Fried Cinnamon Sugar Tortillas & My Love of Fall

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Fried Cinnamon Sugar Tortillas. When I want churros and there are none, I reach for these chips and I am satisfied | ibakeheshoots.com

I’m in love with Fall. I love its crunchy leaves underfoot and crisp evening breezes. I love its earthy autumn colors and promise of new beginnings. It makes me feel all warm and gooey inside, which is weird because I love the cool weather it brings. Sorry Summer. I know you’re the popular kid but I’m just not feeling you.

Fall has stolen my heart…and stomach with pie…glorious sweet potato pie. But there’s no pie. It’s not time yet. I still have about a month to go and I’m not good at waiting.

So, while I’ve been not-so-patiently waiting for Fall, I’ve soothed myself with these fried cinnamon sugar tortilla chips in the shape of Fall leaves. And when I write ‘soothed’ I mean power-snacked two handfuls but pretended it was only one. How could I not? Did you read the title? They’re fried cinnamon sugar tortilla chips!

And just in case you were wondering…fried tortillas + cinnamon sugar = double-win, y’all.

Fried Cinnamon Sugar Tortillas. When I want churros and there are none, I reach for these chips and I am satisfied | ibakeheshoots.com

At the dman’s request I prepared some daisy-like shapes, as well. They were harder to cut out and didn’t mesh with my ‘love of Fall’ vibe, but I did it anyway. Of course, they photographed beautifully.

Ugh, I hate it when the dman is right.

But maybe I was wrong. I’m not-too shabby at the waiting game. In fact, I should be given a ‘waiting’ award-all fans should. We just waited one year for the last eight episodes of Breaking Bad!

Now, then…I’ve got a big bowl of  fried chips and eight hours of Breaking Bad in my queue. Sounds like a perfect way to wait for the arrival of Fall.

Fried Cinnamon Sugar Tortillas Photo Notes

by David

I wish all photo shoots were this easy.  I captured both of these images with less than 10 shots and called it a day.

Gameplan

I’ve been getting sloppy, so this shoot was about good technique and good lighting.  A picture made with lousy technique may look decent on the web, but it looks like junk on a print…… and guess what? Real photographers print.

Technique

I locked the camera on the tripod and left it there.  I also turned on the mirror delay mode and used a remote shutter release.  When the composition looked off, I didn’t take the camera off the tripod and hope for a miracle.  Instead, I recomposed the items on the table until I got it right. This is pretty simple stuff, but even in a studio with strobes, sharp images require good technique.

Lighting

I tried something different and now have my new favorite lighting setup.  For the main light, I bounced a strobe off the back wall of the studio.  This lighting is stupid simple and simulates a large window.  For the fill, I got on the David Hobby bandwagon and put a large 60″ soft-silver umbrella on-axis.  This created a very even fill across the scene and cut down on the contrast.  For the shot with the bowl, I also added a small white bounce card on the right side of the chips.  This setup may be a 99 cent store solution, but it creates beautiful results.  Here is a picture from behind the scenes:

fried cinnamon sugar tortillas lighting setup

 

Tech Notes

Camera: Nikon D90
Lens: Tamron 17-50mm 2.8
Strobes: White Lightning x1600
Tripod: Manfrotto
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 48mm
Shutter: 125
Aperture: f/10

 

Fried Cinnamon Sugar Tortillas Recipe

Recipe slightly adapted from Cheeky Kitchen

Fried Cinnamon Sugar Tortillas
 
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Author:
Serves: 8-10
Ingredients
  • 1 package of large tortillas (I used a package of 8)
  • ½ c sugar
  • ½ t salt
  • ½ T cinnamon
  • 2 c. vegetable oil for frying
  • Medium-sized cookie cutter
Instructions
  1. Cut as many shapes as the tortilla’s will allow.
  2. Mix sugar, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl.
  3. Heat oil in pan set to medium heat.
  4. Once the oil is hot, fry the tortillas on both sides until the edges are browned. Be careful! They cook fast!
  5. Cool fried chips on a wire rack.
  6. Gently toss the fried chips in the sugar-mixture.
  7. Serve immediately.

 

Easy Vegan Cookies & the Dman’s Meltdown

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Vegan Chocolate Cookies with a hint of espresso. Eat them with a hot cup of coffee and enjoy!

