The Beginnings of Tradition

Since I think I expressed my adoration for this time of year earlier, I wont bother with reaffirming those sentiments once again. Instead, I think I'll offer for your close approaching Holiday pleasure, what is quickly becoming a tradition in our home, an annual Bûche de Noël, aka a Yule Log.

 The Bûche de Noël is closely related to (or has almost replaced) the tradition of the "Yule Log," when the carefully selected Christmas log was burned to bring warmth and prosperity to the home. Although it's now used in relation to Christmas traditions, it had its origins in a "Winter Solstice" tradition.  Some traditions suggest the yule log was burned with the remnants of last years log, while others suggest the 'log' was actual a bundle of sticks tied together, and as each binding broke they toasted with a beverage. There were apparently many variations of the Yule Log, but as people slowly replaced the hearth with other forms of heating in many countries, the tradition slowly declined and was replaced with the edible cake version.

The cake itself is typically prepared using some sort of sponge cake, buttercream frosting, and various decorations possibly including branches, fresh berries, meringue mushrooms, and powdered sugar. Once iced, the log is usually sliced and placed on the side or top as another branch. I didn't want the cake to dry out (and what's wrong with more chocolate!), so I iced this piece as well.

We had our first version of the Bûche de Noël a couple years ago as part of our Christmas Eve / Dad's Birthday celebration, and have managed to find an excuse to make a new one each year since. The extra dose of sweet from chocolate ganache I use to top the log makes for an exceptionally sweet dessert that looks nice and festive sitting on the table with just a little extra adornment.This is by far the most enjoyable recipe of the three that I've tried, so I thought it an appropriate time to share it with you.


For the Cake:
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 large egg yolks
2/3 cup sugar, divided
1/2 cup flour
4 large egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 425. Line a jelly roll baking sheet with a 17" x 10-1/2" with parchment paper. Butter & dust with flour. 

2. Boil water. Pour over cocoa and begin to stir. Add vanilla and continue to stir until smooth.

3. In a separate bowl, combine egg yolks and 1/3 cup sugar. Beat until smooth and pale yellow. Add chocolate mixture and beat until smooth and well combined.Add flour and beat one more minute.

4. In a clean bowl, beat egg white until soft peaks form. Add cream of tartar and sugar and beat until it holds stiff, glossy peaks.

5. Using a spatula gently fold 1/2 of meringue mixture into chocolate. Gently fold in remaining.

6. Using a pastry bag with wide tip (or coupler), place mixture into bag and pipe in long rows filling the prepared pan.

7. Bake cake 8 minutes, until it springs back when touched in the middle.

8. Remove from oven and place on a rack to cool. Place a damp towel over the cake. When cool, invert it onto the towel and gently peel parchment paper away.

For the Filling  Icing:
1 Stick Salted Butter, at room temperature

1/2 Tsp Pure Peppermint Extract
1/2 lb Powdered Sugar
3-4 Tbsp Milk
2 Tbsp Dutch Process Cocoa

1. Cream butter. Add flavoring. Add cocoa, powdered sugar a 1/2 cup at a time adding milk when needed to achieve desired consistency.

For the Ganache (outer frosting):
1-1/4 Cup Heavy Cream
10 Oz Semi-Sweet Chocolate finely chopped

1. Bring heavy cream to a boil. Pour over chopped chocolate and stir until smooth. Chill covered, and stir occasionally until set.

For the decorations, use your imagination! You can sift powdered sugar over the cake and make Meringue Mushrooms as I did here, or you can do whatever suits you, your guests, and your Christmas or Holiday wishes.

Enjoy!

It's the Hap-Hapiest Season of All

Christmas is undoubtedly my favorite time of year. There's so much to enjoy and to do from decorating the tree, decorating the house, enjoying a plethora of Christmas movies, making homemade gifts (a tradition in our home), putting gingerbread houses together, wrapping presents, Christmas parties, get-togethers and events. You have so many more opportunities to reach out into you community in some way, and people are for the most more giving and kind than any other time of the year. And of course, let's not forget the food. The cookies, the candy, the egg nog, Christmas Eve dinner for my family (with my Dad's birthday on Christmas Eve), Christmas morning goodies, and finally Christmas Dinner. Yes, my jeans are groaning as I write this. 

