deep-dish apple pie pizza

Nothing’s really that simple.

On this blog, I often worry that I am compelled to portray myself as this teenage Martha Stewart-wannabe, but that’s not reality.

If I were Lauren Conrad or Martha Stewart, this would be different.  It is their job to look super fabulous and manicured for their readers — exhibiting guru-like knowledge on flower arrangements and sock buns that don’t look stupid.  For me, this whole blogging thing is a little different.  I don’t have endless funds to spend on peonies, my hair will never look good in a sock bun, and I have no authority to tell you all how to mix a pink mimosa.

my beautiful, blank pizza canvas

My goal is to get closer to you all as readers and tell it like it is.  I want you to be able to read my blog posts and be all like “whoa, she gets it!,” or “omg me too.” Definitely not a “my life is in shambles, how can I be more like her” (because believe me, my life is in shambles sometimes too).

Yes, I have a collection of vintage mason jars and milk bottles, I have a bin dedicated to washi tape, and I make my own granola.  But that is just one side of me.

The part that you don’t see as much is the fact that I am a worrier, I enjoy a little bit (lot a bit) of mess in my room, and I am often very stubborn. Thus, along with the baker’s twine, DSLR shots, and confectioners sugar comes real feelings, real mistakes, and the real joy beyond making a photogenic batch of cupcakes.  Also, I often eat things straight out of the fridge (i.e. not plated with perfect lighting and garnishes). 

One of my favorite things to eat standing up at the fridge is apple pie.  My dad used to always buy those grocery store apple pies, and I’d always keep standing up, sneaking over to the fridge and eating just a little sliver (by the end of the hour the pie was usually half eaten).  That apple pie tasted so much better than warm apple pie all served up with ice cream and whipped cream and a mint spring (mint does not belong on apple pie).  Something about the cold, gooey, finger-food nature of it made it just that amazing.

Pizza is another classic “fridge food,”  cold pizza straight from the fridge is a delecacie of its own.  It tastes nothing like pizza, but it tastes pretty good!

look at that big, fat crust!

Enough chit-chat.  Let’s talk about this pizza. This is a real life recipe.

Ain’t nobody got time to make real apple pie on a school night.  But we’ve got time for pizza pie. This pizza version of apple pie is all of the cinnamon-y apple goodness without the opressive pastry/pie crust rolling! (especially if you use store-bought pizza dough… that’s real life)

The thing is, real life often tastes better than “ideal life” (a life in which I made a mile-high apple pie with a rum syrup reduction with apples that I picked from my garden). This strange amalgamation of the classy, the trashy, and the unique creates something truly spectacular.  This pizza is a wonderful hybrid between you’re grandmother’s apple pie (classy), Domino’s Cinnastix (trashy), and a cream cheese frosting drizzled cinnamon buns (unique?). 

The end result? Something perfect to eat standing up at the fridge.

If you’re looking for more easy-peasy pizza recipes to eat standing up at the fridge, you’re in luck. It’s Pizza Week on NoshOn.It! Checkout the hashtag #PizzaWeek on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram or check out the Pizza Week Pinterest Board.  The inspiration is endless!

Some favorites are:
Gerry’s Prosciutto, Pistachio, and Burrata Pizza  
Amy’s Kimchi Pizza
Shanna’s Grilled Pineapple, Crispy Pork Belly, Burrata and Arugula Pizza

With love,
Erica

it’s so gooey I’m gonna die!!!!!
Ingredients

for the dough:
2 packets of active dry yeast (1/4 oz. each)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons salt
4 cups all purpose flour (plus more for surface)

(alternatively, you could use store-bought dough)

for the filling:
1/4 cup sugar
1 8oz block of cream cheese, softened
for the topping:
one small apple, thinly sliced
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
4 tablespoons cold butter
cinnamon
First, make the pizza dough. 
Pour 1 1/2 cups of warm water into a large bowl, stir in yeast, and let stand for about 5 minutes until foamy. 
Whisk in the sugar, oil, and salt.  Add flour and stir until the mixture forms a sticky dough.  Transfer to a clean, oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Set aside in a warm place until the dough has doubled in size (about 1 hour).  
Preheat the oven to 460 degrees F. 
Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll the ball of dough out into a big circle. 
Now, make the filling.  Beat together the sugar and cream cheese until it becomes a uniform mixture.  Spoon this mixture evenly around the crust, about an inch from the edge.  Fold the edges over the cream cheese to seal it inside the crust.  
Lay the sliced apples out on the dough.  Sprinkle generously with cinnamon.  
Now, prepare the streusel.  Crumble together the 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour, white sugar, brown sugar and butter until the butter is the size of pebbles.  Sprinkle this mixture generously all over the pizza.  Give the pizza another nice sprinkling of cinnamon. 
Bake in the preheated oven for 8-12 minutes, until the crust is golden brown.  Remove from the oven, and enjoy while warm!

