Lemon blueberry cupcakes

Posted on July 15, 2011 by Sharon

I have lots of blueberries at home.

I have leftover cream cheese frosting from those double chocolate cupcakes. I need to practice my frosting piping skills.

I came across a lemon blueberry cupcake recipe last time while searching for cupcake “how to” and tips. I already printed the recipe – why not use it this time?

Lemon blueberry cupcakes

3/8 cup all-purpose flour (3/8 cup is between the 1/3 and 1/2 cup mark)
3/8 cup cake flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
¾ cup sugar
Zest of 1/2 a lemon
1 egg, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/3 cup milk
2/3 cup fresh blueberries

Makes 12 small or 8 medium cupcakes (funny story below)

Lemon cream cheese frosting

Half package (4 oz) cream cheese
1 tbsp butter, room temperature
3/4 cup icing powder, sifted
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
Zest of 1/2 a lemon

Frosts 12 small or 8 medium cupcakes

Sift and whisk together the all-purpose flour, cake flour, baking powder and salt, and set aside.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter, sugar and lemon zest and beat together on low speed until pea sized clumps form (note that you will not get a fluffy mixture).

Beat in the egg, vanilla extract, and lemon juice. Continue mixing on low speed while adding in the flour mixture and milk alternately, beating just until well incorporated. Use a spatula to gently fold the blueberries into the batter. Pour the batter into the cupcake liners about 3/4 of the way full and bake for 16 minutes at 350F. Turn off the oven and let them sit in there for an additional minute before taking them out. A toothpick inserted in the middle should come out clean. Let the cupcakes cool before frosting.

To make the frosting, beat the cream cheese and butter on low speed until well combined and smooth. Mix in the lemon juice and lemon zest. Gradually beat in the icing powder until fully incorporated. Frost the cooled cupcakes as desired.

Ok so what’s this funny story behind the 12 small or 8 medium cupcakes? The original recipe is for 16 cupcakes and to be honest, that’s a little weird when a muffin pan has 12 cups. So I cut down the recipe in half and somehow managed to forget that would only be enough batter for 8 cupcakes when time came to pour them into the paper liners. I usually like to pour a bit of batter into each liner at first to hold down the paper before filling them 3/4 of the way. I did this for all 12 cups and realized just how small these cupcakes were going to be – unfortunately that was too late ;) Out of the oven came 12 small, or rather mini, cuppycakes :) The only good thing is what everyone already knows - nothing is cuter than something that is small!

Rather than using the perfect cupcake recipe that I happened to discover from last time’s double chocolate cupcakes, I decided to try out this new one. This cupcake base calls for half all purpose flour and half cake flour, whereas the other one was simply all purpose flour. I wanted to see if this was going to make a difference in the make up of this baked good. Last time they were really moist and soft. Could it get any better and if so, how? This was my first time working with cake flour and for those who have used it before, you know my first impression was that it’s quite clumpy. Sifting took some more effort and time, but I persisted. The batter was thicker and a bit more sticky. I had a feeling my cupcakes were going to be chewy and possibly quick to stiffen up.

I was wrong – the cupcakes didn’t turn out chewy or stiff. They were still soft, but not very soft and moist. This surprised me a little bit since cake flour is, by the name, meant for cakes..yet it didn’t make the cupcakes all that great. I don’t know what that is and I don’t think I overmixed the batter. If you know, please enlighten me!

Looks like I will stick to my lucky recipe that uses only all purpose flour (whoever made this flour to go with a name like that was a genius..)

On the flip side, I’m happy the flavour of both the lemon and blueberry was just right :D

Recipe was adapted from Annie’s Eats

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Double chocolate cupcakes with peach jam filling

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Sharon

Cupcakes have been the fad food for the past few years now. Everyone at the least has tried making cupcakes, some to a greater extent by making gourmet ones. There have been reality food shows dedicated to cupcake challenges, cupcake blogs scatter the blogsphere, cupcake bakeries…you name it. People even serve cupcakes at their weddings nowdays in place of a traditional wedding cake.

So here I am, strolling around without a clue how to make cupcakes. Doesn’t every baker out there know how? Hasn’t every food blogger featured a post on their cupcake creation?