The only problem (if you even want to call it that) that arises with the holidays is there just is never enough time to try and squeeze in absolutely everything you want to do or try. I probably have a list of a hundred different peppermint Christmas treats I want to try, not to mention dozens of cookies and candy recipes. There is just no time to try every new holiday recipe and still enjoy the holidays. I guess sometimes, you can either just choose to settle with only three types of Christmas candy (instead of seven), or you could throw in a couple of these quick Christmas Candy treats. 

I’m not sure why, but I have never made peppermint bark. Never. I’ve enjoyed it plenty over the past few Christmas holidays, but never actually made it myself. So, over the weekend we were booked with Christmas related plans and I thought I would make a batch to tote along on our festivities. Low and behold, when I consulted my trusted candy guide, candy thermometer laid out and ready to go, I quickly discovered that this is probably the easiest candy in the world to make. The hardest part is probably breaking up the candy canes. It's so easy, in fact, that at Daniel's suggestion for an additional version, I quickly whipped up this "Egg Nog Bark" to enjoy as well. Safe for the kiddies, don't worry. 

Peppermint Bark

1 12 oz bag white chocolate

About 3 regular sized candy canes, crushed

½ tsp peppermint extract

1.      1. Line baking sheet or glass baking dish with wax paper.

2.      2. Carefully melt chocolate (over low heat or preferably in a double-boiler), being careful not to scorch.

3.      3. Once melted, add peppermint extract and a handful of crushed candy canes (less than half).

4.      4. Carefully pour chocolate mixture on wax paper lined sheet or dish. If necessary, carefully spread to even out slightly. Quickly top with remaining candy cane bits.

5.      5. Allow to set (15-20 minutes). Break apart, and enjoy!

To dress it up, first melt 1 (12 oz) bag of chocolate (milk/dark/semisweet your choice), adding ½ tsp peppermint extract and pour into wax paper lined glass baking dish. Follow above directions, pouring mixture on top of regular chocolate.

 

Egg Nog Bark

1 12 oz bag white chocolate

2 tsp nutmeg, divided*

1 tsp rum flavoring

1.       1. Line baking sheet or glass baking dish with wax paper.

2.      2. Carefully melt chocolate (over low heat or preferably in a double-boiler), being careful not to scorch.

3.      3. Once melted, add rum flavoring and one teaspoon of nutmeg.

4.      4. Carefully pour chocolate mixture on wax paper lined sheet or dish. If necessary, carefully spread to even out slightly. Quickly top with remaining nutmeg, using more or less as desired for appearance.

5.      5. Allow to set (15-20 minutes). Break apart, and enjoy!

6.       

* Typically, I’m a strong proponent of using freshly ground nutmeg. It’s relatively inexpensive and packs a strong flavor. BUT, in this case, because you are going to want to use more for appearance purposes, I would use a high quality ground nutmeg.

Last, but certainly not least, it wouldn’t be Christmas without fudge, and nor would it be Christmas without sharing a family story. Luckily, this recipe will give you both. 

Given my baking and all things sweet addiction, for our first Christmas together as husband and wife I went on a baking extravaganza, making peppermint fudge, chocolate fudge, tons of cookies, and tossing in this super easy peanut butter fudge for a last minute gift for co-workers. Our next Christmas together, on my first day of baking, I did not begin with all three fudges. Instead, I began with my assortment of cookies, and only had time to do a peppermint fudge. My sweet husband comes home and as I show him the gems of my days labor one by one, he looks perplexed and confused. As I show him the peppermint fudge (that is somewhat labor intensive I might add), he responds, “but I like peanut butter fudge.”

So, despite giving him a hard time every year for this incident, every year we also enjoy this super easy, takes-you-longer-to-do-the-dishes-afterward, peanut butter fudge.

5 Minute Peanut Butter Fudge

1/2 cup butter, plus more for greasing pan

1-1/2 cups peanut butter

1/2 cup half & half

2 teaspoons vanilla

2  pounds powdered sugar

1.       1. Grease 10x10 dish with butter.

2.      2. Pour all ingredients into a microwave safe dish.

3.      3. Microwave on high for three minutes.