© Cannella Vita. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission/linking back to Cannella Vita. If you want to republish this recipe, please link back to this post.

orange scented french toast


soak:
to lie immersed in liquid (as water): become saturated by or as if by immersion

Soaking is a magical thing. I love the idea that things can drastically improve by just sitting in liquid.  This idea of idle productivity is particularly appealing to me right now, as I am procrastinating on typing up this MASSIVE outline for finals.

Things that get better after soaking:

  1. T-shirts.  There’s nothing like a soft, vintage, sun-kissed t-shirt.  I recently did a little DIY project, soaking some of my stiff, school t-shirts in a salt water bath for a few days and then machine washing them.  After a few days of soaking in salt water, they were light and soft.  Easy-peasy. 
  2. Legs.  Not quite soaking, but the absorption process is similar — letting thick, minty lotion soak into the skin for a few hours makes such a difference.  Scaly legs put me in an awful mood.  So does lotion that smells old-ladyish.  I’ve recently been obsessed with Seacret Ocean Mist Body Lotion.   No, I am not being endorsed by Seacret, although I’m quite flattered if you thought so.  I get sent stuff like industrial sized jugs of almond butter and oats (not that I’m complaining), not fancy-schmancy body creams and cosmetics. 
  3. People.  No matter how awful of a mood I am in, a soak in the bath never fails to melt some of the angrys away.  
  4. Breakfast.  Ahem french toast…

This is literally just stale bread, taken to unbelievably classy heights by a quick soak in heavy cream and orange zest.  That soak turns a boring slice of bread into an eggy, custardy, zesty sensation!  

I wish more things worked like this.  I wish I could soak in a special bath and come out knowing all of the countries in the world, or maybe I could soak in a magical concoction and emerge speaking fluent Portuguese.  That would be convenient (especially with AP exams coming up).  If I could soak in some sort of magical U.S. history bath, life would be hella easier.

Maybe someday I’ll soak myself in some heavy cream and orange zest and come out extraordinary. Never know!

With love,
Erica

Ingredients

3 eggs
3/4 cup heavy cream, and 1/2 cup milk *you could just use milk, but cream makes this really rich and custardy
1/3 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
zest of one orange
dash of salt
6 thick slices of challah bread (slightly stale is ideal)
butter for cooking
blueberries, syrup, and/or orange marmalade for serving

In a large dish, whisk the eggs, cream, milk, juice, vanilla, zest, and salt together.

Soak the bread slices in this mixture (about 15 seconds on each side)

Heat 2 tablespoons of butter in a large pan over medium-high heat until it begins to sizzle.

Add as many slices of bread to the pan as will fit — and cook until golden and crisp (about three minutes per side). Repeat until all of the bread is cooked)

Serve with orange marmalade, syrup, and some fresh blueberries!

© Cannella Vita. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission/linking back to Cannella Vita. If you want to republish this recipe, please link back to this post.

everyday vita: snow days and spring days

This week started out with a snow day, and ended with me running in shorts and a tank top.  Funny how that happens.  Also funny how I always seem to start my blog posts with a description of the weather.  A bit hypocritical, because I don’t like it when people talk about the weather in real life… anyway…

I really like doing these weekly update posts! It’s like a weekly diary, that’s public!  There’s something marvelously appealing about over-sharing some of the details of my life with people on the Internet.

Monday: Snow day! Although I’m kind of over this whole snow ordeal, it was really nice to have a break.  This was the last week of school before Spring break, and there were a million things to be done.  A snow day was a nice opportunity to procrastinate for just one day longer.  I made homemade pocky sticks, took a long walk with Carly, and just read by the window for a while (something I always think about doing but never actually do).

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday:  All a blur really.  So many tests.  So many papers.  So much furious Buzzfeed scrolling to get away from it all.  I am proud of myself for getting one recipe out to you guys!  Also, a number of people at my school who read my blog came up to me and said that they agreed with my whole subtweeting argument.  It makes me immensely happy when real-life-people agree with things that I ramble about on here.  

