Cupcakes!

I love to bake. I like to bake more than I like to cook. Cakes and cupcakes are a lot more fun to make than a pot roast, and you can even decorate the cupcakes for the season. A chunk of meat is, well, just a chunk of cooked meat, even if it is tasty.

When my children were small, I had an L shaped kitchen with a bar to the side where they would perch on the stools and lean over the counter to help me mix and shape cookies and of course, taste the dough. I like to think that as dough connoisseurs, we know even before something is baked if it is going to taste scrumptious. My son has become the world's best chocolate chip cookie baker; my daughter has started her own small catering business: making cupcakes for her friends for special occasions.

She's made cupcakes for weddings, valentines' day parties, little and big girl birthday parties, 

wedding showers, office parties and just for fun.

She makes red devil or carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, vanilla or lemon creme cupcakes with vanilla frosting, chocolate and chocolate chip cupcakes with chocolate frosting.  The cupcakes are made from scratch, never from a box. She decorates them with an eye to the type of party - but they are always delicious. Whatever the client wants, she can bake!

Here's our favorite recipe for carrot cake cupcakes. If you just want a great tasting cake, this recipe makes a wonderful single layer round cake, frosted with cream cheese frosting.

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Carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

makes 8 to 10 cupcakes or 1 8-inch round cake layer

Preheat oven to 325 F. Grease cupcake or muffin cups well with shortening, or place paper cupcake holders in each cup. Paper cupcake holders work best.  If preferred, cake can be baked in one round 8 inch pan, greased, and with a cut out parchment paper round placed on the bottom of the pan, also greased and floured. 

Carrot Cake Cupcakes (or single layer cake)

Mix together and reserve in a bowl:

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsps cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

Mix well in a large mixing bowl:

2/3 cup canola oil

1 cup light brown sugar

2 eggs @ room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

Grate and reserve:

1 1/2 cups grated carrots

Add flour mixture to sugar & egg mix and mix lightly. Add grated carrots and

1/2 cup chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts)

Fold nuts and carrots lightly until incorporated. Do not mix too much, cake will be too heavy.

Pour into prepared pan.

For cupcakes, bake 45 minutes to 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean.

For round cake, bake 1 hour and 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool on a cake rack for 10 minutes, then turn out onto the cake rack to cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

Beat:

3 oz. cream cheese

With

1 1/2 Tbls. cream or half & half

1 tsp vanilla

Slowly incorporate and beat well:

1 to 2 cups sifted powdered sugar

1 tsp cinnamon (optional)

To ice the cupcakes:

Spoon the frosting into cake decorating bags (if you don't have any of these, you can use a large ziplock bag - just spoon the frosting into the corner of one of the bags).  Snip off the tip of the bag, making a small hole (or snip the corner of the ziplock bag) to pipe the frosting onto the top of the cupcake. If you want to be more creative, snip a jagged edge on the tip or corner, the piping will not be smooth but will have swirls.  Start with a small snip/hole, if you need to go bigger, you can snip more, but if the hole is already too big, you'll have to remove the frosting into another bag.  Squeeze the frosting out of the bag in a swirling, circular fashion on top of the cupcake. Decorate with nut halves or sprinkles.  NOTE: If you want to color the frosting, spoon 1/2 of the frosting into one bag, then use food coloring to tint the remainder. Pipe the white frosting first, then spoon the tinted frosting into another bag and snip the corner with a very tiny hole for piping or writing. 

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Empanadas a la Argentina!

Argentina - land of gauchos, Malbec wine, Mate, mountains, grass fed steak - and empanadas. Breakfast in Argentina is always cafe con leche and a media luna, a buttery, flaky croissant filled with dulce de leche, or caramel. Yum.

I can't think of Argentina without wanting to taste an empanada, washed down with a full bodied Mendoza Malbec. Many countries around the world have devised some kind of pocket or mobile "lunch":  Meat pasties in Cornwall, dumplings in China, tamales in Mexico, turnovers in Ohio. Some are fried, some are baked.  Many countries in Latin America boast their own incarnation of this portable feast, but the baked empanada from Argentina remains my own personal favorite.

My good friend, Aurora, is from Mendoza, and her recipe for beef empanadas is the one printed, below. When she invites us over for dinner we arrive early so that we can all sit around the table, drink wine, talk, and help to form the empanadas. We've also made chicken empanadas, spinach empanadas, and even once, I made leek and prosciutto empanadas, which were delicious, too. Here's a picture of a spinach empanada for my vegetarian friends:

First, we suggest you buy pre-made dough discs to make the empanadas. You could make the dough yourself, roll each circle out and then make the empanadas, but I've found that unless you are really good with making and rolling out thin dough, the pre-made and pre-rolled discs work very nicely and are much easier to handle.  The pre-made discs can usually be found at many "international stores" that offer Latin and Asian foodstuffs. If you can't find them locally, you can order the ones that we use from this website: http://www.amigofoods.com/lasatapaem.html - here they can be purchased as an order of 4 packages.  We usually use one or 2 packages, then freeze the others to use later.  Thaw completely before using them to form the empanadas.  In a pinch, you could use pre-formed chinese egg roll dough discs, but they don't bake as nicely as the ones mentioned here.

The first step is to make the meat stuffing (see recipe below), and cool in the refridgerator.  We've found that cooking the meat filling the day before and leaving it to rest in the refridgerator overnight seems to allow all the flavors of the meat, onions and spices to brew together for a more tasty empanada.

When you are ready to form the empanadas, start by making 2 hard boiled eggs, cool and peel them, and slice lengthwise into 1/4 inch slices, and then cut each slice into quarters again. You should have a bunch of small thumbnail size pieces of hard boiled yellow and white. Then slice about 5 olives into 3/4 inch slices, about 4 to 6 slices from each olive. Place the sliced olives in a bowl; place the slices eggs into another small bowl.

Now comes the fun part -- Open a bottle of Mendoza Malbec to breathe and share, and have ready a few appetizers so that the workers won't be tempted to eat the sliced olives!   Place the small reserved bowls of raisins, egg and olives in the middle of a table. For each person who will be helping to make the empanadas, place a small bowl of about 1/2 cup tepid water next to a cutting board or something that will protect the table while the workers are forming the empanadas. Have ready 3 or 4 cookie sheets covered with parchment paper, to lay the empanadas on when made, for baking.

Remove the meat filling from the fridge and stir it well to evenly incorporate all the juices. Place the bowl of meat somewhere on the table where everyone is able to reach it with a few soup spoons. Hold one dough disc in the palm of your hand. Spoon a heaping tablespoon (but not too much!) of meat filling into the center of the disc, then place 1-3 raisins (if you didn't add them to the meat when you made the filling) or 1 slice of olive and 1 slice of egg in the center. Dip your finger into the bowl of water and use your finger to moisten the edges of one half side of the disc. Carefully fold the dough in half to make a crescent and seal the edges with your fingers, making a "pie crust" crimp to hold the 2 dough sides together. Some people like to just pinch them closed, but my daughter makes very nice evenly rolled crimps on the ones that she makes. It's fun to see how everyone makes a different appearing edge; it's also fun to know which ones you made and into which ones you put 4 pieces of olives! Place the formed empanada on its side on the parchment covered baking sheet, have a sip of wine, and make another one.

After the empanadas are formed and laying on the sheet, whisk an egg and a tablespoon of water in a small bowl or cup. With a pastry brush, brush the egg/water mixture only the top half of the empanada and over the crimped edge ( but not on both sides or they will stick to the parchment) so that they will brown nicely.

Bake at 400 for about 12 to 15 minutes, depending on your oven. (I've heard others bake at 375 for 20 minutes) They should be nicely browned, but not pale, and not burnt. Since the filling is already cooked, the baking is done to crisp up the dough. Sometimes she makes them ahead of time, freezes them in plastic baggies, and then thaws them, sticks them all in a pan to reheat and serves them. They freeze and reheat very well, I can't really tell the difference, but Aurora says she can tell.

Aurora usually serves Empanadas with a salad (your choice!) and another favorite dish of mine, a salad of boiled new potatoes and green beans. I think she usually throws in the sliced eggs that were not used, and some dressing. Here's a picture of the salad, maybe I can get her recipe for this salad for my next blog.

To make 20 empanadas:

Ingredients:

1 large onion, sliced and cut up fine (or 2 medium)
1 clove garlic, chopped (optional)
1 lb ground beef (sirloin, 94%)
1 & 1/2 tsps cumin
2 tsps paprika (or more, the meat should turn a bit red when you mix it in...if it doesn't look red, use more)
salt to taste
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper (Aji molido) - or more, if you like them spicy.

1 package La Saltena empanada dough

2 hard boiled eggs, sliced (can be omitted)
5 green olives, sliced - (can be omitted if you don't like olives)
20-60 raisins, depending on how much you like raisins

1 egg, whisked with 1 T water, reserved

Fry the onion in the olive oil, and before they are done, add the (optional) garlic and the ground beef.  Completely cook the meat, stirring and breaking up the meat until no pink is seen and the meat is crumbly with no big chunks. Add cumin and paprika; salt to taste. If desired, the raisins can be added at this point to plump them up. This is also a good idea if the meat appears to be very watery.  Simmer 15 minutes, uncovered.  Note: the filling is best if made the day before and left to rest and cool overnight in the fridge. When you are ready to form the empanadas, remove from the fridge and stir the mixture well to re-incorporate all the juices.

Form the empanadas as directed above, adding the raisins, olives, and/or eggs as directed. Brush one side only of the empanadas with the egg wash.

Bake 400 for 12 to 15 minutes, or until nicely browned.

Serve with a salad, or rice or potato dish. Goes well with Malbec or Cabernet Sauvignon wine or a nice white tea mixed with Mate ( http://www.teavana.com/?SC=AFGI&cm_mmc=GAN-_-It%20all%20started%20when....-_-j29581893k378086-_-Primary&clickid=0004a79674e0f9ac0aec720843ca0221), my favorite is white ayurvedic/samurai mate. For wine, we like Trapiche Cabernet Sauvignon or Finca del Origen Malbec; both from Mendoza.