Elements » egg whites

Oven-Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Sheila — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 16:15:38 +0000

Who doesn’t adore French fries? Honestly…I can’t think of anyone who doesn’t love ‘em. They’re wonderful baked or fried, make the perfect accompaniment for many meals, and they’re tasty with or without a dipping sauce.

But if you never tried sweet potato fries, you’re really missing out. Kemal and I actually prefer them over French fries made with white potatoes and neither one of us really like sweet potatoes all that much. But when it comes to sweet potato French fries versus fries made with white potatoes…well, we think the sweet potato fries are so much tastier!

And coming from two people who really don’t even like sweet potatoes, I think that says a lot.

And what’s really awesome is that sweet potatoes are actually a whole lot more nutritious than white potatoes. They’re loaded with fiber, and we all know how that’s great for our digestive system. They have a lower glycemic value than white potatoes which means they’re not going to run your blood sugar up, and they’re also packed with vitamins. Read more about just how nutritious the sweet potato is here so you can see for yourself.

The next time you want to make French fries with your hamburgers, hot dogs, or fish sandwiches, I urge you to make some oven-baked sweet potato fries instead.

Use whatever seasonings on them you prefer…doesn’t have to be the seasonings I used. If you’re on a low-carb diet, make them without using any flour. Just coat the potatoes with egg whites and seasonings. Don’t let anything stop you from making some sweet potato fries. Just give it a try…just this once if you’ve never tried them before. You’ll be glad you did!!

Oven-Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Recipe Source: Food & Whine

Strawberry and Raspberry Pavlova…Made Two Ways…As a Roulade Cake or a Parfait

Sheila — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:06:41 +0000

I want to start off by telling you that I’ve made pavlova three times in the past month. Kemal and I both adore it!!! You can make it with whatever kind of berries you want…strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries…or a mixture of two or more. Kemal and I love it with any kind of berry or berry mixture, but raspberry pavlova is our personal favorite.

Anyway, before I tell you how to make it, I want to tell you a little story about my adventures in making pavlova this summer.

The first time I made it, I made two mistakes. First, I used the wrong sized pan. This was a critical mistake because it made my roulade cake too thick so it didn’t bake properly. The second mistake I made the first time I made this was I set my oven at the wrong temperature. It was set way too low because I was using Celsius instead of Fahrenheit. Oops!

I ended up being able to salvage the cake by cooking it longer and turning the oven temperature up. It tasted great, but I wasn’t able to roll the cake nor did it look very pretty. No matter…we all enjoyed it nonetheless.

The second time I made pavlova, I baked it too long so it broke apart as I was rolling it. Oopsie! But again, I salvaged it by crumbling the meringue cake and putting the pieces in the bottom of a parfait glass. Then I layered the parfait with raspberries, whipped cream, strawberry puree, and a strawberry on top. It all worked out fine and tasted great!!! (See the very last picture of this post.)

But the thing is, I wanted to make a roulade cake, and I still hadn’t succeeded. I figured the third time’s the charm, and I was determined to succeed. And I did!! YAY!!! Here’s a picture so you can see my pavlova roulade cake.

Anyway, after making pavlova three times this summer, I can tell you that I still haven’t had enough. It’s become my favorite dessert of all time!!! It’s absolutely divine!!! Try making a pavlova roulade cake or pavlova parfait and see for yourself.

Strawberry and Raspberry Pavlova…Made Two Ways…As a Roulade Cake or a Parfait

Adapted from: Antony Worrall Thompson and Achtung Baby!

Equipment needed: blender, electric mixer, large stainless steel bowl, and a 11 x 17 inch jelly roll pan

Here’s some pictures of Kemal rolling the roulade, and you’ll start rolling on the widest side of the cake, using the paper to help you. Here’s a picture of Kemal demonstrating this step.

