Chocolate, Cinnamon & Cardamom

Moist Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

2010-04-02T20:33:00.000-07:00

This is my last post for the day. I made these cupcakes a few weeks ago, and they were so worth it. I brought them to a friends apartment warming party. They were mostly gone by the end of the night.

This recipe is adapted from Barefoot Contessa at Home, 2006, "Beatty's Chocolate Cake"
Moist Chocolate Cupcakes
Servings: 28-30 regular sized cupcakes

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cups cocoa powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. kosher salt (or regular salt works)
1 cup buttermilk, shaken
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with cupcake liners and lightly spray with cooking spray.
In an electric mixer bowl; sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Mix on low speed just until combined. In a liquid measuring cup, measure out the buttermilk, add the oil, eggs and vanilla. Stir to combine. Set the mixer on low again, and slowly add in the liquid mixture until just combined. Then add the coffee until just incorporated. Fill the tins with batter until just slightly over half full. Do not do more than this, for they will rise considerably. Bake for 14-16 minutes. The first batch I did took 15, the second took 14. Let the cupcakes rest in the tins on wire racks, for just a minutes and then take them out of the tins and put on the wire racks to cool completely. Now on to the frosting.

(don't worry if they sink a little in the middle) They're done if the toothpick comes out without raw batter)

This is without a doubt the best buttercream ever. I could just eat it plain, it is so so so so so good!

(this recipe is easily doubled. This was just about perfect for the amount of cupcakes I made.)
Buttercream Frosting

1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) salted butter, softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract
1 pound powdered sugar (just about 3 1/4 cups)
2-3 Tbsp. cold milk (cream works too)

Whip the butters and shortening on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and mix a little more. Then turn down the speed and mix in the sugar a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. After all the sugar is added, add the milk 1 tablespoon at a time until you reach the desired consistency. You may have to add more, depending on how thick you like your frosting.

I used star tips for decorating the cupcakes and tried to make it look like grass with little spring flowers. I think they are cute. And it was super easy. :)

Sour Cream Coffeecake

2010-04-02T20:08:00.000-07:00

As part of my official non-diet week, I made coffeecake and took it to work on Monday. So yummy! I found this recipe on the King Arthur Flour website. And this time I will just post the link if you want to try it. And believe me, its worth it.
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/PrintRecipeOld?RID=R899

Here is the result. I hope you try it. I also did 1-1/2 times the cinnamon-sugar topping.

(Please ignore the out of season plate, it worked the best. lol)

Birthday Cake

2010-04-02T15:47:00.000-07:00

I just had my birthday this week, and yes...I made my own birthday cake. Usually its my favorite red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, but this year I decided to be different. Behold, the non-traditional birthday cake...
This recipe comes from "Baking By Flavor" by Lisa Yockelson. It is so worth all the work.

LEMONLICIOUS BUNDT CAKE

Lemon Rind Soak (step 1)
1 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. fresh lemon zest
1 1/2 tsp. lemon extract
1 Tbsp. freshly squeezed and strained lemon juice (or bottled lemon juice)

Put all the ingredients into a small bowl and let sit at room temperature for 15 minutes or more.
Preheat the oven 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9" or 10" bundt pan.

Lemon Butter Cake Batter (step 2)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
1 3/4 sticks (14 Tbsp.) unsalted butter, softened
2 Tbsp. vegetable shortening
2 cups granulated sugar + 1 Tbsp. lemon zest mixed together
4 large eggs, separated
1 cup buttermilk
1/8 tsp. cream of tartar
3 Tbsp. superfine sugar (granulated sugar pulsed in food processor until powder)

Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt, set aside. In a mixer on moderate speed, cream the butter and shortening for 3-4 minutes. Keep at this speed and add the 2 cups sugar (premixed with the lemon zest), adding 1/3 of mixture at a time, beating 1 minute after each addition. Next add the eggs yolks and the lemon rind soak and beat until just combined. Add the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour, mixing well after each addition. If you have a second mixer, use it for this next part, otherwise scrape the batter into a larger bowl and set aside. Next wash the mixer bowl thoroughly and put in the egg whites. Whip on high speed until white and frothy. Add the cream of tartar and whip until soft peaks form. Continue whipping, and add the superfine sugar a little at a time until all is added. Continue whipping just until firm peaks have formed, but be careful they don't become to stiff. Use a spatula and gently fold in 1/4 of the egg whites into the cake batter until just fully incorporated. Then add in the remaining egg whites, following the same careful method. Bake for 55 minutes, or until cake tests done. I rotated mine half-way through.
While the cake bakes, continue with the next step.

Lemon Soaking Glaze (step 3)

1/2 cup freshly squeezed and strained lemon juice (or bottled)
1/3 cup plus 2 tsp. granulated sugar
1/4 tsp. lemon extract

Put all ingredients in a small saucepan over medium low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Then set aside until ready to use.
Once the cake is done, set the cake left in the pan on a wire rack, and let cool 10 minutes. Then invert the cake onto wax paper (on the wire rack). Spoon the lemon soaking glaze onto the cake, covering all of the cake. Let the cake cool for another 15 minutes.

Lemon Pouring Topping (step 4)

2 cups plus 3 1/2 Tbsp. powdered sugar
5 Tbsp. plus 1/4 tsp. freshly squeezed and strained lemon juice (or bottled)
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled

While the cake cools, mix together the topping ingredients with a whisk until fully blended. I found that there was too much topping, but tried to use as much as possible, even covering the cake twice. Drizzle the topping over the cake letting it drip down the sides. Let the cake cool completely and then slice and serve. It was super good and moist!

Silver Spoon-cancelled

2010-03-25T12:40:00.000-07:00

I've decided to forgo the Silver Spoon challenges for now.

Practice Giant Birthday Cupcake

2010-03-13T13:38:00.000-08:00

I am making a personal giant cupcake for my niece's 1st birthday coming up in April. I just purchased a giant cupcake pan that was on sale, so I thought I would try it out. I used Magnolia Bakery's chocolate cupcake recipe and frosted it with butter cream frosting. Yummy! Recipes for both cake and frosting coming soon!

February 2010 Daring Bakers Challenge: Tiramisu

2010-03-01T07:29:00.000-08:00

This is the February challenge presented exactly as listed below. I did not make the Lady Fingers this time, although I have done so in the past. I made the tiramisu at the absolute last minute, so I couldn't do all of the challenge. I was impatient, I think, and didn't whip the cream enough. So my filling oozed a bit, although it tasted delicious. I would just eat the filling mixture by itself. Yum!

(I know, the picture isn't that great. Looks aren't everything.)

BLOG-CHECKING LINES: The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

RECIPE SOURCE:

Mascarpone Cheese – Vera’s Recipe (Baking Obsession) for Homemade Mascarpone Cheese.

Savoiardi/ Ladyfinger Biscuits – Recipe from Cordon Bleu At Home

Tiramisu – Carminantonio's Tiramisu from The Washington Post, July 11 2007

1.If you cannot find Marsala, port wine is considered a good substitute.
2.If you would rather not use alcohol in your tiramisu due to diet restrictions or because you want to serve it to children, you may replace the Marsala with an equal amount of espresso or coffee.
3.Many people, especially those who are not excessively fond of coffee, might find brewed espresso very strong. In this case, please feel free to dilute the espresso or coffee to the desired strength.
4.It is generally suggested that cream with 25% fat is best for making mascarpone, but 36% works just as well.
5.We both used lime juice. Deeba has a recipe for mascarpone posted on her blog here.
6.The mascarpone recipe below is for approximately 340gms of mascarpone. The tiramisu recipe requires only 1/3 cup/75gms so you may scale down the recipe to requirement or put the extra mascarpone cheese to other equally good use. (100gms cream will yield approximately 75gms mascarpone)
7.While using the double boiler to make the mascarpone as well as the zabaglione, always ensure that the bottom of the bowl on top doesn't touch the bottom of the lower one. It is important to use a stainless steel bowl to pour your cream into, while making the mascarpone.
8.Ladyfinger batter is very fragile so fold in the flour and yolks very carefully into the meringue so that the whites don't lose their volume.
9.It might be a good idea to decide the size of the dish in which you intend to set the dessert, and make the fingers to a size which would fit that dish. This makes it easier when assembling the tiramisu later. Do remember that ladyfingers/ savioardi puff up a little while baking.
10.Ladyfinger biscuits may be stored up to a week in an airtight container. We both made the savoiardi fingers 4-5 days in advance, and stored them in an airtight box in a cool place (or the refrigerator).
11.We both made the zabaglione & pastry cream the previous day, and assembled the tiramisu the next morning. I (Aparna) then froze my tiramisu for 7 days before decorating and serving it.
12.Placing the bowl (in which cream is to be whipped) and the beaters of the hand held electric mixer in the fridge for about 1/2 to 1 hour before hand makes the cream whip up very well.
13.Do not dip the ladyfinger/ savoiardi into the coffee solution for more than ONE second, or they might become very fragile & disintegrate. Extra soaking is likely to spoil the end product, making it soggy. I (Aparna) dipped my biscuits only on one side and found they soaked up more than enough coffee solution.
14.If you would like to de-mould your tiramisu from your dish (cutting can be easier and neater this way, you can line your dish with plastic wrap (leaving a little extra on the sides of the dish) and then start assembling your tiramisu. Once the tiramisu sets in the refrigerator, you can use the overhang to pull the tiramisu out of the dish.

THE CHALLENGE:

We have chosen Baltimore pastry chef Carminantonio Iannaccone’s version of tiramisu for a couple of reasons.

•Firstly, his recipe is different from most other tiramisu recipes as he makes a zabaglione, an egg custard which is flavoured with Marsala wine (you may use coffee instead). Even more important is that his zabaglione is cooked so there is no risk from using raw eggs.

The recipes for this challenge are presented in the following order:

A. Tiramisu (includes zabaglione & vanilla pastry cream)

B. Mascarpone Cheese

C. Ladyfinger/ Savoiardi Biscuits

MANDATORY:

You MUST make your own savoiardi / ladyfinger biscuits and mascarpone cheese with the given recipes. You must also make the zabaglione and pastry cream using the given recipes.

If diet or health restrictions do not allow you to use these recipes, please go ahead and use one of the alternatives provided or other suitable recipes to make them, but please include links to the original recipe in your DB post.

Sponge cake may be not be used as a substitute. After all, a large part of this challenge is making those biscuits.

VARIATIONS:

Tiramisu is usually made in square dishes and cut into squares to serve. If you want to be different, please feel free to give full rein to your creativity as to how you want to present, decorate and serve your tiramisu. Make it square, round, as individual servings, or whatever! However, your version of Tiramisu must contain the mascarpone cheese and the savoiardi/ ladyfinger biscuits you made.

PREPARATION TIME:

Tiramisu is made up of several components which can be made separately and ahead of time and put together the day before serving.

Making tiramisu from scratch requires about 2 to 3 days (including refrigeration) from when you start making the mascarpone to the time the tiramisu is served. So this challenge requires some prior planning.

Please read the instructions as you need to begin making the mascarpone at least a day in advance.

The zabaglione & pastry cream also need 4 hours to an overnight for chilling, as does the main dessert. The flavours mature after an overnight rest, and the dessert can be kept refrigerated for 2-3 days.

Once assembled, the tiramisu can be frozen till you need to serve it, in case you are not serving it immediately.

TIRAMISU

(Recipe source: Carminantonio's Tiramisu from The Washington Post, July 11 2007 )

This recipe makes 6 servings

Ingredients:

For the zabaglione:

2 large egg yolks

3 tablespoons sugar/50gms

1/4 cup/60ml Marsala wine (or port or coffee)

1/4 teaspoon/ 1.25ml vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

For the vanilla pastry cream:

1/4 cup/55gms sugar

1 tablespoon/8gms all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

1/2 teaspoon/ 2.5ml vanilla extract

1 large egg yolk

3/4 cup/175ml whole milk

For the whipped cream:

1 cup/235ml chilled heavy cream (we used 25%)

1/4 cup/55gms sugar

1/2 teaspoon/ 2.5ml vanilla extract

To assemble the tiramisu:

2 cups/470ml brewed espresso, warmed

1 teaspoon/5ml rum extract (optional)

1/2 cup/110gms sugar

1/3 cup/75gms mascarpone cheese

36 savoiardi/ ladyfinger biscuits (you may use less)

2 tablespoons/30gms unsweetened cocoa powder

Method:

For the zabaglione:

Heat water in a double boiler. If you don’t have a double boiler, place a pot with about an inch of water in it on the stove. Place a heat-proof bowl in the pot making sure the bottom does not touch the water.

In a large mixing bowl (or stainless steel mixing bowl), mix together the egg yolks, sugar, the Marsala (or espresso/ coffee), vanilla extract and lemon zest. Whisk together until the yolks are fully blended and the mixture looks smooth.

Transfer the mixture to the top of a double boiler or place your bowl over the pan/ pot with simmering water. Cook the egg mixture over low heat, stirring constantly, for about 8 minutes or until it resembles thick custard. It may bubble a bit as it reaches that consistency.

Let cool to room temperature and transfer the zabaglione to a bowl. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight, until thoroughly chilled.

For the pastry cream:

Mix together the sugar, flour, lemon zest and vanilla extract in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan. To this add the egg yolk and half the milk. Whisk until smooth.

