Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate and a Little Peanut Butter

Firstly I should say the opinions expressed in this blog after a week of dieting late on a Saturday night in no way reflect the views of my sponsors.  Oh wait a sec, there are no sponsors and I can say whatever the heck I want!

So before we get to the baking part of tonight's blog I have been ruminating on a recent advertisement I keep hearing over and over and over on the radio.  Now perhaps this ad is irritating me just a tad since I happen to be on my own this evening while each of my boys is out doing there own thing, my ex is on vacation with his latest squeeze and a number of women I know seem to be always on the go looking after everything and worrying about their husbands reactions in case things are not done just how they would like.  How does this tie into the advertisement....well it seems we are not quite busy enough looking after our children, our jobs, our homes, etc. we are now being held responsible for our men's nether regions!!  I have never had a penis nor do I currently have the use of one but it seems I or any woman who comes in contact with their friends/partners/spouses appendage is to be responsible for making sure this area is checked out by the doctor.  I always thought this part of a guy was of the utmost importance to them and as they handle it every day, several times I would imagine, shouldn't they be worrying about it instead of us?

Well I don't know about you but it seems we have enough to worry about with our own stuff since we were probably 10 or 11... like to shave or to wax or to laser...if we laser what happens if the trend changes to the au naturel look and the hair won't come back, what happens if we shave and we get an ingrown and it shows while we are at the beach in our swimsuits, and then there's periods...pads or tampons, leaks both from that and from our bladders due to birthing babies where everybody seems to need to poke around down there and then some (but no one seems to be to concerned about us laying there with a tissue paper sheet covering us and a cold clamp awaiting us) or, OMG, did you see the size of those shears they used to cut us when we're in labour!  As if we don't have enough responsibility with our own parts down there! Were your sweet fellas overly concerned when you were pushing out babies, getting stiched up, etc. etc.  Now imagine if they had to put their package on a tray and have 10 pounds of cold metal come down and squish it for about 25 seconds (you know, like a mammogram).  Probably even less men would go for their check up....but then probably the technology would be changed so they wouldn't have to endure that!  I just feel the ad should be directed at the fellow with the correct piece of anatomy.  So now I feel a bit better! Whew, that has been weighing on my mind.

So now on to tonight's chocolate, chocolate, chocolate and a little peanut butter.  The cupcakes are chocolate with some chocolate chips added in and the icing is chocolate with some peanut butter beaten in with the butter for a yummy mix of flavours.

Tonight's recipe is one my mom found I last Month's Toronto Sun by the food writer.  Since she took the time to cut it out and mail it to me I figured I should give it a try.  The recipe is celebrating 100 years of Hellmann's Mayonnaise and Rita DeMontis includes her tweaked version of the 1937 Hellmann's recipe.

Perfectly shaped Chocolate Cupcakes before Frosting

Chocolate \Peanut Butter Icing

These babies are so simple no mixer is required.  The icing you will need a hand mixer to whip it up but it comes together in a couple of minutes.

I did Google the Hellmann's site and found, what I believe to be the original recipe.  The original includes eggs and a little more sugar.  Try this adapted version designed to make about 24 cupcakes (I got 18)  and see what you think.  These baked up beautifully and came together in just a few minutes with 2 medium bowls, a whisk and a spatula plus 18 lined muffin cups.  I used a large ice cream scoop, I'd say about 1/3 cup size, and that was perfect.

Notice this recipe has no eggs but does require buttermilk and Hellmann's mayo.  Good luck!

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes - Toronto Sun, Wednesday, May 29

Preheat oven to 350F.  Line 18-24 muffin tins with liners.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup good quality cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup Hellmann's mayonnaise
1 cup buttermilk
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract

In bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and baking powder and salt.  In separate bowl, whisk together sugar, mayonnaise, buttermilk and vanilla until well blended.

Add dry ingredients into wet mixture and stir until combined.

Portion out into prepared pans and bake for approx. 20 or until cake tester comes out clean.

Ice with your favourite icing.

To mix up the Chocolate/Peanut Butter Icing I used:
1/2 cup soft butter, about 1/3-1/2 cup smooth peanut butter and mixed it together well with a mixer.  I added in about 3 cups of icing sugar plus some cocoa powder and I also melted about 1/4 cup of milk chocolate chips just because I could.  I used a little bit of cream to make a spreadable icing.

Iced Smooth with Pastel Sprinkles

Sweetness & Light - Buttercream

It always amazes me how the combination of sugar, creamy butter and a little of this and that can combine into so many mouth watering, luscious and light confections.

