Jan 3rd, 2011 by ++Mira++ | 24 Comments
My last Molecular Gastronomy post I made nutella powder using tapioca maltodextrin as part one of this dessert. I wanted to create a sort of deconstructed banana nutella crepe.
So to start you just need the nutella powder, a medium banana, teaspoon sugar (or more if you want it more sweet), 1/3 cup milk (or more if you like it creamy) and 1g agar agar.
Puree the banana.
Put it on the stove. Add the agar agar, milk, sugar and bring to a simmer.
Make sure to keep whisking since the agar can tend to clump.
Pour it into a mold or bowl or plate or whatever. I wanted to make cylinders so I poured it into a paper cup that I cut after to remove the block. Then I used a small cookie cutter to cut out a cylinder.
Best way to present these are in a spoon, so you just end up putting everything
I had my hubby taste it without knowing what it is. He was a little worried at first, but after it was in his mouth he let out an “mmmmm..” which is always a good thing. He said it tastes like a banana split! Have people try it without telling them what it is and watch their reactions. Its so much fun!
P.S. My NIKON CAMERA GIVEAWAY is still going on here.
Dec 18th, 2010 by ++Mira++ | 19 Comments
Tapioca Maltodextrin is SUPER easy to work with. You just have to understand a couple of main concepts to be successful at creating a powder and not turning it into goo.
I explain it in depth in the beginning of this post. Basically, you have to use it with something fat based that has no water in it. Examples: Peanut butter, Tahini, and Nutella!
I played around with the peanut butter before in this post. This time it was my beloved Nutella’s turn. I mean, who doesn’t love nutella?
The amount of maltodextrin you use should be 40% of how much nutella you use.
In my case I did 10g nutella, 4 g maltodextrin (I only wanted a small amount). Sometimes I find you can get away with adding less.
The rest is simple. Just put them in a processor and blend away.
Till you get the consistency you want. Some say to pass it thru a seive. I haven’t found this necessary.
Its also best to store the powder so it doesn’t dry it. I put mine in test tubes.
Classic flavor combo : nutella and bananas. More to come in another post.
One tube broke. There is beauty in destruction at times.
Sprinkle this on anything, or just carry it around and enjoy it like a pixie stick.
Sep 15th, 2010 by ++Mira++ | 3 Comments
After our dinner at Los Galanes, we walked across the street to La Gloria Bakery. It’s the perfect way to end any dinner in Mexican Town.
It’s a quaint little shop with freshly made Mexican and Italian pastries that are displayed in wood and glass cabinetry. It has a HUGE selection (as you will see from the gazillion photos I took), and the prices are unbelievable. If you walk in with $2, you can usually walk out with at least 3 desserts!
Do you remember my disdain with this place? You will find none of that here!
I don’t really know the names of everything below, I’ll let the photos speak for them selves
My hubby loves the coconutty strawberry cake thingies below. And guess what? It’s on fifty cents a piece, and its huge! Yeh, I said 50 cents. You can’t even buy a stick of gum for 0.50 dollars, let alone a yummy coconuty thingie. Actually you could buy a stick of gum. But only one stick.
More yumminess…
I have no idea what there are, but the cracked outside is so intriguing.
And they have pink hearts.
I had a churro, fitting for Mexican Town in Detroit I know. It was the end of the day, so it wasn’t as fresh, (I know I have to complain about something), so I wasn’t 100% sold on it like other things I tried.
My hubbys strawberry coconutty thingie was outta this world. Try it.
Actually, take 1 dollar (forget McDonald’s dollar menu), yes, only ONE dollar, buy two of them, and give one to someone you love. Or eat both. I won’t tell.
Aug 6th, 2010 by ++Mira++ | 4 Comments
Last Royal Oak visit, we decided to get some Popcorn at Dale & Thomas. Purple spoon has opened in the same space and I guess its a knock off of pinkberry. I’ve never had the latter so I can’t compare the two.
I really loved the signs, design and feel for the place. There was a huge image of a corn field that was lit and it set a light and happy tone for the location.
Many popcorn flavors like you see below, from BBQ to cheddar-chipotle. We tend to be sweet salty luvin kinda ppl so we went for…
…The chocolate Chunk Caramel. We ate it for 2 days, and it was divine. The cookies n creme would be interesting to try next time.
Very cute decor, very bad acting on my part.
I loved how they presented the popcorn, in the farmers wood buckets.
In the back the popcorn was popping away, the smell wafting beautifully thru the room.
They had a turning urn thing that you add the flavor to and it keeps rotating to cover all the popcorn.
They made the chocolate caramel by drizzling it all over a pan of popcorn, and letting set.
It was crunchy, fresh, sweet, salty and perfect. I loved that there were big chunks of chocolate here and there. It was a really good treat.
As for the Purple Spoon part of it, the decor is a bit more modern and minimalistic. It’s theme doesn’t mesh 100% with the farmers theme of the popcorn part, but it’s not too bad. Also, if you buy the popcorn first, they will give you a coupon (1$ off) of the icecream.
Positives is the low calorie. Negatives are that flavors are limited, but they cycle them. I had the original tart. It was good. Not great, but good.
You can add toppings for 75 cents each. I’m not a toppings fan in general, but if I were going to try something it would be the fruit or candy. I would skip the cereal.
The frozen yogurt was good, but I don’t see myself ever craving it. I’m a bit of an ice cream snob i guess.
As for the popcorn, I loved it, and my glass ball says there is more salty sweet popcorniness in my future.
always uncut.
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!
Jun 12th, 2010 by ++Mira++ | 19 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:
- makes powders
- hates water (becomes gooey with any trace)
- only works with fatty products, low water content
- must never be left uncovered
- 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
- works by absorbing fat and holding it in the powder, to be released on water contact ie. your tongue
Agar Agar:
- red algae extract
- forms gels
- sugar is a promoter
- sets 35-45 degrees celcius
- melts 80- 90 degrees celcius
- dries out if left uncovered. can rehydrate if left in water
- 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
