Vanilla Sugar Cookie Cake - 4th time's the charm

(Revamped) Vanilla Sugar Cookie Cake - made April 14, 2012

Okay, I think I might have finally conquered this recipe, albeit it's my fourth attempt.  Two things I did differently from the last recipe: I cut the flour by 1/4 cup and shaved 3 minutes off the baking time. My modified recipe is below.  It's still not as fluffy as a "real" cake but it was definitely more moist - yay.  But I think I'm done with this cake for awhile :).

Vanilla Sugar Cookie Cake
1 cup butter, softened
1 8 oz. block cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (optional)
2 large eggs
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9 x 13 inch cake pan with foil and spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, beat together the butter, cream cheese, and sugar until smooth and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract, vanilla bean paste (if using) and eggs and beat well.
3. Add the flour, baking powder, and baking soda, mixing until well combined.
4. Spread mixture evenly onto prepared pan. Bake for 25-28 minutes or until golden brown around edges and toothpick inserted in center comes out barely clean. Do not overbake.  Cool and frost.

Vanilla Frosting

1/2 cup butter, softened
2-3 cups confectioners' sugar
2-3 tablespoons whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat butter until creamy.  Add confectioners' sugar, milk and vanilla extract and beat until smooth.  Adjust amounts of confectioners' sugar and milk until desired taste and consistency is achieved.

Brownie Cups with Salted Caramel and Nutella Crunch

Brownie Cups with Salted Caramel and Nutella Crunch - made April 13, 2012, brownie recipe from Baking Style by Lisa Yockelson

I had leftover brownie batter from the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake Brownie recipe so I used my new toy dessert shell baking pan to make brownie shells.  I love this new pan because the possibilities are endless for the "filling" for the well in the center.  You can fill with chocolate mousse, caramelized pecans or almonds, custard, ice cream, coconut cream pie filling, and the list goes on.

This time around, I went with a salted caramel layer inside then filled the rest of the cavity with my nutella crunch recipe. I only had 4 brownie shells to fill so I only made a little of the nutella crunch (melted a handful of chocolate chips, added a scoop of nutella and poured in just enough Rice Krispies to bind together). You get both taste contrast of the dark chocolate brownie shell with the sweet/salty caramel and the texture contrast with the crunch of the nutella crunch topping.  The nutella crunch does set when it cools so if you want it a little softer, use more nutella than chocolate chips and/or serve before it cools completely.

Brownie Dessert Shell

Fill with Salted Caramel

I used the salted caramel from Trader Joe's

Top with Nutella Crunch Topping

Grab a spoon and dig in

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake Brownies

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake Brownies - made April 13, 2012, recipe adapted from Baking Style by LisaYockelson and Susanna's Kitchen blog

I got the inspiration for this brownie from another blogger (click on link above for Susanna's Kitchen) but her recipe lists a box brownie mix.  I think I'm physiologically incapable of making brownies from a box mix.  In fact, I'm pretty sure of it.  But whenever I need a foolproof brownie recipe (from scratch!), I turn to Lisa Yockelson's baking books.  I still haven't really been playing with her latest book, Baking Style, until my baking challenge is complete but since she's such a good source for excellent brownie recipes, I couldn't resist cracking it open again.

I found this one and almost didn't make it because I didn't have black cocoa powder and I didn't know if all that corn syrup would make the brownies too sweet.  Ha, should've known her recipe wouldn't let me down.  I substituted Pernigotti cocoa for the black cocoa and this brownie was fabulous.  Considering how jaded my brownie taste buds are, it's saying something when this meets my picky palate. It helps that the Pernigotti cocoa is such a dark cocoa so I think that offset the sweetness of the corn syrup and sugar nicely.  This did make a lot of batter though and because I was using it as a base instead of a standalone brownie, I didn't want it that thick.  So instead of a 9 x 13 pan, I divided the batter between a 8 x 8" pan, a 9 x 9" pan and 4 of my dessert shell cups (what I did with those dessert shell cups to be posted later).  You can still make the brownies as directed in the original recipe below and they will still be fantastic "plain".

