Real Good Hush Puppies

I am not a huge fried foods person. However, like any normal human being, I can go for some french fries, donuts, and some good crab ragoon every now and then. But I also love hush puppies, depending on where they are from. Not everyone makes good hush puppies. I like my hush puppies to still have a bit of sweetness to them like cornbread. So if you are like me, I hope that you really enjoy them. The best combination is fried hush puppies with your favorite fried fish. Mine is catfish. Yum Yum Yummy!

Ingredients

1/3 cup minced onions
1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
1/4 cup chopped celery
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup  yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoon onion powder
1 large egg
1 cup whole milk or buttermilk
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
vegetable oil for frying

Instructions


1. Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl (flour, cornmeal, onion power, baking powder, sugar, cayenne pepper)

2. Chop your onions, celery, and bell pepper in a chopper or food processor one at a time and set aside.

2. Whisk together large egg and milk in a separate bowl. Once milk and egg has been whisked together, add to the dry ingredients, along with the chopped vegetables,  and stir thoroughly.

3. While still in the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. This will allow the mixture to become firm and easier to mold for frying.

4. Heat your vegetable oil in a deep fryer or pot until it reaches 350 degrees or drip some water over the fryer  to test how hot the oil is. If the oil starts to bubble and crackle a little bit it should be ready for frying.

5. Take the mixture out of the refrigerator and, with your hands, take some of the mixture and make it into small balls and place them in the oil to fry. Or, if you have a cookie scooper, you can use the scooper to scoop up the mixture and carefully drop it into the oil.

6. Fry until golden brown. Transfer to your platter that is lined with paper towels. Sprinkle with salt, if desired,  and serve.

Tips


- You can use Jiffy cornbread mix to replace your dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients and chopped vegetables if you would like. If you decide to do this, make sure that the cornbread mix equals out to two cups. Two boxes should be okay.

- You can serve this with a side of tartar sauce for dipping.

I hope you enjoy them!   

The Closest to Cinnabon Rolls Recipe

I have not had a Cinnabon in years! Honest. I would not lie to you. In fact, I don't think I had one sense undergraduate school. But how my heart sings when I smell the cinnamon goodness in the air when I go to the mall and how my body hates the fact that I won't indulge in my senses by partaking of one of those delicious treats. Sorry, too sweet for me. But in my long hard search of trying different recipes to make the closest Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll, I think I finally got it! You have to make them and comment below and tell me how you like them!

Ingredients- Dough

• 1 Cup of warm milk
• 2 eggs (i had mine at room temperature)
• 1/3 cup of butter
• 4 1/2 cups of flour
• 2/3 cups of sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoon of Rapid Rising Yeast

Ingredients- Filling

• 1 cup of packed brown sugar
• 2 1/2 tablespoon of cinnamon
• 1/4 cup of butter

Ingredients- Icing

• 4 oz of cream cheese
• 1 1/2 cup of powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup of butter (room temperature)
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla 
• 1/8 teaspoon of lemon extract
• 1/8 teaspoon of salt

Directions


Preheat your oven to 400 degrees

• Take your milk and place it in a bowl and warm it up to about 100 degrees. Remember how I said that baking is a science? Well when baking with yeast it can be extra tricky because your yeast needs to time to dissolve and "proof". So use your thermometer to make sure that you milk is at 100 degrees. If it is a few degrees over, that is okay, but if it is too far from the required temperature, I recommend letting it cool before you add the yeast.
• Add the yeast to the warmed milk. Now, if you can the envelope style like I did (see above picture) still measure to make sure that the measurements are exact. Whisk well to make sure there are no clumps in the bowl. Set aside. 
• Combine flour, sugar, eggs, salt, and butter. It is going to look very crumby. Don't get freaked out and think this is the dough. You still have to add the milk. 

Before Milk

• Once you have mix all the ingredients well, add your milk and knead in your floured surface. Do not over knead! Just good enough where it is all well incorporated. 
• Once you have kneaded all ingredients together, place back in bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and place in warm place for one hour to double in size. 