Today is a milestone for me – Bottomless Pit’s first post on cupcakes! I finally got to making them; I have stepped up to the challenge; I have conquered the fear in making what could turn out as a sloppy, firm, chewy, baked good (but a baked good nonetheless). I would still be putting off this cupcake project of mine if it weren’t for a special occasion - I made these for Boris’ birthday along with the Miami Beach Omelette.

Mission: Double chocolate cupcakes with peach jam filling and strawberry lemonade cream cheese frosting (and strawberry and lemon each on their own)

So here goes nothing (I said the same as I turned on the mixer)…

Double chocolate cupcakes

2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tbsp butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Makes 12 cupcakes

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until pea sized clumps form. You will not get a fluffy mixture because of the higher ratio of sugar to butter. Rest be assured this recipe is like that and you have done nothing wrong yet! :) Continue using the mixer on low speed while adding in the egg and vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk until everything is well combined. Thoroughly fold in the chocolate chips. Pour this batter into lined muffin cups. You should have enough to perfectly fill 12 muffin cups about 3/4 of the way full.

Bake in a 350F oven for 16-18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. I turned off the oven at 17 minutes, let them sit in there for another minute, and they were perfect!

Let these cool down before digging a hole for the jam filling.

How to fill cupcakes

Take a small knife and cut out a circle in the middle of the cupcake by inserting it at an angle towards the middle. After taking this piece out, use a small spoon to scrape out some more cupcake so there is room to put the filling. You can fill your cupcakes with whatever you like but I just chose peach jam because it’s quick and easy. And I wanted to see how peach tasted with chocolate ;) Put in a teaspoon and top it back with the cupcake piece as if nothing ever happened! ;) Hurry and get rid of the evidence by eating the cupcake bits you scraped out..why not? :) Tasty preview of the cupcake to come!

*Note to self and others: I could clearly never become a trusted surgeon

Strawberry lemonade cream cheese frosting

1/4 cup butter (room temperature)
1 8 oz package cream cheese (room temperature)
1/2 cup strawberries, finely mashed and liquid drained
zest of 1/2 a lemon
2 cups icing powder

Icing for 24 cupcakes

Note: This is not for 12, so cut this in half if you don’t plan on doubling the batch of cupcakes from above

Cream together the butter and cream cheese, gradually mix in the icing powder, and then fold in the strawberries and lemon zest. If you also want to have strawberry and lemon separately, divide your cream cheese frosting into 3 equal parts before you fold in the strawberries and zest. You can add in more or less icing powder to suit your liking of sweetness and frosting consistency. Spread on the frosting with a butter knife or put it in a frosting bag with your desired piping tip and pipe away!


My intention was to use a star tip but a small disaster ensued. Despite turning the strawberries into mush, they still clogged up the piping tip. I gave up, scooped it all out, and just spread it on with the butter knife. I had to sacrifice beauty for peace of mind. My dream of a very nice looking cupcake, with the tall perfectly sculpted frosting, ended right there. There is still some leftover frustration over the appearance of my cupcake not turning out exactly the way I imagined it to.

However, the best news is that I’m shell shocked surprised that the actual cupcake was so delicious, so moist, and not too chocolatey nor sweet! For a first time attempt, I’m very proud of myself :P The peach jam filling was a sweet surprise (even though I knew it was filled) to the chocolate goodness created by both the batter and chocolate chips.

For the frosting, I found that incorporating 2 cups of icing powder was too sweet for me (I don’t like things too sweet) so next time I might just add in 1/2 cup to thicken the frosting a bit. The consistency at 2 cups was good, so I will have to see what happens if I reduce the icing powder down to only 1/2 cup! A thin frosting will be easy for a quick spreading but may pose some difficulty if you are looking to do a fancy piping.

I also learned that an entire 8 oz package of cream cheese is way too much to frost 12 cupcakes. This recipe and others that I looked at all said this was for frosting 12 cupcakes. How is that possible unless you have a huge mountain of frosting?! Weird…..if you want just enough and not too much, I would recommend using half the block of cream cheese.

All in all, I’m quite happy how my cupcake project turned out! :D The frosting didn’t work out perfect, but hey..after scraping it off, the cupcakes were enjoyed with every single bite!

