Tangerine Pound Cake Petits Fours With Marzipan Peonies: Lessons Learned

Petits fours are not for the faint-hearted.  Like their come-hither distant cousin the macaron, the petit four bats her smooth-glazed eyelashes at you and, the next thing you know you are elbow deep in warm poured fondant and your own tears. That is, if you let them defeat you.  But you shouldn’t – they are extremely rewarding to make once you master some of the details.  It was really a pleasure to be able to put my heart and soul into these pretty little cakes for my cousin’s wedding this last spring.

The entire dessert display

Glamour shot just before delivery

I learned many important lessons during this project, so I thought I would share some of them here with you.  I highly recommend taking the time to do a practice batch of petits fours in advance if you are planning to bring some to a special event.  It takes the edge off when you can make some errors to learn (and eat) from along the way.

1. Choose your cake recipe wisely – it will need to be fairly sturdy in order to hold up to the slicing, filling, dipping etc. I recommend a nice, moist pound cake. (Be sure it is a tasty cake – you don’t want to put all this effort into making something that looks pretty but tastes mediocre. That’s just sad.)
2. Covering the top of your cake with marzipan or rolled fondant before cutting it into pieces will yield nice smooth tops after glazing/dipping.
3. If you are married to an engineer/architect who is patient and supportive enough to help you measure out and cut exact grid of petits fours from four seperate nine-inch square cakes, you are a lucky lady indeed.
4. Once your cake is filled and or covered and cut into petite bites, wrap them well and freeze them for at least four hours or overnight. This makes for stronger cake when it comes time to glaze.
5. When making your poured fondant, DO NOT let the temperature go over 110 F.  (Thanks, Andrea!) Once the sugar has been heated past that point, you cannot save your fondant and you will end up with gloppy, thick, ugly petits fours.  You have to dump the whole batch and start over. 
   
6. You can keep your poured fondant warm using a double boiler, and you can also add teaspoons of boiling water to keep the temperature and consistency good. (If using this method, you need to be sure that you don’t over dilute your fondant and end up with too much variation in the appearance of your final product.)
7. Have a plan for the final decoration up front, if possible.  I crafted one hundred coral-colored marzipan peonies a few days in advance so that I would be ready to place them on top when the dipped petits fours were just dry enough to be sticky. 
   
8. Be patient. You got this.

Bonus tip: when coloring and working with sticky marzipan, sterile medical gloves are your new best friends. 

Don't let this happen to you. Watch that poured fondant temperature!

“Hey – what’s up with that weird 'S' after petits in petits fours?”

Just like the proper French word for everyone’s favorite almond + meringue sandwich cookie is macaron (not macaroon), the proper French words for these little bite-sized morsels are petits fours. The adjective in French must agree in both gender and number, and because the fours are plural, the 'S' is added onto petit. As for why these pretty little cakes are considered masculine, I couldn’t say . . . We have adopted the words into the English language at this point, and I think you will find them called petit fours in places online and elsewhere, so I wouldn’t clutch my pearls if I saw them written out that way.  I just prefer going with the original name. 

- Jenn

Happy Birthday to Me

This summer, I hit a milestone. Or rather, a milestone hit me. I don’t know how it happened so fast, but here I am at that age that I always considered to be “old.” (Otherwise known as the age-that-must-not-be-named.) It’s all relative, of course, and in many ways I am healthier and happier than I have ever been, however, it’s still a little shocking to reach what I consider to be my parents’ age. (And seriously, you couldn’t pay me to be twenty again – ugh!)  

Instead of engaging in some quiet introspection to reflect on my past and to set goals for my future, I headed into the kitchen to make myself a birthday cake. Since this is the second year in a row that I have made myself a cake for my birthday, I think I can call it a tradition. (Established 2012!) This is also the second time that I have made the Pistachio Petit Four Cake that I had long admired at Smitten Kitchen, and I think I was able to improve on my marzipan flower design this year. 

Glamour shot on great-grandma's cake stand

Yes, these marzipan mums were a labor of love

Maybe next year, I will attempt something more original as the topper, but I do feel like the glistening dark chocolate ganache calls for the fussiness of the girlie pink flowers on top. What do you think?

Last year's cake for reference

 - Jenn

Cakes of Seasons Past

During the long blog silence between the posts we made last winter and the new posts written last week, Jenny and I were involved in many projects that we never wrote about here. I thought it might be nice to do a quick catch-up on a couple of my personal highlights.

