Both of these were on my list. My “Cook This Successfully At Least Once But Hopefully Twice” list.

Other things on this list include:
- Butter chicken
- Beef korma
- Shakriya (first time was good, second time was horrid)
- Roast beef
- Tuille cookies

What’s on your list?

Baking bread is so easy. Really. Trust me. You don’t even need a bread machine – if you’ve got a stand mixer or pair of strong arms, you can have homemade sandwich bread in an afternoon.

The best part about this is not even the flavor and texture of the bread – just a little sweet, toasted to a light crunch. The best part is not even the smoothness of the butter as it spreads across hot bread, melting into the nooks and crannies.

The best part….is the smell.

The smell is so rich, that your whole house smells like a fancy French bakery.

The smell is so fulfilling, that I stood in the kitchen to do dishes *just* so I could be closer to the aroma.

The smell is so luscious, that on Natasha’s birthday, instead of bringing her a loaf already made, I brought the dough to her apartment and baked it in her apartment. The smell was part of the gift.

And it’s easy. You can do it, I promise.

I’ll tell you about the butter first. The butter was easier than I thought it would be. I took full fat cream and put it in my stand mixer on medium. When it started to thicken, I turned it up to high. The cream goes from soft peaks to hard peaks, breaks, and then starts splitting into butter and buttermilk. You can hear the change in texture when it’s getting close to being ready – bits of butter begin to thwap against the side of the mixer. When you see large chunks of yellow butter floating in a white milky liquid, pour the stuff through a fine mesh sieve. Run your hands under cold water until they’re chilled enough to not melt the butter, then press the butter gently against the sieve or between your hands to extract more buttermilk. At this stage, it’s relatively soft and spreadable. You can put it back in and extract more buttermilk if you want. From one pint of cream, I got almost 1 cup of buttermilk and probably almost 3/4 of a stick of butter.

Okay, the bread. This is from my Good Housekeeping cookbook that Rabea gave me.

White Bread (or wheat, if you want)
1/2 cup warm water
2 pkgs active dry yeast
1/4 cup + 1 teaspoon white sugar
2 1/4 cups warm milk
4 tablespoons softened butter
1 tablespoon salt
about 7 – 7 1/2 cups all purpose flour (or bread flour).

[this recipe is for two loaves, and it's super easy to half it]

A note about “warm” – warm is considered about 105F to 115F. This temperature is really important – too hot, and you’ll kill the yeast; too cold, and it won’t activate. Do yourself a favor – do not try to do this by touch. Everyone feels heat differently, and the container you warm in could be warmer than the actual liquid.

A note about flour - I’ve only ever made this with white all-purpose flour, or a mixture of wheat and white. I would not make this all wheat, because it gets a little too tough – maybe a 60% white, 40% wheat would be the maximum I’d use. If I’m using both, I mix the flours together in a bowl first so the dough is getting a mixture of flours all through the process.

If anyone knows me, Sara, or Ayesha, you know that we’re each obsessed with food. If you put any two of us together, the effect is compounded. If you put ALL THREE of us together – there is an exponential explosion of food.

That’s what happened when Ayesha came down to a Raleigh for a friend’s wedding. We had been planning what to make for weeks beforehand and finally settled on a high tea so we could make a lot of different little things. We spent all day cooking up a storm.

Also, our cameras got to visit each other. All pictures in this post are taken by me, Ayesha, or Sara, on one of our cameras. Whoever was the closest to a camera and had the least flour on their hands took the picture.

The menu was as follows:

Savories
Chipotle Grilled Shrimp and Mango Kabobs
Roasted Vegetable and Fontina Paninis with Chipotle Mayo
Mini quiches – bacon and cheese, spinach and cheese
Fruit and nut salad with homemade candied walnuts and raspberry-balsamic vinaigrette.

Sweets
Scones with lemon curd and cream
Mini tarts with vanilla custard and strawberries
Jam thumbprint cookies, assorted flavors
Chocolate truffles

Awwwww yeah baby. And the insanity behind making all this food….let’s get started.

Firstly, the salad. I saw the recipe for making homemade candied walnuts on the Tiny Kitchen and we wanted to try them. The process seemed simple enough – melt sugar until it turns brown, add butter, mix in walnuts. Easy, right? Simple raspberry vinaigrette – easy peasy!