Happy Birthday Borisie!

You know I just had to light up a candle and add those M&M minis to make it look the best I can! ;)

Chocolate cupcake recipe was adapted from All Recipes and strawberry frosting recipe was adapted from Cupcake Project

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Miami Beach Omelette

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Sharon

What is a Miami Beach Omelette?

I looked at the pile of ingredients and it made me picture a warm and sunny destination and even more so when incorporated into a sunshine coloured omelette. To be honest, this is a twist of a Western omelette that uses red bell pepper instead of green. Miami Beach is a destination in Florida I have yet to visit..so why not dream a little and name my omelette after something I hope to accomplish one day? :P

So this is what I made for the birthday boy’s lunch.

Birthday + Friday afternoon off work = Kind of like my own birthday ;)

Ingredients:

2 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup onion, finely chopped
1/3 cup red pepper, finely chopped
1/3 cup deli ham, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup cheese, shredded or diced
Pinch of salt

Cook the onion, red pepper, and ham in an oiled pan on low-medium heat for a few minutes or until onions are soft. Season with salt and/or pepper, mix thoroughly, and set aside.

Crack and beat the eggs together while heating a skillet on low-medium heat. When it is beginning to warm up, swirl around a piece of butter across the surface. After fully melted, pour the eggs in and swirl the skillet to cover the cooking surface. I used a large skillet (mine is probably a 28cm) to create a big and thin omelette. This doesn’t take very long to cook, just a minute or so, especially if your skillet is large. As the bottom quickly cooks, move the sides inwards and tilt the skillet to let the raw egg batter on the top to move to the bottom.

Scatter the cheese right down the middle of the omelette, top with the onion, red pepper, and ham mixture, and sprinkle more cheese on top. By putting all the ingredients down the middle, you can create the French style omelette by folding in the rest of the egg like a letter going into an envelope – fold one side towards the middle right on top of the ingredients and do the same for the other side.

Be aware that you do need a large enough plate to accommodate this large omelette you just made!

Alternatively, you can make a different version that takes on the shape of a pie slice. As the egg sets in, fold it in half so it resembles a semi circle. Put on all the ingredients (make sure cheese goes on both first and last! This is so very important in creating the best tasting omelette!) on one side of the semi circle, then fold over so you have a quarter circle looking omelette. No troubles fitting this on a plate ;)

This was served alongside strawberries, blueberries, and watermelon. Omelette and fruit for lunch. I’ll take it!…any day.

As for Boris, well..he is not very fond of veggies. I had previously somewhat joked that I would purposely make a vegetarian omelette but he could choose whatever ingredients he wanted :P In the end, I was asked to make it a surprise..long and behold it was not vegetarian and the taste was thoroughly enjoyed! As my first time making omelettes, I learned just how quick they cook and that I need to move much quicker than I did. There was a bit of brown to the eggs but still tasty! The key is having everything ready before you pour the eggs into the skillet to cook…including the cheese, which I diced while the omelette was cooking. Omelette making does not call for multi tasking :P

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Photo credits to Boris with use of a Canon T3i – first DSLR to shoot photography for Bottomless Pit :D

Beware that some pictures featured on this site will now induce even stronger feelings of hunger and more lip licking

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So did the look of this omelette make me think of a warm and sunny destination like Miami Beach? The omelette coupled with the “exotic” fruits could surely be a breakfast served to me while sitting on a balcony overlooking the tropic blue waters of the Bahamas! All I was missing was a tall glass of orange juice “on the rocks” freshly squeezed from Florida navel oranges… :P

Have I taken you to Miami Beach?

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Spaghetti and BBQ pork

Posted on June 27, 2011 by Sharon

It’s a Saturday night and we don’t know what to make for dinner, but the choice is ours and the pickings are as wide as the sun’s horizon (summer is officially here!!!)

Meat? Chinese BBQ pork…..still good. Check..
Vegetables? Check.

Meat and veggies then.

Wait – do we have pasta? And pasta sauce?

Double check!

Pasta it is :) And you can barely go wrong with this..

