The Daring Bakers: Eclairs

This month's challenge was hosted by Meeta of What's for Lunch, Honey? and Tony of A Warm Welcome. They chose to have us make eclairs this month. I was going away with my family for a vacation at the beginning of the month and thought it would be a great idea to make it while there since there would be more people to help eat them. Lee and I end up eating to many when I make the challenges at home.

I've never really been fond of eclairs, nor have I ever made them. My family was excited for eclairs, though. We were given the choice of flavoring, as long as we kept one chocolate element of the dish. My dad chose to have a vanilla flavored filling with the chocolate glaze instead of the chocolate pastry cream. I have heard other Daring Bakers say that the chocolate pastry cream was delicious, so part of me was disappointed that I didn't make it!

I made this while at my grandfather's cottage in New Hampshire. Since he rents out the cottage, they don't have the best cookware. People tend to take nice things in rental properties. I don't understand that, but it's a sad fact. Unfortunately, that meant I had to make these without modern conveniences such as my Kitchen Aid.

I was a bit nervous when I read the directions and it said you could make the batter for the eclairs by hand "if your arms aren't too tired" since I had no choice but to mix by hand, but it wasn't bad.

I didn't have any pastry tips with me. I had already left my house before the recipe was announced, so I didn't know I would want to bring them. I just used a plastic Ziploc bag with a hole clipped out.

My eclairs worked out ok, but one sheet of eclairs deflated. This was a pretty common problem with some Daring Bakers and I think it was due to steam.

Both my glaze and pastry cream turned out well. I wasn't able to spread my glaze with a spatula like the directions said, so I just used a spoon to pour it over the top of the eclairs.

The pastry cream ended up being a group effort! My grandfather's cottage didn't have any electric mixers, so I had to use a rotary beater. Actually, my dad and sister's boyfriend had to use a rotary beater to beat the whipped cream (Lee wasn't able to come up for the vacation). I thought we were going to have to use a whisk, so my dad and sister's boyfriend were happier to use the rotary beater that we found. It didn't actually take them all that long. I did chill the bowl down in the fridge for a while before whipping the cream, though.

Everyone loved the eclairs and I loved that I was able to be creative with my picture taking! I didn't take pictures of the process, but I did take a picture of the eclairs on a lily pad. I had been planning all week to take a picture of them on the lily pads. Unfortunately, none of the pink flowers close enough to shore were blooming when I took the picture, but I'm pretty pleased with this one. When I showed the picture to Lee, he started to ask if the picture was photoshopped before he realized he was looking at it in the camera!

Stardust Chocolate Pancakes

I've mentioned the Zaar World Tour before. It's winding down, but I haven't been good about posting some of the recipes I've been making.

For the Germany/Benelux region, I found this recipe for Stardust Chocolate Pancakes. I'm not sure how authentic these are, but they were the cookbook for that region and I enjoyed them!

I made these one morning while Lee was at work. He's not a big fan of chocolate at breakfast, while I love me some chocolate chip pancakes or waffles!

These were delicious, but so sweet that I felt finished after eating just one and a half. After eating them, I think they are good for either a kid's breakfast or a dessert pancake. I think they are too rich for most adults' breakfast tastes!

These won't go well with maple syrup. I served these with a dusting of powdered sugar (hence the "stardust" part of the name).

Maple Apple Crumble

I have a backlog of recipes I've made lately for the Zaar World Tour, but with the end of the school year and two friends having babies this week, and some personal things going on, I've been too busy to post! I'll get them all up eventually, because I've made some fabulous things I can't wait to share, but I'll start with last night's dessert: Maple Apple Crumble. A crumble is a less sweet version of a crisp. Some people say they are the same thing. I think the crust of a crisp is more sugary than the crust of a crumble.

This is a recipe I made for the Canada part of the Zaar World Tour. I wasn't very sure how much I'd like it because of the maple syrup. I was worried there would be too much of a maple taste, but it was delicious. It had just a hint of maple flavor. The only thing I would prefer is to have more cinnamon than the original recipe calls for. In my posted recipe I have increased the cinnamon and change the method a little.

