Lemon Tea Cookies

Lemon Tea Cookies - made June 8, 2013 from My Madison Bistro

This was the second cookie I brought to the bridal shower I attended last week and might've been more popular than the peanut butter fudge cookies.  As the father of the bride explained to me, these "were addictive and easy to keep eating".

This is a simple lemon shortbread cookie, easy to make ahead of time to chill as dough logs in the freezer, then take out, slice and bake whenever you need them.  I advise taking the dough out of the freezer and letting them thaw for 5-10 minutes before you try slicing them.  Otherwise the dough is too hard and can crumble if you try cutting directly from the freezer.  And slice them thick!  These aren't meant to be delicate little cookies but a tea cookie with some substance.  The frosting provides a perfect tartness/sweetness to the cookie and fancies it up a little.  It's a nice "summer" cookie that's not too rich or too heavy.  You just have to be careful of the frosting in very hot temps as it won't set if it's too hot.

¾ cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 ¼ cups flour
½ cup cornstarch
1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar

for the frosting
¾ cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
¼ cup unsalted cold butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon lemon juice

1. Cream butter, lemon zest and juice until fluffy. In separate bowl, sift dry ingredients and mix into butter on low speed.
2. Divide in half. Shape each half into an 8×1 inch log and roll in plastic wrap. Refrigerate or freeze for at least 2 hours.
3. Cut into ¼ inch rounds. Bake at 350 F for 12 minutes. Cool and frost.

for the frosting

1. On low speed, mix the cold butter with electric mixer (use paddle attachment for a stand mixer) until smooth. Slowly add confectioners’ sugar until blended. Beat in the lemon zest and juice.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies (yes, they're gluten free)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies - made dough June 7, 2013 from Averie Cooks

So....confession time.  I know gluten-free is all the rage, especially with so many people having issues with wheat digestion.  Not me.  Iron stomach and all (er, not to be confused with "rock hard abs" - still working on those), I have no problems with wheat, dairy or sugar.  Subsequently, I always give recipes that proclaim to be gluten-free or vegan the side eye, thinking they can't possibly be as good as a "regular" recipe.  No flour, no white sugar, no dairy?  No point.  I know, I know, how politically incorrect and insensitive of me.  But I pass them up all the same.  Except for this one.  I've made recipes from Averie's blog before and they've been pretty fabulous.  Her pictures suck me in first.  Spend 5 minutes looking at her blog and you'll be drooling too.  The pictures of these cookies convinced me I needed to get over my gluten-loving prejudices and give them a try.  They do contain 1 egg so they're not vegan but they are gluten free.

I was going to a bridal shower last weekend and wanted to bring a cookie plate as part of my shower gift so I thought it would be a good time to include this cookie as part of the offering in case any of the guests ate gluten-free.  Plus, if they didn't turn out, I would have other cookies to fall back on so it seemed like minimal risk.

This recipe was actually harder than it looks to make.  The first time I made them, I used Scharffenberger unsweetened cocoa powder but the cookies turned out a little bitter.  So I made a second batch and this time - one of the rare times you'll see me do this - I used half Scharffenberger and half Hershey's cocoa.  It helped alleviate the bitterness factor since the Hersheys is more bland.  I also beat the peanut butter and brown sugar longer as Averie's blog says to but I ended up with a much more crumbly mixture the second time around rather than the moist mixture that I had achieved with the first batch when I didn't beat it as much.  I ended up using more peanut butter in the second batch and even then, the mixture was crumbly in the mixing bowl.  However, when I gathered handfuls of it to shape into dough balls, the mixture held up just fine. This makes for a rich cookie so you may want to make them small; think of it as a flourless peanut butter chocolate cookie or, as I like to view it, as baked peanut butter fudge.

I took the second batch to the bridal shower but I didn't want the first batch to go to waste so I baked those for work the next day.  To offset the bitterness of the cookie, I fancied it up by sprinkling chopped up Reese's peanut butter cups and peanuts on top of the hot cookies as soon as they came out of the oven and drizzling them with warm chocolate peanut butter.  I didn't try the fancy cookies since I already knew what the base cookie tasted like but they went pretty fast from the communal kitchen at work when I brought them in so I assume they tasted okay.

