Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars - December 5, 2009

If you like peanut butter blondies, you'd probably like this recipe. It's quick and easy to make and it tastes like a typical blondie but it's peanut butter instead of brown sugar. I'm not a huge peanut butter fan so for me, this was just okay (there's that being picky thing again). I would prefer the milk chocolate and peanut butter brownies from Fearless Baking by Elinor Klivans that I posted previously. That's probably my favorite peanut butter brownie.

Perhaps blondies in general just aren't my thing. Most of them are too sweet. This one isn't because it's got the peanut butter to offset the sweetness but blondies also tend to be cakey and when I eat a bar cookie, I prefer something fudgy and chewy. Am I unenthusiastic enough about this one yet? LOL. This was another recipe from Rosie's All-Butter..... baking book. If the award-winning brownies were a 10, I'd give this one a 5.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars

1 1/3 cups plus 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup commercial smooth peanut butter
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons (tightly packed) light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Lightly grease an 11 x 7-inch baking pan with butter or vegetable oil.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together into a medium-size mixing bowl and set aside.
3. Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream the butter, peanut butter, both sugars and the vanilla until light and fluffy, about 1 ½ minutes. Stop the mixer to scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula.
4. Add the eggs one at a time and beat on medium speed until partially blended after each addition, about 10 seconds. After the last addition, beat until blended, about 30 seconds, stopping the mixer twice to scrape the bowl.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the batter and mix with a spatula until the flour is absorbed. Then mix on low speed until blended, 7 to 10 seconds. Scrape the bowl, especially the bottom.
6. Add the chocolate chips and blend for several seconds. Scrape the bowl. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan.
7. Bake the bars on the center oven rack until the edges are deep golden and the center is lightly golden and slightly puffy, 25 to 30 minutes. The center will drop when the bars are taken out of the oven, creating a chewy texture. Cut the bars into squares after they have cooled a bit on the rack.

Rosie's Award-Winning Brownies

Rosie's Award-Winning Brownies - December 5, 2009

When I went to Boston for vacation back in October, my friend Hildy told me I had to try Rosie's Bakery. Obliging - and sucker for bakeries that I am, especially when traveling, I visited one of the Rosie's Bakeries in Boston, this one located in Cambridge (see post on Boston baked goods). Since then, I've been looking up the 3 baking books published by Judy Rosenberg who started Rosie's Bakery. Yeah, I was supposed to be on a cookbook buying ban through the end of 2009 but I lasted a year already. No need to go for sainthood.

Anyway, I found one of her baking books, Rosie's All-Butter, Fresh Cream, Sugar-Packed Baking Book on eBay for a Buy It Now price of $1 and a reasonable shipping charge so one click of the mouse later, that sucker was mine. I got it in the mail last week and immediately tried a few recipes from it. This was one of the first and yowza, it was good. Now bear in mind, over the course of my baking life, I've tried literally hundreds of different brownie recipes. Not because I was searching for the perfect "one" (unlike men and the idea of a Mr. Right, there's no harm in having more than one brownie favorite....really), but because I love brownies and like trying new recipes.

When I made this one, I tried the taste test piece when it was still barely lukewarm and I had frosted it with another one of Rosie's recipes (she called it a Chocolate Orgasm which is basically the brownie recipe plus frosting). Best.Brownie.Ever. Maybe I was just in the mood at the moment for something rich and chocolatey. Maybe nothing beats a very fresh brownie. The texture was fudgy without being overly mushy. The chocolate was a dark chocolate offset by the sweeter frosting. Much as I dislike Rachel Ray's mannerisms, I have to admit it was a "yumm-o" moment. I had another piece the next day to see if it was as good. Unfortunately I might've come down from my brownie high by then. It was still good but not as orgasmic as something called a Chocolate Orgasm might be. But remember, I've been told I'm overly picky (and I'll cop to it). So give them a whirl and see what you think.

