Mom's Banana Bread

Personally, I'm not a fan of banana bread. Most people love it. I'm not most people, especially when it comes to food. I'll eat an occasional banana, but put some bananas in a bread, and I'm just not interested. Sure, it smells good when it's baking, but there's something terribly unappealing about banana bread to me. Enough about my weird opinion of banana bread...

Husband, on the other hand, is a huge fan. Particularly if you warm up a slice and top it with some vanilla ice cream. He tells me that this is some truly awesome banana bread - and I will just take his word for it!

This is my mom's recipe, which she's been making just about all of her life, though the whole-wheat flour is a substitution I made. I think a little bit of whole wheat flour makes things taste heartier, which makes sense for banana bread. It's a very simple recipe, and I'll bet you've got most of the ingredients in your pantry right now! Happy baking!

Mom's Banana Bread

Printer-friendly recipe

1 stick butter

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

3 very ripe bananas, mashed

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Oven preheated to 350 F, grease a 9x5" loaf pan.

2. Mix together the dry ingredients in one bowl and cream the butter in another. Beat the eggs and bananas into the butter, then stir this mixture into the dry ingredients. Finally, stir in the vanilla.

3. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for around 1 hour, but start checking earlier at about 45 minutes, until it passes the toothpick test.

4. Let cool in pan for at least 15-20 minutes, then take loaf out of pan. (I usually let the loaf fully cool before I take it out, but that's just because I usually forget!)

Daddy's Cape Cod Oatmeal Cookies

I don't remember my dad doing much cooking in the kitchen when I was a kid. I remember he tried to make me a grilled cheese sandwich once and put mustard on it. (Ew!) He was, however, a pretty good baker. The only problem was the he wasn't always too interested in following the directions for a recipe. For instance, he often would cheat to soften butter, or not let chocolate cool for brownies, but for the most part, it didn't impact the flavor of the cookies and brownies he baked.

Dad mostly baked cookies. He had an arm pretty equivalent to a stand mixer, and he so far has been the only person in the family to make awesome oatmeal cookies. This is his recipe, I have no idea where it came from, but it was the only one he would make. Over the years, I've tried tweaking it, and it's just best the way it was back then.

These cookies are ridiculously easy to make, so definitely give this recipe a try. It's one of my favorites.

Daddy's Cape Cod Oatmeal Cookies
Printer-friendly recipe

1 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp molasses
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup milk
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 cup oatmeal

1. Preheat oven to 350. Mix melted butter with sugar. Add molasses and combine.
2. Beat one egg in separate bowl and add to mixture.
3. Add milk, mix.
4. Mix dry ingredients, except oatmeal, in separate bowl. Add slowly to cookie dough.
5. Add oatmeal last, combine.
6. Spoon onto cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 12 minutes. Make sure to place on parchment or grease cookie sheet.

Beatty's Chocolate Cake

My mom came to visit recently and reminded me of a story from my childhood that I had forgotten, but remembered as soon as she started to tell the story.

I was in elementary school, and I had signed up to bring a cake to school for our class Halloween party. Either I forgot to tell my mom until the last minute, or my mom forgot about it until the last minute, and my mother bought a cake mix. She was horrified at this, because cake mixes are evil in her world, and wound up making homemade frosting to make up for the fact that it was a boxed mix. She also decorated the cake with mellowcreme pumpkins, my all-time favorite Halloween candy. When I came home from school that day, I told her it was the best cake I ever had. She remembered that so well that she wanted to make another cake like that.

Well, I am my mother's daughter, and I just didn't want to bake a cake mix - I wanted to bake Beatty's Chocolate Cake, the infamous Barefoot Contessa recipe I've read so much about on other food blogs. I must say, all the hype is for a good reason. It is an awesome cake. So moist! so chocolate-y! So sinfully yummy! This is now officially my favorite cake recipe. Ever. If I want chocolate cake, this is what I shall make. Sorry, Husband cake, this is my new favorite.

Let me apologize in advance for the lack of beauty in my cake - I'm not the best with layer cakes, which is precisely why my friend and I are taking the Wilton I class at Jo-Ann's, starting this week, so you'll probably see more cake stuff in the next several weeks as I practice my craft. In the meantime, make this cake. Seriously. Right now.


Beatty's Chocolate Cake
adapted from the Barefoot Contessa
Printer-friendly recipe

Butter, for greasing the pans
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans
2 cups sugar
3/4 cups good cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk, shaken
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Chocolate Buttercream, recipe follows

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter 2 (8-inch) round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans.

2. Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

3. Place 1 layer, flat side up, on a flat plate or cake pedestal. With a knife or offset spatula, spread the top with frosting. Place the second layer on top, rounded side up, and spread the frosting evenly on the top and sides of the cake.


Chocolate Frosting:

6 ounces good semisweet chocolate (recommended: Callebaut)
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 extra-large egg yolk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon instant coffee powder

1. Chop the chocolate and place it in a heat-proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir until just melted and set aside until cooled to room temperature.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed until light yellow and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and continue beating for 3 minutes. Turn the mixer to low, gradually add the confectioners' sugar, then beat at medium speed, scraping down the bowl as necessary, until smooth and creamy. Dissolve the coffee powder in 2 teaspoons of the hottest tap water. On low speed, add the chocolate and coffee to the butter mixture and mix until blended. Don't whip! Spread immediately on the cooled cake.

