Rewind: Christmas Eve

Yes, I'm behind. But these recipes are worth it!

Last year, I received a massive hardbound copy of Bon Appetit Desserts. It is wonderful...it is also dangerous because everything in it looks amazing.

My parents hosted my dad's Christmas party and my way of "helping out" was to make desserts. Actually, I lied. Not desserts, but sweet appetizers since we weren't serving dinner and thus could not serve dessert (which implies dinner)...sure, Dad.

I made a double recipe of truffles, not realizing how much I'd made. They came in handy though, since we gave them to neighbors, took them to parties, and brought them to Christmas Eve.

Chocolate-Honey-Lime Truffles

*Note: I do not really like fruit with chocolate. I love both individually, but see no need to combine them. This recipe is an exception. Also, we have a lime tree in our backyard and can never use up the limes quickly enough, so I'm always on the lookout for new lime recipes.

-1 1/2 t lime zest, divided

-2/3 c sugar

-1 c unsweetened cocoa powder

-15 oz bittersweet or semi sweet choc (I used a combo and did my best to get close to 15 oz because that's just tricky)

-1 c heavy whipping cream

-1/4 fresh lime (I added a bit more to really punch up the flavor)

-1/4 c honey

-6 T butter at room temp

1. Finely chop 1 t lime zest and combine with sugar in a bowl, mushing with fingers until combined and moist. Add cocoa and spread on baking sheet. Let dry at room temp 1 day. *Note: I didn't do this. I made it first and then made the truffles and it was fine. Also it made way more than I needed.

2. Put chocolate in a bowl. Put remaining lime zest and cream in a pan and bring just to a boil on medium heat. Cover and set aside 10 min. Uncover and return to a boil, then pour warm mixture over chocolate, let stand 30ish seconds, and whisk til chocolate is smooth.

3. In a small pan combine honey and lime juice. Stir over low heat til honey melts/everything's warm.

4. Stir honey/lime juice into chocolate mixture. Add butter a few T at a time, stirring until the ganache is smooth. You may not use all of the butter.

5. Cover until firm. *Note: It says "at least 4 hours or overnight" and I found 5 hours to not be enough so start this early.

6. Line some baking sheets w aluminum foil and scoop the ganache into lil balls, returning it to the freezer when it gets too warm. *Note: I used a small spoon and my hands. It was ridiculously messy, but at least I got the size and shape I wanted

7. Chill/freeze for about an hour and then roll in the lime zest mixture and eat all of them.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Buttercream

For my friend and ex-co-worker's birthday I decided to visit and bring cupcake. A while ago she'd told me to make peanut butter cupcakes with chocolate frosting for a different event. I didn't because I wasn't sure I was as into the idea of peanut butter cake--that's for next time. This time I figured I'd stick w an awesome chocolate cupcake recipe I already had and see what I could do with peanut butter, powdered sugar, milk, cream cheese, and butter.
The result is awesomeness. Kind of the flavor of homemade Reese's (more peanut buttery and less sugary for those of you who have never had one) combined with the texture of thick butter cream. In other words, totally addictive.
Chocolate cupcakes! For once I managed not to overfill the cupcake liners so I made nice, even, non-gigantic cupcakes!
I had to make sure they were properly cooked...yes, they were.
I tried to frost them beautifully but they ended up looking a bit silly. The ones with the dot of chocolate on top looked cool but the attempt at lines majorly failed. Whatever, they were pretty phenomenal.

This is the recipe for the chocolate cupcakes.

This is the frosting, more or less. I say that because when it comes to making buttercream I cannot be bothered to actually measure things. I just taste as I go. The key to keeping it smooth and creamy is to add the powdered sugar a little at a time.

Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Butter Cream Frosting:
-1/4-1/2 C creamy peanut butter. I think I used the Trader Joe's creamy one.
-1/4-1/2 STICK of butter (not cup), softened.
-a large scoop of cream cheese (like with a spoon you eat cereal with. You could add more but I wanted this to be really peanut buttery, not cream cheesy with peanut butter flavor so I only used a little).
-powdered sugar.
-milk (I used 1%).

