Korean Fried Chicken

Korean Fried Chicken - made November 7, 2019, modified from Nicky's Kitchen Sanctuary

When I lived in the Bay Area, I loved going to Bon Chon Chicken for their KFC (Korean Fried Chicken). There was something about the light crispy coating on the outside and the soy-garlic flavor that was addicting.

There's no Bon Chon in Reno but I decided to take my own stab at Korean Fried Chicken. Granted, this is nothing like Bon Chon but actual "real" Korean Fried Chicken with gochujang sauce which is a spicy chili paste. I know, me, spicy? Not normally. But I really wanted to try making KFC so what the heck. YOLO. Of course, finding Gochujang in Reno turned out to be both easy and difficult. Difficult because I thought I'd try the Asian grocery store first. But for the life of me, I couldn't find it there. It's almost inconceivable to me that they wouldn't carry it but seriously, I couldn't find it anywhere. Ironically, I ended up finding gochujang in the Asian aisle at Smiths grocery store. Go figure.

I really liked how this recipe turned out. Yes, it was a little spicy but not overly so. But what made this the best chicken recipe I've made was the light crispy coating on the chicken. I don't make deep fried food that often because I would eat it - hello, deep fried goodness - plus it's messy AF. But the coating on this was amazing and worth every calorie. It isn't greasy and heavy; it's light and crispy.

The sauce was pretty good too. I skipped garnishing with the red pepper flakes as it was spicy enough for me. I'd make this again in a heartbeat.

Chicken and marinade
4 chicken breasts, sliced into long, thick strips
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Crispy Coating
1 1/2 cups (180 grams) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
at least 4 cups vegetable oi for deep frying

Sauce
2 tablespoons guchujang paste (I could only find sauce)
2 tablespoons honey
4 tablespoons brown sugar
4 tablespoons soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon sesame oil
The tops of 3 green onions, sliced into thin strips
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1. Place the chicken in a bowl. Add the buttermilk, salt, pepper and garlic salt. Mix together, cover and place in the refrigerator to marinate for at least 1 hour or up to overnight.
2. Preheat the oven to a low heat to keep cooked chicken warm. Heat a large pan of vegetable oil or preheat a deep fryer until hot.
3. Mix together the crispy coating ingredients in a small bowl. Remove chicken from refrigerator. Lift a piece from the buttermilk and allow the excess to drip off. Dredge the chicken in the crispy coating mixture, covering fully. Place on a tray and repeat with remaining chicken pieces.
4. Once oil is hot enough, fry chicken in a single layer until golden brown on both sides. Place on a tray in the oven to keep warm while you cook the rest of the chicken.
5. Make the sauce: in a saucepan, mix together the gochujang, honey, sugar, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, vegetable oil and sesame oil. Bring to a boil then simmer for 5 minutes until thickened.
6. Pour over the crispy chicken and toss together. Top with green onions, sesame seeds and red pepper flakes as desired.

Lemon Sugar Cookies

Lemon Sugar Cookies - made dough November 8, 2019 from Dorie's Cookies by Dorie Greenspan

This is a really good lemon sugar cookie recipe: not too sweet but not too tart and it's nicely chewy, not cakey. Plus it's easy to mix together. It does spread a little so you might want to mound up the dough balls and bake from frozen dough like I normally do.

This is the kind of cookie I like to include in a sampler or variety pack when I bake my gifts. It's less fancy and more plain looking than its decorative counterparts but, if taste matters to you, this is a nice palate pleaser that can hold its own with the fancy.