Friday:  I had some really nice falafel, went for a run, and then ate my weight in hummus.  This wasn’t as painful as I thought it would be!  I got to see my friend from Georgia, Alli G. (yes, like the Sacha Baron Cohen movie) here in D.C.! We first met in Santa Fe on a community service trip when I was a freshman, and have kept in touch since. We’ve seen each other around this time every year, and it’s always hilarious to relive that dysfunctional trip with her, just talk about life, and see how things are going in the ATL.

Saturday:  Today, I made this crazy rainbow cake! But it’s not just any cake, it’s a birthday cake.  I’ve started a new project where I make birthday cakes for homeless children’s birthday parties — because they should be able to have sprinkly, sparkly birthday parties like everyone else.  This looks like an unassuming vanilla cake… but when cut open, it’s an explosion of rainbow colors!  I dyed white cake batter all sorts of different colors and swirled them up all cool inside.  I’m already dreaming up cakes I can make for other birthday parties, if you have any ideas, let me know!

Carly was dropped off at doggy camp this morning and I miss her already. 🙁

Today I officially started the #100happydays project! It’s awesome! Basically, you do something that makes you happy every day, tweet a picture of it, and then after 100 days, you have a nice collection of happy things to look back on.  Follow my challenge @cannella_vita.

Happy Saturday!

With love,
Erica

© Cannella Vita. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission/linking back to Cannella Vita. If you want to republish this recipe, please link back to this post.

cookie monster cupcakes!

I’m sick and tired of subtweets.

Subtweets are basically the epitome of digital passive-agressiveness… precariously bordering on downright aggressive.  According to Urban Dictionary, “subtweet” is short for “subliminal tweet” which is directly referring to a particular person without mentioning their name — i.e. talking about someone behind their back (but actually directly in their face on Twitter).

Subtweeting happens all the time at my school.  There is a group of people who think they’re awesome that they always have these “witty” observations about everyone else.

Examples:

“Wearing sunglasses and carrying a purse to school. #whodoyouthinkyouare.”

“I feel so awkward for some people #awkward”

“I love it when girls act like they’re still in middle school. It’s so adorable.” (condescending tone)

The funny thing is, sub-tweeting is probably the most middle school move of all.   So what if a 14-year old is concerned with their eye-health, and likes to carry a purse?  So you feel “awkward” for someone… thanks for sharing! I feel awkward for you, spending hours a day thinking of “witty” little things to say about people on Twitter!  I can see that you “love it when girls act like they’re still in middle school” — that’s what you’re doing!  Yay for self-love!

Subtweeting works the exact opposite of how you want it to.  First, subtweeting just makes you uncool. Second, you’re blatantly admitting that whoever you’re subtweeting about has the influence to occupy your mind. 

Can’t we all just relax a little bit?  Let the sunglasses crew wear their sunglasses, let the awkward people be awkward, and you all can just go about acting like middle-schoolers and not bother the rest of us who just want to read our tweets in peace. I think we should all just eat a cookie and relax, even better, a cookie monster cupcake!   I was inspired to make these by a tweet I saw — I would have seen this tweet sooner if it wasn’t for all of the subtweets I had to scroll through!  *sigh*

But alas, I have realized that this blog post is sort of a “subliminal blog post” against all “subliminal tweeters.”  Oh well, before I dig myself deeper into this icky, subliminal hole, let me show you all how to make cookie monster cupcakes! Yay!

With love,
Erica

Ingredients
1 batch of your favorite cupcake recipe
24 small chocolate chip cookies, such as Chips Ahoy.  If you’re feeling ambitious you could even make your own!
48 white candy melts (for the eyes)
48 chocolate chips or brown M&Ms (for the pupils)

3 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons milk
blue food coloring. 
Prepare the cupcakes, and allow to cool fully. 
In a stand mixer, beat together the butter and confectioner’s sugar until blended and fluffy.  Add the vanilla extract and blue food coloring and beat for five more minutes. 
Fill a piping tip fitted with a star tip with the blue frosting, and pipe onto cupcakes.  Press two candy melts onto each cupcake as the “eyes” and glue on a chocolate chip with frosting as the “pupils.” Cut each chocolate chip cookie in half, and place upright on the cupcake as the mouth.  Enjoy!