Deception. Lies and slander.

Thus also began the trek of Sara running back and forth from her house (across the street) because we kept forgetting ingredients. We almost wrote an epic poem. Thankfully, it all turned out well after multiple tries!

Well. Let’s let the pictures tell the story. Click the first on the left for the lightbox gallery. Make sure to read the captions.

Then, there were the phenomenal chipotle grilled shrimp and mango kabobs. Sara wanted to try a tropical fruit with the shrimp, and mango seemed perfect. I’ve also now gotten Sara and Ayesha hooked on the wonders of chipotle-in-adobo. We mirrored the chipotle in the kabobs with chipotle mayo in the roasted veggie sandwiches. We roasted eggplant, zuchinni, red bell pepper, and red onions (the latter with balsamic vinegar) and then made them into paninis with fontina cheese.

We made two types of quiche – one with a really delicious halal bacon that Ayesha brought from Maryland, and the other with spinach and cheese. Ayesha put little tart dough circles into my mini muffin pan, filled with the different flavors and egg (dough still raw), and baked.

These were relatively low stress after the spinach-caramel and exploding vinaigrette fiascos.

I had made Ina Garten’s Jam Thumbprint cookie dough the night before. It’s a cross between a sugar cookie and a shortbread – more like the latter….i.e. it’s phenomenal. Sara and I filled the cookies with strawberry jam, dulce de leche, and chocolate chips (because Musa wanted chocolate ones). The strawberry were the best. The dulce were good, but the dulce got a little too brown while they were in the oven.

The little vanilla custard tarts were just cute. Ayesha cut out the pie crust for the tarts and baked them in the mini muffin pan. We let them cool and filled them with the cream and topped with a slice of strawberry.

Ayesha made her phenomenal scones again (how does she do it? she just throws stuff in a bowl and scones emerge from the oven. BOOM. BOOM. FIYAPOWAAAA) (You have to be super cool to know where that comes from). I made lemon curd and Ayesha made clotted cream.

Ayesha also made really yummy chocolate truffles. We though they would be too soft, but after a trip to the fridge, they were fine.

Awesome, right? Yeah. That’s what I thought.

Of course, we only remembered to make the “tea” part of the high tea when we sat down to eat. We ate with Uncle Wahaj and Auntie Sarwat (Ayesha’s parents) and my parents. My dad summed it up nicely – “See, this is why we had daughters. If we had sons and we asked for some tea, they’d say….okay let’s go to Starbucks.”

yay!

I finally got around to baking a cake in the pan that my Mom-in-law and Maryam got for me. It is a heritage bundt cake pan from Williams-Sonoma. Without exaggeration, it may turn out to be my favorite default cake pan. The cake…was….gorgeous. I did a lemon cake mix with strawberries in it. They all sunk to the bottom, which turned out to be the top, so there was this beautiful tie-die layer of strawberries as a top crust! I was afraid that it would stick because of all the curves, but it did not stick at all.

Thanks, Mom and Maryam!

(Everyone knows what a Bundt cake is, right?)

Let it be known – pineapple upside down cake does not have a monopoly on overturned baked goods. You can do it with any fruit! I had some fresh pears and strawberries and blueberries, so I used the Pear-Cranberry upside down cake recipe from my Martha Stewart cookbook (don’t worry, I only have one). The berries got really soft and turned gooey at the edges, but it still tasted great and looked beautiful.

Pear berry upside down cake
Adapted from Martha Stewart Living 2002 Annual Recipes

12 tbs (1 1/2 sticks) butter
1 3/4 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
3 firm but ripe pears
1 cup berries
Juice of 1 lemon
Zest of 2 lemons
2 1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp table salt
1 tsp cinnamon
3 large eggs
1 cup milk, room temp.

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare pan: I used a 10-inch springform pan, lined with wax paper. You want to do this for three reasons: (1) easy cleanup, (2) can flip without messing up the top of the cake, and (3) creates a seal so the melted brown sugar and butter doesn’t leak out the bottom of the springform pan.

It’s really easy to line the bottom of a springform. Step 1: Put down the removable bottom on the counter. Step 2: lay down a large sheet of wax paper on top of the bottom with some serious overlap. Step 3: put the sides/shell on top of the bottom and lock it – this will tear/shape the wax paper perfectly onto the bottom. Trim off any spare edges.