However, for that extra bit of decadence, I highly recommend making these as Susanna's Kitchen did.  Remember how I'm indifferent to peanut butter and don't really like cheesecake?  As standalone treats, that's still true.  But put all those components together in this brownie and you have pure delicious decadence.  One of those "it's worth the calories and I'll run more miles this week" kind of brownies. The brownies are moist and fudgy, the peanut butter cheesecake layer complements rather than overwhelms the fudgy brownie layer and the milk chocolate ganache on top adds to the texture and flavor.  Plus, really, you can't go wrong with Snickers on top.  I opted to use Snickers rather than peanut butter cups because I had more Snickers than Reese's on hand.  Go with your favorite.  Then run like the wind.

My modified directions:
Make the brownie batter as directed below.  For a 9 x 13 pan, you might want to make only 2/3 of the recipe.  Or else plan to bake the brownies in 2 9 x 9 pans.  Spread the brownie batter evenly in the pan(s).
Make the peanut butter layer per the link below and divide evenly between the pans, spreading smoothly over the brownie layer.  Bake 35-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with moist crumbs.  Do not overbake.  Let cool completely.
Make the ganache by melting the milk chocolate chips and heavy cream together and whisking smooth.  Pour over the cooled brownies and spread in an even layer.  Top with chopped Snickers or Reese's peanut butter cups (or both) and press slightly to adhere in the ganache.  Chill until set; cut and serve.  These brownies can also be frozen, well wrapped in plastic and stored in freezer bags.

Peanut Butter Layer and Topping

Brownie layer

1 ½ cups unsifted bleached all-purpose flour

¼ cup unsweetened alkalized cocoa powder (I use Pernigotti)

¼ cup unsweetened alkalized black cocoa powder (can substitute unsweetened cocoa powder)

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ pound plus 4 tablespoons (2 ½ sticks) unsalted butter

6 ounces unsweetened chocolate

2 ounces bittersweet chocolate

6 large eggs

1 ½ cups plus 1 tablespoon sugar

1 ¼ cups firmly packed light brown sugar

2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons light corn syrup

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

1.     Preheat oven to 325°F.  Line a 9 x 13 pan with foil and spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray.

2.     Sift the flour, cocoa powders, baking powder and salt together onto a sheet of waxed paper.

3.     Melt the butter and chocolates together in the top half of a double boiler over hot, not simmering, water.  Whisk to blend and let cool to tepid.

4.     In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs just to mix.  Add the sugar and beat for 1 minute, using a whisk.  Add the light brown sugar and beat for 1 minute to combine. Blend in the melted butter-chocolate mixture, mixing just until incorporated.  Blend in the corn syrup and vanilla extract.  Resift the flour mixture over the chocolate mixture.  Whisk slowly to form a batter, scraping down the sides of the mixing bowl with a rubber spatula to keep the batter even-textured.

5.     Pour and scrape into prepared pan.  Smooth the top and bake for 35-40 minutes or until just set and a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with moist crumbs.  Cool for 2 hours or refrigerate until firm enough to cut.  Cut into squares and serve.

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Caramel Bits

Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies - baked April 14, 2012

Remember the Chocolate Chip Cookie Tarts that I made from The Sweet Spot's blog?  I had some leftover dough so I baked it off today and brought them to a family get together.  Turns out they're pretty good as regular cookies too.  Make sure not to overbake them.  These are best when the edges are golden brown and the middles are just barely baked.  They'll fall in the middle and set when they cool.  If they're overbaked, they'll be dry and more cakey than chewy.

