Sabayon

For my birthday I made the most delicious cake ever (hint, it was flour less so none of the flavor was diluted).  I'll post more on that later.  But I ended up with 6 extra egg yolks.  In looking for something to do with them, I came up with a great idea: sabayon.  This recipe from David Lebovitz seemed like a good call: simple and from a trusted source.  So at my birthday party, I whipped up a batch and had a friend who was coming late bring (and cut up) strawberries.  It was great!  And it's a cool party trick.  I don't have any pretty bowls, but I served it in wine glasses and it was pretty and super classy. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture.

Browned Butter Blondies

So while I am no longer a graduate student, I am going to complete this blog with recipes I made while I was still in graduate school.  I am thinking about creating a new blog, I am taking recommendations for names :).  While my situation has changed somewhat, it is still true that I face situations that aren't addressed by a lot of blogs: I still have a tiny kitchen, I am still cooking for one or for company, but rarely for 3-4.  And I am basically vegetarian, but not strictly.  I try to make healthy changes to a lot of things, but I avoid things like stevia.  However, I'll be playing with chia seeds for a while.

As for the recipe: per the suggestion of a friend, I discovered that chocolate chip cookies should ALWAYS be made with browned (and cooled) butter.  It imparts a caramel-y, nutty, richer flavor.  (And pecans and a sprinkling of sea salt really round it out).  So I found blondies that were made this way.  I made these while I was preparing to move over the summer and trying to use up the things i had in my cupboard (in particular, I had a Costco bag of brown sugar and vanilla with a broken cap).  The original recipe is here, I really only doubled it and added toffee pieces, but I think it made them excellent and there were plenty to share!

Ingredients

• 16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/2 cup chopped toffee pieces

Procedures

1. 1
   Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Grease pan with butter.
2. 2
   Place butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until melted. Continue to cook (the butter will foam) until it is fragrant and a nutty brown color. Take off the heat and pour through a sieve into a large bowl. Let cool to room temperature.
3. 3
   In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
4. 4
   Add brown sugar to bowl with butter and whisk until smooth. Add egg and vanilla and whisk to combine. Stir in dry ingredients until just incorporated. Pour batter into pan and smooth top. Bake until a cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean, 20-30 minutes. Let cool at least 15 minutes before cutting.

Almond Biscotti

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures or modifications to this recipe, all I can do is vouch for it.  But that's good enough for me (because then the next time I want to make it I know which recipe is good).

Last semester a couple of new math professors hosted a house warming party.  As a lowly graduate student, I didn't really want to bring them wine (it's more expensive and I don't know their taste).  So I did the only obvious thing I could think of: I decided to bake something.  A loaf of homemade bread is one of my favorite gifts for hosts (but with the gluten free craze it may be risky now).  I think I was a little pressed for time, so I decided on a baked dessert and I wanted something that could be transported easily but was still classy.  Having never made biscotti, it seemed like the perfect option.  And I chose almond because I always have more than enough almonds.  It was a good recipe, I think I baked the biscotti a little longer than recommended in the second bake, which is good: they came out nice and crisp.

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2009/12/almond-biscotti-recipe.html

Honeyed Nut Tart

As I will be moving in about a month, I am trying to use up the food in my cabinets.  I have a lot of nuts, so I was looking for nut recipes and I came across this one.  Admittedly, it's not really my thing, but I thought it sounded like a good thing to make for a group and a good way to use up my brown sugar, honey, nuts, and rose flower water.

I had people over for enchiladas for cinco de Mayo and thought this seemed like a nice dessert.  A friend who doesn't like fruit didn't think it was to fruity (there is the zest and juice of an orange in the tart crust) and it is okay for anyone with a (not too severe) peanut allergy, but not really any other nut allergies.  It went over pretty well; I think most people liked it more than I did, which is generally what I look for in a shared dessert (if I liked it so much, I wouldn't want to share it)!  It's also nice for company because the crust is a press in rather than roll out, which makes clean up/counter space a little easier to manage.