With just the combination of egg whites, sugar, butter, a little flavouring and some fruit puree you can whip up a lovely buttercream to mound on top of cupcakes, spread over cakes or sandwich between macarons.  This rich frosting is in a category on its own and if you are used to a prepared product found on the grocers shelf, you know the one with the 30 ingredients, none of which you can pronounce, you may be intimidated by the couple of steps to make this.  But have no buttercream fears, give it a try and you will marvel at how incredible you are in the kitchen.

Spoonful of Whipped Buttercream

One tip before we get started...you need a stand mixer for this.  It takes quite a long time to whip up your egg mixture and to mix in your butter, probably 15-20 minutes in total, so you don't want to be standing with a hand mixer.  Well you could do it if patience is your virtue...it is not mine!  Also you do need to weigh your ingredients for best results.

This is a Buttercream recipe from Bonnie Gordon for a Brown Sugar Buttercream but I have used regular white sugar (not icing sugar) instead.  You can whip this up with brown sugar for an icing with a more caramelly (is that a real baking word??) taste.

Oh, there just seems to be more and more....I omitted the vanilla as I added in about 1/2 cup of smashed strawberries and about 1/4 cup of seedless strawberry jam after my mixture was complete.  Add in a little at a time and mix well to incorporate.  At first you may get the 'curdled' look but keep mixing.  If you are unfamiliar with the curdled look and it happens during your attempt with this recipe I think you will be able to identify it.  It sort of looks a little like cooked scrambled eggs...the mixture sort of separates instead of having a nice soft together consistency....sort of like a container of Cool Whip when you spoon it out.

Buttercream

200 grams white sugar
5 egg whites (I used pasturized egg whites found in egg section-conversion is on side of container)
2 cups unsalted soft butter
Pinch of salt
2 tsp. vanilla

Warm the egg whites, sugar and salt together over a pan of simmering water. Make sure the bottom of your mixing bowl doesn't touch the water or get too close (remember we are just heating up the egg whites and the sugar until the sugar dissolves, we are not cooking these eggs).  Use a whisk and keep whisking until all the sugar has dissolved and the whites are hot.  Now put your bowl onto your stand mixer and with the whip attachment whip this mixture on a medium-high speed until the mixture is cool and has tripled in volume. (The bottom of your bowl should not be warm when you are finished whipping.)  The mixture should also hold a fairly stiff peak.

Now have your softened butter cut into little pieces and with your mixer on a medium speed add in bits at a time and keep it going....toss some more in and mix, mix, mix.  Once all the butter is added you need to add in your vanilla if using or other flavouring and mix until there is no curdled look.  The appearance should be smooth and satiny.

Buttercream all done ready for my fruit puree!

Once you have reached this stage you can fold in melted, cooled chocolate or whip in some seedless jam or some fruit puree.  Not too much though.  The mixture cannot support a large onslaught of liquid or purees so add a little at a time.  

Now I took this yummy mixture and piped it onto my extra macarons and packaged some of them up real pretty.  I did manage to sample a few too many but I am a one-woman show and have no quality control staff to suffer through that dirty job! 

Strawberry Buttercream filled Macarons

Macaroons

Every country, or so it seems, has it own style of macarons.  Growing up a macaron was known as and still is that coconut, egg white and sugar concoction mounded up in a little pile to resemble a white snowy mountain.  Then it would be baked to a golden brown colour and cooled.  Maybe a little melted chocolate would be drizzled over the top to take it to the next level of beauty.

Today when you hear people refer to macarons, especially soon-to-be brides, they are probably referring to the pastel or brightly coloured egg white based  European cookies with a center of buttercream.  These tasty beauties have no coconut but still contain the egg whites and sugar of it's Canadian cousin plus ground almonds or almond meal or almond flour.  You know a rose by any other name....

So you may ask, what tickled my fancy to whip up a batch of pretty little macarons.  Well, somehow tonight I started thinking about my age and how in places like France woman of  'a certain age' are more appreciated for their beauty and experience (don't we just call these appreciated woman Cougars here...) and that made me think of France and of Paris and of French Meringue also known as Macarons.  So what started out as me feeling old and fat and tired ended up in light teal macarons with a vanilla buttercream filling.  My mind never ceases to amaze me!

These are not perfect and if I were in a classroom I would have my hand slapped as the tops (and bottoms) do have a little peak.  But after taste testing about 5, you know quality control is important, there was no flavour difference between the ones with the peaks and the ones without.  Plus vanilla buttercream makes the world a better place even if it settles in the wrong spots on 'women of a certain age' bodies.

