Orange Honey

The bright citrus notes are perfect for using in place of honey for any recipe, simply adding a light orange highlight. It's a perfect for a garden party, as it's beautiful on cranberry scones, and a perfect addition to tea.  

I personally love Fat Tuesday. I love the name implying that for one day a year it is perfectly acceptable to eat four cupcakes in one sitting without guilt, which I did. It's Fat Tuesday after all! It's required by name! Put down the slim-fast, loosen your belt, and indulge in all the greatness of fat and sugar. Mmmmmm, fat and sugar! It's the kind of holiday I can really get behind, and if lent wasn't attached to it, I'd love it all the more. It's practically a second Thanksgiving, only club style with beads, music, and the obligatory sequined costume parade. But, since they are a packaged deal, I simply have to give up something. I guess since I don't belong to a religion that participates I don't actually have to, but I probably should if for no other reason than to loose the five pounds I gained in one day. 

I've been racking my brain for something amazing to give up, party so I can rub it in peoples faces that I gave up something harder than theirs. I've given up everything from soda and sugar, to television or dating. This year I've had no great ideas. I thought about going Vegan, but with how many times PETA members have ambushed me outside the Metro I simply can't do it, not because I don't love animals, or love Vegans, but because I hate street peddlers pushing their views in my face. How many times do I have to tell you that I do not have a minute to talk to you?! And the poor fellow who read from a script saying "You look like a woman who loves animals!" He asked for it: "YEP! I'm wearing five of them right now." I shouldn't be so brazen, but I get at least three of these people a day between shopping at Whole Foods and going to the Metro. It's gotten rather taxing over the last three years. Trying to come up with the most outrageous responses is all I can do to keep my sanity. 

I also considered giving up sugar again, then I remembered that I have a DC food bloggers dessert night tonight. Fail. Here I am 11 am and undecided. I've already had sugar, and milk so my two fore-runners are out. Thus, I have decided to take the middle ground: No meat. I love meat. It is a sacrifice for me, well not so much poultry. I hate poultry; love pigs, love cows, hate chickens. I figure it will be a good balance as I have been invited to judge a BBQ convention a few weeks after lent ends. I can make up for all my lost meat then.

I lieu of my not eating animals for a while, may I present my first recipe that does not involve an animal: Orange Honey. Thankfully bee labor does not count when you are cooking with honey. The bright citrus notes are perfect for using in place of honey for any recipe, simply adding a light orange highlight. It's a perfect for a garden party, as it's beautiful on cranberry scones, and a perfect addition to tea.

Enjoy! 


Can be used for:

• orange honey caramel corn

Orange Honey

(makes a half pint orange honey)

1 1/3 cup orange juice

1 tablespoon orange zest

1 cup honey

Preheat oven to 200. Put a half pint jar, lid and ring on a baking sheet in the oven.

Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan. Cook over medium heat until thickened and a candy thermometer reads 220 (about half an hour).

Pour orange honey into the prepared jar. Wipe the bring of any sprills and place lid and ring around securely. Invert the jar, lid side down, until cooled.

Will store at least one year, if not longer. 

Orange Clove Snickerdoodles

Another use for orange sugar, these cookies are a new spin on the original cinnamon sugar snack. Using orange sugar and cloves gives this recipe and entirely new zest of flavor. 

I'm happy to say that this morning Gourmet's Live Blog linked to my orange sugar cubes! I'm happy to see them get a little credit, and to get to use them in more and more recipes.

Today I present to you the orange clove snickerdoodle! My latest little creation! I had my roommates do a taste test because cloves are such a tricky little ingredient. I swear just one itty bitty molecule too much and it will ruin everything. Our test was inconclusive however. Some of us liked  the cookies with a little less clove, and some of us liked the batch that had a little more clove. Boo. I was hoping it would be definitive, but everyone's palates are different. Such is the spice of life.....oh, that was a bad pun.

I'm not really thrilled at the inconclusive amount of cloves for the recipe. But really, odds are you'll just change it anyway! :) I know I do. Like most home chefs, those measurements are just a guideline. If it says 1/4 that means a little, and if it says 2 that means a lot....somewhere Butchie just snorted and said something along the lines of [The hell you are so lenient in the kitchen. You watch your measurements more than a prima ballerina with an eating disorder! Remember the flying teaspoon?"] Okay, so her insert would have been better.....but without getting sidetracked further.....use your own judgement on how cloves you like. I recommend baking a test cookie.

