Feeling Zesty

In college, I interned for the Marketing Science Institute and my manager brought in a packet of Pim’s. I ate one and was instantly hooked - a soft biscuit topped with an orange jelly, covered in chocolate. Orange and chocolate are two of my favorite combinations.

Throughout the years after my first encounter, I looked for Pim’s in grocery stores and when I found them, I often hesitated to buy them because of their artificial ingredients.

But a couple years ago, I learned about jaffa cakes while watching The Great British Bake Off. I’ve been wanting to make them ever since. I finally committed to making them during the holidays this year and they are, hands-down, the best tasting dessert I’ve ever made. Perfect for Christmas, might I add.

Below, I modified Mary Berry’s recipe a tad. I know, sacrilege! But, I didn’t have white sugar on hand and was too lazy to whisk the egg and sugar first.

My version uses coconut sugar, the zest of two oranges, a blender, and US units of measurement.

Ingredients for the jelly

Juice of 3 large navel oranges

Zest of 2 large navel oranges

2 tablespoons of sugar-free apricot jam (I used Bionaturae)

2 teaspoons of coconut sugar

2 scoops of Vital Proteins gelatin powder

Ingredients for the sponge

Unsalted butter, for greasing the muffin tin

3 large eggs

1 cup of all-purpose flour

1 cup of coconut sugar

1.25 teaspoons of baking powder

1/4 teaspoon of salt

Ingredients for the topping

1.5 cups of semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Make the jelly at least an hour beforehand by stirring together all the jelly ingredients on low heat. When the gelatin is completely dissolved, pour the mixture into a 9x9 pan. Chill in the fridge until set.

2. For the sponge, blend together all of the sponge ingredients until smooth and airy. This will take a few minutes. Pour evenly into the greased muffin tin (about 2/3 full). Bake in a pre-heated oven at 355 degrees Fahrenheit for 14 minutes. When testing whether the sponge is done, the sponge will slightly stick to the knife even when it’s fully cooked.

3. While the sponge is cooling, melt the chocolate chips in a bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Remove the bowl from the heat just as half the chips are melting. Leave the melted chocolate to cool and thicken slightly.

4. Cut 12 discs from the orange jelly. I used my blender’s lid plug. Place one jelly dish on top of each sponge.

5. Spoon the melted chocolate over the jelly discs.

6. Place the cakes in the fridge for 15 minutes to set.

7. Enjoy! They are beautiful with tea and coffee.

A Piece of Quiche, Please

I'm almost always thinking about food. When I'm hungry, I'm thinking about what I want to eat. When I'm full, I'm thinking about what I want to eat when I'm hungry again. I wake up excited about breakfast, and I got to bed knowing that when I wake up, I get to eat again. Food is just constantly on my mind.

My obsession started when I was really little. Growing up in the restaurant business, I was surrounded by delicious food all the time. On the plus side, I had a huge appetite. When my cousins and I were in elementary school, my mom would sometimes take us to McDonald's. I'd get a Big Mac, eat it in a matter of minutes, and then stare at my cousins while they ate to see if they'd offer me any of their food.

Eating healthy, however, is new to me. I only started watching what I ate a couple years ago. And while my love for food hasn't waned, I have become more thoughtful in listening to what my body needs. Instead of immediately satiating cravings, I'll think through whether I've had enough protein, greens, or carbs for the day.

One thing I like to make that's easy, satisfying, and relatively low-carb is quiche. I line the bottom and sides of a baking dish with thin slices of potatoes and/or sweet potatoes. I sautee onions and spinach and whisk together some eggs. And that, my friends, is all it takes to make quiche. It's also why I try to have potatoes, spinach, and eggs in my fridge, at the very least.

