The Food Pusher

Chocolate Times Three Cupcakes

2012-03-02T20:31:00.000-08:00

Chocolate Times Three Cupcakes

I thought I'd make some simple chocolate cupcakes with cocoa whipped cream for some friends who were coming over for dinner tonight, but in my enthusiasm for efficiency, I started making them while I was cooking dinner last night. Well, when I tried one of the baby cupcakes after they'd cooled, I thought, "Hmm...these have a weird, dry texture, and they're kind of on the salty side." Then I remembered the sugar. Too bad I didn't remember it WHILE I was mixing the batter. Fortunately, this recipe uses Ghirardelli Sweet Ground Chocolate, so there's already some sugar in there, but these were definitely not quite right. So, I decided to add some sweetness and richness by dipping the tops in a dark chocolate ganache before frosting them with the cocoa whipped cream. In the end, I thought they tasted FINE. Next time, I'll make sure I add the sugar, but I will definitely be able to finish off the ones that remain in my fridge. I even think my husband will be able to choke some down.

Chocolate Times Three Cupcakes

---cake recipe adapted from Ghirardelli.com

Ingredients

1 cup Ghirardelli Sweet Ground Chocolate and Cocoa (or use 1/2 cup ground cocoa powder and increase the total amount of sugar below to 1 1/4 cups)
1 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
1 1/2 tablespoons King Arthur Flour Cake Enhancer (optional)
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup butter, softened (that's 10 2/3 tablespoons)
1 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
dark chocolate ganache (recipe below)
Cocoa Whipped Cream (recipe below)
chocolate sprinkles (optional--I used ones from King Arthur Flour)

Cake Directions :

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Line a 24-cup muffin pan with cupcake liners.

Into a mixer bowl fitted with a whisk attachment, sift flour with ground chocolate, cake enhancer, sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt.

Add butter and 3/4 cup buttermilk. Beat on low speed to combine ingredients. Scrape sides of bowl and then beat on low-medium speed for 2 minutes.

Add 1/4 cup buttermilk, eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat additional 2 minutes.

Scoop/pour batter into a gallon-sized zip-top bag and cut about 1/2-inch off one corner. Pipe batter into cups, 3/4 full. Bake at 350ºF for 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, or with only a couple of cling-ons.

Cool in pan 5-10 minutes and then carefully remove cupcakes to finish cooling on a wire rack.

Poke 12-20 holes in each cupcake with a toothpick.

With a spoon, spoon on about 1 teaspoon or so of ganache onto each cupcake, or dip each top into the ganache and then turn upright back onto rack.

Refrigerate cupcakes until ganache is firm.

Pipe cocoa whipped cream onto each cupcake and top with sprinkles, if desired. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

Makes 24 cupcakes.

Dark Chocolate Ganache

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 T unsalted butter

1/2 pound cup semisweet chocolate (I prefer Dove chocolate) finely chopped

In a heavy saucepan, bring cream to a boil. Remove from heat. Stir in butter until it melts. Stir in chocolate until all is melted.

Cocoa Whipped Cream:

1/2 cup powdered cocoa
1/2cup sugar
1/4 cup hot tap water
2 cups cold heavy whipping cream

In mixer bowl with a wire whisk attachment, mix cocoa, sugar & hot water, mixing to form a paste. Allow to cool before adding cream. Add cream and start mixing on low to incorporate cream into cocoa paste. Stop the mixer and scrape the bowl. Mix on high until stiff peaks form.

Grandma Kelly's "Sees Fudge"

2012-02-29T15:02:00.001-08:00

Grandma Kelly's See's Fudge

This, to me, is what fudge should be. Deep chocolate flavor, smooth, sweet, with a few walnuts for contrasting texture and bitterness. My Grandma Kelly knew how to make fudge, and thankfully, she passed the recipe along. I don't think I've made this fudge since the 1990's though, and I'm not sure why. Perhaps Nanaimo Bars have taken their place in my repertoire. It needs to make a comeback, and I think this Easter is the perfect time. Easter happens to be the season that I associate most closely with fudge, not Christmas, because my mom would always include a Sees fudge egg in our Easter baskets. Good times.
The fudge pictured above was made with Dove Dark Chocolate instead of chocolate chips. And it is delicious. Now I just have to figure out how to get rid of it without eating most of it myself.

Sees-Style Fudge

by Grandma Marian Kelly

Ingredients:

1 package chocolate chips (or 12 oz., roughly a bag and a third of Dove Dark Chocolate Promises chopped)
1 stick butter, cut into about 8 chunks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups sugar
1 square unsweetened chocolate
2/3 cup evaporated milk
16 large marshmallows
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

Take an 8"x8" square pan and either butter it or line it with foil.

Place chocolate chips (Dove chunks), butter, and vanilla in a large heat-proof bowl.

In a large heavy saucepan over medium heat, bring sugar, unsweetened chocolate, evaporated milk, andmarshmallows to a boil & boil for 6 minutes, stirring constantly. (Be careful here. Mine kept bubbling up like lava, splattering itself here an there on my stovetop.)

Pour cooked mixture over the chocolate chips, butter, and vanilla. Stir untilingredients are melted together & have a dull appearance.

Add nuts & pour into prepared pan. Smooth out the top with a silicone spatula.

Allow to cool and firm up before cutting.

Makes about 49 cubes

Funfetti Cupcakes

2012-02-25T14:28:00.000-08:00

Homemade Funfetti Cupcakes

My passion for rainbows draws me to colorful foods. I think I found these on foodgawker.com a while back, and they are so, so cute. Who knew that simple nonpareils could turn a simple vanilla cupcake into a rainbow treat for the eyes? Well, I guess Jessica of How Sweet It Is did.

I like this recipe not only for the sprinkles, but also because it's a recipe that makes only 12 cupcakes. These cupcakes are quite a bit more dense than the ones you make from a box, but they're moist, tender, and tasty. Worth the extra effort, for sure. And if you're wondering if they have a crunchy texture due to the nonpareils, they don't. The sprinkles melt into the cupcake leaving just the color.
You'll see in the pics that I have some round and some heart-shaped cupcakes. I couldn't really figure out a cute way to frost the heart-shaped cupcakes, so I only have unfrosted pics of those. If anyone has suggestions on how to frost heart-shaped cupcakes beautifully, please share your insight. Frosting is not one of my strong suits.

Homemade Funfetti Cupcakes

--adapted from How Sweet It Is

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 whole eggs
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon King Arthur Flour Cake Enhancer (optional)
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup rainbow nonpareils+more for top of frosting

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream butter and sugar in the bowl of anelectric mixer until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla and beatuntil combined.

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Add half ofthe dry ingredients, mixing until just combined. Add the milk. Once mixed, addremaining dry ingredients. Fold in assorted sprinkles.

Pour into cupcake tins and fill 2/3 of the wayfull. Bake for 18-20 minutes. Let cool, then frost.

Makes 12 cupcakes

Cute heart-shaped pan. These were over-filled by the way.

Cinnamon Crispas

2012-02-24T14:33:00.002-08:00

Simple Cinnamon Crispas

I've decided to try posting some very basic foods that I cook but that I don't normally think of posting. I tend to take these sorts of things for granted, that ANYone could think of making them, but perhaps that's just not true. These Cinnamon Crispas are a quick, easy sweet treat that I'll make sometimes to have after a good Mexican meal, like my Chile Colorado Burritos or Carne Asada. They're really super good with some deep-fried ice cream, but I don't even attempt to do that. I leave it for the Mexican restaurants and Paula Deene.

I think these are actually called buñuelos in Mexican cuisine, but Ialways think of them as Cinnamon Crispas, as in that tasty, crispy dessert theyused to serve at Taco Bell in the 1980s. It's probably one of the simplest desserts, short of buying a pack of Oreos. They're just flour tortillas (new or past their prime--not too far, though), cut into wedges, fried in hot canola oil and then shaken in cinnamon sugar.

Thin tortillas produce crisper crispas; thicker tortillas produce crispy chewy crispas, which is what I like.

Cinnamon Crispas

Ingredients:

2 large flour tortillas (or more)
1 inch of canola oil in a large frying pan
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2-1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Equipment:

the large frying pan mentioned above
a sturdy medium to large brown paper bag
2 tongs (one for frying, one for retrieving crispas from paper bag)
paper towels
large plate
a sharp knife or pizza cutter

Directions:

Heat oil in frying pan over medium-high heat. You can either check the temp with a thermometer (ready at 375 degrees) or put in a little piece of tortilla when you think it's ready. I use the little tortilla method. Actually, I like to put a little piece of tortilla in the oil pretty early on and when I see/hear it frying, I figure the oil is ready. Don't let it get too hot, though.

While oil heats, cut tortillas into eighths, like you'd cut a pizza.

Place cinnamon and sugar in the paper bag, close top, and lightly shake to mix. Set aside.

When oil is hot, fry 4-5 wedges at a time, turning a time or two until both sides are a deep golden brown. Remove with tongs to paper bag with the cinnamon-sugar. Close top and shake gently. Remove with the second pair of tongs and place crispas on a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Repeat with remaining tortilla wedges.

Makes 8 reasonable servings, or 2 very unreasonable ones...you get the idea.

Gooey Brownies w/ Dove Chocolate Chunks

2012-02-12T13:44:00.000-08:00

Ooey Gooey Brownies w/ Dove Chocolate Chunks & Pecans

Ooey Gooey Brownies w/ Dove Chocolate Chunks

This recipe is one version of my very favorite brownie recipe that came from a Ghirardelli Sweet Ground Chocolate can. I usually make them with frosting, but tonight, I decided rather late in the game that I would make brownies for our guests, and I don't necessarily like these brownies with NOTHING on top. I mean, come on, a naked brownie just isn't decadent enough is it? So, since I always have Dove Dark Chocolate Promises on hand, I chopped up a few and threw them on top to act as a frosting. We'd be eating them warm anyway. Then, because many of us love nuts with our brownies, I added nuts to half of the pan. In the photo, you will notice that I place the nuts on TOP of the brownies. I do this for two reasons: #1 It allows me to only have half of a pan of brownies with nuts because I'm always trying to please everyone and #2 When the nuts are on top, they get crisp and toasty, which adds another couple of dimensions to an already fantastic brownie experience.
Ghirardelli purists might think it heretical of me to mix the Ghirardelli ground chocolate with Dove chocolate, but it works, and these brownies were a hit. They were actually too gooey for my taste, so I stuck to the edges. If you like dryer, cakier brownies, this is not your recipe, but if you like them really fudgy and gooey, this is the ticket. Just be sure to brew a nice pot of fresh coffee or have a significant amount of fresh milk on hand when you eat these. They are rich.

Ooey Gooey Brownies w/ Dove Chocolate Chunks (and nuts)

2 eggs @ room temp.
½ cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ cup butter, melted & cooled
1 cup Ghirardelli Sweet Ground Chocolate
2/3 cup King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking powder
12-14 Dove Dark Chocolate Promises, chopped into big chunks
1/4-1/2 cup coarsely chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Using a spoon, stir eggs with sugar and vanilla. Add melted butter. In a separate bowl, mix the ground chocolate with flour, baking powder, and salt with a whisk. Stir flour mixture into egg mixture. Spread evenly into a buttered 8” pan (or a pan lined with parchment paper or non-stick foil). Sprinkle chocolate chunks evenly over the top and press lightly with the palm of your hand. If you're adding nuts to half or all of the pan, sprinkle those on too and gently press. Bake 25-29 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out relatively clean. (I might even let them go to about 32 minutes.) Allow to cool. Cut into squares. Makes 16-20 brownies.

This is the can you're looking for. It's usually close to the cocoa powder in the store.

Bite Size Banana Cream Pie

2012-02-03T15:19:00.000-08:00

Bite-Size Banana Cream Pie

So, the staff at the school I work at decided to have a "Souper Bowl" party today, to which I decided to take my delicious Chicken Pot Pie Soup. As usual, I overdid it on the pie crust pieces that are served with the soup. I brought home almost a full recipe of pie crust because I had doubled it. I ALSO happened to have some vanilla pudding in the fridge because I made Nanaimo Bars for the fourth graders I teach, and my son wanted to make pudding out of the leftover vanilla pudding powder. Of course, I always have bananas and heavy cream in my house, so I decided to see what would happen if I put all of these items together into cute bite-sized banana cream pie. They're actually more like two bites of banana cream pie, but they're so cute, and so yummy. I don't know if I'll ever make them again, and the recipe is my best guess at amounts. If nothing else, perhaps this will inspire me and others to try other bite-size versions of pies with leftover pie crust.

Bite Size Banana Cream Pie

Ingredients:

1 small box instant vanilla pudding
1 3/4 cups cold milk
2-3 bananas, cut into 1/4-inch slices
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 batch of pie crust (see recipe below)

Directions:
In a medium bowl, whisk vanilla pudding mix and cold milk for 2 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. (I'm not sure how long. Mine refrigerated overnight.)
Whip heavy cream and powdered sugar into stiff peaks.
Using either a pastry bag with an open star tip, or using a zip-top bag with about 1/4 inch of a corner cut off, pipe about half a teaspoon of chilled pudding onto each pie crust piece.
Place a slice of banana on top of the dab of pudding. Then squeeze about 1 1/2 teaspoons of pudding onto each banana slice.
Refrigerate the pies while you prep the whipped cream into another pastry bag (or the same one with the tip washed), and then pipe about 1 1/2 teaspoons of whipped cream onto each pie. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Makes...um...I'm not sure, but I'd guess about 3 dozen bite-size pies.

