Sealed with a quiche

I was pretty excited when one of my favorite music artists released her new record. Sara Bareilles' Kaleidoscope Heart most definitely did not disappoint! I can't pick just one favorite song, but at the moment Uncharted and Hold My Heart are my most played. If you haven't gotten hold of her new record yet, go out and get it. And I mean right now! Don't miss out on another amazing record by this talented lady.

I was singing some of her songs as I made Spinach Quiche today. It was a pretty tough day because I was alone in the kitchen. No one was there to help me with the photos but I managed to do everything, albeit I was pretty tired afterwards. I made the dough, washed my hands, took photos, washed my hands, made the cream and egg mixture, washed my hands, took the photos, washed my hands, cut up the spinach... You get the idea. In hindsight, this is a funny way to show my dedication. I have a goal, you see. I made a baking and cooking notebook with select recipes I really want to accomplish. Whether or not it was a success, I take pictures and write notes on the page, chronicling what happened. This is the first recipe I chose to make from my General Cooking notebook, though technically I did bake this...

Quiche is basically a French pie made of eggs and cream/milk, along with some chopped meat, vegetables and cheese. The crust is usually blind baked, which I will teach you later on. The fancy name should not make it daunting for anybody to try making this, because it's actually pretty easy.

I actually did not follow the recipe I wrote on my notes. It became a combination of several recipes, plus the Shortcrust pastry I learned from watching Rachel Allen: Bake! Easy, yummy crust. Quiche is actually pretty flexible, depending on what you want to put in there. This quiche was mostly made up of Spinach but since my brothers all like bacon, I decided to put a little in there even though I generally don't like bacon because, well, it's oily. I also put some onions to add a little extra something. Next time I'm thinking about putting in button mushrooms, just because I love them.

A note to consider though, in your choice of cheese for the quiche, I wouldn't recommend going past 1 1/2 cups if you want to use all-Cheddar. Cheddar is a pretty salty cheese, and it overpowers pretty much everything else. I would recommend using half Cheddar, half Swiss (Gruyère is a good choice, says Rachel Allen). I did see a recipe somewhere using only Swiss cheese, met with positive comments, so I guess you can do that too.

Ingredients for the Shortcrust pastry:
Adapted from Rachel Allen: BAKE!

200g flour (short of 2 cups)
100g butter, cut into cubes
1/4 tspn. salt
1 egg, whisked

Procedure for the Crust:
Bring together butter and flour with your hands until flour begins to resemble coarse breadcrumbs. Add half of whisked egg and mix together, still with your hands, until dough comes together. If half of the egg is not enough, add more of the egg until a dough forms. I used 1 whole egg.

Wrap dough in cling wrap and flatten over a small flat metal tray. This metal tray will help your dough cool faster as you refrigerate it for around 30 minutes.

When ready, put the chilled dough between 2 large cuts of cling wraps and roll. Using this technique saves you the trouble of flouring your counter, and avoids adding more flour to the dough. Roll the dough slightly larger than your 9-inch pie tin.

Flip the dough using the bottom cling wrap into the tin and cut off the excess at the sides. The cling wrap will help keep the dough from falling apart. Now we blind bake the crust for about 20 minutes. Blind-baking is important as it prevents the crust from being soggy when it is baked with the egg and cream mixture.

First put the cling wraps you used to roll the dough into the pie tin and pour uncooked beans/rice on top. This will help push down the bottom of the crust to prevent it from puffing up as it is being pre-baked. Make sure to fill the tin all the way to the top to prevent uneven cooking of the crust. Use the cling wrap to seal the beans/rice and put the pie tin with the crust and the beans/rice into the oven at 350F for 12-15 minutes. This will also serve as your preheating stage. Take this time to prepare your quiche filling (below).

After around 12 minutes, remove the tin from the oven and take the beans/rice and the cling wrap off. Return the pie tin into the oven for another 5 minutes to let the crust bake on its own. Take it out of the oven and proceed with putting in the quiche filling.

Ingredients for the quiche:

6 large eggs, beaten

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

salt and pepper to taste

2 cups chopped baby spinach

1/2 kilo bacon, cooked in olive oil and cut into thin shreds

1 cup onions, cooked until slightly clear white in same pan used to cook the bacon

1/2 cup shredded Swiss cheese

1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Procedure:

Combine the eggs, cream, salt and pepper and mix together using a wire whisk. You may also use a food processor or blender if you wish.

