Saturday Morning Snapshot
Putting the leftover cheesecake whipped cream from my “Captain America” parfaits to good use after Saturday’s photo shoot…
State of the Blog
On the blog this week, we finished up the April Hot Sandwich series with my favorite panini and a roundup filled with some of the most beautiful sandwiches I’ve ever laid eyes upon. Friday I posted a Captain America: Civil War dessert, and I’m particularly pleased with the way that one turned out. Also, scroll down to the bottom of that post to see some more awesome Marvel desserts by some equally awesome bloggers.
I briefly broke the blog on Saturday afternoon, so if you were visiting yesterday and the site suddenly went wonky, no worries. That was just me playing around with things beyond my ken. On a very related note, I’m doing some behind-the-scenes work to improve site speed and usability, so if the site is down or looks strange in the upcoming week, I’ve probably broken things again. 🙂
Next week is the start of a new month which means it’s time for a new blog series. I’m SO excited for this one. Recipes for the week will include a tasty breakfast with plenty of sprinkles, dinner worth fighting an alien hoard for, and some Cap-inspired cupcakes!
Recipes/posts released this week were:
Chipotle Turkey Panini – Quick weeknight panini with chipotle aioli, crunchy red onions, sliced turkey, melty cheese, and avocado.
24 Delicious Hot Sandwich Recipes – A round up of 24 delicious hot sandwiches, including beef, poultry, and vegetarian recipes!
Captain America: Civil War Cheesecake Parfaits – Captain America, Iron Man, and Winter Soldier cheesecake parfaits. Delicious tangy cheesecake whipped cream piped between layers of fresh fruit make a quick and easy Captain America dessert perfect for parties!
Pop-culture Corner
Captain America: Civil War premiered almost everywhere except America this Friday. I’m bitter. (If you’ve seen it, 1, I’m so jealous, and 2, no spoilers please! <3 )
Did you watch the Game of Thrones season opener? I’m happy to have the show back, but honestly, I’m even happier for the return of a million and one think pieces to browse every Monday morning and my favorite Game of Thrones podcasts .
Speaking of returns, Person of Interest comes back this week for its final season. If you start now and don’t break for sleep, I think you can just about binge all of the first four seasons over on Netflix before the premiere on Tuesday. I mean, doesn’t this trailer make you want to never watch anything else ever again!?
Also, a POI recipe will be here (very) shortly.
Meal Planning
Saturday: Homemade Panini Sunday: Easy Creamy Chicken Pasta with Bell Peppers Monday: Sherry Pork Chops Tuesday: Simply Delicious Asian Chicken Salad Wednesday: Pretzel Sausages Thursday: Easy and Comforting Ham and Potato Soup Friday: TBD
Captain America, Iron Man, and Winter Soldier cheesecake parfaits. Delicious tangy cheesecake whipped cream piped between layers of fresh fruit make a quick and easy Captain America dessert perfect for parties!
Hey all. It’s been a little while since my last nerdy recipe, but they’re back in a big way this week (and in the very near future, stay tuned!!) for one of my most anticipated pop-culture events of the year, Captain America: Civil War !
Marvel
Are you excited for Captain America !? We’re exactly one week out, and by we, I mean absolutely everyone, because there’s no way Captain AMERICA would be opening around the rest of the world today before AMERICA gets it, right!? RIGHT??
(But seriously, fellow Americans, there are spoilers out there. Beware.) Moving on.
The Cap movies are my favorite of the Marvel films, because while the Thor movies have Loki and Chris Hemsworth’s arms, and Tony as a character speaks deeply to the sarcastic a-hole in my heart, I genuinely enjoy and care about the relationships in the Captain America movies.
Marvel via ForAssgard
So I knew I was going to do something for the film, I just wasn’t sure what. And then I scrolled past a fourth of July themed jello parfait on Pinterest and I knew exactly what I wanted to do: Captain America, Winter Soldier, and Iron Man cheesecake parfaits!
