I’m kicking off a slew of new posts with a review today of… drum roll please… The Queen’s Cups!
Just last week I visited their Worcester location, and let me tell you, it was amazing.
Not only do they have beautiful baked goods, but there is also a room to chill in while eating their enticing creations. There are just so many good vibes about their place, and the decor is so cute!
I went with a friend and we both got a cupcake. Mine was a “Chocolate Candy Milkshake” flavored cupcake. And my friend got their “Funfetti Cake Milkshake” cupcake.
Both of our cupcakes were filled with marshmallow fluff that was to die fore. I would say I could eat a dozen of them, but that wouldn’t be possible because of how rich and velvety and delicious they were.
The decoration was appealing and they had so many cute little touches that made the experience unique.
I also got their homemade peach lemonade and it was the perfect balance of sweet and acidic. The peach was a lite note and the lemonade was wonderfully tart. Served cold and icy, it was the perfect refresher.
If you are in the Worcester area, be sure to check them out at 56 Water St., Worcester, MA 01604
((and on the last note, can I mention they had edible disco dust on some cupcakes))
To kick off this week, I wanted to share this adapted recipe that was absolutely delicious. They are called Puff Pastry Garlic Parmesan Spirals. A mouthful that’s for sure but also what you will literally have, your mouth full.
This recipe was showcased at our family Easter dinner and it was a perfect addition to the rest of our meal.
Garlicy and warm and buttery oh my goodness this is delicate yet bursting with flavors.
I didn’t have oregano, which was quite a surprise, so I opted for a blend of herbs and spices. I used a basic Italian mix which you can find at any grocery store. However, this was one I had made myself. Anyways, I thought it would add another dimension of flavor and it did!
I also used an entire head of garlic which is 7-9 cloves. The original recipe called for 3 cloves but as you know, in the Kearns kitchen, the more garlic the better. My Dad and I love love loved them and the amount of garlic caused a spiciness that was delightful. The rest of my family though, thought it was too much. That is why I put 5 cloves of garlic but depending on your own preference, add more or less as you see fit.
Something else I ran into was letting the puff pastry thaw for too long. I was busy in the kitchen cooking away and forgot about it. Later that night, when I went to make the spirals, it was very wet, doughy, and sticky. I had to use a hefty amount of flour on the rolling pin as well as the surface I was working on. Treat your puff pastry with care, people!
Also check out a sleepy Peanut that was keeping me company as I made these delectable creations.
Puff Pastry Garlic Parmesan Spirals
Ingredients
¼ cup butter – melted
5 tablespoons grated Parmesan
2 tablespoons Italian Seasoning
5 cloves garlic – chopped
1 sheet puff pastry
Instructions
Thaw puff pastry to room temp. Once thawed, unfold.
Roll dough out slightly making sure it is not too thin
In a small bowl, melt butter.
Add the rest of the ingredients to the butter and stir.
Spread onto puff pastry with a pastry brush.
Roll up into a log shape.
Cut into about 1/4 inch slices.
Use cooking spray on a baking tray and place spirals on, about 12 per pan.
Bake at 425 degrees for 10-12 minutes, making sure they don’t get burnt.
We are at the end of the week! If you are feeling like you are lacking creatively or just plain lazy, I get it! Nothing like a long week. But hopefully this recipe can spark some inspiration to start your weekend off right!
My mother *shoutout* found this recipe years ago and my family LOVES it! She has to make twice as much because our family demolishes it within minutes. It is pretty basic and requires little skill or manual labor (because slaving over the oven can be work).
It is all natural and contains organic citrus. I am a big believer in using a supplement wash. I feel like it really gets the grit and the fine dirt on both my vegetables and fruits. It’s pretty inexpensive and I highly suggest trying it out!
In my family, the more garlic the better. We even have a shaker of garlic powder next to our salt and pepper. So, this may be too garlic-y for the common man. But as the following meme suggests, cater to what you like!
It is true though, food brings us together! So enjoy this recipe and show a little love for your mom today.
Garlic Roasted Broccoli
Yield: 4 servings
Prep Time: 5 minutes or less
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes
Ingredients:
2 heads of broccoli
6 cloves of minced garlic (which is 1 head of regular size garlic)
1 ½ Tbs extra virgin olive oil (or substitute for other oils, grapeseed, canola, etc.)
Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions:
Chop off broccoli stalks and cut the remaining broccoli into florets.
Mince garlic
Combine broccoli florets with the minced garlic and add the oil. Toss to coat and spread onto a sheet pan. Don’t worry about greasing the pan, the broccoli will have enough oil to not stick to the pan.
Roast in the oven for about 20 minutes. Until you smell the aroma of garlic and see that the edges of the broccoli become crispy, like a char. If your oven is finicky like mine, you may want to turn your pan around halfway through. My oven runs hot so my broccoli only took 16 minutes. If you are making this for the first time, monitor the broccoli after about 15 minutes, just to make sure you don’t burn them.
Take out of oven and don’t forget to scrape the garlic off the pan!
Today we are bringing the past into the present I wanted to feature a product that I used this week on my blog. So I am pulling product from Monday’s Tofu Stir-Fry with Peanut Sauce .
