Mariana Trench Cupcakes

This cupcake recipe is unique in that I have made it more than once. I have already made it twice, and I expect I will probably have to make it many more times.

I first created this cupcake for my friend Jamie. Her 24th(?) birthday party was nautical themed because she wanted an excuse to play a huge game of battle shots. I created this dark chocolate and sea salted caramel cupcake in honor of her birthday (thus, the name Mariana Trench). I also made myself a kraken costume (pictured below), and I think that was equally glorious.

Jamie and the kraken

The second time I made this cupcake, it was by commission. I offered to make cupcakes for my friend Erin's fancy-schmancy 30th birthday party. Erin's parents rented out the bar at Mory's, Yale's members-only restaurant, and people flew in from all over the country for an amazing celebration that included open bar, appetizers, and cupcakes. I ended up making 50 of these little buggers! I told Erin that I could make any cupcake flavor she wanted or create her a new one just for her. She insisted on having these cupcakes because she "still had occasional dreams about them." All fifty cupcakes were gone within a few minutes of being announced (I think there were only 35 people there--some people double-dipped). So with just a little bit further ado, the recipe.

With the gorgeous birthday girl, Erin

Mariana Trench Cupcake Instructions

yield: 14 cupcakes

1) Prepare the cupcakes

     Ingredients:
     1/2 cup butter, softened
     1 1/4 cups sugar
     2 large eggs, room temp
     3/4 cups all-purpose flour
     1/2 tsp. baking powder
     1/4 tsp. salt
     1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I like Hershey's Special Dark, available at most grocery stores)
     1/2 cup milk
     1 tsp. vanilla

     Directions:
     a) Follow instructions #1-6 for old-fashioned chocolate cupcakes found here.
     b) Put cupcake batter into a covered container, and refrigerate overnight.
     c) Remove cupcake batter from refrigerator and let rest on counter for an hour or so.
     d) Follow instruction #7 (and subsequent tips) for old-fashioned chocolate cupcakes found here.
     e) Let cupcakes cool fully on wire racks.

     Merely by accident, I found that refrigerating the batter overnight causes any small lumps in the batter to smooth out, darkens the color of the batter, and creates a cupcake that will slightly rise (contrary to what the author said about the cupcake) and be resistant to falling.

I did not refrigerate the batter for the ones in the back.  The ones in front were refrigerated prior to baking.  You can see they turn out much prettier and fluffier!

2) Stuff your cupcakes.

    Ingredients:
   1 10-oz jar fleur de sel caramel sauce (I buy mine at Trader Joe's, but you can also get one here or by taking a 10-oz jar of your favorite caramel sauce, heating it slightly, mixing in fleur de sel to taste, and letting cool)
      
     Directions:
     a) Core your cooled cupcakes. You can either do this using a butter knife and cutting in a small cone (should extend halfway down the height of the cupcake) out or by using a cupcake corer.  If you don't make cupcakes frequently, these are a waste of money. If you do make cupcakes frequently, these are a godsend. Make sure not to throw your cupcake core out, because you will be using it again.

A cored cupcake, plus the caramel sauce I love

     b) Spoon 1/2-1 tsp. of caramel sauce into empty core.  You should make sure to leave 1/4 inch of empty space between caramel and top of cupcake.

     c) Cut the bottom crumbly cake part off of the core to just leave the tops.  Tops should be about 1/4 inch tall.
     d) Stick the tops over the caramel to once again have a cupcake with no holes in it.

3) Make your chocolate ganache frosting.

     Ingredients:
     9 oz bittersweet or very dark chocolate, chopped (I prefer dark chocolate over 80% cacoa)
     1 cup heavy cream 
     fleur de sel

     Directions:
     a) Follow the instructions found here.
     b) Allow ganache to cool slightly, and then dip cupcake tops into melt-y ganache.  Make sure to twist the cupcake as you pull it up or else it will drip everywhere.
     c) Sprinkle fleur de sel onto melty ganache cupcake tops.  You could stop here if you want; the rest is just to make the cupcake look pretty.

     d) Wait for ganache to cool to room temperature.  Then use a stand mixer (or a hand mixer) to whip the remaining ganache into a creamy frosting.  Remember to start at low speed and slowly increase to high so it doesn't go everywhere.
     e) Put the whipped ganache into a piping bag fitted with a star tip, twist the top of the bag, and then use your hands to warm the ganache in the bag slightly.  This will make it easier to pipe your ganache.
     d) Pipe ganache crowns onto your cupcakes, and add sprinkles or more salt if you like.