Yellow Layer Cake with Fudge Frosting

Mmmm, before I started hardcore baking, I loved to make silly little yellow cake mixes into cupcakes and top them with jarred chocolate frosting. This is the grown-up, I-baked-it-myself-so-it-tastes-way-better version. This cake is ridiculously flavorful, but if your oven's like mine, you're going to want to bake it closer to 25 minutes rather than 20. And beware - this cake is the kind of thing it's hard to keep your hands off of, so it's perfect for potlucks and such. Trust me, I'm having a hard time not having a slice for breakfast right now. BTW, this was the something chocolate-y I decided to bake on Monday during Friend Making Monday.

Yellow Layer Cake with Fudge Frosting
adapted from The America's Test Kitchen Baking Book and Hershey's

Cake:

1/2 cup whole milk, room temperature

4 large eggs, room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 3/4 cake flour

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter and softened, cut into 16 pieces (before softening)

Fudge Frosting:

1 cup butter

1 1/3 cup natural cocoa powder (NOT dutched cocoa)

6 cups powdered sugar

2/3 cup milk

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 8- or 9-inch round cake pans, then line the bottoms with parchment paper. Whsik the milk, eggs, and vanilla together in a small bowl.

2. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together. Using an electric mixer on medium-low speed, beat the butter into the flour mixture, one piece at a time, until it resembles moist crumbs, 1 to 3 minutes.

3. Beat in all but 1/2 cup of the milk mixture, then increase the mixer speed to medium and beat the batter until smooth, light and fluffy, 1-3 minutes. Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly beat in the remaining 1/2 cup milk mixture until the batter looks slightly curdled, about 15 seconds.

4. Give the batter a final stir with a rubber spatula to make sure it's thoroughly combined. Scrape the batter into the prepared pans, smooth the tops, then gently tap the pans on the counter to settle the batter. Bake the cakes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few crumbs attached, 20-25 minutes, rotating pans halfway through baking.

5. Let the cakes cool in pans for 10 minutes. Then run a small knife around the edge of the cakes,then flip them out onto a wire rack. Peel off the parchment paper, flip the cakes right side up, and let cool completely before frosting, about 2 hours.

6. For the frosting, melt the butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to a spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. This makes about 4 cups of frosting.

Click here for printable recipe

Cinnamon Rolls

Growing up, we ate Mom's cinnamon rolls every Christmas morning after we opened our presents. Cinnamon rolls were always something special to me. Now, as a grown up with my own family, I'm a little more liberal about making cinnamon rolls - it's not just a once a year occurrence. Last week, I baked some cinnamon rolls for my friends when I hosted a playgroup at my house, and I even tried a different cinnamon roll recipe. Not surprisingly, it was not as yummy as the one my mother used to make. I'll have to ask her to write it down one of these days, because I don't think I've ever been able to reproduce them as good as she did. In the meantime, here's a pretty good recipe - my friends loved them - but not the creme de la creme.

Cinnamon Rolls

adapted from The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book

Dough

3/4 cup buttermilk, warmed to 110 degrees

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

3 large eggs

4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 envelope instant or rapid rise yeast

1 1/4 tsp salt

Rolls

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

Pinch salt

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Glaze

1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

3 tablespoons cream cheese, softened

3 tablespoons buttermilk or milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Whisk the buttermilk, melted butter and eggs together in a large liquid measuring cup. Combine 4 cups of the flour, sugar, yeast and salt together in a standing mixer with the dough hook. With the mixer on low speed, add the buttermilk mixture and mix until the dough comes together, about 2 minutes.

2. Increase the mixer speed to medium and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. If after 5 minutes more flour is needed, add the remaining 1/4 cup of flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough clears the side of the bowl but still sticks to the botom.

3. Turn the dough out onto a clean surface and knead by hand to form a smooth, round ball. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, 2 to 2 1/2 hours.

4. Grease a 9x13-inch baking pan. Mix the brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves and salt together in a small bowl. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and press it into a 16x12-inch rectangle. Brush the dough with the melted butter, then sprinkle the brown sugar mixture over top of it, leaving a 3/4-inch border along the top edge. Press on the filling to adhere it to the dough.

5. Loosen the dough from the counter using a bench scrape or metal spatula, and roll the dough into a tight log. Pinch the seam closed and roll the log seam side down. Gently stretch the log to be 18 inches in length with an even diameter and pat the ends to even them.

6. Slice the cylinder into 12 evenly sized rolls (about 1 1/2 inches wide) using a serrated knife. Arrange the rolls cut side down in the prepared baking pan and wrap tightly with greased plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place until the rolls have nearly doubled in size and are pressed against one another, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

7. Flip the rolls out onto a wire rack set over a sheet of parchment paper (for easy cleanup) and let cool for 5 minutes. Whisk the confectioners' sugar, softened cream cheese, buttermilk and vanilla together in a medium bowl until smooth. Flip the rolls upright, drizzle with the glaze and serve.

