All of the recipes in this book were made using a 12-well classic cupcake pan. Each well will hold 4 1/2 ounces (135 ml) of food, or 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon. All classic cupcake pans are not created equal, though. Vintage tins are smaller, and silicone molds can be larger or smaller. These recipes were not tested using Texas-size pans or mini cupcake pans, so those cannot be substituted for a classic pan. The simplest way for me to say it is: For the recipes in this book, use the size pan that your mother used to make cupcakes when you were growing up. With this essential tool, you’ll have the power to make your family fresh, healthy, and delicious meals that are just the right size.
If you have an extra cupcake pan lying around, make meal preparation a bit more organized by placing each of the prepared and measured ingredients you’ll need for the final dish into each well of the unused pan. When you are making savory bites that have sauces or condiments, like the Barbecued Pork Hand Pies with barbecue dipping sauce (this page) or the Curried Vegetable Hand Pies with yogurt sauce (this page), use the empty pan to hold the garnishes and sauces and allow your guests to serve themselves directly from the pan.
In most cases, the “wrappers” in this book are edible items that line the wells of the pan and hold the meal together. I used items found in pretty much every pantry for the wrappers. Your family and friends will be surprised and delighted when they see that the savory cupcake you serve them is wrapped in smoked salmon, which they can eat, rather than in a traditional paper or foil cupcake liner, which they could not! This is a “green” way to bake, as it cuts back on all the waste you’d create by using paper products. Here’s a list of wrappers.
> BACON AND CANADIAN BACON Who doesn’t love bacon? I certainly love it, and not just because it’s delicious: It also happens to make an excellent wrapper. See how it’s used in Pasta Bolognese al Forno (this page).
> BREAD Thinly sliced sandwich breads are the perfect choice for lining cupcake pans, as you can see in the Mushroom & Potato Charlottes Topped with a Fried Egg (this page). Most bread is too thick to fit in the cupcake pan wells, so I was ecstatic when I discovered Pepperidge Farm’s Very Thin Breads, available in whole wheat and white, with thirty slices per package. If you are lucky enough to live near an excellent bakery, such as the La Brea Bakery in Los Angeles, order the Pain de Mie and ask the baker to slice it very thin.
> EGG ROLL WRAPPERS The egg roll wrapper is incredibly versatile. Open-faced, it gives you an edible bowl for fillings; when closed, it creates beautiful little packages. For the recipes in this book, egg roll wrappers work better than those made for wontons. While they are almost the same, the egg roll wrappers are much larger. Egg roll wrappers can be found in the refrigerated section of your grocery store and usually measure 4 inches (10 cm) square. Since you only need 12 for this recipe and most packages contain more, you can wrap the extras tightly in plastic wrap (otherwise, they’ll dry out) and keep them in your fridge for up to 1 month. You can easily use them as the base for another savory meal—in fact, in some recipes, we use them in place of pie dough. The Egg Rolls with Sweet & Sour Crab (this page) uses the open style, and the Short Ribs Braised with Mushroom, Onion & Bacon (this page) uses the closed style.
> EMPANADA DOUGH A Mexican and Spanish specialty, empanadas are single-serving turnovers usually filled with a savory meat-and-vegetable filling. While traditional empanadas are certainly tasty, you’ll find that their malleable dough makes a delicious wrapper for savory bites. Try it for the Beef Tamale Pies (this page). Prepackaged empanada dough is available in the international foods section of your grocery store. I use Goya brand, which contains ten rounds per package.
> GRAPE LEAVES, LEEKS, AND LETTUCES Nature provides some of the best—and most delicious—wrappers, perfect for the cupcake pan. Grape leaves, leeks, and lettuces all do the job. Grape-Leaf Purses with Couscous & Lamb Stuffing (this page) are just one of the irresistible ways to use them. Leeks can be cut into strips and used to line the wells of the pan to create a brilliant green wrapper for the Asparagus Mushroom Terrines (this page).
> PIE DOUGH Handheld meat pies are portable, neat to eat, and reheatable—plus, they’re just tasty! Vermont Chicken Potpies (this page) are a great example of how to create beautiful little pies in a cupcake pan.
> PUFF PASTRY Puff pastry is a relative of phyllo dough (also spelled filo). The recipes in this book use puff pastry, which comes with the butter already folded into the dough. Phyllo dough, on the other hand, needs to be layered with melted butter to create a buttery crust. Puff pastry is the perfect wrapper for rich dishes like the Fig & Blue Cheese Tarts (this page). When you use puff pastry as a wrapper, your oven temperature will need to be high, usually 400°F (205°C), to ensure that the pastry puffs as it should.
> SAUSAGE PATTIES Although they are always excellent for breakfast, these patties can be used to spice up meals at other times of the day, too. A sausage patty can be used whole as a base for the mini meal, or sausage can be crumbled to create a base, as in the Turkey, Apple & Sweet Potato Pies (this page).
> SMOKED SALMON You wouldn’t think fish would be a good wrapper, as it can become very flaky once cooked, but smoked salmon is the perfect solution if you want a seafood wrapper. Presliced to the perfect thickness, it’s easy to use to line the wells of your cupcake pan, as I’ve done for the Smoked Salmon Egg Salad Sandwiches on Pumpernickel (this page). It’s even available cured with fresh herbs or cracked black pepper. Smoked salmon is especially salty due to the smoking process, so no additional salt is needed in recipes using this liner.
> TORTILLAS There are so many possibilities when using tortillas as wrappers. They’re pliable and delicious, and since they are made from such basic ingredients, they adapt well to the flavor of whatever savory bites you’re making. The Southwestern Beef Pies in Flour Tortillas (this page) are a good example of the tortilla wrapper in action.