Don't you just LOVE these wrappers?  These were by far the classiest cupcakes I've ever made.  Fit for royalty!

    

Reef House Benedict

Although technically a part of Israel (depending on who you talk to it's sometimes called the West Bank), Palestine is separated from Israel with a guarded fence.  My friend Jamie, my thesis advisor Jaime, and I boarded a bus from Jerusalem and made the 2 hour trek to cover the 13.5 miles between Jerusalem, Israel and Ramallah, Palestine.  We went through checkpoints, showed our passports and visas, etc.  It was intense.

Jaime, me, and Jamie visiting Aida Refugee Camp.  The massive amount of trash you see behind us was a continuous theme in Palestine.  So sad.

We spent a pleasant evening smoking hookah and learning about the situation between Israel and Palestine from a friend-of-a-friend who happened to be working in Ramallah at the time (hi Tochi!) before turning in to a pension my advisor had found.  All the reviews of the Reef House Pension said that the owners (George and Iman) are the nicest people in the world.  This was not far from the truth (although people in Palestine were generally friendly and helpful).  The next morning Iman greeted us with an amazing breakfast spread, which she said was a typical Palestinian breakfast.  It included tomatoes, cucumbers, this bologna-like meat, a hardboiled egg, thick and tart yogurt, brine-y sheep cheese, hummus, tahini, olives, and flatbread with harissa, sweet olive oil, and za'atar for seasoning.  I can't begin to describe how delicious this was.  In fact, I think that the food in Palestine made up 3 of the best meals I ate while in the Middle East.

After breakfast we packed our bags, thanked George and Iman, and headed first to Taybeh to taste Palestine's only craft beer and then to Bethlehem to see the Church of the Nativity and to talk to people living in the Aida refugee camp.  Although I could go on and on and on about this part of my summer trip, I will suffice to say that I left with my eyes opened a little wider and my heart a little larger.  I think this trip was important, and I would recommend it to anyone.

Taybeh beer-- hooray beer!

A tribute at the entrance of Aida Camp to dead Palestinian prisoners of war.

Reef House Benedict Instructions

1) Prepare the tahini hollandaise.

     Ingredients
     2 egg yolks
     Juice of 2 lemons
     2 tbsp. tahini
     1/4- 1/2 tsp. harissa paste (this is a hot Arabic spice paste that you can get in Middle Eastern grocery stores, the Arabic section of Whole Foods, or on amazon.com)

     Directions
     a) In a very small pan, heat tahini over med-low until it is hot.  Be careful and stir often because it will burn if left unattended or heated over too high of heat.
     b) Put your egg yolks, harissa, and lemon juice in a food processor or blender and blend until fully combined and slightly foamy.
     c) While blending, very slowly drizzle the hot tahini through the hole in the top of the food processor or blender.  Take your time with this-- it should take between 1-2 minutes to get all the tahini in the bowl of the processor.  You want to do this slowly so that you don't scramble your egg yolks.

As you can see if you look closely, I added the tahini too fast and some of it stuck to the side of the blender.  You don't want to do this so make sure to drizzle it super slowly!

     d) Keep the hollandaise warm over a double-boiler set on low heat.  Make sure to whisk it every couple of minutes to keep it emulsified, and add water as needed to maintain a good hollandaise consistency.

2) Get your ingredients completely prepared to assemble the benedicts.  I can't stress enough how important this is because you don't want to be fiddling this stuff while poaching your eggs or else you can easily over-poach the eggs.

