A Taste of London and Scotland

Fàilte! This Gaelic word for welcome is what we were greeted with as we landed in Scotland for a trip during our spring break last week. This past week, we were able to take some time away from the books and our busy schedules to visit our cousins in London, and also took a trip to the beautiful Isle of Skye in Scotland. Not only did we enjoy breathtaking scenery, visit historical sites and explore both big and small cities, but we were able to better understand the culture of the United Kingdom by immersing ourselves in the local British and Scottish cuisines. 

Excited to eat like locals, we were ready to expand our palates and see what British fare had in store for us. From fish and chips made with the freshest and most tender haddock served with minted pea puree, to a Sunday roast of chicken with crispy jacket potatoes and Yorkshire Pudding, we enjoyed several classic British dishes, which did not compare to their Americanized versions! 

Fish and Chips from The Black Lion, Kilburn

Not only did we enjoy our taste of England, we also had a taste of the world while dining at local ethnic restaurants. While dining at our cousins' favorite Indian restaurant, our mouths burned at the spicy taste of chili naan, yet the refreshing cucumber raita (a sauce made with yogurt and mint) and butter chicken (made with an onion, tomato and butter sauce) with basmati rice cooled down these bold flavors. We also had the creamiest and most flavorful hummus we have ever tasted, alongside fluffy pita bread and grilled halloumi cheese at local Lebanese restaurant. 

One of our most memorable experiences in London was stopping at the famous Borough Market, the city’s oldest food market with over 100 stalls featuring dishes and ingredients from across the globe. Table after table was piled high with freshly baked croissants and focaccia bread, exotic fruits and vegetables, cheeses of every shape and texture, locally caught seafood, cured meats, as well as hot lunch dishes to eat while browsing around. Though deciding what to try was a difficult decision, we shared a Turkish bourek (a flaky spinach and feta pie), served with hummus and steaming chickpeas, which did not disappoint. 

Borough Market Entry 

Fresh Produce at Borough Market

Beautiful Focaccia from The Flour Station at Borough Market

Spinach and Feta Bourek with Homemade Hummus from Borough Market

Our culinary adventures in the United Kingdom didn’t end there; we spent half of our trip sampling the local cuisine of the Isle of Skye in Scotland, known for its salmon and other seafood. For breakfast each morning we enjoyed porridge made with Scottish pinhead oats, which had a very hearty texture, yet were delicious seeped in creamy milk. We munched on smoked salmon sandwiches with dill cream cheese for lunch and delicious Scottish shortbread for dessert. On our last night in the town of Portree, we ate an incredible salmon steak from the west coast of Skye. Few seasonings were needed; the freshness of the fish and flaky texture spoke for itself. We also spent one of our days trekking through farmland and along the coast with an incredible guide, where we were able to enjoy freshly cooked mussels over a fire. 

Isle of Skye, Scotland

Though we are back in Boston, we have brought taste and appreciation for British and other global cuisines with us, and are excited to continue on our culinary journeys in our future travels!

Enjoy!

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies

While we both love tackling involved recipes, such as macarons and fancy layer cakes, we also love mastering our favorite classic desserts. Today, our experiment was to perfect one of our favorite treats, chocolate chip cookies. Over the years, we have tried countless recipes, from the New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe made with cake and bread flour, to experimenting with various types of chocolate chips, to sprinkling sea salt on top for a sweet and salty combination. Though we have loved aspects of each of the recipes we have tried, with their complex flavors and ingredients, we have learned that sometimes it is the classic recipes with the best-quality ingredients that are truly the most delicious. 

Semisweet Chocolate Chunks and Milk Chocolate Chips

After sampling these cookies at a friend’s party, we were given Martha Stewart’s Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, and have been using it ever since. A relatively thin cookie with crisp edges, a chewy center and two different types of chocolate, these cookies are simple yet incredibly tasty. Our favorite part about this recipe is the fact that it uses both semisweet chocolate chunks and milk chocolate chips, playing with two different textures and flavors. We like to use Ghirardelli and Guittard chocolate, as well as our favorite Nielsen Massey Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Extract, for the strongest flavor. Though you may have to spend a bit more, these high-quality ingredients truly pay off for an outstanding cookie. 

