Month: December 2013

Christmas Recipes

At my annual Christmas shindig I provided a few treats to the friends that could make it, and there was some interest in getting the recipes. I'll give a quick run-down for two of them here, namely the chocolate mousse and spiced cider. The chocolate mouse was adapted from The Joy Baking by Barbara Grunes, while the cider was modified from the food.com recipe for Marley's Mulled Cider. I know the steps outlined below might be overly specific, but this post will serve as a future reference for myself as well.

Chocolate Mousse - Makes 4 servings
Nutrition per serving

Calories Carbs (g) Fat (g) Protein (g) Sodium (mg) Sugar (g)
349 18 29 6 96 13

Ingredients

  • 4 oz (1/2 cup) of bittersweet chocolate chips (one can substitute butterscotch chips or any other candy that melts entirely)
  • 2 tbsp of butter
  • 2 eggs, separated
  • 3 tbsp white sugar
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Procedure

  1. Set out three bowls. Use hot water from the sink to raise the temperature of the first bowl as much as possible, and then dry it off and quickly add the chocolate and butter. If the residual heat is not enough to melt it together, microwave for 20-30 seconds, it's very easy to burn it at this point.
  2. Once melted, thoroughly mix the chocolate and butter together with a spoon or spatula. Place the bowl in the refrigerator and let it cool.
  3. In the second bowl, crack two eggs and separate out the yolks, I use a slotted spoon. It is critical to not get yolk in the whites, as the presence of fat will entirely prevent them from being whipped up correctly by breaking the surface tension on the tiny bubbles. Keeping the whites in this second bowl, add the yolks to the first bowl containing the chocolate and butter and mix them in completely. Return that bowl to the fridge.
  4. In the bowl containing the whites add two tablespoons of sugar and mix very thoroughly, until the whites are bubbly. I use a handheld electronic mixer as it takes a lot of effort to whip them enough by hand. This step does much to determine the consistency of the final product.
  5. In the third bowl use a mixer to whip up the whipping cream, vanilla extract, and remaining one tablespoon of sugar. Again,  mix until thick. My indicator is when the cream retains wrinkles on the surface surrounding the point of mixing.
  6. Take the first bowl out of the fridge and gradually mix in the contents of the second bowl. Then fold in the whipped cream and mix until completely homogeneous.
  7. Pour into 4-5 serving glasses and place in fridge for at least an hour, but up to 24 hours. Longer setting time will produce a firmer and less 'soupy' mousse.

Spiced Cider - Makes 8 servings

Nutrition per serving

Calories Carbs (g) Fat (g) Protein (g) Sodium (mg) Sugar (g)
230 55 0 0 58 55

Ingredients

  • 3 quarts apple cider
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon whole cloves
  • 1/2 teaspoon whole allspice
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 1 sliced orange
  • 1 dash salt
  • 1 dash ground nutmeg

Procedure

  • Put everything on the list in the crockpot or slow cooker.
  • Set it to low for 6-8 hours. By the end the cinnamon sticks should have rehydrated and 'unfurled' quite a bit.
  • Serve directly into mugs. Add rum if desired (not included in the numbers above, a shot of rum adds 105 calories).

Ceramics at home: Slip casting mugs

Having had brief exposure to the concept of slip casting in MSE classes years ago, I decided to make some mugs as Christmas gifts using a mold I'd acquired years back. The process was fairly straightforward as I chose probably the laziest and most repeatable approach to forming ceramic objects. The first step was acquiring the slip, glazes, rubber bands, and a sturdy bucket. All together this totaled about $20 between Marjon Ceramics and Ace hardware. I went with low-fire slip on their advice, specifically because ceramic slip suffers substantially more shrinkage on firing (about 1/3 shrinkage compared to 1/15 for low-fire slip).

Mold with rubber bands
Mold with rubber bands

The mold was banded together after a few minutes or sorting out the best way to do that (the single vertical band required rotating the mold pieces and bracing them with books on both sides while I lowered the band on a bit at a time). The slip was well agitated then poured and allowed to deposit for about 30-35 minutes, which turned out to be a little less time than I should have allowed. The excess was poured into the bucket and allowed to drain at an angle for several minutes. This was then transferred back to into the jug using a funnel. A knife was used to trim off the sprue (excess lip).

Mold with deposited clay
Mold with deposited clay

 

It took about two hours for the deposited clay to release from the mold. At that point the mold was carefully removed from the clay, being very careful not to dent nor gouge the soft clay.

Freshly cast mug
Freshly cast mug

The mug was left in front of a small floor fan over night to drive off the excess water. The next morning, using a wet paper towel, the flash, seams, and rim were smoothed out. Once I had all four of them complete and dried, I packed them up very carefully and made the trip back to Marjon to get them fired. They were able to get them done quickly, taking about two days to bisque fire.

Carefully packed bone-dry mugs
Carefully packed bone-dry mugs

After the bisque fire they took on a flat off-white color and much smoother texture. I applied two coats of glaze to every surface, choosing different colors for the different mugs. While the outside surfaces were brushed on, the interior surfaces were rolled on; that is, the glaze was poured in and the vessel rotated to produce a good coating of all the surfaces.

Bisque fired mug
Bisque fired mug

Once glazed there were handed back over to Marjon for the final firing cycle. Two days later I stopped by and picked up the mugs, just in time for the Christmas party too.

Finished mugs, side view
Finished mugs, side view

The resulting mugs were a bit thin, so if I try this again (and I probably will, given how much leftover slip I have) I'd likely increase the slip time from 30-35 minutes to 45-55 minutes to produce heftier mugs and spend more time cleaning up the seams, which ended up being really apparent in the finished pieces due to variations in glaze thickness. Also I would consider more detailed glazing methods or use of ceramic decals to put designs on them. As a first foray into making ceramics at home, I'd call it a success.

Less than quiet times

I only wish things were as quiet as the inactivity here would normally suggest. Coursework and research has conspired to keep me busy lately, so I haven't had the opportunity to write up any updates. I've had projects that I would have liked to write up come and go; hopefully I'll find time for them once classes end and I've got some space to breath. As I despise posts without content: did you know the entire 6-episode run of Police Squad (imagine an extra 3 hours of sight-gags al la Airplane or Naked Gun) is on YouTube these days? It made my day.

I should be making a fair few gifts this Christmas, and if I have the presence of mind to snap a few photos I may post about those.