Recipe Review 3/5/07

These are still catch up recipes from my baking extravaganza from the "blizzard weekend". But! They are all new recipes. February's recipe count was 14, awesome - especially with having a partial stove for most of the month.


Yellow Cupcakes (Cooks Illustrated, Jan/Feb 03, pg 25) 8
These turned out excellent! And so incredibly easy! I was amazed I had waited so long to try them. Flour, baking soda, salt are whisked together. Add sour cream, egg, sugar and vanilla. Mix till smooth and ingredients are well incorporated. Bake. Cool and frost or munch on one while still warm. Warm ones sound like this...mmm, mmpf, oh yeah, smack, mmpf...


Chocolate Cupcakes (Cooks Illustrated, Mar/April 05, pg 25) 7
These also turned out very good, tho I was partial to the yellow ones. These were almost as easy, with the added step of gently melting together the chocolate bar, cocoa and butter first. I might have over whipped these as they kinda spread out over the muffin edges rather than baking up. Doesn't matter, it's chocolate and it's good.








I made both cupcakes for work. Each recipe made exactly 12, which I really like - one pan and only one pan. None of this three cupcakes in a second pan business. I frosted both with my stand-by powdered sugar/butter frosting as it's so quick and easy and tastes good; plus I know it will cover 3 doz cupcakes. They were well received on a snowy Monday.

Master Recipe: Wheat Berries (Eating Well, Mar/Apr 07, pg 66) -
As noted, this is just a "master recipe" for cooking wheat berries. Once the berries are cooked and plumped they are used in recipes or frozen for later use. Cooking these was super easy. Lots of water, bring to a boil, simmer for an hour stirring occasionally. Drain and cool. Worked like a charm. Makes about 4 1/2 -5 cups.

Creamy Wheat Berry Porridge (Eating Well, Mar/Apr 07, pg 69) 8
This is one of three recipes I had tagged for the wheat berries. A combination of old fashioned oatmeal, wheat berries, cranberries (in place of the raisins), cinnamon and brown sugar. Milk is brought to a boil and you add the oatmeal and cranberries. Cook for about 3-5 minutes. Add wheat berries, cinnamon and brown sugar and cook till thick. Serve with toasted almonds. Easy, very filling, flavorful with lots of nutty goodness. Much to my surprise, I thought the almonds added a nice bright flavor to everything else. This also re-heats very nicely with some additional milk or half-n-half.





Poached Salmon with Creamy Piccata Sauce (Eating Well, Mar/Apr 07, pg 24) 7
The sauce made this dish. The salmon was poached in a white wine/water mixture (which I made sure was just at a simmer). Meanwhile, a diced shallot was lightly sauteed, then the pan de-glazed with white wine. After a short reduction, lemon juice and the capers are added. At the very end, sour cream is stirred in and slightly thickened. I was so-so on the poached salmon, but loved the sauce. I think grilled or baked salmon would have been better.

As this post got a little long, I'll post the rest of February's recipes a bit later.