A public service announcement on the caramel bits: you can find them in 11-oz bags at Target in the baking aisle. (Not sure if grocery stores sell them too since I rarely buy groceries at a real grocery store anymore but they might.)  I mention this because I've had at least 2 friends bake recipes from my blog that use the caramel bits but they couldn't find them so they ended up buying (some kind of) caramels and cutting them into bits.  In theory, that should work too but you don't want the super-chewy or hard caramels that will become really hard after they're baked and cooled.  Not to mention cutting up caramels into bit-size pieces is much too time-consuming.  Much easier to head to Target and fork over $2 for the bag of caramel bits and save yourself the time.

French Toast Bread Pudding

French Toast Bread Pudding - made April 7, 2012 from Small Batch Baking by Debby Maugans Nakos (book #208)

I haven't forgotten my baking challenge; I've just been getting distracted by all the recipes I've been pinning from other blogs :).  But I'm close to being done and I'm looking forward to wrapping it up.  This is one of the last books I need to bake from and since I was disappointed by how my last bread pudding experiment turned out, I tried this one as it seemed like what I was getting at with my snickerdoodle bread pudding attempt.  This one had you cutting the bread into cubes (challah works best, I like the one from Trader Joe's), drizzling with melted butter, tossing with cinnamon sugar and baking in the oven for a few minutes to "stale" or crisp the bread.  Then you soak it in the custard mixture and bake.  This turned out really well.  The top gets crisp (don't overbake) for a nice texture contrast and inside is the perfect bread pudding/custard combination.

Funny thing about bread pudding is it looks unremarkable in appearance.  But, taste-wise, it's one of my favorite desserts.  Probably because bread is my kryptonite more than sugar is and bread pudding incorporates one of my favorite breads: challah.  The nice thing about it is I can make it in small portions and enjoy it in moderation.

I changed the recipe directions slightly based on my past experiments with bread pudding and what I think would work better.  The key is giving the bread enough time to soak in the custard. Otherwise the bread pudding can come out too dry.  It's also better to err on the side of having less bread than too much or there won't be enough custard to soak in and again the bread pudding will be dry.  Lastly, of course, don't overbake.

For the Bread

1 tablespoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 cups stale soft-crusted French bread or challah

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For the Pudding

1 large egg

Yolk of 1 large egg

¾ cup whole milk

¼ cup sugar

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1.     Preheat oven to 350°F.  Spray 2-3 ramekins lightly with nonstick cooking spray.  Place on a baking sheet and set aside.

2.     Prepare the bread: mix together sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.  Spread out the bread cubes on a rimmed baking sheet and drizzle the melted butter over  them; toss to coat.  Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar and toss to coat.  Bake the bread, stirring the cubes once, until lightly toasted, 12-15 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool completely.

3.     Make the pudding: whisk the egg, egg yolk, milk, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla in a medium-size mixing bowl.  Add the bread cubes and stir to coat the bread.  Press down on the bread lightly with a wooden spoon to submerge it.  Let the mixture stand, pressing on the bread occasionally to keep it submerged until the bread is saturated, about 15-20 minutes.

4.     Spoon the mixture into the prepared ramekins, dividing it evenly between them.  Bake until the puddings are puffed and set, about 30-35 minutes.  Remove from the oven, transfer the ramekins to a wire rack and let them cool for 10 minutes.  Unmold onto serving plates and serve, garnished with confectioners’ sugar and/or maple syrup if desired.

 

Toffee and White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Toffee and White Chocolate Chunk Cookies - made April 6, 2012 from That Skinny Chick Can Bake! blog

Super quick post as I'm short on time this week.  Made these cookies from That Skinny Chick Can Bake's blog (and she really can :)).  Mine didn't come out with the same appearance as hers, probably because I like to underbake my cookies, but I really liked these.  It's a nice brown sugar cookie with white chocolate, toffee and coconut add-ins.  The edges were crisp and the middles were chewy, always the hallmark of a good cookie in my book.  Click on the title for the recipe.

