Hang in there!!!

Hello! No, I haven't fallen off the face of the planet. I sincerely apologize for the lack of new posts recently...I have a valid excuse, I swear! I did make TWO Boston Cream Pies last weekend, but they didn't turn out spectacularly, and, in spite of that, were devoured in 30 seconds flat. So I decided to spare you the agony of a mediocre recipe that lacked a picture.

However, I will have a bout of postings after this weekend! I'm hosting an hors d'oeuvres party based off the book/movie Eat, Pray, Love. For those who haven't read it, 1) what rock have you been living under? And 2) it's about a woman who goes on a year-long journey of self-discovery where she eats her way through Italy, prays her way through India, and loves her way through Bali. Now, as much as praying and loving are good things, eating is better (or at least more in tune with this blog). So at my party, we're eating our way through all three countries. In keeping with the theme of the blog, I'll spare you the non-dessert recipes...but keep an eye out for recipes for amaretti cookies (Italy), nariyal burfi (India), and pisang goreng (Indonesia).

Margarita Bars

So, I enjoy cooking with alcohol. I think it's fun. It's even more fun to me to create desserts inspired by mixed drinks. So when I saw this recipe for tequila bars, I knew immediately that they would be turning into Margarita Bars. I mean, why not? You're halfway there already...I just took them to their logical conclusion. I added Triple Sec and used a pretzel crust to get that salty goodness. These were well-received by my friends! The filling layer is a little thin, so if you like it thicker, 1.5x or double it. Also, the crust will get soggy if you let these sit too long, so I recommend only chilling them for 2 hrs after they finish baking.


Margarita Bars (crust from Allrecipes.com, filling adapted from Foodnetwork.com)

• 2 c. finely crushed pretzels
• 2 tsp. granulated sugar
• 3/4 c. butter, melted
• 1/4 c. tequila
• 1/3 c. minus 1/4 c. Triple Sec (see directions)
• 1/2 c. lime juice
• 5 eggs, separated, reserving 2 whites and all the yolks
• 1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 Tbl. granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Put 3/4 c. butter into a 9x13" baking dish, and put it in the oven for the butter to melt while the oven preheats. Meanwhile, finely crush pretzels using a rolling pin or food processor. Once butter is melted, remove pan from oven and add 2 tsp. granulated sugar and 2 c. pretzel crumbs. Mix it up, and pat down evenly covering the bottom of the baking dish. Bake for 8 minutes at 400 degrees F. Remove from oven and let cool completely. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F.

Measure out 1/4 c. tequila. Pour into a 1/3 c. measuring cup. Add Triple Sec until total volume of mixture is 1/3 c. In a medium bowl, thoroughly whisk together the tequila/Triple Sec mixture, lime juice, egg yolks, and sweetened condensed milk. Feel free to add an extra splash or two of tequila and/or Triple Sec.

In a separate small bowl, beat egg whites and 1 Tbl. sugar with an electric mixer until the whites hold soft peaks. Gently fold the egg whites into the rest of the filling. Spread evenly over the cooled crust. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 25 minutes. Cool, then chill in the fridge 2 hrs. to overnight before cutting. Top with grated lime zest for presentation, if desired.

Pignoli

I had some friends over for dinner yesterday...they love Italian food, so I was excited to be able to cook for them, especially since it meant I got to try out a few of the Italian recipes I grew up on! This is not one of them. It's a classic Italian cookie, but not a family recipe. It is, however, one of my all-time favorite cookies, and now I know how to make them at home (which is excellent, since the nearest Italian pastry shop is a solid 2 1/2-hour drive away!). I will not be making them on any regular basis, however, since these delectable little morsels are not cheap. Between the almond paste and the pine nuts, they cost a pretty penny to make...but they're well worth it! Just don't make them for a crowd!