The receipe can be found here.

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Banana Bread

It's been so long since I've posted.  I've actually made lots of things and I've been keeping them as tabs in my browser.  There are now way too many tabs and I want to close them, but first I need to post them.

I'll start with one of my favorites.  I made Dark Chocolate Raspberry Banana bread for a brunch with a couple of friends.  There are so many banana bread recipes with various bells and whistles.  And on any given day, I want different bells and whistles.  Sometimes I want pineapple banana bread, sometimes I want buttermilk banana bread, sometimes I want banana's foster banana bread.  But I can't see myself ever NOT wanting this one.

The recipe is here.

But this post is to let you know that you should be on the lookout!  I hope to post more soon!

The best 100% Whole Wheat Bread (My quest is over)

Some of you may remember my original mission in starting this blog: I discovered I didn't feel well after eating store-bought bread and decided to start making my own bread.  And I really wanted a nice whole wheat bread.  But it was hard.  The recipes were either sort of dry and lifeless or not all whole wheat.  Plus I had to add powdered milk to them (it helped the texture! I said), which is no good for people who are dairy free.  Other things can be substituted: butter, buttermilk, yogurt, maybe even milk, but not powdered milk.  But I've learned a few things through this journey.

Potassium bromate often "enriches" the flour from which shelved bread at the store is made.  (By the way, I put a lot of effort into that sentence to make sure it did not end with a preposition).  Brominated flour is banned in Canada, the UK, and Europe because studies suggest it might be carcinogenic.  The flour you buy at the store is not brominated.  The flour in the bread you buy at the store probably is.  I find it likely that this is what bothers my stomach.

White whole wheat flour is my new favorite ingredient.  Regular flour is made from red wheat, so whole (red) wheat is dark and dense.  Another species of wheat is white, and the whole white wheat is a lighter flavor and texture.  White whole wheat flour can easily be snuck into most recipes without anyone noticing.  I still wouldn't use more than half the flour as white whole wheat flour, unless you make other changes.

Finally, I've learned a lot about gluten.  Going gluten free seems trendy, and I've suddenly met dozens of people who can't eat gluten.  Some people can't, which is unfortunate, but it happens.  But then some people give it up for (seemingly to me, at least) no reason.  But gluten is a protein.  Some people can't eat certain proteins, I know people whose bodies can't break down (or who have allergic reactions to): soy, whey, peanuts, tree nuts, poultry, fish, and chickpeas (one of whom can't eat 4 of them).  The same goes for gluten.  So if neighbor swore that giving up gluten made him/her feel better, sure it's possible.  But every body is different and that doesn't mean that giving up gluten is right for everyone.  And if you are considering giving up gluten because your cousin's dentist swore it worked for him/her, I might first recommend what I did: give up PROCESSED gluten.  Make your own bread!  It's fun!

When I first started I remember mumbling something about needing the powdered milk because it's a "dough conditioner."  This is sort of true; powdered milk improves the texture of bread.  But the reason for this is that it adds protein to the bread.  This is why bread flour exists (it has extra protein i.e. gluten).  But as I discovered, adding actual gluten is what really helps whole wheat flour.  I was hesitant to buy it because I found it on a laundry list of "dough conditioners" and because there were so many whole wheat bread recipes that DIDN'T call for it, it couldn't be that much better, right?  Wrong. If you want to make whole wheat bread that isn't dense and dry, go out and buy Vital Wheat Gluten.  Right now.  It makes sense when you think about it: you need more gluten in whole wheat flour, so what do you add?  Gluten!

Okay, enough about gluten.  I found this recipe and the author was so in love with it that I knew I had to try it.  Not only did it turn out well, I'm pretty sure it's the easiest yeast bread I've ever made.  There's only one rise and it's in the pan.  I only used one bowl and the pan I baked it in.  It was great.  I noticed that the texture of the dough was very different than a lot of breads that I've made, but perhaps I was just more patient and didn't add too much flour this time (maybe that's why all my bread is dense and dry).  I don't think it was my fault.  Many doughs go from wet to dry with only a few tablespoons of extra flour.  This was sticky but not wet before I kneaded it and drier, but still light when I was done.  I also like to knead by hand because it makes your more in tune with the dough (plus it's stress relieving).