Maple-Apple Crumble
Serves 4

2 fuji (or other tart cooking apples), peeled, cored, and diced
1 teaspoon cinnamon
51g butter, softened
50g brown sugar, packed
42g all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
26g rolled oats
4 tablespoons maple syrup

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
2. Combine apples and cinnamon. Divide into 4 ramekins. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar.
4. Add the flour, salt, and oats. Stir to combine.
   
5. Pour one heaping teaspoon of maple syrup over apples in each ramekin.
   
6. Cover each ramekin with 1/4 oat mixture.
7. Place ramekins on baking sheet and cook for about 20 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.
8. You may serve with a scoop of ice cream, or go with Lee and have custard or cream!
   

Going to L'Opéra

This month's Daring Bakers challenge was a bit scary. We had to make Opéra cakes! I have never heard of an Opéra cake before and it was a very long recipe that involved lots of folding, something I have ruined many a dessert from not doing right.

I made these over the weekend. It was perfect timing because my sister's birthday was on Monday and I made mini Opéra cakes so everyone could try a bit.

Usually Opéra cakes are chocolate in flavor, but the hosts for this month, Fran of Apple Peaches Pumpkin Pie, Shea of Whiskful, and the co-founders Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice and Lis of La Mia Cucina, wanted these cakes to be in honor of the blog event "A Taste of Yellow" and the season of spring, for the northern hemisphere! We had to make sure our cakes were light in color. I decided to make a raspberry flavored cake.

I didn't see almond meal at my local grocery stores and I didn't feel like hunting for a health food store, so I just bought some almonds, blanched them, and put them in the food processor with a bit of flour to make my own almond meal. I felt like the joconde had a bit of a grainy texture, which is because I couldn't get the almonds fine enough, so I would prefer a finer grain, but it turned out well.

I love having my Kitchen Aid for this! I also love Alton Brown!

Kitchen Aid+Alton Brown=Robyn actually being able to fold!!!

With the Kitchen Aid, I was able to walk around and do other things while it was mixing, so I didn't get bored and I may have given up too early when mixing it with a hand mixer. I saw an episode of Good Eats when Alton Brown was doing some food that needed to be folded, and I saw him add the folds in thirds. I decided to try that for the joconde and the mousse and it worked a treat! I actually had a lot of air still in both and it didn't flatten.

I'm not a fan of white chocolate, so I ended up making a flavored glaze that didn't taste like white chocolate at all. It turned out fantastic and wasn't too runny at all. It actually cooled a bit too thick, so I had to heat it up before pouring it on the cakes. I didn't get the glaze as smooth and to the edges as I wanted, but it still looked nice.

For the assembly, I really feel it was easiest to make the cupcakes. I don't have any biscuit cutters, or round cookie cutters, so I used an egg ring to cut the joconde. It worked just fine. I put the buttercream in a pastry bag and piped it onto each layer of cake. It seemed piping would be the easiest way to get the buttercream neatly on the cakes. I also did this in another bag for the mousse. It didn't seem to flatten the mousse much, but the mousse did flatten once the glaze was poured on top and it set in the fridge.


The taste? These were really good! I thought it had a bit too much raspberry flavor, but apparently that was just me. Nobody else had that complain, even when I said I thought that and would change it next time.

For the original recipe and the techniques, you can visit any of the hostess's websites. I am posting the recipes I used for the glaze and mousse (for the buttercream, all I did was add some puréeed raspberries until it had a good color and flavor).

Raspberry Glaze (Thanks, Sandra!)

200g heavy cream, divided (13.5 Tbsp or 3/4 cup + 1.5 Tbsp or 6.71 fl oz)
50g sugar (1/4 cup)
40g glucose or corn syrup (2 Tbsp)
50g white chocolate (1.76 oz)
5g unflavored gelatin (2.15 tsp)
1 tsp aroma or liquor of your choice
40g fruit pulp or puree
a drop of food coloring (optional)

1. Sprinkle gelatin over 1/5 cup (40g) of the cream in a small bowl and let stand for 10 minutes to soften (allow to soften while making the syrup).
2. Mix cream, sugar and glucose or corn syrup in a saucepan, bring to boil. Continue cooking for 4 - 5 min stirring continuously.
   
3. Add the chocolate and stir it in to melt completely. Remove from heat and add the gelatin/cream mixture, stirring until dissolved.
   
