The key to my finale: Key Lime Pie

My last pie for 2012: Key Lime. It's my husband's favorite. Plus it seemed right to start with a citrus cream pie and end with one. 

I broke the "rules". Many baking experts say if you are making something for the first time, follow the recipe perfectly and then tweak from there. I looked at five different recipes online and just made it up. My hunches on the quantities worked out and it tasted amazing.

The whipped topping is a little free style. To get the canned whipped cream look, I put my home made whipped topping in my cookie press with a pastry tip. Anything that shoots out whipped cream by a trigger gets any child's attention. My oldest son (who is 9 and a budding foodie) begged me to let him help. Honestly, I got a little frustrated with him at first because he wanted the whipped cream to be a gigantic mound, but we negotiated the design and it turned out pretty.

Recipe below. Note we like our citrus pies a little on the tart side. If you like things really tart, I recommend only putting whipped cream on the edge and increase the zest to 2 tbsp. If you like your key lime pie a little sweet, I would increase the sugar in the crust to 1/2 cup and omit the zest. I use a glass 10" pie pan, so if your pan is smaller, you will need to adjust the amounts.

Thanks to everyone who helped and supported me with my New Year's resolution to make a pie a month. It's been a blast!

Betsy's Key Lime Pie
crust:
2 sleeves graham crackers
1/4 c sugar
1 stick butter, melted
filling:
2 egg yolks
2, 14 oz cans of sweetened condensed milk
1/4 c sour cream
1 tbsp key lime zest
1 c key lime juice (about 40-45 limes)
topping:
1 c whipping cream
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

Crust: Preheat the oven 375 degrees. Grease a 10" pie pan with PAM and wipe off excess spray. Break the crackers into chunks in a food processor. Pulse until crackers are crumbs. Add sugar and pulse a few times. While the processor is running, pour in the melted butter until it looks like wet sand. Press crust into pan and bake for 8 minutes. Allow to cool completely before filling.

Preheat the oven 375 degrees. Mix egg yolks, condensed milk, sour cream, lime juice and zest in a bowl with a whisk until completely blended. Pour into cooled crust and bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 1 hour and then put the pie in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours until chilled through.

Topping: Mix whipping cream, vanilla and sugar in a bowl. Beat on high with an electric mixer until peaks form. Either place in a pastry bag/cookie press with a fluted pastry tip or spread on the top of the pie. 


Now Bake That!
 





 

Double up

It's that time of year. When my coworkers and I all make dozens of cookies, bring them to work and line up an assembly line of baked deliciousness. We pile cookies into tins and deliver them all over the office to people we want to acknowledge with carbs.

Thank you, you're amazingly awesome cookies. 
Happy Holidays cookies. 
Secret preemptive bribes for favors in the future cookies.

I made these peanut butter cup cookies a few years ago and everyone was hooked. I like to call them double peanut butter cookies because the peanut butter comes in two ways. The cookie and the candy. 

I try to mix it up and ask each year, "What should I make?" They all give me that eye-squinty stare and then the command that they pose as a question: "You are making peanut butter cup cookies right?"

Okay. Okay. 

These cookies are great for cookie exchanges since they're so cute!

Betsy's Double Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
1 1/4c flour
3/4 t. baking soda
1/4 t. kosher salt
1/2 c butter, softened
1/2 c peanut butter, creamy
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c granulated sugar
1 egg
1 t. vanilla
peanut butter cups (around 48), unwrapped

Preheat the oven 375 degrees. Spray a mini muffin pan very well with cooking spray or use mini baking cups. Beat butter for 30 seconds. Add peanut butter and sugars. Beat until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat well. Add dry ingredients. Roll a small amount of dough into a ball and place in the cups, squishing in the dough just a little. The cup should be around half full. Bake for 5 minutes. Take out, press unwrapped peanut butter cups and bake for 7-8 more minutes. Cool completely before removing from the pan. Store at room temperature or the refrigerator.


Now Bake That!

