Tag Archives: #Baking

Ottolenghi Style Sesame, Date, & Banana Cupcakes Recipe

This recipe is delicious and really different. It is based on Yotam Ottolenghi’s Recipe for Sesame Date Banana Cake. One of the biggest things I changed was that I used my already frozen bananas because I freeze bananas when they are ripe and on sale and they are more delicious and much sweeter that way. Often I take frozen sweet banana and just whip them up for a sweet no added sugar frozen treat. I changed the recipe only slightly and made it easier to prepare. This will make around 23 cupcakes but I recommend to double the frosting recipe if you want frosting on all the cupcakes. I just froze my leftover unfrosted cupcakes for another time.

This makes about 23 servings

2 oz tahini

3 oz orange juice

10 dates chopped (pits removed)

1 cup sliced bananas (mine were from frozen)

2 tablespoons sesame seeds

4 oz sweet butter cut into small chunks

2/3 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 + 1/3 cup flour

2 + 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 big pinch sea salt

non stick spray

Tahini Cream Cheese Frosting (double if you want enough for all the cupcakes)

4 oz cream cheese

4 oz ricotta cheese

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

2 Tablespoons tahini

12-22 sweetened banana chips

Date syrup for finishing

Directions

Preheat oven to 320F or 320 Convention.

Spray cupcake pan(s) with non stick spray

In a large mixing bowl add the 2oz tahini, orange juice, dates, frozen bananas, sesame seeds, butter, sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix well with a fork.

Fill sprayed cupcake tin half way.

Place in preheated oven until done. In my oven this took 20 minutes but your oven may differ some.

Make the frosting. I used a potato masher and mashed together the cream cheese, ricotta, brown sugar, and tahini till smooth and set to the side. Don’t top the cupcakes until they are cool.

Top the cupcakes when cool.

Drizzle with date syrup.

Finish with a banana chip.

Sesame Date Banana Cupcakes

A Special THANKS!!!!! To Yotam Ottolenghi for yet another FORKING AMAZING RECIPE so I could get what I got here.

The Forking Truth

Showing Off

Showing off is just to show you that I cook stuff. The majority of what you see here can be found as a recipe here www.TheForkingTruth.com Of course I don’t photo everything just the special occasion stuff I make for gatherings. Up above egg salads stuffed into cracker cups I made (cracker cups are just bread crisps that I shaped different).

Below are butternut squash filled fried crepes with 5 spice and some orange ginger sauce.

Honey Apple Cake

An unusual visit from The Giant Aussie Shepard/Cattledog. She seems oddly enchanted with the honey apple cake. Don’t worry I let her have some and she lapped it up. My smaller dog is running around barking right now. If I made something with cheese or chicken he would be here.

Mini Potato Knishes with the Honey Apple Cake

Potato Cheddar Pierogi

Cheesy Potato Filled Potatoes and Wasabi Potato filled Potatoes

Mini Bouchon Bites topped with chocolate pots de creme and a cherry (Bouchon Bakery recipe for really great chocolate cakes)

Plain pizza with a variety of fresh cheeses and with slow roasted tomatoes and home grown basil

Enjoy!!!

The Forking Truth

Showing Off

Showing Off is just to show you that I am still cooking or baking things.

Up above is a plain pizza with a good amount of fresh mozzarella on it.

Next is a slightly different onion galette. I used asiago cheese and added seeds and flake sea salt to the ends of the crust.

Below are spaghetti cupcakes

Next are-

Baked Salmon Mousse Balls and I also made a Mandarin Ginger Sauce to go with them and they sit on these cute little cracker bowls.

Sweet Potato Hand Pies

From the leftover sweet potato filling I just added an egg, more sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, pomegranate, and a few chocolate chips, and then embellished the tops.

Sweet potato bites with pomegranate and chocolate chips

Lightly Pickled Deviled Eggs

I packaged them like this.

That was a little bit of showing off.