4. Add the aroma or liquor, the fruit puree and the food coloring. Mix well and let cool until smooth and almost creamy.
   
5. Refrigerate to set.

Raspberry Mousse

1	lb ripe raspberries
2	tablespoons granulated sugar
1	tablespoon Raspberry Twisted Smirnoff (or similar)
1/2	cup confectioners' sugar
1 1/4	cups heavy cream (or whipping cream)

1. Puree the raspberries together with the confectioners' sugar in a blender.
2. Whip the cream to stiff peaks.
3. Carefully fold the cream into the pureed raspberries.
4. Place in refrigerator to set.
   

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream!

Friday was the last day of my school's Math Week. My school has done a lot of work to improve the English Language Arts curriculum over the past couple of years, so now it's Math's turn. To get the children excited about math, we did a whole week of math across the curriculum. We read stories that were about math, math poetry, and we did some fun experiments with bubble gum, a Math Vocabulary Bee, and graphing favorite flavours of ice cream. It was so much fun!

Anyway, on Friday it was the day to taste flavours of ice cream. Edy's was on sale and ended up being the least expensive, so I went with it. These brands really are coming out with some fun flavors nowadays. I had to stay away from any flavors with peanuts in it, but I decided to get some things I thought the kids might like, were sort of familiar, but with a twist. From past years I also had a good idea about what they may like, so I bought Cookies 'n Cream, Double Fudge Brownie, and Chocolate Chip Mint Brownie.

I am usually a big fan of Cookies 'n Cream and Mint ice creams (not peppermint, that green one and it may be just mind games, but I swear I taste a difference between mint chocolate chip that is white, and the kind that is green!), but I don't get chocolate unless I'm eating it plain. It just has too much chocolate otherwise. Chocolate ice cream with brownies on it is just plain decadence. We each tried a scoop of ice cream and the Double Fudge Brownie wasn't too bad. I'm not sure if a bowl full would be too much, or if I could handle it with chocolate sauce on top, but it was good and I won't mind finishing off the leftovers.

Dutch Apple Pie

I try to make the new foods interesting, and foods that I cook myself, but I've been so busy and tired that I just need to do convenience foods sometimes. I can't wait until the summer when I'm home a lot and can do more experiments.

Anyway, yesterday was one of those nights. I was at work late and wasn't getting home until late because I had to run errands. We stopped at Burger King for dinner. Lee forgets that I can't always finish the meal, never mind even eat something else afterward! He ordered a slice of apple pie for each of us. I had to wait until later in the night to try my slice, but I did manage a bite. :-)

I thought it was ok, a lot better than I expected from a fast food pie!

Daring Baker Challenge: Cheesecake Pops

Well, it's that time...another Daring Baker's Challenge. This month's challenge was hosted by Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms and Deborah from Taste and Tell.

This month it was another recipe that I'm not too fond of, but hope to like, cheesecake. All the other DB recipes I'd seen from past months looked like ones I'd like, so I'm sure there will be some more enticing ones soon. I must say, the pops Elle made did look so darn cute! Another Daring Baker said she didn't think she liked cheesecake, but tried this recipe and found she just hadn't tried the right one. I was hoping I'd be one of those lucky people. Was I? Read on to find out!

As usual, I procrastinated and didn't start my pops until yesterday. Since I'm not a big fan of cheesecake and Lee didn't want to end up with too many to eat on his own, I decided to follow another DBer's idea of cooking 1/5 of the recipe. I figured that if we wanted more, I could always make more later. I bought the cream cheese in bulk at Sam's before seeing someone 1/5 the recipe, so I have plenty of the ingredients.

I got to use my Kitchen Aid for this challenge. I'm so glad the Kitchen Aid comes with a booklet that has sample recipes to try out, they have an example for each area of baking you would want to do so you can see the method and adapt it to other recipes. I wasn't sure whether to use the wire whisk or the flat beater for this recipe, but the two cheesecake recipes in my Kitchen Aid booklet said to use the flat beater, so that's precisely what I did. The Kitchen Aid definitely makes it a lot more fun to be a Daring Baker!