Blonde ambition

Sometimes you want chocolate chip cookies but don't have the time to bake them. (Ya know, one pan, 10-12 minutes at a time). To solve my issue I scoured recipes books. I received a copy of Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa cookbook, foolproof for the holidays from my in-laws. I flipped through the pages and the answer was...blondies!

Here is the recipe:  Chocolate Chunk Blondies

I used chocolate chips instead of chunks but they turned out just like the picture. Instead of flouring the pan, I sprayed it with butter pam and used a piece of parchment paper. I cooled them completely so I had no problems pulling these suckers out of the pan. I took them to my boys' chess tournament and a teenager ate one for breakfast. He couldn't wait! It wasn't just him. I brought home an empty pan. The kids loved them.

Now Bake That!

Chess pies without the chess

I had it all planned out. I was going to make from scratch, pumpkin pie (from an actual pumpkin, no can) during Thanksgiving weekend. I walked into my mother in law's house for the weekend and there were two pies on her stove cooling (chocolate pecan and pear cranberry). Shoot! These pies weren't even for Thanksgiving dinner. They were for Friday. Someone else was making the pies for Thursday. The last thing we needed was more pie. I didn't bake a thing that weekend.

So I changed my plan for November. Instead of making pumpkin pie, I was going to make chess pie. First off, I did some research and no one really knows why they call this chess pie. What I can tell you is it is a southern style, custard pie. It has corn meal in it which is unique.

Why chess pie? I saw it in a cookbook and never heard of it before. Plus it has the word chess it in. I live in a fanatical chess area of the United States. The chess hall of fame is in this city. All kids play chess here it seems. You look at the trophy case in their elementary school and its filled with chess trophies. Seriously. To give an analogy, I feel like I live in the Green Bay Packers Lambeau Field of chess. Thus it is no surprise that both my kids play chess. I take them to a club nearly every Friday. I'm even learning how to play. My first grader beats me, but you have to start somewhere. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to try out the recipe and at some point make it for a tournament. 

Why two? A name like chess pie...it just seemed natural to not just make one pie, but two! One dark (chocolate) and one light (lemon) colored to represent those black and white chess pieces. 

On to how:
I used my typical Barefoot Contessa's Perfect Pie Crust.

Bill Clinton's Lemon Chess Pie was the first pie I made today. It took a lot of lemons to get 3 tbsp of zest, but otherwise the recipe was easy. I don't know if the recipe is really Bill Clinton's, but it looked yummy, so I gave it a go. It's important to bake it until it was golden brown on top and not go with the baking time on the recipe.

The Chocolate Chess Pie recipe was also easy to follow. I had one snafu though. I poured the filling in and then realized, I forgot to put the milk in it! To try to fix it, I poured out half the filling, mixed in the milk and poured it back in the shell.

I was worried. Custard pies are my enemy. I have had several runny pies. Both recipes called for 35-45 minutes. I baked both longer, but unfortunately, I still had issues. It was runny. It might have been my milk issue, but I wasn't sure.

Even though the chocolate pie was runny, it was delicious. It was like homemade dark chocolate pudding with a crunchy brownie-like top. An hour in the refrigerator helped tremendously. It still was a little runny, but a huge improvement.

The lemon chess pie turned out great and tasted like a giant lemon bar. It was good with either whipped cream or just plain.

Now Bake That! and that!

Pounding down the pound cake

I have this giant book by James Peterson with the simple title: BAKING. I have done one recipe from it (sadly I can't remember which one) and wasn't happy with it. It deserved a second chance. It was a spontaneous baking choice, so I looked for a recipe that could accommodate whatever I had at home. What could be simpler than pound cake?

You can get his book at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. 

It turned out wonderfully and it was easy.

Now bake that! 

I would be proud to partake of your pecan pie

I love that vignette from the movie When Harry Met Sally, when they talk in funny voices about pecan pie. Which makes me think...how are you supposed to say pecan? Is it pee-can? or pah-cawn?