Spray the sides of the pan with cooking spray. Melt 6 tbs butter + 3/4 cup brown sugar over medium heat and cook for about 6 minutes until it all comes together. Pour it into the 10-inch springform pan.

2. Arrange the thinly sliced pears and 1/2 cup of berries on top of the brown sugar and butter mixture. Martha said to coat with lemon juice, but I think I just put the juice into the batter. I don’t remember – but I know I definitely did not coat.

3. Sift together all dry ingredients except sugar (flower, baking powder, salt, cinnamon) in a bowl.

4. Beat together the rest of the butter (6 tbs) and 1 cup brown sugar until well combined. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. It might look a little curdled. Don’t panic, just add some of the flour mixture.

5. Alternate adding milk and flour mixture. Stir in 1/2 cup berries and lemon zest into the batter. Gently pour the batter over the fruit.

6. Bake for 40-50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

7. To invert: let it sit for a few minutes, and then run a knife around the sides. Flip it over onto a plate, unclasp and remove the edges of the springform pan. Take off the metal bottom and gently peel away the wax paper. If anything stuck onto the pan, the sugar should still be hot enough that you can just spoon it back onto the surface of the cake.

This flatbread have become kind of a staple snack or party food for me. I was inspired by a cheese-and-olive pie that Neomonde bakery makes (and theirs is much better than mine will ever be).

The green olives really make the dish – they’re just salty enough. Black olives may be a little too bitter for a delicate flatbread like this. I usually use Roma tomatoes, but today I had one of the big fat ones – just take care to cut it thinly so you don’t have juice making it soggy. If you slice the onions very thinly, they caramelize a bit, which makes a nice sweet contrast to the salty olives.

Tomato Olive Flatbread

1 Pillsbury Thin Crust pizza dough
1 Tomato, sliced thinly
handful of green olives, pitted and chopped
1 small onion, sliced very thinly
Shredded mixed Italian cheese
Handful of parsley, chopped
Garlic powder

1. Spread the pizza crust on a baking sheet. Cut in half lengthwise and stretch a little. You don’t need to roll it out, just stretch it a tad bit evenly around the sides.

2. Sprinkle with garlic powder and bake in a 400F oven for about 5 minutes (following the directions on the package for a crisper crust).

3. After it is lightly cooked, spread on the cheese, then the onion slices, tomato, green olives. Sprinkle parsley on the top.

4. Bake for 10-12 minutes until the crust is crispy and until cheese is melted (or browned, if you want).

Guest post by one of my cooking partners in crime, Sara Haddad. Every time we spoke over the past two weeks (no kidding, every time), we talked about making these lemon curd and berry cream mini cheesecakes for a party last week – they were an absolute hit. We used this recipe and they turned out excellent.

For the lemon curd, we used this recipe. For the berry cream, we drained a bag of frozen berries and reserved the juice. Then, we simmered it until it reduced by at least half, then added light cream to it (off the heat). We let it reduced a little bit again, then let it cool. It was poured onto the cheesecakes at the last moment before serving, then those were topped with grated white chocolate.

And now, here’s Sara!

Once upon a time, two young women were studying hard for their exams in a small quaint cafe. One young woman was a brilliant up and coming lawyer, the other was a frazzled Chemical Engineering student. They decided to have a party. But not just any party, this party was to be the best in all the land…well the best in food at least. So they began to plan…

One day the Law School Student took notice of a scrumptious aroma outside the coffeeshop and followed her to where her senses led her, and alas! It was a bakery and two women marveled at the delicious deserts within the case, but without fail they did not purchase anything. During a study “break” the Chemical Engineering student burst out with excitement: WE SHALL MAKE MINI CHEESECAKES! And the Law School student continued on to say: AND WE SHALL TOP WITH THEM WITH BERRIES AND LEMON CURD! And the scheming ensued….

As the weeks went to pass, they celebrated Eid. Every conversation without fail had something to do with the mini cheesecakes. With the date of the party nearing, what else was there to discuss? They found a recipe and the day before the party attempted to bake cheesecake.

‘Twas a dreary day, with the threat of tornados at hand, the worked tirelessly in the kitchen preparing. The crust was made out of vanilla wafers ground up to dust, mixed in with cinnamon and butter to make to the consistency of a soft dough. Once complete the mix of the cream cheese and sour cream was poured into the now compacted (with a meat tenderizer) crust.

