No Moaning Allowed

I just have to say from experience that hearing guttural moaning while at work is just… disturbing.  Even if you are well aware of where the sound is emanating from and the reason for it, it is just not something that is ok.

One of our VPs is retiring, and although I wasn’t able to take on the task of providing lunch for the group attending, I did volunteer to do some cupcakes.  I wanted to come up with something special but not terribly labor intensive.  I came up with two options:  Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcakes and Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Amaretto Buttercream.

The chocolate cupcakes featured a fresh strawberry gelée inside the cupcake, and a strawberry cream cheese frosting.  And these are what caused the majority of the commotion.  They were made using my go-to recipe for chocolate cupcakes, which are unbelievably moist and delicate.  Once baked, I carved a cone shape out of the center, cut off the bottom portion of the ‘cone’ and then replaced the cap back on the cupcake once I had filled the void with the gelée.  Don’t worry if they turn out a little ugly.  That’s what the frosting is for.  J  You will definitely need to pipe frosting onto these, though, rather than trying to frost them with a knife.  They’re just too delicate and would fall apart.

For the amaretto cupcakes, I used a vanilla bean cupcake recipe, topped them with a buttercream spiked with a little amaretto, and studded the tops with an almond brittle.

Ok, now you know all of my secrets.  Go forth and elicit your own moaning.

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcakes

 2 sticks of butter (room temp)

2 1/2 c sugar
4 large eggs
1 3/4 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 c cocoa powder
1 c milk
2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350°.  Line cupcake tin with liners (this will make about 24 regular sized cupcakes).

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter for several minutes light and whipped.  Add the sugar and beat on medium speed for 2 or 3 minutes until sugar is fully incorporated into the butter and the mixture is fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Stir in the vanilla.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder.  Add the dry ingredients a third at a time to the butter mixture, alternating with a third of the milk.

Scoop batter into lined cupcake tins about halfway.  Bake for 22-25 minutes, or until tester comes out clean.  Allow to cool completely.

* * *

Strawberry Gelée

1 cup strawberry purée

1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbs fresh lemon juice
2 Tbs cold water
1/2 envelope unflavored powdered gelatin
1/2 cup diced, fresh strawberries

Heat purée and sugar in a small saucepan just until it begins to bubble, stirring to dissolve sugar. Stir in lemon juice and remove from heat.

Put water in a small bowl and sprinkle gelatin on top. Let sit for 5 minutes.

Add fruit purée mixture to the bowl and stir until gelatin is completely dissolved.

Stir in diced strawberries and chill until set.

* * *

Strawberry Cream Cheese Buttercream

1 8 oz package cream cheese, softened

1 stick butter, softened
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
¼ cup strawberry jelly (I used freezer jam I had on hand)

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter until well combined.  Add the jelly and beat until incorporated.  Slowly add the sugar, about ¼ a cup at a time, and mix until frosting is creamy.  Frosting can be made ahead of time and chilled.  Bring to room temp if piping.

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes

2 cups flour

1 c sugar
3/4 c milk
1 stick butter, at room temperature
1 egg, at room temperature
1 vanilla bean
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

Cut the vanilla bean lengthwise.  In a small saucepan, heat the milk and vanilla bean together until the milk begins to steam. Remove from heat and let cool for about 1 hour, then remove the vanilla bean. Scrape out the seeds from the vanilla bean and add them back to the milk. Discard the remaining bean pod. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350°.

In a medium bowl, sift together the salt, flour and baking powder.  In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat well. Alternately add the flour and milk mixture until well combined. Divide batter into about 18 lined or greased cupcake tins. Bake 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

* * * 

Amaretto Buttercream

2 sticks butter, room temperature

½ tsp salt
½ cup cocoa powder
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 – 3 Tbs milk
2 tsp Amaretto liqueur

Beat the butter with a mixer until light and fluffy.  Add salt and cocoa powder, and slowly stir to combine.  Add the confectioners’ sugar a small amount at a time, mixing in between additions and adding the milk, about a Tablespoon at a time once the mixture starts to stiffen.  Stir in the Amaretto.

