Baking and photos - shortbread, clementine cake, shortcake
So. I had planned on doing some baking, and a friend linked me to a recipe for a clementine cake that uses no flour. It uses whole clementines (including rind), ground almonds, a lot of eggs, sugar, and a bit of baking powder.
Here's the resulting cake:
I added a glaze of powdered sugar and clementine juice, and it is delicious. It's moist, fluffy, and crunchy (because of the almonds). Sweet with a bit of tartness. I have it in my recipe book and will be making it again!
I also found some glutinous rice flour, which I'd never seen before, and thought I'd try it in shortbread because glutinous rice is stickier than regular rice. It worked well! Though I may try another batch and cut out the sugar, since the glutinous rice flour is sweet as is, and these shortbread cookies taste extra sweet because of this. :x
I added the cherries because that's how my great grandmother used to make them, and the only reason I really make them is because it's just not the holidays without gramma Rose's shortbread.
The dear woman would make them every year right up until she passed away in her 90s. I make them in her memory, a personal tradition I suppose.
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Since I never posted them last time around.
I did some baking a few months back. I made shortcakes, and blueberry pie filling to go into walnut-oat tarts. (Sadly the pics for the tarts didn't turn out well but the others did!)
The oats and walnuts need to be toasted, and then thrown in a processor with the rest of the ingredients. So, here we have the pie filling, and the toasted oats and walnuts. :P
Then, because I was feeling creative, I poured some of the fresh-made pie filling into the shortcakes.
They came out quite nicely! Moist and full of blueberry goodness. My roommate insisted they'd stick to the pan, but they didn't. The blueberry filling baked into the shortcakes rather well, evenly mixed, rather than 'sunk at the bottom' like he insisted they would. He doesn't know baking. And the shortcakes, which were flour-free, were really delicious, fluffy and light. Though I discovered they're not something that lasts, well, at all, and has to be eaten asap. Or they go rock hard quickly. Likely due to consisting of mostly egg.
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I also managed to find instant corn masa! You guys I get to make my own corn tortillas!!! :D Grocery stores here only ever seem to carry wheat tortillas, which really bugs me. :| I was really happy to find the masa. Haven't used it yet, but when I do I'll take pics!
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For those wanting recipes:
Clementine Cake:
Edit: Thank's to mini, here's the link! http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/01/clementine-cake/
4-5 clementines (whole, ~375 grams)
6 eggs
1 cup + 2 tbsps sugar
2 1/3 cups crushed almonds
1 heaping tsp. baking powder
(powdered sugar for dusting or a glaze)
Clean clementines, boil in deep pot with lots of water for 2 hours (keep checking on them to make sure the water hasn't boiled out). Let cool a bit, and cut in half, digging out the seeds. Blend in a processor, leave chunky. Butter and line an 8-inch springform pan and preheat oven to 375F. Beat eggs. Add sugar, almonds, baking powder, and mix well. Stir in the clementines. Pour into the pan and bake 30-50* minutes. Optional: Dust with powdered sugar, or make a glaze by heating powdered sugar with the juice of one clementine.
*The baking time is wonky. The person who shared the recipe (and apparently got it from another site!) also had issues with the baking time. Keep an eye on it beyond 20 min, and if the top starts getting dark, cover it with aluminum foil (loosely, don't push it against the cake!) to prevent it from overcooking. I covered it after around 30 min and did the sticky-test at 40 and again at 50 min. (That's where you stick something into the cake to see if it comes out clumped or clean - clean means DONE.)
Shortbread:
This is a basic wheat-free recipe I've seen in a lot of places, except it calls for regular rice flour instead of glutinous.
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 cup rice flour
3/4 cup butter - room temp
Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix together. Add butter and mix with your hands to form a dough. Refrigerate 1 hours, then shape into 1" balls (about 16). Place 1-1/4 inches apart on a greased cookie sheet, press down with thumb or fork, and bake at 300F for 20-25* minutes, or until the edges start to brown.
*With glutinous rice flour, I had to bake it another 10 min, keeping an eye on it every 5, and they still weren't browned at the edges. I took them out and they're baked fine! I also pushed glace cherries into them before baking, which you can often find in the baking sections of most grocery stores.
Shortcakes:
I got this off a box of Wasco corn starch.
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup corn starch
2 tsp baking powder
Preheat oven to 350F. Bring ingredients to room temp. To a bowl add butter and powdered sugar, cream together. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat until light. Sift and measure 1 cup corn starch. Add baking powder to corn starch and sift three more times. (I skipped this and just beat the batter more thoroughly). Combine sifted ingredients to creamed mixture and blend. Grease bottoms of muffin pans and fill halfway. Bake about 15 minutes.
