Monthly Archives: May 2021

Happy National Pancake Day! I’m going to celebrate by baking some pancakes into a cake. Here’s the recipe!

Some nice behind the scenes video of Michigan State on their trip to Germany to face UConn a couple of weeks ago. Too bad for MSU, they lost, but good to see the players visiting the hospital there in Ramstein and talking with the troops there. Some nice clips of the game action at the end of the video too, anyways enjoy…

Michigan State Basketball – Armed Forces Classic from Micah Brown on Vimeo.

Perfect blueberry pie recipe! Use fresh or frozen berries, homemade or store-bought crust. No fail-blueberry pie filling that’s never runny!

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Der zweite Teil des dieswöchigen Fragenpods beschäftigt sich unter anderem mit dem unterschätzten Skill Steph Currys, den deutschen Chancen bei der Olympiaquali in Split, der besten Big Three ever und vieles, vieles mehr! Hier geht es zum … Fragenpod https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/gotnexxt/GN_FRAGEN150521_2.mp3 (mehr …)

Former Louisville assistant coach Dino Gaudio is facing federal charges of extortion. Following the end of the 2020-21 season, Cardinals head coach Chris Mack…

7 Essential Core (Ab) Exercises & Workouts for Basketball Players Core strength is a key component to any athlete’s development. Increase in core strength allows you to…

The post 7 Essential Core (Ab) Exercises & Workouts for Basketball Players appeared first on The Breakthrough Basketball Blog.

This post was sponsored by Anova as part of an Influencer Activation and all opinions expressed in my post are my own.

How to temper chocolate using the Anova Precision Cooker Nano and the sous vide method. A fool-proof method for tempering dark, milk, or white chocolate. No mess and no waste!

If you have a mom like me, one that watches GBBO or basically any baking show on the regular, then she is probably scared of tempering chocolate like I was. If you’ve spent any time watching a baking competition, then you know it starts to fall apart when it comes time to temper. 

As a Claire Saffitz stan, I learned that you can temper chocolate using a sous vide machine. (She would go to great lengths to not temper chocolate because it can be such a pain and messy, but once she learned how to do it this way, everything was tempered.) It’s really brilliant if you think about it. You have complete control over the temperature and it’s really fool-proof.

Tempering chocolate is simply heating and cooling chocolate in a specific way that puts the crystals in the cocoa butter in order to set when it is stable. That being said, it was a really messy process that involved lots of bowls, thermometers, and occasionally tears. No more. 

When Anova reached out and asked if I wanted to try their Anova Precision Cooker Nano, I was super excited because I’ve always been interested in trying this method to temper chocolate (and sous vide cooking in general, I like the idea that you can make multiple things at one time, that you can’t overcook it, or lose any quality, dinner happens when I’m ready for it). 

There is a sous vide restaurant around the corner that we go to all the time and the burger is my son’s absolute favorite. He was so excited that we could try to make a burger the same way at home. 

We also used to get chicken and waffles at a restaurant in Kansas and the fried chicken was sous vide and it was INSANE. So moist and tender from being sous vide, then flash-fried. So we are big sous vide fans around here. 

So if you have a mom that is interested in baking, then an Anova Precision Cooker Nano is a perfect Mother’s Day gift. (There is a promotion going on right now too, details below.) When you temper chocolate using this method, there is no waste and minimal clean-up. All things moms get behind. 

So Why Temper Chocolate?

Why can’t you just melt chocolate and use it straight from the microwave? Have you ever melted chocolate and used it to coat something? Did it streak? Melt quickly under your fingers? Look sort of dull? It’s because you needed to temper the chocolate. 

When you temper chocolate, you get a beautiful, glossy, chocolate that holds its shape, makes a distinct snap when you break it, and sets at room temperature. You can do so many things with tempered chocolate. 

If you are baking with chocolate, there is no need to temper it. But if you are dipping strawberries or fruit, making hot chocolate bombs, chocolate decorations, candy bars, or need it to come out of any type of mold, it needs to be tempered. 

How to Temper Chocolate Using the Sous Vide Method //

Tempering chocolate using the sous vide method is fool-proof. Follow a few simple steps and you will have perfectly tempered chocolate Every. Single. Time. (Seriously, this is a game-changer.)

1. Add water to a large or plastic container, preheat water to 118°. 

2. Add chocolate to a vacuum seal bag.

3. Put the bag in the water for about 15 minutes. Agitate the bag every few minutes during each step. 

4. After 15 minutes, lower the temperature to 79° by adding ice or replacing the water. 

5. After 15 minutes, at 79°, increase the temperature to 86°. Cook for another 10 minutes.

The process should take about 40 minutes total. 

Tips for Sous Vide Tempered Chocolate //

• Make sure to gently agitate the bag during the cooking process. This helps develop the crystals you need to get the chocolate tempered. 
• If you have more chocolate than you need, or need to keep it warm during the process (like to coat the bottom of a mold) reseal the bag using the vacuum seal. Push the chocolate out of the corner and reseal. Put the bag back into the 86° water to keep it in temper. 
• You can use this method with milk and dark chocolate as well. Please see the table for correct cooking temperatures.
• Use the highest-quality chocolate you can. Especially when dealing with white chocolate. If it has palm kernel oil or coconut oil in the ingredients, it will not temper. Candy melts or compound chocolate is not going to temper, so look for chocolate that has cocoa butter in it. This is my preferred white chocolate to work with.