© Cannella Vita. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission/linking back to Cannella Vita. If you want to republish this recipe, please link back to this post.

everyday vita: new beginnings

I think Spring is finally here… then again I feel like I’ve been saying that for the past month… and we’re supposed to have a snow day tomorrow (not that I’m complaining about that at all).

Spring is a time for new beginnings, and this week was full of new beginnings.

This week I wore a skirt without tights for the first time in what feels like forever.

I was wearing that classed up outfit because, guess what?! I’m employed! I’m now the official hostess at a local brunch cafe! What you can’t see in the picture are my stretchy leggings and orthopedic ballerina flats.  I was on my feet all day seating people at tables and running back and forth from my podium to the floor.  Thank the Lord for spandex and rubber soles.

I started drinking apple cider vinegar this week.  It sounds really blecky, but when mixed with apple juice and cinnamon it just tastes like diluted apple cider.  And it’s supposed to be really healthy.

I bought farm fresh eggs, and they really are quite different! For one thing, the yolks are orange, not yellow!

I started running again, and realized that I am definitely a solo runner.  Some people really enjoy running in groups, I am not one of those people.  I really like to listen to books on tape when I run, and listening to books on tape in the presence of other people is considered antisocial :(.  Also, wireless headphones are a game-changer.

I put up chalkboards in my room to keep track of my to-do lists.  Question: do you ever do something slightly productive (that wasn’t on your to-do list), and then proceed to write it on your to-do list just to cross it off? I do this ALL THE TIME.  Those extra things that I get done while procrastinating should be worth something. (and since this is the last week before Spring break, I have a million and one things to cross off).

I have a pretty cool “diy” post that should hopefully come up soon. I’ve never done anything crafty on Cannella Vita, so this should be interesting.

Happy Sunday!

With love,
Erica

© Cannella Vita. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission/linking back to Cannella Vita. If you want to republish this recipe, please link back to this post.

tres leches cake!

NOBODY IS LISTENING TO YOU!

And I’m not saying that in a mean way.

When I was in elementary school, my teachers pegged me as “a shy kid.”  Thing is, I was never shy — actually I’ve always been a performer and a little crazypants.  In those elementary school days, I’d often be prancing around the supermarket in a crop top and cat ears proclaiming that I was Josie from Josie and the Pussycats, putting glitter glue on my eyelids (not smart if you ever plan on blinking), or singing Disney princess songs into my mom’s camcorder.  Definitely not a quivering daisy.

I guess this whole predicament started out when one day, I had my head in the clouds and didn’t find it necessary to say stuff.  At the beginning it was fine, I wasn’t lonely or surly.  I was just rolling around the sandbox by myself thinking about things.

But then it got awkward.

People love labeling people.  Oh! You’re the funny kid! Oh, you must be the precocious little genius kid!  Oh hey there, you must be the shy kid.  I learned that once you’re labeled the “shy kid,”  people have all sorts of expectations of you…

People would get this surprised look on their faces whenever I said things, and when people started giving me that look, I stopped saying things.  As you can imaging, this became a vicious cycle.  My teachers didn’t always help.  Teachers seem to like shy kids.  Shy kids don’t break eardrums or break bookcases.  Thus, my teachers would often make an example of me — telling the class to “stop shouting and be more like Erica.”  I would smile, but this was always super awkward.  First, because kids don’t like the kid who they’re told to be like, and second, there was this little girl inside of me who liked to wear purple leopard print and sing “Under the Sea” really loudly in a Jamaican accent who just wasn’t allowed to come out.  Imagine how awkward it would have been if one day I came out of the reading corner singing “Under the Sea” in my Jamaican accent?! I was pretty sure the ceiling would have fallen down. Once people had this expectation of me to be the “quiet” and “behaved” Erica, I stuck to it.

There were times when I thought that I lost that purple leopard print little girl.  I truly believed that I was shy…  and I hated it.  Especially as I got up in elementary school and wanted to be like Sharpay from High School Musical and I wanted boys to like me. In 5th grade, boys don’t like shy girls.  And I believed that I was a shy girl.  I wished I could be like those bubbly girls who crimped their hair and wore glittery nail polish.  Nonetheless, I kept on being the nice little shy girl at school, and then when I got home, I dressed up like a mime and rapped Snoop Dogg while I rode around the house on my Waveboard (did you ever have a Waveboard?).

