Taco Bell Enchiritos - The Original, Not The Sad Reboot

When Taco Bell had an actual bell on their restaurants back in the day 
(Public Domain photo)

If I had a time machine, I would travel to a Taco Bell like the one pictured above, and order an Enchirito. Maybe even two. I'm talking about the original Taco Bell Enchirito, not that lame version they brought back when they "revived" it. According to Taco Bell lore, the Enchirito first appeared around 1970. It was discontinued as a menu item in 1993, but they brought it back around 2000. Well, they didn't really bring it back. They brought back the shadow of an Enchirito. It was taken off the menu again around 2013, though there are rumors circulating that you can order it from the "secret menu," or order certain menu items for an Enchirito "hack." 

Okay...you can hack all the livelong day or try to order from the secret menu, but you will never get a true Enchirito that way. I do remember the year they took them off of the menu. We didn't have a Taco Bell very close to us but we'd go there from time to time when we drove to Katy or Houston for errands. I remember when they removed it and I was sad. Later, they added it again, and I tried it a couple of times, but it was never the same -- just like when Coke changed their formula and then supposedly changed it back after public outcry. It was never the same either -- (If you can get your hands on a Coke that is bottled in Mexico, it will come close, but even that isn't as good as the original was.) -- but that made it easier to give up an unhealthy beverage, so that's not necessarily a bad thing. 

Let's get back to the Enchirito though. I have thought about making my own copycat version, and I have made sort of a pseudo-version from time to time. Now I'm thinking about getting a bit more serious about it. I have looked through many copycat recipes to see if anyone is making the original version of the Enchirito, but I have yet to find one. 

Most of these copycat recipes use flour tortillas. That's what I always hone in on. The tortilla. I have also run across some recipes that use corn tortillas. Well, guess what? They are both wrong. 

The Enchirito tortilla was a hybrid tortilla, not flour or corn. Both. I remember the original tortilla, because the first time I tried the "reboot," it was flour, and it was disappointment. The Enchirito's tortilla had a unique flavor. It was absolutely not simply flour, and it definitely did not have the taste or texture of a corn tortilla. 

I know there will be people who want to argue about it, but just think about this: an Enchirito was supposed to be a cross between a burrito and an enchilada. If you use a flour tortilla, you have a burrito. If you use a corn tortilla, you have an enchilada. You MUST have the hybrid tortilla to have a true Enchirito. I trust my taste buds implicitly. 

But to bolster my case, I jumped on a search engine and found some vintage Taco Bell commercials and print ads. I am not going to post all of those here, obviously, both because of copyright issues, and the time it takes to add attribution links to the ones that are possible to use. 

I did find one nice one on Creative Commons though, and I'm able to share that one here. Note the color of the Enchirito's tortilla in the photo, just as I remember, and just as all of the others I viewed. It is off-white, a bit on the tan side. It's definitely not a white flour tortilla, and certainly not a corn tortilla. 

I will be going into the laboratory with my trusty sidekick, Igor, as soon as possible, so we can make the hybrid tortilla that a copycat Enchirito recipe deserves. Stay tuned! 

Original Enchiritos
("Enchirito" by mush m. is licensed under CC BY 2.0)

Stovetop Chocolate Steam Cake Recipe Review

 

Chocolate Steam Cake

You must try this cake recipe! It's great for those days when you are craving a piece of cake, but don't want a big hassle of dragging out all of your baking tools, and great for warmer weather when you don't want to heat up the kitchen by using your oven. And if you're thinking, "but I could just buy a piece of cake at the deli..." Pfffft!!! Forget about that over-priced nonsense that's overloaded with sugar! 

You don't even need to break out your mixer for this cake if you don't want to. A handheld balloon whisk works fine. 

What Should I Use For A Steamer?

I used an 8 quart stockpot with a reinforced bottom, and we just happened to have a round metal baking rack that fits in the bottom of this pot. We also have a lid that has a built-in steam vent. If you don't have a lid like that, you'll need to loosely cover your stockpot with foil. If you don't have a baking rake that will fit, you can use several balls of wadded up foil, or save up some tuna cans (or cans similar in size to tuna cans, with both ends removed, if possible), and use those instead. Canning rings are too short. You need about 1 1/2-2 inches of water in the bottom of your steaming pot. You might be able to get away with using a shorter pot (such as a 4 quart pot). Next time I make one I'll use one of those and report the results here. 

