Bear Claws

After many years of baking the basics, I've finally mustered up the courage to make a pastry. This is a very late Mother's Day post, but I can't pass up this opportunity to share my experience. Before moving to Shanghai, mom's favorite pastry from any place was always the Bear Claw. A few weeks before Mother's day, I thought about what I'd make and this is what came up.
Since I won't be in close proximity to my family next mother's day, I stepped it up a notch. Bear Claw Pastry is the perfect thing to make if you'd rather spend the time instead of money to show how much you love someone (mushy gushy).

Or you could just treat yourself to a nice pastry. They smell and taste heavenly.

I've been wanting to post this since the day I made it, but with school I've been extremely busy...but now it's over! Happy graduation!

Yesterday was our last day of school. With the Baccalaureate Service and then graduation rehearsal, it finally hit me that I wouldn't be going back to this school after summer. After four years here, my school has sort of become my second home (as much as I hate to admit it). I'll really miss the community and the relationships I've established. While I'm beyond excited to start the new chapter of my life, I don't think I've been this anxious for anything.

Anyways... I digress. 
If you're looking for more of a challenge, make your own pastry puff. Seeing the results of the flaky dough is more satisfying than I imagined. Despite my worries that this would turn into the biggest failure of Mother's day, it turned out to be a huge success! Before Tuesday even came around, 6/6 pastries were gone. Lucky for my mom, I had frozen the other six.

In fact, I encourage that you double the batch and freeze them for whenever you'd like to enjoy a delectable breakfast with a nice cup of dark roast coffee (or tea!).

Enjoy!

Bear Claws: makes 12
Recipe: adapted from here
2 Tbsp & 2 tsp almond paste
2/3 cups ground almonds
2/3 cups finely chopped walnuts
1/8 cup white sugar
1/2 pinch salt (1 smidgen)
1 Tbsp butter
1 egg white
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 tsp amaretto liqueur

1 1/2 pounds puff pastry (ingredients from here and directions from here)
1/2 egg
1 1/2 tsp water
1 1/2 Tbsp sliced almonds for garnish
1 1/2 Tbsp confectioners' sugar for dusting

Directions:

1. Beat almond paste with an electric mixer to break it apart. Add the almonds, walnuts, sugar, and salt; continue mixing until the almond paste is no longer lumpy. Stir in the butter, egg white, almond & vanilla extract, and amaretto liqueur on high speed until it's as fluffy as possible. We'll finish working with this in a bit.
2. Split the dough in half and place half in the refrigerator. Roll half of the dough out on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle that is about 8 inches wide and 1/4 inch thick. Trim the edges and cut the dough in half lengthwise to make two 4 inch wide strips. On each 4 inch wide strip, divide the dough into three sections, totaling to six rectangle pieces. Place these in the refrigerator, and take out the other half of the dough. Repeat step 2. In the end, there should be 12 smaller rectangles.
3. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper. 
4. Whisk the egg and water together. Spoon a scant Tbsp of filling in the center of each strip. Brush the egg mixture onto the edges of each strip. Fold each strip over the filling and press gently to seal. Use a knife to cut "claws". 
5. Brush the egg mixture on top of each claw. Sprinkle almonds over the top. Refrigerate and repeat with the other half of the dough.
6. Bake in the preheated oven until almonds are toasted and the pastry is golden brown, about 25-30 minutes. Cool and dust with confectioners' sugar right before serving.

Notes:

- After step 4, you have the option of freezing the pastries. I individually wrapped each Bear Claw. When I baked the frozen half, I just preheated the oven, brushed the top with egg and water, and then sprinkled almonds over the top. The time should be around the same, just watch for the color changes

- Baking the Bear Claws, or any pastry, is best baked when the dough is cold.

- Keep in mind when making pastry dough, that the more you fold and roll your dough, the more layers and more flaky the dough will be. 

With Love,

Grace

Vanilla Coconut Rice Pudding

Summer's quickly approaching and graduation is in only 19 days. I've begun thinking about how I'll keep blogging and cooking/baking in college. Perhaps I'll befriend a bunch of upperclassmen and use their kitchens....I really don't know. Any suggestions?

Vanilla bean and coconut combos have always been able to cozy up a warm and fuzzy feeling. Before I could even help myself to another serving two days later, I found out that my mom had eaten the other portions. Sigh..

What I love about this particular rice pudding is that it's not too sweet or rich.You need to make this!

Coconut Vanilla Bean Rice Pudding adapted from here
Recipe: serves 6 - 8
1 1/2 cups of water
3/4 cup basmati rice
1/4 tsp salt
3 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup sugar
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise with seeds scraped out.