I just linked to the recipe, there is no kneed for me to copy and paste it since I didn't (and wouldn't) change a thing.  Well, except that I used canola oil rather than coconut (it's better for you and cheaper).

Homemade Chocolate Hazelnut Spread (dairy free!)

The past couple of times I've been to Costco I was tempted by a 2 lb. bag of hazelnuts.  I frequently run in to recipes that call for hazelnuts that I blow off because hazelnuts are expensive.  But 2lb for $11?  That's a decent price for almonds, a good price for walnuts, and a great price for pecans, all of which I keep on hand.  And I like hazelnuts more than walnuts and pecans.  So I was looking for an innagural treat to make with hazelnuts and I went for the obvious choice: homemade Nutella.  There are a lot of recipes out there, some call for loads of butter (which is completely unnecessary with the richness that comes from hazelnut butter and melted chocolate, some call for heavy cream (which honestly I avoided because I didn't have any), some called for condensed or evaporated milk (see previous comment).  None of these were what I wanted.  It's chocolate and hazelnuts, it doesn't need complications and it doesn't need extra fat.  Finally I found this recipe.  While I wasn't opposed to putting a little skim milk in it (Nutella does), this one didn't even do that!  Perhaps the canola oil could have been eliminated or subbed with milk, but there was so little it didn't matter.  This recipe was exactly what I wanted: simple and delicious.  And the perfect thing to go in one of my jars of wonderful things.  I will say that I get pretty impatient because my food processor is super loud, so it wasn't as creamy and smooth as possible.  The key is to get the hazelnuts creamy before adding anything else.  But somehow my food processor is loudest when there are only nuts in it, and I just wanted to make it stop.  And what makes mine completely dairy free is that I used all dark chocolate chips because I see no reason to cut the chocolaty goodness with milk chocolate.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup raw hazelnuts
• 2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoons canola oil, plus more as needed
• 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spread the hazelnuts in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Toast in the oven until the nuts have darkened and the skins have blistered, about 12-14 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool slightly.
2. Wrap the nuts in a kitchen towel and rub the hazelnuts to remove as much of the skin as possible. (Small bits of skin will remain.) Let cool completely.
3. Melt the chocolate chips in a double boiler or in the microwave, stirring until completely melted and smooth. Let cool slightly.
4. In a high-speed blender or a food processor, grind the hazelnuts until they form a paste. Add the oil, sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla and salt. Continue to process the mixture until the mixture is as smooth as possible. You may need to scrape down the sides occasionally.
5. Add the melted chocolate and continue to blend until smooth and well combined.
6. The mixture may be thin and a bit runny but it will thicken as it cools. If the mixture is very thick, add a drizzle of oil to keep the mixture more spreadable.
7. Transfer the mixture to a jar and let cool to room temperature. Cover and store at room temperature or in the refrigerator. If stored in the refrigerator, you will need to bring it to room temperature to return to a spreadable consistency.

Carrot Zucchini Bread

After a Costco run where I picked up a bag of quinoa for $10, I commented that I had over 6 pounds of quinoa in my apartment.  A friend sent me this recipe to help me use it.  Fortunately, I had already been planning on making zucchini bread, so I had a few small zucchinis ready to be used.  However I had just used all my carrots, so I had to wait a few days before I made it to the store.  I looked at the recipe and immediate made a few changes: 3 cups of sugar?  Way too much, especially since carrots will add sweetness.  In that thread, I added a little unsweetened coconut to add a little more sweetness and texture.  Like I do with most quick breads, I used half white whole wheat flour and half all purpose flour.  I actually added a little extra flour because I thought it was too wet with the missing sugar.  I also swapped raisins for cranberries.  I added a couple tablespoons of toasted, chopped pecans and I will say I like the toasted flavor they added.  Finally, I added a couple tablespoons of ground flaxseed, for the Omega-3s.  Definitely not necessary, but it makes it a bit more balanced (there is no butter or oil added and a little extra fat helps).  It turned out to be super dense (due to the added wheat flour, I presume), so if I were to make it again, I would add a couple teaspoons of baking soda.  Also, I used an 8x4 loaf pan and still had plenty more so I made a couple baby loafs.  I could have filled the initial pan more given how little it rose, though.