Rosie's Award-Winning Brownies

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 ¼ cups plus 1 tablespoon sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs, at room temperature
¾ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 325˚F. Lightly grease an 8-inch square pan with butter or vegetable oil.
2. Melt the chocolate and butter in the top of a double boiler placed over simmering water. Cool the mixture for 5 minutes.
3. Place the sugar in a medium-size mixing bowl and pour in the chocolate mixture. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, mix until blended, about 25 seconds. Scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula.
4. Add the vanilla. With the mixer on medium-low speed, add the eggs one at a time, blending after each addition until the yolk is broken and dispersed, about 10 seconds. Scrape the bowl after the last egg and blend until velvety, about 15 more seconds.
5. Add the flour on low speed and mix for 20 seconds; finish the mixing by hand, being certain to mix in any flour at the bottom of the bowl. Stir in ½ cup of the nuts.
6. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan and sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons of nuts over the top.
7. Bake the brownies on the center oven rack until a thin crust forms on top and a tester inserted in the center comes out with a moist crumb, about 35 minutes. (The center of the brownies should never quite rise to the height of the edges.)
8. Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a rack to cool for 1 hour before cutting the brownies. Serve the next day (it takes a day for the flavor to set).

Chocolate Orgasms

1 recipe Rosie’s Award-Winning Brownies
1 ½ ounces unsweetened chocolate
¼ cup evaporated milk
1/3 cup sugar

1. Prepare brownies and allow them to cool completely. Don’t cut them yet.
2. To prepare the frosting, melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler placed over simmering water.
3. Pour the evaporated milk into an electric blended and add the sugar and the melted chocolate. Blend the frosting on medium-low speed until it thickens, about 50 seconds (the sound of the machine will change when this process occurs.
4. Using a frosting spatula, spread the frosting evenly over the surface of the cooled brownie and allow them to sit for 1 hour before cutting.

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes - December 2, 2009

Think of this as a brown sugar cupcake with chocolate chips. It's very tasty but the texture was a bit dense once the cupcakes cooled. I find cupcakes are also tricky because if you bake them too long, they become dry. If you don't bake them long enough, they're heavy. You have to nab them at the just-right stage which isn't always easy to do. I always tend to err on the side of underbaking so my cupcakes are sometimes on the heavy side. They're the perfect texture when they're warm out of the oven but dense up a bit when they cool.

But, here's a trick - warm them up before serving them. This is also tricky if your cupcakes are already frosted but you just have to monitor them closely in the microwave. It also depends on your frosting. Buttercreams and cream cheese-type frostings will melt very easily. I used a chocolate butter frosting with these and they held up well to having the cupcakes heated slightly. Just microwave them for 10 seconds at a time and check to see if that's enough or if they can withstand a little more heat. I wasn't wild about how the frosting turned out because it was a little too stiff and didn't look very nice once it was frosted onto the cupcake - talk about amateur hour when I finished frosting the cupcakes. I should've added more milk to the frosting to get it to more of a spreading consistency. But it was late when I was making them because I got home late from work that night and I was dead on my feet and just wanted to get them done so I went with what I had and called it a day. I served them at work and to my Fantasy Football league at lunch the next day.

The frosting recipe I used isn't the same one below since I wasn't in the mood for a glaze on these - I wanted a frosting. But I'll post the original glaze recipe anyway since that's what the recipe called for. Someday I'll make these cupcakes again and try them properly with the glaze.