Here are the other tools that come in handy: 

2 mixing bowls

Handheld whisk

Spatula (for bowl scraping - not mandatory, but I'm picky, so I use one)

Kitchen tongs with silicone ends, 2 pairs, if you have them (for easy removal)*

8-9" cake pan or springform pan

Sifter (not mandatory but it does help)

Measuring cups (for liquid & dry measure)

Measuring spoons

Small bowl for egg inspection & egg beating (see "Breaking Bad With Eggs")

The Recipe

1 cup A/P flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

3/4 to 1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

2 eggs (room temperature)

1/4 cooking oil (canola, vegetable, light olive oil, or coconut oil)

1/2 milk

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/4 tsp. instant coffee (optional) 

Spray release/oil spray (with or without flour)

Water for steaming (as needed)

Instructions

1. Prepare your steamer & start heating the water on high heat.

2. Coat inside of cake pan or springform pan with spray release.** 

3. Sift all dry ingredients into a mixing bowl, and whisk them until well combined. 

4. Mix milk, oil, and vanilla in a separate bowl.

5. Beat eggs & add to milk/oil/vanilla mixture. Mix well. 

6. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix well. 

7. Pour into cake pan. 

8. Check the water level in the pan. Add more (hot tap water) if needed. Water should be at least at a simmer at this point. 

9. Carefully lower cake pan into pot using tongs. 

10. Cover & steam on medium to high heat for 25-30 minutes. You can check your water level about halfway through the cooking time & add more if needed. I haven't yet had a problem with the water completely evaporating. It might be because we have that lid with the steam vent. I'll use foil next time and report the results here. 

11. Test the cake in the usual manner, (toothpick, slim knife, bamboo skewer), if it comes out clean, it's time to remove the cake. Also note if the cake has pulled away from the sides, that's another "tell." 

12. Remove the cake very carefully using the tongs. Put it on a cake rack to cool for about 10 minutes before removing from pan. 

13. Frost with your favorite frosting or dust with powdered sugar. It doesn't really need anything extra at all. It's very good just as it is. 

Just One More Thing (or two)

*About those tongs - I only had one pair on hand, so I used a long serving spoon as a wedge on one side of the pan, and the tongs on the other. If you don't have tongs at all, carefully wedge it out using 2 long serving spoons, and grab the edge with a pot holder when it gets high enough to grab. (I'm thinking there might be a 3rd option for a safe removal. I will try it next time and report the results here.)

**If you decide to use a springform pan, cover the bottom with foil, just as you would if you were making a cheesecake in the oven. 

The cake top of the cake will look a little strange because some water drops will be falling on it during steaming. It's just fine. Unless the top of the cake looks VERY wet, then you might need to make some adjustments next time so your foil vents the steam a little better. 

Use your favorite cocoa. I used Hershey's Special Dark cocoa in this recipe. 

Let me know what you think about this cake. Any issues? Just leave me a message in the comment section. 

Here's a pic from an evening when I got a little fancy and frosted the cake with whipped chocolate-cream cheese ganache and golden sugar crystals. 

Kitchen Pet Peeve: Breaking Bad With Eggs

 

Okay, I have an egg.....errr....I mean.....bone to pick with certain folks.

This is a HUGE pet peeve for me. It bugs me to no end. People who break an eggs and dump them directly into a pan or a bowl of ingredients, instead of breaking the eggs into a separate bowl and then adding them to the recipe. 

Don't do it. Just........don't! 

Why? Because...

1.

There could be impurities in the egg, especially fresh, "yard" eggs. Fun little things like blood spots or calcium deposits. We had a hen that had issues with that. The eggs were fine, but there were often calcium deposits inside her eggs. Not fun picking that stuff out. Sometimes just a little, sometimes a lot. She was an Araucana, and I don't know if they are more prone to that or not. She was on the same varied diet as the other hens and we didn't see that happening with the others anywhere near as often. 

2.

