Freshmen15: Sweet Tooth Solutions pt. 1-Frozen Treats

Hello again my freshmen and returning nomsters,

I hope you found some solid suggestions from our first Freshmen15 post. While savory sandwiches and pizza delivery is important to the student foodie experience around G'town, satisfying solutions for a sweet tooth are equally crucial to a student's survival. So here we are with some of our favorite frozen sweet tooth solutions around G'town's campus. And not to self advertise too much, but considering Nightly Noms is a late night, bakery delivery service, if you need to solve a baked good craving, we're not a bad place to start! Not to mention we cater to birthdays, dinner parties, meetings, and groups of students who are in need of a fresh, homemade, baked good that reminds them of home! But, we'll talk more about Nighty Noms in our Freshmen15 post about on-campus options.


Frozen Treats:

T Sweets Wisconsin & P Street

T Sweets: Thomas Sweet (Wisconsin & P) is home to some of the best sweets in the Georgetown area. With ice cream, malts/shakes, frozen yogurt, and fudge, you'd be hard pressed to not find something you want to devour on their menu. Now, you really can't go wrong with any of your options, but my personal favorite is the Peanut Butter Oreo Swirl frozen yogurt (so amazingly nom-worthy!). The frozen yogurt is silky smooth and quite creamy! Ice Cream at T Sweets is also very tasty and with waffle cones and numerous topping options, how can you go wrong?! In addition to all of the above, T Sweets also has their signature "Blend-In" option (~DQ's Blizzard), meaning you can have a taste of every option with ice cream, froyo, and toppings all in one if you so choose.

Fun fact: they also make ice cream cakes!
$3-$7 Website

Sweetflow, courtesy of Sweetgreen

Sweetgreen: Locally sourced organic ingredients made into salads and wraps an tart froyo (aka "Sweetflow") with toppings ranging from fresh fruit and nuts, to chocolate chips and baked apples? What's not to like about Sweetgreen's healthy approach to fast food dining? Created and operated by three former Georgetown students (Woo! Go Hoyas!), Sweetgreen provides the Georgetown area with custom made salads and tart froyo. The ingredients are fresh and provided from local farmers, making the veggie options at this salad bar to die for! They also have a location in Dupont Circle and a Sweetgreen truck that serves up salads, froyo, and warm oatmeal to waiting customers.
Fun fact: you can use the froyo toppings/salad toppings interchangeably, meaning granola or baked apples can be added to a salad visa versa. 
Online ordering available.
$4-$11Menu/Website



Wingo's: (Wisconsin & O St.)Known for their wings and variety of sauce options, Wingo's acts as one of Georgetown's hotspots for late night/delivery dining; but did you know they also have awesome milkshakes!? Thick and creamy, a Wingo's milkshake is sure to satiate any craving for ice cream/dairy (but watch out for the "dairy coma" aftermath!). While Wingo's has the traditional offerings of chocolate, vanilla, etc, if you're looking for something with a larger "wow factor" go for the Coffee Oreo or Cookie Dough. They also offer an "extra thick" option if you're looking to really up your calcium intake.
 $4-$12 Website/Menu



Enjoy the warm weather!

Harry Potter Sweets: "Cauldron Cakes"

Hello Nomsters,
With the release of the final Harry Potter movie less than 48 hours away, I thought this would be a good time to cook up some Harry Potter favorites as a tribute to the epic adventure we've experienced by following "The Boy Who Lived" for the past fourteen years. From the books we read throughout our childhood, to the movies we anticipated during our teen years, it would be neglectful to not take note of the influence that JK Rowling's universe has played in our generation. I'm sure most of us are thinking "how can it actually be the last movie?!" Now, while I know not everyone may be a fan of the series, I can say that this blog and those closely connected to Nightly Noms are in the least Potter fans, if not complete and utter "Potheads."

With billboards scattered around cities with the slogan of "It All Ends," we can't quite help but feel that a huge part of our own childhoods are ending. Just think, for those of us who just turned twenty, it won't be until we're around thirty that we can say that we haven't spent more than half of our life following a certain boy wizard and his friends' adventures. So, in honor of my personal obsession with the adventures of Mr. Potter, and due to the fact that I'm going to see the midnight premiere with friends, I've decide to tweak, bake, and invent some of my own Harry Potter sweet recipes.

