Has it been nearly a year since Amanda and I have updated? But I’ve baked so much! There were some amazing brownies from the King Arthur Flour recipe, a pumpkin cheesecake for a Thanksgiving party with my co-workers, a ridiculous toffee-marshmallow-chocolate shortbread tart over the summer. And what about our birthday cake? It was incredible, people. A Guinness chocolate cake, a layer of Bailey’s ice cream, all covered in a dark chocolate ganache. Absolutely the best thing I’ve ever made!

Well, this unexpected hiatus is over. Expect some recipes soon as Amanda and I begin holiday cookie baking. There may even be an encore of that birthday cake. It was that good.

So two weeks ago I had this brilliant idea to bake chocolate cupcakes with raspberry frosting for Rebecca’s small group. They just looked so adorable! So I did bake them, and they were adorable, only it turns out I honestly just don’t like raspberry. (Which I guess isn’t really a problem, considering they were for Rebecca and her girls, not me.) What was a problem was all the leftover raspberry frosting in my refrigerator.

How to use up that raspberry frosting? Sandwich cookies. (Amanda actually had a number of other intriguing suggestions for me when I grumbled about having to throw away so much perfectly good– well, you know– frosting. Among them: swirl it into brownies or a cheesecake.) And with any luck, the girls won’t consider that this is the same stuff on top of their cupcakes.

Of course, now that I’ve solved the left-over frosting problem, I have a new one to contend with: leftover egg whites. Any suggestions?

I modified a Martha Stewart (did you expect anyone else?) recipe for the cookie. Her pink grapefruit sandwich cookie recipe seemed like a perfect option, especially considering her cream filling is remarkably close to my raspberry frosting. My cookies, of course, have no grapefruit zest or juice in them. I replaced these with 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and milk, respectively. Below is the recipe with my substitutions.

Raspberry Cream Sandwich Cookies
Cookie:
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
scant 1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 large egg yolks
2 1/4 cups minus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 milk

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add vanilla. Add egg yolks one at a time. Add flour in two batches, alternating with the milk. Mix just until combined.

Turn out dough onto a piece of plastic wrap. Flatten into a disc about 1/2 inch thick. Refrigerate about 30 minutes.

Remove dough from refrigerator and preheat oven to 350. Roll out dough on floured surface about 1/8 in thick. Cut out with 2 inch round cookie cutter (I used a 1/4 cup measuring cup for lack of a cookie cutter. It worked reasonably well.) Bake 15-20 minutes, or until edges begin to brown. Cool completely.

Filling:
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
3-4 cups powdered sugar, or to taste
1/4 cup seedless raspberry jam

**The original recipe suggests to beat the butter and jam together first, then to add the powdered sugar until it reaches the desired consistency/taste. However, the butter and jam curdle if you do this (it’s fine once you add enough sugar). Instead I would begin by creaming the butter and some powdered sugar, add the jam, and if necessary more powdered sugar.

P.S. Please forgive my pictures! I was in a hurry to get these to Rebecca on time, as always.

I promise I bake things other than muffins. Really. I might even bake cookies this weekend! (My friend’s birthday is on Valentine’s Day.) First I have to address these muffins, though. Just look how delightful!

These are my take on Konosur’s version of Ina Garten’s muffins. They’re so far from the original recipe, though, that it’s kinda amusing.

But OMG these are so good.  I’ll be the first to admit that healthy baking just doesn’t work as well as the regular stuff, but these are a most unexpectedly fabulous exception.  Despite being made with whole-wheat flour and bran, these are still light.  Despite having no butter or oil, they are still moist.  Then they’re sweet without being overly sweet.  And oh! the cinnamon and honey are perfect in combination with the apples and raisins!  If you need an introduction to a good-for-you breakfast, this is it.

Apple & Raisin Muffins
yields 9

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Prepare muffins cups. 

3/4 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c wheat bran
1/4 c light brown sugar
1/2 tsp each baking powder and baking soda 
1 tsp cinnamon 

Whisk together dry ingredients.

1 egg
1/4 c unsweetened applesauce 
1/2 c nonfat milk
3/4 tsp vanilla (just guess)

Whisk together wet ingredients.  Fold into dry ingredients.

1 medium apple, diced
1/4 c raisins
1/4 c wildflower honey (I may reduce this to 3 Tbs next time)

Fold remaining ingredients into batter carefully (nuts would be a good addition as well).  Nearly fill muffin cups (these will puff up a bit).

Bake 22-25 minutes (mine took about 24 min).  Let sit in cups for a minute, then remove to cool on wire racks.

