Gluten-free chocolate cranberry cupcakes:

Cranberry syrup:

• about 1-2 cups dried cranberries
• about 3 cups water
• a drop of lemon juice
• 2 TBS sugar

I made this by combining all of these ingredients and cooking on the stove for about an hour, until a syrup formed. I drained the cranberries and then refrigerated till use.

Chocolate Cranberry Cupcakes: 

 

Crust;

Ingredients:

• 4 cups all purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
  

  photo taken by Heather of http://heathergoesdeutsch.blogspot.com, one of my dinner guests!

• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ sticks butter
• 1 ½ cups buttermilk
• Whipping cream OR combo of 1 Tablespoon butter and 2 Tablespoons milk
• Coarsely ground black pepper and a sprinkle of salt

How to make:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees and line baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl and whisk together.
3. Add butter to the flour mixture, and break apart with your fingers until the mix resembles coarse meal. Transfer to a large bowl.
4. Gradually add buttermilk until the dough comes together in moist clumps.
5. Transfer to a lightly floured surface and pat out into a 10-inch round, about ¾ inches thick.
6. Using a biscuit cutter, cut out 8-12 rounds.
7. Place the biscuits 2 inches apart on the parchment lined sheet pan.
8. Brush the biscuits with cream and sprinkle with ground pepper.
9. Bake the biscuits for 15-18 minutes.

10. Let cool and Enjoy!

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup unsweetened dark or regular cocoa powder
• 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, very soft
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup warm milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 4 large eggs

1. Place a strainer over a large mixing bowl. Measure in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cocoa, and sugar. Sift/shake the dry ingredients through the strainer into a mixing bowl, to eliminate any lumps.

2. Add the butter and mix at low speed for 1 minutes. With the mixer running, add the oil and continue mixing until the mixture looks like sand.

3. Combine the vanilla with the milk and water, and add all at once. Mix for 1 minute at low speed, stop and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, then mix for 30 seconds more.

4. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well at medium-high speed between additions.

5. Scrape the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl, and mix for 1 minute more. The batter will be thin.

6. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan of your choice. For layers, divide the batter among the pans. Smooth out the tops of the layers with an offset spatula or the back of a tablespoon. For cupcakes, scoop by the heaping 1/4 cup into the prepared muffin tins.

7. Bake for 34 minutes for a 9″ x 13″ pan; 28 to 30 minutes for 9″ layers; 24 to 26 minutes for 8″ layers, or 21 to 23 minutes for cupcakes.

8. The cake is done when the top springs back when very lightly touched in the center, and the edges just begin to pull away from the edge of the pan. A toothpick inserted in the center will come out clean.

9. Remove the cake from the oven and place on a rack to cool before removing it from the pan. Enjoy!

So here is the recipe-

Ingredients

CRUST

• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 3 tablespoons (or more) ice water
• 1 egg yolk, whisked to blend with 1 tablespoon water (for glaze)

FILLING

• 7 tablespoons butter, room temperature, divided
• 5 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 5 potatoes, skinned and cut into cubes
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 big ole’ handful cut asparagus or green beans
• 1 cup 1/2-inch cubes peeled carrots
• 1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 3 1/2 cups (or more) low-salt chicken broth
• 5 cups coarsely chopped or torn roast chicken, skin and bones removed (from 1 large chicken)
• 1 1/2 cups frozen green peas or frozen green beans
• 1/3 cup whipping cream
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley

Preparation

• Blend flour and salt in processor. Add butter and blend, using on/off turns, until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add 3 tablespoons ice water; blend until moist clumps form, adding more ice water by teaspoonfuls if dough is dry. Gather dough into ball; flatten into rectangle. Wrap in plastic; chill at least 1 hour and up to 1 day.
• Mix 5 tablespoons butter and flour in small bowl until smooth. Melt 2 tablespoons butter with oil in large wide pot over medium-high heat. Add potatoes, asparagus, and carrots; sauté until vegetables start to soften and brown, about 10 minutes.
• Add thyme and garlic; stir 3 minutes. Add chicken broth; bring to simmer. Add butter-flour mixture, 1 tablespoon at a time; whisk until incorporated and mixture boils. Reduce heat; simmer until sauce thickens, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Stir in chicken, peas, cream, and parsley; bring to simmer. Season with salt and pepper.
• Preheat oven to 425°F. Transfer filling to 13x9x2-inch baking dish. Carefully place dough atop filling. Bake until heated through, about 25 minutes. Let rest 5 minutes.