Use an ice cream scoop when forming the cookies to create consistent sizes

Some tricks we have picked up on after creating several batches of these cookies include using an ice-cream scoop to form perfectly even and rounded balls of dough, as well as refrigerating the dough for at least an hour before baking to control spreading and enhance the flavor. If you aren’t sure that refrigerating the dough makes a difference, this article from King Arthur Flour’s Flourish blog will definitely change your mind! Another trick we frequently use to prevent cookies from drying out after baking is to store them in an airtight container with a slice of sandwich bread on top. Though this may sound strange, the bread helps to give moisture to the cookies which are denser and drier, leaving the bread stale and firm like a piece of toast! Try it for yourself, just make sure to change the bread every two or three days (if the cookies last that long!) to ensure freshness. 

Look at those chocolate chunks!

We know there are hundreds of delicious chocolate chip cookie recipes out there, and while you may have a family recipe that you always use, we can certainly say that following this recipe will yield amazing cookies! 

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart Everyday Food

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons coarse salt
• 1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups packed, light-brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups milk chocolate chips
• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate chunks, or chopped from block

Cooking Directions

1. In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
2. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugars on medium-high until light and fluffy, 6 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-low and beat in eggs, one at a time. Beat in vanilla. Mix in flour mixture just until incorporated; fold in chocolate chips and chunks.
3. Using a 1/4-cup ice-cream scoop or a large spoon, drop dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet (you should have 24) and refrigerate 1 hour. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Arrange cookies, 3 inches apart, on each of two parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake until edges are light golden brown, 17 to 18 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and let cool. Bake remaining dough using new parchment.

Enjoy!

Christmas Cookie Decorating

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year! With the busyness of the Christmas season we've been away from the blog for too long and are excited to start 2016 with some new recipes and restaurant reviews.

Each Christmas, we look forward to baking our holiday favorites. While we enjoy making the traditional array of Christmas cookies and beautifully piped cupcakes, we are always most excited for our decorated sugar cookies. Over the years we have accumulated quite the collection of festive cutters from reindeer to snowflakes to this year's latest trendy addition— ugly sweaters. On top of our large cookie cutter collection, we really enjoy picking out holiday sprinkles to use as an artistic garnish. 

Chocolate Cupcakes with White Chocolate Peppermint Buttercream

While we feel confident in our cupcake decorating techniques, (and love to use liners and toppers from our favorite company, Meri Meri) sugar cookies always present new challenges— especially as we become more advanced. Here are some cookie decorating tips that we continue to use year after year. We hope they are helpful!

Our original ugly sweater cookies!

Cookie Decorating Tips:

1. Vibrant Colors
For vibrant frosting colors, it is best to use gel food coloring rather than liquid drops. Gel coloring also comes in a wider variety of colors— saving you from the guesswork of how many drops of yellow and blue make the perfect green.
2. Opaque Icing
To create a perfectly opaque icing that is great for layering, use a royal icing recipe with meringue powder.
3. Icing Consistency
The single most frustrating factor in decorating sugar cookies is creating the perfect icing consistency. While icing made with meringue powder may seem thick, it is better to start with thicker icing and slowly add water in small amounts to thin the icing. For best results, add in the color to the icing and fully incorporate before adding water if necessary.
4. Flooding
To ice the base of the cookie, place the icing in either a piping bag or clear condiment squeeze bottle. Check out our post on the flooding technique which saves time and creates the perfect frosted surface.
5. Finer Details
For finer details piped on top of the base layer, the tip of a clear condiment bottle may be too large. We recommend a Wilton #2 tip for these finer details.
6. Layering Frosting
If you are planning on layering frosting like we did for these sweater cookies, wait until the base layer is fairly dry before piping on additional details. As excited as you may be to decorate, adding another layer too early may cause the icing layers to bleed into each other.
7. Marbling
Don't be intimidated by the marbled cookie on the top right. To create this design, first pipe evenly spaced lines on top of your iced cookie. Next, run a toothpick through the lines (in the opposite direction) to create the marbled effect. For this cookie, I started with diagonal lines pointing to the right. I then ran the toothpick through these lines diagonally in the opposite direction.

We are excited for what 2016 may bring for the blog, and send our best wishes for the New Year!