Pumpkin, how I love thee

With the abundance of amazing summer fruit, I find it easy to avoid the cans of pumpkin puree in the pantry. But as peaches and plums start disappearing and the first chilly mornings arrive, I'm ready to make just about anything with pumpkin. Facing a serious craving, but with limited time and a sick kiddo in need of cheering, I needed a quick fix. These muffins are simple to make (no machinery needed!), super delicious and definitely pack a pumpkin punch.

Note: I use half whole wheat flour to give them a little more nutritional value, but you could easily use all AP. Also feel free to swap the chocolate chips with nuts or dried fruit.

Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins
1 1/2 cups AP flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
2 1/2 cups sugar 
2 cups pumpkin puree (1lb 3 oz)
4 large eggs
2/3 cup canola oil
2 cup mini chocolate chips

Sift the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Combine the sugar, puree, eggs and oil together and mix until well combined (either with a mixer or by hand). Add the dry ingredients and then the chocolate chips. Scoop into muffin tins, about 3/4 full. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes

Gourmet French Macarons - what's not to love?

Hello, long lost friends! I'm coming out of blog hiding today for a great reason - to help spread the word about Mindy Cone's fabulous new book, Gourmet French Macarons. I have been a fan of her blog, Creative Juice for a long time and had the pleasure of meeting her at Alt SF this summer.  Let me tell you, this is a subject that she is passionate about.  Mindy developed (and photographed!) over 75 unique and creative designs for the book that are perfect for any holiday or season. I'm especially excited about all of the Halloween designs - Frankenstein, pumpkins and ghosts, oh my! When you purchase the book it comes with a CD that has printable templates to make piping circles or unique shapes so much easier. Though making macarons can be daunting, Mindy's recipes, techniques and templates make it simple.

 Chocolate macarons are my absolute favorite. Mindy has been kind enough to share this recipe and it is on my baking agenda for the week. 

Chocolate French Macarons with chocolate ganache filling

Free 1.5 in circle template download for this recipe here:

Chocolate French Macarons

100g of egg whites aged at room temperature

Pinch of Cream of tartar

35g of superfine sugar

110g of Almond flour

200g of Powdered Sugar

10g cocoa powder 

1. Measure out all ingredients using a gram scale

2. Prepare the baking sheets by lining them with a silicone mat or parchment paper. Slide a printed 1 ½ inch template sheet underneath and set aside. Prepare piping bag to be filled and set aside.

3. Sift powdered sugar, almond mixture, and cocoa powder together two or three times through a sieve and set aside.

4. Place the egg whites in a large bowl or in stand mixer with wire whisk attachment. Whisk on low until egg whites become foamy. Add the pinch of cream of tartar. Continue to whisk until soft peaks form. Slowly add in the superfine sugar. Once all of the sugar is incorporated, scrape down the sides with a spatula.

5. Turn your mixer on medium-high and continue to whisk until you reach a stiff meringue. If adding liquid or gel food dye, do so toward the end of whisking.

6. Sift 1/3 of the almond flour, powdered sugar, and cocoa powder mixture through the sieve and into the meringue. Fold the dry mixture into the meringue. Repeat with the remaining mixture. Once all of the dry ingredients are incorporated, the batter will be thick and have a dull shine. Continue to fold. As you do so, the batter will loosen. Stop folding when the batter has a glossy sheen, a “lava-like” consistency, and falls in a ribbon like manner off the spatula.

7. Transfer the batter into a large pastry bag fitted with a round tip and pipe 1½ inch rounds on the parchment paper following the template.

8. When all of the rounds are piped on the parchment, rap the sheet pans evenly on work surface a few times. Remove templates from below your parchment paper carefully. Let the batter rest at room temperature for 20-40 minutes.

9. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Reduce temperature to 300 degrees and bake one sheet at a time for 12 minutes rotating the pan half way through.

10.  Remove from oven and allow to cool.

11.  Match up similar size shells into pairs and sandwich with filling.

MAKES:

About 4 dozen 1.5 in shells (two dozen sandwiched macaron cookies)

Chocolate Ganache Filling

100 g (3.5 oz) chocolate*

1½ Tbsp. heavy cream

Place chocolate in a heat proof bowl.