Pie Crust

Ingredients:

(Note: you can also use store-bought refrigerated pie crust)

1 ¼ cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
½ tsp salt
4 T butter
3 T Crisco
3 T ice cold water
flour for dusting

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°F.

In a medium bowl, mix flour and salt. Cut 4 T butter into flour until it looks like coarse meal, and then cut in Crisco until well blended. Add ice cold water and stir with fork. Then use your hands to gently work the dough into a ball. Flour a rectangular sheet of wax paper, place dough ball in the middle, flour the ball, and cover with another rectangular sheet of wax paper. Roll dough out to a thickness of about 1/8”. With a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut dough roughly into 1.5”x 1.5” squares. You can also be creative and use cookie cutters to make cute shapes.

Place dough pieces on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Prick each piece a few times with a fork. Bake at 400°F for 11-13 minutes, or until browned on the edges. Remove from oven. Cool completely before using for bite-size pies.

Bite Size Banana Cream Pie

Chocolate Cake with Cocoa Whipped Cream Frosting

2012-01-21T20:11:00.000-08:00

Chocolate Cake with Cocoa Whipped Cream Frosting

Believe it or not, I don't get invited to very many friends' houses to have dinner. Really. It's true. I don't know if it's Iowa culture not to have people over for dinner, or if my kids are more offensive that I perceive them to be, but in the last year, I can count on one hand how many times we've been asked over for dinner. That might be obnoxious to put in writing on my blog, and I know if any of my friends read this, I'm either going to get grief, or some invitations to dinner, but it's the truth. Yeah, go ahead and tell me that I "intimidate you" with my cooking. Whatever. If you had invited me over, I would have brought this. As a matter of fact, Elaine has invited us over, and I made this fantabulous chocolate cake for the occasion. So there. I also made some outstanding banana cream puffs for Karen because she had us over for dinner too. Come to think of it, Karen is from New York, and I need to have the Kennedys over because they've had us over twice...and we went. And Karen's food was delicious.

At any rate, this is just chocolate cake with a simple cocoa whipped cream. It's a deceptively light chocolatey creamy way to enjoy some yummy chocolate cake.

I'm still working on my food photography here, so I expect this pic to change. Maybe even several times today. I just can't seem to get it right. Actually, the day I made this cake, I also got a message from a Facebook friend who inadvertently got me started food blogging. Anyway, she needed me to make some cupcakes for her photographer friend to shoot. I ended up meeting this guy who gave me some great tips on food photography. Sorry, though, Richard, I'm a slow learner. At least this pic is an improvement upon the pic I took of the piece that fell in the snow last night when I was trying to make use of what little light was left at 5:00. I will be going out to get a tripod and sheer fabric later this week. My "part-time" job and family duties are constantly getting in the way of my food blogging.
*Update on the photo: the top photo here actually made it onto foodgawker.com. Go figure.

Chocolate Cake with Cocoa Whipped Cream Frosting

1 cup Ghirardelli Sweet Ground Chocolate and Cocoa (or use 1/2 cup ground cocoa powder and increase the total amount of sugar below to 1 1/4 cups)
1 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
1 1/2 tablespoons King Arthur Flour Cake Enhancer (optional)
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup butter, softened (that's 10 2/3 tablespoons)
1 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cocoa Whipped Cream (recipe below)

Cake Directions :

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Prepare two 8" x 1 1/2" round cake pans by spraying with non-stick cooking spray and then lining with parchment or wax paper circles.

Into a mixer bowl fitted with a whisk attachment, sift flour with ground chocolate, cake enhancer, sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt.

Add butter and 3/4 cup buttermilk. Beat on low speed to combine ingredients. Scrape sides of bowl and then beat on low-medium speed for 2 minutes.

Add 1/4 cup buttermilk, eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat additional 2 minutes.

Spread batter into prepared pans. Bake at 350ºF for 30 to 35 minutes.

Cool on racks for 10 to 15 minutes; remove from pans.

When cakes are cool, cut each one in half so you have four cake layers. Place one layer on a serving plate and spread with about 3/4 cup cocoa whipped cream. Repeat with other layers, and then frost the top and sides. Sprinkle with chocolate sprinkles or shaved chocolate, if desired.

Cocoa Whipped Cream Ingredients:

3/4 cup powdered cocoa
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons hot tap water
3 cups cold heavy whipping cream

Whole Chocolate Cake with Cocoa Whipped Cream Frosting

Oatmeal Cookies with Blueberry Craisins

2012-01-16T14:22:00.000-08:00

Oatmeal Cookies with Blueberry Craisins

In an attempt to make my ideal oatmeal raisin cookie, I've gotten sidetracked because in my cupboard next to the raisins is the bag of Blueberry Craisins that I bought with the intention of using in some orange blueberry scones. Well, that hasn't happened yet, so I thought these nifty little blueberry infused Craisins would really be great in an oatmeal cookie. So I did it. And they ARE delicious.
I based this cookie on the Shakespeare Oatmeal Cookies that I've blogged about, which are pretty sweet. They have a nice chewy texture, though, with nice crisp edges. The blueberry burst you get when you bite into them is nice and unique. I think I'll be making these again.

Oatmeal Cookies with Blueberry Craisins

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 cup quick cooking oats
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 pinch ground nutmeg
½ cup butter
½ cup vegetable shortening
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup Blueberry Craisins

Directions:

Sift flour, salt, soda, & spices together. Stir in oats.

Cream butter, shortening, & sugars. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in dry ingredients and blend well. Stir in Blueberry Craisins (Note: I took a few moments to separate the Craisins that were stuck together before adding them to the dough.) Refrigerate dough for at least two hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350°. Form dough into walnut-sized balls and place on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Bake at 350° for 12-15 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on wire rack.

Makes about 4 1/2 to 5 dozen cookies.

Baked Potato Soup

2012-01-15T12:18:00.000-08:00

Baked Potato Soup

I can't believe I haven't posted this recipe yet. It's a staple in my house, so I guess I just assumed I'd posted the recipe. Here it is now.
I first tasted baked potato soup at a restaurant in Portland, Oregon. It was the best soup I'd ever tasted, but at that point in my life, I wasn't much of a soup maker, so I didn't even consider that I could make something that delicious at home.
When I found Allrecipes.com, I decided to look for a baked potato soup, and I happened upon a recipe titled "Restaurant Quality Baked Potato Soup." I made it, and that was that. Surprisingly, it was the exact soup I remembered from Portland. It was almost too easy, but I'll take easy. I don't normally find exactly what I'm looking for. I mean, who really ever does?
This soup is thick and creamy, very well seasoned, and sticks to your ribs. The original recipe called for discarding the potato skins, but I like to put some chopped up skins in the bottom of my bowl. Then when I stir in all the toppings, the skins get mixed in and give the already hearty soup even more heartiness and texture, not to mention more nutrition.
So, the next time you're faced with a cold winter day and a hankering for some potato soup, try this recipe. It will not disappoint you.

Baked Potato Soup

Adapted from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

3 medium baking potatoes
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup chopped white onion
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 cups chicken stock
2 cups water
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 cups instant mashed potatoflakes
1teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
1 cup half-and-half
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
8 ounces bacon - cooked and crumbled (or a jar of bacon bits)
2 green onions, chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.Bake potatoes for 1 hour, or until done. Set aside to cool.

2. Melt butter in a 3 quart saucepan over mediumheat. Sauteonions until tender and golden brown. Sprinkle onions with pepper, basil and thyme, and stir. Stir in flour, andcook 5 minutes to make a roux. Pour in chicken stock andwater, stirring constantly at first so as not to get lumps. Add salt,cornstarch and mashed potato flakes. Bring to a boil, reduce heat,and simmer for 5 minutes.

3. Remove the skin from the cooled potatoes, andset aside. Dicethe potatoes into 1/2 inch cubes, and stir into soup, alongwith the half-and-half. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, oruntil thick. Spoon into bowls, and garnish with shredded cheese, bacon, chopped potato skins, and chopped green onion.

Makes about 5 servings.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies--Fluffy Type

2012-01-14T10:10:00.000-08:00

Fluffy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I saw a picture of these cookies on Pinterest, I think, and thought they look just like the delicious oatmeal raisin cookies at KFC. The think I love about the oatmeal raisin cookies at KFC is that they are really sweet, chewy, and the raisin flavor is confined to the raisins. It's not like the whole cookies is raisin flavored, which is fine in some cookies, but I like this one.
Unfortunately, this recipe is not exactly what I was looking for, but I think I kind of knew it wouldn't be when I started out. The recipe doesn't call for as much sugar as a typical cookie recipe, so I thought it might need more sugar. Next time I make these I will probably be adding another quarter cup, and I'll also cut back on the flour, because even the cookies that were underbaked when I pulled them out of the oven turned out fluffy in the middle. And now that I think of it, I didn't follow the instructions as far as the order of mixing the ingredients. I suppose that could be part of my problem here.
These cookies taste good. Don't get me wrong; they just aren't quite what I was going for. You know, the elusive cookie recipe that is probably distorted in my memory. I have so many of those.
So, these cookies are what I would describe as fluffy, soft, and moderately sweet.

Fluffy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
adapted from Get Off Your Butt and Bake

Ingredients:

1 cup water
1 cup raisins
2 cups oatmeal
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup Crisco
1 cups white sugar
1 1/2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

Place raisins and water in a small saucepan and bring to aboil. Turn heat down to low and simmerfor 15 minutes. Remove from heat andallow to cool completely.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl, mix together oatmeal, flour, baking soda, salt,cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside.

Cream together butter, Crisco, and sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Add dry ingredients and mix until justblended. Mix in raisins and their liquiduntil raisins are evenly distributed in the dough.

Scoop dough into tablespoon sized blobs and place onparchment-lined baking sheets. Bake at375 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes or until done. Allow cookies to cool on sheet for a couple of minutes and then movethem to a wire cookie rack to cool completely.

Inside the fluffy oatmeal raisin cookie.

Gluten-Free Snickerdoodles

2012-01-11T17:25:00.000-08:00

Gluten-Free Snickerdoodles

I've been meaning to try out some more recipes with gluten-free flour, and the other night when I decided to make some gluten-free waffles for brenner (breakfast/dinner), I went ahead and made a batch of gluten-free snickerdoodles too. What the heck, right?
Although I was disappointed that these did not turn out fluffy and thick, the way I enjoy snickerdoodles, I was pleasantly surprised at how delicious these were. They are thin, crisp, chewy snickerdoodles. There is no flavor difference from snickerdoodles made with regular wheat flour, although there is a slight grainy crunch to them, though, but it's barely detectable.
If you're new to the whole gluten-free baking thing, I think you might like to start with the Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose Baking Flour because it's worked great in two of my favorite recipes, AND the package is only 22 ounces, as opposed to the 4 pound bag of another brand I have aging in my cupboard. I'm a relatively non-committal person, so the 22 ounces is a perfect size (and price) for me. Most grocery stores in the Des Moines
area carry the Bob's Red Mill line of products, so for me they're easily accessible too.

P.S. These cookies are so good that my cookie snob husband gobbled up all of the ones I didn't give to my gluten-intolerant friends. That's saying something. Go ahead. Give them a try.

Gluten-Free Snickerdoodles

Adapted from http://www.kingarthurflour.com/

Ingredients

1/4 cup vegetable shortening 
3/4 cup softened butter
1 ½ cups white sugar 
2 large eggs 
1 teaspoon vanilla  extract
2 teaspoons cream of tartar 
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt 
2 ¾ cups Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose Baking Flour
1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum powder
½ cup sugar mixed with 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

Beat together the shortening and sugar till smooth, then add the eggs, again beating till smooth. Beat in the vanilla, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt, then add the gluten-free flour & xanthan gum, mixing slowly till combined. (Don’t overbeat. And for the record, be sure to NEVER overbeat cookie dough.) Cover and refrigerate at least two hours.*

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Once dough is chilled, roll tablespoon-sized balls in the cinnamon-sugar mixture in a shallow pan or bowl. You can coat 3-5 balls at a time. Gently shake the pan/bowl to coat the dough balls with sugar. Place them on a parchment-lined cookie sheet, leaving about 1 ½" between them.

Bake the cookies at 400°F for 10 to 11 minutes, or until puffed and browned around the edges. Remove the cookies from the oven, cool on the pan for about 3-5 minutes, and then cool them on a rack.

*At this point I also like to form the balls and place on a wax paper lined cookie sheet. I freeze them on the pan, and once frozen, I transfer the frozen dough balls to a zip-top bag. I roll the frozen dough balls in sugar before baking the same way I bake them after being chilled.

Makes about 5 dozen cookies (I think)

Not the most attractive, but the taste is worth the effort.

These were baked after the dough had been refrigerated for a week.