The challenge of baking only 1/5 of the recipe was the scale of the ingredients. .4 of an egg yolk was tricky, so I just eyeballed it the best I could. In baking it's best to be exact, but my cheesecake turned out fine, so I don't think it was an issue. I used my 6 inch cake pan and put it in an 8 inch cake pan for the water bath. I'd never made cheesecake before, so I did my usual lining of the pan with parchment paper to prevent sticking. I'm not sure it was really necessary since I scooped the cheesecake out of the pan. Also, Elle and Deborah said the cheesecake should be 1¼" thick in the pan to make scooping easier, mine was more like 1", but again, it didn't seem to make much difference, I was able to scoop out just fine.



The allowed adaptations were flavoring in the cheesecake (as long as it was still white) and any color/flavor coatings we wanted. Since I figured Lee would be the one eating them all I asked him what he wanted for the coating and he decided he wanted strawberry. I found a recipe for a strawberry glaze.

Later on, Lee said he wanted some graham cracker crumb when I asked him if he wanted a bit, so I had him pick up some graham crackers at Shaw's on his way home from work. Well, that was a bit of a project because of the pronunciation differences of g-r-a-h-a-m in the US and UK. In the UK the name is pronounced "grayam", and in the US it's pronounced "gram." I'm not a big fan of the UK pronunciation, but that's probably because it's just different and I have a hard time saying it that way. Unfortunately, Lee's step-grandfather is named Graham, so I have to try to pronounce it the UK way when talking about or to him! Well, Lee decided to be funny when calling me from the store and say that he couldn't find "gram crackers" all he could find were "grayam crackers." HA. HA. HA. Very funny. He was also confused about the different flavors and didn't know whether he should get chocolate, cinnamon, plain, etc...I figured plain would be the best for the cheesecake since I was trying the strawberry glaze. Anyway, he got home with the the g-crackers and I had to break it to him that He got the wrong brand! I had to tell him that Honey Maid is to graham crackers what Heinz is to ketchup...he bought Keebler!! The horror!! Well, we made do.

While the cheesecake was cooling, I made my strawberry glaze so it would have plenty of time to cool to room temperature before coating the pops. I didn't want the hot glaze to melt the cheesecake. This was pretty easy to make and only took a total of about 10 minutes. I ended up doubling the recipe because I wanted to make sure to have enough glaze to dip the pops into. I was worried that just making the recipe as is wouldn't make enough. I had glaze leftover, but I feel it was worth it. The hardest part was crushing the strawberries for the recipe. I tried using a potato masher, but it didn't work out well, so then I took the rough side of my meat mallet and pressed it against the strawberries. This worked so much better! I measured out the ½ cup of crushed strawberries, then added the juices to the pan. The strawberry scent wafting out of the pot was AMAZING! While making the glaze, it will look cloudy and thick. Don't worry about that, once you strain it, it will be a gorgeous, bright red color and I didn't even use any of the food coloring! I also didn't use any of the lemon, but that's just personal preference.

The Elle and Deborah said the pops had to be 2 oz. in size. 2 oz. made for some pretty big pops! It wasn't too bad making the pops. I wanted to get mine moving a long, so after my cheesecake was in the fridge for about an hour, I put it in the freezer just to top it off. It made it easier to shape the cheesecake into balls since cheesecake is so sticky. I had tried to make one pop before freezing and my hands were just as gooey as they were after the freezer, making 6 pops. If you have the freezer space, definitely try freezing them for about ½-1 hour to make them a bit firmer, but not so firm you can't manipulate them into the shape you want. That was another plus to only making 1/5 of the recipe. Many Daring Bakers had problems with freezer space, I didn't have to worry about that since I was only making 6.

After freezing the pops for about an hour, and cooling the glaze in the fridge, it was dipping time! I'm glad I made a double batch of the glaze. I did a coating, then put the graham cracker crumbs on it, and realized it was a thin coating. I froze all the pops for a few minutes more, then did a second coating of the glaze. If I make these again, I would do the double coating of glaze, allow that to cool a bit in the freezer, then dip them in the crumbs. Because the glaze is runny, it had a bit of pooling like a caramel apple, but that was easily smoothed away. I ended up dipping them in the graham crackers again just before serving.



The verdict? Well, I'm not a cheesecake fanatic, but these pops have definitely made me want to try this recipe with different flavors. These are very creamy and rich, they reminded me of the texture of ice cream. I also think it might be too rich to eat in regular cheesecake form. I must admit, I liked the pops in the part where there was the thicker coating of graham crackers. I guess just need a balance of texture and tastes. I think I'll add extra graham cracker to mine and both Lee and I agree that we would like them better if they were smaller, say 1 ounce. I think that would make the dipping a lot easier too.