One day, I was dozing off during assembly.  The assembly was the drama acting out the book Hungry Hungry Caterpillar (who came up with those assemblies?!).  When I came back to my senses, I noticed that the kid who was dressed up as a watermelon slice who just recited his line looked like he was about to puke.  No, he looked worse.  He looked like he was about to get publicly executed.  And you know what I noticed? That I couldn’t have told you what he said if I was offered a million bucks.  That kid was about to poop his pants over something that nobody was listening to at all.

That’s right, I was not paying attention at all, and neither was half of the audience.  It was this realization that helped me “shed my shy kid image.” I realized that every sentence isn’t a matter of life and death, because no one’s really listening anyways.  I realized that the ceiling wouldn’t fall down if I emerged from the reading nook and played dress up.  I realized that no one would care if I pronounced the “g” in “trough” when we read aloud in English class.  I realized that regretting not saying something is much worse than saying something awkward.

Now that I am in high school, I am glad that I had this realization.  Sure, the “shy kid” image is sticky like condensed milk and takes time to wash off, but there have been many opportunities since I witnessed that quivering watermelon that I have spoken up without regrets — and my life has been so much better/less awkward because of it.

Yay for super awkward transitions!  Condensed milk! It’s in Tres Leches cake!  Which is the recipe I’m sharing with you all today!  This cake is super squidgy and moist because you literally pour milk all over it.  I frosted mine with cream cheese frosting for my friend Veda’s birthday because she likes cream cheese frosting.

With love,
Erica

Ingredients
Cake:
2 sticks of butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups buttermilk

Sauce:
1 can condensed milk (1 cup-ish)
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup heavy whipping cream

Frosting:
2 8oz. packages of cream cheese
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Sweetened Shredded Coconut

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Line a 9×13 inch pan with parchment paper and grease it well.  Beat butter and sugar together in a stand mixer until fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time, scraping the sides as you go.  Add the vanilla extract.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Add half of the dry ingredients to the egg mixture and mix until just combined.  Add buttermilk and stir slowly.  Add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix until combined.  Pour into prepared pan and bake for 35-40 minutes.

Take out of the oven, and mix together the three milks.  Cool the cake for five minutes, and then poke holes all over it with a fork.  Pour the milk all over the cake.  Let cool completely in the fridge for at least an hour. 

Beat together the butter and cream cheese in a stand mixer.  Beat in the vanilla.  Slowly add the powdered sugar and beat until smooth.  Frost the cake. 

To make the toasted coconut, add the shredded coconut to a frying pan, and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until lightly browned.  Sprinkle over cake.

Loosely Adapted from Pati’s Mexican Table

© Cannella Vita. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission/linking back to Cannella Vita. If you want to republish this recipe, please link back to this post.

easy king cake

Ever since I was young,  I have been disturbed by the concept putting trinkets into cake.  
Yule logs with coins in them, Epiphany cakes with thimbles in them, Mardi Gras king cakes with babies in them (plastic babies).  They’re all a disaster waiting to happen. 
I’m expecting to bite into a soft, sweet, cream cheese laden cake, and then ouch! I just chipped my tooth on a plastic baby Jesus.  How do I know that the “lucky” coin hidden in my slice of yule log wasn’t on the floor of the subway last week… not feelin’ so lucky anymore. Or worse yet, what if someone choked on the thimble in the Epiphany cake? That would be awkward. so.many.issues
The lore behind the Mardi Gras king cake is that the person who gets the slice with the baby wins.  Winning means that they have to host the next King Cake party.  To some that would be a real treat (I would have a field day buying my weight in cream cheese and sanding sugar), others not so much. 
So if last year you were the one to get the slice with the baby in it, were lucky enough not to choke/chip any teeth on him, and you’re not too enthused about whipping up this years king cake, I have the recipe for you.  All this recipe takes is: 1) whacking pressure packed cinnamon rolls on the kitchen counter 2) whipping up some cinnamon-y cream cheese frosting (licking the spoon required) 3) shaking sanding sugar all over the whole thing and making it look all festive.
Easy enough right?
No proofing, zesting, waiting, or (god forbid) kneading.  Just pop, lock ‘n drop it…. not exactly, but you get the point: this recipe is easy. 