Now place the saucepan over low heat and cook, stirring constantly to prevent the mixture from curdling.

Add the remaining milk a little at a time, still stirring constantly. After about 12 minutes the mixture will be thick, free of lumps and beginning to bubble. (If you have a few lumps, don’t worry. You can push the cream through a fine-mesh strainer.)

Transfer the pastry cream to a bowl and cool to room temperature. Cover with plastic film and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight, until thoroughly chilled.

For the whipped cream:

Combine the cream, sugar and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. Beat with an electric hand mixer or immersion blender until the mixture holds stiff peaks. Set aside.

To assemble the tiramisu:

Have ready a rectangular serving dish (about 8" by 8" should do) or one of your choice.

Mix together the warm espresso, rum extract and sugar in a shallow dish, whisking to mix well. Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, beat the mascarpone cheese with a spoon to break down the lumps and make it smooth. This will make it easier to fold. Add the prepared and chilled zabaglione and pastry cream, blending until just combined. Gently fold in the whipped cream. Set this cream mixture aside.

Now to start assembling the tiramisu.

Workings quickly, dip 12 of the ladyfingers in the sweetened espresso, about 1 second per side. They should be moist but not soggy. Immediately transfer each ladyfinger to the platter, placing them side by side in a single row. You may break a lady finger into two, if necessary, to ensure the base of your dish is completely covered.

Spoon one-third of the cream mixture on top of the ladyfingers, then use a rubber spatula or spreading knife to cover the top evenly, all the way to the edges.

Repeat to create 2 more layers, using 12 ladyfingers and the cream mixture for each layer. Clean any spilled cream mixture; cover carefully with plastic wrap and refrigerate the tiramisu overnight.

To serve, carefully remove the plastic wrap and sprinkle the tiramisu with cocoa powder using a fine-mesh strainer or decorate as you please. Cut into individual portions and serve.

MASCARPONE CHEESE

(Source: Vera’s Recipe for Homemade Mascarpone Cheese)

This recipe makes 12oz/ 340gm of mascarpone cheese

Ingredients:

474ml (approx. 500ml)/ 2 cups whipping (36 %) pasteurized (not ultra-pasteurized), preferably organic cream (between 25% to 36% cream will do)

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Method:

Bring 1 inch of water to a boil in a wide skillet. Reduce the heat to medium-low so the water is barely simmering. Pour the cream into a medium heat-resistant bowl, then place the bowl into the skillet. Heat the cream, stirring often, to 190 F. If you do not have a thermometer, wait until small bubbles keep trying to push up to the surface.

It will take about 15 minutes of delicate heating. Add the lemon juice and continue heating the mixture, stirring gently, until the cream curdles. Do not expect the same action as you see during ricotta cheese making. All that the whipping cream will do is become thicker, like a well-done crème anglaise. It will cover a back of your wooden spoon thickly. You will see just a few clear whey streaks when you stir. Remove the bowl from the water and let cool for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, line a sieve with four layers of dampened cheesecloth and set it over a bowl. Transfer the mixture into the lined sieve. Do not squeeze the cheese in the cheesecloth or press on its surface (be patient, it will firm up after refrigeration time). Once cooled completely, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate (in the sieve) overnight or up to 24 hours.

Vera’s notes: The first time I made mascarpone I had all doubts if it’d been cooked enough, because of its custard-like texture. Have no fear, it will firm up beautifully in the fridge, and will yet remain lusciously creamy.

Keep refrigerated and use within 3 to 4 days.

LADYFINGERS/ SAVOIARDI BISCUITS

(Source: Recipe from Cordon Bleu At Home)

This recipe makes approximately 24 big ladyfingers or 45 small (2 1/2" to 3" long) ladyfingers.

Ingredients:

3 eggs, separated

6 tablespoons /75gms granulated sugar

3/4 cup/95gms cake flour, sifted (or 3/4 cup all purpose flour + 2 tbsp corn starch)

6 tablespoons /50gms confectioner's sugar,

Method:

Preheat your oven to 350 F (175 C) degrees, then lightly brush 2 baking sheets with oil or softened butter and line with parchment paper.

Beat the egg whites using a hand held electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Gradually add granulate sugar and continue beating until the egg whites become stiff again, glossy and smooth.

In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks lightly with a fork and fold them into the meringue, using a wooden spoon. Sift the flour over this mixture and fold gently until just mixed. It is important to fold very gently and not overdo the folding. Otherwise the batter would deflate and lose volume resulting in ladyfingers which are flat and not spongy.

Fit a pastry bag with a plain tip (or just snip the end off; you could also use a Ziploc bag) and fill with the batter. Pipe the batter into 5" long and 3/4" wide strips leaving about 1" space in between the strips.

Sprinkle half the confectioner's sugar over the ladyfingers and wait for 5 minutes. The sugar will pearl or look wet and glisten. Now sprinkle the remaining sugar. This helps to give the ladyfingers their characteristic crispness.

Hold the parchment paper in place with your thumb and lift one side of the baking sheet and gently tap it on the work surface to remove excess sprinkled sugar.

Bake the ladyfingers for 10 minutes, then rotate the sheets and bake for another 5 minutes or so until the puff up, turn lightly golden brown and are still soft.

Allow them to cool slightly on the sheets for about 5 minutes and then remove the ladyfingers from the baking sheet with a metal spatula while still hot, and cool on a rack.

Store them in an airtight container till required. They should keep for 2 to 3 weeks.

Challenge #2: February-month of the Antipasti and Appetizers

2010-02-13T18:39:00.000-08:00

For this challenge there were a lot more recipes to choose from. So, believe me when I say, it was really difficult to decide. I have to post this challenge a few days early, because I am leaving for the Olympics in a day. I am so excited!!! And a great way to keep the excitement going...food inspiration. The best. I decided to try something for the first time that I have always wanted make. I hope you join me in this first attempt for me, maybe a refining attempt for you. That's the fun in this, to try new things, or make them better.
drum roll please.......
Crepes
(Technically this is a total of three recipes. If you want to try another filling, feel free. The first recipe is the only required part of the challenge)

(not technically a great picture, but it tasted delicious. I will definitely make this again!)

Crepe Batter (basic recipe)
servings: about 12
scant 1 cup all-purpose flour
2 eggs
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter
vegetable oil
salt

Spoon the flour into a measuring cup and sift into a large bowl. Add the eggs and approximately 3-4 tablespoons of the milk to the flour. Whisk well. Continue to whisk, adding a little milk at a time until you have a fairly runny batter. (It will thicken somewhat upon standing.) Melt the butter in a double boiler, or in the microwave. Once the butter is melted, take the bowl off the heat and let cool almost completely. Whisk the butter into the batter and add salt to taste. Continue to whisk for a few minutes. Let the batter sit at room temperature for at least 1 hour. If you have a crepe pan, use it, otherwise use a 7-inch non-stick skillet. Brush the pan with oil (or use a paper towel and wipe oil onto pan) and heat medium to medium-high heat. Pour in approximately 1 ounce/2 tablespoons batter into the pan. Turn and tilt the pan to cover the base evenly with crepe batter. (Work quickly) Cook for about 3-4 minutes until the bottom of the crepe is set and golden brown. Flip it over with a spatula and cook that side for about 2 minutes until golden brown and set. Carefully slide the crepe out onto a plate. Continue to do this until all the batter is used, re-oiling the pan after each crepe. If you want a sweet crepe, use sugar instead of salt.

Ham And Fontina Crepes
servings: about 12
2 tablespoons butter, plus extra
12 crepes (prior recipe)
generous 1 cup cooked cured ham, chopped
3 1/2 ounces fontina cheese, diced (7 tablespoons)
1 recipe Bechamel Sauce (to follow)
3 tablespoons Parmesan, freshly grated
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Spray a casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray. Lay out the crepes and sprinkle with the ham and fontina cheese. Roll up the crepes and place in the casserole dish in a single layer. Pour the Bechamel Sauce over the crepes, then sprinkle with Parmesan and nutmeg. Dot the crepes with the butter. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until golden and bubbling. You can eat a whole crepe, or cut them in half.

Bechamel Sauce
servings: about 4
1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick of butter)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 1/4 cups milk (may need to use less)
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Place the butter in a small saucepan and melt it over medium heat. Briskly whisk in the flour. Pour in the milk, whisking constantly until it starts to boil. Season the sauce with salt and lower the heat. Cover the pan and simmer gently, stirring only occasionally. Do this for 20 minutes or more. The sauce should not taste floury. Take the pan off the heat. Taste your sauce, if bland, add more salt. The more the better, to me any way. If you find that your sauce is too thick, add more milk a little at a time until you reach the desired consistency. If the sauce is too runny, return it too the heat, and add in a pat of butter mixed with an equal amount of flour. If you would like a richer sauce, albeit a more fattening sauce, replace half of the milk with cream. Yum :) If you want to go the other way for a lighter sauce, replace half of the milk with water.

Caramel Sticky Rolls

2010-01-31T11:01:00.000-08:00

I decided to have a Sunday morning brunch at my house this morning. My sister and her kids, and my dad came over for coffee, orange juice and rolls. These rolls are soooooooo good. And so easy to make. This is a nice pull apart breakfast bread.

Caramel Sticky Rolls

Rolls:
3 tubes of biscuits (30 biscuits total), cut each biscuit in half
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Mix the cinnamon and sugar together. This is going to make more than you'll actually use by about half. It's best to have more than you need for easier coating. Grease a bundt pan, one without a removable bottom. Coat each biscuit half in the sugar mixture and place cut side down into the pan. Set pan aside.
Caramel:
1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1/2 cup vanilla ice cream
Small saucepan: Cook both the sugars and butter on medium/medium-high heat until the mixture comes just to a boil. Add the ice cream and stir until it is completely melted and mixed in. I used Breyers no sugar added Vanilla ice cream. So, low-fat doesn't matter. Pour this mixture over the rolls. Bake for approximately 30 minutes. Invert the pan onto a wider rimmed plate. Serve immediately.
Yum Yum! I hope you enjoy this. It is super easy to make.

Daring Bakers January 2010 - Nanaimo Bars (gluten free)

2010-01-31T10:12:00.000-08:00

Our challenge this month was to be an ode to Canada and the Olympics. And if I haven't mentioned it yet, I am going to the Olympics on February 15th. I am so excited! So this challenge was especially fun to try. I have never made homemade graham crackers, let alone gluten free.These are super delicious! I would definitely recommend cutting the bars into 16 servings. Reason: they are rich bars and you don't want to eat more than that in one setting. Though it is tempting, these are not low-fat bars.
The recipe below is presented as it was on The Daring Bakers website.

"The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca."

For Gluten-Free Graham Wafers
Ingredients
1 cup (138 g) (4.9 ounces) Sweet rice flour (also known as glutinous rice flour)
3/4 cup (100 g) (3.5 ounces) Tapioca Starch/Flour
1/2 cup (65 g) (2.3 ounces) Sorghum Flour
1 cup (200 g) (7.1 ounces) Dark Brown Sugar, Lightly packed
1 teaspoon (5 mL) Baking soda
3/4 teaspoon (4 mL ) Kosher Salt
7 tablespoons (100 g) (3 ½ ounces) Unsalted Butter (Cut into 1-inch cubes and frozen)
1/3 cup (80 mL) Honey, Mild-flavoured such as clover.
5 tablespoons (75 mL) Whole Milk
2 tablespoons (30 mL) Pure Vanilla Extract
Directions:
1. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, combine the flours, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Pulse on low to incorporate. Add the butter and pulse on and off, until the mixture is the consistency of a coarse meal. If making by hand, combine aforementioned dry ingredients with a whisk, then cut in butter until you have a coarse meal. No chunks of butter should be visible.
2. In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together the honey, milk and vanilla. Add to the flour mixture until the dough barely comes together. It will be very soft and sticky.
3. Turn the dough onto a surface well-floured with sweet rice flour and pat the dough into a rectangle about 1 inch thick. Wrap in plastic and chill until firm, about 2 hours, or overnight.
4. Divide the dough in half and return one half to the refrigerator. Sift an even layer of sweet rice flour onto the work surface and roll the dough into a long rectangle, about 1/8 inch thick. The dough will be quite sticky, so flour as necessary. Cut into 4 by 4 inch squares. Gather the scraps together and set aside. Place wafers on one or two parchment-lined baking sheets. Chill until firm, about 30 to 45 minutes. Repeat with the second batch of dough.
5. Adjust the rack to the upper and lower positions and preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius).
6. Gather the scraps together into a ball, chill until firm, and reroll. Dust the surface with more sweet rice flour and roll out the dough to get a couple more wafers.
7. Prick the wafers with toothpick or fork, not all the way through, in two or more rows.
8. Bake for 25 minutes, until browned and slightly firm to the touch, rotating sheets halfway through to ensure even baking. Might take less, and the starting location of each sheet may determine its required time. The ones that started on the bottom browned faster.
9. When cooled completely, place enough wafers in food processor to make 1 ¼ cups (300 mL) of crumbs. Another way to do this is to place in a large ziplock bag, force all air out and smash with a rolling pin until wafers are crumbs.
Nanaimo Bars
Ingredients:
For Nanaimo Bars — Bottom Layer
1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter
1/4 cup (50 g) (1.8 ounces) Granulated Sugar
5 tablespoons (75 mL) Unsweetened Cocoa
1 Large Egg, Beaten
1 1/4 cups (300 mL) (160 g) (5.6 ounces) Gluten Free Graham Wafer Crumbs (See previous recipe)
1/2 cup (55 g) (1.9 ounces) Almonds (Any type, Finely chopped)
1 cup (130 g) (4.5 ounces) Coconut (Shredded, sweetened or unsweetened)
For Nanaimo Bars — Middle Layer
1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons (40 mL) Heavy Cream
2 tablespoons (30 mL) Vanilla Custard Powder (Such as Bird’s. Vanilla pudding mix may be substituted.)
2 cups (254 g) (8.9 ounces) Icing Sugar
For Nanaimo Bars — Top Layer
4 ounces (115 g) Semi-sweet chocolate
2 tablespoons (28 g) (1 ounce) Unsalted Butter
Directions:
1. For bottom Layer: Melt unsalted butter, sugar and cocoa in top of a double boiler. Add egg and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in crumbs, nuts and coconut. Press firmly into an ungreased 8 by 8 inch pan.
2. For Middle Layer: Cream butter, cream, custard powder, and icing sugar together well. Beat until light in colour. Spread over bottom layer.
3. For Top Layer: Melt chocolate and unsalted butter over low heat. Cool. Once cool, pour over middle layer and chill.
-------------------------------
Additional Information:
These bars freeze very well, so don’t be afraid to pop some into the freezer.
The graham wafers may be kept in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. Mine lasted about that long.
If making the graham crackers with wheat, replace the gluten-free flours (tapioca starch, sweet rice flour, and sorghum flour) with 2 ½ cups plus 2 tbsp of all-purpose wheat flour, or wheat pastry flour. Watch the wheat-based graham wafers very closely in the oven, as they bake faster than the gluten-free ones, sometimes only 12 minutes.
For the Nanaimo Bars, if making with wheat, replace the gluten-free graham wafer crumbs with equal parts wheat graham wafer crumbs!

