On Why I don't Like Pie.

Okay, there, I said it. I don't like pie. Well more specifically, I don't like cooked fruit pies. But that's really what we think of when we think of pie right? Apple pie, cherry pie, blueberry pie? No thank you. I will make an exception every now and again for a fresh strawberry pie, but that's even pushing my pie-tolerating limits. I know it's un-American, un-fathomable even. Really when it comes down to it, I am just not a big fan of cooked fruit in any form, which by default, rules out pie.

I also have an issue with the crust to filling ratio in pies, which is why I prefer tarts, but that category of neurosis is better left to another post.

That being said, I do, however, LOVE pie crust. You know what else I love? Caramel. Chewy, salty caramel is the food of the gods right? I am pretty sure we learned that in Greek Mythology 101 in college. I may be getting my bachelors degree and my pastry degree mixed up, but it has to be correct.

So, long story short, I had an extra disc of my favorite pie crust just hanging out in my freezer, as I am sure most of us do (kidding), and it was just begging to be made into something delicious. Taking inspiration from one of my favorite blogs, Sprinkle Bakes, these bad boys were born.  I must confess that these pictures were from last fall, I just haven't gotten around to posting them until now. That will explain the secret and oh so delicious ingredient, apple cider.

To sum things up, pie crust + apple cider caramel + sea salt = amazingness. I rolled out my pie crust and fit it into the bottom of a square cake pan, and baked it until beautifully golden brown. Topped with a chewy caramel and flaked with crunchy sea salt, these squares are satisfying and decadent, any time of year.

Apple Cider Caramel Squares
Makes 64 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 inch squares

Pate Brisee Crust

400 grams (14 oz) unsalted butter, chilled, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 tablespoon white distilled vinegar
100 grams (3 1/2 oz) granulated sugar
2/3 cup water, chilled
665 grams (1 lb 7 1/2 oz) all purpose flour1 teaspoon salt

Remove butter from fridge 20 minutes before mixing.

In a small bowl, combine sugar, water, and vinegar, stir to aid the dissolving of the sugar. Set aside in refrigerator for 10 minutes. Then, stir again to completely dissolve sugar.

In a food processor, pulse the flour and salt together a few times to combine. Add the butter, and pulse in one second bursts about 3-4 times until butter is cut in and evenly dispersed. You should have visible chunks of butter in your flour mixture, this is where the flakiness comes from.

Pour mixture into a large bowl and make a little well in the middle of the flour. Pour the vinegar water mixture into the well, along with the almond extract, and gently mix liquids into the flour with a fork. When liquid is evenly dispersed, dump dough out onto a clean surface and knead gently a few times, just until dough comes together in one cohesive ball. It may be a bit shaggy or falling apart, but that's okay, while it is resting the moisture will bind everything together.

Cut ball of dough in half and shape each half into a disc about 1/2 - 3/4 inch thick. (use one for this recipe, and you can freeze the other half for later use) Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least two hours, or overnight. Take dough out of fridge about 10 minutes before you roll it out. Place one of your discs of dough between two sheets of parchment paper and roll out to a 1/8 inch flat disc. Always start in the center of the disc and roll outward, turning the disc 30 degrees after each roll to get an even thickness throughout.

 If you are using a square or rectangular pan, you will want to roll out your dough to fit your pan instead of a round circle. Line your cake pan neatly with parchment paper, so that the paper extends up the sides of the pan, this will aid in removing the bars once the caramel is poured in. Pan spray under the parchment will help keep it in place. Carefully move the dough to your pan and cut off excess. For this recipe I just cover the bottom of the cake pan, and just about 1/4 inch up the sides to catch the caramel.

Dock with a fork (meaning poke a bunch of tiny holes in the bottom of the tart crust with a fork) and freeze for twenty minutes. Preheat your oven to 400 F. Place a piece of tin foil over your tart shell, pressing it down to fit the form of your tart, and fill with beans or rice or pie weights. Blind bake your tart for 20 minutes, flipping the pan front to back halfway through. Remove the pie weights and tin foil and bake for another 5-7 minutes, until the crust is golden brown and cooked completely. Let cool while you make the caramel.

Chewy Apple Cider Caramel

1 - 1/2 gallon apple juice
2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup water
2 cups heavy cream
8 oz. butter
2 tsp. salt

Over medium-low heat, reduce apple cider to 1/2 cup. Be sure to keep a close eye on it when it gets close to being done, it will basically turn to caramel and can scorch quickly. Let cool.

In a small saucepan heat the cream and butter until butter is melted, then set aside and keep warm over very low heat.

