Cheesy Roasted Tomato Soup

Back in June, I attended the International Conference on Infant Studies in Minneapolis. It was a great conference... I learned a lot and received great feedback on my publication. Also, my friend Lauren and I stumbled upon a great little restaurant called "The Local." We enjoyed our meal so much the first day that we went back the next day.

On The Local's menu, they have this incredible soup called Baked Cheddar and Tomato Soup. This soup is amazing! Creamy, tart, cheesy.

So of course, as soon as I came home I decided to make my own. Overall, I think its a pretty close replication of the Local's recipe. I think next time I make it, I'm going to also roast a potato or two with the other veggies so that I can get some of the creamy/starchy-ness from them.

Cheesy Roasted Tomato Soup
7 Roma/Plum tomatoes
1 Red bell pepper
1 Medium Red Onion
6-8 cloves garlic
2 medium potatoes, peeled (optional)
Olive oil
Balsamic Vinegar
4 leaves of basil
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 small can of tomato paste
32 oz veggie broth
8 oz sharp cheddar cheese + more for serving
salt & pepper
French bread
immersion blender

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Oil the bottom of a 13x9 pan, and place veggies (tomatoes, pepper, onion, garlic, potatoes...largely chunked) into it. Drizzle a little more oil on top. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar, then sprinkle with salt and pepper, toss to coat. Put the pan into the oven for 20-25 minutes until well roasted, stirring once.

While the veggies are roasting, prepare the soup base. In a large soup pot (I used a large dutch oven for even heating), drizzle a few tablespoons of oil in. Put all of the tomato paste into the oil and stir over medium heat to smooth out. Pour in 3/4 of the carton of broth, and stir until well combined. When the veggies are done, use a slotted spoon to put them into the broth (you don't want too much of the oil from the roasting pan in the soup). Bring to a boil, then simmer for 15+ minutes until all the veggies are soft. Tear up the basil leaves and add into soup. If you want, you can add 1/4 cup of dry white wine (I did not do this). Add 1/4 cup of heavy cream and shredded cheese. Use an immersion blender to puree the soup until thick and creamy. Serve with more cheese and a large chunk of french bread.

Big pot o' yummy!

Update: I made this soup again... this time without peppers and added a good sized clump (~1/2 cup) of sundried tomatoes and a few tablespoons of pesto! Amazing!

Pretzels

I've been feeling pretty absent from my blogging lately. It isn't that I haven't been baking/cooking. I have. I just haven't had time to photograph, edit, and write about my baking/cooking.

Cinnamon & Sugar Pretzel with Caramel Dipping Sauce

Its been a bit crazy over here. Since June I've traveled to Minneapolis, then home, to Wisconsin, then home, to California, the home, and wrote my thesis proposal. Again, its been a bit crazy.

California is pretty

Elephant Seal

Pacific Coastal Highway

Anyways, now that things have settled down for awhile (or at least this weekend), I'm going to tell you about my homemade soft pretzels.

A few years ago, I saw Alton Brown make his own pretzels on his show Good Eats (amazing show!!!). I was surprised to learn about how the dark brown color is achieved on pretzels. 

To get that traditional pretzel color, one must use a little chemistry. The brown color can only be accomplished by boiling the unbaked dough in water and baking soda. Something about the pH of the dough needs to be altered to get that dark coloring. If you really want to know more, watch the episode.

Soft Pretzels:

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 1 package active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
• 3 ounces unsalted butter, melted
• 2 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 4 1/2 to 5 cups all-purpose flour
• Vegetable oil
• 3 quarts water
• 3/4 cup baking soda
• 1 whole egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon cold water
• Coarse sea salt

Directions:

1. Combine the water, sugar, yeast, and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix with the dough hook until combined. Let sit for 5 minutes. (Check the expiration date on your yeast. If its like mine and over a year past its prime, you may have to add a bit more. Also, store your yeast in the fridge but take it out a bit before using it to let it wake up a bit.)
2. Add the salt and flour and mix on low speed until combined. Increase the speed to medium and continue kneading until the dough is smooth and begins to pull away from the side of the bowl, about 3 to 4 minutes. If the dough appears too wet, add additional flour, 1 tablespoon at a time (I had to use almost 5 1/2 cups of flour because of FL humidity).
3.  Remove the dough from the bowl, place on a flat surface and knead into a ball with your hands.
4. Oil a bowl with vegetable oil, add the dough and turn to coat with the oil.
5. Cover with a clean towel or plastic wrap and place in a warm spot until the dough doubles in size, about 1 hour.
6. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
7. Bring the water to a boil in a small roasting pan over high heat and add the baking soda.
8. Remove the dough from the bowl and place on a flat surface. 
9. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces, about 4 1/4 to 4 1/2 ounces each. 
10. Roll each piece into a long rope and shape into the lengths or shapes that you want (sticks are easy and tasty).  Keep in mind the dough will puff up again in the oven so thinner is probably better.
11. Boil the pretzels in the water solution in batches. Boil for about 30 seconds. Remove with a large slotted spoon. 
12. Place pretzels on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Make sure they are not touching. 
13. Brush the tops with the egg wash and season liberally with the salt. 
14. Place into the oven and bake for 15 to 18 minutes until golden brown.
15. Add additional toppings immediately after they come out of the oven. If you want, brush on some melted butter and roll the pretzels in cinnamon and sugar. Use caramel as a dipping sauce (this is heavenly!)