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes from Cupcakes by Elinor Klivans - made December 2, 2009

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream
¼ cup whole milk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

2/3 cup Chocolate Fudge Glaze, slightly warm

1. Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 325˚F. Line 18 muffin tin cups with paper cupcake liners.
2. Make the cupcakes: In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on low speed, mix the flour, brown sugar, and baking soda to blend them. Add the butter and mix until the butter pieces are the size of peas, about 2 minutes. You will still see some loose flour. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing. Mix in the egg and vanilla. The batter will still look dry. Mix in the sour cream and milk until the batter looks evenly moistened; you may still see some lumps of butter. Mix in the chocolate chips.
3. Fill each paper liner with about a generous ¼ cup of batter, to about 1/3 inch from the top of the liner. Bake just until the tops feel firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. If the toothpick penetrates a chocolate chip, test another spot. Cool the cupcakes for 10 minutes in the pans on wire racks,.
4. Carefully place a wire rack on top of one pan of cupcakes. Protecting your hands with pot holders and holding the pan and rack together, invert them to release the cupcakes onto the wire rack. Turn the cupcakes top side up to cool completely. Repeat with the second pan of cupcakes.
5. Add the chocolate glaze: Use a fork to generously drizzle thin lines of the topping over each cupcake. Let the cupcakes sit at room temperature until the glaze is firm, or refrigerate the cupcakes for about 15 minutes to firm the topping quickly. Serve at room temperature.
The cupcakes can be covered and stored at room temperature for up to 2 days.

Yield: 18 cupcakes

Chocolate Glaze

1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 2 pieces
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
9 ounces (1 ½ cups) semisweet chocolate chips
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1. In a medium saucepan, heat the cream and butter (and corn syrup, if making the glaze) over low heat until the cream is hot and the butter has melted. The mixture should form tiny bubbles and measure about 175˚F on a thermometer; do not let it boil. Remove the pan from the heat, add the chocolate chips and let them sit in the hot cream for about 30 seconds to soften. Add the vanilla and whisk the sauce until it is smooth and all of the chocolate is melted.
2. You can use the sauce warm or let it sit at room temperature until it reaches the thickness desired. To store it, pour the cooled sauce into a small bowl, cover and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks. Reheat as much sauce as is needed by spooning it into a saucepan and heating over low heat to soften or melt. For the glaze, let it sit at room temperature just until it is thick enough to spread.

Yield: Scant 2 cups glaze

Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies - November 29, 2009

Let me say right off the bat that I don't like raisins. I can eat them once in awhile as is but I rarely, rarely bake with them simply because I don't like their taste and texture in anything. Whenever I come across an oatmeal raisin cookie, I always substitute chocolate chips for the raisins.

This time though, these were requested by one of the VPs I work with. He'd done me a favor by stepping in do a presentation when I needed someone to help out at the last minute. I offered to bake for his next staff meeting in thanks and asked him what he wanted me to make for him. He asked, "Do you make cookies?" This is an Is-the-Pope-Catholic type of question but I merely said, "of course" and asked him what kind he wanted. He chose oatmeal raisin. I tried to talk him into chocolate chips but amazingly, he preferred raisins. I know, I know, not everyone has the same likes and dislikes that I do but sometimes I think they should, lol. But I conceded (he did the favor for me after all), went out and bought a canister of raisins (I have no idea what to do with what's left in the canister since I'll never bake with raisins again), and made this recipe.

It's an oatmeal cookie I'd made before and turned out pretty well. It doesn't spread too much (no need to flatten it with a fork like the recipe says - it'll spread well enough on its own). The edges are crisp and the middles are chewy. This doesn't have quite enough oatmeal to really satisfy me as being a real oatmeal cookie since it has the same amount of oatmeal as flour but I guess that's splitting hairs.

Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies from Cookies Unlimited by Nick Malgieri - made November 29, 2009

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups rolled oats (regular oatmeal)
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups dark raisins
4 ounces (about 1 cup) coarsely chopped walnut or pecan pieces
1 cup (one 6-ounce bag) semisweet chocolate chips

3 or 4 cookie sheets or jelly roll pans covered with parchment or foil

1. Set the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 350˚F.
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and oatmeal; stir well to mix.
3. In the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until well mixed, about a minute. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating smooth after each addition, then beat in the vanilla.
4. Lower the mixer speed and beat in the flour and oatmeal mixture, then add the raisins, nuts and chips.
5. Drop tablespoons of the batter about 3 to 4 inches apart on the prepared pans. Flatten the mounds with the back of a fork.
6. Bake the cookies for 15 to 20 minutes, or until they spread and color evenly and become firm.
7. Slide the papers off the pans onto racks.
8. After the cookies have cooled, detach them from the paper and store them between sheets of parchment or wax paper in a tin or plastic container with a tight-fitting cover.