In a large saucepan, combine the sugar and water, making sure all the sugar is evenly wet and that the sides of your pan are clean and free from sugar.  Cook over high heat until caramelized to a dark amber color. Do not stir. When sugar reaches the color you want (I prefer a dark caramel, but a lighter color is fine also), carefully whisk in the heavy cream/butter mixture one ladle-ful at a time. Insert a candy thermometer and cook caramel, whisking constantly until it reaches soft ball stage (238 degrees F). Quickly whisk in the cider reduction and pour over prepared crust. Let caramel cool at room temp for at least an hour, then transfer to refrigerator to chill completely.

Once chilled, gently remove from pan by pulling up on your parchment and transfer to a cutting board. Cut into 1 1/2 inch by 1 1/2 inch squares and top with sea salt.

Cake Pop Winter Wonderland

I am a little lacking in the christmas spirit this year. I have no clue why, but it just doesn't feel christmas-y around here. I have the tree up, the candles burning bright, the oven is churning out goodies, Vince Guaraldi is playing on loop, and yet it is still not sinking in.  Perhaps thats how I ended up with pink and silver holly and christmas trees...

Maybe all I need is some snow, but the forecast here in Chicago is not cooperating with me on that front. From the looks of these pictures I took matters into my own hands and made myself a little snowy wonderland filled with cotton candy pink and shiny silver christmas trees. It seems as though I am only a few years away from a little christmas village taking over half of my living room. 

Thats not good. 

I figured since I was using gingerbread cake, that I should probably make some gingerbread people. I must say I had trouble deciding which would be less vulgar, to put the sticks in their heads or up their butts...heads it is. Now they look like a cross between the Michelin man and a tele-tubbie. Either way, they were tasty little buggars. 

Oh I also decided to go the more traditional route and make some green and red ones. 

But we can all agree the glittery pink disco trees are way more fun right?

Right. 

Gingerbread Cake Pops with Caramel Buttercream

adapted from La Cuisine d'Helene

makes 2 - 9 inch cake layers

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon cocoa powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted then brought to room temperature

3/4 cup dark molasses

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup whole milk

Butter and flour two 9-inch cake pans and preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, cocoa powder, cinnamon, and ginger.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the molasses, sugar, and butter until well combined. Add the egg, and beat until combined.

Slowly beat in the milk and buttermilk. It will look like it has curdled, but don't worry, this is supposed to happen. It will fix itself when you add the dry ingredients.

In a few additions, beat in the flour mixture, scraping down the sides of the bowl between each addition. Mix until just combined.

Divide the batter evenly between the two cake pans. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean.

Let cool in pan for about 20 minutes, then turn out onto a baking rack and cool completely.

Italian Meringue Buttercream

4 oz egg whites

8 oz granulated sugar

2 oz water

12 oz unsalted butter, room temperature, cubed

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup caramel sauce, room temperature

Place your egg whites in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. 

Heat the sugar and water in a small sauce pan over high heat. Using a candy thermometer, bring the sugar to a boil and continue cooking until it reaches 230 degrees F. When it hits that temperature, turn your stand mixer to medium to begin mixing the egg whites until they are foamy. When the temperature hits 240 F, remove from heat and slowly pour into the egg whites on a medium speed. As soon as all of the sugar is in, turn the mixer to medium high and mix until the meringue is cool to touch. Add the butter a few tablespoons at a time and whip until thick, which may take a few minutes. Pour in the caramel sauce and mix until combined. 

Cake Pop Assembly

To make the cake pops, see my original post HERE on their assembly. For the Christmas tree and holly shapes, I pushed the cake dough into a mini cookie cutter and then gently pushed it out. There is enough butter in the frosting to make this quite easy and not sticky at all.  Once the shapes are formed, chill them and proceed as you normally would for round cake pops. 

Happy holidays, whatever color your trees happen to be this year. 

Amaretto Brownies & Salted Butter Caramel Sauce (Gluten Free!)

I wish every weekend was cabin weekend...

Cabin weekend means good friends, great food, copious amounts of wine and beer, hot tubbing, and pontoon rides. Exciting news was shared between friends who had gone FAR too long in between visits. Raucous games of cutthroat bocce ball were played. There were too many smiles and laughs to count.

As usual though, the weekend mostly revolved around food, and there was disaster at almost every turn. More on that later, but one thing that did not get screwed up was the dessert. One of my best friends, (and brand new mom-to-be!!), has a gluten allergy, so it is always challenging to find a gluten free dessert that everyone will enjoy. Luckily, there is Tartelette to the rescue. If you ever need a gluten free dessert, please visit her site, she doesn't alter what she eats because of her intolerance, rather, she makes it work for her, and then is nice enough to share it with the rest of us.