     Ingredients
     4 pieces Middle Eastern flatbread (I was lazy and bought mine at Trader Joe's.  If you're ambitious enough to make your own flatbread, there's a really good looking Palestinian flatbread recipe here.)
     High-quality feta cheese (I get mine at Trader Joe's; there's a brand called Pastures of Eden that I love)
     4 small tomatoes, preferable campari or similar varieties
     Extra Virgin Olive Oil for drizzling
     1/4- 1/2 cup hummus (I make my own following this recipe from Smitten Kitchen)
     za'atar (you can buy this at a Middle Eastern grocery store or on amazon.com)

     Directions
     a) Warm the flatbread by wrapping it in a damp towel and placing it in a 200 degree oven.
     b) Slice the feta so that you have 4 slices that are each 1/8-1/4 inch thick--slices should be big enough to cover a piece of flatbread.  If you need, cut more slices and place them side-by-side.
     c) Slice the tomatoes into about 6 slices per tomato.
     d) Get out hummus, EVOO, and za'atar so that they're all in easy reaching distance.

3) Get your poaching equipment ready.  You'll need a 10-12" high sided skillet filled with water to 1/2-1" from the top of the skillet, 2 tbsp. white or apple cider vinegar in that water, a plate that can withstand heat placed at the bottom of the skillet (so that your eggs will never touch the heat), 4 eggs, a small saucer, and a slotted spoon.  Heat your water to gently simmering.

4) When your water is just about to start simmering, prepare your benedicts.

     Directions
     a) Place each warm flatbread on a separate plate.
     b) Spread each flatbread with 1-2 tbsp. hummus.
     c) Lightly drizzle olive oil over hummus.

     d) Place cheese across hummus.
     e) Place tomatoes on top of cheese.

5) Poach those eggs!

     Directions
     a) Crack an egg onto a saucer, and then slide the saucer in your simmering water.
     b) Do this for one other egg.  If you can poach all 4 eggs at once, kudos to you, but I've only ever been able to do 2 at a time.
     c) Set your timer for 2 minutes.
     d) While you're waiting for the eggs to cook, keep the water moving by lightly moving your spoon around the perimeter of the skillet (you don't want the eggs to come in contact with heat from the pan or to rest on the bottom--the plate helps with this).
     e) Check your eggs for doneness at 2 minutes-- it may take up to 3 minutes to finish so pay really close attention for the 60 seconds in between.  Once your eggs look like the whites are of appropriate firmness, remove with slotted spoon and put one egg on top of each benedict.
     f) Top with tahini hollandaise and a sprinkle of za'atar and dig in!

My friend Jamie, who traveled to Palestine with me, said that this reminded her so much of the breakfast we had at the Reef House Pension.  Success!

Te'meitov Pai (Tomato Pie)

This summer (in addition to traveling to Egypt) I had the unique opportunity of getting to go to Israel to present research at the International Society of Political Psychology Conference. That's right-- somehow academics have convinced universities that preparing and giving a 30 minute research presentation is enough work to justify the university paying hundreds of dollars for a plane ticket, hotel room, etc. After my presentation I got to lay on the beach in Tel Aviv. Suckers.

Not to say that it was all play. I certainly sat in my fair share of talks, learned a lot about Middle Eastern politics, traveled to various parts of Israel and the West Bank to learn about the politics firsthand, and I did lots of research. For this blog. Food research.

One of the places I went was called Blackout Restaurant. It's in Old Jaffa in Tel Aviv, and it is a restaurant run entirely by blind people. It is also one of those restaurants where you eat in the dark. Pitch black. It's meant to help you pay more attention to your senses of taste, texture, and smell, but if you need to go to the restroom during the meal, you're screwed.

The view of Old Jaffa from Tel Aviv

As were many restaurants in Israel, this restaurant was kosher, so a meal could either have fish in it for 2 courses (and no dairy in the dessert) or cheese in it for 3 courses (and no meat products). I opted for 3 courses of cheese (because...cheese). One thing I loved about this restaurant is that although they provided a menu, one could also request "chef's choice" and was likely to get food that was not on the menu at all. In this case, the waiters and waitresses loved making guests guess their food after eating it.

My first course consisted of a delicious savory pastry; fresh, warm tomatoes; a handful of fresh herbs; and a soft, melted cheese. It turned out to be a potato and cheese latke with quick marinara sauce. I have to admit that I had no idea the pastry was potato, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. I love potatoes and would have been happy with the potato tasting like a potato. And when I cook I want potato to taste like potato. 

So here's a recipe where I tried to recreate the flavors and textures of that first course. Instead of trying to make the original latke, I channeled my memory of that meal into baking this traditional Southern tomato pie.  Southern Israeli tomato pie.