Printable recipe

Pumpkin Muffins

I have never been a huge pumpkin fan. Growing up, I avoided anything pumpkin. Never had a bite of pumpkin pie, in fact, because I decided that I didn't like the scent, so I wouldn't like the taste. I truly didn't try pumpkin until this year. I'm proud of myself for trying, but I'm still not a fan. It tastes okay, but I'd much prefer chocolate any day. Husband is a huge pumpkin fan - he'd have me bake pumpkin bread all the time if I would, so fortunately, I'm still able to do some pumpkin-related baking and have it all get eaten up. And it turns out, Baby is a huge pumpkin fan.

These muffins were a bit hit with the playgroup crowd - I had baked them mostly for the kids, and Baby seems to want to have one every day at this point. He calls them "pumcake," like a combination of pumpkin and pancake which is really, really cute.

Pumpkin Muffins
from Gourmet magazine, 2006

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin

1/3 c vegetable oil

2 large eggs

1 tsp pumpkin-pie spice (or 1/8 tsp of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and allspice)

1 1/4 cups of sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbsp sugar (for the topping)

1 tsp cinnamon (for the topping)

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Line muffin cups with paper liners or lightly grease the tin.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour and baking powder in a small bowl.

3.Whisk together pumpkin puree, oil, eggs, pumpkin pie spice, 1 1/4 cups sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl until smooth, then whisk in flour mixture until just combined.

4. Stir together cinnamon and remaining 1 tablespoon sugar in another bowl.

5. Divide batter among muffin cups (each should be about 3/4 full), then sprinkle tops with cinnamon-sugar mixture. Bake until puffed and golden brown and a wooden pick or skewer inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean, 25-30 minutes.

6. Cool in pan on a rack 5 minutes, then transfer muffins from pan to rack and cool to warm or room temperature.

Printable recipe

MSC: Pumpkin Patch Cupcakes

This month's Martha Stewart Cupcakes recipe was selected by Kim at What the Whisk. We baked the Pumpkin Patch Cupcakes on p. 236.

I was admittedly excited to try these cupcakes. First of all, marzipan scares the crap out of me, and this time I let the fear win. When I saw the picture of Martha's cupcakes, the first thing I thought of was one of my favorite Halloween treats - Mellowcreme Pumpkins. So, yes, I cheated, and planned to use Mellowcreme Pumpkins on my cupcakes. Sue me. Then I promptly forgot to put the damn pumpkins on the cupcakes before my little photo session. So imagine a Mellowcreme Pumpkin atop this lovely cupcake.

The batter for this recipe was really easy to put together - no muss, no fuss. Nothing too complicated, although I did halve the recipe, and double-checked my math no less than 3 times before I let myself get started (I've gotten burned too many times by halving recipes!). I do think that the cupcakes should have cooked perhaps a minute longer than they did - they felt especially spongy after cooling off fully. Speaking of which, does anyone really turn out their cupcakes the way Martha says to? Whenever I try this method, my cupcakes either totally fall apart, or they stick to my countertop. Any advice? Tips? Tricks? I usually wind up using a knife to try my cupcakes out of the pans.

I did taste these, which is especially daring for me, because I'm not a pumpkin fan (nor am I a big fan of spice cake). I didn't despise the taste, but I also didn't love them. I didn't feel compelled to to eat an entire cupcake. This is precisely why I have an impartial taste tester, who loves spice cakes and anything pumpkin to determine how they were. Husband said the flavor was awfully tasty and the cupcakes were super moist. He likened them to pumpkin pie in a cupcake, although the cream cheese frosting didn't exactly evoke the whole pumpkin pie flavor. He did say that these are another "muff-cake," just like the Banana Pecan Cupcakes and Zucchini Spice Cupcakes.

I strongly considered making a different frosting for these cupcakes, because this would be the third time I've made Martha's cream cheese frosting - not to say that I don't enjoy the cream cheese frosting, it just kind of gets tiring to make the same frosting over and over and over. But I only thought about it briefly before remembering that I had bought all that I needed for cream cheese frosting, so I stuck with it.

Next month, we'll be doing Candied Sweet Potato Cupcakes, I'm very curious about those, given that I've never heard of a sweet potato cupcake. It will be interesting, I'm sure! Stay tuned for more Martha Stewart Cupcakes adventures!

Martha's Snickerdoodles

I had high hopes for these snickerdoodles. I am still looking for the quintessential snickerdoodle recipe, one like the snickerdoodle I had at Fresh Market one day. Soft, chewy, and maybe a little bit cakey. Every one I've baked so far is crunchy, crunchy, crunchy. I wound up ultimately undercooking these a little bit to achieve a little bit of the soft and chewy effect I was going for. It sort of worked, but not quite the way I wanted it to. So, I'm still hunting. I saw that Smitten Kitchen also did Martha's recipe, and found them to be precisely the kind of cookie I want them to be, so I may give it another try with a larger scoop and with chilling the dough a little bit next time. In the meantime, if you have a good snickerdoodle recipe, shoot it my way! You can email me at typeamommyblog(at)gmail(dot)com.

Snickerdoodles
Adapted from Martha Stewart

Makes three dozen 3 to 4-inch cookies. Your mileage will vary by the size scoop you use.

