Sarah Bearclaw — So delicious. So ferocious.

How to make fondant poodles

May 12, 2013

Life may just be complete now that I’ve reached my longtime goal of making poodles out of fondant. I decided to take a stab at it for Mother’s Day because my mom is a massive poodle fan. Her dogs, Henri and Pablo, have taken my place at home–they have their own beds, eat gourmet food and have achieved profile pic status on my mom’s Facebook page. But it’s cool, I get it–they’re the sons she never had.

So I figured, what better way to honor my mom than to share this video about making fondant poodles.

*One tip that I didn’t mention in the video–if you’re using black fondant, I suggest buying it, not dying it. Making black fondant is a real pain in the tail, and to avoid getting black dye all over your hands and the furniture, just invest in pre-colored black fondant. You’re welcome.

So, for the woman who has everything, this is for you:

And to the other doggie and cake decorating enthusiasts out there — Happy Mother’s Day!

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How to make gum paste succulents

August 2, 2012

The green revolution has officially swept the nation, and cake decorating has stepped right in line. Gum paste succulents are the latest craze for brides and environmentalists everywhere. So when my friend, Jessica, asked me to do her wedding cake and showed me a photo of her succulent-studded bouquet, I was pumped about taking on this challenge.

Gum paste succulents have been popping up like weeds online over the past few months, and there are some amazing specimens out there. I couldn’t find a tutorial when I started researching the project back in February, so I taught myself how to make succulents using the small petal cutters pictured below. However, I just came across this lesson on Pixel Whisk that uses an azalea cutter sold here. The azalea cutter gives the plant an Aeonium Haworthii look, whereas mine is more of a Graptosedum ‘Vera Higgins.’ (Ok, that’s by far the most botanistic thing I’ve ever said.)

Here’s a video I made to walk you through the steps of making my gum paste succulents:

They’re easier than most gum paste flowers because you don’t have to ruffle delicate petals or anything of the like. You basically flatten the rounded ends of the leaves and glue them together. Someday I’ll attempt a more impressive succulent arrangement, but until then, I’m more than happy with my primitive little plants. They’re the perfect size for cupcakes, and they worked out beautifully for Jessica’s fabulous wedding. Water retention has never looked so pretty. Go Earth!

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How to make firework cupcakes

June 30, 2012

Who doesn’t love a good fireworks display on the Fourth of July? Especially if it’s sweet and edible, like these delicious cupcakes. Instead of brightening the skies, these cupcakes will put a twinkle in the eyes of all the young patriots at your holiday picnic. Here’s a video I put together with the full rundown of making these explosive treats:

Start with the cupcakes of your choice. You could do vanilla and red velvet to emulate the stripes–just an idea.

Color your blue and red icings, obviously you don’t have to color the white. You may want to put a base of white icing on each cupcake so that you don’t have bare spots in your firework. In that case, you’ll want to have approximately the same amount of blue and white icing, but just a little red, since we only use a small amount of red icing for the center spark.

As you can see, these piping bags are already outfitted with couplers. A coupler is the little plastic nozzle that you attach to the end of the piping bag so that you can switch out the piping tip you’re using. We need it here since we’re using the same tip with different colors of icing. If you put the tip inside the bag, you’ll be in a real bind. To use a coupler, you detach the outer ring from the cone part, put the cone inside the piping bag, fill the bag with icing, attach the piping tip to the outside of the bag, and secure the tip by screwing on the outer ring of the coupler. It’s all in the video for your viewing and learning pleasure.

Here’s a shot of the coupler and piping bag pre-icing, as well as a few other things you’ll need. The spatula comes in handy for spreading the white icing base on each cupcake–you can also use a butter knife. The piping tip, however, is your MVP in the making of the firework cupcake. It’s Wilton #233 or Ateco #133, and it’s what will make your icing burst into the air and create the perfect firework.

Bring these cupcakes to any Independence Day affair you’ve been invited to, and you’ll be sure to cause an impact.

Decorator’s Buttercream (for 24 cupcakes)

Adapted from The Well-Decorated Cake by Toba Garrett

2 1/2 sticks (10 oz) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 t vanilla
1/2 t salt
1/2 T meringue powder
1 1/2 pounds powdered sugar, sifted
1/4 cup milk or water, as needed

Cream butter until smooth and glossy. Add shortening and cream until uniform.
Add vanilla, salt and meringue powder.
Make sure powdered sugar has been sifted. Add to the butter mixture and cream until blended. Icing will be stiff.
Add milk or water until icing is the desired consistency, thick and spreadable.

