mmmm brownies

Why: I don’t know why I do it to myself, but every week I check out the kithn to see what they have going on. Recently they featured these, mascarpone brownies. I’m always sniffing out new and improved brownie recipes so I had to give these a try.

What: Aside from the slight taste in tirimusu – I’ve never had mascarpone. And, I didn’t know where to find it. Luckily I found it at the 3rd grocery store I looked, and for a reasonable price (although I know Costco has it from time to time but really, who needs that much?). I read the reviews and after a few comments said that they couldn’t taste the cheese, I knew I was safe. I also saw that the actual brownie wasn’t that sweet so I added an extra 2 tbsp of sugar. Ganache is one of my favorite things, so easy to make and yet everyone is impressed. I hate frosted brownies – why mess with a good thing. Whenever a frosted brownie ends up on my plate I usually scrape off all the frosting. In the case of these brownies, the ganache is definitely appropriate and needed. With the dense texture and tons-o-chocolate it’s a rich dessert so a little goes a long way. So, the big question; are they worth it? While they are super tasty, the calorie intake is questionable but the process is no more complicated than any other brownie recipe out there. I have half a tub of mascarpone left so, yes, I will be making these again. After that, I’m curious to substitute cream cheese.

baby turns 1..1...1...

Why: My niece was turning 1 and my sister asked me to make her a cake. She let me have free reign except no chocolate, oh and cupcakes would be nice for the kids, and the raspberry I did previously was tasty.. and it would be fun if it was the count from sesame street or shaped like their dog .. but you know, free reign. I actually really appreciated the directions she subtly provided. Complete free reign is hard because there are too many tasty possibilities out there that it's overwhelming. I have to admit that I am so proud of the outcome. I was hesitant because of all the black coloring but in the end I was super happy with the outcome.

What: The cake is a simple yellow cake. So simple that I ended up baking 3 separate cakes. I have a standby cookbook that I LOVE but their yellow cake was so incredibly eggy and chewy that I thought that I messed something up so I made it again. With the same chewy egg results I had a ...moment... of frustration and moved on to a different recipe. I used this recipe, mostly because of the pictures and how it was claimed to be the best. You might be wondering "well, was it the best?" and I will have to say, nay. It was actually pretty bad. I had tons of batter left over so I made cupcakes along with the cake round and when I tasted the cupcake it literally tasted like corn bread without the corn meal. The texture was great but it wasn't sweet at all. I refused to bake ANOTHER cake so I added more sugar to the cupcakes I had yet to bake and figured that I'd make the most with the non sweet cake round that had just come out of the oven.

The filling is my usual buttercream but colored and flavored with raspberries. I also tossed in some fresh raspberries. For the outside of the cake I used some vanilla bean buttercream I had kicking around from a different cake (more to come on that awesomeness!). The fondant is the marshmallow fondant that is not only super easy to make and use but is also really tasty. It is near impossible to make black colored fondant (at best turns out dark grey) and I wasn't going to go buy black fondant to cover such a little bit of the cake. So, I used food coloring diluted with water. I then used qtips to lightly color in where I wanted. It was my first time using this technique and I was really surprised by how well it turned out.

I decorated the cake in about 2 1/2 hours and in the end I was really proud of myself. I forgot about the monocle until we were about to leave for the party so I just used plastic from one of my clam shell food containers. It turned out that there was so much sweetness from the raspberry buttercream, the vanilla buttercream and the fondant that the not overly sweet cake worked out perfect. The cake was a success, everyone loved it, especially the birthday girl. She wanted to put her feet in it which is how you know that she really likes something.

apple and baking, the perfect match

Oh food blog..it's been awhile. I hope that you didn't miss me too much. Truth is, the husband is back in school working on his degree and has been a complete computer hog with his online classes. I would occasionally snag the laptop to check out my favorite blogs or find some recipes but in general I wasn't spending much time on the computer. And then the stars aligned and I finally embraced technology. It started with the iphone. Long story short, my old phone took a water bath and stopped working and after much resistance on my part, I finally followed all the cool kids and got an iphone. I wanted to hate it, I really did, but the truth is that it's really amazing. I don't have to write down recipes anymore, I can just pull up the website on my phone! If we're out running errands and aren't sure if a store is open, we can check before we drive over and waste time. And the camera. My husband is in IT which means that he stores everything in a million folders on the computer so it's impossible to find what I'm looking for. And to be honest, he's made it so complicated that I don't know how to get the photos off our digital camera so I've been relying solely on my iphone for photos and it's been magical!