* * *

Almond Brickle

1 cup sliced almonds

1 cup sugar
½ tsp salt
¼ cup water

In a skillet over medium heat, toast the almonds just until they begin to turn golden.  Remove to a bowl.  Add the remaining ingredients to the pan, turn the heat up to medium high, and allow the mixture to come to a boil.  Allow the sugar to cook, only swirling the pan on occasion, until it turns an amber color.  Add the almonds.  Pour hot mixture onto a greased cookie sheet and allow to cool completely.  When it is completely cooled, break into small pieces.

Sometimes Only a Doughnut Will Do

I have an important question to ask.  Are you of the DOUGHnut,  or the DOnut  persuasion?  Me, I prefer the former.  I think Shakespeare would approve.

Anyway, this weekend I woke up with a craving for doughnuts, quite possibly brought on by O2’s dash south to pick some up at Voodoo with a friend of hers, almost causing me to be late for an appointment.  Anyway, while I appreciate the novelty of a good Voodoo Doughnut (and by the way, THEY happen to be of the DOUGHnut persuasion), my tastes tend to run to the basic and boring myself.

And, while I was motivated enough to make them myself, rather than driving across town to pick one (or two) up, I wasn’t patient enough to put together something with a long wait time.  So raised doughnuts were out.  Instead, I dug around and pieced together a couple of recipes and came up with these.

I’m not sure that using an actual vanilla bean made a whole lot of difference here.  It did make me feel better about my ‘quickie’ doughnuts, though, so we’ll call them integral to the success of the dish.  Seriously, though, you can get away with just amping up your vanilla extract if you don't want to mess with the vanilla bean.

I tried these two different ways (ok, three).  One in their pristine condition dunked into a little chocolate, and one sprinkled with a bit of vanilla sugar I had on hand.  I also ate several of them as is, and I think I liked those best.

For leftovers, I popped a few in the oven just to heat them through.  They didn’t have quite the same consistency as fresh (they lost that nice crunch to the outside), but they were still very tasty.

Vanilla Bean Quick Doughnuts

2 Tbs butter flavored shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 vanilla bean, split in half and seeds scraped
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp salt
½ cup buttermilk

Oil for frying (I used canola)

In a mixing bowl, cream together the shortening and sugar.  Beat in the egg.  Add the seeds from the vanilla bean, along with the vanilla extract and stir to combine.  Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.  Add to egg mixture.  Add buttermilk and stir until ingredients are combined.

Flour a surface and roll out dough to about 1/3” thick.  Cut with floured doughnut cutter, re-rolling scrap pieces and cutting until all the dough is cut out.  Allow to stand while oil is being heated.

In a large saucepan, add oil until it is about 2” deep.  Heat on medium to medium-high until oil reaches a temperature of about 365°.  Add dough a few pieces at a time (don’t overcrowd the pan) and allow to cook on each side until the doughnut is a golden brown, maybe a minute per side. Remove from oil and place on paper towels to drain.  While still warm, roll in cinnamon sugar or powdered sugar, if desired.

Or dunk in a glaze.

Or chocolate.

You get the idea.

Sugar Coma

After the last couple of weeks, I should probably have the C & H logo stamped on my forehead.

My diet regimen over the holidays is to produce so much in the way of candy and baked goods that I can't look a stick of butter squarely without feeling the need to take a 20 minute hike.  Luckily, I have coworkers who are more than happy to alleviate me of any confectionary items I may put together.

Two weekends before it was all about the baking.  Last week I was giving my digital thermometer a proper workout in preparation for a work party and a holiday party at a friend's house.  The end result of my efforts being CANDY.  Lots of CANDY.