Yes I know there is an ingredient here that doesn’t really fit the picture – the Chinese BBQ pork. Well you know…the meat was leftover and it wasn’t going to go to waste ;)

Ingredients:

Chinese BBQ pork, sliced
1 medium red onion, chopped
1 romaine lettuce heart, chopped
1 yellow pepper, chopped
2 servings of spaghetti and tomato sauce

Boil a pot of salted water with spaghetti until fully cooked. Drain the spaghetti.

Pour the tomato sauce into a small pot (and feel free to add some water so it’s not as chunky) along with the red onion and yellow pepper. Let it come to a boil 2 or 3 times on low-medium heat (use the cover to prevent splatter), then add in the BBQ pork. Let that boil and then add in the lettuce. When the lettuce leaves are wilted (happens very quickly), turn off the heat, stir the pot lightly, and serve over the pasta!

This dinner was more delicious than I thought :P And I was already hungry…you know what they say, anything tastes good when you’re hungry!

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Father’s Day Dinner

Posted on June 24, 2011 by Sharon

Father’s Day creeps up pretty quickly right after Mother’s Day despite them being actually 1.5 months away from each other. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t that long ago when the date on my computer still said May, yet it’s already nearing the end of June. Where has the time gone? Yesterday was the first day of summer..and Father’s Day was a few days ago. My post is late but I’ve been busy :P

We had a Mother’s Day lunch..so it makes sense to do a Father’s Day dinner (and why not? :) )

Father’s Day 2011 Dinner Menu

In the oven:

Ham & cheese pinwheels
Ham, zucchini, & red pepper pizza
Ham, mushroom, & yellow pepper pizza

On the grill:

Pork skewers
Chicken skewers
Veggie skewers
Chicken breasts
Beef short ribs
Pineapple

Strawberry green tea lemonade

See the pizza dough recipe and how to make your own pizza here. It’s a keeper – it has been successful twice in a row and it may very well be the one I use from now on. The key is having it rest for sufficient amount of time. Last time 1.5 hours didn’t cut it, this time I waited 2.5 hours and the dough was ready for kneading, so be patient! :)


Ham & cheese pinwheels

Pinwheels are often made with tortillas but some people use a homemade dough. I decided to join the pack since I was already going to make pizza – so why not use the same dough for the pinwheels? It will be interesting to see how they turn out.

Ingredients:

2 slices deli meat ham, chopped into small pieces
1 cup shredded cheese
Olive oil for brushing

Take half of the pizza dough ball and roll out into a rectangular shape as best as you can…I must admit it’s hard. Try to roll it out thinly but still thick enough to pick up and roll.

Brush all over with olive oil. You can put some herbs, spices, salt, or pepper on top but I didn’t. Scatter the cheese and ham.


Starting with the longer edge, roll up tightly until you reach the other end. Pinch the seams and ends to make sure the filling stays inside. Use a sharp knife (or dental floss, which I heard works wonders but had some doubts in trying!) to cut the roll in pieces that are about 3/4 or 1 inch wide, then place cut side up on an oiled foil lined baking sheet. Remember to oil the baking sheet because as the pinwheels bake, the cheese may ooze out from the bottom and you won’t want this to stick to the foil (talk about ruined pinwheels!). I ended up with 18 pieces and baked on a single sheet for 10 minutes at 350F.

These ended up being cute little balls of flavourful dough. I intended them to be an appetizer but we just ate it together with the meats from the barbecue. They tasted good, but next time I won’t have them in the same meal as pizza because it’s just too much dough. However, I do recommend they are good for a starter and it probably would even have better flavour if some herbs were added. An alternative to try is to use tortillas so it’s not as filling. Of course, the rolled ingredients are your choice! I just used the same ingredients as the pizzas because it was easier to have them finished off.


Pizza

The great thing about pizza is that you can put whatever you want on it, as well as however much you want :P I’m almost tempted to have a pizza party where everyone can make their own individual pizzas!

The basics include shredded cheese and tomato paste. I decided to go with ham (nothing wrong with making use of what’s leftover from the pinwheels), zucchini, mushrooms, and red and yellow peppers. Bake at 350F for 10 minutes.