I used the Swiss Meringue recipe I have as it is more forgiving than the French Meringue recipe.  Macarons are very sensitive to humidity and if you don't believe that try making them on a humid day even with your air conditioner on.  The recipes are similar but the method is not.  Please use a scale and weigh out your ingredients for this and using the egg whites you purchase in a container in the grocery store works well.

Today I have given you the recipe for the macarons I made above.  Please note you could easily 1/2 this recipe as I was able to make 3 large trays out of 1 batch.  

Almond Macaron (Swiss Meringue)

250g ground almonds or almond flour

250g icing sugar (powdered sugar)

200g egg whites

250g sugar

Pinch of salt

2.5ml almond extract

Line a couple of jelly roll pans with parchment and set aside.  If you wish you can draw circles about 1-2 inches on the parchment with about 1 1/2 inches of space between each circle and place the circle side face down on your baking tray as a guide for piping batter.

Place sugar and ground almonds in a food processor and buzz for about 1 minute until a fine powder forms. Put through a sieve and discard any large pieces.  Set mixture aside.

Place sugar and egg whites in heat proof mixing bowl, like your Kitchenaid bowl, and place over a bowl of just simmering water.  Using a whisk, whisk the mixture until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture reaches about 45-50C.  (Tip: if you rub the mixture between your fingers you should not feel any roughness or any sugar granules.)

Now beat the mixture on about medium-high until the whites form soft peaks.  Add in the pinch of salt and your gel type food colouring.  (Liquid food colouring doesn't work so well.) Keep beating until mixture forms medium-stiff peaks.

Using a large rubber spatula, fold in 1/3 of the flour mixture, and combine well.  Fold in the next 1/3, combine well and add in the final 1/3 and combine well.

Now fit a large piping bag with a large round tip and fill with mixture.  Pipe 1-2 inch circles on parchment paper and once piped BANG YOUR TRAYS ON THE COUNTER UNTIL THEY FLATTEN SLIGHTLY.  Now let sit on the counter for about 20 or more minutes.  The tops become firm or develop a slight skin.

Bake at 300F for about 10-12 minutes.  Bottoms should be set and the centre will be slightly moist.  You will be able to lift one right off the sheet without it sticking when they are baked!

Let cool completely and match up sizes so when you put your filling in they look uniform.

You can fill these with chocolate ganache, your favourite Swiss meringue buttercream or your favourite buttercream.  Flavour up your buttercreams with raspberry, strawberry, mango or whatever you love.  Go one step further and divide you batter into 2 or 3 smaller bowls and colour each batch a different colour and match up your fillings.

Starting out...don't be intimidated!

Ready to pipe

Ready to pop into the oven

Voila.

Happy Birthday Sweet Boy! Peanut Butter Oreo Brownies!!

 

Happy Birthday Robert

 

This Sunday, April 28th, will be my son's 20th birthday.  It seems like just a few months ago he was the kid in the green pj's running around with his little brother (the one in the floppy onsie with the hockey stick).  How does this tie in to Peanut Butter Oreo Brownies or Slutty Brownies as he says they're called.

 

Robert has never been a fan of cake and icing (still find it hard to believe I gave birth to a child that isn't a fan of cake and icing...) but he is a fan of peanut butter.  Actually peanut butter has been his staple lunch for most of his child hood.  So mix in a little peanut butter with the Oreo's and pour over a nice brownie batter and you have his requested dessert along with an ice cream cake to celebrate the transition from the teens years to the 'tees'.  You know, no more sevenTEEN, eightTEEN, nineTEEN....now you get to be taken more seriously, well as serious as we will take a twenTEE year old.

 

The recipe Rob found called for an Oreo cookie, a blob of peanut butter, another Oreo on top of that and then brownie batter poured on top.  I thought just 1 Oreo topped with a blob of peanut butter and then topped with the Baker's Chocolate One Bowl Brownie batter (easy and yummy and no mixer required).  Bake in paper lined individual muffin tins and yum a little over the top dessert in a nice portion controlled size.  Add a scoop of ice cream to this and how great would that be.

 

Oreo's topped with peanut butter

With One Bowl Brownie batter on top

 

Finished...see the little bubbles of hot peanut butter oozing out of the top...wait until they cool before enjoying.

 

Oh, by the way this recipe is not for the faint of heart.  Just make it and don't think about it.  Remember it is all in the portion control.