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
1 3/4 cups sugar, plus more if needed
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon, plus more if needed
2 large eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 400°, with one rack in top third and one rack in bottom third of oven. Line baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper; set aside.
2. Sift together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl. Add eggs, and beat to combine. Add dry ingredients, and beat to combine. At this point, I chilled the dough for an hour (or you can overnight) before scooping it, because I otherwise found it too difficult to scoop into balls and roll but the original recipe doesn’t find this step necessary.
3. Once dough has chilled, in a small bowl, combine remaining 1/4 cup sugar and the ground cinnamon. Use a small ice-cream scoop* to form balls of the dough, and roll in cinnamon sugar. Place about two inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake until the cookies are set in center and begin to crack (they will not brown), about 10 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after five minutes. Transfer the sheets to a wire rack to cool about five minutes before transferring the cookies to the rack. In theory, they can be stored in an airtight container up to one week, but they won't last that long, trust me.

* Martha recommends a size 30 (1 1/4 ounce) ice cream scoop for your cookies.

Printable Recipe

100 Followers Deserve Cookies...

If only I could figure out how to mail them...darn logistics!

Anyway, so on Friday, I received my 100th follower...and then my 101st...and 102nd! It was so exciting that I had to plan to bake to celebrate over the weekend. I'd been wanting to bake a new chocolate chip cookie recipe, so it was a good excuse. I even decided to include my munchkin in my baking today, although it turned out that he was less than interested. I guess sitting on the floor and stirring with Mommy was boring. Oh well.

He was very intrigued by stirring, but not really into helping

However, he did help me stir the butter and sugars together, and did a nice job. He also tasted the fruits of his (okay, mostly my) labor, which I am disappointed to report that he didn't exactly enjoy. He took about three bites of the cookie, two of which included chocolate chips, and I could tell the instant he tasted the chocolate chips. He made an awful face and then after two tastes of chocolate, he refused to eat any more cookie. I'm starting to wonder if he was switched at birth (I'm kidding!!!) Husband isn't a huge chocolate fan, so I guess this is just one of those things that the munchkin and I won't have in common. This was his very first exposure to chocolate, so it was an eventful day indeed.

This was a nice chocolate chip cookie - not as thick as I would have liked, especially given that Martha calls them her Soft and Chewy Cookie. But they had wonderful chocolate flavor in every bite, with a nice crisp crunch to the edges. I think I might try to add a little more flour the next time I bake these to encourage a thicker cookie. All in all, though, they were some very nice cookies to share with my munchkin.

Martha's Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

adapted from Martha Stewart's Cookies: The Very Best Treats to Bake and to Share (Martha Stewart Living Magazine)

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon coarse salt
2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups semisweet or milk chocolate chips, or a combination (about 12 ounces)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Whisk together flour and baking soda in a bowl. Put butter and sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to low. Add salt, vanilla, and eggs; mix until well blended, about 1 minute. Mix in flour mixture. Sitr in chocolate chips.
2. Drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges turn golden but centers are still soft, 10-12 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks 2 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks; let cool completely. Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment in airtight containers at room temperature up to 1 week.

Click here for printable recipe

Snickerdoodles

My mom never made snickerdoodles while I was growing up. I was an adult before I had my first snickerdoodle, actually. And when I did, I loved them. I don't have them often - generally just at bakeries, I'd never tried my hand at baking them myself before today. I was shopping recently at Fresh Market (I love that place, and I always get into trouble there in some way), and the bakery lady offered me a snickerdoodle for my munchkin. Munchkin has been very sheltered in the ways of sugar thus far (in part because I'm convinced that if I let him have much of it, he'll build the insane addiction I have to sugar), so I was hesitant at first, but when she said that they had snickerdoodles, I relented. This child loves cinnamon.

Being the good mom that I am (sometimes), I didn't just hand the cookie over - no, I broke off a piece for him. And then one for me. Oh my goodness. Super, super yummy. They were crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside, and oh so delicious. Ultimately, I probably split the cookie about 60/40 with my munchkin (he's smaller, he only needs 40% of a cookie!). That was when I decided I needed to make some of my own.

This was my first time using my long-stashed Silpat Nonstick Silicone Baking Mat. I'd actually kind of forgotten about it, but I won't forget about it again, that's for sure! That thing is awesome. It's like parchment, only better, because it's washable and you don't have to throw it out! Sure, it costs more than parchment, but I think you ultimately will recoup the cost. Also, the cookies browned beautifully on the bottom, and didn't stick a bit. Can't wait to try out the Silpat on a sticky cookie recipe, like some brownie cookies I've got my eye on. Stay tuned.

This recipe is not the end-all, be-all snickerdoodle recipe I wanted it to be. I need to try Martha's recipe. This one comes from Baking Illustrated, and yielded cookies that were crisper than I generally like them to be. I much prefer a more dense, chewy cookie than this, but they were definitely enjoyable. If you like crunchy snickerdoodles, this is definitely the recipe for you!!