You don't really know how old the egg is. It might have been missed and on the verge of rotting. Imagine ruining a recipe (or your breakfast), by breaking an egg like that into a pan. There is a water test that can help determine the age of an egg before you crack it open, but if you get in a hurry and decide not to do the test, you might regret it.* 

3.

Pieces of eggshell might fall into your recipe if you don't break the egg in another bowl first. Imagine serving a lovely piece of cake to each of your guests, and one of them ends up stabbed in the gums from an errant piece of eggshell. Eggshell Roulette. Bad. Very bad. 

4.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention my grandfather's egg story. He was in the AAF (Army Air Force) in WWII. Shortages of some foods were common all over, even for soldiers. But they did have fresh eggs in the mess halls, when they could get them. Sometimes the eggs were fertilized eggs with developing embryos. So they had extra protein with their eggs on occasion. (I have no reason to doubt this story, because people were very careful about food back then. Nothing was wasted. Unlike today, when food waste is rampant.) So, if you're buying eggs from someone who keeps chickens, you might be buying fertilized eggs, unless they keep their roosters separate from the hens. I suppose that's possible, depending on the size of their operation. I just know that we always had a rooster in with our chicken flock, so we could raise more chickens to replace the ones we lost to critters that would break into the chicken yard on occasion. I assume others might do the same. Of course we kept the broody hens and their clutch of eggs separate from the rest of the flock, but it is possible that some people are careless about it. So imagine cracking a raw egg directly into your cake batter and it has a partially developed embryo. 😒

🥚🥚🥚

Think about it though. How much trouble is it, really, to use one extra bowl and crack your eggs into it for inspection before adding to the recipe? No trouble at all. One extra dish to wash. No big deal compared to what could happen otherwise.

This is one of the things that always drove me nuts on cooking shows. I don't watch those much anymore, but I do watch food videos on social media sometimes, and I find myself bracing for the addition of eggs. 

"Oh, but it looks so cool when I can break an egg open with one hand to add to the recipe," they might be thinking. Well, it will still look cool if it's done over an empty dish. No excuses! 

Here's a little summary...

Photo by: Alex Loup

NO!

Photo by Jordane Mathieu

NO!

Photo by Michelle Henderson

NO!

Photo by Klaus Nielsen

So in conclusion, if you are "Breaking Bad with Eggs," please break that bad habit!

🥚🥚🥚

*The Egg Test

I mentioned this test above, and in case any reader might not be aware of this tip, this is it. (Just remember, this test is in addition to your egg safety check, not "in lieu of."):

You just need a small glass bowl, or a cup wide enough to fit an egg when it's on its side. Fill it with room temperature water (or just directly from the tap), then put the egg in. If it stands up on its end, it is still okay to use. If it floats between the bottom and the top, it might be okay. If it floats all the way to the top, don't use it. 

If you are still uncertain, break the egg on a plate and look at the yolk. Fresh eggs have yolks that "stand up," and the white sits close to the yolk. Older eggs have yolks that don't look as tall and firm, and the whites are runnier. If you see that the yolk is flat or almost flat and the yolk is extremely watery, forget about it! It's no good. Run away from that runny egg! 

Kitchen Tip for Pepperoni Lovers

 

Pepperoni, a classic topping we know so well. I still love it on occasion. What I don't love is the excess oil. I have been using paper towels to remove it on take-out pizzas (and frozen pizzas) for years. 

At some point back in the 90s, when I used to make homemade pizza for the kids on a regular basis, I started thinking about ways to remove some of the oil in the pepperoni before baking the pizza. 

There are two different ways I do this. One is simply layering the pepperoni slices on a plate and popping it in the microwave, then heating it for short intervals until the pepperoni releases enough oil to satisfy me. 

That method is acceptable, but I like the stovetop method better, because you have more control over the process. Just use a frying pan, (any will do the job), and toss your pepperoni in over low to medium heat. The slices don't have to be precisely lined up in one layer for this. Just toss in a handful, (or more if you're having a big pizza bash), and toss them around occasionally until they change color and the oil is released. Then pull them out and drain on paper towels. 

How long you want to do that is up to you. The pepperoni will be crispier after you bake the pizza, so monitor your oil-release level. After you've done it a couple of times you'll learn what your desired level of oil removal is. 