Pignoli (recipe from Allrecipes.com)

• 8 oz. almond paste (the kind in a can, not a tube)
• 1 c. white sugar
• 2 egg whites
• 3/4 c. pine nuts

In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Meanwhile, pulse together the almond paste and sugar in a food processor--the goal is to form a crumbly mixture. If you process for too long, or let it sit for too long after processing, it will glob up into a big ball that is difficult to work with. So, as soon as the almond paste and sugar are in crumbs, add them to the whipped egg whites. Carefully fold the mixture together until it is well-combined.

Drop by rounded teaspoon (or by your smallest cookie dough scoop) onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and sprayed with cooking spray. Top each cookie with a generous sprinkling of pine nuts. Bake at 325 degrees F for 18-20 minutes, or until lightly golden brown around the edges (note: the original recipe says to bake for 10-12 minutes, but mine were nowhere near done at that point). Let cool on the cookie sheet for about 10 minutes before removing them to a cooling rack. Yield: 2 dozen cookies.

Ganache is Good Nosh

Ganache is a pretty awesome combination of chocolate and cream.  And with those ingredients in the right proportions, it's pretty hard to go wrong.  Here are three (semi-)recent recipes:


Chocolate Truffles
Full credit to Alton Brown on this one

• 10 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine (I used dark chocolate)
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup

Heat the corn syrup and cream (microwave, stove, your choice) until small bubbles appear.  Pour over chopped chocolate & butter and walk away.  Don't stir.  Come back 5 minutes later, and stir just until the mixture comes together.

Now the fun part--add the booze of your choice...Alton says 1/4 cup for the whole recipe; I'm pretty sure I used closer to 1/3, as I divided the ganache into 4 flavors (banana, mint, raspberry, and Irish cream.  Irish cream and banana were my favorites!).  Stir until it incorporates, and then chill as long as possible.

Banana ganache in a white chocolate heart

Here's where I take a detour from Alton.  You've got a ridiculously delicious (and alcoholic) chocolate ganache, and I think hand dipping truffles is a pain in the butt--you need to coat them several times to get any sort of a shell, and you get it all over your hands, so more goes in your mouth than in the truffle (I mean....).  My solution?  Make shells, fill with ganache, and you have truffle-esque creations with much less headache.  If you're really lazy, you can fill two shells and stick them together, as opposed to pouring on a chocolate lid.

Side note: I also made mango truffles, signified by the "M," as we had an overripe mango to use.  I pureed it, processed it with about half a box of cream cheese, and added a few dashes of cinnamon. This went into chocolate shells.  Mmmm mmmm good, sort of like a tropical cannoli cream.

Four Tiers of Chocolate Bliss
Partly family recipe, part Wayne Glissen's Baking, and part inspiration

-Your favorite chocolate cake, prepared in tiers (or not)

-Chocolate ganache (1 pound of finely chopped chocolate (I used dark), 1 cup of scalded (heat until small bubbles) cream.  Mix as before.

-Super-stable & workable chocolate buttercream (healthy folks, run away)

Combine 2 sticks softened butter with 1/2 cup shortening (this amount won't affect the taste but will stabilize the frosting like no other).  Beat with electric mixer until soft.  Add 3 3/4 cup (1 pound) powdered sugar.  Beat in EITHER 1 pasteurized egg white (if your grocery miraculously has them) or 1/8 c. egg beaters.  Melt 3 oz. chocolate and cool to room temp.  Beat into frosting, and refrigerate until ready to use.

Layer cake with ganache, being careful to not spread ganache past edge of next tier.  Frost with chocolate buttercream.  Pipe rosettes/decorations as desired.  I added in sugar pearls (100% edible).


Macarons!
Full credit to Joe Pastry's most excellent blog

So, what do you do if you still have leftover ganache?  This was my conundrum yesterday evening.  I had about a cup of ganache, and a surplus bag of almonds.  And, of course, Joe Pastry's blog.  So I made macarons, NOT to be confused with macaroons.

Joe's recipe, with my edits based on convenience:
-4 ounces blanched almonds
-7 ounces powdered sugar
-3 egg whites (you're supposed to age them; I didn't--this was a last-minute baking decision so I didn't have the time)
-1.75 ounces granulated sugar

Pulverize the almonds in a food processor.  If you do them alone they get granulated, but if you process them with the powdered sugar they become a very fine powder.