On your blind-baked crust, layer the spinach, bacon, onions and cheese, starting with the spinach at the bottom. Pour in the cream and egg mixture on top.

Bake for around 50 minutes until the egg mixture is set, and the crust has turned golden brown.

The quiche is very savory and yummy. In fact I have already received a request to do another one for a gathering on the 25th. You can add your own ingredients to make it feel more like your personalized quiche recipe. Like I mentioned, I would love to add mushrooms to this the next time I make one. And also maybe a little more spinach? Perhaps next time I will make that Rachel Allen Quiche Lorraine instead.

Tangy Lemon Tea Cookies

I woke up this morning thinking of how I should drown my football-related sorrows, and I figured I would do it with baking! Yes, this is me being overdramatic about Spain losing in their friendly against Argentina yesterday. But let's face it, it's not like we saw the Spain that we know (no Iker, no Sergio, no Xavi?!). And because of that loss, I am permanently traumatized every time Iker is not the goalkeeper. Not to take anything away from Pepé, we have to admit Iker is always the safer choice because he's got the experience (And this coming from someone who likes both Real Madrid and Liverpool).

But if there's one important lesson I learned, it's that I would like to shove my foot down the throat of the people who say Xabi Alonso is not Captain material. Puh-lease. 

On the upside, the U-21 team won against Poland in a Euro qualifier thanks to Sergio Canales! That guy has a bright future ahead of him. He's my age and he's already a star footballer. Makes me think about what significant thing I've done all these years... And also, my pichichi scored a goal for Argentina! I have to say I love Gonzalo Higuain more and more everyday! And even though Argentina's keeper scares me a bit, to see Gabi Heinze was a treat for me, though I do miss Puyi and his luscious locks. And Messi finally cut his hair short[er], though I could tell you what's messy is the hairdont's the other Argentine players are sporting, as was pointed out by unamadridista. I got to get the name of the salon where Carlos Tevez gets his hair electrocuted.

In any case, thank goodness International Duty is over for now. And I just hope Alvaro tweets again because I miss him, and it seems he's taking this loss pretty heavily considering he usually tweets like crazy. On Saturday we will see Real Madrid back in action against Osasuna in their debut at the Bernabéu! Everyone is dubbing them the "new" Real Madrid. Eh, I just want Benzema and Higuain to go on a scoring spree. And of course if Xabi decides to do a couple who am I to complain?!

The reason why I decided to make these Lemon Tea Cookies were simple. I was craving something lemony. And yes I was bored, and yes there were some leftover lemons in the fridge calling out to me. The other day my Mum brought home some my favorite Lemon Squares but she also ate them all without asking me if I wanted more. Of course I did! I just ate one square! :( But yeah, my Mum loves that stuff too and she teases me about making Lemon Squares, because I've failed before and I'm still looking for the perfect recipe. But let's not talk about the lemon squares, let's talk about these cookies.

They were really really easy to make. And these were literally cookies you consume with tea because they were kind of flaky when you bite into them. The lemon drop on top makes them really yummy, especially if you're into pastries with lemon. I had mine with a cup of Milk Tea and the sensation of the cookies in your mouth when they get wet is totally worth it! I wouldn't suggest the cookies to be eaten alone though. They don't taste like anything except butter, and the sugar is pretty minimal so it's not a sweet kind of butter cookie either. I guess you can eat it with your favorite jam, but I would recommend eating it with the lemon drop/filling. 

Lemon Tea Cookies

Yields at least 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients for the cookies:
1 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 tspn vanilla
1 2/3 cups flour
1 tbsp. powdered sugar (for dusting)

Procedure for the cookies:
In the mixer bowl, beat cookies, powdered sugar and vanilla at medium speed until well-blended. Stir in flour until the dough forms. Cover the dough and refrigerated for about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven at 350F and take out dough from the fridge. Shape the dough into 1-inch balls and place them about 2 inches apart from each other. Use your thumb to push down the center of each ball to make a deep indentation. Make it a bit deep because as it bakes, the cookies kind of puff up and expand a little.

Bake for around 12 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove to cooling racks and cool completely. In the meantime, do the filling.