Dark Chocolate //
122°F/50°C for 15 minutes

82°F/28°C for 15 minutes

90°F/32°C for 10 minutes

Milk and White Chocolates //
118°F/48°C for 15 minutes

79°F/26°C for 15 minutes

86°F/30°C for 10 minutes

Crunchy Strawberry White Chocolate Bars //

Now that we have some perfectly tempered chocolate, what should we do with it?

You can essentially make any kind of chocolate bar you like once you get the process down for tempering chocolate. You can buy some molds and fill them with anything you can think of. Homemade caramels? I’m here for it. 

How about making mom a custom candy bar? 

We are going to impress everyone with our Crunchy Strawberry White Chocolate Bars. They are so easy to make and you can package these and give them to all of the moms in your life. 

• ½ cup cornflakes
• 12 ounces white chocolate
• 1 (1.2-oz) package freeze-dried strawberries, crushed

Preheat oven to 350°. Spread cornflakes out in an even layer on a baking sheet. Toast for 5 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Temper white chocolate according to the directions for the sous vide method. 
When tempered, pour the chocolate into a bowl and fold in cornflakes and freeze-dried strawberries. Mix to combine and pour into molds. Alternatively, you could make bark and pour it onto a baking sheet.

Let chocolate set at room temperature, about 15 minutes. 

Unmold bars or cut the bark into smaller pieces. 

Final Thoughts //

Honestly, the hardest part of sous-viding white chocolate was getting all of the chips into the bag! It is a fool-proof, mess-free, no waste method. I’ll never temper chocolate another way ever again. 

I’m really looking forward to making other things using the Anova Precision Cooker Nano. My husband has been sending me ideas of things to sous vide ever since I got my machine.

Thank you to Anova Precision Cooker Nano for sponsoring this post. I had a great time playing with sous vide cooking and am looking forward to all of the other delicious meals I will make with it. 

Right now there is a Mother’s Day promotion going on, visit the Anova website to purchase.

Anova Precision Cooker Nano: $30 off Anova Precision Vacuum Sealer: $10 offAnova Precision 12 L Container: $10 offAnova Nano Cooker Base: $5 off

For Additional Sous Vide Recipes and Resources //

• Find Anova on Instagram  
• Tweet Anova on Twitter 
• Visit Anova on Facebook 
• Anova on Pinterest

The post How to Temper Chocolate Using The Sous Vide Method appeared first on Baked Bree.

Happy Cookie Friday! Today I got something delicious for you. Once again, because it’s Friday 😉 As soon as oatmeal is involved in the process of making cookies, these little sweet treats automatically turn out super good I think. So are these Oatmeal Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Cookies (very long name, I know). Well… I don’t […]

The post Oatmeal Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Cookies first appeared on Bake to the roots.

Baskets of ripe blueberries practically beg to be baked into blueberry muffins. Blueberry is one of the most popular muffin flavors out there, and one of the reasons that it is so hard to tire of them is that it is so easy to put different twists on them to change their flavors. You can add coconut, nuts, lemon zest or a streusel topping. For these Blueberry Lavender Muffins, I added dried lavender to some buttermilk blueberry muffins to give them an unexpected and subtle – but delicious – twist.

The muffins are moist and fluffy, studded generously with plump, juicy blueberries. There is just enough lavender to bring out the subtle floral notes of the blueberries, which makes the muffins seem even more packed with berries than they already are. I added a dusting of lavender sugar on top of the muffins to give them a little extra sweetness and to highlight the lavender a bit, apart from the berries.

I prefer to use fresh blueberries in these when they are available, but frozen blueberries can be used, as well. You may need to add an additional minute or two of baking time if using frozen berries because the quantity of berries used in this recipe will cool down the batter a bit. I also recommend tossing frozen blueberries in 1-2 tsp of flour before adding them to the batter, as that will help prevent the berries from bleeding prior to baking.

The lavender sugar is something that you can prepare in advance and keep in your pantry. It is made simply by mixing dried lavender and sugar, then letting the mixture sit and infuse – much the same way that vanilla sugar is made. You can make it with regular sugar or coarse sugar, and it can be used in any baking application where you want a subtle lavender flavor. I usually use it to top muffins and rim cocktail glasses, so I often use coarse sugar so that I get a more dramatic look when I apply it.

Blueberry Lavender Muffins
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen
1 tbsp dried lavender
Lavender Sugar, for topping (recipe below)

Preheat oven to 375F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a large bowl, whisk together sugar and egg until well combined, then whisk in vegetable oil and vanilla extract. Stir in half of the flour mixture, followed by the buttermilk, then stir in the remaining flour mixture until it is almost completely incorporated. Gently fold in blueberries and lavender until well-distributed.
Divide batter evenly into prepared muffin pans. Top each with 2-3 tsp lavender sugar.
Bake for 15-18 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean and the muffins spring back when lightly pressed.
Cool completely on a wire rack.

Makes 12.

Lavender Sugar
1 cup sugar
2 tsp dried lavender

In a food processor, combine sugar and lavender and pulse a few times to combine. Transfer to an airtight container and store for at least 24 hours (to infuse sugar with more flavor).

Makes 1 cup.

The post Blueberry Lavender Muffins appeared first on Baking Bites.

7 Essential Core (Ab) Exercises & Workouts for Basketball Players Core strength is a key component to any athlete’s development. Increase in core strength allows you to…

The post 7 Essential Core (Ab) Exercises & Workouts for Basketball Players appeared first on The Breakthrough Basketball Blog.