Chris's Banana Pumpkin Muffin Top Cookies

Originally I had set out to make Chris my pumpkin oatmeal cookies, but when I reviewed the recipe, I knew he wouldn't like it. You see, Chris was very clear that he didn't want any raisins near his oatmeal cookie and my recipe was chock full of them (this totally made me think of this "Stupid raisins get out of my cookies" shirt from Threadless.com tee-hee).

So I got online and started looking for an alternate. I found several but was intrigued by this recipe on for banana oatmeal cookies on Allrecipes.com. It was well reviewed and I was really curious to see how the banana would influence the cookie's flavor and texture.

A strange thing happened with these cookies: they morphed into mini muffins tops! They retained their cookie-scoop dome-like shape while they baked and were rather dense and cake-like inside. The oatmeal gave the cookies a slight nut-like texture. Even though these cookies only had one mashed banana, it gave them a distinctive banana flavor, but not much that you couldn't taste the pumpkin. I almost frosted the tops of these little guys because they looked so plain but I'm really glad I didn't. These weren't overly sweet and very breakfasty.

Normally I don't eat a lot of what I bake, maybe a bite or two but I hate seven of these cookies yesterday. Seven. Maybe I liked these a little too much!

Banana Pumpkin Muffin Top Cookies
Adapted from Allrecipes.com

1 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg, at room temperature
1 small banana, mashed
1 cup pumpkin
2 cups old fashioned oats (not quick cooking)

Preheat oven to 400F.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon.

Cream together the butter, shortening and sugar; beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg, banana, pumpkin, and oatmeal. Mix well.
Add dry ingredients, mix well and drop by the teaspoon on ungreased cookie sheet (use Silpat mat or parchment paper).

Bake cookies for 9 minutes or until edges turn lightly brown. Cool on wire rack. Store in a closed container

Yield:48 cookies
Would I Make This Again?Sure!. I'd like to try these without the banana and just go full pumpkin or maybe try dried cranberries and orange zest. It's a great basic recipe.

Apoorva's "Any Nut" Milk Chocolate Cake

Yesterday my husband and I were invited to a housewarming for my friend Apoorva and her husband. They just moved into their brand new and extremely charming town house and I couldn't wait to get a peek inside. To honor the occasion I bought her a glass cake plate with a matching lid and offered to make her any cake she wanted. She, of course, requested something chocolate.

I waited until the last minute to make the cake and ran out of time. I didn't realize how long it would take for the cake to cool down and ended up riding shotgun in the car with a VERY warm cake plate in my lap. My hubby blasted the air conditioning at the cake to keep my hands from getting too hot. What a sweetie, huh?

The great thing about this cake, besides how easy it is to prepare, is that you can use any nut based chocolate you'd like or just forgo the nuts and just use plain milk chocolate. I decided to use a combination of Ghirardelli Hazelnut milk chocolate and believe it or not, milk chocolate from Ikea. It was on sale a few weeks back and I bought several bars of their milk and dark chocolate bars. It's really rather good and melts very evenly.

This cake does have a lot of chocolate, it's true. For the cake there was a total of 10oz of chocolate. It was actually two 3.5 ounce milk chocolate hazelnut bars, plus one additional 3.5oz milk chocolate bar. I modeled this recipe after the popular Hershey Bar Cake (If you do a search in Google for "Hershey Bar Cake", you'll see several) There are several versions but in most of the recipes that I read, it includes anywhere from 1/2 cup to 1 1/2 cups of chocolate syrup, in addition to 6 to 12 oz of milk chocolate! So I substituted 3 oz of melted milk chocolate for those two ingredients, even though they don't really add up to 3 oz. It still came out okay in the end!

The frosting is melted milk chocolate with a little shortening to help with pour ability. You can cut back on the amount of chocolate here if you want to, its really your preference. I ended up with a bit of extra chocolate frosting pooled in the center of the cake but that was due to the fact that the cake was still piping hot when I frosted it. You could start out with 3oz, frost the cake and if it's not enough, go back and frost it with a little more. The layering of chocolate would look kinda cool, actually (maybe a little white chocolate, dark chocolate, etc?)

This cake could be made with any left over chocolate candy from Halloween. I realize that's a long shot, but it could happen!

"Any Nut" Milk Chocolate Cake

1 box of yellow cake mix, WITH pudding in the mix
1 1/3 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
7 oz of your favorite milk chocolate bar with chopped nuts of your choice (or no nuts, up to you!)
3 oz of your favorite plain milk chocolate
1/2 cup of milk chocolate chips (optional)

Frosting
7 oz of milk chocolate (I choose no nuts but if you want nuts go for it)
2 tablespoons of solid vegetable shortening

Preheat the oven to 350F. Prepare a Bundt pan with butter and flour or just spray with Pam with Flour (my fav). Set aside.