Ingredients for the lemon filling:
2/3 cup granulated sugar
3 tspn. grated lemon peel
3 tbsp. fresh lemon juice (around 1 and 1/2 lemons)
1 tbsp. butter
1 tspn. cornstarch
1/4 tspn. salt
1 egg, beaten

Procedure:
In a saucepan, heat all the filling ingredients over low heat, constantly stirring to avoid burning and clumping. The mixture will gradually turn smooth and thick after about 25 minutes. Cool for about 15 minutes before handling.

Fill each cookie's indentation with the lemon filling shaped using a 1/4 measuring spoon. Sprinkle the 1 tablespoon powdered sugar over the cookies.

And now comes the best part: CONSUME! These cookies didn't even last a day in our home. My brothers are vultures. I had to hide away a few pieces so my Dad could have a taste. :D

Rainbows take the cake!

It's true what they say about rainbows, they're pretty anywhere! I've been planning on making these cupcakes for quite a while and after submitting my term paper on Strategic Management, which I slaved over and managed to write into 84 pages, I finally found the time! These rainbow cupcakes only made things a whole lot better when I received a 3.75 grade point average for my Strategic Management course. Celebrate? 

This is pretty fun to make with kids- your children- or with your younger siblings, like I did with my baby brother. Or if you're making it alone, it absolutely makes you feel giddy! Or at least that's what happened with me. And it's pretty easy too!

Rainbow Cupcakes

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3 tspn. baking powder

1/2 tspn. salt

1 1/2 cups sugar

3/4 cup or 1 1/2 sticks of butter at room temperature

2 large eggs at room temperature

2 egg whites at room temperature

2 tspn. vanilla extract

1 cup milk

food coloring (I used red, yellow, green, blue and purple)

any garnish you like

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 350F and line muffin pan with paper liners. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In another bowl, beat together sugar and butter using an electric mixer until well-combined, around 2-3 minutes. Put the mixer on low then add eggs and egg whites one at a time. Add vanilla.

Gradually add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with milk in 2 additions, ending with the flour mixture. Divide the batter into number of available food color (For mine it was 5). Add food coloring per bowl (the lightness/darkness of the color is up to you) and mix to combine.

Add batter into each cupcake liner color by color, around 1/2 to 1 tablespoon each color. Start with violet and end with red for a perfect rainbow. Don't worry about the colors mixing up when you add them on top of each other. All the colors together should fill the cupcake liner around 2/3 full.

Bake around 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick/tester inserted into the cupcake comes out clean. If you don't want to poke holes into your cupcakes, you can touch the top of the cupcake and if it springs back, then it's ready.

Of course poking holes don't matter if you're planning on putting frosting atop your cupcakes. These cupcakes taste pretty good without frosting, and they're really cute to eat- almost too cute in fact. But we can take it a step further.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

1 8oz. bar cream cheese

3 tbsp. softened butter

1 cup sifted powdered sugar

1/8 tspn. cinnamon powder

Procedure:

Pour ingredients into the electric mixer's bowl and beat until light and fluffy.

Checkerboard Cookies

I have a love-hate relationship with dough. Somehow the recipes I make involving dough don't always turn out as I expect them to. When I made these Butter Checkerboard Cookies, I was dangerously close to throwing a tantrum on the kitchen floor. It's always either I put in too much butter or I made a mistake of sifting the flour after I measured. I'm banking on the second option. It's always better to sift first so that you don't waste any flour at all.

The dough became difficult to handle for the most part because it was too soft. I only managed to form sad little checkerboards of cookies, which made me equally sad. I really should've added more flour to the mixture. I broke my back trying to knead the dough and form the checkerboards. The procedure seemed simple on paper, but in reality it was a bit challenging. But don't be disheartened because the challenge is what makes it fun!

I made these cookies two days before my family and I left for a beach trip. It had been the long weekend (because of the holiday that fell on a Monday) before my final exams. I made sure I went through my notes before I made these cookies. Tomorrow I take the last Final Exam of my college life. It hasn't sunk in yet that it is my last, and that the four years of my life spent in university is coming to an end. Right now it seems I'm more emotional about the state of the cookies I baked rather than the fact that I'm leaving my school, my friends, and will soon be facing 'the world out there'.

