What's a Matcha you?

I was inspired.

There are just so many fun and interesting recipes out there for St. Patrick's Day, it was mind-boggling. Cakes made with green tinted coconut, fondant shamrocks, Chocolate Irish Cream, Pistachio Pudding Cake and cupcakes made with stout. (hiccup) The ingredients sounded so intriging, but it was the brilliant green color and mysterious ingredient that totally won me over on this one.

Matcha.

I know, right? What the heck is it? About the closest I could come to it was singing a verse from the Village People, "Macha, macha man.....I want to be a Matcha Man". What? Oh right..... it's Macho Man. I stand corrected. Thank you Sister Mary Elephant.

Anyway, Matcha is a green tea powder from Japan, and guess what? IT'S GOOD FOR YOU TOO. Ignore the fact that there is cocoa, sugar, butter, etc., in these cupcakes and repeat after me. "It's good for me". Yep. That's why I can't be a model for Victoria Secret anymore. (wicked grin)

Matcha comes in a small bag (which runs about $9 by the way). I purchased this one at Whole Foods, but I know you can order it from Amazon.com as well. I found scores of different recipes on the internet and ended up literally combining and modifying two different ones and the result was fabulous! Here's the recipe:

Cocoa Matcha Cupcakes

Chocolate Mixture: 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

Matcha mixture: 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2-3 Tbsp matcha powder

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Wet ingredients:

3 cups sugar

1 cup unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

3 eggs, room temperature

1 3/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. If you're not using cupcake liners, grease the cupcake pans and dust with cocoa. With a wire whisk, mix the dry ingredients for the chocolate mixture in a small bowl and set aside. In another small bowl, do the same for the matcha mixture. Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, milk and vanilla and mix until thoroughly combined. Divide the creamed mixture evenly in two separate bowls. Slowly add the chocolate mixture to one half of the creamed mixture and mix thoroughly. Then, add the matcha mixture to the other half of the creamed mixture and mix thoroughly. Drop alternating spoonfuls of each mixture into each cupcake liner. For a marbled effect, gently run a knife through the two batters in a swirling motion. (Just once around will do the trick.) Bake for about 30 minutes.

I used a plethera of ingredients for this recipe.

(I just love that word!)

It's this gorgeous green color that gets me every time. Use one bowl for the Matcha Mixture.....




....and the other bowl for the Cocoa Mixture.

Grease the cupcake tins and dust with cocoa powder. I didn't use cupcake liners for this recipe because I wanted to be able to see the green and cocoa marbled all together once they were baked.

Linda Blair.........paging Linda Blair?

Looks scary. Tastes delicious. You must trust me on this.

Now drop the batter by tablespoons, alternating the Matcha with the Cocoa. End by running a knife through each one to "swirl" the two colors together. Just do it once though, otherwise your colors will blend and that won't be good....because when you mix bright green and brown together you get something that resembles swampwater. Um....yum.

See how pretty?? I almost hated to frost them. Well...almost.

The Matcha Frosting was my own creation. So easy. I used two sticks of butter, softened. I added 5 cups of confectioner's sugar, 1 tablespoon of vanilla,1 tablespoon of Matcha, 1/2 - 3/4 cup of milk and beat the living daylights out of it with my Kitchen Aid Mixer. I mean I really whipped it up. When it was light and fluffy, it was ready.

For the chocolate "scrolls", I melted a cup of semi-sweet morsels over a double boiler. Then I slowly poured it onto a clean and perfectly dry cookie sheet and used a spatula to spread it out to cool. If there is even the hint of moisture around chocolate, your recipe will go over a cliff really fast. Have you ever seen chocolate seize? (shudder) It's an ugly, ugly situation, trust me.

When the chocolate was just about dried (but not totally solid), I used a pastry cutter to shave up the chocolate.

Look! Scrolls!!!

Okay, so they're not perfect scrolls. C'mon, in the World of Scrolls, who is? But they're close. They're very, very close.

I had a half pint of fresh raspberries in the fridge, so I used the excess melted chocolate and dipped their little bottoms in it. They I perched a nice fresh chocolate-bottomed raspberry on top of each cupcake.

I purchased these little paper ramekins from a baking supply outlet and thought they'd be a nice change from the usual cupcake liner. Plus, since the cupcakes were baked right in the pan, the ramekins were now more of a cupcake "holder". Hmmmm...makes for easy cupcake removal to take that first great big BITE!

These turned out to be the most delicious cupcakes..... ever! I highly recommend them.

And of course, when I added the chocolate scrolls it suddenly went from being a delightful-looking little cupcake to a complete show-stopper.

So, are you ready to take on a cupcake challenge?

Go on. You can do it.

When was the last time that you stopped the show?

