Sweet Potato Biscuits

Sweet Potato Biscuits - made May 7, 2016 from A Pretty Life in the Suburbs

I love sweet potatoes. I love biscuits. So you would think I would love sweet potato biscuits, right? I want to, I really do. This is my second attempt at making them with two different recipes. But either the recipes aren’t right or I’m doing something wrong but I just have not been able to make a sweet potato biscuit to die for.

I know, I know, it’s “just a biscuit”. But still. At work, our culinary team made to-die-for regular buttermilk biscuits last month and I still think about them. Let’s let that sink in for a moment. Given my love of sweet potatoes, you’d think these would have a fighting chance against those “plain” biscuits. Nope. Not even close.

I didn’t get the same texture I wanted and frankly, the sweet potato taste just wasn’t there. Sigh. And they were nothing special to look at either. The ones on the original blog I got the recipe from looked much better. Double sigh. Oh and it was initially too floury so I also had to keep adding a little more buttermilk, a teaspoon at a time, until the dough came together enough to even be shaped into biscuit-like structures.  So maybe biscuits just aren’t my thing or I just don’t know how to make sweet potato biscuits to perfection. These were edible, especially warm with butter melting over them. But that’s all I’ve got.

1 3/4 cups flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
6 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into pieces
3/4 cup sweet potato puree
1/3 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F and lightly spray a 8" baking pan with cooking spray.
2. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda.
3. Using a pastry cutter or two knives, cut in chilled butter until it resembles coarse meal with some pea-sized butter pieces remaining.
4. In a separate bowl, combine sweet potato puree with buttermilk. Add mixture to dry ingredients and incorporate with a fork; do not overmix. Add a few drops of buttermilk if mixture is too dry.
5. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead into a ball. Flatten ball into a disc shape, about 1 inch thick. Using a biscuit cutter, cut out 8 biscuits. Form any remaining dough into a round biscuit.
6. Place in prepared pan with sides touching and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden.

Classic Peanut Butter Cookies

Classic Peanut Butter Cookies - made dough May 14, 2016 from Oh Sweet Basil

I’m am SO behind in putting up my blog posts. I actually have a stack of recipes I’ve tried and need to get the write ups done and up. So you may see me posting more frequently just to try and catch up. For anyone keeping score, you’ll notice I haven’t dropped my blog very much or at all, although I’ve been waffling about it for well nigh a year now. Hard habit to break so…..on to the next recipe.

If you want to know what baked peanut butter tastes like, make these cookies. But you have to take them out at barely the 10-minute mark or they’ll be baked to cookie-like texture instead of creamy baked peanut butter texture. Not that there’s anything wrong with that either but it’s not the same.

The dough was a dream to work with; not too sticky or wet, not too dry or crumbly. It formed perfectly into dough balls. I chilled them for 30 minutes after making the dough balls before I pressed the pointy side of the meat mallet to make the “cross hatches”. I always give full credit to that to my friend and culinary school classmate, Annie the Baker, for teaching me that trick. That’s how I mark all my peanut butter cookies instead of the criss-crossed fork tines. The meat mallet press just looks better and more uniform. But chilling the dough balls before making the indents makes them a little sturdier so you can be a bit more firm with the meat mallet. Press, don’t pound; they don’t get that firm.

You also don’t want to press too much or the cookies will thin out. Make the dough balls about the size of a golf ball, chill briefly then press with the pointy side of the meat mallet just until the indents are clearly visible and the dough ball has flattened into a thick disc. Then freeze for several hours or overnight. These cookies don’t spread much so they’ll end up as thick as you make them, post the encounter with the meat mallet. That thickness is also what helps give them the baked peanut butter texture, soft, smooth, creamy.

I’m not a big peanut butter fan but I want to try this recipe with cookie butter and see if I get similar results. Because we know how I feel about cookie butter.

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 large egg
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon milk
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar, for rolling

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugars for 1 minutes on medium speed; increase to medium high for an additional 30 seconds. Add the peanut butter and mix for another 30 seconds. 
2. Add the egg, vanilla and milk; mix until smooth.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Add to wet ingredients and beat until just combined.
4. Portion dough into golf-ball size dough balls, cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll dough balls in granulated sugar and evenly space on baking sheets, Bake for 8-10 minutes. Do not overbake.

Banana Bundt Cake

Banana Bundt Cake - made May 7 from Crazy for Crust

I ruined my streak of baking successes with this cake. I’m not quite sure where things went wrong as usually the recipes I get from Crazy for Crust’s blog are on point. But I suspect this cake went south when I either didn’t beat enough air into the batter or, more likely, I didn’t bake it long enough.

I expect bundt cakes to have a more dense, pound-cake-like texture. They wouldn’t be fluffy like a chiffon (and I don’t care that much for chiffon cakes anyway), not airy like a mousse nor creamy like a cheesecake. But they also shouldn’t be a brick and sadly, this was a bit brick-like. I thought I had baked it sufficiently because the edges were brown, the toothpick came out clean, and when I turned it over, the surface of the cake was a nice golden brown.

