Pear & Granola Muffins

Pear and Granola Muffins

D'Anjou pears.
Gingersnap granola.
Flour, brown sugar, butter, yogurt, vanilla.

Bake and eat. Yum.

This is a recipe from Everyday Food. I didn't have whole wheat flour so I just added more unbleached all-purpose flour. Also, I added a pinch of ground ginger and cinnamon to the topping. Of course I'm adding ginger to everything lately!

Super simple to make and a great way to start the day!

Chocolate Graham Cracker Cupcakes with Toasted Marshmallow AKA s'more cupcakes

Give me some more s'more cupcakes!

Last week, it was Cupcake Week on Martha Stewart’s show. I’m going to try to make a few of these delightful looking creations.

First up, the Chocolate Graham Cracker Cupcakes with Toasted Marshmallow. This is basically a s’more cupcake without the campfire…but with my favorite kitchen instrument –the torch! Martha said the recipe is from Jennifer Shea, owner of Seattle’s Trophy Cupcakes.

Here is the recipe and video segment! I didn’t watch the video segment before I made the cupcake, but will later to see if there are additional hints and techniques.

A layer of graham cracker crumbs are placed in the bottom of the cupcake pan. A few teaspoons of chocolate settle in on top of that…creating the basic elements of a s’more! You bake this off for 5 minutes.

I placed the very-liquidity batter in a measuring cup with spout and poured it over the graham cracker bottoms. I ended up filling my pans pretty full! The reserved graham crackers and chocolate round out this yummy cupcake.

After cooling, a seven-minute frosting is made. Eggs whites and sugar are whisked over a double boiler for 3 minutes (until the temp is 160 degrees) and then the KitchenAid does its magic for 7 minutes. The result is a glossy, light frosting. I didn’t have the correct Ateco tip so I use a similar big star tip.

I made the frosting this morning at 5 am and forgot to add the 1 teaspoon of vanilla…but nobody seemed to notice. Also, I messed up and only made ½ the frosting recipe (remember, it was 5 am on a Monday morning). I practiced this recipe on Saturday and made ½ a batch. I had the ½ batch measurements in the margin…and used that again. However, I had just enough frosting to cover 23 cupcakes. If I made the full batch, I’m sure I would have a lot left over.

My favorite baking technique – the torch. I swear, Martha should have “Fire Week” on her show and just make things you can torch. I’m so there.

The cross-section - Notice the cool layer of graham cracker on the bottom!

These are some sweet cupcakes…I mean, sugar and chocolate delivery-device sweet. One co-worker has described them as decadent. A glass of milk would be nice too! They were very fun to make and quite pretty. I would make them again!

Ginger Chocolate Chip Cookies

Root Root for the Root!

I'm still on my ginger kick, and made these Ginger Chocolate Chip Cookies. Chocolate and ginger - very good combo, no?

This recipe is from the Ultimate Chocolate Cookie Book (page 184). My friend Brian has the book and I copied a few recipes before he headed off to Stanford. Although this book has some good recipes, it is light on the proof-reading. The ingredient list calls for 3 cups of chocolate chips, but the instructions never tell you to add them to the batter. I put them in at the end, just like any other chocolate chip recipe. For the yummy Ginger Chocolate Cookies, they list the ground ginger (1 T and 2 teaspoons) - the teaspoons are mixed with sugar for the coating - but it never mentions adding the tablespoon of ground ginger to the batter!

It has 3/4 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger (my favorite - prevents nausea and tastes great!) and 3 cups of chocolate chips (as long as you know when to add them to the batter :)

The cookies came out way flat, but the ginger flavor is quite tasty. They were a hit at work. Next time, I think I might just add ground ginger and crystallized ginger to a basic Toll House recipe and see if I get more "lift."

Chocolate-Chocolate Chunk Muffins

Happy April!!! I had a morning meeting today - a great excuse to try a new muffin recipe. Continuing on my Dorie Greenspan journey, I made the Chocolate-Chocolate Chunk Muffin (page 19).

I measured the ingredients the night before for these muffins and the Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins (also by Dorie).

