Cake Batter and Crumbs

Pumpkin Muffins

2009-11-08T15:47:00.001-05:00

My absolute favorite fall flavor is pumpkin; I can’t get enough of the stuff. You can put it in pie, cookies, cake, even butter and I’ll eat it! This week though I needed a quick breakfast option, so I chose muffins. Mmmmm cake for breakfast -- you can’t go wrong with that!

I picked this Ellie Krieger recipe and made a few changes to it after reading some of the comments. The original recipe calls for pumpkin seeds to be sprinkled on top of the muffins. I didn’t have any, so I subbed in chopped walnuts. I also doubled all of the spices to make it extra flavorful and added in some raisins.

There’s no other way to say it other than I adore these muffins! They are so light and spongy, even though they have whole wheat flour in them, and the pumpkin and spice flavor is right on. It’s pumpkin perfection!

Pumpkin Muffins
Adapted from Ellie Krieger’s Pumpkin Muffins

Ingredients

Cooking spray
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-grain pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons unsulphered molasses
1/4 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup lowfat buttermilk
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 chopped walnuts

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Coat a 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose and whole-wheat flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg.

In a large bowl, whisk the sugar, molasses, oil and 1 egg until combined. Add the other egg and whisk well. Whisk in the pumpkin, vanilla and raisins. Whisk in the flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the buttermilk. Whisk just until combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared muffin pan and sprinkle with the walnuts. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to remove any air bubbles. Bake for 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center of 1 of the muffins comes out clean.

Let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the muffins to loosen them and unmold. Cool completely on the rack.

Giada’s Halloween Spice Cake

2009-10-31T09:20:00.002-04:00

Happy Halloween! This spice cake recipe from Giada De Laurentiis is really easy to pull together and has a nice flavor, but the best part is the heavenly smell it creates in your house. Mmmmmmm. After first seeing the cake on the Tricks or Treats episode of Giada at Home, I knew I wanted to try it. It mostly uses pantry staples, so I walked into my kitchen and voila I had all of the ingredients on hand. Score!

This cake does require a bit of measuring, but once you have all of the dry ingredients in a bowl, it really comes together in a snap. In reading the online reviews, I noticed a lot of people had some problems with the cake taking longer to bake than listed in the recipe. I actually didn’t experience that problem, and my cake took only 45 minutes until a toothpick came out clean and the cake had a gorgeous, crispy top. It was sporting a nice rise in the oven, but unfortunately as I left it cool, it sunk a little, leaving me with a denser and moist cake.

I really liked the flavor of this cake though. It’s unlike any other spice cake I can remember. I think adding the cocoa powder not only gives it a nice dark color, but also helps to deepen the flavor. I found it to be really similar to gingerbread. We served it sprinkled with powder sugar and also a little whipped cream.

All in all, I thought it was a great Halloween cake.

The scariest part of Halloween though was my kitchen! I am the world's messiest baker…. ever!

Happy Trick or Treating everyone!

Halloween Spice Cake
from Giada De Laurentiis

Ingredients

* Butter
* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
* 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
* 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
* 2 teaspoons ground ginger
* 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
* 1 cup sugar
* 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
* 2/3 cup vegetable oil
* 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
* 2 eggs
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* Powdered sugar, for dusting

Directions

For the cake: Place an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, cocoa powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice.

In a large bowl, beat the sugars, oil, applesauce, eggs, and vanilla extract to blend. Add the dry ingredients and stir until just blended. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool the cake for 10 minutes. Unmold the cake and place on a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar and cut into slices for serving.

McCann’s Chewy Oatmeal Cookies

2009-10-25T16:48:00.003-04:00

As the weather gets cooler outside, I find myself reaching for oatmeal most mornings. To my delight yesterday, as I was standing over the stove cooking my breakfast, I noticed this cookie recipe on the back of my McCann’s Irish Oatmeal box.

This recipe really couldn’t be simpler as you can just throw everything into the bowl and mix away – no sifting, or premixing dry ingredients necessary. The original recipe called for pecans, but since I only had walnuts, they went into the bowl instead.

I made these cookies really quite big and expected to get fewer in the end, but to my surprise I finished with even more than the recipe listed! Free cookies…. sort of….!

Perfect for teatime!

Texture-wise these seemed more like a cross between a regular sugar cookie and oatmeal cookie to me. I’m guessing that since these were quick oats, and therefore thinner and flakier than rolled, the oat texture isn’t quite as defined… still delish though! And, the cinnamon and raisins create a nice warm flavor throughout.

Abby was in charge of guarding the cookies, but she fell asleep on the job!

Quite the photogenic one this afternoon, she was cracking me up.

McCann’s Chewy Oatmeal Cookies
Makes 36 cookies

Ingredients

2 cups quick cooking oatmeal
2 cups shortening
2 cups brown sugar
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup pecans (or other nut… like walnuts!)
1 cup raisins

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets.
In a large bowl, cream the shortening and sugar until light. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Then stir in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, milk, and vanilla.
Finally, stir in the oatmeal, pecans and raisins.
Drop rounded spoonfuls of mixture onto the prepared cookie sheets.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
Store in an airtight container

Apple Pie with Crumb Topping and Vanilla Glaze

2009-10-18T16:29:00.007-04:00

I'm back! We took a little break to go on vacation to see the big-eared mouse and his friends in Florida.

Now that we're back and things have finally settled down, it's time to get back in the kitchen! It is autumn after all and to me that means it's the best time of the year to bake! Bring on the pumpkins, apples, cinnamon and nutmeg!

This pie is an adaption of my mom's apple pie recipe. While the ingredients are simple, this has been and will always be my favorite apple pie. She helped me select the apples for this pie. In the mix are Granny Smith, Braeburn, Cortland and Golden Delicious.

Though I changed up the topping this time and chose a crispy crumble.

The only other way to make that better is to add a sweet vanilla glaze. Mmmmmmm.

No pie for an Abbykins, but sometimes sitting in a warm, sunny window is even better!

Apple Pie with Crumb Topping and Vanilla Glaze

Ingredients:
1 pie crust
6 cups thinly sliced apples
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon

(for the crumb topping)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup butter
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

In a mixing bowl combine sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Add sugar mixture to the sliced apples and toss to mix. Fill the pie crust with the apple mixture.

To make the crumb topping, combine the sugar, flour, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg in a small bowl. Cut in the butter until crumbly.

Sprinkle the crumb topping over the apple slices.

Cover the crust with tin foil or a pie crust guard and bake in a preheated oven for 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove the foil/guard and bake for an additional 30-40 minutes or until the topping is golden.

Vanilla glaze:

Combine 2 tablespoons of very soft butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. Add a little milk (less than 1 tablespoon at a time) until you reach the desired constancy. Drizzle over cooled pie.

Double Vanilla Cupcakes

2009-09-07T16:47:00.003-04:00

These cupcakes were another request from my husband's office. Thanks, Jenna for finding such a great recipe to try!

Before this recipe, I had never used a "real" vanilla bean. I've always used either extracts or vanilla bean paste. The paste seemed to work just fine, so I never bothered with a real bean. But, since the vanilla flavor is so prominent in this recipe, (DOUBLE vanilla, as the title implies after all!) we decided to opt for the real thing, and yeah, I'm happy to say it was a VERY good choice.

The vanilla flavor just tasted so much better, almost fresher -- if that makes any sense? And I've got a lot of love for those pretty vanilla bean specks that you can see in the cupcakes!

This recipe was found on Simply Recipes as a guest post from Garrett McCord of Vanilla Garlic. The original post has a nice description of the various types of beans found around the world and their specific scents and flavors.

For me, the highlight of these cupcakes is in the frosting. The butter, sugar and vanilla ratio is spot on and the recipe makes the perfect amount to frost the cupcakes. Yum! And, the report back from the office was very favorable!

Check out those specks!

Double Vanilla Cupcakes Recipe
from Simply Recipes

Ingredients

Cupcake

* 1 ½ cups + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
* 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
* 1 cup sugar
* 1 egg plus 2 egg whites
* 1/2 cup whole milk
* 1/4 cup sour cream
* 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
* 1/2 vanilla bean (or one whole bean if you can spare it)

Frosting

* 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
* 1 1/4 cups of powdered sugar
* 1/2 vanilla bean (or 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract)

Method

1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. While the oven preheats cut open and scrape out the seeds of a vanilla bean. Place the seeds, empty bean, and the milk into a small saucepan. Heat to just under a simmer for a few minutes being careful not to scald the milk. Remove from heat and allow the milk to steep and cool. (Be sure to remove the bean after it cools. Wash it and then place it out to dry so it can be used again.)

2 Beat the butter for about 3 minutes on medium speed, then add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and beat for 30 seconds. Add the egg whites, one at a time, beating for 30 seconds each.

3 In one bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In another whisk together the vanilla steeped milk, vanilla extract, and sour cream.

4 Add the flour mixture and the milk mixture to the butter sugar egg mixture in alternating additions (dry-wet-dry method), starting and ending with the flour. Mix until just combined being sure to not overbeat.

5 Divide the batter into cupcake papers in a muffin tin and bake at 350F for 18-20 minutes or until slightly golden brown. Be sure to rotate the cupcakes after the first 15 minutes to ensure even baking. Be sure to keep a close eye as these can get overbaked quickly. Allow to cool on a wire rack. Frost when cooled.

Frosting

Beat the butter and slowly add in the powdered sugar. Scrape the seeds out of the vanilla bean (or vanilla extract if using) and beat in.

Makes about one dozen cupcakes.

Blackberry Ice Cream with Chocolate Curls

2009-08-23T18:33:00.004-04:00

Few things are better than enjoying homemade ice cream in the summertime. Being a traditionalist at heart, I usually tend to favor vanilla or chocolate, but among the fruit-flavored custards, blackberry is my first choice.

This ice cream turned out really creamy and luscious and I love the natural lavender color it creates. The blackberry flavor isn't over-powering, but adds a nice sweetness to the background. I only used half a pint of berries, but you could use a full pint and some extra sugar for a stronger blackberry flavor.

I like to see bits of the fruit in my ice cream, so I chose to leave more of the whole berries in tact as well as the seeds. You could easily strain out the juice though. I would probably use more than a half pint if you only use the juice.

Chocolate curls are really easy to make. Just place a square of chocolate (I used dark chocolate in this case) in your microwave for a few seconds, just to warm it up. Once it's semi-warm, take a vegetable peeler and drag it along the sides. You'll end up with nice chocolaty curls. I also added a few whole blackberries on the top, just for looks!