Most pecan pie recipes have corn syrup in it. I'm not opposed to corn syrup. I make marshmallows from scratch. Yet, some traditional pecan pies seem too sweet. (and this is coming from the person who loves things sweet.)

Therefore, I was very excited to find this no corn syrup version from the All Recipes website, titled Pecan Pie V. It just uses regular granulated sugar and brown sugar. I read the comments and one person said that the pie top wasn't pretty. So the only change I made to the recipe was decorate the top with pecan halves.

The only problems I had this month is that there was not quite enough filling, the crust shrunk a little and I forgot to take the pie shield off, so the crust was a little pale looking.

Aesthetic comments aside, the pie tasted AMAZING. My parents were in town when I made this pie and were thrilled to give it a try. They loved it!

Now Bake That!!

Rings of glory: Kransekaka

It's a bird, it's a plane, its a cookie beehive! 
Okay, it's not a cookie beehive. 

It's a Kransekaka. 

Not a kreme-de-la-kaka. Not a krala-la-lala. Not a krans-a-what-do-you-call-it.

It actually has several spellings: Kransekaka/Kransekake/Kransekage
It has several translations: Scandinavian wreath cake, Danish/Norweigan wedding cake, ring cake, ring tree cake, or ring pyramid cake. 

What is a Kransekaka really? It's a concentric ring of stacked, iced almond cookies.
It tastes like a French Macaroon. However, unlike a macaroon, you can hide a half bottle of wine or liquor under this little beauty. It's from Scandinavia, so it's beige. Like the other Scandinavian foods I remember: Sandbakkels, Rosettes, Krumkake, Lefse, and Swedish Meatballs. All beige. I'm not saying Scandinavian only eat beige foods. No no no. They just have a lot of them.

Traditionally it is made in Scandinavia for special occasions (mostly weddings, but it is not strictly a wedding cake). It's decorated with flags. You are supposed to take off the top tiers to reveal the wine bottle. Then serve the largest rings first, breaking into pieces. If there is no bottle, obviously you can serve it top down.

As I mentioned in blogs past, I'm a Minnesota native. Minnesota is full of hockey loving, beige colored food eating, blue eyed, blonde haired Scandinavians. So it was typical for me to go in a local bakery (even some grocery store bakeries) and see a pretty, beige kransekaka in the display window. My sisters and all had them at our weddings. Now I live in Missouri. I brought one of these suckers to a party and suddenly people are perplexed. What's that?!?

The one I made above was for a medal party. A friend of mine is a two time, bronze medal winner for paralympics in track. So I made her a kransekaka for her party because:
A. It's circular, like the medals she just won in London. 
(I am an occupational therapist, and we just love themes.)
B. She was finally eating sugar again. 
C. It's awesome. 

Okay! On to making one.
First you need the tins. Technically you could make them without the tins, but I think it would be hard to judge the sizes. You get them online. One place is through Ingebretsen's Scandinavian Gifts, which is a shop in Minneapolis that I love going to. 
    
I have two recipes: my Grandma's (well her friend Bertha's) and the one from the box of tins (which is gluten and dairy free by the way)

Bertha's Ring Tree Cake (Kransekake)
2 c butter, softened
1 8oz can almond paste, cut into chunks
2 c sifted powdered sugar
2 tsp almond extract
4 egg yolks, beaten
5c flour
Icing (recipe follows) 

Preheat the oven 350 degrees. Grease the tins. Using an electric mixed, blend together butter, almond paste, sugar and almond extract until smooth. Beat 4 eggs in well. Measure flour and then sift. Add flour in gradually. With your hands roll 1/2 inch diameter strands of dough (width of index finger) or use a pastry bag with #6 tube. Place in well greased tins. Bake 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until delicately browned. Prepare frosting and place into pastry bag. Place rings on a plate. Assemble the cake by starting with the largest ring, frosting as you go, and stacking one on top of the other.

