Happy St. Patrick's Day Ice Cream Jello

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Ice Cream Jello

Mix together to dissolve:
2 large packages (6 oz each) of green Jello (or any flavor)
1 packet of unflavored gelatin
4 cups boiling water

Add:
1 quart vanilla ice cream (I would use less ice cream next time)
Stir til dissolved

Pour:
9 x 13 glass dish

Refrigerate overnight, cut and serve! The ice cream will float to the top of the jello.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

French Yogurt Cake with Lemon Curd (Tuesdays with Dorie)

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection, Liliana of My Cookbook Addiction selected French Yogurt Cake with Marmalade Glaze on pages 224-225 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

My Open Letter

Dear Liliana,
How did you know? How did you know that this cake is my soulmate? I love this cake! I want to try it on a plane, in a train, and with orange zest, strawberries and mint, and with some lime.

Thanks for a great pick. - Mary the Food Librarian

I made mine with Greek yogurt from Trader Joe's and baked it in a 9" cake pan.
I split the layer and layered lemon curd in the middle.

I just topped it with powdered sugar...Dorie uses lemon marmalade and that sounds delicious too!

Be sure to check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers and Happy St. Patrick's Day!

It's Pi Day! Thin Mint Strawberry Pi (You Want Pie with That?)

Strawberry Mascarpone "Mint" Pi

It's Pi Day! (3/14 = 3.14)

To celebrate, the baking group You Want Pie with That? is posting their monthly pie selection today. This month's theme, selected by Elizabeth of Cake or Death, is Herbs and Spices.

I'm sure my other bakers are pulling out the mortar and pestle to grind cardamon pods, spent the month growing rosemary on their windowsill, or went to their Indian spice store.

Um, my herb is totally exotic.

It's pretty rare...only found in certain areas.
Like the delicate saffron, it is harvested by hand.
It's as addicting as the stuff they make from poppy seeds in Afghanistan.
The selling season is short and only sold by certain designated individuals.

My herb is the Girl Scout Thin Mint!
(Okay, it's a stretch, but I figure Pi day would appreciate the pun)

I took food processed about 1 1/2 sleeves of Thin Mints to make 1 1/2 cups of crumbs. (I didn't have enough so next time I would go for 2 cups of crumbs). Added 4 T (1/2 stick) of melted butter. Pressed into tart shell and baked 10 minutes at 350.

I blended an 8 ounce container of mascarone cream, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/3 c heavy cream, and 1 t vanilla for the filling.

California strawberries...yum!

Be sure to check out the other creative You Want Pie with That? bakers!

Baking Illustrated Apple Cake

Apple Cake

It's yet another bundt with apples!

I made Cook's Illustrated / Baking Illustrated Apple Cake. I've made it before and it is very yummy and comes together very quickly.

To get the recipe, it's considered Premium Content on Cook's Illustrated website (subscription required) or find the recipe in Baking Illustrated (page 334) or American Classics (page 344). Use WorldCat to help locate a copy at your library (or use InterLibrary Loan to get a copy)...Baking and Classics. (I'm not going to post anything about the recipe less I end up like Alosha's Kitchen saga with Cook's Illustrated/Cook's Country)

A Bundt pan is buttered and sugared, then white and brown sugar is placed in the base.

I used Granny Smith apples (mixed here with brown sugar - and I added a bit of cinnamon) and the cake batter tops the apples.

You need to immediately invert the cake when it comes out of the oven. 99% of the apples came out and I pulled off the stubborn ones from the pan.

I think this cake is super yummy. With the cake flour, the crumb is delicious - like a pound cake topped with warm apples. :)

Apple Cake by Cook's Illustrated

P.S. Note to Kimberleyblue: Sorry, but here is another Bundt to try!! :)

Girl Scout Thin Mint Chocolate Cupcakes

Girl Scout Thin Mint Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

The Cherry Blossoms trees are starting to bloom (sakura season).
The wildflowers are blossoming with amazing patches of colors.
And them Brownies and Girl Scouts are out selling crack.

Yes, it's almost Spring.

Besides having "jet lag" from the one hour time change, it is Girl Scout Cookie Season. So when a little girl dressed in brown or green tilts her head (very important aspect of the sales pitch) and says in a sweet voice, "Would you like to buy Girl Scout cookies?" you just automatically reach in your wallet and pull out a wad.

I made Martha Stewart's One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcake as a base with one sleeve of crushed Thin Mints added (in 2009, the sleeves are shrinking so that is 16 Thin Mint cookies - I believe they had 18 cookies previously).

Frosting is one 8 oz. block of cream cheese and 1 cup of powdered sugar and some vanilla.

I broke some Thin Mints to garnish the cupcakes...of course, some of the pieces weren't suitable and I had to eat them quickly!

I made 24 Thin Mint Chocolate Cupcakes (the frosting was light - if you want to twirl it wider or higher, use 2 blocks of cream cheese and 2 cups of powdered sugar).

I'll tell you the truth. I never made it to Girl Scouts! I was a Brownie but then our adult leader moved away so I never went higher. Well, I hope this cupcake is Girl Scout Badge Worthy. :)

Recipes: Martha Stewart's One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcake
Frosting: one 8 oz. block of cream cheese and 1 cup of powdered sugar with some vanilla.

Lemon Cup Custard (Tuesdays with Dorie)

Lemon Cup Custard

This week, Bridget of The Way the Cookie Crumbles selected Lemon Cup Custard on page 387 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Not since the raisin haters came out of the closet was there so much trash talk about the egg on the Tuesdays with Dorie website. Who knew that the little egg caused so much gag reflex to so many! Unlike my Ecuadorian friend who eats everything with an egg, I discovered there are many a baker out there who aren't card carrying members of Egg Custard Council.

