{ biscuitwallah }

biscuits and other heavenly pursuits

January 28, 2014
by nyckid
0 comments

popovers!!

SONY DSC

hey guys!!

ok so I’ve been kind of gone for like maybe a month haha um well I know this isn’t much of an explanation but basically my school decided to come up with the stupidest midterm schedule they could’ve possibly conceived and it stunk a lot and kind of took up a few weeks of my life but the good news is that I have emerged out the other side fully intact and to celebrate I made some popovers!!

I’ve honestly only ever eaten popovers like maybe twice in my life before both of which were like 10 years ago so frankly I have no idea why I decided to make these today. All I know is that I was desperately flipping through old Martha Stewart magazines looking for baking inspiration when I may or may not have flipped past a recipe for popovers-

of course my first impulse was to ask “will this require a lot of physical effort” to which my mom replied “no” so I decided then and there that I would whip up some stellar popovers for the blog in 20 minutes (my FIRST MISTAKE)

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January 7, 2014
by nycmom
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Christmas Cookie madness…


gingerbread houses

December.  It always seems to fly by in a whirl of parties and presents and cookies.  Cakes, panettone, gingerbread houses and lots and lots of cookies.  Now that it’s over I can finally write about it!

Somehow nyckid and I started a tradition that must be going on 13 years now of giving each teacher a big christmas cookie as a holiday gift.  All the schools discourage giving store bought gifts – they suggest homemade  – so somehow 13 years ago I thought it would be a good idea to make these large Martha Stewarty cookies.

Sometimes a good idea is not such a good idea 13 years later.  Look at Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones.  Well maybe they are not the best example but you get what I mean.

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December 2, 2013
by nyckid
3 Comments

chocolate chunk raspberry scones

So my younger brother and younger sister have lately been obsessed with some ridiculous app called “bakery story”– I don’t really know what it entails (and I honestly don’t wanna know) but what I DO know is that every morning the second they wake up the first thing I hear is the stupid BAKERY STORY theme song and the only thing I hear them discuss during breakfast is whether or not they baked their cappuccino brownies the night before and if the blueberry buckle is ready yet. I find this all very ironic as neither of these two have the slightest idea of how to bake anything or even what a buckle is (!!).

But anyways, they share a room and usually they go to bed earlier than me because I tend to have a LITTLE more homework than them (note: A LOT MORE)– so the other night it was getting pretty late and I had to go get something from their room when I heard my 9 year old brother squeak my name!

and I was like “WHAT”

and he was like “I just came up with the best thing ever!! wouldn’t it be cool if chocolate raspberry scones were a real dessert”

raspberry chocolate chip scones

to which I replied “I have news for you, they ALREADY exist”

and then he said “wouldn’t it be cool if blue raspberry brownies were a thing”

to which I responded “that is disgusting”

“and also blue raspberries aren’t even real fruits.”

but I guess I owe this idea to him, and I guess he must’ve been influenced by *deep sigh* bakery story

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November 20, 2013
by nycmom
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Bittersweet Chocolate Pudding Pie – Ohm my!

bittersweet pudding pie

So my yoga teacher up and left.  No warning.  No explanation.  No apology.  Never mind that I have faithfully followed him for the last two years.  Never mind that I loyally huffed and puffed my way through an hour and 15 minutes of hot vinyasa 2 times a week.  Never mind that I endured the occasional sweat-flinging VERY sweaty man next to me just to do his class (hot yoga people – you know what I am talking about.)  And he upped and left.  Just like that.

This is why the class was so special:  It was dark.  There was good music.  You were sweaty.  Once in a while your shoulders were pushed back.  Or your back was turned just so.  If you closed your eyes through the chatarangas you could almost believe you were in a nightclub.

Which is why it feels like someone just broke up with me.

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November 9, 2013
by nyckid
0 comments

peanut butter blossoms– halloween edition!!

I DON’T KNOW about you guys but back in the salad days of my youth halloween was, like, the coolest thing ever.

I mean it just felt so much more exciting, you know?? And my family and I would always have these schnazzy coordinating costumes —

like one year we were cowboys and indians haha get it because we’re indian??

one year we were bees and beekeepers wow

and one year I was a bathtub?? can’t really remember how that tied into the rest of the family oh well

— but anyways halloween was like the most magical night and we would have a rockin’ party in the lobby with pizza and drinks but by that point the party had only JUST begun because after that we went around the building and collected like 231 pounds of candy and went back to the apartment and traded with each other and watched “it’s the great pumpkin charlie brown” and went to sleep full of happiness and joy !!!

Over my many years of celebrating this holiday I have come to the sad and depressing conclusion that maybe halloween isn’t really all it’s cracked up to be. I mean the rockin’ halloween party is more like having to make small talk with a few of my creepy neighbors while a disturbing plug-in zombie is in the corner making freaky sounds. The trick-or-treating is basically just stopping at like 12 doors (many of which are half-eaten bowls of candy set outside the door). The whole candy trading idea usually fails miserably because my siblings get into a hissy fit over the sour punch straws or something. AND I FORGOT TO TAPE IT’S THE GREAT PUMPKIN CHARLIE BROWN THIS YEAR

so basically my halloween was pretty LAME this year but hopefully yours wasn’t!! and anyways I think we can all agree that christmas is 72x cooler than halloween.

fancy pic of peanut butter things

anyways….. as it is almost a full week after halloween I am sure that you’re all drowning in halloween candy, yes?? 