2 3/4 cups (374 grams) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 cups (300 grams) granulated sugar
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into chunks
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 large egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
sugar for dredging

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Whisk the flour, baking soda and baking powder together.
3. Put the granulated sugar and lemon zest in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using your fingertips, mash and run the zest into the sugar until the sugar is moist and fragrant. Using the paddle attachment, add the butter and salt to the bowl and beat on medium speed until the mixture is smooth, about 2 minutes.
4. Beat in the egg, then the vanilla and lemon juice.
5. Add half of the dry ingredients and beat on low speed until almost incorporated. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and add the remaining dry ingredients. Beat on low speed until combined and dough comes away from sides of bowl.
6. Pour some granulated sugar into a shallow bowl. Using a small cookie scoop, scoop out level portions of the dough and form into a ball. Roll in sugar to coat completely. Space evenly on prepared baking sheets.
7. Bake the cookies 8 to 14 minutes, rotating halfway through baking, until they're barely golden around the edges. Transfer to wire racks and let cool completely.

Udon Noodle Soup

Chicken Udon Noodle Soup - made November 6, 2019, modified from Dishes Delish

I love udon noodles. They're thick and chewy and don't get mushy when cooked properly. And because they're so thick, they're hard to overcook.

Now that I'm cooking more, it occurred to me that I could make my own udon noodle soup. So I did.

However, this turned out to be a classic example that shows I'll never be a real "cook". Yes, I can follow savory recipes as well as dessert ones and I can put together reasonably simple recipes that turn out pretty well. But you know what marks a real cook? They taste as they go. Me, not so much. I'm a baker by nature and to me, that means following a recipe. I rarely taste batter or cookie dough. I wait until the final product comes out of the oven and judge accordingly.

That taste-buds-off process doesn't work as well when it comes to cooking since cooking is more about tasting and adjusting seasonings, depending on the flavor you're trying to achieve. I learned that lesson when I took my first few sips of this broth. The first sip seemed pretty tasty. The second sip was a bit salty. By the third sip, I was regretting not tasting it earlier so I could've cut back on the salty flavorings.

At least it was salty to my palate. Fortunately, with soup, the easy fix is to add more water which is what I did. So this turned out after all.

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice vinegar
4 cups chicken broth
18 ounces udon noodles
2 eggs

1. Fill small saucepan with enough water to cover 2 eggs. Add eggs and bring just to a boil. Turn off heat and let sit, covered, for 5 minutes. Peel.
2. Bring water in a large pot to a boil. Add noodles and bring to another boil. Cook for 10 minutes. Drain noodles and set aside.
3. Heat Dutch oven on medium heat. When hot, add oil. When oil is hot, add onion and saute until soft. Add garlic and ginger and saute until garlic is browned, 1 minute.
4. Add broth, soy sauce, vinegar and fish sauce; bring to a simmer.
5. Add noodles to serving bowl. Ladle soup over noodles and cut an egg in half to place in soup. Serve hot.

Crispy Orange Beef

Crispy Orange Beef - made November 4, 2019 from Simply Gourmet

Back to the savory side: another simple, tasty dinner recipe that takes minutes to put together with a little planning ahead.

I learned a tip from multiple other recipes that recommended slicing the beef when it was still partially frozen. Not so frozen that it's too hard to cut but not so defrosted that it's completely thawed and more difficult to cut cleanly.

When it's partially frozen, you can cut pretty thin slices which makes quick frying them a faster process. I don't like beef rare but I don't mind a bit of pink. When the slices are thin, by the time I put a single layer of the pieces in the frying pan, it's time to turn them over then time to take them off the heat right after I turn the last piece over. As much as I like frying things (too messy), this is a good compromise to being able to minimize frying time. Plus the beef remains tender.

I don't know that this was particularly crispy but that could be because I didn't fry them for very long as I didn't want to overcook the beef. But the orange flavor was good.