I omitted the almonds and coconut in the bottom layer, because I do not like them in this type of dessert. I'm sure for those who like them, it would delicious in it.

Challenge #1 - January: month of the Sauces

2010-01-15T21:15:00.000-08:00

This should be a fairly easy challenge to start things off. Please post your comments and/or link to your finished challenge post.

Tomato Sauce

4 servings

9 ounces canned tomatoes, or fresh tomatoes that have been peeled
pinch of sugar
2 garlic cloves
2 Tbsp. olive oil
10 fresh basil leaves, torn
salt to taste

Use a small sauce pan. Add the tomatoes along with the can liquid to the pan. Add the sugar, garlic and salt. Cover and cook on low for about 30 minutes if using fresh tomatoes (45 minutes if using the canned tomatoes). Do not be tempted to stir during this time. Use a wooden spoon, and mash the tomatoes. Remove the pan from the stove and let cool, Stir in the olive oil and then add the basil leaves. This is best served with spaghetti.

I used 4 tomatoes. Take a large saucepan and fill it about 3/4 full of water. Bring the water to a boil. Put the tomatoes in the water and keep them in there just until the skins start to split apart. Remove the tomatoes with a slotted spoon and put them into a large bowl of cold water. This makes it really easy to remove the skin. Remove the center part of the tomatoes and any bad spots and proceed with the recipe as directed above.

The result was pretty tasty. I had to let the sauce cook for a while longer to get it down to a thicker consistency.

The Year of 'The Silver Spoon' Challenge (Italian Cooking At Its Best)

2010-01-15T20:58:00.000-08:00

I have finally decided to create a monthly cooking challenge to last approximately one year. The goal: to make one recipe per month from "The Silver Spoon" cookbook, Phaidon Press. The one thing about this book, being a translated version of the original, the actual instructions on how to make the food leaves something to be desired. So, that leads me to the next point. I will only be including the actual recipe amounts and ingredients, the rest will be my interpretation of the actual instruction part of the recipe. I hope that this is something that not only I will for sure be participating in, but also anyone who wants to join in. It will be a lot of fun to share my story on how I handle each challenge and to compare to any other brave souls who try to do so as well. So please, I encourage you all, to join in and try something new!
There will be a link to this challenge in my labels section, titled "Silver Spoon".
The Rules:
There will be approximately 12 challenges for the year 2010.
One and only one recipe will be completed each month.
Every month, starting this January, the new challenge recipe will be posted on the 15 of each month, unless otherwise noted in a post.
Posting is to be completed by the 14th of the following month. I am hoping one month is long enough to complete each challenge.
Please feel free to post your completed challenge on your own blog, or other venue, and place a link in a reply to the Challenge post on my blog. You can just copy and paste the URL where you have posted. That way everyone who reads here can join in the fun. If you would rather just post a comment upon completing the challenge, that's great too. I would love to hear how it went, and to compare notes with everyone. And pictures of the challenge are more than welcome.
You can try 1 challenge, or try all 12, as I hope you do!
Coming up...Challenge #1

Shhhhh....

2010-01-08T21:45:00.000-08:00

I have a project I have been thinking about doing for a while, thus why I have not been posting lately. Soon, very soon, you'll find out what i'm up to. An announcement will be posted on January 15th, 2010 going over the details of what is to happen. (I'll have to narrow down my options before then, so i'll be working very hard on this and hope to see you on the 15th!) I also hope for help on this, you'll find out why, and I hope its fun for you and me!

December 2009 Daring Baker's Challenge

2009-12-29T16:26:00.000-08:00

This month's baking challenge was a gingerbread house. I have never in my life made one of these before, and let me tell you, it was not easy. It definitely took a while to finally complete it. I'm not sure if it is something I would ever do again, but we shall see. For now, i'll list the challenge below and my completed project.

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

I wasn't too fond of the recipes for the gingerbread, so I am posting an alternate I liked much better, and it was fairly tasty too.
Victorian Gingerbread House
"Cookies for Christmas" edited by Jennifer Dorland Darling
(you will need to make this recipe 2x for enough gingerbread)

1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 cup molasses
1 egg
1 Tbsp. vinegar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
(Do not double the recipe, make 1 recipe gingerbread two times)
In a large mixing bowl: beat the shortening on high for 30 seconds. Add sugar, baking powder, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, and cloves. Beat until combined. Add the molasses, egg, and vinegar and beat until combined. Mix in the flour, 1/2 cup at a time until you can't mix anymore in with mixer. If needed, mix the remaining with a wooden spoon. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 3 hours or longer, until the dough is easy to handle.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Pick a pattern and cut the shapes out out of the paper. Grease flat baking sheets, or the back of baking sheets with cooking spray. Roll the dough on the pans, out to 1/4-inch thick. Place the pattern over the dough, making sure there is 1-inch spacing between the dough cut-outs. Cut around the patterns with a sharp knife, removing the excess dough. Make sure to cut out the windows if you have them. Do not thrown away the patterns, they will be reused. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges are lightly browned and the centers are just firm. (You may have to bake longer, depending on your actual oven temperature.) Place the patterns back over the dough and trim again. (The dough does expand quite a bit, thus the need for this step.) Bake the dough for an additional 3 minutes more, or until very firm. Cool 3 minutes on the pan. Loosen the bottoms of the gingerbread pieces with a spatula. Cool completely on the pans. Then transfer to wire racks. Repeat this process with the remaining dough and pattern pieces.
Use royal icing as your glue to put the house together. I used the directions from King Arthur Flour's website, entitled "Building A Gingerbread House" with Susan Reid.

Honey Wheat Bread fast

2009-12-01T15:58:00.000-08:00

I definitely was in the experimenting mood this weekend. I decided to make up a bread recipe that would be a semi-quick bread.

Honey Wheat Bread recipe by Katie of http://cookinginatinykitchen.blogspot.com

1 rapid rise yeast packet (2 1/4 tsp.)
3 Tbsp. honey
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (+1/2 to 1 cup more)
1 1/2 cups luke warm water
1/2 cup quick cooking oats

Lightly grease a large bowl and set aside. Combine water, honey and yeast, gently stir to mix. Let stand at room temperature for about 10 minutes. It should be foamy on top if the yeast activates properly, if not, start over. Meanwhile, whisk together the wheat flour, oats, salt and 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour. Pour in the water mixture all at once and stir until mixed. Add more flour until the dough is not super sticky. Turn out onto a floured board. Knead, adding more flour as needed, for 10 minutes. Add enough flour, so that you can lightly touch the dough and not come away with a souvenir. Shape the dough into a ball and put into the prepared bowl. Cover loosely with a light cloth. Let it rest in warm place for 1 1/2-2 hours or until doubled. Punch the dough down and let rise again about 1 hour more. Divide the dough into 2 equal pieces. Form into desired shape, place on a oiled baking stone, again cover with the cloth and let rise again about 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Melt some honey and lightly brush on top of dough, use scissors to cut 2-3 slashes in the dough. Lightly sprinkle quick cook oats on top. Bake for 30 minutes, but keep an eye on it. When the bread has browned on top, and sounds hollow when lightly tapped, you are done. Take it out of the oven and place the bread on a wire rack to cool.

Madeleine

2009-12-01T15:38:00.000-08:00

I am finally getting around to posting this recipe. I decided to try my own version of the classic Madeleine. It is really good with a simple lemon glaze: lemon juice and powdered sugar.

Madeleine recipe by Katie of http://cookinginatinykitchen.blogspot.com

1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1/2 cup superfine sugar (granulated sugar processed in coffee grinder/food processor)
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
a few drops of lemon extract
1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 whole jumbo eggs
1 jumbo egg yolk
pinch salt
1/2 cup cake flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Sift all the dry ingredients together. In a 2nd bowl: whisk eggs and add lemon and vanilla. Once butter is cooled, whisk into the eggs. Gradually blend butter/egg mixture into flour, gently fold in until just mixed. Cover the bowl with saran wrap and refrigerate about 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Melt 1 Tbsp. butter and brush a 12 Madeleine mold, and then flour the mold. Divide the batter evenly among the molds. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the cakes are lightly browned on the edges. Gently tap the mold on a table and slide onto a dish towel. Turn over so the pattern is on top. Let cool completely, then lightly dust with powdered sugar.
Optional to lightly glaze with lemon mixture.
Best day of, otherwise they freeze very well. If you do decide to freeze them, hold off on glazing until after thawed. You can take them out about 30 minutes before you are ready to eat them.
There should be a slight bump on the underside of the cakes.

Scottish Shortbread

2009-11-27T18:53:00.000-08:00

I finally made some shortbread. It is so yummy and buttery. Even now, when I am not eating it, my mouth absolutely waters at just the thought of its yummy goodness. You can double the recipe if you'd like. There is no doubt that its a hit!

Scottish Shortbread

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp. salt

2 blocks butter at room temperature

1 cup superfine sugar (process granulated sugar in a food processor/coffee grinder)

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees. Use a 9-inch round cake pan. (Optional: line the pan with a parchment paper circle) Sift the flour and salt together into a bowl, and whisk. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Use your hands to gently mix the flour into the butter mixture until pea sized clumps. (As close as you can get is fine.) Do not overwork, this makes a lighter flaker shortbread. Pour the mixture into the pan and gently press down. Use your fingers and gently press along the edges. Then take a fork and poke holes all over the pan. Bake for about 1 hour. Until golden. Leave in the pan to cool completely. You can either cut into the desired shapes in the pan or invert onto a plate and then cut it.
(Next up Madeleine Cookies)

Caramel-Pecan Bars

2009-11-27T18:38:00.000-08:00

I made these bars for the first time (for Thanksgiving), and it really took way too much effort to make them. There were too many steps, even for me. And sadly I won't be posting the recipe, not because of my disappointment, but because I seriously lost the recipe. I know, very sad. I made them at my parents house, an i'm pretty sure the paper got thrown away, otherwise I would have shared it. But, here are a few pictures for you to check out my results.

Pumpkin Pie

2009-11-27T18:27:00.000-08:00

This pumpkin pie can best be described in one word, "Awesome!" And its so easy to make. I love easy and delicious things. Yummy!

Pumpkin Pie (my Grammy's recipe)

2 unbaked pie shells (store bought or homemade)
3 1/2 cups pumpkin puree (2-15 oz. cans)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
2 eggs
1 cup evaporated milk

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Line 2 pie pans with the pie shells and crimp/flute the edges. Whisk together all the ingredients and divide evenly between the 2 pie pans. Bake about 5 minutes, cover the crust and bake 10 more minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 300 degrees and bake for an additional 45 minutes, until tested done. Cool the pies on a wire rack. Cover with saran wrap and refrigerate when the pie completely cool. Cut each pie into 8 slices and serve with whipped cream.

I attempted to bake the pie for the initial 15 minutes without covering the crust, it almost burnt. Yikes. But it worked out and tasted delicious in spite of that.

