Not So Humble Pie

Busy Busy Busy!

2012-01-26T13:36:00.000-08:00

I get a surprising amount of email. Most of it is normal.

Not all. Just most.

A belated happy New Year to everyone!

It's late, I know. I'm pretty much behind on everything. Baking, blogging, household projects, the NSHP email inbox... you name it, I'm behind. Needless to say, my Christmas cards did not go out this year.

I'm juggling several big project-thingy-boppers right now but hopefully I'll soon be able to work on a blog post that includes more than just silly little drawings.

♥

Ms. Humble

Dead Man's Peanut Butter Cupcakes

2011-11-30T06:00:00.000-08:00

Devil's Food & Dead Man's Peanut Butter Mousse
Slathered in chocolate fudge.
Oh yea.

We're revisiting my Dead Man's Peanut Butter Pie recipe today, with a few fun tweaks.

Today I found myself wrestling with a familiar peanut butter and chocolate craving. In such situations I have the following options:

Go to the store and buy all the available peanut butter cups. Of course, this isn't much of an option since getting out of the house with two small children and going anywhere requires nearly as much planning and preparation as a mission to Mars.
Eat peanut butter from jar with a spoon, dipping it into that 20lb bag of chocolate chips I have. Also not a great option, since with this method of consumption, any semblance of portion control vanishes and I just bought skinny jeans.
Bake something with peanut butter and chocolate for the blog, while wearing said skinny jeans and pretend that they will encourage restraint while tasting and testing.

I think we all know how this worked out.

Pink Peppermint Tea Cookies

2011-11-18T09:48:00.001-08:00

In the kitchen baking once again. This time I've been bitten by the cookie bug. Or rather, I bit into a store bought peppermint tea cookie and thought I could do better. So I have! Besides, a batch of cookies are quite over due. I'm sure folks are starting to ponder their Christmas goodie-boxes and these are a festive play on those powdered tea cookie gems.

Besides, I have a gnome demanding cookies of me. And no, I won't explain that.

Spiced Apple Cider Caramels

2011-10-23T18:37:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone had a good week.

For my part, I spent the week tinkering in the kitchen with batches of caramel and I have a wonderful new recipe to share with everyone. A caramel that tastes of freshly mulled apple cider. Oh yes, it's good.

Those of you going "Ppbbth, Caramels! I waited all week! Me want prizes!" I'll post the winner from last weeks giveaway of the big McCormick Halloween Goodie box too. Just zip down to the bottom of today's post.

For us candy makers, how about we get started on these apple cider caramels.

Now, just to be clear, "apple cider" around here is basically apple juice. I know it was wrong of us North Americans to adopt the term cider for a non-alcholic beverage, but we did it anyway. We just wanted to confuse everyone and I apologize. So just to be completely clear, we won't be using the fermented drink made from apples, no. Today we're working with a jug of fresh apple cider, which is essentially unfiltered apple juice. If you cannot get the fresh, cold pressed unfiltered stuff, go ahead and substitute the best quality/tasting apple juice you can find.

These caramels are a variation of my popular fleur de sel caramels, with a reduction of mulled apple cider. If you haven't tried them, you'll find that they're rich, smooth and far superior to those waxy squares you find in the supermarket.

Pumpkin Old Fashioned Donuts

2011-10-16T13:29:00.000-07:00

It's Sunday and I'm back with pumpkin treats! Talk about deja vu, right?

When treats are good though, one can excuse repetitive use of ingredients. Besides, I've got pumpkin on the brain. Halloween is fast approaching and they're popping up everywhere--along with those 'fun sized' candy bars that will be my undoing.

So lets just get right down to how today's post came about. One of the added perks of being a blogger is you get lots of very friendly folks emailing you, offering to send you things to try. I tend pass on about 99% of these just because I'm a busy lady and I've got enough stuff to eat and store in my home without people sending me more and trying to finagle a blog post--and because no one has offered to send me an Audi TT (Audi, what gives?).

