Pegleg Penny's Test Kitchen

The 2010 Croissant Experience

2010-08-22T16:59:00.001-05:00

So this post was started in June…we are now towards the second half of August. I am SO sorry for the delay. Summer has a way of getting away from you and has a tendency to be over programmed, overly relaxing, and focused entirely on sunshine, water sports, and adventures. (All things I’ve been busy with, not to mention it’s been entirely too hot to turn on the oven.) So without further ado, my first post in months…I hope to get back on the horse!

As many of you know Top Chef is one of my favorite programs on TV. It’s got a great balance of reality based TV drama and creative cooking. Not only am I fascinated with how these Chef’s minds work, but the plating skills and the fan fare of the food leave me salivating and the wheels in my head turning.

Top Chef Finale Party circa 2007

Recently we experienced the Top Chef Masters Finale. I find Top Chef Masters even more interesting than regular Top Chef because the caliber of cooking is out of this world and the precision is just amazing. In the finale, the final meal the Chefs have to cook for the judges is 3 courses – 1^st course represents their first food memory, 2^nd course represents what propelled them to be a chef, and 3^rd course is indicative of their food point of view.

The way we were raised, a lot of my memories are food infused. Family dinner happened every night at our house as well as spending tons of hours in our Abuelita’s kitchen when we were kids. But the thing I looked forward to every week when we were kids was the weekends. It wasn’t because we sometimes ordered pizza for dinner or because we had big family breakfasts where my mom broke out the waffle iron or made delicious omelet like scrambled eggs (that I still can’t replicate), but because we would run errands with my Papi (spanish for dad) on Saturday or Sundays. These errands would consist of buying the newspaper, going to the butcher, AND going to the bakery. The bakery was my favorite part. We would get fresh French bread, fresh rolls, cookies, croissants, fancy pastries; the possibilities and combinations were endless. When I was really little (4,5,6) I there were two items I would always pick from as my treat. One was the star shaped shortbread cookie, dusted with powdered sugar, with a pink, hard glazed icing dot in the center. They were delicious! I would eat all the star’s points first and then eat the center part with the pink icing last (it was the best part). The other one was Madeline’s half dipped in chocolate. Generally I ate the exposed cookie part first and saved the chocolate end for last. (There’s a little bit of a theme here.)

As I got older, my favorites changed. I outgrew the cookie stage and began to crave something heartier from the Panaderia (Spanish for bakery). This may have been due to a palate change, but my best guess is that as I grew older and bigger, one little star cookie and a hunk of French bread would not fill me up for a morning of errands. That’s when I discovered the magic of Croissants, cheese filled Croissants to be exact.

My addiction to croissants began probably around the age of 8. It began being the thing I looked forward to the most about the weekend. I always eat the ends first, because they’re always a little crisper and a little less flaky and the cheese was generally more towards the middle. Sure I would switch it up sometimes, getting a donut or a mini fruit tart, but as much as I tried to convince myself these were the items I wanted to eat, they never left me as satisfied or as pleased as the croissant did.

Croissants are still one of my favorite breakfast pastries. When I spent a week in the UK and Paris, I had Pain au Chocolat for breakfast EVERY DAY! (I was on vacation after all.) When I’m having a bad morning or am just hungry for something different for breakfast, I stop and buy a croissant. If I’m at a restaurant and can order my sandwich on croissant, I will, even if it then becomes a slightly smaller sandwich or has a premium cost. Croissants are bakery Mecca to me.

But croissants are a little pricey. So I got it into my head that I was going to make my own. I had checked out a recipe in Joy of Cooking several years ago and found it incredibly daunting. Croissants were way more serious that I thought. There was no way I was ready for them or could even wrap my head around how to create this flaky, soft, half moons of goodness. Flash forward to 2010, if I can master a hidden flan and make red velvet cakes from scratch – I’m going to make croissants.

So I set aside an entire day off (really – it took me 12 + hours) and got to work. It took one failed attempt to finally gain success. I made chocolate, cheese, and plain croissants and they were good, but they weren’t the same as bakery ones. I was a little disappointed in the texture, they tasted like a flakier Pillsbury crescent rolls, but still closer to a Pillsbury crescent roll than anything else. However, they were good and they were edible and I proved to myself that I am able to make them.

So here are the burning lessons from the croissant experience of 2010:

Will I ever make them again? Maybe in 2011, but not in 2010. And only if I have multiple days off in a row – they were exhausting.

How much money did you actually save? None (especially because I had a bad batch). With the time and energy I could have bought myself a croissant from the bakery, enjoyed it, and done something far more exciting with my day.

Are you glad you made them? Yes, because I like pain. I also like to prove to myself that I can do very difficult things and once I set my mind to it, I don’t give up until I have some sort of acceptable result.

How many people thought you were crazy? Every single person I know.

Would you suggest the masses make these? If you’re dedicated and you want a challenge, try them. If you want to enjoy your time in the kitchen and do not want to start cussing out the rolling pin, make something different. Mad props to those who want to make them – the reward is there, I’m just not sure it balances out with the work.

What did you get out of this? A nice little arm workout from rolling out dough a million times.

Best, most important lesson? If you want to try the croissants – good luck, but don't call me asking for help. If you want to take me out for a croissant – I will gladly accept.

Croissants – Recipe adapted from Epicurious

Ingredients for the dough:

1 ½ cup – heated whole milk (105-110 degrees F)

¼ cup – light brown sugar

1TBSP + ¼ tsp – active dry yeast (2 – ¼ oz packages)

3 ¾ cup – all purpose flour

1 TBSP – kosher salt

3 sticks – unsalted butter, cold

Dough:

Heat the milk in a small saucepan watching the temperature reading with a pastry thermometer. Stir together the heated milk, brown sugar, and yeast in the bowl of a stand up mixer. Let it stand in the mixer until it’s foamy (about 5 minutes). Add 3 ¾ cups of flour and salt and mix with the dough hook at low speed until it’s smooth and soft (about 7 minutes).

Knead the dough by hand for two minutes on a very slightly floured surface. The dough should be soft and slightly sticky. Form the dough into a 1 ½” thick rectangle, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for one hour in the refrigerator.

Butter:

After the dough has chilled for an hour, arrange the three sticks of butter horizontally, on top of a large piece of parchment paper on your work surface. Make sure the sides of the butter are touching each other. Put another piece of parchment paper on top of the butter, so it’s in a parchment paper sandwich. Give the butter a couple pounds to soften it a little. Alternate between pounding and rolling the butter. (The butter’s cold so it’s pretty hard. You have to put a little muscle into it.) As the butter is pounded and rolled it becomes a little softer and starts to blend itself together. Keep pounding and rolling until you create one large ‘slab’ of butter in the form of an 8” x 5” rectangle. Take the butter, in it’s parchment sandwich, and chill it in the fridge while you’re rolling out the dough.

Roll Out One:

Unwrap the dough and roll it out on a lightly floured surface. In a combination of rolling and stretching (like pizza dough), roll it out until it’s a 16” x 10” rectangle. (I used a t-square, sharpie marker, and piece of parchment to make a 16” x 10” guide for myself. I wasn’t able to get it to the exact size, but I got it close enough.)

Move the dough so on of the 10” sides is facing you. Get the butter out of the fridge and remove it from it’s parchment sandwich. Place the butter in the center of the dough with the 8” side facing you. Fold the dough into thirds over the butter (like you would fold a letter). Brush off the excess flour with a pastry brush.

Roll Out Two:

Immediately, turn the dough so the short side is facing you. Flatten the dough slightly by pressing the rolling pin horizontally across the dough. Roll the dough into a 15” x 10” rectangle. When you’re rolling, roll just to, but not over the ends. Roll applying equal pressure, but gently so you don’t tear the dough. If butter starts to pop up through the dough, stretch some dough over it to cover it up. Brush off the excess flour with a pastry brush.

Fold the dough into thirds again (like a letter). Stretch the corners so that it froms a 10” x 5” rectangle. Securely wrap the dough in plastic wrap – wrap it tight – and place the dough in the refrigerator for an hour (or the freezer for 20 minutes if you’re impatient like I am).

Roll Out Three, Four, and Five:

Roll the dough out three more times into a 15” x 10” rectangle. Fold it into thirds, like a letter. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour between roll outs (or freeze for 20 minutes).

Croissanting and Shaping:

After the dough has been rolled out the fifth time and has chilled for the appropriate amount of time, remove the dough from the refrigerator or freezer and cut the dough in half. Keep one half on the counter to work with, the other half, wrap in plastic wrap and stick in the refrigerator while you work. (You’ll be able to see the flaky layers from all you’ve rolled out and folded.) (This dough will be called Chill Master.)

On a slightly floured surface, roll out and stretch the dough to create a 16” x 12” rectangle. Brush off the excess flour with a pastry brush and trim the edges with a pizza wheel (or sharp knife) to make it perfectly rectangular. The 12” side of the dough should be facing you. Cut the dough in half horizontally and chill one half of the dough while you’re working with the first half. (This chilled dough will be called Chill Minor.) With the remaining half of the dough, cut it vertically into thirds making rectangles (each section should be 4” wide x 8” high). Cut each rectangle diagonally making 2 triangles (you’ll have six triangles total).

Hold the short side of the triangle in your hand (the side opposite the point). Stretch the dough enough to elongate the point about 50%. Return the triangle to the work surface with the short side facing you. Roll up the triangle towards the point. The dough should overlap three times, as you’re rolling stretch and work the dough. The point should be on the underside of the croissant. Put croissants point side down on a parchment lined baking sheet and give them a little crescent shape. Arrange the croissants 2” apart. Do the same process with the other half of the dough (Chill Minor).

To make them cheesy: When you’re rolling the triangle of dough, place a hunk of cheese on the short end before you roll the triangle towards the point. Make sure that the ends of the dough are sealed. I used hunks of mild cheddar from a brick of cheese.

Rising:

Slide the baking sheets into an unscented garbage back. Tent the garbage bag by placing a glass in the middle of the baking sheet so the plastic doesn’t touch the dough. Tuck the open end of the back under the baking sheet to create a sealed environment. Let the croissants rise for 2-2.5 hours.

Baking:

Adjust the racks in your oven to the upper and lower 3rds. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Remove the baking sheets from the plastic bags. Spritz inside the oven with water and close the oven door. (I didn’t have a spritzer so I just sprinkled water in the oven.) Once the oven reaches 425 degrees again, put the croissants in, spritz the oven again, and reduce the heat to 400 degrees. Bake the croissants for 8 minutes WITHOUT opening the oven door. After 8 minutes, switch the baking sheets positions in the oven (top to bottom) and rotate the sheets 180 degrees. Reduce the temperature again to 375 degrees and bake and additional 8 minutes. If you want them a little crisper in color bake a couple minutes more. Remove the baking sheets from the oven. Let the croissants cool on the pan – don’t touch them until they are completely cool.

Croissanting and Shaping for Pain au Chocolat:

So you still have Chill Master in the fridge after all of this. You can either make more plain or cheesy croissants or you can try your hand at Pain au Chocolats.

Roll the dough out on a slightly floured surface into an 18”x10” rectangle. Cut the dough vertically and horizontally into 4ths (creating 16 - 4.5” x 2.5” rectangles).

For the chocolate I used two Symphony bars and for each Pain I used two of the small rectangles from the Symphony bars. Place the chocolate along the short side of the rectangle (about ¾” from the edge).

Roll the dough up around the chocolate, stretching the dough as you’re rolling it. Place the Pain, seam side down on a parchment lined baking sheet. Arrange 2” apart on the baking sheet.

Tent and let the Pain’s rise 2-2.5 hours. Use the same baking timing, temperatures, and methods as the regular croissants.

Disaster time:

So the original recipe said that you might need to add a little more flour to the dough once you’ve pulled it out of the mixer. My gut told me I didn’t need more flour, but I put more flour in anyway. The dough lost its soft, sticky texture. It felt dried out and lacked the smoothness that you see with other dough’s (you want it to resemble pizza dough). Adding too much flour made the dough very hard to roll out and it kept coming apart in chunks and had no elasticity. It wasn’t feasible to do more than even one roll out on this dough. So I just cut the dough into chunks, let it rise, and baked it. They came out like biscuits. Not terrible, but you could taste a little of the yeast, still salvageable.

Just typing all of this made me tired and if you got this far in reading it - kudos.

Mess is S'more

2010-06-11T00:48:00.001-05:00

Everyone looks to find their place in life; what feels right, what works, what you enjoy, what you love. This applies to both the professional and personal aspects of one’s life. You go through life making choices to build upon and to get things moving and shaking. I’ve been an “adult” now for almost ten years (really hard to stomach and really scary) and I’m still searching. I haven’t found my niche in any aspect of my personal or professional life, but at the very least I rent a cute apartment, in a Stanley Cup toting city, I hang out with my awesome friends, have sweet adventures with my Kitchenaid mixer, I was published in ReadyMade magazine this year, and summer has finally arrived.

I am extremely grateful for what I have been given, earned, and figured out. I know people who have found their niche in life and I’m incredibly jealous because sometimes I feel like it’s staring me right in the face I could reach out and kiss it, but it’s not in the form of a boyfriend or anything remotely decipherable. It’s a complete tease and a total bummer. It may not be time for me to grab the brass ring just yet, but one day it will be.

And now this is starting to sound like a Jewel poetry reading gone awry. But there is one light at the end of the tunnel I’ve been able to master, one niche I can truly call my own and with it, my life, is infinitely more complete and that is S’mores.

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I haven’t had just a minor romantic connection with S’mores – we have had a full blown love affair. There have been casualties (store bought marshmallows are out) and there have been adventures (remember when I was a S’more for Halloween?) and through the highs and lows we’ve remained true to each other.

I have a group of girlfriends from college and I would say we have a similar relationship and bond, just like my bond with S’mores. Some of them have found their spots in different aspects of their lives, others are trying out new roles (mother, wife, girlfriend) and we all learn from each other and we’re all there for each other. We’re not the Sex and the City girls, any of the Real Housewives, or that Red Hat Club. (And I am WAY happy for that.) We have a secret handshake, but that’s only because we were in the same sorority in college. After ten years of friendship, our relationship has become a handy go to recipe when you have a last minute appetizer you have to make for a party.

So we get together, at the very least, on a monthly basis and have girl talk and martinis and hang out. It’s great because they know things about me that other friends don’t and we’ve all known each other through our crazy times, bad boyfriends, good boyfriends, mean girl phases, and all day drinking marathons. Every spring we have a special girl’s night, complete with desserts, specialty drinks (mango bombs, blueberry vodka), pizza (or some other kind of unhealthy, delicious fast food), girl talk, and this year a fabulous trip to the martini bar Blue Stem. (Lefko at Blue Stem does for martini’s what I do for S’mores. She is a phenomenal mixer and an all around character.)

So I hang out with a group of pretty awesome and special ladies and this year, having promised my friend, Nicole, a S’more dessert (S’mores are her favorite too!) I created the S’more of all S’mores for them – S’mores Tart. I based if off the S’more pie I had at Uncommon Ground over a year ago and took bits and pieces from different things I’ve made in the past. S’more Tart was a success at the sleep over. The homemade marshmallows really hit the spot and I fell in love all over again with S’mores. I was so happy with them I made S’mores Pies for a work event.

In my opinion, you can’t make a bad S’more. I also think it’s the only acceptable kind of messy out there. So experiment, have fun with them. Who cares if you haven’t found your perfect perch in life, S’more somehow make it all better and serve as a reminder that everyone’s path is different, you can be in more than one figurative place at once, S’mores still taste as good the 30^th time around as they did the first, but it’s the friends you share them with that make them taste even better!

S’mores Tart

Ingredients:

Building Blocks Marshmallows – ½ a batch will cover one tart

Crust:

1 ½ cup – graham cracker crumbs

1 stick – unsalted butter, melted

¼ cup – sugar

Chocolate Filling:

1 ¼ cup – heavy cream

9 oz – semisweet chocolate, chopped

2 – large eggs

1 tsp – wonder flavor or vanilla extract

¼ tsp – salt

Directions:

Crust:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, stir together the graham cracker crumbs, butter, and sugar until combined. Pour the crust mixture into an 11” tart pan. With a cold metal measuring cup press the graham cracker mixture evenly along the bottom of the pan and up the sides. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes. (The crust will be a little thick and crumbly.) Let the crust cool completely before filling it.

Chocolate Filling:

Keep the oven heated at 350 degrees.

Place the chopped chocolate in a medium heat proof bowl and set aside. Pour the cream into a small pot and set over a burner on low heat until the cream begins to boil. Once it begins to boil, remove it from the heat and pour it over the chocolate. Let the cream/chocolate mixture stand for 5 minutes without stirring. After 5 minutes, gently stir the mixture until smooth. In a separate bowl whisk together the eggs, wonder flavor, and salt. Stir the egg mixture into the chocolate mixture. Pour the filling into the cooled graham cracker crust.

Bake the tart 20-25 minutes or until the filling is set on the edges, but a little wobbly on the inside.

Assembly:

If serving right away: This dessert is best served warm. As soon as the tart comes out of the oven place the marshmallows right on top of the tart. Squeeze them in there, the more marshmallows the better.

If serving later: Do not put the marshmallows on right away, you don’t want them to get stale, but wait until you’re ready to serve the tart.

Fire up a pastry torch and burn the marshmallows to the desired char. (Great party trick!) If you don’t have a pastry torch, turn on your oven’s broiler and place the tart in the oven to brown the marshmallows. Keep an eye on them, you don’t want them to burn too badly.

Wrap up and substitutions:

As I said, this dessert is best served warm. If you can heat the chocolate up and graham cracker up in the oven a little before putting the marshmallows on and then torch the marshmallows, it’s perfection. I kept the crust a little thick and flaky because the graham cracker crumbs find the sticky marshmallow and chocolate and it’s easier to achieve the perfect bite through out the entire dessert. It also keeps with the Mess is S’mores idea.