Boil cream and pour over chocolate.

Stir until all the chocolate has melted and texture is smooth**

When warm, pipe onto macaron shells.

*I prefer to use the mini chocolate chips when possible to speed up the process.

** If the cream is not able to melt all the chocolate, place bowl in microwave. Heat for 20 seconds on low power. Remove and stir. Repeat until chocolate is fully melted.

Watch this adorable video to learn more about Mindy and how her passion for macarons developed:

Gourmet French Macarons from TK Productions on Vimeo.

 

Sweets for my sweets

fresh strawberry milk and chocolate/chocolate cocoa nib shortbread hearts

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to win a giveaway from one of my favorite party stylists, Pure Joy Events for bunch of adorable Valentine's Day goodies from Cute Tape. As last minute treats for friends and family, I was able to put the heart straws and little chevron bags to good use.

By the way, have you ever made real strawberry milk? It is easy and delicious and actually tastes like strawberries!

Fresh strawberry milk
1 lb strawberries, washed, hulled and sliced in quarters
6 oz sugar

Combine the strawberries and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and cook for about 10 minutes until syrupy. Pour off the syrup and cool. At this point, you can continue to cook the strawberries for about 15 minutes to make a delicious jam. To serve: Mix 8 oz of milk with 1/4 cup of strawberry syrup and shake vigorously.

Fig Brûlée

This picture isn't very inspired, but this little treat I made today was so delicious and simple that I had to share it immediately!

Fig brûlée:
Cut fig in half length wise
Sprinkle with granulated sugar
Using a kitchen torch or in the broiler, melt the sugar on fig until it bubbles and caramelizes (take care to not burn yourself with the hot sugar!)
Top with a dollop of frozen yogurt (I made frozen Greek yogurt) or vanilla bean ice cream
Devour!

A recipe and a giveaway!

I shared my new, favorite recipe for Root Beer Float cupcakes yesterday on Birthday Girl. Now I wanted to share with one lucky reader some essentials to making them: 5 18" striper pastry bags (for making the perfect double swirl), 5 outer pastry bags, and a bottle of yummy root beer extract. Simply leave a comment here and I will choose a winner on Sunday, July 3rd. If you share this giveaway on Facebook or Twitter, leave a comment for an additional entry. The winner will be contacted via email. Open to US residents only.
We have a winner - #3 - Magpie! I'll send you an email - congratulations!


Here's the recipe again in case you missed it!
I found this recipe on Smitten Kitchen and tweaked it a bit, adding more butter, root beer extract and simplifying the method. I thought that root beer extract would be easier to come by but after searching all my local grocery stores, I finally found it at a homebrew/wine making store. There’s a much better selection online and I think I would try this one from Cooks next time.
For the frosting, I wanted to duplicate the vanilla ice cream, but also wanted to make sure that the overall flavor screamed root beer. I settled on making vanilla & root beer variations of my favorite Swiss meringue buttercream recipe and swirled them together. There are a couple of methods to achieve this effect – using 2 bags in one (see a great tutorial here or you can use these very handy striper bags. Whichever technique you use, it is a little tricky to get the frosting to come out evenly, so plan on taking your time and practicing a few swirls before applying to your cupcakes. Making sure your frosting is on the softer side will make the process much easier. Happy swirling!
Ingredients
¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
1 ¼ cups sugar
½ dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp root beer extract
1 teaspoon salt
1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup cocoa powder (Dutch processed)
2 cups root beer (I used Jones and I would recommend using a similar, natural soda)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugars until light and pale.
3. Add in the eggs one at a time and mix until combined
4. Sift together flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda together
5. Stir together root beer & root beer extract
6. Alternately add dry ingredients and root beer to mixing bowl, scraping down after each addition. Start and end with dry ingredients
7. Fill paper-lined muffin tins with batter 2/3 full.
8. Bake at 350° for 20-22 minutes
Root Beer & Vanilla Bean buttercream
Ingredients
1 lb unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
8 egg whites
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 tsp root beer extract (or more to taste)

Directions
1. Combine the sugar & egg whites in mixer bowl and whisk together over simmering water until hot to the touch and all of the sugar has melted and is no longer grainy
2. Transfer bowl to mixer stand and whip on high until fluffy & cool – about 10 minutes
3. With the mixer on low, add the softened butter, 1 tablespoon at a time until incorporated. Add in vanilla. Whip until smooth (it may look curdled, but just continue to mix & it will be fine!).
4. Remove ½ of the frosting and add root beer extract to the remaining frosting.