Wicked Irish

Yes, I am of Irish descent.

That's it. I'm a descendant of Ireland. I have an Irish last name that most people can't spell or pronounce correctly, my grandparents both had an Irish last name and their parents both had Irish last names. That's as much as I know. Or care about for that matter......because on St. Patrick's Day, everyone is Irish anyway, right?

I remember when I was very young, we would visit my paternal grandmother every weekend. She lived in an elderly housing community in the same town that we lived in. Her apartment was on the top floor of one of the residential buildings, accessible by one open staircase just inside the main door. Her one and only upstairs neighbor would always greet us first, because she left her inside door open all the time. This always annoyed my grandmother to no end. Her neighbor's name was Mrs. McGoldrick and everyone called her Goldie. She was short, she was tough, and yes........she was Irish. She also had a brogue so thick I could barely understand her. Which didn't matter of course because she always had candy for me and my sister Kathy. Who needs words when there's candy involved? This weekly ritual was accompanied by a rapid-fire line of questions as to where we were "goon" that afternoon and what "weeed" be "eat'n." When we finally were allowed to walk the remainder of the hallway to my grandmother's apartment, Goldie would stand at her doorway, arms folded, and watch us until we walked inside. My grandmother would glare at her and snort under her breath, "Busybody...mutter....mutter...mutter". We'd say, "What did you say Nana?" and she would reply brightly, "Nothing...just talking to myself. Now what shall we have for dinner?. " This was a moot point because she hardly ever cooked. But I do remember that she did make a mean Swansons T.V. dinner.

On the other hand, my maternal grandmother was always baking something delicious. I never saw the woman read a recipe. It always amazed me how she could go into the pantry and literally throw flour, sugar, eggs, and butter in a bowl and make the best bread you've ever tasted. But she did. Her recipes were simple, but oh so delicious! I can remember begging her to make me a soft boiled egg. Are you listening to this?? A soft boiled egg? She would serve it to me in this old cracked coffee mug, all mushed up with a piece of toasted homemade bread and salt and pepper. If she was out of bread, she used Saltines. When I was 8 years old, there was nothing better. Nothing. I would sit in my Nana's chair at that creaky kitchen table in complete bliss and eat it all. All the while, my sister Kathy stood as far away from the table as possible and gagged. Literally gagged.

She still does.

Anyway, one of my favorites was my Nana's Irish Soda Bread. Yum. I loved it best when it was toasted, then slathered with butter. ( Of course I did).

It's a snap to make and I'll bet if you look hard enough, you'll find that you have most of the ingredients already on hand. Go ahead. Look behind that old can of B & M Baked Beans with the freshness stamp from 1983....you might find the baking soda.

Line up your ingredients and get ready to jig.

Nana's Irish Soda Bread

4 cups all purpose Flour

4 tablespoons of white Sugar

1/2 teaspoon Salt

1 egg

1/2 cup Margarine, softened

1 1/4 cup Buttermilk

1 tablespoon Baking Powder

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

Set aside 1/4 cup of the buttermilk and 1/4 cup butter.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and lightly grease a large baking sheet.....or use a Silpat.

You'll notice that I suddenly threw some raisins into the dough. Most Irish Soda Bread recipes do not include raisins.....because according to some European cookbooks, when you add raisins to Irish Soda Bread, um........it is called something else. Okay, okay. I'll say it. It's called Spotted Dick. I swear on my Kitchen Aid Mixer, that's what it's called.

My goodness, it's warm in here. Is the heat on? Who turned out the lights? I know my Nana never made a Spotted Dick........not on purpose anyway, but I have. I mean........she never put raisins in her Irish Soda Bread, but I do......oh sweet Moses. So now if anyone ever asks you how to make a Spotted.......um, oh never mind.

And now.....back to our regularly scheduled broadcast...

In a large bowl (preferably with a mixer), combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and margarine. Stir in 1 cup of the buttermilk and the egg. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead slightly. Form dough into a round and place it on the prepared baking sheet. Take a small knife and make an "X" in the top of the loaf. Then, in a small bowl, combine the melted butter with the remaining 1/4 cup of buttermilk and brush it all over.

When it starts to run down the sides onto the baking sheet, that's enough, but make sure you cover the entire loaf.

Bake in a preheated oven for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Cool the loaf then slice and devour.

See how moist it is?? Is Buttermilk really nectar from the baking gods?

Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to go eat a soft boiled egg and crackers at my sister Kathy's.

Erin go Bragh!

It's Time To Bake The Donuts!

Baked Donuts?

Has she gone MAD??

No. I haven't. Yet. This month's cover of Family Circle Magazine was intriguing. Baked Donuts? I mean, why not, right? We have baked potato chips and baked french fries....why not a baked donut?