2 pounds sirloin steak, cut into bite-size pieces
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/3 cup arrowroot or cornstarch
1 cup oil, for frying

Sauce
2 tablespoons arrowroot or cornstarch
1/3 cup fresh orange juice
3 tablespoons molasses
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced
1/4 cup of orange rind, sliced very thin (I grated the rind for the zest instead)
1/4 cup green onion, for garnish

1. Combine beef pieces and soy sauce; toss together. Add cornstarch and coat each piece.
2. Using a wire rack set inside a baking sheet, spread out the meat pieces in a single layer. Freeze for 45 minutes to dry the meat out; this helps make it crispy when fried.
3. 10 minutes before the 45 minutes are up, add oil to a large cast iron pan or dutch oven. Bring oil to 375 degrees F.
4. Line a shallow bowl with paper towels and start frying the meat. Fry until golden brown on each side, about 3 minutes. Drain pieces in bowl lined with paper towels. Remove oil.
5. Prepare sauce: combine sauce ingredients in frying pan (oil removed); whisk and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until thickened, about 3 minutes. Add beef pieces and stir to coat each piece with sauce.
6. Serve with rice and garnish with green onion.

Sweet Potato Honey Cornbread

Sweet Potato Honey Cornbread - made November 18, 2019 from Black Girls Who Brunch

I don't normally like cornbread, to be honest. Too gritty and oftentimes too dry, even if it isn't overbaked. Or it's too heavy. I can eat it if it's warm and loaded with butter but otherwise, I generally pass on it.

This recipe caught my eye because it was a sweet potato cornbread and since I'd bought a bag of sweet potatoes from Costco for the Sweet Potato Cake, yup, you guessed it, I had to use up the rest of the sweet potatoes before they sprouted and jumped off my kitchen counter.

I wanted to try this recipe because the pictures from Black Girls Who Brunch looked really good. I can oftentimes tell how a recipe will turn out based on the pictures. This one looked dense and moist, good qualities in a cornbread, I say.

This turned out amazingly delicious. Yes, I ate it warm with a sliver (okay, a little thicker than a sliver but it wasn't a full-on slab) of butter melting over it. It was probably the best cornbread I've ever eaten. But do you want to know the ironic part? I think I forgot to add the milk and it still turned out moist and delicious. I don't see how it could've been better but I will probably have to make it again, correctly this time. This is a perfect accompaniment to a Thanksgiving feast so I'm posting it ahead of all the other posts I need to put up so you, too, can enjoy an amazing cornbread.

1 cup flour
1 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 cups mashed sweet potatoes
1/3 cup honey

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a 9-inch square baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray. Or leave a 9-inch cast iron skillet unlined and spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Whisk together flour, cornmeal, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. Add sweet potato to blend. Add eggs, butter and honey; beat to combine. Add milk and beat until combined.
4. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 33-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

Baking Meetup #3: Thanksgiving Desserts

Thanksgiving Desserts: baking meetup on November 10, 2019

Here are the recipes for the desserts everyone brought to our third baking meetup last weekend. This month's theme was Thanksgiving desserts so hopefully this can give you some ideas of what to make for your own Thanksgiving table.

Everything was delicious and I'm really impressed with the bakers in the group. Unfortunately, it turns out even *I* cannot eat 8 desserts in one go. I did my best with (small) servings of 5 of the desserts but had to take the last 3 home "to go" so I could eat them later when I wasn't stuffed so full of sugar.

Amish Peanut Butter Pie - Dawn (waiting on recipe - will update when I receive it)

Cream Cheese Pie - Vikki

Cream Cheese Pie
Crust
1/2 box graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup butter, room temperature, cut into chunks
1/2 cup granulated sugar (or to taste)
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Cream Cheese Filling
12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs, room temperature
lemon juice or lemon peel, optional, for flavoring

Sour Cream Topping
1 cup sour cream
3 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine the graham cracker crumbs, butter, sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Press into a lightly buttered 9-inch pie pan. Bake for 7 minutes. Let cool for about 15 minutes.
2. While crust is cooling, make the filling by combining the cream cheese, granulated sugar, and vanilla; mix on medium speed until smooth. Add eggs and mix until just incorporated.
3. Pour the filling into the cooled crust and bake until set, 25 to 30 minutes (center will still jiggle slightly). Cool 5 minutes before topping. Leave oven on.
4. Combine the sour cream, granulated sugar and vanilla in a small bowl and mix until smooth. Spread onto the pie and bake 10 more minutes.