I do however like the opportunity to give things away to my readers. So today, thanks to the lovely folks at McCormick, I have a box of goodies for one lucky reader in the U.S. of A packed with goodies like McCormick vanilla extract & food colorings, and a few other little treats from Le Creuset, Mui, Wilton and Palderno World Cuisine to assist with your baking fun.

For my part, I'm whipping up a Halloween themed post. I had several ideas, all utilizing the standard company of Halloween players. Some very cute, some scary and some complicated. In the end though, I settled on tasty. Tasty and pumpkin-y.

Besides, my last pumpkin recipe didn't use exactly one can of pumpkin and that made those with the small cans of pumpkin, like commenter Katie, go all sad-emoticon.

That makes me :( too.

I also had leftover pumpkin, so today we're using it and we're making a batch of festive fall donuts.

: ) @

See what I did there?

Pumpkin Spice Cake with Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting

2011-10-09T13:48:00.000-07:00

Hello, Cake.

I have a wonderful pumpkin cake to share today!

About this time last year I had gone on a pumpkin cake baking spree. It never resulted in a blog post as I was disappointed with nearly every recipe that I tried. Some cakes were good, but not so good that I felt they warranted an endorsement. I had some rather particular ideas of what a pumpkin cake should be like: moist, tender and with just enough spice to provide those fall warm and fuzzy feelings.

Unfortunately though, I wasn't feeling so warm and fuzzy after baking and tasting all those cakes. You see, the more recipes I tried, the worse the cakes seemed to get. Some were heavy with spices, which I thought I would enjoy, but often found they gave the cakes a harsh edge. Other cakes I found a bit soapy, which I attributed to the citrus or too much cardamom or ginger in the base. One particular horror to emerge from my ovens was a cake that managed to taste of baking soda and metal. In all, it was a disappointing run.

So I gave up and moved onto other baking projects to populate the blog. I figured I would pick up the quest again when my desire to eat pumpkin cake returned. Well, along with the damp fall Seattle weather, that desire has returned and this time I found the cake. When I tasted it, I knew no tweaking on my part would improve upon it. It was just right. Delightfully moist and echoing the flavors of a pumpkin pie.

It was the perfect base for my whipped cream cheese frosting. I guarantee a generous slice will provide those warm and fuzzy feelings.

Dark Chocolate Granola

2011-09-21T15:38:00.000-07:00

A happy mid-week to everyone!

I'm still playing the role of bad blogger this month. I decided to take yet another mini break, this time to the Oregon and Washington coast. Meaning, I've spent just about every weekend on the road these past two months and no where near a kitchen. I'll justify this behavior by pointing out the brief Pacific Northwest summer and that I really need the vitamin D.

So, I've been out and about hiking rather than baking but that's healthier, right? After all, testing and evaluating all these baked goods has the potential to be hard on the hips. Running around outside--and inside I suppose, after children--lends a healthy balance.

I also balance healthy with the not so healthy in my diet, so let's talk granola. I love the stuff. I eat oats in the form of oatmeal or granola almost every morning as part of my breakfast routine. I really like a little ordinary low fat granola sprinkled on my cup of non-fat yogurt. I like to pretend it is really good for me, even though I--like those of us who eye-ball nutrition lables--know better.

Granola is one of those foods that is generally perceived as being healthy, but in reality, kind of isn't.

Sorry to dash any illusions there, but just seeing granola on this blog should have been a sign.

Toasted Coconut with Lime Ice Cream

2011-09-12T11:36:00.000-07:00

I'm back! I've been traveling a great deal these past few weeks and I'm finally settled in back at home. It was a busy summer. There were five states to visit, fly fishing to observe, bison to avoid, family to feed, geysers to smell and plenty of driving--probably a little too much for the kids. I also had the pleasure of cooking for a gathering of family while at a rented lodge in Montana.