Combine cake mix, water, oil, and eggs in a bowl and mix for 1-2 minutes until well combined, being sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl as needed. Set aside.

In a medium sized glass or microwave proof bowl, break up the chocolate into small squares. Melt in the microwave for 1 minute on 50% power. Stir to mix (it won't be all the way melted yet) and continue microwaving at 30 second intervals on 50% power until the chocolate is smooth and melty. You can also use a double boiler for this step if you wanted to.

Remove about a cup of batter and slowly add it to the melted chocolate to temper it. Then add the chocolate/cake batter mixture to the rest of the cake batter and mix on medium high for about a minute. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 35-40 minutes until a long wooden skewer comes out of the center of the cake clean. Be careful not to over bake! The edges of the cake will be browned but the center will spring back when you touch it, but might look slightly under done when compared to edges. That's okay! This cake will continue to bake for a while after it comes out of the oven.

Take the cake out of the oven and let rest for 5 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool. Note:When I made this cake, the cake cooled about all of 10 minutes and everything turned out fine. However, I think it's probably best to let the cake cool completely (about 40 minutes).

To prepare the frosting, melt the chocolate and shortening in a bowl until smooth and pour over the cake. Decorate with chocolate chips, coconut, chocolate shavings, sprinkles, or just leave plain.

Yield1 Bundt Cake, about 12-16 pieces
Would I Make This Again? Yes! Everyone loved it and raved about how moist it was. I want to make it again with a different type of chocolate bar. Maybe Theo's 3400 Phinney Chocolate in Fig, Fennel & Almond Dark Chocolate, Coconut Curry, or Chai Spice, yum!

The New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies: my birthday cookie

Guess what? I'm in love with birthdays. I love how it's a holiday that is super personal and can't be overly merchandised by stores. I love that there is one day a year that I can have permission to spoil a friend or even an acquaintance. I can honestly say that birthdays are my favorite holiday; I even look forward to it more than Christmas.

I'm not sure if it is selfish or not, but I really love my own birthday too. The whole day feels magical to me. I have very clear memories of most of my birthdays, even ones that weren't over the top exciting. One of the things I love about it is that I love to make a treat that's extra special to share with my coworkers and family. This year, I decided to hold out and make The New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe that everyone went nuts over back in July. Being a big fan of Jacques Torres, I was very intrigued to try this cookie - I had made his original recipe last year as a gift and thought those cookies were pretty darn good. How much better could these be? The answer: a lot!

I stayed true to the recipe as much as I could. Since Scharffenberger chocolate only comes in one pound boxes, I only used two pounds of it instead of the two and a half pounds the recipe called for. Maybe it was because I made a much smaller cookie, but honestly, with just the two pounds, it seemed like too much chocolate but I really liked the combination. My only other change was using vanilla paste for one of the two teaspoons of vanilla. I only did that because I ran out (the horror!) of vanilla. I also opted to make a smaller cookie. I used a 1 oz cookie scoop (ping pong sized ball of dough) instead of the golf ball size the original recipe called for. Big cookies are fun too, but I like a cookie that I can eat in a bite or two.

If you're going to make these cookies, please spring for the really good chocolate. While Hersey's, Baker's, and the other chips that you can buy in the store are good (I use them all the time), something magical happens to the flavor of the cookie when you use really high quality chocolate. It's seriously worth it. Oh and don't forget the sea salt. I know it sounds scary and strange to put salt on a cookie right before you put it in the oven, but it's only a teeny tiny amount. I made a dozen with and without the salt and the cookies that were salted really did taste better.

New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from NYTimes.com

2 cups minus 2 tablespoons
(8 1/2 ounces) cake flour
1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract (I ran out of vanilla and used 1 teaspoon for vanilla extract and one teaspoon of vanilla paste)
1/2 pound each of bittersweet (70% cocoa content) and milk chocolate (41%) disks or fèves, at least 60 percent cacao content (see note)
Sea salt (don't use regular salt. Kosher will do but try to find sea salt if you can. I got one with a grinder at Trader Joe's for around $2)

Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours.(If you want to scoop them while they are still soft, that's okay!) Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350F degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.

Scoop 12 1-ounce mounds of dough (the size of a ping pong ball) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft in the middle, 9 to 11 minutes. **They will continue to bake after you take them out of the oven. If they look slightly shiny in the center of the cookie, but slightly brown on the edges, they are done. Be careful not to over bake them!** Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. Eat warm, with a big napkin.

Note: I bought my Scharfenberger chocolate disks at William's and Sonoma for $12 for one pound.

Yield: I made 2 batches and end up with 18 dozen cookies. I do not recommend making 2 dozen in one big batch. Make two smaller batches instead. My stand mixer couldn't do it's job mixing every thing in such a large batch.
Would I Make This Again? Yes!! This is one of the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever made. It was really something special. I'm glad I waited until my birthday to make it.