1 cup + 2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter (i.e. one heaping cup - plain or crunchy may be used; do not use natural or homemade peanut butter)

1 cup light brown sugar, packed (dark brown may be substituted)
1 large egg
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder (Dutch-process may be substituted)
1 teaspoon baking soda

1. To the mixing bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine peanut butter, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, and beat on medium-high speed until well-combined and the sugar is fully incorporated and is mixture is no longer gritty or granular, about 5 minutes. Stop to scrape down the bowl as necessary.
2. Add the cocoa powder, baking soda, and beat to incorporate, 1 to 2 minutes. Dough may be a bit crumbly in pieces, but pieces should all stick together forming a large mound when pinched, squeezed, and pushed together. If your dough seems dry, adding 1 to 2 additional tablespoons of peanut butter will help it combine.
3. Using a 2-inch medium cookie scoop (about 2 heaping tablespoons of dough or 1.80 ounces by weight), form dough mounds or roll dough into balls. Recipe makes 13 cookies; dividing dough into 13 equal portions is another way to do this. Place dough on a large plate and flatten each mound with a fork, making a criss-cross pattern on top. Slightly flattening the mounds before baking ensures they don't stay too domed and puffed while baking because this dough, when properly chilled, doesn't spread much; just don't over-flatten. Cover plate with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to 5 days, before baking. Do not bake with warm dough.
4. Preheat oven to 350F, line 2 baking sheets with parchment parchment; set aside. Space dough 2 inches apart (8 to 10 per tray) and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until edges are set and tops are barely set, even if slightly underbaked in the center. It's tricky to discern if they're done or not because they're so dark, but watch them very closely after 7 minutes. I recommend the lower end of the baking range. Cookies firm up as they cool, and baking too long will result in cookies that set up too crisp and hard.
5. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 to 10 minutes before removing and transferring to a rack to finish cooling. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Alternatively, unbaked cookie dough can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, so consider baking only as many cookies as desired and save the remaining dough to be baked in the future when desired.

Top Favorite: Chocolate Pan Cake with Fudge Frosting

Chocolate Pan Cake with Fudge Frosting - made June 4, 2013 from A Country Baking Treasury by Lisa Yockelson

This is one of my favorite renditions of chocolate cake with fudge frosting spread over the warm cake to melt into it and later cool and set.  The cake texture is fluffy and the sweetness of the frosting goes perfectly with the not-too-rich chocolate goodness of the cake.  There's nothing easier to make on a weeknight after work because it's a simple matter of mixing up the cake batter and while the cake is baking in the oven, you can wash up, eat dinner and prepare the frosting, ready for spreading as soon as the cake comes out of the oven.  I made this for a couple of coworkers visiting from our Florida office because of the time factor and ease of preparation.  Not to mention, it's really good.  I think what I like best about it is the texture: not too dense, not too light but perfectly cakey.

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into rough chunks
4 tablespoons unsifted unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup water
2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups unsifted cake flour
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup buttermilk, blended with 1 teaspoon baking soda, at room temperature
2 extra-large eggs at room temperature
1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Chocolate Fudge Frosting
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into chunks
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
5 tablespoons milk, at room temperature
1 tablespoon light cream, at room temperature
1 box (1 pound) confectioners’ sugar, sifted (you can use less if you prefer it less sweet)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
1 cup chopped pecans, optional

1. Line a 9 x 13 x 2-inch cake pan with foil and spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray; set aside. Preheat the oven to 400˚F.
2. For the cake, place the butter, cocoa, and water in a large saucepan, set over moderately high heat, and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat. Sift together the sugar, flour and salt into the large bowl of an electric mixer. Whisk together the buttermilk, eggs and vanilla in a mixing bowl. Pour the hot butter-cocoa-water mixture over the sifted dry mixture and beat on moderate speed until thoroughly blended. Add the whisked egg mixture and continue beating on low speed until the batter is a uniform color, about 1 ½ minutes. Pour and scrape the batter into the prepared pan.
3. Bake the cake on the lower-third-level rack of the preheated oven for 20 to 22 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean and dry and the cake shrinks slightly away from the edges of the pan.
4. About 10 minutes before the cake is done, make the fudge frosting. Place the butter, chocolate, milk and cream in a large saucepan, set over low heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate has melted down completely. Remove from the heat and beat in the sugar by cupfuls with the vanilla and salt. Blend in the pecans, if using.
5. As soon as the cake is done, remove it from the oven to a wire cooling rack. Immediately spread the frosting evenly over the top with a flexible palette knife. Let the cake cool in the pan.

