Homemade Sugar Cubes

There is something fun about sugar in cube/lump/morsel form. They also provide a convenient unit for sweetening tea and other drinks. But commercial sugar cubes are  expensive. This drove me to plumb the depths of the internets (a quick google search) to find an alchemic method of conjuring sugar cubes at home.

The incantation recipe which looked most promising came from Marcia Simmons at this food blog (to be clear, I have no affiliation with this blogger or blog, but I like to cite my sources).

Ingredients:

1. 1/4 C granulated sugar
2. 1/2 tsp water

Proceedure:

• Mix 1/2 teaspoon water into 1/4 cup sugar (should be a moist dough, see figure 1)
• Press into shape using hands or molds (see figures 2-5)
• Allow to dry overnight (8ish hours)

I made several batches of the above ingredient ration (probably about 1.5 cups sugar). I tried four different ways of shaping my trial 1 sugar cubes:

1. half teaspoon (figure 2)
2. hand (figure 3)
3. filling a loaf pan and then dividing into cubes (figure 4)
4. ice cube tray (figure 5)

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

 Figure 3.

 Figure 4.

 Figure 5. I don't own any normal ice cube trays, so I used my Titanic and iceberg tray

Results and Observations:

Results

The sugar cubes shaped with the half teaspoon and by hand hardened perfectly. I am very excited to achieve such success. 

The sugar cubes in the loaf pan also hardened, but a few crumbled during extraction. Sadly, the sugar cube Titanic and iceberg crumbled completely. This is thought to result from the mold slowing the rate the sugar cubes dry. Further testing with longer drying times is needed to sink a sugar Titanic into my cuppa.

Homemade Christmas Tea

Introduction:
Now that we are living in California again, there is no Christmas market for us to visit this Advent season. One of our favorite things at the Grenoble Christmas market was the thé du Noël (Christmas tea). The absence of Christmas tea has driven me to scour the internet for recipes. Most American "traditional" recipes included "orange drink mix" as the base ingredient. That is not traditional or acceptable. The recipe I settled on comes from a French blogger (post here). I have translated her recipe to the best of my ability, and have modified it only by the omission of cloves which I do not prefer.

Ingredients:

• 100 grams black tea (unflavored)
• 1 orange
• 1 lemon
• 1 tsp vanilla powder (not liquid extract)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cardamom

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 210 deg F
2. Wash, dry, and peel orange and lemon into long strips using a potato peeler (be sure to only get the zest and none of the white, which is very bitter)
3. Cut peel into small even squares
4. Place peel evenly on a parchment lined baking sheet
5. Bake peel for 1 hour
6. Mix dry ingredients together and add dried peel once baked.
7. Boil water and steep like normal black tea (1 tsp tea/cup, steep 5 mins)
8. Store in a metal tin for longevity
9. Enjoy!

Results and Observations:
C'était bon ! (It was delicious!). The tea turned out very well. This tea can be enjoyed as is without further modification.

However, what fun would this be without a little experimentation? The citrus flavors were not very pronounced, so I think I will try increasing that. The vanilla was also not very strong (but a critical background flavor?), so I may try omitting it in the future (also, vanilla powder is somewhat pricey)

Cold Brew Coffee Trial 1.

Introduction:
Everyone loves coffee and one of the current coffee trends is "cold brew". This cool manifestation of coffee requires little equipment or technique to create. With a little experimentation, I hope perfect the recipe and procedure.


Ingredients and Materials:
1 cup whole coffee beans
4.5 cups of filtered water (eliminates tapwater taste variables)
Coffee grinder
Brewing vessel
Airtight storage vessel 

Procedure:

• Course grind coffee beans (should appear courser than sand)
• Add grounds and filtered water to brewing vessel (see figure 1.)
• Store brewing vessel at room temperature for more than 12 hours but less than 15 hours (variable for future experimentation)
• Pour cold brew from brewing vessel through a fine sieve into the airtight storage vessel (see figure 2.1 and 2.2)
• Seal cold brew in airtight storage vessel (see figure 3) and store until drinking (store in the refrigerator for increased temperature reduction)
• Drink and enjoy (I am enjoying my first glass of cold brew as I write this post)

Results and Observations:

The coffee has strong flavor (stronger than hot brewed coffee which has been forgotten and allowed to cool down) and lacks some of the acidic taste. These findings are consistent with reports about cold brew. Further testing is needed/desired

Figure 1.

Figure 2.1

Figure 2.2

Figure 3

Chocolate chip cookies cooked on a waffle iron: baking fail

Chocolate Chip Waffle Cookies

The idea seemed simple enough: use a waffle iron to make waffle cookies and then drizzle chocolate on top. We decided to try this experiment. My standard chocolate chip recipe was used with the exception of the chocolate chips which were to be melted and drizzled on after.

We set the waffle iron on the lowest setting to begin (and intended to adjust higher if needed during subsequent trials)

Trial 1 Results: Catastrophic Failure

Further trials were suspended as a result of trial 1's disaster

Speculations of what led to the accident:

• Waffle iron was not greased before adding dough
• Dough may need to be thicker (higher flour content?) for desired results
• Human error

Thankfully the remainder of the dough was quickly converted into normal chocolate chip cookies and enjoyed

Candy Cane Chocolate Chip Cookies: baking fail

Candy Cane Chocolate Chip Cookies

The idea seemed simple enough: add crushed candy cane to chocolate chip cookie dough. For this experiment, I used my standard chocolate chip cookie recipe.

I had high hopes for this batch (see fig 1.) of hybrid candy cane chocolate chip cookies. As you will see, the results differed from my expectations and proved my hypothesis, that adding crushed candy cane would create a simple Christmas variation of this classic cookie, very wrong. We have to be honest when our plans go awry.

Figure 1.

Results and Observations:

The candy cane bits melted during the baking process, leaving gaping holes in the cookies, and adhered to the cookie sheet which resulted in fractured cookies when attempting to move them to the cooling rack.

Thankfully the candy cane modification was only added to twelve cookies (see fig 2). The rest of the dough served as a control group and yielded wonderful and normal chocolate chip cookies.

Figure 2. The results of Trial 1 candy cane cookies

Figure 3.

From fresh pumpkin to purée Trial 3: Baked again

Introduction: 
The return of Autumn signifies it is time to bake another pumpkin. Canned pumpkin purée is not sold in France, so I have to make my own. You can read here about trial 1 and trial 2. I have found that for my baking purposes baked pumpkin works best.

fig 1. The test subject

Procedure:

• Cut pumpkin in half and scoop out guts. See fig 2. Save the seeds for roasting. 
• Line a baking sheet with foil, place pumpkin halves cut-side down (see fig 3), and cover with foil. See fig 4.
• Bake at 375^oF (approx 190^oC) for about 1.5 hours or until soft)
• Allow to cool
• Scoop out flesh and mash/blend until smooth

fig 2.

fig 3.

fig 4.

Results and Observations:
Pumpkin was successfully converted into purée. Lining the baking sheet with foil saved a lot on clean-up.

Roasted Pumpkin seeds

Happy Halloween!

The next time you find yourself carving a pumpkin, make sure to save the seeds for roasting.

Simply throw the seeds on a baking sheet, sprinkle with olive oil, and dust with salt or other seasonings. Bake at 300ºF/150ºC for 30 to 45 minutes (until seeds are golden brown) and enjoy