I'm not taking a picture because this batch was super ugly.  See the link above if you want to have a good picture of it.  One thing that is super great about this recipe is something I've really been working on: it includes veggies in a breakfast food. I love snacking on fruit, but I have to make sure vegetables are convenient and easy to eat, otherwise I skip them.  And this recipe does that well.  Also, as I mentioned, I cut 3 cups of sugar down to 1 and thought that it was sufficiently sweet.  Would it be better with more sugar?  Definitely.  But the reduced sugar makes me feel better about eating a lot at a time because after all, I'm getting my veggies, right?

Carrot Zucchini Bread

Ingredients
1 c all purpose flour

1 1/4 c whole wheat/white whole wheat flour
1 t baking powder

(I would add 2 tsp baking soda)
1 t salt
2 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t ground nutmeg
1/4 t ground allspice
1/4 t ground ginger
3 eggs
1 c brown sugar
1 1/2 t vanilla extract
1 c fat free, plain yogurt (it might be fun to play with flavors, however)
1 c grated zucchini
1 c grated carrots
1 c cooked quinoa
1/2 c dried cranberries

1/3 c unsweetened, dried coconut

2 Tbsp ground flaxseed (optional)
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 375°. Grease & flour an 8″ x 4″ loaf pan and set aside.  In a medium bowl combine all the dry ingredients, including the spices, and mix well. Set aside.

2. In a separate, larger bowl, beat together the eggs, sugars and vanilla extract until smooth. Add the yogurt and mix together until fully incorporated. Next, add the grated zucchini & carrots and mix well. Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture about 1/2 cup at a time, folding it in gently until smooth. Lastly, add the cooked quinoa, cranberries, coconut, flaxseed, and nuts, and mix well.

3. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for about 60 minutes, or until a tester that’s been inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes before slicing. Serve with a cold glass of milk or some hot tea, and enjoy!

Smitten Kitchen's Carrot soup with crisped chickpeas

It's starting to be that time of year that soup is super tasty.  My problem with soup is that I worry that I'll be hungry a few hours after eating it.  I don't think I usually have that problem, it's just something I worry about when I make delicious vegetable soups.  And I love carrot soup, so when I saw a carrot soups that is designed to be made with chickpeas from Smitten Kitchen, one of my favorites.  I'm just going to go ahead and give you the link, along with my approval.  What I did differently: I discovered the onions I keep on hand were not in good shape.  So I used about 10 green onions instead.  I also didn't use pita, which actually makes this a gluten free, vegan meal.  Another cool thing about this recipe: it uses all things that I always have on hand (except it uses MORE carrots than I usually have on hand).

Carrot soup with tahini and crisped chickpeas

I will say, it's a little involved.  None of the components were difficult, but there were 3 of them.  Like I said, I skipped the pita, but the other components were definitely worth it.  A yogurt (or tahini) sauce is always delicious swirled into soup.  And the chickpeas give it a fun texture and a little protein.

Also the picture above shows my new favorite way of transporting/storing food: in Mason jars!  The seals are tight, they are reusable and dishwasher safe, and they are super cheap (compared with all the tupperware out there).  Perhaps I will include some of my salad-in-a-jar recipes I've been eating for lunch.

I'll try to post more.  I have lots of pictures of desserts I've made lately, but then I lost the recipes :-).

Chocolate Banana Peanut Butter Lava Muffins

I'm a little stuck on my paper.  As a result I've been baking a lot to try to loosen up.  And somewhere along the line I found this recipe.  I made a few modifications: I used buttermilk rather than sour cream, and replaced the cloves and nutmeg with more cinnamon.

