Kingston Family Vineyards Bayo Oscuro Syrah and Chocolate Cupcakes

Monday, September 26, 2011


I don't make cakes. As you can probably see from this blog thus far, my propensity for making cakes, well...let's just say it doesn't exist. In fact I might as well have been la hija del Monstruo de las Galletas. Because that's what I make. Cookies. Cookies, cookies, and more cookies!

But not for my friend Micah's birthday. Cookies would never do. It would have to be a cake. And since it was his 21st birthday, preferably a cake with alcohol. I toyed with doing a rum cake, but then I remembered the recipe for Bizcocho al vino tinto which I saw on Mercado Calabajío last summer. I had really wanted to make it then but, the problem was, I didn't have any wine last summer. Luckily that was cured by my employment by a winery this summer.  Kingston Family Vineyards to be exact! And suddenly there was wine. Very good wine.

So I decided to use some for Micah's 21st birthday cake. But measurement conversions are always difficult from the metric system or the way they make things in every other country but the U.S. (or at least I think, maybe Canada uses cups...) In any case, I'm still not exactly sure, by weighing everything I guess, a phenomenon which I never witnessed in Spain, no doubt due to the fact that my host mom was no baker. In fact there were no sweet things in the house unless I baked them. Just these sort of orange flavored cookies which said “Digestive” on them. But I digress.

In any case, Micah's birthday cake, sad to say, was something of a disaster. It looked pretty good, but looks are deceptive. The batter was too dry and then I over baked the cake. On top of that the chocolate wine ganache simply didn't taste anything like wine and there wasn't enough of it. Sigh. Not one of my finer baking moments.

However, I was determined to get it right to share it with my wonderful coworkers at Kingston! So, for my last couple of days at the winery, I decided to make this cake in cupcake form and do things a bit differently. I added a bit more wine to the batter, I fluffed the egg whites more (aka I followed the directions better), I made a red wine reduction for the ganache and I doubled the ganache recipe. Wow. Lots of corrections. And low and behold, the cupcakes (unlike the original cake) came out stellar. There were rave reviews all around! I think I got it right this time!

Kingston Family Vineyards Wine Cupcakes (based on Bizcocho al vino tinto by Mercado Calabajío)
Ingredients
4 eggs
1 cup of cocoa powder (I used Hershey's)
1 cup of flour
14 tablespoons of softened butter (awkward amount, I know)
3/4 cup of red wine (preferrably Kingston Family Vineyards  Bayo Oscuro Syrah!) :)
3/4 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of baking powder

Directions
1) Preheat the oven to 350ºF
2) Separate the egg whites and the egg yolks into two separate mixing bowls.
3) Using a hand mixer (or a stand mixer if you're lucky enough to have one!) whip the egg whites until they are almost snow-like but haven't yet turned into meringue. (I suggest looking at the pictures on Mercado Calbajío for points of reference, even if you can't read Spanish)
4) Add the sugar to the egg yolks and mix with a fork.  Then, a little at a time, mix in the very softened (but not melted) butter.
5) Add the egg whites to the egg yolk mixture and mix well.
6) Next, add the cocoa powder and mix before adding the wine.
7) Combine the flour and baking powder in a small bowl and add to the cocoa mixture a bit at a time until just incorporated. Be careful not to overmix!
8) For the cupcakes, line a muffin tin with cupcake liners and fill each one about 2/3 of the way full. Or if you're making a cake (and I add this sheerly because I find it entertaining), butter or spray a 9inch round pan with cooking spray (a "great invention" which it seems they have only just discovered in Spain based on Mercado Calabajío's comments and the suggestion of buying it on theamericastore.com)
9) Bake for 10-15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out with just a few crumbs.