Naturally, since it’s made with Pillsbury, it doesn’t taste exactly like the traditional, yeasty sweet bread.  However, it’s absolutely delicious and addictive nonetheless (nobody will complain). It tastes a little bit like sopapilla cheesecake.  If you’ve never heard of sopapilla cheesecake, google it now and prepare to have your life changed.  
All of this being said, I won’t be putting a plastic baby in my king cake, but if you’re into that, by all means do it.  It’s fun and festive and kudos to you for not being a total party-pooper like me with my concerns about sanitary/dental issues.  Just remember to stick the baby in after the cake comes out of the oven (if you put him in before, you’ll end up with a gooey plasticky mess).  
Happy (almost) Mardi Gras to everyone!
And for all of you overachievers out there (or those of you that just like to play with dough), I have a real yeasted king cake recipe coming your way. 
With love, 
Erica

Ingredients

  • 2 cartons Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls, 8 Count (12.4 Ounce Cans) — save the containers of icing!
  • 1 8oz. block cream cheese 
  • ½ cups dark brown sugar 
  • ½ cup powdered sugar
  • ½ teaspoon cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 Tablespoons purple sanding sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons yellow sanding sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons green sanding sugar
  • 1 dry bean or plastic baby jesus (if you’re into that) 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Take all of the cinnamon rolls out of their containers, and set the frosting containers to the side.  Dust a rolling pin with flour and roll each cinnamon roll into a flat disk (about 4 inches in diameter).  You should end up with 16 rounds.

Arrange 8 of these rounds on a piece of parchment paper, overlapping a bit in a wreath shape.  Press down where they overlap so they stick together.  

Beat together the cream cheese brown sugar and powdered sugar.  Add the cinnamon, and vanilla extract. Beat well until combined. Drop this mixture by tablespoonful on the cinnamon rounds that have been sealed into a circle, staying as close to the center as possible.

Place the remaining 8 cinnamon rounds on top of the filling, overlapping and sealing the tops and tucking under to seal the sides.

Bake for 17-20 minutes.

Let cake cool for a few minutes (now is when you stick the trinket into the cake). Frost with the Pillsbury Frosting that came with the rolls. Sprinkle all over with purple, yellow, and green sanding sugar.

Enjoy!

Adapted from So Domesticated

© Cannella Vita. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission/linking back to Cannella Vita. If you want to republish this recipe, please link back to this post.

yeasted king cake

Snow days are better than regular holidays for three reasons…


1) No expectations of doing something super fun and fabulous. When people ask me “what did you do with your snow day?” “rolled around on the floor for a while,”  “watched three episodes of Jerseylicious” (does that show still exist?), and “played with dough all day” are all totally acceptable answers.  There’s no expectation that I went on some super fancy cruise ship, took a bunch of pictures wearing fancy/sparkly things, or changed the world through some community service trip I took.  Nope.  This is a day when I can wear fuzzy socks and eat a king sized bag of pita chips and not feel even a little bit guilty about it. 

2) No expectations of hanging out with people.  Not that I don’t like people.  But I feel like it’s socially unacceptable to lock yourself in the house and talk to your dog over a long weekend.  On a snow day, not so much.

3) No expectations of it coming.  What?  Ok, that didn’t make total grammatical sense, but what I’m trying to say is that snow days are unexpected, which make them that much more awesome. I wake up, remember all of the procrastinated assignments that I am obligated to do that day, and then oh wait! I don’t have to do any of them because there’s white stuff falling from the sky! It’s like confetti celebrating the procrastinators of the world.

So yay for the unexpected!  Since on snow days I have oodles of time to waste time/avoid humans/avoid responsibilities, they’re the perfect opportunity to play with yeast, and make a somewhat involved recipe that has a rising time (a luxury that someone who has to go to school rarely has)! I shared my super lazy way of making king cake with you all a few days ago, but for those of you who are itching to make the real-deal (maybe you have a snow day too), here it is!

As cliche/cheesy as this sounds, nothing compares to the real thing, there’s a certain special layer of flavor (love?), that just can’t be achieved with something that comes out of a can.