For this recipe I used pre-crumbed Graham Crackers. I had no idea they made them already in crumb form. They're a little more expensive than pulsing them in the food processor yourself, but it makes it really easy and less hardware to clean, which is a bonus.

It can be a pain to cut through the sticky marshmallows, so try using a warm, damp knife (which may or may not work awesomely), but just be patient, it’s worth the stick and mess. However, once the marshmallows cool it is really difficult to cut through them (or if they’ve been in the fridge for a while), so keep that in mind.

In the fridge, S’more tart keeps for over a week. It’s a great reward after a long day. Heat it up in the microwave and it’s heaven. Just be aware that in the microwave the marshmallows become a little runny and lose their shape.

If you don’t have a tart pan handy you can for sure make it into a S’more pie. This recipe will make 2- 8” pies. Because they’re a little smaller they only need to be in the oven for about 15 minutes, but keep an eye on them because every oven is different.

If you’re crunched for time or just lazy – you can substitute the store bought marshmallows for the real deal. However, just one time, try them – they will change your life.

Building Blocks: Marshmallows

2010-06-01T00:04:00.000-05:00

The Basics…

When you’re a kid you’re given the foundation to make a life for yourself. These include, but are not limited to: basic math, vocabulary, reading skills. Everything else will follow once you have these. When it comes to basics, I’m a little lacking. Sure I’m a very capable reader and writer, but give me math and you’re giving me death.

I know how to balance my checkbook, which in the big picture is a pretty good accomplishment since I know some people who don’t. But I am for sure one of those kids that needs a calculator at their fingertips to get things done. I even double-check my basic addition and subtraction, because lets face it, nothing is worse than second guessing your math skills. If I had grown up before hand held calculators were the norm, I know I would have been in some serious trouble. Not to mention, I don’t think that the abacus is as easy at it sounds, there has to be a trick question in there somewhere.

The first failure I had with math (and I have had many since) was in 3^rd grade. We were studying our multiplication tables as most 3^rd graders do. I was doing really well with the 1’s, 2’s, and 3’s. I worked on flashcards at home in my free time. I practiced and tried to memorize, but then the 4’s came around. For some reason the 4’s were the most difficult of them all. Everyone had moved on to 6’s and I was still stuck on 4’s. For my 3^rd grade mind it was unbelievably difficult and incredibly embarrassing (at 8 years old, most things are embarrassing). Somehow I got through to 5’s and 6’s, only to get stuck on 8’s (of course 4 is their root). So to say I excelled in basic math would be a flat out lie.

I did end up getting through it and passing 3^rd grade math, although I still struggle with my 4’s and 8’s when multiplying in my head. Then came calculus in high school. I tried really hard to understand it and do well in it. Not to mention I loved the bowling game I had on my TI-83 calculator, but calculus was not for me. Once again, not the highlight of my academic career, but I ended up passing.

In the same vein, I’m really good at algebra concepts. Give me back yard and I WANT to calculate its area. Show me a circle and I can’t help but figure out its circumference. Once again, further proof that I have a beyond nerdy side (luckily I’m well adjusted). Blame my background in landscape, but the reality is, for some reason, I just “get” it better than any other mathematical concept.

My set of basic skills is a little skewed.

My set of basic skills in the kitchen is a little skewed as well. I take the time to make these elaborate desserts and meals, but at the end of the day I still don’t know how to cook rice. (I know – such a bummer, it always burns.) However, I have mastered a basic skill that looks and seems difficult, but is in fact REALLY easy. So easy I’ve made them four times since I first attempted them.

Marshmallows may seem a little daunting. When you’re used to the preconceived notion of Jet Puffed or Campfire marshmallows – toss that idea out the window. I’m not going to lie, there’s something incredibly pleasurable about the outer staleness of a store bought marshmallow and the stringy, sticky inside that clings to the roof of your mouth and the grittiness of the sugar that sticks to your teeth.

According to Wikipedia, here’s the basic math on marshmallows:

“According to the National Confectioners Association, Americans spend more than $125 million annually for upwards of 90 million pounds of marshmallow, a mass equivalent to 1,286 gray whales.”

Now that’s a lot of S’mores. I got the idea to make my own marshmallows when I wanted to make a S’more Tart for my friend Nicole’s belated birthday present. If I was going to make her a special birthday treat, it was not going to be made with store bought marshmallows. That would just be too easy.

So I hit the books, or more accurately the World Wide Web and found a recipe.

Since developing my S’mores tart I’ve made four batches of these puppies. I’ve flavored them, I’ve unflavored them, I’ve dipped them in chocolate and no matter which way you look at them, they happen to be DELICIOUS! (Next I’m going to dye them!)

They’re still marshmallows, so they’re messy and sticky, BUT once you get the hang of them, they’re easy and rewarding. So we’re going to start with basic marshmallows and then in the next post we’ll hit up some S’mores pie.

Once you’ve got the foundation of marshmallows down, you’ll be able to conquer anything in the kitchen!

Homemade Marshmallows

Ingredients:

1 cup – Cold water

3 envelopes + ½ tsp – Unflavored gelatin

2 cups – Sugar

2/3 cup – Light corn syrup

¼ tsp – Salt

2 tsp – Wonder Flavor or Vanilla Extract or any sort of flavoring

About 1 cup – Powdered Sugar (give or take)

Directions:

Line a 13”x9”x2” rectangular, metal pan with tin foil. Coat the tin foil with non-stick cooking spray.

Connect the whisk attachment to your mixer. In the bowl of your mixer pour ½ cup of cold water. Sprinkle the gelatin over the water and let it stand in the mixer until all the water is absorbed.

In a heavy, medium sized saucepan, combine the sugar, corn syrup, salt, and remaining ½ cup of cold water. Constantly stir the sugar mixture over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. (It’s ready when the mixture starts to simmer.)

Attach a candy thermometer to the side of the saucepan. Make sure the tip of the thermometer doesn’t touch the bottom of the pan.

Increase the heat over the sugar mixture, bringing it to a boil. Do not stir the sugar once you’ve increased the heat. Keep an eye on the thermometer until the sugar mixture reaches the “soft ball” stage/240°F. (It takes about 8 minutes.)

Once it reaches the softball stage, turn your mixer on at low speed. Take the sugar mixture off the heat and slowly pour the hot syrup into the gelatin mixture in a thin stream down the side of the bowl, while the mixer is running. (When the gelatin mixes with the hot syrup it smells kind of funny, but that’s normal.)

Gradually increase the mixer’s speed to high (I make 6 the top number on the Kitchen Aid). Beat the mixture until it’s thick and stiff, about 8 minutes after all the syrup has been added to the gelatin. The marshmallow should be pulling away from the sides of the bowl. Add the flavoring to the marshmallow mixture and beat to blend.

Carefully scrape the marshmallow into the prepared pan. Do it quickly, because the longer you wait the stringier and stickier the fluff gets. Smooth the top with a slightly wet spatula (run the spatula under warm water and dab it dry with a towel). Let the marshmallows stand uncovered until firm (at least four hours). I kept mine out for the night and they were fine. I wouldn’t keep them uncovered for a day, but 8 hours seemed fine.

To cut the marshmallows:

Sift powdered sugar onto a clean work surface (I covered my work surface with parchment paper and then sifted onto it since it is a little messy when it sticks to counter tops). The powdered sugar helps keep the marshmallows from sticking to everything. Dump the marshmallows onto the surface and peel off the foil. Sift powdered sugar onto the top of the marshmallows. Using a damp knife (same principal as the wet spatula), coat the knife with powdered sugar. (This helps with the cutting so it’s not a super sticky mess.) Cut the marshmallows into squares (as big or as small as you’d like). Once cut, make sure to coat the sides that are still sticky with a little powdered sugar. I like to bang them together to get the excess powdered sugar off of them. Make sure to store them in an airtight container/Tupperware of some sort.

To cover in chocolate:

Using a double boiler, melt about 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips. You’re going to have to scoop the chocolate onto the marshmallows with the help of a rubber spatula or spoon. Set the chocolate covered marshmallows on top of parchment paper until the chocolate sets. After the chocolate has set store them in an airtight container. If it’s hot, store them in the fridge so the chocolate doesn’t melt.

(My sister/kitchen assistant, Sissy Sifter (as we like to call her - all her swashbuckling names sounds too porn star-y), had the brilliant idea to cover the marshmallows in chocolate for our Mom's birthday. This part was her entirely her trial. It was her work that made them happen. Plus she was a fantastic helper and a great extra set of hands. She can wield a knife with the best of them!)

Wrap up and Substitutions:

At first I thought marshmallows were going to be scary and a level 10 on the trickiness scale. I was also nervous they would taste really processed and "fake", but this recipe is light, airy, and fantastically sweet. I don’t think I will ever purchase a store bought marshmallow again. I made a batch where I stuck them in foil lined heart molds and they were awesome! I accidentally forgot to add the flavoring in one batch, and while they weren’t as sweet, they were still tasty!

There are a couple things I’ve learned with the different trials and hopefully they help make yours a success:

- Go easy on the cooking spray when you are spraying the foil. If there’s too much spray they get a little greasy and too powdered sugary.

- It was hard to figure out how much gelatin to use. I used Knox's Unflavored Gelatin (and I have an entire box of little individual envelopes). Each Gelatin envelope is 1 TBSP/1 ounce, so I used three entire envelopes and a 1/2 teaspoon of the fourth. I went through a lot of experimentation trying to figure that out and it's the ratio that works best.

- Get wild with the flavors! Peppermint marshmallows sound fantastic (especially for the holidays)!

- You will waste a little powdered sugar. It’s hard knowing when to say when with it because you want to make sure the marshmallows are coated so they’re not super sticky, but you don’t want them caked in sugar where your mouth turns white from the excess. So really try to tap them together or against your cutting surface to get the extra off before you store them.

- These marshmallows crisp up awesomely under an open flame. I was worried as to how they were going to hold up when encountering fire, but they are fantastic!

The Cheesecake Stands Alone

2010-05-10T00:48:00.002-05:00

My mom took piano lessons for the greater part of her childhood. I don’t quite remember how or exactly when our family managed to get a piano at our house, but we did. I assume it was so my mom could play and my dad could jam with her on the drums. I can’t be sure, but I think in mine and in my sister’s minds we were setting up to be the family version of Miami Sound Machine and we were going to put on awesome shows with hits like Dr. Beat and Conga.

We had always had a little keyboard from the 80’s that played the tinny, programmed melodies, that kind of sounded like music, but also like the background noise in an intense game of Tetris. Our new piano was electric and you could change the setting and it played organ sounds or flute like sounds, but it was full size and had a body. There was a thud beneath the keys when you slammed on them that could not be recreated with the keyboard. It was the real deal. That little, crappy Casio was awesome for Miami Sound Machine recreations, this new and improved real piano was possibly going to legitimize our singing adventures and rocket us into stardom. Well, even that’s a little far fetched for my imagination, but it would have been great if it had happened that way.

Once we got the piano, my mom started tinkering at it regularly and playing what I like to call “Saturday Morning Music”, which is Beatles, Elton John, Billy Joel, etc (basically Singers and Songwriters of the 70’s). Once there was a piano in the house, a sing a long atmosphere developed with my mom running to play a song to accurately finish a story, or hit a punch line, or provide the soundtrack for that specific moment in time. She was excited about her new toy! I like being able to do things with my mom and in figuring the piano out I kind of taught myself how to read music and how to follow the notes.

I was not a baby Mozart; in no way, shape, or form was I even close to being a prodigy. It was more fine tuned memorization and fudging. I could always play the top part of the music, but trying to get my right and left hands to play in sync and together never really worked out well. I’m not sure if it was too much to concentrate on or if my left hand was just stubborn because my right hand always got the attention or what, but my skill level never really progressed. Don’t even ask about the pedals, there was no way I was ever throwing a foot into the mix with two uncoordinated hands.

That’s when my mom decided we should have real lessons.

Real lessons were exciting at first, but then proved to be a little too mundane. Our teacher was very nice and came to our house and was young and cool, but lessons meant a set schedule, a set time, set things to practice, and in many ways a structured challenge. We stuck with it for a while, but it lacked the loose environment that we had before. The tunes we were learning (if you could even call them that) were boring, children’s rhymes and had a sing a long level of zero. Not to mention, the odds were not in favor of my child-sized hands and once the music started getting complicated my fingers couldn’t stretch to hit the right keys.

Needless to say piano lessons may have been doomed from the start in our household. However, it was always a fun part of our evening family ritual and I think a sort of decompression outlet for my mom. And in spite of my piano struggles I still carry some things with me: I still know how to play the Russian Dance from the Nutcracker Ballet on the piano, I learned all the words to ‘As Time Goes By’ from Casablanca, and I will never forget the soundtrack my mom played for me when I was dating my first real boyfriend – 'Daniel', by Elton John. (Who, strangely enough, did end up ‘traveling tonight on a plane’, but that was long after we had broken up.)

You may be asking yourself what this ridiculous piano story has to do with cheesecake and the reality is very little to absolutely nothing. As you all know from my previous post I am not a cheesecake fan. But in the same way I taught myself the piano, I feel with this second attempt at cheesecakes I am now comfortable with cheesecake. With a little methodical thinking, anything can happen. (Except for the recreation of Miami Sound Machine’s greatest hits; I think that only got worse the more times we tried to make it right.) So when asked for another cheesecake I gladly accepted the challenge and made something fantastic, beautiful, complex, and edible.

German Chocolate Cheesecake

Crust: (adapted from Hershey's Kitchens)

1 cup – ground Chocolate Teddy Grahams crumbs

2 TBSP – sugar

1/3 cup – unsalted butter, melted

¼ cup – coconut flakes

¼ cup – pecan chips

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease, with cooking spray, a 9” spring form pan. In a bowl, stir to combine, the graham cracker crumbs and sugar. Next add the butter, coconut, and pecans to the crumb mixture and stir until combined. Press into the bottom of the spring form pan and using a cold, metal measuring cup, push the crumb mixture up the sides of the spring form pan about 1”. Place the crust in the oven and bake for 5 minutes until it is pretty set.

Filling: (adapted from Bon Appetit, October 2006)

4 – 8 oz packages of cream cheese, softened

1 cup – sugar

¼ cup – unsweetened cocoa powder

1 TBSP – vanilla extract

4 – eggs

8 oz – semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled

Directions:

Keep the oven temperature at 350 degrees. Melt your chocolate in a double boiler and set aside to cool. In the bowl of your mixer blend the cream cheese, cocoa, and sugar together until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, making sure that each egg is incorporated into the batter before adding the next egg. Mix in the vanilla. Add the lukewarm chocolate and mix until combined. Pour the batter over the crust and bake until the edges are set and the center is still a little wobbly. About 1 hour. Allow cheesecake to cool before adding the topping.

Custard Topping: (adapted from David Lebovitz)

½ cup – heavy whipping cream

½ cup – sugar

3 TBSP – unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

2 – egg yolks

¼ tsp – salt

½ cup – pecans, toasted and finely chopped

¾ cup – coconut, toasted

Directions:

To toast the coconut and pecans: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with foil. Put the pecans on one side of the cookie sheet and the coconut on the other. Place in the oven for about ten minutes. The coconut and pecans will start to brown a little.

For the topping: In a medium saucepan, combine the heavy cream, sugar, and egg yolks. In a medium bowl combine the butter, salt, coconut, and pecans.

Heat the cream mixture over medium/low heat stirring constantly. The mixture will start to cook and thicken. Once the mixture coats the spoon (or the thermometer reaches 170 degrees), turn the heat off and pour the hot custard over the pecan, coconut, and butter mixture. Stir the custard until the butter has completely melted and the custard is smooth. Cool the custard completely before pouring over the top of the cheesecake.

Cheesecake Assembly:

Once the cheesecake and custard topping are both cool, pour the custard topping over the cheesecake. Take a small handful of chocolate chips and seal them in a Ziploc baggie. Microwave them for 20 seconds squeeze the bag to help move the melted chocolate. Continue to microwave in 20 second increments until the chocolate in the plastic baggie is completely melted. Snip the corner off the plastic baggie and pipe the warm chocolate in an intersecting line pattern over the top of the cheesecake to add a little pizzazz. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Wrap up and substitutions:

I tried to keep my cheesecake from falling once it cooled. Since this was a huge problem last time I made a cheesecake dessert. I looked up several websites and advice on the matter and could not get a clear answer on what to do, but I tried one approach anyway. I turned the oven off once the cheesecake was done and let the oven cool down slowly, with the cake in it, with the oven door open. The cheesecake still fell and the door was rather hazardous in our teeny kitchen. This is something I will figure out, but it may take me some time.

I love coconut, but it causes me much pain to say that in my adult years I have developed a severe allergy to it. As much as I wanted to try this cheesecake I held back. However, the rich chocolate, coconut, pecan smell you get from this cake is to die for. It was seriously torture not being able to try it, but on smell alone this cake was a tremendous success. I did have many loyal taste testers who attested to its deliciousness.

I can see my cheesecake adventures going the way of my piano lessons. The ride was good while it lasted, I was able to create some delicious gems, but for now my attention span on cheesecakes is over and we’re on to the next big project.

Close Up - Carrot Cake

2010-04-25T23:41:00.001-05:00

In fourth grade, I failed my eye exam. I didn’t just fail, but I failed MISERABLY. I had known for some time that this was going to happen, but I couldn’t admit it to myself. The day of the eye exam I hoped that I would be able to fudge my way through it, kind of how I had fudged my way through my multiplication tables in 3rd grade (I’m still terrible at my 8’s). I don’t remember much of the exam, but the long walk back from the nurse’s office, back to the classroom, that ended with me in tears, before I walked back through the door remains with me.