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Pie Crust Cookies with Berries and Cream

June 27, 2012

One thing I know for sure, almost every single Fourth of July picnic, barbecue, or pool party will feature a pie. And if you’re the one bringing it, it had better be good. (Unless you don’t care about being popular.) And obviously, one of the key components to a successful pie, is a super flaky crust.

I like to choose one day, early in the summer, to make a ton of crust and stash it in the freezer for any pie emergency that may pop up during the season. Then, whenever I want to make a homemade pie, the homemade crust step is already taken care of. This summer, I squared my usual recipe for four crusts and made 16. It wasn’t pretty, but now I’m done for the summer and can spend more time at the beach and less time making crust.

As far as pie crust goes, it’s not as complicated as you think. I use five ingredients, and that’s it. I’ve tried fooling around with shortening and vinegar and cream cheese and the like, but this recipe always gets rave reviews, so my crust quest is over. Here’s a little video I put together about how to make it:

Now, if you make this delicious homemade crust and decide that you’re too exhausted to make the whole shebang, I suggest these surprisingly satisfying pie crust cookies. They’re a great way to enjoy my favorite part of the pie without delay. Brushed with egg wash and sprinkled with raw sugar, pie crust cookies are almost like mini versions of those giant elephant ears you get at the deli. I like big portions, but personally, a pastry the size of an elephant’s ear is even too much flake for a flake-lover like me. These cookies are the perfect serving of flake.

They’re also the perfect amount of crunch to top off a patriotic berry parfait for Fourth of July. Of course, you can’t go wrong cutting them in the shape of the United States. Bring the best part of the pie without the pie and you’ll be the most popular person at the picnic, barbecue or pool party. And they also work as a spoon!

Basic Pie Crust Recipe for Cookies or Pie (makes four crusts or a plethora of cookies in one sitting so you can stash it in the freezer and spend more time outdoors)

1 pound unsalted butter, cold
5 cups all-purpose or pastry flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
3/4 cup ice water

Cut the butter into 1/2-inch cubes and store in the freezer for 20-30 minutes.
Combine flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl.
If you’re using your hands, forks or a pastry cutter, combine the butter with the dry ingredients and break it up into big chunks, not coarse meal. The chunks should be the size of small rocks.
If you’re using a stand mixer, mix the butter and dry ingredients with a paddle attachment. You just want to break up the butter, you don’t want to cream it like cookies. Again, big, jagged chunks are what you’re looking for.
If you’re using a food processor, dump dry ingredients and butter into the bowl with the blade attachment. Pulse about 10 times, give or take, until the butter is broken into big chunks.
No matter what method you use to cut in the butter, mix the water in with your hands. (So if you used a food processor, transfer the dough into a large bowl.) Toss the water in with your hands and gently toss and press the water into the dough until it forms a messy ball. Don’t knead the dough or squeeze it in your fists. And whatever you do, don’t work it until it’s smooth. The butter chunks should still be large and visible.
Divide it into four equal parts and chill for at least 30 minutes to an hour if you’re going to use it immediately. Store in the freezer if you’re not going to use it in the next day or two.
For cookies, roll the chilled dough out, cut the cookies into your desired shape and chill them again for about 20 minutes on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Brush cookies with egg wash (1 egg combined with 1 T water) and sprinkle with raw or demerara sugar (or whatever you have).
Bake cookies for about 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown and flaky.
Unite with berries, whipped cream, lemon curd or chocolate mousse.

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Cherry Pie with Balsamic Vinegar and Madeira

June 18, 2012

It took me several years to understand cherry pie. I’ve been making pies with fresh fruit since I was 15, but for some reason, back in those days, it was hard to find a good recipe for cherry pie that didn’t call for canned cherry filling. That was pre-Internet and pre-food blogging mania, so if you didn’t have the right cookbooks, you were screwed. While that thick, gelatinous canned filling is nostalgic for some people, it just wasn’t my style, so I avoided cherry pie at all costs.

That changed a couple of years ago, when I found a sublime cherry coulis recipe in Rose’s Heavenly Cakes by my beloved Rose Levy Beranbaum. She included the coulis as a topping for a cheesecake, but I decided to bake it into a pie crust and see what would happen. After a few tweaks, I came up with a cherry pie that amazes and confounds some of the most devout cherry pie fans living today.

Here’s a photo of my first cherry pie this season. I’m experimenting with different lattice crust designs, and though you can’t really tell, I tried to fan out the vertical pieces to reinvent that classic look. I’m still working on this one.