And then the second wave of embracing technology; I finally accepted the fact that we need a second computer. The husband had been pushing for an ipad but I need a keyboard, dangit! He found an apple refurbished macbook air for a steal and it was a perfect compromise. It's still incredible small and portable like an ipad (we got the 11 inch) but has the keyboard and was only a couple hundred more than the ipad so everyone wins. I think there was also an alternative motive because we've been acquiring A LOT of furniture that we plan to sell and it was suggested that we start a blog to help sell things but my perfect excuse was that I never had access to the computer to start and maintain yet another blog. I guess that my bluff has been called.

So I'm back! I've been baking like crazy and have been stock piling pictures. Now I just need to post it all. Thanks for hanging in there food blog. I'll try harder to treat you better.

blackberry bread pudding

Why: It's no secret that my husband is a bread man. It's not a rare occasion that we get a loaf of bread and just snack on it for a meal. I eat it with balsamic and olive oil but my husband eats it plain. You can image his excitement when at the family get together we realized that my brother in laws bakery bakes their own hot dog and hamburger buns. And they are delicious. At the end of the party there was nearly an entire sheet box full (really, you had to see it to understand the volume..) of rolls. We weren't going to let them go to waste and snagged a box and took them home....and we might have had just hamburger buns for dinner that night. Anyway, we purposely left the rolls out overnight so we'd stop eating them. Left with a box full of stale bread, I decided it was time to make my favorite, bread pudding.

What: It's amazing how complicated people like to make bread pudding. I've lucked out with this recipe. Trust me. It's divine. And you have to make the sauce too, it truly makes all the difference and it's super easy. I had some frozen blackberries so I tossed them in and it really was a delicious treat. I also used a vanilla bean instead of extract and trust me, you can tell the difference. Even just looking at the pictures now my mouth is watering.

Behold! A mega pan of brownies!

Why: My sister is law was hosting a family gathering for her husbands side and invited us up to partake in the festivities. Not being one to show up without treats in tow, I had to think of something somewhat easy and large enough for a big group. Nothing is easier than bars so I made a giant pan of peanut butter brownies. My brother in law manages a bakery at the local grocer so much to our surprise we showed up and they had an entire table of baked goods that they grabbed for free from a food show they were at the day before. Oh well. Even though they had an entire table of lofthouse cookies, I think my brownies still take the cake.

What: I got a little overly ambitious and bought nearly my weight in unsweetened chocolate clips so I was more than happy to make brownies. I made an entire half sheet pan of peanut butter brownies. I took a whole box full and still had enough to leave at home for later snacking. Speaking of which.. I need to go visit my freezer now..

peanut butter bar fail

Why: For my wedding present my mom gave me a cookbook with all the recipes I grew up with. I had fond memories of peanut butter chocolate bars and decided to give it a go.

What: The gist of the recipe is that it's a peanut butter cookie with a layer of chocolate and a layer of peanut butter frosting. If it sounds overly sweet and heavy, it was. I realized that I loved these bars as a kid because it's as much sugar as anyone could ever possibly cram into a little cookie bar. As an adult, it was way too much for me. After one bite it was instantly declared a failure. Maybe for my nieces first sleepover I'll make a batch, drop them off and giggle myself to sleep as I think of the chaos I left behind.

Halfway cookies? Try halfway gone by the time I'm willing to share

Why: It was the perfect storm, I came across an interesting looking recipe, I had all the ingredients and Michael was traveling.

What: When these came out of the oven I determined that they were completely undesirable and a mistake. I figured that I have to at least taste them. One bite and I was sold. They're perfect, the meringue is sweet but the cookie portion has a nice salty balance. It's a little bit more work than a regular cookie bar because of the meringue but I usually have extra egg whites because I make so many custards so it's a great recipe for me. I took the first batch into work where everyone instantly declared the recipe a winner. I made a batch a few days later for my husband's work and they too had their lives changed by this cookie. I made their batch half chocolate chip half white chocolate macadamia but didn't receive any feedback on which was preferred - they gobbled it up all the same. It's a little complicated, ugly and messy to transport and eat but people sure do love it so it will always be a go-to recipe in my cookbook.