Blackberry Ice Cream
makes a little over 1 quart

1/2 pint blackberries
1 1/4 cup sugar, divided
2 large eggs
2 1/4 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup milk (I used 2%)

Place the blackberries in a small bowl and sprinkle with 1/2 cup of sugar. Cover and refrigerate for an hour stirring every so often.

Whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl until they turn a light color. Gradually whisk in the remaining 3/4 cup of sugar and continue mixing until everything is completely blended. Pour in the cream and milk and whisk to combine.

Mash the berries with a fork until they are the desired consistency and add to the cream mixture. (At this point you could just sieve out the juice.)

Transfer the mixture to your ice cream maker and freeze as instructed by the manufacturer's directions.

Black Bottom Cupcakes

2009-08-11T19:59:00.000-04:00

These cupcakes won the vote at my husband's workplace when I sent him in soliciting requests for what treat they would like next. When he came back and said "black bottom cupcakes" I literally scratched my head, scrunched my nose, and thought, "uhh, ok, what exactly is that..." I'd never baked these before, let alone even eaten one, so I had some "research" to do. Dessert research is the best kind of research, in my opinion!

Once again The Joy of Baking was a great site to get info and a recipe. This one comes from David Lebovitz's The Great Book of Chocolate and, wow, was it a winner.

So, basically these are a devil's food cupcake with a baked cream cheese center. They reminded me a lot of a cream cheese brownie. I also added some mini chocolate chips to the cream cheese batter before baking. You really couldn't tell after it was baked though, so I'd probably just skip that next time.

I wasn't enthused about the quasi-messy look of the cream cheese and cake combos I found while Googling photos, so I pulled out my fancy, schmancy, pastry bag and piped the cream cheese filling into the center and top. It worked pretty well and kept the tops of the cupcakes looking "clean".

These got great reviews from the office and since there is no icing on top, they transport REALLY well! Be sure to store them in the fridge -- I think they actually taste best cold -- and they should last around 3-4 days.

Black Bottom Cupcakes
from David Lebovitz's, The Great Book of Chocolate
courtesy of The Joy of Baking

Cream Cheese Filling:

8 ounces (227 grams) cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup (65 grams) granulated white sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips (optional)

Chocolate Cupcakes:

1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all purpose flour
1 cup (210 grams) light brown sugar
1/3 cup (30 grams) natural unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch processed)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (240 ml) water
1/3 cup (80 ml) canola oil
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and line 12 muffin cups with paper liners, or generously butter or spray each cup with a non stick vegetable spray.

Cream Cheese Filling: In your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugar, egg, and vanilla extract and beat until creamy and smooth. Set aside while you make the Chocolate Cupcake batter.

Chocolate Cupcakes: First, in a large bowl sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl mix the water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla extract. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and stir in the wet ingredients until nice and smooth. Evenly divide the batter among the 12 muffin cups. Then spoon a few tablespoons of the cream cheese filling into the center of each cupcake.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes, or until the cream cheese filling is a little brown and the cupcakes feel springy to the touch (a toothpick inserted into the chocolate part of the cupcake will come out clean). Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

These cupcakes can be stored in the refrigerator for about 3 - 4 days.

Makes 12 cupcakes

Blueberry Cake

2009-08-05T19:33:00.003-04:00

Nothing is better than eating freshly picked blueberries from a roadside stand in the summertime, well maybe except for eating those blueberries in the form of cake!

After having a few too many blueberries on hand one week, I began looking for an easy cake recipe to try. This little beauty from SimplyRecipes.com did the trick.

I ended up splitting the batter in half and baking two 6" cakes to give one to my parents -- share the love, right? This cake is definitely family-approved and even though I used fewer blueberries than indicated in the original recipe, it still turned out great. They sank a little into the batter and created a nice sweet and almost gooey topping. Mmmmmm.

Blueberry Cake Recipe
from Simply Recipes

Ingredients

* 1 cup all purpose flour plus 1 teaspoon of flour (plus more for prepping cake pan)
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 4 oz (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
* 1 cup sugar
* 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
* 2 large eggs
* 2 cups blueberries, rinsed and drained (if using frozen blueberries, thaw and drain first)
* 1 teaspoon lemon juice
* Powdered sugar for dusting

Method

1 Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly butter a 9-inch springform pan and dust with flour. Or use a 9-inch round cake pan, butter and dust with flour and line the bottom with parchment paper.

2 Combine 1 cup of flour with baking powder and salt and set aside.

3 Using a mixer, beat the butter on medium high speed for 2 minutes. Then add the sugar and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy, a couple minutes more. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until well blended. Reduce the speed of the mixer to low and slowly add the flour mixture, beating until smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan.

4 Combine the berries with the remaining teaspoon of flour and the lemon juice in a bowl. Spoon the berry mixture over the batter.

5 Bake on middle rack in oven for 1 hour at 350°F, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Carefully slide a thin knife around the edges of the cake to release it from the pan. Transfer the cake to a platter, berry side up. Dust the cake with powdered sugar before serving.

Serves 6.

Decision Time

2009-08-04T21:20:00.002-04:00

You may have noticed a decrease in posts lately. This is partly due to those pesky aspects of life getting in the way of me "doing my thing" -- being in the kitchen and baking. If only I didn't have to work everyday! But, it's also partly due to the factors (like time) involved in calculating nutritional information for each recipe. I've also noticed myself passing up recipes that I want to make because of this, even though I do believe all things in moderation are just fine. At this point, I feel like the only way to get back to doing what I love most, baking, photographing, and posting, is to forgo the nutritional details for recipes when they don't already list them. I hope this decision doesn't upset any of my readers, but I think it's the only way for me to keep posting regularly.

I'm excited to get back to trying new recipes and posting again. Look for a new post tomorrow!

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

2009-07-06T20:05:00.002-04:00

Warm Summer days have finally arrived here in the northeast and that means ice cream season has officially begun! Last year we bought this little, electric ice cream maker and we love it! It's got the gel style bowl that's kept in the freezer until you're ready to use it. Then you just dump in your ingredients and turn it on. About half an hour later you have perfect ice cream -- no ice or messy rock salt necessary.

Another thing we love about this ice cream maker is that it only makes around 1.5-2 quarts of ice cream at a time, so we can make a lot of different varieties in small batches. Hint, hint... expect to see more ice cream and gelato here in the future.

The first ice cream we made this year was mint chocolate chip in honor of my father-in-law who loves the stuff. Unfortunately though, I forgot the part of our conversation where he asked to leave out the chocolate chips. Oops! Honestly though, mint chocolate chip ice cream minus the chocolate chips is as weird as my husband ordering chicken and broccoli minus the broccoli (and yes, that's how he orders it -- embarrassing, yes I know..) Anyway, this ice cream really surprised us all at how good it was. The recipe is so simple that we weren't expecting too much, but it's really good!

The second batch of ice cream we made was this same recipe, but without the chips. I have no photos as my father-in-law made quick work of it and it disappeared before I had a chance to get my camera out. One other change I made in the second batch was to use half whole milk and half 2% milk, rather than all 2%. The difference in creaminess was definitely noticeable and I think this may be a real winner for a basic ice cream recipe to customize with different flavorings.

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
from Allrecipes.com
Makes 2 quarts (8 one-cup servings)

INGREDIENTS

* 2 cups 2% milk (or 1 cup whole, 1 cup 2%)
* 2 cups heavy cream
* 1 cup sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
* 3 drops green food coloring (optional)
* 1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl, stir together the milk, cream, sugar, salt, vanilla extract and peppermint extract until the sugar has dissolved. Color to your liking with the green food coloring.

2. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker, and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. After about 10 minutes into the freezing, add the chocolate chips. After the ice cream has thickened, about 30 minutes later. You can eat it soft this way or spoon into a container, and freeze for 2 hours.

Nutritional Info (Courtesy of Allrecipes.com)
**So, the calories and fat are really high, but this is for eight 1-cup servings, which is a pretty generous amount of ice cream! Most store bought ice cream is labeled in 1/2 cup servings**

Servings Per Recipe: 8
Amount Per Serving

Calories: 455
Total Fat: 30.7g
Cholesterol: 86mg
Sodium: 196mg
Total Carbs: 45.4g
Dietary Fiber: 1.5g
Protein: 4.3g

Happy Birthday Mom

2009-06-06T22:08:00.002-04:00

We had this chocolate and peanut butter cake for my mom's birthday party. She is a lover of anything with chocolate and peanut butter, so this turned out to be a big hit.

The cake is made of two layers using this recipe for white chocolate cake batter. In between the cake is a thick layer of chocolate buttercream and covering the outside is peanut butter. I made rosettes and stars using a 2-D tip. The base for the icing recipe was Wilton's Buttercream and I just added peanut butter and cocoa powder to each until it had the right flavor I wanted. I chopped up mini Reece's peanut butter cups and piled them in the center and then drizzled melted chocolate over the top. MMmmmmm.... major peanut butter and chocolate overload!

Oh, and we don't count calories on birthdays, so no official calculation here!

Vanilla Bean Shortbread with Berries and Whipped Cream

2009-05-26T20:35:00.001-04:00

This shortbread recipe comes together really quickly and easily. Half of the butter is swapped out for canola oil, making them lighter and crisper than your typical shortbread.

Once again I turned to my bottle of vanilla bean paste rather than use an actual vanilla bean. It's just more economical and I don't know if there really is a difference in flavor. If anyone has any opinions, please let me know. Maybe I'll have to give in and buy some vanilla beans some day!

I thought berries would make a good addition so their juice would soak into the shortbread a little -- kind of like biscotti with coffee. Mmmmmm... and well, honestly who can eat berries without whipped cream? We served this as part of our Memorial Day party spread and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

If you look closely, you can see the tiny, black vanilla bean specks in the shortbread.

Vanilla Bean Shortbread
from Cooking Light May 2009 and online

Makes 32 servings (serving size: 1 piece)

Ingredients

* Cooking spray
* 9 ounces all-purpose flour (about 2 cups)
* 1/4 cup cornstarch
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 cup butter, softened
* 1/2 cup canola oil
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise (or 1 TBL Vanilla Bean Paste)

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Line bottom and sides of a 13 x 9–inch baking pan with foil; coat foil with cooking spray, and set aside.

3. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, cornstarch, and salt in a large bowl; stir with a whisk.

