Quiche: The Slightly Healthier Version

Healthy quiche tarts! the filling is full of flavor, even though i used evaporated milk instead of heavy cream. the 100% whole wheat olive oil crust also helped cutting those unnecessary calories!! 

soo i decided to make some quiche because i had alot of veggie leftovers that were pretty much going to go bad soon.. plus i had a whole thing of evaporated milk left over and no heavy cream in my fridge.

whole wheat olive oil crust recipe adapted from both: chocolateandzucchini and cookingwithmykid

easy quiche recipe adapted from: http://eggs.ab.ca/recipes-1/quiches  

this crust only consists of four ingredients!!

first combine whole wheat flour and salt together. then slowly add the olive oil while using the pastry blender to help distribute the oil into the flour. 

 then add 1/2 cup water and knead gently until it forms into a ball. for a little while it might seem like those little flour crumbs won't incorporate with the rest of the flour but it'll come together! then let the dough rest in the fridge for 10-15 minutes so it'll be easy to roll out.

 after the rest, roll that dough out! then cut out a circle that is a little bigger than your tart pan and then place the dough into the pan, pressing against the bottom and sides. 

roll your pin on top of the pan to get rid of the excess dough. 

 soo pretty! i didn't want the shells to shrink while they blind-baked in the oven so i put them in the freezer for an hour until they were hard. 

blind-bake the tarts in a 400 degree oven until golden brown, around 15 minutes. Oh, and don't be dumb like me and forget to fork the bottoms -.-

while that is slightly cooling, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. mix together the eggs, evaporated milk, and any herb seasonings you want to add. i put in basil! i also added some parmesan cheese and salt!!! 

 add the fillings in the tart shells. then pour the egg mixture to fill up the shells. 

 bake for around 20-30 min or until an inserted knife comes out nice and clean. 

 mmm scrumptiously healthy!! seriously though, it tasted pretty bomb despite all the healthy substitutions. and very perfect for random leftover ingredients! plus you can freeze these for a month :) can you say instant breakfast/lunch/dinner/snack/dessert?

Ingredients

(perfect for six 4.75 diameter tart pans)

for shell:

2 cups whole wheat flour

couple pinches of salt

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup water

for filling:

2 eggs

6 oz. evaporated milk

dried herb seasoning

some cheese?

any leftovers in the fridge!! 

Babycakes experiment #1: Jumbo Eggettes!

The real reason that motivated me to go to Bed Bath & Beyond and pick up a Babycakes cake pop maker was because i was hoping i could make other things with it besides cake pops. i was thinking of takoyaki, mini croquettes, meatballs, pancake poppers, and other things that would make me feel like buying a cake pop maker would be worth spending the money.

A couple days ago, i was looking for recipes that uses evaporated milk because i bought it a couple days ago, and, no matter how hard i try, i can't remember why i bought it...i know it was for a specific recipe but i totally forgot which recipe it was for...

but anyway, a recipe for eggettes popped up on google images, but i was sad that i didn't have a fancy egg waffle mold, which is soo expensive city. but then i was thinking, holy smokes, my cake pop maker!!!

i used this recipe, which uses less sugar than the original recipe, which i disagree with. i knoow... the first recipe calls for 1/2 cup sugar, which is alot, but it wasn't sweet enough like the eggettes i've had back home. so the next time i make this, i think i'll add about 3/4 cup, maybe a little less than 3/4 cup. 

anyway! this recipe is SUPER easy!! and if you don't have an egg waffle mold or a cake pop maker, you can probably bake it in the oven with a mini muffin pan or something...maybe...at 300 degrees for 10 min-12 min or until golden brown? 

all you need to do is...

add 1/2 cup all purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon tapioca (or potato) starch into a bowl and whisk it around to combine...

add an egg...

 add some sugar...

some vegetable oil...

vanilla extract...

and then mix that all up until it's a uniformed mixture like this.

then dump in the oil and evaporated milk... and mix! thaat's pretty much it. :)

 i poured the batter onto the middle of the cake pop maker and helped it spread to the ends with my spatula. then i let it cook for 5-6 minutes. 

 mmm so soft and yummy :) 

Ingredients

1/2 cup all purpose flour 

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon tapioca (potato) starch

1 large egg

3/4 cup sugar 

1/2 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon evaporated milk

1.5 oz. (3 tablespoons) water

Crazy for Red Velvet.