Of course I edited the recipe slightly (I can't help myself, I had to add some booze) and I simplified it a bit. Instead of using a combination of hard to find, not to mention expensive, gluten-free flour substitutes, I used an all-purpose gluten-free baking mix. The texture of the brownies may have not been exactly like Tartelette's version, but they were still great. Moist and rich, we didn't miss the gluten at all. Topped with vanilla ice cream, and a salted butter caramel sauce, and heck, the brownie could have been missing for all I knew.

Dark Chocolate Amaretto Brownies & Salted Butter Caramel Sauce
adapted from Tartelette
makes about 20 3-1/2 inch round brownies

*I made the brownies in tartlet molds, and originally served them like that with a scoop of ice cream  and caramel sauce drizzle on top. If you want to make sandwiches like I did in the pictures, bake the brownies in a thin layer in two parchment paper-lined baking dishes and cut circles once they have cooled.

For the brownies:

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
6 ounces dark chocolate
1/4 cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder
3/4 cup all purpose gluten-free baking mix (or all purpose flour)
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup amaretto (or if you want to omit the alcohol, substitute 1/4 cup strong coffee)

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Brush 20 3-1/2 inch tartlet molds with a bit of melted butter, or butter and line a baking dish with parchment paper, set aside.

In a small bowl set over barely simmering water, combine the butter, chocolate, and cocoa powder. Whisk gently, until chocolate and butter are melted, and mixture is fully combined and smooth. This will only take a minute or two. Remove from heat, set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the "flour", baking powder, and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the eggs, sugar, and vanilla, and beat on medium-high speed about 4-5 minutes. Add chocolate mixture and beat until combined. Add amaretto and beat to combine. Add the flour mixture in two additions and beat just until incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.

Fill each tart mold about 3/4 the way full, and bake for 20-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (start checking around 15 minutes or so). Let brownies cool in the molds on a wire rack completely, then un-mold and store in an air tight container until ready to serve.

For the caramel sauce:

1-1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1 stick salted butter, cut into small pieces
2/3 cup heavy cream

In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, combine the sugar and the water. Simmer just until the sugar is dissolved. Add the butter, and let it boil until it turns a deep amber color. Remove from heat and carefully add the cream. Whisk to combine, and place back over medium-low heat and cook for about 30 minutes, until it has thickened and is nice and creamy.

Now get your vanilla ice cream out.

Grab a spoon...you know what to do.

Just go for it.

Stay tuned for some exciting news, a giveaway, and more recipes from cabin weekend!

Don't tell the Girl Scouts

Now that I have finally emerged out of my cookie coma, I can finally finish posting about all the Christmas goodies I made this year. This holiday season was a whirlwind of foodie extravaganzas. There were so many amazing meals, and delicious desserts, but most importantly I was able to get home to Minnesota and spend time (mostly cooking and eating) with my friends and family. I think they were just happy because I brought lots of cookies home with me.

Ask any of my roommates from college how much I love Samoas Girl Scout Cookies (or caramel de-lites) and they will probably roll their eyes. I have been known to hide the purple boxes in my room so that no one will steal them. It's just that there aren't that many in the box, they trick you and use one of those vacuum formed plastic thingies (yes that is the technical term, and yes as an industrial designer I should know the actual term) to space them out, and plus, they only come around once a year.

Not anymore. A great blog, Once Upon a Plate, posted a homemade version of these coveted cookies. I have had it bookmarked for a while now, and didn't think I was going to get to it this year, but after I screwed up a batch of caramels, (completely stuck to the pan after I neglected to line it with parchment paper) I figured it was a good excuse to make the 'samoas'. With a pan of homemade caramel and my hand mixer, I embarked on probably the most tedious kitchen endeavor I have ever taken on, and this is coming from the girl who has made homemade bagels and teeny tiny stuffed pastas in recent history.

But oh man...are they good. They don't taste exactly like the real thing, and I will definitely be purchasing copious amounts of the originals when spring comes around and 'Girl Scout Cookie Season' kicks off. I think these are actually a different animal altogether with the dark chocolate and the homemade salted caramel. They are rich, VERY rich. This is a good thing for a person like me (a person with portion control issues) as it limits me to one cookie per sitting. Although, I have recently discovered that they are best straight out of the freezer, and that whole 'one per sitting' rule no longer applies.