Monday I introduced Peanut Butter & Co. Original Peanut Powder to all you lovely followers. I had in the back of my mind that peanut powder had existed, just never pursued my interest in them. I thought only people who worked out or were living a certain lifestyle used them. So, I naturally just treated it as a passing thought.
I joined Weight Watchers (WW) about a year ago and found this gem. They were being sold in prepackaged portion size packets. I believe there were 8 in a box. I loved it so much. I was using it so much and my mom was a fan as well, and she found it on Amazon in bulk. I also found it at Market Basket with the peanut butters.
The amazing thing is that it is 1 point on WW standards. I get around 29 points a day so having a peanut butter flavor with such a low point was amazing!
Basically, you combine the powder to water in a 2:1 ratio, mix it together and you get about 1 1/2 – 2 Tbs of peanut butter goodness! It is low in calories, yogurt, and fat, yet has the same amount of protein. It really resembles the texture of peanut butter and tastes the same as regular peanut butter, just with better macros. They are able to get away with the low calorie to protein ratio because the main ingredient is peanut flour which is different that the solid peanut butter peanuts.
Peanut flour is crushed “defatted” peanuts. It is a wonderful source of plant-based protein. Being a vegetarian myself, it is another way to deliver protein which I need a lot of because I don’t receive it in the conventional way of meat or animal product. However, the peanut powder does not have that good fat in it that conventional peanut butter does, the fat was taken out completely. Which makes sense because the powder is derived from the “defatted” peanuts so logically we can assume that there wouldn’t be as much fat.
It is relatively inexpensive. About $5 for 15 servings. One serving being 2 Tbs of powder to the 1 Tbs of water. Like I said, I found it at Market Basket, but you can also buy it online from the seller, Peanut Butter & Co, or even on Amazon.
The best part of this product, is how versatile it is. Keep an eye out for next week *hint hint* when I post a scrumptious breakfast recipe using this powder!
This recipe kicks off the beginning of many cooking posts, because I love to cook almost as much as I like to bake. Welcome and let me show you my vegetarian culinary prowess!
Not many people know, and I am not ashamed, but I am on a Weight Watchers Freestyle diet. I found this recipe on the Weight Watchers app. I decided to give it a try and I am very glad I did! It has the perfect balance of sweet and salty and spicy.
Per usual, I made some changes to the original recipe.
For starters, just to cut down the calories and fat in the run-of-the-mill peanut butter, I used a substitute. It is a peanut powder that when combined with water, forms a peanut butter texture but with a huge fraction less of fat, calories, and the same amount of protein. I originally found this through Weight Watchers and it has become such a staple in my diet, even my mom loves it! It really resembles peanut butter in texture and taste, just with less of the “unhealthy” parts. Basically it’s a 2:1 ratio- 2 being the peanut powder, and 1 being water. Typically to get 2 Tbs l mix 2 Tbs peanut powder with 1 (or even 1/2) Tbs water.
The original recipe called for sliced carrots. But, I thought they would take too much time to cook and they are rough to chop finely. So, instead, I just used the pre-shredded carrots which made everything easier. I used about an overflowing 1/2 cup. But, as always, it’s personal preference.
I also toasted my own sesame seeds. It is super easy, just pour the desired amount in a pan on medium heat. Be very careful and don’t walk away from it (like I did) or you’ll end up burning them and boy, it can get very smokey. You’ll be able to tell they are done because you’ll start to smell them and they will begin the brown.
And finally, I used refrigerated minced garlic in water. I usually chop mine fresh from a head of them, I think the taste is a lot more substantial. But, for the past few weeks when I grow grocery shopping, the garlic I buy goes bad in 3 or 4 days. Completely rotten. And I even keep them in the refrigerator because it slows the ripening process. I was getting the regular jumbo ones but I switched over to the organic jumbo garlic sold in a box, so we’ll see how that is. Does anyone else have this trouble?
For a more spicier version, use more Sriracha to taste.
For a sweeter version, add some honey (about 1 Tbs)
For a more salty version either add more soy sauce or just straight up use a regular soy sauce instead of the low sodium version.
Today’s recipe motto is: variety is the spice of life! Enjoy!
Tofu Stir-Fry with Peanut Sauce
Yield: 4 servings of 1 ½ cups
Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes
Ingredients:
12 oz extra firm tofu
2 Tbs Peanut
Butter & Co. Original Peanut Powder (use as instructed, combining 2 Tbs
of powder with 1 Tbs water)
4 Tbs low sodium soy sauce
2 Tbs water
1 Tbs dark brown sugar
1 tsp minced garlic
Ginger
1 tsp rice vinegar
1 Tbs Sriracha
1 large red bell pepper
1 c sugar snap peas
½ tsp salt
3 c green cabbage
½ c shredded carrots
6 medium scallions
1 ½ Tbs Toasted sesame seeds
Instructions:
On a plate or cutting board place paper towels
down. Place the uncooked tofu on top after you have drained all the water from
the package. Cover the tofu with layers of paper towels and put something heavy,
like a pan or glass bowl on top so the water from the tofu is absorbed into the
paper towels. Press lightly a few times to soak up the water. Keep the tofu
pressing until you use the tofu.