As expected, these pizzas tasted awesome! The crust was soft and not chewy (I’m getting better at this I’m tellin’ ya!) and the toppings were just cooked. The crust was also thinner than last time :)

Of course I’m still trying to get my crispy brown bottom crust without investing in a pizza stone. I tried a new method this time – I preheated a cookie sheet face down, then slid the pizza on it. According to other foodies, the already hot surface of the pan is supposed to create the crispy brown bottom crust compared to just placing the pizza tray in the oven after preheating. This didn’t work for me as the bottom crust was the same colour as the top crust. Continuing my search for authentic homemade pizza…

The chicken and pork skewers were store bought and pre-seasoned – I particularly loved the pork skewers and will definitely visit the same butcher next time! :D I cut and assembled the veggie skewers with the help of my sous chef Boris.

The chicken breasts were prepared by my mom using a secret marinade that even I don’t know……it was very good and even tasted better as leftovers :P

The beef short ribs were also prepared by my mom. Simply seasoned with oyster sauce, they were so flavourful and enjoyed by everyone :)

We also bought cored pineapple and quickly gave them a grill on both sides.

Strawberry green tea lemonade

Ingredients:

20 strawberries more or less (I used a 1lb box), washed and halved
3 lemons, juiced
7 cups water
2 green tea bags
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey

Ok so this was my first attempt at making a drink other than smoothies. I really wanted to make a beverage that would put us into the summer mood, so I started off with strawberries and thought of strawberry lemonade…and somehow threw green tea in there!

Bring a pot of water, about 2 cups, to boil over the stove and keep the tea bags in there for about 5 minutes. Set aside to cool. While it is still warm, add the sugar, honey, and mix until dissolved.

While it’s still cooling down, wash and cut the strawberries. Put half into the blender along with 1 1/2 cups of water and blend until smooth. Pour this through a strainer to remove the strawberry seeds. Repeat the blending and straining process with the other half of the strawberries.

Squeeze the lemon juice from the 3 lemons into 2 cups of water. Mix this with the green tea and then pour into the pitcher of strawberry water. Use a large ladle to stir until the flavours are well combined and taste for right consistency before putting into the fridge.

I honestly think my process was much long drawn out than it really needed to be. Seriously…it seemed to take s o  l o n g just to make this drink, but maybe I’m thinking about all the wait time from boiling the water to letting the green tea cool down. This can actually be made well in advance of when you plan to serve it, so that there is enough time for the drink to chill in the fridge. Mine was made an hour before the meal was served so we had to add ice cubes to help make it an “ice cold summer drink”. It definitely wasn’t too sweet as I intended to have very little sugar and use honey in replace of sugar to make it healthier. The flavours were there but could definitely be stronger or less watered down (the ice cubes didn’t help). More strawberries, more lemon, more green tea, and less water!

All in all, this was a very fun start to our summer and a different kind of celebration in our home for Father’s Day! Doing the barbecue in the backyard shade by the fence, bringing out chairs onto the grass from inside the home and eating on our laps, and just plain old having a great time eating great food with my family. Yup – that’s exactly how we roll :P

Happy Father’s Day daddy!

Here’s to hoping we’ll do this a few more times before the end of summer…and I hope everyone out there is enjoying the season and doing something memorable, so that one day you may happily start a story with “in the summer of 2011…” ;)

Pinwheels recipe was adapted from Seasaltwithfood

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Banana Bread

Posted on June 20, 2011 by Sharon

2 overly ripe bananas……colours are almost inverted – bananas are black with yellow spots. That’s almost a scary looking fruit if it was meant to be in colours like that.

How did I get rid of them? Banana bread!!!

Special kudos to my friend Agnes for suggesting a very tasty crumb top, otherwise I would have made a plain old banana bread without her great idea….thanks Aggy! :P

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 bananas, mashed

Crumb top ingredients:

1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp cold butter

Makes one 8.5″ x 4.5″ loaf

Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

Cream together the butter and brown sugar, then add in the eggs and mashed bananas. Mix this with the flour mixture and lightly stir until well combined. Try not to use force when mixing or the baked bread will be chewy and tough.

Butter the parchment paper lined pan before pouring in the batter.

Combine the crumb top ingredients and sprinkle on top of the batter.

Bake at 350F for 50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean!

Ok so my banana bread didn’t come out too well. The batter was not moist enough because I only had 2 bananas..I should have cut down the flour to 1 1/2 cups. As a result, I was most likely stirring it a lot harder than I should have. The bread wasn’t too chewy, but it still was at the very least.