It’s funny the things you remember in a semi-traumatic moment. (It's all relative. It was just the aches and pains of growing up, but at the time seemed like the most dire moment of my 9 years on Earth.) I for some reason remember what I was wearing that fateful day. I wore a tie dyed t-shirt, knotted on the side and some black lyrca shorts. I had on a red woven headband that we had gotten on a family trip to Guatemala. What I was wearing is really of no importance, but I was positive the minute I got the note to go to the optometrist that I was going to be this lame, four eyed girl in that awkward phase in life. Boys were never going to like me and I was going to be this nerdy preteen that loved Ace of Base. I loved Ace of Base, I kind of still do. And even before the glasses I was still nerdy, but I thought it was debatable.

Devastated and dramatic, I took my slip home to my parents and within a week my dad took me to the optometrist. I don’t know if my pops could tell that I was apprehensive or nervous, but he made me feel better and it wasn’t the worst thing in life. I resigned myself to bad eyesight, but if I was going to have glasses they were going to be cute/cute for a young girl in the early 90’s. It took me forever. Knowing that I would have to wear them all the time and be seen in them put a lot of pressure on me. So I picked a pair of frames that had little flowers on the side (probably my first error in the glasses category, but I kind of liked them). Of course, I also picked one of those lanyards to hold my glasses around my neck (that was definitely my second error). No one really wore cool glasses at that time, and I wish I could say I was ahead of my time, but I was really no exception.

While we were at the eye doctor, another woman was there picking out new glasses as well. I’m not sure if she felt sorry for me (because I was so young and had to wear glasses) or actually thought I had some spunk, but she approached my dad about testing me for commercials because she worked for an advertising agency. Maybe my life wasn’t doomed after all!

So my mom set it up and I went and tested for this commercial. (Interestingly enough it was for some sort of Betty Crocker product or kitchen related brand.) I wore my new glasses and they tested me for it without them. I was terrible at memorizing my lines and all together was probably VERY bad at it. In the end they went with someone else. The main reason, the nice woman explained to me, was because there would be hand close ups and I was/am a nail biter. I don’t remember being too crushed by it, it’s not something I was sure I really thought was that cool, but that was the last and only time I stepped in front of a serious camera person.

Last week, I ended my feud with the limelight and had professional photos taken by my friend John at Redtown Photography. I wasn’t sure what to expect (he might not have been either). I was nervous and giddy at the same time. I was nervous the photos would be bad or just not exciting or that John would be bored and think this project was super lame. I was giddy because it’s freaking cool.

And it was freaking cool. John showed up with all this equipment and flashes and stands and fancy photography stuff. I made him lunch, because that’s what a good hostess does (and that’s what I’m sure they do on the Food Network). Once we got to work, I just let him play with it. It was a fun and different experience and a learning process for both of us. I could go on and on about how easy he was to work with and how fun it was to have someone in the kitchen and how fantastic everything turned out, but I won’t. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves!

Carrot Orange Cake Adapted from a Bon Apetit recipe found here.

Ingredients:
½ cup – butter
½ cup – vegetable oil
½ cup – unsweetened applesauce (the natural kind)
1 cup – brown sugar
1 cup – sugar
4 – eggs
1/3 cup – orange juice
1 TBSP – orange zest
2 cups – all purpose flour
2 tsp – baking soda
1 tsp – baking powder
1 tsp – cinnamon
1 tsp – ginger
½ tsp – nutmeg
½ tsp – salt
4 cups – peeled, grated carrots (just under a 3lb bag of baby carrots run through the grater on the food processor)
¼ cup – raisins, rehydrated in warm water for about 30 seconds

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Use baking spray to coat 2 – 9” round pans. Cover the bottoms of the pans with a parchment circle and respray the pans.
In your mixer, beat the oil, butter, applesauce, and both sugars until combined.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating the batter until combined after each addition. Beat in the orange juice and zest.

In a large, separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt. Add the flour mixture, gradually, to the sugar mixture.

Beating until combined between additions.

Stir in the carrots and raisins to the batter by hand.

Bake the cakes for about 50 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:

1 ½ - 8 oz packages of cream cheese
1 ½ - sticks of butter, room temp
5 cups – powdered sugar
2 TBSP – sour cream
1 tsp – Wonder Flavor (This amazing product by McNess, or you can just use vanilla extract)

Directions:
Beat the cream cheese and butter until combined. Slowly add the sugar to the butter until combined. Finally beat in the sour cream and the Wonder Flavor.

Wrap up and substitutions:
The cake was delicious. The flavors were all there and it was incredibly moist. I got a lot of compliments on the addition of the raisin and how much they were enjoyed. I had originally planned to buy shredded carrots (it’s the Semi-Homemade in me), but the grocery store was out. I was worried that shredding the carrots was going to be time consuming and frustrating. As soon as I figured out the attachment on my food processor it was quick and simple. I would also recommend soaking the bowls, food processor equipment as soon as you’re done with the carrots since they can dye white plastic orangey. No complaints were filed in the making of this cake.
When making it again, I will probably up the raisins to a ½ cup and I will also cut down on the orange juice. It was nice to have a hint of orange, but it kind of drowned out the carrot flavor. So I will either split the orange juice in half with carrot juice or with just water. It’s important to keep the orange flavor in tact, but not make it the central point of the palate.

All my photos were shot with me in my contact lenses. Sadly, I still wear glasses, but I think they’re much hipper now. Fourth grade may have seemed like my down fall, but I should have known that there would be something else to rear it’s ugly head down the line. In 5th grade I received the beautiful news that I would need braces. Glasses and braces at the same time – the absolute worst. (It was pretty bad.) Somehow I managed. And the reality is, I don’t feel super scarred by it. So they made me a little nerdy and socially inept for a small fraction of time, but it all worked out. I had my “swan” transformation when the braces were gone and I got contacts (probably getting boobs helped with that too). Even though I ditched my head gear and my face lacked it’s four eye decoration, I was still the same person. Nothing had really changed and I think it’s best that way. Today I would even say SOMETIMES I look cute in my glasses, and without my nerdy side you would be reading a boring blog with unimaginative recipes. Now if only I could get John to come take pictures every time I decide to bake something - life might be perfect.

I took all these awesome pictures of John. Obviously, I'm not a professional photographer, but he looks pretty cool.

Become his fan on the FACEBOOK!

Photo Shoot!

2010-04-13T01:32:00.000-05:00

In less than 12 hours our kitchen darling will have a professional photo shoot! The crowd here at Pegleg Penny's Test Kitchen (which includes myself, the KitchenAid, my food processor, tart pan, and stack of cookbooks) is totally jazzed and excited! It's not every day we get pro photos. Especially since I've always been a point and shoot kind of girl. Sometimes I try to stage the pics, but it doesn't always come out as cool as it does in my mind. It doesn't matter because I post them regardless.
So my friend John, who's been reading my blog, appreciates the content, but he's tired of seeing my kitchen outlets in the background, messy counter tops, and just total lack of staging. He's a fantastic photographer. I highly recommend you check out his work, Red Town Photography, on the world wide web. He also has a lot of free time right now, so he offered his services to the crew here and in exchange I'll feed him and buy him beer.
I don't think he has any idea what he's gotten himself into.
I really hope he brings a back drop like glamour shots from the early 90's.
And that he gives me lots of tips because I don't want to spoil you guys with one super cool entry and then go back to lame photos.
No matter what direction he decides to take this photo shoot (Lady Gaga like or Martha Stewart like), it's going to be great fun! I just hope the KitchenAid doesn't go all diva because we do not have bottled water in this household.
Want to know what we're going to bake for the shoot? I'm still working on it, but I'm sure it will be great! More to come soon.

Who cut the Cheese...cake? Snicker's style

2010-03-28T18:25:00.009-05:00

Cheesecakes…

For some reason, I’ve never been a huge fan. In theory, I would think cheesecakes would be one of my favorite desserts. I have a deep passion for all things cheese.

My favorite breakfast is an English muffin, with sliced pears and Brie on top, broiled for like five minutes so the Brie gets bubbly. Just thinking about it is making my mouth water.

In my apartment we have an entire drawer in our refrigerator devoted to cheese. You can bring cheese for any occasion, eat it during any meal, and enjoy it all year round. In the summer, nothing beats a ripe, juicy cantaloupe with a chunk of sharp cheddar except maybe fresh mozzarella with ripe tomatoes from the garden. Outdoor music – we’ve got you covered, just get yourself some baby rounds of wax-covered Gouda. Want to add a little laughter to your meal? – Check out the Laughing Cow’s. They remind me a lot of my childhood and Saturday morning errands with my Pops. Every time I go to Wisconsin I have to stop at a Culver’s and get cheese curds and a malt, to go. I could hit up the Culver’s in the Chicago land area, but the reality is, it’s just not the same. Wisconsin cheese, there’s nothing better. Cheese is probably a cow and goat’s greatest gift to humans.

Cheese is something I feel passionately about. Please do not try to pass off American cheese as a real cheese option on my burger, sandwich, or crackers. While I may have fallen for your “singles” as a child, my tastes are definitely more refined, not to mention all the processing and plastic can’t be good for you.

Cheese…its GOOOUDA….

But when it comes to cheesecake – I’m not a huge fan. I can’t exactly pinpoint what I don’t like about it. It’s a combo of things I’m sure, from the texture to the all around taste. However, I know there are those of you out there who LOVE your cheesecake. Who look at the dessert menu and get excited to get a slice of New York Cheesecake. Who dream about the Cheesecake Factory, not because of their food, but because of the cheesecake options. Who aren’t big “cake” fans, but for some reason really like cheesecake. The Golden Girls loved cheesecake, or at least their characters did.

World wide web – meet my roommate Kim. For the record, she is NOT a Golden Girl, but sometimes our lives may be mirrored by the Golden Girls, but most of the time not. We’ve been roommates for four years and we’ve known each other like double that time. She’s never been a big sweets fan. Her birthday always falls during lent and most of the time she’s given up candy and sweet things. This year was different. Kim didn’t give up sweets for lent. She also decided to throw a huge party at our house in her honor. This party included food, kegs, people, and naturally, a birthday cake. For her birthday, as with most people’s birthdays I wanted to make her a fantastic birthday cake. She’s not a huge chocolate fan and she likes to be healthy. She loves cheesecake. So for her birthday she wanted a Snicker’s cheesecake, because she loves Snickers too.

Making this cheesecake was daunting. Not only is it a dessert that doesn’t jump off the menu at me, but I didn’t have a palatable reference for it either. I had never made a cheesecake before, let alone a Snicker’s one. I felt pressured. In my brain I took apart every piece of cheesecake I had ever eaten and tried to figure out what it was missing and how I could make it better and incorporate the Snicker’s aspect. Mostly, I wanted to make sure I kept true to the Snickers taste and just used the cheesecake as a canvas.

So here’s where the recipe and the cheesecake adventure started.

Snicker’s Cheesecake – A collection of aspects from multiple sources

Ingredients:
Crust: (A little help from Recipezaar.)
1 ½ cups – Nilla Wafers, food processed so they’re finely ground (about 38 cookies)
½ cup – peanuts, ground/crushed/chopped/fine
1/3 cup – unsalted butter, melted

Cheesecake Filling: (A little help from Chef2Chef)
3 – 8 oz. packages of cream cheese, softened
1 cup – sugar
4 – eggs
1 TBSP – vanilla extract
¾ cup – heavy whipping cream
¼ cup – peanut butter (I used extra crunchy, but you can use whatever your heart desires)
14 – snack sized Snickers bars, chopped into small pieces (it’s about 1 ½ cups) – I bought an 11.18 oz bag of the Snickers – the remaining ones from the bag I chopped and used as garnish)

Topping:
Snickers bars, finely chopped (see note above)
Fudge sauce (I used pre-made that I bought in the ice cream aisle)
1 cup – peanuts, crushed or ground
Whipped cream (optional)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Spray a 9-10” spring form pan with cooking spray.
In the food processor, grind the cookies and peanuts. Place in a bowl and add the melted butter. Stir until everything is combined. Pour the cookie crust into the bottom of a spring form pan. Use a cold measuring cup to press the crust evenly into the bottom and 1” up the sides of the spring form pan. Set crust aside.

In your mixer, cream the cream cheese, sugar, and peanut butter until smooth. (It can be very difficult to dump the cream cheese into the mixer. I recommend opening all the packages and laying them on your counter. Use a knife to slice them into smaller pieces and dump them in your bowl. Use the knife to scrape any cream cheese remnants that are left on the foil. No doubt, you will probably end up using your fingers at some point.) Add the eggs to the cream cheese mixture one at a time. Making sure they are fully incorporated before adding the next egg. Next add the vanilla and heavy cream. Beat the mixture for five minutes on a medium speed. Gently fold the Snickers pieces into the cream cheese batter.

Carefully, pour the filling into the crust. It will go over the top of the crust. Bake in the oven for approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes (check on it after an hour). The cheesecake will be pretty puffed up and should look almost set, but still have a little jiggle in the middle.

The cheesecake will be really puffed up when you take it out of the oven, it does fall over time. Don’t worry; it will still taste good.

Let the cheesecake cool to room temperature before putting in the fridge (1-2 hours). Refrigerate cheesecake for at least 4-6 hours before serving. I refrigerate my cake still with the sides of the spring form pan on, but you don’t have to. Just whenever you are taking the sides off, make sure to run a knife around the edge of the pan so it’s an easy removal.

When you’re ready to serve, top the cooled cheesecake with a jar of chocolate sauce, Snicker’s bar pieces, crushed peanuts, and whipped cream.

Substitutions:
If you’re looking to substitute anything, here’s what I would recommend.
- Instead of ‘Nilla wafers use chocolate graham crackers or chocolate wafers in the crust.
- If you’re wanting to go ‘nut-less’, take the ½ cup of nuts out of the crust and add a ½ cup of cookies. Also, don’t add the peanut butter into the filling and instead change the ¾ cup of heavy whipping cream to 1 cup of heavy whipping cream.
- Wouldn’t it be great with Reese’s Peanut Butter cups as the candy instead?

Wrap Up:
As you already know, I’m not a huge cheesecake fan, but even I liked this cheesecake. I think it’s because it was the furthest thing from boring. The crust was interesting, the filling wasn’t too cheesy and thick and the toppings just made it a million times better. I got good feedback on this cake. It wasn’t too difficult to make and the presentation was gorgeous. Kim was very happy and super pleased. It lived up to her tastes as to what a good cheesecake is all about. The one thing I would change is that I would for sure cut the Snickers garnish into very small pieces. Honestly, I’d probably food process them. They were a little too chunky (because I was a little too lazy) and once the leftover cake was put back in the fridge, they were really hard to bite into. Additionally, the sides of the crust were a little too thick, but the bottom was too thin. So in the future, I just need to make sure it’s spread a little more evenly.
My first cheesecake was a success. I was really nervous about it, especially when it fell/settled and I didn’t expect that. This sure beat out any boring, plain, fruit from a can, cheesecake I have had in my past. I might be growing a little fonder of cheesecakes, but I’m not completely converted yet. I think what really got me was that it was pretty and fairly easy to make once I figured out how I wanted to get it done. I’m a sucker for aesthetics; after all, you eat with your eyes first.

The Craig-Oreo Cake

2010-03-18T22:55:00.018-05:00

My roommates think I’m nuts.

I stay up way past my bedtime, on school nights, when I’m exhausted and irritable, dreaming or creating recipes.

My parent’s think I’m a visionary.

I stay up way past my bedtime, on school nights, when I’m exhausted and irritable, and most of the time hungry to carefully craft the anecdotes that go with my recipes.

The woman who read my palm thinks I should take care of myself.

I stay up way past my bedtime, on school nights, when I’m exhausted and irritable, hungry, and battling a migraine/allergies/chest pain because I like to bake for others and would rather stress myself out to bring someone a heavenly bite.

I am fully aware that all these statements are partially true, but not entirely.

I just think I’m a perfectionist. I may be creative, but my methods are type A. I like devising plans, using exact measurements; I even take the time to sift. (And lets face it; my patience is tested time and time again when it comes to sifting…)

My roommates also think that out of my staff of 15, they were all born two weeks apart because I seem to be making them birthday cakes every other week. You could be fooled to think this, but the dates and ages of my staff make that presumption highly unlikely and 100% impossible. There are a couple clusters around the same time, so there will be a month or two here and there of baking frenzy.

What I’ve learned while baking for my wonderful staff is that they’re all different. They want different things and have different ideas as to the perfect birthday dessert. Some of them have specific ideas; others let me use my imagination. And while I may be up past my bedtime, on a school night, exhausted, irritable, hungry, and in some sort of physical pain, I truly enjoy baking for them. They are happy to be the guinea pigs and try some of the crazy concoctions that come out of Pegleg Penny’s Test Kitchen. At the end of the day they deserve a special treat. They work hard, have fun, and the reality is, they make my life a lot easier. If I didn’t have such a strong team I would probably be in a zoned out state where bad elevator music plays on repeat. (Although, I’m sure they would be happy to send me to that state sometimes.)

They’re a good bunch and I’ve learned that the best motivator and the best way I can show my appreciation is through their stomachs.

And so we come to Craig...

This is what our pre-cake interview sounded like (in my head):
Me: Craig, what kind of cake do you want for your birthday?
Craig: That’s really tough. Let me think about it.
(Insert 2-day pause.)
Me: So Craig, did you think about your cake? What do you want or like or do you have any requirements?
Craig: Well, I want the cake to trump all birthday cakes. I want – ice cream, chocolate, Snickers, 3 Musketeers, coffee, bananas, ginger ale, peanut butter, applesauce, Oreos, something with mint. I want it to have all my favorite things. I also want it to look like the Coliseum.
Me: (Insert jaw drop, look of disbelief, and portray a rather sick, but challenged feeling. I felt I had met my match – that was it – my baking days were over.) There’s no way I can do that.
Craig: You can do anything. You’re Princess Amazing! (I'm not joking - sometimes he calls me Princess Amazing and it's like this animated, mocking, 1985 face he puts on and it's hilarious and awesome...)
Me: Craig – that’s too many things. First of all, we don’t have a freezer so ice cream is automatically out and it’s just too much. Pick one crazy topping or flavor and I’ll see what I can do.
Craig: Can I pick two?
Me: One.
(Insert an additional daylong pause.)
Me: Have you decided on my secret ingredient?
Craig: Oreos. I love Oreos. They’re my favorite cookies.