The Forking Truth

Onion Galette Recipe

I saw an Onion Galette on the internet and that inspired me to come up with this recipe. The one I saw on the internet I didn’t agree with how they did the crust or the filling so I did it my way. This makes 6 up to 12 serving if you want cocktail sized portions.

Ingredients for around 6 portions

2 cups flour – dough

1/2 cup canola oil – dough

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar – dough

1 teaspoon course sea salt – dough

1/3 cup – water – dough

1/2 teaspoon baking powder – dough

2 egg whites – dough (*note you will use a yolk or two to glaze the dough)

5 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1 large onion – sliced thin

12 scallions – diagonal cut thin

Fresh ground black pepper to taste

2 Tablespoons dijon

1 cup parmesan cheese grated

1-2 egg yolks

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

The onion slices need to be cooked till brown. You can do this on the stove top on medium/high heat or just toss the onions and butter in a pan in your oven.

In a large bowl mix together the flour, oil, vinegar, salt, water, baking powder, and egg whites with a fork until it’s a ball of dough.

The dough gets rolled out to fill sheet as best as you can. (I use plastic wrap and it doesn’t stick to pin that way). You also make cuts around the edge for folding latter.

Put a thin coating of dijon on the dough.

Add about 1/2 cup of grated parmesan.

By now your caramelized onions should be done. Mix them with the scallions and they go on next.

The rest of the parmesan goes on now and you top that with fresh ground black pepper.

Fold up dough ends.

Brush dough ends with egg yolks.

This goes in a 375 F preheated oven on middle rack till done. In my oven this took 45 minutes but ovens do differ so timing may differ.

Let cool at least 30 minutes before serving.

Onion Galette

ENJOY!!!!!

The Forking Truth

Parmesan Pistachio Crostini Recipe

These Parmesan Pistachio Crostini are basically savory biscotti. We will call them crostini because it is easier to know how they taste when you call them crostini. This recipe makes 20-22 crostini so if one is a serving then you will get around 20 servings. But if you eat two then you will get 10 servings. I made mine pretty small so I will say 10 servings.

Ingredients for around 10 servings

4 oz parmesan cheese – shredded

6 oz bread flour

1 oz polenta

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

2 eggs

1+1/2 oz greek yogurt

2 Tablespoons olive oil

2 oz pistachios

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line sheet pan(s) with silicon mat(s)

Mix together the ingredients (cheese, flour, polenta, baking powder, salt, eggs, yogurt, oil, pistachios.

Make the dough into two logs and refrigerate at least one hour.

Each log goes on a silicon mat lined baking sheet.

They go into the pre-heated 350F oven till lightly browned – 25-45 minutes (ovens do differ) Leave them out until they are cool and then you slice.

Turn down your oven to 300F and the crostini go back in the oven till just slightly brown on each side and also until the crostini is very crisp. 15-35 minutes on BOTH sides.

Parmesan Pistachio Crostini

Enjoy!!!!!!!

The Forking Truth

Showing Off

Here’s some potato stuffed potatoes and cookies. Today the potatoes were topped with brown butter, scallions, and thyme.

The next week I made 2 pizzas.

One was fresh mozzarella, smoked scamorza, parmesan, sauce, home made pesto, fresh basil

The other was spiced butternut squash with cannoli cream, pistachios, pistachio cream

They went real fast……

Made rye rolls and cocktail sized rye rolls.

Cocktail Rye Rolls

I stuffed the tiny rye rolls with tuna/trout mousse and pickled onion.

I forgot to photo the next week but it was Macaroni and cheese stuffed potatoes and some brownies.

FORKING GREAT Fudgy Brownies

They all get gobbled down fast.

Just showing off some stuff I made recently.