Snickerdoodles
Adapted from Baking Illustrated

2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
12 tbsp unsalted butter, softened but still cool
1/4 cup solid vegetable shortening
1 1/2 granulated sugar, plus ~3 tbsp for rolling
2 large eggs
1 tbsp ground cinnamon, for rolling

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, cream the butter, shortening and 1 1/2 cups sugar on medium speed until well combined, about 1-2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the eggs and beat again until combined, about 30 seconds. Add in the dry ingredients, and beat at a low speed until just combined, about 20 seconds.
4. In a small, shallow bowl, combine 3 tbsp sugar with 1 tbsp cinnamon and stir to combine. Working with a heaping tablespoon of dough at a time, roll the dough, then roll in the cinnamon sugar and place on parchment-lined cookie sheets, about 2 inches apart. Use a drinking glass with a flat bottom to gently flatten the dough balls to 3/4 inch thickness. Don't forget to butter the bottom on the glass before starting, and dip it in sugar between cookies if it begins to stick.
5. Bake for 9-11 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are beginning to set and the centers are soft and puffy. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 2-3 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Click here for printable version of recipe!

MSC: Zucchini-Spice Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Have I mentioned how excited I am to be a part of the Martha Stewart Cupcakes Club (MSC)? Well, I totally am. I am so honored to be a part of it, and so excited to bake my little butt off.

What is MSC? Well...MSC is about cupcake love, freedom, and community. Our goal is to make and bake the 175 cupcake recipes in Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book. All of those involved share one major thing - a love of baking and especially all things cupcakes.

And now, I've officially survived my first cupcake challenge with the Martha Stewart's Cupcakes Club!

See! I did it!

Tracey from Tracey's Culinary Adventures selected this month's recipe, the Zucchini-Spice Cupcakes (pg. 44) with Cream Cheese Frosting (pg. 303). To be honest, I've never baked anything with zucchini before, so it was an adventure from the get-go for me. I'd also never zested a lemon, so that was interesting too. All in all, despite the fact that I was doing some things I've never done in baking, I still enjoyed making this recipe. Maybe it was because I baked these while Husband was home to watch the munchkin and because I could kind of zone out and get into the baking zone.

I did omit the nutmeg, mainly because I wasn't about the drag my butt to Publix for just one missing ingredient that I could go without, but the flavor still seems to be quite amenable. I also wasn't a huge fan of the consistency of the frosting. Mine was really soft, and a little difficult to work with as a result. I had to immediately refrigerate the cupcakes, otherwise the frosting started to slide off the cupcakes, which wasn't so fun. I've made a few different cream cheese frostings and never had that problem before, so I'm not sure if I did something wrong or if that's just how Martha's is. Then again, the recipe did say something about refrigeration and the frosting recipe said to hand frost, not to pipe - I can't imagine this frosting piping too well, but I'll bet when I check out everyone else's blogs I'm going to see some piped cupcakes, because I am clearly a big novice compared to some of the other bloggers participating in these monthly challenges.

Mmm, look at all that frosting!

Next month's recipe will be hosted by Kim at What the Whisk, and she has selected the Pumpkin Patch Cupcakes, which I'm sure Husband is going to be counting down the minutes for. Pumpkin is one of his all-time favorite things about the fall, so I have a feeling he's going to love these. Stay tuned!

Basic Blondies

I love reading other people's blogs, I really do. And I mentioned how much I love Tastespotting (and now FoodGawker too). Seriously. I check them daily. I know, I might be a smidge obsessed.

I've found a lot of awesome food blogs I might have never found otherwise! One I'm really in love with is Annie's Eats. This is a girl after my own heart with some of the recipes she's posted. I made one today from her blog, and it is insanely awesome, and simple. And you can do it all in one bowl! No muss, no fuss! Husband will be so pleased, I haven't made a holy mess of the kitchen while baking!

Also, I think I actually managed to line my pan, for the first time ever, without actually tearing the aluminum foil. That always seems to happen to me! But not today! My baking mojo must really be flowing. So without further ado, here is the awesome recipe, slightly adapted.

Basic Blondies
Source: Annie's Eats
Printer-friendly recipe

8 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
Mix-ins of your choice (see below)

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Line an 8x8 baking pan with foil and spray lightly with non-stick cooking spray.
2. In a microwave safe bowl, melt the butter in the microwave (slowly, you don't want any butter explosions!). Allow to cool for 5 minutes. In the bowl of the electric mixer, mix the brown sugar with the melted butter and beat until smooth. Beat in the egg and then the vanilla. Add the salt, flour and baking powder and mix until just combined. Stir in your choice of mix-ins with a wooden spoon. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread to level out the top nicely.
3. Bake for 22-25 minutes or until well set in the middle. Allow to cool on a wire rack before cutting into squares and wrapping well.

Some mix-in suggestions:
1/2 - 1 cup chocolate chips (milk or semisweet), peanut butter chips, butterscotch chips, white chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped nuts (walnuts, almonds, or pecans)
1/2 cup M&Ms
1/2 cup chopped Reese's peanut butter cups
1/4 cup Heath toffee pieces
1/2 teaspoon mint extract, in addition to or in place of the vanilla extract

Seriously, this is the kind of recipe you can whip up super fast, and you more than likely have all of the ingredients at home, so print this one out and put it in a safe place. I definitely recommend it!

Oh, and BTW, I'm totally still sore. I stretched yesterday for a bit after my upper body workout with my trainer, but I'm still walking kind of like a pregnant lady because I feel like I can't totally straighten my legs. I'm sure it's super attractive. Happy Friday!