With love,
Erica

Ingredients:

Cake

  • 3/4 cups warm milk
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons or one packet of dry yeast
  • 1/4 cup plus 1 teaspoon of sugar
  • 1 stick of butter, melted and cooled
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon 
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • zest of one orange 
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
Filling:

  • 1 block Cream Cheese (8 Ounce Block)
  • ½ cups Dark Brown Sugar (packed)
  • ½ cup Powdered Sugar
  • ½ teaspoons Cinnamon
  • 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
  • 1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
  • 3 tablespoons milk
  • yellow, green, and purple sanding sugar

Warm the milk in the microwave or a saucepan until it is warm to the touch.  Mix the milk, yeast and 1 Tbs. of the sugar in a medium bowl and proof  While it is proofing, whisk together the melted butter, egg yolks, and vanilla in a medium bowl.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, stir together the remaining 1/4 cup sugar, flour, nutmeg, orange zest, and salt.

Add the butter mixture and the yeast mixture to the flour mixture in the stand mixer.  Knead for 5 minutes with the dough hook until smooth.  Transfer to a greased bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and let rise for two hours.

After the dough has finished rising, prepare the filling.  Beat together the cream cheese, brown sugar, powdered sugar, cinnamon and vanilla until smooth.  Transfer the dough to a large sheet of parchment paper and roll it out into a 9×13 inch rectangle.  Spread the cream cheese filling evenly onto the rectangle, leaving an inch along one of the long sides so it doesn’t overflow.  Starting on the long end, roll up the dough jelly-roll style. 

Grease an empty metal can and place it in the center of a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Gently wrap the dough around the can (seam side down), and pinch the ends together to form a ring.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Let the cake rise as the oven preheats (about half an hour).   Bake for 30-40 minutes until it is golden brown.  Remove the can and let cool.

Make the glaze by whisking together the powdered sugar and milk.  Add a little more milk if the glaze is too thick.  Pour on the the glaze and then decorate with sanding sugar.

Adapted from Food 52

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almond butter blossoms

“Live in the moment!,” “Savor the moment!,”

“Yeah!” we all think to ourselves, “obviously that’s a great idea!” when we read these word in magazines and hear them from our friends.

Then we brush these words off and continue worrying about what’s for dinner, whether one of our friends might be mad at us, and the future in general, because, as humans that’s what we tend to do (I tend to do this a lot).

I recently read this article about a woman who is trying to sue her wedding videographer for a ridiculous amount of money because she hated her wedding video.  I watched the video and I couldn’t find anything offensive about it… but that’s totally beside the fact!  The fact is that she had a beautiful wedding and is now happily married.  Sweating the details of the video of it all totally killed the “happily ever after” vibe.  Instead of savoring the moments of her happy new life, she’s now preoccupied with a mega-lawsuit against her poor wedding videographer.

Speaking of weddings and such — today is Valentine’s Day, a totally perfect day to start living in the moment!  Personally, I think that the reason a lot of people hate Valentine’s Day is because they have totally unrealistic expectations.  The media has told us that today, we are going to get taken out to a fancy dinner,  someone will profess their love to us, we’ll receive heaps of cards in the mail, and eat buckets of chocolate and not feel sick.  Unrealistic? A little bit.  Unrealistic expectations are the antithesis of “savoring the moment.” If you keep waiting for what’s next, or keep wanting more, no matter how wonderful your day was, you will always feel dissatisfied and upset. 

Thus, instead of wondering why you didn’t receive two dozen roses today, why the cute guy who takes your bus route didn’t profess his love to you today, or why you feel sick after eating two heart shaped boxes of chocolate,  think about the love that you did experience today, no matter what it was.

Today, I felt lucky to be woken up by doggy-kisses from my dog Carly this morning. I was relieved that since today is Valentine’s Day, eating 20+ of those Dove chocolate hearts with the messages inside of them was totally acceptable.  I was really happy that I wore my rain boots today so I could stomp through puddles, instead of having to walk precariously around them like everyone else.  I savored the weather, as today was the first warm, sunny day in weeks.  I delighted in the serendipity of running into my dad on the street and joining him for a cookie on my way home. 

No stereotypical Valentine’s Day shenanigans going on here — just a really great day… with cookies!

melty chocolate… now that’s a moment I want to savor

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, I made these almond butter blossoms with heart shaped chocolates instead of Hershey Kisses.  I know by now Valentine’s Day has come and gone, and you might think it’s silly of me to be posting a V-Day recipe this late.  But who said that heart shaped cookies are only for one day a year? Who said that today is the day to have a fancy dinner and send lots of cards to your friends and loved ones?  Who said today is the day you should be sent flowers?  This all seems super restrictive to me.  Today is just a day among many other days.  I think that sending flowers, eating heart-shaped chocolates, and telling those around you that you love them should not just be a once-a-year occasion. I’m for more flowers, more chocolate, more love, and more savoring the moment!  Who’s with me?