Now that your roulade cake is partially rolled, let the parchment paper rest on the counter while you press down the top edge of the roulade cake like this:

Now you need to roll the roulade cake a little more, so grab the parchment paper and roll some more:

Then take the part of the parchment paper that’s covering the cake and pull it back on the counter. At this point, Kemal removed the tape that was connecting both pieces of parchment paper on the counter, and then he started rolling the cake some more

until it’s completely rolled.

When you’re done rolling, take the part of the parchment paper that’s covering the cake and pull it back. And now you’re done rolling! You can see our roulade cake had a few holes, but we put that side on the bottom so they didn’t show.

The next step is to transfer the roulade cake from the parchment paper on your counter to your serving dish. To do this, you need to hold the parchment paper on both sides, lift it up, and then slide the cake right off the paper onto the serving dish. Sorry I didn’t get a picture of Kemal doing this step, but Chef Antony Worrall Thompson demonstrates it in his video toward the end at the 7:45 mark.

Once the cake is on the serving dish, sprinkle it generously with powdered sugar. Here’s how mine looked:

Then decorate the top with some fresh fruit.

Then chill it. When you get ready to serve it, slice it, placing an individual slice on a serving plate. Then take a spoon and place some of the berry puree sauce onto the plate around the pavlova.

Or, you can drizzle some on top if you prefer.

How to make a pavlova parfait instead of a roulade cake:

Follow all the steps for baking the roulade cake except instead of baking it for 15 minutes, bake it for 25 minutes. This will make the meringue crunchier on the outside, and this is actually how I prefer my meringue…crunchy on the outside yet soft on the inside. But baking it this long makes it impossible to roll. That’s okay though because if you want to make a parfait instead of a roloude cake, you don’t need to roll it.
After the meringue is done baking, let it cool.
Then remove the crunchy meringue from the parchment paper. It’s going to crumble off and be in a lot of small pieces. That’s okay…that’s what you want.
Then press some of the meringue pieces of the cake in the bottom of a parfait glass.
Next, spread some jam on top of the crumbled meringue cake.
Now add whipped cream on top of that.
Then place some berries on top of the cream.
Use a spoon to drizzle some berry puree on top of the cream.
If you like, add a sliced berry on top.
Chill and enjoy!

Here’s a picture of my mixed raspberry/strawberry parfait. The raspberries are on the bottom, and it’s drizzled with a strawberry puree:

Doesn’t that look scrumptious!! It’s also easier to make than a roulade cake.

Whichever way you make your pavlova, enjoy every bite!

Irish Cream Meringue Cookies

Sheila — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 02:40:40 +0000

Kemal and I love meringue cookies, and I made them for the first time last night. What’s funny is I always thought these cookies would be harder to make than regular cookies, and since I suck at making regular cookies, I was surprised that my meringue cookies turned out perfectly! I’m so happy I finally had cookie success! YAY!!!

I’m looking forward to making them vanilla flavored, espresso flavored, and I might even try some lemon flavored ones as well.

Irish Cream Meringue Cookies (Adapted from: www.thekitchn.com)

If you want to serve them to guests, put them in pretty glass parfait dishes on your coffee table when you’re enjoying coffee after dinner. I doubt they’ll last long.

Krempita (with Rum and Espresso)

Sheila — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:02:53 +0000

Krempita (pronounced krem-pee-tah), like Sampita which I made last week, is another popular Yugoslavian dessert, and it’s also one of my husband’s favorites. There are numerous ways to make this cake, and it seems the possibilities are endless. Last night Kemal found over 100 different recipes for krempita, and trying to choose which one we would make wasn’t easy…that is until Kemal found a krempita recipe that called for rum and espresso soaked tea biscuits which comprised the “cake” part of this dessert. There’s also a layer of vanilla pudding, as well as a meringue layer on the top. Here’s a picture so you see how it looks:

Anything soaked in rum and espresso certainly gets my attention! Just a wee bit of a warning…this cake is addictive. I’m really, really, REALLY ashamed to admit that last night I had three pieces for dessert. *Blush* Can you believe I ate three-fourths of what’s on this plate?! Yikes!