Because the rectangular checkerboard dough was softer than it was supposed to be even after overnight refrigeration, it had a tendency to mash together while I was slicing it with the knife. I cut my cookies way thicker than I was supposed to, because I made them smaller than usual. I was disheartened by the look of the so-called checkerboards I made, but nobody ever said I couldn't use the dough to make other patterns, so I decided to form swirling patterns with the rest of the dough instead. There were lots of left-over dough to choose from. I even flatted a couple of vanilla and chocolate dough with plans of sandwiching the cream cheese frosting I had left over from some cupcakes I made the week before. I loved the idea of making them look like macaroons.

The cookies turned out beautifully but they weren't crispy, nor were they hard. They were somewhere between chewy and crispy, which to me was perfect for butter cookies. But after a day or two they turned chewy, maybe because mine were made with too much butter? They did taste like the expensive-looking canned butter cookies with the expensive-sounding names from the Supermarket. Those cookies are my grandma's favorites so I let her have some of my freshly baked ones. And well, because she is my grandma I couldn't help thinking she felt obliged to tell me they were good. And because I obsess over my baking, which translates to I want to hear people say it's 'delicious' rather than it 'tastes okay/fine', I had to get a second opinion. Anything short of delicious to me is classified as somewhat a failure. I know, I'm sensitive with my baking.

So I have this younger brother who loves sweets. I fed him some cookies and he made a face as he said, "The cookies taste okay." At this point I was slapping myself in my head and vowing never to make these cookies again. Heck, I was scared to bring the other dozens of cookies that came out from this recipe to the beach trip, where we will be joined by family friends. My Mum encouraged me by eating quite a few pieces of cookies, and so did my Dad and my other brothers. I ended up bringing a big jar of cookies, which surprisingly became quite popular. This is one of those instances you are happy to come home empty-handed. Needless to say I'll be making these again one of these days. I do believe they taste better the day after they're baked.

Butter Checkerboard Cookies

Adapted from Baking Obsession

Ingredients:

5 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 lb (2 cups or 4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 cups granulated sugar

1 tbsp pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs, room temperature

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa

Procedure:
Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Using the electric mixer, in another larger bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then add the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and mix to combine. Finish the mixing with your hands or a wooden spoon. (It was easier with my hands though.)

Divide the dough in half. It's better to make sure you've got two equal dough sizes for your checkerboard so don't forget to weigh your dough. Knead the ½ cup of cocoa into one of the two parted dough to form your chocolate dough.

Again, divide the chocolate and vanilla dough in half. Form each of them into a rectangle, wrap individually in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours up to a day. Since I couldn't wait, I took them out of the fridge after two hours.

Take one portion of the chocolate and one portion of the vanilla dough and let them sit on the counter for about 15-20 minutes to soften slightly. On parchment paper (I like using this better) or a lightly floured surface, using a floured rolling pin, roll one portion of the vanilla dough into ½ -inch thick rectangles, with the sides about 12 x 5 inches long. Using a pizza wheel or a sharp knife, cut out total of 9 ½ -inch wide strips from the flattened dough. Do the same for the chocolate dough.

Handling the strips delicately, form two checkerboard logs alternating the chocolate and vanilla strips. The first log should have alternating chocolate-vanilla-chocolate as its first layer, and the second log should have vanilla-chocolate-vanilla as its first layer. (You can get the idea from the photos above.) Cover with plastic wrap or parchment paper and refrigerate until firm, at least for another 2 hours.

When ready to continue, roll the remaining vanilla dough into a rectangle about 1/3-inch thick and measuring 12 x 6 inches. Place the firmed checkerboard log with the predominant chocolate pattern (choco-vanilla-choco as first layer) into the center, long sides parallel, and with the aid of parchment, wrap the dough around the checkerboard log pressing firmly to adhere. Roll the finished log from side to side to form sharp corners. Do the same with the chocolate dough and the vanilla-choco-vanilla patterned log. Wrap in the parchment and/or plastic and refrigerate well overnight. You can freeze the logs then thaw them overnight in the refrigerator before using, but I just refrigerate mine.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350F. Cover a large baking tray with parchment or a silicone mat. Using a very sharp knife, slice the cookie-dough log into ¼-inch thick slices. Place on the prepared baking sheet leaving more or less 1 inch all around each slice. Bake the cookies, in batches, for about 12 minutes or until firm and golden brown on the bottom. The website where I got this recipe says not to let them bake for too long, or the color contrast between the chocolate and vanilla dough will be lost. Cool on the baking sheet on a rack for 15 minutes. Then transfer the cookies to the rack and cool completely.