Cookie bribes

Sometimes when I'm at work and need help lugging bags of flour, hulling multiple flats of strawberries or I have made a particularly huge mess, I find that the promise of a sweet treat goes a long way in preserving employee relations. Today I knew I was going to need a lot of favors, so I had to come up with something special.

I started with this recipe and made a few tweaks like adding peanut butter chips and honey roasted peanuts. After the first batch was baked, I tried a light sprinkling of Maldon sea salt on top of the cookie and yowza - a delicious and bribe-worthy cookie!


Double Chocolate Peanut Chip Cookies
Ingredients
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
8 oz butter, melted
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 cup ea chocolate chips and peanut butter chips
1 cup chopped honey roasted peanuts
Sea salt of sprinkling (optional)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, salt, and baking soda. In mixing bowl, cream together butter and both sugars until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time until incorporated. Add in vanilla. Gradually stir flour mixture into butter mixture and mix until combined. Stir chocolate chips, peanut butter chips and honey roasted peanuts. Scoop onto a parchment covered cookie sheet and sprinkle lightly with sea salt. Bake approximately 12 minutes. Cool on a baking rack.

Vanilla Perfection

Head on over to Birthday Girl to check out my first post as a contributor - my quest for the perfect vanilla cupcake and frosting!

You put the lime in the coconut...

I recently created a variety of citrus treats for a lovely dessert table styled by Becca of Birthday Girl. Becca did an amazing job creating the adorable graphics & pulling the table together with simple flowers & fresh lemons. The treats included orange-vanilla bean mini cupcakes, lemon raspberry cupcakes, meyer lemon bars, blood orange meringue tartlets & coconut-lime sandwich cookies. The sleeper hit of the night was definitely the cookies. I have to admit, they were kind of a pain to make. The dough is super soft & required a ton of flour and patience when rolling them out. I skipped the step of freezing the dough before cutting them out and I don't recommend it. That being said, the result was really delicious. The cookies stay soft and chewy and the filling was super limey and refreshing. I might tinker with the recipe to make the dough a little easier to deal with, but they are definitely a keeper!


Coconut Lime Sandwich Cookies ( adapted from Martha Stewart)
Makes 24 or more sandwich cookies, depending on the size of your cookie cutter. I used a 1" cutter.

1 cup AP flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla
7 ozs. sweetened coconut ( about 1 1/2 cups)

Filling:
1 cup confectioner's sugar
2 tbsp. butter, softened
2 tsp. lime zest
2 tbsp. lime juice
Cookies:
1. Whisk flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.
2. Put butter and granulated sugar into a mixer bowl and beat in medium high speed til pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
3. Mix in the egg and vanilla.
4. Reduce speed to low and gradually mix in the flour mixture.
5. Stir in the coconut.
6. Shape dough into 2 discs and wrap each in plastic. Refridgerate until cold, about 30 minutes.
7. Preheat oven to 350 and get parchment lined baking sheets ready.
8. Take the discs out of the fridge and roll each out to 1/4" thickness, then pop them into the freezer for about 20 minutes. Then take them out of the freezer and cut out your shapes and pop them back into the freezer for another few minutes to firm up.
9. Place them onto your baking sheet and bake approximately 12 minutes, or til the edges are golden.
10. Cool completely on sheets on wire racks.
11. Fill cookies when cooled.
Filling:
Mix all the ingredients in a small bowl and place about one tablespoonful onto one cookie and top with another.
Store cookies in the fridge in an airtight container.

