Mexican Banana Icecream

Jun 22nd, 2010 by ++Mira++ | 7 Comments

If any of you watch Jeff Dunham, you know of Jose, the Jalapenjo on a stick. His voice is stuck in my head as I make these. “kh-ellloo…I am kh-0se, kh-alapenjo…on a stick” If you don’t, you HAVE to click here to watch. You just have to see it. I said you have to.

 If you don’t I will find you and tickle you with a feather till you pee, or die, whichever comes first.

So…basically… when your mother in-law comes over and launches a bunch of bananas on your counter do u make A) smoothies B) bananas foster C) Banana Icecream (please pretend you didn’t read the title of this post…haha). If you know me, you know I love any frozen yummy wummy thing. This is easy peezy breezy, fast, very healthy and yummy alternative to  icecream. It’s lactose free, gluten free (if u dont include the tortilla chips), and very low in calories. Totally guilt free(but I never feel guilty about eating.lol).

Use some bamboo skewers and run it carefully thru the banana.

Now at this step, you can either  freeze the bananas first (at least an hour, but not too long because they become really hard), and then move on to the next step (chocolate), or, you can do the next step and then freeze. I like to freeze first then dip in chocolate (so you can actually taste the chocolate).

This is a case where double dipping is not only allowed, but encouraged!

Melt and temper some chocolate and add some chilipowder, some cinnamon, some nutmeg, some black pepper and some smoked paprika. Sweet and spicy!

 

I LOVE eating these straight off the stick, but that day, i had company coming, and wanted to serve in a plate, so I improvised a way to keep the chocolate from going everywhere before I slipped the banana off into a plate.

The final touch, some cruched tortilla chips. Perfect touch of salt and crunch!

They were gobbled up too fast for me to take a final pic, but believe me, this is a crowd pleaser, and totally kid friendly, and easy for them to make.

Bananas freeze amazingly well and end up having a texture like icecream. You HAVE to try this!

Molecular: Peanut Butter powder & jelly noodles

Jun 12th, 2010 by ++Mira++ | 10 Comments

 Before I go into my latest molecular gastronomy shinanigans I want to take a moment to explain some of the properties of Tapioca Maltodextrin and Agar Agar, the 2 main components I worked with for this recipe.

Tapioca Maltodextrin:

1. makes powders
2. hates water (becomes gooey with any trace)
3. only works with fatty products, low water content
4. must never be left uncovered
5. must be 40% of final prouct. Meaning if you use 200g for eg of peanut butter, you must use 40% of 200g, which is 80g maltodextrin
6. works by absorbing fat and holding it in the powder, to be released on water contact ie. your tongue

Agar Agar:

1. red algae extract
2. forms gels
3. sugar is a promoter
4. sets 35-45 degrees celcius
5. melts 80- 90 degrees celcius
6. dries out if left uncovered. can rehydrate if left in water
7. must make up at least 0.2% of final product, depending on how firm you want it to be

You can find out alot more (where i got most of this info) via this great primer of hydrocolloids on Khymos.org.

So, on to my fooling around

I wanted to have a play on the traditional peanut butter and jelly, by making it taste exactly like that but look completely different. I figured a noodle inspired dish was the way to go, so strawberry noodles with peanut butter ‘parmesan’ powder on top. It also plays with the noodles being red like they had marinara in them or something. Maybe i’m stretching.

Here we go!

Started off with 6 tablespoons strawberry spread, and 200 ml water. 

Let the strawberry jelly melt in the simmering water, then strain. 

 

 

Measure out around 1.5 g Agar and bring the mixture back up to a boil.

 

I used a squeezy bottle to inject the strawberry jelly liquid into a tube. Make sure to do all this while the liquid is warm/hot so it doesnt start setting on you. 

 

Place the tube in some icewater and let it cool for a few minutes till it all sets. 

 

Grab a food processor, add 20 g peanut butter, and 8 g tapioca maltodextrin, and let it rip, scraping off any peanut butter on the sides. 

 

 

You should be left with a powder. If its still not as powdery as you like you can add a little more maltodextrin.

 I used a syringe to push out the noodles from the tube.  

Loosely plated them with the peanut butter sprinkled on top. 

 

Decided to try out some bread with it. 

So, i just added some to the plate. Now in this first preperation, my noodles didn’t come out as chewy as i wanted so it was easy to mop them up with the bread spheres.  

This is what a mini bread with the jelly and peanut butter powder looked like. It tasted absolutely like a PBJ sandwich! 

Next, I added a bit more agar, so it was maybe like 2g total, and the strawberry jelled harder and was more noodle like. I think next time I would add a bit less so its a bit softer to maybe loop around in the middle of a bowl to make it really look like noodles. 

 

Decided against the random display and wanted a cleaner look. So, I lined them up. 

Sprinkled some peanut butter crack on top! 

Was very happy with the final product. This is a really straightforward recipe for a beginner. I think the agar amount still needs a little tweaking, but the powder was spot on! Please rate this so I get an idea if people like it

Alice in Wonderland + giveaway

Mar 6th, 2010 by ++Mira++ | 50 Comments

I have really been looking forward to the movie, and in honor of that I decided to throw a little tea party of my own. I made fondant faces for some cupcakes.So, here we go!

For the Red Queen, start with molding a face.

Make a heart shape, and attach the face.

I added little swirls for texture and curles.

Mad Hatter was next!

I know it look like bozo the clown lol! be patient…

I colored some fondant green and brown to get this hue. I made a hat shape and wrapped the color fondant around it.

Next, I rolled out a thin brown piece and draped it to finish off the hat.