Pecan Pie - Mike

Vodka Pie Crust (Vodka evaporates out) 2 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon table salt 2 tablespoons sugar 12 tablespoons cold unsalted butter (sliced small) ½ cup chilled solid vegetable shortening ¼ cup vodka, cold ¼ cup cold water Mix the dry. Add butter and shortening(spoonful at a time) until it looks like cottage cheese. Add the wet. (vodka and water) Mix and divide in two balls. Refrigerate for an hour or more. Pecan Pie 1 (9 inch) pie shell 3/4 cup white sugar 3/4 cup light corn syrup 3 eggs, beaten 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 pinch salt 1 cup chopped pecans  

Mix all ingredients and pour into pie shell. Bake 350 for 60 to 70 min.

Pumpkin Cheesecake - Bonnie (and son)

Pumpkin Cheesecake
Crust
1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 stick melted salted butter

Filling
3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
1 (15-ounce) can pureed pumpkin
3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
1/4 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups sugar
1.2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Crust: In medium bowl, combine crumbs, sugar and cinnamon. Add melted butter. Press down flat into a 9-inch springform pan. Set aside.
3. Filling: Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add pumpkin puree, eggs, egg yolk, sour cream, sugar and the spices. Add flour and vanilla. Beat together until well combined.
4. Pour onto crust. Spread evenly and place in oven for 1 hour. Remove from the oven and let sit for 15 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake - Mary

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 can (425 grams) pumpkin puree
1 cup (198 grams) vegetable oil
1 cup (60 grams) bran cereal
2 cups (241 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups (397 grams) granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1 cup (113 grams) chopped walnuts
2 2/3 cups (454 grams) chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 10" tube or Bundt pan (as you can see, Mary used small, fall-shaped mini cake pans).
2. In a large bowl, beat eggs until foamy.
3. Stir in pumpkin, vegetable oil and bran cereal; combine well.
4. In another bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, sugar and spices.
5. Add to wet ingredients and mix gently, until just combined.
6. Stir in nuts and chocolate chips.
7. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.
8. Bake in preheated oven for 70 minutes (less time if you're using smaller pans) or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
9. Remove from oven and cool the cake in pan for 10 minutes then remove from pan and cool completely on a rack before slicing.
10. Store, loosely covered, at room temperature for 5 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.

Bacardi Rum Cake

 Bacardi Rum Cake
1 cup walnuts, very finely chopped
1 package yellow cake mix (15.25 ounces)
1 package Jello vanilla flavor instant pudding & pie filing (3.4 ounces)
4 eggs
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup Bacardi rum, gold, 80 proof

1. Spray 10" bundt pan with cooking spray. Sprinkle with flour and pour off excess. Sprinkle walnuts evenly in bottom of pan and up the sides.
2. Combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, water, oil & rum in a large mixing bowl. Beat at medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour into pan. Bake at 325 degrees F for 60 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly pressed. Cool in the pan for 8-10 minutes.Prick bottom of cake with a cake tester. Pull from sides and pour 1/2 the glaze from a spoon into sides and pricked areas. Then turn over and transfer to a cake plate. Prick top of cake and glaze with the other half of the glaze. When cool, sprinkle top and sides with powdered sugar.

Glaze for Bacardi Rum Cake
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup Bacardi rum, gold, 80 proof

1. Melt butter in a saucepan. Add sugar and water, then bring to a boil. Boil 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir in rum and bring just to a boil. While warm, spoon glaze over cake as directed.

Sweet Potato Cake

Recipe for Sweet Potato Cake is here, For the Bundt cake, I only made a half recipe and made up my own glaze of powdered sugar, whole milk and vanilla extract.

Unfortunately not pictured (I thought I had taken pics of it but after the evening was over, it turns out I hadn't :( ), Brittany had brought a beautiful pumpkin roll. Here's the recipe, sorry there aren't pictures!

