Sweet Kosher Salt

Looking at my old posts

Is personally embarrassing.

3pm

I date occasionally

Hey there! Thought that I’d never post again, eh? Well, so did I!

In between working at a summer camp over the summer and starting my first semester of university, I haven’t had much time to cook. Well, at least I haven’t had time to photograph them, or to make anything that anyone would really want to read a blog post about.

But I am home for the holidays, and my dad asked me to make something for a dinner party we’ve been invited to. He told me to “make some cookies or squares or something”. I immediately thought of my friend, Emma, who loves date squares. So, this one’s for you, Emma!

(The title is also a tribute to my friend, Judy, who likes to fill out the dotted line next to “Date:” on documents with “Occasionally”. The joke’s a bit convoluted but is very representative of her cheeky sense of humour.) 

First order of business is, of course, 3 cups of dried dates. 

Pitting the dates and putting them in a saucepan.

Softening the pitted dates in water

The best way to measure butter is to use water displacement. To measure 1/2 cup of butter, I filled the measuring cup with 1/4 cup of water and then filled it with chunks of butter until the water hit the 3/4 mark. Eureka! (Props if you get that joke)

Pressing half the crust into the bottom of a greased pan

Om nom nom

Ingredients:

Filling:

• 3 cups of dates
• 1 cup of water
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Crust:

• 2 cups quick cooking oats
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp cinnamon
• I threw a little nutmeg in there for good measure, couldn’t hurt. =P
• 1 cup of butter, cubed

Method:

1. Pit dates and heat in a saucepan until dates have absorbed most of the water and are soft. Stir in vanilla and let cool.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C). Grease a 9x9 inch or 8x11 inch pan. There is enough crust to make two pans, but only enough dates to make one. You can either double the amount of dates or halve the amount of dry ingredients; it’s your call.
3. Combine dry ingredients in food processor. Add butter and pulse until mixture is crumbly (I didn’t cube my butter, but the oats ended up being over-processed because it took longer to incorporate the butter; it’s really your preference).
4. Pour mixture into bowl. Press some into a crust at the bottom of the pan.
5. Process the date mixture in the food processor until puréed. Pour into pan and spread evenly over crust. Top with more crumbly mixture.
6. Bake for 30-40 minutes. Refrigerate for at least an hour after baking to allow the squares to be solid enough to be cut cleanly.
7. Cut into squares and enjoy!

3pm

Cupcakes

My friend and I decided to get together and whip up some cupcakes for his sister’s baby shower. Our goal was 75 cupcakes: 25 vanilla, 25 chocolate and 25 lemon. 

Now this photo is pretty blurry, but I’d just like to point out that almost all cupcake recipes make 24 cupcakes and we had to throw in a little one in a separate pan, which didn’t cook as evenly and annoyed the hell out of me.

We made a little extra one for ourselves

And then noms were had.

And then we made chocolate cupcakes

They look a little weird because the recipe called for a full cup of boiling water added at the end, which we completely forgot to do. Whoops. 

It’s too bad my stomach was feeling upset, because I couldn’t really eat very much of the cake. We had a lot of chocolate batter left over, which we made into a mini cake, but I could hardly stomach it. Ah well, more for Jacob.

Recipes can both be found at Obsessed with Baking

11am

Raspberry cream cheese quinoa muffins

Finally! Yes, after the photo fiasco of a couple days ago, I actually made these muffins a second time just to get the photos. The things I do for this blog! Also my family certainly didn’t mind me making another batch.

The kicker about these muffins is that they have quinoa in them, which is a grain that has more protein than rice or wheat. That means that not only are these muffins magically delicious, but you can pretend they’re good for you!

Mixing quinoa with dry ingredients

Cream cheese cubes, though they kind of look like mini marshmallows

Mixing dry ingredients with wet

I tried to break a muffin open in an attempt to make it look more appetizing. They’re really tasty, trust me.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup white or golden quinoa
• 1 cup water
• 1 1/14 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 4 oz. cold light cream cheese, diced
• 1 cup frozen raspberries
• 3/4 sugar
• 1/4 vegetable oil
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

1. Bring quinoa and water to a boil. Cover, reduce to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes. Cover saucepan, turn off heat and leave the pan to sit for 15 minutes. Fluff with a fork and allow quinoa to cool.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Combine dry ingredients, then cooled quinoa, then diced cream cheese, then frozen raspberries. The cream cheese should remain in chunks for these muffins. Set aside.
3. Whisk together sugar and oil, followed by the egg. Whisk in sour cream and vanilla. Fold flour mixture into sugar mixture and stir until just combined. Spoon into greased muffin tin and place on center rack of the over. Bake for 25 minutes.

9pm

This is not a post

I made the most delicious raspberry-cream cheese-quinoa muffins.

But my camera messed up while uploading the pictures to the computer.

So there is no post today.

10pm