Make the peanut sauce. Whisk peanut butter, soy
sauce, water, sugar, garlic, ginger, vinegar and sriracha. Set the mixture
aside.
Use a cooking spray to coat the bottom of a
skillet or pan, on high heat. Wait 2 minutes until the pan is very hot. Then,
add the entire block of tofu. Cook until it is brown on all sides, you should
have a pretty good sear going. This will take 4-6 minutes per side. Remove from
the pan and cut the tofu into long but thick strips. Set it aside.
To the same pan, add the pepper and snap peas. I
prefer to chop the ends off of the snap peas, but you could leave them on, it’s
personal preference. Stir fry for 5 minutes, and add salt. Add the cabbage,
carrots, and peanut sauce. Toss so everything marries together and stir-fry
until the cabbage has wilted, 3-4 minutes. You can always add more water if your
sauce is too thick. Add the cooked tofu strips and scallions, stirring until it
is well combined and heated all the way through. Garnish with sesame seeds and
serve warm.
I made some modifications to her original recipe just based on personal taste.
Firstly, instead of using AP (all purpose) flour, I used cake flour. Cake flour is different that regular AP flour. It has a lower protein content and is made of bleached winter wheat. It is softer, and lighter and much finer than your run of the mill AP flour because it has been super ground until it is delicate enough. And this lower level of protein inhibits the formation of gluten. This is nice because usually if there is more gluten in a food, it is associated with a more tough, resistant, and chewy texture. And on top of all that, the fact that it’s bleached also prevents the gluten formation. I wanted to go for that extra light texture because the recipe had 2 cups of dark brown sugar, which could be a very heavy and decadent cookie. I wanted it to be enjoyed as a few cookies in one sitting, not just one that would give you a stomach ache if you ate more that one. All-purpose flour: 9-12% protein content. Cake flour: 6-8% protein content
Another adjustment I made was also in efforts to make the cookie light and chew, was to incorporate dairy-free butter in the recipe. The recipe calls for 14 Tbs of butter. You heat 10 in a saucepan and then after it browned, move to another bowl and add in the final 4 Tbs of butter. I used Earth Balance Original as the 4 Tbs in place of the last 4 Tbs of butter. I noticed that my cookies did not spread as much as the recipe I was referencing, most likely from the lack of butter. I think (correct me or let me know if this is wrong) the Earth Balance and butter has a higher melting point than butter, so there was more integrity in the mix.
I would not recommend this recipe if you plan on doing different cut-outs or decorations. They did spread a little bit but I do not think it would hold other shapes well.
I also was experimenting with how baked I wanted my cookie to be. I had them in the oven for 12 minutes the first batch and took them out when I saw brown creeping up the sides. However, they were pretty crunchy, with some chew in the middle. The second batch was better- I took them out at 10 minutes which is when they were the perfect amount of softness in the middle and crispy around the edges. Given, my oven runs hot even with the speed bake off.
Whew! What a load of information! Overall, it was a perfect cookie for a cold rainy day, eating them while they are straight out of the oven, warm and chewy with some tea. All I can say is, ah magnific! Here is my tweaked recipe and huge shoutout to https://dinnerthendessert.com/ for coming up with the original and amazing recipe!
Brown Sugar Cookies
Yield: 44 cookies
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes max
Total Time: 30 minutes
INGREDIENTS
10 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 Tbs Earth Balance Original
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups packed dark brown sugar
2 cups cake flour plus 2 tablespoons
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat oven to 350
degrees F.
In a saucepan melt 10
tablespoons butter over medium-high heat (mine was more at high heat). It helps
if you cut the butter into Tbs before melting to speed up the process. Whisk
constantly until butter starts to brown, about 4-5 minutes Pour into bowl,
add Earth Balance Original to same bowl and set to the side.
In another bowl whisk
together sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, flour, baking soda, and baking powder.
Add the rest (1.75 cup)
dark brown sugar and salt to butter and whisk until smooth, this may take a
minute but if you put in the work now, you won’t regret it. You can not “over
mix” at this part. Whisk the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla in a bowl until it it
thorighly combined. Then add it to the butter and sugar mixture.
Combine butter mixture
with dry ingredients, pouring the dry inmgredients in 3 separate installations,
stirring it all together until a dough forms.
Use a Tbs measure to
portion out each cookie, making sure to roll it into a ball. Optional: sprinkle
sugar on top.
Bake for 10-12 minutes
until you see just the littlest bit of brown on the edges. And when I say
little bit, I mean it. These cookies can brown really quickly once they reach a
certain point. Keep your eyes on this!
My name is Bella Kearns and I am a 22 year-old aspiring pastry chef with a crazy full brain that spills creative juices every so often. I’m not sure what I want out of a blog, I think it’s a great way to record different phases of my journey through life and my epicurean adventures. I will be posting recipes I’m trying, recipes that I have created and different food I cross paths with. So, WELCOME, and follow me through this new escapade.
As you may have seen, there were no posts this week. why you may ask? I blame it on technology, I qued them but they never posted. oops! back to your regular programming next week!
Isabella Maryja Cecelia 