Te'meitov Pai Instructions

Time beginning to end: 2.5-3 hours

1) Prepare an olive oil pie crust. I used a recipe from the book Gluten-Free on a Shoestring by Nicole Hunn, but the recipe is also available here. To make this pie crust, I used King Arthur gluten-free all purpose flour, but I ran out of that halfway and used the Trader Joe's gluten-free all purpose flour in addition. The King Arthur flour is preferable. If you are not gluten-free, there's a pretty decent oil pie crust recipe from allrecipes that you could use instead (but make sure the oil is extra virgin olive oil). Make sure the pie crust is super thin when you roll it out (definitely divide the recipe into two pieces and only use one piece) because otherwise instead of being flaky the crust is just hard as a rock. 

     Ingredients

     2 cups gluten-free all purpose flour

     1 tsp. xantham gum

     1 tsp. kosher salt

     5 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil (Greek ones tend to be closer in flavor to the stuff from Israel)

     1 1/2 tsp. white wine vinegar

     1/2 to 3/4 cup cold water

Three years ago I dated a guy that was completely spoiled by his mother and grandmother. Because of their doting, he became a homemade pie fanatic and a pie crust snob. I hate using my rolling pin, but finding these pie crust rolling bags saved my life in the quest to make a pie crust he wouldn't complain about. We broke up before I did that, and I happily abandoned my quest. However, the bags are really helpful for making gluten-free crusts because they let you roll the perfect size, they let you roll a very thin circle, and they are non-stick.

One more word of caution: the pie crust will likely break. Don't be afraid to piece it back together in the pan. Squeeze the broken pieces in together and use a wet finger-tip to seal seams.

You can see here how it breaks. Use leftover bits to fill in any gaps.

2) Pre-bake the pie crust. Prick the crust all over with a fork to allow ventilation. Cut a piece of aluminum foil or parchment paper in a circle and put on the bottom with rice, beans, or pie weights to weigh down the crust. Bake in an oven preheated to 350 degrees F for 20 minutes. Set aside on a wire rack to cool.

3) Prepare your filling. I adapted one from the blog frommaggiesfarm.

  

     Ingredients

     2 lbs. of ripe tomatoes (cherry and campari work well) in multiple colors

     salt

     1/3 cup chopped red onion

     1/4 cup chopped fresh mint

     1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

     2-3 minced garlic cloves

     2 tbsp. lemon zest

     1 tsp. sumac (available at a Middle Eastern grocery store or on Amazon.com)

     1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

     Directions

     a) Slice tomatoes to about 1/2 inch thick. Layer them in a colander. Lightly salt each layer. Allow collander to sit in the sink for about 30 minutes.

     b) Chop other ingredients while you wait.

     b) Rinse the tomatoes and dry them thoroughly with paper towels. You want to squeeze the tomatoes as you dry to get the seeds and goopey insides out. Soggy tomatoes=soggy pie.

If you look closely, you can see tomato guts all over. For the yellow cherry tomato halves, I actually had to squeeze the innards out of each one as though you're popping a pimple (gross, I know, but now you can imagine EXACTLY what it should look like) and then blot with the paper towel.

     c) Toss the tomatoes, red onion, mint, parsley, garlic cloves, lemon zest, sumac, and pepper together in a large bowl until thoroughly mixed.

     d) Arrange the tomatoes in the pie crust. You can layer them to make them look pretty, or you can dump them in, making sure to leave a crater in the middle of the pie to accommodate your cheese topping.

This was meant to illustrate the crater in the tomatoes which you will fill with cheese mixture. Not sure it really did that, but it looks pretty!

4) Prepare your topping.

     Ingredients

     1/2 cup feta cheese (I like one available at Trader Joe's-- it is made in Israel and uses sheep's milk)

     3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt (nonfat works fine)

     1/4 olive oil mayonnaise (Here's a great recipe to make your own, but olive oil mayo is now widely available at normal grocery stores as well as health food stores)

     

     Directions

     a) Combine all ingredients.

     b) Spread on top of the pie, leaving a 1" circle of tomato visible around the edges

5) Bake the pie at 350 degrees F for 50-60 minutes until the cheese starts to brown and bubble. You may want to cover the crust halfway with a pie shield or aluminum foil.