Two for Two Cake and Cupcakes
My Godson's birthday is in April – which means somewhat unpredictable weather in San Diego. Ya, go ahead and mock me, "Oh, boo hoo! Is it not perfectly sunny and 75 degrees every day of the year?" Here's the thing though: the weather in April might be beautiful and perfect for a birthday party in the park…or it might be rainy with winds that will blow your streamers to smithereens! So what do you do? Plan for the park and hope for the best? Plan to have a bunch of kids running around your house with that extra excited energy that a rainy day incites? I think I know what I would choose. So, as you may have ascertained, my Godson's party was planned for a small group in the park, but ended up being rerouted into a dinner party of five adults and one birthday boy. In other words, I made way too much cake. Better too much than too little!

Chocolate cake and vanilla cupcakes - everybody wins!

The Dog Cake
My niece requested a dog cake for her 9th birthday and sent me some examples of cakes she liked. I was immediately intimidated because as much as I am game for trying, I'm not a cake sculptor. I didn't want to disappoint my niece,  so I set about trying to create an achievable dog cake design. I ended up basing my cake off a black and white Pokey Little Puppy cake design and I used the blue and white color scheme from one of the cake photos my niece sent to me. I made a test cake the weekend before, to make sure that I could pull it off and that I wouldn't have to place a emergency cake order. When I made the final cake the next weekend, it looked even better.

Fondant Galore

The kids seemed to like it, even if they found out the hard way that fondant is best enjoyed in small quantities.

Dog butt!

- Jenn

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

I've been hearing a lot of talk about the U.S. birthrate being down, but you would never know it based on my friends and family. Lots of new babies have been born around here lately - to friends and family alike.

To celebrate the latest baby girl, I made some playful sugar and spice cookies. I wanted to do something fun that I could manage on a weeknight.

The "golden-brown" edges on the lollipops are just my oven's way of saying, "Gotcha!"

The spice component consisted of chai tea cookies with buttercream icing. I omitted the crystallized ginger and instead used sanding sugar as a decorative center for my cut-out flowers. These cookies are very crispy and with the buttercream icing they become truly addictive. You have been warned.

For the sugar, I made a basic sugar cookie recipe and then divided it up into three equal parts, coloring each with white, pink, and purple food coloring. I couldn't begin to detail the process anywhere near as well as SweetSugarBelle does, so please check out her post for more details on how to twist the dough into these cookie lollipops.

The results were tasty, fun and not as much work as you might think. What a rare treat!

 - Jenn

Welcome, Baby Jack!

If anyone is actually still checking this blog, I will be very impressed by their dedication. As it turns out, Jenny and I are not as active at blogging as we would like to think we might be. She has a pretty good excuse though, what with having a newborn and all. I have no such excuse.

The good news is: we haven't stopped baking. It's the bakiest (I just made up a word!) time of year again, so maybe we will find the time to share some of our creations over the next few weeks.

To follow-up on my nonchalant mention above that Jenny had a baby, I should mention that she's doing great. Jack is a quite the cute little man and both Jenny and her husband are enjoying the newest member of the family. Rumor has it that Grendel is thrilled to finally have a brother!

To welcome Jack home from the hospital, I baked these sugar cookies using the Fred Letterpress cookie cutters. They took a little figuring out, but it was pretty simple once I got the hang of it. Although, there's nothing like baking sugar cookies during a 90 degree October heatwave to make you wonder whether you have lost your mind. Totally worth it though.

We are so glad you are here, Jack! Congrats to Jenny and John!

- Jenn

Oatmeal Cookies Are Practically Health Food

Since we are all doing our best to try to be a little less decadent in these first few weeks of the New Year, I thought I would share a recipe that is at least pretending to be a little bit healthy. Bonus points if you use some sort of wheat flour. Adding chocolate chips will trick kids into liking them, as well.

Those aren't raisins!

Recipe Adapted from Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Recipe at joyofbaking.com.
 
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies:

• 1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup (210 grams) light or dark brown sugar
• 1/3 cup (65 grams) granulated white sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 cups (260 grams) old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1 cup (140 grams) chocolate chips 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) with oven rack in the center of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. 

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter and sugars until creamy and smooth (about 2 - 3 minutes). Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and ground cinnamon. Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and beat until incorporated. Stir in the rolled oats and chocolate chips.