Each tray looked like a piece of Good God, wrapped with some Have Mercy and topped off with some UMPH! and was placed in a water bath and baked in the oven at a temperature of 350 degrees Fahrenheit (or ~176.67 °C or 449.82 K to satisfy the nerd in me). After about an hour the young women realized that the cakes had not yet completed their run in the heated dragon’s belly and so they debated on what to do since they had to complete their own personal tasks. The decision was made to leave them in for 10 more minutes with the oven on and then to leave them in there to bake with the heat remaining for about three hours. This proved to be a successful idea and the cheesecakes were perfected. [TQ's note - this "leave it in the turned-off oven" baking method produced such soft and creamy cheesecake that I think I'll have to keep experimenting with it to get it perfect and make it my permanent method.]

Now, onto the part of making them ‘mini’. The next day, these young women proved to be inventive in their ideas and through the help of biscuit cutters and boiling water the cheesecakes were cut. [TQ - The cutters cut best when they're hot] The Law School Student put the definition of these cheesecakes next to KABLAAM in the dictionary through the addition of lemon curd and berries with berry cream sauce to top it all off. The creaminess of the cheesecakes combined with slight hint of the cinnamon in the crust was supreme.

The two young women were able to pull off a task not yet attempted by any of their friends and the mini cheesecakes eclipsed the focus of the party and at some point were more fun to look at than eat…Just. kidding.

It’s not unusual to have fun at any time….

Your Local Arab Mehdni cab driver

aka Sara Haddad

Welcome to another installment of “Taiyyaba takes the credit, Betty Crocker does the work.”

Remember the mini pineapple upside down bundt cakes? They’re amazing at parties, because you bring out these little jewels and people think you’ve been slaving in the kitchen all day long. (Don’t tell them it took you all of 15 minutes active time to make).

Using the same concept of a butter-sugar caramel coating some kind of treat at the top of the cake, I made this pecan cake for my father in law (a nut-o-phile). The pecans came out crispy-chewy, coated with a sticky caramel, and the batter was just a plain old spice cake mix. The final cake looks spectacular, but no one has to know it only took you 10 minutes to put together!

Recipe here (more…)

I have two confessions to make.

(1) I’m sneaky. I like to bake, but I don’t have time to make amazing cakes from scratch (even though I have this jaw dropping book that i love to read for fun).

(2) I *love* caramel, especially with fruit. Pineapple upside down cake is one of my favorites – the drizzly brown sugar that coats the sour-sweet pineapple and bakes until the edges get all chewy. *sigh*

So, to solve these problems, I’ve learned that you can do spectacular things with a box cake mix if you just shake things up a little bit. My mom got me this mini bundt cake pan – it has six tiny bundt cake molds and one box cake mix can make at least twelve little cakes total. These cakes look super fancy, but they really are just fancy cupcakes. Pineapple upside down cake is perfect for this pan, because one pineapple ring fits perfectly in the bottom.

I love this with pineapple, but I ran out of pineapple rings and still had more batter – I subbed apple rings and found out that this works great with apples too. I’m basically using the side of the box, low fat version of a boxed pineapple cake mix – all that makes this fancy is the shape!

Recipe here: (more…)

There’s just something about the combination of savory spinach, crispy phyllo dough, and tangy-cool mint yogurt sauce that works beautifully together. I’d suggest adding a pinch of sumac to the spinach mixture if you have some; it gives it a tangy-spicy kick and a nice color.

Working with phyllo can be a little difficult, but it’s worth it. Follow the directions on the box for more precision than I’m giving here (in terms of how to defrost the phyllo and keep it from drying out).

These are great for parties because you can make just the filling or even the little patties themselves beforehand – just lay them on a cookie sheet and freeze, then bring back to room temperature before baking. The spinach filling is also a good stuffing for chicken thighs (maybe with some walnuts) or pasta shells or folded into an omelet!

Recipe here: (more…)

I started this recipe in the form of Applesauce Cake from a Martha Stewart cookbook (that’s the only way I can stand her – on paper) – but they’re oh so much more cute as cupcakes with DL’s Dulce de Leche swirled on top.

(more…)