Maple Whiskey Pecan Pie

I picked up an old edition of New Recipes from Moosewood Restaurant at Goodwill recently, and last night I got to try its take on pecan pie. They call it "Southern Nut Pie Eudora," and it caught my eye because it's the only pecan pie recipe I've ever seen that doesn't use corn syrup. The sweetness is provided with maple syrup instead. Of course, I had to make it my own by adding whiskey. The filling is more like a custard than other pecan pies I've tried, and it is of course very sweet. It's the perfect pie to enjoy on a rainy evening.

Note on the crust: I used my usual vodka pie crust recipe, but replaced one cup of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat pastry flour. The result was not as tender or buttery as a white flour crust, but the extra heartiness nicely offset the sweetness of this pie.

Note on measurement: The recipe calls for 1 cup of maple syrup. I filled a liquid measuring cup to within a quarter inch of the 1-cup line with syrup, then filled up the rest of the cup with whiskey. I have no idea how much this actually was, but it is obviously not an exact science. You could definitely leave the whiskey out, or use less, or use rum instead. It's your pie, make it the way you want!

What you need:

Dough for a single-crust pie, chilled for at least 30 minutes

1 1/2 cups pecan halves

1/4 cup melted butter

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

2 tablespoons unbleached white flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 eggs, well beaten

a little less than 1 cup maple syrup

a little whiskey (enough to bring the maple syrup up to a full cup)

1 cup heavy cream or half-and-half

What you do:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Roll out the dough and place in a buttered pie dish. Spread the nuts evenly across the bottom of the unbaked pie shell. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix the melted butter, vanilla, and flour. Add the salt, eggs, maple syrup, and cream, and mix thoroughly. Pour the liquid mixture over the nuts in the pie shell. The nuts will float. Push them down into the liquid with the back of a spoon to wet them, so they won't burn during baking.

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the pie cool at least 15 minutes before slicing.

Eat your decadent sweet pie.

Margarita Meringue Pie

This was my first ever meringue pie! It was surprisingly easy, and the perfect dessert for Tex-Mex night at Seattle Beer Club. I don't have any pictures because it was eaten too quickly!

I used this Food Network recipe for the filling. For the crust I used my usual vodka pie crust, even though that is not the usual type of crust used for meringue pies. Meringue bakes for a shorter time than fruit pies, so you will need to pre-bake your crust. To do this, roll out the dough and put it in a greased pie dish. To prevent air from making the empty crust bubble up while baking, put a layer of wax paper in the dish, and fill it with pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until it is firm but not browned. Or you can just do a graham cracker crust, which is a more traditional choice for this type of pie.

Ingredients:

Dough for one single-crust pie

Filling:

2 egg whites

1 tablespoon sugar

1/4 cup tequila

1/2 cup fresh lime juice

Lime zest

4 egg yolks

1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk

Coarse sea salt (to garnish)

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. If using homemade pie dough, pre-bake as above.

Beat egg whites and sugar together in a bowl until there are soft peaks.

In another bowl, combine tequila, lime juice, egg yolks, and sweetened condensed milk. If you want a little extra lime flavor, grate some lime zest into the mix. You might as well, if you've just juiced a bunch of limes! Gently fold in the egg whites.

Pour the filling into your pie crust and bake for 25 minutes. Sprinkle the sea salt around the edge of the pie and let it cool before serving.

Extra Credit!

While looking for a recipe, I found this gem on the Solde Mexico Tequila website. It calls for 8 eggs, and then an additional 8 egg yolks! I really wanted to try it, but was a little intimidated by a recipe that required more than a dozen eggs. It must be so insanely rich! If you are braver than me, please tell me how it turns out!

Cherry Pie With Almond Crumble Topping

Mmmm, a perfect breakfast of leftover pie!

This is a basic cherry pie, but instead of a top crust I used an almond crumble topping. The topping is from the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking book, in the recipe for Our Favorite Cherry Pie. I added toasted almonds to the crumble for an extra nutty kick.

Nothing warms my pie heart more than hearing people ask for a second slice! This recipe's definitely a keeper.

What you need:

Dough for a single-crust pie, chilled

Filling:

5-6 cups fresh or frozen cherries. If using frozen, thaw and drain completely

1 cup sugar (adjust amount depending on how sweet your cherries are!)

2 tsp cornstarch

Topping:

3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

2/3 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

1/2 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp almond extract

1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

small handful chopped toasted almonds (optional)

What you do:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, toss together the cherries, sugar, and cornstarch. With fruit pies you can add anywhere from 1/2 to 2 cups of sugar, and it really depends on how sweet the fruit is already, and how sweet or tart you like your pies to be. If in doubt, add a smaller amount and taste it. I tend to like my fruit pies on the less-sweet pie, but it's obviously a matter of personal taste.

Combine all the topping ingredients except the butter in a small bowl. Work in the butter with your fingertips until it's nice and crumbly.

Roll out your pie dough and place in a greased pie dish. Use a slotted spoon to scoop the cherries in to the crust. Spread the crumble topping over the whole thing. Bake on the bottom rack for 45 minutes, or until the crust is golden and the fruit is bubbly. Let the pie cool for an hour before slicing.

Apple Cranberry Pecan Pie

I did two versions of this pie over the winter holidays, and both were scrumptious cold-weather goodness. The first time I used cranberries and goat cheese; the second time I had to improvise the cranberries, with delicious results!

