Gone for a bit but hopefully not forgotten...Spiced French Toast

Its been a while.. hasn't it? I still cook everyday but I've been going through some things and writing took a back seat for a moment there. I hope you all can forgive the absence. I'm back with something perfect for the fall. Rich, buttery french toast accented with pumpkin pie spice and hints of rum. I cannot tell you all the failed attempts Ive had with french toast. I managed to take something so simple and ruin it by making it too soggy, or too eggy, to burnt...just wrong! This time I told myself if I messed up that I would throw in my french toast towel indefinitely. With a couple slices of my whole wheat country flax bread I made a few days prior and the "eye of the tiger", I went about one last attempt to prove I was worthy of the french toast badge...wait do the Girl Scouts have that?..I dunno..whatever. I followed Alton Brown's recipe which had rave reviews on the food network website. I noticed that the recipe didn't use any extracts or spices and already knew my taste buds wouldn't find that too appealing so I used some pumpkin pie spice I picked up at Trader Joes the day before in lieu of plain ole cinnamon. I also splashed in some mixed essence, vanilla extract,my favorite Angostura rum, and it was time to rock and roll. One thing I have to note with the recipe is that you may need to increase your custard mix by a third if you're like me using 1 inch thick slices of bread. The recipe overall is really easy and cannot be messed up. It was so nice that I made the recipe again within a few days using some challah bread I baked. I cant tell you all how absolutely delicious this french toast is(thanks to my changes). Just grab a couple slices of day old bread and try this out for yourself. Its perfect for breakfast or brunch and so versatile in that you can top it with anything from apple pie filling to fluffy whipped cream.

Spiced French Toast

serves 4

1 cup half and half

3 eggs

2 tbsp warmed honey(I used 4)

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp mixed essence
1tbsp dark rum (I used Angostura Single Barrel)

(8) 1/2 inch slices of day old country bread, challah, or brioche bread

4 tbsp of unsalted butter

- Preheat oven to 375 degrees

- Place a cooling rack on sheet pan and set to the side.

-Whisk together half and half, eggs, honey, salt, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla, rum, and mixed essence.

- Place slice of bread into mixture and let it soak for 30 seconds on each side. 

- Place soaked slices on bread on cooling rack for 1-2 minutes.

- Place a skillet over medium heat with 1 tbsp of butter.

- When skillet is hot place 2 slices of bread in it and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side or until golden.

- After removing from skillet places french toast slices on a heat proof rack in the oven for 5 minutes.

- Remove french toast from oven, serve and enjoy!

Alton Brown's French Toast

Quick Pics from the Pink Room Kitchen

These are some caramel brownies I made the other day, check those lovely grooves filled with caramel goodness!

These are some well recieved red velvet cupcakes that I did for a recent order, and finally heres a picture of a group of zinnias from the garden. These were the second to last group to bloom.

Achiote(Annatto) Oil

Infused oils are nothing new, you can find them in any store or take a few minutes to make your own. The process is simple and you can make virtually any flavor. All you need is a bottle, any oil of your choosing, and the item you want to infuse the oil with. For this post ill just focus on the achiote oil but I also made a garlic rosemary infused olive oil that tasted divine! Achiote also known as annatto and roucou is a plant species native to South America and the Caribbean. Achiote has a taste that can simply be described as unique, It has a mix of sweet and spicy notes to it that goes well in a variety of dishes,The seeds come from a pod that is shaped like a prickly teardrop.

Elianacooks.com

Achiote gives food a reddish to golden hue depending on how much you use and how you make your infusion.Boiling the seeds in water gives you a more reddish concoction and infusing in oil gives your food a golden color in my opinion. I use the water based roucou in my smoked herring primarily to give it the desired red color, the oil is used in almost everything else I cooked. I had my first encounter with achiote in Trinidad a few years ago where my aunt made me a water based liquid infused with the seeds called roucou that can be used to color food just like the oil. Now...don't get confused. Achiote, roucou, and annatto is the same thing, different regions just refer to it differently. Achiote seeds are available in most international food sections of supermarkets or available for order online. For this recipe I'll just give the process without exact measurements because you can make any quantity you want to suit your need.

Achiote Oil

Achiote seeds

Vegetable/Canola Oil

- Measure out ingredients so that for every cup of oil you have 1tbsp achiote seeds.

- Put saucepot over low heat with amount of oil and seeds to be used.

- Cook oil over low heat stirring occasionally.

- When oil reaches a beautiful sunset red/orange color and seeds have darkened you can remove pot from heat.

- After oil has cooled, strain the seeds out and funnel into bottle to be stored in.

- Store at room temp or in refrigerator if concerned about pathogens.

**I had 2.5 cups of achiote oil stored at room temp for just over three weeks with no spoilage. I am no food scientist so keep refrigerated for a 3 week maximum if you have concerns. 

Zinnia's from the garden and a furry surprise.

