Chocolate Covered Love

Yes, that is the theme song to Mr. Rogers.

A couple nights ago we were watching YouTube and came across this video, 35 facts about Mr. Rogers.

Apparently Mr. Rogers was the exact same person on and off screen. A genuinely nice person.

We need more of those in the world.

Today's version of Mr. Rogers is Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood on PBS.

Aria's current favorite show. 

It's been a very warm past few days here in Chicago and it has been AMAZING. This whole week is supposed to be in the 60s and possibly even reach 70 degrees. And then the following week is supposed to rain. :( Boo. So we gotta enjoy this weather while it's here. 

We've been taking lots of walks around the neighborhood and to the parks nearby.

Lots of photos in the post. Just warning ya. :)

I was so shocked to see this willow tree along the street - I'm used to seeing them around ponds or down at the beach.

 Hope you are all having a warm and wonderful week as well! 

Eclairs (or Cream Puffs) with Nutella Icing

makes 18

Italian Custard Cream

- 2 1/2 cups whole milk

- 1 TB vanilla extract

- 1 cup sugar

- 3 TB cornstarch

- 5 extra-large egg yolks

- 1 TB salted butter

Choux Pastry Dough

- 1 cup water

- 6 TB (3/4 stick) unsalted butter

- 1/8 tsp salt

- 1 cup flour

- 4 extra-large eggs

Nutella Icing

- 1 1/2 - 2 cups powdered sugar

- 2 TB water

- 2 heaping TB Nutella

Italian Custard Cream

Pour the milk and vanilla in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat.

In a bowl, whisk together the sugar, cornstarch, and egg yolks. Slowly ladle a cup of the milk-vanilla mixture into the bowl and whisk in to temper the eggs.

Add the yolk mixture to the saucepan and whisk over medium heat until thick and creamy. Lower the heat slightly and keep whisking until the custard becomes very thick. 

Remove from heat and add the butter. Continue whisking for several minutes.

Transfer to a bowl. Let cool, then cover with plastic wrap (with the plastic touching the custard surface to prevent a skin from forming), and refrigerate for a least 6 hours.

Choux Pastry Dough
Put the water, butter, and salt in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat.
Add the flour and stir with a wooden spoon until the ingredients come together into a smooth, uniform dough.
Transfer the mixture to the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Start paddling on low speed, then add eggs, one at a time, until thoroughly absorbed, mixing for one minute between eggs. Finish with the final egg and mix for an additional 2 minutes. The dough will be very thick and sticky.
Use the dough immediately. It does not refrigerate well.

Assembly
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Transfer choux dough into a pastry bag fitted with a #6 plain tip (I used a #  star tip instead; you could also use a large ziploc bag with the tip snipped off). The dough should be piped (1 inch wide and 3 inches long*) two inches apart onto parchment paper lined baking sheets.
Bake the eclairs in the oven, in batches if necessary, until they are golden brown and have set enough that you can pick them up easily off the baking sheet; 15 - 20 minutes.
Remove the tray from the oven and let the eclairs cool on the baking sheet for about 20 minutes, you don't need to transfer them to a rack to cool.
Use a serrated knife to slice through the eclairs.
Fill a pastry bag with the custard and pipe the filling into the eclairs (you can use the same bag you used for piping the dough, just rinse it out and dry it first).
Ice the eclairs following the recipe below.

Nutella Icing
 To ice the eclairs, spoon the heaping tablespoons of nutella into a small, microwaveable bowl with the water. Microwave for about a minute to melt the nutella slightly.
Whisk in the sugar until the mixture is uniformly smooth.
Use a spoon or small spatula to use the tops of the eclairs.

Serve the eclairs right away.
They can also be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 2 days or frozen in the freezer for about a month. Eclairs can be eaten straight from the freezer as well if you wish (makes them kind of taste like they are filled with ice cream).

Enjoy!

I originally found this recipe on Pinterest, I changed it up a little bit for my tastes. And the original recipe says that it serves 3-4 but I feel it just makes 2 servings. My pancakes were fairly small, just about 3 to 4 inches across. Plus, they are pretty light so I ate this entire stack myself. :) The compote is absolutely delicious. A perfect blend of tart and sweet; both the cranberry and vanilla flavors equally prominent. I will definitely be making this again.