For large cookies, use a generous 1/4 cup of batter (I like to use an ice cream scoop) and place six cookies on each baking sheet. Flatten the cookies slightly so they are about 1/2 inch (1.25 cm) thick. Bake the cookies for about 14 - 18 minutes rotating the cookie sheets halfway through the baking time. The cookies are done when golden brown around the edges but still a little soft in the centers. (The longer the cookies bake the more crispy they will be.) Remove from oven and let the cookies cool a few minutes on the baking sheet before transferring them to a wire rack to finish cooling. These cookies will keep several days at room temperature.

Makes about 18 large cookies.

Smashed cookies ready for baking

 Enjoy!


- Jenn

Good bye 2011, hello Candied Jalapeños!

Well another year has passed us by, I have had the last 8 days off and have failed to blog.  Please note, I have ONLY failed to blog, not failed to cook.  My pantry has been cleaned and rearranged, I have been obsesses with Indian cooking all week. Side note: anyone need a bag of leftover Curry leaves?  Not sure I can use the all up in addition to the 2 bags I already have in the freezer.

Anyway, I have also been obsessed with finding new jalapeño recipes and I have found it:

Candied Jalapeños- makes about 8-9 half pints

4 pounds fresh, firm, jalapeño peppers
3 cups apple cider vinegar
8 cups white granulated sugar
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 teaspoons celery seed
12 cloves of garlic minced very fine
2 teaspoons ground cayenne pepper or Hot paprika

Step 1: For the love of god, put on gloves

Step 2: Slice the jalapeños, I used a mandolin to get really thin slices

Step 3:  Make the syrup

In a large pot, bring cider vinegar, white sugar, turmeric, celery seed, minced garlic and cayenne pepper or paprika to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the pepper slices and once the mixture starts boiling again simmer for about 4 minutes.

Step 4: Remove the peppers with a slotted spoon and add to sterilized half pint jars

Step 5: Bring the syrup to a rolling boil and boil for 6 minutes.  After 6 minutes, fill the jars up within a 1/4" to the top.  Seal with lids and process in a water bath for 10 minutes.  After the 10 minute process, remove and let cool for 24 hours.

Now you may be asking yourself, " Wherre is the finished product?"  Well, Jenn and I like to refer to that as the money shot, and well, they aren't ready yet.  They need to sit for about 2 weeks before you crack open the first jar and taste the magic.  Here's hoping I can wait the 2 weeks.

-Jenny

Cranberry Shortbread for the Win

I saw this book in Williams Sonoma a while back, but managed to resist the temptation to take it home with me.

A few weeks ago it showed up in Marshalls and my resolve crumbled. (See what i did there?) With Christmas just days away, I had to have this book with its delicately frosted stars and beautiful candy cane pirouettes.  I finally got a chance to bake up a few recipes from it this weekend and I'm pretty happy with the results. I have yet to reproduce some of the more precisely decorated cookies, but the  simple shortbread has been quite a tasty success.
 
The original recipe called for dried cherries, but I substituted cranberries to Christmas it up. The results were surprising - it's been the sleeper hit in our house. Who knew shortbread could be so alluring? I bet the shortbread results to my jeans will be less so.

Dried Cranberry Shortbread
Adapted from Dried Cherry Shortbread from The Art of the Cookie by Shelly Kaldunski

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup dried cranberries, coarsely chopped

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Have a 10 inch tart pan with a removable bottom ready
2.  Whisk the flour and salt together in a bowl.  Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and 1 1/4 C of the sugar until light and fluffy. (about 2-3 minutes) Beating on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture, beating until almost incorporated. Add the vanilla and dried cranberries and beat on low speed, just until the dough forms large clumps and pulls away from the side of the bowl. Press the dough evenly into the tart pan with your hands. Prick the entire surface of the tart with a fork at 1 inch intervals.

It looks like a lot of pricks, if you ask me

3.  Place the pan on a baking sheet and bake until the the center is lightly golden-brown - about 30-35 minutes. Immediately sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar over the shortbread (I used vanilla sugar which was really tasty) and use a sharp chef's knife to cute the shortbread into squares. Let cool in the pan, about 30 minutes.
4.  Remove the cookies from the pan and store in an airtight container. Keeps up to 4 days.

This is the kind of picture you get after a long day of baking. Sorry. It's delicious, I promise.