Whip the egg whites (with any desired coloring) to soft peaks, add the granulated sugar and whip to stiff peaks.  Stir in the almond-sugar powder, then fold until you see the mixture start to become looser.  Drop a test dollop onto parchment--it should settle down into a smooth (but not liquefied) coin.  If it's too thick (peaks remain), stir a bit more.  Plop or pipe equal-sized drops onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment.  Let them sit on the sheet for 30ish minutes, until they've formed a bit of a skin.  This is a positive attribute; trust me.

After they've rested for 30 min, bake at 300 degrees for 12 minutes, and delight in the gorgeous little feet that your macarons have developed.

Let cool, remove from sheet, and fill with any manner of anything spreadable...especially ganache.

Here's the cake again, just because I'm rather proud of my first-ever tiered cake!

Because Dirty Martini Cupcakes Seemed Too Weird...

It was a friend's birthday (sense a recurring theme, here?), so I asked her what her favorite mixed drink was. Her response was a dirty martini...now, as much as Cupcake Wars likes making people use odd ingredients in cupcakes, I wasn't sure I was up for creating olive cupcakes. Maybe next time. So I asked her what her second favorite mixed drink was. This answer was more promising: champagne and pineapple juice. After making a mental note to order that next time I go out to brunch, I started researching recipes. I present you with...Champagne Cupcakes with Pineapple Buttercream Frosting.


Bite-Sized Champagne Cupcakes (adapted from Allrecipes.com)

• 2 c. all-purpose flour
• 3/4 c. whole wheat flour
• 1 Tbl. baking powder
  
• 2/3 c. butter, softened
• 1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
• 3/4 c. to 1 c. champagne (I used an Asti Spumante, since the reviews said a sweet champagne is best)
  
• 6 egg whites

Sift together flours and baking powder (add 1 tsp. salt if your butter is unsalted) twice. Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in the sifted mix and 3/4 c. champagne, alternating wet and dry, starting with dry. Note: at this point, my "batter" was almost like a cookie dough, which I thought would be too thick for the next step, so I added a little more champagne to thin it out.

Meanwhile, beat egg whites (in a clean bowl!) until stiff peaks form. Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the batter to lighten it. Then, add the batter to the remaining egg whites, and fold in just until combined, taking care not to deflate the egg whites too much.

Spoon into mini muffin tins that have been misted with cooking spray (I used my smallest cookie scoop, which holds ~2 tsp of batter, to get uniform cupcakes). You could line these with paper liners, but for some reason, the mini paper liners I own do not fit into my mini muffin tin. Go figure. Plus, I hate losing cupcake crumbs that stick to the side of the liner. So I hardly ever use liners. Bake at 350 degrees F for 9 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool.

I got 48 mini cupcakes and 2 regular-sized cupcakes out of this batch (the regular cupcakes baked for about 15 minutes, or maybe a little more). Bonus: these cupcakes come out with the funniest, distinct, little domed tops!

Pineapple Buttercream (Adapted from About.com)

• 1 stick butter, softened
  
• 1/2 c. well-drained crushed pineapple
• 4 c. powdered sugar, divided (plus more, if needed)

Stir the butter until smooth. Stir in 2 c. powdered sugar. Then, add 1/2 c. well-drained crushed pineapple. And by well-drained, I mean WELL-DRAINED. Like, squeeze every last drop of moisture out of it, and then drain it some more, or else your frosting will never set up. Stir in the pineapple, then stir in remaining 2 c. powdered sugar. Add more powdered sugar as needed to achieve a pipe-able consistency. If, by some miracle, your frosting is too stiff at this point, you can add extra pineapple or pineapple juice to thin it out a little.


Frost your cupcakes, and voila! Bite-Sized Champagne Cupcakes with Pineapple Buttercream. These were a huge hit. I have some leftover frosting that I froze (maybe I'll make pina colada cupcakes with it!). And as for the leftover champagne and pineapple juice, well, let's just say that I'll be taste-testing Kim's (second-) favorite drink for myself!

