Journal # 11: Churros con Chocolate

I love chocolate! Now, who doesn't, right? Churros con chocolate has been one of my favorite rainy day foods. Chocolate is meant to enlighten someone's day and this wonderful combination just brings joy to my heart!

I made churros before and I hate to say this, but, I lost the recipe for it. So I just had to look for another one online. The wonderful thing about churros is it's very easy to make. 

Be sure to follow the exact measure of the ingredients or else the dough will be either too wet/sticky or too dry. 

Got this simple and wonderful recipe from BBC!
Although, I omitted the ingredients that I did not use and added some ingredients too.

Churros
Ingredients:
100g unsalted butter
200ml cold water
175g flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
3 large eggs, beaten
1-2 tbsp of icing sugar, for sprinkling

You start with sifting the flour and baking powder together. Then, combine the water and butter together on a small saucepan. Set it on medium-high heat and let it boil. The moment it boils take it off the pan and add the flour mixture to it. 

Beat it with a wooden spoon until combined well. Let it cool for a bit then add the beaten eggs one at a time. Beating well after each addition. Beat it until smooth and it comes off the sides of the bowl.

Let the mixture cool and set it aside. Make sure it is covered with cling/plastic wrap or maybe a towel, just to keep the moisture in. 

After letting it sit a while, start heating up your deep fryer. To make the churros, use a pastry bag with a jumbo open star tip. Cut them with scissors to the size you want. Fry for 1-2 minutes.

As for the chocolate sauce, this is the one that I've been using. It's a recipe that I can call my own. It's rich in chocolate flavor and isn't too sweet. 

Chocolate Sauce:
Ingredients:
1/4 c. Butter (add more or less depending on the consistency you like)
125g Bittersweet Chocolate (or dark chocolate)
Milk, at room temp (optional)

All you have to do is to put the chopped chocolate in a bowl and set it on a pan with boiling water, let the butter and chocolate melt and stir it up. Adding the milk will help with the consistency you want. :)

Jumbo Churros con Chocolate! c/o my instagram

Feel free to follow me on instagram (@penny4thots) for some pics of the food I make. Also find us on Facebook, @King's Crust fan page. 

Feel free to write on my tab below! :)

Journal # 10: I see red everywhere!

Red velvet anythings are trending nowadays, so I decided to jump in the bandwagon and make some other kinds of red velvet baked stuff. 

Customers have always loved my red velvet cake, so I wondered what the feedback would be if I included some red Velvet sandwiches to our King's Crust menu. 

I was supposed to make red velvet crinkles but then the consistency was too runny so I decided to still make them cookies in looks.

I made a cream cheese filling along with it, to make it an actual sandwich.I dunno why I'm sharing this recipe but yeah, they're actually that good. Haha Like miniature cakes but a little stronger. Moisture was kept inside too.

Cookies are red, violets are blue...how does it go again?

Red Velvet Sandwiches
Makes 36-40 cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup white sugar
1/2 c. butter
1 large beaten egg

2 cups flour (+1/4 if you think it's a little runny)
1/2 tsp. baking soda (a little more wouldn't hurt)
1/2 tsp salt

2 oz. melted unsweetened chocolate
1/3 cup milk (or buttermilk)

2 oz. Red dye

1 tsp vanilla

As for the filling, you can use any cream cheese frosting recipe you have. 

I preheated my oven to 350deg F. Then I sifted the flour together with the salt and baking soda. The recipe calls for only 1/2 tsp. but you may add a little more if you'd like. 

I creamed the butter then added the sugar until it became a little light and fluffy. I added the beaten egg last. 

I added the melted chocolate, vanilla, red dye and milk to the butter mixture. 

After all the wet ingredients are fully incorporated, I added them to the dry ingredients. Be sure not to over beat. 

Now, if you look at your batter and you think that it's a little runny, you may add a little more flour. 

Scoop them into an oiled cookie sheet. Then put them in the oven at 350F for 8-10 mins.