Frosted Chocolate-Buttermilk Cupcakes

I completely happened upon this recipe by accident, but wow, I'm glad I did. I was in need of a good chocolate fix this holiday weekend, and while visiting Martha's site, I came across this recipe from Everyday Food, one of Martha's magazines that is also a PBS show. The look of the cupcakes reminded me of my favorite cake, Brown Beauty Cake, so I figured these cupcakes were going to be good.

These were almost a one-bowl recipe and super easy to put together. I had them put together and in the oven within about 15 minutes, if that. I did use Dutch-process cocoa powder, from Williams-Sonoma (because I can't seem to find it anywhere else), and I used real buttermilk, not powdered. You can always make your own buttermilk at home if you don't have any, but I happened to have some on hand from a recent red velvet cupcake recipe I made (which I will be posting soon). To make your own buttermilk, use 1 cup of milk with a tablespoon of lemon juice. I've read that you can also use vinegar, though I haven't tried that method personally.

Enjoy the yumminess!

Frosted Chocolate-Buttermilk Cupcakes
adapted from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food
Printer-friendly recipe

Makes 12 cupcakes

3/4 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 heaping tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch-process
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
6 tablespoons buttermilk
1 large egg
1 large egg white

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
2. With an electric mixer, combine cocoa and 3 tablespoons hot water until a thick paste forms (this process intensified the chocolate flavor - no joke, it really works!). Add butter, buttermilk, egg, and egg white; beat until combined. Whisk in flour mixture until smooth.
3. Scoop (or spoon) batter into prepared tin(s). Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.
4. Use an offset spatula or butter knife to spread icing over tops. Decorate as desired.

Here's Martha's suggestion for frosting: Light Cream-Cheese Icing (and this will keep your cupcake around 180 calories!).

Here's mine, the more decadent version:

Super Easy Vanilla Buttercream (sort of)
1 stick of butter, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp half and half
Shake of salt
3 cups powdered sugar

Beat butter first with a spoon, then add vanilla and half and half and beat in. Next, add powdered sugar gradually, and mix until combined. Taste. Does it need a little salt? Probably, especially if you use unsalted butter. Add the salt and combine, then spread with an offset spatula on cupcakes.

My new obsession: Tastespotting

As you all know, I'm a glutton for recipes. Good ones, bad ones, I've got a three-inch three-ring binder full of recipes I've found that I want to try. I'm always on the lookout for new sources, and in the last few weeks I've come across what could very easily be described as food porn...a website called Tastespotting. I can't quite recall how I found it, but wow, I'm glad I did.

Basically, Tastespotting seems to be a collection of the best food-related photography on the web. That might sound ridiculously boring to you, but I love food photography. I'm trying (slowly) to improve my own snaps of the food I make, so Tastespotting is a good reference for me in that respect. It also seems to be laden with many, many desserts, which are of course my favorite kind of recipe. Some of the pictures link back to a blog that's kind enough to list the recipe they made, some just talk about what they made, but I've found several great new food blogs through Tastespotting, and over 50 recipes this week that I've printed to add to my infamous To Be Cooked binder. Seriously, I'm going to have to get another binder. Soon.

When you've got a few minutes to kill, I highly recommend you check out Tastespotting, just try to keep the drool off your keyboard.

P.S. - This was a totally unsolicited rave, I don't know who runs Tastespotting and they don't know me, I just wanted to share.

Tunnel of Fudge cake

Tonight is another meeting of my book club (we're discussing "Identical Strangers"), so that of course means that it's time to bake. I baked one of my favorite goodies, Tunnel of Fudge cake, for tonight's festivities, and boy, I can't wait to cut into it and enjoy it.

I've made a lot of different Tunnel of Fudge cakes over the years. Lots were boxed-cake-mix recipes, but none of them really delivered the actual tunnel of fudge. Until this recipe. This recipe has a real tunnel of fudge running through the center, and tastes awesome if you heat it up in the microwave for a few seconds before eating it. It tastes so yummy when it's warm. It also tastes awesome with a nice scoop of ice cream on top. Best part of all? It's totally an easy recipe to make. There's nothing complicated about it, except perhaps greasing a bundt pan perfectly (a skill that sometimes seems to elude me). If you like molten chocolate lava cake, you will love this cake! So on your way home tonight, pick up what you don't have in the pantry to make this cake. Your family will totally thank me.

Here's a snap of my cake, pre-glaze

Tunnel of Fudge cake
Adapted from The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book
Printer-friendly recipe

1/2 cup boiling water
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups confectioners' sugar
3/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
5 large eggs, room temperature

1. Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 12-cup Bundt pan by fully greasing it.
2. Whisk the boiling water and chocolate together in a small bowl until melted and smooth; let the mixture cool slightly. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, confectioners' sugar, cocoa and salt together.
3. In a large bowl, beat the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla together with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3-6 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, until combined, about 30 seconds. Beat in the chocolate mixture until combined, about 30 seconds. Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly beat in the flour mixture until just incorporated, about 30 seconds.
4. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, and smooth the top. Wipe any drops of batter off the sides of the pan and gently tap the pan on the counter to settle the batter. Bake the cake until the edges begin to pull away from the sides of the pan and the top feels springy when pressed with a finger, about 45 minutes.
5. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then flip it out onto a wire rack. Let the cake cool completely, at last 2 hours. Drizzle the chocolate glaze (optional) over the top and sides of the cake. Let the glaze set, about 25 minutes, before serving.