What’s even worse is that this evening I did it again…had three pieces after dinner. I’m so ashamed guys. I normally don’t indulge like that, but that cake takes the cake!! I also intentionally ate less dinner to save room for dessert, but regardless, I’m still ashamed. Anyway, if you make it and can’t stop yourself from overindulging, don’t say I didn’t warn ya.

While the cake turned out incredibly delicious, I wasn’t happy with how it looked. I wanted the cake to be taller. So next time, I’m going to use a smaller pan so I’ll have taller pieces of cake. I think it’ll look prettier that way.

Alright…just one more thing I need to get out of the way…the recipe calls for using raw eggs whites so I need to remind you that using raw eggs may not be something you want to do. There is another option available if you don’t want to do that.

Disclaimer: There is a risk of Salmonella food poisoning when consuming raw eggs or undercooked eggs, and that risk may be higher in children, the elderly, people with compromised immune systems, pregnant women, or nursing mothers. If you are concerned about using raw egg products because of the risk of Salmonella poisoning, please do not prepare this cake (or any other recipe) with raw eggs. You can use meringue powder or dried egg white powder instead.

Krempita (Recipe Source: Coolinarika.com)

Yield: 24 small pieces

Cake Ingredients (The tea biscuit layer):

50 tea biscuits (or you can substitute lady fingers or graham crackers)
1 shot rum
1 cup hot espresso (If you don’t have espresso, strong black coffee will work fine
1 tbsp oil (to cover the bottom of the pan

Cream Filling Ingredients (The pudding layer)

2 boxes vanilla pudding…not instant…you need the kind you have to cook on the stove
4 cups milk
3 tbsp. cornstarch
10 1/2 tbsp. cane sugar
4 egg yolks
1 cup butter (2 sticks)

Meringue Ingredients (The egg white layer):

4 egg whites (To avoid any risk of Salmonella food poisoning, you can substitute meringue powder or dried egg white powder instead of using raw egg whites.)
14 tbsp. confectioner’s sugar
pinch of salt

Garnish Ingredients:

Shaved dark chocolate with espresso. (I used Green & Black’s Organic Dark Chocolate with Espresso. If you prefer a different type of chocolate, whatever kind you decide on will work just fine. You don’t have to use the kind I did.
Dried orange peel.

Note: Other garnish ideas would be to sprinkle some espresso coffee powder on top or to use some kind of liquor-flavored chocolate.

Step One: Making the Tea Biscuit Layer which will be the base of your cake:

The first thing you need to do is decide if you want taller pieces of cake or shorter pieces. Once you make that decision, then you can decide which cake pan you will use.

Note: For this recipe, I used a large 13 1/2 inch by 9 inch rectangular Springform pan. That was fine but next time I think I’ll use my 9 inch square Springform pan instead to get taller pieces. Also, you don’t have to use Springform pans at all. Just a regular baking pan will work fine, but I prefer the Springform pans because I can remove the sides and then present the cake on the base.

After you decide which cake pan you will use (depending on if you want a taller or shorter cake), then you need to grease the pan with a thin layer of oil.
Make your espresso or strong black coffee.
After the coffee is done, pour it in a small to medium sized bowl that can withstand the heat.
Add the rum to the coffee and stir well.
Start dipping the tea biscuits in the coffee/rum mixture one-by-one and then place them on the baking pan. Continue doing this until the entire pan is covered in coffee and rum soaked biscuits. You may need to cut some of the biscuits in half in order to cover the entire pan. That’s what we had to do.
Once the pan is covered int he soaked tea biscuits, set the pan, the biscuits, and the coffee/rum mixture aside so you can make the pudding next. You’re going to need all those ingredients again very soon because you’ll be adding another layer of soaked tea biscuits, but for now, you need to make the pudding.