4. Place butter in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed 2 minutes or until light and fluffy. Add oil; beat with a mixer at medium speed 3 minutes or until well blended. Gradually add sugar, beating well. Scrape seeds from vanilla bean, and add seeds to butter mixture; discard bean. Add flour mixture, beating at low speed just until blended. Spoon dough into prepared pan. Place a sheet of heavy-duty plastic wrap over dough; press to an even thickness. Discard plastic wrap. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool in pan 5 minutes on a wire rack; cut into 32 pieces. Carefully lift foil from pan; cool squares completely on a wire rack.

***To make the toppings, I combined blueberries, raspberries, and diced strawberries with sugar (to taste depending on your desired sweetness).

Whipped cream was made by whipping heavy cream with an electric mixer and adding a little powdered sugar (to taste again depending on your desired sweetness).***

Nutritional Information for Shortbread provided by Cooking Light
Calories: 101
Fat: 6.4g (sat 2.1g,mono 2.8g,poly 1.2g)
Protein: 0.9g
Carbohydrate: 10.1g
Fiber: 0.2g
Cholesterol: 8mg
Iron: 0.4mg
Sodium: 39mg
Calcium: 2mg

Fresh Rhubarb Pie

2009-05-11T21:15:00.002-04:00

It’s rhubarb season here! My dad is the only one in my immediate family that likes rhubarb, so he lucked out and got an entire pie to himself. He’s been making out quite well in receiving all the baked goods lately. My dad has a pretty large patch of rhubarb growing in his garden, so I guess that’s his trick to getting my mom and me to bake for him… sneaky, isn’t he?

He requested a pie with the stack of rhubarb he handed me. My mom helped me find a recipe in one of her older Better Homes and Gardens cookbooks that she said had been tried and true.

The recipe was pretty simple and followed the same steps for a basic apple pie recipe – dice the fruit (Rhubarb isn’t a fruit is it? Is it a vegetable? Does it fall into that “other” category?), add sugar and butter, and bake in a pie shell.

I do think rhubarb is really pretty though. It has a cross of colors from bright green to a really pretty reddish pink.

Dad said he really liked the pie and in just a few days had actually eaten the entire thing and two other little tartlets I made. I only wish I had that kind of metabolism!

Fresh Rhubarb Pie
from Better Homes and Gardens All-Time Favorite Pies

serves 8

1 1/4 cups sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
dash salt
4 cups rhubarb cut into 1-inch pieces
double pastry crust
2 tablespoons butter

In mixing bowl combine sugar, flour, and salt. Stir in rhubarb pieces; toss gently to coat fruit. Let fruit mixture stand for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare and roll out pastry. Line a 9-inch pie plate with half of the pastry. Trim pastry to edge of pie plate. Turn rhubarb mixture into pastry-lined pie plate. Dot with butter. Cover with top lattice crust (cut slits to allow steam to escape if using whole crust to cover). Seal and flute edge.

To prevent overbrowning, cover edge of pie with foil. Place pie on cookie sheet to catch any drippings. Bake pie in 375 degree oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake for about 25 minutes more or till golden.

Nutritional Information (courtesy of CalorieCount.com)

Calories 379
Calories from Fat 137
Total Fat 15.2g
Saturated Fat 4.9g
Total Carbohydrates 58.1g
Dietary Fiber 2.0g
Protein 3.8g

Pecan Sandies

2009-04-18T08:23:00.008-04:00

Growing up it seemed like my dad would always have a package of those Keebler Pecan Sandies at the house. They were ok, I guess, but you had to practically pull out a microscope to find any pecans in them. (No offense to the Keebler Corporation, of course!)

I saw these in the April issue of Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine and decided to make them as a surprise for my dad. A little friendly competition between those Keebler Elves and Martha Stewart, if you will.

The Martha Stewart recipe was really easy to follow - not many ingredients and they were a cinch to roll into balls. I was concerned about my brown sugar when I opened the bag and found it nearly rock hard. A quick Google search revealed that you can place a damp paper towel inside the bag, seal it up and microwave it for a minute or so. This worked really well! These cookies baked up really evenly and held together perfectly.

So, who's cookie will reign as pecan sandie champion? Sorry, Keebler... Martha Stewart rocked this competition... and easily I might add. These cookies are awesome with their big chunks of pecan goodness. You can really taste the butter in them, so be sure to use the real thing. I had one soon after they came out of the oven and then another when taking photos of them. It's hard not to do that! The rest are packed up and ready to go down to my dad. Hope he likes them as much as I do.

Pecan Sandies
Martha Stewart Everyday Food Magazine and Online
Makes 18

Ingredients

* 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
* 1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
* 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
* 1 cup pecans, coarsely chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy; beat in vanilla and salt. With mixer on low, gradually add flour, beating just until combined. Fold in pecans.
2. Roll dough into 1 1/2-inch balls, and place on two baking sheets, 2 inches apart. With the dampened bottom of a glass, lightly flatten each ball.
3. Bake until cookies are golden brown, 15 to 17 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Transfer to wire racks, and let cool. (To store, keep in an airtight container, up to 5 days.)

Nutritional Information (from Everyday Food Magazine)
per cookie
135 cal
9.4 g fat (3.6 g sat fat)
12.1 g carb
0.8 g fiber
1.3 g protein

This is for you Edie!
Chloe loves to do her sunbathing. Oh to have the life of a cat!

Chocolate Sour Cream Cupcakes

2009-03-31T20:32:00.001-04:00

When I saw the newest issue of Clean Eating magazine on the shelf, I immediately grabbed it up. I love this magazine, but more importantly for me these lovely, little cupcakes were gracing its cover. YUM!

I made a couple of changes to the recipe. First, I didn't have any sucanat so I opted to use half brown sugar, half regular sugar. (Not very clean... I know!) Then I decided to just go with a simple dusting of powdered sugar and top with a raspberry and mint sprig. Thanks to my new Aerogarden I have what seems like an endless supply of mint! Expect to see more in the future!

I also decided to use up some mini cupcake liners, so I made 22 mini cupcakes and still got 8 regular sized ones too. I think this recipe makes a heck of a lot more batter than it says it yields! Some of my larger cakes did fall though, BUT that could have been due to not whipping the egg whites enough. In my defense, my father-in-law was taking an exam in the next room and I felt like the mixer was causing a distraction for him. Eight cupcakes were sacrificed on his behalf, but it's ok. He's family.

Overall these cupcakes were bowl-licking good. My husband, who never eats cake batter, couldn't get enough of this stuff. Of course the baked version is great too and low in calories!

Sour Cream Cupcakes
from Clean Eating Magazine

Makes 12 regular-sized cupcakes (so they say...)

Ingredients
1 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder
1 1/4 cup Sucanat, divided (I used half brown and half white sugar)
1/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 cup low-fat sour cream
1/3 cup plus 2 tsp skim milk, divided
1 tbls olive oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 whole egg plus 2 egg whites
1 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped, plus more for garnish

(I skipped the bittersweet chocolate + 2 tbls skim milk topping)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper cupcake liners.

In a large mixing bowl, combine cocoa powder, 1 cup of the sugar, flour, salt, and baking soda.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together sour cream, 1/3 cup milk, oil, vanilla, and whole egg.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in wet ingredients. Combine everything with a rubber spatula.

Add egg whites to a large clean, dry mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Whip whites with beater or whisk attachment of mixer until they begin to get foamy. Add remaining 1/4 cup sugar very gradually to whites. Continue whipping whites into medium-stiff peaks.

Fold whites in thirds into cake batter, gently but assertively with rubber spatula.

Fill each of the 12 cupcake liners 3/4 full with batter. Tap bottom of filled muffin pan on counter top and transfer immediately to oven. Bake for 45 minutes (mine took a lot less -- maybe 26-28 minutes!) or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.

Remove from oven and let cupcakes cool completely.

When cupcakes are completely cool, combine chocolate and remaining 2 tsp milk in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave on 50% power for 30 seconds. Stir until melted chocolate is completely smooth. Spread a thin layer on top of each cupcake. Sprinkle additional chocolate shavings on top, if desired.

Nutritional Information for original recipe (if you chose to dust with powdered sugar instead you could knock off a few more calories)

Calories: 160
Total Fat: 6 g.
Sat. Fat: 3 g.
Carbs: 28 g.
Fiber: 3 g.
Sugars: 22 g.
Protein: 4 g.
Sodium: 85 mg.
Cholesterol: 10 g.

Super Easy Banana Nut Bread

2009-03-09T19:50:00.004-04:00

Ok, so we've already discussed my lack of enthusiasm for banana bread. Well, I think I may be converted now and with such a simple recipe too.

A co-worker at my office brought in a plate of this banana bread and I was shocked at how much I liked it. Crazy, I know! I think the texture is by far the best part. The top gets a little crunchy and the inside is so dense and moist. I asked her for the recipe and she said it came from the back of a box of Bisquick, which made me doubly shocked. It's really good.

The calorie count on this is pretty high and it's so hard to stop at just one piece-- so just know that you've been warned!

Banana Nut Bread

2 1/3 c. Bisquick
1 c. sugar
1/3 c. canola oil
3 eggs
3 lg. very ripe bananas
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. chopped nuts

Mix together Bisquick, sugar, oil and eggs, beat well. Stir in bananas. Add vanilla and nuts. Bake at 350 degrees for 55 to 60 minutes in loaf pan.

Nutritional Information (calculated from caloriecount.com)

Calories 290
Total Fat 13.6g
Sodium 337mg
Total Carbohydrates 39.0g
Dietary Fiber 1.7g
Sugars 23.2g
Protein 4.5g

Key Lime Cupcakes

2009-03-02T20:45:00.003-05:00

I had a request from one of Shannon's coworkers, to make key lime cupcakes. I remembered making them before on my old blog from a version of this recipe. They worked well then, so I thought I'd make them again.

The cupcake anatomy is basically a yellow cake flavored with lime juice and zest, filled with a sweet and creamy key lime filling and topped with coconut flavored whipped cream. You could really use any kind of topping for these. The recipe suggests meringue, but I think the whipped cream works even better and I'd guess that cream cheese would work well too.

It may be hard to find key limes or key lime juice in your grocery store. I don't think I've ever seen bottled key lime juice, but occasionally our stores will actually carry key limes. They are super tiny limes (around the size of a quarter). I sliced and squeezed quite a few of those little guys before getting a third of a cup, but they smelled really good! If you can find key lime juice, it'll save a lot of time.

These were apparently a big hit at the office. Yay! Shannon said that Adam really liked them, so mission accomplished.