I hate cake pops. i hate them. they're mushy, gooey. every time i bite into one, my mind immediately flashes to an image of a dirty baker mushing up a mixture of cake and uber sweet frosting together with their yucky hands and shaping them into uneven spherical forms. that is the only reason why i haven't tried making cake pops.

but they look so cute! their whole basic concept is just hella adorable.

when i first saw the cake pop maker, i was totally against an electrical appliance that just pops out baked goods without all the hard work. but, come on. how else are you going to make a cake pop from scratch that isn't a mushy mess. so i bought one! and i looove it. the cake pops are just what they are supposed to be: real, moist cake in the shape of lollipops.

the red velvet cake recipe came straight from the babycakes instruction manual and it's the most perfect red velvet cake recipe ever. it doesn't use a buttload of red food coloring and the cake is just perfectly moist. the only change i made was using cake flour instead of the suggested all purpose flour. i love my cakes tender and soft, which cake flour is famous for doing.

the first thing i did was make my own buttermilk. i just added 1 1/2 teaspoons of distilled white vinegar to 1/2 cup of whole milk. i used to stay away from baking with whole milk to spare me the extra calories, but i figured red velvet (and other cakes that are not chocolate flavored) would taste way better with the extra saturated fat that is in the whole milk. and boy, it made these cake pops taste extra amazing. 

let this mixture sit for 5-10 minutes and voila! buttermilk :) 

 meanwhile, sift together the cake flour, cocoa powder, and a pinch of salt twice. this makes the cake flour un-lumpy! 

 cream the butter until soft. add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy. then add an egg and vanilla and beat this until the egg makes the mixture a pale yellow.. i just leave my stand-up mixer on high for a straight minute or two. 

 when that's done, add 1 tablespoon of red food coloring into the buttermilk. i loove that this recipe only uses just one tablespoon rather than the whole 1 oz. bottle like other recipes. gross. 

 alternately,  fold the flour mixture and the red buttermilk into the butter/sugar/egg mixture, starting and ending with the flour mixture. 

after, mix together 1/2 teaspoon of vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda and let them react together!! then fold this into the batter. then bake in the babycakes cake pop maker for 4 minutes!! 

while the cake balls were cooling, i made cream cheese frosting because...i just can't make red velvet without making cream cheese frosting. they just fit together so so well. this is the same recipe i used for my mini mini red velvet cupcakes and it's perfect!! soo light and fluffy. 

beat the butter and cream cheese together until they are fully incorporated and fluffy. i just leave my mixer on for a minute or two... then i added the powdered sugar and vanilla and let my mixer stay on high while i do some of the dishes.. i just like leaving it on because i feel like the frosting gets lighter and fluffier.. but that's just me. 

 i transferred the yummy frosting into a squeezy bottle and stuck them into the cake balls and filled them!  then i stuck the sticks in the same place i squeezed in the frosting and left these in the freezer while i melted my chocolate for the glaze. 

 i melted the white chocolate with a double boiler and added royal blue gel food coloring. 

 i took the cake pops out of the freezer (they were in there for a good half hour) dipped them in the chocolate, shook off the excess, and added cute candy pearls! they made them look sophisticated! 

 ....then i ran out of white chocolate. all i had left was dark chocolate chips in my fridge so i melted that in the microwave and started dipping and shaking away. 

 ooh, so shiny.

 thennn i realized i had soo much cream cheese frosting left.. so i hurredly made another batch of red velvet for cupcakes! 

i baked them at 325 degrees for 20 minutes. 

i was having such a great time baking, until i glanced over my sink and cried a little. 

poop. 

i went a little crazy, making red velvet three different ways...but it was necessary!! i hate wasting food. 

happy 4th of july everyone!! i had fun :) 

Ingredients

(makes about 35 cake pops and 10 cupcakes)

1 1/4 cup cake flour 

1 tablespoon cocoa powder 

pinch of salt 

1/2 cup buttermilk (or 1/2 cup whole milk mixed with 1 1/2 teaspoons vinegar)