Here's what you need:

dough for a double-crust pie

4 cups of thinly sliced apples

a big handful of craisins

brandy

a big handful of chopped pecans

about 1/2 cup of spreadable cheese - I used a yummy farmer's market cheese, but goat cheese works great, too.

Spices - cinnamon and cloves, or whatever strikes your fancy. Probably about a 1/2 tsp of each.

Here's what you do:

While your dough is chilling, throw the craisins in a saucepan and cover them with brandy. Let them simmer while you chop your apples and get the rest of your ingredients together. They should get plump and soft. Drain them when they're done, but save the brandy for drinking purposes!

Put the apples, brandy-soaked craisins, pecans, cheese, and spices in a big bowl and toss together until everything is evenly distributed.

Roll out half of your dough and lift it into a well-greased pie dish. Fill it up with your apple concoction, then roll out the rest of the dough and cover the top of the pie. Cut some vents in the top crust, or do a nice lattice. Pinch the sides shut and make it look pretty if you're able (I'm not!), and it's ready to bake! Bake at 350 for 45 min. to an hour, or until the crust is golden and the cheese is melty and the cranberries all bubbly.

Wait at least half an hour before slicing into your pie, then eat it up!

Vodka Pie Crust

I keep getting asked about the vodka pie crust I always use to make pie, so here it is. Before discovering this recipe, I always had trouble with pie crusts - they would be too dry and fall apart when I rolled them out, or too wet and end up undercooked. Adding vodka to the dough means you can keep it moist enough to be easy to work with, but still end up with a perfectly light and flaky crust when the alcohol bakes out.

This is a double-crust recipe, which I originally got at Smitten Kitchen. That site has lovely photos and a step-by-step tutorial, but it is rather lengthy and complicated. And the whole point of the vodka crust is that it is easy! Here's how I do it:

2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1 1/2 sticks of cold butter, cut into little pieces

1/2 cup of vegetable shortening (I prefer butter-flavored Crisco)

1/4 cup cold water

1/4 cup vodka

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, then cut in the butter and shortening. If you don't have a pastry cutter, your fingertips are the next best tool for this job. Just combine until the butter is reduced to pea-sized clumps.

Sprinkle the water and vodka over the dough and lightly stir it together just until you can form it into a ball. If the dough seems too dry and crumbly, add another splash of vodka until it seems workable. The butter should not be evenly distributed; the clumps you see in the dough will melt when baked and create those tender flakes that make a good pie crust so tasty. Divide the dough in half and refrigerate it for at least half an hour before rolling it out for a pie. You can leave it in the fridge for a day or so, or in the freezer for... longer. When it is formed into a pie and baked, it will be buttery and flaky and oh so delicious!

Note: For a while I had the recipe memorized incorrectly, and used a whole cup of shortening in stead of 1/2 cup. The crust still turned out fine, with no discernible difference in taste. I went back to 1/2 cup after I realized the mistake, because I suppose I don't really need extra fat in my desserts, but I took two lessons from it.

1. Pie crust is not an exact science, so don't worry about it too much!

2. Extra butter or shortening never hurt anything.

Go forth and make pie!

Flourless Chocolate Cake

I first made this cake because I didn't have any flour. But now I make it all the time because it's the easiest cake ever and it tastes really fancy. I probably shouldn't tell anyone that because they will be less impressed with my skills and will just make it themselves. But who cares! This cake is quite rich, be warned! But it's soooo good!

This cake is great because you can modify its flavor. I've made it with Kahlua and instant coffee, and with cayenne and cinnamon. You could make it with mint or orange (or orange liqueur) or any alcohol or fruit flavor you want, really! You can add more cocoa (or unsweetened chocolate) to make it richer or change the amount of sugar to your liking. I'd recommend starting with it as is and then playing with it.

Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter
4 oz. semi sweet baking chocolate or 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup cocoa powder, sifted
3/4 cup white sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1 Tbsp vanilla
powdered sugar and/or cocoa for dusting

Optional Ingredients (don't use all of them together! just choose a flavor family and go with it)
1 Tbsp instant coffee and 2 Tbsp Kahlua
2 tsp cinnamon and 1 pinch (less than 1/8 tsp) cayenne pepper
1 tsp mint extract
1-2 Tbsp liqueur of your choice (suggestions: Contreau, Amaretto, Rum, Brandy, Bourbon... whatever your vice is, really!)

Directions
1. Preheat your oven to 325 and grease and flour a 8 inch round pan. Don't use a 9 inch pan. This cake is already thin!
2. Over very low heat or a double boiler, melt the butter or chocolate. Use a pan/pot large enough for everything in the recipe so you don't have more dishes to wash! Once melted, remove from heat.
3. Add the remaining ingredients. Taste the batter to make sure you like the flavors. They will likely cook out a little, but cayenne won't! I've put too much cayenne in because I couldn't taste it in the batter and then the cake was too spicy!
4. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pan before removing it to a wire rack to cool completely.
5. Dust with cocoa powder or powdered sugar if you'd like! This also goes quite well with unsweetened or very lightly sweetened whipped cream and fresh berries!

Pumpkin Pie

The second pie I made for our Thanksgiving feast was a classic pumpkin pie, made from a whole pumpkin. It sounds overly difficult, but it's actually very easy to do. I just used the recipe from the sticker on the pumpkin, which I got at Trader Joe's. The hardest part by far was cutting the pumpkin open; I actually broke a knife doing it! So be careful. Your efforts will pay off.

