Pumpkin Brownies

I love pumpkin! I've heard that you can use pumpkin instead of oil and eggs in a lot of baked goods, so the past few weeks I've been giving it a try. It started with pumpkin muffins (1 can pumpkin + 1 box yellow cake mix), and those came out pretty good--just really thick.

Last night I decided to give pumpkin brownies a try.

What I used:

1 can pumpkin
1 box Ghiradelli (it's what I had) brownie mix
4 tbs milk

Frosting:
2 cups confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup butter spread
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla

How I did it:

I preheated the oven to 325 degrees. I decided to make thick brownies, so I sprayed an 8"x8" pan with cooking spray.

I combined the brownie mix, pumpkin, and milk in a large bowl and mixed it by hand. After the pumpkin was mixed in well enough, I poured the batter into the sprayed pan and baked it for 50 minutes.

After the brownies cooled (and Justin and I had a few samples), I made the cinnamon frosting. I used a hand mixer to cream the sugar and butter. I added the cinnamon and vanilla and mixed it a little more. Because I used butter spread, I could still taste a buttery taste, so I added a bit more sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. If you used regular butter, you wouldn't have that problem.

Justin asked if I'd leave the frosting on the side so the brownies wouldn't get mushy. For the sake of avoiding an argument, I agreed. The brownies taste good without the frosting, but they taste "like a dessert" (as Justin said) with the frosting. I love pumpkin, so these give me exactly the kind of Fall desert I am looking for! They're still really thick brownies even though I added milk, so they're really filling. I recommend them for dinner...or breakfast...or both.

Back to the blog--Apple Pie Tartelettes

Let me start off by saying that I wish I would have planned this out better. It's 90 degrees in my house right now due to the failure of our air conditioner on Friday afternoon. I've been wanting to make these tartelettes for some time now, but I waited until I got enough apples in our CSA basket. This summer has been so busy. We moved to a bigger house (with an awesome kitchen), but with the moving, cleaning, and vacationing all summer, I haven't had any time to bake! (On a side note, I did notice that I never published my memorial day post--so I just officially published it today).

Apple Pie Tartelettes

What I used:
9 green apples -- peeled and cut into small cubes
12 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
4 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Pie crusts (adapted from the Crisco recipe)
4 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups vegetable shortening
14 tablespoons water

How I did it:

Again, I should have planned better. I didn't take any pictures of my process this time--blame it on being out of practice with blogging, I guess. I did find this recipe on Pinterest though, and the original blogger has pictures of her process. I was really excited to use cupcake tins to make these mini-pies because it sort of combines my two loves.

I started out by peeling and slicing the apples. It was time consuming, and I wished I would have make the crusts first because the apples were starting to brown shortly after I cut them. I set the apples aside and went to work on the crusts.

I couldn't find the pie crust recipe that I usually use, but the Crisco recipe was very similar so I just used that. I started off making just one double crust batch, but I quickly realized that it wasn't going to be enough. I combined 2 cups of flour with 1 teaspoon of salt and cut in 3/4 cup vegetable shortening with a hand mixer. I added 8 tablespoons of water (2 tablespoons at a time) and mixed it in with a fork until it was all stuck together without being too mushy. I rolled it out with a rolling pin and used a large cup lid to make circular cuts in the dough for my bottom crusts. I should have just sized what I needed and cut the dough by hand because the cupcake tin was too deep and the dough didn't reach all the way to the top. After I filled one tin (12 tartelettes), I realized that I wasn't going to have enough dough.

I decided to just make the tartelettes in two batches because I needed to make more dough for the crust, so I moved on to make the apple filling and finish the first batch. Before I started mixing the apples with the sugar, I preheated the oven to 400 degrees. I decided to use the pie oven (yes, I have a pie oven in my new house and I love it) because it was so hot in the house, and I knew that I'd have to bake the 2 trays of tartelettes separately anyway.

I took the 8 cups of chopped apples and added the flour, sugars, cinnamon, and nutmeg. I mixed it all together and filled my first batch of tartelette pie crusts.

After I wove the tops of the first batch of tartelettes with dough, I spread a little melted butter on them and topped them with sugar. I popped them in the oven for 24 minutes--checking periodically to make sure they weren't burning.

While my first 12 were in the oven, I made the second batch of dough for the crusts--except this time I only had to use 6 tablespoons of water. I filled the second batch tins (2 tins--6 cakes each) and waited until the first batch came out of the oven. I put the second batch in and let those bake for 24 minutes.

