Recipe Roulette--Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes

Another easy one using pieces of various recipes--Frankencupcakes. I used this chocolate cake recipe (which incidentally, is the easiest and most reliable cake recipe I've EVER encountered--sometimes I wonder why I try any fancy new recipes). I dipped the tops in the ganache from this recipe (which is pretty much like any other ganache recipe you'll find out there). Then I made a batch of this buttercream (which, I've said before, is the best buttercream recipe around--even when problems happen (mine wasn't coming together so I put it in the fridge for 20-30 minutes and when I put it back on the mixer it came together perfectly)) and added a full jar of this (and just enough red food coloring):

I piped it on top of the ganache (you can see below I actually made a variety of combinations to accommodate different tastes in my family--some people don't like chocolate--I KNOW). Then I sprinkled on some black sugar BECAUSE IT'S BEAUTIFUL. Et voila.

The strawberry flavor wasn't quite as strong as I wanted it to be, but I couldn't find the freezer jam I used in the strawberry portion of this recipe. Nevertheless, it was delicious. The ganache adds a decadent touch to something that is otherwise incredibly simple. The buttercream didn't react adversely to so much jam being added, it really held up nicely. And in case you ever need to know, that full recipe frosted about 60 cupcakes.

TGIP Rating--Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes--KEEPER. I need to find that freezer jam if I'm going to do this again, though. Even though the chocolate flavor isn't SUPER rich, it needs a stronger strawberry flavor to match it.

Next up: Summertime. Hm. I think we need cookies in the house. Cookies that are almost like s'mores. Like these ones.

TGIP Field Trip: Eva's Bakery & Christiansen's Family Farm

Took a visit to a lovely new bakery in downtown Salt Lake, Eva's Bakery. So many delicious breads and pastries, I'll have to make a return visit to give some things a first try, and, of course, to pick up a second round of some new favorites. In this picture from lower left clockwise to lower right: chocolate nib cookie, coconut macaroon, apple half-pocket, pistachio snail, mountain loaf, Italian brioche, beehive brioche, kouing aman (both peeking out from under the Italian brioche), chicken pesto pizza. All of their pastry was lovely. Their dough in general is tender and flaky and easily takes to different applications.

 

Things I especially loved:

• the pistachio snail--has dark chocolate nibs in such a delicious combination with the pistachios.
• the Italian brioche--has a raspberry filling that is perfect, not too sweet, no gooey texture, you know, as if it's made from ACTUAL raspberries, which I'm sure it is.
• the beehive brioche--a brilliant combination of crunchy almonds, fleur de sel, and honey with a really beautiful, tender brioche dough.
• the mountain loaf--a blend of flours, including rye and whole wheat with sunflower seeds (I think) and tart dried cherries. Yeah, the cherries were what got me, but even my cherry-hating mr. liked this bread. It's just a really balanced combination of flavors and textures. Hearty breakfast-y goodness.

Unfortunately for Eva's, we have Les Madeleines here in town, where we all learned about Kouing Aman. Eva's suffers in the comparison on this one count. But next time I visit I'm buying every kind of bread I can get my hands on, as that appears to be their specialty.

A while back I saw an article in the newspaper about a local family farm that was starting to offer lard. Jumped, is what I did. Because the last time I obtained leaf lard it was about $30 for 5 pounds, and even more for shipping (I think it was coming from Wisconsin, and had to be sent overnight in special dry-ice packaging). Oy. Not to mention the fact that I'm trying to do what I can to buy local. I really am trying. And these people have made it easy for me. I can order online, and then pick it up from one of several stops they make throughout the valley on Saturday mornings. Where, as it turns out, there are scores of other people sitting in their cars (like junkies) waiting for the truck (their dealer). It's a funny thing to witness. Their lard is a combination of leaf and back fat and comes from their super-happy pigs that are petted by the family's children. No, for real. Go look at their website. Of course, not all the junkies were waiting in the parking lot for lard. The family raises pigs, cows, and chickens. And maybe I need a deep freeze in my garage so I can order well-handled meat from them, with knowledge of the source and their practices...

And after a first attempt at using this lard, I am thrilled to report that it is perfect. Perfect texture, dough is elastic and easy to handle. Perfect taste, adds that tiny bit of saltiness that I like for my lard to bring to the pastry party. And it bakes up beautifully as you can see above.