I've realized that cooking for large groups is something best done out of one's own kitchen. As no matter how well stocked the brochure claims the kitchen is ("It has absolutely everything you will need for any meal you have planned!"), or how well you prepare, something you need will always be missing. Which results in things like… my trying to make individual lemon tarts topped with torched italian meringue without tart rings, a mixer or a candy thermometer. Attempting Italian meringue with microwaved syrup and some dodgy hand beaters actually worked.

I didn't plan on making tarts there, it just sort of happened. Still, I think I deserve some sort of medal of recognition.

Anyway, I'm back home and I am working on my plan of attack for this week's baking. For today though, we have some yummy ice cream. Which I will admit is my fall back during busy months as it can be prepared relatively quickly and always looks lovely.

Today's ice cream is a combination of toasted coconut and lime. Yes, that's me holding onto the last scraps of summer with something decidedly tropical in flavor. Though regardless of the time of year, one has to admit it is hard to go wrong with such a combination. Harry Nilsson is nodding his head in agreement--his being alive or not is a technicality we're going to overlook.

Midnight Sin Chocolate Cake

2011-08-15T01:47:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday, everyone!

We're baking cake today. In my blistering hot kitchen, which doesn't lend itself to working with chocolate mousse but whatever! I'm on a mission. A cake mission.

So today we have a rich, moist chocolate cake. A simple, reliable chocolate cake recipe for folks who love their cakes uber-moist-a-licious. I've eaten this midnight-hued cake plain and unadorned many times, but today I could not resist filling it with bitter-sweet chocolate mousse and glazing it with ganache.

Manson Almond Kringle

2011-08-11T11:12:00.000-07:00

Now that everyone is tired of the marshmallows, let's move on to the Kringle! A little back story first, however. This summer of mine is peppered with road trips to spend time with family. I just got back from touring the eastern portion of my home state. Visiting the Dry Falls, nibbling on macarons from a french bakery in Spokane and eating corn dogs at road side diners. (What, a girl can't love corn dogs and macarons?)

Next up in my road-trip dance card is Montana and then Oregon. My poor little children... The Eastern Washington trip is an annual outing. Once every year I am firmly instructed by my mother to make my way across the Cascades to "relax" with her by the lake. For those unfamiliar, Eastern Washington is not at all like Seattle. It is often hot, dry and home to several species of bugs the size of squirrels. Insects that seem to congregate wherever I AM. Particularly when half naked on a beach, sticky with SPF 6000.

While I may not enjoy the abundance of Ms. Humble obsessed bugs, I always like food and there are plenty of Eastern Washington farmers markets. Flush with farm fresh produce, honey, crafts and baked treats.

It was at one of these farmers market's in Manson that we came across a 10 year old selling something she called an almond kringle. A slab of iced pastry scattered with almonds.

Neapolitan Marshmallows

2011-08-07T11:47:00.000-07:00

A good Sunday to everyone!

I'm still busy making the most of my baking weekend but I have things prepared to share. Today, we're making Neapolitan Marshmallows. They're tasty little bites, flavored just like neapolitan ice cream with layers of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry.

Now, you can probably tell just by looking at them that they're going to be a wee bit time consuming but hey, they're adorable! Pretty takes time and these are probably the cutest confection I've made in a while. I can already see them dressed up in little bags and chocolate colored ribbons, ready to be gifted.

Lemon Meringue Ice Cream

2011-07-31T13:01:00.000-07:00

Even though it doesn't feel much like summer in Seattle, we're churning out some ice cream today.

This happens to be one of my favorite ice creams, one of the best to come out of my kitchen. Best of all, it only required 10 minutes to throw together. A bright lemony ice cream with swirls of lemon curd and bites of softened meringue cookies. A pie in a pint (or a quart). No baking or stove top custard making required.

Halloumi & Herb Cheese Rolls

2011-07-24T11:04:00.000-07:00

Happy Sunday, folks! I'm testing and reworking cake recipes this weekend so today I have a guest post from Mother Humble: Her Halloumi rolls. The family is very fond of these soft, cheese filled rolls (a bit more so than we are of her bottomless bag of cheese jokes).

