Waffles – Part 1

Since coming back from Turkey I have been wanting to make waffles, but not just any kind of waffles – waffles like the ones we had in Bebek! We were travelling around with a friend of ours in Istanbul and we went to walk around near the university she went to (which was right on the Bosphorus!) Not only did we enjoy a beautiful walk, but we also got to try these amazing waffles. Here is a picture I found on the Internet of a waffle shop (not sure this is the one we went to, but it was set up just like this)

  Basically,you get a rather thin waffle (but not as thin as a crepe) slathered with your choice of toppings – you can get various spreads (chocolate, white chocolate, strawberry, hazelnut, …) and lots of toppings from fruits to nuts to various candies. I didn’t even know where to begin. It was so good.

My friend talked about trying to make these at home using nutella as a spread. I thought that was a great idea. So, I figured I would try it. I couldn’t wait for dessert so I made them for an afternoon snack. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to make the waffle as thin, but that was okay… it would still be tasty. So, I got out my waffle iron and made up some waffles. I decided to try and recreate the fairly simple one we had in Turkey – nutella with strawberries and bananas. Yum! Here is what it looked like…

Josh and I each had two waffles. Although they were good, I must say they were not as good as the ones we got to enjoy in Bebek with some good friends!

Waffles – Part 2

I still had some waffles from my Turkish-style waffle adventure earlier in the day so I decided to use the waffles for dessert. I made some Mexican Chocolate sorbet (will post about my new Ice Cream maker soon!) and so for dessert I decided that a sorbet-topped waffle was in order! I put the waffle in the microwave for about 30 seconds and topped it with a scoop of sorbet and some fresh strawberries! Yummy!

I haven’t eaten this many waffles since I worked in a boarding school and got brunch in the dining hall! I guess I’ll have to start making them more often!

This post is not going to have pictures of any cupcakes. I know what you are thinking… this is a cupcake blog… that is what you came here for. Sorry! This post is a Happy Birthday post for my husband Josh. Today is his birthday! I did make him some cupcakes, but won’t be posting about those today, but I can give you a little teaser… here it is.

Josh definitely deserves a Happy Birthday wish on here because he is the one that usually takes all the photographs for me. He has gotten into photography recently and has been participating in the smugmug daily photos. You can check out all of his pictures here: http://themales.smugmug.com/ including his dailies (you might even catch a glimpse of one of my cupcakes) and you can also join me in wishing him a VERY Happy Birthday!

So, I know I haven’t posted a Martha Stewart Cupcake Club post in a while…. I’ve been pretty busy, but when Simple Girl said she was looking for some summer picks I thought that was just what I needed to kick-start myself. So, I volunteered to host in August and picked one of my summer favorites – Rhubarb Cupcakes with Whipped Cream! I actually tried these for the first time last summer and I must admit I don’t know that before trying these that I had ever eaten rhubarb. I decided to make these again this summer since they were such a hit last year. Like I did last year, I used some fresh rhubarb from my advisor’s garden. Since I’m the host this month I can post the recipe (which is at the bottom of this post), but if you like this recipe or any others you see on the MSC blog I would really encourage you to buy the book. You can get it on Amazon right here   for less than $15. The recipe calls for taking off the cupcake liners before serving, but  I finally found the Reynolds StayBrite cupcake liners and I really liked this pattern so I decided to keep the liners on. I was definitely impressed by these liners.  I was looking for them for a while and finally ran into them at Kroger. They definitely stayed bright! I am guessing that foil inside helped.  Here are a few action shots Josh got – me dumping the rhubarb into the batter and filling the liners.

 Doesn’t that rhubarb look so good? I love how chunky the batter is. You can tell when you are filling the cups that each bite is going to be full of tasty rhubarb. I love it! I popped these into the oven and then began working on the rhubarb topping. Another good thing about my trip to Kroger was that I found vanilla beans! The last time I searched everywhere! I was about to give up, but I finally found them at a health food store, but they were not cheap! Needless to say I was very happy to find a more inexpensive Kroger brand. I really do think using the vanilla bean adds a lot to the rhubarb topping (at least to its appearance anyway). I just  love how you can see the little specks of vanilla! I was planning to bring these to a meeting I had early the next day so since the recipe said you could store the topping in an airtight container, I decided to make the cupcakes and topping the night before and wake up early to make the whipped cream. The topping did get a little hard in the fridge, but a little stirring helped that. I also probably didn’t wait for it to get to room temperature completely like the recipe indicates. In the morning I made the whipped cream and assembled my cupcakes. I ended up doubling the batch because I was bringing these to a meeting with about 20 people or so. So, I packed up my trusty Martha Stewart cupcake carrier (minus a few cupcakes that I left home for Josh and I).