Simple Cupcakes in 3 Sizes

2012-01-01T13:46:00.000-08:00

Cupcakes with sprinkles--inside and out.

Vanilla cupcakes in 3 sizes.

I decided to go super simple for my son's 11th birthday this year. He really doesn't have strong opinions beyond "plain vanilla" cake, so I decided to mix things up by making three sizes of cupcakes from one Betty Crocker box of white cake mix. Because I like sprinkles, I decided to make some with sprinkles and some without. (Max prefers withOUT. He has texture issues...)
This manner of baking cupcakes made 6 jumbo, 6 regular, and 12 mini sized cupcakes. I think I'm only posting this for the pictures because the "recipe" is nothing spectacular.

Simple Cupcakes in 3 Sizes

Ingredients
1 box white cake mix
3 eggs
1/3 cup canola oil
1 1/4 cups water
2 tablespoons rainbow nonpareils
1 container vanilla frosting
1/4 cup powdered sugar
more nonpareils

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Prepare cupcake pans (one jumbo 6 cup pan; one regular 6 cup pan; and one mini 12 cup pan) by lining with white cupcake liners.
Mix cake mix, eggs, oil, and water on low for 30 seconds to combine. Scrape the bowl and mix on medium for 2 minutes. Pour half the batter into a large zip top bag. Gently stir nonpareils into the remaining batter and then scrape into another large zip top bag.
With scissors, clip 1/2-inch of one corner of the sprinkle batter bag and fill half of each pan. Then do the same with the plain batter. (The sprinkle batter should be done first because the colors start bleeding immediately.)
Bake the jumbo and regular pan for about 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Then bake the mini pan for 8-10 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool cupcakes on a wire rack.
In order to make this more complicated, I'm telling you that I whipped the canned frosting with 1/4 cup powdered sugar to make it more stiff and airy. Then I frosted the cupcakes, sprinkling the frosted sprinkle cupcakes with more nonpareils immediately after frosting them.
Makes 24 cupcakes of varying sizes.

Yeast Biscuits

2011-12-31T08:40:00.000-08:00

Yeast, or Angel, Biscuits

I just felt like making a different kind of biscuit for breakfast today. I felt this last night, and that's when I started looking for recipes on the internet. I halved the recipe I found at The Fresh Loaf, and it made about 13 biscuits. I think I could have put in 14, but I sort of ran out of room in my skillet.

These biscuits really are a yeast roll-biscuit hybrid. They are very soft and pillowy on the inside, with a slightly crisp exterior right out of the oven. The crumb is tender, but there's a density and chew that are distinctly yeasty. They smell heavenly, which is perhaps where they got their name. I've eaten three already just to have something to say here. I might need another if I want to write more.

Angel Biscuits

Adapted from The Fresh Loaf

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 Tablespoons sugar
6 tablespoons butter
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon yeast dissolved in 1/4 cup warm water
1 tablespoon butter, melted

Mix dry ingredients together. Cut in margarine until well mixed. Add buttermilk and dissolved yeast allat once. Stir until all flour is moistened. Store in container inrefrigerator 2-24 hours before using.

Preheat oven to 400°F. On floured board, roll out dough to 1" thickness and cut with2 inch biscuit cutter. Place cut biscuits in a large cast iron skillet, preferably preheated as well. Brush with melted butter. Bakeat 400°F for 12-18 minutes or until golden brown.

Makes about 12-14 biscuits

Croissants

2011-12-25T20:49:00.000-08:00

Fresh baked croissants.

This croissant was enjoyed with some Nutella.

Thefirst time I made croissants, I think I was in high school. It was a warm summer day, and they turned outflat and greasy. Very disappointing. I don’t think I tried them again until Imoved to Iowa, at which point I was an adult with a Kitchen-Aid mixer and about15 more years of baking and cooking under my belt.

I waspreparing for the Iowa State Fair food competition, and I wanted to make acinnamon roll with croissant dough. Imust have tried during cooler weather, because they actually came out prettygood. Not awesome, but not flat andgreasy either. I eventually won firstplace for a non-traditional cinnamon roll made with croissant dough, and in theprocess, I’ve honed my croissant-making skills. I’ve also won ribbons for these butter croissants and chocolate croissants. Now, they don’t seem like atricky big deal. They still do take alot of time, but most of that time is time the dough is in the fridge. Actual hands-on time doesn’t amount to much, so once you get the hang of them, they're pretty easy.
In the process of learning to easily make croissants, I’ve discovered some things that I’ll pass along here:

1. If you’ve readother croissant recipes, you’ve probably seen the instructions about making a “buttersquare” that you either freeze or refrigerate and then envelope in yourdough. Somewhere along the way, I founda recipe that called for beating cool butter with a little flour and spreadingit over two thirds of the rolled out dough. I’ve found that this method works for me, as the butter square methodproduced nuggets of butter that created pools of butter that my croissantswould fry in. Gross. I’m certain that there are tons of bakers outthere who can successfully pull of the butter square, but I am not one of them.

2. Make sure yourkitchen isn't too warm. Wintertime is fine if your house is about 70degrees, but in the summertime, the heat and humidity will mess with the dough. I suggest keeping your house cold if you’re doing this during warmweather.

3. Go the extramile and use UNsalted butter for this recipe. It makes a difference.

4. The doughisn't as delicate as you'd think. Don't be afraid of it.

5. Make sure thebutter you fold into the dough isn't too soft and that your dough is cold. It keeps the butter from breaking through.

6. A couple ofhandy tools are a quilting ruler (not sure of the official name, but it's bigand plastic) a pizza cutter, and a clean, dry pastry brush to brush off excessflour.

7. You can prepare the dough, and even shape thecroissants, the night before you want to bake them. The dough and/or the shaped croissants can doa slow rise in the fridge over night. Ifyou’ve shaped the croissants the night before, pull them out of the fridgewhile the oven preheats for 30-40 minutes.

Croissants

Ingredients

3 1/4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour, plus extra for rolling
1 T instant yeast
¼ cup sugar
1 ¼ tsp salt

1 ¼ cups milk, cold
2 T unsalted butter
2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, cold, but not hard
1 T unbleached all-purpose flour
1 egg plus 1 tsp water, beaten

Directions

1. Whisk 3 cups flour together with the yeast,sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Placethe milk in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the dough hook. Add the flour mixture and kneed at low speeduntil a ball of dough forms. Cut the 2 Tbutter into small pieces and add to the dough. Continue to knead until the butter becomes fully incorporated and thedough becomes smooth, begins to form a ball, and clears the sides of thebowl. Add up to ¼ cup more flour, onetablespoon at a time if the dough is too sticky. Place dough in a bowl, cover with plasticwrap, and refrigerate for one hour.

2. Placethe 2 ½ sticks of butter and 1 T flour into the bowl of a standing mixer withthe paddle attachment. Beat until butteris uniformly smooth and creamy.

3. Turndough out onto a floured work surface. Roll dough into 10 x 14-inch rectangle. Spread butter evenly over the bottom 2/3 of the rectangle. Fold unbuttered third onto the middlethird. Dust off any excess flour with aclean, dry pastry brush. Then fold thatonto the bottom third. Seal edges withside of your hand.

4. Gentlyroll the dough into about a 7 x 12-inch rectangle, and fold into thirdsagain. Roll out again into a 10 x 14inch rectangle. Make sure that thebutter doesn’t break through. IF itdoes, sprinkle with flour. Fold intothirds so you have a long rectangle. Fold once more so you have a chubby square or rectangle. Wrap loosely in wax paper or plastic wrap andplace in an unsealed gallon size zip top bag. Refrigerate for about 1 hour.

6. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Place chilled dough on a floured surface andgently roll dough into a 20-inch square. Using a pizza cutter and ruler, cut the dough into two equalrectangles. Cut each rectangle intothirds widthwise and then into triangles to make a total of 12 triangles.

7. Form eachcroissant by taking a triangle , hold the base in one hand, and the tip inanother. Gently stretch into anisosceles triangle with two sides equal in length. Wit the base closest to you, cut a 1-inchslit into the center of the base of each triangle. Fold the two sides of the slit outward andthen with both ands, roll the triangle from the base, gently stretching thedough as you roll, leaving ¼ inch of the tip unrolled. Transfer the croissants to the preparedbaking sheets, facing the croissant tips downward. Bring the ends of the croissants toward eachother to form a crescent shape. Cover the croissants loosely with plasticwrap. Let them rise at room temperatureuntil puffy, about 45-60 minutes. (Theywill not double in size.)

8. Preheat the ovento 400°F. When croissants are done rising, place onebaking sheet in the refrigerator while you bake the first one. Brush the croissants with the beatenegg. Bake until croissants are goldenbrown, 18-20 minutes, rotating the baking sheet front to back halfway throughbaking. Cool the croissants on a wirerack at least 15 minutes.

The croissant on the left was cut from a long strip of dough,
creating isosceles triangles (see below),
and the one on the right was cut from a rectangle
that was cut into two triangles.

Mascarpone Frosting Filled Chocolate Wafers

2011-12-23T11:35:00.000-08:00

Mascarpone Frosting Filled Chocolate Wafers

The FAMOUS Nabisco Chocolate Wafers

I've been looking for these Nabisco Chocolate Wafers for what feels like a long time, to no avail. Now that it's the holiday season, though, they all of a sudden show up on the shelves of every grocery store I go to. Odd, but good.
The reason I've been looking for them is because I've wanted to make this simple dessert that was brought to my school for us teachers one parent-teacher conference night a few years ago. All this parent did was put dollops of sweetened whipped cream between Nabisco Chocolate Wafers. There were three wafers and two layers of whipped cream in these things. The lovely thing about them, aside from the deep chocolate flavor contrasted with the light creaminess of the whipped cream, was that the wafers were not crisp at all, but soft, like an ice cream sandwich. So, it was like eating a small, light ice cream sandwich. Mmmmm.
Of course, I can't leave well enough alone, so my first batch of these babies have been made with the mascarpone frosting I've used in my whoopie pies and my chocolate birthday cake. Oh my goodness. Just as delicious as I'd anticipated. Thick sweet creaminess from the mascarpone frosting, and tender chocolate flavor from the wafers. This dessert is so easy and so quick. I'll be doing this again.

Mascarpone Frosting Filled Chocolate Wafers

Ingredients:

1 box Nabisco Chocolate Wafers

8 oz. mascarpone cheese

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions:

In a mixer bowl, cream mascarpone, vanilla extract & sugar. Add cream and whip on high until stiff.

Scoop frosting into a sturdy zip-top bag. Snip off 1/2 inch from one corner. Evenly squeeze about 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons frosting on the bottom of a wafer and then gently top with another wafer. Repeat until you've used all the wafers.

Makes 20 sandwiches.

Chocolate-Dipped Caramels

2011-12-17T21:26:00.000-08:00

Chocolate Dipped Caramels

These are great. I want to eat them all. It's late, and I just wanted to complete this post. I'll write more another day.

Chocolate-Dipped NutCaramels

Ingredients

1 cup heavy whipping cream
3/4 cup light corn syrup
½ cup sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
½ cup butter
¼ tsp coarse salt
1 cup walnuts, pecans, almonds, or macadamia nuts toasted
seeds scraped from a 1-inch segment of vanilla bean pod
9 ounces of good milk chocolate, tempered (I like to use DoveMilk Chocolate)

Directions

1. Line an 8 x 8 inch baking dish with non-stick aluminumfoil. Set aside.

2. In a large heavy saucepan, combine cream, corn syrup,sugar, brown sugar, butter, and salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring often. Once it comes to a boil, cook without stirring until mixture reaches240°F. Remove pan from heat. Add nuts and vanilla seeds, stirring well tocombine. Pour into prepared dish. Allow to cool for 1-2 hours.

3. Using foil as handles, lift caramel from dish. Remove foil, and place caramel on a cuttingboard. Cut into 1-inch squares. (I like to use a pizza cutter and a plastic quilting ruler as a guide to get perfect squares.)

4. Line a flat cookie sheet with wax paper or parchment paper. Melt chocolate over double boiler, and temper it. Drop 3-4 caramel cubes into the chocolate at a time, and remove with two forks, tapping one fork on the other to remove excess chocolate. Place carefully on prepared cookie sheet. When all caramels are coated, set aside and allow chocolate to firm up at room temperature.

Makes 64 caramels.

Crunchy Peanut Butter Balls

2011-12-15T14:52:00.000-08:00

Crunchy Peanut Butter Balls

I think I originally got this recipe from Allrecipes.com, but I don't know for sure if this is the right link. I've modified it a little bit because they were much too sweet with all the sugar. These are things I only make at Christmastime, mostly because they're pretty labor intensive with all the chocolate dipping. People love them, though, and they did win a blue ribbon at the 2008 Iowa State Fair.
If you're looking for a peanut butter ball recipe, I think this is one of the best. I wish I could say more, but you've just got to try them and let them speak for themselves.

