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!
Monday 28 January 2013
Tuesday 15 January 2013
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...
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. :) |
Sunday 6 January 2013
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.
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! :)
Feel free to comment and share!
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! |
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! :)
Feel free to comment and share!
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