Late Thanksgiving

We were lucky enough to have two Thanksgivings this year! We enjoyed our first with the Shrewsbury family in Grand Rapids and the second at home. Coming home to an empty house with no food in the fridge called for a Thanksgiving feast!

We went out and bought a mini tree because someone was excited (Ian). This was the first time we have done that and the stores were like nothing we have ever seen. Our little tree is adorable though.

Halloween 2011

It was a dual celebration this year with pumpkin carvings taking place in Portland and Chicago! Our neighbors/friends/my coworker came over for dinner and pumpkin carving, which I hope turns into an annual affair.

 Portland pumpkin:

Nick + Kathryn

Nick and Kathryn tied the knot on October 22, 2011. The ceremony and reception took place at the Chapel Hill Botanical Garden and everything was just as it should be. We are so incredibly happy for these two. Ian and I fell down on our picture taking job, but here are the photos we did manage to take.

On the way to the botanical gardens:

 

Beautiful day:

 

Beautiful couple(s): 

 Ian and Dan: artists:

Pumpkin Bundt Cake

You know you have something special when you come home and your fiance surprises you with a pumpkin shaped bundt pan and top-of-the-line pumpkin carving tools (in a zip case). As I have stated numerous times, Halloween is my favorite holiday and time of year. I ran out of time to make the pumpkin cake on Halloween, but I made it as soon as I could. Pumpkins are totally still festive until at least Christmas, so I will be making another one of these for Thanksgiving.

This is what fall looks like:

The recipe came from Art and Soul of Baking and the pumpkin bundt cake pan is Nordic Ware (wonderful Minnesota company!).

 

 

 Pumpkin Spice Bundt cake

• 1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, softened (65° to 68°F)
• 1½ cups (12 ounces) firmly packed light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup (8 ounces) canned pumpkin puree (not spiced pumpkin pie filling)
• 2 cups (7 ounces) sifted cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ¹⁄8 teaspoon ground cloves
• ½ cup (4 ounces) buttermilk, at room temperature

Mix the butter and brown sugar on medium-high speed for 4-5 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla and pumpkin puree. Mix all dry ingredients and add into the pumpkin mix first then add the buttermilk and end with the flour mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

Weekend In Review - Indiana Pumpkin Patch

Ian and I visited the County Line Orchard in Hobart, Indiana this weekend. We had a great time as always! There was a corn maze, pumpkin patch, apple orchard and plenty of donuts and cider. Until next year!

Whoopie{!} Pies

As of late, Whoopie Pies have become all the rage. I may even be so bold as to say they are replacing the cupcake altogether. After being signed up to make dessert (thanks Diane) for a Saturday night dinner, it was time to try my hand at this dessert. Diane and I had a great time making them and the result was far better than either of us expected.

The cake batter was delicious and rich and they baked exactly how they were supposed to. Thanks in part to Diane's timer skills and our new oven, which is much better than our old one.

The recipe came from Rose's Heavenly Cakes, but originally came from the pastry chef at Two Fat Cats Bakery in Portland, Maine. I am dying to go to this place. As I am not sure the legality of posting original recipes online, I will just give you a general overview. The recipe for the cake is fairly simple, you just blend together eggs, sugar, butter dutch processed cocoa powder chocolate and flour +/- a few other ingredients.

The "Marshmallow Cream" was a bit more complicated. You are basically making candy by melting down corn syrup and sugar in a saucepan and then mixing it in with egg whites. Finally you mix that in with whipped butter and powdered sugar. The result was the silky, glossy buttercream you find in your local bakery. It was so good, I couldn't believe we made it. I mean, it didn't turn out exactly the way she explained it, but it was store-quality buttercream.

You just scoop a dollop of the marshmallow cream into the pies and press together. These pies went fast at the dinner; always a good sign.

Obligatory Whoopie Pie bite shot. I didn't get any shots of the final product because we were too busy eating the extra pie leftovers. So, so good.