Ingredients:

one pie pumpkin

1 1/3 c sweetened condensed milk

1 egg

1 1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1 c hot water

single-crust pie dough

Cut the top off the pumpkin, then cut it in half and scoop out the seeds and pulp. Save the seeds for later if you want toasted pumpkin seeds! Place the pumpkin halves cut side down on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees until it's very soft, 1 - 1 1/2 hours.

Scoop out the flesh and mash it up with a fork or food processor or potato masher or electric mixer. Add all the other ingredients and combine. It will be very liquidy. Pour it into your pie shell and bake at 375 degrees for 50-60 minutes.

Tada! You have made a perfectly simple and delicious pumpkin pie! Now eat it!

Sweet Potato Saffron Pie

Another sweet potato pie! I made this one a few weeks ago, but I still remember how I did it. It's a pretty basic sweet potato pie, but with saffron and spices to make it extra special. I used this recipe from All Recipes as a base, and just changed the seasonings.

Ingredients:

single-crust pie dough

1 pound sweet potatoes

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup milk

2 eggs

pinch of saffron

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp allspice or nutmeg (or both? I don't remember, sorry)

1. Boil the sweet potatoes, either whole or just cut in half, until they are very soft - about 45 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, heat the milk up in the microwave until it's very warm but not boiling. Add the saffron and let it soak until you're ready to use it.

3. Remove the skins from your boiled sweet potatoes and mash them up with a potato masher or fork. Add all the other ingredients and stir together until well combined.

4. Roll out your pie dough and place into a buttered pie dish. Fill it with your sweet potato creation and bake at 350 degrees for 50ish minutes, or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. It will puff up a bit as it cooks and sink back down once it's out of the oven. Delicious!

Sweet Potato Pecan Custard Pie

I started out planning to make a pecan pie for Thanksgiving, but then I remembered that pecan pies are sweeter than I like, and I couldn't find any recipes that didn't call for corn syrup. So instead I made this sweet potato pie with ground pecans and agave nectar. It's divine!

Ingredients

single-crust pie dough

about 2 pounds of sweet potatoes

2-3 cups of pecan halves

a little over a cup of milk

2 eggs

1/2 stick of butter, softened

zest of one orange

1/2 cup agave nectar

about 1 tsp each of cinnamon, ground ginger, ground cardamom, and allspice

pinch of salt

I can't swear to the accuracy of the amounts on any of the ingredients, but one of the great things about pie is that you don't usually have to be precise when you make the fillings. Here's how to make the pie!

1. Roast the sweet potatoes whole at 400 degrees until soft. Don't pierce any holes in them.

2. Grind up some pecans in a food processor until you have one cup of ground pecans.

3. Remove the sweet potato skins and mash them up with a potato masher or fork. Add the ground pecans and all other ingredients until well combined. My filling was quite a bit thicker than pumpkin pie filling, but you can add more milk if it seems too solid. If you want it really smooth, put it all in a blender or food processor. I didn't bother, and it turned out fine.

4. Roll out your pie dough and put it in a well-greased pie dish. Pour the filling in, trim off the excess dough, and pinch around the edges to make it look nice. Bake at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes.

5. Lightly toast the remaining pecan halves in a pan. After the pie is mostly cooked (around 30 minutes in), take it out and arrange the pecan halves on top. Make a nice pattern! Return the pie to the oven and let it cook until the custard is set and the crust is lightly golden, another 10-20 minutes.

6. Let the pie cool for a bit before cutting into it. Enjoy!

The orange flavor really stood out in this pie, which I thought was a nice contrast to the darker flavors of the spices. I wish I had a picture, because it was a beautiful pie!

Blueberry Lavender Pie

Last summer, I heard about a cake-versus-pie baking contest, and I knew I had to enter. This pie is what I came up with for the competition. Unfortunately, I didn't get to participate in the contest, but I still got to make (and eat!) this lovely blueberry lavender pie. And that makes us all winners.

To get the lavender flavor, I ground lavender flowers into the sugar using a food processor. This way you can add the flavor without adding any extra liquid, and without whole pieces of lavender to get stuck in your teeth. If you don't have a food processor, I guess you could try making a lavender syrup (basically, make simple syrup with lavender, then strain the flowers out), and then use some extra corn starch to compensate for the additional liquid. I don't know how that would turn out, but let me know if you try it!

Ingredients:

One double-crust pie dough

6 cups of blueberries (if using frozen, thaw and drain the berries first)

1 cup of sugar

2-3 tablespoons of lavender flowers

3 tablespoons corn starch

zest and juice of one lemon or lime

Directions:

In a food processor, combine the sugar and lavender until there are no big pieces of flowers in it. Toss it in a bowl with the blueberries, cornstarch, lemon zest and juice. Toss everything together, making sure it is evenly combined.

Roll out the bottom crust of your pie dough and place it a well-greased pie dish. Fill it up with your yummy blueberry filling. Top it off with the rest of your dough, and it's ready to bake!

If you want to do a lattice crust, which is pretty and sure to impress your friends, I recommend looking at these instructions from Smitten Kitchen. It's a lot easier than you'd think!

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350 and bake for an additional 45-60 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and the blueberry filling is all bubbly. Let the pie cool for 45 minutes or so before cutting into it. Enjoy!

Note: I made this pie twice - once with lemon, and once with lime. About half the people who tried both versions preferred the lemon, and half preferred the lime. I couldn't tell the difference, so I think they must be equally good!