Here's the resulting cake:
I added a glaze of powdered sugar and clementine juice, and it is delicious. It's moist, fluffy, and crunchy (because of the almonds). Sweet with a bit of tartness. I have it in my recipe book and will be making it again!
I also found some glutinous rice flour, which I'd never seen before, and thought I'd try it in shortbread because glutinous rice is stickier than regular rice. It worked well! Though I may try another batch and cut out the sugar, since the glutinous rice flour is sweet as is, and these shortbread cookies taste extra sweet because of this. :x
I added the cherries because that's how my great grandmother used to make them, and the only reason I really make them is because it's just not the holidays without gramma Rose's shortbread.
The dear woman would make them every year right up until she passed away in her 90s. I make them in her memory, a personal tradition I suppose.
**********
Since I never posted them last time around.
I did some baking a few months back. I made shortcakes, and blueberry pie filling to go into walnut-oat tarts. (Sadly the pics for the tarts didn't turn out well but the others did!)
The oats and walnuts need to be toasted, and then thrown in a processor with the rest of the ingredients. So, here we have the pie filling, and the toasted oats and walnuts. :P
Then, because I was feeling creative, I poured some of the fresh-made pie filling into the shortcakes.
They came out quite nicely! Moist and full of blueberry goodness. My roommate insisted they'd stick to the pan, but they didn't. The blueberry filling baked into the shortcakes rather well, evenly mixed, rather than 'sunk at the bottom' like he insisted they would. He doesn't know baking. And the shortcakes, which were flour-free, were really delicious, fluffy and light. Though I discovered they're not something that lasts, well, at all, and has to be eaten asap. Or they go rock hard quickly. Likely due to consisting of mostly egg.
**********
I also managed to find instant corn masa! You guys I get to make my own corn tortillas!!! :D Grocery stores here only ever seem to carry wheat tortillas, which really bugs me. :| I was really happy to find the masa. Haven't used it yet, but when I do I'll take pics!
**********
For those wanting recipes:
Clementine Cake:
Edit: Thank's to mini, here's the link! http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/01/clementine-cake/
4-5 clementines (whole, ~375 grams)
6 eggs
1 cup + 2 tbsps sugar
2 1/3 cups crushed almonds
1 heaping tsp. baking powder
(powdered sugar for dusting or a glaze)
Clean clementines, boil in deep pot with lots of water for 2 hours (keep checking on them to make sure the water hasn't boiled out). Let cool a bit, and cut in half, digging out the seeds. Blend in a processor, leave chunky. Butter and line an 8-inch springform pan and preheat oven to 375F. Beat eggs. Add sugar, almonds, baking powder, and mix well. Stir in the clementines. Pour into the pan and bake 30-50* minutes. Optional: Dust with powdered sugar, or make a glaze by heating powdered sugar with the juice of one clementine.
*The baking time is wonky. The person who shared the recipe (and apparently got it from another site!) also had issues with the baking time. Keep an eye on it beyond 20 min, and if the top starts getting dark, cover it with aluminum foil (loosely, don't push it against the cake!) to prevent it from overcooking. I covered it after around 30 min and did the sticky-test at 40 and again at 50 min. (That's where you stick something into the cake to see if it comes out clumped or clean - clean means DONE.)
Shortbread:
This is a basic wheat-free recipe I've seen in a lot of places, except it calls for regular rice flour instead of glutinous.
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 cup rice flour
3/4 cup butter - room temp
Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix together. Add butter and mix with your hands to form a dough. Refrigerate 1 hours, then shape into 1" balls (about 16). Place 1-1/4 inches apart on a greased cookie sheet, press down with thumb or fork, and bake at 300F for 20-25* minutes, or until the edges start to brown.
*With glutinous rice flour, I had to bake it another 10 min, keeping an eye on it every 5, and they still weren't browned at the edges. I took them out and they're baked fine! I also pushed glace cherries into them before baking, which you can often find in the baking sections of most grocery stores.
Shortcakes:
I got this off a box of Wasco corn starch.
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup corn starch
2 tsp baking powder
Preheat oven to 350F. Bring ingredients to room temp. To a bowl add butter and powdered sugar, cream together. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat until light. Sift and measure 1 cup corn starch. Add baking powder to corn starch and sift three more times. (I skipped this and just beat the batter more thoroughly). Combine sifted ingredients to creamed mixture and blend. Grease bottoms of muffin pans and fill halfway. Bake about 15 minutes.