Chocolate Glaze

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted
1/2 cup heavy cream, hot
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch salt

Whisk all of the glaze ingredients together in a medium bowl until smooth and let sit until thickened, about 25 minutes. Pour the glaze over the top of the cake after it has cooled completely, letting the glaze drip down the sides. Let the glaze set before serving, about 25 minutes.

The most famous cake in my family: Brown Beauty Cake

As you probably know by now, I am a cake aficionado. Especially when it comes to chocolate cake. I like other flavors of cake, but chocolate is by far the best. In my family, there are several different chocolate cakes that we make, and each one kind of means something different. This particular cake is the cake that I grew up with as birthday cake or celebratory cake - if my mom didn't buy a Publix sheet cake (and those really are awesome), this was what we had for birthday cake. A Brown Beauty Cake.

I was shocked when I Googled the recipe, to see if it was out there in cyberspace already, and I found that it wasn't posted anywhere. Nope. There's a lot of recipes for Brown Beauty Icing, which comes from Betty Crocker, and is quite good, but not a single one for cake, so I'm excited to share this recipe with you all. It's been handed down in my family from my grandmother to my mom to me, though we're not too sure of its origins. But who cares - it's so yummy!!

It's a very dense, moist type of chocolate cake, topped with a sweet vanilla frosting. It's like having a little party in your mouth. To top it all off, it's super easy to make. Bake this cake tonight. Trust me. You won't be sorry. (The picture does NOT do it justice!)


Brown Beauty Cake
Printer-friendly recipe

1/2 cup boiling water
2 squares unsweetened chocolate
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup soft butter
1/4 milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg

1. Pour water over chopped up chocolate and stir until melted. Cool mixture slightly. Heat oven to 350 and grease a 9x9 square baking pan.
2. Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Add cooled chocolate mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well. Put in butter, mix. Add egg and mix well, and finally add milk and vanilla. Beat for one minute.
3. Bake cake for 30-35 minutes, or until a cake tester is inserted and a dense crumb or two sticks.

Frosting
1 stick butter
Vanilla
Powdered sugar
1/2 and 1/2

Mix soft butter with powdered sugar, to taste (I usually use about 2-3 cups). Add approximately 1-2 tsp of vanilla, 1 tbsp 1/2 and 1/2, and a shake of salt. Frost cake after it has fully cooled.

Buttermilk Caramel Cake

For the Fourth of July, I decided that I couldn't just bake some brownies (even if they were Supernatural Brownies) for a dessert, I needed to also offer something non-chocolate. Totally not my specialty - in fact, I know of very few desserts that I like that are not chocolate-y. Anyway, I dug out several cookbooks, and ultimately found a recipe for Buttermilk Caramel Cake that sounded appealing and not too difficult, a big plus. The cake turned out so awesome that my dog stole a few bites of it even, while we weren't looking. When we discovered that, we called the vet to make sure that it wasn't going to hurt him, so other than being ridiculously hyper from a sugar rush, Dog survived just fine. Phew. So, without any further adieu, here's the recipe!

Buttermilk Caramel Cake
from The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book
Printer-friendly recipe

Cake
2 1/4 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups buttermilk, room temperature

Caramel Frosting
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup whole milk
2 cups confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. For the Cake: Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Crease a 13 by 9-inch baking pan, then line the bottom with parchment paper. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a medium bowl.
2. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3-6 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until combined, about 30 seconds. Beat in the vanilla.
3. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in one-third of the flour mixture, followed by half of the buttermilk. Repeat with half of the remaining flour mixture and the remaining buttermilk. Beat in the remaining flour until just incorporated.
4. Give the batter a final stir with a rubber spatula to make sure it's thoroughly combined. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, smooth the top, and gently tap the pan on the counter to settle the batter. Bake the cake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, 25-30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking.
5. Let the cake cool completely in the pan, about 2 hours. Run a paring knife around the edge of the cake and flip the cake out onto a wire rack. Peel off the parchment paper, then flip the cake right side up on to a serving platter.
6. For the frosting: Bring the butter and brown sugar to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is foamy, 3-5 minutes. Whisk in the milk, return the mixture to a brief boil, then remove from the heat. Stir in confectioners' sugar and vanilla with a wooden spoon and beat the frosting until smooth, 2-3 minutes. Spread the warm frosting evenly over the surface of the cooled cake and let set, about 25 minutes, before serving.

Supernatural Brownies

I have company coming tomorrow for the Fourth of July, which I'm excited about, so naturally, I've been cleaning and baking like crazy to prepare (because okay, the Fourth of July is about grilling, but I can't grill, so I bake instead). In fact, I've baked a huge pan of brownies and a new cake recipe (to be posted this evening after I frost it). But first, let's talk brownies.

I love brownies. In fact, I love brownies so much that I have discovered, and religiously follow, a blog called The Brownie Project. It's tons and tons of brownie recipes. It's pretty darn awesome. Anyway, I found a recipe I really wanted to try there recently, called Supernatural Brownies, and it comes from a Nick Malgieri cookbook called Chocolate: From Simple Cookies to Extravagant Showstoppers. Right off the bat, they sounded pretty awesome.