Let it cool and then frost it with your favorite cream cheese frosting.

As always, I let my bf be the judge of my cooking and he loved it! Not because he was biased towards me! HA ha! But yeah, he did love 'em! So i let him take half the sandwiches home! 

4Ts: Time to taste test!

Like what you read? Questions? Comments? Give me a shoutout in the comments! :) 

Journal # 9: Pass that Pasta!

My first post for February! Yey! Enough celebration, let's talk food! :)

Ever since I had the time to cook, I've always wanted fresh everything. Freshly made pizza, bread, cookies, fresh everything! I've always wondered about how to make fresh pasta. I've watched Masterchef US people do it and it didn't seem difficult. I love pasta, BTW! 

Pasta is one of the best gifts the Italian people shared with the world! So here I am, going to share with you a recipe that I have tried and love! 

Here's a teaser first:

After maybe 1 1/2 hours of prep and cooking here's the result:

Looks good, right?

Okay, before I tell you what's inside those magical ravioli. Let's talk about how I made them.

Making the Ravioli
Once again, I used Laura Vitale's Pasta Dough recipe! I love watching her vids, it's really helpful and entertaining! Be sure to check out that link. 

Some helpful tips for newbies out there:

1. Be resourceful
Laura's recipe requires a food processor, however I don't have one and maybe I'm not planning on getting one. SO I just mixed them manually by hand, I just made sure the eggs were beaten prior to me mixing them. Mix until the ingredients are well distributed. 

Remember, you don't have to have all the fancy equipments those Chefs have, you just have to know what they do and you can try and copy that to your recipe. 

2. Be Patient. 
You have to chill it in the fridge for 30mins. So prepare the other ingredients for the filling and the sauce. 

To tell you it wasn't as EASY as I thought it would be. Flattening the dough without a pasta roller is tiring! It takes A LOT of time too!I am an impatient girl, so this was tough for me and I was getting hungry. LOL

I started with a rolling pin and just laid it on my counter like I would any other dough. So I rolled it out until it was maybe 1cm thick (about 10pcs of bond paper stacked). It took me literally 15 minutes to get it right. It was tough for me, cause the dough kept sticking on the rolling pin. So make sure you FLOUR it from time to time. If you over-flour it, the pasta will become really tough.

Then I used a dough cutter to get the shapes I wanted. I made a square and a round one. For your ease, you can use a set of cookie cutters for great looking ravioli. 

3. Well...actually...you should...Yeah, there's supposed to be a number 3, but I can't think of another one. Ha-ha! Hope those two suffice. 

Moving on to our recipe.

Filling the ravioli
I prepared 3 kinds of cheeses for my ravioli and some basil, spinach, garlic, and meat to go with it. 

Popeye's favorite:
1. 1/2 c. of Cottage Cheese: if they come in tubs, make sure to drain them prior to usage, so that the pasta won't be too wet. It would be difficult to seal them.
2. 1-2 tsps. of Fried Garlic Bits: You can buy them from the store or make them on your own, just don't burn them.
3. 10 pcs. Spinach Leaves: Now you see why Popeye likes this! :) Fresh and rinsed. You could alternate basil with these.
4. 1/2 tsp. White Pepper: 

Mighty Meat-y:
1. 1/2 c. cooked ground beef (seasoned with salt and pepper)
2. Goat's cheese: I love its mild flavor. :)


To make 10 Ravioli (Good for 2 persons)
You need: 1/3 of the Pasta dough recipe + One of the filling recipes above.
Cook the ravioli in boiling water with salt and oil for about 8-10 minutes. Check the consistency of the pasta at 8mins. (cooking time depends on the thickness of the pasta you made.)

It's NOW time to make the dressing/sauce for it.

It was undeniably delicious!

For my family, I made some fresh pesto (from the basil and spinach leftovers) and some tomato sauce.

This picture really makes me hungry. Don't tell me that you didn't salivate over that because I know you did!

Use your favorite red sauce recipe, the one that you normally use for spaghetti.