TGIP Rating--Eva's--KEEPER. They also have a seating area and a beautiful espresso machine. One of these mornings you'll find me there enjoying a croissant and a real cappuccino.
--Christiansen's Family Farm--KEEPER. Thank goodness people like this exist. In my general neighborhood. Maybe I'll make them a pie just for being awesome.

Next up: I have to take a few weeks off baking. I know. Trust me, it hurts me more than it hurts you. But sometimes the theatre is a brutal taskmaster. When I'm back at it, I think I'm going to do cupcakes. Probably using some elements of this.

Banoffee Pie

You may not have heard of Banoffee Pie. I have only once or twice, and only recently. And I honestly couldn't tell you the source. It's a weird enough name for a pie (although, I'd call it a tart, but maybe it's just me) that I should remember though, right?! Here's what I REALLY have to say on the topic: Great Britain--you need some help with naming foods. I could win this argument by presenting only one piece of evidence, without commentary:

But I'd like to present this evidence as well (used to make the crust of this pie/tart):

An online description goes as follows:


"Arguably the UK’s favourite biscuit the McVities Digestive is famed for its sweet, wheaty taste, crumbly texture and renowned suitability for dunking. A bona fide legend in the world of biscuits. Whilst the name ‘digestive’ comes from the antacid properties that the biscuit was thought to have when it was first made, McVities Digestives no longer claim to deliver this benefit – they simply offer an unrivalled taste that is loved by millions."

The name alone made my children sore afraid. Turns out, they're not that different from graham crackers. In fact, I liked them as a pie (tart) crust MORE than graham crackers. They weren't quite as sweet, which made the crust a part of the overall flavor without adding so much of its own personality. Anyway, McVitie's, if they no longer have this digestive "benefit", why not change the name? To something that sounds delicious? Sweetie-Wheaties? Dunkers? Or how about just "McVitie's"? I have the same beef with "Banoffee Pie". Not a successful portmanteau, IMO. Because it's a food, and one has no idea what is in store if one orders/buys it. "Banana Toffee Tart"? Now, THAT sounds delicious, order me one! Or better yet, I'll make one at home!

Here's the recipe I used. Everything about this was unexpected. The individual elements are just slightly odd. But they come together to make a pie (TART) this is smooth and creamy and tasty and simple and really delightful. The toffee layer could not be easier to make (and this is coming from a person who is caramel-challenged). And it has the perfect consistency--just slightly gooey when you cut into the pie (TART!), but soft when you fork into it and not tooth-sticky at all as you eat it.

And the bananas. I mean, on the one hand it's obvious (Bananas Foster), that caramel and banana go together, but it took a stroke of genius to put them together in a pie (!TART!).

I put some toasted coconut on top of mine instead of shaved chocolate, for a little extra tropical flavor, and I quite liked it.

TGIP Rating--KEEPER. And as much as I thought all the elements played perfectly together, there's a part of me that wants to mess with this. Maybe give it a regular pastry crust and make it an ACTUAL PIE. Maybe make the bananas into something like bananas foster before putting them on top? Or add some rum to the whipped cream? BANANAS FOSTER PIE?! Will ponder some more.

Next up: A field trip. Actually two fieldtrips. To a local bakery and a local parking lot. Intriguing, right?

Aunt Sassy (cup)Cake

These were delicious. The cake is really nice, I love the texture that the crushed pistachios gives. And the frosting is yummy, like honey butter, but better.

So, I made a couple of changes; one purposeful, one not. I decided to make cupcakes instead of a full-size cake because I wanted to share some of these and cupcakes are just easier to transport. I used the same trick the BAKED boys suggest in their Whiteout Cake recipe--added an extra egg yolk for cupcake stability. It worked out perfectly. They were still tender but not too much so.

The inadvertent change I made was using salted instead of unsalted butter. I know. That's kind of a big change (although a quick google search tells me salted butter generally contains only 1.6-1.7 percent salt--which doesn't seem like very much at all). I accidentally bought salted and then once I realized it, there wasn't enough time for me to run to the store AND make the frosting in the small baking window I had left myself. What's interesting is that I kind of liked the change for this. When I think of nuts, I think of saltiness. So, to use unsalted pistachios as the garnish on top seems a little...unsatisfying? Because I wanted a salty flavor? I don't know. But it didn't taste salty, it seemed, rather, to have quite a good balance of salty and sweet. Not that I would ever do that again, because I can't control the salt when it's already in the butter. I would probably just use unsalted nuts in the cake and salted on top.