These parfaits are simple and a perfect Captain America dessert for parties. The cheesecake whipped cream is so good. It’s tangy and tasty and light enough that you could serve these as a snack, but satisfying enough that they’d be just as great as dessert.
When it comes to assembling, you just layer the fruit and cream in whatever pattern you want and let your guests choose whether they are #TeamCap, #TeamIronMan, or #TeamWinterSoldier.
For these I did red and gold mango and strawberry for Iron Man, strawberries and blueberries in the pattern of Cap’s shield for Captain America, and blackberries with strawberries for The Winter Soldier with his black uniform and red arm star.
Obviously, I’m team Cap all the way, but when it comes to these parfaits, I’m totally team Iron Man. Mango and strawberry? Oh yes. You could totally make these for the rest of the team members too.
Do one with purple grapes for Hawkeye, layer them black, red, black, for Black Widow. Do one in the colors of the Wakanda flag for Black Panther! The combinations are endless and up to you!
Looking for even more Marvel treats? Scroll past the recipe and check out some fantastic ones by my fellow nerdy bloggers!
Ingredients
- ▢ 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
- ▢ 1 8-ounce package of cream cheese room temperature
- ▢ 1 cup ( 120 g) powdered sugar sifted
- ▢ 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- ▢ 1/8 teaspoon salt
- ▢ 5 to 6 cups assorted fruit chopped
Instructions
- Using your stand mixer with the whisk attachment or bowl and whisk, whisk heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks form. If you are making this with a hand-held mixer or by hand, place whisk and bowl in the freezer for 15 minutes, until very cold before whipping the cream. This will help your whipped cream whip up easier. Set aside.
- In a separate, large bowl, whisk together room-temperature cream cheese, powdered sugar, lemon juice, and salt until well-combined and smooth. Gently whisk in whipped cream. If not using immediately, refrigerate until assembling parfaits.
- To assemble your parfaits, use a piping bag (or a plastic bag with the corner snipped ofto pipe layers of cheesecake whipped cream between layers of fruit.
Notes
Nutritional Information Cheesecake Whipped Cream Adapted From: AllRecipes Make-ahead Instructions: Cheesecake whipped cream can be made up to 24 hours in advance, but it will deflate some the longer it sits (still tastes just fine!).
And take a look at these Marvel recipes!
Captain America Slushy Cocktail {Civil War} from Giraffes Can Bake
Ombre Crusting Cream Cheese Frosting from The Flavor Bender
My favorite baked doughnut recipe infused with sencha green tea and topped with a fresh strawberry glaze and sprinkles.
Welcome to nerd month here on the blog! For the month of May, instead of doing our usual once-a-week themed recipe series, every single recipe this month is inspired by a favorite film, book, or television show!
Basically, it’s an excuse to write about and try to convince you to watch/read all of my favorites through food. And I’m so excited for it. I’ve already photographed a bunch of them, and I think May is going to be a lot of fun (for me at least 😉 ).
We are starting with a show that just happens to be returning to television for its fifth and final season tomorrow, Person of Interest .
Person of Interest is such an entertaining show. If you follow me on Twitter , or read my Weekend Posts , you’ll know that I spend 90 percent of my waking hours trying to convince people to watch it.
It’s a genuinely great procedural for people who like crime dramas, but it’s also a pretty delightful romance , a fascinating critique of the modern surveillance state, and secretly, the best hard core sci-fi on television right now (no seriously, the main plot of the show deals with dueling A.I. gods!!).
Most importantly though, there is a dog named Bear. Bear speaks dutch , is scuba certified, and is basically the greatest character on this or any other show on television. And Bear likes strawberry doughnuts.
CBS via Gallifreyan-detective
His co-owner and the show’s co-lead, Mr. Finch has a penchant for sencha green tea. So today, we’re making, Strawberry Glazed Sencha Green Tea Doughnuts.