Carrie's Whipped Cream Strawberry Layer Cake with Vanilla Custard

The last few weeks have been a little nutty. Having never really been through a major home improvement project before, I had somewhat under estimated its effects on everything and everyone in my family.Just to recap, I had the majority of the inside of my home repainted; every room except the bedrooms. This included painting baseboard and crown moldings, all the ceilings, and the walls. The good news is that its all over. Horray!! I still have a lot to do to get the house back to normal, but we're its safe to say that the worst is over. This means that I can get back to some serious baking business and no more two week breaks in between posts. I appreciate everyone being patient with me. (Here are some before and afters photos if you're interested.)

On to the main event, dessert! Okay, so for the last few months I have been working out at a CrossFit gym near my house. Three times a week, my alarm goes off at 5:30am so that I can get a beat down from my trainer Jesse. To say that I really enjoy my workouts would be an understatement. Seriously, I LOVE this kind of exercise and am really looking foward to the day that I can do 1 pull-up (oh and I will get there, I assure you!). Anyway, during my training sessions I am always telling Jesse about what yummy confection I just made or will be making soon. Not exactly the most germane topic of conversation in the gym, but whatever. So when I heard his wife's birthday was coming up I couldn't help but volunteer to make her favorite dessert. The trouble was, in spite of the fact that Jesse found out what she wanted, I still managed to botch it . She wanted a cake that had strawberries in between the layers with vanilla custard on top and then covered in whipped cream. For some reason I got it in my head that it was the other way around and ended up putting custard in between the layers and strawberries on top. I feel bad that I didn't get the cake exactly the way she wanted, but hopefully she's still enjoy it. It sure looked yummy!

Strawberry Layer Cake with Vanilla Custard

White Cake
2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk

Vanilla Custard/Pastry Cream
1 1/2 cups of half and half
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Strawberry Goo
1 bag of frozen organic strawberries (2 cups or so?)
2 tablespoons of sugar, mashed

Whipped Cream
1 pint whipped cream that is very cold
1/2 teaspoon clear vanilla extract (to keep the whipped cream very white)
2 tablespoons of powdered sugar

It's best to make this cake one day in advance or the night before.

Strawberries
Pour the strawberries into a bowl and cover with warm water. Let sit for about 10 minutes. Drain and sprinkle sugar over the top of the strawberries and set aside. When the berries are totally thawed, mash with a fork or potato masher. You could do this with fresh strawberries too - about 2 cups.

White Cake
(adapted from Dorie Greenspan “Baking: From My Home to Yours” pp.258-260)

Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter two 9x2" round cake pans and dust with flour (or use Pam with Flour to prepare the pans). Line the bottoms of the pans with parchment paper. Put pans on a baking sheet. Set aside.

Sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda into a small bowl and set aside.

Beat butter on medium speed until very pale and creamy (about a minute). Add sugar and beat for another 3 minutes. Add the eggs one by one, and then the yolk, beating for 1 minute after each addition. Beat in the vanilla; don't be concerned if the mixture looks curdled. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk, adding the dry ingredients in 3 additions and the milk in 2 (begin and end with the dry ingredients); scape down the bowl as needed and mix only until the ingredients disappear into the batter. Divide the batter evenly between two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, rotating the pans after 15 minutes. when fully baked, the cakes will be golden and springy to the touch and a toothpick or thin knife inserted into the center of the will come out clean. Transfer the cakes to a rack and cool for about 5 minutes, then unmold, remove paper and invert to cool to room temperature. When they are totally cool, cover with plastic and place in the refrigerator overnight. Note, the cake won't rise very much and will be rather short. Don't worry :-)

Custard/Vanilla Pastry Cream
adapted from Epicurious

Bring half and half to simmer in heavy medium saucepan. While it is simmering, in a separate heat proof bowl, whisk the sugar, eggs, egg yolk, and flour together until well mixed. Take the milk off the heat and very slowly, gradually whisk in the hot half and half - start with just a quarter cup and take your time adding it to the egg mixture. If you go too fast, the half and half will curdle the egg mixture so it's important to temper it slowly. Once you get about 1 cup of half and half in the egg mixture, you can slowly add the rest; it's just the first cup that you need to take your time with. Once all the half and half is transferred, pour the mixture back into the saucepan and whisk over medium heat without stopping until the mixture thickens and comes to a boil, about 4-5 minutes. Boil for 1 minute. Pour into medium bowl. Stir in vanilla. Press plastic onto surface of pastry cream. Cover and chill until cold, about 4 hours. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep cold). Makes 2 cups.