Crunchy Peanut Butter Balls

Ingredients

1 ½ cups chunky peanut butter
3 T creamy peanut butter
1 stick of butter, softened, but cool
2 cups powdered sugar

1 cup graham cracker crumbs
3 cups milk chocolate chips
1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable shortening (only if not tempering chocolate)
1/3 cup salted peanuts, halved, for garnish (optional)

Directions
1. Mix together peanut butter, butter, powdered sugar, and grahamcracker crumbs. Shape into 1-inchballs. Refrigerate for about 1 hour.

2. Melt chocolate chips andshortening in top of double boiler (or melt and temper the chocolate). Dipballs into chocolate and set on waxed paper. (Use a toothpick to poke and dip each ball, or else use two forks.) Garnishwith a ½ peanut on top. Allow chocolateto firm up before serving.

Makes about 56 balls

Coconut Pecan Caramel Corn

2011-12-03T17:38:00.001-08:00

Coconut Pecan Caramel Corn

I do have more pressing things to do with my time, like lesson planning, laundry, cleaning, etc. But as I do some of those things, my mind wanders to possible yummy things I could make. As I was cleaning off my kitchen counters today, I found some leftover toasted coconut I had from my last batch of Nanaimo Bars, and I didn't want to throw it away. So I decided to add it, and even more coconut and chopped pecans to a batch of caramel corn: Coconut Pecan Caramel Corn.
It tastes great, but I'll have to tweak the recipe a little since a lot of the coconut & pecans didn't stick very well. They still taste good scooped up by themselves, but I wanted it stuck to the caramel corn.
This caramel corn is just another fun way to eat myself silly.

Coconut Pecan Caramel Corn

Ingredients

1 C brown sugar
1 stick butter
1/4 C light corn syrup
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
4-6 quarts plain popped popcorn (I pop mine on the stove with some canola oil; airpopped is good too)
1 cup flake coconut
1 cup finely chopped pecans, lightly toasted

Directions
Preheat oven to 250°.

Put brown sugar, butter, corn syrup, and salt into a microwave safe dish. Microwave on high until butter is mostly melted and then stir to combine ingredients. Bring to a boil by cooking on high for about 2 minutes. Remove and stir to combine all ingredients; then stir in baking soda.

Put popcorn into a huge bowl and top with coconut and chopped pecans. Pour above syrup stuff over popcorn, coconut & nuts, and mix thoroughly. Spread popcorn onto two non-stick cookie sheets. Bake at 250° for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes, rotating pans between top and bottom shelves. Remove from oven. Allow to cool completely on pans and then move to an airtight container.

Rainbow Cheesecake

2011-11-28T14:54:00.001-08:00

Rainbow Cheesecake

My husband StumbledUpon a picture of a rainbow cake one day, and I thought it was so gorgeous that I immediately started thinking of other baked goods that would look good in rainbow colors. The cheesecake was one of the first things I thought of, and I was pleasantly surprised at how well it turned out.
Since then I've seen other pictures of "rainbow cheesecakes," but they don't do justice to the name. To me, a rainbow needs to be vibrant, not pastel, and I think you can see that this cheesecake fits the bill. To get this kind of color, I don't think you can use the Cake Mate colors you get at the grocery store. You're going to have to go to a hobby store like Hobby Lobby, JoAnn's, or Michaels and get some real gel paste food color, like the ones pictured below from AmeriColor. It's worth the trip. Price-wise, the gel paste doesn't cost too much: $1.75/bottle. If you mix your own colors, you only need to buy three. I recommend buying purple though, because I have yet to mix a pretty purple on my own.
This cheesecake is not only pretty, but it's tasty too. The picture at the top is my second whole rainbow cheesecake, and I decided to try smoothing out the colors after each addition. I think I like the bumpy look of my first attempt pictured below. In that case I just squeezed the color evenly over the bottom layer and left it unsmoothed before adding the next layer.
I've also made an American flag version of this cheesecake too using this technique, for my brother-in-law's citizenship celebration. I'll have to make and post that one too, I suppose.

Rainbow Cheesecake

Prepare one day in advance and refrigerate overnight for best results.

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Crust:

1 ½ cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup melted butter

Mix together and put in bottom of a 9" spring form pan that's been lined on the bottom with a parchment circle. *I like to crush my graham crackers in a zip top bag. I use a rolling pin to crush them. Then I mix the sugar into the crumbs in the bag and then the melted butter. I squish it all around with my hands and pour it into the pan. Saves washing one more bowl.
If you don't have a plastic roasting bag to use for this, you will want to cover the bottom of the pan with 2-3 layers of heavy duty foil to keep the water out from the water bath you will use during baking.

Filling:

4 8oz. cream cheeses @ room temperature
4 eggs @ room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup cream
1/2 cup sour cream
blue, yellow, red, and purple gel food coloring

Topping:

8 oz. sour cream
2 T sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Mix together while cheesecake bakes.

Making the Cheesecake:

Cream cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar and beat until smooth. Beat in eggs, sour cream, and vanilla. Stir in cream until incorporated.

Set six unzipped sandwich sized zip top baggies in six small cups. Place a 1/2 cup of batter into each baggie. Pour the remaining batter into a gallon sized zip top baggie—this will remain white.

AmeriColor makes GREAT gel food color.

Batter colors mixed & ready to go

Three layers down; 9 to go.

Mix batter with food coloring to produce one baggie each for the following colors: blue, green, yellow, orange, red, and purple. Start with two or three drops of color and gently squish around with your hand. Add more food coloring if necessary. Zip tops when done mixing colors in.

Start with the baggie of plain white batter. Cut about 1/4 inch off one of the corners of the baggie and “pipe” in enough to just cover the crust in the bottom of the pan. Carefully set bag aside with the cut tip pointing upward and the "top" tightly zipped. Next, cut 1/4 inch off the green, and pipe squiggled lines all over the top of the white batter. Try to cover the white as much as possible, but know that there will still be some white patches left. Pipe on a layer of white, and this time, try to cover as much of the green as possible while still making sure there's enough white for all the other layers. Then pipe with blue, and so on, alternating colors with the white until you’ve used all the colors in the rainbow pattern. Hopefully you’ll have enough white left for a final layer of white on top.

Place the pan in a large plastic roasting bag (like the ones used for turkeys), and then place that in a large roasting pan and pour in very hot water to reach half way up the pan sides, being careful not to splash water onto cheesecake.

Bake at 350° for about 35 minutes or until center is set. Remove from oven and pour sour cream topping mixture on top and smooth out. Return cheesecake to oven for another 5-10 minutes.

As soon as you take pan out of the oven, run a knife around the edge of the cheesecake to release the cheesecake from the sides.

Allow to cool completely on a wire rack. Refrigerate overnight.

Rainbow Cheesecake my first try. This was made in a 9" pan.

Grandma Kelly's Parkerhouse Rolls

2011-11-19T12:12:00.001-08:00

Grandma Kelly's Parkerhouse Rolls

These rolls are a family tradition. Outsiders don’t necessarily adore them theway my brother and I do. My Grandma Kelly would make these before we’d visit,freeze them, and then serve them to us each morning piping hot from the oven. I kind of think she probably made other breakfastfoods to go with the rolls, but I don’t recall eating anything else but theseas I sat in her cozy kitchen in the Santa Cruz mountains, watching game showswith Grandpa Kelly as he sat in his EZ chair next to the kitchen table.

These rolls have a nice thin crust on the outside, and are light,moist, and tender on the inside. Because you butter the dough and fold it over, they're easy to open up to butter the middle again once they're baked. Yeah, these aren't low fat. Piping hot with melty butter. So good. Mmmm…I could eat half a pan by myself. They’re also delicious eaten with leftover turkey and gravy.

Grandma Kelly’s Parkerhouse Rolls

Ingredients:

3 cups milk

1 stick butter

1/2 cup mashed potatoes

3 tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

4 teaspoons dry yeast

1/3 cup warm water

3 eggs, well beaten

8 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour, plus morefor dusting

1 stick butter (maybe more)

Directions:

In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, scald the milk(bring just to a boil). Pour into a verylarge heat-proof mixing bowl. Add 1stick butter. Allow to sit for about 30minutes to melt butter and then cool slightly.

In a small bowl, mix the yeast and 1/3 cup warm water. Sprinkle with a little sugar so that when itactivates, you’ll be able to see it’s alive by the bubbling action.

When the milk/butter mixture is just warm (105°-115°F),whisk in mashed potatoes, sugar, salt, and yeast mixture. Whisk in 4 cups of flour. Then whisk in beaten eggs. Switch to a sturdy spoon and stir in theremaining 4 cups of flour. Stir untilwell mixed. Dough will seem more like athick batter than a bread dough.

Place in a very large greased bowl (I use my Tupperware “That’sa Bowl”), sprinkle with a little flour, cover with plastic wrap and a clean wetdish towel. Set in a warm place torise. Let rise for 1- 1 1/2 hours, oruntil doubled.

While dough rises, butter 5 cake pans (I use disposablealuminum) and preheat oven to 400°F. Soften second stick of butter on amicrowavable plate in the microwave. Flour a sheet pan to hold the cut rolls before they go into the pan.

Once dough is doubled, punch down and then turn out onto awell-floured surface. Generouslysprinkle with more flour. Flatten toabout one-inch thickness. Cut intocircles with a 2” biscuit cutter. Set circles aside on the floured sheet pan.

Gently knead scraps and cut more circles until you can cutno more.

Take one circle at a time and dip half of one side in thesoftened butter. Fold circle in half andpress deeply along the rounded edge with your fingertips. Place shaped rolls into pan around theoutside first, and then make an inner circle. Fill each pan up.

Cover pans with plastic wrap and let rise for about 1 hour,or until doubled.

Bake at 400°Ffor about 15 minutes, or until deep golden brown on top. Remove from oven and allow to cool, or getone out quickly and put some butter in the middle and enjoy.

Serve hot or allow to cool completely, wrap in heavy-dutyaluminum foil, and freeze. Reheat byplacing in a 350°Foven for 15-20 minutes. That’s how Iwould enjoy them for breakfast at Grandma’s house.

Makes 5 pans of rolls.

Buttered and ready to be enjoyed.

Pretzel Rolls

2011-11-14T19:07:00.001-08:00

Pretzel rolls fresh out of the oven.

I've had a couple of encounters with pretzel bread. First, my friend Debbie, who spent her adolescence in Germany, would talk about walking to the bakery and buying fresh pretzel rolls that were one of her favorite foods in all of Germany. Second, my friend Shana was craving pretzel bread after seeing it for sale at the grocery store. She figured she could make it herself and save some money, but when she did, she only met with disappointment. Of course, being the vain baker that I am, I took that as a challenge and I found this recipe at Two Bites in Suburbia. My first loaves came out perfectly shiny and well-browned on the outside; dense and soft on the inside. Mmmmm (see end of post pic). Because having a whole loaf of pretzel bread seems awkward, I turned them into pretzel rolls, like my friend Debbie described. If you're into trying new yeast rolls, and you love soft pretzels, you've got to try these. So, so good.

Pretzel Rolls
-- Adapted from Two Bites in Suburbia

Ingredients:

2 ½ – 3 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 tablespoon vital wheat gluten (optional)
2 ¼ tsp instant yeast
1 Tbsp dark brown sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
3 Tbsp butter, softened
1 cup water (110-120 degrees)
2 Tbsp room temperature milk
4 quarts water (for boiling)
½ cup baking soda
additional butter (optional)
Kosher or pretzel salt to taste

Directions:

In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix the flour, salt, brown sugar and yeast. Mix in 1 cup water, milk and butter until a dough ball forms, and then kneed on medium low for another minute.

The dough should form a slightly tacky, but firm ball. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, knead again for about 8-10 minutes. Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover, and let rise for one hour.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and bring the 4 quarts of water to a boil. When the water is boiling, slowly add the baking soda.

Remove the dough from the bowl onto a floured surface and gently degas it. Cut dough into twelve relatively equal pieces. Form into balls and set on a lightly floured piece of wax paper.

Drop balls three or four at a time into the baking soda bath for 30-60 seconds, turning once to guarantee both sides covered. Drain the excess water from the dough and place it on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough balls.

Sprinkle the kosher salt over the bread to your specific tastes, and use a sharp knife to cut a small incision on the top of the bread so the dough has somewhere to expand.

Cook the bread for 18-22 minutes, or until deep pretzel brown, rotating the baking sheet once. Brush with melted butter, if desired. Remove to a cooling rack to cool.

These freeze really well, and are a great little snack. Just pop one in the microwave for 30 seconds on 50% power, and it's soft and warm.

Makes 12 rolls.

The perfect pretzel bread that I can't replicate.

Banana Cream Puffs

2011-11-12T13:03:00.001-08:00

Banana Cream Puff

I love cream puffs. I love banana cream pie. This is a natural merger of those two wonderful desserts. Inside this cream puff lies a bottom layer of banana chunks mixed with vanilla pudding. Then on top is a heap of Bavarian cream (vanilla pudding mixed with whipped cream) with the cream puff top. A light-tasting creamy dessert.
For some reason, when I make these without the bananas, I use much smaller amounts of vanilla pudding and whipped cream. At least, this time I used large amounts of each. Today the recipe made 11 pretty large puffs. Normally I make about 15-18 smaller ones. Try this out. Leave me a comment if you find that my proportions are way off. I need to know.
If you'd like to try cream puffs without the bananas, I've got that posted too.