Vanilla Cinnamon Sugar and Buttermilk Doughnuts

Vanilla Cinnamon Sugar and Buttermilk Doughnuts - made June 2, 2013 from Channeling Contessa

So apparently, last Friday, June 7, was National Doughnut Day.  I didn't know that so my timing is off with these doughnuts because I made them before June 7 and didn't blog them until after.  I should pay more attention to the food calendar but I'm usually indifferent to doughnuts.  I mean, I'll eat it if there's one in front of me and it's fresh (nothing worse than a stale doughnut), if I'm at the airport abominably early in the morning and Dunkin' Donuts is the only one open at that hour, or if I'm in a Vegas casino and happen to pass by a Krispy Kreme and my sweet tooth gives it the beady eye.  But I don't love them enough to go out of my way for one and I don't crave them.  Nothing wrong with a good doughnut but they're not high on my list of diet-breakers.

But for some reason, I did have a hankering for a doughnut last week.  I think it's because I wanted to buy a doughnut pan rather than I actually wanted a doughnut.  Let's face it, it would've been easier to buy a doughnut than to go hunting for a doughnut pan. Yet, it's been awhile since I bought a baking gadget and that just felt....unnatural. I was actually trying not to buy more gadgets but, well, you know.  Sometimes you just have to give in and tell yourself, "it's just a doughnut pan.  Buy it and stop spending all that time and energy wishing you had one." So I did.  I checked that shopping enabler known as amazon but it turns out I could get the same thing cheaper at Michaels by using that week's 50% off coupon.  I don't mind paying for what I want but I'm cheap thrifty enough to get a deal when I can.  And, no, don't ask me why, when I'm not a doughnut person, I want a doughnut pan.  Because it's there.

There were two baked doughnut recipes I found on pinterest that I wanted to try.  First up was this one from Channeling Contessa.  It seemed like a safe bet to start out with because there are very few things that wouldn't taste good rolled in cinnamon sugar.  When I do buy a doughnut from a doughnut shop, I either get the glazed yeasted doughnut (Krispy Kreme), a cinnamon twist (Dunkin' Donuts at the airport) or an apple fritter (calorie bomb from anywhere).  So I had to adjust my tastebuds' expectations because a baked doughnut is more like a cake doughnut than a yeasted, fried doughnut.  This was lighter than the typical cake doughnut but not as light as a yeasted doughnut.  It was pretty good, thanks to the cinnamon sugar, although I admit I didn't go into raptures over it.  I think that was due more to not being a doughnut person though than the actual recipe itself.  It was easy to make and my spanking new doughnut pan worked beautifully to release them intact when I pulled them out of the oven and turned them onto a wire cooling rack.  The first picture has a darker coating because that's the side I dunked in melted butter before dipping in cinnamon sugar.  The picture below is the underside of the doughnut that didn't get the melted butter treatment.  The cinnamon sugar adhered to it just fine though, albeit a little lighter looking in color.

 

2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 large egg, beaten
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

For the topping
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
seeds scraped from one vanilla bean (optional if you don't have a vanilla bean)

1. Preheat your oven to 350°. Spray the doughnut pan with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Sift together the dry ingredients for the doughnut batter. In a separate bowl whisk together the wet ingredients. Pour the wet into the dry and mix until just combined. 
3. Fill the wells of the doughnut pan 3/4 of the way with batter. Bake for 17 minutes until golden brown and a tooth pick or cake tester comes out clean. Let rest in pan for another 5 minutes and loosen them from the pan.
4. Set up a bowl for your melted butter, and another for your sugar mixture. For the sugar mixture, combine the sugar and cinnamon first. Then work in the vanilla seeds with the back of a fork. Dip the donut first in the butter on both sides, and then in the cinnamon sugar.