- Jenn

Ze best Sugar Cookies.....Evah.

Every year it seems like the same old grind for Christmas doesn't it?  Pickle, can, bake, re-bake, give-away....at least for me that's what it's like.  And each and every year I try a NEW sugar cookie recipe because the previous one was only so-so.  Well folks, I can proudly say that this year I finally have a go-to Sugar Cookie recipe, they are crunchy, buttery and amazing- not your average sugar cookie, behold:

Sugar Cookies
3 sticks of butter- you heard me
3 cups of white sugar- again, you heard me
2 eggs
1 tsp almond extract
2 tsp. vanilla exact, preferably homemade- that's right, I'm THAT girl
4 oz cream cheese-or half a package
4 1/2 cups sifted flour
3/4 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp baking powder

Crapload of sprinkles in various colors.  This year I went with gold, silver, clear and azure.

Cream sugar and butter together in Kitchen Aid mixer (or whatever you got), add each egg, one at a time, totally incorporating the mixture, add the extracts and then add the cream cheese, again totally incorporating the mixture.

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together and slowly start adding to the creamed mixture- on the lowest speed- trust me.  After a while, your mixer might start making funny noises and seem really full, but don't fear- your mixer wants to get this done for you, but also wants you to know you should have used a bigger bowl.  Shut up mixer,  it can still be done.

Once everything is incorporated, but the dough in the fridge for at least a few hours, preferably overnight.

Roll them out, cut them in cute shapes, sprinkle with sugar-whatever.  Bake them at 350 degrees for 16-18 minutes- yep, there is a lot of butter in them they need to bake, when they are slightly brown get 'em out of the oven, they are done!

Only sprinkles this year, baby!

Editor's note:  If you want NORMAL, regular, run-of-the-mill sugar cookies just follow the recipe exactly except reduce butter and sugar to 1 1/2 cups each and bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

-Jenny

Barbie Cake

   Another niece’s birthday, another cake challenge.  When I made my niece an owl cake for her 8^th birthday, it seemed to go over pretty well.  I certainly learned a lot about making a character cake and also about patience. Let’s just say it’s easier to crumb coat a cake that hasn’t been sliced into multiple pieces. There may have been some cursing involved. 

The owl

   Last month, my other niece requested that I make her a birthday cake with the following words, “Auntie Jenni, you are making my birthday cake!” 

   

   I like her style. She wanted a Barbie cake, so you all know what that means--the classic rounded skirt doll cake. After intimidating myself with all a bunch of amazing Barbie cake photos on the Internet, I went to Michaels and scoped out the available tools. I couldn’t bring myself to spring for the $20 Wilton “Teen Doll” skirt pan, but the thought of it haunted me later during the baking process.  (The Wilton pan has a metal core that sticks up in the middle of the dome to help ensure even baking for this odd-shaped cake.) I did grab the “Teen Doll” torso pick. I think because I was getting nervous and felt like I had to buy something. Once I got home, I realized that I couldn’t possibly use this imposter doll. I remember being a little girl and knowing when someone was trying to pass off a fake. Needless to say, I bought a Barbie.

Teen Doll, you aren’t fooling anyone.

   So here’s how it went down. I made one Funfetti cake mix (I know…) in a domed ceramic bowl. It had to cook it for 55 minutes before the wooden satay stick came out clean. The edges were a little brown, but I trimmed the darkest bits off and they tasted fine. (This is when I started wondering if I should have bought the damn Wilton pan.) Next, I baked a Devil’s Food cake mix (sigh) using the Cake Mix Doctor’s recipe, but I baked half the batter in a 9 inch round pan, made one oversized cupcake, and then used the rest to make 10 regular cupcakes. 

   Once the cakes were baked, I assembled the cake in the following manner: 9 inch round, icing, bowl cake, icing, large cupcake upside-down. Next, I wrapped Barbie, cut an X through the cake and then pushed Barbie all the way down and gave the whole thing a crumb coat using classic buttercream icing with a touch of shortening to make sure the icing would be firm. 

Is it just me or is this picture almost offensive?

The architect assists

After some time in the refrigerator, I was able to apply the fondant bodice and then do the final base coat of buttercream. The hard part was over. Piping on the decorative touches is the most fun, if you ask me. I find that using repeating patterns and simple designs is best with limited decorating skills. Also, I try to avoid the temptation to over-decorate. The final touch that really made this cake sparkle was the silver luster dust I brushed on Barbie’s fondant bodice.  All in all, it was a pretty good cake for a 5^th birthday. 

