blueberry mini shortbread with creamcheese frosting- my first time teaching

 hey y'all today I made you a blueberry mini shortbread with cream cheese frosting. and today I'm featuring you my very own student Elise Cuadro. she is a nice person. And a very good cook. today i thought her how to make a cream cheese frosting, and how to use a piping bag she did a great job today. 
 
      I always thought teaching was easy, but it really is difficult, I'm not saying she's bad but she tried to lick off the frosting every time I looked away... 

serving- 4-6 people or 24 mini short bread
 slightly adapted this from food wishes 

1- 24 mini muffin pans *I used the one from pampered chef 

1 1/2 cups of AP-flour
1/2 cups of sugar
1/4 of tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of salt
1 stick of butter frozen and cubed
1 large egg yolk 
1/2 tsp of COLD water
1 package of wild blueberry *please use wild blueberry,  regular ones are far too big and not enough flavor

1- 8oz stick of cream cheese
powdered sugar to taste
1 tsp of vanilla extractor 1/2 tsp  of pure Mexican vanilla
2 tbsp of butter

1- take a food processor and combine flour and sugar

2- add the baking powder and salt

3- add the frozen butter and pulse the food processors on and off until its very fine crumbs

4- add the egg yolk and keep pulsing it until the yolk in mixed in evenly

5- add the water to the mixture 

6- it should still be a fine crumb but if you squeeze the mixture together it will be solid

7- pack the dry ingredients into the bottom of each mini  muffin pans

8-place the blueberry on top of the crumbs 

9- place the rest of the crumbs for the blueberries 

10- bake at 350F for 20 minutes 

for the cream cheese frosting 

1- in a stand mixer cream the cream cheese until it will incorporated air to make it soft

2-  add 2 tbsp of butter and stir

3- add powdered sugar until tasted to liking

4- add the vanilla extract * I used pure Mexican vanilla,  not extract

5- stir at high speed until done

6- pipe out the cream cheese frosting on to the shortbread 



 

blackberry "hillbilly" cobbler

      ok so I need to catch up after making tzatziki, sorry for the late post I was at my great grandmother's house in Missouri. So if you were planning to tie me to a chair to make me post then... well I don't know.

      Enough about what I was doing. This blackberry hillbilly cobbler is no joke. its  absolutely delicious. By the way I didn't garnish with a nice scoop of ice cream so sorry about that that's crime against nature right there what's next laughing in public?

       but I will teach you a trick... when you bake these as shown then the batter should be above the berries. I flipped the cobbler up side down so I could get a better looking result. but the way the acidic berries work with the sweet crusty and buttery crust is nothing short of magical so I flipped the cobbler. one of my favorite chef john called these buckles so you may want to loosen your belt buckle a couple notches and try this delicious and easy fruit dessert a try soon enjoy!

Serving for 4-6 people (1 if your mother ate everything like my mom did as well)

2  cups fresh blackberries  *note, please use a farmer's market blackberries for this. I used a packaged one from commisary because I was impatient but it ended up being way too acidic.

2 tbsp white sugar if your berries are sweet, 3 if they need some help

1 tsp vanilla extract

For the batter:

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 cup almond meal

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

pinch of cinnamon

1 cup milk

8 x 12 baking dish with 6 tbsp hot melted butter poured in.

1- prepare the blackberries place The blackberries into a small bowl add the sugar and the vanilla and stir until you don't see any more particles of sugar let sit for 15 min

2- pre-pare the baking dish melt 6 tbsp of butter and pour it into a  8 x 12 baking dish

3- make the batter swift all the dry ingredient together and stir until the baking powder is incorporated evenly *this is critical you must stir after it is swifter evenly

4- pour the batter into the buttered baking dish don't worry if it looks weird its perfectly normal, *pour it straight in the middle of the baking dish or else this will not work 


5- Bake at 350 degrees F. for about 1 hour

Enjoy!!

tzatziki- impossible to spell but delicious to eat

      tzatziki- gosh this is my all-time favorite condiment, if I had to choose between mayo and tzatziki for a sandwich i would choose this any day. french fries? NO that's jacked up i prefer seasoned ketchup with a little bit of balsamic vinegar yes i will show you that recipe when I think your ready. when i first heard of tzatziki i thought hmm this is a complex condiment. but there's a local Mediterranean restaurant called Santorini Grill and they serve this killer gyro with the tzatziki they are a new restaurant that opened . week ago in swansboro if you ever visit Swansboro, north Carolina then you should try. the taste is very simple, tangy with a flavor of dill and hint of mint 

Tzatziki- portions for 4

2 cups of greek yogurt the real stuff
3 Tbsp of herbs 2:1 ratio of dill and mint
1 large English cucumber grated
1 teaspoon of salt plus more to taste
4 cloves of garlic grated 
juice of half a lime 

1- in a small bowl take the cucumber and a grater and grate the cucumber add the salt and leave it for 15 minutes to draw out that water from the cucumber there's nothing worse then a watery Tzatziki. you know the deal with cucumbers alot of water that release when grated .

2- take a medium sized bowl take about 2 cups of Greek yogurt and please use the real stuff go to the nicest grocery store where you live in maybe whole foods is my favorite.

3- grate the garlic and add it to the yogurt stir it in with a spoon. 

4- roughly mince the dill and mint. if you don't like dill or mint use parsley or basil, but i highly recommend dill and mint

5-add in the cucumber and the lime juice and the roughly minced herbs.

6- stir it all together and your done.

7- get some pita bread and grilled lamb and enjoy!

*note I did not measure the yogurt so mine ended up too strong of flavor of dill so please measure the yogurt.

the beginning

    Hey what's up y"all my name is GianLuca Kasai i'm 13 years old, and I'm a proud chef of my own kitchen. now how many of your parents said "don't mess with the stove top!!". My parents never did I grew up cooking when I was 5 years old. My mother thought I would become a chef when I was born because I had a birthmark shaped like a chef's knife so i grew up cooking with my family. i will post my first recipe tomorrow I will TRY to post once a week. see y"all later...