It's in interesting concept. A regular donut, which has been deep fried in oil, has about 300 calories with 12-18 gms of fat per serving. A Baked Donut, minus the chocolate and sugar toppings, has about 135 calories with only 6 gms of fat per serving. So to the donut connoisseur, they may not live up to classic donut standards, but to a Weight Watcher.......they are bliss. True bliss. With a hole.

I ordered a couple of donut pans from Target and surfed the internet for donut recipes. The Family Circle recipe was a little too much like cake, and if I was going to bake a donut, then it had to taste like a donut too. The recipe I ended up with was adapted from three different recipes that I found, all on different websites.

So phone the neighbors and wake the kids, because you will definitely want to try these. They're easy to make and fun too.

Baked Donuts

1 1/3 cups warm milk

1 packet active dry yeast or about 2 1/4 teaspoons)

2 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup sugar

2 eggs

5 cups all-purpose flour

1 pinch or two of freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

Place 1/3 cup of the warm milk in the bowl of an electric mixer. Stir in the yeast and set aside for five minutes or so. Be sure your milk isn't too hot or it will kill the yeast. Stir the butter and sugar into the remaining cup of warm milk and add it to the yeast mixture. With a fork, stir in the eggs, flour, nutmeg, and salt - just until the flour is incorporated. With the dough hook attachment of your mixer beat the dough for a few minutes at medium speed. This is where you are going to need to make adjustments - if your dough is overly sticky, add flour a few tablespoons at a time. Too dry? Add more milk a bit at a time. You want the dough to pull away from the sides of the mixing bowl and eventually become supple and smooth. Turn it out onto a floured counter-top, knead a few times (the dough should be barely sticky), and shape into a ball. Transfer the dough to a buttered (or oiled) bowl, cover, put in a warm place (I turn on the oven at this point and set the bowl on top), and let rise for an hour or until the dough has roughly doubled in size.

Punch down the dough and roll it out 1/2-inch thick on your floured countertop. Then, using a smaller circle cutter, I cut the doughnut "hole" out in the center. (Ah-ha! The "munchkin" is born!) Transfer the circles to the donut pan. Then cover with a clean cloth and let rise for another 45 minutes.

Bake in a 375 degree oven until the bottoms are just golden, 8 to 10 minutes - start checking around 8. Remove the doughnuts from the oven and let cool for just a minute or two. Coat with your favorite toppings like a dip in melted butter and a quick toss in the sugar bowl.

So, let's go over it again step by step.....just in case you weren't paying attention the first time.

Add the warm milk to the bowl.
Add the yeast, stir and let sit for about 5 minutes. The yeast will get all warm and bubbly and happy.

Then add the butter,

flour and sugar.

A healthy pinch of nutmeg. Um, yeah. Please don't mind my giant stumpy blacksmith hand.

Two spanking fresh eggs

Mix this all together with a wooden spoon, just until all the flour is incorporated.

Then, using a bread hook, knead the dough until it pulls away from the sides of the bowl.....but don't walk away ...it will be ready in about 2 minutes.

Loosely shape the dough into a ball and put into a bowl that has been sprayed or wiped down with vegetable oil.

Cover it with a clean dishtowel and go do laundry for about an hour. By the time you're finished, the dough will have doubled in size.

Now comes the fun part. Make a fist and pretend it's your old high school math teacher.....remember the mean one? Yes, that one! Take aim at the dough, focus on that image and PUNCH. IT. DOWN! Then turn it out onto a floured countertop and using a rolling pin, roll it out to about 1/4 inch high.

Even though I have the donut pan, I used two cookie cutters to form the donut shape.

Then I plunked them down in the Donut Pan, covered them with a dishtowel. Ahem, a clean dishtowel, and let them rise for another 45 minutes. If you don't have a donut pan, just place the donut rings on a cookie sheet and follow the same instructions.

Then I baked them at 275 degrees for about 8 - 10 minutes. And they will come out looking all fat and happy.

Like this.

My friend Frank says that donuts are nothing more than "fat pills".

I wonder why.

Of course when you glaze them with sugar and chocolate, all bets on the "low fat" thing are off.



Oh and coconut. And chocolate sprinkles.

Did I already mention the chocolate? Um, ya. Easy to make. Mix about 2 cups of confectioners sugar with about 1/8 to 1/4 cup of milk and 1/2 cup of dark unsweetened cocoa powder and stir it all up. Now take a warm donut and give it a little dunk. Um, ya.

I feel faint.

I almost forgot the best one. Cinnamon and Sugar Donuts! I used a pastry brush to coat the cooked donuts with melted butter. I know. I'm wicked. Then I sprinkled cinnamon and sugar all over. Moses.

Baked Donuts?

Go on. You can do it.