This is a really long post, so you can visit either Elle's or Deborah's blogs for the complete recipe. I'm posting the measurements to make 1/5 of the recipe as well as the recipe for the glaze.

Cheesecake Pops

1/5 recipe (yields 6 2oz. pops):

1 8-oz pkg cream cheese
86 grams sugar (0.4 cups)
7.6 grams all-purpose flour (0.05 cups)
0.05 tsp salt (a little less than half of a 1/8 tsp measure if you have it)
1 large egg
0.4 egg yolk (eyeballed this obviously)
0.4 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tbsp (15 mL) heavy cream (0.05 cups)

Strawberry Glaze

1 tbsp. cornstarch
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup crushed strawberries
1 teaspoon lemon juice (optional)
1-2 drops red food coloring (optional)

1. In a saucepan over medium heat, blend cornstarch, corn syrup, and water until smooth.
2. Add strawberries and turn up heat to medium-high.
3. Stirring lightly, bring to a boil and allow to boil for one minute.
   
4. Strain, add lemon juice and food coloring if desired, and cool.
   

Brownies from Scratch, Take 2

A couple of months ago, I made some brownies from scratch. They tasted pretty good, but they were really flat and I wasn't able to get the flourless brownies to rise properly.

Today I tried a recipe that included a bit of flour, but not a lot. It rose beautifully, and was really easy to make. Of course, it's not a brownie for me without chocolate chips in it, so I included a couple of handfuls of those. The only downfall was they were a bit dry and powdery tasting. It tasted a bit overwhelmingly of the cocoa powder. I don't mind them, but would prefer if they didn't taste so powdery. I might actually try these a gain with baking chocolate to see if they taste better.

The Real McCoy Brownies

6 oz (12 tbsp) butter
2/3 cup cocoa
1¼ cups sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
2/3 cup cake flour or ½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup nuts, chopped or semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)

1. Melt butter, while hot whip in cocoa.
2. Allow to cool.
3. Preheat oven to 350°F.
   
4. Whisk in sugar, salt, and vanilla.
5. Add all the eggs at once, and whisk until smooth and fluffy.
6. Fold in flour (and nuts, or chocolate chips) until just incorporated.
7. Transfer to floured, parchment paper lined 9x9" pan.
   
8. Bake for 20 minutes. A toothpick inserted should not come out clean, but the batter that clings to the toothpick should be dry.
9. Allow to cool, the enjoy!

Pudding Pie

On Thursday, it was not only my mom's birthday, but it was the birthday of one of my students. The student's mother brought in some cupcakes for her birthday, and I noticed a large cupcake on top of the containers of smaller cupcakes. I asked the girl if her mom had bought the big one for the birthday girl and she said that her mom told her to give it to me. That was very thoughtful.

I must say, I was surprised to bite into it and discover it was not a cupcake at all, but a pie filled with chocolate pudding and topped with whipped cream and chocolate crumbs! I must say I was a bit disappointed to not have a cake, but the pie was really good. It was too big for me to eat all in one go, but I did save it to finish later.

Unfortunately, I forgot the pie at school and didn't remember to take a picture. It's now vacation, and I'm afraid it will be bad before I get back to school to try to get it. Too bad, it was pretty good!

A Cake and a Fire

Well, I'm a little late with my first Daring Baker's challenge. I kept thinking I had more time to get it done and all of a sudden the deadline hit! I ended up making it tonight.

Well, I bought the ingredients and was skeptical because I don't like lemon flavoured things unless it's lemonade. I also wasn't sure I would like the coconut and the raspberry jam either. The whole point of this blog and joining the Daring Baker's was to try new things so I stuck with it and didn't do any of the allowed changes.

Well, making the batter went well. While it was cooling we had a bit of excitement when an apartment across the street caught on fire! My former roommate called me to see if I was smelling the smoke and hearing sirens. I didn't, but opened my window. I hear the sirens sounding like they turned onto our apartment's street. I was hoping they would keep going, but they stopped and I noticed it was top floor apartment across the street and was part of my former roommate's building! Five fire trucks showed up, although it didn't seem the fire spread. I think they just wanted to be safe. My former roommate grabbed her cat, laptop, and important papers and came over for a bit. I don't even what to think about how my cat would react, she's feisty when scared!