Frosting:
1 c powdered sugar
2 tbsp whipping cream
2 tbsp vanilla

*Tips: I use either a food processor a stick blender to make the initial dough (before the flour). Then I use a hand mixer to mix in the flour. Then I use a cookie press with a pastry holder (no tip) to get the dough in the tins. It's easier. Trust me.



Kransekage  
3 c almond paste
1 1/2c granulated sugar
3 egg whites, slightly beaten

Break almond paste into small chunks, add sugar and egg whites. Mix thoroughly with an electric mixer (or food processor/stick blender). Fill a pastry bag with a number 6 tip. Grease the tins (really well). Bake 325 degrees for 20 minutes until surface is crusty and golden brown. Remove cookie from the rings as soon as they are cooled. Use the point of a knife to loosen the outer edge of the cake ring and then loosen the inner edge. It will come out if baked thoroughly. 

Frosting
1 egg white
3-4 drops vinegar
confectioner's sugar to make a thin icing

Mix ingredients until smooth and well blended. Place icing in decorating bag with icing tip. Starting with the largest ring, make drizzels and scallops on the top/sides, stack the next size ring on the top and repeat. 


Now Bake That!

New Year's Apple Pie

Most years we host Rosh Hashana dinner. I decided this year to make an apple pie and a chocolate banana cream pie. For those who don't know the holiday, it's Jewish New Year and one of the things we do is apple and honey. 

For the apple pie, I used Barefoot Contessa's Deep Dish Apple Pie and Perfect Pie Crust. Once again, I had the same issue as last month, not enough filling. I should've bought more Granny Smith apples! I decided to go back into my fridge and grab whatever apples I had on hand, honeycrisp apples. It seemed like a cute idea with the whole apple and honey theme. However, I overdid and then had TOO much filling. I grabbed my tiny pie pan. Unfortunately I didn't have enough extra crust to make a top crust so I grabbed my Better Home and Garden's New Cook Book and used the topping from the Apple crisp recipe. The apple pies were...okay. I won't ever use honeycrisp again. The pie filling was sorta like chunky applesauce. I still served it, but with lots of ice cream.

The banana cream pie recipe from Sugarcrafter's  blog. I picked it because it had whole pieces of banana and not banana flavored pudding or something. I like bananas, just not artificially flavored banana. Though I baked it as directed, this pie never set up for me. The idea of runny chocolate pie was, to say it nicely, unappetizing. I tried to make it better by mixing the filling all up and then popping it in the refrigerator to set. But now it looked like brown liquid in a pie shell. Ew. 

I was so disappointed since this has happened several times to me with cream pies. I didn't even bother serving it at dinner. Instead, I made some magic brownies and people adored them. Whew!

I also made round challah bread. However, I will feature that recipe another time.

Now Bake That! (but only with granny smith apples) 
and that! 
and that!


 




 

Just Peachy

Remember that song? Peaches by The Presidents of the United States of America? The chorus goes: Millions of peaches. Peaches for me. Millions of peaches. Peaches for free. That was in my head as I made this pie for sunny August. 

Last month I tried a different pie crust recipe from Cook's Illustrated (their foolproof pie crust recipe). After being fully annoyed with all the millions of steps for that recipe, I went back to Barefoot Contessa's Perfect Pie Crust. It works for me and tastes wonderful. For the peach pie filling, I used the recipe from another blog Joy of Baking. 

What I was trying new this month was to make a star pattern with the top crust. I did it by cutting the shapes while it was still folded in half with a diamond shaped cookie cutter. It stretched all weird. My other issue? There wasn't enough filling and sunk and oozes on the top. However, the pie tasted wonderful. Plus ice cream covers up the messy crust and no one is the wiser. Just peachy!

Now Bake That!

Stricker Monster Cookies

My husband went to college with Sandy, a cousin of Steve Stricker. For non-sports fans, Steve is a pro golfer. The only reason I knew of him was because I spent my childhood watching the "lawn show" with my dad. Little white balls. Guys in baseball hats and polo shirts twisting with sticks. Miles and miles of grass.