Lemon Semolina Cake

Lemon Semolina Cake
This is a recipe I first made at the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) in St Helena. It's a classic lemon pound cake but uses semolina flour in addition to all-purpose flour. As you can see from the picture, this didn't come out of the pan very cleanly. There are a few potential reasons for that: either I didn't bake it long enough, I didn't grease the Bundt pan well enough or I took it out of the pan too soon while it was still too warm and more fragile. I suspect it's a combination of all three reasons.

I hate dry cakes so I err on the side of underbaking. However, when it comes to heavier cakes that are more dense like pound cake, you can't underbake too much or the cake will be too heavy and greasy from the butter. Bundt cakes are also tricky because, depending on the recipe, some cakes will stick stubbornly to them no matter how well you grease and flour the pan. And the way they're shaped means you can't really line them with parchment paper which is my usual trick for getting cakes out of pans cleanly. And you have to time turning the cake out of the pan just right - if you take it out while it's too warm, it'll be more fragile and fall apart more easily. All it takes is for one part of the cake to stick to the pan while the rest of it tumbles out. But if you wait until it's too cool, oftentimes it won't come out at all because the butter has solidified and won't release the cake.

Also, if you're using a nonstick pan, make sure the nonstick coating is still intact and that your pan isn't too old or warped to bake cakes properly and release them.

When done correctly, this is what a finished Bundt cake should look like:

Clearly, that's not how the above lemon semolina cake turned out but oh well. It still tasted good.

Lemon Semolina Cake - made 11.28.09, from the Culinary Institute of America Baking & Pastry Arts program

Cake
10 ounces butter
14 ounces sugar
6 ounces eggs
Zest from 2 lemons
1 pound sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 ounces cake flour
5 ½ ounces semolina flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

Soaking syrup
½ cup lemon juice
¼ cup water
½ cup sugar

1. Sift dry ingredients. Whip butter, sugar, zest and vanilla.
2. Slowly add eggs. Alternate dry ingredients with sour cream in 3 additions.
3. Pour into buttered and floured molds, ¾ full.
4. Bake at 325˚F – 350˚F, depending on shape (lower temp for large cake and longer baking time, higher temp for smaller loaf, 30-35 minutes).
5. Melt together ingredients for the syrup. Pour over the cake while the cake is hot. Put cake on icing grate, poke holes into cake, dab on syrup 3 to 4 times and give time between each time for syrup to soak in.

Thanksgiving 2009 - the pictorial menu

Once again, documenting for posterity - here's what we had for Thanksgiving. There were 15 of us and the majority of people weren't big turkey fans, myself included (I don't care how well cooked it is, it still tastes like a big flavorless chicken to me). So instead, we had:

Prime Rib (courtesy of my ex-BIL, Forrest)

Duck basted with a honey glaze (also from Forrest):

Ginatang Shrimp (a Filipino dish - my mom's cooking), aka Shrimp with Coconut Sauce - this was the picture before my mom added the coconut sauce

Pancit Malabon, a Filipino noodle dish and a variation from Pancit Palabok I posted about earlier. This was made by my cousin Teresa and this is one of her specialty's. She's another great cook who doesn't go by recipes when she cooks so I have no hope of putting together a recipe for this. I just hope she keeps on making it for our family get togethers.

I have no idea what this dish is called - this was also made by my cousin Teresa and is a beef dish with peas and carrots. Also tasty (the beef part, I don't like peas or cooked carrots)

One of my nieces also made creamy mashed potatoes with spices and garlic which was quite good. Our other side dish was corn. Then it was time for dessert. I made everything I had planned except for the pumpkin upside down cake. We had chocolate chip cookies instead and that seemed plenty. The banana butterscotch cupcakes were the biggest hit of all.