1. Start with a 1/4 c of the butter and a 1/4 c of powered sugar in a big bowl. Beat until incorporated and add more sugar. If it looks dry, add a splash of milk.
2. Add enough sugar so that it stops tasting like you're eating straight butter, but stop before it tastes like butter cream.
3. Add in the peanut butter and cream cheese. Keep adding sugar until the consistency and taste are to your liking. The end!

April: Brownie Cupcakes

I seem to have a lot of friends born at the end of March and the beginning of April. Luckily the two birthday girls who through parties both wanted chocolate cupcakes or brownies. I compromised and used one recipe for both.

These are basically brownies in cupcake form so you get the brownie edges in each portion. They're delicious with slightly sweetened whipped cream of whipped cream-buttercream frosting.

Brownie Cupcakes
Slightly Adapted from Fergal Connolly's 500 Cupcakes

-9 oz semi sweet choc chips
-1/2 C butter
-1/4 C unsweetened cocoa powder
-2 oz unsweetened choc
-2 eggs
-1 1/2 C superfine sugar (or regular sugar sifted once)
-1 teaspoon vanilla
-1 C flour

1. Preheat the oven to 325. Line cupcake tins with liners.
2. Melt chocolate chips and unsweetened chocolate and butter in a double boiler until melted. once melted, set aside to cool.
3. In a medium bowl, beat eggs, sugar, and vanilla until pale and thick.
4. Fold in chocolate, cocoa powder, and flour until well combined.
5. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean.

Whipped cream:
-1 C heavy cream
-1 tsp vanilla
-3 T powdered sugar, or more to taste

1. Beat cream until thick enough to spread but not butter, beat in sugar and vanilla.

Whipped Cream Buttercream
(I made this up!)
-1 C whipping cream, whipped until almost soft peaks
-1 tsp vanilla
-1/3 C butter (or half a stick), softened
-2 T milk or more as needed
-2-3 C powdered sugar, or more to taste

1. Whip the cream and set aside
2. Make the buttercream: beat butter and about 1/2 C powdered sugar to combine, add in milk as needed, keep adding in sugar a little at a time until you reach a smooth consistency and it doesn't taste like butter anymore.
3. Add in the whipped cream and mix until well combined. The frosting should be thinner than regular butter cream but smoother and heavier than whipped cream.
*Note: the frosting doesn't really harden ever

January Recipes: Peanut Butter Brownies

A few of my friends like to make Sunday brunch...this usually consists of a baguette, a few kinds of cheese, many mimosas, and jam or quince paste if I'm really lucky. Can I just take a second to tell the world how discovering quince is probably one of the most exciting things that's happened to me lately.

Anyway, I got distracted: the brownies. So one day we couldn't do Sunday brunch so we made Sunday dinner. Dinner consisted of roast chicken, a salad, homemade rolls, and peanut butter brownies for dessert. It was excellent all around. I'll get to the roast chicken in a different post since later I made one all by myself.

A different one of my lovely friends gave me Bon Appetit Desserts for Christmas and naturally I'm just a little bit thrilled. So when Sunday brunch became Sunday dinner, I decided that dinner needed a dessert and I figured why not use my new cookbook! PS- Apologies for the lack of photos, I was at someone else's house and they really weren't thaaaat stunning anyway. They taste great though...

Here goes:
Brownies with Peanut Butter Frosting
(not really at all adapted from Bon Appetit Desserts)
Brownies:
-Nonstick cooking spray
-5 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
-4 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate , coarsely chopped
-1/3 c butter, cut up
-1 1/2 c sugar
-4 eggs
-1 tsp vanilla
-1/2 c flour
-1/4 tsp salt

-Preheat the oven to 350. Line a 9x13 metal baking pan with aluminum foil, spray with nonstick
cooking spray.
-Combine chocolates and butter in a small, heavy saucepan over low heat. Stir until melted and let cool.
-With an electric mixer (or a whisk and strong arms) beat the eggs, sugar, and vanilla until thick and pale yellow (about 5 min). Reduce speed and beat in flour, salt, and then chocolate.
-Transfer to baking pan and bake about 20 min until only few crumbs come out with a tester. Cool.