Have a happy, healthy, and super-tasty Valentine’s weekend!  I know I will.  :)

It seems that nearly every person in the food-blogosphere is, or was at some point, on the quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie. Me, I’m not so concerned about the holy grail of chocolate chip cookies. Cheesecake, maybe I could get into that (if I had the time… and, let’s be honest, the money– cream cheese is expensive!). But you’d be hard-pressed to find a cookie I didn’t like, so the idea of putting in all the effort to find my perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe holds little appeal. There are so many other wonderful cookies I could be baking!

Last night I just had to bake some cookies. I’ve got a list of other recipes I desperately want to try (have you seen these?!), but last night I needed cookies. And that craving necessitated chocolate chip cookies. (Two days ago I was dying to make my signature cookies, but now it’s chocolate chip. Go figure.)

For this attempt, I strayed from the Hershey’s recipe (it’s just so handy there on the back of the bag) and used one I found at Smells like Dessert. (Chris, at least, has ended his quest. I thought I might could skip that whole quest thing and just have the holy grail.) The fact that I didn’t strictly follow the recipe probably defeated the purpose though. As I only had one egg, I necessarily omitted the additional egg yolk, which assuredly changed the texture of my cookies. And I added in about half a bag of heath toffee bits that I’ve been keeping in my pantry for just such an occasion as this. (Although I disadvantaged my cookies by my blasphemous egg-yolk omission, I will staunchly maintain that the addition of toffee pieces can only be construed as an improvement to the original recipe.)

A note to you “I’m still clinging to my New Years resolution and cannot possibly make cookies as large as the recipe suggests” people– just make the cookies that big. I myself defied Chris’s plea to do so and made most of mine tablespoon-sized, but the last six I said what the heck, and plopped mounds of dough on the baking sheet. It really does make a difference!

In conclusion, while these are not my holy grail of chocolate chip cookies (perhaps I should try these again with that extra egg yolk, though) I am quite happy with this recipe. (Rebecca was rather enthusiastic, and gave me a high-five upon biting into one.) Crunchy around the edges, chewy towards the center. And who doesn’t love the toffee-chocolate pairing? My waistline, maybe not so pleased.

Recipe at Smells Like Dessert.

Honestly, the only way to motivate myself into doing schoolwork is to bake. I’ve been reasonably productive over the weekend, but I really need to do some honest-to-goodness studying this afternoon. The only thing keeping me from baking prolific amounts of muffins, cookies, and cupcakes right now is the fact that I have plans to bake tomorrow for Rebecca’s small group as well. So I decided to keep it quick (I do have studying to do, you know!) and simple.

Hello, biscotti. Ever since Amanda made her raisin biscotti back in December, I’ve been dying to give it a try. Now seems like the perfect opportunity, don’t you think? Yes, I agree. Not wanting to frustrate myself with cutting in butter, I opted to use the same Martha Stewart recipe that Amanda did as it, thankfully, requires none.

For my batch, I stood catatonic in the kitchen for a solid three minutes debating whether I wanted to use dried cherries (love!) or chocolate chips (how is a girl to decide!)… and eventually surrendered to my chocolate craving. (Honestly, if I had remembered to buy craisins at the grocery store this morning, I would have used those.) Then I decided I should at least attempt to be somewhat healthy about this endeavor and threw in some almond slices that have been in my pantry for a while now. But it needed something else– orange zest. Perfect.

These turned out nicely, and I am quite pleased with my first ever batch of biscotti. The orange zest ties it together very well; I think they would be far too bland without it. As it is, they are a wonderful (almost) guilt-free way to assuage my crazy chocolate cravings, and will be wonderful with a cup of coffee in the morning.

Whole-Wheat Chocolate-Almond Biscotti
(recipe adapted from marthastewart.com)
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour blend
scant 1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup almond slices
zest of one orange, approx 1 teaspoon
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven 350. Combine ingredients through orange zest in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs and vanilla. Add into flour mixture; stir until just combined.

On a lightly floured surface and with floured hands, shape dough into log about 1 inch thick and 2-3 inches wide. Place onto greased baking sheet and bake 20-25 minutes, until risen and golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Drop oven temperature to 300. When biscotti has cooled, slice the log diagonally and place pieces back onto baking sheet. Return to oven for 25-30 minutes, turning once.

Although you wouldn’t know it based on the recent chronicles of my baking ventures, I am a cupcake person. Indeed I am. Leave Amanda to her healthy bran muffins; I want a cupcake filled– and frosted!– with sugary goodness. 