Kingston Family Vineyards Wine Ganache (based on the ganache for Brownies with Chocolate Wine Ganache by Diana's Desserts)
Ingredients
10oz dark chocolate (I used a bag of Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips)
1/2 cup of red wine
6 tablespoons of cream

Directions
1) In a small saucepan, reduce 1/2 cup of the same wine you used in the cupcakes, to two tablespoons.  Or, you can just add 2 tablespoons of the red wine instead of reducing it. Though it lends a different flavor to the chocolate ganache, it's still good.
2) Whisk all ingredients in small saucepan (or double boiler) over medium-low heat until melted and smooth.
3) Remove from heat and set aside.  Allow the ganache to solidify a bit before pouring or scooping a generous amount onto the top of the cupcakes.
4) Let the ganache set up, preferrably overnight, before serving.
5) Enjoy as your friends, family, and coworkers ooh and aww over the decadence of these cupcakes.

Chewy Chocolate White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Thursday, September 22, 2011



It was a long Sunday at work and all I wanted to do was sit down. But Micah reminded me that we had lots of ingredients to get through before the end of the summer when my friends move out of their house and go home for the month before school starts. We started halfway through the summer with a ten pound bag of sugar which Micah invested in. Sadly got down to just three or four pounds. I'd like to say that lots of it was wasted on experiments that went wrong but I'd guess that those uneaten experiments account for just 4 or 5 cups of that sugar. At the most. Meaning we consumed the rest and are still continuing to consume it.

Fortunately, it was not I who was eating these cookies but my coworkers. I decided that since my boss is always bringing in food for us (and I am always eating it) that I should bring something for my coworkers. After all, I bake all the time, why not? So I took about 14 cookies (which sparked outrage from Micah who thought I was stealing all his cookies) and which made me think that with just three other coworkers I would have enough after work to take home to my aunt and even take some to another friend. Wrong. These cookies were devoured. My boss marveled at the texture of them and a coworker asked me if they were from a box. To which my boss said, “I'm really good at making those slice and bakes, I know exactly how long to bake them for.” Sigh. Someone needs to teach him how to cook. In the mean time, I think I'll try to keep bringing cookies.

These are super dense chocolate cookies even without using Dutch press cocoa or the Hershey's special dark cocoa powder that some other bakers like the Brown Eyed Baker or Two Peas and their Pod suggest but the white chocolate chips seemed to balance the chocolate out nicely.

Chewy Chocolate White Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Ingredients
1-1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup dutch-process cocoa* ( we used regular Hershey’s)
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cubed and room temp
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/3 cup milk
1-1/2 cups chopped white chocolate (we used white chocolate chips)

*Substituting with natural unprocessed cocoa is not recommended. The Oreo-like flavor comes from the richer dutch-processed cocoa. (We didn't really care about the oreo cookie flavor so we just skipped the expensive dutch press cocoa and used Hershey's, we're college kids, come on.)

Directions
1)Preheat oven to 325 degrees F and line baking sheets with silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
2)Whisk together flour, salt, baking powder and cocoa, and set aside. Beat the butter on medium-high until light and add sugars, creaming well. Add the vanilla and beat until smooth. Add the flour mixture in 2 batches, alternately with the milk in one batch, mixing well. Chill dough for 15 minutes.
3)Scoop the dough onto a parchment (yeah parchment! great investment)- or silpat-lined cookie sheet, press down on them slightly, and bake for 13-15 minutes. Let the cookies cool completely on the cookie sheet and store in an air-tight container.
4) Share with coworkers! (and don't plan to have leftovers)

World Peace Cookies (And the run to the finish in the summer cookie spree)

Friday, September 16, 2011



A couple of Sundays ago, I returned home to my friend's house to find them all playing video games (surprise!) and joined them in sitting on the couch. Then suddenly the video games became a truly awful movie which sadly featured James Franco, Natalie Portman, and Zooey de Chanel, among others. Not wanting to watch it, and instead wanting to take advantage of all the ingredients we had to use up in my friends' summer house before they move out, I was relieved when Micah asked if I would want to make something. “You don't want to watch this?” I asked laughingly, to which I received a look which clearly said, no. Heck no. So we left the showing of the dreadful movie and go to work on these World Peace Cookies.

