Caramelettes

We had a bunch of people over for the Super Bowl (or commercials).  When people come over I can't help but to make dessert.  Among other things, I made Caramelettes.  A delicious, sticky recipe I got from my sister-in-law, Amber.


Caramelettes

Ingredients
1 Cup + 3 Tbs flour
1 Cup Rolled Oats
3/4 Cup Brown Sugar, packed
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Salt
3/4 Cup Butter, softened
1 Cup Chocolate Chips
1/2 Cup Walnuts, chopped
3/4 Cup Caramel topping


Directions
1.  In a large bowl, combine 1 cup of flour, rolled oats, brown sugar, baking soda, salt and butter.  Blend well to form crumbs.  I used my fingers.  Then I licked my fingers.  Then I washed my hands, promise.

2.  Press half of mixture into the bottom of a 11" x 7" or 9" pan (I didn't have one available so I used a pie dish).  Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

3.  In the meantime mix caramel topping with 3 Tbs of flour.


4.  Remove the dish from the oven and sprinkle with chocolate chips and nuts.  Pour the caramel mixture back and forth over the chocolate and nuts.  Sprinkle with the remaining crumbs.  

5.  Continue baking for 15 to 20 minutes.  Chill for 1 to 2 hours before cutting into bars and serving.

6.  Try to save some for your guests.

Pistachio Macarons

The other day I accidentally bought 4 pounds of pistachios at Costco.  Eric needs to feed me before taking me shopping.  What's a girl to do with 4 pounds of pistachios?  The obvious answer may be pistachio ice cream, but my mind went straight to pistachio macarons. 

Macarons are delicious and fun to make, however they do take a fair amount of time, preparation, planning and technique.  Your egg whites need to be at room temperature (like, left-out-overnight-room temperature), as does your butter.  The pistachios I bought were normal, salted in the shell pistachios, so Eric and I spent the better part of the "new" "Star Trek" shelling them.  I then had to rinse them off and dry them.  They still didn't dry quite right so I toasted them for about 5 minutes as the oven was preheating.  Then I had to let them cool.  That doesn't include other resting and cooling periods required for the baking process.

Pistachio Macarons

Ingredients

For the Shells:

1 1/4 Cups Confectioner's Sugar

4 oz Pistachios

1/4 Cup + 2 Tbs Egg Whites AT ROOM TEMPERATURE

1/4 Cup Granulated Sugar

Pinch of Salt

For the Filling:
1 1/2 oz Pistachios

1 Cup Confectioner's Sugar

6 Tbs Butter, softened
1/2 tsp Vanilla

Directions

The Shells:

Process the pistachios with the powdered sugar in a food processor until you get a fine pistachio flour.  Make sure you process it in phases, mixing and breaking up the bottom layer in between.

Hand mix the egg whites, salt and granulated sugar.  If you are going to add food coloring (powdered only), do it here. 

Whip until medium to stiff peaks form.

Sieve the pistachio flour and hand fold it into the egg white mixture, being careful not to over mix.

Spoon batter into a piping bag with a large, round tip (I think it's a #806).

Pipe batter into 1" circles onto baking sheets lined with silpat.  If you don't have a silpat you can use parchment paper.

Rap each baking sheet hard on the counter a few times to get rid of air bubbles and let rest for around 45 minutes, until the macarons develop thin skin.

Bake for 10 minutes.  They are done when you can wiggle the top of one a little, and it doesn't loose it's shape. 

Cool completely before removing from the Silpat.  Getting too antsy may result in this:



On the left, a nice smooth bottom.  On the right, excess air bubbles and removing the shells before completely cooling left me with shells not fit for macarons, but fit for tasting.



For the Filling:
process the Pistachios and confectioner's sugar like you did for the macaroon batter.  Cream the softened butter with the confectioner sugar mixture.  Add vanilla and food coloring.

Make Macarons:
Pair similar sized shells and glue them together with some pistachio filling. 

I used Nutella for some because the filling was so sweet (paired with some already sweet shells).  Also because I believe there are few things Nutella can't improve.  I recommend using a piping bag again.  If you are going use a knife make sure you are VERY gentle or you will crush the bottom part of the shell.

They actually get better over the next day or so if you can wait.

By Popular Demand I Bring You... Cakeballs!

A few weeks ago I made delicious Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes.  They had a surprise ball of chocolate chip cookie dough in the middle.  Delish!  As I mentioned in that post, I had to spoon out some of the cake in order to make room for the cookie dough.  I planned on using the extra cake and some extra icing and cookie dough to make cake balls.  I ended up throwing in some of the cupcakes that hadn't been eaten after 4 days as well.  Bakerella is the queen of cakeballs, but the basic concept is this: 

Bake a cake, let it cool completely.  As we know, in this instance I used this recipe.

Mash cake until it is all crumbs.

Add in icing and mix together.  (This turned out to be too much icing for the original amount of crumbs I used.  When I added the cupcakes it all evened out)

Roll mixture into balls about one inch in diameter.  Put them on a cookie sheet on a Silpat pad or parchment paper.