Oh My God Cherry Pie

I know it's a little late in the year for cherry pie, but this one is too good not to write about! I made it for a friend's birthday last month, and it was truly amazing. It's no ordinary cherry pie!

Ingredients:

6 cups of pitted sweet cherries

1 cup of hazelnuts

1/2 cup of sugar

1 scant teaspoon each of cardamom and cloves

10 oz. goat cheese

2 heaping tablespoons of cornstarch

1 double-crust pie dough

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Lightly toast the hazelnuts, then use a kitchen towel to rub off any loose skins. Chop them up!

In a bowl, combine the cherries, nuts, sugar, spices, and corn starch. Crumble the goat cheese with your fingers and stir it all together. Taste it to make sure the sugar level is to your liking. The spices might seem a little intense, but don't worry - it'll mellow out in the oven and turn out just right.

Generously grease a pie dish, and roll out your pie dough. I always use Cook's Illustrated vodka pie crust, but use whatever kind you like. Spoon in your incredible cherry filling until you think the pie can't take anymore. Roll out the top crust, cut any shapes into it you like (or do a lattice!), and carefully place it on top. Pinch your edges together, then trim off the excess dough with a butter knife.

If you have a lot of leftover filling and crust, like I did, you can make a bonus pie! Smoosh all your dough scraps together, and roll it out. You don't have to make it very thin or nicely shaped, unless you want to. Grease the bottom of a baking dish and put your dough in there. Pile up all your extra filling on one half of the dough, then fold the other half over and pinch it shut, like a cherry calzone. I suppose this is technically a large turnover, but whatever. Cut a slit or two in the top so that steam can escape, and it is ready to bake alongside your primary pie. Hooray!

Bake your pie (or pies!) at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking until the crust is golden brown - usually another 40 minutes or so. It won't get all bubbly, but the cheese will be melty. Mmmmmm.

This is the really hard part - you have to wait before cutting into the pie! I know you want to eat it RIGHT NOW, but if you cut it open there will be mushy gooey pie guts everywhere getting your crust all soggy. It will still be delicious, but it will be better if you wait 45 minutes. Think of it as an exercise in self-control.

I used fresh cherries that were very sweet, hence the small amount of sugar. If your cherries are tart, you may want to increase the sugar content, though of course it depends on how sweet or tart you want your pie to be. I have no idea how it would turn out with frozen cherries. If you try it, I would love to hear how it tasted! I may want to have this pie again in the winter, so if I make it with frozen fruit I will report back here.

Donuts!!

from this recipe



My friend is leaving town and we've been talking about making donuts for almost a year now, and we finally did it! I used a recipe called "Crispy and Creamy" which I suppose is to avoid legal troubles from Krispy Kreme but these donuts are quite Krispy Kreme-like! I think... I haven't had a Krispy Kreme donut in years (which is really sad) but from what I can remember, the texture is spot on.



The dough isn't super sweet, so you'll want to use a pretty sweet glaze to make up for that. Some of the reviewers tried using more sugar, but apparently that messes up the reaction with the yeast. I followed the recipe almost exactly and the texture was great, so I'd say keep it as is.



I made the dough in my Kitchenaid, the first time I've used the dough hook. This made it SO EASY! I am going to have to start making more bread (or cut Heather's recipe in half so it'll fit in my Kitchenaid bowl!) because I really was surprised how great the hook is! You can do this by hand, of course, you just have to do a lot of stirring.



The dough was really interesting. After the first rise, it was huge (you are putting a ton of yeast in it!) and then when I poked it, it totally fell. This was OK because I was going to roll it out anyway, but I was really surprised and worried.



Some of the reviewers said they'd had trouble with the donuts falling when they put them in the oil. Because of that, I was super careful with the donuts when handling them. They came out totally fine and fluffy, so just be careful and I think you'll be fine too!



Ingredients
2 (.25 ounce) envelopes, or 5 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1 1/2 cups lukewarm milk (I used 1/2 cup heavy cream and 1 cup milk, because that's what I had)
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/3 cup butter, at room temperature, cut into a few pieces
5 cups flour

1 quart mild vegetable oil (such as canola) for frying

whatever you want for glazing or frosting or sugaring

Directions
1. Put the water and the yeast in the bowl for your mixer (if using) or your second largest mixing bowl. Let sit for 5-10 minutes. It should smell doughy and should be bubbled on the top of the water. If it isn't, your yeast is probably bad, so try again with new yeast.
2. Add the milk, sugar, salt, eggs, butter and 2 cups of the flour to the bowl. Mix on the lowest setting for 5 minutes or stir until totally combined.
3. Add the rest of the flour, in 1/2 cup increments. Mix until the dough forms a ball and doesn't stick to the side of the bowl.
4. Grease your largest mixing bowl and put the dough in the bowl. Cover with a damp cloth and allow to rise 1-2 hours or until double in size. The original recipe says it's risen when you poke a hole and the indent stays, but it did that before even rising, so I don't know what that means. It's gonna get huge, you'll know! Like I said before, when I poked it, it totally fell anyway.
5. Flour a large surface and gently roll the dough to a 1/2 inch thickness. By "gently" I mean, don't force it. You don't want to push out all of the air, though you'll push a lot of it out. It'll take a lot of gentle rolling to get it to the right thickness.
6. Line baking sheets with wax paper and grease with butter or cooking spray (I used baking spray that also has flour in it). Cut the dough with a floured donut cutter (or two different sized circle cutters or a large glass and a shot glass or whatever you want to cut with). You'll have to re-dip in flour after every cut. You want to cut the donuts as close together as you can, as you can't re-roll the dough. I made 34 2-inch donuts (and a few more "holes" that I cut from the bigger scraps). How many you make will depend on how big you made them
7. Gently place the donuts on the greased wax paper and cover with a cloth. Allow to rise until double again, at least an hour.
8. Pour oil into deep fryer or large sauce pan and heat to 350. Gently place the donuts in the oil. You want to use as light a touch as possible to pick up the donuts. If you greased well, this shouldn't be hard. Fry on each side 1-2 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oil and place on a drying rack to drain off oil. Frost or decorate as you'd like!