Extra cupcakes for the party

   Let’s not make one of these cakes again anytime soon.

- Jenn

Salted Caramel Sauce Dreams

Do you ever go to sleep at night and dream of salted caramel sauce?  I did 3 nights ago and ever since then I have been trying different techniques to get the best salted caramel sauce on earth.  The first technique involved heating sugar in a sauce pan until it melted- no water.  Tell you what, this recipe was for the birds.  Have you ever watched sugar turn into a liquid while staying rock hard in certain places?  One word-frustratingly stupid.  Two words.

Hate this method.  I had to strain the sauce at the end as not all the sugar fully dissolved.

The other method involves adding a small bit of water to your sugar to help turn it into a syrup quicker- and smoother.  This will be the recipe I'm sharing with you below, not the first recipe I tried.  Oh no, I save that only for my masochist cooking friends....you know who you are.  You are the ones who try recipes even though you are fairly certain they will fail, you are the ones who put things in your mouth even though the temperature just said 240 degrees on your candy thermometer, and you are the ones who poke sleeping bears.

Salted Caramel Sauce
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup water
1 cup heavy cream- warmed
3 T unsalted butter - Don't ask why it's unsalted or I will sic the bear on you
1 1/2 t vanilla extract
1- 1 1/2 t sea salt- all based on how salty you like it

Add the sugar and water in a heavy sauce pan and turn the heat on medium.  I like to swirl the water/sugar mixture every minute or so to help it dissolve evenly.  Once dissolved, you will let this bubble for about 10-12 minutes, until the sugar syrup turns a dark amber.  Once it is this color, turn off the heat.

Add the warmed cream(either warm it on the stove until it barely simmers, or stick it in the microwave for 60 seconds- you're the one who has to do the dishes afterward.)  It will bubble up furiously at this point- that's what it is supposed to do- start whisking.  Once the bubbling subsides, add the butter and vanilla, whisking again until everything is incorporated.  Then add the salt, start with the minimum amount, wait for it to cool slightly and then add more if your palate desires.

Pour the caramel into 4 oz or 8 oz mason jars and give away for gifts.  Or don't.  Sit in the corner of your kitchen in the dark and eat the whole jar with a spoon.  I won't judge you, but you are the one who has to fit in your cute New Years Eve party dress, not me.

-Jenny

Macaron Class From An "Expert"

In September I took a macaron class at a certain upscale kitchen store that shall not be named. The class was a generous and lovely birthday gift from my generous and lovely friend Linda. I was so excited about the class that I told Jenny about it and she too wanted to attend. She even brought her mother-in-law along.

The class description promised to teach “fail safe” methods for making perfect macarons every time.  Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? It is.

When we arrived to the class, we all took a seat and received a crisp white apron and an info packet containing an overview of mac making, the class recipes and some traceable macaron patterns. In order to make all of the macarons that had been promised in the class description (Lavender with white chocolate ganache! Chocolate with chocolate ganache! Lemon! Coconut!), we broke up into five groups of four and then…basically read how to make macarons off a sheet and then did it ourselves with the occasional help from one of the assistants.  In other words, we read a recipe and then made it. In more smug terms, if Jenny and I didn’t already know how to make macarons, we would have been lost. There were no little tips and tricks offered, just the basic details--definitely not fail-safe information.

This is the only picture I took. It's too bad I didn't document the final results.

We chose to make the lavender macarons with the white chocolate ganache, which sounded like a possibly nice, subtle combination. We had our shells piped and ready before any other group and so our macs were the first into the oven. Thank goodness because there were only two small ovens going and most of the other groups macarons set out too long before making it into the oven.  This seems like something they could have managed better, especially considering that this is one of their more popular classes.

Every group also made a different filling and it seems that there was not enough time allowed for the ganaches to set up before it came time to sandwich up our selection of misfit macaron shells. Again, something a popular class should have figured out by now.