I have also used this method and made pepperoni "sprinkles" to add to pizzas (after baking the pizzas), salads, sandwiches, and other dishes that benefit from a sprinkling of crispy pepperoni. I just leach enough oil from the pepperoni until it is crunchy, then drain and chop it up when cooled. 

If you're a total pepperoni fiend you can make a double-pepperoni pizza and use the pepperoni sprinkles along with the familiar Parmesan cheese & red pepper flakes to finish off the pizza after baking. Pepperoni Heaven! (Just keep a large supply of antacids around as a sub for after-dinner mints. 😉)

You can use the same methods on cubed pepperoni. It won't make pizza into a health food, but at least it will remove a lot of fat without compromising the flavor. 

If you have any questions, just drop me a line in the comments. 

*Note:  Images are Public Domain

No attribution required.

Russian Buttercream - Three Ingredients For A Quick Fix

Vanilla Sponge Cake with Russian Buttercream
Garnished with Macerated Strawberries & Strawberry Sauce

Russian Buttercream

One day I was looking through some recipes for Russian desserts. In the past I've made savory Russian dishes, but never dabbled enough in Russian desserts. It was time to remedy that situation. While I was looking, I stumbled across Russian Buttercream. 

What? Russian Buttercream? How did I not know about this? Three ingredients? Are you kidding me? 

Nope. Three Ingredients: Butter, sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla. That's it! 

That's all you need, and the recipe comes in handy when you are in a hurry and need a frosting ASAP! 

As luck would have it, I already had some 4-inch cakes on hand, because I had planned to make Strawberry Shortcakes. Well, that would still happen, but with Russian Buttercream instead of whipped cream. Yeah, I know, I wasn't making "traditional" strawberry shortcakes using a sweet biscuit base, but sometimes we like to switch things up. 

So I go to the food safe to find a can of sweetened condensed milk. We always have that stuff on hand. I rummage. I grab the flashlight so I can look in every corner on every shelf. What? How do we not have any? We always have it! 

Classic case of: "We always have that ingredient on hand when we don't need it, but when we need it we don't have it." It happens sometimes. No rush. Testing delayed for a few days.

The Recipe

Easy as pie! (Actually easier than pie, since making a pie requires more of a time commitment.) Grab 2 sticks of butter from the fridge and set them out until they soften. They should be a little firm, not to the point where they are the consistency of Pond's Cold Cream. (Do they even make that anymore? That might be a bad example.) Not to the consistency of mayo. They should be firm, but not mushy. 

Take out one can of sweetened condensed milk and have your vanilla on hand. 

When the butter is ready, beat it with a mixer on medium speed for 5 minutes. It should look considerably lighter. If you're using a stand mixer, use a spoon and coax the condensed milk into the bowl a little at a time while the mixer is still running. Alternatively, just add in small increments, stopping the mixer between each addition. You can do it 3 to 4 ounces at a time. Add vanilla in at any of those points. 

If your butter seems too soft or the mixture looks like it might be separating, just pop it in the fridge for a few minutes, then take it out and whip it some more. (I had to do that a couple of times because it was pretty warm in the kitchen when I made it.)

So easy. It has a good flavor and is not too sweet, and it has a silky mouth feel. You can pipe it and it will hold its shape, as seen in the photo above. If your hands are hot, work quickly or take breaks and pop the piping bag in the fridge for a few minutes. 

How Does It Hold Up?

If your sweet creation is going to be consumed pretty quickly, using this frosting is not a problem. It will be okay for a few hours if the temperature where it's being held isn't too warm. I frosted a cupcake to test out what would happen to the frosting overnight and the frosting started to lose cohesion and get oily. The cake in the above photo was in the refrigerator overnight and looked just as good the next day. If you go that route, just take the cake out 30 minutes to an hour before serving so it can soften up a bit. If you have stored cakes in the refrigerator before, you know what I mean. 

For Chocolate Russian Buttercream, just add 1/2 to 1 cup of cocoa and whip it with a mixer until well combined. 

Yes, this recipe is a winner. It's a good idea to keep some sweetened condensed milk in your pantry so you can make this recipe instead of relying on one that is commercially made. The flavor is miles above the canned stuff!

Vanilla Sponge Cake with Russian Buttercream,
Macerated Strawberries, and Lemon Curd