Cheers!

Orange Clove Snickerdoodles

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup orange sugar**
1 egg
1 1/3 cup flour
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. kosher salt
2 tablespoons orange sugar**
1/4 tsp. ground cloves, or to taste

Preheat the oven to 400.

In a stand mixer combine the butter, sugar and egg thoroughly. In a bowl sift together the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Slowly add them to the wet ingredients, until a dough is formed.

Shape teaspoons of dough into rounded balls. Roll in the orange sugar and clove mixture.

Place two inches apart on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes.

**If using orange sugar cubes, grind cubes in a food processor to create orange granulated sugar. Measurements are for granulated orange sugar.

Ginger Macarons with Orange Sugar Buttercream

My first stop for baking with my orange sugar simply had to be buttercream frosting to pair with ginger macarons.

 Baking with a new ingredient is always so much fun. Lately I've been in a macaron making mood. Ever since Christmas and making macarons with my mother I've been wanting to make more and keep perfecting this process.

It seems like every time I post a macaron recipe I get a lot of comments on the post about being scared to make a macaron! Let me clear this up: making a macaron is NOT hard. It's actually relatively simple, and takes very little hands on time! Can you whip egg whites until they have soft peaks? Can you sift and fold? Can you pour out a tester teaspoon to see if the batter will flatten slightly? Yes? Then you're going to be just fine!

If it makes you feel any better, the vast majority of the macarons I see sold around DC aren't done perfectly either. Their batter is undermixed. How can I tell? The lumpy tops are a dead give away. The batter never flattened properly. I have made that mistake myself. If you look at my chinese five spice macarons you can see that they are actually just slightly under-mixed. Is it a learning process? Sure! But so was cake right? Or making caramel? or Toffee?

Want me to talk you into it? Shoot me an email! Trust me, you'll be just fine! .....well.....one weird rule: if it's humid, don't bother. At least that's what I hear. I've just always followed that rule. One of these days I'll be a rebel and make macarons during a horrible rain storm.

Now as for using my orange sugar to make a buttercream, this took a bit of pondering. I had to put forth some effort to grind my sugar into powdered sugar. It took longer than I wanted it to. I'm not the most patient of people. Quality time with my food processor is not really what I look for in a Tuesday night. I succeeded. The orange sugar will in fact, after a while, turn into a powdered sugar that can be used in buttercream! So happy!

Hope you enjoy this little recipe, and more importantly I hope that if macarons scare you, you'll face the fear. They are a wonderful cookie!

Ginger Macarons

100 g. egg whites

25 g. white sugar

200 g. powdered sugar

110 g. ground almond meal

1 tsp. ground ginger
dried orange zest (optional)

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. 

In a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites into a foam, gradually adding the sugar. Continue to beat into a meringue. 

Sift together powdered sugar, ginger, and almond meal to remove any clumps. Gently sift into meringue gradually folding in, usually as few strokes as possible. Test a teaspoon of batter by pouring onto a plate. If it flatten slightly, you’re ready. If it remains stiff, give it a few more strokes. Err on the side of under-mixed.

Moving quickly fill a disposable pastry bag with the macaron batter with a 3/4 inch wide cut end. Pipe small rounds one inch in diameter and one inch apart, onto the baking sheets. Allow to rest for half an hour. Sprinkle the tops with dried orange zest.

Preheat the oven to 300. 

Bake for 15-20 minutes. My experience is that if the macarons are hard to remove from the paper, they need more time to bake. Allow to cool on the pan and then remove. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator until ready to fill. 

Orange Sugar Buttercream 

1/2 cup butter
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup confectioner’s sugar

1 cup powdered orange sugar (pulse sugar cubes in a food processor)

Whip with a paddle attachment: butter, and vanilla until creamy then whip in the sugars.

Orange Sugar

Orange flavored sugar is wonderful accompaniment to a cup of tea or way to perk up a favorite recipe. Orange sugar cubes would be a simple but impressive addition to high tea, or bottled gift for a tea lover. 