Our shells were not bad in terms of the form, but they tasted like nasty, bitter soap. Maybe the instructor was washing out our mouths in advance because he knew we would have some dirty, dirty things to say following this expensive class. Whatever the reason, the recommended amount of lavender was way too high to make an edible cookie. And for the record, I actually enjoy lavender-flavored sweets. Many of the other groups’ cookies were cracked, under baked, or over baked, but we were given cheap little paper plates to take around so that we could make some little Frankenstein cookie samples to take home. Have you ever tried to fill a sandwich cookie with runny ganache? It’s not pretty. 

And the greediest part of all? After extorting a large fee for this class that would given me a macaron-baking phobia had I not already known what I was doing, the assistants made us turn in our aprons at the end of class. Really, Overpriced Cooking Store? You couldn’t spare the aprons?

On the bright side, it wasn’t a total loss because it was still a fun way to spend the morning with friends, and I guess that’s what I will remember most about it.

- Jenn

Cherry Bombs- they just scream Christmas, don't they?

So yesterday, I made one of my annual Christmas give-aways: Cherry Bombs.  What makes them especially Christmassy you ask?  Well, they are red and they will get you wasted.  Sounds Christmassy enough for me.

Cherry Bombs
Makes 12- 8 ounces jars
3- 36 ounce jars of maraschino cherries(the only place I can get these is Costco- 2 jars for $6.99!  Let the Christmas cheer begin!)
Reserved cherry juice from 2 of the jars
1 1/2 cups of vanilla simple syrup (recipe below)
Bacardi 151- about 2 cups, but you can adjust the cherry juice and rum to your liking.  Me?  After 2 cups of rum, my nose hairs start to burn off.

Mix the cherry juice, simple syrup and rum.  Clean and sterilize the jars and fill each one to the top with cherries.  Add the cherry juice/napalm mixture 1/4" to the top.  Screw the lids on and wait 2 weeks.  You need sufficient time for the cherries to soak up the rum mixture- otherwise what's the point?

When ready, you can eat straight from the jar or use as a sundae topping!
Enjoy!

Vanilla simple syrup
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
2 vanilla beans- cut in half and scraped of the seeds

Slowly dissolve water and sugar over a low flame.  Once sugar is dissolved, add vanilla beans and seeds and simmer for about 15 minutes.  Slowly strain the bigger pieces of the bean out, but you definitely want to leave the seeds in- so pretty!  You can use this for a number of recipes, so don't be shy, it will keep in the fridge for almost ever.


-Jenny

Pumpkin crack-um, I mean, cookies

Well, it seems I am off to a bit of a roll doesn't it?  Two in a row.  Like I said yesterday, we didn't stop baking, we just stopped writing about it and I feel like I have so many recipes and pictures to share that I need to start getting them out of my head and onto something more permanent like cyberspace.

When I was growing up, a sure sign of fall was the smell of pumpkin anything in the house.  My mom's specialty was the coveted puffy pumpkin cookies, you know the kind that are like a cake/scone without being too sweet?  I was in heaven whenever those were around and this year I knew I had to make them.

Pumpkin cookies
½ Cup butter
1 Cup sugar
½ Cup brown sugar
2 eggs- room temperature
1 small can pumpkin
2 ½ Cups flour
½ teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Cream butter and sugars in a stand or electric mixer until creamy. Slowly add eggs and pumpkin, mixing until well combined.

Place flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Slowly add to wet mixture on low speed until just combined. With a cookie scoop, drop onto parchment or silpat lined baking sheet.

Bake for 11-13 minutes. Let cool completely.

To frost or not frost
I am obsesses with cream cheese frosting and this is how you make it, although, they are just as good unfrosted.

8oz package cream cheese, softened
3 Tablespoons butter, softened
2 ¼ Cups powdered sugar
1 vanilla bean scraped of its' seeds
Whisk cream cheese and butters in a Kitchen Aid mixer. Slowly stir in powdered sugar(with the mixer off people!) until smooth. Add in vanilla bean, mix for an additional 30 seconds.

Frost cooled cookies and sprinkle with candied lemon or orange peel or candy pumpkins- both are adorable.

Makes 3 dozen cookies

-Jenny

It's ok everyone, we are not dead

Well hello there!  It has been approximately 8 months since we have blogged and I wanted to assure everyone that we are ok.  We have not dropped off the face of the earth, we have not been in an accident where we have developed amnesia and started a new existence- say as rodeo clowns in Houston.  No, we simply became very lazy, a symptom of both getting jobs at the same time.  All of a sudden all of our normal, everyday activities, including blogging- became very difficult to accomplish after working an 8 hour day as we were incredibly tired.  Women with kids, our hats are off to you!