The nice thing about candy is you can whip up a batch in about the same amount of time it takes to put a cookie dough together.  And then you don't have to spend time baking.  In spite of the quantity, I did put this together fairly quickly.  In addition to the ever-present caramel corn, there was Pumpkin Seed Brittle...

Peppermint fudge (which I won't include the recipe for here as they were the standard Special Magic Fudge, or whatever the heck they call the stuff on the back of the marshmallow fluff container)....

Almond Roca (and yes, it tastes just like the real thing, but better)....

Two kinds of truffles....  Amaretto with silver sprinkles, and Frangelico with toasted hazelnuts.

And the thing I believe elicited the most 'Oh. My. Gawd.'s were the Vanilla Bean Caramels with Fleur de Sel

Oh.  My.  Gawd.

I feel like the next post should be all about lettuce.

Pumpkin Seed Brittle

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/8 tsp fine sea salt
3/4 cup raw, green (hulled) pumpkin seeds
1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)

Place a foil-lined cookie sheet on a flat surface (I use the non-stick variety - if you're using plain Jane foil, you might want to butter it a bit).  Bring sugar, water and salt to a boil in a 2 quart heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves.  Cook mixture, without stirring, and only washing down the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in a bit of water if sugar crystals form, until the syrup reaches 238º (about 10 - 15 minutes).  The syrup will have little or no color to it.  Remove from heat and stir in seeds until sugar crystals form (don't panic - this is supposed to happen).  It should resemble course sand.

Return pan back to heat and cook, stirring constantly, until sugar melts completely and turns a deep caramel color, about 5 minutes or so.  Carefully pour brittle out onto cookie sheet, as thinly as possible.  Cool completely and then break into pieces.


Almond Roca

1 cup unsalted butter (omit salt from recipe if butter is salted)
1 cup sugar
9 oz. sliced almonds, toasted slightly
2 cups chocolate chips

Combine butter and sugar in a heavy saucepan and melt over low heat until sugar is completely dissolved.  Turn heat up to medium and stir gently as mixture comes to a boil.  Once the mixture boils, continue to stir gently until it reaches a temperature of 300º on the candy thermometer and becomes a toffee color.  Try not to scrape the sides of the pan as you stir.

When it comes to temperature, immediately remove from heat.  Crumble in about a third of the toasted almonds and pour mixture out evenly onto a lined cookie sheet.

Sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over hot toffee and tent the pan with a piece of foil.  Allow the chips to melt for 2 - 3 minutes, and then spread them evenly over the toffee.  Sprinkle top with remaining almonds and allow to cool.  Once cool, break into pieces.


Dark Chocolate Truffles

4 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
4 oz semi-sweet chocolate, choppped
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbs heavy cream
1 Tbs liquor (I used Amaretto for one and Frangelico for the other)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Toasted and finely chopped hazelnuts, sprinkles, cocoa powder, or something else to roll the truffles in

Place chocolate in a medium bowl (make sure it is at room temp).  Bring the cream to a simmer in a small saucepan and then pour over the chocolate.  Allow to stand for about 5 minutes, then add the liquor and vanilla and mix until the liquid is completely incorporated into the chocolate.  Allow to cool for about 1/2 an hour.

Using an electric mixer, beat the chocolate mixture until fluffy and lighter in color, about 4 minutes.  Cover and refrigerate until firm, about an hour or so.

Line a dish with waxed paper.  Place your coating in a small dish.  Using a melon baller or a couple of spoons, scoop truffle mixture out and roll in coating, using your hands to form the truffle into a ball.  Place on prepared dish.  When all of the truffles are prepared, cover the dish and refrigerate another hour.

Vanilla Bean Caramels with Fleur de Sel
from Annie's Eats

1 cup heavy cream
5 tbs unsalted butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean pod, split lengthwise and seeds scraped
1 1/4 tsp fleur de sel, plus more for sprinkling
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup water

Line the bottom and sides of an 8" square baking dish with parchment paper.  Lightly butter the parchment.