Homemade Samoas

(or Carmel De-Lites, depending on where in the country you live)

adapted from Once Upon a Plate

Makes about 4 dozen cookies

There are three main steps to this cookie, and you will see very quickly why this is a tedious process. First you make the buttery cookies that are buried beneath the caramel coconut goodness. I made mine with holes in the center this time, but if I make these again, I will skip that step. I ended up filling the holes with the coconut mixture, and was too lazy to re-poke the centers out. As I see it, if there is no hole, that just means there is more cookie. :-) Second step is to spread the coconuts caramel mixture on each one of these teeny cookies. Then comes the chocolate dipping/drizzling. The last part is probably the most difficult: waiting until they set before you pop them into your mouth.

Cookie Base

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

up to 2 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a large bowl using a hand mixer (or a stand mixer), cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in a few additions, beating on a low speed. Add the vanilla, and just enough milk to get the dough to come together, without being sticky (I only needed 1 tablespoon). Gather the dough together in a ball and divide into three equal parts.

In between two sheets of parchment paper, roll one of the pieces of dough out with a rolling pin until it is 1/4 inch thick. Using a 1.5" round cookie cutter, cut out circles and place them on a parchment or silicone lined baking sheet.

If you want you can punch a hole out of the center of each round using the end of a large straw, or you can just skip this all together. Like I said above, if I make these again, I will not go through the trouble since it just got filled in with topping anyway.

Repeat this process until you have used all the dough, and feel free to re-roll scraps once or twice. Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes until the cookies are just lightly brown around the edges. Let cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to allow to cool completely.

Topping

3 cups shredded coconut (I would recommend unsweetened, but like me, if all you can find is sweetened that works just fine!)

12 ounces good quality caramels (I used a homemade batch of salted caramels)

1/4 teaspoon salt (if you are using salted caramels, you can reduce this to 1/8 teaspoon, or skip it altogether)

3 tablespoons milk

8 ounces dark chocolate, roughly chopped or broken into small pieces (if you do not like dark chocolate, feel free to use milk or bittersweet, I think the dark helped balance out the intense sweetness of this cookie, if even just a little)

Preheat oven to 300 F.

Spread coconut evenly on a rimmed baking sheet. Toast for about 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes or so. Keep an eye on this in the last few minutes of toasting as the sugar in the coconut can scorch very quickly once it starts turning brown. Let cool on baking sheet.

Unwrap the caramels and place in a microwave safe bowl. Add the milk and the salt, and microwave for 3-4 minutes, stopping a few times to stir the caramel.

When it is completely melted and smooth stir in the coconut in a few additions. Use your judgement here, I did not end up adding 100% of the coconut because it started to feel like it was getting a little stiff. The right ratio of coconut to caramel is key to actually being able to spread the mixture onto the cookies, if there is too much coconut, it will be nearly impossible, if there is too little coconut, the mixture won't hold up as well and will ooze off the cookie before it sets. Test the mixture out as you go, add about 3/4 of the coconut at first, test a cookie, if it is spreadable and stays on the cookie for the most part continue on with the rest of the cookies, if it starts to ooze, add a little more coconut and test again. (This is clearly a very scientific process here)

Once you get the caramel mixture to your desired consistency, spread about 2-3 teaspoons of the mixture on each cookie with a small spatula or offset spatula (I actually found my butter knife to work quite well) and place on a clean piece of parchment paper or silicone baking sheet. While you are doing this, if the mixture starts to firm up, pop the bowl in the microwave for a few seconds to re-melt the caramel. If you are getting fancy (or not being lazy) take a wide straw and re-poke the holes in the center of the cookies, again I skipped this step. More caramel = GOOD. Let cool and set up for about 10-15 minutes.

Once the caramel topping has set a bit, place the chocolate in a small bowl and heat in the microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring thoroughly in between each interval until smooth. Be careful not to scorch the chocolate. You can also use the double-boiler method (which I did) by placing a small metal or glass bowl containing the chocolate over a small sauce pan with about an inch of simmering water, and stirring continuously until melted.

This is where it becomes important that you let the caramel topping set and cool, it will help you keep a grip on the cookie while dipping. Take each cookie and dip the bottom 1/4 inch into the chocolate, and place back on the parchment paper or silicone sheet.

After all the cookies have been dipped, pour the remaining chocolate into a small Ziploc bag (or pastry bag with a small tip) and cut off a very tiny portion of the corner of the bag. Pipe the chocolate over the top of each cookie, melting more chocolate if you run out.

Now here is the tricky part: don't touch them until the chocolate has set...which takes forever when you are staring at about 48 Samoa cookies laying on your kitchen counter. Mine didn't turn out quite as pretty as the originals, but they were tasty.

Hope your holidays were spectacular!