6) If desired, pit some Souri olives (or substitute for more commonly found Calabresi olives) and put on top of the pie. Just don't ever feed canned olives to an Israeli because Israelis take their olives seriously. Plus all Israelis serve in the army, so you don't want to tick of an Israeli with crappy olives.  Serve pie warm if possible, but this pie is still quite tasty cold.

I took this to a BBQ where one of my friends in attendance has celiacs.  She really appreciated having food she could eat, but everyone else there raved about it, too. No one could tell it was gluten-free!

Taiym!  Translation: nom nom nom.

Helwayat Belah (Egyptian Date Sweets)

In the summer of 2013, I had the privilege of visiting Luxor, Egypt during Ramadan. Ramadan is a month of fasting (including no beverages according to strict Islamic interpretation) from sunrise to sundown. Every night around 6:45 sung prayers would float across the Nile, and at 7pm the sleepy streets of Luxor would fill with people breaking their fast together. The nightly meal is called iftar, and is begun by eating dates and drinking sweet drinks (in Egypt it was date juice and mango juice). The meal that follows tends to be rich to provide enough energy for the next day, and it always includes dessert.

This was the view from my room on the East Bank of Luxor around 7pm when the sun was setting and people were singing their prayers before breaking fast

Somehow when planning my trip, I screwed up and booked my plane ticket back for June 18 rather than July 18. (To this day I have no clue why EgyptAir was willing to sell me a plane ticket for a date in the past!) Luxor was not offering any direct flights to New York for another 3 days. I was getting pretty sick of traveling at this point, so I opted to fly that day from Luxor to Cairo, spend the night in Cairo, and then fly from Cairo back to the United States the next day. I spent the night at LeMeridien hotel in Heliopolis, and one of their restaurants offered a traditional Ramadan buffet. Holy Moses was that food amazing! It was probably my best meal while in Egypt.

In this recipe, I have tried to funnel my knowledge of Egyptian desserts (Egyptians love phyllo and dates) to make a gluten-free and cane-sugar-free dessert to send back to my parents. To save time and money, you can also make this recipe using store-bought phyllo and white sugar. The name literally means "Date Sweets" (thanks to my friend Micah Schuurman for translating that!), and I think the results are worthy of being served at LeMeridien. (Okay, to be honest, the gluten-free version is probably not good enough to be served at a hotel. It's just too damn hard rolling out your own phyllo. But the filling is excellent, as is the syrup, so made with some normal phyllo it would be good enough to serve at LeMeridien.)

Just for kicks, here's a gratuitous photo of me in front of the Avenue of Sphinxes

Helwayat Belah Instructions

Time beginning to end: about 4 hours
If using pre-prepared phyllo: a little over 3 hours

1) Prepare the phyllo dough.  You can either buy this pre-made (normal, not GF) and defrost it, or make the gluten-free version up to the point where it sits by following the recipe from Glutenfreeda. To make the gluten-free phyllo dough, I used King Arthur bread flour (omitting the yeast), available at most health/natural food stores such as Whole Foods.  You'll need 2 boxes as this recipe definitely requires more than 3 cups of flour, and you need a TON of flour for flouring your rolling surface.

     Ingredients
     4.5 cups GF bread flour, divided into 3.5 cups for the dough and 1 cup for dusting
     2 cups egg
     1 cup milk (reduced fat is fine, non-fat is not)

2) Make the first filling, maraba tamer. I used an edited version of the recipe found at amideastfeast.com. First, I was trying to make this whole recipe free of cane-sugar (my parents don't eat that). Second, the recipe cited uses fresh dates, which I have never seen in the States. (Maybe in Hawai'i. Certainly not in Connecticut.) So I've listed the changed recipe below:

     Ingredients
     3 cups water, divided into 1.5 cup measurements
     2 cups date sugar (available at health/natural food stores such as Whole Foods)
     2 cups chopped dried and pitted dates
     1+ tsp. ground cloves
     1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
     1/4 cup finely chopped blanched almonds
     3 tbsp. fresh lemon juice

     Directions
     a) Boil 1.5 cups water in heavy-bottomed saucepan.
     b) Add date sugar and stir continuously until water comes to a boil a second time.
     c) Add the dates and turn heat to the low side of medium-low.
     d) Stir continuously until the dates form a paste. Add water as needed when the mixture becomes too thick. This will take 20-30 minutes.
     e) Add the nuts and lemon juice and let cook 4-5 minutes more.
     f) Remove from heat and let cool.
     g) Save 1.5 cups of the jam/paste (it will look more like a paste when you use the date sugar and dried dates) for the pastry and put the rest in the refrigerator or preserve by following proper canning procedures.