I think these are one of my all-time favorite cupcakes. I love the soury-sweet taste! Thanks to everyone from the Martha Stewart Cupcake Club for baking along with me this month! I hope you all enjoyed your cupcakes! And as promised, here is the recipe:

 

Martha Stewart’s Rhubarb Cupcakes with Whipped Cream [printer-friendly]

Makes 16 cupcakes

Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1 ½  cups all-purpose flour
• ¼  teaspoon baking soda
• ¼  teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon coarse salt
• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• ½ cup sour cream, room temperature
• ¾ pound rhubarb, stalks trimmed and cut into ¼-inch dice (3 cups)
• 1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise
• 1 cup water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and 1 cup sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla extract. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in two batches, alternating with the sour cream, and beating until combined after each. Stir in 2 cups diced rhubarb.

3. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three- quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored up to 3 days at room temperature in airtight containers; remove liners before topping if desired.

4. To make rhubarb topping, use the tip of a paring knife to scrape vanilla-bean seeds into a saucepan, reserving pod for another use (such as vanilla sugar). Add the water and remaining 1 cup sugar, and bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve sugar. Remove from heat, and stir in remaining 1 cup rhubarb. Let cool completely. Remove rhubarb with a slotted spoon, and reserve. Return liquid to a simmer, and cook until reduced by half, 5 to 8 minutes. Let cool slightly, then return rhubarb to syrup. Once cool, rhubarb can be refrigerated in syrup up to 1 week in an airtight container; bring to room temperature before using.

5. To finish, dollop a generous amount of whipped cream onto each cupcake, and top with rhubarb and some syrup. Serve immediately.

Whipped Cream                                      

Ingredients

• 2  cups heavy cream
• ¼ cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Directions

1. Whisk heavy cream until soft peaks form.

2. Add confectioners’ sugar, and whish until combined

I was happy to have a party to go to right around the time that it was time to bake these Club: BAKED cookies. Josh and I wouldn’t want to have to eat them all… Although, after trying them I am sure that would not have been a problem! These were SO tasty… I didn’t have too many to bring home after the party :-(  Thanks to Jamie at Random Acts of Food for picking these cookies! They were delicious! How can you go wrong with chocolate and mint? My cookies did not come out as good as the ones in the book, but they tasted great, so I am not complaining! I pretty much followed the recipe as stated. I didn’t make any substitutions except for the coarse sugar… I didn’t have any of that and so I just used the regular stuff and it was okay. Take a look at the batter here…. the big difference between my cookies and the cookies in the book photo was that mine cracked quite a bit. I am wondering if I either mixed too much or not enough. It said the batter was supposed to be smooth. I am always afraid of over-mixing. I am wondering if this wasn’t ready yet. Anyway, I wrapped it and chilled it like it said. When it was ready I took it out and  went to work. I wasn’t sure if they were going to expand or not. They didn’t expand much which is good because I began packing them in. Also, it said a cup of coarse sugar, but I did not use even close to a cup, but I think that is because I wasn’t using coarse sugar. When I took them out of the oven to work on the indentation I used the end of a wooden spoon as suggested. I thought this worked well. At this point they began cracking a little more, but not to the point where they were breaking so it wasn’t too bad. When they came out of the oven they smelled wonderful! I let them cool completely and then filled them. When I began filling I was a little worried that the filling wasn’t going to last until the last cookie, but thankfully it did. I thought maybe I was filling them too much or I did something wrong. I was able to fill all 41 cookies. I let them sit for a while before plopping them in the fridge. I actually almost forgot to put them in the fridge to chill like the recipe said. Once I did that they set up perfectly. These were such a hit. Everyone loved them at the party. I was able to take a just a few of them home and they tasted good for the two days – I needed to make sure I had a paper towel or napkin because they crumbled quite a bit. They continued to have such a great mint chocolate flavor the few crumbs that landed on the floor were well worth it! I will totally make these again! To see these cookies from other bakers check out all the links here.