Nutella Love

Nutella is my kryponite. I don't dare have it in my house as I know I could devour a jar in a single bound. When I came across some at work though, I had an excuse - an obligation really - make some delicious with it. I decided on ice cream because it's been unseasonable warm & lovely here and really, who doesn't love ice cream?

I used this Nigella recipe with a slight adaptation - I added an additional cup of cream stirred in with the Nutella. I like to add some unheated cream to all of my ice cream bases because I think it adds a bit of freshness. The result was amazing -rich, super creamy, and Nutellalicious!


Ingredients
•2 cups whole milk
•2 cup heavy cream
•1/2 cup sugar, plus 1/4 cup
•4 egg yolks
•1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
•1/2 cup chocolate-hazelnut spread (recommended: Nutella)

Directions
In a saucepan combine the milk, 1 cup cream, and 1/2 cup sugar over medium heat. Cook until the sugar dissolves, about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl whip the egg yolks with the remaining sugar using an electric mixer until the eggs have become thick and pale yellow, about 4 minutes. Pour 1/2 cup of the warm milk and cream mixture into the egg mixture and stir. Add this mixture back into the saucepan. Cook over very low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture becomes thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon, about 7 to 10 minutes.

Place a strainer over a medium bowl and pour the warm custard mixture through the strainer. Stir in the remaining cream, vanilla and hazelnut spread until it dissolves. Chill mixture completely before pouring into an ice cream maker and follow manufacturer's instructions to freeze.

Holiday Gift Wrap Party - the treats

Wrapping presents can be hard work, so lots of yummy treats and drinks were need to keep everyone's energy up. On the beverage side we sipped hot cocoa, spiced cider and a delicious champagne cocktail. I kept everything pretty traditional with the sweets - spicy ginger snaps, chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate peppermint buttercream, English toffee and my favorite, penuche (brown sugar)fudge.

This recipe from Martha Stewart was super easy to make and totally addicting. If you're considering sharing, I would definitely recommend at least doubling the recipe because it goes fast! I remade the recipe today subbing dark muscovado sugar for the light brown sugar and it was equally delicious but had a much deeper molasses flavor.

Penuche Fudge
Vegetable oil cooking spray
1 can (5 ounces) evaporated milk
1 1/2 cups packed light-brown sugar
5 ounces (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 ounces toasted walnuts, chopped (optional, I didn't add them)

1. Coat a 5-by-10-inch loaf pan with cooking spray. Line with plastic wrap leaving a 2-inch overhang on 2 sides.
2. Bring evaporated milk, brown sugar, butter, and salt to a boil in a medium saucepan, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer, stirring frequently, until mixture registers 236 degrees on a candy thermometer, about 25 minutes.
3. Transfer to a mixer bowl, and beat in confectioners' sugar on low speed. Scrape down sides of bowl as needed. Increase speed to medium, and beat until mixture is thickened and smooth, 2 to 4 minutes. Reduce speed to low, and add vanilla and walnuts (if using).
4. Spread mixture in pan, smoothing top. Refrigerate, uncovered, until firm, about 25 minutes. Unmold fudge using plastic overhang, and discard plastic. Cut into 18 pieces. Penuche will keep, covered, for up to 1 week.

Also, check out Becca's recipe for the fabulous favors she created.

The great chocolate (frosting) debate

I posted to Facebook the other night about my quest for the perfect fudgy chocolate frosting recipe. I usually make a Swiss meringue buttercream and add lots of melted chocolate, but I've been in search of old fashioned recipe that tastes like store bought frosting - only better. I received a lot of great tips and was inspired to try some experimentation of my own. I chose 3 recipes to pair with vanilla cupcakes for the official tasters - me and my son.

The first recipe I used was Hershey's "perfectly chocolate" chocolate frosting. It's super simple to make and while it was my least favorite of the three, quite good. I added a tablespoon of coffee to the recipe per the suggestions of my Facebook friends and I think it added a nice touch. I felt that the color was a little anemic and might look nicer using dutched cocoa powder. Maybe adding some melted chocolate would boost the chocolate flavor?