I promised Ms. Humble before the newest adorable little humble was born that I would help her with her blog. Well, I quickly realized that I don’t enjoy writing about food as much as I enjoy cooking and eating it. I also realized that my lovely daughter, Ms. Humble, has more patience and skill than I when it comes to making food look good and photographing it well. (Really - all that time in photographing really should be spent scarfing down the fresh and yummy just cooked foodstuffs. It is agonizing.)

Cardamom Shortbread Cookies

2011-07-18T09:55:00.000-07:00

Quick post today to break up the parade of ice creams. Last week, Mother Humble came through the door and thrust a half eaten cookie at me, insisting I try it. She had been at the Bastille Café in Seattle earlier that day, enjoying some yummy french treats, including this rather ordinary looking cookie.

For whatever reason, my general ban on food--particularly half eaten sort--fished out of purses wasn't being rigorously enforced and I scarfed the cookie down.

While it was no science cookie (making a new batch soon!), I had to agree with her, it was quite good. Sandy, buttery, laced with cardamom and worth reproducing.

Read more »

Red Rose Raspberry Sorbet

2011-07-12T01:13:00.000-07:00

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

It is one in the morning and I'm up with my newborn. So why not wrap up a little blogging between feeding and bouncing, right? Today we have yet another frozen dessert and a particularly pretty one at that.

I absolutely love the combination of raspberry and rose, so a sorbet featuring those flavors seemed like a natural summer time choice for the blog.

Gorgeous, isn't it? Such an vibrant red it almost makes me want to double check the settings on my camera. This dessert isn't just pretty to look at, it velvety smooth and packs bright fresh raspberry flavor and the sweet fragrance of rose.

Milk & Honey Ice Cream

2011-07-10T16:58:00.000-07:00

Milk & Honey
Not just a metaphor for all things good

Believe it or not, I've actually gotten back into my cooking grove this month! I'm completely recovered from my cesarean and sitting on dozens of photographs of many yummy things. All I need to do is settle down at my laptop and do a little blogging.

Strawberry Rhubarb Mini Pies

2011-06-02T12:26:00.000-07:00

I'm back!

The littlest Humble was delivered--or extracted, depending on how you look at it since we had a c-section--last week. Both baby and myself are doing very well and I've been recovering at home.

Of course this means ample time at my laptop to blog, unfortunately I didn't count on the affect of sleepless nights coupled with hefty doses of prescription pain killers. When things are melting down the walls in your field of vision, you really start to second guess your ability to write anything. Yes, even at the semi-coherent level I tend to blather on this blog.

I'm far less drugged today so I'm going to give food blogging a shot. Our local farmers market has been flush with fresh rhubarb lately and apparently, even after all the lemon meringue madness, I'm not pie-d out.

So we've making pies! Again! Specifically, mini pies. Falling neatly into that smaller is always cuter approach to food.

Of course, if you're looking at the pies and thinking to yourself, nuh-uh way too fussy. No worries. No where will I demand you spend an hour forming mini pies in muffin cups. The strawberry rhubarb filling, spiked with orange zest and Grand Marnier is delicious even in the simpler, more rustic hand-pie form. So go ahead and shape/form them however you wish. Regardless of how they might look, they will taste great and be well worth making.

Lemon Meringue Pie

2011-05-15T16:31:00.000-07:00

After a long month's baking, we're tackling one of my favorite pies today: Lemon Meringue.

I learned how to bake this pie from my mother, who baked it frequently for my father--an ardent fan of lemon meringue. So much so in fact, that he jokes about ranking prospective brides based on their ability to execute the pie well.

Unfortunately, my mother made something we Humbles call "Lemon Meringue Pool". Tasty but structurally… well, a disaster (sorry mom). When served, the filling would be slack and form a puddle on the plate. Hence the name. I'd post photos of lemon meringue pool, but to save mom face I'll post a quick doodle of a sad pie that appears to have wet himself.

You get the idea.

