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.