Baby

My coworker is expecting -now past due-and I was asked to help decorate (see above - the extent of my artistic prowess) and bake cupcakes for her shower. I gladly accepted and used the opportunity as an excuse to buy myself a cupcake caddy. I may never use it again, but for the purpose of bringing 24 cupcakes to work, this thing is amazing.

 

 

As far as the cupcakes go, they were as expected. This was my work baking debut, so I was already nervous, but they came out alright. Just alright. The frosting hardened, and as with most baked goods they are best fresh, so they were a bit dry. All in all they worked out, but next time I would use a different buttercream recipe and bake them the morning of instead of the night before. 

For these cupcakes, I used the yellow butter cake recipe out of Rose's Heavenly Cakes. For the buttercream I followed a recipe from Smitten Kitchen. The recipe consisted of whipping butter for a few minutes and then adding four cups of powdered sugar in slowly. The result was overly sweet and heavy. I was looking for the light, whipped, glossy buttercream you get in stores. I am working on it.

Last Hurrah

Zucchini still looks alright (relatively) at the grocery store, so I made a last hurrah zucchini bread in its honor. This version from seven spoons has a number of components, but I was impressed with how well they all work together. This is a chocolate olive oil zuchhini bread with chopped walnuts and chocolate chips. It uses no butter, wheat flour and heaping cups of zucchini, so I am dubbing it healthy. The verdict is still out.

I love quick breads because they are just as they sound -- incredibly quick and easy. I also can't believe we have had the Cuisinart for a few years and never used the grating blade. It.is.amazing. So much faster than grating by hand, although the spinning blade can be a bit terrifying.

This a very unappetizing picture, but it gives you a sense of how hearty and zucchini-y the bread is. 

If you are looking for a quick baked good that makes your house smell delicious this is a great option. They are tough to screw up and always disappear quickly.

Lesson Learned

Last year we learned the cold, hard truth about pumpkin beer in Chicago (rant seen here). The lesson learned is that pumpkin beer is available for a limited time only and not when you would expect; most everything is sold out by October. Well, this year we did not take any chances. We are fully stocked this October and I couldn't be more excited about it.

Can't wait for October! Best month of the year! Although, this will be rivaled by September 2012. More on that to come.

Apple Galette

Desserts get in my head in two different ways; first, they are amazing and I think about them a lot; second, they can own you and send you into a tailspin. Ian, fortunately and unfortunately, has witnessed me in both states. When asked to make a dessert for a get together I have a routine: frantically search through every baking book I own, scour the internet for more recipes and, finally, settle on a recipe that is part from a cookbook and part from the internet. This can at times lead to trouble, but in this instance it worked out great. Enter the apple galette.

The first idea was to make little apple tartlettes, then I thought I would make a pie, but instead ended up with a galette. They are rustic and with the fragrant apples this time of year it really felt like a special fall treat. I should give some credit to Ian for his willingness to chop all the apples (excellent work seen above). Cutting the apples is the most time consuming part, once that is done you just lay them in a ring in the center and fold the edges over and voila!

The recipe was from none other than Smitten Kitchen. She really gives the best instructions and lays it out for you in the simplest way. I used my favorite pie crust instead for this recipe from The Art & Soul of Baking and skipped the apple glaze she uses to finish it off. Also, it calls for five tablespoons of sugar to be sprinkled on the top. No. That is way too much and the apples were already plenty sweet. I used about two and I thought it was perfect. I think next time I would throw in some cinnamon or allspice to really make it feel warm and cozy. This was such a perfect welcome to fall dessert!

Peanut Butter Pie

For more than a week, I have seen the blogging community band together through pie. When I read about a blogger whose husband died suddenly, I was moved by the responses I saw from some of my favorite bakers. This community of people and their heartfelt words prompted me to make this peanut butter pie. The sentiment with the pie was to share it with someone you love and that is just what I did.