But we never stopped baking.  Oh no, in fact, I would say we have started baking more.  Between Barbie cakes, cake pops, macarons and brownies, we have using more sugar than ever, although I still haven't topped my personal best of going through 10 pounds of sugar in 1 week. 

So what is my new favorite thing to bake you ask?  Meringues.  I am obsessed with these little, lighter than air confections.  Fat free and full of sugar, yes please!

Meringues
3 egg whites- room temperature
1/3 c granulated sugar
1/2 c powdered sugar-sifted
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp flavoring- peppermint or vanilla extract
food coloring- if using

Place your 3 egg whites and salt in a Kitchen Aid mixer bowl and start whipping on a very high speed.  Once foamy, gradually add the granulated sugar, when the mixture starts to rise and look thicker gradually add the powdered sugar (You might want to do this with the mixer not running- trust me).  This is also the point you can add in any flavorings.  Once the meringue is set enough (about 10 minutes) so that when you tip the bowl over your head nothing moves you are good to go.

Add the meringue to a piping bag with a 1/4" or 1/2" tip (this is also the time I like to add food coloring, if you want your meringues to be cool and tie-dyed) and pipe 1 inch meringues- taller the better if you ask me.

Vanilla meringues

Red swirled peppermint meringues

Bake at 200 degrees for 2 1/2 hours.  After 2 1/2 hours turn the oven off and leave the meringues in the oven for another few hours.  Once completely cooled you can dip in chocolate, which is my new favorite thing to do.  Voila!

-Jenny

Favorite Banana Bread

Ahhh, bananas. They are said to be a super food and I always buy a bunch with the best of intentions. The problem is I only like bananas when they are slightly under ripe.  Since most of the bananas we get seem to go from completely green to speckled in brown in record time, it’s inevitable that I end up with a bunch of browning bananas staring at me. And we all know what to do with bananas that are giving us the stink-eye: bake banana bread. 

I found this recipe online at Sophistimom a few years ago when I was making some mini loaves for Christmas gifts. I think it turns out a very moist and just-sweet-enough result. I’ve been dividing the batter in half to make two medium loaves lately because a mini loaf just isn’t enough around my house. (If you do two loaves, you will have to bake them at least 15 minutes longer than indicated below. Use the trusty toothpick test to be sure they are done) If you like nuts, you can always throw some chopped ones into the batter. I prefer to just sprinkle any nuts on top before baking so that the nut-averse can easily avoid them.

Sometimes you want to eat it right out of the oven.

Banana bread

2 cups (300g) unbleached, all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
3 large, very ripe bananas
1 cup (220g) organic sugar (it has an earthier flavor, but regular is fine)
1/4 cup (60g) low-fat sour cream
2 eggs, beaten
1 stick (8 tablespoons or 110g) unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (180 degrees, Celsius). Spray 4 small (3×5 inch) loaf pans with non-stick cooking spray. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, mash bananas until almost smooth, but still chunky. Stir in sugar, butter, eggs, sour cream, and vanilla.
3. Carefully fold flour mixture into banana mixture. Stir until just incorporated. Batter should be lumpy, with no dry spots.
4. Fill each pan half way. Place on a large cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees, until a toothpick, inserted in the center of the loaves, comes out clean. This should take between 35-45 minutes.
5. Let cool in pans for at least 10 minutes. Remove from pans and let cool on a wire rack until ready to serve.

I wrote this whole post without mentioning monkeys. I think that shows a lot of restraint.

- Jenn

The Green Pizza

Ok, I made enough macarons today to make a normal person's head spin, so this blog is decidedly going to be "non sweet."  Friday night here at the Auble household is pizza night, or rather "stay home and make pizza night" and when I say "we", I mean me of course.  We usually have something with red sauce, cheese and homemade pickled jalapenos, but today I was feeling a bit daring....behold:

Pizza Crust

1 cup warm water
2 1/4 tsp yeast
1 tsp sugar

Put the first 3 ingredients in the bowl of a Kitchen Aid mixer and let stand until frothy- usually about 10 minutes.