Gooey Chocolate Chip Cookies

I don't like cookie dough, well not as much as cookies that are baked, at least.  But what's really ideal for me is something halfway between cookie dough and baked cookie.  In college I would bake cookie dough halfway and eat it with a spoon.  But my love of half baked cookies reflects on how I like my (chocolate chip) cookies: gooey.  We all have preferences, some like them cakey, some like them crisp. I've always been a fan of the Nestle Tollhouse cookie recipe because I've never found anything better.  But I never thought they were perfect.  So I sought out to find a better recipe.  Not just a better recipe, but cookies that stay gooey even after they cool.  I'm not trying to keep them soft; I'm trying to keep them gooey.  They are different.  But I was fairly successful in making cookies that stayed gooey until I finished all 3 dozen (roughly 3 days, I had a little help from my roommate, though).

So I did a few things, and I tried a few different recipes.  The first is gluten free: it uses almond butter (because almond butter is gooey) instead of flour and butter.  And the second just has different proportions from my typical recipe.  But it stayed gooey.  But a few other tricks I used:

I underbaked the cookies (obviously)

I baked them on parchment paper, and as soon as I took them out of the oven, I used the parchment paper to slide them onto the counter.  I also let them cool on the counter.

Other recommendations that I took into account when choosing recipes:

Use a lower flour to butter ratio

Use a higher brown to white sugar ratio

Almond butter chocolate chip cookies

I found the recipe here.

Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies {Gluten-Free}

Yields about 16 cookies

1 cup (250 grams) creamy almond butter
2/3 cup (150 grams) sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (60 grams) miniature chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).  Put parchment paper on a cookie sheet.

In a medium mixing bowl, mix together the almond butter and sugar. Mix in the egg, vanilla, baking soda, and salt until evenly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Drop cookies by the tablespoon onto a baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes. I baked them for 9 minutes.  

Slide the parchment paper onto the counter and cool as long as you can resist eating them.  For me, this meant I burnt my fingers on molten chocolate chips.

Gooey Chocolate Chip cookies (makes 20)

I combined this recipe with this recipe.  The result was a softer, moister dough than I'm used to, but that was pretty useful.  Oh, I also halved them both since I was making two recipes for one person + roommates.  So I'm telling you the half recipe, except it called for one egg and I just used a whole egg rather than halving it.

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened 

3/8 cup brown sugar 

1/8 cup granulated sugar 

1 egg 

1 teaspoons vanilla extract 

1 cups flour 

1 teaspoons cornstarch 

1/2 teaspoon baking soda 

1/4 teaspoons salt

3/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

The gluten free almond butter cookie is on the left and the more traditional, gooey cookie is on the right.

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Put parchment paper on cookie sheet.

2.  In a mixer, cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat well.

3.  Add flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt and mix just until combined, then gently stir in chocolate chips.

4.  Using a cookie scoop or tablespoon (I use my hands and usually roll cookies into balls, but with this dough I just sort of glopped them on to the sheet), drop dough onto a parchment paper covered baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, until barely golden brown around the edges.  (The tops will not brown, but do NOT cook longer than ten minutes.)  I baked them for 8-9.

5.  Slide them on to the counter and let them cool there.

The Zippy

I graduated college 5 years and 2 days ago.  And it's graduation season again.  Coincidently a few days ago I was randomly thinking about Tommy's: my favorite restaurant from undergrad.  It has a decent selection of vegetarian food and tasty, flavorful, relatively healthy non-vegetarian food.  And the milkshakes... the milkshakes were the real draw.  They really just took ice cream and milk and blended it, but they let you mix flavors.  But I'm not making milkshakes so, I'll stop talking about them.

I'll talk about my favorite order: the toasted cheese.  It's not grilled cheese because it's not greasy.  It's pita bread with cheese put in a toaster oven.  It's delicious and somewhat healthier than grilled cheese.  And my favorite toasted cheese is The Zippy: toasted cheese with sesame sauce, sunflower seeds, and veggies.