The monster cookies are her family's recipe. She was cool enough to share when she found out I was a home baker. I'm picky about peanut butter cookies, but add oatmeal and m & m's and I was on board. Anyway, I had a hankering for them because she came to town with her family and we met up with them to go to the zoo. That next day, I had to make them. You know. HAD TO. Again, my apologies for no recipe. It's not mine to share.

Bitty Brownie Bites

What's better than magical brownies? Itty bitty magical brownies. I talked about these Magic Brownies in February. I thought, "Oh, this will be easy, I will just use tiny cupcake paper cups and just lower the amount of cooking time!" Wrong. Now they were delicious. Yeah. They stuck to the paper. Like really stuck. So you had to scrape the gooey brownie yumminess off the paper with your teeth. I think spraying the paper like I spray the parchment paper would have been a good idea. Next time right?

Sweet July Cherry Pie

Cherries are my favorite summer fruit. I mean all time favorite. I cringe when I pay $4 a pound for it, but I think it's worth it. Worth it enough to dedicate a pie to it in Sweet July.

Pitting the cherries was the adventure. I can't remember where I learned this tip, but if you don't have a cherry pitter (an undesirable uni-tasker according to Alton Brown) you can go MacGyver! I used a water bottle (a wine bottle would be good too) and a chop stick. I wore gloves too because squirting cherry juice everywhere was unavoidable. You stab the cherry firmly and the pit pops out the bottom. It worked...okay. I think a cherry pitter would have been faster.

I loved the sunshine cut out so much from June's pie, I did it again with this month. 
The new thing I tried was a new crust recipe. When I was visiting my sister we were watching Cook's Illustrated Test Kitchen together and they demonstrated their Foolproof Pie Dough recipe. I have two Cook's Illustrated cookbooks and a pile of their magazines, so I hunted for the recipe when I got home. 

The pie turned out great! 

Bad news: this crust recipe was annoying. There are tons of steps. The dough was in and out of the fridge so many times. I am tired just writing about it. Also, the dough is extremely wet so you have to use tons of flour to get it to the correct consistency. They say it's foolproof. Maybe it is. It certainly tasted and looked good. However, it was not anxiety proof. I am going back to the Barefoot Contessa next month.

Now Bake That!

Black and blue birthday

No,no. I didn't beat up my husband and made him black and blue on his birthday. Since my husband doesn't care much for cake, I offered to let him pick the pie of the month. He picked blackberry and blueberry. Happy Birthday to Dave!

Instead of lattice style I wanted to try a hole cut out and then did slits to make a sunshine design. It was fun!

I used the same Barefoot Contessa Perfect Pie Crust Recipe.
The pie filling I used All Recipes Again: Blackberry and Blueberry Pie
Comments:
The new thing I tried this time was to protect the crust edges, instead of cutting strips of foil and arching it around the crust, I did something else. I read to make two large sheets of foil and make a + and lay it on the counter. Place the pie in the center and then wrap the edges of the pie from the outside. It was a lot easier and they didn't fall off!

As you can see, it leaked. I was nervous that if I undercooked and under-filled it, it would be runny and/or sunk in the center. Anxiety has its price with baking. The pie was wonderful (though I still think my strawberry rhubarb is still the best so far!).

Now Bake That!

Bebop-A-Reebop Rhubarb Pie

My husband tells this joke (he says his grandpa said it): Do you think the rain will spoil the rhubarb? Not if it comes in cans. I don't get why that's funny. Then I googled it and found out its just a movie line. Um, still don't get it.

I love rhubarb crisp. Surprisingly, I had never had rhubarb pie. I was adamant that I needed to make one while it was in season. It makes me think of Garrison Keilor's Prairie Home Companion's bebop a reebop rhubarb pie. (I'm a Minnesota Native).

Recipe was from the All Recipes website: 
Rhubarb and Strawberry Pie

I also used Barefoot Contessa's Perfect Pie Crust recipe.