2 ounces of bittersweet chocolate and butter are melted and added to the batter that includes natural cocoa as well (thus, chocolate chocolate). An additional 2 ounces of chocolate is chopped and added to the batter.

Next time, I would have mixed in just some of the chopped chocolate to the batter, and thrown the rest on top of muffin so little chips are on the top.

These muffins are not the most photogenic...that's why I would pop some chocolate chunks on top next time to give 'em more visual appeal.

Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Bars

Tyler Florence's Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Bars (or Squares)

My fantasy boyfriend is George Clooney.
For my sister-in-law, it's Tyler Florence.
I was over their house once, and my nephew said, "Mom, your-th boyfriend-th is on TV-th" (He was three and had three-year old speech).

Okay. Electronics update. In March, I got a new cell phone AND broke down and got the cable DVR. Both, in short order, have changed my life. First, my phone is the LG enV and it has a full QWERTY keyboard. Now, my txt messages will say more than "ok" or "how u"

The other will help my baking. Really. I have Tyler's Ultimate on record-this-series thingy and the first one was Chicken Salad...with Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Bars. I have been looking for a cheesecake bar and there was Tyler giving me the recipe! I found it online and watched the show twice to make sure I had the technique down.

Yummy ingredients make for a yummy dessert!

Making the crust with a sleeve of graham cracker, sugar, cinnamon and melted butter. Easy-peasy. I had to resist eating the rest of the box - graham crackers remind me of my childhood and snack time.

The filling is made with cream cheese, lemon juice, zest, eggs and sugar. My filling was thicker than Tyler's...but his cream cheese came out of a carton and mine from the blocks. Was his whipped?

One pint of blueberries (these are grown in Chile) get thrown on top.

Out of the oven and ready to be cut (be sure to chill the cheesecake several hours or overnight)

Although not everyone loves you (Miss J!) like my sister-in-law, but you have a nice recipe! I would definitely make this again!

Perfect Party Cake

I've joined an online baking community - Daring Bakers! Each month, members make the same recipe and post them on the same day! To learn more about it, or join yourself, check out their website.

This month, Morven selected the Perfect Party Cake from Dorie Greenspan's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours (page 250). What a perfect challenge...I just bought the book and have been going through a lot of the recipes lately.

Of course, my procrastination gene came out full force... although we have a month to complete the challenge (just post it on the same day) I baked and posted on the same day! Luckily, it's my dad's 76th birthday tomorrow so I had a perfect occasion for the perfect party cake!

Trial #1 - Not-so-perfect party cake

I did try to make the cake on Wednesday night, but the cake came out sooooo flat. I read some other bakers had the same problem...but most of them were using all-purpose flour and not cake flour. However, I used all the correct ingredients (Swan's cake flour and buttermilk) with no substitutions. I don't know what happened!

Yesterday, I tried again and brought all the ingredients to very room temperature in case that was the problem. I creamed the butter first and then added the lemon sugar. Also, I switched from the recommended 9-inch pans to smaller 8-inch pans. This time, I got more lift!

Buttercream in motion! Start with egg white and sugar, whisk over a double boiler for 3 minutes (until 160 degrees to kill any yucky stuff), beat for another 5 minutes on the KitchenAid and then drop in three sticks of butter. It curdles a bit, but it all comes together with lots of beating!

Assembling the cake...jam, frosting, cake and repeat.

Sweetened coconut is placed on top of the buttercream. However, next time, I'm going to skip the coconut as I'm not the biggest fan of coconut.

I liked the taste (I pushed the coconut off my slice! :) but I felt the raspberry jam was a bit overpowering. I bought this raspberry seedless jam imported from England from Surfas for $7.50. It is a nice jam for shortbread cookies, but I think I should have listened to Cook's Illustrated who rated Smuckers the best raspberry jam.

Here is a photo of my niece and nephews and their grandpa at the Hof's Hut for birthday breakfast! Happy 76th Birthday Dad!

P.S. Whew! Although I'm late in some parts of the world, I still made it under the wire by Los Angeles Daylight-Savings time! Can't wait for the next challenge!