Sticky Oat and Pine Nut Bars

Yummy!!! Husband keeps asking for more of these... he declared they were the best thing he's ever eaten. (so far today anyway, he likes to claim this every time I bake something that turns out delicious)

Sticky Oat & Pine Nut Bars
Food & Wine Magazine
1 stick butter
3/4 c. honey
1/2 c. brown sugar
2 c. old fashioned oats
1 1/2 c. pine nuts (I only had about 2/3 c. pine nuts so I can't imagine what these would be like with the full amount. It might be a bit too much!)
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp cinnamon (my addition)
Dash of salt

4 oz white chocolate
1/2 tsp canola oil

Preheat the oven to 325. Butter an 8x8 baking dish and line with parchment.

In a large saucepan, melt the butter with the honey and brown sugar. Cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly, until an amber caramel forms. (About 5 minutes) Stir in the oats, nuts, pepper and salt. Cook for about 2 minutes. I cooked a bit more at this stage. The nuts are supposed to start to brown and mine didn't...

Pour the mixture into the baking dish and bake for 20 minutes. Make sure to get the mixture nice and smooth and flat on top before you put them in the oven.

Allow to cool thoroughly. This was the hard part since it takes forever and you can't wait to try one! Cut in half, then each half in 6 bars. Warm the chocolate and oil, dip the bars in and cool them on a baking sheet (or some wax paper for super easy clean up)

Refrigerate if you are keeping them 3 - 7 days. They are safe in a plastic bag on the counter for up to three... if yours last that long. I'm sure mine won't!

Apple Chip Madness!!

My father-in-law loves to bring fresh fruits or veggies when he visits. Lately, he's been bringing tomatoes. There's nothing like fresh tomatoes... *drool* but then he surprised me with a bag of apples from a nearby orchard. Crisp, sweet apples that are snack size, perfect right? Until he gave me another bag about a week later. And then 40 pounds a week after that. Um... all these apples and yet I'm not in the mood for apple pie...

We are on a semi-health kick right now and the kitchen is partially demolished since my husband decided to stain all the cabinets so I broke out the dehydrator and made apple chips!

Apple Chips
5 apples
1/4 c. sugar
2 Tbsp cinnamon
lemon water

Ok... it's really this easy:
1. Slice the apples thin with a mandolin.
2. Toss them in the lemon water while you finish the rest.
3. Layer them on the dehydrator trays, not touching.
4. If you want the cinnamon option, mix the cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle over the slices. I did half plain, half cinnamon.
5. Dehydrate at 155 degrees for about four hours. If your slices are thicker, you will need to leave them on for a bit longer.

Do not share... everyone will want them! So after devouring the first batch of these, I used the rest of the apples and made batch two. Then I went to the store and bought more apples to make more chips... I think I'm a bit obsessed right now. On top of all these apples, my father in law is going to bring me a 30 lb box of "not so pretty" apples. Apparently you can buy less than perfect looking apples at a discount. Yummy!!!

Chocolate Crinkles

Betty Crocker is my hero. Seriously... she is so much better than Martha Stewart! I received the Betty Crocker Bridal Edition cookbook for Christmas one year (no, I was not getting married at the time!!) and have since used this cookbook a million times. Every time I make something from it, delicious results ensue. Today, I was craving these little brownie imitation cookies. At only 70 calories a piece, who wouldn't?!?

Chocolate Crinkles (all credit to Betty because there's absolutely nothing to modify here)
2 cups sugar
1/2 c. canola oil
2 tsp. vanilla
4 oz unsweetened baking chocolate, melted and cooled
4 eggs
2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. powdered sugar (have more just in case)

Mix the sugar, oil, vanilla and chocolate. Add the eggs one at a time. Stir in flour, baking powder and salt. Cover and refrigerate minimum 3 hours. (this is the terribly torturous part since you're already craving them and now you have to wait 3 hours... seriously??)

Ok, back business - Preheat your oven to 350.
Grease cookie sheets.
I use an ice cream scoop to drop balls into the powdered sugar and roll them around. Place them on the cookie sheet with room for some expansion. Betty says 2 inches... I think I got away with less.