These are some darn good doughnuts, but before we start, I have to say: baked doughnuts are not bakery doughnuts! They are glorified muffins and I think it’s a disservice to everyone involved to pretend otherwise. BUT, holy cow, these glorified muffins might actually give cake doughnuts a run for their money.
They are dense and soft, none of that light and airy nonsense. When you pick one of them up, there’s some heft to it. Green-tea-infused butter in the batter gives the doughnuts a gentle, fresh taste that goes so well with the strawberry glaze.
And that glaze, it’s made with three ingredients: fresh strawberries and two types of sugar, but IT SETS, as doughnut frosting is meant to set. Sticky, syrups glazes have their place, but it is not on my sencha green tea doughnuts!
Top the doughnuts off with a heavy coating of rainbow sprinkles and you have a perfect easy breakfast for your guard dog. <3
*No doughnuts were licked in the taking of this photograph.
Ingredients
Special Equipment
- ▢ Doughnut Pan
Glaze
- ▢ 1 1/2 cup ( 6-7 oz) sliced strawberries
- ▢ 2 tablespoons ( 25 g) granulated sugar
- ▢ 1 cup ( 120 g) powdered sugar sifted
Doughnuts
- ▢ 3 tablespoons ( 1 1/2 oz) unsalted butter
- ▢ 1 teabag sencha green tea
- ▢ 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- ▢ 1/4 cup ( 50 g) granulated sugar
- ▢ 3 tablespoons ( 38 g) brown sugar
- ▢ 1 large egg
- ▢ 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ▢ 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- ▢ 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- ▢ 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ▢ 1/4 teaspoon salt
- ▢ 1 1/3 cups ( 160 g) all-purpose flour
- ▢ 1/2 cup milk
Instructions
Start Glaze
- In a small bowl, pour granulated sugar over strawberry pieces and smash slightly with a fork. This will help draw the juice out of the strawberries to use in the glaze. Cover and set aside.
Doughnuts
- Preheat your oven to 425°F and grease doughnut pan.
- Melt butter in a small microwave-safe bowl. Immerse tea bag in the butter. Allow the tea to seep for about ten minutes. Squeeze as much butter out of the tea bag as possible before discarding the bag.
- In a medium bowl, combine 2 tablespoons of the tea-infused butter (this should be almost all of what’s left, discard the excess), vegetable oil, granulated sugar, and brown sugar. Whisk until well combined.
- Whisk in egg and vanilla extract.
- Add baking powder, baking soda, ground nutmeg, and salt. Whisk until smooth.
- Add half of the flour, whisking until just combined. Add all of the milk. Mix, and then the rest of the flour. Whisk until just combined.
- Place a large plastic bag over a cup and pour batter into the bag. Seal the bag and snip a small piece off of one of the corners. Use the bag to “pipe” batter into your doughnut pan, filling 3/4 of the way full (this should make exactly 6 standard-size donuts).
- Bake for 9-11 minutes until donuts are lightly golden and the tops spring back if you press into them. Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a rack to cool completely.
Finish Glaze
- Pour sifted powdered sugar into a smallish bowl (you want one that is just large enough to mix the sugar in and fit a doughnut for dipping). Give strawberries another good mash and add 2 tablespoons of the juice to your powdered sugar. If you want seedless, completely smooth icing, run juice through a fine mesh strainer. Whisk until a thick, smooth glaze forms. Dip the doughnuts, rotating them so the glaze covers the entire top half of them.
- Add sprinkles to each doughnut immediately after frosting, because this glaze sets quickly and sprinkles may not stick otherwise. Allow glaze to set for 10 to 15 minutes and enjoy!
Notes
Nutritional Information Doughnuts Adapted From: King Arthur Flour Strawberry Glaze Adapted From: A Happy Food Dance
If you make these, I would love to see them! Tag me @bakingmischief onTwitteror #bakingmischief onInstagram!