After making these cookies, I'm really unsure as to why we were not constantly stocked with parchment paper this summer. For the first time all summer, the bottoms of our cookies were not burned, even with our not so good baking sheets. It was amazing! All thanks to Simon who had the impulse to make toffee and ended up purchasing not just parchment paper but a candy thermometer. Now maybe we can make the delicious Brown Sugar buttercream frosting my sister told me about or even tempered chocolate for these amazing looking chocolate cups we've been wanting to make! Anyway, back to these cookies. So while I don't quite think they'll bring world peace with their deliciousness, they were pretty good and as Micah said, it was just what he wanted.

A note: Though it says you should refrigerate these for 3 hours before slicing and baking, in our eagerness to eat these cookies we skipped this step and simply made the cookies of flattened down balls of dough. (Lets be real, Micah wanted his chocolateness and he wanted it now so he put these cookies in the freezer to cool them down faster).  Despite our shortcut methods, they still tasted delicious to me and I liked the fact that they didn't have the store-bought slice and bake look of the cookies when I made them last summer. Plus we got to eat them sooner. Win on all fronts.

World Peace Cookies (found in many locations on the web but we found it here)

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick plus 3 tablespoons (11 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt (this is essential)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or a generous 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips (we used regular chocolate chips and it worked fine though I suppose if you're slicing these it might be better if they're smaller...)

Directions
1) Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together. (I'm always too lazy to sift so I skipped the sifting and just mixed these dry ingredients together before adding them in step 3)
2) Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add both sugars, the salt and vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes more.
3)Turn off the mixer. Pour in the dry ingredients, drape a kitchen towel over the stand mixer to protect yourself and your kitchen from flying flour and pulse the mixer at low speed about 5 times, a second or two each time. Take a peek — if there is still a lot of flour on the surface of the dough, pulse a couple of times more; if not, remove the towel. Continuing at low speed, mix for about 30 seconds more, just until the flour disappears into the dough — for the best texture, work the dough as little as possible once the flour is added, and don’t be concerned if the dough looks a little crumbly. Toss in the chocolate pieces and mix only to incorporate.
4) Turn the dough out onto a work surface, gather it together and divide it in half. Working with one half at a time, shape the dough into logs that are 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months. If you’ve frozen the dough, you needn’t defrost it before baking — just slice the logs into cookies and bake the cookies 1 minute longer.) (As previously mentioned, we were too lazy to do this)

Baking preparations
1) Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.
2) Using a sharp thin knife, slice the logs into rounds that are 1/2 inch thick. (The rounds are likely to crack as you’re cutting them — don’t be concerned, just squeeze the bits back onto each cookie.) Arrange the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch between them.
3) Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12 minutes — they won’t look done, nor will they be firm, but that’s just the way they should be. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies rest until they are only just warm, at which point you can serve them or let them reach room temperature. (or put them in the freezer if you're impatient...)

Sheer Deliciousness

Thursday, September 8, 2011























I knew that the spice mill I bought (aka a cheap coffee grinder) would come in handy again. This time it was not used for spices but to puree the beautiful raspberries which I used in this delicious cupcake recipe. The other day Micah said he had extra raspberries (Who ever has extra raspberries? this concept is totally foreign to me) and he wanted a recipe to use them up so he asked me to find one. This cupcake recipe was just the right thing. We had all of the ingredients minus a little powdered sugar and more berries. So Micah and I went down the road to this little store that sells all kinds of fruit. It's great, a classy version of a roadside stand they also sell cheese, bread, baked goods, and dried fruit and nuts. Amazing. And that's not the best part. They have samples. Of everything. You can try literally every fruit you're thinking about buying. Plus most of the vegetables. So I naturally tried every fruit in the place and the berries we ended up buying, several times. Then we brought home our wares and began making these delicious cupcakes. The one thing that bothered me is that the frosting didn't have quite the consistency it was supposed to. It was a little too runny. But no matter, these cupcakes still taste absolutely amazing. We baked them just right, a first, in this oven, and they're soft and beautiful on the inside. Sure, they're not that pretty and Micah wouldn't let me add more than a pound of powdered sugar to the frosting (which calls for 1-3lbs) citing the fact that we were going to get diabetes if we added more so I relented and we didn't. It also made the berry flavor a bit more intense so I guess that was good.