If you've ever met Craig you know that he likes facts. It's not as important if they're true or false, just so there's some sort of research/validation behind the statement. So I had to do some serious research on the Oreo cookie.

My "research" definition has changed drastically since my college years. For this I relied solely on Wikipedia (the most trusted “news source” on the internet):
• Oreos are the most popular cookie of the 20th century.
• It is also the best selling cookie in China, where they started a ‘dunk campaign’ to introduce the pairing of Oreos and milk.
• The Oreo Wafer Stick was created to bolster sales in China, making it easier to transport in the varying climates throughout the country.
• Weird Al Yankovic and Lonnie Mack have both created songs revolving around Oreos.
• The original Oreo recipe used pork fat to create the filling; now a mix of vegetable oils is used. (Bacon is everywhere!)

This information, while fascinating, did not help me figure out what to make for Craig’s cake. I looked up a ton of different recipes and they seemed a little too basic – crush up Oreos in your frosting, use Oreos as a piecrust with Cool Whip and Oreos. I also found these ideas to be kind of boring. After all, I had made Craig dumb down his list of cake desires! I couldn’t just show up with some chocolate pudding with Oreo crumbs. So I searched and searched. I wanted to find the perfect mixture of sweet, but not too sweet. I really wanted to make it taste like a real Oreo. I took a little bit of this idea and put it in that idea and melded and molded until I came out with the perfect Oreo-tastic idea.

So here you have it –

The Craig-Oreo Cake (Originally it was called Craig's Birthday Oreo Cake, but he dubbed the cake himself. If only he had been wearing a cape at the time, it would have been an amazing sight)

For the entire recipe you will need:
1 – bag of Regular Oreo Sandwich Cookies
1 – box of Oreo Stix
Chocolate Oreo Cake Layers (Adapted from Gourmet’s Double Chocolate Layer Cake, March 1999)
Ingredients:
2 oz – Semi Sweet Chocolate (I used Baker’s), chopped
1 cup – hot brewed coffee (I used the House blend from the Viennese coffee shop down the street)
2 cups – sugar
1 2/3 cups – all purpose flour
1 cup – unsweetened cocoa powder (I used mostly regular cocoa powder, but I ran out so I used about 2 TBSP of special dark cocoa powder)
1 + ¼ tsp – baking soda
½ tsp – baking powder
½ tsp – kosher salt
2 – eggs
½ cup – vegetable oil
1 cup – buttermilk
½ tsp – vanilla extract
22 – Oreos, twisted in half

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.

Use 2 – 9” round pans. Coat them with cooking spray, line the bottoms with parchment paper, and coat them with cooking spray again.
Place cookie halves, cream side up, in the bottom of the pan. I covered the entire bottom of the cake pan with the cookies, breaking them to fit into the crannies.
Combine the chopped chocolate with the cup of hot coffee. Let it stand until it cools. Stir it occasionally until smooth.
In a large bowl, sift the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together.
In the bowl of your mixer beat the eggs until they’re slightly thick and lemon colored. Slowly add the oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and the chocolate/coffee mixture, until combined. Add the sugar/flour mixture and beat until combined.
Divide the batter into the two pans. Bake 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool the cakes, in the pans, completely before moving on to the filling and frosting.

Oreo Cream Middle Layer (Adapted from the Chocolate Oreo Cookie Cake Recipe on Kraft’s website)
Ingredients:
½ cup – sugar
8 oz – cream cheese
2 cups – Cool Whip (I caved, I know, I’m sorry) – 2 cups is about an 8 oz tub
12 – Oreos, crushed

Directions:
Beat the sugar and cream cheese until smooth. Fold in the cool whip and crushed Oreos.

Dark Chocolate Frosting (Adapted from marthastewart.com)
Ingredients:
¼ cup + ½ TBSP – dark cocoa powder
¼ cup + ½ TBSP – boiling water
2 ¼ sticks – unsalted butter, room temperature
1/8 cup – powdered sugar
1/8 tsp – kosher salt
¾ lbs – semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled (I used chocolate chips)

Directions:
Mix the cocoa with the boiling water. Stir until smooth and the cocoa is dissolved.
Using a mixer beat the butter, sugar, and salt until pale and soft peaks have formed. Add the melted semisweet chocolate and beat until combined. Beat in the cocoa/water mixture until combined. (The frosting is very shiny.)

Assembly:

Once the cake layers have cooled completely. Use a knife around the edges to remove them from the pan. Place one cake layer face down on the serving platter. Scoop, spread and distribute the entire Oreo Cream layer over the top of the bottom layer of cake. Carefully place the second layer of cake on top of the cream layer. Apply a little pressure to the top layer to make sure the cakes are sandwiched together evenly. Frost the entire cake, even the sides, with the dark chocolate frosting. Use the remaining Oreo cookies and Oreo Stixs to decorate the exterior of the cake.

Wrap Up:
Unfortunately, this posting does not end in tears of joy. However, Craig LOVED his cake. The addition of the Oreo Stix kind of gave the idea of the Coliseum, so even the craziest of requests were satisfied. I’m not a huge Oreo fan, but I enjoyed this cake. I thought the dark chocolate frosting was a little too dark and would have preferred a milk chocolate frosting. However, Craig really liked the dark chocolate frosting and thought it was perfect.
The cake had a little crunch to it, the filling was a good consistency, and the frosting tied it all together. The one true flaw was that I didn’t bring a gallon of milk as a side dish to the cake. The Craig-Oreo Coliseum Cake took one day to build and two days to be completely devoured, but the lesson Craig learned in editing and how much I value him as an employee will live on for at least a couple of weeks.

Hey! You've got to hide your FLAN away!

2010-02-21T22:05:00.018-06:00

So, this is my second attempt at this cake. The first attempt, while a noble effort, was for my little sister’s 20th birthday. I tried to make it gluten free and I tried to make it delicious and the truth is – it was edible, but not finger licking good…It was dry and too much cake and not what I was going for. My sister’s pretty special and I wanted to honor her with a pretty special cake, I just should have worked out the kinks beforehand.

The hang up on this cake is probably that I kind of had to make it up. In February of 2009, I went on vacation to visit my favorite foreign country in the entire world, Panama. There we were at a celebration that had a cake called Flan Escondido, translation: Hidden Flan. It was two layers of cake with a sandwich of flan in between. I had never thought to combine the two, but it turned out to be the most delicious piece of dessert I have eaten, quite possibly, ever. However, there was no recipe. So I tried and failed. Ever since I’ve been trying to wrap my head around how to make it better and how it should turn out, but I haven’t had a reason to bake it.

I should have known that this cake was going to be complicated; everything with the little one has some sort of excitement. She’s that cool. No matter what, there’s something about my little sister that makes me always want to protect her, no matter how much we’re fighting or how much we don’t agree. Even if we don’t “get” each other, we still “get” each other. Now that we’re older we share an inexplicable love for 80’s music, a love/hate relationship with the idea of bangs, and a deeper, more tolerant understanding of each other. (Well that last one we try to do, not always successfully.) Do we still argue and disagree – of course, we’re normal sisters. But even though I picture her at 20 now, I still kind of picture her at 5 playing Lalabelle’s Beauty Salon, making me over and doing my crazy make up. If I’ve learned anything in the last 20 years it’s to never underestimate the expectations you put on yourself for the sake of your family. So I’ve been dreaming of making this cake better and better.

And then my friend Amanda had a birthday.

So I tried again.

And she appreciates the innovative and interesting. (After all, it was on her request that I resurrected the Bacon cake.)

Much to my surprise, it turned out delicious! And I know I will be making it again, next time for my sissy.

Flan Escondido AKA Hidden Flan

For the Flan:
Mami’s Flan (This is my mom’s flan recipe, it took some deciphering and adding since basically she handed it to me and it was just measurements and I had no idea what to do.) I doubled her recipe so that I could make two thin flan layers. This is the doubled recipe:
Ingredients:
2/3 cup + ½ cup Sugar
2 oz Water
2 – 12oz can Evaporated Milk
4 Eggs
2 teaspoon Vanilla

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Combine 2/3 cup of Sugar and 2 oz of Water in a skillet. Set over low heat and caramelize the sugar. (It will get thick and a light brown color.) Be careful not to burn it! Do not stir the sugar and water combo, just swirl the pan over the flame so that it cooks evenly. (You can turn the heat up a little bit, just be careful that it doesn’t burn.) Quickly pour into 2 - 9” circular baking pans (each pan should get about half) and turn it to coat the bottom of the pan. If the caramel cools too quickly before you are able to coat the bottom of the pan. Hold it above the flame on your stovetop to liquefy the caramel again and coat the pan.

Whisk together the evaporated milk, eggs, vanilla, and sugar. Divide the mixture in half and pour the mixture into the prepared pans with the caramelized sugar on the bottom. Set the pans with your flan mixture inside a bigger pan. Fill the bigger pan with boiling water to a depth of 1”.

Bake for 45 minutes. To know that the flan is done, insert a knife ½ way into the center of the cake, it should come out clean. Let the flan cool completely before attempting to remove from the pan. (You can even chill it.) Once cool, carefully run a knife around the outside of the pan to loosen the sides of the flan. Invert onto two separate platters. Make sure they’re not shallow platters because there is caramel sauce that will spill out.

For the cake:

Magnolia Bakery's Traditional Vanilla Birthday Cake
(Adapted from Allysa Torey and Jennifer Appel's fantastic cookbook.)

Ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, room temp
1 ½ cups self rising flour
1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and lightly flour 3 – 9” round pans. Cover the bottom of the three pans with parchment paper.
In a small bowl, mix the flours together.
In a separate bowl, combine the milk with vanilla.
In the large bowl of the mixer, cream the butter until smooth.
Gradually add the sugar mixture to the butter and beat until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time to the butter/sugar mixture, beating each egg until combined.
Add the flour in four parts alternating with the milk/vanilla extract combo. After each addition, beat until combined, before you add the next set of ingredients.
Divide the batter among the three cake pans. Bake 25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. It may take a little longer to cook because there are three rounds.

Cool completely before assembling.

Brown Sugar Whipped Cream Frosting
Ingredients:
1 cup Heavy Cream
1/3 cup Sour Cream
1/3 cup Brown Sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla

Beat all the ingredients together until stiff peaks form.

Assembly:
Place one layer of vanilla cake on the serving platter, top down. Use a fork to puncture holes all over the side of the cake that’s facing up. Carefully slide the flan onto the top of the cake. (Even if the flan breaks a little bit, because it’s delicate, it’s ok – you can’t really see it.) Pour the caramel sauce slowly over the cake and flan and let it soak in. Put a light layer of frosting on top of the flan. Before placing the second layer of cake on, using a fork, puncture holes in both the top and bottom sides of the cake. Place the second layer of cake on top of the flan. With the remaining caramel sauce, gently pour it over the top of the cake. Carefully slide the second flan on top of the cake. Pour the caramel sauce slowly over the cake and flan and let it soak in. Put a light layer of frosting on top of the flan. Using a fork, puncture holes in the top and bottom of the third layer cake. Place the cake on top of the second flan. Pour the remaining caramel over the top of the cake slowly so it soaks in. Frost the top and sides of the cake with Brown Sugar Whipped Cream.

This cake was delicious! There was something about the layering of flavors and the different textures that made it work perfectly together. Also, the way the caramel soaked into the cake layers gave it a very moist, sweet, slightly soggy taste. The cake to flan ratio was spot on.

Bird Is The Word...

2010-01-18T10:54:00.012-06:00

A flash of harmless lightning,

A mist of rainbow dyes,
The burnished sunbeams brightening
From flower to flower he flies.
-John Bannister Tabb

Hummingbirds were my favorite birds growing up. I can’t really speak for other people’s favorite birds when they were kids, or even if they had favorite birds when they were kids. If I had to guess, the top three favorite birds of children would be: penguins, flamingos, and bald eagles. (And probably Big Bird for those "trick question" type of kids.)

I was a special child and I grew up in a special place. With the rain forest as our back yard and playground and my parents making sure we were active and played outside, we saw a lot of nature as kids. Hummingbirds frequented our bird feeders. There was an old iguana that lived in our back yard. We named him Elvis. In 6th grade, we sat on our patio and watched a snake poke his head out of the bushes and grab a bird mid air. We sat and watched the snake slowly devour this little bird until the sun had gone down. (It takes them a long time.) And then I wrote a poem about it for English class. I’ve screamed at a tarantula that crossed my path and I’ve tried to drown a scorpion that crawled up the sink.

But Hummingbirds were my absolute favorite to watch on a regular basis. They would come up really quick to the feeder and in a second be gone. They zipped in and out of the backyard and if you’d have no idea which direction they went. They fly backwards and can be seen in some amazing colors. I have always been in awe of these teeny tiny creatures.

Yes, I’m a nerd.

And then we moved to Chicago and I didn’t see one for a very long time. The birds here are ok, but they’re not that exciting. To me, tropical birds will always be cooler. And then I saw one at the mall. Exciting, but definitely not as cool. (I mean really, how out of place is a Hummingbird by the food court. It’s just wrong.)

I guess the moral of the story is – I like Hummingbirds. They’re cool. So when one of my staff asked for a Hummingbird Cake for her birthday I was intrigued and excited. I had never heard of a Hummingbird Cake.

Would a Hummingbird cake require some crazy ingredient adding where I would have to stir it backwards?

Would I have to use a little bowl?

Would my new mixer burn out because I had to use the super fast speed for the entire recipe?

Would real flowers be incorporated?

What was I getting myself into?

Actually, as far as taking culinary risks, Hummingbird Cake is pretty low on the scale.

But having never heard of it and attempting to do some research I pulled out the big guns. One of my friends gave me The Complete Magnolia Bakery Cookbook for Christmas and they have a Hummingbird Cake recipe! Success!

Hummingbird Cake Adapted from The Complete Magnolia Bakery Cookbook by Allysa Torey and Je nnifer Appel
Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 ¼ cups vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
3 eggs, room temperature
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
2 cups mashed, bananas (about 5 regular sized ones)*
1 – 8 oz can crushed pineapple, drained (it’s about 1 cup of pineapple)
½ cup crushed pecans

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Grease, lightly flour, and line the bottoms with parchment paper of 2 – 9” round pans.
In a large bowl, sift together: flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Set these aside.
In another large bowl (or the bowl on my new Kitchenaid Mixer), beat the oil with the sugar until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, beating between eggs additions until they’re incorporated. Add the vanilla and mix. Add the bananas and pineapple and mix again. Add the dry ingredients in thirds, beating after each addition until smooth. Stir in the pecans.
Divide the batter into the two pans and bake for 40-50 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
Let the cakes cool in the pans for 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely on wire racks.
Wait for the cakes to cool before you frost them.

*The recipe calls for very ripe bananas, I used normal ones, they weren’t brown or spotty. They were a little difficult to mash, but I don’t like my bananas overly sweet so instinctively I can’t allow them to get super brown.

Cream Cheese Frosting (An updated version)
Ingredients:
1 – 8 oz package of cream cheese, cut into chunks
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
¾ tsp vanilla
1 ½ TBSP sour cream

Directions:
Using your mixer, beat together the cream cheese and butter until it’s smooth. Add the powdered sugar, one cup at a time, beating together so it’s all incorporated before adding the next cup. Mix in the vanilla and sour cream.

(Don’t get me wrong, I make a mean cream cheese frosting, but adding the sour cream takes away some of the powdered sugar taste that coats your tongue and the roof of your mouth and makes it creamier and a little more subtle. It’s delicious. This recipe makes enough to frost a double layer cake with a little bit extra to enjoy on some graham crackers.)

The Hummingbird Cake was good. So good, I would make it again. Next time I might make three cake rounds instead of 2 because they were pretty thick and big layers. It’s texture didn’t resemble a light cake, it was a little dense, but super moist. It smelled and had the texture of very soft banana bread, but with a little bit more of a flavor profile than just plain old banana bread (thank you pineapple!).

I did quite a bit of research as to why they call it a Hummingbird Cake and while there is no definitive answer, it seems to be rooted in Southern tradition with a little bit of Jamaican background. It doesn’t matter where this cake came from because it was delicious.

As for the new mixer, he performed marvelously. I put the beater down into the bowl and I swear I got goose bumps I was so excited. I still have not found a suitable name for him, but I do know for sure that it’s male. I’ve never had a male appliance, but I think I’m ready for the challenge.

Vanilla Ice Cooks Bacon

2010-01-06T18:53:00.012-06:00

So I know Pegleg and I have gone rogue recently.

I would like to say we were on some super secret culinary mission or that we were doing some world class traveling in search of new flavors.

The truth is, we’ve been freezing our asses off in the tundra of the Midwest. Sure it’s not glamorous or exciting, at times it’s actually down right gloomy, but we’re doing the best we can.

Now, I could give you a whole slew of excuses to explain my absence. Some of them would be sincere (my real job is retail and it was our most busiest time of the year). Others would be fantastic (I tripped on an old fashioned hand beater I had lying around and broke only my pinky finger, thus making me unable to type).

The truth is, we’ve been busy and quite uninspired. I’ve made quite a few things in the last couple months that have turned out great, however, none of them have been a home run (being a Cubs fan, I’m used to this lacking in my life). The other creations have been less than desirable – Mashed potato cake, Gluten free Pineapple Upside Down Cake – I never said that they lacked in creativity, they just weren’t super tasty.

Also, uninspired is my middle name.

Ever since Pegleg drew her last little mechanical breathe of air, things just haven’t been the same. Sure I love my new little mixer and she’s fantastic, but she just doesn’t have the spunk that Pegleg had. Rendering it difficult to write about. Not to mention, it has taken me forever to name her, making the whole process less personal. I had hoped that I would have a name for her quickly, but sadly, the creative process can not be rushed. And in my case it wasn’t.