Here's what the fresh pesto with ravioli looks like.

Vegetarian version: Pesto dressing and Spinach filled Ravioli

This pesto is just olive oil, basil, spinach and a bit of salt. Just use a hand held blender and mix em up until you get the right consistency and flavor. Don't over blend it. It might become paste. :))

Over all, my family and boyfriend, oh and my sister's "friend" enjoyed the wonderful meal!


Fresh pasta really tastes different from the ready made ones. I don't know, maybe it's just psychological but so what! It's better cause it was made by me with lots o love and nothing beats that! Ha ha!

Hope you enjoyed reading! God bless! :)

Journal # 8: Je t'aime Pizza!

I am a pizza lover and who isn't? right? It's the one thing that I could eat for everyday and not get satiated. It is no surprise to know that pizza is made and served in every country in the world.

I found Laura Vitale in youtube and watched her video on how to make pizza dough and it's just wonderful! I never thought making pizza dough would be this easy! Really! Even newbies can try making it and not fail. 

I just used the dough for this recipe and the rest of the stuff are mine. 

Just a tip: when using recipes with yeast, an envelope/packet means 2 1/4 tsp. of yeast. Don't put in the yeast in the water if it is not the right temperature! It will kill the yeast and won't let your dough rise. Total disaster!

Also, when I made her recipe, I think it had too little salt in it. So I doubled the salt from 1 tsp. to 2 tsps. 

Make sure to follow her instructions strictly (except for the tweak I made) and use this for your tomato sauce

Pizza Sauce:
1 1/2 cups of tomato sauce
6cloves garlic
2 tsps. Italian Seasoning (if you don't have any, dried basil leaves will do)
Salt and Pepper (to taste)

This will be good enough for the dough you made. Use a garlic press to crush the garlic really fine. Add it and the rest of the ingredients to the tomato sauce. 

Don't make it too salty because the cheese (any kind) will help with the saltiness.

I used sliced ham, green olives, mozzarella, cheddar and goat's cheese for the toppings. It turned out really well.

Then bake it for 17-20mins. at 375F. 

Voila! You are now an official pizza maker! Be sure to keep her dough recipe! It's just wonderful! But I'll try out some other recipes, maybe there is something even better!

Journal # 7: Buffalo wings satisfies my cravings!

I am an ultimate fan of Shakey's Buffalo wings. It's a bit tangy, spicy and salty. I just love the awesome flavors it has! So, on my venture of recreating that dish, I found a recipe that comes close to the Shakey's wings! 

A week ago, I went to google and searched for "buffalo wings" and this awesome hooter's recipe by Todd Wilbur caught my eye. It had great reviews, although few. It was rated 5 stars. So then I tried the recipe last night and I loved it! It came really close to my favorite at the restaurant! :))

Oh and it's not just awesome, it's extremely easy to make too!

Here are a few (extra) steps that I did to make them more awesome!

Okay, so the first thing I did was thaw the 10 pcs. chicken wings I had in the freezer. When it was completely thawed out (about 4 hours), I washed them with water, removed the dirt and rubbed the wings with salt. This helps remove the icky, slimy stuff on 'em and helps infuse salt on the chicken. Then after rubbing them with wings, wash them with water again. I don't know what this process is called but I call it the salt bath. LOL

So, after the chicken wings are clean. I separated using kitchen scissors (of course, you could also use a knife! LOL) the drummette from the actual wing. From what I've read, A drummette is the section of the wing that is connected to the body of the chicken.
So then, I have 20pcs of chicken to coat and fry.

I dry these wings with a disposable paper towel, make sure to discard these after use, reusing them may cause illness. When they're dry, and make sure to make them stay dry, it's time now to prepare our coating. You could also prepare the coating while thawing, if you're not doing anything else, just to save time. The recipe only calls for 1/2c flour, 1/4tsp. cayenne pepper, 1/4tsp. spanish paprika and 1/4 tsp. salt. Mix them all together and coat the wings with them. This recipe is only for 10 wings, so I doubled the amounts so that it would be enough to coat the wings and drummettes.