I did, once again, have a little problem with the frosting texture. That happens occasionally with the BAKED boys buttercream. And I have yet to figure out the reason. It seems to have the same sensitivity to external moisture and temperature (yesterday was a wet morning) as bread does. But the taste always conquers all, even when the texture isn't perfect.

TGIP Rating--KEEPER--Next time I make it as a full-size cake. Much more impressive presentation.

Next up: I want to make a Banoffee Pie. I've never eaten one. I'm just intrigued by it. I mean, there's nothing about that idea that sounds bad, right?

Coconut Bread

  

I have nothing to say about this. Recipe is perfect. Easy. Delicious. Moist. Flavorful. Go make it.

This is a picture of the bowl I almost stuck my head in to get to all the batter. 

 

This is a picture of the most beautiful loaves of sweet bread in all of space and time.

TGIP Rating--Coconut Bread--KEEPER. Okay, maybe I do have one thing to say: Additions to consider: toasted, chopped almonds; chocolate chips; lime zest (not all at once).

Next up: Aunt Sassy Cake from Baked: Explorations. I've been wanting to make it forever, and it just happens to be on the Baked Sunday Mornings schedule for this weekend. I might make cupcakes instead of a full-size cake. I love a real CAKE cake as much as the next person, but sometimes I need to take treats to other people and cupcakes are easier to transport. Forgive the blasphemy, BAKED boys.

Whole Lemon Tart

Only picture. So sorry. 

Anyway, this was an attempt to wipe this from my memory. And it worked! This was probably the easiest tart I've ever made. Crust--all in the food processor. Filling--all in the food processor. The crust was utterly perfect. I've adopted it as my new go-to tart recipe and I am already thinking of all the things I can fill it with. The filling was lovely, it had texture and tartness and sweetness and all in just the right combination.

If you have a food processor and a tart pan, you should add making this to your weekend plan. You can thank me later. Perhaps by inviting me over for a piece.


TGIP Rating--Whole Lemon Tart--KEEPER. Especially the crust. A note: there is no baking time on the recipe for the filled tart. I baked mine for about 35 or 40 minutes.

Next up: Coconut Bread. I need Spring to come apace, I keep thinking tropically-tinged baked goods will encourage it.

Salted Whiskey Caramels and "Irish" Bread

They look promising, right? Well. Okay. *heavy sigh* I give up. I vow to never make candy again. It will save me the frustration and you the boredom of having to read about it.*another heavy sigh* I'll just say a couple of things about these caramels (just in case you are a braver man than I am, Gunga Din):

• It is not easy to get parchment paper to stay in any form other than flat. I resorted to duct tape. Even that didn't really work.

• These were delicious for about 5 minutes. I think I could have cooked the sugar portion longer to make them darker and they would have been even better. THEN, for reasons I can neither explain nor understand, the sugars re-crystallized. I've never heard of such a thing. But it happened. See?

In fact, more crystallization the longer they sat. It's a thing that could only happen to me, I'm confident. Candy-making is for greater bakers/confectioners than I. A true candy-maker would not have to spend SO MUCH TIME with a thermometer that refused to move.

A true candy-maker would also know how to wrap their candies when finished. 

BUT, I did have success with something else last weekend. What you see below is mr.'s Irish Nana's recipe for Soda Bread (she calls it "Irish Bread"), in her own handwriting. His mother (Nana's youngest, also Lucy) passed away last August and when we were going through papers and photographs at her apartment (like you do) we found this. I knew I had to make it for St. Patrick's Day this year--last March she came to visit and it was the last time we all got to spend with her.

So. Delicious. Simple. Perfect. A little sweet, crispy crust, tender crumb.

 

This recipe will be framed and hung on my kitchen wall. And I will make it every year for St. Patrick's Day with a grateful nod to both of the Lucys who made my husband the man he is.

TGIP Rating--Salted Whiskey Caramels--EPIC FAIL. Never again. No candy. Ever.
--Lucy's Donahue's Irish Bread--KEEPER. Forever.

Next up: Ran across this and it seemed like the perfect way to usher in Spring. Whole Lemon Tart.