Fresh Berry Cupcakes (from The Cooking Photographer)

Use the best quality berries you can get. They are the stars in these moist cupcakes. By letting the berry puree macerate for a day, the sugars will release making these cupcakes much better. (I skipped this step but the cupcakes were still delicious)

Ingredients
2/3 cup whole fresh or frozen strawberry puree, or any berry of choice pureed with juices
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, very soft
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 cup half & half or whole milk
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 ¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Instructions
1. Gather enough thawed or fresh berries to make the puree plus more for the frosting (below). Then completely process the berries in a food processor (or a bit at a time in a coffee grinder, sacrilege, I know) and store in a covered bowl in the refrigerator for a day to let the sugars release. If using berries with seeds like raspberries or blackberries, strain the puree through a fine mesh sieve before refrigerating.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with 12 muffin liners, or lightly butter and flour the tin.

3. In a stand mixer, or with a hand mixer and a large bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and salt together until mixed well. Then add the eggs, vanilla extract, and almond extract and beat until mixed well. Add the half & half or milk and berry puree and beat until mixed. Add the cornstarch and baking powder and mix to incorporate. Then add the flour and beat on medium speed for 30 seconds.

4. With an ice-cream scoop, divide the batter among the muffin tins. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes or until no longer wet looking and comes free of crumbs when tested with a toothpick.

5. Cool completely before frosting.

Strawberry or Any Berry Frosting 
Frosting can be as thick and dense or as fluffy and light as you like by adding more or less powdered sugar. Play around with the amount and see what works for you. (As previously mentioned, we used just a pound of powdered sugar)

Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, very soft
¼ cup cream cheese, very soft
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 to 1/2 cup of the strawberry/berry puree to taste
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
1/8 teaspoon strawberry extract (Use only if your frosting needs a little more flavor, hopefully you won’t need it)
Powdered sugar, between 1 and 3 pounds depending on consistency preferences

Instructions
1. With a stand mixer or a hand mixer, beat all the ingredients together adding the powdered sugar a few cups at a time until desired consistency is reached. Berry flavor will come out even more after sitting for a bit. Flavor with strawberry extract only if needed. (We didn't need any because our berries were so good) Use immediately and store extra covered in the refrigerator.

2. To frost these, I filled a plastic bag and with frosting and cut off a corner to create a hole about ¾ of an inch wide.  I then pressed a large dollop of frosting onto the middle of the cupcake and then followed the instructions of the Cooking Photographer to gently tilt the cupcakes so the frosting would be moved to the edges. Which it did since it was a bit thin.

3) Top with a fresh raspberry for decoration. Success!

Crostini with Brie and Tomatoes

Friday, September 2, 2011


It was a Friday evening and my friend Dan and I had decided to make dinner. We all needed a trip to the store so Dan, Manoli, and I all jumped in the car and headed to Safeway. Wandering around for a bit, not sure of what to make that would not cost me very much money, I settled on sweet potatoes for sweet potato fries and a thin loaf of bread to make crostini. Pretty cheap. I then decided to make use of the beautiful heirloom tomatoes my boss had so generously given me, and the brie cheese which Dan had donated to me, in order to make us some appetizers while Dan prepared the real meal. Not everyone was a fan (Manoli doesn't like brie and Micah doesn't like tomatoes) but I think Dan and I enjoyed them. Or at least I did. Well anyway, I thought they were good and they were super simple as a nice appetizer...

Crostini with Brie and Tomatoes

Ingredients
Crostini
8 slices of french bread
8 slices of brie cheese

Tomato topping
1 fresh tomato, diced
2 teaspoons parsley
1 teaspoon oregano
2 teaspoons olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
1) Preheat the oven to 375º F.
2) Slice the bread on the diagonal, into ½ inch slices. Top with a piece of brie cheese. Place baguette slices face side up on a baking sheet. Bake for 4-5 minutes, or until the brie is melted. Remove from oven.
3) Combine all Tomato topping ingredients in a small pan over medium-high heat. Simmer for about 3 minutes. Remove from heat.
4) Top crostini with about 1 tablespoon of the tomato. Serve immediately.