With love,
Erica

Ingredients 

  • 1/2 cup butter or shortening
  • 1/2 cup almond butter
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 3/4 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup white sugar (for rolling)
  • 1 9oz. bag Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Hearts

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, almond butter, brown sugar, and 1/2 cup white sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and stir in the milk and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the almond butter mixture until well blended. Shape tablespoonfuls of dough into balls, and roll in remaining white sugar. Place cookies 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets.

Bake for 10 to12 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove from oven, and immediately press a chocolate heart into each cookie. Allow to cool completely; the chocolate  will harden as it cools.

© Cannella Vita. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission/linking back to Cannella Vita. If you want to republish this recipe, please link back to this post.

salted almond butter cups

I have a new (somewhat ambitious) goal.  I want to do something new every week.  Being in high school, I feel like I often get stuck  in the school/homework/procrastinating on the Internet rut. Don’t get me wrong, homework will still get done and there are way too many fun personality quizzes on the Internet to give them up entirely.  However, I really want to seize life by the horns, live to the fullest, and conquer my fears.  I have a lot of fun ideas of things I want to add to my “new things bucket list” — and I am extraordinarily excited to give this new project a try.

I love the idea of a bucket list to begin with — maybe I’ll publish one on this blog someday to hold myself accountable and see how many of the things on it I actually get done.  Simply writing my dreams down makes them come more alive.  I want to see a koala in real life and see the northern lights with my own eyes.  I want to attach a lock to a love bridge and go to la tomantina in Spain.  However, I’m not going to get a plane ticket to Australia or a tomato chucked at my face this week (hopefully).

Nonetheless, there are a lot of slightly less extravagant, yet exciting new things right in my own neighborhood.  Starting this week, I want to try something new every week — even if it’s as small as eating something that resembles a peanut butter cup.  This is a project that I want to continue for the rest of my life. Think about it — that means 52 new things a year! 156 new things before I turn 20! 

Here’s to Day One of my 365 day adventure trying new things.  Today, I am going to eat something that resembles a peanut butter cup.

Now, you’re probably thinking “wow, this girl has really lost it now.” What’s so special about a peanut butter cup?  If you’ve been reading Cannella Vita for a while, you may have noticed that my blog is completely devoid of recipes with peanut butter.  It’s a little odd since every other baking blog on the planet has some sort of chocolate-peanut butter thingamabobber.

I’m a pretty adventurous eater, and am usually totally down to trying new things, but peanut butter makes me queasy.  I’ve always steered clear of it at all costs.  Once, after eating a peanut butter granola bar, I had hives for a week! Thus, never in my life have I tasted a peanut butter cup.

This is ironic because my dad is obsessed with peanut butter cups.  He will always happily take them from my bag of Halloween candy. 

Obviously, I am not going to eat something that is going to give me hives for the rest of the week — however, I came up with an alternative so that I, too can experience the joy of peanut butter cups — almond butter cups!

These are mindbogglingly easy to make — and are a little more gourmet than a drugstore peanut butter cup thanks to the addition of maple syrup and a sprinkle of Maldon salt.

If you’re in need for some almond butter to try out — take a look at Barney Butter, it comes in all sorts of mind-blowing flavors like vannilla bean-espresso and cocoa-coconut!

What new thing will you try this week?

With love,
Erica

Ingredients

7 oz. dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup almond butter (I used Barney Butter)
2 Tbsp. maple syrup
1 1/2 Tbsp. powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. fine grain salt
sea salt flakes for topping

Place the chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl.  Microwave for 1-2 minute intervals, stirring between, until completely melted.

Line six muffin cups.  Spoon about a teaspoon of melted chocolate into each cup. 

Mix the almond butter, syrup, powdered sugar, vanilla and salt together until smooth to make the filling. This mixture should be dough-like.

Scoop out a tsp. of the almond butter mixture and gently roll it into a ball between your palms. Flatten it out a bit and place it on top of the thin chocolate puddle. Repeat so that there is an almond butter ball in each cup.  Spoon chocolate, about another tsp., on top of each almond butter ball to cover completely. Add a little pinch of flaked sea salt on each one and chill in the fridge to set.

© Cannella Vita. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission/linking back to Cannella Vita. If you want to republish this recipe, please link back to this post.