Caramelized Bananas and Nutella Crepes

Caramelized Bananas and Nutella Crepes - made June 1, 2013, crepe recipe from Martha Stewart

Banana Nutella Crepes from Frodo Joe's Petit Cafe

I recently discovered a cafe that serves both savory and dessert crepes.  My niece and I tried them out a few weeks ago and loved their Banana and Chocolate Crepes (pictured above).  It was a simple dessert but no less scrumptious for its simplicity.  So of course I had to try making my own.  For the filling I had already decided I wanted to caramelize the bananas first.  Which was easy enough to do: melt a little brown sugar with a bit of butter and add the bananas until they had softened but weren't too mushy.

I found the crepe recipe on marthastewart.com; it was simple and, with a blender, took mere seconds to make.  You do have to plan slightly ahead since the crepe batter has to rest for at least 15 minutes before using.  I'm not an expert on crepe making so I'm afraid mine weren't as thin as crepes were meant to be and it wasn't until I had already made a couple of crepes in a frying pan that I remembered I actually had a real crepe pan I could've used.  Duh.  Anyway, I spooned the caramelized bananas in the middle of the crepe, folded it up, placed sliced (non-caramelized) bananas on top and covered the whole thing with dollops of Nutella, warmed slightly for easier pouring (dolloping?).  My homemade version didn't look at neatly professional as the one from Frodo Joe's Petit Cafe but it was delicious all the same.  And, as summer heat kicks in, crepes are a good dessert option since you don't need to turn your oven on to make them and it's relatively a short amount of time at the stove to cook them.  Bonus if you serve them with ice cream and fresh fruit.

Crepes
1 cup all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups whole milk
4 large eggs
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Filling
1 large banana, sliced into rounds plus additional if desired
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
Nutella

1. In a blender, combine flour, sugar, salt, milk, eggs and butter.
2. Puree until mixture is smooth and bubbles form on top, about 30 seconds.  Let batter sit for at least 15 minutes at room temperature (or refrigerate in an airtight container up to 1 day; whisk before using).
3. Heat a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat.  Lightly coat with butter.  Add 1/3 cup batter and swirl to completely cover the bottom of the skillet.  Cook until underside of crepe is golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes.
4. Loosen edge of crepe with a rubber spatula, then with your fingertips, quickly flip.  Cook 1 minute more. Slide crepe out of pan and repeat with remaining batter, coating pan with butter as needed.
5. Melt butter and brown sugar in a small skillet over low heat.  Add banana slices of 1 banana and cook until banana is caramelized.
6. Add caramelized banana into middle of one crepe and fold into a square bundle.  Turn over so the folded side is down.  Add slices of fresh banana on top if desired.  Warm up nutella until of pourable consistency and drizzle generously over crepe.  Serve immediately.

Potato Buttermilk Bread

Potato Buttermilk Bread - made June 1, 2013 from Don't Waste the Crumbs

I'm still behind on posts but that just means I have a nice backlog in case I get too busy to bake.  That does happen once in awhile, usually because of work, social activities or (geek alert), I'm too busy reading or listening to an audio book. I've been caught up in Game of Thrones again for the past couple of weeks as the fifth book, Dance with Dragons, became available at my digital library so I've been listening to the audio version like a mad woman before it was due back yesterday.  That meant a lot of time on my treadmill.  I don't have HBO (lament) but according to my friends who freaked out on my facebook news feed last Sunday night, apparently, it was the episode of The Red Wedding.  Yeah, I didn't like that in book 3, Storm of Swords, either.  And as for book 5, don't even get me started on how it ended.  Bah.

Anyway, on to the baking.....