But finally – a breakthrough…

On the night before Christmas Eve I put my little mixer to the test and we made a delicious BACON cake. (That’s right – Bacon cake.) Lets face it – everything tastes better with bacon.

And then like a Christmas miracle – angels sang. And then there were trumpets. A name…

For unto you is born this day in the City of Chicago, a Mixer, which will be called Vanilla Ice.

Well the trumpets and angels sounded more like my father’s voice. (He’s got such a good read on people and things.)

The “Ahhhh Moment”: You know, Vanilla Ice is a perfect name. Vanilla Ice took one of David Bowie and Queen’s greatest rifs and made it his “own”. Much like Vanilla Ice, the mixer, will take Pegleg’s place and make the Test Kitchen her own. Vanilla Ice, sadly, never truly lived up to his potential, his performance on the celebrity house show on VH1 is proof of this. Vanilla Ice, the mixer, is a little slow on the uptake, but she’ll do just fine. After further wikipedia investigation, Vanilla Ice also broke free of his contrived image and rose above to be his own person and make his own music. In time, we can expect the same for Vanilla Ice, the mixer.

However, our Vanilla Ice story may never get a full wiki entry because Santa brought me a KitchenAid Stand Mixer and I am SO excited! Now to find her/him a name…(But I’m sure we’ll get to know her a little better soon.)

But without further ado – Here’s Vanilla Ice’s last hoorah! She may not have been with us long, but her time at the helm of the Test Kitchen will not be forgotten.

Brown Sugar Bacon Cake

Ingredients:

1 – Duncan Hines Marble Cake Mix (and the appropriate ingredients according to the packaging directions)
2 lbs of Bacon (i.e. 2- 16 oz packages) – I prefer Oscar Mayer regular bacon. I don’t think the Maple kind would go well, but it might be worth a try. Do not use thick cut, while it’s tastier, there won’t be as many pieces to go around.
8 oz Cream Cheese
1 stick Unsalted butter, melted
1.5 cups Powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup light brown sugar

Directions:

Bake, in the oven, 1 lb. of bacon according to the directions on the packaging. (It should take about 12 minutes at 400 degrees.) Do not make your bacon super crispy. You want it cooked, but not soggy or burnt.

Use paper towels to pat all the grease off the bacon. You’re going to want to do this a couple times to make sure it’s not greasy at all.

Chop the bacon into small bits and set aside.

Preheat the oven according to the directions on the cake mix packaging. Grease 2 9” rounds and line the bottoms with parchment paper for the cake. Following the directions on the packaging, make the cake mix. Before

you add the chocolate batter to marble the cake, sprinkle the bacon chips in the vanilla batter. (Half the bacon chips in each cake.) Add the chocolate cake and marble the layers. Bake according to the directions.

Frosting and embellishments:

Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting:

On medium speed, mix the cream cheese and the butter together until creamy. Add the powdered sugar, ½ cup at a time, and beating until combined. Add the vanilla extract and brown sugar and mix until creamy. The frosting will have a delicious taste and won’t be as sugary sweet as regular cream cheese frosting – it’s a real winner.

Bake, in the oven, the second pound of bacon. Pat all the grease off.

I made 2, 1 layer cakes, but it is possible to make one two layer cake. It’s just a lot of bacon, which isn’t a bad thing.

Frost the layers and cut the bacon into about 1” pieces, not little bit, but not huge strips. Cover the top of the frosting with the bacon pieces.

I LOVE bacon and I LOVE cake and I LOVE brown sugar. This combo is super delicious and as long as you are good about patting the bacon it doesn’t taste greasy. I have made this cake once before, but I used a red velvet cake mix and didn’t put the bacon bits in. I really liked having the bacon in the cake itself and the marble cake was a good mix of sweetness and savory. I still think the red velvet cake mix might be better, but the store was out of stock.

However, this cake is not for the faint of heart (or those worried about cholesterol). I think this cake is fantastic, but there are some people who can’t wrap their heads around the taste/texture. They might come around, but if they don’t – it’s ok by me. That means there’s more for me to partake in.

Vanilla Ice, there is no better way for you to end your reign in Pegleg’s Test Kitchen.

Vanilla Ice/Under Pressure Remix from Fan Boy Films

Goodbye Gourmet

2009-10-07T22:36:00.008-05:00

So I normally don't just write off the cuff.
AND I never skip writing in word (I like to do the whole CTRL-C/CTRL-V thing).
AND very rarely do I ever skip over the recipes that are queued up to be written about next. I prefer order to chaos in this very mad world.

However, today my friend Glenn (who is a brilliant blender of flavors and a lover of bacon) gave me some sad news I felt like I needed to discuss/share/get off my chest/mourn.

Gourmet magazine is closing it's doors. (First, Pegleg and now this...two major deaths in a very short time span.) Read my favorite article about it here.

Having only recently discovered Gourmet and being as devastated by this as I am. I can't imagine what some readers are going through.

I feel cheated. I feel like I will miss out on tons of amazing recipes I will not even think to look for. Not to mention the photography that really drives home the desire to sit in the kitchen and cook. As dramatic as it sounds, Gourmet gave new meaning to cooking with every issue. (At least for me.)

This is the statement posted on their website:
"PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT GOURMET MAGAZINE WILL CEASE PUBLICATION AFTER THE NOVEMBER ISSUE.

SUBSCRIBERS CAN LOOK FORWARD TO RECEIVING BON APPETIT MAGAZINE FOR THE REMAINDER OF THEIR SUBSCRIPTION. THE GOURMET.COM WEBSITE WILL REMAIN AVAILABLE DURING A TRANSITIONAL PERIOD, AND ACCESS TO GOURMET RECIPES WILL ALSO REMAIN AVAILABLE VIA SISTER SITE EPICURIOUS.COM AND THE EPI IPHONE APPLICATION.

WE REGRET ANY INCONVENIENCE, AND LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR CONTINUED READERSHIP. FOR QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR GOURMET MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTION, PLEASE FOLLOW THIS LINK TO SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES.

THE OCT. 23-25 GOURMET INSTITUTE EVENTS WILL NOT TAKE PLACE. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE AT GOURMETINSTITUTE.COM."

All caps. Obviously, they were yelling. And the Novemeber issue - does that mean there's no farewell? It's October 7th - that issue has to be at the publisher already.

This is not the first magazine I've had the distaste of having go under while in the middle of my subscription. The first magazine I lost was a little periodical by the name of Blueprint, under the Martha Stewart umbrella. It was fabulous. Kind of like ReadyMade meets InStyle meets Architectual Digest, but maybe not really. Blueprint, as a publication, was only around for about ten months or so (maybe a year) and I was heartbroken to see it go. However, I understood that in this world where everything is a click away - it's difficult for a little magazine to get press and the time frame it has to rise to the top so it can stay afloat is a lot narrower that it once was. A lot of information is free out there - there's less incentive to pay for it.

Did I ever think that Gourmet would go? Not at all.
Gourmet has been around for 70 years!

Needless to say, Glenn and I will be super sad to see Gourmet go. The last couple months I've enjoyed getting the glossy cover in my mailbox and opening it up to perfect photographs that left you wanting more and awaiting to devour the story behind the recipe.

We're being compensated with Bon Appetit for the remainder of our issues. Which is better than nothing. However, I don't like it as much. I can't really explain what I like less about it, but it's just too hoity toity or unrealistic for the average person or something. Gourmet always had a nice balance of recipes if you wanted to be adventurous and recipes if you wanted to be a pantry cook. (And it's content I don't find to be as good.) Hopefully, with time, Bon Apetit will win me over, but I'm not sure it has the visual, intellectual, or writing style that will agree with me.

Who knows why Conde Nast chose Gourmet over Bon Apetit to close. Maybe if there had been more celebrity or TV shows or buzz surrounding the magazine it wouldn't have been shuttered.

I guess at the end of the day the moral of the story is this:
The printed word is becoming extinct. Not only does it put some talented people out of business, but it takes the tactile processing out of the equation. I'm a visual person, I need pictures and I need to feel things to get me motivated, creative, and focused - without printed work, I'm probably not living up to my potential.

So friends, go out and read a newspaper (that costs money and is not free). Skip over that People magazine (they have enough money) and go for a small, more specialized publication (at the very least pick up Star instead). Any by all means, spend the extra four bucks and get Gourmet's last issue. Maybe you'll be inspired to get in the kitchen, to try something new, to clip recipes, or maybe it will end up in your recycling bin. At the very least, give it a shot, because I'm sad to see it go.

Java Jive

2009-09-21T00:25:00.007-05:00

Genetics…whether we like it or not we’re pretty much stuck with what we’re given. I’ve got some great genes going for me, along with a pretty good character. However, my genetic make up has “blessed” me with being short in stature.

In grade school, if we lined up by height to go to the bathroom or in gym class or at the music recital I was always at the ‘short’ end of the line, being one of the shortest if not the shortest. Because I was so little I was teased quite a bit. (At least that’s how I’ve decided to remember the teasing. I’m sure it had nothing to do with the fact that I was a little nerdy, or had braces and glasses at the same time, or went through a ridiculously awkward phase, or that my favorite pair of jeans were green. – Green goes with everything. It was all because I was short.) As I got old, I learned how to appreciate my short-comings. I had the smallest hands and my handprint fit perfectly on a 4”x4” square, no one else’s did. I could wiggle my way into the tightest spots to pick up a fallen item. I can still fit into the third seat in the trunk of my parent’s station wagon, but it’s rather uncomfortable. I’ve embraced my height, it just took me a while to get used to it, or grow into it. One of my nicknames in college was Travel Size because I am so little I could fit in random places and was easily packable. (I think I just compared myself to a travel size shampoo.)

Anyway, while I am short, I know for sure there are shorter people out there and while I have become comfortable with the fact that I’m not very tall, I do everything in my power so I do not become shorter/shrink/etc. One of the things I’ve adopted, since I was probably 8, is that I don’t drink coffee. I don’t even really like coffee so it’s not a huge loss for me. However, if you’ve ever been out with me and we have been offered coffee I politely decline, stating that ‘It stunts my growth.’ It is very possible I will not grow again and that my height is here to stay, but on the off chance I have a crazy growth spurt in my future or there is some sort of sudden scientific research, I’m going to steer clear of coffee.

But I know there are people out there that NEED their coffee every day. There are those of you that can drink it at all hours of the day. There are those who can’t start the day without it. There are the people who like their coffee black (like their women – as my father would crassly say) and those who like it super sweet macchiato, caramel, whipped cream with a cherry on top. My co-worker Matt loves his coffee. He drinks a lot of coffee. All the time coffee. Even at 3pm, he has his mug with coffee in it. He had a birthday in August and he gave me free range on his birthday cake flavor. I wanted to make something that I thought he would like and that would encompass his highly caffeinated personality and all around awesomeness. I originally thought of doing a crazy chili chocolate cake of some sort, but settled on the coffee. Coffee’s a little more classic, just like Matt.

Coffee Supreme Cake (Cake adapted from Nestle Toll House's Mocha Buttercream Chocolate Espresso C ake, Frosting adopted from Cake Mix Magic)

Chocolate Coffee Cake Ingredients:
4 oz Semisweet Chocolate, chopped
2 cups All Purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
½ tsp Salt
1 ½ cup Brown Sugar (I used half light brown sugar and half dark brown sugar)
2 sticks Unsalted Butter, room temperature
4 Eggs
2 TBSP Instant Coffee
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 cup Buttermilk

Filling Ingredients:
25 Snack Size Heath Bars, crushed

Caramel Coffee Frosting Ingredients:
½ cup Unsalted Butter
1 cup Brown Sugar
¼ cup Milk (I use whole milk)
2 TBSP Instant Coffee
3 cups Powdered Sugar, sifted
¾ tsp Vanilla Extract

Cake Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and line with parchment paper 2 – 9” round cake pans. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or placing it in the microwave for 45 seconds. Whether double boiling or microwaving, make sure you are stirring it. (Be careful not to burn it in the microwave!)
Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl.
In a large bowl, beat the brown sugar, butter, eggs, instant coffee, and vanilla until smooth.
Gradually, add the melted chocolate to the sugar/butter mixture until everything is evenly combined.
Beat the flour mixture into the sugar/butter/chocolate mixture in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk.
Bake the cakes for approximately 30 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Frosting Directions:
In a medium saucepan, combine the butter and brown sugar and place over medium heat. Stir mixture CONSTANTLY until it comes to a boil. Once it comes to a boil, add the milk and bring the mixture back up to a boil. (This second boil should happen relatively quickly.) Stir in the instant coffee.
Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the powdered sugar and vanilla. While the frosting is still warm, spread it over the cake.

Assembly:
*Please note – you will make your life a lot easier if you cook your cake first and don’t make the frosting until they are cool since the frosting needs to be spread while it’s warm. Once the frosting cools it becomes quite fudgey.
After the cake has cooled, place one layer top side down on a platter. Lather the top of the bottom layer with half of the frosting. Sprinkle on top of the frosting half of the Heath bar chunks. Place the second layer on top, coat with frosting, and sprinkle the remaining Heath bar chunks on the top of the cake.

There is not enough frosting to cover the sides of the cake, if that’s something you’re interested in make sure to double the recipe and use a slightly larger saucepan. Definitely, sift the powdered sugar, I didn’t and my frosting stayed a little on the chunky side.

This cake is super coffee-y. If you have problems with caffeine and it keeps you up, make sure to use a decaf instant coffee to be on the safe side. But if you are a java junkie it will definitely suit your needs. The Heath bars add a little caramel flavor to it. If the crunch and caramel weren’t there it could potentially have been too overpowering. My co-workers couldn’t get enough of the frosting. It was sweet and thick and the sugar crystals from the powdered sugar melted in your mouth with a big burst of coffee. I’m not even a big coffee fan and I found this cake delicious.

This cake may lead you to have stunted growth if you are a young child, however, if you are not or if you like coffee I recommend it. I was skeptical, but I would make this cake again in a heartbeat. Until then, I will be riding around on Cherry Bomb, my children sized mountain bike from when I was 13, because I haven’t gotten an inch taller since then.

Red Food Coloring and Volcano Fizz

2009-09-20T21:33:00.013-05:00

I originally tried to set this opening the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song, but I just couldn’t do it. I’ve got nothing. I have been working on this post for two weeks. Maybe it’s writer’s block or maybe I was uninspired, or maybe Red Velvet cake is not as exciting as I had hoped.

I first learned about Red Velvet cake in my teens when I saw Steel Magnolias. Julia Roberts character was getting married and in the South they do groom’s cakes. (That’s just how they roll…) So they did this red velvet cake in the shape of an armadillo. So when you cut into it, it kind of looked like blood. As a teenager, I remember finding this fascinating, disturbing, and all around awesome. This is most likely because of my twisted sense of humor.

I didn’t try Red Velvet cake until some years later. I loved them! I went through a brief obsession with them…purchasing them and making them from Duncan Hines mixes. I even went as far as making a red velvet cake with brown sugar cream cheese frosting and covered with a pound of delicately fried bacon. (You may think that sounds disgusting, but it was probably the most delicious cake I have ever made.) However, I had not made a Red Velvet from scratch – ever.

In mid-August we celebrated my co-worker Kyle’s birthday. Kyle is originally from Georgia. So to honor his roots and his favorite kind of cake ever, I tackled the Red Velvet cake. Never to be boring, I wanted to spice it up and add a twist. I did a ton of research on Red Velvet cakes to see if I could pair them with anything or change them, but there really wasn’t anything out there that showed a creative red velvet cake. Everything was very basic: Red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. Luckily, I have wheels turning in my head constantly and I settled on doing a pecan praline brittle in the middle. (I thought about doing an almond brittle, which sounded awesome, but I’m allergic to almonds so I opted to change the nut.)

Red Velvet with Pecan Praline Brittle Layer Cake (Cake adapted from Pinch My Salt's Family Recipe)

Cake Ingredients:
2 ½ cups cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 TBSP cocoa powder
2 oz red food coloring (2 entire individual bottles)
½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 ½ cups of sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp baking soda

Pecan Praline Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
¼ cup water
1 cup pecans, chopped

Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:
1 ½ - 8 oz packages of Cream Cheese, room temperature
1 ½ sticks Unsalted Butter, room temperature
5 cups Powdered Sugar
2 TBSP Sour Cream
1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Red Velvet Cake Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Butter and flour 2 – 9” cake rounds.
In a medium bowl whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt. (It is SUPER important to use the cake flour and not All-Purpose flour. All purpose flour is not going to work as well, be fluffy, or taste good. BUY the CAKE FLOUR. It took me a while to find in the baking aisle, but that’s because it comes in a box, not a bag.)
In a small bowl, mix the cocoa and the food coloring together until they form a thin paste.
In a large bowl, beat the butter, vanilla, and sugar together. Once they are creamed together, add the eggs one at a time, mixing between each egg.
Add 1/3 of the flour mixture and ½ of the buttermilk. Scrape down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Alternating, until everything is combined.
In a small bowl, mix the vinegar and the baking soda together. (Yes, it will fizz.) Quickly add the mixed vinegar/baking soda mixture to the cake batter and mix it together. Split the batter between the two pans.
Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Pecan Praline Brittle:
Line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper. In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar and the water. Cook over medium heat, without stirring. The mixture will become a deep amber color (caramel forming). It takes about 15 minutes or a little less. Keep your eye on it, because it goes from amber to burning VERY quickly. Remove the boiling sugar from the heat and stir in the pecans. Pour/spread the pecans on the parchment paper and let them cool.

Cream Cheese Frosting Directions:
Beat the cream cheese and the butter in a large bowl until fluffy. Beat in the sugar, then the sour cream and vanilla. Beat until smooth.

Assembly:
Place one of the red velvet layers, top down, on a platter or cake stand. Put a considerable amount of cream cheese frosting to cover the top of the cake. Break the brittle into smaller pieces and place on top of the cream cheese frosting. Carefully, add some more cream cheese frosting over the pecan brittle. Place the top layer of the cake on top of the brittle. Frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining frosting. (You might have a little left over, but it goes great with graham crackers as a nice snack.)