Key Lime Cupcakes
from Cupcakes by the Cake Mix Doctor
makes 24 cupcakes

24 paper liners for cupcake pans (2 1/2-inch size)

CUPCAKES

1 large lime, scrubbed (for 1 teaspoon zest and 2 tablespoons juice)
4 large eggs
1 package (18.25 ounces) plain yellow cake mix
1 package (3.4 ounces) vanilla instant pudding mix
1 1/4 cups water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon coconut flavoring

FILLING

1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup Key lime juice

COCONUT MERINGUE (Coconut Whipped Cream recipe below)

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
Reserved 3 large egg whites
1/2 teaspoon coconut flavoring
1/3 cup granulated sugar

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 24 cupcake cups with paper liners. Set the pans aside.

2. Prepare the cupcake batter: With a citrus zester or fine grater, zest the lime and reserve 1 teaspoon. Cut the lime in half and squeeze the juice over a strainer into a small bowl; you should have 2 tablespoons. Set aside. Separate 3 of the eggs, place the whites in a large clean mixing bowl and the yolks in another mixing bowl.

3. Add the remaining egg, cake mix, pudding mix, water, oil, coconut flavoring and lime zest and juice to the yolks. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping down the sides again if needed. The batter should look well blended. Spoon or scoop 1/4 cup batter into each lined cupcake cup, filling it two thirds of the way full. Place the pans in the oven.

4. Bake the cupcakes until they are lightly golden and spring back when lightly pressed with your finger, 18 to 22 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and place them on wire racks to cool for 5 minutes. Increase the oven heat to 450 degrees F.

5. Run a dinner knife around the edges of the cupcake liners, lift the cupcakes up from the bottoms of the cups using the end of the knife, and pick them out of the cups carefully with your fingertips. Place them on a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes before filling.

6. Meanwhile, prepare the filling: Place the sweetened condensed milk and Key lime juice in a small bowl and stir to combine. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a medium tip. Press the tip 1/4 inch into the top center of each cooked cupcake and squeeze the bag to release about 1 tablespoon filling into the cupcake. Scrape off any excess filling with a rubber spatula. Place the cooled cupcakes nearly side by side on a baking sheet.

7. Prepare the meringue: Add the cream of tartar to the reserved egg whites and beat with an electric mixer on high speed until frothy, 45 seconds. Add the coconut flavoring and 1 tablespoon of the sugar. Continue beating on high, adding 1 tablespoon sugar at a time, until the whites form stiff peaks (if you pull the beaters from the meringue, the meringue should extend from the beaters in straight stiff peaks). Spoon 2 tablespoons meringue onto the top of each cupcake and swirl to spread it just to the edges with a short metal spatula or a spoon. Place the pan in the oven. Bake until the meringue is light nutty brown in color, 5 to 6 minutes. Run a dinner knife around the edges of the cupcake liners, lift the cupcakes up from the bottoms of the cups using the end of the knife, and pick them out of the cups carefully with your fingers. Serve at once, or allow the cupcakes to cool 10 minutes, then serve.

Store these cupcakes, in a cake saver at room temperature, for up to 3 days.

COCONUT WHIPPED CREAM

1 pint heavy whipping cream
3-4 TBL powdered sugar
1-2 tsp coconut extract

Whip cream until almost stiff. Add sugar and coconut extract; beat until cream holds peaks.

Estimated Nutrition Facts

CUPCAKE & FILLING ONLY (does not include whipped or meringue topping)

Calories 190
Calories from Fat 76
Total Carbohydrates 26.1g
Sugars 13.0g
Protein 3.1g
Fiber less than 1 g

Chocolate Milk Bath

2009-02-12T20:10:00.004-05:00

Ok, so you can't eat it, but it's definitely a nice way to indulge!

I'll admit it; I adore spa products. Any kind of lotion, scrub, bubble bath -- I'm all over it, but frankly that stuff gets expensive! Lately I've discovered that you can make that stuff yourself, and for a few cents compared to the hefty price tags in the boutiques and spas.

I keep telling myself that someday I'll make it here to relax in one of their Whipped Cocoa Baths.

Hershey Spa - "Settle into our foaming chocolate milk bath for a soothing and softening signature Hershey experience. Milk will soften and renew the skin while you indulge in this chocolate experience"

I can't help wonder though how far this little mixture I made myself would compare though. I thought it would be a great way to relax and enjoy Valentines day with some calorie-free chocolate.

Chocolate Milk Bath

1/2 cup powdered milk
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup Epsom salts
1/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup cornstarch

Add all ingredients, mix well, and store in a jar. Add a handful to your bath and enjoy.

Chocolate Fudge Pie

2009-02-08T20:10:00.003-05:00

It's February and that means it's Chocolate Month!

First up is a chocolate fudge pie that's really hard to believe it recipe came from a Cooking Light recipe. It's so chocolaty and rich; the filling reminded me of Ina Garten's brownie tart.... a somewhat gooey, somewhat set chocolate brownie.

You could bake this pie in any kind of shell. The recipe calls for a traditional pie crust, but I think any kind from graham cracker to chocolate cookie crust would be perfect. Someday my pie crust crimping skills will be decent, but until that day, well, this is what we get. =)

To keep from having a whole pie sitting around calling my name, I halved the recipe and baked it in a mini pie dish. You could easily make mini-tarts from it too. The recipe suggests dusting the top with cocoa powder. I chose to top mine with chocolate shavings, but I bet fresh raspberries would be awesome.

Chocolate Fudge Pie
from Cooking Light
serves 10

* 1 9-inch pie crust (I used the crust from this recipe)
* 1 cup packed brown sugar
* 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
* 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
* 3/4 cup 2% milk
* 1/3 cup light corn syrup
* 1 tablespoon butter, melted
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 2 large eggs
* 2 large egg whites
* 1 cup frozen fat-free whipped topping, thawed
* 1/2 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°.

Fit dough into a 9-inch pie plate. Fold edges under; flute. Place pie plate in freezer until ready to use.

Combine brown sugar, 1/2 cup cocoa, and flour in a large bowl. Combine milk and next 5 ingredients (milk through egg whites); stir with a whisk until well blended. Add milk mixture to brown sugar mixture; stir until combined.

Pour mixture into crust. Bake at 350° for 40 minutes or until just set. Cool on a wire rack to room temperature. Cover; chill at least 4 hours. Spread whipped topping evenly over filling; sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon cocoa, if desired.

Nutritional Information:

Calories: 272 (28% from fat)
Fat: 8.6g (sat 4g,mono 2.7g,poly 1.4g)
Protein: 4.3g
Carbohydrate: 46.5g
Fiber: 1.5g
Cholesterol: 51mg
Iron: 1.2mg
Sodium: 150mg
Calcium: 53mg

Ahhh... That's Better

2009-02-08T16:57:00.004-05:00

The kitchen is finally finished. We now have running water again, and the dust has been washed away too! I love the new counter tops... so much better than the old yucky tile. It's time to get in there and bake.

A new post to come later. If you look close enough you can see it cooling on the stove top.

A Peak Inside the Kitchen

2009-01-31T22:09:00.006-05:00

We're still in the middle of some home improvement projects here at the homestead. Due to following disaster in the kitchen, as pictured below, all cooking and baking activities have discontinued.

I shudder every time I see this picture.
New countertops are set to arrive on Monday, which can't come fast enough!

White on White Cupcakes

2009-01-18T15:30:00.007-05:00

Ok, I just have to get right to the point with these cupcakes. They are absolutely, positively fantastic. It's really hard to believe that something so good could come from a boxed cake mix. I used the White on White Cupcake recipe from the book Cupcakes from the Cake Mix Doctor.

The cake flavor is hard to describe. It uses a white cake mix as the base, but the addition of melted white chocolate is incredible. I'm not really a fan of white chocolate in general, but it really works for this recipe and certainly does not overpower it. It actually reminds me of a very flavorful, old-fashioned vanilla cake with the buttercream icing on top. The melted white chocolate makes the batter very thick. No worries though, they puffed up and rose beautifully in the oven and have a very nice, tender crumb.

Cupcake production though, was a little more on the challenging side. Since our kitchen is under construction while we have the counter top replaced, I packed up all of my ingredients and headed to my parents' house. Thanks for all you help, mom, dad and Emily!

These awesome, little cupcake liners came courtesy of Steph from A Whisk And A Spoon. Having traveled all the way from Australia, I've been waiting for just the perfect recipe to use with them. Thank you again, so much!

A rare photo... sometimes they actually make me believe they do love each other!

White on White Cupcakes
from Cupcakes by the Cake Mix Doctor
Makes 24 standard-sized cupcakes

Ingredients:
24 paper liners (2 1/2 inch size)
1 cup (6 oz.) white chocolate chips
1 package (18.25 oz) white cake mix
1 cup whole milk
1/3 cup canola oil
1 large egg
3 large egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 24 cupcake cups with paper liners and set aside.

2. Place the white chocolate chips in a medium-sized glass mixing bowl in the microwave oven on high power for 50 seconds to 1 minute. Remove the bowl from the oven and stir with a small rubber spatula until it is smooth. Set it aside to cool slightly.

3. Place the cake mix, milk, oil, egg, egg whites, vanilla, and melted white chocolate in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping down the sides again if needed. Spoon or scoop 1/4 cup batter into each cup filling it two-thirds full.

4. Bake the cupcakes until they are lightly golden and spring back when lightly pressed, 17 to 20 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and allow to cool completely before frosting.

Buttercream Icing

8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter
3 cups confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons milk (add more if needed)
1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add the confectioner's sugar, milk, and vanilla. Blend until all ingredients are incorporated and the icing is light and fluffy.

I also added white chocolate shavings to the edges of the cupcakes for decoration.

Estimated Nutrition Information
Calories 263
Total Fat 12.1g
Cholesterol 22mg
Total Carbohydrates 36.8g
Protein 2.5g
Fiber less than 1 g

Dark and Dangerous Cinnamon Rolls

2009-01-11T14:35:00.009-05:00

One of the cookbooks that I received for Christmas this past year was The King Arthur Flour Whole Grains Baking book. This is a massive book (544 pages!), loaded with lots of information on different grains, different ways to use them and then of course the recipes. One of the best parts is that each recipe includes the nutritional information!

Stuck at home on a snowy Saturday afternoon, I was flipping through the book with hopes of baking something. As soon as I landed on the cinnamon roll section I knew I wasn't going to get any further until I made some of them. The Dark and Dangerous Cinnamon Rolls were calling to me, so I got to work. These cinnamon rolls are called dark and dangerous because they use whole wheat (dark) flour and dangerous because they're hard to stop eating.