Two Days To Go

2009-11-24T20:59:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I almost didn't get a turkey (uh-oh). I am feeding 10 people and I waited too long to get groceries. I went to Wal-mart (aka the "Evil Store") and they were out of whole Turkeys. So, I had to stop at Hy-Vee and lucky lucky lucky me, they had what I needed. I'm thinking 16 lb. will be pleanty, especially enough for midnight turkey sandwiches. I don't know about other family traditions, but we absolutely have to have enough excess to make turkey&mayo sandwiches for a late-night snack. Oh so yummy...i'm salivating already. I've decided on the two desserts, pumpkin pie and caramel pecan bars. I am hoping for yummy goodness. TBD
For some reason I can not get the idea of shortbread out of my head, all Thanksgiving turkey-ness aside. I've been looking for the perfect recipe, if there is such a thing, and can not seem to find one that i'm happy with. It just sounds so good. Maybe you'll see something of that in the future. And of course I am starting to think about Christmas. Late Thursday night and into Friday morning, Kelsey and I plan on going shopping. There are actually some malls that are opening at 12:01am on Friday morning and we are so going to be there. Crazy you say. Well...I can't deny it. I'm not even sure if I have the ability to stay up all night anymore, but who knows. It will definitely be fun to try.

Apple Praline Bread revisited

2009-11-23T16:51:00.000-08:00

I decided to make this dessert to go along with the pecan pie for this past weekend. It was just as good as the first time, if not better. Kelsey was over visiting the night I made it, and we were both eating the excess praline topping. So yummy! Next challenge, Thanksgiving dinner and all the trimmings, and of course great desserts!!!

Pecan Pie

2009-11-23T16:39:00.000-08:00

I went to my Grammy's house this past weekend. We had a big gathering of the family on my mother's side. It was loud and crazy. And we had a lot of food. Every year for the past several, I or a member of my immediate family has tried to make a pecan pie to take for Thanksgiving. And every year, there is something wrong with it, whether its way too runny, the crust disintegrates, or my mother put some of the crust ingredients into the pie filling. That was a good one. But, I would have to say, this year is the winner. I am keeping this recipe around and I hope you enjoy. It turned out perfectly.

Pecan Pie

1 Pie Crust (you can make your own as I did, or use store bought)
1 cup pecan halves
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
3 jumbo eggs, at room temperature (trick: put the eggs in a bowl of lukewarm water for about 10 minutes)
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Roll out the dough and place in a 10-inch deep dish pie plate. Trim the edges if you would like, and flute the edges. Place the pecans in the bottom and set aside.
In a mixing bowl, beat the syrup, sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla on high for 30 seconds. Pour the mixture over the pecans. Bake on the bottom rack of the oven for 50-60 minutes. If it looks like your crust is starting to brown too much, cover the pie with a domed piece of foil and bake until the pie is set. Which basically means, either a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, or lightly touch the top and it should spring back. Cool the pie on a wire rack overnight. Chill the pie until ready to serve.

source: Jim Romero's Southern Pecan Pie, from "Taste of the South" magazine

Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies

2009-11-13T22:08:00.000-08:00

I have been trying to get a chocolate chip cookie that is not totally flat, or truly cake-like. This version is definitely getting there.

Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup + 5 Tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup chocolate chips (any flavor)
1 cup hershey's bars, chopped into 1/4-inch chunks
1 cup Ghirardelli 72% cacao chocolate, chopped into 1/4-inch chunks

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugars until creamy. Add the vanilla and then eggs one at a time, beating well after each. In a second bowl, whisk together the flour, soda, and salt. Gradually add to the butter mixture, beating well after each addition. Stir in the chocolate chunks, this is the hardest part, the dough will be stiff. It is best to use baking sheets that have no sides. The cookies will bake more evenly. Use a tablespoon sized scoop and scoop dough onto cookie sheets about 2-inches apart. Lightly press down on the cookies, using your finger. Bake for 12-14 minutes, or until the outside edges are lightly browned. Let the cookies sit on the cookies sheets for 2 minutes and remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Wax paper
3 - large paper plates

To help the cookies retain their shape better: refrigerate the dough before baking.
A great way to share with friends: Separate the dough into 3 sections. Lay a piece of wax paper on a cutting board. Place one-third of dough onto wax paper, and use a second sheet to press down on top of the dough. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out into about a 7-inch square, lightly wrap the edges of the paper over the dough to cover it completely. Chill the dough for about an hour. Once the dough is cool and has had a chance to stiffen up, remove the top layer of paper. Use a sharp knife and cut the dough into 5x5's=25 pieces per third of dough. Take a paper plate, flip it upside down onto the top of the dough, carefully hold onto the bottom of the cutting board, while holding down the plate on the dough and flip it over so that the plate is on the bottom. Take a second paper plate, also upside down, and put this onto top of the dough. Holding onto the top and bottom plate, flip it over again, and then wrap the plate with plastic wrap. Now you are ready to share. Give to a friend with these instructions: bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes.

Tiny Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

2009-11-13T21:39:00.000-08:00

Caution: Before making these cookies, note that they are very very very addictive. Trust me, I've succumbed to the powerful draw of the peanut butter god. And you know what, I am pretty happy with that.

Tiny Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
From Hershey's Easy Baking, also on www.hersheys.com
yield 12-15 dozen (depending on what size you make them)

1/2 cup shortening, softened
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
3 Tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
granulated sugar for rolling
chocolate chips (peanut butter and milk chocolate are good)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream together the butters, then beat in the sugars until well mixed. Add the egg, milk, and vanilla, beating until mixture is light and fluffy. 2nd bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add a little bit at a time to the butter mixture, beating well after each addition. Chill the dough for at least 15 minutes, otherwise it is way too soft.
Use a 1/4 tsp. to measure the dough, and roll each into about 1/2-inch balls. Roll in the granulated sugar and put on baking sheets. Bake 5-6 minutes (or longer, if cookies are larger). Right after removing the cookies from the oven, lightly press a chocolate chip into the center of each cookie. Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheets for 1 minute and remove to wire racks to cool completely.
Peanut Butter Cookies (normal size), scoop 1 Tablespoon of dough and roll into balls. Roll each ball into granulated sugar and place on cookie sheets, press a criss-cross pattern into the top of the cookie with a fork, and lightly sprinkle the cookies with more sugar. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned on edges.

Breads and other things

2009-11-05T21:43:00.000-08:00

This Monday, a co-worker had several bananas gone bad, so she gave me them and in return I brought her a few mini loaves for her son, who loves it. This is a recipe i'm not sure if i'll share, but maybe someday... In the meantime, you can definitely see the results below. I came up with a fail proof recipe, that is fairly versatile. I once didn't add eggs, it was still good. I added chocolate chips another time, and kids just love it.
This is one bread I make often. Each time I do make it, it yields 6 mini loaves per recipe. The more to share :)

Pumpkin Bread

2009-11-05T21:37:00.000-08:00

If you haven't noticed, i'm following an ingredient theme here, for at least two posts. Love love love pumpkin. Yum! I had left over pumpkin puree from the pumpkin bars I made over the weekend, so last night I decided to use it to make some miniature pumpkin loaves. You can easily use this recipe for mini breads, or standard size will do. Topping with a little Brummel & Brown spread makes this an extra special treat. This recipe is definitely in my favorites, I hope you enjoy it!

Pumpkin Bread Extraordinaire
yields approximately 12 mini loaves (2 1/2-inch square pans)
This is 1-1/2 x the original recipe, if you decide to cut it down by one-third, use only one standard bread loaf pan.

Bread ingredients:
2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (bleached is fine)
3/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1/4 cup oil (vegetable, olive, or canola)
1/2 cup fat free yogurt
3 large eggs
6 Tbsp. water
1 heaping tsp. cinnamon
3/4 tsp. nutmeg
3/4 tsp. allspice
optional - add 3/4 cup nuts of choice or 3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour pans, set aside.
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. In a second larger bowl, mix together the pumpkin, oil, yogurt, eggs, water, and spices, whisk well. Add the flour mixture and mix just until incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pans, they should be 2/3rds full, do not over fill, as the bread will almost double in size. Bake for 25-35 minutes. This all depends on your oven temperature and the pans you use. If using a larger loaf pan, bake for 50-60 minutes. Check for doneness by inserting a toothpick until it comes out clean.
Cool in pans on wire racks about 10 minutes. Invert pans, be careful, and give the pan a shake until the bread falls out. Quickly turn the bread right side up and let cool completely.

Lighter Side of Pumpkin Bars

2009-11-05T21:17:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry, i've been really bad about posting lately, its been a week :( I made pumpkin bars last Friday night and haven't taken the time to share it. I was helping my friend Kelsey with cleaning and moving into her new apartment. And of course cleaning always makes me hungry. I love this time of year, and pumpkin happens to be one of my favorite fall foods. This is a recipe I decided to try out of the November 2009 Cooking Light magazine, from Trisha Kruse of Eagle, Idaho. It was pretty decent for a lower fat version of the oh so good original. I would make it again.

Frosted Pumpkin Bars
yield: 20-24 bars
Cake:
about 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 (15oz.) can pumpkin puree (not for pumpkin pie)

Frosting:
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 (8oz.) package 1/3 less fat cream cheese
2 cups sifted powdered sugar (yes this is important, who wants lumpy frosting)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray, and lightly flour the pan, set aside.
Spoon flour into measuring cups and level off. Mix together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a small bowl. Stir with a whisk to blend well. In a second larger bowl, mix brown sugar and 1 stick of butter until well mixed. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the pumpkin and mix until combined. Fold in flour mixture just until mixed. Do not over mix. Spread the pumpkin mixture into prepared pan. Bake for 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack.
For the frosting, use a mixer to cream together the butter, cream cheese, and vanilla. Add the powdered sugar a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Spread the frosting over the cake.

Macaroons (Daring Bakers in October)

2009-10-27T16:39:00.000-07:00

The Bakers challenge this month was more challenging than I was anticipating. I must say the cookies were good, I just didn't get the best results. No little feet at the end of my cookies. Too bad I don't like nut cookies enough to try this recipe again. It is a must to use parchment paper, which I didn't do :(. I used Reynolds wrap. Bad idea. But here are my results.

Recipe Source: This recipe comes from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern.Ingredients
Powdered sugar: 2 ¼ cups
Almond flour: 2 cups
Granulated sugar: 2 Tbsp.
Egg whites: 5
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.
2. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
3. Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.
4. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.
5. Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).
6. Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.
7. Cool on a rack before filling.
Yield: 10 dozen. Ami's note: My yield was much smaller than this. I produced about two dozen filled macaroons.
(baking before the "jump" or "cut")

Apple Pie Comfort

2009-10-25T17:13:00.000-07:00

I have been lax on posting lately, I made chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter fudge about a week ago. They were both super delicious, and I may post them eventually. TBD...Anyway, I ate at my parents house today. Sunday dinner, very comfort food today. We had homemade chicken and noodles over mashed potatoes with roasted squash. It was soooooo goood. And of course followed by the ultimate comfort food dessert, Apple Pie. I really wanted to go with a very flaky and tasty pie crust. So I used half butter and half lard. Also, I changed the pie filling, and used brown sugar, instead of granulated sugar. I used Green Apples from my parent's apple tree. They are super good. We made applesauce all weekend and decided to do apple pie, because it sounded so good. So, here's the recipe. I hope you enjoy. (It is not wise to even try to count calories with this recipe, but wise to eat the results :)

Apple Pie

For the Crust:
(Yield: 2 crusts)
1/2 cup lard, freeze for 20-30 minutes
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cubed and freeze for 20-30 minutes
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, put in the freezer long enough to get very cold
1/2 cup ice cold water
pinch of salt

In a large bowl: Mix together the flour and salt. Toss in the butter and lard to coat in the flour mixture. Use your fingers to crumble the butter/lard with the flour until the mixture resembles small peas. May need to put back in the freezer if the butter/lard is getting too warm. Sprinkle the water over the flour and mix with your fingers just until you can form the dough into a ball. Try not to over moisten the dough. It's alright to be a little flaky. Divide the dough into two equal portions flatten into discs and wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for an hour. Take out one disc and unwrap, leaving it on the plastic wrap, cover with a 2nd piece of plastic wrap. Roll the dough out into a 9-10 inch round, or least enough to overlap the edge of a pie plate. Leave the plastic wrap on and loosely roll up, replace in the refrigerator. Repeat with the second disc until ready for use. Lay one crust on a 9-inch clear pie plate and lightly pat in the pan. Put the pie plate back into the refrigerator. Now to prepare the filling...

For the filling:
9 medium apples (3 pounds), peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
2 Tbsp. flour
dash of salt

Mix the dry ingredients together and toss with the apples to coat. Pour the filling into the crust lined pie pan. Moisten the edge of the crust with egg white, or water. Place the second crust over the apple mixture. Cut into the crust in an apple shape, 1-inch cuts should do it. Place the pie pan onto a cookie sheet to catch any drips. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees and bake for another hour. Check about 30 minutes in, you may need to cover the crust edges with foil. Keep an eye on the pie, you may need to take it out before the hour is up, depending on whether the crust is cooked through. Remove the pie from the oven and place onto a wire rack to cool. Enjoy!

Blueberry Muffins

2009-10-08T23:19:00.000-07:00

I am finally getting around to posting this. I took these muffins to my friend, Kristin, this past weekend. They were so good. I loved them so much, I had to make them twice, 2 times in one week. They are that good!
("Bakery Blueberry Muffins" from http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen) I tried another Pioneer Woman recipe before this and I was not happy with the lower fat version that I made. This recipe on the other hand is awesome!