Start kneading with the dough hook and slowly, by about 1/2 cups, add about 3 cups of flour and 1 tsp salt.  I say about, because depending on a million different factors (weather, flour, cycle of the moon), you could use more or less.  You want to end up with a soft, almost sticky ball.  You will need about 7-10 minutes total after you have added the flour.  Once the dough ball is ready, I like to scoop it out of the bowl, spray the bowl with cooking spray and put the ball back, covering with plastic wrap.  Let rise about one hour.  After one hour, I like to punch the dough.  Feel free to punch it as hard as you like, it doesn't care, it's dough.  Your main goal here is to deflate it to let it rise again, let it sit, covered, another hour.

Green Pizza

1 recipe pizza dough
Jarred alfredo sauce  You can make homemade, but who are you trying to impress?
1 bunch green onions, sliced thin, green and white parts
1 large bunch spinach- steamed, squeezed of all water and chopped -today I got mine out of the garden and got some bonus earwigs and a big fat red spider.  For the love of god, please wash everything before you put on the pizza
1 bunch asparagus, sliced thin
Pecorino Romano
Black Pepper
Zest of one lemon

Preheat oven to 500 degrees
Stretch pizza dough out on sheet, cover with alfredo, sprinkle on chopped spinach, green onions, black pepper, asparagus and lemon zest.  Sprinkle liberally with Pecorino Romano cheese and drizzle with olive oil.  Bake for about 15-17 minutes, voila!

-Jenny

Pet Pictures Are Better Than Nothing!

We have had some crazy weather in San Diego this week. Not only did it rain so hard that our roof sprang another leak (expletive!), but it actually hailed. Luckily, the hail bits (pieces? drops?) did not get any larger than pea size, so I didn't end up with any dents in my car. However, there were enough little white peas to blanket the neighborhood. Check out the confused plants.

"B-b-b-b-ut, I thought it was spring!"

And the plants weren't the only ones confused; Arigato the cat spent most of the day cowering under the bed. He bravely endured the sound of the rain beating the roof and skylights, but once the hail hit--he was over it. I'm really just telling you this so that I have an excuse to post another picture of my cat. It was a weak transition, but at least I tried!

Looks like somebody is getting a treat!

- Jenn

Cherry Pie and 1982

So an old friend of mine from grade school, sent me a message today saying that her daughter had her first sleep over and that this sleep over proves that if you are a - let's say not so good kid -it will come back to bite you in the ass later in life.  Well, it looks like my friends' time has come.



Barb, Cherry Pie and Jenny- July 29, 1982

That classy lady in the middle of the picture is my beloved pillow doll- Cherry Pie, and maybe it is to her that I owe my life long obsession with food.  I slept on Cherry Pie for years and could not go anywhere without her.  She flew across the country many times and has lasted over 30 years- she is in my bedroom now (in the closet) as we speak.
-Jenny

An Ode to buttercream

I find myself thinking about frosting and those things covered with frosting more often than I should.  To say I am a sweets addict is an understatement, I don't just have a sweet tooth, I have sweet teeth.  Every square inch of my body craves sweet delicious things, and since Jenn introduced me to Swiss butter cream, I have been a frosting fiend.

I recently made a chocolate cake for my mother in law, Sandra's birthday. 
Recipe here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/beattys-chocolate-cake-recipe/index.html
By far, the BEST chocolate cake I have ever made, although I had a ton of issues getting it out of the darn pan- another story for later.

Anyway, this amazing chocolate cake, needed some amazing chocolate frosting:

Chocolate Raspberry Swiss Butter cream

4 ounces egg whites- most of the time this is about 4 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Over a double boiler, or what the french refer to as a "bain marie", I say bain in my ass, whisk the sugar, egg whites and cream of tartar until all of the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is fluffy and gorgeous.

Then add this mixture to you mixer, and mix on high until you start getting some glossy volume:

This is where the fun begins.  At this point, I add 1 tsp of raspberry extract and 2 ounces of COOLED, melted bittersweet chocolate.  Making sure it's cooled is very important here, don't get lazy. Then it's time for the last magical step:




It's not called butter cream for nothing.

You want to drop in 2 sticks of room temperature butter, while the mixture is running, by the tablespoon and do it slowly.  Once the butter has been added, continue beating at high speed for about 3 to 5 minutes.  You may start to think that it is never going to get thick enough to be frosting, but as soon as that thought leaves your head, you will see the mixture almost start to look curdled.  Continue beating and voila!

Just remember you made this for a cake, try not to eat the whole batch out of the bowl.

-Jenny