Usually I pass over any recipe involving yeast, unless I'm using my bread machine. There are so many steps and room for mistakes, but this time I was feeling up for a challenge. This is a very time intensive recipe, letting the dough rise two separate times, but it really wasn't that bad because I mixed everything up at the beginning and then all that was left to do was let the dough rise, assemble the rolls then let them rise again before baking. Not too bad!

I thought these were actually pretty darn tasty, definitely sweet and cinnamon-y, but they were a tad on the dry side. I think that may have been due to my substitution of regular flour for the potato flakes or potato flour, which I didn't have on hand. I used whole wheat pastry flour, and couldn't really pick up on any "whole grainy" flavor, but my ultra-picky husband took one bite and said "Wheat flour?", to which I replied "Well technically the majority of flour that I use comes from wheat, honey," but he was on to me. So, while I thought they were delicious, some super-picky eaters (Hi honey!) may not be feeling the whole grain cinnamon roll love.

An interesting tip included in the book was how to avoid "exploding" cinnamon rolls. You know those ones where the middles are popping upward and the whole roll looks more like a cone. They suggest that when you are rolling the filled roll into a log that you do it as loosely as possible. That gives room for the dough to expand and create a more even bun shape.

Dark and Dangerous Cinnamon Buns
from The King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking book

makes 16 buns

Ingredients

Dough:
3/4 plus 2 tablespoons (7 ounces) lukewarm water
1/4 cup (2 ounces) orange juice
5 tablespoons (3 3/4 ounces) honey
1 large egg, separated (reserve the white)
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick, 2 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces
3 1/2 cups (14 ounces) whole wheat flour
1/2 cup (1 3/4 ounces) old-fashioned rolled oats
Heaping 1/2 cup (1 1/4 ounces) dried potato flakes or 3 tablespoons (1 1/4 ounces potato flour)
1/4 cup (1 ounce) nonfat dry milk
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons instant yeast

Filling:
1 cup (7 1/2 ounces) packed light or dark brown sugar
1 large egg white
2 tablespoons (1/2 ounce) ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt

Icing:
2 cups (8 ounces) confectioner's sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) unsalted butter, melted
Pinch of salt
2 or 3 tablespoons (1 to 1 1/2 ounch) milk or cream, enough to make a spreadable icing

To prepare the dough:
Combine all the dough ingredients, using the egg yolk and setting the white aside to use in the filling. Mix and knead - by hand, mixer or bread machine - (I used my stand mixer with the dough hook) until you have a medium-soft, smooth dough. Cover and allow the dough to rise until it's quite puffy, though probably not doubled in bulk, 1 to 2 hours. While the dough is rising, make the filling. (I also made the icing -- and made 1.5 times as much to we'd have lots of icing)

To prepare the filling:
Combine the filling ingredients in a small bowl, stirring until smooth.

Lightly grease a 9x13-inch, 11-inch square, 12-inch round or similar sized pan.

To shape the buns:
Gently deflate the dough, and transfer it to a lightly greased work surface. Roll and pat it into a 12x16-inch rectangle. Spread the filling over the dough, leaving a 1-inch margin along one long edge. If the filling seems too sticky to spread easily, wet your fingers and smear it over the dough as best you can.

Starting with the filling-covered long edge, roll the dough into a log, turning it so the seam is flat against the work surface. Using a long serrated knife or dental floss, gently cut it into 16 pieces.

Place the guns in the prepared pan, spacing them evenly: they won't touch one another. Cover the pan with lightly greased plastic wrap or a proof cover, and allow the buns to rise for 1 to 1 1/4 hours. They wont double in size, but will become about half again as large as they were originally. They should barely touch each other. Near the end of the buns' rise, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

To bake the buns:
Bake the buns, until they're a deep golden brown on top, 25-28 minutes. Remove them from the oven and after 3 minutes, carefully turn them out, upside-down, onto a rack. Place another rack, feet side up on the buns, and invert them once again, so their tops are up. they'll be hot and delicate, so be careful While the buns are cooling a bit, make the icing.

To finish the buns:
Beat together the sguar, vanilla, butter, salt, and 2 tablespoons of the milk (or cream) in a medium mixing bowl. Beat in additional milk or cream if the icing is too stiff to spread. Spread the icing on the lukewarm buns. Serve immediately, or cool completely, cover, and store at room temperature. Buns will keep well, covered, for several days.

Nutrition Information per serving (1 bun 96g)
28g whole grains,
288 cal
5g fat
6g protein
22g complex carbohydrates
33g sugar
4g dietary fiber
25mg cholesterol
225mg sodium
225mg potassium
43RE vitamin A
3mg vitamin C
2mg iron
62mg calcium
139mg phosphorus

Christmas Goodies

2008-12-24T11:23:00.002-05:00

To say that this has been a crazy Christmas at our house would be an understatement. A back injury had sidelined me from doing almost anything in an upright position, including finishing up my homemade Christmas goodies. Thankfully though I'm almost back to normal and so the kitchen production has continued like mad both yesterday and today.

One good thing that turned out because of all of this though is that I got to spend this morning, which just happens to be my birthday, finishing up all of these sweets in the kitchen. I missed being in there this past week.

So my Christmas goodie boxes this year will contain a combination of the following: peppermint patties, vanilla bean patties, chocolate drizzled pretzels, and cherry gumdrops.

Peppermint Patties in Semi-Sweet Chocolate
I love York Peppermint Patties, and I was amazed at how easy it is to create your own at home. I recently purchased this book by Reader's Digest. It has a ton of recipes to make anything from candy to household cleaners to spa products. I really was a great find. These peppermint patties turned out great. I'm not so good in the "chocolate covering" department so they aren't exactly uniform in presentation, but hey that's what homemade goodies are all about, right?

Peppermint Patties

* 3 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar
* 3 Tablespoons butter, softened
* 2 to 3 teaspoons peppermint extract
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1/4 cup evaporated milk
* 2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
* 2 Tablespoons shortening or canola oil

Preparation:
In a bowl, combine confectioners' sugar, butter or margarine, peppermint extract, and vanilla extract. Add evaporated milk and mix well.

Roll into 1-inch balls and place on a waxed paper-lined cookie sheet. Flatten with a glass to 1/4-inch thickness. Chill for 30 minutes.

In a double-boiler or microwave-safe bowl, melt chocolate chips and shortening/oil. Dip patties and place on waxed paper to harden.

Yield: about 5 dozen small patties [Mine must have been a lot bigger because I only ended up with around 3 dozen]

Vanilla Bean Patties in Milk Chocolate
Taking a spin on the peppermint patties I decided to adapt the recipe into a vanilla version by simply switching the peppermint extract with some vanilla bean paste. I picked up a bottle of this stuff when we were in Virginia this past fall. All I can say is this stuff is crazy awesome. Since vanilla beans are pretty expensive, I rarely, well make that, never have cooked with them. This paste though gives you all the benefits of a vanilla bean in a convenient liquid form. It's probably not exactly as good as a vanilla bean pod, but it's definitely the next best thing. Of course you could just use all vanilla extract and these patties would turn out just as good. I have to say, I like these more than the peppermint ones.

Vanilla Bean Patties

* 3 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar
* 3 Tablespoons butter, softened
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
* 1/4 cup evaporated milk
* 2 cups milk chocolate chips
* 2 Tablespoons shortening or canola oil

Preparation:
In a bowl, combine confectioners' sugar, butter or margarine, extract, and vanilla bean paste. Add evaporated milk and mix well.

Roll into 1-inch balls and place on a waxed paper-lined cookie sheet. Flatten with a glass to 1/4-inch thickness. Chill for 30 minutes.

In a double-boiler or microwave-safe bowl, melt chocolate chips and shortening/oil. Dip patties and place on waxed paper to harden.

Yield: about 3 dozen small patties

**Note: The vanilla intensity is up to you. I kept tasting it until I had the flavor that I liked best. Start small and keep adding more vanilla until you reach the right amount.**

Chocolate Drizzled Pretzels
Who doesn't love chocolate and pretzels, with its sweet and salty delicous-ness?? First I lined up all of my pretzels onto a wire rack. Then I melted semi-sweet chocolate chips in the microwave with a little canola oil. I added the melted chocolate to a plastic bag, snipped off the corner and then to speed things up, drizzle the chocolate over the pretzels. A few shakes of red and green sprinkles and voila Christmas Chocolate Drizzled Pretzels are born.

Cherry Gumdrops
This is another recipe from the Reader's Digest book. It also was amazingly easy to create and tastes pretty darn good.

Gumdrops

3 envelopes unflavored gelatin
1 1/4 cups water
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4-1/2 teaspoon flavoring extract of your choice
Food coloring
Additional Sugar

In a small bowl, sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup of water; let mixture stand for 5 minutes.

In a small saucepan over moderate heat, combine the sugar and remaining water; bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Add gelatin mixture and reduce heat. Simmer, stirring constantly for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the flavoring extract and food coloring.

Lightly grease two 8 x 4 x 2-inch loaf pans. Pour the mixture into the pans and refrigerate for 3 hours or until firm.

Lightly coat a work surface with sugar and fill a plastic storage bag with sugar. Using a sharp knife, loosen the edges of the gumdrop mixture from the sides of the pans, then turn the mixture out onto the prepared surface. Cut the gumdrops into 1/2 inch cubes and drop the cubes into the bag of sugar. Shake the bag of sugar (in true Shake N Bake style) to coat the gumdrops with sugar. Place the gumdrops on a baking sheet covered with parchment or wax paper and let them stand at room temperature, uncovered, until they are dry on all sides, 3 to 4 hours; turn the gumdrops every hour to allow each side to dry. Cover the gumdrops with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

I hope everyone celebrating has a wonderful holiday! I found this article and thought it was pretty funny. Actual Cost of the 12 Days of Christmas. Who has an extra $86,609 lying around these days??

Merry Christmas!

Espresso Double-Chocolate Chunk Cookies

2008-12-11T20:49:00.002-05:00

The holiday baking continues at my house with these Espresso Double-Chocolate Chunk Cookies. I'm actually not a fan of coffee, but when you pair it up with chocolate, I'm all over it! They remind me of a cookie version of a mudslide.

I found this recipe on the Martha Stewart website. There's even a video from the show that goes over every step. It's just like your basic chocolate chip cookie recipe, but with cocoa powder and instant espresso thrown in. Dee-licious!