Well, baking the cake took a break during the excitement. Luckily, everything is ok and the fire didn't spread, but it was still a little scary for her and we felt lucky that our building wasn't affected. I am now planning to call and find out about renter's insurance!

After the fire, I got back to work on the cake. The buttercream was easy to make, although I have never make it that way before. It took a lot longer than the other recipes I've tried.

I did end up liking the cake, but only want to eat small slices. My boyfriend loved it! I think I'll try this again sometime in the future with different flavours that I might like better. The cake itself was a perfect texture that was moist and not very crumbly.

This month's challenge was hosted by Morven. You can check out the recipe at her site.

Chocolate Decadence

I love Rice Krispy Treats. Cocoa Rice Crispy Treats are even better. The best of all were the Cocoa Krispy Treats made with chocolate marshmallows!

While at Target buying some goodies for an Easter basket for Lee, I saw some chocolate marshmallows. I also bought some coconut ones, but I didn't buy those. I couldn't resist the chocolate marshmallows and bought a bag. I just knew I had to try them as Rice Krispy Treats with Cocoa Krispies. Boy, am I glad I thought of that!

I wasn't feeling well, but I did want my new food for the day and the roast dinner I was making wasn't something new, so I asked my boyfriend to make the treats. He was nervous about it since he says he can't cook (he seems to do just fine if he follows directions, I think he just needs some confidence). Anyway, after him asking me every 5 seconds what to do and me thinking it may have been easier to do it myself, he got it right and we had some delicious treats!

I did get to try a chocolate marshmallow on its own before he made the Cocoa Krispy Treats and it tasted like a hot chocolate that had gone cool to room temperature. It was delicious!

Extra Chocolatey Cocoa Krispy Treats

3 tablespoons butter
1 package chocolate marhsmallow puffs
6 cups Cocoa Krispies cereal

1. Melt butter in a microwave-safe bowl.
2. Add marshmallows, coat in butter, and return to microwave until melted.
3. Add cereal and blend thoroughly.
4. Line a pan with parchment paper and spread mixture to cool.
   

Warning: These are highly addictive and won't last long!

The Rock-Hard Birthday Cake

Well, I tried to make a birthday cake for my boyfriend, but it just didn't work out. I'm not good at folding and the cake turned out to be a rock-hard solid slab. The batter did taste good, though.

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Blech!!!!! Yuck!!!! I did not like this at all!!!

It could be that it was not homemade. It could have been a bad one since my boyfriend didn't think it tasted as good as it should. Or, I could just hate sticky toffee pudding. Regardless, I did not like this at all. I'll have to try making this traditional English dessert at home to see if it tastes better.

Homemade Brownies

I made my first batch of brownies from scratch!!!

Now, I am not good at folding, and they turned out quite thin, but they tasted delicious and I'll have to work on my folding technique to get them to turn out a bit thicker. My boyfriend actually said they were the best brownies he's ever had. This was a fabulous recipe that included ingredients I always have on hand anyway.

The original recipe did not include chocolate chips, I added those myself since I love chocolate chips in brownies!! Please check out the original recipe to see how they are supposed to look!

I have rated it 4 out of 5 stars because of my difficulty with folding in the egg whites.

Fudgy Brownies

½ cup flour (for coating pan)
2 eggs
½ cup butter, melted
¼ cup cocoa, moistened
1 teaspoon vanilla
¼ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
¼ cup confectioner's sugar

1. Grease an 8x8 pan and coat with flour. Place a piece of parchment paper to prevent sticking.
2. Preheat oven to 375°F.
   
3. Separate the egg whites into one bowl, and the egg yolks into another larger bowl.
   
4. Beat egg yolks with sugar.
   
5. Add melted butter, cocoa, and vanilla. Mix well.
6. Beat egg whites until stiff.
7. Gently fold egg whites into batter.
8. Gently add in chocolate chips.
9. Place in pan and bake for approximately 30 minutes.
10. After 5 minutes, remove from pan. Before serving, dust with confectioner's sugar.

A Taste of the Tropics: Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

I know Pineapple Upside-Down Cake is a popular dessert, but I've never tried it. I don't mind pineapple, but I'm not it's biggest fan. I will rarely eat it on it's own and even then can only eat a couple of pieces.