Step Two: Making the Creamy Pudding Layer:

You want to separate your four eggs, putting the egg whites in one bowl and the egg yolks in another. Put the egg whites in a glass or stainless steel mixing bowl. Plastic bowls aren’t good for egg whites. Leave the egg whites sitting out on the counter at room temperature. This will help them whip up better.
Melt 1 cup of butter (2 sticks) in a small sauce pan, and set it aside to use later.
Beat your egg yolks until they’re mixed together.
Put the blended egg yolks in a medium sauce pan, and then add the 4 cups of milk, the 2 boxes of dry vanilla pudding mix, 3 tbsp. cornstarch, and 10 1/2 tbsp. of sugar.
Cook all the ingredients in the saucepan over medium well heat, mixing well and stirring constantly and quickly.
After the pudding comes to a boil, it should be at a thick, pudding-like consistency. At this point, turn the heat down to medium and add the 2 sticks of melted butter, a little at at ime, into the hot pudding and stir constantly.
Take the hot, creamy pudding and pour it over the soaked tea cookies, taking a spatula to smooth it out nicely.

Step Three: Making Another Tea Biscuit Layer:

Now the next thing you need to do is take your coffee/rum mixture and warm it up on the stove. You don’t have to heat it until it boils…just until it gets hot again.
Pour the coffee/rum mixture back into the heat-proof bowl.
Start dipping the tea biscuits again, one at a time, placing them on top of the hot pudding. Do this step until the pudding layer is covered with the soaked tea biscuits.

Step Four: Making the Meringue Layer:

Measure out 14 tbsp. of confectioner’s sugar and put it in a small bowl and set i aside (place it in a location that will be close to where you will be beating your egg whites).
Put the four egg whites and a pinch of salt into a large stainless steel or glass bowl, and then use an electric mixer to beat the egg whites.
After you’ve beat the egg whites a few minutes and it’s starting to get foamy, start adding some confectioner’s sugar, a little at a time, to the egg whites. Don’t stop beating while you’re adding the sugar.
Continue adding the sugar and beating the egg white/sugar mixture until the egg whites get stiff. The egg whites didn’t rise up as high for me this way, although they did get stiff. When I make a meringue without sugar, they seem to rise higher. The egg whites don’t need to rise really high though. You just want them to get really stiff.
You will know the meringue is done when you can take a spoon of the egg white cream, turn it upside down, and it doesn’t fall or drip off the spoon.

Step Five: Adding the Meringue Layer and Garnishing the Top of the Cake:

Take the egg white cream that you just made and spread it on top of the soaked tea biscuits. Use a spatula to spread it out evenly.
Sprinkle the top of the meringue layer with dried orange peel.
Next, take a grater, and using the large holes, grate your chocolate so you have chocolate shavings to garnish the top of the cake.
After garnishing the top of the cake with the orange peel and chocolate shavings, put your cake in the refrigerator to cool for about 3 to 4 hours.
After the cake has cooled, you can cut it, serve it, and finally get a ch ance to enjoy a slice or two (or in my case three) for yourself.

Here’s a picture of the cake after it had cooled and before we started devouring it:

You can cut the cake into however many pieces you like. We cut ours into 24 small pieces.

Cooking Note: Kemal and I found that the rum and espresso flavors for this cake were not strong enough. If we make this particular recipe again, we’re going to double (perhaps triple) the amount of rum the recipe calls for. We might also make a mocha pudding instead of vanilla pudding. We’ll see.

Next week, we’re going to make krempita for our friends, one of whom doesn’t drink coffee. So we’re going to skip the espresso and just soak the tea biscuits in rum. Then we’re going to make a layer of chocolate-rum glaze that we’ll drizzle over the rum-soaked tea biscuits. The rest of the cake we’ll make the same…except we’ll top it shaved chocolate which doesn’t have coffee in it. I’m hardly waiting!!

