Lemon Souffle Pancakes

I've seen this pin lately on Pinterest for lemon souffle pancakes and they looked divine. I decided to give them a go. They turned out super tasty, but didn't look very much like the picture I had seen. Oh well. 

I got the recipe here and pretty much followed it to the T. The only thing I changed was leaving out the lemon zest, but only because El can be particularly averse to lemon sometimes. 

Interesting fact: if you don't have buttermilk, you can make your own by adding lemon juice to regular milk and letting it "cure." The first step in this recipe is to add lemon juice to buttermilk. I can't help but wonder if this was an experiment in making butter milk that went terribly right. 

Instead of the usual powdered sugar (as is the norm on breakfast food (yuck!)) we sprinkled some castor sugar on them. I had some left-over berry syrup from my flour-less chocolate cake from earlier in the week, so I used that as well. You can use whatever you think will make them the yummiest. 

This may replace my go-to pancake recipe from now on. Who knows? 

Coconut Truffles

Remember this pin?

Remember how irritated you were when you clicked on the link and it took you to Flickr.com and it was just a picture, no instructions? 

For all you coconut lovers, out there, I've solved your problem. 

I looked around to find a recipe that I thought would be yummy and ended up combining a couple, here and here. You'll want to use medium shredded coconut (1 step up from finely shredded). Or you can decide what look you're going for and choose a coconut from there. 

Ingredients:

8 oz. plain cream cheese

1/2 c. CASTOR sugar (powdered sugar (suggested ingredient) is gross! ew) (but i SUPPOSE you could use whatever you like/have on hand)

4 c shredded coconut (if using unsweetened, increase the amount of sugar)

8 oz. white chocolate (block, NOT CHIPS!!)(You'll find out why below)

Method:

Cream your cream cheese (ironic, i know) using either a stand or hand mixer. Mix in the sugar and 2 cups of the coconut. Form small (about 1/2 inch) balls, place on a cookie sheet lined in parchment paper, and put them in the freezer for at least 20 minutes. I left mine to the next day and they were fine. 

Ok, so here's the tricky part. Tempering your chocolate. I wanted the chocolate coating on my candies to snap, so they wouldn't be all squishy. The first time I attempted these, I didn't know anything about tempering chocolate and so every single ball was a squishy mess. Turns out, tempering chocolate isn't so hard, just a bit tricky to get the hang of. You can read all about it here (this is where you learn why you  need a block of chocolate and not the chips).

So, basically, follow the directions from the link above (she explains it better than I could) to get your melted chocolate. Or if you don't care if your candies are squishy (you probably will; just sayin) you can melt the chocolate however you would like. Then dip each ball in the chocolate, using a fork to drain off the excess (as pictured below). 

Drop your chocolate covered ball into a bowl of plain coconut. I used a different fork in the coconut bowl so I didn't get flakes in my chocolate. 

Place back on your baking sheet and allow them to dry. As you can see, I got better and better with my method as I progressed (the first ones are at the bottom of the picture). I also started using smaller coconut flakes and they look waay better.

I don't have any pretty pictures of them :( and they got consumed much too quickly (thank you, work peeps)

Dried Strawberries

Remember this pin?

Remember how you thought "oh those look so good! I want to try that!"

Remember how sometimes, on Pinterest, people will pin things that look great but don't have really great instructions?

Well, folks, this is one of these times. 

And I'm here to tell you, no, warn you, that this is one of those pins that you should not attempt. Wait, let me rephrase that: This is one of those things that you should not attempt when strawberries are upwards of $6/box. Just saying, it's not as easy as it would seem. 

I tried drying strawberries multiple times with (almost) the same results every time. Which, let me tell you, was rather disappointing.  

Ok, step one: Cut up strawberries. Sounds easy enough. Check!

 

Step two: sprinkle with salt and pepper. Hmm, interesting, but ok, i'll try it.

Step 3: bake in oven at about 200 degrees F for 3 hours. Easy enough.

Product: 

 

Wait, I thought mine were going to look exactly like the picture! They're all soggy still, and I can't even get them off the paper! Hmmm try again I guess. Maybe I'll try baking them longer this time. And no salt! I'll sprinkle them with sugar this time!

Product:

 

Ok, maybe this needs some more thought.

So I haven't given up completely; but I can't afford to try again while strawberries aren't in season. I'll let you know if I ever do get it to work.

Puff Pancakes a la Cupcake Style

My mom used to make puff pancakes a lot when I was growing up; only we called them german pancakes (El's family calls them stuff and puffs, pronounced "stoof and poofs"). I was never a huge fan because the only thing my family put on them was powdered sugar. You will soon learn that I dislike almost everything (feel, taste, texture) about powdered sugar, except for the way it looks. I saw on Pinterest the other day that someone put pure maple syrup on their puff pancakes and I though to myself "Well I really like syrup! Maybe I'll give them a try." And this is what I eventually came up with: 

They were actually quite delicious! I followed the recipe from this site: http://smittenkitchen.com/2006/12/loopy-breakfast-goodness/

 Well, I followed the recipe the first time. I changed it for the second try; and the third; and maybe the fourth. And ended up with something quite close to the original but much better (in my opinion) but that's how cooking goes! Try this and that and then go back to the basics. Anyway, here is my modified recipe; it's more suited for the small, cupcake tin puff pancakes and tastes sooo delicious. (Side note: the great thing about cooking these in the cupcake tins as opposed to one big cake pan is that they cook SO fast. They're done before you even have time to start wishing they were.)

Puff Pancakes a la Cupcake Style

2 eggs

2 tsp. sugar

pinch of salt (or more, depending on your taste. El loves salt so we 

put more in just for him)

1/3 c. flour

1/3 c. milk

2 tbs. butter

(You might notice that I used the exact same amount of butter but for a smaller recipe. Don't worry, it's not a typo. More butter is just always better :))

Place the egg in a blender and mix until a light yellow color (as seen below):

You could probably use a hand mixer for this if you don't have a blender, but I would highly recommend the blender. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix in the blender. Spray 12 muffin tins with pam (or, if you're really into butter, butter them). Right before you pour the pancake mixture in, give it one last whirl in the blender. This will make them really puff up. Pour about 1/2 inch of batter into each tin. It doesn't look like much, but they need a lot of room to expand. I've had them hit the roof of the oven before; no bueno. 

Bake at 400 degrees F for 5 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350 degrees F and bake for another 3 to 5 minutes depending on how dark you want them. 

Disclaimer: I have an old (we're talking 1980's) gas oven which I have found runs a little hot. So I actually bake mine at 375 and then reduce the heat to 325. You probably know your oven better than I do so judge accordingly. 

They'll look about like this when they're done. Perfect little cups just waiting to be filled with whatever strikes your fancy and then consumed in the blink of an eye. 

Don't even wait for them to cool. We pull ours out of the pan almost as soon as they come out of the oven and eat them right then. Since they're so small, they'll cool really quickly so if you want to melt some butter in them (like we do; I'm telling you, we love butter) eat them RIGHT NOW!

I really like adding some fresh fruit on top of the butter and syrup but you can dress them up however you please.