Frosting:
-1 c creamy peanut butter
-3 T unsalted butter
-2/3 c powdered sugar
-1 T vanilla

-Beat peanut butter and regular butter until smooth, add sugar and vanilla, beat until blended. Spread over cooled brownies. Devour.

Chocolate cookies

These cookies are looovely and are fabulous dipped in coffee and I would think might be so so excellent dipped into coffee...if you like coffee that is...I don't (I know, I know, I don't like coffee and am not a bacon fanatic? You must think I'm crAAAzy). Well anyway, they weren't as spicy as I was expecting (the recipe called them Cinnamon-Spiced Hot Chocolate Cookies). I added more cinnamon, which helped, but I would add more next time. Instead of the dulce de leche, I made cinnamon-and-cayenne caramel and drizzled that on top.

Cinnamon-Spiced Hot Chocolate Cookies:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsweetened Mexican cocoa powder (or substitute by adding 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon to unsweetened cocoa powder)
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons sweet butter, at room temperature
• 3 tablespoons margarine* I didn't have this so instead I used more butter and a little bit of canola oil...I think it was about 2 more tblspns butter and then drizzled in the oil at the end of mixing everything together to get the dough to stay together more...
  
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Generous pinch ground black pepper
• Generous pinch cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg white
• 1/2 cup caramel drizzle (recipe follows)
  

Directions

Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Mix thoroughly with a whisk and set aside. Combine the sugars in a small bowl and mix well with your fingers pressing out any lumps.

In a medium mixing bowl, using a hand mixer, beat the butter and margarine until creamy. Add sugar mixture, cinnamon, peppers, and vanilla. Beat on high speed for about 1 minute. Beat in the egg white and until the mixture is smooth. Stop the mixer. Add the flour mixture, beating on the lowest speed, just until incorporated *Add oil in here as needed for the dough to stick together. Put waxed paper or plastic wrap down on your counter or table and dump the dough out on it. Gather the dough together with your hands and form it into a neat log, 9 to 10 inches long by 1 1/2 inches in diameter (or you know, just long and thin). Wrap in waxed paper or plastic wrap (you can use the plastic wrap/waxed paper to help get all the dough to come together, since mine was a little dry. Fold or twist ends of the paper without pinching or flatting the log. Refrigerate at least 45 minutes, or until needed.

Put the oven racks in the upper and lower third of the oven (I just used the middle ones and didn't switch them half way through...) and preheat to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or aluminum foil.

Use a sharp knife to slice rounds of chilled dough, a scant 1/4-inch thick. Arrange the cookies, 1-inch apart (or so), on the prepared baking sheets. Bake 12 to 14 minutes. Rotate the baking sheets from top to bottom and front to back about halfway through. Cookies will puff and crackle on top, and then begin to settle down slightly when done.Check carefully to make sure then don't burn--use your nose--because they're really dark and it's hard to tell.

Remove the baking sheets from the oven and use a metal spatula to transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool. Allow the cookies to cool completely before storing or stacking. Store in an airtight container up to 2 weeks, or freeze up to 2 months.

Caramel Sauce
-1/2 c white sugar
-3 tblspns butter
-1/4 c heavy whipping cream
-tsp of cinnamon
-shake or large pinch of cayenne
-salt n peppa
*water as needed

-Heat sugar in a tall, heavy sauce pan and stir only until it starts to boil and then stop stirring (you can still swirl the pan around though)
-Once the sugar is golden, add the butter and immediately whisk until the butter is melted
-Once the butter is totally melted, remove from the heat, count to 3 and then add the cream
-Whisk until smooth
-Add in the spices and whisk
-Add salt and pepper to taste/a few shakes of salt and grinds of pepper
-Let cool a little bit and then drizzle onto the cookies and eat everything.
*If you suck at making caramel, add a 1/4-1/2 c of water to the sugar before it boils. The water has to boil off before the sugar can caramelize, so the sugar gets cooked more evenly and is less likely to burn. This does take longer, but since I always burn my caramel, I think it's worth it.
**The sauce is a little spicy but in the most addictive way.