This photo shoot did not go well-not on the first day or the second. And when photo shoots don't go well the d-man has a meltdown. You know, the "I don't need this shit!" kind of meltdown. It's not fun to be around, but I stick it out. Why, do you ask? Three words...Post. Meltdown. Magic. Let me explain. When something goes wrong the d-man gets mad-angry, temporarily succumbs to defeat and you think he's given up. But if you give him a minute, he refocuses, kicks it into high gear and puts-it-on-ya...photography-style. See Exhibit A below. ...but enough about the d-man's temperament. Vegan Chocolate Cookies with a hint of espresso. Eat them with a hot cup of coffee and enjoy! Let's talk cookies. Vegan. Quick. Yummy. These bad boys are crazy-easy and you'll be finished inside of thirty minutes. What? You read me. The main flavor of this cookie is espresso combined with a dash of vanilla and a hint of cinnamon. What's surprising is not one flavor dominates. I loved this cookie with its crunchy edge, non-dairy buttery-ness and melt-in-your-mouth texture. Fresh, out of the oven these cookies were amazing. With its espresso base the cookie is perfect for dunking in hot black coffee. Guess what Dave did the next morning? Easy Vegan Cookies? Meet my Go-To List.

Easy Vegan Cookies Photo Notes

by David Game Plan This was going to be easy.  I've shot a million cookies so I had this shoot in the bag.  Since I went high key on the white acrylic for the Chocolate Covered Potato Chips, I would go low key and moody for the Easy Vegan Cookies.  Simple. The Reality I've never seen moody cookies and now I know why.  Cookies are happy and fun and going dark defeats the inherent nature of the subject.  I put the cookies on gray slate with a dark background and started shooting.  From a technical standpoint, I had my lighting mojo going but brown cookies against a gray surface is like wearing brown shoes with a black suit.  It just doesn't work.  Here's the shot: Rejected Vegan Chocolate Chip   Since the shot wasn't working, Mondo and I called it a day and went to the opening of an art show.  Considering I was shooting the same thing the next day, I left everything setup in the studio.  I never do this and always break everything down, but what could go wrong? The Next Day On the way down to the studio, I started thinking about Victor Schrager and the Martha Stewart Cookie book.  I loved this book and always wanted to shoot a job like this.  I had my inspiration. I reset the studio, metered the lights down to perfection and was ready to rock.  One problem: ------>I forgot to turn off my camera the night before and the battery was dead! I didn't have a backup and I didn't have the charger with me. Damn!  Mondo says I had a meltdown, but I was just a guy working through some things.  I got in my car, drove through 45 minutes of LA traffic, recharged the battery for a couple of hours and drove back to the studio. The New Setup This was going to be super clean and super Martha Stewart.  Mondo did her styling magic and staged the cookies.  Here is the lighting setup: vegan chip lighting setup This lighting setup is so simple, it's stupid.  The main light is a V-Flat (two 5x8 foamcore panels taped together) closed to a narrow strip with some bounce light going into it.  The white background is just a light bounced into the back of the studio and the fill light is from a piece of white cardboard.  For the stack shot, I used a piece of silver foil instead of the white board so I would have more texture and specularity on the side cookie. The Takeaway When things go wrong, I should chill because most of time everything works out.  After all, life's pretty good when you get to eat a big plate of cookies at the end of the day.

Easy Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

Recipe slightly adapted from TLC
Easy Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
 
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Recipe makes 22-24 cookies, depending on size.
Author:
Recipe type: Cookie
Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 2 cups unbleached flour, 240g
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ¼ tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp espresso powder
  • ½ cup vegan chocolate chips(I used Guittard Semisweet)
  • 1 cup raw sugar
  • ½ cup vegetable oil
  • 1 tsp real vanilla extract
  • ¼ cup water
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  2. In a large bowl mix flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and ground coffee. Reserve a teaspoon of the dry ingredients and set aside. Coat the chips with the teaspoon of the dry ingredients.
  3. In a mixer add sugar and oil and mix for 3 minutes. Add the vanilla and then add the water. Again, mix well. Add the dry ingredients. Fully combine but don't overwork the dough.
  4. Stir the chocolate chips into the dough.
  5. Use a tablespoon to scoop onto ungreased cookie sheets (I used a size 40 scoop). Put them in the oven. Bake for 6 minutes and then rotate the sheet 180 degrees. Bake another 4 minutes. Remove from the oven. They will continue to cook a bit after being removed so they won't appear fully cooked yet.