Carrot Cake

I made a "healthy" carrot cake, but then I slathered it with cream cheese icing. Oops? 

Ingredients for cake

• 2 c whole wheat flour
• 2 t baking powder
• 1 1/2 t ground cinnamon
• 1/4 t salt
• 2 c grated carrot
• 1/2 c brown sugar
• 1 c apple sauce
• 1/2 c crushed pineapple with juice
• 1/4 c raisins
• 3 large eggs 
•  
• Ingredients for icing
• 4 oz. cream cheese
• 2 T butter
• 1 c powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. In a separate bowl, combine sugar, apple sauce, and eggs. Add wet to dry, gently stir. Fold in raisins, carrots, and pineapple. Pour batter into a 9 by 9 inch baking dish, sprayed with cooking spray. Bake for 25-30 minutes, testing with a toothpick. 

Let all ingredients for icing come to room temperature. Combine in a food processor. 

When cake is completely cool, spread icing over the top. Slice and devour. 

Strawberry Shortcakes

 

It is currently strawberry season in Indiana, and I'm reaping the benefits. I picked some fresh berries at our local Market and my employer- the Bloomington Community Farmers' Market. What's more appropriate than strawberry shortcakes? 

Strawberry Shortcakes:
Serves 4

• 4 baked biscuits (plus sugar)
• 1 pint strawberries
• 1 T sugar
• Whipped cream

Bake biscuits according to your favorite recipe, sprinkling with sugar before baking. Cool completely. Hull and slice berries, sprinkling with a tablespoon of sugar. Stir and let berries sit for 10 minutes. Split biscuits, spoon over berries and juice, and top with whipped cream. Enjoy this fabulous early summer dessert!

Chocolate Eclairs

Happiness in two bites. 

These little gems are eclairs. I generally make them on the smaller side. Maybe so there's more to go around. Or maybe so I have an excuse to eat 4...or 5...or 10.

But first! An apology! This blog has been sadly abandoned for much of the past year. Somewhere between finishing up my undergraduate thesis, taking a handful of graduate level courses, working 2 jobs, and applying to grad school, the blog got left behind. But now I'm BACK!

These guys are super great if you need a dessert for a fancy occasion. Or if you just need something indulgent. You can make the three components ahead of time and assemble just before serving. Keep the cream in a large ziploc bag or pastry bag fitted with a quarter-inch tip in the refrigerator until you are ready.

And resist the urge to eat it all straight from the bag.

 

Because there are three parts, eclairs can seem a little involved. Actually it is so much easier than it looks on paper. Just TRY, and you will be so pleased with yourself.

Or, if your pate a choux doesn't puff up the way it should or your pastry cream is too runny, you can just sit on your couch, and cry, and eat the ganache with a spoon. Not that I've done that.

It is a win-win, ladies and gents.

Pate a Choux
Makes about 3 dozen miniature eclairs

adapted from Martha Stewart

• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1 t. sugar
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1 1/4 c. flour
• 4 eggs, plus 1 white

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Bring to boil butter, sugar, and salt in a saucepan. Remove from heat and add flour. Cook on medium-high heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the dough pulls away from sides into a ball. This is quite the forearm workout!

With a mixer on low speed, beat briefly until cool. Increase the speed, add eggs one at a time, until  the dough forms soft peaks when poked with a clean finger. With a pastry bag fitted with a large tip, pipe straight 2 inch logs about 2 inches apart on greased cookie sheets. Bake 10 minutes, reduce temp to 350 degrees F and bake for 10 more minutes or until golden brown. The shells should be hollow and light. Cool completely.

Pastry Cream 
Makes about 2 1/2 cups
adapted from Brown Eyed Baker (great tutorial!)

2 c. milk
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 t. salt
5 egg yolks
3 T. cornstarch
1/2 stick butter
1 t. vanilla
1/2 c. plain heavy cream (optional)

Heat milk in a saucepan until bubbling around the edges. In a medium-sized heat proof bowl, whisk together sugar, egg yolks, and cornstarch. Temper the egg mixture by slowly whisking in half of the hot milk, then add the entire egg mixture to the remaining milk in the saucepan. Cook, stirring constantly, until it boils and thickens.  

Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla. Place a sheet of plastic wrap on the surface of the cream to prevent a skin from forming, and cool completely. Store chilled in a pastry bag or ziploc fitted with a quarter-inch tip until you are ready for filling.

For a lighter pastry cream, whip heavy cream until billowy. Carefully fold whipped cream into pastry cream. I prefer it this way!

And finally,

Chocolate Ganache
Makes about 3/4 cup

• 1/2 c. heavy cream
• 1 c. semisweet chocolate chips

Heat heavy cream in small saucepan until a ring of bubbles forms around the edge. Off the heat, add chips. Let sit for 5 minutes. Stir until all lumps are gone. To make ahead, store in Tupperware until ready to assemble eclairs.  Microwave in 10 second intervals, stirring every time, until ganache is velvety.

To Assemble Eclairs:

To fill eclairs, carefully insert tip of pastry bag filled with pastry cream into end of the pate a choux logs. Fill slowly until full. Ice by dipping tops of filled eclairs into ganache. If you can wait long enough, the ganache will set up nicely if left to dry on a wire rack for about 15 minutes.

Store remaining eclairs in the refrigerator.