4.      4. Stir well with a wooden spoon.

5.      5. Pour into prepared dish. Allow to cool and set.

6.      6. Cut and store in between sheets of wax paper in air-tight container.

Enjoy!

Marching Through

So...before our big 24,24,24 dinner, we had managed to be somewhat consistent writing posts. After a week of hogging the computer before finals, and now starting to write final papers, I realize that if I don't post now, half the month will go by without a word from either of us. As I've mentioned before, while I'm busy and stressed I take a lot of baking breaks. So, given the chance we wont be doing much posting or commenting for the week, I thought I'd give you a glimpse of what I would be and have already been doing.

With the cultural rise in interest in vegetarian, vegan, organic, and local lifestyles, there are now a lot more alternative recipes for sweets that are more 'friendly' to some of these different groups. When I was sorting through the pantry, I found a can of pumpkin I had reserved in anticipation of a Thanksgiving pumpkin shortage. It slowly migrated to the back behind cans of tomatoes, but was rescued to make a fudgy dark chocolate, vegan friendly cookies. For some time, as I spotted vegan bakeries popping up around Columbus, I was quite skeptical as to how, without butter, or eggs, a cookie could be a cookie, a brownie a brownie, etc etc. Then, I was fortunate enough to try half a cookie here, a brownie there, and even a piece of cake. Although my attempt with these cookies is nowhere near as good as any of those yet, and I would perhaps rethink the whole wheat flour choice in favor of whole wheat pastry flour or a whole wheat and oat flour combination, they were very rich, chewy fudgy chocolate cookies, perfect for a 3 am pick-me-up.

Double Dark Chocolate Cookies
1/4 Cup Sugar
2 oz dark chocolate chunks (about 1/2 of a 3.5 oz bar chopped)
1/3 cup + 1 tbsp pumpkin
1/4 Cup Maple Syrup
1 tsp vanilla
3 tbsp dark cocoa powder
3/4 cup + 2 tbsp whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar to coat.
1. Preheat oven to 350. Combine sugar, pumpkin, vanilla and maple syrup until smooth.
2. In separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. Combine well.
3. Add dry mixture to wet mixture. Add chocolate chunks, fold to combine.
4. Scoop rounded tablespoons. Roll into balls, and dip in sugar to coat top. Place dough onto baking sheet lined with parchment paper and slightly flatten (these don't spread hardly at all). Cook 10-12 minutes.
5. Remove from oven. Cool on wire rack. Enjoy when cooled completely.

Moving away from the vegan friendly cookies, I've been using flax seed as an egg substitute quite frequently lately.  This somewhat middle ground bar cookie works well as a nice good morning breakfast treat. I think after a disappointing purchase of a bland, tasteless, cardboard like oat bar  from a campus coffee shop, I'm trying to make up with my own renditions. The fact that I don't spend much time rolling out the cookies, and they bake 30 instead of 8 minutes, is a plus too! The orange zest gives the bars a unique taste to compliment the incredible chewy but crumbly texture of the oat bar and bursts of tart sweetness from the cranberries. This was my second attempt at these (the first were gone too quick to get pictures), so I hope you can maybe find some use for them.

Cranberry Orange Oat Bars (Adapted from Quaker's Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies Recipe)
1/2 Cup Butter, softened
1/2 Cup Dark Brown Sugar
1/4 Cup Granulated Sugar
1 tbsp ground flax seed dissolved in 3 tbsp water
1/2 tsp Orange Extract
1-1/2 Cup Old Fashioned Oats
3/4 Cups All Purpose Flour
1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp fresh grated Orange Zest
1. Preheat oven to 350. Combine butter, sugars until creamy and pale brown in color. Add flax seed dissolved in water and orange zest. Mix well.
2. In different bowl, combine flour, oats, baking soda, and orange zest. Mix well.
3. Add dry mixture into wet mixture. Add cranberries and mix well.
4. Spread mixture in square 9x9 ungreased baking dish.
5. Bake about 30 minutes, until toothpick inserted comes out clean.