I chose to make them smaller than what the recipe suggests. For me, when it comes to holiday cookies, more variety is better than just having one or two giant cookies. I dropped them into 1-1 1/2 inch balls and ended up with around 40 average-sized cookies. Just be sure to pull them from the oven sooner. Mine were perfectly done at 16 minutes. The nutritional information below is based on 36 cookies, so if you get more, like I did, you can figure them at even fewer calories.

Undoubtedly, the best way to enjoy these cookies is with a glass of cold milk.

Espresso Double-Chocolate Chunk Cookies
From marthastewart.com
makes 18 large or 36-40 average-sized cookies

Ingredients

* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/2 cup cocoa powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 2 tablespoons instant espresso powder
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
* 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
* 1/2 cup granulated sugar
* 1 large egg, plus one large egg yolk
* 7 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda; set aside. In a small bowl, stir together espresso powder, vanilla, and a tablespoon of water; set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add egg and yolk; mix until incorporated. Add espresso mixture; mix well, scraping down the sides of a bowl with a spatula. At low speed, add flour mixture in small batches, mixing until just combined. Remove bowl from mixer, and stir in chocolate chunks.
4. Using a 2-ounce ice-cream scoop (for large) or a teaspoon (for small), scoop balls of dough and place 3 inches (large) or 1 inch (small) apart on prepared baking sheets. Bake until cookies are set, about 20 minutes (16 minutes for small). Remove from oven; let cool completely before removing cookies.

Approx. Nutritional Information
(based on 36 cookies)

Amount Per Serving (1 cookie)
Calories 123.7
Total Fat 5.8 g
Saturated Fat 3.4 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.3 g
Monounsaturated Fat 1.7 g
Dietary Fiber 0.7 g

Hmmm... looks like someone will be getting a wrapped Chloe for Christmas...

Maple Walnut Spice Cookies

2008-12-07T16:52:00.007-05:00

It's that time of year again! Holiday baking is in full swing at my house. I've got lots planned and with just under 3 weeks until Christmas, there's no time to waste. I had just about every every baking ingredient, mixing bowl, and measuring device I own out today. In fact, at one point I looked at my kitchen and sighed at how big of a mess I had. A little secret about me -- I am a terribly messy baker/cook. I don't clean up as I go, getting batter, sauce, flour, etc. over everything. Yeah, I'd get kicked out of every professional kitchen out there.

These cookies come from an old issue of Cooking Light and were well worth the messy kitchen! The cookie itself has a sweet maple-spice flavor and are slightly crispy around the edges. Then they get topped with a creamy sweet maple frosting and sprinkled with chopped walnuts. The maple flavor is right on - not too much or too little.

I gave my husband one to sample and a short while later he emerged asking for the storage container of them. He then disappeared to the living room for an afternoon of football watching and cookie munching. Hopefully I'll get at least one more before they're all gone...

Maple Walnut Spice Cookies
Cooking Light, December 2005
Yield 30 cookies (serving size: 1 cookie)

Ingredients

Cookies:
* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (about 6 3/4 ounces)
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
* 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
* 1/4 cup butter, softened
* 2 tablespoons maple syrup
* 1 large egg

Frosting:
* 1 cup powdered sugar
* 2 tablespoons maple syrup
* 1 tablespoon fat-free milk
* 2 teaspoons butter, softened

Remaining ingredient:
* 1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts, toasted (I forgot to toast mine and they were great)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.

To prepare cookies, lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 6 ingredients (through cloves) in a medium bowl, stirring well with a whisk.

Place brown sugar and 1/4 cup butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until light and fluffy (about 4 minutes). Add 2 tablespoons syrup and egg; beat until well blended. Beating at low speed, gradually add flour mixture; beat just until combined.

Spoon batter evenly into 30 mounds (about 1 tablespoon) 2 inches apart on baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 14 minutes or until lightly browned. (I pulled mine after 12 minutes) Cool on pans 5 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely on wire racks.

To prepare frosting, combine powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons syrup, milk, and 2 teaspoons butter, stirring with a whisk until smooth. Spread frosting evenly over cooled cookies. Working quickly, sprinkle cookies with nuts.

Nutritional Information:

Calories: 98 (30% from fat)
Fat: 3.3g (sat 1.1g,mono 1g,poly 1.1g)
Protein: 1.2g
Carbohydrate: 16.3g
Fiber: 0.3g
Cholesterol: 12mg
Iron: 0.5mg
Sodium: 58mg
Calcium: 12mg

Making Homemade Butter

2008-11-21T09:05:00.000-05:00

I’ve started to learn how to make some of the things I typically buy in stores like applesauce, cooking stock, and butter. I decided to give it a try because A) the homemade versions taste so much better than the store bought ones and B) they don’t have all of that extra junk in them (i.e. ingredients/chemicals you can’t pronounce!), which is probably why they taste better.

And, to be honest, the butter thing kind of appealed to me because it’s like a science experiment. No, I didn’t break out the glass jar, fill it with cream, and shake the heck out of it, à la grade school science activity. That’s too much work and we’ve already acknowledged here that I’m just too old for that kind of stuff now. Instead, I used my handy dandy stand mixer.

Start by adding heavy cream in your mixer’s bowl. I used 1 cup, but you can work with more or less if you want. With the whipping blade attached, start on a low speed and work your way up to the highest speed. Once it’s on high speed just let it do its thing for a while. It’ll start by turning to whipped cream; of course you could stop here, pull out some strawberries and call it a day. But, if you continue on, I promise you that you’ll have the creamiest, freshest tasting butter you can imagine.

As it continues to whip, the cream will start to deflate and then break down. You’ll see little curds start to form and liquid accumulate in the bowl. This isn’t any old liquid though; it’s only the best buttermilk you’ll ever find. Keep beating the butter until all of a sudden, almost like magic, it forms into a solid piece of golden, buttery goodness.

At this point, I scooped up the butter and placed it in some cheesecloth and squeezed out any excess buttermilk. Pour the buttermilk that has collected into a container and put the butter back into the mixer. Add a cup of cold water and beat the butter again. Strain it again in cheesecloth. This process of adding water and straining helps to remove any extra buttermilk that may be in the butter.

I then added some flaked salt to it, but you could leave it unsalted if you were going to use it for cooking or baking or if you just don’t like salt. At this point find yourself some warm French bread and devour it! Yum!

Storing the butter is really important because refrigerator odors could cause the it to take on all kinds of nasty tastes. An easy way to store it is to add the butter to a small glass storage bowl, smoothing it out to all of the sides and then add cold water on top and then cover with the container's lid. You can keep it this way inside or even outside of the refrigerator for a couple of weeks. I’ve seen it listed that it’ll last around 30 days even. Just drain the water when you want to use it and fill it back up when you’re done. The main thing to keeping the butter tasting fresh is to keep it in an oxygen-free environment. You’ll know when the butter has gone bad because it’ll have a bad odor. They also make these cute French Butter Bells that you can pick up at kitchen stores, or even eBay. You fill the bottom with water and put the butter in the lid portion. When you put the lid back on, the butter touches the water.

So, how much butter will you get? I’ve read that two cups (one pint) of cream will yield one cup of butter and one cup of buttermilk. (It’s like a two-for-one special when it comes to ingredient types!) This seemed to hold true as I used a cup of cream and got around half a cup each of butter and buttermilk.

I have to say, I think I’m converted already at this point. Homemade butter just tastes so much better than the other stuff and it’s really easy to make. I think it’s kind of fun too. It’d probably be a fun project to get the kiddos involved in.

Abby is either begging for some butter or plotting her next move... we were unsure.

Pumpkin Cakes with Cream Cheese Glaze

2008-10-31T08:44:00.003-04:00

Happy Halloween everyone!!

I love Halloween. It’s yet another thing about Fall that makes it my favorite season. Since we don’t get too many trick-or-treaters in our area, we go to my parent’s house and sit on the porch with a big pot of candy to hand out. I love seeing all of the costumes. Some of those wee-ones are really dang cute! As a side note, I did refrain from buying the cats any costumes this year. Even though I strongly argued that they would love it, Shannon had a very different opinion!

What's Halloween without pumpkins though, and these pumpkin cakes were sooooo good. I was delightfully surprised at how moist and tender the cake itself was, especially since I forgot to add the eggs until I was ready to pour the batter into the pan. Ooops! I was worried that the additional stirring might overwork the batter and make it tougher, but I guess it’s safe to say that this is a very forgiving recipe!

I baked the cakes in a cute muffin/bunt style pan that I think in a way resembles pumpkins themselves, but any regular muffin/cupcake pan would work nicely. Cream cheese goes so well with pumpkin, so I added it into my basic glaze recipe.

These cakes should really be eaten the same day if you glaze them. They are sticky and require many finger licks if you decided to forgo the fork, but the taste is really worth the messiness.

Pumpkin Cakes with Cream Cheese Glaze
makes 15 cakes

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup and 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup pumpkin
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease muffin tins.

In a large bowl combine sugar and oil. Mix in vanilla and pumpkin and eggs. (don't forget the eggs!)

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Gradually add to the wet ingredients and mix until combined.

Bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow it to cool completely before glazing.

Cream Cheese Glaze
2 oz cream cheese (I used 1/3 reduced fat)
6 tablespoons powdered sugar
2-3 tablespoons milk

Whisk all ingredients together adding more milk to thin out the glaze to desired consistency.

Drizzle over or dip cakes into glaze.

Eat.

Nutritional Information:
with glaze
Calories 200.6
Total Fat 10.6 g
Saturated Fat 1.3 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 2.9 g
Monounsaturated Fat 5.8 g
Total Carbohydrate 24.7 g
Dietary Fiber 0.7 g
Sugars 17.2 g
Protein 2.4 g

without glaze
Calories 178.2
Total Fat 9.9 g
Saturated Fat 0.9 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 2.8 g
Monounsaturated Fat 5.6 g
Total Carbohydrate 21.1 g
Dietary Fiber 0.7 g
Sugars 13.9 g
Protein 1.9 g

Banana Pineapple Muffins

2008-10-27T16:35:00.004-04:00

I admit, I have a terrible habit. I'm a major banana offender. In the store, I'll see the rows of bananas and think they look good enough to buy. I'll pack them in my lunch, eat them as a snack or in a peanut butter and banana sandwich I tell myself. I'll decide that I'll just buy one smallllll bunch of them. But then, when they're home on the counter, they sit, and sit and you get the picture. First it starts with the spots, then the spots take over and soon the entire banana is brown. Yuck! Then the guilt sets in and then I give up and usually throw them out.