With cinnamon & sugar

Regular salted

French Toast Bread Pudding

I love bread pudding! I love french toast!

OMG

Warm, gooey, sweet... it smells like a fun family breakfast.

I made this recipe for Easter morning. Bread pudding recipes are great for busy families because they can be made ahead of time and popped into the oven when needed.

Another thing I like about this recipe is that the ingredients are a little more wholesome than other recipes I saw online. Most called for either tube cinnamon rolls or frozen french toast sticks. This recipe called for challah bread, which I picked up fresh from my grocery store bakery. This recipe can also be modified by using lower fat milk, light cream cheese, and low fat or sugar free maple syrup.

French Toast Bread Pudding
1 large Challah loaf, about 12oz, cut into 3/4 inch cubes, dried for several hours
7 large eggs
2 1/2 cup milk (I used 2 cups skim milk, 1/2 half and half)
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp nutmeg or cinnamon (I used a little of both)

Butter or spray with cooking spray a 13x9 (or similar) size baking pan. Place the bread in the pan. Whisk eggs and the rest of the ingredients together; pour over bread. Using a spatula (or hands if you're like me) lightly press the bread into the egg mixture. Cover with foil and let it rest for at least an hour or overnight (keep refrigerated).

Place the foiled covered pan in the cold oven. Set oven to 350 and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for about 35 minutes until golden and puffy.

Cool for a few minutes before serving. I suggest serving it with a maple cream cheese frosting (see below)

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz cream cheese (I used 1/3 fat), room temp
1/2 maple syrup
4-6 cups powered sugar

Optional: Chopped walnuts or pecans

In a mixer, beat the cream cheese and maple syrup together. Slowly add powered sugar cup by cup until it makes a thin frosting. Drizzle the frosting over the bread pudding. You can also add chopped pecans or walnuts if desired.

Warm from the oven, before the frosting was added

With the frosting, it soaked in more as it sat

Happy New Year! Holiday Roundup (highs and lows)

Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone had a great holiday season and a happy and safe new year. 

I just want to thank everyone for making my blog a success (at least in my mind). I've had over 1000 hits since I began and its all because of you guys. I hope to continue posting new, fun, recipes for many years. As always, send me your ideas or questions... I love getting comments and suggestions.


As for my Christmas baking, I was a fairly unsuccessful this year. While my cookies and banana bread turned out great, I tried a few new things this year. Namely making eggnog and making eggnog creme brulee. While the eggnog turned out alright, I added to much rum and it was overwhelming. In hindsight, I shouldn't have added the  rum all at once, but glass by glass. It would have make it easier to control. Oh well.





Also, my eggnog creme brulee was disappointing. I found a recipe online that I thought looked good, but the spice blend was overpowering. I have a relatively low tolerance for nutmeg (it has a strange flavor to me) and this recipe had way too much for my taste. Also, my new creme brulee torch did not want to work, so after a few tense moments between myself, Chris, and the torch, we gave up and I broiled them instead. The sugar never really got the nice crispy top and it warmed the custard too much. Of course, I dumped the rest of the creme brulee and just for the hell of it I tried the torch again and it worked. Oh well. I'm going to try again with a simple vanilla creme brulee in the near future.


One thing that I made for Christmas that did work out was my Red Velvet Bread Pudding. I got the recipe from Paula Dean. I mean, anything with creme, butter, cream cheese, and cake must be good. Now, I'm attaching the original cake recipe from Paula Dean's/FoodNetwork's site, but I used a box cake. It had a great flavor and a nice rich color. Its a great time savor, especially because red velvet has a few odd ingredients (buttermilk, a ton of red food coloring).


Another thing I changed was instead of creaming the cream cheese with the sugar, I just mixed it into the sugar with a whisk. This left a few large chunks of cream cheese which was great to taste in the final product.

Red Velvet Bread Pudding

Ingredients

Red Velvet Cake:

• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 2 ounces red food coloring
• 2 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon vinegar

Bread Pudding Mix:

• 3 cups half-and-half
• 3 large eggs
• 1 large egg yolk
• Pinch salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
• Vanilla ice cream, for serving

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Greased 9 by 13 by 2-inch sheet pan.