The last in my series of baking so far has been these guys:

Look pretty boring, I know. Looks more or less like the same recipe for the cranberry orange ones, huh? Wrong. Suffice to say, unlike the chocolate cookies, these are most definitely not vegan, or vegetarian friendly cookies. Besides the butter, and eggs in these, the nice pieces you see are not some dried fruit. Nor are they some nice toasted nuts. Nope, instead, what you see my friends, is some nice, sweet, smokey and salty, candied bacon. Yup, this is when you realize you've gone perhaps too far. Suffice to say, once I pulled these out of the oven, I quickly decided that was enough baking for a little while. Now off to find some hungry stressed colleagues to feed all these to!

Maple Bacon Oat Bars
Use recipe for Cranberry Orange Oat Bars (above)
Substitute1 egg for flax seed dissolved in water
Substitute maple flavoring for orange extract
Substitute 1 cup (about 5 slices) of candied bacon for 1/2 cup dried cranberries
*Optional, once spread in pan, top with 1/4 cup pecan pieces.

For the candied bacon, you can do a Google search for more precise directions from a number of bloggers, but basically, coat thick slices with brown sugar or maple syrup, and place on some sort of non stick surface or roasting rack for 20-30 in 350 oven.

Enjoy!

Good Morning Love

Daniel & I are always torn about what to do around Valentine's day. Do we go out for a nice dinner and fight the crowds, stay in and make a nice dinner together. Or do something else entirely. Maybe we're not the only bloggers in the world who face this dilemma, but whenever it comes up, I typically favor some sort of compromise, usually a baked one. 

No matter what your plans are for the day, a nice freshly baked breakfast treat is a nice way to show anyone that you care and were thinking about them first thing in the morning. I've included three baked treats on the post, but feel free to check out any of these other recipes:

Pumpkin Cranberry Scones or Biscotti  

Or if you're interested in something a little more savory:

Baked Eggs or Toast from Freshly Baked Bread 

Roasted Pepper & Bacon Fritatta  

Savory Cheddar Bacon Scone

Traditional English Scone

 2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 Cup Raisins

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup white sugar (reserve 2 tbsp)

1/2 cup milk

2 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with nonstick slipmat or parchment paper. Next, combine flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and into a bowl.Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the raisins, sugar (except for reserved 2 tbsp), and enough milk to mix to a soft dough. Knead lightly. Using 1/4 cup measuring cup, measure out scone and place on baking sheet. Brush with milk to glaze and sprinkle with remaining sugar. Bake  10 minutes then cool on a wire rack. Serve with butter, jelly, or clotted cream if you're lucky enough to find it!

Cranberry Pistachio "un"Coffee Cake (no topping)

1/2 granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup butter or margarine
  2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/4 Cup FlaxseedMeal
1/4 cup pistachios
1/4 Cup Cranberries teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup buttermilk
2 Tbsp Flax Seed Meal Dissolved in 6 Tbsp Water (or two eggs)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon  baking powder 
1 teaspoon baking soda
Preheat oven to 350*F (175*C). Grease a 9 inch square baking pan.
Combine sugars and butter. In separate bowl, combine flours, flax seed meal (not the one dissolved in water), baking powder, soda, and salt. Add dissolved flax seed and vanilla to sugar/butter mixture.  Add flour mixture to butter mixture. Mix in buttermilk. Add pistachios and cranberries. Stir until just combined. Mixture should be lumpy.
To the remaining crumb mixture add the rest of the ingredients from the buttermilk to the baking soda and stir by hand to combine. Mixture will be slightly lumpy.
Pour into prepared baking pan. Bake for 20 or 30 minutes or until tested done when wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Serve warm.

Double Chocolate Biscotti

4 oz semisweet chocolate chopped finely

1 cup packed brown sugar

1-3/4 Cup All Purpose Flours

1/3 Cup Dutch Processed cocoa

1 Tsp Baking Soda

3 Eggs

2 Tsp Vanilla

1/2 Cup Mini Chips*

Preheat oven to 300. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. In food processor or magic bullet, pulse chocolate and brown sugar until fine. In bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda. In separate bowl, beat eggs and vanilla. Add flour and chocolate mixture to eggs. When dough begins to come together, add chips. Continue mixing until a stiff dough forms. 

Divide dough in half. Roll each half into one long log (about 1 ft), and place on sheet. 