Awesome Easy Brownies

Thanks to Linda on allrecipes.com for this excellent recipe, whoever and whereever you are!

Easy But Excellent Brownies:
-3/4 c butter
-4 oz unsweetened chocolate squares (4 squares at 1 oz each) or more to taste*
*I added a few spoonfuls of unsweetened cocoa powder
-3 eggs
-2 c sugar or more to taste
-2 tsp vanilla extract
-1 c flour
-pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Grease and flour a 9x13 baking pan
3. melt butter in a double boiler or microwave
4. Add chocolate, let sit for thirty seconds or so until it's melty and then whisk until smooth
5. In another bowl, whisk the eggs with a fork
5. Add the chocolate/butter, sugar, vanilla, salt, flour and mix until combines
6. Taste and add more sugar or cocoa powder as needed
7. Spread into the pan, sprinkle chocolate chips on if you are cool like that
8. Bake for 25-30 min, depending on how hot your oven runs (mine runs hot and took a little less than 25 min)
9. Do not make these at 6 pm before you've had dinner. Woops!

Belated Pie and Cookies

I'm not so great at doing things in the right order, but hopefully this will be the last time I mess that up. Several weeks ago I brought home some fabulous fresh blackberries from work in hopes of making a pie. I love baking pies (lemon meringue, pumpkin, and blackberry are my favorite, but I haven't broadened my horizons as much as I should) and when I think of summer dessert, I always think of blackberry pie. Turns out I bought way more blackberries than I needed for just one pie, so, bummer!, I had to make two.
The first pie I made the way my dad usually does: buy some frozen pie crust and follow the recipe for blueberry pie on the back. Now this is a great pie. I'm all for frozen pie crusts, too. Nothing wrong with frozen food, people (this is directed towards Ray)! Anyway, so I made that pie for our housewarming party and it was a hit.
My wonderful ex-housemates gave me a nifty fruit desserts cook book for my birthday that I haven't tried out as much as I've wanted to, so for the second pie I went checked out the book. I found a yummy-looking recipe for marionberry pie and decided to sub blackberries. Marionberries are a variety of blackberries. I can't always tell the difference, but occasionally you can, and I prefer marionberry jam to blackberry. Point being, they are essentially interchangeable for pie. I decided to get fancy and not only make a pie with more ingredients that the first one (no nice, simple tapioca, instead corn starch and a variety of fancy other things), but I decided to get really wild and make my own crust. Oh man. So worth it. Now with pumpkin pies especially (or more savory pies), I think the frozen pie crust is fine, and even for not-as-savory pies. Still, if you're making a pie with fresh fruit or fresh anything (as opposed to canned pumpkin), fresh pie crust really makes it.
I've always been one of those kids who loved pie crust (my brother never did and still just scrapes out the filling from the crust), so combine that with my adoration for bread, this pie crust is out of control. the downside, of course, to making your own pie crust, is that cutting in cold butter is a hassle, and letting it chill FOREVER is equally annoying. I stuck my crust in the freezer for half the time instead of in the fridge and it worked just fine. I also made the mistake of starting the pie around 10 at night so it wasn't done until after midnight. Even then, I was too impatient to try it that I took it out a little early and it didn't thicken up all the way. Still, it was deeelicious.
After making the pies I felt the need for something else outrageously sweet so I made homemade oreos from Smitten Kitchen: http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/05/my-kingdom-for-a-glass-of-milk/ . I cooked them a little too long and they got very crispy/slightly burned, but it turned out to be kind of nice to have something really crunchy to munch on. Also I used about half the frosting. It's frighteningly sweet but tastes just like the inside of an oreo. I recommend these immediately.