I'm a big fan of potato bread.  My mom used to make it all the time when I was a kid and it was my favorite thing she ever made (and my mom is a really good cook so that tells you something).  I couldn't even taste the potatoes but it was the dense chewiness of the bread that I really liked.  Eating it warm from the oven with melting butter didn't suck either.  Although I've made her recipe before, mine doesn't seem to turn out as well as hers as it wasn't as dense as I would've wanted.  Which is funny as most people probably like a lighter texture in their bread.  Not me.  I want something substantial to chew, not Wonder-Bread air.

I tried out this recipe from Don't Waste the Crumbs as the picture on her blog looked to be exactly the kind of texture I wanted for my bread.  I modified the recipe though by using instant mashed potatoes.  I don't know if that's why my bread came out lighter than I wanted or if I just let it rise too much.  It was good bread (my parents liked it when I brought a sample over to their house) but I'm still determined to re-create the denseness of the original potato bread I loved from my childhood and need to keep looking and/or try this one again with a shorter rise.

2 potatoes, peeled and quartered or 3/4 cup instant mashed potatoes
8 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
4 tsp active dry yeast
2 cups buttermilk, room temperature
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
2 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
6 to 6 1/2 cups of bread flour
1 egg, slightly beaten

1. Have all ingredients ready at room temperature.  If using potatoes, bring a small to medium pot of water to a boil.  Boil potatoes until done.  Add hot potatoes and butter to a mixer and stir well.  If using instant mashed potatoes, prepare according to package directions to make 3/4 cup. Add yeast, buttermilk, 2 beaten eggs, sugar and salt and mix well.
2. Gradually stir in bread flour until the dough is moist but not sticky.  Knead on low to medium speed until the dough is smooth and elastic.  Transfer to an oiled bowl and turn it over to coat with oil.  Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise at room temperature until it’s doubled in volume, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.  (If your kitchen is too cold, you can preheat the oven to the lowest setting, then turn it off and place the dough inside.)
3. When the dough has doubled in size, grease two 9 x 5 inch loaf pans.  Punch the dough down, divide in half and form into two loaves, placing them seam-side down in the pan.  Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise again at room temperature until almost doubled in size, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.  (If you don’t have loaf pans, you can free-form an artisan loaf on a cookie sheet).
4. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Brush the top of the loaves with the single beaten egg and bake the loaves until they are golden brown and the bottoms sound hollow when thumped, about 40-45 minutes.  Allow to cool for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Oreo Rolo Magic Cookie Bars

Oreo Rolo Magic Cookie Bars - made May 31, 2013, original recipe

Magic Cookie Bars are like the stir-fry of desserts.  When you want to use up random ingredients in your fridge, you throw together a quick stir-fry: veggies before they spoil, the leftover chicken and/or beef from last weekend's barbecue, cubes of tofu before the use-by date.  Same with magic cookie bars.  I had some pecans I had already toasted from another recipe, Rolos I bought on sale after Christmas, Oreos I bought to bake with rather than eat straight out of the package, a few spoonfuls of salted caramel, and half a can of sweetened condensed milk from a prior recipe.  So voila, the Oreo Rolo Magic Cookie Bars were born.

As with a stir-fry, magic cookie bars are actually pretty forgiving and flexible with the add-ins.  The only "must haves" for me are a crust, coconut and sweetened condensed milk for the topping.  Everything else is whatever you want to use up.  In this case, I processed Oreos into crumbs and added melted butter to make a crust for the bottom layer.  Baked that for 10 minutes to firm it up a little so it wouldn't be too soggy (can't have a soggy crust) then layered on my add-ins: the last of the salted caramel so I could recycle the jar it came in, the chopped up Rolos for more caramel goodness, the toasted pecans for crunch, coconut (I love coconut and it wouldn't be a magic cookie bar without it), chocolate chips, and the last of the sweetened condensed milk.

End result was delicious goodness.  Double bonus that I used up some random ingredients and that this was super easy to make.  I know I say that a lot but seriously, they're the easiest things to make.  Very little mixing and it's hard to overbake these because the coconut signals when they're done - golden brown in spots but not uniformly brown all over. The measurements below are approximations.  Feel free to experiment on your own.  I was originally going to melt peanut butter into the caramel and add chopped up Snickers instead of Rolos but it turns out I was out of Snickers.  I must've used them all up in other recipes.  But it's not a bad idea for a future magic cookie bar creation.