Whipped Cream
The next day, when you're ready to assemble the cake, about 5 minutes before you're ready to make the cream, put the cream, whisk attachment or beaters, and bowl (metal if you're using a hand mixture), into the freezer to chill. Pour the cream into the cold bowl and on the whisk the cream on the highest setting (if you're using a stand mixer, have a kitchen towel ready to drape over the stand because this will spatter.) After about 2 or 3 minutes, as the cream is starting to keep its shape, add the vanilla and the sugar. Continue mixing until it's good and firm, but still soft. If you over mix it, just add a little more cream and it will soften again.

To Assemble the cake
If the tops of the cake layers have crowned, use a long serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion to even them. Slice each layer horizontally in half. Place one layer cut side down on a cardboard cake round or on a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper.

Remove the strawberries and custard from the refrigerator. Transfer the strawberries to a sieve to drain as much of the juice as possible and mash the stawberries again really well. Whisk the custard vigorously to loosen it up.

Starting with the first layer of cake and using a pastry brush, paint some of the strawberry juice lightly on the surface of the cake. Then, with a long metal icing spatula, spread enough custard (about 1/2 cup) over the cake and layer to cover it completely. Repeat this step with the next two layers of cake. On the last layer, don't brush it with the strawberry juice. Instead, just skim a very thin layer of custard over the top, and then top with the mashed strawberries.

Top off the cake with a generous layer of whipped cream on the top and sides. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours or even overnight. Decorate with fresh strawberries or with fresh mint, or just leave plain like I did.

Yield:8 or so servings, depending on how you slice the cake
Would I Make This Again? I think so. Perhaps I'll get to make it again in the way that Carrie requested. I thought it looked pretty!


P.S. -- To any readers out there that are really into decorating odd shaped rooms, I would love any advice on how to arrange furniture in my family room. I'm really clueless and could really use any help I can get.

susi's pumpkin pie snickerdoodle bars

A few weeks ago, Ingrid wrote me a sweet email to tell me how much she and her family loved my Snickerdoodle bars. I had all but forgot about them! But after seeing her lovely pictures of the ones she made, it got me hankerin' for some.

Shortly after I received Ingrid's email, I learned that for Susi's wanted something pumpkiny for her birthday treat. I had been planning to make pumpkin cupcakes or bread but then I started toying with the idea of using my snickerdoodle bar as a base for some sort of pumpkin concoction. Here's what I whipped up:

Pumpkin Pie Snickerdoodle Bars

Snickerdoodle Layer
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup butter, at room temperature
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Pumpkin Pie Layer
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1 stick butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin

2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 oz white chocolate, chopped
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 9x13 inch pan and lay a piece of parchment paper across the pan, so that it extends the pan slightly. The parchment paper is an optional step, but it will make it easier to get the bars out later

To make snickerdoodle layer:
Sift together flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. In large bowl, beat together butter, sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth.

Stir in the flour mixture until well blended. Spread evenly in prepared pan (mixture will be thick and cookiebatter-ish.)

In a mixer bowl (you can use the same one you used to make the snickerdoodle batter) with a paddle attachment, mix together all ingredients until well combined. This layer will be less thick and more pourable. Pour over the snickerdoodle layer, smoothing out the top.

Combine white sugar and cinnamon in a little bowl. Evenly sprinkle cinnamon sugar mixture over the top of the batter.

Bake for 33-40 minutes (maybe more depending on your oven) or until a toothpick inserted into the *center* of the pan comes out clean. Let the bars cool completely (about an hour). They will deflate a bit and remain a bit pie-like on the top layer. The bars that are closer to the edges of the pan will be more firm, but are still equally as yummy.

After the bars are completely cool, place the chopped white chocolate into a bowl or zip-lock bag and melt on low power. When it's completely melted, add the pumpkin pie spice and mix (or knead if using a zip lock bag). Use a spoon or cut a small corner off the bag and drizzle the melted chocolate over the top of the bars and let it cool and harden.

Use the parchment paper to lift the bars out of the pan. Place on a cutting board and cut into bars. Store in a covered container.

Yield: About 20 bars depending on how big you cut them.
Would I Make This Again?Yes! I loved the way the house smelled after I baked them. I loved the texture and buttery flavor the bars had. Snickerdoodle and pumpkin just go together. Yumm!

cake comedy

Yeah, so I'm still searching for the cable...so in the mean time I thought you might enjoy this short little clip about cake and pie from one of my favorite commedians, Jim Gaffigan. The animation is a bit odd but rather cute. Enjoy!

kitchen under construction....

My apologies for a lack of posting lately. I'm knee deep in a painting project that has taken over most of my house, including my kitchen. I've spend the last few days packing everything on the first floor of my house and lugging it upstairs or sticking it out in the garage. You'd think that such a project would keep me from baking, but I've actually made three desserts since Sunday! Unfortunately it appears that I packed my camera's cable and have yet to find it. I'll keep digging and will be back to posting soon, I promise!