With scissors I snipped the hair on the hatter for his wacky style.

then added brows and tah dah!

Next, came Alice. Some simple blod hair, and I added strands for interest.

The cat and its famous grin.

Also snipped the edges with scissors to seem like fur.

Rabbit was pretty straightforward. Looks a bit like playboy rabbit. The details will make it pop.

The White Queen, oh, sooo….white.

I used Gourmet Writer Food Decorator Pens for all the details on the face. They are amazing and i use them for lots of things.  This is what I ended up with:

Made some wee pertinent nicknaks also decorated with Food Decorator Pens

Then I was on to bake a cake. But not just any cake. I wanted to Bake the Wilton Giant Cupcake! For the cake, I used this recipe from Wilton.

Filled the pan and off into the oven it went, at 350 F for 70 min. Yes, 70 min.lol

Once done, this is what they looked like

I attached the two parts with buttercream

Made some mini confetti cupcakes to go along with it in some Bake it Pretty pink wrappers.

Added the final details:

“You’re invited to a tea party…” attached to a key

This was my hubby’s fav lol. sorry, couldn’t help it

Actually this was his fav, and mine too. The Mad Hatter was mad as hell and divine!

I used some candle holders I had to hold the cupcakes. I loved em, do you?

Also, I got the idea from Bake it Pretty to add sugar flowers to the tea. loved it.

This was delish, and fun. I can’t wait to see the movie.

I love Bake it Pretty, and above I used the confetti hearts, pink wrappers and Wilton’s Fondant that I had purchased from them a while ago. So, continuing my giveaways….enter to win a

$25 Bake it Pretty giftcard!

Each one of the following you do, you get more chances to win! So here is what you can do to enter:

1. Answer the following in the comments: If you saw the movie, did you like this new version, or did Burton go off the deep end?
2. Tweet this contest “@Mirauncut is giving away @Bakeitpretty giftcard, enter at www.mirauncut.com”
3. Become a facebook fan
4. Follow me on twitter so u can keep up to date on my giveaways
5. Follow me with google friend connect

Please include in your comment which of the above you did. Contest ends Friday, March 12, 5 p.m.ET.

 This contest has ended. the winner is SARA G! yay! congrats. It was number 51 via random.org

Creme brulee – molecular gastronomy style

Feb 2nd, 2010 by ++Mira++ | 7 Comments

hiya peeps-

I’m sure alot of you have heard the term molecular gastronomy,some chefs hate that term. Well, i don’t care what you call it, but I love the many possibilities it has opened. I have ordered some chemicals and havebeen toying around with tapioca maltodexrin, what that does is it turns fat based stuff to powder.So, it looks completely different, but when you put it in your mouth it melts and tastes like the stuff you put in, so it invokes the memory of that taste without the visual cues. If what you try to pair it with is not fat based it turns to goo. Yucky goo.

What the maltodextrin does is it absorbs the fat molecules and holds them till it contacts water, i.e. your saliva in your mouth.

I decided to make some creme brulee powder. It took some trial and error. I worked out the kinks.

Basically, make the creme brulee mixture according to your favorite recipe, then, instead of popping them into ramekins and in the oven, place the liquid mix into a saucepan and on very very lowwwww (i said LOW!)  heat constantly stir the mixture till alot of the water evaporates and it thickens and becomes pudding like. This could take 15-20  min. Make sure to keep stirring.

Once it’s of pudding like consistancy, put the mixture into a food processor and keep adding tapioca maltodextrin till you have the consistency powder you like.

You will end up adding alot of tapioca compared to how much creme brulee there is. This is normal.

Once it was a powder, I decided to keep what is classic of creme brulee, which is the sugar crust. I made it real thin. All I did was melt sugar on tin foil (i used the creme brulee torch) and slowly peel it off. You will get breakage so trial and error will help.

This is what my end product was. What do you think? As usual, any ideas are welcome

Retro purple circles mini cake

Feb 2nd, 2010 by ++Mira++ | Comment

i don’t know if any of u know about cake girls, but they made a retro inspired cake for a wedding in green, and i loved it so much i decided to make a mini version with my favorite color PURPLE!
I was just playing around with some different backgrounds.

I made the circles with candy melts, ziplocks and i just piped them on parchment paper

THEN i thought there are not enough circles (which also happen to look like boobs) on this thing, so i decided to pimp it out more!

IN case u didnt get enough of the dizzifying effect, this is a picture to surely give u an instant headache! enjoy:)

hope you are having a great day! and thanks for sharing all ur fave sites with me b4.loved em all!
++MIRA++

tulip cake and GIVEAWAY!!

Feb 2nd, 2010 by ++Mira++ | Comment

this is one of my fav color combos and who doesnt love tulips?

in Honor of my giveaway, i made a quick mini man office cake (try saying that 10 times) with some fondant colored pen writers

My little mini office man would like to give away some “Americolor Gourmet writer food decorator pens” in 10 different colors! Ever since i saw them being used by bakerella i had to have them, so i want to share the love.i used them above to draw out my office man.

to enter, just comment below with what your favorite food/dessert website/blog is. For a second entry u can comment on my twitter>>>>go there via the twitter link on the left so u can find out first about my giveaways to come! Contest ends on friday dec/11 at 5 pm ET . will announce the winner on saturday. Goodluck!

entries limited to US residents only

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UPDATED TO ADD: the giveaway is over! drum rolll.llllll…………..winner is Jenniffer from cupadeecakes.blogspot.com ….enjoy ur new decorator pens!

for the rest of my lovely readers i promise alot more giveaways!==========================================

++MIRA++