So my pecan praline brittle was a little burnt, because I overcooked my sugar. However, I still used it. I thought of tossing it, because it was really smokey, but luckily it worked and balanced out with the sweetness of the frosting and the cake. The brittle was a little difficult to cut through because it was, well, brittle.

The cake itself was good, moist and rich and bright red. However, I think that it was a lot of extra work without a lot of reward. It tasted delicious and was obviously better than a boxed cake, but spending $10 on red food coloring was kind of absurd and timing the baking soda with the vinegar was a little too much work for me. (I felt like the volcano science experiment in the 5th grade. My volcano was a giant rock we drilled a hole in. It was pretty life – like.) But if you have the time, patience, and aren’t afraid of dying your fingers a little red, definitely try to make it from scratch. Or make it from scratch just once, so you know what’s up.

Kyle loved the cake, as did the rest of the staff. So as long as our Georgia peach was happy and it wasn’t in the shape of an Armadillo, then it was a job well done.At work we sell these crazy little dolls called Sonny Angels. They're vegetable head dolls with little angel wings and little male genitals. They are a huge joke at work. You buy the box and you don't know which one you're going to get. They have become the cake topper for all the staff birthday cakes. They're a little crazy, but they're our cult classic.

S'more update

2009-08-27T22:59:00.004-05:00

Tonight I went to Uncommon Ground.

We ate a S'more Tart.
Graham Cracker crust, chocolate ganache, with bruleed homemade marshmallows.
It was great! Especially because the chocolate was cold and the marshmallows were hot. If only the crust had been a little thicker. But the ambiance and the company made up for it...after all everything tastes better in a warm orange light.

However, as a self proclaimed authority on S'mores - It was delicious and you should go try it with a nice cup of tea or a glass of Pinot Noir.

Campfire Classics

2009-08-26T21:53:00.013-05:00

We grew up in the great outdoors. Our first family camping trip took place between San Jose, California and Reno, Nevada, and back. (It actually might have been our first American road trip too now that I think about it.) We were visiting our Aunt, Uncle, and cousins who live in Cali. It was quite an adventure for all of us. We rented a big conversion van so we all traveled together and stayed in a couple random camp grounds. We ate A LOT of Ramen, which was perfect because we had never had Ramen before and I didn’t OD on it again until college. So we ate Ramen and went camping and I used all my birthday money to buy Wedding Day Midge, who also came camping with us. Besides seeing tumbleweed for the first time and enjoying trying to wrap my 9 year old arms around a giant redwood, my favorite thing about our entire vacation was sitting around the campfire, telling a round robin story, and eating S’mores.

Our round robin stories always started with someone saying something and then the next person finishing off the thought and adding a new one until a story developed. For some reason, I still remember parts of one of those stories. Part of it might have been because it was SO outrageous and ridiculous or because I have this vivid image of the family sitting around the fire telling it. The main character was Barbie (I was nearing the end of my Barbie age, but she was still a part of our lives at that time) and she chose Peabody to be her boyfriend. (Peabody was one of the boys Barbie could choose in the 1950’s Barbie Prom game, which we played non-stop during that trip as well as a handful of times throughout my childhood. We never had it, but some of my awesome friends and family were the owners of this amazing board game.) There was some sort of accident/problem, but the moral of the story was “Always wear clean underwear when you leave the house because you never know what kind of trouble you’re going to get into.” (My dad may have gotten Barbie and Peabody whacked during that story, but the details are blurry.)

This moral and S’mores have stuck with me for almost 20 years, but this blog is not devoted to my undergarments, so lets move on to the other topic:
S’mores…
Nothing beats the taste of fire burned marshmallows between chocolate and graham crackers – so simple and so delicious.

I’ve dappled in s’more desserts in the past, including some super cute mini graham cracker cupcakes where we toasted the marshmallows over the stove and smashed them in between a halved cupcake with chocolate. They were quite interactive and pretty delicious, however, they weren’t overly complicated and using graham crackers would have been just as easy and delicious. I was also a S'more last year for Halloween, so our ties run deep.

My co-worker Tracy’s birthday was a week ago, and since we work in the outdoor industry I decided to track down a spin on S’mores and make her birthday cake. My friend Lauren sent me a recipe she found online for a S’more cake, so I decided to take my spin on it.

S’more Cake Adapted from Baking Bites
Graham Cracker Cake Ingredients
½ cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup sugar
3 large egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups graham cracker crumbs (If you buy a box of graham crackers it’s two enveloped packages so 2/3 of the box)
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 cup milk
3 large egg whites

Chocolate Ganache
1 cup Semi-sweet Chocolage Chips
¼ cup Half and Half
2 TBSP unsalted butter
2 TBSP corn syrup

Marshmallow Filling
1 – 7 oz jar Marshmallow Fluff

Graham Cracker Cake
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease 2 – 9” round cake pans with cooking spray and line the bottoms with parchment paper.
In a large bowl mix together the butter and sugar until it’s creamed together. Add the egg yolks and the vanilla.
In a smaller bowl mix together the graham cracker crumbs, baking powder, and salt. Stir in a third of the graham cracker mixture with the butter and sugar, followed by half of the milk, alternating until you end with the graham cracker mixture.
In a separate bowl beat the egg whites to soft peaks.
Fold the egg whites into the graham cracker mixture in two batches, making sure it’s folded in completely with no white streaks.
Divide evenly into pans.
Bake for about 24 minutes until it’s dense and a toothpick comes out clean.
Let cakes cool for a couple minutes before dumping them and let them finish cooling on a wire rack.

Chocolate Frosting
Using a double boiler melt the chocolate chips and butter until smooth. While still under the flame add the corn syrup and stir until combined. Turn the heat off on the double boiler and add the half and half. Stir until smooth. It has more of a ganache consistency than a thick frosting.

Assembly
Place one layer of the cake, bottom side up, on a plate. Spread half of the chocolate ganache/frosting over the top of the bottom layer. Spread the entire layer of fluff on top of the chocolate. The fluff is not easy to spread. It kind of glops on and is a sticky mess.
Stack the next graham cake layer on top of the fluff. Spread the rest of the chocolate frosting over the top of the cake layer. It looks awesome if the chocolate drips down the side of the cake.

I made the cake the night before I took it to work and stuck it in the fridge overnight. Something about the fluff makes it a little volatile. Overnight, the entire top of the cake slid off the top and did not look like the nice stack it had been when I put it in the fridge at night. Because I had stuck it in the fridge, the fluff was not only sticky, but kind of hardened too, which made shifting the top half back onto the cake a little difficult. The cake continued to do this off and on while it was in the process of being eaten. I think it only took 2 days to polish it off…so it wasn’t overly annoying. I’d probably increase the chocolate frosting when I make this again so I can pour the frosting over the fluff as well as underneath it and on the top of the cake. It might help keep the marshmallow encased and help it from sliding. I thought that maybe I frosted the cake while the frosting was too warm and that caused the marshmallow to slide, however, it kept happening so I don’t think that’s the reason.

I know Barbie and Peabody would have loved to go on a date at the soda shoppe and eat S’more cake and I think you’d like it too. Just remember to wear clean undies.

This may not be the most flattering angle...but you get the point. I love S'mores!

Death by Cake...

2009-08-13T19:13:00.006-05:00

Pegleg Penny has joined those great Chefs and kitchen utensils in the sky. During an intense batch of cream cheese frosting, Pegleg gave a last little hum of the engine and just stopped spinning. She was there until the end, but it is with a heavy heart that I write this entry. This happened over three weeks ago and I am still saddened by it.

In honor of Pegleg I will share some of her favorite memories in the kitchen.

Pegleg suffered her first injury shortly after she came to live with me at the Wellington house. I accidentally put the beater with the flat disc in the improper side. Her leg got stuck. Maybe I should have recognized that moment foreshadowing her fate, but not being one to let the mixer win, I took her casing apart and fixed her up like new. Well as new as possible, she definitely had some war wounds.

While Pegleg had a TURBO button, we rarely needed to use it. She had an abnormally fast heart, much like myself, which really expedited the beating of egg whites and getting the job done. Naturally that makes her more prone to passing out on the street while exercising.

Her favorite thing that we ever made was a cake for our friend Andrew. It was a Red Velvet cake with a brown sugar cream cheese frosting and a pound of fried bacon on top. Miss Piggy’s Delight for sure.

She was always dressed to the nines in her sleek silver outfit.

Her favorite song was Blueberry Pie as sung by Bette Midler and No Scrubs by TLC.

Her political views tended to be more Independent than anything. In the 2008 election her write in candidate was Er ic Ripert. He was her Silver Fox. (The fact that he’s French is only a minor detail according to PP.)

Her lifelong goal was to have as many high profile romantic conquests as Gael Greene. She did not have the opportunity to meet Burt Reynolds, Clint Eastwood, or Elvis, but she did have an on again, off again relationship with the Microplaner.

Pegleg’s favorite TV show was the Price is Right, but she only liked it when Bob Barker was on.

The chef she most wanted to meet was Gale Gand. Gale’s pastry just astounded PP to the point where she was slightly obsessed. Pegleg was so jealous of my little sister who had the opportunity to meet Gale like 6 years ago.

The one thing you would never guess about Pegleg was that she was an excellent letter writer. She believed in the power of snail mail and of people getting an actual piece of correspondence physically in their hands. Pegleg tried to write 10 letters a week. (That postage was pricey!) She was a big fan of sending fan mail, although she never received any back. She wrote weekly to the cast of the Harry Potter movies (she has a thing for redheads), Mayor Daley (on ways to improve Chicago), Kathy Griffin (she was obsessed with fame), Oprah, and more recently she went on a letter writing campaign to Sony Pictures in an attempt to stop the production of the movie Julie and Julia. Pegleg went on and on about it not doing Julia Child justice and how her great, great, great, cousin, three times removed had been Julia Child’s mixer and how dare they write such blasphemy.

Pegleg’s favorite memory of me was when I made a Gingerbread, Mascarpone, Candied Apricot Trifle for Christmas last year and burned the tip of my finger to a blister because I stupidly stuck my finger in the boiling sugar. She thought it was funny. I laughed about it later.

Pegleg’s favorite movie was the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast. Ironically enough, she uttered her last breath creating a cake to take to an outdoor version of the play my friend Nicole was in. Pegleg loved the dancing kitchenware in Be Our Guest. As a young mixer, she would twirl around the kitchen practicing the choreography. (High School Musical 2 was her second favorite movie because they have a great kitchen song scene in there too.)

You could say Pegleg had a strong sense of self or you could say Pegleg was a little flighty. No matter what, that girl could cook. I miss her greatly and I leave you with her parting recipe. It’s not completely original, but it’s an adaptation of sorts because that’s how we worked best, adapting to make things ours.

Pegleg Penny’s Spice Cake of Death (Death in a good way, of course)* Adapted from Spice Cake with Blackberry filling and Cream Cheese Frosting

Cake Ingredients
2 cups All Purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Ginger
1 tsp All Spice
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Nutmeg
½ tsp Salt
2 cups Sugar
2 sticks of Unsalted Butter, very soft
¼ tsp Orange Extract (or 1 TBSP Orange Peel)
4 eggs
1 cup Sour Cream
½ cup of Whole Milk (I used ¼ cup of fat free milk + ¼ cup of light whipping cream)
Blackberry Filling:
2 – 12 oz containers of Blackberries
½ cup Sugar

Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 ½ - 8 oz packages of Cream Cheese, room temperature
1 ½ sticks Unsalted Butter, room temperature
5 cups Powdered Sugar
2 TBSP Sour Cream
1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Cake Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 2 – 9” round pans and 1 – 5/6” round pan. (I made 2 cakes with this recipe, 1 – 9” layer cake, and one smaller cake I could take the to outdoor play. You can definitely make the 9” layer cake a three layer cake. The smaller cake I split in half horizontally because it was considerably thicker than the larger layers.) Line the bottoms of the pans with parchment paper.
Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, ginger, all spice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt into bowl and set aside.
Beat the sugar, butter, and orange extract together in a large bowl. Once they are sufficiently mixed, beat in the eggs one at a time.
Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture, alternating with the sour cream and the milk.
Divide into the prepared pans.
Bake approximately 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. The thicker, small cake took a couple extra minutes (about 28 minutes total).

Filling Directions:
Mix berries and sugar in a bowl. Using a fork, work your way through the fruit, mashing it up. Don’t make it too fine, keep it chunky. Let it stand up to an hour, but no less than 20 minutes.

Cream Cheese Frosting Directions:
So I used a little different Cream Cheese frosting recipe than I normally use. This one has the sour cream in it. Since I had bought sour cream for the cake I decided to give it a try, while I prefer my simpler recipe, it was still tasty.
Beat the cream cheese and the butter in a large bowl until fluffy. Beat in the sugar, then the sour cream and vanilla.

Assembly:
For the two layer cake, place bottom layer on serving platter/plate, top side down. Spread a good amount of frosting over the top of the cake. Make the frosting a little thicker around the outer edges of the cake so that when you spoon the filling in it doesn’t seep out. Place the second layer on top of the bottom layer, top side up. Frost the top of the cake and it’s sides so that there is a nice thick layer of frosting. Refrigerate cake until an hour before you’re ready to serve. If you immediately serve from the fridge it’s just a little too cold. For the smaller thicker cake, cut cake horizontally into two equal layers. Follow the same assembly directions.

Pegleg gave out during the final stretch of cream cheese frosting. However, my roommates, knowing how sad and upset I was to lose PP have replaced her with a white KitchenAid hand held mixer. She may not have as much moxy, yet, we’re only just getting to know each other.

Iron Chef Challenge - Strawberries

2009-07-29T10:43:00.015-05:00

Warning: This is a rather long post. It’s THREE recipes in one sitting…

At the end of June, we had a big family party, a reunion of sorts. When you think of my immediate family we’re not too big (there are only 5 of us: Mami, Papi, and the three of us kids), however, when you think of my mom’s side of the family it gets slightly more complicated. Not only is my mom one of six siblings, but add to the equation spouses, kids, kid’s significant others, and we literally have enough family to make up two baseball teams with relief players (this is including my 90 year old Gramma as pitcher of course). My mom’s side of the family, while originally based in Chicago, is now spread out all over the US. We have both coasts covered with some area in between. Because of this distance, it’s pretty awesome when we all get together.

To me, the fam is pretty special. I love to soak up as much time with my Aunts and Uncles as possible (maybe because I get some great dirt on my mom) and I enjoy getting to know my cousins a little better (mostly because there’s always a gem of a story to unearth). The big family party was set for Saturday and we were going to have a family dinner on Friday night at Gramma’s. My Uncle was going to cook dinner, so as the good little wannabe Chef that I am, I offered to make desserts. Having made the cakes for Gramma’s 90th and being impressed with some of my ridiculous concoctions that I’ve made for other family holidays he opened his arms to me. A week before the dinner I started to panic. I offered to make dessert without taking into account things like the amount of people that were going to be there (like 22 people or something ridiculous) AND it also seemed to have slipped my mind that the Jewel grocery store 37 seconds away from my house was closing it’s doors that week for remodeling. Couple these factors with normal work stress, attempting to have a life of my own, and minor daily annoyances and if you looked at me wrong, I probably would have burst into flames.

Luckily, I work best under pressure. I may not do my best work, but I’m focused, organized, and boy do I zero in on the prize and go for it.

So I set to work brainstorming. I couldn’t just make 200 cookies for my family – that was way too boring. And I had to make something gluten free so that my mom could enjoy it. I also wanted to use my tart pan still (I know – it’s a little obsessive) and I had recently purchased a cake carrier that was asking to be carried. I decided to make this a challenge – to pick one theme to carry through all the desserts. That way nothing was conflicting/overpowering and it made sense when presented in a group setting.

Strawberries. I love working with fresh fruit. I like the balance it has with chocolate or without chocolate and how it adds a lighter aspect to something. I also enjoy them by themselves. So in my own little kitchen stadium I began my Strawberry Challenge. Make 3 desserts, enough to feed 20 people and allow for seconds, in one very long night. I scoured the net for recipes. I settled on making three things, which I gave them each a spin of my own. I made Chocolate Covered Strawberries with semi-sweet and white chocolate, Fresh Fruit Tart, and what I like to call – A Slice of Strawberry Heaven (Gluten Free). To say everything came out perfect, would be a huge understatement. The fact is: I ran into a ton of kinks. There was intense troubleshooting, a 7 am bike ride to the Jewel down the road, and the remaking of a dessert before I had to be at work at 9:30 am. Even with all the stress and trouble, everything actually turned out delicious. And I want to mess with all these recipes some more so I can get them just right, however, I’ve OD’d a little on strawberries so I’m going to steer clear of them for a little while and focus on other delicious desserts before I bring them back.

Without further blabbing, here are the recipes. They’re definitely a work in progress, but have fun with them. They are delicious after all.

Chocolate Cover ed Strawberries (Taken from Foo d Network) These are also Gluten-Free!

Ingredients:
2 lbs of whole Strawberries (about 40)
12 oz Semi-sweet Chocolate (chopped)
6 oz White Chocolate (chopped)

Directions:
Wash and dry the strawberries really well. If they are wet the chocolate doesn’t set on them as nicely.
Put the Semi-sweet and White Chocolate in two separate heat proof bowls. I used my metal bowls. Make two separate double boilers to melt the chocolate by filling two separate saucepans with a couple of inches of water and heat until the water simmers. Make sure when you place your bowl on top of your saucepan that the water does NOT touch the bottom of the bowl.
While waiting for the water to simmer, line jelly roll pans with wax paper or parchment paper where you’ll set the dipped strawberries (or you can line your counter with it too).
Because I was doing so many strawberries I melted the Semi-sweet Chocolate first. I turned the heat down to low and waited for the chocolate to melt, stirring it until it was smooth. Once the chocolate was melted I turned the heat off.
Hold the strawberries by the stem and dip into the chocolate. As you lift it from the chocolate twist the strawberry so the excess falls back into the bowl or twists onto the strawberry. Set the strawberries on the parchment paper. Continue with the rest of your strawberries.
Follow the same rules stated above to melt the white chocolate. Once the white chocolate is melted, dip a fork in the white chocolate and whip it back and forth across the strawberries. It takes a couple times to get the whip of your wrist right, you might make a little mess and wind up with white chocolate all over your kitchen. But once you get the movement down they look gorgeous.
Let the strawberries set and them place them in the fridge. To package them you can stack them on top of each other between parchment paper. Don’t leave them out too long because you run the risk of the strawberries getting juicy and the chocolate shrinking back off of them (this is especially the case if you don’t dry them well enough).
This is a very easy dessert that is a crowd pleaser every time.