The Forking Truth

Surprise Cake Recipe

I was thinking coffee cake…..Then I was thinking about a few really great tasting wedges of apple pie I made with a crumbly walnut topping (that is on my site) and sort of combined them into a cake. The addition of the two pie wedges is THE SURPRISE! That’s how I came up with the SURPRISE cake…….I bet I can come up with many more variations….I got BUNCHES of ideas in my head. …………Serving size is always hard to tell because I don’t know if you want a smaller taste (12 servings) or a full size piece (more like 9 servings). I like my servings on the smaller side so for me this is 12 servings but I will say 9 servings so nobody feels short changed.

Ingredients for at least 9 servings

4 oz unsalted butter – soft

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon sea salt (if you have pink Himalayan use that)

1/2 cup heaping – Greek yogurt

1 teaspoon natural vanilla extract

4 oz unsalted butter – melted

1 Tablespoon cinnamon

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

2 smaller wedges of frozen apple walnut crumb pie – cut up in small blocks

non stick spray

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Spray a 9 in pan (I used a square pan) with non stick spray

In a large bowl combine the soft butter, white sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, salt, yogurt, and vanilla and mix well with a fork and set to the side.

In a medium bowl combine the melted butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar.

Use HALF the batter and place it evenly into the bottom of your non stick sprayed pan. Then add the apple pie crumbles as evenly as you can. Pour and spread HALF of the medium bowls syrup on to the top.

On top of that add the remaining half of batter and spread as evenly as possible.

Next do a layer of pie pieces.

Add the walnuts to the remaining syrup and mix well. Spread this mixture over the top as evenly as you can.

In my oven this took 45 minutes. Yours might slightly more or less.

It’s done when it looks like this.

Walnut Apple Coffee Cake Surprise

It’s moist and delicious! You don’t need ice cream or whipped cream. It’s also not too sweet.

Walnut Apple Coffee Cake Surprise

ENJOY!!!

The Forking Truth

Cocktail Rye Rolls Recipe

I got the idea to make some tuna and smoked trout mousse, pickled onions, and cocktail rye rolls so that is what I made.

I made my rye mini loaf recipe but instead of 8 mini loafs I got 30 cocktail sized rye bread AND 8 small rolls.

Anyways –

This recipe makes around 16 servings

Ingredients

2 cup + 2 Tablespoons bread flour

1 cup + 2 Tablespoons dark rye flour

2 Tablespoons dark brown sugar – separated

1 Tablespoon course sea salt

1 pack (2 1/4 teaspoons) dry active yeast

2 Tablespoons caraway seeds + extra for sprinkling the tops

1 1/2 cup 110 degree water

1/4 cup canola oil

semolina to coat bottom of rolls

1 egg white – to brush rolls with

sea salt flakes – light pinch to finish rolls

Directions

Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Add the yeast and one tablespoon of brown sugar to the water. Mix and cover with plastic wrap.

In your stand mixer bowl with a dough hook add the flours, sugar, salt, caraway seeds, oil, and water as soon as it looks foamy on the top.

Mix slow to get all the ingredients together and once mixed turn up to medium speed and let mix for ten minutes.

Either leave dough in bowl or remove dough and add to a bowl.

Cover the dough with plastic wrap and leave it on the counter for four hours for the flavors to develop.

Preheat oven to 425 F

I used about 1/2 the dough for cocktail sized breads.

I rolled the dough around soft pretzel size and broke off pieces about the size of the first joint of my thumb.

The balls get rolled and before you place them on the parchment paper you dip the bottoms in semolina.

Leave the rolls sit on the counter about hour so they can puff up a bit.

Brush the tops twice with egg whites.

Make two decorate slices in the tops if desired.

Sprinkle the tops with caraway seeds and sea salt flakes

In my oven the cocktail sized breads took 10 minutes

The softball sized rolls took 15 minutes.

Cocktail Sized Rye Rolls

ENJOY!!!!

The Forking Truth

Focaccia Di Recco Recipe based on Food & Wine Magazine’s Recipe

Focaccia Di Recco is a cheese stuffed cracker type bread from North Italy. I became familiar with this tasty treat from Pomo Pizzeria in Scottsdale Arizona.