Libby's Pumpkin Roll
Cake
1/4 cup powdered sugar (to sprinkle on towel)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin
1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Filling
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup powdered sugar, optional

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 15 x 10-inch jelly roll pan; line with wax paper. Grease and flour paper. Sprinkle a thin cotton kitchen towel with powdered sugar.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt in a small bowl. Beat eggs and sugar in large mixer bowl until thick. Beat in pumpkin. Stir in flour mixture. Spread evenly into prepared pan. Sprinkle with nuts.
3. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. Immediately loosen and turn cake onto prepared towel. Carefully peel off paper. Roll up cake and towel together, starting with the narrow end. Cool on wire rack.
4. Filling: Beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter and vanilla extract in small mixer bowl until smooth. Carefully unroll cake; remove towel. Spread cream cheese mixture over cake. Reroll cake. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving, if desired.

Sweet Potato Cake with Spiced Vanilla Buttercream

Sweet Potato Cake with Spiced Vanilla Buttercream - made November 2, 2019 from The Brown Betty Cookbook by Linda Hinton Brown

I had a gift card to Crate and Barrel but there aren't any brick and mortar Crate & Barrels where I live so I had to turn to online shopping to make use of the card. It seemed like a perfect excuse to get this new Bundt pan that, once I used it to make this cake, had me deciding I need to make a lot more Bundt cakes. I love this pan. Yes, I can love inanimate objects just fine. I love this pan so much I really want the mini bundt cake version of this pan. Alas, no more gift cards so I have to stay my avaricious baking hand from clicking on the "add to cart" button. But I may never use my regular Bundt pan again.

This recipe is actually meant to be a three-layer cake frosted with cinnamon vanilla buttercream. I had wanted to bring it for my next baking meetup but was a little hesitant to bring a three-layer cake to a small gathering. I knew we wouldn't be able to finish it and I wasn't sure whether it would turn out well enough that I could easily get rid of the leftovers. So I compromised by making a half recipe and made it in my new Bundt pan to do a trial run before the meetup.

Except I didn't remember I was going to make a half recipe until after I had baked the full amount of the sweet potatoes that the recipe called for. Now, in theory, I could've just weighed half the amount of the total baked sweet potatoes and called it a day. As in, if the unbaked sweet potatoes of 24 ounces translated into 18 ounces of baked sweet potatoes, I could've just used 9 ounces of baked sweet potato. Except I decided to weigh a half amount of the original sweet potato called for. Which theoretically should've been 12 ounces (unbaked) which is what I measured out (baked). From a volume perspective, 12 ounces of baked sweet potatoes was more than half of 24 ounces of unbaked sweet potatoes.

I decided to stop overthinking it and went with 12 ounces of baked sweet potatoes while I did a half recipe of all the other ingredients. Turns out the baking gods weren't as vindictive as with the disaster chocolate cupcakes and decided to cut me a break because this cake was fantastic.

It came out of the Bundt pan cleanly and I had only sprayed it with nonstick cooking spray and didn't flour it. Not a problem with this cake. It didn't puff up too quickly and collapse but rose obligingly like any good cake should. And the texture was perfect: not too light, not too dense but just cakey-right.

It's hard to tell from the picture but it's more fluffy in person than as captured by the picture. The taste was also on point. Almost like a carrot cake without the carrots. It wasn't overly spiced and it wasn't too sweet. While sweet potato isn't an aggressively strong flavor, this offers a good flavor profile, not unlike pumpkin. If you don't like pumpkin, try this sweet potato cake. I may have to re-jigger the Thanksgiving dessert roster as this deserves a place on it.

The recipe below is the original recipe from the Brown Betty cookbook but if you don't want to make a 3-layer cake either, make a half recipe but use 12 ounces of baked sweet potato and half the amounts of everything else. For the glaze, I just did a simple glaze of confectioners' sugar, whole milk and vanilla bean paste, to taste and consistency.