The taste was good though and it wasn’t too sweet :) The banana flavour was still strong in smell and taste. Even after 2 days in a somewhat airtight plastic bag, the bread was not that hard nor dry.

My crumb top wasn’t really a crumb. It looked like it melted right into the surface of the bread. They look like chocolate chips from afar. I didn’t follow the exact measurements in the recipe (so what :P ) because I didn’t want it too sweet nor too greasy. That probably led to the downfall of my crumb top. Until next time……

Banana bread recipe was adapted from All Recipes and crumb top recipe was also adapted from All Recipes

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We finally got a BBQ!

Posted on June 17, 2011 by Sharon

My brother and I have seriously, and I mean seriously, yearned for a barbecue for a third of our lives…or somewhere around there (numbers will no longer be disclosed. I know, I’m aging…) We never had one, which isn’t unusual for a family that mostly eats traditional Chinese meals. What would we ever do with a barbecue!

We finally got it. It’s small, it’s portable, and it’s well loved. It’s like bringing home a baby, isn’t it? They definitely are portable :P

We put it to use the next next day. I know, not as early as the next day or the same day…but the food was much more dreamed of!

We had wings, chicken and vegetable kebabs, and short beef ribs. All the preparation was done by my mom, I helped skewer the kebabs, and my brother did all the BBQing.

What a great dinner and a different one for once! We are definitely excited for our next barbecue…different foods and same awesome taste!

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Iron Cupcake challenge!

Posted on June 14, 2011 by Sharon

I was browsing around on the Internet on food related sites and somehow came across a cute little website for a store in the west end of the city called For The Love of Cake. They specialize in custom cake and cupcake creations. Then I somehow landed on their blog and it mentioned some winners and runner ups and “people’s choice awards”…what is this about??? Long and behold, I read on and found out they are the host of “Iron Cupcake”

What is Iron Cupcake?

Iron Cupcake is a cupcake challenge open to the public which has a similar concept to that of Iron Chef. A “secret ingredient” is announced and the competitors must somehow incorporate it into their cupcakes. Cupcakes will be made ahead of time and brought in a finished state to the competition. There will be points awarded on presentation, taste and creativity.

Read more here

It seemed like it occurs on a monthly (or near monthly) basis but there wasn’t anything on the website for May and June. I emailed them anyway to find out when is the next challenge – September 2011! Apparently spaces are limited so I’ll be sure to check out the site as time gets closer.

I have never made a single cupcake in my life. I don’t even own a piping tip and what’s a cupcake without its fancy piped out frosting!!

Why am I so excited for this?

Well…I will learn and I look forward to participating! In the meantime, I think it’s a sign I should start testing out some cupcake recipes…

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Cheese stuffed lemon turkey burgers

Posted on June 10, 2011 by Sharon

Yes I made burgers A G A I N :P

Hahahaha..

Same procedure with a bit of a twist, different ingredients.

Cheese stuffed lemon turkey burger patty ingredients:

1 lb lean ground turkey
1 slice bread, teared in pieces
3/4 cup milk
1/2 egg, beaten
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1/2 a lemon
20 strips of thinly sliced block cheese

Makes 5 patties

Soak the pieces of bread in the milk for a few minutes.

While waiting for the bread, put the ground turkey on a flat working surface and make a hole in the middle of the mound. Beat the egg in a separate bowl and pour in half the egg into the meat. Put in the lemon zest and juice and lightly combine. Try not to press down on the meat too hard while trying to incorporate these liquids.

Take the soaked pieces of bread, squeeze out the milk, and tear them into even smaller pieces. Add these to your turkey mixture and lightly combine again. Discard the bowl of milk. Divide into 10 equal sized small patties.

Take thinly sliced pieces of cheese (or use grated if you want, but I find slices are easier to grab) and place 2 or 3 layers on top of a patty. They might be longer than the patty depending on the size of your cheese block, so feel free to break it into shorter pieces. Put one of the remaining patties on top and seal around the edges so the cheese is “secured” inside and you no longer see it from the outside. Repeat with the remaining patties.