1 cup crushed Oreos, finely processed into crumbs in a food processor
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2/3 cup Rolos, chopped
1/3 cup toasted pecans, roughly chopped
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup coconut
1/2 can (7 ounces) sweetened condensed milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8 x 8 baking pan with foil and spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Combine crushed Oreos and melted butter.  Press in an even layer in pan and bake for 10 minutes.
3. Take pan out of oven and spread caramel evenly over hot crust.  Sprinkle with chopped Rolos, pecans, coconut and chocolate chips.  Cover evenly with sweetened condensed milk.  Bake for 25-30 minutes or until coconut is golden in patches and the edges of the bar cookies are brown.

Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake

Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake - made May 28, 2013 from Two Peas and Their Pod

I was disappointed in the Brown Butter Blondies so I felt I had to redeem myself with something else.  I still had frosting leftover from the Texas Vanilla Cake so I tried out this recipe from Two Peas and Their Pod.  Oh my.  I'm glad I did because this one definitely turned out and made up for the blondies several times over.

Considering there isn't that much cocoa in the recipe, this still made for a nice chocolate-y cake, not too dark but perfectly complemented by the sweetness of the icing.  The texture was also really good, nice and cakey, not too dense but not too light.  For once I didn't underbake it either....although don't think I didn't get twitchy to take it out 5 minutes before I actually did.  But I'm glad I waited because the texture was just cakey-moist chocolate goodness.

1 cup unsalted butter, plus more for the pan
1/3 cup cocoa powder (I used Scharffenberger unsweetened cocoa)
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sour cream (or Greek yogurt)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the chocolate glaze (I used the glaze from the Texas Vanilla Cake):
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons corn syrup (or agave nectar)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 10 or 12-cup Bundt pan and set aside.
2. In a small saucepan, combine the butter, cocoa powder, salt, and water and place over medium heat. Cook, stirring, just until melted and combined. Remove from the heat and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, and baking soda. Add half of the melted butter mixture and whisk until completely blended. The mixture will be thick. Add the remaining butter mixture and whisk until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking until completely blended. Whisk in the sour cream (or Greek yogurt) and the vanilla extract. Whisk until smooth.
4. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes and then invert onto a rack. Let cool completely before glazing.
5. While the cake is cooling, make the chocolate glaze. Place the chopped chocolate and corn syrup (or agave) in a medium bowl and set aside. Combine the heavy cream and sugar in a small saucepan and put over medium heat. Stir until the cream is hot and the sugar is dissolved. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and whisk until smooth.
6. Generously drizzle the glaze over the cooled cake, allowing it to drip down the sides. Cut into pieces and serve.

Brown Butter Blondies

Brown Butter Blondies - made May 27, 2013, recipe adapted from Great Cookies by Carole Walter

I had tried this recipe before but I had made so many modifications to it that I really couldn't judge the original recipe by itself.  So it was time to make it for real.  Although I confess, I did make a couple of tiny modifications to it.  For one thing, I decided to brown 1/2 the butter instead of barely melting it like the original recipe called for.  And I omitted the nuts of course.  Plus I used milk chocolate chips instead of semisweet.  Oh and I made it in a 9 x 13 pan instead of a jelly roll pan.  But hey, other than that, it's the original recipe :).

I'd like to say all my modifications made for a fantastic result.  However, I proved my own theory that it isn't just about the ingredients or mixing it all together.  It's also about the baking time in the oven and unfortunately, I left these in there a trifle too long.  It's hard to tell from the pictures because they look moist enough.  But to my finicky taste buds, these would've been better if they had been more underbaked.  Truthfully, I hadn't expected them to bake so fast since I was putting them in a smaller pan than the original recipe had called for.  My mistake.  I brought them into work anyway although I was sorely tempted to leave them in the communal kitchen on a different floor so no one would know on my floor that I had made "sub-par" bar cookies.

My coworkers thought I was being silly ("no, don't give them to someone else!") and I got a couple of eye rolls as other people thought these were fine but no, sorry, these didn't live up to my standards.  I will have to make them again at some point and this time (under)bake them properly.