Blueberry Muffins
yield 12 muffins

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup Splenda
1 tspn. vanilla
2 whole eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk, vinegar soured milk
1/2 tspn. salt
2 tspns. baking powder
2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups blueberries, frozen

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. I sprayed a 12 cup muffin tin with cooking spray, and also lined the cups with liners, spraying them lightly also.
Cream together the butter and sugar, then add vanilla, eggs and buttermilk.
In a medium bowl; mix together the dry ingredients. Add the blueberries in, lighty stirring to mix. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir just until mixed. Do not overmix! Evenly spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups. If you would like, sprinkle some turbinado/raw sugar on top of the muffins.
Bake for 5 minutes at 450 degrees. Reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees and bake for another 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean (no gooey batter!).
Let muffins cool to room temperature and serve immediately or serve the next day, if you can wait that long.
I used frozen blueberries the first time I made these, and thawed and rinsed them the second time. You can tell the difference in how blue the first set is.

Spiced Cutout Cookies

2009-10-08T22:05:00.000-07:00

Yield: 160 cookies (This depends on how thin you roll the dough and the cookie cutter you use. The original recipe noted a yield of 9 dozen/108 cookies)

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 Tbsp. molasses
1 egg
3 1/4 cups flour
1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
1 Tbsp. ground ginger
2 tsp. ground cardamom
2 tsp. ground cloves
2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 cup orange juice
1 Tbsp. orange zest

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in molasses and egg. In a separate bowl; whisk together the flour and spices, add in the soda, whisk well. Separate the dough into 2 balls, wrap in saran wrap and chill for 1-2 hours to stiffen the dough a bit.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
On a well floured surface, roll the dough to around 1/16-inch thickness, may need to reflour under the dough and keep the rolling pin floured. Cut dough with 2 1/2-inch cookie cutter dipped in flour. Place on ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake for 5-6 minutes, or until cookies are lightly browned on edges. Let cookies cool on pans for 2 minutes and remove to wire racks to cool completely.

This recipe comes from Delisa Narr, West Bend, Wisconsin, in the "Taste of Home Best Loved Cookies & Bars", Fall 2006 edition, page 103.

Lemon Slices

2009-10-08T21:48:00.000-07:00

I decided to make cookies this week, but I couldn't possibly narrow it down to just one. Thus a double cookie day, which of course made my day better. I sure had a hectic one. Baking almost always relaxes me, and this definitely worked. I'm taking the two cookie batches i'm making to Illinois this weekend. It's Spoon River Drive this weekend. I love this scenic drive, and shopping for fall crafts, antiques, and of course food. This cookie is the less labor intensive of the two I decided on.

from the "Good Housekeeping Great Baking" cookbook, Hearst Communications, Inc., published 1999, page 56

Lemon Slices
yield 60 cookies

2 cups flour
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 large lemon
1-1/2 sticks unsalted butter
1/2 cup plus extra granulated sugar
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

In medium bowl; whisk together flour, powder, and salt. Set aside. Grate lemon into a small bowl. I used scissors to cut the zest smaller. Squeeze 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice into a small bowl.
In a large bowl; cream together 1/2 cup granulated sugar and powdered sugar until creamy. Beat in vanilla, lemon zest and juice, until mixed. Add the flour mixture and stir just until mixed.
Divide the dough in half. Shape each half into 6-inch long logs. Wrap each in saran wrap and refrigerated dough 1-3 hours. The original recipe says overnight, but this works too.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Take 1 dough log out and cut into 30 equal slices, around 1/4-inch each. Sprinkle with granulated sugar. Place about 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets and bake 10-11 minutes, or until cookies are lightly browned on the edges. Remove the cookies and let cool on pan(s) 2 minutes. Remove to wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough log.
1 cookie per serving
Calories: 50
Fat: 2 grams
Carbohydrates: 6 grams

Lemon Blueberry Zucchini Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

2009-10-02T22:52:00.000-07:00

I decided on this recipe from The Pioneer Woman. I am using the last garden zucchini of the season, and this sounded like a good recipe to that with. I am taking it to a friend that I am visiting tomorrow. She hasn't been feeling in the best health for quite a while, and i'm hoping that Kelsey (her sister) and I can help with house work and bring her food, so she doesn't have to cook. I am also going to make Blueberry Muffins in the morning to take for breakfast. I'll let you know how both taste. The cake looks pretty good though.

(This recipe is adapted from the kitchen of The Pioneer Woman.)

Lemon Blueberry Zucchini Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
3 cups peeled, grated Zucchini
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup Fat-Free Vanilla Yogurt (drain some of the liquid if possible)
1/2 tsp. Lemon extract
3 cups unbleached flour (or all-purpose)
1 tsp. Kosher salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 Tbsp. Lemon zest
2 cups frozen Blueberries, slightly thawed (you can use fresh as in the original recipe)

Frosting:
3 Tbsp. butter softened
3 of 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp. Lemon zest
1-2 Tbsp. Lemon Juice

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Grease and flour a bundt cake pan, set aside. Sift together dry ingredients in a small bowl, set bowl aside. In a large bowl, mix together zucchini, sugar, eggs, yogurt, and lemon extract. Lightly fold in the blueberries. Pour into the bundt pan. Bake for 65-75 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from the oven, and let the cake sit in the pan for 10 minutes. Invert onto a cooling rack and cool completely.
Frosting: Beat the butter and cream cheese until well blended and creamy. Add the zest and stir, then stir in the powdered sugar until fully incorporated. Stir in enough lemon juice to a consistency that is easily spreadable.

10/5: Officially, I tried some, the flavor was there, but the texture was not good at all. The yogurt substitution might have done it, but unfortunately i'm not really in the mood to try making it again to see if I could fix it. There are so many other recipes out there to try. It did look pretty good though. Disappointment has set in. :(

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Maple Cream Cheese Filling

2009-10-02T22:29:00.000-07:00

I decided on these cookies for 'Girl's Night', after some help from by bff Kelsey. They just sounded like fun. I found this recipe on http://www.culinaryconcoctionsbypeabody.com/2008/09/28/i-was-doing-so-good/
If you would like the original recipe, check it out there. I only varied it slightly. And next time I make these cookies, you better believe there will be a next time, I am going to change it a little more. They were soooooooo good! I love new recipes, and thank you to awesome bloggers for that!

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
yield: I got 29 cookies, depending on the size scoop you use, it varies.

3 cups unbleached flour (or all-purpose)
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
2 Tbsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed (I suppose light brown sugar would work)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
6 Tbsp. Fat-free Vanilla Yogurt
3 cups chilled pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 3-4 baking sheets with parchment paper. I had to use 4 baking sheets. In a large bowl: spoon flour into measuring cups and pour into bowl, mixing a whisk, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. In a second bowl, whisk together the oil and sugars. Add the pumpkin and mix thoroughly, then add the eggs and vanilla. Again whisk thoroughly. Pour in the flour mixture and stir until completely incorporated, no flour lumps please.
Use a Tablespoon sized cookie scoop, must have a release mechanism, drop full Tablespoonfuls onto the pans. Space the dough about 1 inch between each cookie. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Test for doneness with a toothpick, making sure baked through. Cool the cookies on the pans until they come to room temperature. You can remove them to wire racks to cool completely, if you like.

Maple Syrup Cream Cheese Filling
3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup/1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
3 Tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Using a hand held mixer, beat the butter until creamy, add the cream cheese, syrup and vanilla. Beat until combined. Beat in the powdered sugar only until combined.
Turn half of the cookies upside down, place a heaping Tbsp. of frosting onto each half and place other half of cookies on top, pressing down slightly. Put the assembled pies/cookies into the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. To store: Place in sealed containers and refrigerate.

Chai Shortbread

2009-10-02T22:03:00.000-07:00

I saw this recipe in a Cooking Light magazine, courtesy of Juliana Grimes and Ann Taylor Pittman, December 2007 issue. I really liked their presentation, looks like a good Christmas idea...ok, I realize it's a little early, but I love, love, love Christmas! One thing about this recipe is that I would definitely double up on the spices next time, everything but the salt and pepper anyway.

Chai Shortbread
yield: 3 dozen cookies

1 1/2 cups flour (spoon into measuring cups)
1/8 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. ground cardamom
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
dash of ground cloves
dash of freshly ground pepper
3/4 cup powdered sugar
10 Tbsp. butter, at room temperature
1 Tbsp. ice cold water
Mixing Tools: Whisk, Wooden Spoon, and Fork

Combine flour and spices through ground pepper with a whisk. In a separate bowl, using a wooden spoon, mix together sugar and butter until creamy. Sure, you can use a mixer, but I like the hard way. Using the wooden spoon, gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture until it appears crumbly. Sprinkle the water over the dough and toss with a fork until the dough mostly comes together. Divide in half and shape into 2"x6" logs, wrap each log in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Unwrap dough, one log at a time. Using a serrated knife, cut each log into 18 equally sized slices. Place dough circles at least 1-inch apart on two greased baking sheets, or use parchment paper. Bake for 9-10 minutes, until lightly browned around edges. Cool cookies on pans for a few minutes, and then place cookies on a wire rack to cool completely. You can use twine or ribbon to neatly present 8 cookies in a festive way.

1 cookie per serving=57 calories, 3.2 grams of fat, and 0.2 grams of fiber

Apple Praline Bread

2009-09-30T19:58:00.000-07:00

Ok, I lied. I could not make it until Friday with making something. I have to bake at least every other day or every other two days. It's a compulsion. This brought me to the following quick bread.
I found this recipe in a magazine and apples are in season, so I naturally had to make it. Get it, had to!

Land O Lakes Recipe Collection "Harvest Baking" Magazine, page 48
Apple Praline Bread
(my slightly tweaked/lighter version of the original)
Bread:
1 cup firmly packed Splenda Brown Sugar Baking Blend (or use regular brown sugar)
1/2 cup margarine/butter
1/2 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt or kosher salt
2 medium (2 cups) apples, peeled, grated
Topping:
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup margarine/butter
1/3 cup finely chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 3 mini (5 3/4x3-inch) loaf pans as the recipe calls for, or 6 extra mini (5x2-inch) loaf pans as I did.
In a medium bowl, stir together brown sugar, 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter until well combined, should be creamy. Add sour cream, eggs and vanilla and mix well. Add all remaining ingredients and until well combined. Then stir in shredded apples. Pour evenly into prepared pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes for the smaller loaf pans as I did, or 38-45 minutes for the larger pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire rack for about 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely on wire racks. I was impatient, so I didn't wait until they were cooled all the way.
Meanwhile; for the topping, mix brown sugar and butter in a 1-quart saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture comes to a boil (3-4 minutes). Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until well mixed and smooth (2-3 minutes). Remove from heat and stir in pecans. Pour evenly over bread. I ate them while it was still warm. Yum! The topping was awesome!

Brrr. Not winter, nope, I refuse!

2009-09-29T22:05:00.000-07:00

It was almost cold enough to turn on the heat last night. Yuck. It's not even quite October yet. And I haven't even baked anything since Apple cake, which, shame shame on me, I haven't posted. That's just because the topping was not to my liking, so I am having a really hard time posting something on here that was not the best. It was a two part cake. The bottom cake layer, and topped with apples and cream with cinnamon&sugar on top. The cake was awesome! But the apple layer, hmmm...not so much. I will experiment and hopefully get back to this one again. Maybe blueberries. Oh how I love the yummy goodness of blueberries. Not on their own, no, but in dessert, oh man I am in love! The next time I make Melt-In-Your-Mouth Blueberry Cake, I am going to have to restrain myself. It is not going to last long in my house.
On a another note, I am making something, not sure what, for Girls' Night In, this Friday, and also a Lemon Blueberry Zucchini Cake for Saturday, which I am taking to a buddy o' mine. Update to come...Are you ready???

Puff Pastry Challenge (Vols-au-Vent)

2009-09-28T19:45:00.000-07:00

(baking before the “jump” or “cut”) I could put this anywhere in the post, but you know what, i'm putting it here, just because I can. (For recognization of The Daring Baker's Challenge)

The September 2009 Daring Bakers' Challenge has been chosen by Steph of a whisk and a spoon. Steph chose Vols-au-Vent.