So all these pictures easily explain why it's more than likely I've regained some of the 6 lbs I just lost. Time to get busy again with moving more and eating less....at least until Christmas. It was a good Thanksgiving and I have much to be grateful for.

Lumpia

Lumpia are Filipino egg rolls. There's a healthy version with diced fresh vegetables similar to Vietnamese spring rolls and there's a fried version with ground pork. Naturally, this is the fried version. Most people I know love lumpia, whether they're Filipino or not. Some people (cough) have been known to eat them like french fries. They're just as delicious and just as bad for you, lol.

My mom gives out packs of these every Christmas to our friends at church, pre-made and all they have to do is fry it. My mom is one of those cooks who can cook well but never measures anything and doesn't really follow a recipe, she "just cooks". I had to pull teeth asking her questions of how she makes her lumpia. This is what I was able to cobble together from my interrogation. Not that I'd ever make it myself (too much work!) but I wanted to document it for posterity for my nieces. This is part of what we had for Thanksgiving.

1 pound lean ground pork
1 carrot, diced fine
1 8-ounce can water chestnuts, diced fine
3 green onions, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground pepper
1 package Menlo (lumpia) wrappers (available at Asian grocery stores)

1. Mix above ingredients (except the wrappers) well.

2. Separate the lumpia wrappers. Fold each one and cut into 4 equal squares.

3. In the center of each square, put 1 heaping tablespoon of pork mixture. Bring 2 opposite corners of wrapper together in center. Roll remaining corners to make a small “log”. Seal seam with beaten egg or a small dab of water.

4. Fry in hot but not smoking vegetable oil until golden brown and crisp. Drain on paper towels and serve immediately.

Baking tips

I've been baking for so long that I forget it's sometimes not as easy as it looks. I'm only reminded of it when people tell me their mishaps in the kitchen or say that baking is almost impossible for them. In which case I'm always baffled because I think baking is so easy. Then I think about how hard cooking is for me and there are people (who are likely excellent chefs on the hot side) who can't understand that either. So we all have different strengths and talents. I find most people who are good at or enjoy cooking on the hot side aren't as good at baking and vice versa. There are probably some who are equally good at both or enjoy doing both but I haven't met that many.

But still, I don't think baking has to be hard. Yes, it helps to have a certain aptitude for it. If you're the type of cook who likes to throw a dash of this and a pinch of that and don't like to be hampered by a recipe or directions, preferring your taste buds to guide you, then baking might not be for you and you're probably more of an inspired cook than I will ever be. On the other hand, if you like to bake but sometimes feel a bit intimidated by it, here are some simple tips that might help.

1. Read through a recipe first and decide if that's what you really want to make. If you've never baked before, you might want to try making chocolate chip cookies before you take on a chocolate souffle or a seven layer cake. Walk before you run.
2. Make sure you have all your ingredients, including the baking pans and tools you need. No point in making cupcakes if you don't own a muffin tin. In culinary school, our chef instructors had us lay out our ingredients, utensils, pans, etc before we began. This was known as "mise en place" - sounds more uppity in French, doesn't it? But it's helpful to have everything out before you begin. You don't want to get halfway into mixing a recipe only to discover you're out of eggs or don't have anymore baking soda or salt. I've been baking long enough that I don't line everything up since I know exactly what I have in my pantry and refrigerator but if you're starting up, it's a good habit to have until you get more used to baking.
3. As you use an ingredient, put it away. This'll keep you from adding twice the amount of baking powder or salt (or whatever) that a recipe calls for if you get interrupted in the mixing process and you can't remember if you already put some in. If your recipe calls for eggs, set out the exact number of eggs you need and put the egg carton back in the fridge before you begin. Then you also don't have to wonder how many eggs you put in already.
4. Clean as you go. I don't mean wash every measuring cup or teaspoon as you use it but if something spills as you mix, wipe it up. Wash your utensils and mixing bowls as soon as your baking pan goes into the oven. This will make baking seem less like a chore if you're cleaning as you go. Otherwise you're faced with a stack of dirty mixing bowls and such in the sink when what you want to be doing is enjoying your baked goods. If you wash everything right away, all you have left to clean up once you're finished baking is likely the baking pan.
5. Prep your pans first before you even start mixing anything, meaning line the pans with foil or parchment paper and/or coat them with nonstick cooking spray if that's what the recipe calls for. This way once your dough or batter is mixed, you're good to go. Depending on what you're making, you typically want your creation going into the preheated oven as soon as it's fully mixed, especially if you're using chemical leaveners like baking soda or baking powder.
6. Don't forget to preheat your oven! Most recipes will list that as the first step unless you're making something that has to chill before baking. Don't cheat this step because an oven at the right temperature is critical for success. My oven takes 10 minutes before it signals it's at the right temperature I set it for and I hate to waste energy so I usually time it that I turn it on to preheat when I have about 8-10 minutes left of mixing to do.