Banana Cream Puffs

Ingredients

1 cup water, boiling
1 stick butter
1 cup King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
4 eggs

1 pkg (5.1 oz) instant vanilla pudding mix
2 1/2 cups milk
3 cups heavy cream
2 largish bananas, cut into about 1/4 inch chunks
Powdered sugar for garnish

Directions

1. Bring water and butter to a boil. Add the flour all at once & stir vigorously until it forms a ball. Set aside to cool, stirring occasionally.

2. When water-butter-flour mixture is cool, beat in eggs, one at a time, until smooth each time. Scrape into a gallon-size plastic storage bag. Snip off about ½” of one corner to make a pastry bag.

3. Preheat oven to 450°F. Chill the bowl and whisk attachment of a standing mixer, or other mixing bowl and beaters.

4. Squeeze out blobs that are about 3 tablespoons worth of the paste onto two parchment-lined baking sheets. (More paste for larger puffs, less for smaller puffs) Blobs should be at least 2 inches apart.

Cream puff just out of oven

6. Move puffs to wire racks. Poke each one with a toothpick or a sharp knife to allow steam to escape. Once cool, cut each puff horizontally in the middle and gently remove membrane-looking insides.

5. Bake at 450°F for 10 minutes—then turn oven down to 350°F for 15-20 minutes, or until well-puffed and light brown.

7. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together milk and pudding powder. Cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes or more.
8. Place banana chunks in a medium sized bowl and gently stir in about a cup and a half of the pudding.
9. Pour the heavy cream into the chilled mixer bowl. Whip on high speed until almost stiff peaks form. Then fold the remaining pudding into whipped cream. (Use 2/3 to all of the pudding, depending on how sweet you want your cream puffs to be.) Do not over-mix.

Puff interior before picking out insides

10. Spread a layer of banana/pudding into the bottom of a puff. Then with a spoon, scoop enough of the cream mixture into the bottom to just go over the top. Spoon some into the top to fill in. Return top to its puff.

11. Plate puffs and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Makes 12 large, 18 medium, or 24 small cream puffs.

Banana Cream Puffs sans powdered sugar

Klupsas--Little Meatloaf Balls

2011-11-10T15:08:00.001-08:00

Klupsas--Little Meatloaf Balls

My German-Irish mother calls these "klupsas," and I call them "little meatloaf balls." When I googled "klupsas," it gave me nothing, so I'm supposing I've got the spelling wrong. They are German, and what I have found is that other people don't call them klupsas. They call them "Frikadellen," which cracks me up. At any rate, these little meatloaf balls are one of my husband's favorite meals. They're just tasty little meatloafs with a a buttery cracker crust and a soft, slightly sweet interior. The gravy is simply a can of cream of chicken soup mixed in with the pan drippings and some water (and some Kitchen Bouquet in these pics). These are best served with fresh mashed potatoes and whichever vegetable you like to enjoy. A good, comforting meat and potatoes meal.

Klupsas(Little Meatloaf Balls)

Ingredients:

1 poundground beef (85 or 90% lean)
1 tablespoongrated onion (or ½ tsp or so of onion powder)
1 egg
1/2 to 1teaspoon salt (depending on your sodium needs/restrictions)
1/4 teaspoonpepper
3 slices ofsandwich bread, torn into tiny pieces
2tablespoons ketchup
1/3 or so ofmilk
2/3 stack ofsaltine crackers, crushed
3-4tablespoons butter
1 can creamof chicken soup

Directions:

Preheat ovento 350°F.

In a largebowl mix the ground beef, onion, egg, salt & pepper, bread, ketchup, andmilk with your hands until mixture is combined.

Preheat acast iron pan over medium-medium high heat and melt 2-4 tablespoons of butter(you may need to add more if the pan starts looking dry).

Take a wadof the mixture that is about ½ to ¾ cup and roll into a ball. Coat with crushed crackers and place in hotpan. Repeat with all of the meat mixture. Fry on each side until they reach a deepbrown color, then flip and fry on the other side. You may need to add more butter at thispoint. Fry until this side iswell-browned, and then transfer the klupsas to an oven-proof baking dish.

Cover with foiland bake covered for about 20 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 10-20 minutes, or until they’re crisp anddone.

Whileklupsas bake, deglaze the pan with about ½ cup water. Add cream of chicken soup, scraping the panto remove all the yummy bits. Bring to aboil, and then move to a serving bowl.

Serveklupsas with mashed potatoes and the chicken soup gravy. (Note: I added some Kitchen Bouquet to my gravy, and that's why it's pretty dark.)

Makes about6-7 klupsas

Homemade Flour Tortillas

2011-11-06T07:42:00.000-08:00

Homemade Flour Tortillas (way less salt than the store-bought)

I was recently diagnosed with high blood pressure and told to lay off the sodium. I love salty things. I love lots of salt on my popcorn; I love french fries dipped in salt; I love most Frito-Lay products (Funyons in particular); I love deli meats and frozen pizzas. So this is a bit of sad news for me. I also love Mexican food. Imagine, now, how appalled I was the other night to notice that one Mission brand large burrito size tortilla has a whopping 590mg of sodium! That's 25% of the RDA!
Sigh. So I turned to my trusty internet and googled, "flour tortilla recipes," and clicked on the first hit from allrecipes.com. The way I figure it, when I make 10 tortillas from the recipe, each tortilla only has 200mg of sodium, which is reasonable. I reduced the salt in the recipe below by about 25%, so mine had even less sodium, and they still tasted great. They're not quite as chewy/flexible as the Mission tortillas, but homemade tortillas have a charm of their own that, I think, makes up for that. These tortillas made great burritos without breaking, and they tasted fantastic reheated on a skillet and buttered. Mmmmm. My husband fixed one up with butter and sugar & cinnamon, and THAT was tasty as well.
I think the key to making chewy homemade flour tortillas is kneading the dough thoroughly to develop that wonderful gluten, creating a stretchier tortilla. I've added lots of detail to the original instructions from allrecipes.com, because if you're making homemade tortillas for the first time, I think details are called for. Sorry if I get too wordy.

Homemade Flour Tortillas

--adapted from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 tablespoons vegetable shortening

1 1/2 cups warm water

a bit of canola oil

more flour for dusting

Directions:

1. Place the flour, salt, add baking powder into the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low for a minute. Add vegetable shortening and mix on low until it resembles cornmeal.

2. Switch to the dough hook attachment and add water. Mix on low until dough forms a cohesive ball. You may need to scrape the sides once with a silicone/rubber spatula. Once it's in a ball, increase speed to medium low and kneed until smooth and elastic (about 5-6 minutes). Cover with plastic wrap and let rest while you get your other tools ready.

3. Gather your cast-iron skillet, rolling pin, flour, canola oil, and large plate with a clean dish towel (to place finished tortillas). Very lightly grease a smooth, flat surface with canola oil by spreading a few drops onto the surface with a flat hand.

4. Remove dough from the bowl and cut into the desired amount of pieces. If your skillet is small, cut more pieces (up to 24); if you have a large skillet and want large tortillas, cut no fewer than 10 pieces. With your hand cupped over a piece of dough that is sitting on the greased flat surface, gently push the dough around using a small circular motion with your hand until you have a well-shaped ball of dough. Place dough balls on a floured plate or piece of wax paper and cover with plastic wrap.
5. Once you have all of your dough balls, wipe your flat surface down with a paper towel to remove any canola oil residue. Generously flour the surface and place on dough ball down, flour the top, and flatten slightly with the palm of your hand. I start with a couple of strokes across the entire surface in opposite directions, just to get it started. Then I start so roll from the center and go out, turning my rolling pin about a quarter of a turn with each roll, so hopefully the tortilla will end up in a relatively round shape. Roll as thin as you possibly can if you want a thinner tortilla. You'll be surprised at how much they puff up when cooked. If you like thicker tortillas, don't roll as thin. You will want to dust off some flour before placing in pan to cook.
6. Preheat your cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Carefully transfer raw tortilla into pan, making sure you don't make any wrinkles. Cook for about 1-2 minutes on each side, or until light brown spots appear. My skillet is fairly large, as were my tortillas, so I had to move it around once a crust was formed on one side, to make sure the edges got cooked a bit on the hot spot of the skillet.
7. Repeat with remaining dough balls. When a tortilla is done, put on a dish lined with a clean dish towel folded in half to cover the tortillas. You can stack cooked tortillas on top of one another as you go.

8. Store leftovers in a zip-top bag in the refrigerator.

Makes from 10 large to 24 small flour tortillas.

Chicken Pot Pie Soup

2011-10-30T07:36:00.000-07:00

Chicken Pot Pie Soup

I bought a whole chicken at Sam's Club yesterday, not knowing exactly how I was going to serve it. After tossing around some predictable ideas in my head, I landed on chicken pot pie soup. I'd had it recently at Jason's Deli, and boy, was it yummy. I looked up a couple of recipes online, and melded them with my own chicken pot pie filling, and this is what I came up with. It was EXACTLY what I was going for, which seems to rarely happen. So, I'm glad I'm taking the time now to type out the recipe so I have it for future reference.

This soup is super creamy and thick, almost like a chowder, but better. I break up the pieces of pie crust on top, and since I made it at home, I give myself much more crust than I got at Jason's Deli. I like this more than chicken pot pie now.

Chicken Pot Pie Soup

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons butter
¼ cup onion, finely chopped
¼ teaspoon dried basil
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
1/8 teaspoon celery salt
1 pinch of garlic powder
¼ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups 1% milk
2 cups half & half
3 chicken bullion cubes (4 might be better--I'm trying to reduce sodium)
2-3 cups cooked chicken, shredded, diced, or sliced (I used the breast & thigh meat from a store-bought roasted chicken & it was FANtastic.)
2 cups diced cooked potato
1 ½ cups mixed vegetables, cooked
1 batch of pie crust cut into cracker-sized pieces& baked (see below)

Directions:

In a large pot or dutch oven over medium-high heat, meltbutter and sauté onions until soft. Addbasil, thyme, black pepper, celery salt,& garlic powder. Stir and sauté fora minute. Add flour and stir for aboutanother minute. Gradually whisk in milkand half & half, making sure to whisk out lumps. Add bullion cubes and continue to whisk untilliquid comes to a simmer and thickens. Stir in chicken & vegetables. Turn heat to low and simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve hot with pie crust pieces.

Makes 4-5 servings.

Pie Crust

Ingredients:

(Note: you can also use store-bought refrigerated pie crust)

1 ¼ cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
½ tsp salt
4 T butter
3 T Crisco
3 T ice cold water
flour for dusting

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°F.

In a medium bowl, mix flour and salt. Cut 4 T butter into flouruntil it looks like coarse meal, and then cut in Crisco until well blended. Addice cold water and stir with fork. Then use your hands to gently work the doughinto a ball. Flour a rectangular sheetof wax paper, place dough ball in the middle, flour the ball, and cover withanother rectangular sheet of wax paper. Roll dough out to a thickness of about1/8”. With a sharp knife or pizzacutter, cut dough roughly into 2”x 2” squares. You can also be creative and use cookie cutters to make cute shapes.

Place dough pieces on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Prick each piece a few times with afork. Bake at 400°F for 11-13 minutes, oruntil browned on the edges. Remove fromoven.

Serve with the soup.

Whoopie Pies with Cocoa Mascarpone Filling

2011-10-26T18:04:00.000-07:00

Whoopie Pies with Cocoa Mascarpone Filling

After my last successful adventure with whoopie pies, I decided to try them out with a cocoa mascarpone filling, because I do love chocolate cake with cocoa whipped cream. These came out exactly as I had imagined: soft chocolate cake cookies filled with a very thick and very rich cocoa whipped cream; not too sweet, and very, very chocolatey. Mascarpone Cheese, where have you been all my life? I'm so glad we've finally met.

Whoopie Pies with Cocoa Mascarpone Cream Filling

--adapted from Martha Stewart 's Whoopie Pie recipe

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cup King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 large egg
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 recipe Cocoa Mascarpone Cream Filling

Directions:

Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cocoa powder. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light-colored and fluffy. Add egg, buttermilk, and vanilla and beat until combined. Slowly add dry ingredients, mixing until combined. Scoop into an airtight plastic container and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Using a medium sized cookie scoop (I used the medium Pampered Chef cookie scoop, which is about 2T), drop 2 inches apart onto parchment-lined cookie sheets. Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes, or until puffed and cracked on top.

Allow to cool a couple of minutes on the cookie sheet and then carefully move to a wire rack to finish cooling. Once all cookies are baked and cooled, work on the filling.

Cocoa Mascarpone Cream Filling Ingredients:

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup hot water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
16 oz. mascarpone cheese
1 cup heavy whipping cream

Cocoa Mascarpone Cream Filling Directions: In a mixer bowl thoroughly mix cocoa, sugar, and hot water. Allow to cool for about 10-15 minutes. Add cream, mascarpone & vanilla. Mix slowly at first to incorporate ingredients and then beat on high until very thick.