Bake at 300 for 35-40 minutes until firm. Remove from oven and let cool 10-15 minutes. Transfer logs to cutting board (carefully) and using serrated knife cut along the bias to make cookies between 1/2 and 1 inch wide. Place cookies, one cut side down, back on sheet. Bake 15 minutes on each side (30 total), until crisp and dry. Let cool. Ice with chocolate frosting or a chocolate glaze

*consider trying nuts, white chocolate, or experimenting!!

Enjoy

October Daring Bakers Challenge: French Macarons

So, as you may have been able to tell, we have not been diligent in our posting this past week. Suffice to say that major US universities are breeding grounds for the flu, and its been hard enough to get my work for school done in between the sneezing & coughing. BUT, luckily, I was diligent with this month's challenge from the Daring Bakers and completed it a few weeks ago, and naturally do have some thoughts to share. 

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

 

So, I hate to admit this, but I've never had a macaron. I've had the coconut macaroon version once or twice maybe, but was not a fan, so I was excited about this challenge, and less nervous than last months. Silly me.  I tried my first batch. This is what I ended up with...and these were the pretty ones...the ones that I could get off the sheet, and the ones that at least weren't a gummy mess...

Not so hot, huh? The second half of the batch, I added food coloring to, hoping to get a cute colored macaron. Nope, turned out absolutely paper thin flat. No feet, no rise...just an almond & egg mess. So, I started doing a little digging around and found a few tips. 

In several places, I noted that people referred to perfecting the macaron as a growing obsession, and I can see why. I hate when things don't turn out like I planned. It happens a lot....a lot a lot, but I still don't like it. So, after coming across numerous instructions to age the egg whites first, I decided to try that and see where it got me.

Look at the feet! Small, yes. Barely there, yes. Perhaps more easily identifiable in the picture at the top. But, having never had a 'true' macaroon, I still found these pretty tasty and looked adorable in my book. The cookie itself is incredibly light and airy, and the filling provides just enough sweetness to balance. The first half were filled with a pumpkin-marshmallow cream filling, while the second were filled with a simple dark chocolate ganache. To give the cookie a little bit of flavor, I followed the advice of someone else and ground a tea bag of spices in with the almonds. The tea was Celestial Seasonings Nutcracker Sweet tea that my mother-in-law introduced to me with its warm vanilla, cinnamon, & nutmeg flavors. In my next attempt (because yes, there will be more, when I happen to have a surplus of almonds to grind), I'll probably try something with lavender, and maybe a green tea version, and a blueberry tea version...and maybe an apple tea version...ooh the possibilities

I guess the lesson of the macaron is something to the effect if at first you don't succeed....but if you do, keep at it anyway, they wont last long! Thanks to AmiS for a unique challenge and for introducing a new obsession in this cute little treat.

Claudia Fleming's Macaron Recipe:

Preparation time: Not taking into account the amount of time it takes for you to bring your egg whites to room temperature, the whole baking process, including making the batter, piping and baking will probably take you about an hour to an hour and a half. How long it takes to make your filling is dependent on what you choose to make.

Actual baking time: 12 minutes total, plus a few minutes to get your oven from 200°F to 375°F.

Equipment required:
• Electric mixer, preferably a stand mixer with a whisk attachment
• Rubber spatula
• Baking sheets
• Parchment paper or nonstick liners
• Pastry bag (can be disposable)
• Plain half-inch pastry bag tip
• Sifter or sieve
• If you don’t have a pastry bag and/or tips, you can use a Ziploc bag with the corner snipped off
• Oven
• Cooling rack
• Thin-bladed spatula for removing the macaroons from the baking sheets
• Food processor or nut grinder, if grinding your own nuts (ouch!)

Ingredients
Confectioners’ (Icing) sugar: 2 ¼ cups (225 g, 8 oz.)
Almond flour: 2 cups (190 g, 6.7 oz.)
Granulated sugar: 2 tablespoons (25 g , .88 oz.)
Egg whites: 5 (Have at room temperature)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.
2. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
3. Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.
4. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.
5. Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).
6. Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.
7. Cool on a rack before filling.

Yield: 10 dozen. Ami's note: My yield was much smaller than this. I produced about two dozen filled macaroons.