Shortcuts, aka "how I cheat"
While the baking side is known for being exact to ensure success, as opposed to the hot side, which has far more leeway, I confess I don't always follow the directions to the letter. When you get enough experience, you just know how much you can get away with. For example, many recipes call for ingredients to be at room temperature, especially butter. Since I have a KitchenAid stand mixer, I get around that by beating cold butter until it's soft and creamy. Saves time in case I don't plan ahead enough to take the butter out well enough ahead of time. My niece Lauren said she microwaves the butter for a few seconds at a time until it's soft but I don't like to do that since it's so easy to overheat butter and even a little melting of the butter could change the texture of what you're trying to make.

Many recipes that call for melting butter and chocolate together also call for the mixture to be cooled until tepid before adding other ingredients. Caroline, my college friend, told me she once read that the cooler the chocolate-butter mixture is, the more fudgy the end result of whatever you're making, especially brownies. Well, fudgy's good but do you think I'd listen? Not when I bake after work and only have a limited amount of time at night to get brownies baked, cooled and packaged up to take into work the next day. So I often cheated this one, especially since I also cheated the call for having eggs at room temperature since I would take eggs straight out of the refrigerator and use them (no time to let them come to room temp when I walk in the door after work and get to baking right away). Fortunately for me, at a baking class I once attended at Sur La Table where Alice Medrich (founder of Cocolat in Berkeley and author of several cookbooks) was the chef instructor, she said she added cold-from-the-fridge eggs to the chocolate-butter mixture to bring the temp down and it worked just as well as letting the mixture cool and using room temperature eggs. Rock on, Alice.

Baking tools and gadgets

I'm down in Orange County visiting my sister's for Thanksgiving week. My real bake-fest will take place on Wednesday and Thursday for Thanksgiving desserts and since I can't upload pictures until I get home (forgot my camera USB cord to download onto my computer), I figured now's a good time to talk about my favorite baking tools and gadgets, aka the stuff I can't live without for baking.

First, a KitchenAid stand mixer. Despite the years I've been baking, I didn't buy one for myself until more than 12 years ago. I made do with a handheld mixer but finally broke down and bought myself a 5-quart Kitchen Aid at Costco when I found one at a good price. I LOVE my KitchenAid mixer. It made all the mixing so much easier and faster. I still remember when I first bought it, I baked one cake using the handheld mixer and one cake using the KitchenAid. The one using the KitchenAid turned out lighter and better - the difference was really noticeable. I'll never go without a KitchenAid again. They also last a long, long time. I put mine through frequent use since I bake anywhere from 1-5 times weekly nearly every week and have for years and my white one works just as well as when I first bought it. However, I did get a hankering for a pink one and started wanting one some years ago. But the practical side of me couldn't bring myself to buy a new one because my white one worked perfectly fine. Last Christmas, my old college roommate, Caroline, who's also another baker, surprised me with the pink KitchenAid I'd been wanting. I was floored and touched by her incredible generosity. I gave my white KitchenAid to my mom and have been using the pink one ever since.