Fresh Fruit Tart Adapted from recipe found in Gourmet Magazine, 1998

Ingredients:
Crust:
1 ¾ cup Cinnamon Graham Crackers, ground (about 20 Trader Joe’s Cinnamon Graham Crackers)
1 stick of Unsalted Butter, melted
¼ cup of Sugar

Mascarpone Filling:
8 oz Mascarpone
1 cup Heavy Cream
1 cup Powdered Sugar
1 Lemon (zested)

Fruit Topping & Glaze:
3 ½ - 4 cups of Fresh Fruit (I used 1 ½ cups of sliced Strawberries, 1 cup Raspberries, and 1 cup Blueberries)
2 TBSP Strawberry Marmalade
2 TBSP Cointreau (or other berry/fruity liquor)

Directions:
Crust:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place a metal small measuring cup in the freezer to chill and help push the sides of the crust up the tart pan (optional).
Grind the Graham Crackers in the food processor until they are fine, mealy, texture. Stir in the sugar. Next stir in the butter until it’s incorporated.
Pour the crust mixture into a 9” tart pan. Coat the bottom of the tart pan with the crust mixture and push it up the sides of the pan as well. Using the cold measuring cup will help with this.
Bake in the oven for 13 minutes.
The crust slid down on me and cooked a little funny. If this happens, as soon as you pull it out of the oven, use the measuring cup or the back of a spoon to push the sides back up the side of the pan. Allow the crust to cool about 15-20 minutes before filling it. The crust should be fine.
Mascarpone Filling:
Beat the Mascarpone, whipping cream, sugar, and lemon zest until stiff peaks form. (It is, by far, the easiest step.) Once the crust is cool, spoon and spread the Mascarpone filling into the crust.
Fruit Topping and Glaze:
Slice the strawberries and mix with the raspberries and blueberries in a big bowl.
Place the Marmalade and the Cointreau in a small saucepan and simmer until the liquid is reduced to 3 TBSP, stirring constantly. This takes about five minutes.
With a pastry brush or spoon, spread some of the glaze over the top of the Mascarpone filling. Pour the rest of the glaze in with the fruit and stir it up so the fruit is coated. The fruit will get a nice sheen to it from the glaze. If you are serving this right away, toss the fruit on top of the tart, if not set it aside and wait to cover the tart.

I made the mistake of dressing the cake way before it was time. The liquid from the fruit and the glaze seeped through the crust and made everything soggy, making a huge mess in my kitchen. I had to turn the tart over on a plate to stop it from oozing. As a perfectionist, this made me hop on my bike at 7 am and go to Jewel to re-make the dessert. I took the first, soggy dessert to work and it was a huge hit. I waited to put the fruit on top of the tart until I got to my Grandma’s. It was a big hit and tasted delish, but the crust was a little hard. So the juices are definitely needed to soften the crust, but just do it a little before you’re ready to serve and not 24 hours before because it is a sticky gross mess to clean up.

Gluten Free Strawberry Heaven
Gluten Free White Cake Ingredients: (Cake adapted from a recipe Amanda’s Random Ramblings
1) 1 cup White Rice Flour
2) 1 cup Sorghum Flour
3) 1 1/3 cup Tapioca Flour
4) 2/3 cup Potato Starch
5) 2 cups Sugar
6) 4 tsp Baking Powder
7) 1 tsp Salt
8) 2 tsp Xanthan Gum
3 sticks of Unsalted Butter, softened but NOT melted
6 eggs
3 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 cup Whole Milk

Chocolate Ganache:
16 oz Semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
1 ½ cup Heavy Whipping Cream
4 TBSP butter

Strawberry Buttercream and Strawberry Filling:
(This is where the recipe went awry. Everything was going well until I tried to concoct a strawberry buttercream. I think I looked at way too many recipes and didn’t think things through properly. I am going to write about how I made it a giant mess and what I think I would omit to fix it. Please do not get mad if it turns out badly, it can be fixed.)
1 cup Strawberries, pureed
½ cup Unsalted Butter, melted
4 cups Powdered Sugar
¼ cup Milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp Strawberry gelatin
2 envelopes regular Gelatin
1 cup Strawberries, sliced - to place between cake layers

Gluten Free White Cake Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Grease 2 – 9” Round pans.
Combine all your dry ingredients (ingredients 1 through 8) in a bowl and mix them together (best done with a large spoon since there are so many).
Place your softened butter in a larger bowl and beat until fluffy.
Add the dry ingredients to the fluffy butter until they are all combined. Turn up the juice on your mixer and mix until the butter/dry ingredients reach a crumbly consistency.
In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and vanilla (I used the empty dry ingredients bowl). Add the vanilla/eggs to the dry ingredients and beat until it’s smooth and thick. Add the milk to the batter and beat until it’s combined.
Divide the cake batter between the round pans. Place in the oven and cook for approx. 44 minutes. Check on it after 30 minutes. I think because I doubled the original recipe and made pretty thick cakes it took a little longer than I had anticipated.
Cool the cakes in the pans for 10 minutes and then dump onto a cooling rack.
This was hands down, one of the best gluten free cakes I’ve made. It’s a little more difficult because there’s no chocolate in it to mask the gluten free texture/tastes. It didn’t taste exactly like white cake, but it had a nice fluffy consistency to it and didn’t taste too heavy or mealy.

Ganache:
Do not make the Ganache until the cakes have completely cooled and are ready to be covered. Make sure to put a cookie sheet under the cooling rack to catch the dripping chocolate ganache.
Place the chopped chocolate in a heat proof bowl.
Heat the cream and butter over medium heat, stirring constantly. Bring the cream and butter just to a boil and pour over the chocolate.
Let it stand, undisturbed for 5 minutes. Use a whisk and stir until smooth.
Pour the chocolate ganache over the tops of the cakes. Make sure to spread/cover the sides of the cakes.
Let the chocolate cool.

Strawberry Buttercream:
Beat all the ingredients together (except for the sliced Strawberries) until stiff peaks form. This does not happen, sadly. There’s too much liquid, no matter how long you beat. Poor Pegleg’s leg got tired, and my arm got tired of holding her. That’s why I attempted to add the gelatin to try to thicken it up. No dice…Then I thought if I refrigerated it, it would stiffen up a bit. It was still a soupy mess. Then I just prayed and decided to use it anyway. I think if I had omitted the milk it would have come out ok, but I can’t be positive.

Assembly:
I placed on ganached layer on the cake carrier and spread a little Strawberry Buttercream Soup over the top of the first layer. I then placed the sliced strawberries on top of the first layer. I placed the second ganached layer cake on top of the first one. Then, I poured the Strawberry Buttercream Soup over the ganached layers. I was hoping it would stick to the chocolate, it kind of slid everywhere and created a huge mess. Because it was so slippery, the strawberries started popping out of the center of the cake. By this time it was well past 1 am. I was crying. I’m not big on crying, but I was so exhausted and frustrated. I was sure this was going to rival the peanut butter crust disaster.
I stuck the cake in the fridge and hoped for the best, knowing that nothing good could come of it. It looked like a terrible unappetizing mess. I’m sure it tasted ok, but looking at it you definitely did NOT want to eat it. You could have potentially gotten cooties from just looking at it.
As I was sluggishly cleaning the kitchen and wallowing in self pity and disappointment I was thinking as to how I was going to fix this cake. I couldn’t let it go to waste, I had spent a lot of time on these gluten free layers and the ganache was beautiful. I couldn’t just serve the tart and strawberries, there wouldn’t be enough to feed the masses. I was already getting up to go to Jewel at 7 am, there had to be something I could do.
I sifted through the culinary encyclopedia in my brain and reverted to something I knew I could execute awesomely – Cream Cheese Frosting!

So early in the morning, I carefully removed the slippery, strawberry, soupy covered cakes from the cake carrier base and cleaned the base. (Since everything had dripped everywhere.) I whipped up a batch of cream cheese frosting. Placed the cake back on the carrier and frosted it.

Cream Cheese Frosting
1 – 8 oz package Cream cheese, softened
½ cup butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups powdered sugar, sifted

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until smooth and fluffy. Little by little add the powdered sugar until it’s light and creamy. It’s pretty easy and really tasty.

as the Whoopie Pies, I know it was damn good and thAnd the cake was DELICIOUS! It was absolutely phenomenal. It had just the right amount of sweetness and fruitiness. The chocolate added a great layer to the flavors and kept it from being bland with just a white cake and strawberries. I don’t really like attention and have a hard time taking compliments, not because I don’t appreciate them, but part of me only half believes them. I made a disaster into a success and while I was completely exhausted, the clink of forks and the going back for seconds was some of the most rewarding praise I’ve ever received. (Writing that seems kind of silly, but it’s truly how I felt.) My family, they don’t sugar coat things. They tell it like it is and when my mom said that she liked this cake almost as goodat’s that no one had been filled in on the backstory.

Maybe it’s a tale of success, maybe it’s just a story of luck, but for once I felt like I knew what it was like to take lemons and make lemonade.

Field Trip: Fritz's Pastry

2009-06-30T22:16:00.007-05:00

A couple weeks ago I went on a field trip on my day off. It was fabulous. I had received an email a couple days before from Daily Candy. Daily Candy highlights awesome things in Chicago: new things to try, new places to go, trends that are on the up and up. It’s quite handy. Not to mention, their ‘reports’ are brief and witty, making for a good read.

So, Daily Candy told me about this awesome new bakery – in my neighborhood. Since it was a beautiful day, I decided to take a little trip. I visited Fritz Pastry on Diversey.

I ate a Lemon Marcaron (not to be confused with a macaroon). Which tasted like a little bite of lemon bar flavored heaven crossed with some crunchless meringue. Then I had a brioche with hazelnut and milk chocolate. I also had a chocolate croissant.

I liked this bakery. It was warm and well lit. Reasonably priced. Everything tasted very good and the service was great. The only thing I wished for was free wi-fi.

I'm a cherry ghost...

2009-06-30T19:26:00.012-05:00

I'm an ocean

I'm all emotion
I'm a cherry ghost
-Wilco

Rainier cherr ies.
If you haven’t tried them – go out and get them.
I first discovered them the summer I lived in Washington, DC. I went to the Eastern Market (a fabulous farmer’s market with a flea market, an arts and crafts area, and the most gorgeous fresh fruits and veggies) and was mesmerized by these cherries that weren’t a deep red. They’re lighter in color with a sweet, yellow flesh. I ate pounds, upon pounds of the cherries. Until my lips were chapped from the tartness and the corners of my mouth itched from cherry juice.

When Rainier cherries become available every year, a little piece of cherry heaven is sent down from Mother Nature to me. My taste buds do a little dance and I over indulge my cherry passion. Don’t get me wrong, I do like the regular deep red Bing cherries, but I don’t like them as much. When I buy them, it’s to satisfy a hunger and a desire for seasonal fruit, tap dancing taste buds are not a part of the equation.

Maybe I love Rainier cherries so much because they remind me of my skin baking in the summer heat, or strolling through the farmer’s market in DC, or maybe it’s because winter is officially over and there’s fresh, seasonal fruit. Whatever the fact may be, I love these cherries. So I will spend $5 a pound on these suckers.

After I had eaten my way through about two pounds of cherries (single handedly) in less than a week. I decided I should try to make something with them. Hopefully, I wouldn’t eat them all before I figured out what to make.

I decided on a pie, a traditional forum for cherries. I decided I couldn’t just do the cherries because it would way too sweet. I also didn’t want to mess with a pie crust topping, I wanted to try more of a crumble topping. So I hunkered down and did a ton of online recipe research. I used a gluten free pie crust recommended by Shauna James Ahern, Gluten Free Girl, and mixed all these recipes to make the topping.

Cherry Ghost Pie
Pie Crust Ingredients: *Pie crust taken from Shauna James Ahern's Favorite GF Pie Crust
1 cup white rice flour
½ cup sorghum flour
½ cup potato starch
3 TBSP brown rice flour
3 tsp sugar
¼ tsp kosher salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 stick cold, unsalted butter
1 egg
2 TBSP apple cider vinegar
¼ cup ice water

Topping Ingredients:
¾ cup white rice four
½ cup dark brown sugar
½ cup chopped walnuts
½ cup unsalted butter
¼ tsp kosher salt
¼ cup old fashioned oats

Filling:
1 pound Rainier cherries (approximate)
4 nectarines
1 cup sugar
3 ½ TBSP Gluten Free Flour (I used the pre-mixed Bob’s Red Mill)
1 tsp cinnamon
Pinch of kosher salt

Pie Crust:
Mix the dry ingredients (including the sugar and cinnamon) together in a large bowl. Cut the butter into little pieces (about ½” thick) and drop into the dry ingredients. Using a butter knife, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until it has a mealy consistency. (I used my hands a little bit to help speed the process along. You can also use the food processor to accomplish the desired texture.) Make a well in the dry ingredients. Drop the egg and apple cider vinegar into the well. Stir the egg and vinegar into the dry ingredients gently with a fork. Stirring from the center to the outer edges of the bowl. Once all the ingredients are incorporated, drizzle ice water into the mixture, a little at a time, stirring between each addition. Stir in enough water for the mixture to become dough. You do not want the dough to be too wet!

Lay out a piece of parchment paper and drop the dough onto it. Cover the dough with another piece of parchment paper (in other words a parchment paper sandwich). Gently roll out the dough until it’s thick and the size of a pie plate. Refrigerate the dough as long as possible. Ideally, an entire day/night, but I left mine in for an hour and a half and it came out great.
Remove the dough after it has refrigerated for a while and let it thaw out for about 10-15 minutes.

Roll the dough, between the two layers of parchment, until it’s the size of your pie pan, taking into account the extra area needed for around the sides. I also made the sides about a half inch taller than the pan itself. (I had cut up way too much fruit.) Remove the top layer of parchment, and invert the pie crust into the pie pan. Pinch/crinkle the sides so they fit the pan.

You do not need to pre-bake the pie crust.

Filling:
Pit the cherries and slice them in half. Pit and slice the nectarines. Mix them in a bowl with the sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt. Let the fruit soak in their own juices for a little while (about ten minutes).

On a side note: There are cherry pitters out there. I don’t have one and have never used one, however, it would have been nice. So I did some research on how to pit the cherries easily without a pitting tool. There were suggestions on using a paperclip and a bobby pin. I tried the bobby pin. It was more messy than helpful. I had cherry juice running down to my elbows. The cherries were ripe enough that I could just use my hands to break the cherries open and take the pits out.

Topping:
Thoroughly mix all the topping ingredients together. (AND that’s it – it’s so easy!)

Assembly:
Spoon the filling into the pie crust. Sprinkle the topping over the filling.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 375 degrees. Cover a jelly roll sheet with tin foil and place pie on top of the pan. (The pan is there to catch any over bubbling juices.) Bake the pie, on the bottom rack, for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, tent with foil, and continue to bake for about another hour. Check on it periodically, you don’t want the crust to burn. It’s ready when the filling starts to bubble and the topping in a golden brown.

Enjoy!

Things I’d do differently:
I think I let the cherries sit was too long because they were already pretty ripe. Because they were so ripe, I felt like their flavor was weak and got lost. Very muddy flavor-wise. While the nectarines retained a little snap to them and had quite a bit of flavor still.

My sister and brother both thought the cinnamon was a little over powering. I would half the amount of cinnamon in the filling so it wasn’t too much. This may have also been caused by the cherry blandness. I would also only do 3 TBSP of the gluten free flour, instead of 3 ½ TBSP. You could taste the flour a little and GF flour does not taste like regular flour.

For the topping, I would mix all the ingredients together EXCEPT the oats. I would sprinkle the oats on first, directly on top of the fruit, and then sprinkle the rest of the topping over the oats and fruit. I think the oats needed to absorb a little liquid and get a little more tender.

At the end of the day, the pie was good. Much better than my last attempt. I was a little disappointed in the cherry consistency, but it was all trial and error. I couldn’t find any specific Rainier cherry pies out there to use as a study. I would make it again, with a couple modifications. At the end of the day, there is no better fruit than the Rainier cherry. Just go out and try it.

Pegleg Penny goes to Washington

2009-06-25T01:07:00.007-05:00

Trying new things is always difficult. Whether it’s conquering a fear or doing/eating something you’ve never tried before, exploring something new, always has a little bit of hesitation. I’m not going to lie – sometimes fear of the unknown holds you back, but sometimes, if you give it a try it turns into an outstanding experience.

Let me take you back to the spring of 2003. I was offered a fantastic internship for that summer in Washington D.C., working at the Smithsonian. At first I was thrilled, not to mention proud, the fact that I could beat out hundreds of applicants to work at such an institution was pretty impressive – at least to me. However, I wasn’t too sure I wanted to go, it was more to prove to myself that I could get there. My other strong internship possibility in Chicago fell through. I was devastated and freaked out. Which are two very strong emotions that really don’t belong together. They may cause you to spontaneously combust or do very crazy things. Then I panicked and scrambled. I had to find something else. Washington DC, while a romantic idea, took on a whole other dimension of difficult. I had to find a place to live and get my booty out there, not to mention my boyfriend was staying in the area and I didn’t want to leave him. (I know – I’m a total sucker – but I already knew ‘long distance’ was NOT one of our strong suits.) In other words, I was terrified. But I needed a summer job to make a little pocket change, add things to my portfolio of tricks, AND I needed to give a little substance to my resume. So I went to Washington. (Yep, exactly like Mr. Smith.)