Comments: 
I didn't feel comfortable with the lattice, my dough kept ripping. I cheated. I just laid layers on top of each other. It's not as pretty, but honestly it didn't matter to anyone but myself.

The trick to using All Recipes is to read the comments. I mean read as many as you can. Thanks to these comments, I let the filling sit on my counter for two hours. Then I baked the pie for 10 minutes longer than the recipe requires. You will not be sorry because:

THE PIE WAS AMAZING!

I'm not kidding. My family ate all of it within 3 days. A record.

Better than a candy bar!

I've been making a version of these cookies for years. It started off so innocent, just adding some chocolate chips to the recipe I used from inside the lid of the Quaker Oats box. Then it evolved and evolved into something I claim as all mine. Someone once called these cookies better than a candy bar. This person might have been just being extra nice or rationalizing why he had more than one in 5 minutes, but I'll take it! 

This version pictured below had no chocolate chips in them but butterscotch instead. I swap depending on my audience.

Betsy's Oatmeal Cookies
1c butter, softened
1c brown sugar
1/2 c white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/3c flour
1 tsp baking soda
3 c oatmeal
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp ginger
1/2 c butterscotch or chocolate chips
1/2 c toffee bits
1/2 c golden raisins
1/2 c cinnamon chips

Preheat oven 350 degrees
1. cream butter and sugars
2. mix in eggs and vanilla
3. add flour, soda and spices
4. stir in oats, chips and raisins
5. drop onto parchment paper lined cookie sheet (no parchment paper? go ungreased)
6. bake 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees



Comments: If the cookies turn out too thin for your taste, put the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes and try again. Still too thin? Lower your oven temperature. Still too thin? Add a little flour. I mean A LITTLE. After that, you are on your own.

Now Bake That!

Lemon on the run

I screwed up. Remember my New Year's resolution? To make one pie a month? I missed March. I can give excuses like I spent my March making cake pops, etc. Every time I feel guilty about missing March's pie I think of the following:

We went to Destin, Florida for spring break. Sometimes pie making takes a back seat. 

On to April.
One of my favorite pies is lemon meringue so I thought I would give it a go.
I used a web recipe: Ultimate Lemon Meringue Pie

My pie looks awesome. However, it was a perfect example of a trip to lemon meringue pie hell. First it was weepy (the meringue was wet). The other issue was the filling was runny. Super runny. It was like lemon soup! 

Our solution was to freeze it, but I felt frustrated since it took up so much time. The good news was my crust was improving! 

Now Bake That! 
(and then comment with tips to help me...)



 

Be a cake pop head hunter!

My last two posts I talk about making cake pops for my kid's birthday parties. My oldest asked for a Lego birthday party. After more web surfing I was inspired by Living Locurto who made Lego head cake pops with marshmallows. To get that lump-on-the-top-of-the-head look, she used pieces of marshmallow. However, I wanted to still use cake. Another blogger got me on the right track: The Frilly Apron. 

Here are the happy Lego head cake pops:

I also made him a Lego brick cookie cake.

 
What I did:

• If you read my posts in March, you would learn that the favored cake pop method was using a cake pop pan instead of the crushed cake style. That brought a problem for me. Lego heads aren't round! I decided to make a sheet cake and do a biscuit style cutting method to make cylinders. I went through my kitchen, brainstorming different household items to be my cake cutter. No luck. Then I went to Bed Bath and Beyond. AAAAAA! (angels singing). I found a solution! Even better? My solution was less than 5 bucks! I used a cupcake plunger that you use with cupcakes for filling. 
• I used smarties candy for the bumps on the cake pop heads.
• Instead of using decorating icing in a tube, I purchased a bottle of black food coloring and I painted on the little faces with a paint brush.
• Like my golf ball cake pops, I used Barefoot Contessa's birthday sheet cake recipe for the cake pops.
• The bumps on the cookie cake was actually cake. I used the parts of the sheet cake that were pretty thin and made the "bumps" on the brick.