But alas, the cake was not only dense but it didn’t have that much flavor, another sign it was underbaked. It wasn’t raw; it just didn’t taste right and the texture wasn’t very cakey-good.  Eep. I did bake it for 45 minutes but it could’ve probably used at least another 5-8 minutes more. It didn’t look much like the picture on Dorothy’s blog in terms of texture so….my bad. I didn't even want to post this as I have more successful recipes in the line up still waiting but I've always said I would post what I make, success or "failure" and be honest about it so here you go.

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 overripe bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
5 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup buttermilk

Frosting
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
pinch of salt, optional
2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste or extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 12-cup fluted bundt pan.
2. Whisk together flour, salt and baking powder in a medium bowl.
3. With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Stir in mashed bananas and vanilla.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. With the mixer on low, alternately add half the flour mixture, the buttermilk then the remaining flour mixture. Beat until just combined; do not overmix.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean, 45-55 minutes. Let cool in pan for a few minutes, loosen cake with small spatula and overturn onto serving plate. Let cool completely.
6. Make the frosting: mix melted butter and cream cheese. Mix in powdered sugar, salt if using, and vanilla. Frost cooled cake.

Southern Tea Cakes

Southern Tea Cakes - made dough April 16, 2016 from Jam Hands

Not being from the (US) South, I’d never really heard of Southern Tea Cakes. When I saw the recipe, it seemed like Mexican Wedding Cakes without the nuts and instead of a coating of powdered sugar, it was covered in a glaze. Is that “the South” they were talking about? My friends who are genuinely from the South say “nah”. So this West Coast baker will have to interpret Southern Tea Cakes as a melt-in-your-mouth vanilla cookie with vanilla glaze.

Which is what I got with this cookie. What I love about the ubiquitous Mexican Wedding Cake is the soft, moist texture with the crunchy texture and flavor of toasted pecans. The Southern Tea Cake almost but not quite mimics that texture sans nuts but isn’t quite as melty in your mouth because it isn’t rolled in powdered sugar which contributes to that melty mouthfeel. Still, this is a good cookie especially if you want a simple vanilla cookie. The glaze adds a nice sweetness. You can leave it off if you choose but I recommend adding it for a little bit of elegance just to dress it up a bit.

The dough is easy to work with and, as always, I recommend portioning it into chubby dough balls and freezing first before baking. It won’t spread as much. Err on the side of just underbaking or just baking until done. The bottoms will be a light golden brown. I couldn’t quite capture the texture in the picture on the original blog where I got the recipe from so that may also be why mine weren’t as melty in the mouth as a traditional Mexican Wedding Cake but it was still quite good.

1 cup unsalted butter

1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups flour

Glaze
2 cups confectioners' sugar
3-4 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar together for 1 minute until combined. Add eggs and vanilla; mix until incorporated.
2. Whisk together baking powder, salt and flour; add gradually to butter-sugar mixture, beating until just combined. Do not overmix.
3. Portion dough into 2-inch balls, cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
4. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
5. Evenly space dough balls on baking sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly golden. Do not overbake. Cool on wire rack while preparing glaze.
6. For glaze: whisk ingredients together in a bowl. Pour over tea cakes. Allow glaze to set before eating.

Yellow Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting

Yellow Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting - made April 23, 2016, adapted from I Am Baker

This was originally going to be a yellow cake frosted with chocolate but I was making this recipe for a church potluck that at least 4 kids from Sunday School were going to attend so I made them as cupcakes instead. Because kids and cupcakes. Although I did reserve a little batter to make a small square cake as well.

These turned out okay. I don’t think I’m very good at making cupcakes. I get so paranoid about overbaking them that I have a tendency to take them out a minute or two too early and the cupcakes end up more dense than if I had baked them properly. The texture seemed fine but I think it could've been a bit more fluffy. The vanilla flavor was good though. And the kids liked the frosting. And remember I'm very picky so other people without my level of pickiness probably thought these were good.

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter, softened
1 1/4 cups milk
1/8 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt; whisk to combine. Set aside.
3. Beat butter until creamy, 1-2 minutes. Add dry ingredients and mix briefly.
4. Add milk, oil, eggs and vanilla extract and beat to combine, 1-2 minutes.
5. Scoop batter into cupcake liners, dividing evenly. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the centers come out clean. Cool completely.

Frosting
3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup milk

1. Whisk powdered sugar, cocoa and salt together.
2. Beat butter until softened and creamy. Alternately add the dry ingredients and milk. Add vanilla. Beat until creamy. Add additional milk or powdered sugar as needed until desired consistency is achieved.

Macadamia Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

Macadamia Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies - made dough April 16, 2016 from Crazy for Crust

Another portion control alert recipe. I had made this and the coconut sheet cake the same weekend so you can imagine my sugar overload then. But it was worth it.

I love shortbread anyway – all that sugar-butter-vanilla goodness is hard to beat. I didn’t think I would like it with the chocolate chips since I tend to be a vanilla purist. And you know I don’t care for nuts in my cookies. But this one beat the odds by being an exception to my pickiness and overcoming my prejudiced taste buds. Because it was good. Like 2-cookies good. Granted, the cookies are small but still. They warranted a second cookie between my jaws.