We do have a hot plate which runs very hot! I am unaccustomed to hot plate cookery so I had some mishaps. Everything can literally burn in 2 minutes if you aren’t careful. I decided to make a nice applesauce that burned so quickly, make the entire apartment smell terrible and resulted in my sobbing uncontrollably. I’ve never burned applesauce.

Just today our refrigerator works, so I can begin at least eating cereals and things. But alas, this is a post on hot plate cooking. I made pastas aplenty, grilled meats and potatoes, pancakes, soups and stir-fry. Surprisingly, without a refrigerator, there isn’t a whole lot I want to try since everything goes bad quickly.

Here are some pics and if you are interested, I can totally give you recipes.

Alright this looks simple and it is. You have to use the rules of pasta making here. Olive oil in a pan with a minced garlic clove. sizzle and pop. Add onions and lots o’ tomatoes, fresh basil, oregano and thyme with a bit of salt. Let simmer for a while. Boil your pasta and reserve some of the boiling water. Add it to your sauce. Take your pasta and add it to the sauce on the stovetop, mix for about a minute or two. The result is gourmet pasta, very simple with an abundance of flavor and rather healthy thank you!

Underboiled then grilled potatoes with blanched and then seared green beans, and of course, grilled chicken. Btw, I only have one hot plate so in the end, I have to put everything in one pan to make them all the same temp.

These are rather large shells I got from the Italian section in the German supermarket. The entire package was in Italian and I had a feeling these would be fantastic. I made a meat sauce for this one, used fresh herbs and lots of vegetables. The result was awesome. The German ate a lot of pasta that night.

I decided one night to use our little grill and make a gigantic pizza on it. I didn’t have a bowl and our apartment is freezing cold, so I had to buy pizza dough (gasp). I made a sauce, cut up lots of veggies (they have fresh produce everywhere in Germany and for real cheap) and grated mozzarella. The crust puffed up but not perfectly- the edges came out a bit doughy but overall the flavor was there. I was happy with it. Will have to try again and take pictures next time.

I’ll be back with more posts soon!

Here are some pictures to tide you over until I can write up- and if you see something here you wanna try at home, message me for the recipe!

I’ve made some enemy bloggers with this here food blog. A while back another blogger wanted me to post on their site, and well, they never told me how, so I wondered about it. Then last-minute they said, oh yeah I wanted to get it done so I went ahead. I was crushed. This was my opportunity to get my name out there and show people that I can be a good food writer too. I even worked outside my box to do something culinary as this blog is more culinary than mine. But alas, no dice. And then this blogger ignored me from there on. Even more crushing because I thought I had made a friend.

Food blogging is confusing, I won’t get read if I don’t comment on the blogs of other people. Even if I comment on their blogs, it means absolutely nothing to them. So why not just go back to writing, not caring who is reading, and commenting when I really want to comment on someone’s blog. I think that’s all I can do. And if people want to stick around and read and comment, well thank you, but it won’t be the end-all of my world. And I cannot let that prevent me from blogging, or make me anxious that I’m not appealing to a bigger audience. You either like it or you don’t and I just want to express myself.

Thank you! 

Let’s talk about food and plans because in a few months Eat Sweet or Die Bitter will finally be going international. Which means, more food experiments, more blogging, more adventures, did I mention more food?

As a food writer I’m either very successful or a complete failure. I’m simple; I don’t need to write about those beautiful tangerines left on my windowsill during a sunny day bursting with juices and sweetness, that dribbles down my chin like the luscious rays of the summer sun. I like the way other writers do that; create evocative food imagery through complicated sentence structures. I’m not complicated when it comes to food for a lot of good reasons. First, I’m almost a minimalist with food- I want good ingredients, cooked or baked well. Good ingredients make even better food, and tell a story I would love to share. Second, I’m a pastry chef and as such we deal in the science about why things work and don’t work. I’m not a culinary chef and although I am enjoying learning culinary techniques over the last year, my mind still works like a pastry chef; formulaic, always well prepped, never venturing too much adventure. Something, my culinary chef friend tells me, I need to lose to succeed with culinary.

All of this said, when Eat Sweet or Die Bitter goes international, I would love to write about international foods and experiences. I can only hope someone will pay me for my articles (ahem, Bon Appetit this means you!). If I got paid to write about food, I’m sure I would not only be a better writer because I would have enough time to write well, but I would enjoy it a lot more. That’s my problem that other bloggers seem to handle much better- how do you find the time to blog well every day or week  when you have a full-time job and so many things to do? I would love to drop the full-time job and pursue something I truly love; food writing. So let’s hope my international experiences allow me to.

ESDB