It took all summer but FINALLY the Zinnia's from the fruit smoothie mix came in. This is the first to fully bloom. It reminds me of a blazing august sunset. I cant wait to see the other colors. I also have to note that my peppers have gone into overdrive producing numerous buds which will be tons of peppers by mid to late September...which is perfect for making tasty Caribbean style pepper sauce to use over the winter.

Lastly here is the surprise:

This is from last week.

And this week.

The kitten is named Juma which is Swahili for "friday born". He shakes like he has Parkinson's, so I hardly get a clear shot of him. He is now hopefully the last of four rescued cats.

New Cupcakes: Caramel Mocha Latte Cupcakes

This will be a next short post. I just wanted to show some ultra delicious cupcakes that I baked up last night. Its an over the top version of the Brown Eyed Baker mocha cupcakes. This recipe is perfect if only for the fact that it makes exactly 12 cupcakes. I must say that I  changed some of the ingredients to suit my personal taste and I also used my own icing. I am sure the original recipe is good as is since it has gotten great reviews all over the web...but I know what I like and bake to suit. To make these extra decadent I made some caramel sauce following a David Lebovitz recipe. I have made his salted caramel before for brownies with success, so I decided to try his other caramel recipe that doesn't need butter. This caramel recipe cooks relatively quick and taste great. Enjoy

Creamy Caramel Sauce

makes 1 1/2 cups

1 cup sugar

1 1/4 cup heavy cream

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

- In large heavy-duty saucepan, spread the sugar in an even layer and cook over medium to low heat.

- Keep careful watch on the sugar to see when it begins to liquefy.

- Use a heatproof spatula or spoon to gently stir and encourage cooking.

- Stir sugar until it is completely melted and turns a deep amber color.

- Immediately remove from heat and stir in half of the cream and stir vigorously.

- Carefully stir until the sugar is dissolved and then whisk in remaining cream, salt, and vanilla.

- If you get any hard bits just cook over low heat until dissolved and smooth.

- Sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for two weeks.

Garden Pics: Asters

This is just a quick picture to show you all the aster crego mix flowers that have been blooming profusely since the beginning of august. I have enough flowers to cut new ones everyday.

Mixed Drinks: Carnival Breeze.

Who doesn't like a good mixed drink in the summer? Living in the city far away from my favorite beaches in the Caribbean means that I don't have many beach days. Today I just wanted to feel like I was back in Trinidad for carnival surrounded by sweet music, great friends, ridiculous antics, never ending parties, and sunshine. There was only one...well two problems, carnival is almost six months away and I am no mixologist. I did some research on existing drinks around how I wanted mine to look and I got to work. This drink uses the special edition Angostura Single Barrel rum that came out for carnival but any TRINIDAD rum will do. Don't let me hear you using wray and nephew or bacardi...it just wont do!! We also used the famous Angostura bitters in this as well. As soon as I finished mixing I took a towel up to the rooftop and took in some sunshine. Its no beach but it gave me a lil time to reminisce. Mix this this up quick and take a mind trip to the sun and soca.

Carnival Cooler

Makes 1 drink

1 1/2 shots Single Barrel Rum (or other trinidad dark rum)

1 dash Angostura bitters

dash of lime juice

4 shots pineapple orange juice (can use plain orange juice)

Crushed ice

Grenadine Syrup

1 Maraschino cherry

Lime wedge

- Mix rum, bitters, lime juice, and orange pineapple juice together.

- Pour mixture into tall glass over crushed ice.

- Pour grenadine syrup into the glass slowly it will sink to the bottom. DONT MIX.

- Garish with lime wedge and maraschino cherry.

- Serve immediately.

Garden Critters

This what I believe to be an eastern black swallowtail caterpillar that has taken up residence in my curly parsley. I usually would run like hell in the presence of most creepy crawly caterpillars but this one reminds me of the blue caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland. It is going to turn into a beautiful black based butterfly if it sticks around. Ill take an update picture later on in the summer...stay tuned!

This is what it will turn into!

Weekend Baking: Watermelon Cupcakes.

I made these watermelon cupcakes for my girlfriend...she LOVES watermelon! I used mini chocolate chips for the watermelon seeds and I tinted her favorite cream cheese frosting.These were too cute for words and too yummy to last any more than 2 days lol!

Pink Room Garden News: August Edition

Sadly the end of the summer is nearing and I cant stand to think about it. Why does summer feel like the shortest season? Probably because you're just enjoying it too much. Anyways....on to the garden. August is the month that the tomatoes finally decided to come in. They didn't grow to the size I wanted them too and I just think they took entirely too long to ripen, I will not be growing big boys next year. Instead I'll grow some roma tomatoes and maybe some heirloom varieties. I also lost an entire plant to some fungal disease which reduced my expected crop dramatically! Ill do a lil' more research to prevent these problems next year.