Place frosting in a large zip-top bag and cut one of the bottom corners 1/2 inch. Squeeze about 4 tablespoons of frosting on each of 16 cookies. Then top with the remaining 16 cookies. Now you have yummy whoopie pies.

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator, if they last long enough.

Makes 16 pies.

Whoopie Pies with Mascarpone Frosting

2011-10-17T11:49:00.000-07:00

Whoopie Pies with Mascarpone Cream Frosting. Absolutely perfect.

With an 8-oz. container of mascarpone cheese burning a hole in my fridge and a successful use of mascarpone frosting in My Chocolate Birthday Cake, I decided that I just HAD to make some whoopie pies with the mascarpone frosting. I've had this whoopie pie recipe from the Food Network website since 2004, and I've never made it. It's actually a Martha Stewart recipe, and it's no longer on the foodtv.com website.
All that having been said...OH MY GOODNESS. These are delicious. The mascarpone frosting is the perfect filling for these things. It's like a super thick whipped cream filling fluffy little cakes. They're just barely sweet enough so that I don't feel sick after eating one. Mmmmm...I'm looking forward to my next one already.

Whoopie Pies with Mascarpone Cream Frosting
--adapted from Martha Stewart 's Whoopie Pie recipe

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cup King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 large egg
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-2 recipes Mascarpone Frosting (One recipe wasn't quite enough. I think doubling the frosting and making them obnoxiously full of the cream would be better. Just saying.)

Directions:
Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cocoa powder. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light-colored and fluffy. Add egg, buttermilk, and vanilla and beat until combined. Slowly add dry ingredients, mixing until combined. Scoop into an airtight plastic container and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Using a medium sized cookie scoop (I used the medium Pampered Chef cookie scoop, which is about 2T), drop 2 inches apart onto parchment-lined cookie sheets. Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes, or until puffed and cracked on top.
Allow to cool a couple of minutes on the cookie sheet and then carefully move to a wire rack to finish cooling. Once all cookies are baked and cooled, work on the filling.

Mascarpone Cream Frosting Ingredients:

8 oz. mascarpone cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract*
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

Mascarpone Cream Frosting Directions: In a mixer bowl, cream mascarpone & sugar. Add cream and whip on high until stiff.

*Note: for the frosting you see pictured above, I used 1/3 of a vanilla bean pod, split and scraped, and I put it with the cream in a small saucepan, brought it barely to a simmer, and then refrigerated it. Remove the vanilla bean pod before adding it to the mascarpone & sugar, making sure to scrape all of the precious seeds into the mixture.

Place frosting in a large zip-top bag and cut one of the bottom corners 1/2 inch. Squeeze about 2 tablespoons of frosting on each of 16 cookies. Then top with the remaining 16 cookies. Now you have yummy whoopie pies.

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator, if they last long enough.

Makes 16 pies. Actually, it made 15 for me with two naked cookies. :(

Marilyn Wong's Chinese Chicken Salad

2011-10-11T17:54:00.000-07:00

Marilyn's Chinese Chicken Salad--DELISH!

Here's a recipe for an Asian sounding salad that comes to you complements of my German-Irish mother who thinks she's Chinese. I mean, she's got the Chinese husband and hapa haole kids, so she kind of has a right to the benefits of being Chinese. Except that she's blonde, freckled, and, well, you get the idea.
I rarely make this salad myself, thanks to my carnivore husband who hates salads. I decided to make it this weekend, though, for company, and somehow I never did make it. So, I'm having it for dinner tonight, and I'm excited about it.
It's relatively light salad (if you don't count the fried won ton crispies) with pretty simple ingredients. The only ingredient that's really out of the ordinary, I think, is the sesame oil/sesame seeds. I think they make a difference, though, so make a point of obtaining those before you make this salad.
Marilyn usually serves this salad with pizza. Something about balancing out the pizza. My mom's version of a yin-yang thing, I guess. Actually, she's usually serving a crowd and trying to please everyone, and this is what happens. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE it. It's all good. I just think it's funny. Love you, Mom!

Marilyn Wong's Chinese Chicken Salad

Ingredients:

1 large head of iceberg lettuce, washed, cored, and cut into 1/2 to 1" pieces
4-5 chicken breasts, cooked in a pan or grilled and sliced or shredded
3 green onions, sliced
1 cup slivered almonds
4 tablespoons white sugar
1/2 a package of won ton wrappers
canola oil for frying

Dressing Ingredients:

6 tablespoons white sugar
6 tablespoons vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil or toasted sesame seeds

Directions:
Making the Dressing: Either whisk the dressing ingredients together, or as Marilyn does, place them all in a Mason jar, close tightly, and shake violently to mix. Set aside.

Making the Won Ton Crispies: Cut won ton wrappers into 1/4" strips. Cut those strips in half. In a high rimmed frying pan, heat about 3/4" oil to very hot. When you think it's hot enough, test one little strip: if it bubbles up right away, the oil is ready. (If the strip immediately browns, the oil is TOO hot--remove from heat and add a little more oil to bring the temperature down.) Fry a small handful of strips at a time, using a slotted metal spoon to separate strips in the oil. Fry to a nice golden brown. Remove with slotted metal spoon to a paper-towel lined plate and lightly salt. Repeat with remaining strips.

Making the Candied Almonds: Line a heat-proof plate with non-stick foil or parchment paper. Heat a cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Place the 4 tablespoons sugar in the middle and sort of flatten the mound. Allow sugar to melt completely, stirring with a silicon spatula. If sugar seems to be browning quickly, remove from heat and proceed. Once sugar is liquified, add almonds and stir to coat. Once coated, scrape almonds onto waiting foil or parchment. With two forks, try to quickly separate the almonds. Once they cool a bit, you can start using your fingers for this. They probably won't all separate, but then you'll get some tasty chunks for candied almond in your salad. No biggie. When I made them today, I placed the almonds around the edge of the pan while the sugar melted, just to toast them up a bit since I'd had the almonds in the freezer. Just something different I tried that worked today.
If all of this sounds like too much trouble, I know that they sell prepackaged candied nuts just for this purpose in the produce section of most grocery stores. The salad will still be yummy with store-bought candied almonds.

Assembling the Salad: Place cut lettuce in a large bowl and sprinkle with chopped green onions, chicken, and almonds. Pour well-shaken/mixed dressing over the top. Top with won ton crispies.
Enjoy!

Chinese Chicken Salad, Dressing on the Side

Makes 4-6 meal-sized servings.

Taquitos & Flautas

2011-10-10T18:30:00.000-07:00

Bad lighting, but here are a couple of taquitos & flautas.

Taquito: a corn tortilla wrapped around shredded beef, shredded chicken, or chopped steak and fried to crisp perfection. Sometimes called a rolled taco.
Flauta: a flour tortilla wrapped around shredded beef, shredded chicken, or chopped steak and fried to crisp perfection.
I'm making both tonight because I had a lot of left over carne asada from the other night. I like to make these whenever I have a relatively large amount of left over roast or chicken. They're simple, delicious, and yes, probably super fattening. I don't make them every day, so get off my back about the fat. They're good, and in moderation they make me happy.
The taquitos are really crisp and when you bite into one, you get this awesome combination of textures and flavors: tortilla chip crispiness and corniness, and spicy, tender meat. Mmmmm...
Flautas are pretty remarkable too. The tortillas crisp up just on the outside, but on the inside it's soft and warm. It adds a different flavor and texture to the meat and gives you a pretty different experience than the corn tortilla. They definitely taste a little more decadent and unhealthy than the corn.
The trick to making these is the pre-frying of the tortillas. If you skip that step, particularly with the corn tortilla, you're going to make yourself crazy with the crumbling tortillas. You're going to fry them anyway, so why not twice?
These are best served with your favorite salsa, or if you're a guacamole fan like me, with your favorite guac.

Taquitos & Flautas

Ingredients:

2 cups (or so) cooked shredded beef or chicken or chopped cooked steak
10-12 tortillas (regular corn and/or fajita sized flour)
canola oil
taco seasoning or salsa, if meat is not very seasoned

Directions:

Heat up about 1 1/2 inches of canola oil in a high-rimmed frying pan over medium-high heat. It should be hot enough so that when you place a tortilla in it, the oil bubbles immediately.

Get a heat-proof plate ready by lining it with a paper towel. One at a time, quickly fry the tortillas, turning once. Don't let them fry too long. About 3-4 seconds is all it takes. Remove with tongs and place tortillas on plate. Just pile them on top of one another. Turn heat off.

Season meat with a little salsa or taco seasoning if you like that flavor. Otherwise, you can just use the meat as-is, because if it's left over, it's probably already got seasoning on it, right?

Momentarily separate the tortillas to release some of the heat and steam they've got from being stacked. Place about 2-3 tablespoons of meat (less for corn tortillas, more for flour) about 2/3 the way down a tortilla, arranging the meat into a line. Fold over that bottom third and roll as tightly as you can without ripping the tortilla. If you roll too loosely, the meat will fall out and the taquito will unroll, and you won't want to eat them. Roll tightly and place seam side down on a plate. Secure the flour tortilla flautas with a toothpick. Repeat and place taquitos right next to each other so they can keep each other in order (see picture).

Turn the heat back on under the oil. It should only take a few minutes to come back up to temperature. Then place as many taquitos as will fit with about 1/4-inch between. I can fit 4-5 in my frying pan. Turn taquitos after about 2 minutes, and basically fry them until the ends are a dark golden brown. Remove with tongs to a paper towel-lined plate to cool.

Serve with salsa and/or guacamole.

Makes 10-12 taquitos

My Chocolate Birthday Cake

2011-10-09T10:21:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to Me Cake

Four layers of cake, french silk pie filling, mascarpone cream frosting, cocoa whipped cream, and dark chocolate ganache. Happy birthday to me. This cake was inspired by one of my favorite Cheesecake Factory desserts: Chocolate Tuxedo Cream Cheesecake.
The cake recipe comes via Ghirardelli, and it came out so tender and soft, it kind of started falling apart before I could cut the layers. Granted, I let the cakes cool too long in the pans, but still, very tender.
The French silk pie filling is from allrecipes.com, and I have a recipe for the yummy pie here on my blog.
I can't remember where the mascarpone frosting recipe came from...
And the cocoa whipped cream is from a Nestle cocoa box from the '80s.
All in all, this cake is a success and helped make my belated birthday very, very happy.

My Chocolate Birthday Cake

Cake Ingredients (adapted from Ghirardelli.com) :

1 cupGhirardelli Sweet Ground Chocolate and Cocoa (or use 1/2 cup ground cocoapowder and increase the total amount of sugar below to 1 1/4 cups)
1 1/2cups sifted cake flour
1 1/2tablespoons King Arthur Flour Cake Enhancer (optional)
3/4cup sugar
1 1/2teaspoons baking soda
1/4teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2teaspoon salt
2/3cup butter, softened
1 cupbuttermilk
2large eggs
1teaspoon vanilla extract

Cake Directions : Preheat oven to 350ºF. Prepare two 8" x 1 1/2" round cake pans by spraying with non-stick cooking spray and then lining with parchment or wax paper circles. Into a mixer bowl fitted with a whisk attachment, sift flour with ground chocolate, cake enhancer, sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Add butter and 3/4 cupbuttermilk. Beat on low speed to combine ingredients. Scrape sides of bowl and then beat on low-medium speedfor 2 minutes. Add 1/4 cup buttermilk, eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beatadditional 2 minutes. Spread batter into prepared pans. Bake at 350ºF for 30 to 35 minutes. Coolon racks for 10 to 15 minutes; remove from pans.

French Silk Pie Layer Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened, but cool
1/4 cup white C & H sugar
11 unwrapped dark chocolate DovePromises (about 3 ounces)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs

French Silk Pie Layer Directions (adapted from allrecipes.com):

In a double boiler, melt Dove Promisesabout 2/3 of the way. Remove top ofdouble boiler and continue to stir until chocolate is completely melted. Set aside to cool further. I recommend cooling until the chocolate starts to thicken slightly so that it won't melt the butter and will be firm enough to withstand the next cake layer on top of it without smooshing out the sides.

Cream butter. Gradually add sugar, creaming well. Blend in melted and cooled chocolate andvanilla. Add eggs, one at a time,beating 4 minutes after each addition with an electric mixer on medium speed.

Start assembling--see below.

Mascarpone Cream Frosting Ingredients:

8 oz. mascarpone cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

Mascarpone Cream Frosting Directions: In a mixer bowl, cream mascarpone, vanilla extract & sugar. Add cream and whip on high until stiff.

Cocoa Whipped Cream Ingredients:

1/2 cup powdered cocoa
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup hot tap water
2 cups cold heavy whipping cream

Cocoa Whipped Cream Directions: In mixer bowl with a wire whisk attachment, mix cocoa, sugar & hot water, mixing to form a paste. Allow to cool before adding cream. Add cream and start mixing on low to incorporate cream into cocoa paste. Stop the mixer and scrape the bow. Mix on high until stiff peaks form.

Assembling the Cake:

Once you've made the French silk pie layer, start the assembly process.