Freeze.  I usually let them freeze overnight

Melt chocolate chips in the microwave.  I usually use one package of semi-sweet or 16 oz of dark chocolate.  If you throw a tablespoon of butter or shortening in there you get a nicer texture.  Put in the microwave for one minute, stir, continue this until the chocolate is melted.  It usually takes around 2:30 to 3:00 minutes.  You can also use candy melts(found at a craft store) if you want to use colors.  If you use white chocolate (which I don't recommend, use the candy melts instead, it's basically the same flavor) do not add the butter or shortening.

Coat the frozen cake balls in the melted chocolate.  There are a lot of methods for this.  You can stick a toothpick in the top and dip in the chocolate, spoon them, roll them, etc.  I'm still trying to perfect the method so I won't suggest one yet. 

So I did this step in the living room, don't judge me!

If you want to top the cakeballs with decoration, do it while the chocolate is still melted.  For the these cakeballs I topped them with kosher salt and it added the perfect kick.

Put them back in the freezer.  You can store these treats in the freezer for quite some time, just take them out about 15 minutes before you want to eat them to defrost.  NEVER put cake in the refrigerator.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Amazing!  I drool just thinking about these.  I found this recipe on Annie's Eats and have been dying to try them.  So when we went to Wolf Trap (an outdoor venue where you can bring in as much food and drink as you want) with a group of friends on Friday, I figured it would be the perfect occasion.  

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Ingredients
For the cupcakes:
3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cups light brown sugar, packed
4 large eggs
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips (semisweet or bittersweet)

For the filling:
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 tbsp. light brown sugar, packed
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
7 oz. sweetened condensed milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

For the frosting:
3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
3 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. salt
3 tbsp. milk
2 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract



Directions
To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350° F. Line two cupcake pans with paper liners (24 total). In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the (ROOM TEMPERATURE!) butter until it is smooth. 

Add the brown sugar. Beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Mix in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir together to blend. Add the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl on low speed, alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, mixing each addition just until incorporated. Blend in the vanilla. Fold in the chocolate chips with a spatula.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cupcake liners.  A swipe-y ice cream scoop is a good tool for filling the liners. 

Bake for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.


To make the cookie dough filling, combine the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and cream on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the flour, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla until incorporated and smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the mixture has firmed up a bit, about an hour.

To fill the cupcakes, cut a cone-shaped portion out of the center of each cupcake.  I used a melon baller.

I kept the scooped out parts of the cupcakes for cake balls.

Fill each hole with a chunk of the chilled cookie dough mixture.  I used a small cookie scoop to get uniform sized balls of cookie dough.  It fit the holes made by the melon baller perfectly.

To make the frosting, beat together the butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until creamy. Mix in the confectioners’ sugar until smooth. Beat in the flour and salt. Mix in the milk and vanilla extract until smooth and well blended.

Frost the filled cupcakes as desired, sprinkling with mini chocolate chips and topping with mini chocolate chip cookies for decoration.

Keep Away

I've learned that using room temperature butter is very important in baking unless the recipe says otherwise.  Room temperature butter makes a huge difference in texture of the final product.  Unfortunately room temperature butter also means having to keep the butter out of the fridge until you need it.  Out of the fridge is cat territory.  Apparently cats like butter.  I've come back to use my room temperature butter to find cat tongue sized parts of my butter missing.  That's right, Duff will lick through the paper to get to the butter.  Now when I'm allowing butter to come to room temperature I set up a contraption that looks something like this:

Want S'more?

Oh my God, I love s'mores, I love everything about them.  I love creating different combos for them (s'mores with a Reese's peanut butter cup anyone?).  Yesterday I decided to try make some s'mores brownies.

Ingredients
Brownie Mix
    (Oil)
    (Eggs)
Graham Crackers
Hershey's Chocolate Bars
Marshmallows

I started with brownie mix from the store.  Brand doesn't matter, just make sure it isn't a brownie/cookie type or anything like that.  I would recommend going with plain version.  Make your brownie mix according to the directions on the back of the box and pour half of it into a greased pan.

Next you will stack your s'mores ingredients onto the brownie mix.  Starting with graham crackers.

Followed by the chocolate bars.

And finally, the marshmallows.

Follow this up with the remainder of the brownie mix.

Now you have all your layers.

I baked according to the directions on the brownie box and here's what I came out with.

Pay no mind to the missing marshmallow.  It's definitely not because I tested the marshmallows.

Next time I will change things up a little bit.  The marshmallows were a little well done.  I used the convection oven and saw this as it was baking:

I think next time I may try baking it part of the way through before stacking the s'mores ingredients.  And I won't be using the convection oven.

Even if it didn't look lovely, it tasted pretty damn good.

I'll be trying other s'mores recipes as well because I may have mentioned, Oh my God I love s'mores.

Update:  Upon further gorging reflection, the marshmallows were actually not over done.  they just looked like they were do to the brownie on top (which slipped down to form a nice gooey layer in the center.  Yum).  I don't think I'd change the baking strategy next time as far as marshmallow timing.  I'll still use a regular bake cycle rather than convection.