Suggestions for frosting
Alex made a chocolate bourbon glaze (I don't know the recipe) which was delicious but not quite as sweet as these donuts needed. We also rolled some in powdered sugar (my favorite) or cinnamon sugar. Tina made a maple glaze with maple syrup, powdered sugar, vanilla and milk (I think) and then sprinkled with toasted pecans. The recipe suggests making a glaze with powdered sugar, butter, vanilla and water. You can do whatever you want! Add sprinkles or nuts or coconut or chocolate chips or food coloring or jelly or WHATEVER!

Other tips
We tested the oil by using some of the scraps from the original cutting. We had a small bowl of scraps. My friend tried making patties with them, but the texture of them wasn't as good because they'd had all the air smooshed out of them. You can fry the scraps as they are, but I wouldn't recommend re-rolling or re-shaping them.

Carmelitas

I have no idea where this recipe came from. My mom made these when I was growing up and I made them for Christmas and birthdays for people all the time. They are amazing. So indulgent. Chocolate. Caramel. Butter. These are actually really easy to make but are very impressive and people will ooh and aah the whole time they are eating. I promise.

Ingredients
1 cup flour
1 cup quick cooking oats
¾ cup brown sugar
¾ cup melted butter
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips
½ cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
¾ cup butterscotch or caramel topping
3 Tbsp flour

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 350. You need a 9x13 inch pan, but don't grease it.
2. Mix the flour, oats, sugar, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl.
3. Stir in melted butter and mix completely.
4. Cut dough in half and pat half into the 9x13 pan. This will be a very thin layer that just barely covers the pan.
5. Bake for 10 minutes.
6. Remove pan from oven.
7. Microwave the caramel for about 20 seconds or just until it starts to bubble. Mix in the 3 Tbsp of flour.
8. Sprinkle the chocolate chips and nuts (if using) onto the pan. Pour caramel on top. Crumble the rest of the dough over the caramel.
9. Bake for 20 minutes.
10. When you remove from the oven, run a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen any caramel that has baked onto the pan.
11. Allow to cool and cut into bars.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

My friend asked for a pineapple upside down cake... I feel like this is one of those things that you were supposed to learn how to make when you were little but I never did. I've actually made some other fruit upside down cakes but not a pineapple. I looked around and basically what I could deduce is a pineapple upside down cake is melted butter and sugar, pineapple rings and then white cake. I don't actually have a standard white cake recipe. I looked around and all the recipes I could find called for milk or buttermilk, neither of which I had. I used the Ultra Orange Cake from the Joy of Cooking (1997 Edition... different than the 75th anniversary edition) and a mash-up of the pineapple part... Oh, apparently PUDC (too long to retype every time) have maraschino cherries... but I hate maraschino cherries, so I used raspberries instead.

Let me just say that I was a little worried about the cake part... it's vegan and from the Joy which are two things I don't usually associate together. But oh man. So you flip the cake over, right? But I had a little extra batter and made some cupcakes with it and the top part made this little sugar crust to break through to get to the cake. Mmm! And the pineapple part was quite nice too, but I think this cake might have been too good for pineapples. It doesn't even need a glaze, I don't think. Maybe a dusting of powdered sugar to make it pretty.

Ingredients
4 Tbsp melted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
7 pineapple rings (from a can, or fresh if you're fancy)
raspberries (or whatever) to put between the pineapples
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
zest of 1 orange
1 cup orange or pinapple juice (I juiced the zested orange and then just used the juice from the pineapple can... if you do this MAKE SURE you are using pineapples in JUICE not SYRUP!)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 Tbsp white vinegar
2 tsp vanilla

Directions
1. Preheat your oven to 350.
2. Pour the melted butter into an 8 or 9 inch round pan. Evenly sprinkle the brown sugar over the butter.
3. Place one pineapple ring in the middle and the remaining 6 around the edges. Put a raspberry in the middle of each ring and in any gaps between pineapples.
4. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, salt, soda, and zest.
5. In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, measure out the juice, oil, vinegar and vanilla.
6. Pour the liquids into the dry ingredients and mix together quickly.
7. Pour the batter into the pan. If you use an 8 inch pan, you'll probably have too much batter. But there are no eggs in it, so you don't have to worry about salmonella if you just want to eat it... but you could bake it into cupcakes too.
8. Bake for 35-40 minutes (my oven is so wonky so you might want to start checking at 30 minutes) or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
9. Allow the cake to cool for about 5 minutes before flipping it upside down onto a cake plate.