What’s different about this cookie is it uses raw cane sugar or turbinado sugar. Don’t be tempted to substitute regular granulated sugar! Run out to Target or Trader Joe’s and buy the real deal. Why? Because that’s what made these cookies so good. Turbinado sugar isn’t as refined as granulated sugar so it didn’t absorb into the dough or melt as much during baking. Consequently, it added a nice sweet random crunch to the cookies, somewhat like when you roll sugar cookies into large sugar crystals for added sweetness and crunch but these are inside the cookie. Pair with the buttery-salty flavor from the macadamia nuts and you have a winner of contrasting/complementing tastes and textures.

The dough tended to be a bit dry and crumbly so you do need to beat it a fair amount to get it to come together. Make sure you beat the butter first to nice, soft, creamy submission before you add the dry ingredients. If your dough isn’t coming together, add a dash more vanilla or vanilla bean paste but you don’t want  this dough soft or sticky. Once it comes together, it’s easy to shape into little thick discs. They hardly spread so they’ll end up mostly the size you shape them in. I like the look of having them be small but hearty-thick discs. That way you can also eat two of them and console yourself that two is okay because “they’re not that big”. Go with it.

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup turbinado sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup macadamia nuts, finely crushed
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

1. Beat butter and sugar together until blended. Add vanilla.
2. Whisk together flour and salt; add to butter mixture, mixing until incorporated and dough comes together.
3. Add macadamia nuts and mini chocolate chips.
4. Portion into 1" dough balls and shape into thick discs. Chill for at least an hour.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
6. Space evenly on baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden. Do not overbake or you won't get the soft texture. Transfer to wire rack and cool completely.

Vanilla Coconut Texas Sheet Cake

Vanilla Coconut Texas Sheet Cake - made April 16, 2016, adapted from from 5 Boys Baker

Portion control alert! I promised I would flag those recipes that are so good they break my 1-taste-test piece rule. Well, here you go. It’s either that or I had the slowest taste buds in the world that I had to keep trying “just one more bite” of this cake. Yup, it was that good. I had a piece when it was lukewarm and the frosting was still melty. To die for. I had a second piece when it was completely cool and the icing had set “just to make sure”. And to put my mind completely at ease, I had another one before I packaged up the rest to take into work. Granted, they were small-ish pieces but I probably didn’t need 3 over a 24-hour period. I just wanted them.

Why was this so good? First the texture was perfect: soft, cakey and moist plus the coconut I added to the batter gave it a little more chewiness, the good kind. Second, the butter-vanilla overtones were delicious. Unlike chocolate which can be rich enough to stop me at one piece, a really good vanilla cake doesn’t have that kind of failsafe. You just want to keep eating and eating. And eating (hello, third piece of cake).

What will really kill you is how easy this was to make. Since it falls into the Texas Sheet Cake class, it’s a simple matter of boiling the butter and water, adding the rest of the ingredients and mixing then pouring into the pan. That’s it. No waiting for butter to soften or eggs to come to room temperature. You can mix this up in the time it takes your oven to preheat. Just don’t add the eggs while the mixture is still hot or you’ll end up with scrambled eggs in your batter.  Don’t underbake this either or it’ll be too gummy. I baked it just over 30 minutes because I baked it in a 9 x 13 pan, not a sheet pan, since I think a thin slice of cake is hardly worth dirtying up a fork. The toothpick test can fool you so go by how brown the overall top of the cake looks as well as making sure there’s a bit of spring in the center when you push down lightly with your finger on top of the cake. If the cake doesn’t spring back even a little bit and instead remains sunken, your cake’s not done yet.

I cut back on the powdered sugar in the icing but it was still a bit too sweet for me. Go by taste and your preferences but I would recommend less than the 4 cups of powdered sugar in the recipe. I was also generous with the vanilla and vanilla bean paste but that’s because I like vanilla. And when, not if, I make this cake again, I wouldn’t toast the coconut for the garnish on top and instead go with untoasted, sweetened flaked coconut. I didn’t like the texture contrast with the toasted coconut but I liked the coconut itself, just wanted it to be as chewy as the coconut in the batter. 

I had three people at work tell me after that this was the best thing I’d ever brought in and/or it was their favorite dessert. If that doesn’t convince you to try it, remember me and my jaded taste buds ate 3 pieces, offset by only 2 workouts.

1 cup butter
1 cup water
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup coconut, optional

Frosting
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup milk
4 1/2 cups powdered sugar (or less if you don't like frosting to be too sweet)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Toasted coconut, optional

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13 pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a large saucepan, bring the butter and water to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar, eggs, sour cream and vanilla extract. Add the flour, salt and baking soda; stir until just combined.
3. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 25-28 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and top springs back when lightly pressed.
4. To make the frosting: in a medium saucepan, bring butter and milk to a boil. Remove from heat and add the powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth. Pour over warm cake and garnish with toasted coconut.