1 tablespoon liquid red food coloring

1/4 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla 

1/2 teaspoon vinegar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Frosting:

8 oz. cream cheese

1/4 cup butter 

1 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

glaze:

white chocolate

dark chocolate

Healthy Pancake Poppers

Healthy pancake poppers! these are cute, yummy, and easy to eat! i used my new cake pop maker that i bought last weekend to make these cute bad boys. yeah..i bought a cake pop maker... i'll explain that more in detail once i make my cake pops. i also made this in a hurry because i was soo hungry, which explains why half my pictures are of empty mixing bowls. 

these poppers aren't sweet since i didn't add any sugar, so if you're into that sweet stuff, add as much as you like :)

in one bowl, whisk all the dry ingredients together. the whole wheat flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and almonds! 

in a separate bowl, mix together all the wet ingredients, including the banana. so the soy milk, egg, vegetable oil, vanilla, and the mashed banana go in there. mix well! THEN, make a well in the center of the dry mixture and pour in the wet mixture. Fold them together until just combined, when there are no more pockets of flour. 

the cake pop maker :) so lovely. fill this with the batter; cook for four minutes anddd voila! 

serve with some maple syrup and they are good to go!! and they're about 20 calories a pop so you won't have to feel guilty about that syrup :) 

Ingredients 

1/2 cup whole wheat flour 

1 tsp baking powder 

pinch of salt

dash of cinnamon (however much you want!)

1/2 banana (preferably very ripe. more flavor!)

1 egg

1/2 cup light vanilla silk soy milk

1 tsp vegetable oil

2 tbsp almonds (or however much you want!) 

Mochi with Sweet Peanut filling

Mochi!!! i loove mochi...especially ones that are of many different colors. my friend was having a Japanese themed party so i told him i'd make something yummy and sweet that goes with the theme. 

 first! i made the sweet peanut filling. i basically just put peanuts and sugar in a food processor and pulsed until i had a crumb-like consistency. the sugar added was to taste; i just eye-balled how much i added...it looked like 1 1/2 cup peanuts to 1/4 cup sugar and it tasted pretty good after i put it in the food processor. not too sweet but sweet enough mmm. 

 now on to the mochi itself! i didn't use the mochiko glutinous rice flour; instead, i just used what i had which was a generic type sweet rice flour. in a bowl, add 100 grams of sweet rice flour and 2 tbsp of sugar (or more if you want it sweeter). 

 in another pan (i used my 8x8 baking pan) pour in some potato starch, which you can get at a super asian store. this extremely helps with the crazy sticky mochi (it's crazy sticky!!)

 add in the 1/2 cup water into the flour/sugar mixture, 1/4 cup at a time and stir until there are no pockets of flour. if you want to add some color into your mochi, add the dye with the last 1/4 cup of water. 

then place the bowl over a bain marie, or simmering water on top of the stove, and let it steam for 15 minutes. 

 once it's done, wet your spatula and stir the mochi around until it forms a uniform dough. then dump it into the pan with the potato starch. while it's still warm (which helps the mochi stretch alot) divide the dough into 8 equal balls. 

 take one of the mochi balls and stretch out the ends to make a disc. brush off the starch as best you can..

 and add a good teaspoon of the filling into the middle. don't add too much or it'll burst. i've had that happen to me the first four times.. -.- 

 pinch the ends all together and then place the mochi ball end side down and rotate the mochi with your hands to shape it into a more circular shape. make sure you have enough potato starch in your pan! i'm soo serious when i say the mochi is extremelyyy sticky! 

 the mochi was soo easy to make that i made alot of batches with different colors!

with the green one i just added green tea powder into the flour/sugar mixture before i added the water! it was so good! 

even though i used the same filling in all of these, you can add some variety like red bean, chocolate ganache (mmm), nutella(!?), ice cream(???) and so much more! get crazy!

Ingredients

peanut filling:

1 1/2 cup peanuts 

1/4 cup sugar (or to taste)

Mochi: 

100 grams sweet rice flour

2 tbsp sugar 

1/2 cup water