Cheesecake Brownies

(this recipe for the cheesecake and this recipe for the brownies)



I've been baking for birthdays a lot (duh). Cakes are great, but if there's no party, a cake is silly. Cakes are for big groups and should be cut with lots of people around. When I'm bringing a dessert to school a cake is really too much to deal with. I've been trying out different bar things. I looooove brownies but the problem with being the birthday fairy is that you always have to one-up yourself. I worry that I have to keep it fresh!



Thus, cheesecake brownies. This recipe called for a box brownie mix which is totally sacrilege in my book. (I remember last year I made brownies for my boss for his birthday and one of the people in my lab said, "wow, I've never eaten brownies not from a box before!") I used my favorite brownie recipe instead. If you have a favorite, feel free to substitute. This one is super easy, the brownie part takes less than 10 minutes to make, and... these brownies are just about perfect if I do say so myself. Then you take something perfect and add cream cheese and sugar. Ohhhh!

Ingredients
For the brownies
1 cup melted butter
3 cups white sugar (some of the reviewers on this recipe recommended using some brown sugar, but I tried that and don't like it as much)
1 Tbsp vanilla extract (or more, I never measure vanilla, I just pour until I'm happy)
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup cocoa powder (sifted to remove clumps)
1 tsp salt
1-2 cups chocolate chips (at least 1 cup, use more if you're indulgent, but don't skip these!)
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional, I didn't use them this time, but I often do when I just make brownies without cheesecake on top)

For the cheesecake
8 oz. bar of cream cheese at room temperature (use Philadelphia! it's the best for baking, seriously)
2 Tbsp butter at room temperature
1 Tbsp cornstarch
14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

Directions
1. Preheat your oven to 350. Line a 9x13 pan with aluminum foil and grease generously.
2. In a large bowl, mix the melted butter, sugar and vanilla.
3. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
4. Mix in flour, cocoa and salt.
5. Fold in chocolate chips and nuts (if using)
6. Pour the brownie batter into the prepared pan.
7. Cream together cream cheese, butter and cornstarch in a medium bowl or mixer. This will take a little while if you are doing it without a mixer, so make sure it's very soft!
8. Slowly mix in vanilla and egg, followed by sweetened condensed milk and keep mixing until everything is fully worked in.
9. Pour the cream cheese mixture evenly over the brownie batter, smoothing with a rubber spatula.
10. Bake for about 45 minutes or until the cheesecake is starting to brown. The top might crack a little. DO NOT OVERBAKE. If you're unsure, just take it out of the oven. These (like almost all brownies) are better undercooked.
11. Allow to cool completely (at least 2 hours) before cutting into bars and eating more than you intended to.

Decadent Raspberry Brownies (aka the best thing I have ever made)

based off of this recipe (generally I don't like/trust recipes from companies touting their brands but ohmygosh this is so good)



It was my boss's birthday and I had a vague recollection that he liked "fruity things." I wanted to make some sort of fruity brownies. I did a bunch of searches and finally decided that this was what I really wanted to make. It's a dense brownie, covered in a thin layer of raspberry preserves, covered in a layer of ganache. I also added some fresh raspberries to the top of the ganache.

I almost had some serious problems. First I used a pan that was too big because I am dumb and the batter was way too thin and I had to transfer it (aluminum foil and all) to a smaller pan. Then, when I was making the ganache, I accidentally bought bittersweet chocolate instead of semi sweet and so I added some sugar but it basically ruined the ganache completely and I had to start all over. My roommate was watching while I was struggling and said "See, this is how the rest of us feel when we try to bake things!" But they came out perfect anyway.

And I do mean perfect. I have never gotten so many emphatic compliments about something I've made before. I say with little humility that I am pretty good at this baking thing by now and I'm used to compliments. I actually made these two days in a row (for my boss one day, and then the next day for an engagement party I went to) and people I didn't know were seeking me out to compliment me and some of my friends are STILL talking about these brownies, a week later!

They are not difficult to make if you don't make my dumb mistakes, but they do take quite a bit of time because you have to let the brownies cool before adding anything else, and you have to let the ganache cool before cutting them. If you can, I think it's best to make these the night before. Also, even if the ganache is totally cooled, cutting these is a little sticky so you'll have to wipe your knife in between cuts.

Ingredients
4 (1 ounce) squares Bakers UNSWEETENED baking chocolate
3/4 cup butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1/4 cup seedless raspberry jam
6 (1 ounce) squares Baker's SEMI SWEET sweet baking chocolate
3/4 cup heavy cream
fresh raspberries for garnish (I used 24 cut in half, but you'll need extras for the ones you cut poorly/accidentally drop in your mouth)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 13x9-inch baking pan with aluminum foil, leaving some on the ends so you can eventually pull the brownies out with the foil. Spray the foil with cooking spray (use the kind that has flour in it if you have it!) 
2. Heat the unsweetened chocolate and butter over medium low heat and stir constantly until butter and chocolate are completely melted. Remove from heat.
3. Stir sugar into chocolate mixture and mix well. Mix in eggs and vanilla, then flour. Stir in flour until everything is totally mixed in. 
4. Pour evenly into the pan, it will be fairly thin, don't worry!
5. Bake 30 to 35 minutes (use the toothpick test!) and be careful to not overbake. It's much better to underbake than to overbake!
6. Allow the brownies to cool completely in the pan, at least an hour, more if you have time. Now would be a good time to slice some raspberries if you are into that.
7. Once the brownies are cool, evenly spread the jam on the brownies. Resist the urge to use more jam, even though it seems like a good idea! Reviews of the recipe say if you use too much jam, then the ganache will slide off!
8. Heat the semi sweet chocolate and cream over a double boiler and stir until the chocolate is completely melted. I don't think you need to add any flavorings to the ganache (I usually do), just let the intense chocolate flavor stand on its own!anache evenly o
9. Spread ganache evenly over the jam.
10. While the ganache is still liquid, press half raspberries into it in whatever pattern you'd like. I did 6 x 8 raspberries, so a total of 48 halves.
11. Allow the ganache to set at room temperature, at least 3 hours but overnight is better. I'd recommend against putting them in the fridge until set unless you are in a time crunch. Doing this causes condensation on the ganache, but it's not a big deal.
12. Carefully remove brownies from the pan by pulling out the aluminum foil and place on a cutting board. Wet a very sharp and thin knife and cut into bars (I cut mine so each had 2 half raspberries) and wipe off chocolate/wet the knife between cuts so it doesn't gunk up.