I thought that cooking up some Cauldron Cakes would be a fun experiment and spent some time debating about the best way of executing a recipe. Should we make a lava cake? Chocolate vs. Cinnamon? Cauldron shaped vs. the traditional baking pan? In the end we decided to go with a recipe of chocolate cinnamon cupcake with a caramel cream cheese filling (to mimic a bubbling over effect.") We hope you enjoy these Potter-inspired recipes and look out for an upcoming post for Butterbeer Ice Cream Floats


"Cauldron Cakes"
Cakes
Ingredients

-1 1/4 Flour (sifted)
-1/2 cup Cocoa Powder (sifted)
-2 to 3 tsp Cinnamon (sifted)
-1 1/4 cup Sugar
-1 cup Milk (room temp, can be 2% or whole, if you only have skim, you can use that and add a bit of cream)
-1/2 tsp Baking Soda
-1/4 tsp Salt (sifted)
-Vanilla
-2 Eggs (room temp)
Along with the Cauldron Cakes, Exploding Bon Bons sounded like a good challenge so we've included a recipe for our version of those also.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard cupcake pan with baking cups (or spray with pam, or use saran wrap and rub butter to avoid sticking).

2. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt into a bowl/measuring cup.

3. Place the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer or hand-held electric mixer. Beat on medium speed until fluffy. Stop to add the sugar; beat on medium speed until well incorporated.. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing slowly after each addition.

4. Combine the vanilla extract and milk in a large liquid measuring cup.

5. Reduce the speed to low. Add one-third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, then gradually add one-third of the milk mixture, beating until well incorporated. Add another one-third of the flour mixture, followed by one-third of the milk mixture. Stop to scrape down the bowl as needed. Add the remaining flour mixture, followed by the remaining milk mixture, and beat just until combined.

6.Add the sifted cocoa powder and cinnamon, beating (on low speed) just until incorporated.

7. Use a standard-size ice cream scoop to fill each cupcake paper with batter, so that the wells are about 1/3 to 1/2 full. Then, using a spoon, place a dollop of your filling into the center (don't push down!) Bake for 15 to 20 minutes (start checking at 15 minutes) or until a toothpick inserted into the center/side of a cupcake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool completely. If you use a mini bundt pan and can't get them out without smooshing them, then place a piece of saran wrap over a cookie tray, place it on top of the bundt pan, and flip it. Then, lightly tap the tin in an attempt to get them loose.

Filling/Icing
Ingredients
-1 8oz package Cream Cheese
-1/4 to 1/2 stick Butter
-1 tsp Vanilla
-1/4 package of Instant Vanilla pudding mix OR 1/2-1 cup of Confectioners (Powdered) sugar
-4 to 7 Tbsp Maple Syrup (sweeten to taste, but in small increments to monitor filling consistency)

Method
1. place your softened cream cheese and butter in a bowl, use a hand or stand mixer to incorporate them into each other. Add roughly a tsp of Vanilla, mix,
2. Add either your pudding mix or the confectioners sugar and mix well,
3. Add in maple syrup and mix until creamy
4. See Cake recipe above for filling prodecure

Now, I have to admit that I was a bit worried about how these would come out; but, in the end they came out better than I could have imagined. In the end, you could actually keep them upright or flip them right side up (since I used a decorative bundt pan). Originally I had planned to use a cupcake pan with baking cups, but after rummaging around my kitchen I found the perfect pan, so I decided to use that rather.

Depending on how much filling you place in the baking cup/batter, you get a larger "hole" in the center, giving them their Cauldron-like appearance! I personally made up the recipe for my filling, but I'd probably play with it a little more to perfect the taste, or I would use cream cheese frosting. As you can see from the pictures, I used some of the left over icing to give the cakes a "bubbling" effect. That just requires the use of a steady hand, or a self-made piping bag. My friends and I will be munching on these tonight as we anxiously wait to head to the theater, so hopefully I'll be able to post more feedback in my next post :)


Finally, before Potter fans around the world dress up, line up, and excitedly chatter about all of the insanely wicked memories they have that relate to world of Harry Potter, we raise our Cauldron Cakes in honor of some of the best adventure stories of our time and hope for many more!

nox, 


The Georgetown Foodie


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