It's time now to start cooking! I preheated my oil to about 110C and I deep fried the wings for 6mins and the drummette for 8mins. They turned out to be really crispy. Make sure you don't overcook the chicken, they will dry out!

My only comment on the batter would be to add more salt, 1/4tsp. is too little for my taste. So the next time I would be adding more maybe upto a teaspoon.

Moving on...
The sauce is made up of butter, hot sauce, pepper and garlic powder. I melted the butter and I found out that I didn't have any garlic powder or hot sauce on hand so I substituted these for real garlic about 2 tsps. finely chopped and Chinese Chili sauce. It worked well too! The recipe calls for equal portions of butter to chili sauce but, for me, it ended up too spicy, so I added more butter to find the right balance for my palette. 

I also added dried basil leaves about 1 tsp. for aroma. I put the sauce on a container with a lid and put the cooked chicken on it and shook it like crazy! LOL Then I served it on the table! It was a winner! Everybody loved it! My mom loved it too but was too worried about the fats she might gain coz of it! haha

I love buffalo wings and to save money, I'd just make them on my own since I have this awesome recipe with me! It is definitely a keeper! 

I'm sorry I don't have pictures, I was just too excited to eat them! You'll know what I mean, when you've tried em! HAHA

Try the recipe too, let me know what happens...

That's the Buffalo fried Chicken without the sauce. :) 

Journal #6 : Meringues

Here I am again, trying to help other new/self-taught bakers like me. This post is about this frustration of mine: Meringues. I'm frustrated because they're so easy to make but so difficult to bake! You really need patience in order to perfect this! Read on if you want to understand the importance of the ingredients and the steps in making this delicious dessert!

If you get bored while reading this whole blog, just take note of those highlighted in red! :) Those are important!

These goodies whether chewy or melt-in-your-mouth are great desserts! It is also made with only very few ingredients: egg whites, cream of tartar, salt and sugar. The egg white is the most important ingredient. It must be at room temperature before whisking or else the meringues will fail. The cream of tartar helps stabilize the egg whites (as i've read in other recipe books) like helping them incorporate more air and maintain the stiffness of the peaks. The sugar and salt's importance are, of course, obvious.

Whisking these by hand would take forever and would definitely hurt your arm. You'd be dead tired before you could make soft peaks. Ha ha! For comfort and ease, use a stand or hand held mixer with a whisk attachment. 

One thing you should keep in mind is too not add the sugar all at one time. I did this once and the meringue flopped while baking. It wasn't able to stiffen enough during the whisking so it collapsed while baking. The purpose of adding the sugar little by little is to stiffen the air pockets in the egg white so that it would hold its shape even when exposed to hotter temperatures (i.e. in the oven).

As to the issue of what kind of sugar to use, I prefer Caster Sugar which is more expensive than regular white sugar. It is easier dissolved which means lesser time to whisk and more time for other things. :) You can still use regular white sugar but whisking time will be longer.

After whisking you may or may not add vanilla extract but if you do add it last. I like adding vanilla extract, I think it results to better tasting meringues.

Meringues in the oven!

Off to the baking part, some recipes say bake it at 100 C for about 1 hour, but I think the best way to do it is preheat the oven at 120C and once the meringues are in, bring down the temperature to 100C. It will give the meringues a nice crisp on the edges. This is important if you live in a place with a room temperature lower than 28-30C: After baking, do not take it out of the oven, turn it off, leave it there to dry for about 3 hours. If you skip this step, your meringues will be sticky on the outside and chewy. It won't be a crunchy meringue!

Believe me, I've had this problem over and over again until I did this step. THis is what got me frustrated. I never gave up though. I had to try again until I perfected it!

You can try any meringue recipe on the internet these tips and tricks will help you to bake the awesome meringues!

Remember: If at first you don't succeed try and try again! :)


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