Bake the little balls of deliciousness for about 10 minutes. My recipe made almost 5 dozen, Betty says she gets 6 so I'm assuming a little smaller cookie would take 8-9 minutes. Let them cool!!!! Sort of important since they really are mini brownies and will fall apart on you if you're impatient. Use a spoon if you can't resist. :)

Eat!!! Have a glass of milk ready... Betty says 70 calories, 3 g fat per cookie.

Doughnuts!! Or are they...?

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

Bomboloni:
Preparation time:
Hands on prep time - 35 minutes
Rising time - 1 1/2 hours plus overnight
Cooking time - 10 minutes
Yield: About 32 Bomboloni
Ingredients
Water, Lukewarm 1/3 cup + 1 Tablespoon
Active Dry Yeast 3 ¼ teaspoon (1.5 pkgs.)
Honey 1.5 Tablespoon
All Purpose Flour 3 cup
Milk 3 Tablespoon
Egg Yolk, Large 6
White Granulated Sugar 1/3 cup + more for rolling
Kosher (Flaked) Salt 2 teaspoon
Butter, Unsalted 3 Tablespoon
Canola Oil 3 cup  (Or any other flavorless oil used for frying)
Raspberry Jam, Seedless ¾ cup (or any flavor jam, preserves, jelly)
Directions:

1. In the bowl of a standing electric mixer, mix the water, yeast, honey and 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (160 gm) of the flour. (Alternatively, whisk the ingredients by hand.) Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature until foamy, about 1 hour.
2. Return the bowl to the mixer, fitted with a dough hook. Add the remaining 1 ¾ cups plus 2 tablespoons (260 gm) of flour, along with the milk, egg yolks, 1/3 cup of granulated sugar and the salt. Mix at low speed until blended, then add the butter and knead at medium speed until silky but sticky, about 5 minutes; the dough will not pull away from the side of the bowl.
3. Using an oiled spatula, scrape the dough into an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight.
4. In a large saucepan, heat the canola oil to 360°F/180°C. Line a rack with paper towels. Fill a shallow bowl with 1/2 inch (12 mm)of granulated sugar. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough a scant 1/2 inch (12 mm) thick. Using a 2-inch (50 mm) round biscuit cutter, stamp out rounds. The original recipe said to not re-roll the dough, but I did and found it to be fine. Fry the rounds, 4 to 5 at a time, until they are browned, about 4 minutes (mine only took about a minute each – try to go more by sight). Be sure to keep the oil between 360°F and 375°F 180°C and 190°C. Drain the bomboloni on paper towels.
5. Roll them in the granulated sugar.

Filling Directions:
Fit a pastry bag with a plain donut tip (or a 1/4-inch (6 mm) tip) and fill with the preserves (you can also use a squeeze bottle). Poke the tip three-fourths of the way into the bomboloni and squeeze in the preserves, pulling the tip out slightly as you squeeze to fill them as much as possible. Serve warm.

DBC: Sugar Cookies

The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.

Join the club for the recipe! Here are my cookies:

Pumpkin Roll

It's book club time and since I finished the Daring Baker's Challenge forever ago, I made a pumpkin roll!!! Yay for fall!

I got the recipe from allrecipes.com, it's the Pumpkin Roll II. Great ratings and of course.... it was delicious!

Recipe available here.

Chopper's Cookies

I made Chopper some treats today. I had to... he was out and I was on a baking kick so I needed someone else to feed. I found this recipe somewhere... uh... I just can't remember where and the point is I modified it a lot so I'm not too worried about it. :)

Ok... Dog Cookies

2 eggs
1 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp oil
2 Tbsp peanut butter
1 cup chicken stock
3 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup corn meal

Not too hard... mix it all together, I had problems with it being rather dry so that's why I ended up with much more liquid than my original recipe called for. You actually wrap the dough and chill it for an hour, then roll it out about 1/2" thick and I used Chopper's favorite bone cookie cutter. Then you bake 12 minutes, flip them over and bake another 12 to dry them out.

He loved them.

Oreo Cupcakes

I finally feel like baking cupcakes again. Despite low energy and low tolerance for standing on the tile kitchen floor for too long, I'm back!!