Michel Richard’s Puff Pastry Dough

From: Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan
Yield: 2-1/2 pounds dough
Ingredients:
2-1/2 cups (12.2 oz/ 354 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
1-1/4 cups (5.0 oz/ 142 g) cake flour
1 tbsp. salt (you can cut this by half for a less salty dough or for sweet preparations)
1-1/4 cups (10 fl oz/ 300 ml) ice water
1 pound (16 oz/ 454 g) very cold unsalted butter

In a large bowl; mix both flours and salt together. Pour water in all at once at mix with wooden spoon as well as possible. Then use hands to mix the dough until you can form it into a ball. (the recipe used a food processor, but I don't have one, so...) Slash the top of the dough with a sharp knife in a tic-tac-toe pattern. Wrap the dough in a damp towel and refrigerate for about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, place the butter blocks side by side, lengthwise, between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and beat it with a rolling pin until it flattens into a square that's about 1" thick. Mine ended up being more of a rectangle, but it worked. If the butter starts soften or become oily, chill it before continuing.
For the next part you'll need at a least a 2 ft. long work surface. I used my kitchen table, lightly flour. Take out the refrigerated dough and place it on your work surface, which has been dusted with all-purpose flour. Use a french style rolling pin (no handles=awesome!), press on the dough to flatten it by rolling to form four corners or a square, making sure to leave bit of a dome in the center of the square. Roll it into a 10" square. Keep the top and bottom of the dough well floured to prevent sticking. The effect should be a thick center with flaps.
Place the chilled butter in the middle of the dough and fold the ears over the butter, stretching them as needed so that they overlap slightly and encase the butter completely. (If you have to stretch the dough, stretch it from all over; don't just pull the ends). In theory it was supposed to be a 8" square, mine was more rectangular.
If you are in a cool room, it will work better for puff pastry. I chilled 1 hour between every 2 turns of the dough. If the butter starts to ooze out of the pastry at any time, cover the dough with damp cloth and refrigerate it . It doesn't matter what point in the process you are, you can take a break to do this.
Making the Turns:
Gently but firmly press the rolling pin against the top and bottom edges of the square (this will help keep it square). Then, keeping the work surface and the top of the dough well floured to prevent sticking, roll the dough into a rectangle that is three times as long as the square you started with, about 24" (don't be anal about it, trust me it's not a perfect process). With this first roll, it is particularly important that the butter be rolled evenly along the length and width of the rectangle; check when you start rolling that the butter is moving along well, and roll a bit harder or more evenly, if necessary.
With a pastry brush, brush off the excess flour from the top of the dough, and fold the rectangle up from the bottom and down from the top in thirds, like a business letter, brushing off the excess flour. You have completed one turn.
Rotate the dough so that the closed fold is to your left, like the spine of a book. Repeat the rolling and folding process, rolling the dough to a length of 24" and then folding it in thirds. This is the second turn.
Chilling the Dough:
If the dough is still cool and no butter is oozing out, you can give the dough another two turns now. If the condition of the dough is iffy, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes. Each time you refrigerate the dough, mark the number of turns you've completed by indenting the dough with your fingertips. It is best to refrigerate the dough for 30 to 60 minutes between each set of two turns.
The total number of turns needed is six. Plan to chill the dough for at least an hour before cutting or shaping it.

Ta-da! my finished dough. It was a lot of work, but who cares, puff pastry rules!

Forming and Baking the Vols-au-Vent

Yield: 1/3 of the puff pastry recipe below will yield about 8-10 1.5” vols-au-vent or 4 4” vols-au-vent
Line a baking sheet with parchment and set aside.
Divide your dough into 3 portions, using a very sharp knife. Work with one piece of the dough, and leave the rest wrapped and chilled. You can freeze any unused portions of the dough. Wrap in plastic wrap, and double wrap in foil.
On a lightly floured surface, roll the piece of dough into a rectangle about 1/8 to 1/4-inch thick. Transfer it to the baking sheet and refrigerate for about 10 minutes before proceeding with the cutting.
Use a round cutter, or shaped if you prefer to cut out 8-10 circles. Make clean, sharp cuts and try not to twist your cutters back and forth. Half of these rounds will be for the bases, and the other half will be for the sides. (Save any scrap by stacking—not wadding up—the pieces…they can be re-rolled and used if you need extra dough. If you do need to re-roll scrap to get enough disks, be sure to use any rounds cut from it for the bases, not the ring-shaped sides.)
Whatever cutter you decide to use, cut centers from half of the rounds to make rings. These rings will become the sides of the vols-au-vent, while the solid disks will be the bottoms. You can either save the center cut-outs to bake off as little “caps” for you vols-au-vent, or put them in the scrap pile.
Dock the solid bottom rounds with a fork (prick them lightly, making sure not to go all the way through the pastry) and lightly brush them with egg wash. Do not get any egg wash on sides of pastry dough. Place the rings directly on top of the bottom rounds and very lightly press them to adhere. If you are using the little “caps,” dock and egg wash them as well.
Place the finished vols-au-vent on the lined baking sheet and refrigerate. Pre-heat the oven to 400ºF.
Once the oven is heated, remove the sheet from the refrigerator and place a piece of parchment paper over top of the shells. This is going to help them from baking unevenly. Bake the shells until they have risen and begin to brown, about 10-15 minutes depending on their size. Reduce the oven temperature to 350ºF , and remove the parchment sheet from the top of the vols-au-vent. If the centers have risen up inside the vols-au-vent, you can gently press them down. Continue baking (without the sheet on top) until the layers are golden, about 15-20 minutes more. (If you are baking the center “caps” they will likely be finished well ahead of the shells, so keep an eye on them and remove them from the oven when browned.)
Remove to a rack to cool. Cool to room temperature for cold fillings or to warm for hot fillings.
Fill and serve.
*Although they are at their best filled and eaten soon after baking, baked vols-au-vent shells can be stored airtight for a day.
*Shaped, unbaked vols-au-vent can be wrapped and frozen for up to a month (bake from frozen, egg-washing them first).

I did the requisite round shaped cutters, but also added some Autumn leaf and acorn shapes. I was in the Autumn mood.

Savory: I did a garlic roasted vegetable mix with the pumpkin shaped puff.

Acorn with Cranberry Sauce and Autumn Leaf with Lemon Curd. I made both of these fillings for the worthy occasion.

Yummy goodness. Cranberry sauce and whipped cream.

Officially a 'Daring Baker'

2009-09-28T18:55:00.000-07:00

I joined the Daring Baker's website last month. Each month we are given a challenge to complete by the 1st of the following month and post on our blog, if we have them. This month was Puff Pastry. To tell you the truth, I was rather aprehensive, considering that I have never made the stuff, nor had the extra 'push' to do so. I was surprised at how worth it it was to make. I am going to be doing a separate post for this process.

Mini Creamy Chocolate Cupcakes

2009-09-23T20:34:00.000-07:00

I decided to make cupcakes for my mother's b-day. Easy right? Not so much. I started with a 12 cup regular size muffin tin. And they turned out great, until I went to dump them out. Completely broken in half. So I was about to give up, when it dawned on me...to make something up and hope for the best. For once, it worked.
From this:

To This:

Here is how I did it...
One "Incredibly Moist Chocolate Cupcake" recipe adapted from Nick Malgieri's cookbook "The Modern Baker"
Incredibly Moist Chocolate Cupcakes
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1 ounce semi-sweet chocolate,cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1 cup boiling water
(I did 3/4 cup boiling water, mixed with 1/4 cup of very strongly brewed coffee)
Coffee brings out the flavor in chocolate, trust me.
1 stick (8Tbsp.) unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. If you are going to go the easy route, please line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper liners, otherwise try greasing and flouring the cups. In a medium bowl; stir together the sugar, flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
Put all of the cut-up chocolate in a large mixing bowl. Pour the boiling water over the chocolate and cover with a dish towel. Let stand for 2 minutes, then gently whisk until batter is smooth. Whisk in the melted butter, then whisk in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Whisk in the vanilla flavoring and finally the sour cream.
Whisk in the flour mixture in 3 separate additions. Make sure to mix well after each addition.
Divide the batter among the muffin cups. And yes the batter will reach to almost the top of the cups. Bake the cupcakes for about 20 minutes, or until they are firm to the touch. Another testing method is to insert a toothpick into the center of 1 or 2 cupcakes, and it comes clean. Let the cupcakes cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then invert the pan and unmold the cupcakes. Turn them right side up again and let them cool completely.
I at least should have floured the pans. But oh well, live and learn. At least it led me to a new creative recipe.
Even when all hope seemed lost. Ding ding, the light bulb went off. I took out a block of cream cheese to soften to room temperature. And after the broken cupcakes cooled, I crumbled them all up in a large bowl. Then I mixed in the cream cheese until well incorporated. Next came the mini muffin tin. A 24 cupper. I sprayed the cups with cooking spray, pressed the cake mixture into each until level with the top of the pan and baked at 350 degrees for another 8 minutes. I immediately took it out and and inverted the muffin tin. I had no patience at this point. It makes 36 mini muffins, so, I had to do the same thing again using half the pan. Let the cupcakes cool completely on the wire rack.

And from my new favorite book, I adapted a recipe for ganache by cutting it in half.
Cindy Mushet "The Art&Soul of Baking"
Milk Chocolate Ganache
6 ounces milk chocolate chips
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
Place the chocolate in a medium bowl. In a small saucepan, heat the cream over medium heat until it just comes to a boil. Make sure to constantly stir the cream, so it doesn't scald. Immediately pour over chocolate and let stand 1 minute, covered with a dish towel, or uncovered. Gently whisk until the ganache is smooth and all of the chocolate is melted. Let the ganache sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes. Dip the top of the mini cupcakes into the ganache and place bottom side down back on the cooling rack to set up. If you really want to make them cute, put a chocolate chip onto the center of each cupcake. I love mistakes sometimes!

Cran-Apple Crisp

2009-09-20T20:35:00.000-07:00

I made this sometime last week, but am just now getting around to posting. I needed to use an apple before it went bad, and the rest of the ingredients last forever, so...I used 'em.
1 serving (can easily be multiplied)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
1 medium-large Apple, sliced thin
1 Tbsp. each dried cherries, cranberries, and raisins
3 packets Splenda
dash of ground nutmeg, or freshly grated
2 dashes of ground cinnamon, or to your liking
Mix fruit, sugar, and spices in a small bowl. Pour into a small ramekin.
1 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. flour
1 Tbsp. quick cooking oats
Use a fork to cut butter into ingredients and mix until crumbly, pea size mixture. Sprinkle over fruit. I lightly sprinkled cinnamon on top (optional)
Place ramekin on cookie sheet and bake 30-40 minutes, or until top is lightly browned, and no longer gooey.

Maple Leaf Cookies

2009-09-20T20:22:00.000-07:00

2nd cookie of the weekend. I love fall, and these look just like the best fall cookie ever.
(The Ultimate Cookie Book; Tormont Publications)
Yield 4 dozen
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup maple syrup (I used Pure Maple Syrup)
1 egg
2 1/4 cups flour
Icing:
1 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. maple extract (or 1 1/2 tsp. Pure Maple Syrup)
3-4 Tbsp. heavy cream
Cream butter until fluffy. Gradually blend in maple syrup and egg. Fold in flour gently. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease baking pans.

Roll dough out on well-floured surface to about 1/4 inch thickness. This is tricky. Keep your rolling pin floured. Cut out maple leaf shapes with a cookie cutter and bake 8-10 minutes, or until lightly golden brown around edges. Cool on wire rack.
Icing; cream butter and sugar. Add maple flavoring, then cream, 1 teaspoon at a time until you reach desired spreading consistency.
Spread icing on 24 of the cookies, then cover with the other 24 cookies to make sandwiches.

Maple Leaf Cookies and Buttermilk Spice Crisps

Buttermilk Spice Crisps

2009-09-20T20:14:00.000-07:00

Ok, so it was an ambitous weekend. As to why I say this, well...I can't tell you yet. To be announced 5 days from now. I recently joined the Daring Bakers group and just completed my first challenge. But, shhh! it's a secret for the aforementioned time. I hope your excited, because it's awesome! In the meantime I also made 2 types of cookies this weekend. The following crisps being one of them.

Buttermilk Spice Crisps (Taste of Home; Best Loved Cookies & Bars)
Yield 6 dozen
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar (yes I did sub again, using Splenda Sugar Blend)
1/3 cup buttermilk
4 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground allspice
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
In a large mixing bowl (note the amount of flour, it's going to get messy, so yes a large bowl); cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and buttermilk. In a second bowl; combine flour, baking soda, and the last 4 ingredients. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Shape into 2 9-inch rolls; wrap each in plastic wrap (I used wax paper and then plastic wrap). Refrigerate for 4 hours or until firm.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Unwrap one cookie log and cut into 1/4-inch slices (should be able to get 36 cookies from each roll; I cut the log in half, and each half cut in half. Divide each 1/4 of dough into 3rds and then 3rds again.) Bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Raspberry Bars

2009-09-14T17:14:00.000-07:00

Beware! If you make these bars, you may want to hide them from your family and friends. They are so good, it's hard to eat just one. I speak from personal experience.

1st and 3rd layer:

2 1/2 cups flour

2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 sticks real butter, softened and cut into 1/2 inch pieces (or salted, might want to withdraw extra salt then)
1 cup quick cooking oats
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
13x9x2 pan, line with doubled foil, along bottom and up sides. Spray with cooking spray. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl: mix flour, granulated sugar, and salt (if using unsalted butter). Using an electric mixer, beat in butter 3-4 pieces at a time. Mix until well combined and batter looks like wet sand. Take 1 1/4 cups of the flour mixture and place in a medium bowl. Set bowl aside.

Evenly press remaining flour mixture into bottom of the prepared pan. Press down with the bottom of a measuring cup or use your hands. Bake about 20 minutes or until lightly browned at the edges.
While the bottom crust bakes, take reserved flour mixture and mix in the oats and brown sugar. Add the 2 Tbsp. butter, and using your fingers, or a fork, work the mixture until it is combined and starts to stick together, set aside.
2nd layer:
3/4 cup red raspberry preserves
3/4 cup fresh raspberries (or frozen berries, thaw and make sure to drain, make sure equals 3/4 cup)
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice (or bottled)
In a small bowl, combine raspberry preserves, berries, and lemon juice. Mash lightly with a fork as you mix. Spread the mixture over the hot crust. Ok, you caught me. I sprinkled just a bit more fresh raspberries over the preserves too. Sprinkle with reserved oat mixture. Make sure to not press oat mixture into berries. Bake for 22 to 25 minutes, or until top is golden brown and the filling is bubby.