What not to do: 
Don't try to make your own yellow candy coating by using food coloring in almond bark. It turns it into frosting. Darn chemistry. I ended up buying Wilton candy melts at a craft store in duck yellow.

Comments:

The kids loved the cake pops, though one wouldn't eat one because he claimed he wasn't a "cannibalist". Um, okay.


Now Bake That!

 

Cake pops that are fore fun!

I mentioned in my last blog that both of my boys wanted cake pops at their birthday. My youngest had his party at a glow in the dark, indoor mini golf course. I did some serious web surfing and was inspired by 1finecookie. She made the cake pops for Father's Day and they had bacon filling. 

1. Cake
This was a party for 6 year olds so I made Barefoot Contessa's birthday sheet cake as the innards instead: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/birthday-sheet-cake-recipe/index.html

2. Decoration
I didn't have the time to use golf molds, so I used an idea from another blog Candy's Cake Pops and used white sprinkles. Then I melted Air Head candies and molded the golf tees. I made green colored rice krispie treats as the "grass" and put a cake pop in their with his candles so we had something to hold his number 6 birthday cake candle.

The kids LOVED them! So did the party organizers at the indoor mini golf place and I gave each of our party helpers one to take with them. What surprised me was how much the kids loved the rice krispie treats. I say if you can't buy or make your own cake, this would be an great alternative!

Now Bake That!
 

Cake Pop Challenge

I rarely bake cupcakes. Not that I don't like them, I do. I go to Jilly's Cupcake Bar during my birthday every year to get a gigantic gourmet cupcake. http://jillyscupcakebar.com/ 

I also read a friend's blog on cupcakes and get all inspired. http://www.cupcakeproject.com/

Then I had a cake pop and I was intrigued. Maybe it's because I'm from Minnesota where their State Fair is known for having everything on a stick. I mean EVERYTHING. So someone puts a ball of cake on a stick? Sign me up.

For some reason I hadn't gotten around to making them. When I went to a friend's baby shower and received two cake pops to bring home as a party favor, my kids had them. They begged me for cake pops on their birthday. I felt motivated.

Now I just had to figure out how to make them. I felt a test run was necessary.

After some research, I tried two methods/recipes.

1. Mashed up cake balls

To do the the mash-up method I used a recipe was from my local grocery store magazine, Everybody Cooks. Go to page 23. http://www.dierbergs.com/flipbooks/EBC/Spring2012/index.html. 

How it works is you bake a cake. Then break up the cake into chunks or crumbs. Then mix in a can of frosting and roll into balls. Then it goes in the freezer before you poke it with sticks and dip with melted almond bark. 

This method is MESSY. If I didn't squish the balls enough, they sometimes fell apart when I dipped them. However, the benefit is you can really shape them any way you want.

2. Cake Pop Pan

The pan looks like taking two candy molds and then placing them on top of each other and secure them with a pin.

The cake pop pan is by Nordic Ware, which you can get from their website. Personally I found mine at Target, but are at a variety of other stores that have them.

http://www.nordicware.com/store/products/detail/nordic-ware-cake-pop-kit/700EFD84-2673-11E1-B8E4-005056A42C5A

It takes a little practice in figuring out just how much cake batter you can put in there without having it overflow too much through the air vents in the pan. I did giggle though since the cake cooked outside of the pan looked like *something else*. 

This method was less messy, but not really a time saver. After you take the cakes out they have seams that make it look like I was trying to make tiny planet Saturns. I used a paring knife to trim them and they were fine.

Cake pop tips in general:

• Freeze the cake pops before dipping.
• Melt a small amount of almond bark and dip your sticks in them before poking them in the cake pops. This keeps the cake pops from falling of the sticks while dipping.
• Freeze the cake pops again before dipping. Freeze for at least 20 minutes otherwise it takes forever for the coating to harden up.
• I had problems using household items to place the cake pops in to dry. My cake pops would fall over when I walked by. My plan is to buy a cake pop stand or make one for my next round.