I found my second recipe from Cooks Illustrated found on Chowhound. It's basically made like a ganache with the addition of some powdered sugar & lots of butter. I used a 60% bittersweet chocolate because it was what I had in the house. The result was delicious, but a little too sophisticated for what I had in mind. The recipe calls for 20 oz of chocolate which would make it quite expensive if a large quantity was needed. If I made it again, I would use milk chocolate for a mellower flavor.

My final and favorite was adapted from this recipe . I didn't have any unsweetened chocolate in the house, so I used my 60% bittersweet chocolate and cut back on the powdered sugar. The result was just perfect - fudgy (it gets a little crusty when it cools, just like fudge), not overly sweet with great chocolate flavor. Now I just need to find the perfect chocolate cake to go with it!

Cakewalk's "better than the can" chocolate fudge frosting:
5 oz good quality bittersweet chocolate, chopped
4 oz unsalted butter
12 oz powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
4 oz whole milk

Melt the butter over low heat and stir in the chocolate until melted
Combine the powdered sugar & vanilla in large bowl (or bowl of stand mixer) and add chocolate mixture.
Add the milk, a little at a time until the desired consistency (thick & creamy is reached). The frosting will continue to thicken as is cools.

Turning apples into apple cake

My in-laws have an amazing garden bursting with abundant tomatoes, squash, beans, pears and much more. Everything delicious with the exception of the apple tree - the fruit looks great, but year after year produces the most mouth puckering sour apples. I brought a big bag home this year hoping to coax them into a palatable apple sauce, but with a friend coming over for coffee and not much else in the house, I decided to try to whip up a quick cake. I found this recipe on Martha Stewart and decided to give it a go. I made a couple changes (butter rather than oil) and hoped that the sweetness of a brown sugar glaze would offset the sour apples. It worked! The cake was moist and delicious and allowed the not so perfect apples to shine. With cooler temperatures upon us, this lovely cake will be my new fall favorite.

Brown sugar apple spice cake

• 1 1/3 cups unsalted butter, softened
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon cardamom
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 3 to 4 Granny Smith apples, cored and cut into 1/2-inch pieces (3 cups)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• Brown sugar glaze
• Nonstick cooking spray with flour

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare a 12-cup Bundt pan with cooking spray; set aside.
Sift together flour, cinnamon, cardamom, baking soda, and salt
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter, sugar, and eggs; mix on high speed until lemon yellow.
With mixer on medium speed, gradually shake in dry ingredients until just incorporated.
Add apples to batter; mix to combine. Add vanilla, mixing until incorporated.
Pour batter into prepared pan, and bake until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 75 to 90 minutes.
Remove from oven, and cool slightly on a wire rack.
Invert cake onto rack; turn cake right-side up to cool completely on rack, and serve drizzled with brown sugar glaze

Brown Sugar Glaze
¼ cup unsalted butter
½ cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons cream

Whisk together butter, brown sugar, and cream in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil. Cook for 5 minutes
Drizzle over warm cake

Yummy Plum

What do you get the guy who has everything? Well, in the case of my father-in-law the answer is plum syrup. I make several different kinds of jam during the summer and added plum to my repertoire this year. When I mentioned this to him, he said fresh plum syrup was absolute favorite. Done!

I use a simple formula when making both jam and syrup - equal volume by weight fruit to sugar (2lbs fruit/2lbs sugar) and a generous squeeze of fresh lemon juice.
Step 1: Wash and cut fruit into approximately 1" pieces (remove pit, stem etc)
Step 2: Add fruit, sugar and lemon juice to a large pot and stir together.
Step 3: Bring to a boil over slow heat, stirring so make sure the fruit doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.
Step 4: For syrup, after about 10 minutes, use a ladle to remove some of the juice and strain it into a glass jar.
Step 5: For jam, continue to cook the fruit unit it begins to thicken and gel. Ladle into jars (using a funnel makes this a lot easier). If you plan on storing your jams and syrup, check out the Ball Jar site detailed instructions.

BTW, do you like circus fonts (like on my tag) as much as I do? Check out Magic Jelly for an amazing collection of free fonts.