Peach Bourbon Walnut Pie

So this pie was an experiment...and ended up being a delicious hybrid of a fruit pie and a pecan pie. I had two peaches that were starting to get overripe, so I didn't really want to eat them, but they weren't quite enough to make a peach pie. I had made a bourbon pecan pie last year, and it was delicious, and I love the combination of peach and bourbon...so I decided to make a peach bourbon pecan pie. So I mixed up the batter and realized that I was out of pecans...but I had sufficient walnuts. So it morphed into a peach bourbon walnut pie.

The end result was pretty runny due to the added peaches, so I'd suggest tossing them with some cornstarch or flour (the recipe has been changed to reflect this). Also, the pie is very bourbon-y, which is great if, like me, you love bourbon. If you don't, cut it down to 1-2 Tbl (but don't leave it out altogether...it really does enhance the peach and nutty flavors perfectly!). I really enjoyed this pie, though!

Peach Bourbon Walnut Pie

• 2 peaches, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 Tbl. cornstarch
  
• 2/3 c. light corn syrup
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 c. sugar
• 4 tsp. butter, melted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 c. chopped walnuts
• 3 Tbl. bourbon
• 1 unbaked 9" pie crust

Lay the crust out in a pie pan. Toss the sliced peaches with the cornstarch, then arrange in a single layer over the pie crust.

Meanwhile, stir together corn syrup, eggs, sugar, butter, bourbon, and vanilla extract. Fold in walnuts. Pour into pie crust overtop the peaches.

Bake at 350 degrees for 55-60 min. Cool for 2 hours.

My Mom's Carrot Cake

I'm going to be in trouble for this one...giving out my mom's carrot cake recipe. But it's too good not to share. Which is why the pictures in this post are from the ONE slice that survived long enough for me to take a picture of it. I freakin' love carrot cake, so I was very happy to make this for my friend's birthday (and to eat the leftover cream cheese frosting, too!). Here goes...


My Mom's Carrot Cake

• 2 c. flour
• 2 c. white sugar
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 1/3 c. oil
• 4 eggs
• 3 c. shredded carrots
• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1 stick butter, softened
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  
• 3-4 c. powdered sugar

Whisk together flour, white sugar, baking soda, and cinnamon. Add eggs and oil, then mix until combined. Fold in shredded carrots. Divide batter evenly between two greased 9" cake pans, and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the layers cool, then level them (I remembered this time!).

Cream together butter and cream cheese. Stir in vanilla extract and 3-4 c. powdered sugar, or until frosting is spreadable and is at your desired level of sweetness. Frost the top of the first layer with cream cheese frosting, then stack on the second layer, and frost sides and top of cake with the cream cheese frosting. Dispose of any extra frosting as you see fit! ;)


A few notes about calories... So, I like to try to "healthify" desserts...the way I see it, that way, when I inevitably go back for seconds, I'll feel slightly less guilty.

I subbed 1 c. unsweetened applesauce for 1 c. of the oil in this cake. I usually sub all but 2 Tbl. of oil with applesauce in muffins, cakes, quick breads, etc. It tends to make the end result slightly denser, but moister, than using oil.

If a recipe calls for butter, I usually use a light margarine...the exception to this is frosting. I have found that it is absolutely essential to use full-fat versions of butter and cream cheese when making frosting. The reduced fat versions tend to have too high of a water content, and require obscene amounts of powdered sugar to thicken them up. By that point, you've not only negated any caloric savings gained by using light butter, but you've also added so much sugar, that the darn stuff tastes like sugar and nothing else. Additionally, for recipes that call to adding butter to melted chocolate (i.e. ganaches), it is absolutely essential to use real butter. Again, the high water content of the light margarine is the problem--it can cause your chocolate to seize (I found this out the hard way).

I also used sucralose in place of white sugar. I do this almost exclusively when baking. The only time I use real sugar is if it's something like candy where I'm nervous that the sucralose won't have the same chemical structure as sugar. The sucralose is usually made to substitute in a 1:1 ration with white sugar, so it's easy to use.