 

Baker's One Bowl Chocolate Brownies

 

Preheat oven to 350F.  Foil line and spray a 13 x 9 inch pan.  Have foil overhand on edges for easy pickup.

 

3/4 cup butter

4 squares Baker's unsweetend chocolate

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 cup flour

1 tsp vanilla

Add in's - 1/2 cup chopped peanuts or pecans or other nuts or white chocolate chips

 

In microwave safe bowl melt butter with chocolate and stir until chocolate is smooth; about 2 minutes.  Add in the sugar and mix well then add in the eggs one at a time mixing well after each.  Now add in the vanilla and mix.  Now add in the flour and your add ins.  Stir a few more times and voila! you are done.

 

Spead evenly in prepared pan and bake for about 25 minutes.  Do not overbake.  I prefer my brownies a little underdone to overdone as a moist brownie is the best.

 

Cut them up into small squares when they are cool and layer them with ice cream and finish off with a little whip cream and a few sprinkles.

 

I think you will find these sweet enuf for the sweet tooth in your family.  Happy baking.

 



Sugar Cookies-Better and Better

I seem to be on a bit of a roll with the themed sugar cookies.  Today's post is for a better sugar cookie recipe that is even tastier than the last one. 

I guess I will have to keep mixing, cutting, baking, icing and eating to find 'my' ultimate sugar cookies!  Take a look at these cuties....

These 'Onsie's' are covered with fondant and outlined in royal icing.  They taste delicious and will look cute on a dessert table, tray or even individually wrapped in clear bags.

O.K. I must confess the t.v. is keeping me company while I write this and 'Ready For Love' is the new reality t.v. show with 3 super handsome, successful guys choosing from many women selected by 3 of the world's, YES THE WORLD's, best matchmaker's.  I guess it does kinda fit....finding love, making babies, babies needs onsie's, onsie cookies are for a baby shower....it must be my subconscious leading me to this new reality crap t.v. not JUST my addiction to reality t.v.  Ahhh, I feel better about watching it now!

Back to the cookies...below is the sugar cookie recipe I used.  I did not chill it as directed because I didn't have the time but I would suggest chilling the portion of dough you are not working with while you roll out and cut the cookies from your first portion of dough.  I was able to get about 24 cookies out of this batch using the approx. 4" cutter.  If using a smaller cutter you will obviously get additional cookies.

Sugar Cookies:

5 1/2 cups of flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract

Method:
Preheat oven to 350F.

In large mixer, cream butter and sugar, until smooth.  Add eggs and vanilla to butter mixture and beat well.

In medium bowl mix together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture in about 3-4 additions and mix after each until combined.  Do not overmix.

Chill in refrigerator for about 30 minutes.  (I just chilled the dough I wasn't currently working with BUT do know if the dough gets too warm it will be difficult to work with and spread too much while baking).

Roll out dough onto floured surface, to 1/4-inch thickness, and cut with cookie cutters and bake on parchment lined sheets for about 8-12 minutes.  Edges should just be golden not brown.

Let cool.

These cookies are yummy just as is but for this shower I coloured up some white fondant and used the same cookie cutter to cut out the shape and adhered it to the cookie with a little water.  I then mixed up some Royal Icing and outlined the cookies for a little more oomph.  Enjoy!

Sugar Cookies-What's Not to Love

My lovely niece Melissa got engaged a couple of weeks ago and what better way to say 'Congrats' than with a girly get together.  Heart shaped sugar cookies with pink royal icing, chocolate cupcakes with strawberry swiss meringue butter cream icing and cake with pink icing were the treats and I must say there is nothing like biting into that delicious combination of butter and sugars that form the cookie part of the hearts.  Top that with sugary, sweet royal icing, especially in pink, and you have a favourite for everyone!

 

Heart Shaped Sugar Cookies

 

I know it has been months since my last blog but tonight one of my sons showed me (finally) how to get music onto my new ipod...so I feel like I am now technically more savvy and I was able to download the photos from my ipad to my computer to put on my blog.  Wow, I am even more amazing than usual!

 

Back to the cookies.  I have been looking for the perfect sugar cookie recipe and I have been using for some time a recipe from Gay Lea butter with much success.  I did find a recipe on the internet from All Recipes claiming to be the best sugar cookie recipe so I gave that one a try and it was good but then I found another one from Daphna Rabinovich on the Canadian Food Network site and gave it a try.  The heart cookies are from this recipe.