Behold the glory of monkey bread

Why: I was watching Oprah and my husband happened to catch the one little piece of the show where they were discussing the glory of monkey bread. All he had to do was hint at the idea that it might be a tasty treat and I was off in the kitchen chopping up dough and heating the oven.

What: The recipe calls for buttermilk biscuits but whatever, we always have Rhodes rolls so I used those. I defrosted the rolls, let them proof a little in the oven (I was feeling a little impatient) and cut each roll into ¼ pieces. I rolled them in my hand (helps if they're still slightly wet from defrosting) and followed the recipe as is. I used maybe 15-20 rolls which was a little more than halfway up my bundt pan. Last time I made monkey bread I put in too much dough and it overflowed in the oven a made a mess. I kept the caramel portion the same as a the recipe and it turned out peeerfect. Now, let's just be honest with ourselves, this is not a low fat treat. You're going to be using 2 sticks of butter. That being said, it smelled soooo good and after waiting the mandated 10 minutes for cooling (I was ready to jump in fresh out of the oven but my husband made me wait), I could barely stop myself. Once I was able to pull myself away I made my husband promise to take the rest into work. There was no way I could stop myself from eating all of it if it was still in the house and I really don't need to consume an entire stick of butter in less than 24 hours. Every time I pass the frozen rolls in the grocery store I think ".maybe..monkey bread..?" but so far I've been able to resist. So far.

Mini birthday cakes

Why: The team I work on is small, a total of 8 people not including myself but even still, we don't make a big deal out of birthdays. In fact, no one announces birthdays so it's not uncommon for someone's to slip by without anyone saying something. But, someone happened to mention that their birthday along with someone else's fell around the same weekend so I should make cupcakes. One birthday person was completely indifferent as long as there was chocolate and the other just wanted the frosting that goes on german chocolate cake. Well, I made over 3 dozen cupcakes only to find that the german chocolate dude took the day off! Rude! Others in the office gobbled them up though, some people were even hiding cupcakes for later. My bosses boss even snook some home to share with his kids.

What: Not wanting to make two kinds of cupcakes I did two very different cupcakes with the same chocolate cupcake base. I made the german chocolate frosting from this recipe. While it's not the most attractive frosting, it turned out very tasty. It wasn't overly sweet and I went a little light on the pecans, mostly because I ran out :). When I was mixing the cupcakes I was a little light on cocoa powder so I added some melted unsweetened chocolate chips but the cake itself still wasn't the rich chocolate taste I was going for so for the mint cupcakes I covered the top of each cupcake with chocolate ganache. I used my standard buttercream recipe and slowly added mint extract so it was subtle. Nothing ruins a dessert quicker than an over powering taste of mint. And of course, so people would know that the cupcakes are mint I added a little green coloring. I added a little drizzle of ganache over to top of the cupcakes to make them a little fancy. Just a little.

Biscotti.. .. . .. again..

Why: Now that I discovered how easy biscotti is, I went a little wild.

What: I was still on my chocolate kick so I wanted to give a go to chocolate biscotti. I used this recipe and well, it turned out perfect. I used milk chocolate chips and I made some with and without almonds and I have to say that unfortunately the almonds didn't add much. Since I already started the mess I decided to dive in and make another batch of biscotti. I tried my hand at this recipe but cut the amount of chips, pistachios and craisins down and used 2 tsp of the almond extract. This recipe was quite a bit more sticky (I had to wet my hands in order to shape the dough into logs) and it stuck to the parchment paper so I ran a sharp knife between the cookies and paper to get them to release. I figured that the uber stickiness was totally tolerable because there was no butter and hardly any oil in them. I found the almond extract still a little too strong, next time I will use 1 ½ tsp if not a little less. Both cookies turned out exactly as I had wished, it's nice to have a roaring success in the kitchen.

brownie + cookies = love

Why: Sometimes when I want a treat there is only one thing that will satisfy my craving. Warm, gooey, chocolate brownies. Warm brownies with ice cream, best desert ever. Lava cake!? My thoughts exactly! What makes these cravings super frustrating is that you can't run out and buy one quickly and on the cheap. If I wanted ice cream, 30 seconds and $1 later I'd be happy. Warm brownie sundae? I don't even know where you can buy a decent one. The mood for a warm chocolate treat hit me and suddenly I remembered recently viewing a recipe for brownies made into cookies. SOLD!