The Zippy
1 pita
3 pieces of cheese
2 Tbsp sunflower seeds
2 tsp tahini
1/4 green pepper
1/4 tomato
sprouts

Heat the oven (or a toaster oven) at 350.
Cut the pita in half and put the 3 pieces of cheese in the pita.  Put half the tahini, sunflower seeds, pepper, tomato in the pita.  Heat until the cheese is melted 5-10 minutes.  Basically, I put it in when I preheated the oven and left it in a few minutes after the oven heated and it came out perfectly.

Remove from the oven, add the sprouts and enjoy!

Yum!  It's not quite The Zippy (the sesame sauce was a little sweeter than tahini), but it's awesome!

Homemade Larabars

Larabars are awesome.  They're like trail mix blended into one bar.  They are healthy, sweet but without added sugar and fairly filling for their petite size.  But they are expensive.  Not as expensive as some of the bars out there, but expensive enough that I can't justify buying them.  Honestly making them (especially if you use the good, organic stuff) is not much cheaper.  But it is fun :).

The concept is easy: start with a base of nuts or seeds and a sweet, bland fruit like dates or figs.  Blend it until it is a sticky goo.  Then add flavorings, then add fillings.  I made three kinds, two starting from a seed and date base and one starting from a nut and prune base.  In my experimenting I found it works better (especially with my little Magic Bullet rather than a real food processor) to make the nuts/seeds into a nut/seed butter and then add the fruit, and then the flavorings/fillings.

The basic recipe:

1 cup nuts or seeds
1 cup sweet, mild dried fruit (dates, raisins, figs, prunes, etc)
Flavoring as desired (orange zest, vanilla, cocoa powder, etc)
Filling (the dried fruit you want to flavor with, chocolate chips, etc)

1. Blend the nuts or seeds until they start to make butter.
2. Add the dates etc.  Blend until the paste is fairly uniform and sticky.
3. Add flavorings, blend.
4. Add fruit, blend try to mix uniformly and maintain the sticky consistency.

The flavors I made:
I started with a base of 1/2 sunflower seeds and 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1. To half I added a tsp orange zest and half a cup of cranberries
2. To half I added zest and juice of half a lemon (the juice changed the texture, but it was still managable) and a handful of dried blueberries.

I used 1/2 cashews, 1/2 cup prunes and about a Tbsp cocoa powder and added chocolate chips.  Mmm, dessert :).

Lemon Whole Wheat Bread

As we know, I love making bread.  In fact, I started this blog as a record of my bread-making in some sense.  I was looking for a nice, healthy bread for breakfasts and possibly sandwiches and came across this nice lemon honey whole wheat bread.

It was great: flavorful, whole wheaty, but it made 2 loaves, oops!  I ate the first loaf in the first couple of days with chili for lunch or jam for breakfast.  It would make really great peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  I used half of the second loaf for a savory bread pudding that I will blog about later.

Oreo Cupcakes

For a friends birthday, she requested something Oreo.  I thought it would be brilliant to fill chocolate cupcakes and cover them with Oreo frosting.  They were awesome.  I usually don't like chocolate cake (it's not chocolaty enough), but the chocolate cupcake recipe was great.  I also added about 6 crushed Oreos.  I was inspired by a peanut butter Oreo cupcake recipe.  They were awesome and can be played with in lots of different ways with different fillings and frostings, from the same basic chocolate recipe.  I also took the cream cheese out of the frosting since I don't like it.

I made filling from shortening to make sure it was white.  I made it a little too thick and it didn't fill as well as I hoped.  The frosting was fine with butter since the Oreos made it light brown.  I doubled the recipe to feed the crowd and ended up with 28 cupcakes.