Additional Information:

David Lebovitz breaks it down: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2008/09/making_french_macarons.htm...
More macaroon 411: http://www.seriouseats.com/2007/10/introduction-to-french-macarons.html
Get inspired by our own Tartlette!: http://www.mytartelette.com/search/label/macarons
Go behind the scenes of Paulette: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXIvX0-CEu0
Watch a pro pipe macaroons: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_RfiFoWZKQ&feature=related
Beating egg whites: http://www.glutenfreecookingschool.com/archives/egg-series-no-1-how-to-b...

Twice as Nice Cupcakes

Cookie dough is by far one of my biggest temptations. When I make cookies, the dough is often times more enjoyable in my opinion than the baked cookie and I'm not sure why. My favorite ice cream flavor is still chocolate chip cookie dough, and the cookie dough blasts they would have at sonic, or the dairy queen blizzard with brownie batter and cookie dough bits in it, sinful.To my utter enjoyment, when I arrived home Wednesday after an exhausting day and still somewhat in shock about Gourmet's closing, another blog that I follow and adore had a lovely recipe for cookie dough truffles (you should read her blog too, I find it very enjoyable).

I was planning to make the cookies and the cookie dough truffles that same evening to get over my midweek, colder weather's-a-coming blues, but for whatever reason ended up postponing it. Saturday, I was still thinking about making them to take over on Sunday to my parents. But then I was stuck in a quandary. My love for cookie dough is not unnatural, as my family loves cookies, to the point that an amazing disappearance of three or four dozen cookies in one afternoon (there are five of us) may or may not have occurred in the not too distant past. With that in mind though, I decided to nix the double cookie temptation route, and to use the cookie dough bits in a cupcake instead and see how they turned out.

I have to say, I was pretty happy with the way they turned out, and I heard no complaints, nor saw any left which I usually take to be a good sign. With the caramel frosting on the top, they very sweet, but still quite tasty!

Mini Cookie Dough  Truffles courtesy of Culinary Concoctions by Peabody  

¼  cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup packed brown sugar
½  tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
7 oz sweetened condensed milk
¼  cup mini chocolate chips

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.Beat in vanilla.

Slowly add flour, alternating with condensed milk, beating well after each addition.

Add chocolate chips and blend until fully incorporated. Place into fridge for about 10 minutes  before rolling.

Shape balls into ¼ -inch balls and  lightly dust with flour to prevent from sticking (approx. 1 tbsp) and place into an air tight container. Freeze for at least three hours.

Rich Chocolate Cupcakes

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate

2 tbsp butter

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

2 tbsp triple sec, or Grand Marnier*

1/4 Cup Flour

 *Can substitute strongly brewed coffee as well

 Line 12-cup muffin pan with muffin papers.  In small heavy saucepan, melt chocolate and butter over medium-low heat, stirring until melted and smooth, about 1 minute. Remove saucepan from heat.

Beat  in sugar. Add eggs and egg yolks, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add liqueur and mix until thick ribbon falls when beaters or whisk are lifted.. Sift flour over over mixture and using a spatula, gently fold in flour. Divide batter among muffin papers. Cover and chill until cold and firm, at least 25 minutes.

 Once ready, preheat oven to 400°F. Divide batter among cupcakes. Place on or two cookie dough truffles (depending on size) into the middle of the cupcake. Bake cupcakes in papers on baking sheet until tops are puffed and cracked and tester inserted into center comes out with moist batter attached, about 7 minutes.

These are pretty rich as I said, so if you want to stop here, they'll still be quite tasty, or you could simply serve them with some whipped cream. Or, you could keep reading and go all out!

Caramel Frosting

2 tbsp butter

3 tbsp heavy cream

1/2 Cup brown sugar

1 Cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

Melt butter over medium heat in heavy saucepan. Add cream and brown sugar when butter has just started to warm and melt. Mix well. Allow to boil for one minute.Remove from heat. Add 1/2 cup of powdered sugar and mix well. Allow to cool slightly (1-2 minutes) and add remaining powdered sugar and vanilla. If icing seems to stiff, add a small amount of milk or heavy cream. If mixture seems too runny, allow it to sit for a few minutes before stirring. If it still seems too runny, add a small amount of powdered sugar (although it sets up very quickly. Once icing is at a spreadable consistency pipe or ice cupcakes as soon as quickly as possible (as the icing sets up quickly once cooled).