In a mixing bowl, cream the sugar and butter, beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs 1 at a time and mix well after each addition. Mix cocoa and food coloring together and then add to sugar mixture; mix well. Sift together flour and salt. Add flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk. Blend in vanilla.

In a small bowl, combine baking soda and vinegar and add to mixture. Pour batter into the prepared sheet pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from heat and cool completely. When the cake is cooled, cut into 1-inch cubes.

Place cubes onto 11 by 17-inch cookie sheet. Place in oven for 10 minutes to toast (this keeps the cake from absorbing too much of the cream mixture).

Bread Pudding Mix:

Combine the half-and-half, eggs, egg yolk, salt, and vanilla in a medium bowl. With an electric hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Mix in the half-and-half mixture.

Place the red velvet cubes in a large baking dish or 8 individual ramekins. Add the pudding mixture to the dish. Make sure the cake cubes are completely covered. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the pudding is set. Serve warm with ice cream. 

Simple Banana Bread

I rarely commit recipes to memory, but this one is so simple and delicious that I'm trying to make sure I never forget this one! I've made it three times in about a week and I can already recite it without a problem. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures (I was too busy eating), but I'm posting the recipe anyways. 


Don't forget add-ins: Chocolate Chips (my favorite choice), nuts (walnuts or pecans), nutella, raisins (if you really want to, just don't tell me about it)


Simple Banana Bread (from allrecipes.com)


3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves & allspice
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour (all or a portion of whole wheat flour is good)

METHOD

No need for a mixer for this recipe. Preheat the oven to 350°F. With a wooden spoon or potato masher, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl (chunks are not a bad thing!). Mix in the sugar, egg, vanilla, and spices. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

You can also put the batter into a muffin tin (~12 muffins) or mini-muffin tin (~24-30). Cook regular muffins around 20 minutes and minis about 14 minutes.

I hope you all make this. Its really that simple, I know you have some overripe bananas on your counter.

Happy Belated 4th of July!

Happy Independence Day everyone!

This year for the 4th, we went to an awesome party at our friends', Janet & Terry, hanger at the Boca Airport. The invite said to bring a dish to share and, well, I love to bake & share.

There is really nothing I love more than to channel a 50s housewife and think up a few goodies to make for a party. It took me about two weeks to settle on what I was going to make, but being me, I didn't just bring one thing. Or two. I brought three.

It was overkill and there was already enough food to feel an army, but I had a blast making everything.


Here was my contribution:
Water Chestnut Stuffed Dates Wrapped in Bacon
Pepperoni Roll w/ Marinara
Caramel Chocolate Nut Bars

Oh yeah. Yummy.

The stuffed dates were easy but a bit tedious, but they were a huge hit. The whole pan was gone!
All I did was pit a big bowl of dates, stuffed them with sliced water chestnuts, wrapped them in a half slice of bacon and baked them in the oven (400 degrees, ~15-20 minutes).

The Pepperoni Roll was also pretty simple. I just took a store bought pizza crust, rolled it out into a long circle, put one layer of pepperoni down, then a layer of cheese, another layer of pepperoni and then carefully rolled it up. I gave it a wash of egg yolk before putting it in the oven to give it a nice color and sheen then cut the slices in the top so that it didn't explode. I baked it for ~20 minutes (until it looked done) at 450. I used store bought marinara sauce to dip it in. I would have take a pic of a slice, but it was gone before I could get one.


 Last, I made a recipe that I grew up with. These bars are pretty much a candy bar. Amazing. Also, I didn't have the evaporated milk I needed for the caramel mix but I learned I could use powdered milk (which I had one had from the time I made edible play-dough with the kids I babysit) mixed with a little less water to make an evap. milk substitute. Seemed to work fine.

Here's the recipe:

 Melt and Cool:
14 oz caramels (unwrapped of course)
1/2 c. evap. milk (or substitute)

Combine:
1 1/2 c. flour
1 1/2 c. oatmeal
1 c. brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 c. butter

Also:
1/4 c. chopped nuts of choice
12 oz. chocolate chips

Mix the combined flour/oatmeal mix like a pie crust. Its best to use your hands and warm the butter first. Split this mix in half and put the first half into a greased 13x9. Push it and flatten it into the bottom of the pan, then bake at 350 degrees for ~10 minutes.

Sprinkle the chocolate chips onto the crust (you don't have to let it cool) then sprinkle on the nuts. Then, pour the caramel mix on top of the nuts and chocolate (be sure to leave some in the bowl for licking). Last, sprinkle on the rest of the crust mixture. It doesn't have to be even... the texture is nice. Bake for 25 minutes at 350. Then cool and enjoy!