Ingredients

Chocolate Cake
• 1 stick (8 tbs) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
• 2 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp table salt
• 1/2 cup yogurt
Peanut Butter Filling
• 4 Tbsp shortening
• 1/4 c powdered sugar (or more to taste/Oreo cream consistency)
• 1/4 tsp vanilla
Oreo Frosting
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 c powdered sugar (more as needed to make it taste good)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 10 crushed Oreos
• Pinch of salt

Instructions

For the Cupcakes
1. Set oven to 350 degeres and line standard sized muffin pan with baking cup liners.
2. Combine butter, chocolate and cocoa in medium heatproof bowl. Set bowl over a saucepan containing barely simmering water, heat mixture until butter and chocolate are melted and whisk until smooth and combined. Set aside and cool until just warm to the touch.
3. Whisk flour, baking soda, and baking powder in a small bowl to combine
4. Whisk eggs in a second medium bowl to combine, add sugar, vanilla and salt until fluffy and incorporated. Add cooled chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Sift about 1/3 of the flour mixture into chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Whisk in sour cream until combined, the sift remaining flour mixture in and whisk until batter is combined.
5. Scoop into 12 cupcake tins. Bake until skewer in center comes out clean, 18-20 minutes.
6. Let cupcakes cool.
For the Filling
7. Combine shortening, powdered sugar, and vanilla in a bowl and beat until well combined. Scoop the filling into a piping bag. Insert tip into center of cupcake and squeeze as you pull the tip out to fill the cupcake.
For the Frosting
8. Beat butter. Add in powdered sugar in 1/4 cup increments. Add in the vanilla and the pinch of salt. Add the chopped up oreos and mix until oreos are evenly distributed.
9. Put frosting into a piping bag and pipe onto filled cupcakes.

Apple Wheat Muffins

I went apple picking last month.  I ended up with a couple dozen apples, so I looked for apple recipes  After making apple sauce I decided I wanted apple baked goods.  So I looked for muffin recipes.

I found this recipe on Smitten Kitchen and fixed it a little bit.

I froze about half of them.  Any that are not eaten or frozen immediately should be refrigerated.  I didn't and some of them turned to rotten mush in the middle.  Also, the recipe called for buttermilk or yogurt, I cut out 1/2 cup butter and used both.

Whole Wheat Apple Muffins
I ended up with 18 muffins.

1 cup (4 ounces) whole wheat flour
1 cup (4 1/4 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 cup yogurt
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed, divided
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 cup (8 ounces) buttermilk
2 large apples, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Grease and flour 18 muffin cups and set aside.

Mix together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, and set aside. In a separate bowl, cream the yogurt and add the granulated sugar and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar. Beat until fluffy. Add the egg and mix well; stop once to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.  Mix in the buttermilk gently. (If you over-mix, the buttermilk will cause the mixture to curdle.) Stir in the dry ingredients and fold in the apple chunks.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, sprinkling the remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar on top. Bake for 10 minutes, turn the heat down to 400°F, and bake for an additional 5 to 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool the muffins for 5 minutes in the tin, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Peach Bundt Cake

Yesterday I ran the Peachtree Road Race (along with 58,000 other people).  It was hot, and my training has been fairly slow lately.  I was JUST fast enough (by one second) to qualify for the "B" wave again, if I run it again.

Why is this relevant?  At the end of the Peachtree Road Race are peaches.  Tons (literally) of peaches.  They told me I could take as many as I wanted.  They told me I could fill my bag.  I filled my bag.  I ended up with 20 peaches.  Now people who know me know that I would rather eat a peach raw than cook it into a dessert.  However, when you have 20 peaches, there are desserts to be made.

Yesterday I made peach chocolate chip pancakes.  They were as tasty as they sound and as easy as they sound.  I won't elaborate.

But the next treat was an obvious one.  I was preparing lesson plans and realized that tomorrow is Volume by Washers day.  (By this we mean it is possible to find the volume of a solid formed by rotating a region around an axis... you don't care so I'm not sure why I'm mentioning it).  So obviously I need a bundt cake to be a solid of revolution in my demonstration (this happens every time I teach Calc 1 or 3).  And obviously it needed peaches.  Here is a recipe like many I found.  I added Greek yogurt for a little moisture, though some of the recipes I found also did this.