 

I found Daphna's recipe to be a little more tasty as it has brown sugar and white sugar in it.  I think the brown sugar adds to the flavour of the cookie and even without the royal icing it is very tasty. 

 

The only thing I changed was I added another 1/4 cup of butter.  I found I needed it to make the dough come together better before pressing it together to chill.

 

Give it a try and see what you think.  I definitely did not get 36 cookies out of it but I made pretty large cookies as you can see so I was able to get about 18 cookies out of 1 batch.

 

A little hint I discovered which helps with the rolling out process.  After removing dough from fridge let it sit on counter for 10-15 minutes and then gently knead a few times before rolling and cutting.

 

Preheat oven to 375F

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment.

 

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I use unbleached)

1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch salt

3/4 cup butter softened (I added anothe 1/4 cup to make 1 cup total)

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

 

In medium bowl combine floour, baking powder and salt.

 

In large bowl using mixer, beat butter until light and fluffy; beat in sugar in 3 additions.  Beat in egg and vanilla.

 

Use wooden spoon stir in flour in 3 additions.

 

Divide dough in half and flatten slightly.  Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in fridge for at least 1 hour or for up to 24 hours.

 

On lightly floured surface, roll out dough, 1 piece at a time, to 1/4-inch thickness.  Use 3-inch cookie cutter, cut out shapes.

 

Press scraps together to reroll. 

 

Bake in centre of oven for 10 minutes or until light golden on bottom and edges.  Let cool on baking sheets.

 



Snicker's Cupcakes

It has been a few weeks since I have had a chance to get into my kitchen and try out something new.  My house has been put up for sale so that has meant it has to look like no one lives in it during the open houses and showings.  Hide the knife block, the cupcake tins, the mixmaster, the dogs and the kids!

So during this time of exile how did I pass the hours?  Why, by looking at more and more food porn everyday.  I must say you do get a little tired of the 'same old' day after day.  I don't get the same tingle from the candy sprinkled chocolate iced cupcake that I used to.  Show me more, show me something I haven't seen before. Luckily I was saved from going to far by the return of my kitchen.

And people tell me I need to get out more!!

These 'cheater' recipes I keep coming across all seem to have one element in common...the cupcake or cake starts from a mix.  And they are raved about.  I think most of us are used to store bought cakes and cupcakes and want that light, airy texture that is not quite there in a scratch cake.  Although I think a cake from scratch is more flavourful it usually is a little denser and people just don't understand all the real ingredients make it this way.  Well, that is my opinion.  But as most of us are in a rush these recipes are pretty much fool-proof and do get great reviews!

In these quick, easy recipes it seems to not matter what type of cake mix you use, vanilla, devil's, chocolate (I have noticed the American's use Devil's food and call them chocolate yet chocolate mix does exist...not sure why they do this) you just add the same ingredients: 1 cup buttermilk, 1/2 cup oil, 3 eggs, 1/2 cup sour cream and 1-2 tsp. of vanilla.

What sets these little darlings apart is the icing and the embellishments.  So here are some pictures and the recipe for Snicker's Cupcakes.  Easy, peasy, really!  You only need a mixer for the icing!

Peanut butter icing atop Devils Food Cupcakes

You will need 1 box Devil's Food Cake Mix (or chocolate)
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup sour cream
3 eggs
1-2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F.  Line 18 muffin tins with liners.

Whisk together all the ingredients except the cake mix until well combined.  Stir in cake mix and mix until combined.

Fill prepared muffin tins about 3/4 full and bake 20-25 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly touched.  Set aside and cool.

Peanute Butter Icing - I WOULD DOUBLE THIS IF YOU LIKE TO HAVE NICE FULL PILLOWS OF FROSTING!

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter, smooth
3-4 cups icing sugar, possibly more
1 tsp vanilla extract
2-4 tablespoons milk or cream (as needed to get spreading consistency)

Snickers bar or 2, cut into pieces to garnish tops
Peanuts, whole or chopped to garnish tops

In a medium bowl using electric mixer beat the butter and peanut butter until smooth and combined well.  Add in the vanilla and mix together.  Add in icing sugar a cup or two at a time and beat until smooth.  Add in milk as needed to get nice smooth spreadable consistency.

Use a knife or an icing bag with a star tip to ice these moist, yummy little cakes and top each with a piece of the chocolate bar and a sprinkle of peanuts.

Want even more....chop another couple of Snickers bars and fold into the cupcake batter.

These are certainly sweet enuf for this Thanksgiving's dessert table.