Heat oil on medium heat and gently put the burger patties in. Cook on both sides for about 4 minutes covered or until cooked through. Pour out the liquids released from the meat and cook each side for 30 seconds to a minute to get a crispy brown exterior.

Note that some of the cheese may ooze out – you just can’t help it unless you don’t put in that much, but that defeats the purpose!

Lemon turkey burgers? Seriously? And stuffed with cheddar cheese?….Are you going to get sick from that??!

Note: I was NOT asked that question..:)

Note #2: Yes, that is sliced bread rather than a hamburger bun. Long story short, I thought these would be on a real burger bun but I got tricked and had to use sliced bread. So much for a turkey burger..

Actually, lemon and turkey don’t taste too bad together. I was thinking what ingredient I could add into the ground turkey to make this a flavourful burger. Turkey made me think of Thanksgiving, a turkey roasting in the oven and then served with cranberry sauce. Should I make cranberry turkey burgers?? Now THAT is kind of weird (although there is no guarantee that in the near future you might see that in a blog post of mine!).

Turkey is in the oven with what?…Lemon slices! Sometimes anyway ;) The idea of lemon turkey burgers was born :)

I’m glad I only used the juice of half a lemon because the patties had just the right amount of tangy citrus flavour that wasn’t too powerful, but the lemon could be tasted.

Anything stuffed with cheese is good, especially if you’re a cheese lover like me. Enough said? I think so.

I’m also surprised the burger did not taste dry. Let’s be honest here..whenever I hear the word turkey, the word “dry” comes to mind, and I end up choosing an alternate food choice. Despite this, I will have ground turkey in my pasta any day. And apparently turkey is a really healthy meat choice. I guess that leaves me no choice but to make turkey burgers again :D

And yes I know, my experience and skill in sauteing mushrooms needs to be severely, and I mean severely, improved. You might want to make that saucy next time Sharon!!!

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Chicken burgers…again

Posted on June 4, 2011 by Sharon

I made chicken burgers again..my 2nd time within 2 weeks.

What gives? :)

I’m using the same recipe (yes, the meatball recipe) again since it was a great tasting success. This time I took the lessons learned to create even better chicken burgers. I’d pick this recipe over the previous one ;)

Chicken burger patty ingredients:

1 lb lean ground chicken
1 slice bread, teared in pieces
3/4 cup milk
1/2 egg, beaten
2 tbsp bbq sauce

Makes 4 patties

Soak the pieces of bread in the milk for a few minutes.

While waiting for the bread, put the ground chicken on a flat working surface and make a hole in the middle of the mound. Beat the egg in a separate bowl and pour in half the egg into the meat. Put in the bbq sauce and lightly combine. Try not to press down on the meat too hard while trying to incorporate these liquids.

Take the soaked pieces of bread, squeeze out the milk, and tear them into even smaller pieces. Add these to your chicken mixture and lightly combine again. Discard the bowl of milk. Divide into 4 equal sized patties.

Heat oil on medium heat and gently put the burger patties in. Cook on both sides for about 4 minutes covered or until cooked through. Pour out the liquids released from the meat and cook each side for 30 seconds to a minute to get a crispy brown exterior.

Once it’s off the pan, quickly put on the cheese so it can melt!

Two of today’s burger toppings were experimental in nature.

Read: Testing for a good taste. Will reuse if good. Will never reuse if bad or makes someone sick.

Fried egg. Granny Smith apple slices.

The fried egg is from the other 1/2 of the egg that was put into the burger patties. Last time I used the entire egg and the mixture became too wet. I didn’t want this 1/2 egg to go to waste, so I sandwiched it on top of the cheese and another layer of cheese.

Ok I’ll admit the apple slices were mostly there for it’s nice bright colour. But I learned that it gives burgers a nice, crispy, sweet crunch! Kinda like bacon, but it can never ever replace the goodness that bacon can bring. Oh bacon..I wish I could have some of you!

Verdict about fried egg and Granny Smith apple slices?

Safe. You’re both on the good list :D That burger tasted goooooooood! I’m happy to say these experiments turned out well. Mind you, I already had apple slices on everyone’s burger. I kinda knew it was going to turn out alright :) It was just a gut feeling…no scientific explanation behind it (for now)!

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