Not this time though. I took the advice of everyone out there and decided to bake with them. I'm not a fan of really anything banana-flavored. I like the fruit itself, but banana bread? Ewwww! I wanted to try adding something to offset the banana flavor and I decided on pineapple. I love pineapple flavored anything, so why not. And so these muffins were born.

The pineapple worked beautifully. You could still taste the banana, but there was just something else about them. My husband couldn't tell what the exact flavor was when he tried them. But then, he can't tell the difference between Pepsi and Dr. Pepper either, so I guess he's not the best judge. The muffins were sweet, but not too sweet, and they had a nice almost tropical flavor with a little spice from the cinnamon. They were definitely a hit with the family.

Banana Pineapple Streusel Muffins
makes 18 muffins

2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbl butter, melted
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
zest of an orange
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
1 8 oz can crushed pineapple in juice
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease muffin pans or use paper liners.

Combine the sugars, canola oil, and butter in a mixing bowl. Add in the egg, vanilla, and orange and mix until combined. Add the bananas and pineapple and juice to the bowl and mix. In a separate bowl combine all of the remaining ingredients and whisk them together. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix just until the batter comes together.

Fill muffin cups 2/3 full.

Streusel Topping
2 tbl flour
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tbl cold butter
1 tbl brown sugar

Combine the flour, cinnamon, and brown sugar in a small bowl. Cut in the butter until it turns to coarse pebbles. Sprinkle the mixture on top of the muffins before baking.

Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Nutrition Facts
18 Servings

Amount Per Serving
Calories 148.1
Total Fat 5.4 g
Saturated Fat 1.5 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 1.1 g
Monounsaturated Fat 2.5 g
Cholesterol 17.0 mg
Potassium 104.3 mg
Total Carbohydrate 23.9 g
Dietary Fiber 1.3 g
Sugars 9.2 g
Protein 1.8 g

Sugar Cookies - Back From Vacation

2008-10-21T19:35:00.014-04:00

We're back from vacation and now into the daily grind once again. I had a fabulous time in Williamsburg with my husband and parents. It was a vacation of new experiences and also one that brought back so many memories of the times I would spend there every summer.

We toured the houses in the historic area, ate a lot of good food, and probably spent too much money in the shops--but it was fun! Shan and I also went to Busch Gardens, where after the very first roller coaster we went on (The Griffon) I was done in and actually had to go to the medical office to take some Pepto-Bismol and lie down for a while. How embarrassing! I've never done that before, but I was so sick I could barely stand up. Guess I won't be doing THAT again!

One thing that really struck me while in the historic area was how over time our interests change. When I was younger and my parents would wander though the vegetable and flower gardens I was the annoying kid constantly pulling on their arms asking "can we go already?" I would dread the thought of spending time out in the gardens. But not this time. No, here I was the one dragging behind just to take some pictures of the vegetables and herbs. I was the one who was amazed at seeing pomegranates and figs growing on the trees. Could it be happening? Am I getting older and turning into my parents?? =) If that isn't a testament to getting older, the roller coaster incident sure was!

More Vacation Pics Here

But this is a baking blog, so I'll share my all-time favorite sugar cookie recipe that just happens to come from the Raleigh Tavern Bakery in Williamsburg. They're called Shrewsbury "Cakes" and you can buy them in the bakery or buy the small cookbook that they offer. The actual original recipe for these cookies comes from Hanna Glasse's The Art of Cookery, 7th ed. published in 1760. The book features the original colonial-era recipes as well as the modern versions. I love reading old recipes, so I've listed both below. Also I make a slight adjustment in omitting the shortening and using all butter.

Shrewsbury Cakes (Sugar Cookies)
Makes 36 cookies

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp grated orange peel
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
3 tbl milk, lowfat
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp cream of tartar

Cream the butter and sugar. Add the orange peel and vanilla extract. Add the egg and milk. Sift the flour, baking soda, salt, and cream of tartar and add to the creamed mixture. Mix well. Roll into 1-inch balls and roll the balls in sugar. Arrange the balls in 1 1/2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Flatten the balls gently with a small glass. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes or until very light golden brown.

From The Art of Cookery
To make Shrewsbury cakes, take two pounds of flour, a pound of sugar finely fearced, mix them together (take out a quarter of a pound to roll them in); take four eggs beat, four spoonfuls of cream, and two spoonfuls of rose-water; beat them well together, and mix them with the flour into a paste, roll them into thin cakes, and bake them in a quick oven.

Estimated Nutritional Information
Calories 72.0
Total Fat 2.8 g
Dietary Fiber 0.2 g

Off to Virginia

2008-10-07T07:46:00.000-04:00

I'm counting down the days until my vacation (only 2 to go!). My husband, family and I will be heading to Williamsburg, Virginia for a little relaxation and fun. I can't wait! I'll be back to regular posting after October 15. =)

Snickerdoodle Cookies - Operation Baking Gals

2008-10-03T14:42:00.008-04:00

I was so excited to be part of this round of Operation Baking Gals (Give a Little Support). This is a group of bakers who send goodies to soldiers serving overseas. Our soldiers are amazing and this is just one, small thing that I could do to show my appreciation for their bravery.

I signed up for Team Daleske, which is hosted by Stephanie of Mostly Useless Drivel. Our team will be sending treats to CPT Christopher Daleske. You can read more about him here. We're hoping to shower his unit with all kinds of homebaked goodness. CPT Daleske is the unofficial morale booster of his unit, so hopefully our goodies will make his job just a tad easier.

I chose to make snickerdoodles, because vanilla, cinnamon, and sugar are all flavors that make me think of home. I made a double batch of these so we would have some here at home and, well, let's just say they didn't last long.

These cookies and a couple of postcards are all packed up and on their way along with many thanks to all of our soldiers and wishing for their safe return.

Snickerdoodles
from Allrecipes.com
Makes 48 cookies

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons white sugar [I used extra sugar and cinnamon]
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Cream together butter, shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar, the eggs and the
vanilla. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Shape dough by
rounded spoonfuls into balls.
3. Mix the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls of dough in mixture.
Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not too hard. Remove immediately from
baking sheets.

Nutritional Information:
Servings Per Recipe: 48
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 92
Total Fat: 4.3g
Cholesterol: 14mg
Sodium: 61mg
Total Carbs: 12.4g
Dietary Fiber: 0.2g
Protein: 1g

Baking with the Family

2008-09-30T08:53:00.006-04:00

I had a chance this weekend to bake some cookies with my mom and cousin Emily (who is more like a sister to me!). My dad was also in the kitchen "supervising" although it seemed more like he was there to sample our cookie stash. I love baking at "home" with my family. It's amazing how using an old mixing bowl that I used when growing up can bring back such warm, fuzzy memories and feelings. Sappy nostalgia... yes, I know...

Two Bakers (mom & Emily) and Official Cookie Sampler (dad)
We baked a giant peanut butter cookie, chocolate chip cookies (recipe here), M&M cookies, and my mom "baked" her no-baked chocolate cookies. I love these and am going to demand the recipe--we are family after all.

Em and her giant pb cookie...mmmmmmm
We're just getting warmed up for Christmas baking!

Pear Pie

2008-09-21T19:46:00.010-04:00

I was in the mood to bake, but wasn't quite sure what to make. I wanted to try out my cute, little 6" pie dish... but hmmmm... what to put inside. I figured with the fall season rolling in, I'd have plenty of time to get my fill of apples, so instead I decided on pears. I've actually never had pear pie before, but I like pears and I like pie, so I figured sure, why not.

First, the crust. I admit, I'm a horrible pie crust-maker. It usually ends up tough, un-pretty, and about as far away from flaky as you can get. (You can see in the photo above that my crust crimping skills are not very elegant!) I've tried making Martha Stewart's pate brisee before but with the same results. I was looking around for an alternative and I stumbled onto this recipe for a crust that incorporates cream cheese into the dough. It perked my interest and I just happened to have some cream cheese in the fridge, so all was a go. Only one word can describe this crust and that is amazing! The cream cheese pulls the dough together so easily; it's almost foolproof and the taste and texture are superb. The raw dough does have a somewhat cream cheese-y smell to it, but it doesn't carry through after baking. When baked crust is tender with just enough flakiness to make it a rockstar. It's definitely going to be my go-to crust from now on. A note - I used pastry flour for the crust. I made some of my own following these instructions from Joy of Baking.

The pear filling followed though very similar to that of an apple pie... gooey, cinnamon goodness. I really liked the pie because it was just like an apple pie, only without some of the tartness that you get from the apples. And because the pears were so sweet, you can cut back on some of the sugar that you'd normally use in an apple pie. The whole family loved this pie, especially when it was cozied up with some vanilla ice cream.

The last, lonely slice left...

I halved this recipe to make one 6" pie, but the directions below are for a standard 9" pie size.

Pear Pie

Crust:
Pastry for a 9-inch lattice pie, a 9-inch deep-dish pie, a 10-inch pie shell, or a 12- to 14-inch free-form tart
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold
1 1/3 cups + 4 teaspoons pastry flour or 1 1/3 cups (dip and sweep method) bleached all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt (for savory recipes, use 1 1/2 times the salt)
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
3-ounces lite cream cheese, cold
1 1/2 tablespoons ice water
1 1/2 teaspoons cider vinegar

Food processor method: (These are my alterations to processing the dough.)
Cut the butter into small (about 3/4-inch) cubes. Wrap it in plastic wrap and freeze it until frozen solid, at least 30 minutes. [note: I just threw mine in the freezer for maybe 10 minutes and it worked just fine]

Place the flour mixture in a food processor with the metal blade and process for a few seconds to combine. Cut the cream cheese into 3 or 4 pieces and add it to the flour. Process for about 20 seconds or until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the frozen butter cubes and pulse until none of the butter is larger than the size of a pea. (Toss with a fork to see it better.) Remove the cover and add the water and vinegar. Pulse just until the dough comes together.

Wrap the dough with the plastic wrap, flatten it into a disc (or discs) and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. (For a pie shell and lattice, divide it in a ratio of two thirds:one third — use about 9.5 ounces for the shell and the rest for the lattice, flattening the smaller part into a rectangle.)

Pear Filling
(from Allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS
* 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double or lattice crust pie
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon lemon zest
* 5 cups peeled and sliced pears
* 1 tablespoon butter
* 1 tablespoon lemon juice

DIRECTIONS
1. Combine sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon, and lemon rind in mixing bowl.
2. Arrange pears in layers in a 9 inch pastry lined pan, sprinkling sugar mixture over each layer. Dot with butter. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Roll out remaining dough; cut slits for escape of steam. Moisten rim of bottom crust. Place top crust over filling. Fold edge under bottom crust, pressing to seal. Flute edge.
3. Bake at 450 degrees F (230 degrees C) for 10 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and bake for an additional 35 to 40 minutes.