The Art of Patience

2011-05-07T17:05:00.000-07:00

I know what everyone is thinking: Ms. Humble, due to being in her final month of pregnancy, is taking it easy with the baking and blogging. Actually, this isn't quite the case.

I've been engaged in some serious marathon baking and research trying to perfect a single dessert that has thwarted multiple generations of Humbles. This dessert is my ultimate baking nemesis (cue dramatic music here).

I've put weeks of work into this post. Including O-Chem level break downs and silly illustrations (like the confusing little doodle above) and of course, lots and lots of taste tests.

Note to Ms. Humble's OB: If my gestational blood sugar is shot, well this is why.

The end is in sight though, so bear with me. I have two weeks (from Monday, woohoo!) before this baby is here and I'm going to finish my last few rounds of baking and photographing.

Patience, I will update the blog soon! Who knows, it could be my magnum opus....

For me?! Thank you!

2011-04-19T14:40:00.000-07:00

Look at what I've just been handed by Mother Humble, fresh from her flight across the Atlantic. A gorgeous box of Ladurée Macarons.

What do you think... chill and slice up some of the world's best macarons? Give the macaron fanatic bakers out there a good visual idea of how these are done when they're done just right.

Who is interested? :)

Or, I could just eat them. Immediately.

Photos are ready! Cut them all up and not a gap to be found. Perfectly executed (didn't expect anything less). This is actually my first batch of professional macarons where I could not find even one gap or hollow when subjected to the Global knife test.

I'm going to post a few of the photos in full-res, that way any obsessive baker types can click them and get a better idea of the texture of matured macs (though a couple of these were a hair on the dry side for my own tastes). There are relatively few photos of actual matured macarons on the blog. I usually photograph them the same day I bake them, so this should be helpful.

Top left: Vanilla, Top right: Raspberry, Middle Right: Salted Caramel, Bottom Right: Rose

Salted Caramel & Rose

Raspberry & Vanilla

Pretty darn perfect, don't you think?

Enjoy the photos, I'm going to go enjoy the cookies now.

French Crullers with Honey-Sugar Glaze

2011-04-08T08:39:00.000-07:00

Crullers are such gorgeous donuts, I could snap photos of them all day with sticky fingers. That is... if they ever lasted that long around here.

Not only are they photogenic, they're not terribly difficult to make. Perfect for the absent minded pregnant lady who wants a sweet treat asap.

For those unfamiliar with French crullers, they're different than your average yeast or cake donut. French crullers are light, airy and eggy morsels of powdered or glazed dough. (I usually tell folks: If you like Dutch baby pancakes, you'll enjoy these too.) They don't pack the same bellyache inducing carbohydrate-wallop that other donuts do. Which is a good thing, until you find yourself helping yourself to a second and then a third...

French Lemon Poppy Seed Loaf

2011-04-04T14:25:00.000-07:00

Is it already April?!

Well, I'm wrapping up the final weeks of my pregnancy and I feel like a Weeble Wobble. Only I do fall down.

I've been devoting my energy towards getting things ready for the baby. Nesting, as many call it. One cannot deny the powerful hormonal urge to put things in absolute order. So I've been tearing up my house, reorganizing everything in sight and writing 'Honey-Do' lists that span pages. I've even been waddling around, cleaning the garage. Though, I suspect the newborn will spend little time in there.

The house looks great but I admit the kitchen has been neglected, logging only two baking sessions this month. I've had to fulfill my cravings with store bought treats. (Mr. Humble wants me to admit publicly that I threatened to kill Mr. Stinky, our sourdough starter, if he didn't bring me home chocolates one day after work. As they say, desperate times call for…) Though, I admit that I should probably knock that off, since store bought treats can be sub-par.

I had the most terrible eclair last week. How does one mess up choux, anyway? Hard, crunchy eclairs? Why, why!?