Chocolate Stout Cupcakes with Coffee Ganache

based off of this recipe who got the idea from this recipe



I am like the birthday cake fairy or something. Anyway, I asked my friend's boyfriend if I should make her a chocolate cake, a rum cake, an espresso cake or a stout cake for her birthday. And he said, and I quote, "How about a chocolate stout cake! Combine two of her true loves (I think I come in third)." So chocolate stout it is! The Bon Appetit recipe seems to be the base recipe for all of the chocolate stout cake recipes on the internet... But I like the Smitten Kitchen version... mostly because it used a better frosting, but also because she HALVED the recipe (and I still ended up with 28 cupcakes).

This cake is super rich and has a really intense flavor. It doesn't taste like stout, but it sort of has the essence of stout. Basically, it's awesome. I am always worried when I try new recipes for people's birthdays since it's kind of important that it tastes good, but this was definitely a winner. I think the coffee ganache goes really well with the cake. Like I said, the cake has such a strong flavor, and I don't think you'd want to have too much frosting to take away from that. Although, I kind of want to make an Irish Cream frosting/ganache in the future...!

Ingredients
Cake
1 cup stout (like Guinness)
1 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup sour cream (the recipe called for 2/3 cup but I am bad at measuring!)
2 tsp vanilla


Ganache
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tsp instant coffee
splash Kahula
splash vanilla

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350. Line cupcake tray (or trays if you have more than one!) with paper or butter and grease the tray if you don't have cupcake liners.
2. In a medium saucepan, simmer the stout and butter together over medium heat, whisking slowly until butter is totally melted.
3. Whisk the cocoa into the butter/stout. This is going to taste really bitter, so if you are like me and taste everything, don't be surprised/disappointed. I mean, obviously... it's bitter beer and cocoa, what I did I expect it to taste like?
4. Turn the heat off on the burner and allow the mixture to cool a little while you're doing the next steps.
5. Mix flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a bowl.
6. Beat eggs, sour cream and vanilla in a large bowl. You can do this by hand, but if you are using a mixer, do this at a low speed and keep it on low for everything.
7. Mix stout mixture into egg mixture and beat until just combined. You don't want to mix out all of the carbonation (or nitrogen-ation or whatever it would be if you're using Guiness).
8. Add flour mixture and beat until not quite combined.
9. Fold batter together with a rubber spatula until completely combined.
10. Pour into prepared cupcake pan, fill each cupcake about 2/3 full of batter. Bake for ~25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
11. Cool completely before frosting.
12. To make the ganache, melt the chocolate chips, cream, instant coffee, vanilla and Kahula over a double boiler and stir until smooth and shiny. Allow to rest for a few minutes before dipping the cupcakes into the ganache. This made juuuust enough to frost 28 cupcakes (and I made the cupcakes kind of larger than they should have been, so if you have more than this many cupcakes, you might want to add a little more chocolate/cream).

Sweet Potato Brownies

based off of this recipe



The original recipe calls these yam brownies. I still don't know the difference between yams and sweet potatoes. I don't really care. I am sure the difference is subtle and it doesn't really matter which you use in the recipe! But I would suggest using whatever is labeled a sweetest! These are more of a fall food I guess, but it was my friend's birthday the other day and she requested these brownies! I've made them a few times before and they are always a big hit. The brownies are super moist thanks to the sweet potato. You need to let them cool completely (several hours) before trying to cut them. If you try to cut them while warm, they will just smush together and cut like they are undercooked. The first time I made them, I tried to cut them a few minutes out of the oven, thought they weren't cooked and kept putting them back in the oven to cook more (a total of about 30 minutes more!!) until I just gave up. I think adding the spices is really important for the flavor, but you could adjust them if you prefer.

Ingredients
Brownies
1 cup butter at room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
4 eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground ginger powder
2 cups peeled and finely shredded sweet potatoes (or yams!), about 1 large or 2 small potatoes

Glaze
2 Tbsp milk
2 Tbsp melted butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Directions
1. Preheat your oven to 350 and grease a 9x13 inch pan.
2. Cream the butter and sugars in a large bowl.
3. Beat in eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
4. Beat in vanilla.
5. Sift together flour, salt, baking soda and spices.
6. Mix flour mixture into creamed mixture.
7. Fold sweet potatoes into batter and mix fully.
8. Spread batter into greased pan.
9. Bake for 30 minutes. The toothpick test doesn't really work. The brownies are done when the middle only gives a little when pressed with your finger. Don't worry too much about being 5 minutes under or overcooked.
10. While the brownies are making, mix the last 5 ingredients together.
11. As soon as you take the brownies out of the oven, pour the glaze on and spread with a brush (or spoon).
12. Cool completely and then cut. Serve warm with ice cream if you want to be indulgent!