Sampita

Sheila — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:48:12 +0000

Sampita (pronounced sham-pee-tah) is a popular cake in Yugoslavian cuisine. Kemal said his mother used to make it, and it was his favorite cake. He hasn’t had it since he came to the United States so I wanted to make it for him. It was easy to make and it certainly is delicious.

I will pass along the recipe to you, but please do keep in mind that this Yugoslavian cake is made with raw egg whites.

Sampita (Recipe Source: Coolinarika.com)

Cake Ingredients:

10 egg yolks
10 tbsp. sugar
1 pkg. vanilla sugar (If you don’t have vanilla sugar, just add a tbsp. of vanilla and an extra tbsp. of sugar)
5 tbsp. milk
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
8 tbsp. flour
2 tsp. baking powder

Cream Ingredients:

10 egg whites (to avoid any risk of Salmonella food poisoning, you can use meringue powder or dried egg white powder)
pinch of salt
4 cups sugar
1 pkg. vanilla sugar (you can substitute with a tbsp. of vanilla if you don’t have vanilla sugar on hand)
water (small amount)

Step One: Making the Cake:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Separate your eggs, putting your egg yolks in a large mixing bowl.
Put your egg whites aside in a glass or stainless steel bowl and let them come to room temperature for about 20 minutes (the egg whites will foam higher if they’re not extremely cold)
With an electric mixer, mix the egg yolks and both sugars together.
Add the milk and oil to the egg yolks and sugar, mixing together on a very low speed.
Mix the flour and baking powder together in a small bowl.
Add the flour and baking powder, one spoon at a time to the eggs/sugar/milk/oil mixture, mixing on a slow speed.
Oil and flour your baking pan. I used a 10-inch springform pan.
Pour the batter in your springform pan and bake it until it’s golden brown.

Step Two: Making the Cream Topping

Beat the egg whites, along with the pinch of salt, until the egg whites are firm.
When that’s done, set your egg whites aside and make a syrupy mixture (sugar and water) that you’ll add to the egg whites. If you have someone to help you, you can beat the egg whites while your assistant makes the syrupy mixture.
Put in a small sauce pan the 4 cups of sugar and a little water…barely enough to cover the sugar. Cook that until the sugar dissolves (about 5-6 minutes). It should the consistency of syrup when it’s warm.
Take your hot sugar/water mixture that you just made and slowly pour a little of it in your beaten egg whites.
Beat the egg whites and sugar water.
While you’re continuing to beat the mixture, add more of the syrupy mixture to the egg whites, beating constantly. If you have someone to help you, you can ask your assistant to the pour the syrupy mixture into the egg whites while you beat.
After you’ve added all the sugar/water mixture to the egg whites, keep beating the egg white cream until it becomes cooler…closer to room temperature.
You will know you’re done beating when you can take a spoon of the egg white cream, turn it upside down, and it doesn’t fall off the spoon or drip off the spoon.
When the cream is done, pour it over the cooled cake and spread it out evenly over the cake.
Refrigerate for 8 to 24 hours. The cake will be very moist.
Optional Step: You can decorate the top of the cake with sugar sprinkles, chocolate sprinkles, or cinnamon. We decorated the top of ours with a European drinking chocolate…Moroccan Spice.

Here’s a picture of the cake we made after it sat in the refrigerator for about 13 hours. Note: The recipe will make two cakes like this. We actually cut the recipe above in half because we only need a small cake for the two of us. This cake is actually way too big for the two of us. I have no idea how we’re going to eat it all! I think we will try to freeze part of it so we can enjoy the rest of the cake in a week or two.

As far as texture is concerned, it’s a light and airy cake that very moist. It’s sweet, but I don’t find it heavy on my stomach. Of course, I didn’t eat a lot of it at once. Now that’s not to say I didn’t want to…I had to resist the temptation to eat too much of it. It’s very delicious, and I’m certainly looking forward to making it again.