The Big Boys

The sunflowers and zinnias I plated in the vacant box by my neighbors window seems to be growing at a greater speed than those planted by my window but I believe I know why. The zinnias and sunflowers over by my neighbor have enough space since they are in their own boxes. The flowers in front my window are cohabiting. I ignore a lot of planting rules...I planted a whole pack of asters and morning glories in a box that's about 2 feet and the morning glories grew up an entire story. I guess it didn't work in my favor for the zinnias. Don't get me wrong they are growing, just slowly.

The zinnias by my neighbor grew so fast!

The sunflowers are almost as tall as her window!

I'm also waiting on my African cayenne, habeneros, and Trinidad hot peppers to come in. So far I've gotten a few peppers from one of my habenero plants.

Habenero pepper.

African Cayenne, its about 4 inches now.

Check out my rosemary from last year...its gotten so robust! Over the winter it looked so scrawny and half dead. I asked some farmers from USQ farmers market for some tips and I was told to change the pot your rosemary is in every year and keep in a sunny spot. I followed these tips in April and even changed the soil it was in....within a month the half dead rosemary started to look better than when I initially bought it.

Finally I harvested some sweet pea flower seeds to use next year. After the flowers drop, a pod starts growing in the same spot. You let the pods turn brown and then you harvest the seeds. You place them in a dry place in an envelope and plant next year spring.

Dried seed pods

Sweet pea seeds

Whole Wheat Hamburger Rolls.

Eating hamburgers in my house always leaves us with the same dilemma all the time...large burger and small bun. The veggie and salmon burgers we usually buy are a bit larger than the standard hamburger buns sold in the supermarket. This summer I have tried to make hamburgers buns twice. The first time I tried a recipe from king arthur flour but the results were almost to flat to split. My second attempt yielded much better results. I also started keeping boiled potato water to make my bread with as I've heard it works as a natural preservative for bread and gives you a softer loaf.  The recipe I used was from allrecipes.com. I tweaked the recipe by using part whole wheat flour, raw turbinado sugar, and potato water. The substitutions made is part of my plan to eat a lil bit healthier everyday but you can definitely follow the original recipe if you like.  These lovely buns came out large enough to accommodate a 4-5inch burger, with incredible softness, and a beautiful crust. If your wondering why they aren't shiny like most hamburger buns that's because I didn't use any egg wash..my family doesn't care for it, but Ill post it in the recipe so that you have the option of using it. 

Whole Wheat Hamburger Rolls

Makes 12 rolls

1 cup milk

1 cup potato water or regular water

2 tbsp butter

1 tbsp granulated sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour*

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour*

1 1/2 cups bread flour*

2 1/2 tsp instant yeast

1 egg yolk

1 tbsp water

- Warm milk, water, sugar, salt, and butter in saucepan.

- In bowl of stand mixer combine flour(s) and yeast.

- Pour milk mixture into flour and mix on low speed with dough hook attachment until soft uniform ball forms.

- Place dough into a greased bowl, cover and let rise one hour.

- After one hour punch down dough and divide into twelve equal portions.

- Shape dough into rolls and after 1 minute press down each roll with the palm of your hand. 

- Place rolls on a baking sheet lined with foil or parchment paper.

- Let rise until doubled in size.

- While rolls are rising heat oven to 400 degrees.

- If using egg wash  mix yolk and tbsp water together, brush on top of rolls.

- Place rolls in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes.

- Remove from oven and cool.

- Serve with your favorite burger!

* I mixed different flours together but the original recipe uses entirely all purpose flour. 

Portuguese Sweet Bread.

Portuguese sweet bread is a soft crust, rich bread with a slightly sweet taste. if you need to compare it to something it taste just like the Kings Hawaiian rolls you get in the grocery. I always loved getting kings hawaiian rolls during the holidays from my uncle who lives on the west coast. Now I could easily buy them in my local grocery but I also wanted to try making my own. I made portuguese sweet bread once in Baking 1 my sophomore year of college but I thought it was time that I try it again. I have a recipe for portuguese sweet bread in my baking text book from school but its too large scale so I tried a recipe I found on allrecipes.com good reviews.

Portuguese Sweet Bread

1 cup milk

2 Tbsp margarine or butter

1/3 cup granulated sugar

2 1/2 tsp instant yeast

3 cups bread

3/4 tsp salt

1 large egg

- Warm milk and margarine to no more than 100 degrees.

- Stir sugar into milk until dissolved and then add in yeast.

- While milk mixture sits add combine flour and salt in bowl of stand mixer.

- Make a well in the middle of te flour and place egg.

- Finally add in milk mixture to flour and attach the bowl to stand mixer.

- Mix on speed 2 with dough hook until a soft dough ball forms.

- Place dough in a greased bowl and let it rise for one hour.

- Punch down dough after one hour.*

- Place dough into a greased loaf pan or a round 9x3in cake pan.

- Let dough rise and additional half hour before placing in a 375 degree oven.

- Bake bread for 30 - 35 minutes.

- Remove from oven and baking pan, cool on a rack.

* Punching dough is the process of removing the CO2 that built up during the first rise by gently pressing your hand into the dough.