Directions:
1. Boil the water, salt, and rice in a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the water has been absorbed. 
2. Add the both the regular and coconut milk, sugar, and vanilla bean and seeds to the pan. Increase the heat and and stir continuously to avoid burning. Stir for about 35 minutes until the rice is tender and the mixture is thick and creamy. 
3. Remove the pudding from the heat and divide evenly into bowls. The pudding can be served warm or chilled. 

Notes:
- This can be made 2 days ahead of serving time
- Add toppings if you wish. Dried berries are very good with it!
- Instead of discarding the bean after you've cooked with it, wash it off and store it in sugar to make vanilla-infused sugar

With Love, 
Grace

Steel Cut Oatmeal -- New Obsession

 Yet, another ridiculously simple recipe. Welcome to my new obsession. Steel-cut oats have been my daily breakfasts for about two weeks now.  Really though!

Once you turn to these, you'll never go back to regular old-fashioned oats, let alone quick oats. During the preparation, I toasted the oats with coconut oil, which really brought out their nutty flavour.

Rise and Shine!

It's finally the weekend! I threw this together as a quick breakfast to energize up my Friday. This post was kind of a spur of the moment; I actually just enjoyed the colors of the photos a little too much, so that's what I'm really sharing. It's one of those recipes that make you feel silly for posting because it's just too simple...that obviously didn't stop me though. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did :)
Although I have AP mocks to study for, I'm off to explore Shanghai for a bit before returning to my duties.

Banana Bread Oatmeal

Oatmeal has been my most recent food obsession. I've eaten some sort of oatmeal related item throughout the day for at least 3 weeks now. Someone call me cray cray.

When I was younger, I was disgusted with the thought of mushy gunk for breakfast. Instead, I was more like, "Yo, seriously, where's my Life Cereal at? Lucky Charms...Poptarts?!" The only type of oatmeal I'd eat was from the little Quaker oatmeal packets. I'm so past that now. I'm actually contemplating starting an oatmeal series... Apple Pie oatmeal, Reese's oatmeal, baked oatmeal pies...oatmeal cookies...oatmeal bread. Okay I'm getting a little too excited.

However, I do love that my new obsession is oatmeal and not something like Ferrero Rocher. Not like that's happened before.

I recently got some steel cut oats so I'm excited to try this recipe with that!

Tip-Top Healthy Chocomuffs

 This doesn't happen often, but these muffins happen to be ones I immediately scarf down straight out of the oven. I only made four in this batch, but they were so good, I made them again. Plus, they're super healthy :) Actually, I believe this are my first healthy chocolate-containing baked good. Score! Motivation to discover and make more mine.

Although I haven't I don't particularly have a sweet tooth these day, I still crave chocolate. So so so, these were perfect; my Tip-top Healthy Chocomuffs (always making up words) are bittersweet and moist, but when you bite into a chocolate chip...mmm you see fireworks. Of course, these fireworks are better than the ones that have been blasting all week here in Shanghai. 

When I saw these on Dashing Dish's blog, I knew I had to have them. To make them more moist, I added applesauce, upped the amount of Greek yoghurt, and sweetened them slightly with Agave nectar.

The best part of these muffins are delish sans flour, oil, and sugar! What?! Totes my fave recipe now.

What I didn't understand was the muffin top. First of all, why is it darker? Second, why am I so lucky?! It frosted itself :) Kind of?

I'm thinking it's because I took them out of the oven to sprinkle chocolate chips on, and then the cool air did something to them. I actually don't know...I'm just making things up.

Wait wait, look at the name of these. I thought I was so clever when I named them. (;

I don't want to bore you with my family all the time, but they're the ones who give me really great feedback. I guess once school starts up again (ugh...Monday), my lovely food-loving friends can start giving me feedback.

Buuut, teens will eat any free food right?

Later in the day, I saw the last chocomuff in the fridge, so I cut the muffin top off. My mom scowled at me, probably because she wanted it.

Okay, I'm going off on a tangent, but I've been obsessed with Greek Yoghurt these days. I eat it with granola, apples, plain, with honey; put it in dressings, muffins, sushi; sub in for mayo...someone please help me before I over-indulge. Jokes, don't stop me. I laaav it! Back to these beauties... 

If you have the time, which you should, these are quick and rewarding to make. You basically dump everything into a blender and voila, a Tip-top chocomuff :)

No, but they're actually super rewarding. I'll break it down for you:

Applesauce: This is high in fiber and vitamin C.

Unsweetened Cocoa Powder: high in fiber and protein, stabilizes blood sugar, gives good cholesterol and gets rid of bad cholesterol, gluten-free, and contains antioxidants beneficial in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Greek Yoghurt: high high high in protein!, contains probiotics great for aiding digestion, is a good source of calcium :)

Agave Nectar: low glycemic index, meaning it doesn't give an unhealthy blood sugar spike 

Chocolate:  increases endorphins that can decrease stress levels and fight depression, boosts energy levels, and the list goes on. Find more on chocolate at this site.