Baklava Cups Recipe

Couple months ago, I tried to make my very first Baklava (recipe here).  This is one of the most additive desserts I ever ate.  After my first successful attempt, I wanted to make this little treat again for our Easter's dinner; however, I want to make it a little bits different than the one I made the last time.  So I went online and find a pretty interesting recipe from Food Network.com.  The one appears on Food Network.com looks different than the traditional one I made the last time.  The ingridents are also a little bits different too.  I used walnuts and almonds as the recipe called for.  Also added bread crumbs and dried apricots too.  Don't under estimate the bread crumbs, they actually make a BIG different in the texture of the filling.  And the dried apricots make the baklava cups lighter than the traditional one.  

A traditional Baklava I made couple months ago.

The one I made the last time was closer to the one I had in Greece.  The one I made for Easter's dinner had a little Italian twist on it since Giada De Laurentiis is an Italian.  The one I made the last time was a little bits sweeter than the one I made for Easter.  They were different, but I loved them both!  Try both receipes and let me know what you think=)

This recipe was adopted from Giada De Laurentiis's recipe, you could also click here for her demo video:

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup almonds
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 1/4 cup chopped dried apricots
• 1/4 cup plain bread crumbs
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• Pinch of salt
• 1 stick butter, melted, divided
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 12 sheets phyllo dough
• Special equipment: 2 mini-muffin tins

Time:  60 mins

Make: 6 sheets phyllo dough make a dozen, 12 sheets make 2 dozens

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Place the almonds, walnuts, apricots, bread crumbs, sugar, cinnamon, ground cloves, and salt in a food processor. Run the machine until the mixture is very finely chopped. Transfer the mixture to a small bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of the melted butter and the honey and stir to combine
3. On a dry work surface place 1 sheet of phyllo. Using a pastry brush and the remaining melted butter, lightly cover the entire sheet of phyllo with melted butter. Cover the first sheet with a second sheet of phyllo and brush with melted butter. Continue until there is a stack of 6 sheets of phyllo.
4. Cut the stacked phyllo rectangle into 12 equal pieces (Cut lengthwise into 4 pieces and widthwise into 3 pieces.)
5. Gently press each cut piece of phyllo into the mini-muffin tin cups. Press 1 tablespoon of the nut mixture into each of the phyllo cups. Gather the ends of each of the phyllo squares and twist to make a sachet shape. Continue shaping the remaining sachets in the other mini-muffin tin.
6. Bake until the edges of the phyllo are golden, about 20 to 25 minutes.
7. When cool enough to handle, remove the baklava sachets and transfer to a serving plate.

The Best Dessert I ever Ate - Bacon Chocolate Bar with S&P Ice Cream

We don't go to Los Angeles (LA) as often as we want to due to couple reasons (far distance from OC and the horrible traffic and parking situation).  We felt that we did miss out a lot in LA - all the bar scene, fancy and classy restaurants, interesting and unique places and museums...  About a month ago, we decided to take a mini weekend get away trip in West Hollywood area to explore the city and escape our normal busy lives in Orange County for a few days.

The highlight of the trip to me was visiting Animal restaurant, located in LA, by the famous Melrose neighborhood.  I have heard so many positive comments and impressive compliments about this place on different media.  I was beyond excited when we got there.  We didn't make any reservation, so we waited for about an hour and half for our table (not bad for a busy Saturday evening at a hip restaurant like this in LA).  We ordered five small dishes (Pork Belly BBQ Sandwich, Fois Gras with maple sussage and home made biscuit and gravy, Halibut with Peas, Churrizo with Melted Cheese, Marrow Bone with Chumichurri Sauce) for the two of us.  Everything was amazing and I could taste the freshness and well-preparations in each dishes.  Of course, we could not leave the restaurant without having some sweet to end our meal, so we ordered their signature bacon chocolate bar with salt and pepper ice cream and Dulce De Leche.  The Dulce De Leche was average, nothing really special about it.  However, on the other hand, the bacon chocolate bar and the s&p ice cream was delish!  No wonder it was featured on Food Network's show, The Best Thing I ever Ate. 

 

Let me tell you the presentation of the dessert - Very elegant and modern looking presentation.  And the bar looked like a piece of bacon with different kinds of chocolate in between.  The saltiness from the bacon mixed with the bitterness from different kinds of chocolates and the perfect sweetness from the creamy and silky ice cream was a perfect harmony; it was undescribably incredible. 

Cupcakes Take The Cake

5 Reasons Why I love cupcakes?

1) They are so cute and adorable, and they remind me of my sweet childhood=)
2) They are cheaper than buying a whole big cake.
3) They are small gifts of indulgence, so I feel less guilty after eating it, compared to having a slice of cake.
4) They are a convenient dessert to eat because they come in single serve proportions. No serving  utensils required.
5) They come in many flavors; however, you do not have to commit to one.

These 5 prime reasons inspired me to start my cupcake couture and catering business to spread my love of cupcakes to others. There are thousand people out there also love cupcakes; however, there is one group of people have been loving cupcakes so much that they even created a website to dedicate to CUPCAKES!

Cupcakes Take The Cake  was started in December of 2004. Three cupcakes lovers,  Rachel Kramer Bussel (the author and editor), Nichelle Stephens (the blogger and social media manager), and Stacie Joy (the photographer and editor) were inspired by the opening of New York City bakery Sugar Sweet Sunshine and the release of Clare Crespo’s book Hey There, Cupcake!,as well as the success of their friends who run the pizza blog Slice. All these inspired them to create a cupcake official website for cupcakes!

Who would have thought about a cupcake website could attract so many attentions, including MSNBC and Food Network.  This website is a bible for all cupcake lovers and someone loves sweet.  They include almost everything you need to know or want to know about cupcakes.  From cupcake reviews to cupcake recipes to interview of different bakeries around the whole world.  This is one of the most additive websites for browsing around.  And no doubt that this is the most developed and organized website about everything you need to know about cupcakes.

I am so honor to be featured on Cupcakes Take The Cake twice!  Our Lady Gaga's cupcakes were featured on this website back to September 2011.  And the triathlon inspired cupcakes (specially made for the Cupcake Activist) were featured on their website again this month.  And I am very happy that they love our creativity and works.