Step-by-step instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Thinly slice a couple of medium-sized potatoes.
3. Pour a tablespoon or so of coconut oil or avocado oil in the baking dish.
4. Use one of the slices of potato to spread the oil around so that the bottom and sides are lightly coated.
5. Cover the bottom and sides of the baking dish with the potato slices. Think of the potatoes as the pastry part of a pie - it keeps all the filling together.
6. Once the potatoes are laid out in the baking dish, put them in the oven to soften.
7. While the potatoes cook, sautee an onion and a bunch of spinach. I usually throw in whatever vegetables I have in the fridge. The quantities don't have to be exact. Sauteeing reduces it all down anyway.
8. In a separate bowl, whisk together 5-6 eggs. When I have almond milk on hand, I add a couple splashes of it. It helps the quiche puff up more.
9. Pull the potatoes out of the oven. Evenly spread the sauteed vegetables across the bottom.
10. Sometimes I add a layer of cheese on top of the vegetables.
11. Pour the eggs over the vegetables.
12. Bake for half an hour or until the top of the quiche has a nice golden crust.

Amaretti Cookies

Every year, my husband signs up for the staff Christmas cookie exchange at his school. And every year, I bake him three dozen cookies to bring to school to exchange.

This year, I compromised with him. I would bake the cookies if he would call the plumber and have the garage drain fixed. "Deal," he said. (I think I got the better end of that bargain.)

"What to make, what to make," I thought to myself. Well, I have been pretty obsessed with almonds lately. I make my own almond milk, eat a ton of almonds, and almost exclusively bake with almond flour or almond meal. When I saw a beautiful photo of amaretti cookies online, I was shocked to discover that the recipe only called for almond flour. I thought for sure they were a plumper version of a sugar cookie. (And personally, I'm not a fan of sugar cookies. I mean...why make sugar cookies when you can add chocolate chips to them and make chocolate chip cookies? I'm very biased here. Chocolate chip cookies are my favorite.)

To get into the holiday spirit, I blasted the Christmas music and got down to baking amaretti cookies. For the cookie dough:

• 3 cups of almond flour
• 2/3 cup of granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 2 large egg whites
• 1 teaspoon of almond extract

I combined the almond flour, sugar, and salt. In a separate cup, I separated out two large egg whites and mixed them on high with my immersion blender to get a light-as-a-cloud, meringue-like texture. (I saved the egg yolks for a quiche I made later.)

Then, I folded the egg whites into the dry mixture. It'll slowly become a nice dough that you can gently form into a ball.

I refrigerated the dough for an hour. Or, you can freeze it for half the time.

After the dough became chilled, I preheated the oven to 325 degrees and covered a baking sheet with parchment paper. While the oven warmed, I scooped the dough into 1 inch balls, using a measuring spoon to help me be exact. I tossed the balls in powdered sugar and placed them on the parchment paper, spacing them about an inch and a half apart. I ended up getting about 40 little cookies.

I baked the cookies for about 20 minutes until they cracked slightly on top and were light brown underneath.

I was careful not to overbake because I love a chewy cookie. Oh but right, these cookies aren't for me.

Sunday Comforts

It officially feels like winter in Chicago, which means I am now entering hibernation. Cook. Eat. Sleep. Repeat. You'll see me in four months...with some winter weight gained.

I woke up this morning without an alarm buzzing in my ear. It felt amazing, and I wanted to lay in bed all day. But the best thing about having a dog is that she has to go out first thing in the morning. And by "best", I mean "worst". It's as though my dog was sent to me to make me a more productive person. It's working.

On Sundays, I like to meal prep. I enter a zen-like state. I use all my senses and am fully in the present moment of cooking. Today, I made a roast chicken (I only recently discovered how easy it is to roast a chicken), fried up some plantains, and stir-fried a container of leftover rice. Voila! Dinner is served for the week.

How I roast chicken:

1. I buy a whole chicken from Whole Foods (I've found Whole Foods to use the least amount of plastic when packaging the chicken for me).
2. I rub ghee and spices all over the chicken.
3. I preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
4. I slice up a lemon and lay the slices on the bottom of an oven-safe pan.
5. I place the ghee-covered chicken on top of the lemon slices.
6. I put the chicken in the oven for about an hour, using the meat thermometer to tell me when it's done.

When the chicken is done, I pull the meat off the bones with two forks and store it in the fridge to use throughout the week for soups, salads, and whatnot. I then boil the bones in water to make my own broth.

Having homemade broth on hand has been super handy. I use a little bit of broth when I cook vegetables now, which cuts my need for ghee or oil in half.