The leftovers make impressive gifts

Yeah, so the date sugar makes it look not so much like jam, but it tastes delish

3) Make the second filling, spiced walnuts.

     Ingredients
     1 cup finely chopped walnuts
     1 tbsp. ground cinnamon
     1 tbsp. orange blossom water (available at Middle Eastern grocery stores or in the Caribbean or Middle Eastern section of your local grocery store)

     Directions
     a) Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.

4) After the dough has sat for 2 hours, start to assemble your dessert.

     Ingredients
     1 stick butter
     Corn starch or tapioca starch

     Directions
     a) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Take out a 9x13 inch pan and butter it.
     b)Melt the remaining butter in a small saucepan on the stove.  Turn heat to low to keep butter melted but not browned.
     c) Wrap your dough in a large sheet of plastic wrap and flatten it into a smooth disk.  Unwrap and (using a very sharp knife) cut into 8 portions.  Take out one portion and re-wrap the rest. Re-wrap the dough after each portion you remove to keep the remaining dough moist.
     d) Turn the portion of phyllo dough out onto a VERY well floured surface. Make sure to cover all sides of the dough with flour and work it into a small oblong shape.
     e) Rub some corn starch or tapioca starch into your rolling pin, and then roll your dough into a 9x13 inch rectangle, flouring as needed. Don't worry about if the edges are rough because you'll be layering dough. I found it difficult to lift the dough when it was so flat and thin, so I would sometimes use my sharp knife to cut the dough into sections and then reassemble them in the pan. Once you have a sheet of dough in the pan, brush it all over the top with melted butter.
     f) Repeat with another layer of dough and butter.
     g) If you've been successful with rolling out the phyllo (I screwed up on my first try and had to throw away a section) then you can add a 3rd layer to your bottom to make it sturdier.
     h) Once you have your botton put together, spoon in half of the maraba tamer and spread it smooth.
     i) Place a layer of phyllo and butter over the maraba tamer.

1 layer of phyllo, marabar tamer spread thin, a second layer of phyllo, then butter

     j) Spread your walnut mixture over the phyllo and butter. It will be pretty well packed.
     k) Layer phyllo and butter over the walnut mixture.

The walnut filling under a layer of phyllo

     l) Spread the rest of your maraba tamer over the phyllo and butter.
     m) Finish up with 3 layers of phyllo and butter.  Make sure to butter every single layer so that they don't dry out.
     n) Use a very sharp knife to cut 4 long columns in your helwayat belah. Then cut either 9 rows or 9 diagonals to make 36 tiny squares or diamonds. (I made squares; diamonds confuse me.)
     o) Pop your uncooked helwayat belah in the oven for 50-60 minutes, until the top is golden brown.

5) Prepare the syrup (sharbat) while your helwayat belah is baking.  I used an authentic Egyptian recipe that I found at the Egyptian tourism website and which you can find here. Use the recipe for the Egyptian style syrup (sharbat) rather than the Greek style syrup.

     Ingredients
     1 cup water
     1.5-2 cups sugar (I used beet sugar because my parents don't eat cane sugar, available at amazon.com. I also used 1.5 cups sugar rather than 2 cups because the syrup looked thick enough and I like to cut back on sugar where possible)
     2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
     2 tbsp. orange blossom water

6) Once the helwayat belah is done baking, evenly spoon your cooled sharbat over the helwayat belah to make sure that the sticky goodness gets on all portions of the top phyllo. You will fill the whole pan and it will look like there's too much syrup-- this is okay. Let cool for several hours and the syrup will be fully absorbed. Once the syrup is absorbed, re-cut (just to make sure nothing gets stuck) and eat!

You can see how the sharbat comes all the way up the sides, but it is absorbed after a few hours

Shukran!  Translation: nom nom nom