I'm not a big fan of the egg custard, but I wanted to give this recipe a go. I made 1/4 of the recipe and that filled three mini-ramekins.

I followed Dorie's basic recipe and couldn't find my lemon extract so I just used the zest of two Meyer lemons to lemonize the custard. It's beyond simple to make, and I'll let my friend decide. I think I overcooked it a bit and it should have been a bit more jiggly (like parts of my body nowadays...but I digress). Also, I strained it twice...when adding the milk and when placing the custard in the ramekins. I probably won't make again, but I'm glad I gave it a shot.

Lemon Cup Custard

Thanks Bridget for the pick! I'm interested to see how other bakers changed up the flavors! Check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers!

Dorothy Mae Brown's Apple Spice Cake NOT with the Caramel Sauce (Martha Stewart)

Dorothy Mae Brown's Apple Spice Cake
(check out that caramel sauce...because it's soon going to leave)

Have granny smith apples and a new Bundt pan? Make an apple cake!

Dorothy Mae Brown's Apple Spice Cake is one of the most popular recipes on Martha Stewart's website. I've made it once before. I love, love apple cakes and this caramel sauce is to die for...when properly made! (see below for the disaster)

Find the recipe (and video) for Apple Spice Cake on Martha Stewart's website

Here I am PEELING off the caramel!

Oh my goodness! What the heck went soooo wrong? Okay. I really take full responsibility for this, but I'd like to call out the Oct0-mom as a contributing problem! For some reason, I can't stop following the Octo-mom. While I was making the caramel sauce, I was totally into the Today Show's story about her 911 tapes (where her 5 year old is missing)...and must have completely ruined the caramel sauce. However, it's all bubbly with brown sugar, butter, evaporated milk and vanilla...and I didn't know it so I just poured it over the cake.

I took photos...and then cut into the cake. OMG. It was harder than the caramel that covers a caramel apple. This cake would be endorsed by the Conference of Periodontics and Implant Dentists...because it would totally pull out all your teeth. And that is sooo expensive; my parents got a bunch of implants last year and they could have gotten a new car instead...

So, since I thought it would be rude to involuntary rip out the library staff's teeth, I peeled the caramel off and ended up with this crater filled apple bundt cake.

Here is the "final" cake. I threw on some powdered sugar. Even with all its trials and Octo-mom train wrecks, the cake was very tasty. I added walnuts this time and will do it again. You should give the recipe a try! Here's the recipe for Apple Spice Cake.

Heath Oatmeal Toffee Cookies & Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Heath Oatmeal Toffee Cookies

Half a bag of the Heath Toffee Bits remained after making the Caramel Crunch Bars with Tuesdays with Dorie...so I turned the package over and found the recipe for Oatmeal Toffee Cookies!

Half the batch were Oatmeal Toffee Cookies (click for recipe) with Heath Toffee Bits, and the other half used mini-chocolate chips.

I cut the sugar from 2 cups to 1 3/4, used old fashioned oatmeal instead of quick cook oatmeal, and (of course) did not include the optional coconut flakes. The package says you should get 4 dozen cookies but I got 5 dozen because I made them a bit smaller.

My toffee cookies came out a lot flatter than the chocolate chip ones...I wonder why? Same dough, just different "bits" added in. Oh well, they were gobbled up at the library.

Here is the recipe for Heath Oatmeal Toffee Cookies on the Hershey's Kitchen website!

Strawberry Banana Muffins

(California) Strawberry Banana Muffins

Whoo Hoo! California Strawberries are in season! I went to two local Farmer's Market for the last two weekends and more and more vendors are pulling out their red gems of deliciousness.

(And no, I'm not working for the California produce lobby with my recent posts of California goodness...but I need to remind myself of reasons why I love living in a land where I can't afford any real estate.)

I made Strawberry Banana Muffins from Joy of Cooking's website.

Yummy California Strawberries!

This recipe calls for 1 cup chopped fresh strawberries and 1 cup mashed bananas.

I topped the 12 muffins with some sanding sugar for a nice crunch on top.

Inside view with lots of strawberry pieces.

These were okay, but there weren't my favorite muffin. I think it boils down to the fact that I like my strawberries raw or macerated in sugar...not baked. However, I do want to try a strawberry cupcake in the future. My banana wasn't terribly ripe, so that might have been an issue too. Why don't you give them a try and let me know how you do? :) Here's the recipe for Strawberry Banana Muffins from Joy of Baking!

Chocolate Armagnac Cake (sorta) - Tuesdays with Dorie

(Completed subbed) Chocolate Armagnac Cake

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie, Lyb of And then I do the dishes selected Chocolate Armagnac Cake - The Cake That Got Me Fired on pages 279-281 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours. Check our Lyb's site for the recipe or get the book.

While baking in a top restaurant, Dorie got bored and changed up one of the restaurant's classic recipes. She was fired for "creative subordination!"

I might get fired too...for substituting too many things! I don't drink so I used orange juice instead of the armagnac...don't worry, I didn't try to flambe my OJ! :) I made 1/4 of the recipe. Since it was just for me, I skipped the glaze because I'm actually not the biggest fan of chocolate frosting. I dusted it with a heavy East Coast-type snow of powdered sugar instead.

Be sure to check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers!

P.S. It's Square Root Day! (3/3/09 = 3x3=9) I'm a closeted math geek and think it is way cool. It's also Girls' Day in Japan!