So when I realized this morning that my remaining two bananas were wonderfully brown, I knew what I wanted to bake: banana cupcakes. Amanda and I made these, oh, probably two or three years ago from Martha Stewart’s recipe, so I decided to use it again (although, I admit, I don’t particularly remember how our earlier attempt turned out). Martha calls for 1 and 1/2 cups of mashed bananas, which she translates to about 4 bananas. As I only had two, I simply halved the recipe. (Incidentally, I ended up with seven cupcakes instead of six, as one would expect. Not that I mind.)

A random note: when I mixed the wet ingredients, I simply melted the butter, beat the egg and vanilla into it (with a fork), and mashed the bananas into the mixture. I suppose because of the warmth from the butter, when I beat in the egg and vanilla it became this custardy-texture and smelled indescribably delicious! I highly recommend you do it my way.

I also decided to give the suggested honey-cinnamon frosting a try. I briefly considered making a chocolate frosting instead (who doesn’t love the banana-chocolate combination?) but Martha made hers look so adorable, I couldn’t help but do this one by the book. Besides, I love cinnamon. I almost always increase the amount of cinnamon called for, and often add it to things where it isn’t called for at all. 

These cupcakes are so wonderfully moist! I didn’t actually measure my mashed bananas– I just mashed them straight into my butter, egg, vanilla mixtures– so it’s possible that I ended up with more than 3/4 cup banana, but who would complain about that? They are sweet, but not cloying… and I almost don’t feel guilty about eating one because bananas are good for you… and I am excellent at rationalizing. Haha.

I guess I can’t rationalize that frosting, though. (Cinnamon has excellent health benefits, right?) But it is lovely. And oh so tasty. (I have quite a bit of leftover frosting, although I did halve that recipe, too. I hope Rebecca finds it soon, or I will definitely be eating this with a spoon later. Argh.) Very sweet– I mean, it’s butter and powdered sugar– but this is a cupcake here people. Embrace the sweet cupcake goodness!

…In moderation, of course.  
 

Recipe for Banana Cupcakes and Honey-Cinnamon Frosting at marthastewart.com

I don’t care too much for Sandra Lee (her tablescapes really intimidate me, I’m not kidding), but I have to admit: it’s how the average person cooks. I can’t always make everything from scratch; I have neither the time nor the ambition. Today especially, time has been a commodity I just don’t have. By the time I got home from class and discipleship this afternoon, I needed something quick and easy to bake for Rebecca’s small group (their second meeting of the semester). Fortunately I had the forethought… or maybe the lack of will-power…  last week to buy brownie mix (it was on sale buy one get one free at Publix!). But me being me, I couldn’t just follow the directions on the back of the box and send along any ol’ brownies. Oh no, no, no. 

I decided to bake both boxes of brownies (one, to get them out of the house before I decided to consume an entire pan myself, and two, to provide for scavengers from other small groups who I hear are quite envious of Rebecca’s provision of baked goods)– and of course this calls for brownies two ways. 

For the first batch of brownies, I simply replaced the quarter-cup of water called for by the mix with a quarter-cup of cold-brewed coffee (the flavor is more intense and less acidic than brewed in the coffee maker). I confess I definitely licked the spatula and it was awesome; the coffee cut the sweetness of the brownie mix a little and there was a definite coffee taste to it. Alas, I did not try a baked brownie, since I dutifully sent them all to Rebecca. I imagine the coffee taste in the batter subsided to a nice depth of flavor… but hopefully it still had a coffee after-taste, because who wouldn’t love that?

For the second batch, I prepared the brownie mix as directed (*yawn*)… and then added a cream cheese swirl (hoorah!). I chose the recipe for the cream cheese mixture from a smitten kitchen, because let’s be honest, Deb is our hero. These actually had to bake for quite some time, so I was down to the wire to deliver them in time to Rebecca. Their tastiness was well worth it, though, I’m sure.

No pictures because I was rushing out the door as soon as these came out of the oven! The poor cream cheese brownies had absolutely no cooling time before I transferred them to a plate; thankfully they survived intact.

I have an 8am class this semester.  Really, I am a morning a person, but that’s a little early even for me.  Needless to say, I don’t have time to sit down for breakfast on my weekdays anymore.  So sad!  Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day (mainly because it’s an excuse for coffee and carbs).  What’s a girl to do?  Bake muffins, of course!