Thin Mints

based mostly off of this recipe



I want to make all of the Girl Scout Cookies from scratch. Well, not really all of them, just the good ones--Thin Mints, Samoas, Tagalongs and Do-Si-Dos. This was my first in the project!

I looked over a few recipes. I wanted a crunchy cookie, which wasn't hard (I think this cookie recipe would work if you want to make home-made oreos, just omit the mint!) but I wasn't sure about the chocolate coating. A lot of the recipes I looked at had comments saying the chocolate never hardened, so I didn't add much cream which made the coating quite thick. But really, the best part of thin mints is the outside, so no one complained!

These cookies got a lot of compliments and I'm totally going to make them again!

Ingredients:
Cookie
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup white sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder, sifted to remove clumps
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 tsp mint extract
1 tsp vanilla extract

Coating
2 cups chocolate chips
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tsp mint extract

Directions:
1. Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl.
2. Beat egg in fully.
3. Beat in mint and vanilla.
4. Whisk flour, cocoa and salt together in a medium bowl.
5. Beat flour into creamed mixture. The batter will be dry, but make sure it is fully mixed in.
6. From here, you can go 2 ways... What I did was to roll the dough into a log about 2-3 inches in diameter(fair warning, it looks totally disgusting and I had to ask my roommates not to watch me because I was self conscious about the disgusting-ness) and wrap it in wax paper. Then put it in the freezer for about 30 minutes. Slice into 1/4 inch rounds. OR you can roll the dough out with a rolling pin to 1/4 inch thickness and cut with a round cookie cutter. The first way is easier but the second way makes rounder cookies. Your choice!
7. Place cookies on parchment paper on a baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes at 350. The cookies don't change color, so you really have to be careful to not overbake them. If you poke a cookie, it should feel solid but not squishy.
8. Allow the cookies to completely cool on a wire rack before frosting.

9. To make the frosting, melt chocolate chips, cream and mint extract over a double boiler, stirring constantly, until smooth and shiny.
10. Using tongs (not your fingers!! it's hot!!), dip the cookies in the chocolate, covering them fully on both sides.
11. Place cookies on wax paper and don't touch them until they are totally hardened.

Beet Velvet Cupcakes (let's not call them Red Velvet, OK?)

A friend told me that red velvet cakes were red because during WW2, there wasn't enough chocolate to go around so people started putting beets into their cakes to make them dark. Buuuuuut, other people have told me red velvet cakes are red because of the vinegar's reaction with the buttermilk. Either way, almost all red velvet recipes call for a whole bottle of liquid red food coloring. I wanted to make red velvet cupcakes without red food coloring, so I decided to try the beet route.



Not really red, eh? I did a lot of things wrong!

I found a recipe that sounded promising. (The owner of that website asks that her recipes not reproduced online, but that we just link to her blog. So I am obliging!) I decided to double the recipe because it seemed small.

I went out and bought beets from the farmer's market. Candy cane beets! They sound so sweet and delicious! But then I get home and after boiling and removing their red skin, I realize they are red and white striped. Like candy canes. I didn't take a picture, but this is pretty much what they look like:

So much white under the deceptively red skin! Oops. I decided to use them anyway because I had no backup plan.

I bought 2 bunches of beets, which in total were 8 fairly large beets. After boiling them, I realized I had no real way to "puree" them--no food processor or masher! We do have a muddling rod for making mojitos though! So I smashed them in a glass measuring cup with that. It totaled just over 1.5 cups which was perfect since I was doubling the recipe. I did a pretty good job smashing them together. Only one person told me he got a bit of beet stuck in his teeth while eating a cupcake!

I followed the recipe pretty much exactly except: I used 1 stick of butter and 1/2 cup of vegetable oil instead of 1 cup; and I didn't have yogurt, so I added a little more milk. I think the yogurt was probably important in developing the red color, since most recipes call for either buttermilk or yogurt. Also, I used some pretty good quality chocolate which made the batter dark. I was still hoping for red, so I added 1/2 bottle of liquid red food coloring.

For frosting, I winged it... 2 sticks of butter, some vanilla and enough powdered sugar to make it taste good. I added some flour and potato starch to make it thicker without making it sweeter and a pinch of cream of tartar to make it fluffy.

I was a little worried, but these taste really good! But they do taste beet-y, while the recipe said they would not. One person pointed out that if I used store bought beets instead of farmer's market beets the beet flavor would probably have been milder. I kind of liked the beet flavor, myself. Some people did, some didn't. You have to be prepared for it though, otherwise it would be a confusing flavor! With the exception of the one person who got a beet chunk, the texture of these was great! Definitely "velvet"!

--On a side note, I used some silicone heart shaped cupcake liners (it was for Valentine's Day aferall!) that my roommate bought for me. I love the idea of reusable liners, especially since I bake so much. But the cupcakes didn't come out super smoothly, just like in regular paper liners. I didn't grease the liners, maybe that is where I went wrong, but they didn't have any instructions! And cleaning them is a bitch because of the ribbed sides, so I have to soak them forever and then scrape the cake out. Just mentioning it!