What: Ok, I'm not going to lie, I have totally classified this as healthy because it doesn't have a lot of butter or oil in it. But it does have A LOT of chocolate which doesn't make it cheap. It has quite a few more steps than I typically care for when making cookies and scooping cold dough is annoying but I can mix it by hand which means the bowl from my stand mixer won't take up the entire dishwasher. The results are pretty good. If you're the kind of person that likes the outside pieces of the brownie pan, this is totally for you. Each cookie is a little crisp around the outside, chewy in the middle. I used my super nice semi sweet chocolate which is a little bitter for the recipe so next time (hell yes there will be a next time) I'll do maybe 1 ½ cup semi and ½ cup milk. And to make it even more amazing, it wouldn't hurt to throw a few unmelted chips into the dough before baking. I'm just saying.. if you're going to make a brownie cookie, might as well go all in.

Recipe:

1 tbsp oil

1 tsp of butter (yes, this is the correct amount)

2 cup of bitter or semi sweet chocolate

¾ cup brown sugar

2 eggs

½ tsp vanilla

½ cup flour

¼ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

Preheat to 350. Mix together brown sugar and eggs. Add vanilla, flour, baking powder and salt, stir until combined. In a separate bowl add the chocolate, oil and butter. Melt in microwave in short intervals, stirring between, until compeltely melted. Fold chocolate into the other mixture (until color is consistent) and chill in the freezer for 10 minutes. Scoop chilled dough onto a greased or lined cookie sheet and bake for 11-12 minutes.

Biscotti, a new frontier

Why: Another game night with family was planned for new years eve and I desperately wanted to use some hazelnuts I had hanging out. I searched for recipes including hazelnuts and it was either shortbread-ish cookies or a chocolate hazelnut cheesecake. Based on what I already had in the fridge, I went for the cookies.

What: This is the first time I made biscotti (weird, I know. They're super simple and one of my favorites). I used this recipe and followed it exactly. Next time I will definitely cut down on the nuts, a full cup was too much. Even with chocolate on top all I could taste was nuts. Also, as some of the comments noted, biscotti is great because it lasts forever but since the recipe has butter there is a chance that they will spoil quicker. I'll try a few other recipes but I'm happy to say that I am no longer intimidated by biscotti.

pumpkin baby cakes

Why: I wanted to try the famous pumpkin cake in a more transportable/individual size.

What: I made the recipe the same as before but used my lighter muffin/cupcake tin and filled each with a little bit of caramel and used one of my ice cream scoops to portion out the cake. The result? Success! Well, for the most part. I got a little impatient and used my darker and smaller muffin tins and when all 24 mini cakes came out of the oven it was hard to get them all out of the tins quickly enough before the caramel made it impossible. I will definitely prepare these again but only do 12 cups at a time.

Snow isn't the only winter thing that's white and fluffy

Why: The baking bug bit a little late this Christmas season but I still wanted to do a little something. For some of my customers at work I made a cinnamon toasted nuts and vanilla marshmallows. I found some adorable tins at the dollar store so in less than an afternoon I had a totally presentable gift.

What: I followed this recipe for marshmallows and used a full vanilla bean for flavor. I've tried marshmallows before but I figured out that the secret is that it's best to mix the hot sugar mixture with the gelatin by hand to ensure that it get's fully incorporated - otherwise you'll end up with gelatin blobs in your marshmallows. Not pleasant, trust me. I also, it is near impossible to make these without a mixer and even so, I highly recommend having 2 mixer bowls. Alllso, I used a little bit of baking spray and some powdered sugar in the bottom of the pan to help it release later on but the bottom which worked great, but the bottom of my marshmallows had a yellow hue. Not the most appetizing. All in all, a success. They packed a mean vanilla flavor so I will tone that down next time but they were still super tasty.

the sweetest present of all

Excuse the crappy camera phone pics - the lighting wasn't great at my house anyway (as evident by the yellow tone).

Why: Each year my sister hosts a Christmas wrapping party where everyone brings their gifts and paper and spend the evening chatting and wrapping their gifts. Since I was feeling ever so slightly ambitious I decided to make a present shaped cake for the party.

What: The cube as a lot of chocolate cake with layers of chocolate mousse and vanilla buttercream. It was a beast! Much larger than I expected. I choose vanilla buttercream for the outside so the chocolate wouldn't show through the fondant. I used marshmallow fondant for the cover and decorations. I had a cute bow made out of the fondant but I used paper towels to help shape it and when it dried the paper towels stuck! Cake decorating is a lot of trial and error.