Chocolate Chip Caramel Toffee Cookie Cups

Chocolate Chip Caramel Toffee Cookie Cups - made April 4, 2012 from The Sweet Spot blog

I finally remembered the pan I bought at Sur La Table was called a dessert cup pan.  Basically, it looks like a 6-cavity muffin tin but instead of a muffin shape, there's a dome in the middle of each cavity so that when you fill it with batter or dough, bake and invert the baked product, you'll end up with a well in the center of each one. Which is perfect for something like this - a chocolate chip caramel toffee cookie cup with a nice little dip in the middle to cradle a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  I used the recipe from The Sweet Spot's blog (click on the recipe title to go to the recipe) but any chocolate chip cookie recipe will do.  Just let it cool for a few minutes in the pan first though before you invert or else the cookies will be too hot and could fall apart.

I like to serve these when they've been 10-12 minutes out of the oven and are still warm but not hot.  It won't be too hot to melt the ice cream on contact but the caramel bits and chocolate chips will still be melt-y enough to add some gooeyness.  It's not bad at room temperature either, which I discovered, all in the name of research.....after a 4-mile run at the gym (there goes that workout, haha).  So yummy.  And if you don't have a dessert cup pan, never fear, you can bake these in any ramekin or even muffin tins and follow the same principle.  Just don't forget the ice cream.

Editing to add: since there was some interest in the dessert pan I used, here it is on amazon - Dessert Cup Pan

 

Cobbler

Apple Cobbler - made April 2, 2012 adapted from Perfect Light Desserts by Nick Malgieri

I almost didn't put up this post.  It wasn't very good and I didn't want it to take up space on my blog, lol.  But I don't just put up the good recipes, I put up all recipes I try and critique them honestly so I will compromise, admit I made this and keep it brief.

"Real" cobbler, as opposed to crisps, fools, grunts, etc is typically defined by having biscuit dough baked on top.  In culinary school, we made a terrific cobbler and my favorite part was the dough baked on top which was more like a pie dough than a biscuit dough.  Not so with this one.  The dough part was definitely more like a biscuit, heavier and less sweet than what you'd use for a good strawberry shortcake and not as good as or flaky like an actual biscuit.  It was just bread-y without being good bread.  Nah.

Cobbler Topping

2 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
Sugar for sprinkling the top crust

Fruit of your choice for cobbler, lightly sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Sift the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
3. Beat the egg and combine with the buttermilk.
4. Pour over dry ingredients and mix with rubber spatula (do not overmix).
5. Drop large spoonfuls over fruit mixture in ceramic baking dish and smooth top.
6. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until topping is a golden color and the fruit is bubbling.
7. Serve warm with ice cream.

Sweet Buttermilk Banana Cake

Sweet Buttermilk Banana Cake - made March 31, 2012 from Go Ahead Take a Bite's blog

Remember when I said the days are going by too fast and wow, it's already April?  That goes double when I see expiration dates on my perishable ingredients, including buttermilk that I always seem to race to use before it expires.  I mark how fast the time flies by how quickly those expirations come and go.  I had pinned this recipe (click on the recipe title to go to the original recipe itself) shortly after getting on Pinterest as I knew "someday" I would be in the position of having to use up buttermilk and I'd need some recipes to test out on a dime.

I love banana cake and am still on a quest to make one that's similar in texture to my favorite banana cake from Icing On the Cake Bakery in Los Gatos, CA.  Theirs is so fluffy.  Seriously, I want to get a job there just to learn how to make their banana cake.  (Obsess much, yes, I do).

I changed two things from this recipe though.  The original recipe called for shortening.  I don't know why but I'm always reluctant to use shortening in cakes.  I prefer butter for more flavor.  The weird thing is I have no hang up about using oil in cakes.  But if I can substitute butter for shortening, I do.  And I did.  I also went with a standard cream cheese frosting because that's my preferred frosting with banana cake.  I thought this cake was pretty good.  It was moist and the texture was similar to a pound cake although not quite as dense.  Still not the fluffy texture of Icing on the Cake though so my quest continues.  Although maybe I would've gotten fluffier results if I had used shortening?  I may have to try it again and stay more faithful to the original recipe.