Estimated Nutrition Information:
Calories 336.2
Total Fat 15.6 g
Saturated Fat 9.4 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.7 g
Monounsaturated Fat 4.4 g
Dietary Fiber 3.1 g

Ellie Krieger's Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

2008-09-16T20:53:00.004-04:00

This recipe for carrot cupcakes comes from Ellie Krieger's book The Food You Crave and is also available online.

I'm a pretty big fan of carrot cake, so these were a must to try. They whipped up in no time, although the longest part was grating the carrots. During one of the many hours that I mindlessly had the tv tuned to the Food Network, I had heard that you should always use a box-style grater and not a food processor to grate carrots when making carrot cake. Apparently a food processor grinds them up too much and can make the cake fall, or so says Ina Garten, and who am I to question! Bottom line -- these cupcakes were awesome... really awesome! They are moist and sweet, have flecks of carrot throughout and also have a nice crunch from the walnuts. Next time I would throw in some raisins or maybe pecans too. If you like carrot cake, you've got to give these a try!

I had seen these party cups used as cupcake liners before and thinking they were pretty cute, I decided to give them a try. I loved how they looked, but it was actually a little hard to eat! We sat there wanting to devour these bad boys, but couldn't get the cupcake out of the darn liner! Who knew eating a cupcake could be so traumatizing. Thankfully a snip from a pair of kitchen shears was all it took to save the day.

Chloe wanted to know what all the excitement was about. =)

Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing
by Ellie Krieger

3/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup natural applesauce
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups finely shredded carrots (about 2 medium carrots)
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons finely chopped walnuts
4 ounces 1/3 fat cream cheese (recommended: Neufchatel)
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

Sift together the first 6 ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk the oil, brown sugar and eggs until well combined. Whisk in the applesauce, vanilla and carrots. Add the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Stir in 1/4 cup of the chopped walnuts.

Divide the batter between the muffin cups. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

With an electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and lemon zest until smooth and creamy. Frost the cooled cupcakes and sprinkle with the remaining 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts. The cupcakes should be stored in the refrigerator.

Nutrition Information
Nutritional Analysis per Serving
Calories: 236
Total Fat: 10 grams
Saturated Fat: 2 grams
Protein: 4 grams
Carbohydrates: 34 grams
Fiber: 2 grams

A Note on Flour Substitutions

2008-09-15T12:50:00.004-04:00

One of the things I’m attempting to learn more about in this endeavor is how to make healthy substitutions for a lot of the things like white flour and sugar. There's a fine line though. Making substitutions here and there is better than completely stripping a recipe of everything deemed unhealthy in it. That makes bland, cardboard-like nasty-nastos instead and nobody wants that.

One of my all-time favorite cupboard dwellers is whole wheat pastry flour (WWPF). It took me a while to find this stuff, but wowza am I glad I did. Regular whole wheat flour can make things too heavy and dense for my liking – and if it tastes “too healthy” for me, it won’t stand a chance against my picky husband! Whole wheat pastry flour though gives you benefits of a whole grain, but also a light and tender texture. It’s awesome stuff – the husband cannot tell the difference. Yay! I try to use it as often as I can and you’ll probably see it on here a lot.

I’d suggest if you can find WWPF, give it a try. If you can’t find it and don’t want order it from the internet (For some reason ordering flour on the internet is a weird concept to me. Since its pretty heavy, I just figure the shipping would be insanely expensive.) anyway-- try using regular WW flour, or a half WW flour, half white flour combo. OR- go ahead, show your real crazy side and use all regular white.

I remember completely passing up recipes in the past because I’d be lacking one particular ingredient. I’ve now learned that’s a silly thing to do. You can just try a substitution and who knows, you may even like it better YOUR way. The way I see it, it’s all about learning how to make things tastier as well as healthier and to do that you try new things.

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Peppermint Ganache

2008-09-11T07:53:00.003-04:00

These cupcakes are an adaptation on the Basic Chocolate Cupcake from the book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. This is an awesome little book full of interesting and delicious recipes that you can easily adapt to meet your tastes.

My alterations to the recipe were to use whole wheat pastry flour, dark cocoa powder, and light vanilla soy milk. I've discovered that I love using vanilla soy milk in recipes. It gives everything such a better flavor from the vanilla and it's also cholesterol free. I'm still trying to learn to like drinking it "straight up" though.

I also used the basic ganache recipe and added a touch of peppermint extract to give it a just a subtle flavor. I was worried that I wouldn't have enough of the ganache, so I doubled the recipe and now I have a large jar of it sitting in my refrigerator. The single recipe would have been more than enough. Ehh, it's a learning experience, right?

These are AAAmazing! This has to be one of my favorite recipes for chocolate cake. The flavor was so deep and delicious and the texture was soft and spongy. I have to admit, I think I freaked out my husband by bringing a vegan cookbook into the house, but we all agree that these were awesome. Can't wait to try more recipes from it. YUM!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peppermint Ganache
(adaptation from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World)

INGREDIENTS

* 1 cup light vanilla soy milk
* 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
* 3/4 cup granulated sugar
* 1/3 cup canola oil
* 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
* 1/3 cup dark cocoa powder, Dutch-processed if possible
* 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/4 teaspoon salt

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners.
2. Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, and vanilla extract to the soy milk mixture and beat until foamy. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain (a few tiny lumps are OK).
3. Pour into liners, filling 3/4 of the way. Bake 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

Approximate Nutritional Information (minus the ganache)
Calories 146.9; Total Fat 6.8 g; Saturated Fat 0.6 g; Polyunsaturated Fat 1.8 g; Monounsaturated Fat 3.7 g; Cholesterol 0.0 mg; Sodium 154.3 mg; Potassium 88.5 mg; Total Carbohydrate 20.9 g; Dietary Fiber 1.5 g; Sugars 11.7 g; Protein 2.2 g

Ganache

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

2008-09-06T19:44:00.001-04:00

Thick, buttery, rich, and gooey-in-the-middle are all ways to describe my favorite chocolate chip cookies. I wanted to try tweaking my favorite recipe by cutting out some butter, adding in some whole wheat flour, and replacing some oil with applesauce.

I was amazed at how tasty these bars came out and just how much they were like my favorite cookies. So, I admit, I was lazy and decided to spread the batter into a pan rather than dropping individual cookies. I wanted really thick bars, so I opted to bake them in an 7"x11" pan, but you could easily use a 9"x13" pan, just watch the baking times.

The best part is that these passed the entire family test! The two pickiest eaters in my family when it comes to healthier foods are my husband and my dad. To my shock and amazement they both gobbled these up and asked for more. Score! Trickery at its finest!

I will definitely be trying different variations of these. With endless possibilities you can use different nuts, chocolates, spices, and dried fruits. Yum!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Yield: 24 bars

INGREDIENTS

1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour or regular whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted [I used Smart Balance Omega 3 spread]
1/4 canola oil
1/4 applesauce
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease baking pan.
2. Sift together the flours, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, oil, applesauce, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla and eggs until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a spoon. Spread into baking pan.
4. Bake for 35-45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Nutrition Facts - Amount Per Serving
(these nutritionals include the Smart Balance Omega 3 spread instead of butter)
Calories 161.0
Total Fat 6.9 g
Saturated Fat 2.3 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 1.3 g
Monounsaturated Fat 3.0 g
Total Carbohydrate 24.4 g
Dietary Fiber 1.1 g
Sugars 9.2 g
Protein 2.0 g

(Using regular butter would change the following)
Calories 164.6
Total Fat 7.4 g
Saturated Fat 3.1 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.9 g
Monounsaturated Fat 2.9 g

Peach and Blueberry Cobbler

2008-09-01T17:33:00.003-04:00

Flipping through the July/August issue of Eating Well magazine, I noticed this cobbler recipe and it intrigued me. It's called a cobbler, but it doesn't look like any cobbler I've ever seen. Peach-blueberry cobbler... or giant pancake with peaches and blueberries in it?? There was only one way to find out.

Peaches and blueberries are in season in my area now, so I already had some of each on hand. The rest of the ingredients are your typical pantry/baking staples.

Before going into the oven.
So, how did it turn out? Surprisingly more like a cobbler than my cobbler-skeptic self was expecting. The peaches softened up and became really juicy and the blueberries burst open creating a cobbler-like taste and texture. One of my all-time favorite flavor combos is peach and blueberry, so I was kinda already sold to begin with. The best way to eat this dish: warmed with a little vanilla ice cream on the side. Yum!

Peach & Blueberry Cobbler
Eating Well Magazine & Online
Makes 10 servings

INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup reduced-fat milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 ripe but firm peaches (about 1 pound), pitted and sliced into eighths, or 3 1/2 cups frozen
2 cups (1 pint) fresh or frozen blueberries

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Place butter and oil in a 12-inch cast-iron skillet or a 9-by-13-inch baking pan. Heat in the oven until melted and fragrant, 5 to 7 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, combine flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Add milk, sugar and vanilla; stir to combine.
4. Add the melted butter mixture to the batter and stir to combine. Pour the batter into the hot pan. Spoon peaches and blueberries evenly over the batter.
5. Return the pan to the oven and bake until the top of the cobbler is browned and the batter around the fruit is completely set, 50 minutes to 1 hour. Remove to a wire rack to cool for at least 15 minutes. Serve warm.

NUTRITION INFORMATION
Per serving: 182 calories; 8 g fat (3 g sat, 3 g mono); 11 mg cholesterol; 26 g carbohydrate; 3 g protein; 3 g fiber; 212 mg sodium; 140 mg potassium.
1 1/2 Carbohydrate Servings
Exchanges: 1/2 fruit, 1 1/2 carbohydrate (other), 1 1/2 fat

The Mixing Bowl

2008-09-01T17:30:00.003-04:00

Welcome! I'm happy to present my new home to you and am really excited to finally have my own domain! For anyone who may have stumbled here from my old blog you'll notice that I've mixed things up a bit here.

My goal is to make this new site be a collection of recipes that are lightened up a bit if possible and I intend to post the nutritional information for each thing.

I love feedback, so please feel free to comment or email me. I'm looking forward to getting started and sharing some great recipes!

New Site Coming Soon...

2008-08-26T10:51:00.000-04:00

Expected launch date is September 1. Thanks for stopping by!