WELL HAVE I GOT A SOLUTION FOR YOU

peanut butter blossoms!!

except in a muffin tin??

and with halloween candy instead of regular hershey kisses??!?!

(ok I guess these aren’t really pb blossoms)

I’m SURE you’re all wondering where I got this ingenious idea from… and I can’t really take all the credit because, truth be told, these have been haunting me every since I saw them on the pioneer woman— except she used premade dough (which both shocked and appalled me) so I had to adapt it a little bit because I refuse to stoop to that level.

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October 29, 2013
by nycmom
2 Comments

Lamington’s? Why g’day mate!

lamington

Shanghai in the summer is hot.  Like really hot.  Like you step outside at 9am and walk a few blocks and your shirt is wet because it’s already 100°.  It’s so hot that you wish you had one of those frilly lacey umbrellas that all the cute little old asian ladies use when it’s not even raining.  The ones that you used to laugh at before.  Maybe those cute old ladies are on to something….

This past summer on a very sultry sweaty day in Shanghai we all came back to our hotel from an afternoon of sight seeing looking for a respite from the heat.  Some of us were irritable and grumpy from the heat so we went to the pool. Some of us just needed dessert.  Nyckid and I went to have afternoon tea.  Imagine my surprise when I was served a cute little furry square of a dessert with my afternoon tea.  “What is this?!” I squealed in delight.  “It’s a Lamington Mommy.  An Australian specialty.”

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October 24, 2013
by nyckid
7 Comments

cheesecake oh yes!!!

hello friends

I realize that it is wednesday

probably thursday by the time you are reading this

I’M SORRY

school is kind of sort of very OVERWHELMING and stressful and leaves little time for my top priority aka running this blog. BUT don’t worry because I have some calorie-laden treats for you and also a story to go with it so yes.

Anyways, you all know of my dad’s dislike for desserts (??!? he is weird) but SOMEhow I always forget that cheesecake is his one true love in life… well this year I remembered!!

(or maybe I was purposefully putting it off every year bc cheesecakes are intimidating?? water baths?!?!?) but I can now tell you first hand that the cake of cheese is nothing to fear.)

birthday candles cheesecake

AW SO CUTE WOW see nothing scary here

also if you are wondering the life lessons that one may learn from baking a cheesecake, I shall tell you:

do NOT under estimate the amount of time you need to put into making it!!

(i’m not saying that it’s difficult, but just a lot of empty time, yes??)

basically I started making the crust at like 7:30

AT NIGHT

IM SORRY that is probably a violation of some unspoken rule of the baking world but guess what life happens and sometimes you end up starting your cheesecake at 7:30 pm and putting it in the oven at 10:30 and then waiting for it to set in the oven and all of a sudden its 1:30 IN THE MORNING ON A SCHOOL DAY

life lesson indeed don’t you agree

anyways all that matters is that my dad enjoyed his favorite dessert on his birthday <3 <3 <3

*collapses from lack of sleep*

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October 16, 2013
by nycmom
0 comments

Carrot Cake for (f)all

Editor’s note:  In case you didn’t know, I, nycmom, ↑↑ (see my name up there?)↑↑ write a post every other week and nyckid writes a post every other week.  We try and alternate.  And we try for Mondays.  And we try for every week.  Doesn’t always work out that way.  We still try.  Ok, on with the show…

 

Carrot cake doesn’t need an introduction.  It stands alone.  Or sometimes with cream cheese frosting.

I can’t quite recall when my love for carrot cake began but it was definitely rekindled in 2003 when I started dropping nyckid at kindergarten on the east side and walking over to Yura on 92 and Madison for a morning cup of joe with before I trekked back to the west side.

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October 9, 2013
by nyckid
0 comments

lemon layer cake with crazy good marshmallow frosting

lemon cake final pic

So I got a call from our friend Ava Rose the other day! Apparently her birthday was coming up (turning 9!!) and she was in desperate need of a lemon cake.

I’d never made a lemon cake before but BUT life is about taking risks and living on the edge amirite?? After some quick research, it seemed that most lemon cakes on the web did not have actual lemon in the batter, but instead were basic white cakes with lemon curd slathered in between– sounded good to me!! This cake seemed to be a recurrent theme in terms of basic cakes- originally called a “1-2-3-4 cake” (for its proportion of ingredients), it’s apparently a classic- so basically I had to try it.

However, the 7-minute frosting was the final factor for me: I’ve been reading about this frosting for a while now and have heard really great things (but I’ve always been too weenie to try it because it involves a candy thermometer!!) BUT life is about putting yourself in life threatening situations like this, yes?? (and what better time to try it than for a birthday cake!)

I’m glad to report back that not only did I survive, but the frosting is actually so so SO good (albeit a bit of work)!! I can’t say too much for the cake as I wasn’t there to taste it but I can assure you that if my calculations are correct it should taste like awesome.

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October 1, 2013
by nycmom
1 Comment

Knock knock/Who’s there?/Banana

Every week starts out with such good intentions.  Early to bed on Sunday.  Up and at em’ early Monday morning – lunches made, breakfast served, homework done.  People are on schedule and appointments and classes are being met on time.  And then by Wednesday or Thursday this happens:

bad bananas

Why??  Why oh why do I consistently buy bananas at the beginning of each week with good intentions and then this?  Everybody loves bananas and asks for them…but….what??  They forget?  They don’t see them sitting there all lonely in the fruit bowl until it too late?  I can’t explain it.  Because if there are no bananas then of course everyone asks for them.

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