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, spooned in and leveled

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, divided

¾ cup lightly packed light brown sugar

¾ cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

5 ounces high-quality bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, such as Lindt Bittersweet, cut into ¼-inch dice

1.     Position the shelf in the center of the oven.  Heat the oven to 350˚F.  Line a 9 x 13" baking pan with foil and spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray.

2.     Strain together the flour, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.

3.     In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, melt and brown ½ cup (1 stick) of the butter over medium-low heat, stirring constantly so it doesn't burn, until it emits a nutty fragrance and butter solids are golden brown.  Remove from the heat and add the brown sugar, mixing well.  Cool to tepid.

4.     In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the remaining ½ cup (1 stick) of butter on medium speed.  Add the granulated sugar in a steady stream and mix until lightened in color.  Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.  Blend in the tepid melted butter and brown sugar.   Beat on medium speed until thick and creamy, about 1 minute, scraping down the side of the bowl as needed.  Beat in the vanilla.

5.     Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients in two additions, mixing only to combine.  Remove the bowl from the machine and, using a large wooden spoon or rubber spatula, fold in ¾ cup of the chopped walnuts and all of the diced chocolate.  Scrape the batter into the pan, using the back of a large spoon to spread it evenly.  Sprinkle with the remaining walnuts.

6.     Bake for 28 to 30 minutes (check them at 20 minutes!), or until the top is golden brown and the edges just begin to pull away from the sides of the pan.  Do not overbake.  Remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack.  Let stand 1 hour, then cut into 1 ¾” x 2 ½” bars.

Storage: Store in an airtight container layered between sheets of wax paper for up to 5 days.  The blondies may be frozen.

Texas Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Texas Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Frosting - made May 25, 2013 from Brown Sugar

Thanks to pinterest, the most viewed recipe on my blog by a wide margin is Texas Fudge Cake.  It must've struck some popular pinners and spread accordingly from there (ah, the power of social media).  And it IS a pretty good recipe.  But get your pinning fingers ready because if that was a good chocolate cake recipe, this is an excellent vanilla cake recipe.  In fact, I'll even go so far as to say it's the best vanilla cake I've made so far.  (Let's mull on that for a moment, considering how many cakes I've made over the baking years.) I loved everything about it: taste, texture and ease of preparation.  I don't know where either name came from but if there's any truth in the names' origins, then they really know how to make cake in Texas.

If you don't like chocolate, you can make a vanilla frosting for it or leave it unfrosted as it's good enough to stand on its own without frosting.  It might be a simple cake but that makes it even better because it doesn't rely on fancy add-ins to be a delicious cake.  Sometimes simple is best.

ETA: Forgot a  couple of baking notes. The frosting recipe makes a lot for a 9 x 13 pan as the original recipe called for baking in a jelly roll pan which has a larger surface area for the frosting to cover.  But I don't like my cakes to be too thin so I baked this in a smaller pan. I only used half the frosting for this recipe as I don't like a lot of frosting so you'll notice in the picture that it's a thinner frosting layer.  I reserved the remaining frosting for a different recipe (to go up in a few days).  So if you don't like a lot of frosting either, you might just want to make a half recipe.

1 cup milk
2 sticks butter (1 cup)
2 cups all-purpose flour 
2 cups sugar 
2 eggs, beaten 
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (optional)

Frosting 
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
1/2 cup milk
4 tablespoons butter, cut into chunks
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Line a 9 x 13 pan with foil and spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a large saucepan, bring butter and milk just to a boil. Set aside to cool slightly.
3. Combine flour, sugar and eggs.  Temper in the milk mixture, adding slowly and whisking smooth. Add sour cream, salt, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla extract and vanilla bean paste is using.
4. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
5. For frosting, 10 minutes before the cake is done, in a large saucepan over medium heat,whisk the sugar and cocoa powder.  Whisk in the milk, butter and corn syrup.  Stir until well blended.  Remove from heat and add powdered sugar, one cup at a time.  Add vanilla extract and blend until smooth; spread over warm cake. Cool completely.