Remove pan to wire rack. Once bars are completely cool, remove from pan, by pulling on foil at opposite ends and lifting up, place on wire rack. Peel the foil away from the bars, be very careful, you may have to use a knife to help it along. Cut into 20-24 pieces and enjoy! Store in closed container at room temperature.

Skinny Blondies

2009-09-10T21:03:00.000-07:00

(9-12 Servings)

1/2 cup fat free vanilla yogurt

1 cup tightly packed Splenda Brown Sugar Blend

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/8 tsp. baking soda

pinch of salt

1 cup flour

1/3 cup butterscotch chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 8x8 pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the yogurt and sugar. Add the egg and vanilla and whisk.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, soda, salt, and butterscotch chips. Pour all at once into the yogurt mixture and stir together until well blended. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted off-center comes out clean. Remove pan to wire rack and cool completely. Cut bars and serve.

Even though these have about half the fat and calories, they are still delicious!

I lightened up a recipe from http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/blondies
If you would like to use the original go to the above website.

Mixed Berry Crostata

2009-09-10T19:15:00.000-07:00

This was soooooooooo good. I would describe it as a cross between a pie and a tart. It may be time consuming to make, but who cares. It is so worth it!

recipe by ina garten, from her cookbook "barefoot contessa at home"

Mixed Berry Crostata

Pastry

2 cups flour

1/4 granulated sugar or superfine sugar

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

2 sticks cold unsalted butter (if using salted butter, cut out the salt)

6 Tbsp. (3 ounces ice cold water)

Place the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor (I used my blender). Pulse a few times to combine. Add the butter and toss with your fingers or a spoon (much safer) to coat each cube of butter with the flour. Pulse 12 to 15 times, or at least until the butter is the size of peas. Leave the processor/blender motor on, and add the ice water through the feed tube all at once. Hit the pulse button to combine, but stop the processor/
blender just before the dough comes together. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, cut dough in half, and form into 2 flat disks. Wrap the disks in plastic and refrigerate for at least an hour. If you only need one dough, freeze the second disk.
The Filling (for one Crostata)
1 pound firm, ripe peaches, peeled
1/2 pound firm, ripe black plums, unpeeled
1/2 pint fresh blueberries
1 tablespoon plus 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon plus 1/4 cup granulate sugar
1/4 teaspoon grated orange zest
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, diced (if salted, don't use kosher salt)

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Roll the pastry dough into an 11-inch circle on a lightly floured surface. (I had to lightly flour the dough too, it stuck to my rolling pin.)Transfer it to the pan.
For the Streusel: Combine 1/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup sugar, add the salt if using unsalted butter. You can use a food processor to pulse the mixture until mixed. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture is crumbly, then mix the rest by hand by rolling the dough between your fingers until it starts to hold together. You can also do this by hand, like I did, instead of using a food processor. Set aside.
For the filling: cut the peaches and plums into wedges and stir in with the blueberries. I used frozen mixed berries, thawed. Make sure if there are strawberries, to slice into 3-4 pieces first. Toss the fruit with 1 tablespoon of the flour, 1 tablespoon of the sugar, the orange zest, and the orange juice. Place the mixed fruit on the dough circle, leaving about a 1 1/2-2 inch border.
Sprinkle the Streusel evenly over the fruit. Gently fold the border of the pastry over the fruit, and pleat it to make an edge. I lightly brushed the dough edges with orange juice, I had som leftover juice from the orange I used.
Bake the crostata for 20 to 25 minutes, until the crust is golden and filling is bubbly and tender. Let the crostata cool for 5 minutes, then use 2 large spatulas to transfer it to a wire rack. This can be eaten warm, at room temperature or reheated. I stored mine in the refrigerator.

(Ok, fine, I posted this several days late. I actually made it on Monday. You caught me. I've been so busy this week.)

Orange vs. Rum Butter Cakes

2009-09-07T11:47:00.000-07:00

This cake was so good and makes a nice gift to give to your friends. It may be too good to do that though. To share or not to share? Hmm...

Makes 4 Small Bundt Cakes (can double the recipe to bake in a large Bundt pan=approximately double each ingredient)
Grease and flour pans before making the cake. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Cake:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar (can substitute with Splenda Brown Sugar Baking Blend), I did both ways
2 large eggs
Cream butter and sugar with stand or hand mixer. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Set bowl aside.
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt, and soda together. I sifted my ingredients into the bowl. Sifting is optional.
1/2 cup butter milk, or 1/2 cup sour milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
In a small bowl, mix the milk and vanilla together.
Alternate mixing dry and wet ingredients into butter mixture, 1/3 dry ingredients, 1/2 wet, 1/3 dry, 1/2 wet, 1/3 dry, mixing well after each addition. Pour evenly into prepared pan(s) and bake for 20-30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted off center comes out clean. If using a large Bundt pan, bake 50-60 minutes, but keep an eye on it. All oven temperatures vary, so bake just until cake tester inserted off center comes out clean.
Right away, while cake is still hot, prepare syrup.
Orange Liqueur Syrup:
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. water
2 Tbsp. butter
1 1/2 Tbsp. orange liqueur (yes, you can use rum if you like)
Over medium heat, bring sugar, water, and butter to a boil in a small saucepan, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in liqueur. Poke holes in the cakes with a wooden skewer, or a chopstick will work. If cakes are not flat on top, use a serrated knife and trim tops. Immediately pour syrup over each cake. Let cakes sit in pans until completely cool. Invert pan over a cookie sheet, or larger plate and let cakes fall out. May be necessary to gently separate cake from edges with a knife. And proceed as above. Cakes will keep at room temperature for about a week, otherwise you can freeze them.

Twice The Spice Truffles

2009-09-03T22:15:00.000-07:00

I've got it! I was inspired last night and just had to come up with a recipe before I could get any sleep. Believe it or not, chocolate is delicious infused with some spicy elements. I came up with this after deciding I love love love spicy chocolate bars, so why not make it into a truffle, which I also love. There are several versions of spicy truffles out there, but this one only leaves a hint of spice after the truffle has been devoured. And trust me, it's easy to devour these. Now, as far as the brand of chocolate goes, it's your choice. I used a cheaper chocolate this time (next time, now that i've come up with a yummy recipe, i'm going to splurge on some quality chocolate). Just so it's known, you can totally make this on a budget.

Makes 16 Truffles
3 Tbsp. Heavy Cream
2 Tbsp. Evaporated Milk
1/2 tsp. Louisiana Hot Sauce (or some other brand you like, spicier usually means using less)
1 Tbsp. Real Butter
1/2 tsp. Imitation Vanilla
1 oz. Unsweetened Chocolate (Baker's Unsweetened Chocolate 100% Cacao)
3 oz. Semi-sweet (Baker's Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate 56% Cacao)
4 Tbsp. Hershey's Cocoa Powder
1 Tbsp. Powdered Sugar
1/4 tsp. ground Cayenne Red Pepper
Finely chop the chocolate and put into a glass bowl, set aside.
In a small saucepan, pour in the cream, milk, hot sauce, butter, and vanilla and mix with a spatula. Over about medium heat, bring mixture to just a boil. Caution: constantly stir, making sure to not scorch the cream. Once it comes to just a slight boil, keep at this level of heat for just about a minute, continuing to quickly stir the mixture. Once your minute is up, remove from heat and immediately pour over chopped chocolate. Cover with a lid or plate and let sit for 1 minute. Use a wire whisk to stir, starting from center, make a small circle, gradually making larger circles until the whisk reaches the outer edge of the bowl, and repeat this process until the chocolate is fully incorporated. It will have a slight sheen to it. Do not over mix, or mix too fast. After this part, put the glass bowl into the refrigerator for 1 to 2 hours, until the mixture is firm enough to form into balls.
When you are able to handle the chocolate, use a small scoop, or a teaspoon to scoop enough chocolate to form a 1-inch ball, by lightly rolling in your hands. (Yes, this is going to be messy, but that's part of the fun and it's so worth it.) Place balls on an ungreased cookie sheet. Should make about 16 truffles. If the chocolate is still to soft, put back in refrigerator and later finish rolling chocolate. Once this is done, put cookie sheet back in refrigerator for 15-20 minutes more.
Note: They do not have to look perfect, the more they look like the real earthy Truffle, the better.
While the chocolate is chilling:
In a small bowl, mix the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and cayenne pepper. Use a small fine meshed sieve and place sieve over another bowl. Pour cocoa mixture into the sieve and shake as much through it as you can. You may need to use a spoon to push more through. Set aside until chocolate ganache is done chillin'.
Roll the chocolate balls in cocoa powder to coat each truffle, and put them onto another tray. Chill again for about 10 minutes and repeat the cocoa coating process. And there you have it. I'm not sure mine will last long...so next time I better make more.
If you want more, you can certainly try doubling the recipe.

Spice Smacked Sour Cream Biscuits

2009-09-03T21:32:00.000-07:00

I decided to be original on this one, ok fine, mostly original. The sour cream biscuit has been done before, but I decided to change it and add one of my favorite spices: CINNAMON!!!

Makes 12 servings

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 Tbsp. powdered sugar

3/4 cup sour cream

3 Tbsp. milk (plus more if needed)

Mixture of Cinnamon and Sugar

Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees.

Mix flour, salt, baking powder, and powdered sugar in a medium bowl. Stir in sour cream incorporating as much as you can. Then add the milk, add enough until the dough sticks to together and is slightly sticky to the touch. Divide dough into 12 balls. Flatten balls a little and roll in cinnamon sugar mix to coat, put on 2 lightly sprayed cookie sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until lightly golden brown on bottoms.

Help! Truffles, need truffles.

2009-09-02T21:17:00.000-07:00

I am in search of the perfect chocolate truffle recipe. I totally want to try something with a little bit of a spicy kick to it. I'm in the process of getting some ideas. I made some a few days ago, but used too much unsweetened chocolate and not enough of the sweet stuff. So I improvized a bit, and added toffee candy bits, mixing in each truffle ball and rolled in powdered sugar. This is just a first effort. Any suggestions?

Lemony Berry Goodness

2009-09-02T19:50:00.000-07:00

And the results are...

It was soooooooooo............. good. Sorry you missed it :)

Frozen Lemon Whip with Blueberries

2009-09-01T21:17:00.000-07:00

I have found a nice light summer recipe. Too bad we didn't have much of a summer. Much cooler than normal. This must be some other state i'm living in right now. But...still, this dessert makes me think summer. I was watching food network, yet again (my fave tv show). Claire Robinson made it look so easy, I had to try it. And I absolutely love love love lemon and blueberries. So why hesitate. I'll keep you in anticipation to the outcome until tomorrow, because it unfortunately has to freeze for at least 4 hours. I did taste the mixture though, and one word "delicious".
If you want this recipe just search the title above on foodnetwork.com. If it wasn't already there I would totally post it. I did change the recipe slightly and used a mix of strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries. YUM! Until tomorrow, these pictures will hopefully give you an idea.

The Lemon Curd

Mixed Berries

Whipping Cream and Lemon Curd

Mixed Cream and Lemon Curd

Finished Whips and into the freezer they go

Brown-Sugar Caramel Cake

2009-08-30T18:48:00.000-07:00

(recipe by Loren Wood in "Taste of the South" magazine)
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
4 large eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. maple extract (or pure maple syrup)
1 recipe Linda's Cooked Caramel Icing (recipe to follow)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 3 9-inch round cake pans. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
In a mixing bowl, beat brown sugar and eggs at medium-high speed with an electric mixer until smooth, approximately 3 minutes. Add oil and beat until combined. Set aside.
In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, sour cream, and extracts.
Add flour mixture alternating with buttermilk mixture to brown sugar blend. Beat well after each addition, should be 3 additions each. Pour into 3 cake pans and bake until a wooden toothpic inserted off-center comes out clean. The recipe in says 30 minutes. I would say closer to 20 minutes in a gas oven. Let cakes cool in pans 20 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.
Spread with icing (caramel icing or one of your choice) between layers, on top, and around sides of cake, working quickly. Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Linda's Cooked Caramel Icing
4 1/2 cups sugar, divided
10-ounces evaporated milk
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
Before beginning to make this icing read the entire recipe, the two pans will be on the heat at the same time.
Place 1/2 cup sugar in small saucepan or skillet. Set on stove.
Place remaining 4 cups sugar, evaporated milk, and butter in a large saucepan. Set on stove.
Cook sugar in small pan over medium-high heat, whisking constantly until caramelized or amber colored, approximately 4 minutes. (The sugar melts, then changes color, so don't panic)
At the same time, if not slightly before, bring ingredients in large pan to a boil over high heat, whisking constantly. The goal is that it comes to a boil, while the sugar in the saucepan changes to amber color.
When milk mixture begins to boil, carefully add caramelized sugar, stirring constantly.
Cook mixture 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, let cool for 1 minute. Beat at medium speed with an electric mixer for 1 minute. Use immediately.

I spread the caramel on the layers and stacked it, but did the icing on the top, but the caramel just wouldn't thicken up, so I let it sit at room temperature for a while, until spreadable consistency.
Optional: before icing the cake, use a simple syrup, to moisten the layers. I cut off the uneven portions on top of the cakes first. Bring 1/3 cup sugar, 1/2 cup water, (optional add 1-2 tbsp. rum), 1 tbsp. pure maple syrup just to a boil. Drizzle over cake layers, or brush on, then proceed with frosting the cakes.