Taste test results:

After making the cake pops, I sent some to my husband's work for a taste test and tested them at home. The consensus was that the mash up method was too sweet and the cake pop pan were better. They were fluffy on the inside and crunchy sweetness on the outside.

Now Bake That!

Magical Brownies

I know what you are thinking. I'm not Colorado or California. There is nothing "herbal" in these brownies. Really, they're just brownies. 

I cut it off the picture, but if you look closely you can tell that the corner piece is gone. I couldn't help but have one before snapping the picture. So that's why they are magical. They are magical disappearing brownies.

They are the best brownies EVER. Now I wish I could take credit for them, but it's Mrs. Goldfarb's brownie recipe. It took years of begging my sister-law's friend who brought them to many gatherings for the recipe. Currently my rule is I only share the recipe with friends who share a coveted recipe with me. 

So I will share some general brownie information/tricks I do:

• This recipe has only 1/4 cup of flour.
• The brownie recipes I used in the past you would add sugar to melted chocolate and butter. This recipe I melt the chocolate and the butter. Then temper beaten eggs and stir them in. THEN you add the sugar. The consistency of the batter at this point looks very different than other recipes.
• After baking, the tops of the brownies crackle and when you try to remove the brownies, they like to fall apart. I do Alton Brown's technique: spray the bottom of the glass square pan with butter PAM. Then line the pan with parchment paper so it hangs over the edge of the pan. Then spray butter PAM on the paper. When the brownies are cool, I pull the paper out and use a pizza cutter to cut them.

Don't know how to temper eggs? First know that it takes time, but it's worth it.

• Poke the whisk into the hot liquid and then stir it in the eggs. 
• Repeat until it looks like the mixture is half chocolate and half eggs. 
• Then you slowly add the chocolatey egg mixture into the rest of the chocolate, whisking the whole time.

I'll take it with a side of double stuf.

I know, I'm not very original making Chocolate pie in February. But I like chocolate!! Besides, it's not like there is a seasonal fruit to mash up in my kitchen to slide in a pie shell.




Pie 2: Chocolate Cream Pie

This recipe is from Saveur. Go here. You know you want to: 
http://www.saveur.com/

The frustrating part was I could not find chocolate nilla wafers. I checked several stores, swearing under my breath because I swore I saw a box of those sneaky cookies someplace. Grr! So I bought a pack of Oreos and proceeded to use my best untwisting skills to make a pile of just chocolate cookies. This left me a pile of single cookies with a chunk of icing on each one. I decided to smash those two half oreos and make my own double stuf oreos. Why waste chocolate?

Comments:
The crust turned out tough, presumably due to my lack of nilla wafers. The rest of the pie: FANTASTIC! 

Plus it tastes good with a couple of double stuf oreos. 

Now Bake That!

Fleeing from fruit flies

There is only one thing to do when the bananas on your kitchen counter are on the verge of breeding fruit flies: chocolate chip banana bread!

I have a recipe that I adapted from my mother in-law. It has no eggs in it and I now swap out a little whole wheat flour to make it seem "healthier". Just ignore the fact it has a stick of butter in it and tons of sugar. Shh!

Chernof banana bread
1/2 c butter, softened
1/2 c sugar
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1 tbsp sour cream
3 tbsp milk
1 t vanilla
1/4c whole wheat flour
3/4c all purpose flour
1 t soda
1 t baking powder
1 pinch of kosher salt
1/2 c chopped pecans
1/2 c chocolate chips
1-2 tbsp sugar in the raw (optional

Preheat oven 350 degrees
1. blend flour, baking power and soda. set aside
2. cream butter and sugar
3. add mashed bananas, milk, sour cream and vanilla
4. mix in flour mixture
5. add nuts and chocolate chips
6. pour into greased loaf pan, sprinkle with sugar in the raw
7. bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour


Comments:
The new thing I tried is something I normally do for muffins. I sprinkled raw sugar on the top before baking. Crunchy! My kids loved it for breakfast smeared with nutella.

Now Bake That!