It is a tad on the richer side, and a little goes a long way. You really can't go wrong with chocolate and peanut butter, it is such a great combo, but it will make you feel sick if you eat too much. I decided to go with the Not Without Salt version of the pie as it looked a little more like mousse than a dense filling. Here is the recipe:

8 ounces chocolate cookies (I used Newman's Cookies and cut out the cream filling)
4 tablespoons butter, melted
2 ounces finely chopped bittersweet chocolate
1/4 cup chopped peanuts
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
5 oz mascarpone
3 oz sour cream
1 cup creamy-style peanut butter
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
1 – 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon salt
Pre-heat the oven to 350*

Add the cookies to the bowl of a food processor and pulse into fine crumbs. Combine melted butter and cookie crumbs in a small bowl, and stir with a fork to mix well. Press mixture into the bottom and pie pan. Bake the crust for about 15 minutes, until set and crisp. Add the chocolate to the warm crust and let the residual heat melt the chocolate. Spread the chocolate with a spatula and sprinkle the peanuts on top.

Place pan in the refrigerator while you prepare the filling.

Pour the heavy cream into a bowl and beat using a stand mixer or hand mixer until stiff peaks form. Transfer to a small bowl and store in refrigerator until ready to use. Place the mascarpone, sour cream and peanut butter in a deep bowl. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low and gradually beat in the confectioner’s sugar. Add the sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract and salt. Increase speed to medium and beat until all the ingredients are combined and filling is smooth.

Stir in 1/3 of the whipped cream into the filling mixture (helps lighten the batter, making it easier to fold in the remaining whipped cream). Fold in another ⅓ of the whipped cream. Reserve the remaining whipped cream to top the pie. Pour the filling into the prepared pie pan. Refrigerate for three hours or overnight before serving. Serve with remaining whipped cream.

Iggy

And I hung out with this little guy tonight. Meet Iggy. He is the newest addition to the Shrews family, but I hope to be a close second aunt. I want four of him.

Summer Galette

My apartment has felt like the subtropics as of late, making baking a thing of the past. I was able to get a respite from the heat last week when I visited the great Northwest. It was a perfect few days in Seattle and was topped off with summer fruit galette at the coast.

There is a little treasure in Manzanita that gets me every time. It is the Manzanita Fresh Foods grocery store. Here you will find 25 cent pony rides out front, and without fail, gourmet cooking products inside. Really, it always has what you need. Outside there are baskets of fresh fruit from around the area that smell unbelievable. We picked up Ian's favorite fruit combo--blackberries and nectarines to make something at home. The recipe is from Smitten Kitchen and is incredibly easy to follow.

Dough
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup (one stick) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
1/4 cup ice water

In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour and salt; pulse to combine. Add butter, and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some larger pieces remaining, about 10 seconds. (To mix by hand, combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl, then cut in butter with a pastry blender.) Add cold water with machine running. Turn out dough onto a clean work surface. Wrap in plastic, and refrigerate at least 1 hour or overnight.

Filling
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
3 medium nectarines, each pitted and cut into 16 slices
1/2 -pint basket blackberries
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional, still not sure if I liked it in there)
1 egg, beaten to blend (for glaze)

Make filling: Stir sugar and cornstarch in medium bowl to blend. Mix in fruit and vanilla. Let stand until juices are released, stirring fruit occasionally, about 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 375°F. Transfer baking sheet with dough to work surface. Let stand 8 minutes to allow dough to soften slightly if too firm to fold. Spoon fruit and juices into center of dough. Fold border down over fruit (center 6 inches of fruit remain uncovered). Brush folded border with egg glaze; sprinkle with raw sugar.

Place baking sheet with tart in oven. Bake until crust is golden brown and fruit filling is bubbling at edges, about 55 minutes. Remove from oven; slide large metal spatula under tart to loosen from parchment. Brush fruit with preserves. Slide tart onto rack. Cool 45 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature with ice cream.

Here is the end result, and the smell was amazing. In addition, we had some wonderful wine that made the trip complete.

This galette brought back all the good feelings of desserts baking away in the kitchen. I am so looking forward to breaking in our new kitchen come September. In other news, we are moving! Very exciting. Hyde Park, you will sorta be missed. Updates to follow.