> WAFFLES In the breakfast world, waffles are king. They also make an excellent base for an assortment of mini meals, as you can see in the Wafflinis (this page).
> PLASTIC WRAP Plastic wrap is used to line the pan when making aspics and terrines. While these dishes may sound complicated, they’re really not. Aspics are simply savory items encased in a savory gelatin. Terrines are similar to pâté in that they are compressed into a mold, but here the ingredients are chopped coarsely before being pressed into a compact form. For these chilled, no-bake items, line the wells of the cupcake pan by overlapping two long pieces of plastic wrap along the center of the pan, leaving at least a 3-inch (7.5-cm) border on all sides of the pan; this extra plastic will create handles that make it easy for you to unpan the bites. Press the plastic firmly into each well to create cups, then fill the wells with the ingredients. Cover the pan in another layer of plastic, place a second cupcake pan on top to compress the savory meals, then chill as the recipe instructs, for several hours or overnight. See the Aspics with Roasted Peppers, Eggplant & Spinach (this page) for an example.
There are various ways to unpan your savory bites. Mini meals made with dough wrappers, such as pie or empanada dough, puff pastry, or tortillas, will simply pop out of the pan after you have loosened the edges of each well with a table knife. Those made with cheese and eggs require a gentler approach: Use a table knife to loosen the sides and then slip the tines of a fork between the pan and each meal to lift it out. Do not invert the pan unless the recipe directs you to use this method.
The wells of the cupcake pan are lined with plastic wrap in recipes for terrines and aspics, to keep the mini meals from sticking to the pan (see this page, for instructions). To unpan, remove the top layer of plastic wrap, then lift up on the edges of the plastic wrap lining the wells of the pan to remove the terrines. They will pop out of the wells easily.
When making out your grocery list for the week, take a look at which recipes you want to make; then browse through your pantry and poke around in the fridge and freezer to see what you already have that could work just as well—and maybe even better.
One tasty point to keep in mind when purchasing ingredients: The cupcake pan makes the perfect portion size, so there’s no need to sacrifice rich ingredients to cut calories. By cutting out overeating, you generally eliminate more calories than you would add by using a touch of real cream, butter, and cheese in a recipe. Yes, cheese too. This is why Europeans are so lean: They eat the real deal in small packages.
> SMART BALANCE® OLIVE OIL SPRAY Cooks no longer have to use butter or vegetable shortening to grease pans like their grandmothers did. I use cooking spray because it is convenient, and very little is required to coat the wells of the pan. This trims both fat and calories. Any nonstick spray works for my savory bites, but I like Smart Balance Olive Oil Spray because it’s heart healthy (and vegan, by the way). I use it for all of the cupcakes at my SweetBy-Holly stores.
Speaking of greasing pans, one of the best items to use with sheet pans is a Silpat mat, a nonstick silicone baking mat. There are many benefits to these reusable mats, which do not have to be greased, not the least of which is reduced mess and less waste. Silpat mats are available at kitchen-supply stores.
> GELATIN When I say gelatin, I’m not talking about the bright, sugary concoctions that jiggle for all they’re worth. Unflavored gelatin is a thickening agent made from beef, veal, and pig proteins, and is the basis for an under-appreciated specialty: aspic (see this page). When purchasing gelatin, make sure it is unflavored, or you might get an unpleasant surprise once the meal is prepared.
If you’re looking for kosher or vegan alternatives to gelatin, try these options: Lieber’s, Carmel, or KoJel kosher brands. The most common vegan substitute, agar-agar, is made from seaweed. You can make any of the aspics and other recipes in this book that call for gelatin with agar-agar instead.
> GENERAL INGREDIENTS In addition to the pantry staples described above, keep these fresh and canned ingredients on hand to give you plenty of options when you’re feeling spontaneous.
• Artichoke hearts, canned
• Beans, an assortment of canned varieties
• Fish, vegetable, beef, and poultry broths or bases (I use Better Than Bouillon brand)
• Capers
• Cheese, an assortment of grated and sliced types
• Roasted peppers
• Olives
• Pine nuts
• Plum tomatoes, canned
• Sun-dried tomatoes
> GOURMET GARDEN® HERBS AND OTHER AROMATICS FROM A TUBE I love accenting meals with fresh herbs, but they aren’t always available in my area and certainly not year-round. And, unfortunately, not everyone has the time or space to plant an herb garden. Instead of buying expensive little packets of quickly wilting basil, you can purchase a variety of commonly used herbs and aromatics—like garlic, ginger, basil, oregano, and cilantro—in squeezable tubes. Gourmet Garden’s 4-ounce tubes contain twenty-three cloves of garlic, or twenty-one pieces of ginger, or three bunches of Italian herbs, basil, cilantro, or parsley. They’re also gluten-free, made with organic ingredients, have no added flavors or colors, and are long-lasting (the “use by” date is printed on the cap). In addition to using them in the recipes in this book, use them to make drinks, soups, and sauces. I even spread them on bread when I make sandwiches.
And since the herbs come prechopped or pregrated in the squeezable tubes, they take away a lot of the prep work required when you’re cooking with fresh aromatics and herbs—washing, chopping, stemming, mincing. They stay fresh a lot longer than the parsley languishing in the bottom of your fridge. A total win-win!
One thing to note: It’s best to follow the guide on the tube to make sure you don’t overseason the dish. If you’re not sure about how much to use, go easy on the herb—you can always add more. Gourment Garden tubes advise that 1 tablespoon is equivalent to 1 tablespoon of fresh chopped herbs or aromatics.