Cut each of the two cakes in half so you have four layers. Place the bottom layer on a serving plate or cake stand. On the bottom layer, spread the French silk pie filling to within 1/4-inch of the edge. Place the second layer on; cover & refrigerate until the mascarpone layer is ready.

Spread on the mascarpone frosting to about 1/4-inch of the edge. Place the third cake layer on top of that. Spread half the cocoa whipped cream on the cake and top with the final cake layer. Frost the sides of the cake with the remaining cocoa whipped cream. Cover the cake and refrigerate.

Ganache Ingredients:

10 Dove Dark Chocolate Promises, unwrapped and roughly chopped
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

Ganache Directions:

Place chopped chocolate in a heat-proof bowl.
In a small pan over medium heat, bring the cream and butter just to a simmer. Pour cream over chocolate and allow to sit for about 5 minutes.
Stir to combine chocolate & cream.
Pour ganache directly in the center of the top of the cake. As it spreads and drips over the sides, if there are spots with no ganache, make sure you drip or spread some over there.
Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Makes one large cake. You decide how many servings.

Carne Asada

2011-10-08T17:40:00.000-07:00

Carne Asada made with flank steak. YUM!

Juicy, spicy, tender, and meaty, carne asada is another perfect way to indulge in the joys of Mexican cuisine. When I first started shopping at SuperTarget, they sold this "Mexican Grill Seasoning for Beef" under their Archer Farms label. It made the BEST carne asada I think I've ever had. As happens with LOTS of awesome finds for me, they don't sell the product around here anymore, and I assume it's been discontinued. Fortunately, I had stocked up when they were on clearance, so I had time to come up with my own version. I don't think it's exactly the same, but it's delicious anyway. I use the same ingredients every time, but I never write down the proportions, so that's why I'm doing it now. Hopefully I've gotten it right; if not, I will revise, as always.
The recipe below makes enough seasoning to use 4-5 times, depending on how much steak you're fixin'. I just mix it up and keep it in a handy Ziplock or Glad plastic container (small size).
If you're going to bother with making this, I strongly recommend you buy the freshest, most delicious tortillas you can find, along with some great guacamole. I usually try to make my own guac, but Wholly Guacamole makes a darned-good store-bought guac.

Carne Asada Seasoning

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons garlic salt
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons dried minced onion
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons oregano leaf
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Instructions:
Place all ingredients in a small bowl and stir. Store in an airtight container.

Carne Asada

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds flank steak, tri-tip (I cut mine into 3-inch chunks), skirt steak, or top sirloin
1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons Carne Asada Seasoning
2 teaspoons canola oil

Instructions:
Place meat in a large zip-top bag and sprinkle as evenly as possible with the seasoning. Zip bag and place in refrigerator 2-8 hours.
Preheat your grill on high heat for at least 30 minutes.
Coat the meat with the canola oil by pouring it into the bag and smooshing it around the meat from the outside.
Grill meat over medium-high to high heat, turning once after about 4-5 minutes. Check the temperature with a probe thermometer. (I like my steak medium rare, so I cook to 145 degrees. My handy Williams-Sonoma meat thermometer does most of the work for me by beeping when my steak reaches that temperature.) When meat has reached desired doneness, move to a plate to rest for 5-10 minutes before serving/slicing.
If you're using flank or top sirloin steak, slice meat on a diagonal. I serve the long slices of flank steak, and sirloin will chop into smaller pieces sometimes. Tri-tip chunks get served as-is, and the meat-eater gets to cut it himself/herself.
Serve with warm corn or soft-taco sized flour tortillas, fresh salsa, & guacamole. Heck, throw on some shredded cheese if that's what makes you happy.
Serves about 4-5 normal people who aren't starving.

Karin's Mexican Rice

2011-10-08T17:36:00.000-07:00

Mexican Rice a la Karin

My good friend Karin insisted I try this recipe after I told her that I made Mexican rice from scratch. It's taken me three months to finally buy some frozen traditional vegetables to do it, but here it is. I must say, it is a contender for my favorite Mexican rice. It tastes just like a lot of Mexican rice I've had at restaurants, and the little veggies make it really authentic. A fantastic side for any Mexican dinner, and easy too.
I've cut the recipe in half because that's what I did when I made it. I knew for sure 3 cups of uncooked rice would yield more than we could eat at our little dinner party. Everyone LOVED the rice, by the way.
If you're looking for real Mexican rice to go with your meal, this is it. Do it.

Karin's Mexican Rice

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup white rice (I used long grain; Karin uses medium)
1/4 large white or yellow onion, diced
3 cups chicken stock or broth*
4 oz. tomato sauce (use plain, unseasoned tomato sauce, not paste)
3 T. vegetable oil
1/3 cup frozen traditional vegetable medley (peas, carrots, corn)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

In a very large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat until it shimmers in the pan. The oil should be very hot.

Next, add the rice and stir regularly until the rice is a pale toasty brown..

Add the onion and stir for about one minute until opaque in color. The rice should now be a deeper toasty brown.

To the rice, add the chicken broth/stock and tomato sauce. Listen for the applause. You are doing a great job! (It really does applaud you.)

Stir very well until all of the broth and tomato sauce is incorporated throughout the rice. If you don’t stir well, the rice will be red in spots and white in others. You don't want this.

Turn up the heat, and bring the entire mixture up to a boil. Add the frozen vegetables. Turn the heat down to a low simmer. Cover tightly. Simmer for 25 minutes. Turn off the heat. Let the rice sit for 20 minutes. Do not at any point take off the lid. You will be tempted to peek at the rice. Don’t do it!

Fluff up the rice and season to taste. Serve with your favorite Mexican dishes.

*I didn't have chicken stock on hand, and now that I'm typing this, I realize that I only used 2 cups of water, not 3. The rice turned out fine, as pictured above. Yes, I said I used water...and I also added 2 1/2 chicken bouillon cubes. Sorry, Karin.

Makes, oh, I'd say 8 servings.

Salt & Baking Soda Make a Difference

2011-10-04T16:11:00.000-07:00

These cookies are from the same batch of dough.
The cookie in the upper right corner is missing salt & baking soda. Ick.

I knew that it was true that salt makes a big difference in the flavor of foods, but I really don't experiment much to see what food is like with little to no salt. Last night, though, I made a quick batch of Shakespeare Oatmeal Cookies. They didn't look at all like the cookies I'd made days before with the same recipe. The were much paler, puffier, and just all-around anemic looking. Weird. Fortunately, I don't bake all of my cookie dough at once. I leave most in the fridge and bake fresh cookies as "needed." When I tasted a cookie in the morning, it was a little hard, and had a harsh sugary flavor. I thought about where I might have gone wrong. I knew I had added brown sugar as well as white sugar... It was when I looked at my measuring spoons that I realized that I had added the spices to the dry ingredients, but not the salt or baking soda.

I took the remaining dough out of the fridge and let it soften a little. Then back into the Kitchen Aid mixer bowl it went, along with almost a teaspoon each of salt & baking soda (I'd baked about 9 cookies in the first batch). After quickly mixing in the missing ingredients, I returned the dough to its plastic container and then to the fridge.

After work, I baked up some more cookies, and voila! The soft, browned, chewy cookies I'd intended. I'm not sure how all the chemistry works with cookie dough. I do know, though, that salt & baking soda help make cookies delicious. I won't be forgetting them again anytime soon.

Shakespeare Oatmeal Cookies

2011-10-02T11:59:00.000-07:00

Shakespeare Oatmeal Cookies

I got this oatmeal cookie recipe waaaaay back in high school. A boy named Jeff in our church youth group brought these cookies to some event and they were awesome. Even back then, I asked for recipes of delicious food, and I've had this one on my trusty little favorite recipe ring for over twenty years. (Yikes, I'm old!) I have no idea where the name comes from, but that's what I have on the recipe card, so that's what I'm naming this post.

The thing I like about these cookies is that they're not your typical bland oatmeal cookie. The spices add a whole other dimension and the butter and brown sugar make it melt in your mouth. You still get the semi-healthy sense of eating oatmeal, but with an added kick. Good stuff.

In the picture at the bottom of this post, you'll see how I tried to use these cookies for ice cream sandwiches. Just a small scoop of soft vanilla between two cookies and some freezer time created an even tastier treat.

(*I've kicked this cookie recipe up another notch by adding candied orange zest. If you're interested in THAT, I have the recipe for Orange Spice Oatmeal Cookies here on this blog. Just click on the cookie name you just read.)

Shakespeare Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
3 cups quick cooking oats
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

3/4 cup butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs

Directions:

Siftflour, salt, soda, & spices together. Stir in oats.

Creambutter, shortening, & sugars. Beatin eggs. Stir in dry ingredients andblend well. Refrigerate dough for at least two hours or overnight. (I don't recommend freezing this dough.)

Preheatoven to 350°. Form dough into walnut-sized balls and place on a parchment-lined cookiesheet. Bake at 350° for 10-13 minutes, or until puffed in the middle, and set around the edges. Allow cookies to cool on wire rack.

Makes about 4 1/2 to 5 dozen cookies.

Oatmeal cookies with vanilla ice cream

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

2011-09-25T11:27:00.000-07:00

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

So, somehow I ended up on the planning committee for the women's retreat at my church. Another chronic non-participator on the committee thinks we were invited to be on the committee just to get us to go. I think I might agree. That's not really the point of this post, but it's noteworthy. I'm in charge of food, so I decided to make some cookie dough balls to bake at the retreat, for our lunch dessert. This was a good opportunity to try a cookie I don't normally make: white chocolate macadamia nut cookies.

I don't often think about these cookies, but whenever I eat a high quality one, I think to myself, "Mmmm...why don't I make these more often?" The problem is the availability of reasonably-priced REAL white chocolate. Don't even suggest I use those "white baking morsels." They end up scorched and hard in cookies. Uh-uh. I refuse. So, when I had $150 gift card to the King Arthur Flour website, I decided to go ahead and spend $9.95 of my money on a pound of Barry Callebaut white chocolate chunks.

Next, I found a recipe at my favorite recipe site, allrecipes.com. I read the reviews and followed some of the reviewers' suggestions, and came up with the recipe below. The white chocolate chunks are FANtastic, and the cookies are perfect. I think I'll be making these cookie again (especially since I have some of those expensive chunks left).

Oh, and a special note about macadamia nuts: be sure to taste one before adding them to your cookie dough. There's nothing worse than wasting expensive white chocolate by baking it into cookies with rancid nuts. Ugh. Believe me, I've done it. Taste the nuts first. Actually, that's probably a good rule to follow with all nuts. Once you know they're good, seal up the leftovers and freeze them. That's your best bet.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

--adapted from allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup Crisco vegetable shortening
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup coarsely chopped macadamia nuts
1 1/2 cup coarsely chopped white chocolate

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, Crisco, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla extract. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture just until combined. Stir in the macadamia nuts and white chocolate. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto parchment-lined cookie sheets. (*As usual, I refrigerate my dough and scoop into balls that I place on a wax paper lined cookie sheet and freeze. Once dough is frozen, I place the balls in a gallon sized zip top bag.)

Bake for 8-10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until puffed and golden brown on edges. Cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Buttermilk Biscuits

2011-09-21T20:11:00.000-07:00

Buttermilk Biscuits

I love most biscuits. At least, the kind I get at restaurants, like KFC or Popeyes. The best, though, are the biscuits served at Knott's Berry Farm's Chicken Dinner Restaurant. Oh my goodness. They are soft and tender on the inside with a super-fine crumb; dark brown, chewy and a little crisp on top; and crisp and slightly greasy (yes, greasy) on the bottom. Put some butter or some boysenberry jam in the middle and you're pretty close to heaven. Seriously.
I can't say that the recipe below tastes just like the Knott's biscuits, but they're close enough for me. Very moist and tender on the inside with a nice buttery, chewy browned top and a nicely browned bottom. I love mine with butter. Plenty of butter.
The recipe comes from Cook's Illustrated Magazine. One of my favorites. My copy of the issue that this recipe comes from (July & August 2004), is grease spotted with a bit of crusted batter here and there. I've scanned it and PDF'd it to save on my computer, but it needs to be blogged about. So here it is. Thank you, Cook's Illustrated, for all of your awesome contributions to the culinary world. I love you.

Tall and Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits
--adapted from Cook's Illustrated Magazine, Volume 96, July & August 2004

Ingredients
Dough

2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 tablespoon double-acting baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
4 tablespoons cold butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1 1/2 cups cold buttermilk

To Form & Finish Biscuits

1 cup King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour, distributed in rimmed baking sheet
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Instructions
1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 500 degrees F. Generously butter an 8 or 9-inch round cake pan. Set aside.
2. For the dough: In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, & baking soda. Add butter cubes and cut in with a pastry blender until mixture resembles pebbly, coarse cornmeal. Add buttermilk and stir with rubber spatula until just incorporated. Dough will be wet and lumpy.
3. To form and bake biscuits: Using a large spoon, scoop up about 1/4 cup and scrape dough blob off with a rubber spatula onto the flour-filled baking sheet. Start with about 3 or 4 blobs. Dust tops of blobs with some of the flour and toss gently with floured hands to coat blob with flour. Gently shape each blob into a rough ball, shake off excess flour, and place in prepared cake pan. Repeat until the dough is used up, arranging 9 biscuits around pan perimeter and three in the middle. Brush or spoon melted butter on top, taking care not to flatten the biscuits. Bake 5 minutes at 500 degrees, then reduce oven temperature to 450 degrees and make until biscuits are a deep golden brown, about 12-15 more minutes. (I usually check at around 12 minutes, move the pan to my baking stone on the bottom rack of my oven, and then bake for another 3-4 minutes.) Cool in pan 2 minutes, then invert biscuits from pan onto clean kitchen towel; turn biscuits right side up and break apart. Cool 5 minutes longer and serve hot.
*These freeze well wrapped in foil and sealed in a zip-top bag. Reheat in foil in a 350 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes, or until heated through.
Makes 12 biscuits.