For a while now I've been wanting to make flavored sugars (it counts as a condiment for tea right?) and this weekend I finally had all of half an hour to try it out, in between the farmers markets and a glass blowing class (yes, I went to a glass blowing class and it was SO fun). I tried to do some reading on how to make flavored sugars and it turns out....there really isn't any. Okay, there is, but it can be summed up in a few words "add zest to sugar and let it sit for a few weeks." I actually did that a few weeks ago, and was not incredibly impressed by the results. Sure, the sugar had a little hint of orange...but it just wasn't enough. So, I had a little epiphany. You have to make sugar cubes by adding liquid so why not use orange juice!

To make regular sugar cubes you add a tablespoon of liquid to a cup of sugar and mix it so it feels like wet sand, shape it, and bake at 200 degrees to dry them out. The principle was so simple! So I tried it out using orange juice instead of water. I added some zest for kicks and giggles. The cubes were lovely, but didn't really have the zing I was looking for. It was time for round two: why not use an orange juice reduction? Et voila!

I'm already in LOVE with adding this orange sugar to my pomegranate tea, and all this week I'm going to be using it to bake into recipes! So excited to experiment with my newest ingredient!

Cheers!

Can be used for:

• orange clove snickerdoodles
• orange sugar buttercream

Orange Sugar

1/4 cup orange juice
1 tsp. dried orange peel or 1 tblsp. fresh orange zest
1 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 200.

In a small pan over medium heat, simmer orange juice and zest. Cook down until the mixture measure one tablespoon.

In a stand mixer, on a medium speed add sugar and a few drops of the orange juice reduction at a time. From here you can get creative. Using molds, ice cube trays or, as I did, shape into a rectangular disk about a fourth of an inch thick and place on a  cookie sheet, cutting into cubes and gently spreading out to about two inches apart. Bake for at least 15 minutes.** Allow to cool completely and store in an airtight container.

**I GENTLY flipped my sugar cubes after about 13 minutes so that the bottom of the cube was exposed and able to dry more completely, but I did loose a few sugar cubes in this manner. Be very gentle!

Disclaimer: My understanding through learning to can, is that 200 degree cooking kills bacteria and that sugar is a preserver in any event. So long as the cubes are thoroughly dried out I can't foresee the cubes going bad. Sugar and dehydrated orange juice seems like it should have a healthy shelf life. I'm keeping a few cubes in my cupboard to see if anything goes amiss with them. I'll update this post when I have a conclusion. If you're leery store the cubes in the freezer. :)

Mango Orange Ice Cream Floats

Lately I've been craving bright and tropical flavors. I made mango orange ice cream and paired with ginger ale to create a vibrant drink for Iron Chef Mango!

One line reminder to vote for my entry in the California Raisin Let's re-Do Lunch Competition! Vote Daily!

I think everyone in DC is feeling about the same way I am. The clouds, the rain, the cold....we're done. We survived Snowmaggedon last year, and we're just not ready for anything resembling cold weather yet. I didn't really realize it until I sat down and thought about how nobody really wants to eat pumpkin, or cranberries. I feel like if we give in too much to these holiday flavors then we will be starting that slow death march to the bitter cold of February. I'm not ready. 

In a state of denial, our monthly Iron Chef potluck was themed for mango! And thank heaven next month will be lime! We're keeping the food tropical and maybe if we crank up the heater enough we might forget for an hour of two that a bitter cold winter is right around the corner. 

Wow. That was a bit of a downer. Let's get back to yummy food. 

My friends Tristan and Rachel, from the amazing weekend of pumpkin fun and a New England road trip, brought some fierce competition. Tristan told me about a year ago his only goal is to beat me. Just once. Congratulations! You succeeded! It will never happen again... just kidding! I love you! And since we both brought mango drinks it was a fair fight. Ra-stan...no, maybe, Trichel? Hmmm....either way, their team made a fabulous mango lassi, based off of a few different recipes they'd found online! 

The evening was a great success with mango drinks all around! 

Mango Orange Ice Cream Floats

2 cups Mango/Orange Juice

2 eggs

3/4 cups sugar

1 tsp. lemon flavoring

2 cups cream

1 cup milk 

In a small saucepan, boil the mango/orange juice until reduced to about 1/3 of a cup. Allow to cool slightly.

In a stand mixer combine the eggs and sugar. Beat for one minute until light and fluffy. 

Gently mix in the cream, milk, lemon flavoring and mango orange syrup. 

Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker. Allow the ice cream to churn until finished and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions.