The giant souffle pancakes that you can find in Japan… they look so good don’t they? These are a version of that. I love fluffy food, and these are the definition of fluffy.
The pancakes themselves, are not dense, but rather very light as they are mostly meringue. While my pomegranate chocolate chip pancakes are very heavy, these ones you can keep eating forever.
Now, mine look small because I only filled my molds 1/4 of the way. But if you fill them 1/2-3/4 of the way, they will be much bigger because they will rise in the mold ( i was being a little lazy).
Want to know a secret? I’ve never really enjoyed caramel corn. My grandmother used to buy those massive tubs that were divided into three sections, one with regular popcorn, one with caramel corn, and I don’t remember the last one. I was never interested in the sweet popcorn, only the salty stuff.
But that has never meant that I don’t enjoy actually making caramel corn. This one is particularly good because it combines the sweetness of caramel with the saltiness of peanuts and pistachios and the mild sweetness of coconut. Basically, it’s the perfect sweet and salty snack.
This was not an easy project to start, but it was so sweet when it was finally done (intentional pun). A crouqembouche is a tower of cream puffs, decorated with a caramel-like spun sugar.
Now, cream puffs themselves are not so hard to make, it’s just the time and effort that gets rough. The first step is to make the pate a choux pastry. This is the most versatile pastry, i think. You can use it for crouquembouche (obviously), profiteroles, eclairs, beignets, dumplings, gougeres, craquelins and churros. There are more wonderful things you can make, but you don’t need to know all of them right now. To get our delicious pate a choux recipe, subscribe to our mailing list for the exclusive recipe!
Each puff is then formed and baked until dry on the inside and then filled with a light and luscious pastry cream. Finally, you make your spun sugar (which I cooked a little bit too long), and stick them either to a mold or free build your own out of puffs by sticking them together with the sugar. A word of warning: The sugar is HOT and will definitely burn you if you get it on your fingers.
Your last, and unnecessary step, unless you’re going for that real fancy look, is to wait until the sugar reaches a honey-esque texture. Using a silpat and a spoon (or fork), drizzle the cooled sugar into cool shapes and lines. If you’re using a silpat, the sugar will come right off and you can drape it around your croquembouche. The sugar will harden, and stay put, but will be brittle.
Unless you are well schooled in croquembouche and pastry, this will be an all day project for you. It’s daunting, but entirely possible.
Ginger in any form is a huge player in my house. At any given time, I have more than 3 different forms of ginger root in my house. Today I have candied ginger, pickled ginger, powdered ginger and ginger syrup. All will be used and eaten and will be replaced by…. EVEN MORE GINGER.
In case you weren’t already aware, ginger is a celebrated ingredient the world over, with its roots (haha, pun intended) being in Asia, specifically China, Korea, Japan and Vietnam. It’s used in India extensively, Burma, the Caribbean and even Western cuisine. Depending on where you are, the use of ginger varies.
I use ginger in the traditional Asian way, flavoring seafood, vegetarian and meat dishes. I also make my own pickled ginger, like what is served with sushi. I use it in the Western way in ginger drinks, gingerbread and candied ginger. I use it in Indian pulse curries and spiced masala chai on occasion. Basically, I find it to be one of the most versatile ingredients out there.
So normally, this would be a trident. The original blonde animated Aquaman carried a golden trident (unless you’re referring to the Trident of Neptune, yes I am a nerd). But I like Jason Momoa a lot, and I love his silver trident, except… IT’S NOT A TRIDENT. Technically its a pentadent but we’re gonna call it a trident for the simplicity of it.
So I made cookies… and by cookies I mean one big ass chocolate chip cookie that I molded into a trident shape the best I could, baked it and then frosted it with icing. I really hope that Jason Momoa would approve of this cookie, as it was made in his honor since he may as well be the coolest Aquaman I’ve ever seen.
I like gingerbread a lot, and these were no different. The biggest problem is that the recipe called for a cake mix that basically doesn’t exist, volume wise, which made the dough very wet. I remedied this by adding more flour. Another problem was because of the cake mix, the gingerbread expanded way more than if I had made the dough from scratch. The gingerbread was very good though, and very moist and chewy, exactly what I was looking for. I decorated each gingerbread person very simply, but they could very well be complex and done with royal icing. Definitely good, but definitely some issues.
Eric’s Take
8/10
I enjoyed making this recipe. The shortcut for this cookie was a spice cake mix. Again, the recipe called for a size that didn’t exist anymore. I also added a tad extra flour and this helped a lot. This was my first time making gingerbread and I had fun doing it. I also decorated very simply. This recipe lost one point for the texture as it was chewy and less traditional. I also dropped it a point for taste. I didn’t overly love the flavor. It was a bit bland and needed some more sweetness. Overall I enjoyed the process and cookies. I gave these cookies away as gifts, and they received very good reviews.
I have been asked for this recipe multiple times since I created it. Earlier this year, I competed in an online recipe competition in which I had to use the chocolate brand Callebaut to make a recipe for a specific category. I competed in 4 different categories in the competition and in two of those categories I made it to the final round. These cupcakes were one of the two that made it.
I enjoyed making these cupcakes immensely, and even more so, enjoyed eating them. These cupcakes are not very sweet, and have a little kick of spicy in the cake itself. The buttercream on the other hand, is sweet and very alcoholic. The tequila is not cooked out, so all of the taste and all of the alcohol is still present.
I love love love these cupcakes, and I definitely want to see them if you make them! Please tag @withzoeanderic and @chefzoe on Instagram, post the picture on our Facebook page, or post in the comments on this post!
To celebrate Into the Spider Verse today, we made some delicious Spiderman cookies for the premier! Chocolate chip cookies covered in sugary sweet icing? I think Peter Parker would approve.
When I was young, we used to visit our family friends in Concord, Massachusetts. It would snow and be freezing and Patricia would take out the snowman mugs and the container of chocolate powder and tiny marshmallows, and make us delicious hot chocolate.
I can also flash back to the many ski trips I had out west. The kids would be in ski school while the adults combed the mountain. On our many breaks out of the cold, there was always hot chocolate. I can just smell it by recalling the memory. But that hot chocolate is made from powder. This hot chocolate, it isn’t.
Smooth dark chocolate, whole milk and maybe a touch of cream… maybe some non-traditional spices? Topped with whipped cream and candy cane crumble? Perfect for freezing cold night.
This is classic peppermint bark. Smooth milk and white chocolate topped with candy cane pieces. But we added Oreo cookie pieces to bring it to the next level. With extra crunch and chocolaty goodness you can’t go wrong with these! Also a great alternative to the office cookie swap party!