They were super easy to make, and didn't call for anything wacky or unusual, so I was able to put them together very quickly. And wow, are they amazing. Here's the recipe - hang on to it, this one's definitely a keeper! These might just be my new favorite brownies!

Supernatural Brownies
from Nick Malgieri's Chocolate: From Simple Cookies to Extravagant Showstoppers

Printer-friendly recipe

2 sticks (1/2 pound) unsalted butter
8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, cut into 1/4-inch pieces (I used semisweet)
4 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour

1. Set the rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Butter and line a 13x9x2-inch pan with buttered parchment or foil.
2. Bring a saucepan of water to a boil and turn off heat. Combine butter and chocolate in a heat proof bowl and set over pan of water. Stir occasionally until melted.
3. Whisk eggs together in a large bowl, then whisk in the salt, sugars, and vanilla. Stir in the chocolate and butter mixture, then fold in the flour.
4. Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake for about 45 minutes, until top has formed a shiny crust and batter is moderately firm. Cool in pan on a rack. Wrap pan in plastic wrap and keep at room temperature or refrigerated until the next day.
5. To cut brownies, unmold onto a cutting board, remove paper, and replace with another cutting board. Turn brownies right side up and trim away edges. Cut brownies into 2-inch squares.

**UPDATE** Whoops, I totally forgot to give you guys the link to The Brownie Project, so here it is! This is what happens when you try to finish off a blog posting when your toddler is trying to climb you. The Brownie Project

An old family recipe: Wagon Wheels

My mother is the one who instilled my love for baking deep in my veins. She baked probably millions of time during my childhood, and every time from scratch. She made pies, cakes, cookies, bars, breads, you name it. She came from a huge family of ten, with a mother who baked everything, too, so I imagine this whole baking thing goes way back in our family tree.

One thing my mother was obsessive about was Christmas cookies. We always baked upwards of five or six or seven different varieties of Christmas cookies to share with our family and friends as gifts for the holidays. My mother was like a drill sergeant when it came to decorating the spritz and cut-out cookies, ensuring that every cookie get decorated (whether we liked it or not). Oddly enough, my favorite cookie at the holidays was not a traditional cookie, it was a cookie called a Wagon Wheel. A chocolate cookie that would get rolled in powdered sugar, and would bake up looking a bit like a wagon wheel, with the pattern the powdered sugar would leave on it. They are still my favorite cookie, and now both my mother and I tend to keep a batch of dough in the freezer for whenever the urge strikes to have a wagon wheel. They're best right out of the oven, and tend to get stale quickly, so if you keep some dough in the freezer, you can bake up a couple whenever you're feeling peckish. They're a ridiculously easy cookie to make, the only difficulty is waiting the 24 hours to let the dough fully freeze before you dig in to the dough.

Wagon Wheels
Printer-friendly recipe

4 squares unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

1. Melt butter and chocolate together. Let cool approximately 5 minutes.
2. Add sugar to chocolate mixture and mix well.
3. Then add vanilla and eggs and mix well.
4. In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients, then slowly add to chocolate batter and mix until fully blended.
5. Pour batter into a tupperware container and stick in the freezer.
6. Freeze at least overnight (or longer).
7. When you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350. Prepare a cookie sheet with a sheet of parchment.
8. Roll approximately a tablespoon sized ball of dough and roll in a bowl of powdered sugar until fully covered. Bake cookies immediately (they tend to absorb the powdered sugar if they sit for too long) for 8-10 minutes. They will NOT look done when they come out. Let them cool on the cookie sheet for at least 3 minutes before moving them to a rack to finish cooling, then feel free to devour!

Extraordinary Chocolate Chip Cookies

I feel guilty for having baked chocolate chip cookies again. Husband can't (or shouldn't) eat them, because of his ridiculous instructions from his GI doc, but on the plus side that does mean that the cookies last for a long time because I don't have to share. Plus, I'm not so great at sharing, at least when it comes to yummy baked goods. But, I must say, these cookies are so huge and decadent that I kind of want to share! This might just be my new favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe.

If you are a fan of big buttery, sugary taste in your chocolate chip cookies, with crisp edges and soft and melty centers, this is definitely the recipe for you!

Extraordinary Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from bettycrocker.com

1 1/2 cups of butter, softened
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 eggs
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 bag (24 oz) semisweet chocolate chips (4 cups)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In large bowl, beat butter, sugars, vanilla and eggs with electric mixer on medium speed or with spoon until light and fluffy. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt (dough will be VERY stiff). Stir in chocolate chips.
3. On ungreased cookie sheet, drop dough by tablespoonfuls or #40 cookie/ice cream scoop 2 inches apart. Flatten slightly.
4. Bake 11-13 minutes or until light brown (centers will be soft). Cool 2-4 minutes on cookie sheet, then remove cookies and place on cooling rack.

Click here for printable recipe

UPDATE: I made these today (10/30/09) and made them with a much smaller scoop for Baby, which worked out really nicely. If you use a smaller scoop, bake them for approximately 9-10 minutes. I also added a new picture for this recipe, now that I'm slowly becoming a better photographer.