Enjoy!!

A Mysterious Disaster

Despite not eating a single meal at home this weekend, between our Friday night out, a Saturday overfilled with football (in my humble opinion), and a Sunday of family time, we still managed to repeatedly destroy the kitchen, leaving me to wonder how exactly that happened. Looking back through our pictures from the weekend, I figured out that the plethora of snacks produced and consumed for the weekend were probably the culprits.   

Exhibit A: Boiled Peanuts

These are really nothing fancy, 1 lb raw peanuts, boiled in extremely salty water for 4-8 hours, and optionally saturated with your choice of seasonings. The longer you boil, the softer (or soggier) they become. Its a southern thing. If you don’t understand, don’t worry. Nonetheless, they worked very well for Daniel to watch his favorite team play Saturday afternoon, and they were easy to prepare while I destroyed the kitchen in other snacking endeavors. 

Exhibit B: The Failed Whoopie Pies

I was getting together a package of goodies to send to my in-laws this week and while looking for recipes that shipped well, I came across the suggestion for a whoopie pie. A chocolate cake like cookie with a marshmallow/butter cream-icing filling. It sounded good, supposedly shipped well, and it seemed like an infinite array of possibilities opened up before me as I imagined combinations beyond chocolate and marshmallow. I don’t give up easily so chances are, I’ll try again with some modifications, because although they were a pain and looked like the sticky gooey mess they were,  they nonetheless came out quite tasty in my family’s review. I think these would probably be most fun to make if you have kids and don’t mind them getting covered in goo while you assemble the treats. You can access the recipe I used here if you’re interested, but I’m refraining from posting it on here, simply because it didn’t work out as well as I had envisioned, but that could have been operator error. 

Exhibit C: Bacon Brittle

Really, we do not eat bacon that much. I really debated posting this one or not, simply because realized that much of what I end up posting ends up having bacon. I guess since everything is better with bacon, the tastiest recipes end up featuring it. Nonetheless, at the suggestion of a fellow blogger, and following the epic whoopie pie mess, I opted to make candy to send, brittle specifically. When I made the bacon caramel a few months ago, Daniel had suggested trying a Bacon Brittle recipe, so I thought this would be the perfect chance to experiment. I was happy with the results, although it was the straw that broke the camel’s back as far as the messy kitchen is concerned, since you do mess up at least four pots and pans.

The first thing you will want to do is to fry the bacon you want to use crisp and make maple-glazed pecans. I choose a maple-smoked bacon, but the choice is yours. For the pecans, simply toast one cup of pecans in a small iron skillet for a few minutes over medium heat until pan heats up and pecans are fragrant, stirring occasionally. Once lightly toasted, add two tablespoons of maple syrup and stir quickly and vigorously until most of the liquid seems to be dissolved. Turn the heat off, and allow pecans to cool. Remove from pan and carefully break apart. You’ll only need a half cup of pecans chopped, but if you’re like me, the other half cup will not last long. From there, simply follow a basic brittle recipe, and enjoy!

Bacon Brittle

6-10 Strips Bacon, Fried Crispy and Crumbled

½ Cup Maple Pecans, Chopped

1 Cup Sugar

1/2 Cup Water

1/2 Cup Light Corn Syrup

1 Tsp Baking Soda

2 Tsp Vanilla

1 Tbsp Butter

Butter to grease baking sheet.

1. Prepare bacon and pecans, set aside. Butter or grease large baking sheet. Measure out baking soda, butter, and vanilla and set aside.

2. Place sugar, water, and corn syrup in heavy saucepan. Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves and mixture begins to boil. Place candy thermometer into pan, and turn to high heat. Allow mixture to cook until it reaches 290 degrees. Remove from heat immediately, carefully but quickly add remaining ingredients. Mixture will foam up and then settle. 3. Once foam has settled, carefully pour into thin layer on prepared baking sheet. Try to pour thin, but allow mixture to settle naturally; do not spread with spatula or stretch. Allow to cool 20-30 minutes and carefully break into pieces. Store in covered container and enjoy!