Which brings me to buttermilk…I’ve always had sort of ‘Eww’ Factor towards it. I think it’s that spoiled milk thing it’s got going on. It was never really been my thing. So when I picked up the June issue of Gourmet and they had a Raspberry Buttermilk Cake, I was skeptical. It was heavily buttermilky, it wasn’t like the Whoopie pies that just use a little bit. Then I looked at the pictures and my skepticism died down a bit. Then I noticed how easy the recipe sounded, and I considered it a little more. Then I decided to bite the bullet, to conquer my fear of the unknown, and try using buttermilk.

Raspberry Buttermilk Cake (As seen in Gourmet Magazine, June 2009)
Ingredients:
1 cup flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ stick unsalted butter, melted
2/3 cup plus 1 ½ TBSP sugar, divided
½ tsp pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
½ cup well shaken buttermilk
1 cup fresh raspberries (about 5 oz or one little carton)

Directions
-Preheat your oven to 400 degrees, placing your rack in the middle.
-Butter and flour an 9” round cake pan. Make sure you get all the edges well floured. It makes the cake a lot easier to dump out.
-Beat the butter and 2/3 cup of sugar until pale and fluffy. (Basically, until it’s pretty smooth.) -Then, add the vanilla and beat. Next, add the egg and beat well.
-In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together.
-At a low speed on your mixer, mix in the flour with the butter/egg mixture in 3 batches, alternating with the buttermilk. Make sure you begin and end with the flour.
-Spoon the batter into the cake pan. Scatter the raspberries over the top of the cake (there is no need to press them into the batter). Sprinkle the remaining 1 ½ TBSP of sugar over the top of the cake.
-Bake until the cake is golden and a toothpick comes out clean. Approx. 25-30 minutes. Cool in the pan for about ten minutes. Run a butter knife around the edges of the pan to make sure nothing has stuck and dump the cake to finish cooling.

I felt like this was more of a breakfast cake than a dessert cake. It came out very light, fluffy, and delicious, but it didn’t fill that after dinner sweetness craving that I sometimes have. I made two of them and they were easy and came out almost identical. There may be spots that are purpley on the cake. Don’t worry – it’s not mold (I was worried). I think the juices of the berries tend to run when they’re cooked. I had the leftovers a couple times for breakfast and it was a great croissant/toast substitute. It was also a great mid-afternoon snack for my workmates.

At the end of the day, buttermilk may not be so terrible. It has it’s place in the kitchen; I just need to figure out where it is and how to use it so it’s not hiding in a dark corner in my refrigerator, waiting to scare me.

As for Washington DC, maybe I didn't make an impression on it, but it made an impression on me. I ended up renting a room right by Union Station. I had old childhood, wonderful, amazing friends living there that I was able to reconnect with. Part of experiencing that summer I will forever owe to them. I saw the city inside and out. I welcomed my 21st birthday there. I, by no means, will say it was easy. It’s hard to be comfortable in a place when you’re there for such a short period of time. However, once I got out there I was determined to give it a chance – I had no choice. I had friends to go to museums and foreign film screenings with. But I also took the time to go to the farmer’s market, wander the city, go to the zoo, and go see the giant flower at the U.S. Botanic Garden (the one that flowers once every decade and smells like rotting meat) by myself. I took the Metro to Bethesda to go to Trader Joe’s. I went to my first movie screening in the park on the National Mall. It was visually and mentally stimulating. (Even if I came away with nothing to add to my portfolio.) While it may be totally cliché, sometimes you don’t realize how great something will be until you try it. I may not be a big fireworks fan, nor a big 4th of July fan, but nothing can replace the memory of sitting on a cornerstone/planters ledge off the steps of the National Gallery and watching the 4th of July fireworks on the Mall. And to think if I had stayed in the safety of my comfort zone I’d have a little less to talk about and be a lot more boring.

Chocolate Chocolate Tart

2009-06-13T10:37:00.009-05:00

I’m writing this post as I struggle through a migraine. It may not be as witty, insightful, or enjoyable to read as usual. I’ve been plagued with migraines since college. Sometimes they’re food induced, other times, like today, they’re stress induced. I didn’t even know I was THAT stressed out until I woke up at 5 am with a pounding headache behind my right eye. It just sits there. Hanging out. Wearing out it’s welcome. It’s 10 am and it’s still going strong. Because I’ve had them for years, I try really hard to not let them alter my life/lifestyle. Sometimes I can’t help it, I just have to lie down, other times I have no choice – I have to work through them. On days like today, where the cold Chicago weather that feels like early April, when it is in fact June, I am determined to not let the fact that I can barely concentrate on the typing I’m doing, ruin a perfectly decent dessert that I’m dying to tell you about.

And so we begin…
Last weekend my roommates and I had a little shindig. The weather was much like today’s – cold, rainy, and miserable. But it didn’t matter. We were going to have a party and we were going to BBQ and we were going to raise money for my roommate to run the marathon with PAWS.

Naturally, I’m still trying to get the tart pan to pay for itself, so I decided to make a tart – among other items. I found a recipe on Epicurious for a Chocolate Glazed Chocolate Tart that seemed easy AND delicious. I decided to try it out with a couple modifications (esp. after reading the reviews). The step are easy, timing wise it takes a little long because you have to wait for everything to cool before moving on.

Chocolate Chocolate Tart (modified from Epicurious)
Crust Ingredients:
127 – Chocolate Teddy Graham Crackers (about ¾ of one box) – When ground it should be about 1 cup of Teddy Graham crumbs
5 TBSP Unsalted butter (melted)
¼ cup of sugar

Filling Ingredients:
1 ¼ cup heavy cream
9 oz Semi-Sweet chocolate (chopped)
2 large eggs
1 tsp Vanilla extract
¼ tsp salt

Glaze Ingredients:
2 TBSP heavy cream
1 ¾ oz Semi-Sweet chocolate (finely chopped)
1 tsp Light Corn Syrup
1 TBSP Cointreau

Making it work:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Crust:
Grind the Teddy Grahams in the food processor until the consistency is a fine crumb. Stir in the melted butter and the sugar. Dump into the tart pan and spread the crumbs. Press ¾” (or ¾ of the way) up the side of the pan. I stuck one of my metal measuring cups in the freezer for a couple minutes and then pressed it against the side of the crumbs to help the crumbs get into the grooves.

Bake until firm, about 13 minutes. Cool 15-20 minutes before continuing.

Filling:
Chop the 9 oz of chocolate and place in a medium size bowl. Pour the cream in a pan and place it on top of a burner at medium heat. Bring the cream to a boil. Pour the cream over the chopped chocolate and let it stand for 5 minutes (do not stir it!).

After 5 minutes, gently stir the cream/chocolate mixture until it’s smooth.

In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, vanilla, and salt together. After they’re whisked, stir them into the chocolate/cream mixture.

Pour your completed filling into the tart crust (as long as the crust is cool). Bake until the filling is set, but that a 3” area in the center is still a little wobbly. About 20-25 minutes.

Let the tart cool completely for about an hour.

Glaze:
Chop the chocolate and set it aside. In a small saucepan bring the cream to a boil. Once it’s boiling, remove from the heat, and add the chocolate. Stir until smooth. Stir in the corn syrup and then the Cointreau. (It will have a strong alcohol smell, but don’t worry it’s not intense with the tart.)

Pour the glaze over the top of the cake. Move the cake around to spread it over the top or use a spatula if you’re not quick enough and it’s already a little thick. Let it stand for an hour before serving or refrigerating.

This tart was more than just chocolate it was intense chocolate. The cointreau in the glaze got lost, because the chocolate was so rich. If you’re only a medium chocolate fan, this isn’t for you. The filling tasted like a rich fudge. I would probably make the crust a little thicker next time, because the edge was my favorite part, the crunch of the teddy grahams with the creamy, dense chocolate. It got rave reviews and while it was time consuming was VERY easy to make. My friend Seth, who doesn’t like desserts very much, LOVED it – so it is for sure a crowd pleaser.

I would definitely have a slew of witty comments and colorful descriptions to add to this, but unfortunately, my headache just wants me to get the basics out. I will leave you with this exciting TV throwback it will make up for my lack of creativity. Click Here.

Field Trip: Bleeding Heart Bakery

2009-06-09T12:39:00.007-05:00

The environment of Bleeding Heart Bakery is what I would assume you’d get when you cross a circus with a bakery. The atmosphere in Bleeding Heart Bakery is one that mixes the giddy excitement and laughter of a trip to the circus with fresh, local, fragrant ingredients. It’s a place where an adult’s eyes grow wide by all the choices in the pastry case and an atmosphere that makes me think that if I fought the law, I would win.

I have been to Bleeding Heart Bakery (BHB) a handful of times in the last year or so. Originally, I was drawn to BHB because they were doing Top Chef themed cupcakes. They would transform the week’s winning dish into a cupcake. (I fell in love with the most delicious Tandori Chicken Cupcake there. Some of you may be thinking 'Eww...gross!' But really, get in touch with your imagination, because they're delicious!)

This is my friend Rich. Rich moved out of the North Side, so our friendship has evolved into revolving around field trips. Since he’s no longer in the neighborhood these trips generally require a little bit of planning and scheduling. Mostly these field trips revolve around food. Girl’s got to eat after all and it doesn’t hurt that Rich works for Grub Hub so he knows all these cool places to go. Rich and I have been attempting to make it to BHB together for quite some time. Our plans have been foiled on more than one occasion, mostly due to poor planning, traffic, Chicago’s crazy weather, and work. This past week, however, we finally made it there.

Rich was a little hurt that I’ve been a couple times without him, but he got over it - he didn't have much of a choice on that one. There’s definitely some ‘kitsch’ going on, but what I love about BHB is that it’s a bakery with a little bit of punk. Their desserts look great, but they’ve got an edge. They’ve also mastered the art of using bacon in pastries. (Which you can never go wrong with.)

I ate a Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Teacake (that came with a little vat of maple syrup) and a Veruca Salt cupcake (salty caramel). The cupcake had this little pocket of salty, sweet caramel syrup in the center that oozed out in the perfect mix of gritty salt and super sweet. Rich munched on a savory croissant. (He’s not big on sweets.)

BHB is also awesome because they offer quite a few vegan and gluten free options. While we were there, a woman was picking up a cake for her friend that was in the shape of a giant cupcake. The cake was a chocolate, vegan image of beauty. The woman was very excited, since finding a vegan friendly bakery that makes pieces of edible artwork is a little difficult.

My absolute favorite thing about BHB is that if you lean over the counter a little (discreetly looking at everything in the pastry case), you can peek into their workspace. They’ve got a pirate flag hanging in the room and all kinds of toys and baking gadgets. When you have fun at work, what you produce takes on that feeling. When you walk into BHB you get that feeling and no matter what kind of day you’re having, when you bite into one of their pastries that energy is contagious.

After all, like their t-shirts say: There’s no crying in pastry.

*Normally, I just post on things I have baked. I had such an excellent time at Bleeding Heart Bakery I had to write about it. This blog is ever evolving...

Pain Perdu...The Lost Bread

2009-06-05T00:32:00.009-05:00

Last month I made an impulse buy at my grocery store. Part of it was fueled by hunger, part of it was that I didn’t have a list, but mostly it’s because I have this NEED to buy myself ‘a little something’ that is either a treat or something I wouldn’t normally buy to reward myself for being insert your word of choice here. Depending on the day, I’m rewarding myself for being a good person, for making it through work, for not crying when I look at my bank account, for getting a project done, and the list goes on. In a perfect world I would have enough money to buy myself ‘a little something’ AND give $2 to the Streetwise guy (which sometimes I do in fact do), but for me it’s the little victories, the small things that make my day and often times it’s the ‘little somethings’. Back to the point, which is, I don’t quite remember why I rewarded myself with this, but the important thing is that I did. I bought myself my first Gourmet magazine!

Part of what caught my eye about it was these hand cut French fries in a paper cone. I’m not sure why it caught my eye, but at that moment I knew I had found it. It was my ‘little something’ for the day! It looked delicious and mentally stimulating.

I took the magazine home and combed through it. First, I looked at all the pictures. Vivid colors, fresh ingredients, food styling at its peak. Then I noticed how many advertisements are in it, but I let that one slide. Then I got to reading it. I couldn’t get enough of it! Descriptions that made the meals jump off the pages, recipes for everything, I was pleased. After reading it and devouring it piece by piece (metaphorically speaking of course), I really wanted to cook something. I was ready.

My friend Rebecca came over on a Saturday morning for brunch to discuss a ‘business venture’ of ours. The truth is we talked business for about 10 minutes, the rest was devoted to anything but. However, I decided to try the recipe I found for Pain Perdu in the magazine. Pain perdu is a traditional French Toast made from day old or leftover bread. To me, it reminded me more of this Souffle/Quiche hybrid my mom made for us when we were kids. The way it’s cooked here, comes out more casserole type. It has a creamy, dense texture with a crunchy top. It’s the perfect balance for a savory breakfast. The recipe calls for the Pain to be served with poached eggs and a light salad, which sounds great, but is a little more work. I find that the Pain is meal enough, but I have also accompanied it with fried eggs (over hard) and bacon on the side.

For the last couple weeks I’ve been so in love with this recipe, I’ve made it another 2 times. Each time, adding to it and experimenting with the recipe.

The first time I followed/adapted the recipe according to Gourmet magazine (May 2009). And it came out great. Here’s how it works:

Ingredients:
4 slices of a French bread round (1” thick) – the recipe calls for a baguette and to use 6 slices
1 cup whole milk
1 large egg
½ cup grated parmesan
1 TBSP unsalted butter, room temperature
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Make sure the rack is in the middle.
Use the 1 TBSP of butter and peel off the paper, lightly butter a 9-inch pie pan. (Or you can use a 1 qt shallow baking dish.)
Arrange the bread in a single layer in the pan. I cut little slices to fill in the tight areas between the large slices of bread, it was more of a solid layer of bread and it was great.
Whisk together the milk, egg, salt, and pepper.
Pour the milk and egg mixture over the bread.
Sprinkle the cheese over the bread and press on the bread lightly to help it absorb the custard.
Let it stand for about 10 minutes until the liquid is most of the way absorbed. (Recommended standing time 15-30 minutes, but patience in the kitchen is really not my thing.)
Cut the leftover butter into little cubes and dot the top of the bread with the butter.
Bake, uncovered, until puffed and golden, 20-25 minutes.

The first time I made it I was impressed by how easy it was, how delicious it tasted, AND how well the left overs reheated.

The second time I made it I added a teaspoon of Emeril’s BAM Essence to the egg and milk mixture. However, it was kind of lost in the custardy thickness of the bread.

The third time I made it, I double the recipe, and it still came out great. I used sourdough bread instead of French and I added a small handful of finely chopped chives. (Use your discretion.) The chives definitely gave it a little more flavor and the parmesan cheese got nice and bubbly.

I think that as long as you use an artisan, rustic, type bread it will be great. Steer clear of regular sandwich bread or even Texas toast, I think it won’t absorb as much of the milk and egg mixture and be a total mess.

In conclusion – if there’s one recipe you try – try this one. Pegleg sat this one out, because that’s how easy it is. When it comes right out of the oven, it’s puffy, golden, and quite impressive. Then, when you bite into the soft, creamy bread and crunch the golden cheese, you’ll think it took hours to make.

BBQ Whoopies

2009-06-04T23:19:00.007-05:00

Barbeques. A staple in Chicago once the weather gets nice. After at least 6 months of being cooped up inside because of freezing temperatures, everyone is dying to sit outside, have some good food, play some bags, and relax.

A couple weeks ago I had two barbeques to attend, booking my Saturday completely. I was pretty excited because they weren’t just ‘lets hang out and drink some beer’ barbeques, they were ‘Hey! I got my masters!’ and ‘Suddenly, it’s my birthday!’. Events like that, you can’t miss. However, I have been really busy lately and wanted to make something easy, that I was confidant I could make and make well (especially after the peanut butter pie disaster). I decided to try my hand at the Whoopie pies again, only this time, just follow the recipe straight up. They would be full of gluten! All you gluten free birds out there may be a tad disappointed, but the reality is, I’m an equal opportunity baker. Not to mention, it gives it a new spin.

I followed the cake/pie part from the recipe posted in the New York Times a couple months ago. Here’s what it called for:

1 stick of butter (room temperature) – I softened mine
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 ¼ tsp baking soda
1 tsp sea salt (I used Kosher salt)
2 cups All purpose flour
½ cup cocoa
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream the butter and brown sugar.
Add the egg and vanilla and beat until light and creamy.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the baking soda, salt, flour, and cocoa.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in 3 parts alternating with buttermilk. Make sure everything combines well before adding more.
Drop the batter on parchment lined baking sheet. I didn’t make the cake/pies as big as before, I made smaller ones, about 2” in diameter. Bake for 12 minutes.

They aren’t as dense as the gluten free pies. They spring back when touched and are slightly more delicate. I had two barbeques to attend on the day I made these so I doubled the recipe and it came out perfect.

One batch I made with a Peanut Butter Buttercream and the other batch I filled with a modified Vanilla Buttercream. (The Peanut Butter Buttercream you can find in my older post.)

The Vanilla Buttercream
½ cup Butter
1 ¾ cup Powdered Sugar
1 TBSP light cream (I substituted 4 TBSP heavy whipping cream)
1 tsp vanilla

Mix all the ingredients together until stiff peaks form. I ran out of powdered sugar, which I would have added a little more of because the frosting wasn’t as thick as I would have liked it. I also would have doubled the recipe, because it just made enough and I used it pretty sparingly.

All in all the glutinous Whoopie Pies were successful and big hits at both barbeques. However, I kind of liked the denseness of the gluten free ones better. These felt a little soggy because they were so soft.