Chai Pancakes with Cranberry-Vanilla Compote

recipe adapted from here

Pancakes

- 1 1/3 cup milk

- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar

- 1 1/4 cups flour

- 2 tsp baking powder

- 1 tsp baking soda

- pinch of salt

- 1 tsp ground cinnamon

- 1/2 tsp ground ginger

- 1/2 tsp ground cardamom

- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

- pinch of ground cloves

- 2 TB honey

- 1 TB melted coconut oil (or butter), plus more for the pan

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

Compote

- 1 cup fresh (or frozen) cranberries

- 1/3 cup water

- 1/4 cup honey

- 2 tsp vanilla extract

Aria joined me for a few of the photos, of course she had been having fun digging in the dirt, so she's covered head-to-toe.

Cardigan: Wet Seal

Shirt: Gap

Skirt: Body Central

Tights: Target

Shoes: Alex Marie 

photos by Uncaged Photography

Link up with:

This was my first attempt at making doughnuts. I am tentative about frying stuff because I'm always scared of oil flying out of the pan and burning me. Before I fried anything I did some research on the smoking points of different oils, which actually scared me to death because it made me scared of setting the oil on fire. Which of course didn't happen. I used my cast iron dutch oven and my candy thermometer to regulate the temperature of the oil.

I actually made two batches of doughnuts. The first one (the ones with the white sprinkles) I made exactly the way the recipe said to. Except I used lard to fry them, because I had heard lard would make them crispier and less greasy. Unfortunately those did not turn out very well. The lard did not work out at all. It left a thin residue on all the doughnuts which left them tasting very lard-y. 

So for my second batch I used corn oil - which worked much better. I also changed the flavor of the glaze. 

The original recipe is from A Beautiful Mess for Grapefruit Donuts. The grapefruit flavor did not come through very well, in the glaze or the donuts, so for the second batch I made the glaze chai flavored, which tasted much better in my opinion. I also made donut-holes instead of whole donuts, this was just my decision, you can make traditional donuts if you desire.

Chocolate-Strawberry Cupcakes

makes 12 cupcakes

Cupcake batter

- 3/4 cup flour

- 3/4 cup sugar

- 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened to room temp

- 1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

- 1/2 tsp baking soda

- 1/8 tsp baking powder

- 1/4 cup hot water

- 1 extra-large egg

- 1/4 cup buttermilk

Frosting

- 3 3/4 cup powdered sugar

- 1 1/2 cups margarine

- 1/2 TB vanilla essence (or 3/4 TB vanilla extract)

- 1/8 cup plus 1 TB cold water

Strawberry filling

- 10 medium strawberries, finely diced

- 2 TB sugar

- 1 tsp cornstarch

Cupcakes

Preheat oven to 350.

Put the flour, sugar, butter, cocoa, baking soda, and baking powder in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until the ingredients are blended together, then increase speed to med-low for one minute to mix until smooth.

Add in hot water with mixer running. Add in the egg. With the mixer still running add in the buttermilk. Make sure to scrape the bottom with a spatula to ensure all the ingredients are well combined. Mix for an additional minute on med-low speed. 

Put paper liners in a standard sized cupcake/muffin tin and divide the batter equally into each cup.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of a cupcake.

Let the cupcakes cool to room temp before removing them from the pan and onto a wire cooling rack.

Frosting

Put the margarine, vanilla, and sugar in the bowl of a mixer with a paddle attachment and mix at medium-low speed until the mixture is smooth with no lumps, about 3 minutes.

With the mixer running, add the water in a thin stream and continue to mix until absorbed, about 3 minutes more. At this point you can add whatever coloring you like and mix until well combined.

(Leftover buttercream can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.)

Strawberry Filling

In a small bowl combine diced strawberries and sugar and let it sit until the strawberries release their natural juices. Then add the cornstarch and mix to dissolve.

Assembly

Once the cupcakes are completely cooled, take a paring knife and cut a triangle-hole halfway down the center of the cupcake (you can eat the cut-out scraps). In the hole of each cupcake put a spoonful of the strawberry filling (you may have leftovers), and top with the frosting. 

I used a star tip to frost the cupcakes but you may used whatever you want. I also added some sprinkles to the top of each cupcake as additional decoration.

Enjoy!

So I've been trying to make some extra cash by selling some of my clothes on ebay. It has been slow going though. So I'm posting images of what I'm selling on here (that are linked to ebay) to try and expand my audience. Thanks for taking a look!