Georgia Peach Pound Cake

1 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups fresh peaches, pitted and chopped

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Butter a 10 inch tube pan and coat with white sugar.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the vanilla and yogurt. Reserve 1/4 cup of flour for later, and sift together the remaining flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually stir into the creamed mixture. Use the reserved flour to coat the chopped peaches, then fold the floured peaches into the batter. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.

Bake for 60 to 70 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Allow cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Proof a girl doesn't need chocolate to be happy: Blonde Brownies

So I gave up chocolate for Lent.  I once gave up chocolate for a month.  Let me tell you, it's not easy (at least for me who gets home from a long day and just wants a small piece of dark chocolate to unwind)!  I've felt like I needed to bake recently, and it seems like all recipes I'm drawn to have chocolate.  I thought about something like snickerdoodles, but somehow they didn't seem rich enough.  A nice brownie sounded good... so instead, I'll make blondies!  Yes, I probably should have gone to Smitten Kitchen for inspiration, but instead I stopped by Martha Stewart, and found this lovely recipe.  I left out the toffee chips because the only ones I had were coated in chocolate.  In all honesty, I am typing this as they bake so I haven't actually tried them.  But I licked a bit of batter (which is something I swore I would never do again, but my memory is starting to fail me and I know longer remember how miserable food poisoning feels) and it basically tasted like chocolate chip cookie dough minus the chocolate chips.  And I think that this is an acceptable alternative to chocolate chip cookies.  Especially since there are warm and gooey butterscotch chips present.

• 9 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pan
• 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup butterscotch chips
• 1/2 cup unsalted cashews, coarsely chopped (about 3 ounces)
• 1/4 cup toffee bits

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a buttered 8-inch square baking pan with foil or parchment paper, allowing a 2-inch overhang. Butter lining (excluding overhang); set pan aside.
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.
3. Put butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla; mix until combined. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture, and mix, scraping down sides of bowl, until well combined. Mix in butterscotch, cashews, and toffee.
4. Pour batter into prepared pan; spread evenly with a rubber spatula. Bake until golden brown and a cake tester inserted into blondies (avoid center and edges) comes out with a few crumbs but is not wet, 42 to 45 minutes. Let cool slightly in pan, about 15 minutes. Lift out; let cool completely on a wire rack before cutting into squares. Blondies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.

Apricot Sugar Cookies

So I've been craving apricot cookies for about 4 months, but didn't really have any reason to make these.  I have limited cookie cutters and the only pair that makes these cookies well is the circle and heart combo.  Which makes them perfect for Valentine's Day.  I did make some strawberry because I had some strawberry jam lying around and not everyone likes apricot.

I got the recipe from my mom :).  Thanks Mom!

3 c flour

1 1/4 t baking powder

3/4 t salt

3/4 c butter, room temp

1 1/2 c sugar

2 eggs

1 t vanilla

apricot preserves

 

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in medium bowl; set aside.  Cream butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.  Gradually add flour mixture and beat until well blended.  Cover and chill at least one hour.

 

Line cookie sheet with foil; set aside.

 

Roll dough to 1/8-in thickness on lightly floured surface.  Cut out with 2 1/2-in diameter cookie cutter.  Cut centers out of half the cookies with 1-in diameter cookie cutter.  Transfer cookies to foil lined sheets.

 

Bake at 375 degrees until just beginning to brown on edges, 6 to 8 min.  Remove from cookie sheets and cool completely.

 

Spread 1 t apricot preserves over each whole cookie.  Top with remaining "cut out" cookies sandwich style.  Makes 2-1/2 to 3 dozen cookies.  Centers can be baked as a separate treat; watch carefully, they bake quickly.

I topped the heart shaped middles with a little strawberry frosting:

Strawberry Frosting 

• 2 Tbsp of butter at room temperature
• 1/4 teaspoon of Vanilla extract
• 2 Tbsp Cup Strawberry Preserves
• 1/4 Cups Powdered Sugar