In an attempt to make a muffin that would be healthy and satisfying, I made Pumpkin Bran Muffins from a recipe that I found on recipezaar.  It had great reviews, but honestly I wasn’t very impressed.  I mean, it was good, but not that good.  I won’t be making it again.  Ah well, there’s a long semester ahead of me and plenty more muffin recipes to be tried…

Due to my determined procrastination on schoolwork over the holiday weekend, I had heaps of reading and translating to do once I got off work this afternoon. Let me tell you, there’s nothing like things that need to be done to make me want to bake instead. (It’s stress relief! or I need a break from studying!) But I was (fairly) studious this afternoon and accomplished most of the reading and the Latin translation for classes tomorrow.

What to do to celebrate such a productive day? Bake, of course! I actually made some muffins on Sunday (slightly modified from Joy the Baker’s recipe again– I used dried cranberries instead of blueberries). My mornings are usually pretty rushed, and I figured muffins would be an easy and healthy thing to grab for breakfast on my way out the door. I should have realized that between my roommate and me, these muffins would not last until the end of the week. Breakfast? Snack? Dessert? Those muffins have been all of those things for the past three days.

Needless to say, I needed more muffins to make it through this week! Alas, my supply of dried cranberries is all but depleted. The apple bread over at pete bakes is most inspiring, but I ate my last apple yesterday (oops). And my bananas aren’t quite ripe enough for my liking yet. But lo, I had some cherries in my refrigerator that were threatening to be used or to spoil. Excellent.

These turned out just lovely. The cherries were wonderfully plump, and the juice lent a nice flavor to the muffin (which still has a slightly apple-taste, but doesn’t really compete with the cherry). I adore cherries, so maybe next time I have a bunch I’ll attempt to replace the applesauce entirely with pureed cherries. (I bet this would make them nice and pink, too! Ooh la la!) Recipe follows.

Oatmeal Cherry Muffins
(modified from Joy the Baker)

3/4 to 1 cup cherries, halved and pitted
approx. 1/2 tablespoon granulated sugar
approx. 1/4 cup orange juice
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/4 cups old-fashioned oats
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon oil
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
scant 1/2 cup nonfat milk
sliced almonds (optional)

Preheat oven to 375. Combine cherries and sugar in a skillet over low heat. Warm until cherries release juices, about five minutes. Add orange juice. Bring to a boil until liquid thickens slightly (this took me less than a minute). Remove from heat.

In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients (flour through salt). In a medium bowl, combine remaining ingredients, except almonds. Add about 1/8 cup to 1/4 cup cherry liquid. Fold into dry ingredients just until combined. Stir in cherries gently. Fill muffin cups and top with sliced almonds.

Bake 16-18 minutes. Yield: 12 muffins.

So in addition to being a full-time student and part-time employee, I am also the honorary “mother” of my roommate’s freshmen ministry small group. I don’t quite remember how I earned this position, but sometime last semester I decided to send cupcakes with Rebecca to her small group… and the next week I sent cookies… and every week after that I sent her with some baked good or another. (Incidentally, all the girls made me the most adorable thank-you notes towards the end of the semester. You know, with big bubble letters and hearts and everything. It was awesome.)

When I got home from classes around 4:00 this afternoon, I realized that today is the first small group meeting of the semester! Time to throw something together fast. Last week I devised some elaborate plan to make mini-trifles based on my amazing almond-chocolate pudding that I mentioned in passing a few posts ago, but that brilliant plan will have to wait for some other week since I don’t have the necessary ingredients hanging out in the pantry.

I do, however, have everything I need to make some yummy cookies I baked last semester while stressing over finals: these cookies from RecipeGirl. (I omit the chocolate drizzle, hence making them “double chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies” instead of “triple chocolate”.) There is something just wonderful about these cookies. Rather, everything about these cookies is just wonderful: White and dark chocolate chips. Dried cranberries. Oatmeal. And I swear the dough has the perfect amount of cinnamon. It’s magical. Really truly and honestly magical.

Whenever someone asks me what my favorite cookie is, I usually reply that I don’t have one. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love cookies. I love eating cookies. I love baking cookies. (In fact, they’re probably my favorite thing to bake… quick, endless possibilities, and you really can’t mess them up.) But there’s never been a cookie that I just adore a thousand times more than any other… well, until maybe now. This may become my signature cookie recipe!

Based on my wonderment with these cookies last semester, I didn’t change a thing from my previous attempt for this go round. (Shocking, I know.) The only difference between “my” recipe and RecipeGirl’s is that I chose to use dark chocolate chips instead of milk chocolate, to use dried cranberries instead of fresh or frozen, and to omit the chocolate drizzle.

The recipe can be found here.