1 1/2 pounds sweet potatoes, scrubbed
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/8 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
8 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup evaporated milk
1 recipe Spiced Vanilla Buttercream

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Coat three 9-inch round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray and line a rimmed baking sheet with foil.
2. Place the potatoes on the baking sheet and rub the skins with oil. Roast the potatoes until tender when pierced with a fork, 50 to 55 minutes. Set the potatoes aside until they are cool enough to handle. Using a knife, remove the skin of the sweet potatoes and place the flesh of the potatoes in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat the potatoes on medium-high speed to remove pulp, about 1 minute. Push the flesh through a fine-mesh strainer over a medium bowl. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger.
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, scraping the bowl as necessary, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until blended. Add the strained sweet potatoes and vanilla; beat until blended.
5. Reduce the mixer speed to low and alternately add the flour mixture and evaporated milk to the sweet potato mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and beating until smooth.
6. Divide the batter equally among the prepared pans and bake until a wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Let the cakes cool in the pans for 10 minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
7. To assemble and frost the cakes: place 1 cake layer, bottom-side up, on a cake plate. Use an offset spatula to spread 1 cup of the buttercream on top, Add the second cake layer, bottom-side down, and spread 1 cup of the buttercream on top. Top with the third cake layer, bottom-side up. Frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining buttercream.

Spiced Vanilla Buttercream
6 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
pinch of salt
14 ounces (1 3/4 cups) confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese and vanilla together on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the butter and salt; beat until blended, scraping the bowl as necessary.
2. Reduce the mixer speed to low and gradually add the confectioners' sugar, beating until blended. Scrape the bowl and add the cinnamon. Increase the mixer speed to high and beat until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Set aside until ready to use.

World Peace Cookies

World Peace Cookies - made dough October 31, 2019 from Dorie's Cookies by Dorie Greenspan

When I first took a bite of this cookie, I thought "oh" somewhat in disappointment as the texture was crisp rather than chewy and I'd come to prefer my chocolate cookies to be chunky, chubby and chewy. When I took the second bite of this cookie, I thought "OH...." and immediately took a third bite.

This ended up being one of the best chocolate cookies I think I've ever made. It defies my usual norm of what I prefer in a chocolate cookie in terms of texture as I normally don't like crisp cookies. But it worked really well in this cookie. It isn't hard like a biscotti and it doesn't have the snap of a shortbread cookie but it was a perfect crisp-chewy texture.

But I have to say it was probably the flavor that won me over the most. This was just good. The texture works well with it but it's the rich chocolate flavor that dazzles. And it'll only dazzle if you use a high quality cocoa powder (I used Valrhona) and fresh, real butter (no margarine, ever).

Because it's a slice and bake cookie, it also is ideal for holiday baking since you can make the dough at your leisure, form into logs, wrap and tuck away in the freezer for whenever you need to make cookies. I love make-ahead doughs since it lets me determine my own baking schedule and gives me a lot of flexibility in my holiday baking. This also ships well since it isn't soft-fragile, can be packaged easily and wedged firmly in a shipping box to avoid breakage. So it was a good candidate to include in the care package I sent for my "Baker Angel" soldier.

1 1/4 cups (170 grams) all-purpose flour
1/3 cup (28 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick plus 3 tablespoons (11 tablespoons, 5 1/2 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into chunks, at room temperature
2/3 cup (134 grams) packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
5 ounces best quality bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1. Sift the flour, cocoa powder and baking soda together.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar on medium speed until soft and creamy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the salt and vanilla.
3. Add the dry ingredients and pulse a few times to start blending. Beat on low speed until combined. Fold in chocolate. Turn the dough onto a work surface and gather it together, kneading if necessary to bring it together. Divide in half and shape into logs 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and freeze for at least 2 hours or refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
5. Slice dough into 1/2-inch thick rounds. Arrange on baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches between cookies. Bake for 12 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer to wire cooling racks.