Pomo’s Focaccia di Recco

It was so darn tasty and different I had to try to make one myself.

The first attempt was Ciao Italia Mary Ann Esposito’s Recipe.

It came out much thicker and softer than from Pomo……….But since then I learned a new trick to get my dough thinner so maybe I can do better?

I tried Food & Wine Magazine’s recipe.

The methods and the recipe did differ some. I got a thin crust this time that was crisper but the center wasn’t quite crisp enough……..I’m thinking if I made two smaller focaccias then maybe I can get a better crisp…….Or maybe just by re-heating it I can get that perfect crisp all the way through?

Ingredients for around 6 servings

1 3/4 cup bread flour

1/2 cup + 1 1/2 Tablespoons water

8 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil divided into 1/4 cup and the rest for brushing top

1 + 1/4 teaspoon sea salt divided into 1 teaspoon for the dough and the rest for the top

6 oz cheese torn or cut into almost one inch flat chunks (stracchino, crescenza, or caciocavallo cheese)

non stick spray

Directions

Use a stand mixer and add the flour, water, 1/4 cup oil, 1 teaspoon salt. Use a dough hook and mix on medium high speed for 8 minutes.

Make two even dough balls and wrap them in plastic wrap. Let them rest on the counter for three hours.

Roll one dough ball out (use flour as needed) sandwiched between parchment and plastic wrap.

This goes on a pan that is safe at 550 degrees F that was sprayed with non stick spray. Peel the plastic wrap off and flop dough on pan. Add cheese in small pieces.

Repeat second dough ball. It goes on top of the cheese topped dough.

Spray or brush with olive oil.

Sprinkle with sea salt.

Prick with a thin chip stick or skewer.

This goes in a preheated 550 F oven for 12-15 minutes.

I was told that this is too good to share with others.

Focaccia Di Recco

A Special THANKS!!!!! To Food & Wine Magazine so I could do what I got here!

ENJOY!!!

The Forking Truth

FORKING GREAT Fudgy Brownies Recipe

This is an easy and delicious rich fudgy brownie recipe that I came up with that you can embellish however you like. This will make around 18 regular sized brownies (using a pan that is around 12 inches by 8 inches) or around over 30 smaller sized brownies Depending on how big or small you slice them.

Ingredients for around 18-30 servings

4 oz unsalted butter

10 oz 60% bittersweet chocolate chips

1/3 cup dark brown sugar

2/3 cup sugar

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon course sea salt

3 eggs – lightly beaten

1 teaspoon pure vanilia extract

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

non-stick spray

Turbinado sugar – heavy sprinkle for a crunchy finish

more chocolate chips for finishing (a mix of milk and dark or broken chocolate bars)

Some nuts – I do 1/2 walnuts on one side….Some people prefer with walnuts…… some people prefer without nuts….Pecans might be good….Sometimes I do hatch chile, peaches, and pumpkin seeds. Got other ideas too!

Optional – Melted chocolate for a drizzle

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Spray a pan that is about 12 X 8 with non stick spray.

Melt in either a sauce pan or in a Medium – Larger bowl in your microwave a stick (4oz.) of butter.

Add the 10oz of bittersweet chocolate chips…….about 1/2 will melt and 1/2 will stay hard…..

On top of that add the sugars, flour, baking powder, salt, eggs, vanilla, and cocoa.

Stir till mixed with a fork. (The batter will be very thick)

Spread this batter as evenly as you can in your pan.

Top the batter with whatever chips and nuts that you are using.

Finish with a good sprinkle of Turbinado sugar.

This goes in your preheated oven on a middle rack till it seems baked.

ovens do differ….In my old oven this would take 25 minutes and in my current oven this took about 30 minutes. Today the way I cut them I got 33 brownies. Some I’m bringing to a gathering and some I’m freezing for another time.

When they cooled down a bit I drizzled them with melted chocolate.

FORKING GREAT Fudgy Brownies

ENJOY!!!

The Forking Truth