Stacey Makes It

I love black bottom cupcakes and I had some artisan cream cheese from Costco laying around.  But, I thought I'd try something different, since I'd been making so many chocolate things. Stacey's Lemon Vanilla White Bottom Cupcakes Ingredients : Batter 1c white unbleached flour, organic 1/2c whole wheat flour, organic 1c sugar, organic 2 tbs cornstarch 1.5 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 1/2c canola oil, organic 1/2c sour cream, organic 2 eggs, organic 1 egg yolk, organic 1.5 tsp vanilla bean paste 1/4c coconut milk beverage (original) Zest and juice from 1 med size lemon (approx 2 tbs juice + 2 tsp zest) Filling 8 oz cream cheese 1 tbs sour cream, organic 1/4c sugar, organic 1.5 tsp vanilla bean paste Pinch of salt 1 egg white  Zest and juice from 1 med size lemon (approx 2 tbs juice + 2 tsp zest) Preheat oven to 400F.  Line a cupcake pan with cupcake liners. I mixed the dry ingredients for the batter, and then stirred in all the wet ingredie...

My parents gave me a couple boxes of Nerds for Christmas. And my philosophy tends to be that chocolate makes everything better. Stacey's Nerdy Chocolate Bars : 17 oz Guittard 64% dark chocolate couverture Holiday Nerds (green, red, and white - watermelon, wild cherry, and punch flavors) 1 oz bar mold (16 cavities) First I put some of the nerds into a bowl for easy access. Then, I tempered the dark chocolate and then spooned it into the molds with a tablespoon.  Two heaping tablespoons full of chocolate fill the mold pretty well.  I followed that with my standard jiggling of the mold on the counter to remove air bubbles.  Then I sprinkled the nerds on top, and went on to the next cavity until I'd filled all 16. I let the chocolate cool overnight and freed them the next morning.  Correctly tempered chocolate will just fall out of the bar molds, so it's important to be prepared for that.  I covered the mold with plastic wrap, and then invert a baking ...

I have a sickness and I'd make the most horrible scientist ever.  It appears to be impossible for me to only change one variable at a time. That said, here is my chocolate cake test where I change more than just the flour. Stacey's Chocolate Spelt Cake Ingredients : 2c spelt flour, organic 1/2 tsp salt 1.5c sugar 1 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/2 c Scharffen Berger unsweetened cocoa powder 2 eggs, organic, slightly beaten 1/2c canola oil, organic 1c whole milk, organic 1c boiling water 10"x10" cake pan lined with parchment paper Preheat oven to 350F. Mixed all the dry ingredients together.  Mixed in the eggs, oil, and milk. Folded / stirred the boiling water in.  Poured into prepared pan. Seemed a little runny... Baked for 30 minutes, rotating at the half-way point.  It came out decently.  Less sweet, which was what I was going for by adding less sugar than the original "That Chocolate Cake" recipe.  I also added a little le...

Okay, all the chocolatiering is done and I'm ready to assemble my little boxes, and also a few bags.  These cute little boxes come from Nashville Wraps and are made from 100% recycled box board, soy inks, blah blah blah, I'm a hippie. Stacey's Valentine's Day Box Ingredients : Solid Dark Chocolate Almond Hearts Solid Milk Chocolate Peanut Hearts White Chocolate Love Bars Scharffen Berger Chocolate Truffles I ended up fitting about 6.5 oz of chocolate in these boxes, a nice little gift for a loved one.  I put my tomatette company sticker on it, tied a bow, and attached a little card with the contents of the box on it. Stacey's Valentine's Day Bags: Guittard Mint Crunchies Guittard Mint Meltaways I used these compostable cello bags and some twine.  More hippiness... Meltaways Crunchies They look nice in the end, but if you know me well, you know I hate packaging and I'd rather just give you a reusable container full of treats for you to g...

I still have some of that coconut milk beverage so I thought I'd try again at another vegan mochi cake. Stacey's Vegan Lemon Blueberry Mochi Cake Ingredients : 2 c brown rice flour 1/4 tsp salt 1.5 tsp baking powder 1 tbs carageenan, powdered 2/3 c agave nectar, organic 1/3 c canola oil, organic 1 c coconut milk beverage (original) 1/4 c lemon juice (from 2 medium sized lemons) 1 c frozen blueberries, organic First I preheated the oven to 350F. Then, I stirred all the dry ingredients, and then added the wet ingredients, adding the blueberries last. Stirring the dry ingredients first is essential because carageenan tends to clump up when it gets wet, so it's best if it's distributed throughout the flour. At this point, it was quite thick. I spread it into a glass pyrex baking dish (with a lid of course, so it would be easier for transport to work: I baked it for about 35 minutes on the lower rack, but it probably should have been baked on the uppe...

To balance out the dark chocolate hearts in my Valentine's Day box, I opted for milk chocolate hearts.  Yes, cliché. Stacey's Milk Chocolate Peanut Hearts Ingredients : 24 oz Guittard 38% milk chocolate couverture 8 oz roasted, unsalted peanuts Heart Molds First, I chopped up the peanuts to make sure they were ready to go once my chocolate was tempered. Then I tempered my milk chocolate.  Milk chocolate is tempered in the same way as dark chocolate except working temperature is about 86F instead of 90F.  However, I'm putting these into molds, so it's better if it's more liquidy anyway.   As I stirred the chocolate, I left the spoon that I'd be using to fill the molds as well as the peanuts in the microwave, WITHOUT turning it on of course.  Just to keep them warmer than room temperature that way the chocolate won't cool as fast once I put the peanuts in, or set on the spoon as quickly.  I spooned in the tempered chocolate and peanuts and j...

Truffles are always a wonderful addition to a chocolate assortment, so I thought it would go well in my Valentine's Day box.  I opted for plain and to use Scharffen Berger chocolate since it already has a very complex flavor profile.  When flavoring with a liqueur or an oil, I prefer to use Guittard since it has a flatter chocolate flavor that can be easily and tastily influenced. And, even though I like to do lots of experimenting with unique truffle flavorings, I would go so far as to say plain Scharffen Berger Chocolate truffles are my favorite. :) Stacey's Scharffen Berger Chocolate Truffle Ingredients : 24 oz Scharffen Berger 62% semisweet chocolate 12 oz heavy cream, organic 3 oz glucose 1.5 oz butter, soft, not melted Chocolate flake Organic Turbinado Sugar I buy my glucose from a distributor, but I think I saw some at the Ferry Building's Boulette's Larder before.  For this recipe, I tempered the chocolate ( instructions from previous blog) first. Th...