My next favorite gadget is the nut grinder I mentioned earlier. No more laborious chopping. Just toast the nuts, let them cool and grind them. Even the good ones are cheap (less than $10) and they last a long time. Whole nuts are cheaper to buy so a nut grinder saves you money. I buy whole pecans from Costco, whole cashews and macadamia nuts from Trader Joe's, and my friend Linda gives me whole almonds - with the nut grinder, it's easy to chop up the nuts if that's what you need.


The third baking tool I find indispensable is a microplane zester. I used to make do with a normal zester but once I tried a microplane zester, I've never gone back. It zests quickly and easily and lets you get the actual peel without the white pith. (When you're zesting lemons or oranges, you just want to get the outer peel, not the white part.) They're a little tricky to clean since they can shred your sponge but just soap them carefully and rinse in warm water. I also dry mine as thoroughly as possible and if the oven is still a little warm from whatever I've baked, I pop it in there to aid in the drying.

Of course there are the usual measuring cups and measuring spoons that any good baker needs. As long as they're accurate and hold up well, you can get whichever kind you prefer. I have both plastic and metal sets. I find it handy to have a couple of different sets since I bake so much and use one measuring cup per ingredient. Having multiples saves time so I don't have to wash everything while I'm in the midst of measuring out all the ingredients.

ETA: I can't believe I forgot the most essential baking tool - high heat spatulas! I have several and use them for everything, mixing, scraping, stirring, etc. Very handy. Invest in a few good ones of varying sizes. I like the narrow ones and the regular size ones. High heat spatulas are essential, not the regular spatula kind. They're more versatile and can use them at high temps (hence "high heat" but you probably already knew that).

Butter Pecan Tartlets

I thought I had posted these before but in doublechecking the recipes I would need, I didn't see them so here they are. These are the Butter Pecan Tartlets from Land O Lakes Treasury of Country Recipes. I must say I've gotten a few good recipes from this book that have really stuck with me through the years. Maybe because back in the early days I had such few cookbooks that I was forced to try the recipes I did have instead of being distracted and overwhelmed by a plethora of choices or maybe because they really are just that good.

These make a great dessert party food for a crowd. They're easy to make, look pretty and are easy to eat with little fuss. The butter tart shell dough is easy to work with and the filling couldn't be easier to throw together. Make sure you toast the pecans to bring out their flavor before using. I start with whole pecans and pick through them to get the ones that stayed whole out of the package. Those are the ones I use to top each tart shell. The broken ones go into the nut grinder to be used in the filling itself. These are like mini pecan pies but better because it's mostly real pecans and not that gelatinous filling most pecan pies seem to have (shudder). I double the tart shell recipe for 1 filling recipe. Don't overbake or else the tart shells become hard. And it's okay to substitute vanilla extract for the almond extract. I don't like the taste almond extract brings to a recipe so I always substitute vanilla extract instead.

Tart Shells
½ cup butter, softened
½ cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour

Filling
1 cup powdered sugar
½ cup butter
1/3 cup dark corn syrup
1 cup chopped pecans

36 pecan halves

1. Heat oven to 400˚F.
2. In a large mixer bowl, combine all tart shell ingredients. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until mixture is crumbly (2 to 3 minutes).
3. Press 1 tablespoon mixture in cups of mini muffin pans to form 36 (1 ¾” to 2”) shells. Bake for 7-10 minutes or until very lightly browned. Remove from oven. Reduce oven temp to 350˚F.
4. Meanwhile, in 2-quart saucepan, combine all filling ingredients except chopped pecans and pecan halves. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture comes to a full boil (4 to 5 minutes).
5. Remove from heat; stir in chopped pecans. Spoon into baked shells. Top each with a pecan half. Bake for 5 minutes. Cool; remove from pans.

Yield: 36 tarts with double tart shell recipe