The ‘Crepe’d Crusader

I think I have a serious problem with puns. After this blog post I am going to put some serious thought into cutting back…..

Who am I kidding, that is never happening. Puns are just so punny!

What’s not funny though is how incredibly easy it is to make these delicious crepes (without a crepe maker!).

These Strawberry Hazelnut Crepes made for a nice impromptu brunch this weekend. What is great about crepes is that you most likely have all the ingredients you need to make them sitting in your pantry. The illusion of complexity that is invoked from the name ‘crepes’ is a good ploy used by crepe-maker marketers to intimidate mankind (and make you ‘crepe’ in your pants), but really they are simply simple.

Flour, eggs, salt, butter and milk are all you need for this easy crepe batter. Crepe batter is very thin and easy to pour. The kind of pan you use will be important. It's best to use a non-stick pan that has shallow sides.

Immediately after you pour the batter, lift up the pan and spread it around allowing the batter to coat the entire pan. Cook the crepes on medium heat for no more than a couple of minutes on each side.

Your crepes will be thin and delicate. In order to spread the hazelnut spread without tearing the crepe, heat up the spread for about 30 seconds before spreading it onto the crepe.

Organize the strawberries from the outside in.

Fold the crepe over so that you can see some of the strawberries peaking out. Sift powdered sugar on the crepe and all around the edges of your plate.

Garnish with a few more slices of strawberries. And then eat the 'crepe' out of them!

Hello Foodgawker.com…thank you for having us over!

So proud to announce that MeversusMartha got the blog post Berry Good Scones featured on foodgawker.com! Big shout out to the hubs for taking such a fantastic photo .

Yaaaaaaaay!

If you’re looking for the picture it is on the home page of foodgawker.com at the moment. However, foodgawker.com refreshes their pages frequently so it might move over to the second page by tomorrow.

Did I say Yaaaaay?!!!!

Berry Good Scones

It’s not high tea and there are no royal weddings in sight, but today we’re serving up some scones.

Making these Berry Scones was a bloody good time. Bloody brilliant if I do say so myself. (If you read this post with a British accent in your head, it will make it much more fun ).

Scones are all about the butter. 1) You want to make sure you keep your butter as cold as possible. Use refrigerated butter and work quickly. 2)You want to make sure the butter is spread through the scone batter evenly. The best way to do this is to grate the butter with a cheese grater.

With your hands, mix the butter and cream into the flour mixture until just incorporated. The mixture should look grainy, like cornmeal. Do not over mix because you want your butter to stay cold.

Place the scone batter on a well-floured surface and knead just until the dough comes together. It will probably only take 8-10 kneads. While kneading, incorporate the flour on your surface as needed because you do not want the dough to be sticky.

Roll the dough into an 8 inch circle - don't worry, it doesn't need to be a perfect circle, as you can tell.

Next, fold the dough into thirds and then into thirds again forming a rectangular square. Place the dough on parchment paper and place in your freezer for at least 10 minutes.

After you have cooled the dough, roll it into an 8 to 10 inch square. The dough should be much easier to roll at this point.

Sprinkle your berries all over the dough. If you are using fresh berries, freeze them first. If you use unfrozen berries, the color of the berries will melt into the dough causing your scone to have a funky color.

Now you will roll your dough into a log. Then you want to flatten the dough with your hands to form a long rectangle.

Slice your log into 5 squares. Then slice each square at the diagonal.

Brush some melted butter on top of the scones and then sprinkle sugar on the tops.

The assembly of these scones is not a traditional way of making scones. However, the folding of the scone dough will result in a light and flaky scone. Remember, do not over mix or over knead the dough and work fast so you can keep the butter as cold as possible. Do these two things and you’ll have bloody good scones.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes or until both the top and bottom of the scone is light golden brown. Cool for ten minutes, and then enjoy fellow chaps!

Next on the list, Fish n’ Chips.

Oscar Nominated Chocolate Mousse

‘I want to thank everybody and anybody who ever had anything to do with the making of this mousse. And most of all, I’d like to thank my family and friends, who supported me in eating it.’ -Kinjal

If you are hosting a Oscar party this weekend, nothing says elegance and excellence like this Chocolate Mousse.

I bet most people didn’t know that the main ingredient in Chocolate Mousse (besides the chocolate of course) is raw eggs. You heard me. I’ve never made a dessert quite like this so I was a little nervous, but ultimately very happy with the final product.

Egg White and Egg Yolks - both have a part in this movie.

You want to beat the egg yolks until you can form a ribbon that takes a few seconds to dissolve.

The egg whites on the other hand need to be beaten until you reach soft peaks.

And now for my favorite ingredients: Bittersweet Chocolate (get the good kind) and butter!

Melt the chocolate until smooth.

Once the chocolate has cooled slightly, gently whisk in your egg yolks (and a little bit of whiskey!)

Next, gently fold in the egg whites. Take your time with this because you want your end product to be light and fluffy. If you fold the egg whites and chocolate too quickly, you will have a very tough consistency.

You can also fold in fresh whipped cream for a lighter texture. I like my mousse a little dense and rich so I only folded in about 1/2 cup of whipped cream. Most other recipes will call for 1-2 cups.

And there you have it - your final product. But don't eat it just yet! Refrigerate it in your ramekins for at least 3-4 hours before serving. I used a star piping tip to make pretty swirls of mousse in my ramekins.

Happy Oscar Weekend!

Happy Red Velvet Cupcakes Day!

Oh…and Happy Valentine’s Day too!

I learned two fun tricks making these Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting:

#1 – It’s very easy to make chocolate decorations for your cupcakes. Pipe melted chocolate into whatever shape you want (hearts, initials, etc.) onto parchment paper, put the parchment paper in the refrigerator; 30 minutes later, end up with cute decorations.