Chocolate Milkshakes

My mother and I have a big weakness in the summer: ice cream. We keep it under control with 100% fruit popsickles, half-fat breyer's, and lately skinny cow products. I found a recipe for these "magic milkshakes" on this new-to-me website. Mom said that Grandma used to make these all the time. They were very chocolate-y, creamy, and guess what? No ice cream required.

The BEST Cocoa Brownies

These are DEFINITELY the best brownies I have ever had. And I will say that again without hesitation- The BEST. They are so dense and fudge-y that you cannot stop thinking about them if you know they are in your kitchen. My mom, brother, sister, and I finished a double batch in about 2 days, and fought over the last one, which we cut up into 4 cubes to share. I am not one to exaggerate, but you must try this recipe. I found the recipe here on smitten kitchen. No need to retype it.

One quick tip that she addresses
is to put your brownies into
the fridge to chill before slicing, this way you get a really lovely cut. Asking the Wooten family to wait for a pan of brownies to cool is a ridiculous idea. I cut up some of them, and here is what they looked like. Even if they aren't the prettiest, warm brownies are the best brownies. Even better with some ice cream. Another tip is to line your dish with aluminum foil so that you have "handles" to lift out your brownies. This facilitates a really easy cleanup and, with an extra long knife, easy slicing.

Blueberry Galette

Well, I am still clearing out the freezer, and I found a zip lock bag of ground almonds and some blueberries. This is what I came up with! Pretty tasty for freezer berries! My dad thought it was a giant cookie when he first saw it. Almonds add an extra crunch to the pastry, really improving the overall texture. If you don't have blueberries, peaches, apples, or any kind of berry would do. You could also combine different fruits. Be sure to keep it to 1 1/2 cups of fruit, or your galette will be hard to fold up!

First, you need to make the pastry dough. I made the full batch, and used the other half for a pie filled with instant chocolate pudding. I know, it doesn't sound very appetizing, but easy is sometimes just as yummy. Ask my brother. He ate half of it! Plus, I am one less box in our overstocked pantry! Anyway, back to the pastry dough:

Enough for 2 galettes:
2 c. all purpose flour
1 c. shortening
pinch of salt
1 tsp. sugar
1 c. ground almonds
1/4 c. ice water


In a large bowl, mix together the flour, salt, sugar, and almonds. Add the shortening. Cut the shortening into the fl our mixture with a fork, 2 knives, or a pastry blender. When the shortening is the size of peas, add the water. Mix it all together until it forms a ball. Turn onto a floured surface, and divide into 2 balls. Form each half into a small, fat disk and wrap in plastic. Refridgerate for 1-2 hours or overnight.

When your dough is satisfactorily chilled, roll it out into a 12 inch circle. Use lots of flour! It is sticky stuff. [Tip: Parchment paper would also help this process tremendously!] Carefully transfer your rolled out dough onto a sheet pan, and proceed to make the filling:

Combine:

• 1 1/2 c. blueberries, frozen or fresh
  
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
  

Dump your filling into the middle of the dough and fold up your edges. Brush the dough with milk or a whisked egg yolk and sprinkle with extra sugar. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 30-40 minutes. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream!

Blueberry Cobbler

Coconut Chocolate Chip Bars

This photo really doesn't do these justice. Imagine a gooey cookie bursting with melted chocolate and bits of moist coconut. Best part: they are so, so easy. None of that boring scooping that you have to do with cookies. This is adapted from the original, the best chocolate chip cookie- Nestle, of course. You should memorize this recipe by heart.

You'll need:

• 2 1/4 c all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 sticks butter (room temp, softened)
• 3/4 c sugar
• 3/4 c brown sugar
• 2 eggs
  
• 1 c chocolate chips (often, I use an entire 12 oz bag for extra chocolatey-ness)
  
• 1 c shredded coconut, sweetened

Preheat your oven to 350*F. Cover a 9x13 dish with foil, and spray the foil with a non stick spray. This makes clean up sooo much easier.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. In a separate bowl, mix thoroughly the dry ingredients. Add the dry to the wet, and stir. Mix in your chocolate chips and the coconut. Spread the batter into your pan and bake until golden brown, or your desired done-ness. Will take 20-25 minutes for a gooey center. Bake longer if you like. Share with your friends and family. They will love you for it.

Crème brûlée

One of my friends in high school gave me a blow torch as a gift. I never got around to using it until now. What a shame! These individual baked custards carry a mysterious prestige for no reason; it was very simple! This recipe makes 5-6 servings, depending on the size of your ramekins. Adapted from the Joy of Cooking.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 c. heavy cream
• 4 egg yolks
• 1/3 c. sugar, plus extra for topping
• zest of 1 orange
  
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Heat cream until simmering. Meanwhile, beat yolks, sugar, and zest until pale in color. Gradually poor cream into yolk mixture while stirring. Add vanilla. Poor equal amounts in ramekins. Place ramekins in a large cake pan and fill with hot water about half way up the sides. Bake in 325 degree oven for about 40 min. Refrigerate for a few hours. When you are ready to serve, spread a 1 tsp. sugar on top of each custard. Using a kitchen torch, gently melt the sugar into a hard caramel glaze. Serve with fresh fruit or plain!

For a variation, place chocolate chunks, Snicker's or Milkyway candies, or fresh berries in the bottom of your ramekins before pouring in the custard. You may also use any kind of citrus zest.

If you don't have a blow torch, you may try using your broiler. It may not work as well, plus it isn't half the fun!