After milk

• Once the hour has passed and the dough has double in size, take it out of the bowl and place it on your floured surface. 
• Take your rolling pin, sprinkle the pin with a little flour to avoid the dough from sticking to the pin, and roll out into a rectangle. You don't want to roll the dough out to thin. 
• After you have rolled out your dough. Allow it to sit for about 10 minutes on your counter. 
• While this is resting, take your brown sugar and cinnamon and combine it in a bowl.
• Once those two ingredients are mixed well, take the 1/4 cup of butter and spread evenly on the open part of your dough.
• Now, take your brown sugar and cinnamon mixture and sprinkle evenly on the buttered part of your dough. 
• Carefully roll the dough into a log and seal it with a little bit of water at the very end of your roll. This will allow the end to stick during the baking process. 

• Cut the cinnamon rolls with a very sharp knife about 1/2 inch think and place on the pan you will be baking them in. You can cut them bigger if you desire, but you want to keep an eye on them when baking. 
• Once you have placed them in the pan, place them near a warm place and let them sit for another 30 minutes to let the rise once again.
• After your 30 minutes have passed, bake them for about 12-15 minutes. They should be bubbling! 

• Take them out of your oven and allow to cool for about 10 to 15 minutes.
• When icing your rolls, you can wait until they are completely cool or you can pour the icing while they are still warm (it will melt some). But I will leave that part up to you.



Eat and enjoy!



Green Tea "Matcha" Cupcakes

So I came across the idea of green tea cupcakes and became immediately curious. So, I looked up a recipe to bake them myself and I must say...they were AAAMMMMAAAAZZZIIING! I wanted to share my wealth of knowledge with all of you so I posted the recipe and some pictures of the process along the way for those who like visual effects when cooking something new to make sure that you are doing it right, like myself. Enjoy!


Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

2 tablespoons matcha tea

Process

1. Beat unsalted butter until soft, for about 30 seconds.

2. Add sugar and beat until butter and sugar are well blended and fluffy, about 3 minutes. 

3. Add eggs and egg yolks one at a time and beat for 30 seconds each. 

3. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and add batter to mix well. 

TIP: Whisking helps prevents large clumps from forming in your batter. 

4. Mix Matcha with milk (I use soy milk) and combine.

Fact: Matcha is a finely-milled and ground green tea, which is most popular in Japan. Matcha is used for making green tea ice cream and other green tea inspired recipes. 

Tip: You can buy a bag of Matcha this size from Jungle Jim's. You can also add it to smoothies. It is very high in protein. 

Tip: How I make my cupcakes and cakes so moist is that I beat them very well until all lumps are out of the matter. 

6. Now scoop batter into a prepared cupcake pan with papers already in tact. 

7. Bake for about 20-22 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. 

Tip: Another practice I use to make sure that my cakes and cookies are moist is never cook them to the maximum time that is suggested unless the good is not completely finished. For instance, I hardly ever let my cookies bake completely through. I don't know the science behind it, but they are still cooked thoroughly. 

8. Once the cupcakes are finished. Let cool and ice as necessary. 

Tip: For icing, I use a sandwich bag and place my icing in the bag. At the tip of the bag, cut open a small hole to allow the icing to be squeezed through. This cause less mess. You can use this method if you do not have a professional decorative icing bag. 

Place the sandwich bag inside of a cup to avoid access mess. 

I added green food coloring to go with recipe. There is a Matcha butter cream icing recipe to go along with this recipe if you would like to use that instead ( I will next time. I was tired). 

The icing will come out of the end of bag as you squeeze. You can also make designs if you wish. 

There you have it folks! Green Tea cupcakes!

Enjoy!

Caramel Popcorn Cupcakes

So for some reason, I was thinking about the circus and the different flavors and aromas that are in the air. So I thought, why not make, popcorn cupcakes! Think about it, if you are a sweet and salty person this would absolutely be perfect! So I had to think about how I would get that popcorn flavor infused throughout the entire cupcake. Now I didn't try this, but there is an actual white popcorn flour that you can purchase online that is used for making popcorn cupcakes and various other dishes. Or you can also place plain white popcorn in a food processer and grind it up until it becomes flour. After that, you are on your own. White popcorn flour is good for those who do not prefer to use wheat flour. It is just a different alternative. 

Amish Country Popcorn Flour

For my popcorn cupcakes, I did not use the popcorn flour. But I did adopt the basic cupcake recipe from Magnolia Cupcake Bakery, I love these cupcakes, but added my own spin on it. 