Anyway, I've been keeping up on the blog-work, but not doing a lot of posting. I may have some help here soon though, blogging and otherwise. We've had some big news in the Humble family: Mother Humble is hanging up her English Wellies and moving across the pond to sunny, tropical Seattle. We expect her here in two weeks and she has promised to lend a hand, as I will be recovering from a caesarean next month. She has also expressed some interest in doing a little guest food blogging on NSHP.

Mother Humble is a terrific cook and someone who I credit for much of my comfort in the kitchen. I'm pretty excited about her posting. She may prove more entertaining than myself, since she has a rather quirky streak in her nature. Whatever she posts, it will likely be delicious and help relieve some of the lulls we've been experiencing while I'm down and out from babies.

So enough updating as to my status, let's get down to the food!

Cinnamon Rolls With Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting

2011-03-04T12:01:00.000-08:00

Happy Friday everyone!

Sorry for my lengthy post-valentines day hiatus. The third trimester has made me a little slow in the kitchen and I've had my hands full with family. Like my mother, who was in town last week and thinks a day at the spa is a better use of my time than baking (hey, I'm not going to argue). Then we had Mr. Humble's laptop crashing and needing to be resurrected after the latest Windows 7 service pack, something that makes the Mac user in me smirk with smug hipster superiority.

Mr. Humble (and his laptop) were necessary for today's post, since we're using one of his bread recipes. A recipe I've been begging... scratch that, demanding he make in recent weeks. You see, I've had some pretty crazy pregnant woman cravings for all things creamy. Cheesecakes, eclairs, cream puffs, donuts, and cinnamon rolls topped with pillows of creamy goodness. Knowing that Mr. Humble's soft, tender enriched white dough makes a beautiful cinnamon roll, I lobbied hard.

Of course, once I actually got my wish for a pan of delicious freshly made cinnamon rolls, I spent more time eating them than photographing them. Thus all I have to accompany this post is a bunch of photos of minimally-staged cinnamon rolls that are in the process of being eaten.

True Love: A Human Heart Cupcake

2011-02-10T10:04:00.000-08:00

That's cake!

I saw this and absolutely had to share it with everyone. Lily Vanilli is supporting young people with cancer and delighting scientists, geeks and deranged woodsmen everywhere by baking special bleeding heart shaped cupcakes this Valentines day.

"Scarily realistic, each edible heart cake is baked with a delicious red velvet sponge, cream cheese frosting and blackcurrant cherry 'blood'. A single ʻbleeding heart cakeʼ is priced at £7 and comes in a cute perspex box tied with apink or red ribbon with a personal note."

The cake is available exclusively through their website and 20% of the proceeds go directly to charity.

For those of us in love with the idea of baking up bits of anatomy for loved ones, Lily Vanilli provides instructions on their blog. Doesn't sound too difficult, right? How about a gallbladder cupcake? Or a Kidney? Yum yum.

Whatever you do though, don't eat your bleeding heart cake like this guy (Warning: graphic cake consumption. I love the cake but I'm now a little scared of Tim Wheeler). Well you can, but I'm not certain you'll earn many points with your significant other on Valentines day--unless they're a zombie.

My Picks For Re-Inventing the Lamington 2011!

2011-02-07T22:41:00.000-08:00

Mr P's Beautiful Peanut Butter Chocolate Fudge Lamingtons

Those of you who follow Mr. P's blog Delicious Delicious Delicious may be aware that he is hosting his second Re-Inventing the Lamington Contest and I am taking part as a member of the judges panel.

It was thanks to Mr. P's Lamington contest last year that I discovered the delicious Australian snack cake, the Lamington. I also discovered, that with all their dipping and coating, lamingtons are the kiss of death to any fresh cleaned kitchen. I love all the entries and have the utmost respect for all the effort--and cleaning--that all the bakers put forth for this contest.

So, I spent a good part of my weekend going over the Lamington ideas submitted to Mr. P and weighing the merits of each.

I also relied heavily on my ability to lick my laptop's computer screen and taste photos of food--one of my many very special super powers.

So, after wiping the drool off my Macbook's keyboard, I settled on three ideas that appealed to me the most.