#2 – All you need is a rose piping tip to create fun ruffles on your cupcakes. Nope, not all my screws are loose, I know these are not roses, but I think they still look pretty cool.

Rose Piping Tip

Icing Ruffles - not to be confused with Icing Roses

Hope everyone has a fabulous Valentine’s Day!

Napoleons – GOSH!

Want to make a special dessert for your honey this Valentine’s Day? No? Okay. Want to make a special dessert for yourself?? Either way, these Strawberry Napoleons are the way to go. They are fun, unique and most importantly, tasty.

Strawberry Napoleons

Napoleons are traditionally a French dessert made with layers of puff pastry filled with pastry cream. Let’s put tradition aside for a little while and see what we can come up with. The most obvious detour I took from the tradition napoleon was the substitution of fresh strawberry whipped cream in the place of pasty cream. I have never been a fan of pasty cream as I find it to be a little too rich. I’m probably the only girl you’ll find who will pass up a cream filled donut . So I decided to make a lighter, fresher filling.

Fresh whipped cream whisked to stiff peaks.

Freshly diced strawberries.

Gently fold the strawberries into the whipped cream. Do not over mix because you want to keep the whipped cream nice and fluffy.

Cut out the puff pastry with a heart-shaped cookie cutter and place on a baking pan lined with parchment paper. Place another pan on top of the pastries so they do not 'puff' too much making it easier to create the layers in the Napoleons.

Assembly: puff pastry -> strawberry whipped cream -> puff pastry -> strawberry whipped cream -> puff pastry.

Sift some powdered sugar on top of each napoleon.

Top with fresh strawberry and you have a pretty good looking dessert!

Are You Ready For Some Football?!

These game day cupcakes are ready for a win tomorrow!

Fun Super Bowl themed cupakes!

Cupcake #1 is a vanilla cupcake topped with green turf made out of vanilla buttercream frosting and garnished with a chocolate football.

Cupcake #2 is also a vanilla cupcake but this time I used a chocolate buttercream frosting. The left over frosting was piped directly into my mouth .

Happy Super Bowl weekend and Go New York Giants!

Beer Battered Onion Rings

Two of my favorite foods, beer and onions, have united to make this not so healthy, but very tasty recipe: Beer Battered Onion Rings.

Anyone who has known me for more than one day knows about my obsession with onions. If you look in my kitchen, you will without a doubt always find onions at any given time. So you can only imagine how excited I was to make these onion rings.

Cut the onion into 1/2-inch slices and separate into rings.

You'll need one cup of any dark beer. When you are measuring the beer, do not include the froth. Looks like I need more beer!

The egg white in the batter is what helps the batter stick to the onions.

Beer, flour, salt, pepper and egg white - pretty simple batter!

Drip off any excess batter before frying.

Fry em up! If you want to fry more than one ring at a time, make sure your fryer is big enough so that the rings do not touch each other while frying.

Crispy and delicious Beer Battered Onion Rings!

In summary, if I’m being completely honest, I don’t know if I would make this recipe again. It was quite time consuming and created quite the mess in my kitchen. We enjoyed eating them thoroughly, but they just might end up being a one hit wonder.

Meatballs!…not to be confused with the Snookie and Deena variety

These meatballs have very quickly become a favorite in our household. They are so full of flavor it’s hard to believe that they’re on the healthier side of meatballs…you heard me.

The fresh herbs in this recipe is really what makes these meatballs special.

Basil, oregano, parsley, onions, garlic, parmesan...how can they NOT be delicious!

A secret and unusual ingredient: soaked bread in the place of bread crumbs.

Roll the meatballs into the size of golf ball. I love how the color of fresh herbs pops so well!

To cook the meatballs, I let them simmer in marinara sauce for about 30 minutes. This cooking method makes them so moist and flavorful (and helps with the healthy factor).

We usually use the sauce on top of spaghetti, but I think they would taste pretty delicious on a sub as well.

So what makes this recipe healthier than normal meatballs? 2 main things. We are using fresh whole grain bread in lieu of breadcrumbs and there’s no oil! But you’d never guess based on how tasty these babies are .

Banana Pudding….Cupcakes!

Did someone say Banana Pudding? Nope. Someone said Banana Pudding Cupcakes!

Yes my friends, these are as delicious as they sound (and look). Some may even say, my best creation yet .

Mash two ripe (almost completely browned) bananas. The browner the banana, the more banana flavor you'll have in your cake.

Add the mashed bananas to the cake batter once it has been prepared.

Check out this fun cupcake corer the hubs snuck into my stocking this Christmas.

The corer pulls out the center of the cupcake - same mechanism as a wine bottle opener.

Use a piping bag to fill the cupcake with the vanilla pudding.

Push the cake that is stuck in the cupcake corer back in the potion you just cored. The filling will not ooze out, it will mostly seep through the rest of the cupcake making it moist and delicious!

Okay, I skipped a few steps here. But basically what I did was crumble some Nila Wafers onto the cupcake before icing it (you might see some peeking out from underneath the icing). Then I piped the icing (which by the way is a fresh whipped cream based icing so it’s very light and fluffy) and finally I placed a Nila Wafer in the middle of the icing for garnish.

Wah-Lah! Banana Pudding Cupcakes!

One important disclaimer for this recipe. The shelf life on these cupcakes is pretty short. The cake portion will stay fresh if properly stored for 3-4 days. However, once you get the Nila Wafers and icing involved, time until soggy mess increases exponentially! I’d highly recommend only icing these puppies right before serving. Don’t worry, they are so tasty that you won’t have any leftovers to worry about storing.