I ran across the recipe for these cupcakes on Fake Ginger. They looked so scrumptious, I just had to try them. Not to mention Oreos are amazing anyway. My in-laws are coming to town today and I spent the morning cleaning and waiting so I finally decided I had enough time to whip these up before they get to town. My loving husband abandoned me to go hunting this weekend, even though his parents will be here, so if he doesn't get one, no spilled milk. :)

I'm not giving the recipe, you'll have to visit the Fake Ginger blog for that, but here's the result:

 I think these may become a most requested favorite at the office. :)

DBC: Brown Butter Pound Cake

The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”.

Ok... I love brown butter. We know this from my brown butter discovery while making cupcakes. If you haven't read that one... you should check it out next. :)

So why ruin an amazingly delicious cake by freezing it, covering it in ice cream and who knows what else?? I wanted to stay purist this month. And it helps that my freezer went out in the garage so I lost a lot of food and it was, to say the least, gross when I discovered it so I'm short on freezer space in the kitchen anyways.

On to brown butter pound cake!
Brown Butter Pound Cake
19 tablespoons (9.5 oz) (275g) unsalted (sweet) butter
2 cups (200g) sifted cake flour (not self-rising; sift before measuring) (See “Note” section for cake flour substitution)
1 teaspoon (5g) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt
1/2 cup (110g) packed light brown sugar
1/3 (75g) cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1. Preheat the oven to 325°F/160°C and put a rack in the center. Butter and flour a 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan.
2. Place the butter in a 10” (25cm) skillet over medium heat. Brown the butter until the milk solids are a dark chocolate brown and the butter smells nutty. (Don’t take your eyes off the butter in case it burns.) Pour into a shallow bowl and chill in the freezer until just congealed, 15-30 minutes.
3. Whisk together cake flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Beat the brown butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well, and then the vanilla extract.
5. Stir in the flour mixture at low speed until just combined.
6. Scrape the batter into the greased and floured 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan. Smooth the top with a rubber spatula and rap the pan on the counter. Bake until golden brown on top and when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Note to you - it took an extra 10 minutes for me. It was a cool, humid day so who knows...

7. Cool in the pan 10 minutes. Run a knife along the edge and invert right-side-up onto a cooling rack to cool completely.


I made this for the ladies at book club. I couldn't help but lick the spatula before I washed it. Brown butter is an all time #1 food for me. As for the cake, pretty good. I did pick up some whipped cream and raspberries to accompany the little mounds of heaven and it worked out really well. I hope you discover brown butter too! No one should be without it. And of course I had to charge the battery for the camera so I forgot a picture. :( sorry.

Delicious Banana Bread

Call me crazy but I keep bananas in my freezer. Whenever my bananas are getting too ripe on the counter, I just toss them in the freezer for delicious baked goods. The bananas turn black but the fleshy insides don't lose any of their flavor or texture. Of course, they do not turn black inside! Our freezer in the garage mysteriously unplugged itself and we lost everything in it! Including our wedding cake which we were one week away from enjoying. Did I mention we had the most delicious red velvet cake??!?!? Oh well. So this catastrophe has caused me to clean out and eat the contents of our freezer in the kitchen. Not a bad thing... until you realize how many bananas have been stashed in there. :) Oops. Time to bake apparently.

What to make?? Martha Stewart has some delicious roasted banana cupcakes and I thought about it, but was in the mood for something less sweet. I found a recipe for Banana Bread IV on www.allrecipes.com. Why is it IV? What happened to I, II and III? Hmmm...

So here it is:

5 (yes 5) ripe bananans (thawed if you're me)
4 eggs
1 c. shortening (ew)
2 1/2 c. sugar (next time I'm trying out half brown sugar)
1 Tbsp vanilla
3 1/2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 or so tsp. cinnamon
sugar/cinnamon for topping

Mash the bananas, add the eggs.

In your handy Kitchen Aid mixer, toss in your shortening. Mix it up. Slowly add the sugar. Add in the banana mess. Sift your dry ingredients separately. Toss them in the mixer. Voila! Pour into two greased pans. Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour 15 minutes.

Holy delicious bread crammed with bananas!! I took this to the fire station and it was gone in minutes. Definitely the best banana bread ever. And oops! I forgot a picture.