I decided to ask Lee to pick a couple of meals for the week. He tells me garlic-roasted vegetables, pineapple upside down cake, and lasanga. Hmmmm....not really meals that go well...I decided to split them up this week. Since I was exhausted after work today and we only had something quick and easy for dinner, I decided to do Pineapple Upside-Down Cake for dessert. It seemed like a really easy recipe and something I could definitely handle.

I didn't have the size pan called for in the recipe, so I used a larger pan and it turned out just fine. I also decided to add some of the pineapple juice from the can to the batter and just left out that much water. I figured it would give a bit more pineapple flavor to the cake itself. It didn't seem to make a while lot of difference, but maybe next time I'll get some pineapple juice and have the full amount of water be replaced with pineapple juice and see if that adds some additional flavor to the cake.

I must admit, although I really liked the cake, I did peel the pineapple off the top before eating it. I couldn't really cut into it with the fork and couldn't be bothered to get a knife to cut into the pineapple.

I ate two slices and I feel so full! I complained about eating too much and Lee said "Robyn, you didn't eat half the cake! I feel like I'm going to be sick!" He literally ate half the cake and the sweetness is catching up with him!

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
1 box yellow cake mix
½ cup margarine or butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 20oz can pineapple slices
5 maraschino cherries

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Place pan with butter in the oven to melt.
2. Mix batter according to package directions. You may replace all, or part, of the water with pineapple juice for more flavor.
3. When the butter has melted, add brown sugar.
4. Place pineapple slices in layer on bottom of pan. Place one half of a maraschino cherry in the middle of each pineapple.
5. Bake in oven until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Yet Another Apple Dessert

I guess I'm on an apple kick lately. It's just that I don't always feel like having the dinner be my new food, and I'm not usually home for breakfast and lunch when school is in session, so I want something quick and easy for a dessert. Both my boyfriend and I love fruit and the fruit just isn't that good in the winter. Apples aren't as good as the ones you can pick from an apple orchard in the fall, but they don't seem to go bad as quickly as many other types of fruit.

I'm starting to run low on variations of apple skillet recipes, but I did manage to find one with a bit of a sweet taste. This recipe called for honey, which I'd never had in an apple recipe before. Yes, this apple fan, with a bit of a sweet tooth, has never even thought of adding some honey to my apples! Well...I just couldn't leave it at that.

The recipe I found was meant to be a side dish instead of a dessert, but the poster mentioned that if cinnamon is added it gave a dessert taste. In the spirit of making this a dessert, I also decided to add a touch of sugar.

This was a good recipe, the honey did add a nice sweetness to it, but it didn't have a lot of taste and we both preferred the last two apple dishes I made. I like the idea of adding honey to the dish, so I think I might play around with the ingredients a bit more and see if we can get it more to our tastes. These seem like they may be good over vanilla ice cream.

Skillet Apples with Honey

4 apples, sliced thinly and cored; peeling is up to you
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon honey

1. Combine apples and lemon juice in a bowl. Coat apples well with the juice.
2. In a skillet, or sauté pan, melt butter over medium-high heat.
   
3. Add all remaining ingredients.
   
4. Cook until apples are tender, about 5 minutes.
5. 

Another Apple Dessert

I love apples. I love apples with cinnamon. Add a little sugar and it's a fabulous dessert!

Tonight I made the sun-dried tomato risotto that I learned at my cooking class last month. Since I'd already had that before, and I had to bring my boyfriend to work too early to try the grits, I decided a dessert was in order. I procrastinated because I did not want to admit that time was drawing to a close on my February school vacation and did not want to believe that it was getting late. Of course, this means we're having dessert at 10 when I should have been going to bed.

I was looking for a quick and easy apple recipe. After searching for a little bit, I found one that I had all the ingredients for and that did not take long to make.

My boyfriend and I loved these sautéed apples! The syrup that forms has a scrumptious caramel flavor to it that tastes similar to the caramels I made last week. The apples were perfectly tender and even the skin wasn't too hard. This was very easy to make and my boyfriend was surprised at how quickly it was finished. I only had to use my apple corer/slicer to cut the apples, so it literally took no more than 20 seconds to cut all the apples.