The fluffy interior with butter. Mmmmm...

Mini Dutch Apple Pies

2011-09-20T19:00:00.000-07:00

Mini Dutch Apple Pie

I am just crazy enough to want to make apple pie and then decide to make mini pies instead of a whole pie. Why mini? Because it looks so much neater and cuter than a slice of pie. Plus, I wanted to see if I could pull it off. And I wanted to blog about it.
Fortunately, these mini pies have proven to be a great success. Cute, crusty, sweet, tart, absolutely delicious. The fact that I ate two of them attests to their greatness. For me, the best part of a pie is the crust, so this little pie has plenty of it. The crust to fruit ratio is about 1:1, which is how I like it. If you're not that much of a fan of crust, this recipe may not be for you.
If you decide to attempt these, make sure you give yourself plenty of time for the task. Maybe it's just because I decided to make these on a weeknight, but it felt like they took a long time. They were well worth it though. I think the picture shows that.

Mini Dutch Apple Pies (MuffinSize Apple Pies)

Ingredients:

Crust

2 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons cold butter
7 tablespoons vegetable shortening
6-7 tablespoons ice cold water

Filling

7 Granny Smith apples
juice of half a lemon
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons KA Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
dash of nutmeg
dash of ground cloves

Crumb Topping

1/2 cup KA Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 tablespoons cold butter
3 tablespoons butter cut into 18 small chunks

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Crust

In a large bowl, mix flour and salt. Cut in butter until mixture looks likesand. Cut in vegetable shortening untilmixture has chunks the size of peas. Slowly sprinkle 6 tablespoons cold water over mixture while tossing witha fork. Squeeze some in your hand. If the dough does not bind nicely whensqueezed, add the other tablespoon of water. Toss. Form dough into a uniformball.

Between two floured sheets of plastic wrap (you might haveto double up and use four sheets), roll dough to about 1/8 inch thickness. Cut out 18 circles that are 4 1/2 inches indiameter (I had to use a glass lid for a mini cake stand for this). Gather and re-roll dough after the firstround to get your 18 circles.

Fit dough circles into non-stick muffin pans, pressing sidesand folding a little as needed. Pressany overlap over the edge and crimp with a fork. (I used one 12-cup muffin pan and one 6-cupmuffin pan.) Place prepared crusts inrefrigerator while you prepare the filling and the topping.

Filling

Slice apples to 1/8 inch thickness. Julienne some of them, and cut others intoapproximately 1/2 inch trapezoids (you know, whatever that shape is you wouldget if you slice a slice perpendicularly).

Place sliced apples in a large bowl and toss with flour,sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and lemon juice. Let sit and macerate while you prepare thetopping. (Man, this recipe is seemingcomplicated!)

Topping & Final Prep

Mix the half cups of flour and sugar with cinnamon in amedium sized bowl. Slice the 4tablespoons butter thinly and add to dry mixture. With fingers, mix in the butter until it’sevenly distributed and you have a nice sandy-looking crumb mixture.

Unbaked mini pies

Remove crusts from refrigerator. Stir apples and scoop mounds of them intoprepared crusts. Work as many applesinto the cups as you can, shifting and gently pushing. Once cups are all filled, place one smallchunk of butter on top of each and then carefully top each with a generoustablespoon of topping.

Line the bottom of your oven with a large piece of heavyduty aluminum foil to catch any dripping juices. Place muffin pans in oven and bake at 400°F for30-35 minutes, or until juices bubbling out start to thicken. If the topping is getting too dark beforethis thickening happens, lightly cover pies with aluminum foil.

Remove from oven and allow to cool almost completely beforeremoving from muffin tins. You mightwant to run a knife around the edges to make sure they’re not stuck, whichhopefully they won’t be if you used a good non-stick pan.

They look sticky, but with a little coaxing, they came out fine.

Makes 18 muffin-sized apple pies

Fried Rice

2011-09-08T18:20:00.000-07:00

Fried Rice with BACON!

So, I'm half Chinese and I don't like Chinese food. I like certain Chinese foods if I make them, and I think that's just the control freak in me showing herself. Egg rolls and fried rice are the two Chinese foods I love. My white mother made this yummy fried rice all the time, and I think I like it because it's got what I would consider a western twist on it: bacon. The more bacon on top the better. My son will eat the bacon first, and then the rest. Come to think of it, I might have done that as a kid too.
This is a good recipe to use leftover sticky rice. Or if you have a pound of bacon burning a hole in your fridge. It's just good. Try it.

Fried Rice

Ingredients:

4 cups cooked & cooled rice (approx.)
1/2 to 1 pound of bacon (depending on how meaty you want your rice)
1 egg
2 1/2 to 3 tablespoons soy sauce
3/4 cup finely chopped carrots
2-3 green onions, sliced

Instructions:
Cut raw bacon into 1/2 inch pieces. Fry bacon bits in a large frying pan with relatively high sides on medium high heat, until as crisp as you like your bacon. Remove bacon bits with a slotted spoon to a paper-towel lined plate. Drain all but about 2-3 tablespoons of the bacon drippings from the pan.

Turn heat to medium and put rice in pan, breaking up any big chunks. Stir to mix rice into the bacon grease. While rice heats up, whisk the egg and soy sauce in a small bowl and then stir into the frying rice. Fry & stir until you can no longer see any shiny egg. Turn heat to low, and cover while you prepare the carrots and green onions.

Microwave the carrots in a covered microwavable dish with about a tablespoon of water for about 1 minute. Stir carrots into the rice.

Top rice with bacon bits and green onions. Serve hot.

Makes about four servings.

Individual Dulce de Leche Cheesecakes

2011-08-29T14:52:00.000-07:00

Individual Dulce de Leche Cheesecakes

The caramel just ooozes out. Mmmmm...

I love eating cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory. I know whichever one I select will probably be the best thing I EVER ate. Their dulce de leche cheesecake happens to be one of my top pics. It's just magical. It's a light, sweet, smooth and creamy experience with a little crunch from the toffee topping they sprinkle on top. Simple, but fantastic. Although I could never achieve what they do, I think I've come close enough with this.

I have already posted the recipe for a full dulce de leche cheesecake, but since I was going to make this individual version for a family potluck at Clive Elementary School, I figured I might as well blog it up. So, here's the recipe for what I am currently calling "the best thing I've ever baked." Creamy, sweet, vanilla caramel goodness. Too bad I can't claim it's only 100 calories per serving. Mmmmm...

Individual Dulce De Leche Cheesecakes

Prepare one day in advance and refrigerate overnight for best results.

You can prepare the caramel a day or two ahead of baking.

Caramel

2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 cup heavy cream
4 T unsalted butter

pinch salt
2 T light corn syrup
1 whole vanilla bean (or 1 T pure vanilla extract)

1. Bring the cream, butter, vanilla, salt, and corn syrup to a simmer over medium high heat in a small saucepan. If you’re using a vanilla bean, cut the bean lengthwise and scrape seeds out with the back of a knife. Put the scraped seeds into the cream and whisk to distribute the seeds. Set aside.

2. Combine the sugar and water in a heavy-bottomed 2-quart saucepan, pouring the sugar into the center of the pan to prevent the sugar crystals from sticking to the sides of the pan. Cover and bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. Once boiling, uncover and continue to boil until the syrup is thick and straw-colored, about 7 minutes (it will register 300° on a candy thermometer). Reduce the heat to medium and continue to cook until the sugar syrup is golden and just begins to smoke, 1 to 2 minutes (it will be 350°).

3. As soon as the sugar syrup reaches 350°, or it reaches that golden color & begins to smoke, remove it from the heat, pour about half of the cream mixture into it, and let the bubbling subside. Add the remaining cream mixture and whisk until the sauce is smooth. If using vanilla extract, add it now.

Move caramel to a heat-proof container and allow to cool. If you're doing this ahead of time, once it's cooled, cover and refrigerate until ready to use in the cheesecake.

Cheesecake

Preheat oven to 350°

Crust:

1 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup melted butter

I usually crush my graham crackers in a gallon sized zip top freezer bag. (1 1/2 cups is equivalent to about 12 large graham crackers, or 1 pkg + 3 more crackers.) Then mix the sugar into the crumbs inside the bag. Add melted butter, zip the top and smoosh around until butter is thoroughly mixed in. Line 36 muffin cups with cupcake liners. Place about one tablespoon of graham cracker mixture into each cup. Using the bottom of a shot glass or end of a small rolling pin, press the crust mixture somewhat firmly into the bottom. Set aside while you prepare the filling.

Filling:

4 8oz. cream cheeses @ room temperature
4 large eggs @ room temperature
1 cup caramel (recipe above)
3/4 cup heavy cream

1. Cream cream cheese until smooth. Add caramel & mix until smooth. Add eggs & mix until smooth. Add cream and mix until smooth.

2. Now, there are a few ways you can get the cheesecake batter into the muffin cups:

A. Pour batter into a spouted container, like a large Pyrex measuring cup or a pitcher, and pour into muffin cups; B. Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to scoop batter in; or C. (my favorite) Pour batter into a gallon-sized zip top bag, cut a 1/4 inch corner off and carefully pour/squeeze batter into muffin cups.

3. Since I like to bake in the middle of the oven, I baked mine in two batches. Do what works best for you and your oven.

4. Bake at 350° for 15-16 minutes, until cheesecakes are puffed and center is set.

5. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes, and then take cheesecakes out of the pan to cool on a wire rack. When completely cool, transfer to a refrigerator and cover loosely. Refrigerate at least 24 hours for best results.

Before serving, spoon remaining caramel sauce over the tops of the cheesecakes, about 1 teaspoon per individual cheesecake.

Top with whipped cream (or stabilized whipped cream), if desired. I also topped these with crushed toffee bits.

Makes 36 individual cheesecakes.

Toppings in process: caramel, whipped cream, and finally the toffee bits.

Kuchen

2011-08-20T12:33:00.000-07:00

Boysenberry Kuchen

The recipe for this awesome dessert comes from my dear friend Debbie Gillentine. I hope she doesn't mind me giving away her recipe.

When I saw Debbie make this, she used black berries she'd picked herself, and it was AMAZING. I think fresh berries are really the way to go. The nuts and bolts of this dessert are quite basic: a shortbread crust & topping (same mixture, divided) and a fruit filling, baked to a definite brown. The butter flavor and the crispness, along with the sweet fruit filling create some sort of magic. The recipe Debbie was using was all in German with metric weight measurements, and she said she'd translate it and email it to me. I had to harass her to just translate it for me and then I went to a baking conversion website for the measurements. What you see below is what I came up with, and it seemed to work. My only problem was that my bottom crust was too gooey. I need to ask Debbie what to do about that. Nonetheless, it tasted fabulous. Thanks, Deb!

Kuchen (or Kirch Kuchen)

1 3/4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 cup butter, cold
2/3 cup sugar
dash of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 10 oz. jar of Smucker's Simply Fruit (I used boysenberry) OR *cherry filling described below

Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix flour, sugar, salt and then cut in cold butter until there are no more chunks of butter & mixture is the texture of damp sand. Add vanilla in as you are processing the butter. Put the bowl in the fridge while working on the filling.

*Cherry Filling

1 jar of Morello cherries (sour cherries)
3 tsp cornstarch
3 T sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
½ T almond extract
juice from half a lemon

Strain cherries and reserve juices. Blend the sugar and cornstarch. Add the cherry juice to a pan and mix in the sugar & cornstarch mixture and the lemon juice. Bring to a boil to thicken the juices to a pie filling type of consistency. It gets thicker as it cools later on. Remove the pan from heat adding the cherries, vanilla extract and almond extract and gently blend.

Using a buttered springform pan (I used a 9 1/2" pan), gently press about 2/3 of the streusel mixture into the bottom and up the sides. Spread the the Simply Fruit over the bottom OR pour the hot filling into the baking form (if you've made the cherry filling). Use the remaining streusel as the topping, sprinkling it in clumps over the top. I placed my spring form pan on a cookie sheet because I suspected the butter would ooze out, which it did, but I think that may be why my bottom crust seemed underbaked. Next time I think I will try a sheet of foil under the pan to catch any seepage.

Bake in preheated oven at 350°F for 45-50 minutes until light brown on top and sides.

Let it cool completely. Many German cakes are made in advance and left on the counter until needed. Debbie doesn't refrigerate hers, she just leaves it on the counter for a few days … but she says it never lasts that long.