

Torch Torch

My absolute favorite dessert of all time is Creme Brulee. It’s classic and creamy and has that sugar crunch, and the best part of all is getting to play with fire. Because who wouldn’t want to use a torch every now and then?

I finally got around to making it for the first time ever. I am not the type to follow a recipe and I’ve never cared much for precise measuring, so I was super nervous! It turned out amazing though. Like, really amazing. I made it in the cutest little white ramekins and we had a little Torch Your Own Creme Brulee Party. So cute and crazy fun!

Also, the best tip I received was to dust a thin layer of sugar on top before torching. Definitely essential for getting an even crisp layer on top.

Lastly, I learned that I really need to start working out because my arms were so tired from holding the saucepan up as I poured the vanilla flavored cream into the mixing bowl to make the custard. I was literally dying during that process. The Creme Brulee was so worth it though. Next cooking experiment will be a Bourbon flavored Creme Brulee!

How I Made Creme Brulee:

My recipe was based off of Alton Brown’s. It only takes a few ingredients: heavy cream, a vanilla bean, egg yolks and sugar. I placed the cream and vanilla bean into a saucepan set over medium/high heat and brought it to a boil. Then I removed the saucepan from the heat, slapped a lid on that puppy and let it sit for 15 minutes. I saved the vanilla bean. Next, I whisked 1/2 cup sugar and six egg yolks until it looked like this:

I slowly added cream to the egg/sugar mixture, little by little, stirring continually. Once that was incorporated, I poured the mixture into the ramekins.

Then I placed my cute little ramekins in a pretty red roasting pan and I poured hot water into the pan (the water came halfway up the sides of the ramekins). Everything went right into the oven to bake at 325 degrees just until the creme brulee set, but was still trembling in the center – about 45 minutes. At that point, I stuck them in the refrigerator overnight. The next evening, we had friends over and we got to melt yummy raw sugar on top with the torch!!