Today, while browsing the Leftover Queen Forum, I learned that you are supposed to list the ingredients by the order used in the method. I never noticed that, or even payed attention to it. I'm going to try to remember to make sure my recipes on here are like that from now on.

Sautéed Apples

4 tablespoons butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
4 cooking apples, sliced and cored

1. Melt butter in a sauté pan over medium heat.
2. Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon in a small mixing bowl.
3. When the butter has melted, add the sliced apples.
   
4. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the apples begin to become tender.
   
5. Add the cinnamon and brown sugar.
6. Cook and stir until the sugars have turned into a syrup.
   

A Valentine's Treat

I'm a little behind in my posting again, it's been a busy week!

This year is the first year in a while I've had someone on Valentine's Day. Sure, my boyfriend and I were a couple last year, but he was in England and I was in the US. There was a snowstorm and a flower debacle, so I just wanted this year's to be really special.

It did not turn out as planned, but one thing that did go well was my red velvet cookies that I topped with cream cheese. I found the recipe on Recipezaar, but due to problems with their switch over to the new format (an frustration in itself) I'm going to post the complete recipe here instead. I wasn't 100% sure about using one of my precious boxes of red velvet cake mix on an unknown recipe, but since I finally found a Wal-Mart that stocks it a couple of weeks ago, and the Wal-Mart is only about 45 minutes away, I figure I could make an occasional trip out there for a stock-up.

I'd never thought of making a cookie from a cake mix. It turned out really well! I don't like cream cheese, so usually I do a Cool Whip® frosting instead, but for today, I decided to go with the traditional cream cheese frosting. I'm actually glad I did, I liked this version of cream cheese frosting! My boyfriend wasn't too sure about the cream cheese either, but he loved it and said he prefers the cookie version of red velvet to the cupcakes. I'm wondering if it has something to do with the frosting, but I'll have to wait until I make more cake to find out.

My only regret for this recipe is that I didn't use my heart-shaped mini cake pan. It would have done well for these cookies. One thing I will try changing in the future is to only make half the frosting, I had too much left over and I don't plan to make anything with cream cheese frosting in the near enough future.

Red Velvet Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting

Cookies
1 package Red Velvet cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil

Frosting
8 ounces cream cheese (softened)
¼ cup butter (softened)
2 teaspoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 cups confectioner's sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
   
2. Mix all the cookie ingredients together with an electric mixer. (The mixer incorporates more air and I think gives it a lighter texture.)
3. Using a cookie scoop (small ice cream scoop), place in balls on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
   
4. Flatten cookies with bottom of spatula.
   
5. Bake in oven for about 8-10 minutes or until the cop looks cracked. The cookies will seem very soft and this is fine.
   
6. While the cookies cool, beat cream cheese, butter, milk, and vanilla in a large or medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth.
7. With mixer on low, add confectioner's sugar 1 cup at a time until incorporated.
   
8. Frost cookies and enjoy!

Note: To make the chocolate cream cheese frosting, add 2 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate, melted and cooled, with the butter.

After Dinner Mint Brownie

When I tried grocery shopping at Wal-mart a couple of weeks ago, I saw a box of Andes Mints brownies and since we both love Andes Mints, I just had to buy the brownies!

I finally decided to make them last night.

I wasn't able to drizzle the chocolate syrup over the brownies like in the picture on the box because of the packaging, but they still turned out brilliantly. They taste just like a huge, soft Andes Mint!

Apples in a Skillet

I stupidly planned a lot of meals that required a fair amount of prep, or at least prepping the night before so they could marinate. I've had another busy week at work and didn't get home in time for the casserole I had planned, so we had leftover Rotel Goulash from the other night. This was still delicious, but I needed something new to eat and that left me with only dessert.

I'd bought some apples last week for an apple crisp, but haven't made it yet. They were getting old, so I wanted to use them up. I found a recipe for Buttery Cinnamon Skillet Apples and decided to make those. I've always loved cinnamon apples. When I make apple pie, I love having extra filling because I always heat that up in the microwave and eat them while the pie is baking. I thought this would be a nice dessert tonight.

This was very easy to make. I was surprised how thick the sauce became. It was definitely more of a syrup. I actually ate spoonfuls of the syrup while I was waiting for the apples to become cool enough to eat. While all the sugar probably isn't good for the teeth, it felt pretty light and comforting.