For Father’s Day, I couldn’t resist breaking out my new United States cookie cutter that I got for Fourth of July. My dad drilled the states and capitals into my head at a very young age, and instead of counting sheep at bedtime, he goes through them alphabetically to help him fall asleep. “Use it or lose it,” is his motto. He also likes a good cherry pie, so even though I didn’t get to spend the big day with him, I made a cherry pie in his honor. My dad is also a huge fan of vinegar, so if anyone will appreciate the special addition of balsamic vinegar in this particular pie, he will.

And here’s what the pie looked like fresh out of the oven. Using words on pie crusts is another fun experiment I’m trying. Although the letters expanded a bit in the oven and “fathers” looks like “pathers,” I’m still pretty happy with it. It could probably be remedied by cutting bigger letters, but seriously, if you can’t decipher the message, it might be time for a check-up. Happy Pathers Day!

Cherry Pie with Balsamic Vinegar and Madeira (Serves 8-10)

Adapted from Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Cherry Coulis

1 recipe basic pie crust (below)
2 pounds fresh Bing cherries, pitted (about 1 3/4 lbs after pitting)
1/2 c. sugar
2 1/2 T. cornstarch
2 T Madeira
3 T balsamic vinegar, divided
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
pinch of salt
2 T brown butter (find instructions here)

Make pie crust and chill for at least one hour.
Combine cherries, sugar, cornstarch, Madeira, 2 T. balsamic vinegar, vanilla bean and salt in a medium saucepan. Allow to macerate for at least 30 minutes or up to 2 hours.
Cook cherry mixture over medium heat until the juices thicken. Remove from heat. Add brown butter and remaining balsamic vinegar. Allow to cool.
Blind bake bottom shell of pie in a 9″ pie plate. (Instructions below)
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, and place a baking sheet in the lower third of the oven.
Once pie shell and cherries are cool, fill the pie shell with the cherries, spooning the cherries in first and then pouring the juices over top.
Roll out the second pie crust and make your favorite design. Place over the cherries and adhere the top crust to the bottom crust by folding it over the side a bit. Make a pretty border to cover any imperfections. Egg wash the crust using a mixture of 1 egg and 1 T water.
Bake pie on preheated baking sheet for 15 minutes. Turn down oven temp to 350 degrees and continue baking for 20-30 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and juices are bubbling.
Cool on a wire rack and enjoy!

Basic Pie Crust (for two pies—freeze the extra one if necessary)

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup/8 oz (2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
6 tablespoons (about) ice water

Mix flour, sugar, and salt in processor or stand mixer, or a bowl. Add butter; pulse until coarse meal forms (or paddle in a stand mixer, or cut with a pastry cutter or forks or fingers).
Gradually blend in enough ice water to form moist clumps. Gather dough into ball; divide in half. Form dough into 2 balls; flatten into disks. Wrap each in plastic; chill 2 hours or overnight.
To Blind Bake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll one disk out to an 11-inch round. Place in a 9-inch pie plate, crimp the edges, and dock with a fork. Cover with parchment and fill with pie weights, rice or beans. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove weights and parchment and bake for 5 minutes. Crust should be dry and a pale golden color. You’ll be baking it more, and this is just to prevent the shell from getting soggy. Set crust on a wire rack to cool.

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How to make pierogies

June 8, 2012

When it comes to flat out comfort food, pierogies have it nailed. Potatoes and cheese wrapped up in a precious little pocket of dough? I call that satisfying, convenient and cute all in one. Although pierogies fit right in with the beige, starchy central Pennsylvania fare I grew up on, I never really ate them [...]

How To Make Homemade Peanut Butter

May 18, 2012

Ok, I know what you’re saying– “Why would you make homemade peanut butter when you can buy the good stuff at the store?” Well, that’s a good question, and a hard one to answer until you’ve tried this at home. Homemade peanut butter is a superior blend of sweet and salty. The grains of salt [...]

Marshmallow-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

May 15, 2012

As with all of these food holidays, I never know if I got the date from a reputable source or not. I think that May 15th is National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, but even if it isn’t, it’s completely appropriate to applaud the chocolate chip cookie today, tomorrow, and everyday thereafter. Now, when it comes [...]

Pineapple Basil Margaritas

May 5, 2012

My husband loves a good sale, so when I came home to two-for-one pineapples, I knew what had to be done. I headed straight out to the garden that I masterminded and he now tends, and I picked some basil. Well, before that, I did look up pineapple in The Flavor Bible to make sure [...]

Orange Creme Fraiche Biscuits with Strawberry Brown Butter Sauce

April 27, 2012

Now that you’ve made your homemade crème fraiche and slathered it on fresh berries, stirred it into French sauces or spooned it alongside your favorite Polish food, you probably have about a half a jar leftover that you don’t want to spoil. I happen to have half a refrigerator full of it, but that’s my [...]

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