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups self rising flour

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup (2 sticks) of unsalted butter softened

2 cups of sugar

4 large eggs, at room temperature

1 cup of milk

1 tsp of valnilla

1 tsp of butter extract

1 cup of carmamel popcorn (chopped)

2 dallops of sourcream

Directions

-  Pre heat your oven to 350 degree

-  Line your muffin tins with your cupcake paper

-  Combine your flours in a bowl and set aside

-  Cream butter until smooth and gradually add the sugar until fluffy. This should take about 3 minutes.

-  Add the eggs one at a time. Make sure that each egg is well beaten into the batter before adding the next. 

-Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and extracts. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat.

- Insert 2 dallops of sour cream for moistnesses. Stir with  rubber spatuala. 

- Add your chopped caramel popcorn in the batter and stir with a rubber spatula until you see that it is well incorporated into the batter. 

- Spoon the batter in the cupcake liners making them about 3/4 full. You can use an ice cream scoop for this. 

- Bake for about 20-25 minutes. I usually check at 20 minutes to see if they are done. I dont like my cupcakes too brown or done. I like to catch my cupcakes right when they are done. They stay moist that way and when they are too done, they can become dry. 

- Cool the cupcakes by placing them on a cooling rack.

Buttercream Icing

- 2 sticks of unsalted butter

- 6 cups of powdered sugar

- 1/2 cup of whipping cream (milk will do if you do not have the cream)

- 2 teaspoon of vanilla extract (you can use clear vanilla extract)

- 1 tsp of butter extract

- Place the butter in a mixing bowl and add about 4 cups of the powdered sugar first and slowly mix in the whipping cream in small amounts. Interchangably, add in the powdered sugar and a little bit of the whipping cream until it is to the consistency of your liking. You might not need all the sugar and your icing should be thick. 

- For an added effect you can add food coloring, and sprinkle chopped caramel popcorn on top or whole pieces as a garnish. 

- I also garnished with caramel sauce. You can make it yourself or purchase the sauce at your local grocery store. 

I hope you enjoy them!

Chocolate Mint Cupcakes

hocolate Mint Cupcakes

I am not a fan of the chocolate mint flavor collaboration. However, I do know that it is something that is very popular and a guilty pleasure for most. Therefore, I decided to create chocolate mint cupcakes with some added flavor for those who love it. I hope that you enjoy them. 

Ingredients

2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp peppermint extract
1 cup boiling water

1 4 oz. bar of Ghirardelli Bittersweet Chocolate 

Get baking!

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Not preheating  your oven can cause you to miscalculate baking time, which will lead to your food not being cooked thoroughly. 

2. In a large bowl whisk together all of your dry ingredients (i.e. sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and soda, and salt).

3. Add in wet ingredients (i.e. extracts, milk, eggs, oil). Beat all of these ingredients together. 

4. Once you have beat all of these ingredients for about 2 minutes, add in boiling water. When you add the water your batter will become thin and less thick. Don't worry! It is suppose to be that way. It is going to give your cupcake a nice moist texture once they are finished. This method applies mostly to chocolate cake. You could also use coffee. 

5. Lastly, to give your cake some extra chocolaty flavor, take the chocolate bar and melt it by microwave or placing a metal bowl over a pot of hot water, while stirring consistently until melted. Once melted add chocolate to the batter.

6. Fill each cupcake paper 2/3 of the way and bake for 15 minutes. 

7. Before Icing, allow to cool thoroughly so the icing does not melt. A good rule of thumb before icing a cupcake or cake is to place it in the refrigerator so that it will chill. This will make it easier for the icing to apply to the cake easier and cause less crumbs from the cake to develop.  

Icing recipe

3 cups of powdered sugar

1 stick of unsalted butter

2 tsp of peppermint extract

1 tsp of vanilla extract

2 tbsp of whipping cream (preferably but you can use regular milk if needed)

The step is quite simple add all ingredients first and whisk together and let the whipping cream be the last to blend in mixture. Make sure you stir it in slowly to make sure that your icing does not come out too runny. If necessary slowly add more. 

Once the consistency of the icing is to your liking apply to the cupcake and enjoy!

For an added bonus, garnish with chocolate mint leaf, crumbled chocolate mint candies, just don't garnish with a Whopper like I did. They were just lying around and wanted the added effect.