If desired, garnish cake with chocolate shavings/curls.

Baked Pasta and Roasted Veggies

2009-08-27T17:12:00.000-07:00

So I was watching Food Network's Rachel Ray and she was making a baked baked pasta. It sounded really good, so I did my version of it, but not quite so heavy with some garlic and olive oil roasted new potatoes, zucchini and onion, like I had the other night. It was delicious.

I'm working on finding a good apple danish bar recipe. I'm not sure when i'll get around to making it, but should be interesting.

Caramel Temptations

2009-08-26T22:23:00.000-07:00

2 cups granulated sugar
2 blocks butter
1 cup light corn syrup
1 can Eagle Brand/sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. chopped nuts (optional)

Butter a 13"x9" pan. Mix sugar, butter and syrup in large saucepan until the sugar is dissolved. I usually do this over medium heat, don't go much more over that. Add the Eagle brand and cook, stirring constantly (be very careful not to burn the caramel). Cook until soft ball stage on the candy thermometer (240 degrees). To test this, spoon a little of the candy into a glass of cold water. If it is set up enough for you after testing, stir in the vanilla. Pour into buttered pan. Sprinkle caramel with nuts if desired. Cool the caramel completely, then cut into 1-inch pieces. Wrap the candies in purchased candy wrappers, or use cut pieces of wax paper.

These caramels are soft and chewy. My grandma has been making these candies for as long as I can remember, every Christmas. They are so yummy :) You can always cook the caramel longer for a harder set.

Poppy Seed Tea Cookies

2009-08-26T22:19:00.000-07:00

1 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup powdered sugar
(variation: 1 cup powdered sugar, will make the cookies even more melt in your mouth; granted they will be slightly flatter, but it's worth it)
1 tsp. almond extract
2 cups flour
1 Tbsp. milk (optional); I use to bind the dough a little better
1 Tbsp. poppy seeds
extra powdered sugar for decoration

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a medium bowl, cream butter and add almond flavoring. Add milk if desired. Mix in the sugar and make sure well blended. Mix in the flour a little bit at a time until dough is well mixed. If dough is too sticky to work with, it may not hurt to refrigerate it until workable. This never deters me.
Roll dough into 1-inch balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet, 2-inches apart. Bake 10-12 minutes, or until cookies are lightly browned on bottom. Cool on wire rack. When completely cooled, roll cookies in powdered sugar, sometimes I roll them twice. These are so good, you won't be able to stop eating them :)

(This is my personal version of Russian Teacakes/Mexican Wedding Cakes)

The Midnight Hour

2009-08-26T22:14:00.000-07:00

Ok, so i'm still awake and should be sleeping by now, but since that's a lost cause, i'm going to add some recipes that are tried and true. Just 2 tonight. I at first tried to submit these recipes on allrecipes.com, but they probably will be forever up for review and not show up to the public. So I got impatient and decided to post them here instead.

Need Inspiration

2009-08-26T16:57:00.000-07:00

Work went quick today, but it was kinda stressful. I really have no time for cooking/baking tonight, too bad. Someone else is cooking for me, i'm thinking chinese food. Sorry, i'm not real energetic today, so this entry is going to be rather short. I could not sleep last night, it was probably around 2am before I did. Should be making a luscious confection within the next few days though. And I found a new blog that definitely inspires. http://www.gigicakes.net/ Check it out, awesome pictures, recipes and anectdotes. Maybe i'll get more sleep tonight, we'll see...

Peach Turnovers

2009-08-25T22:47:00.000-07:00

Nothing real exciting today. Had to get groceries, and I don't know why, but I went to Wal-mart. This always turns into an 'lets buy some other crap I don't need outing'. And I wonder where all my money goes. Hmm...I also had the always fun and enjoyable laundry night. At least I have enough clothes, that laundry is only once every 1-2 weeks. Depending on the week I have at least.
I did make turnovers though. Turned out pretty well. The peaches were so good.
Quick Puff Pastry
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, chilled and diced
1/2 cup. sour cream
Cut butter into flour until dough is size of small peas. Use fork to mix in sour cream, just until moistened. Form dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight. If you did what I did, its quicker to freeze the dough for 20-30 minutes and then put in refrigerator until ready to use, at least 20-30 minutes more. When ready for it, roll dough on floured surface about 1/8". Use in whatever recipe you want that calls for puff pastry.
Peach Filling
2 1/2 cups sliced peaches (I used fresh, much yummier)
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tbsp. cornstarch
1 tbsp. minute tapioca
1 dash nutmeg
cinnamon
Place peaches in bowl, and mix in all ingredients, make sure evenly coats the fruit.
Cut circles out, 3-5 inches in diameter (I did 5 inches), with floured biscuit/cookie cutter, making sure to re-flour each time. Place filling in center, don't over do it. Wet edges of pastry down and fold dough over filling, press edges together with your fingers. Use fork tines to press along edges, which makes it decorative and also seals the dough better. In a small bowl, beat 1 egg, plus 1-2 tsp. water. Brush turnovers with egg wash lightly and sprinkle with sugar. Use a fork to make vent openings in pastries, 2-3 times. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or depending on the oven, at least until its golden brown on top, and lightly browned on bottom. Let these cool for a little bit, they will be very hot. Use metal spatula to remove from pan, be careful, they do sometimes stick because of the filling running out of the vents.
Glaze
1 1/2 tbsp. of your favorite tub butter
1/2 capful of almond extra
Mix butter and flavoring together, add a spoonful of powdered sugar to start with and mix well. Add powdered sugar and milk alternately until you reach drizzling consistency. I like mine slightly thicker than thin (that made sense right; this is rhetorical).
Sorry, no pictures tonight. I didn't make them at home this time. Perhaps a cake is next on the menu. I'll keep you informed. :)

Funny Bunny

2009-08-24T21:59:00.000-07:00

I ate supper at my parent's house tonight, and before we ate I swear what I saw should have been taped for America's Funniest Home Videos. I hope they don't read this. My parents and sister, were trying to rid the garden of a pesky bunny and they were trying to shoo it out of the fenced in garden area (just wire fencing). I don't know how long it took, but one person would scare the rabbit to move it (in hopes it would run out the fence opening and be gone) and then it would just run to the other side of the garden, and the hilarity would just continue for a while. Finally, and on a sad note (tear), in trying to shoo the rabbit out with a broom handle, they stunned it, not sure if it made it...

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

2009-08-24T21:37:00.000-07:00

Today was a typical drag on Monday. It didn't stop me from cooking when I got home though. I made Bran Muffins (I know, sounds healthy right). They weren't bad, but not my cup of tea. I also felt like making some kind of Zucchini bread and chose a recipe for it that sounded yummy. I have yet to taste it, so we'll see. Even so, i'm including it below. (I made some changes to it to try for a lighter version than the usual with vegetable oil, changed the sugar amount, plus added more chocolate of course)

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

2 one ounce squares unsweetened chocolate

3 eggs

1 cup Fat Free Yogurt

2 cups grated Zucchini (feel free to make it a heaping 2 cups)

1 tsp. vanilla

2 tbsp. cocoa

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup Splenda Brown Sugar Blend, packed (has half the amount of granulated sugar)

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda (I did 1 1/2 tsp.)

1 tsp. salt (just realized, I must have been in a hurry, totally forgot the salt, oh well :)

1 tsp. cinnamon (more is better)

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Grease and flour two 9x5 bread pans. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix eggs, yogurt, zucchini, vanilla. Melt chocolate and mix in. The chocolate is not going to mix in smoothly, because of the cold batter, but it will melt when baking. In a separate bowl, mix all dry ingredients, and chocolate chips (prevents sinking). Add to zucchini batter and mix until just combined.

Pour into prepared pans. Bake 60-70 minutes. Toothpick test to make sure the bread is done.

Ok, i've made myself hungry. I'm going to taste test some.
......
Chocolate is awesome!!! Even minus the salt, which I will make sure to add next time, it was beautiful. I darn near cried. Ok....not really, but you get the picture. Tomorrow i'm making Peach Turnovers. YEAH!

Poppy Seed Tart

2009-08-23T19:48:00.000-07:00

So, I did photos of my niece and nephew today. Too bad I only got a few decent shots out of the bunch. But, that's usually the way things work, beautiful day=cranky kids and vice versa.
And it was totally a non-diet weekend. I've been so bad :( After going to the state fair yesterday, which is never healthy eating, and then today I did some cooking, which turns into more of the same thing. But it turned out so good, how can you complain about that??? I made a Sunday dinner for myself, which is not always easy to cook for 1 person.
Today's menu
Tilapia drizzled with olive oil, a little bit of lemon juice, minced garlic, seasoned with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.
Pan roasted quartered new potatoes, 1/2 inch sliced garden fresh zucchini, sliced onion, minced garlic, fresh pepper, and kosher salt. Then topped with some melted fresh grated Parmesan for the last few minutes of baking.
Honestly, that wasn't the bad part. It's always dessert that kicks yah in the end.
I was in the experimental mood, so I made 1/4 of a Poppy seed tartlette recipe.

Poppy Seed Tart (2 Servings of 4" inch tarts)
5 tbsp. flour
1 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. cold butter (real is better)
1/2 beaten egg yolk (I know its wrong, but I don't wanna be right)
2 1/4 tsp. water
1/4 tsp. poppy seeds
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Stir flour and sugar together. Cut in cold butter until pieces are pea-size. In a second bowl, mix egg yolk, water, and poppy seeds. Gradually stir into flour mixture. Use your fingers to form the dough into a ball. Split into 2 halves. Spray 2 4" tart pans and press the dough into each, evenly on bottom and up the sides.
Prick bottom and sides of tarts with fork several times. Take a rectangular piece of foil, a little over twice the width of the tart pan, and fold in half. Cover each pan with a piece of doubled foil. Bake for 7 minutes, remove foil and bake for an additional 9-10 minutes or until golden edges on crust. Let cool completely (strongly note) and this is the tricky part, turn out onto a wire rack if your brave. Otherwise fill with desired filling and eat in the tart pan.

And the topping was two-fold. I cooked about 1/4 cup wine with 1/2-3/4 cup frozen blueberries, some splenda to taste and cornstarch to thicken it up over medium heat (for one tart). I also did 6-7 dried apricots cut into quarters and about 1/4 cup water, 2 tsp. apricot preserves, a little bit of splenda, and cornstarch. Sounds decadent right. Dang, i can practically taste it again. And too top it off I whipped up a little bit of heavy cream with some splenda. So good! Of course I had to break one of the tart shells when transferring to the wire rack. Thought i'd be suave and take the shells out of the tart pans and totally split the one in half. Ah well, still tasted good. Til tomorrow. Who knows what'll come next.

Apricot Tart with Whipped Cream, yeah there is probably as much cream as tart. Just the way I like it. :)

Day 1 Kelsey's B-day

2009-08-21T23:09:00.000-07:00

This is the first time i've ever really "blogged" and i'm looking forward to a new way to unwind. So...i'll introduce myself. My name is Katie and i've lived in Iowa all my life, yes you can insert the excitement here... I've been out of college for a little over 3 years now, which I can't believe. I've been in the "real world" for a while now. And yes, college was more fun than the working for a living thing. A positive out of this, was that I was able to buy a house last year, which is a feat in this economy. And i've seen no real struggles as of yet, hopefully it stays that way :) Lately i've been getting creative urges, but have really not done anything about it until this past month. So, this is where it begins...on to the cooking of fantastic foods. I absolutely love food!!! And I love to cook, a little pinch of this, a little pinch of that, and we've got something delicious. This is my entree into the world of cooking, which i'm only now becoming more serious about. I've always had a bit of a knack for it, but I guess you could say i've never really motivated myself to do anything about it. Maybe culinary school someday.....Stay tuned.
Day 1: My friend Kelsey turned *cough* 25 today, and two other girlfriends, Angi, Lynne and I celebrated with her at my house. I made a yummy dinner and dessert and we watched part of the original Pride & Prejudice with Colin Firth (yummy:) Dang, that movie is long.

4:45: I arrive home from work and started getting everything ready for homemade pizzas. I used a recipe for the dough from food network, Emeril Lagasse=genius. I had to let it raise for slightly over an hour.
Meanwhile, I turned into a cooking machine and cooked the chicken, chopped up the spinach (not always a favorable vegetable, if you ask me), grated parmesan cheese...etc. We had a spinach alfredo sauced, chicken and cheese pizza, and an olive oil, garlic, cumin, cheese pizza. Both of these had melted onions on them. Now this part was not fun. I cut up 4 onions last night, which you have to simmer for around 2 hours. I cried my friggin' eyes out, could barely cut a slice or two, before having to go wash my hands and dab at my eyes as I cried a river. Can we say burn baby burn... Phew, breathe a sigh of relief and move on.

These pizzas were Ammmmmmmmazing! Definitely keeper recipes; to possibly be posted at a later date. We also had some homestyle icecream and I made molten lava chocolate cakes to go with. All of this was consistently coupled with a couple bottles of wine shared amongst us.

Pizza, wine and chocolate= awesomely happy friends and myself of course :)
After all of that, i'm exhausted. So, until next time...