Cream Cheese Frosting

4 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 ounces (4 tablespoons or 1/2 stick) butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
2-3 cups confectioners' sugar

Cream the cream cheese and butter together until well combined.  Add vanilla extract.  Add confectioners' sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, until frosting is the taste and consistency desired.  Use immediately.

Nutella Rice Krispies Easter Baskets

Nutella Rice Krispies Easter Baskets - made March 31, 2012, inspiration from Chef in Training and Will Cook for Smiles blogs

Easter snuck on me this year.  Actually, all the special occasion days have: pi day (didn't make a pie), St Patrick's Day (didn't make anything green), Mardi Gras (no King Cake - okay, I probably wouldn't have made one anyway but still....), and so on.  It didn't help that we've had rain off and on for the past 3 weeks and it's been more winter than spring whereas winter was more spring than winter.  So my seasonal timetables are all messed up.  And now it's April.  Yikes.  Okay, I am surfacing long enough to realize ahead of time that Easter is this Sunday.  When I was a kid, we didn't do the whole Easter bunny/egg hunt thing at my house.  Easter was more about Jesus and dressing a little more nicely on Easter Sunday in new spring clothes.  As an adult, Easter is still about Jesus for me but I also enjoy a good chocolate egg here and there, primarily the Cadbury mini eggs with the hard shell coating and milk chocolate inside.  I also like the Cadbury caramel eggs with the liquid caramel inside a milk chocolate shell.  Alas, however, I am indifferent at best, dislike at worst, all other Easter candy.  The ones I'm indifferent to are all the candies you can get at any other holiday except at Easter, they're pastel colored and egg shaped.  But Peeps?  Oh no.  They're marshmallows without rice krispies.  And dyed marshmallows at that.  Plus they come in weird shapes.  I don't enjoy the visual of sinking my teeth into a gummy, stretchy, dyed bunny head or a baby chick; no real self-respecting bunny or chick would actually be any of those colors nor would I bite their heads off either.  Sorry, Easter bunny, not in my kitchen.

But I do like to pay homage to my annual bag of Cadbury mini eggs.  Last year for Easter, I made Chocolate Easter baskets using pretzels coated with chocolate to form a mini basket for my favorite Easter candy.  This year, I took inspiration from two different blogs, Will Cook for Smiles using the rice krispie treat recipe to form baskets and Chef in Training's blog for the nutella addition.  This is a really simple and easy recipe to make.  For the basket shape, I used a pan I got from Sur La Table that makes a well in the center.  But you don't need any fancy pans to make baskets.  If you don't want to freeform shape baskets by hand, turn a mini muffin tin over and shape the warm rice krispie mixture around each cavity.  Then gently slip off when they've set a bit.  You can also use a regular size muffin tin if you want a bigger size basket. If you have kids, this is a fun recipe to make with them, especially for little ones.

Click on the blog links above to go to the original posts - I've made some slight modifications to the recipe and instructions below as I found that adding the nutella into the melted marshmallow/butter mixture almost made the mixture seize and made it difficult to incorporate enough rice krispies into it.  So I suggest warming up the nutella first to get it to blend more easily without having to cook the marshmallow mixture more than necessary.  If you overcook the marshmallows, your Rice Krispie treats will get too hard when they cool.

5-6 cups Rice Krispies (I never measure, just add however much you can get in there)
1 10.5 ounce bag mini marshmallows
1/4 cup butter
1 cup Nutella

1. Melt butter and mini marshmallows over low heat until just barely melted, stirring constantly. 
2. Warm Nutella in the microwave at 30-second intervals until it's liquid but not too hot.  Add to the barely melted marshmallow mixture and stir to incorporate.  Take off the heat and add Rice Krispies.
3. Work quickly to form the baskets using a turned-over mini muffin pan.  Shape gently, let cool and turn right side up.  When completely cool, fill with your favorite Easter candy.