I let all of the tartelettes cool before removing them from the tins. Only 2 fell apart because the bottom crust wasn't thick enough to support the weight of the apples and the top crust--I consider that a success for the first time I bake a new recipe! They still tasted good. I just put them in a bowl & shared them with Justin.

Rating:

These are delicious little tartelettes! They are rather time consuming because you have to shape each individual crust, and some of the crusts were having a hard time staying attached after I took them out of the tins. I would definitely make them instead of making a traditional pie if I was going to a gathering. They're much easier to pick up than pie and require no cutting. I'd like to try a different fruit next time--maybe strawberries or blueberries. I'll have to find a better way for the top crusts to stay on top too.

Now I'll have to run out and get some ice cream to go with these...

Memorial Day Trifle

The colors of the fruit on this trifle make it perfect for any American holiday.

Pound Cake:

Trifle:

Strawberry Pie

This is Justin's favorite! It all started a year and a half ago--Justin's birthday is in late November, and I asked what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday. He asked if he could have strawberry rhubarb pie instead. I found a recipe and started to gather the ingredients. After a few trips to various grocery stores, I could not find rhubarb anywhere. I still wanted to try to make a strawberry pie using the ingredients I had already bought, but I needed to find a new recipe. I went straight to Allrecipes and found this recipe. I decided I'd try it. I always use the same crust recipe, so I was ready to go!


I've made this pie half a dozen times since then. It's a tasty summer pie, and everyone loves it! We got strawberries in our CSA (community supported agriculture) basket this week, so this pie had to be made.


What I used for the crust*:
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup shortening
6 tablespoons water


*this is a recipe for a double crust pie


What I used for the pie:
Approximately 4 cups sliced strawberries (I only had about 3 1/2)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Approximately 2 tablespoons butter (I used margarine)
Approximately 2 tablespoons milk
Approximately 2 teaspoons granulated sugar


How I did it:
I preheated the oven to 425 degrees and got right to work on making the crust. I've made this crust before, so I know that everything has to be exact for it to come out right. I combined the flour and salt in a large bowl. After giving that a quick mix, I added the 2/3 cup shortening. I used a hand mixer to create a crumble out of the mixture. The next step is the most important: I added 6 tablespoon of water to the mixture--one tablespoon at a time. I fluffed the mixture with a fork after each water addition. If you do this wrong, the dough comes out too powdery or too sticky. This time I needed to add 1/2 tablespoon more water to make it right. After adding the water and getting it right, I formed the dough into a ball. I divided the large dough ball into two smaller balls (bottom crust and top crust).

I took my first dough ball and rolled it out with a rolling pin. I always put flour on the countertop so that the crust won't stick.

After rolling out the dough enough so that it would cover my entire pie plate, I carefully picked it up and moved it to the pie plate. You can see that I had to push down and move the crust a little after I put it on the plate. It's really important to make sure that the crust comes all the way to the top of the plate because the top crust needs to meet the bottom one when you seal it. 

I set the pie plate and crusts aside while I worked on the pie filling. I had already sliced the strawberries, so I just had to get the sugar mixture together. I combined the granulated sugar, brown sugar, flour, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla extract, and almond extract together in a large bowl. The extracts kind of clump a little bit in the sugar, so I just go through and break them up with a spoon.

Once the sugar mix was less clumpy, I added the strawberries and coated them with the mixture. It is so tempting to pick one of them up and eat it, but I resisted this time!

I poured the sugary strawberries into the crusted pie plate. I mounded the strawberries in the middle a little bit because they spread to the sides while the pie is baking, so it winds up evening the pie out. After I poured the strawberries in, I set the pie plate aside to work on the top crust.

I rolled out the other dough ball on the counter (again--using flour on the counter to keep the dough from sticking). Usually I cut the dough into long strips and lattice it myself, but Justin bought me a quick-lattice maker for Christmas that I hadn't used yet. I just placed the quick-lattice maker on the dough, and it cut the squares into the dough for me. The only problem is the squares don't come out when I pull the cutter off. I had to pick the little squares out with my fingers. Slightly tedious, but it didn't take me too long.

I slid the lattice crust onto the top of the pie. I placed a dab of butter into each opening. I also brushed the crust with milk and sprinkled a bit of sugar on it to make it golden during baking.

I placed my crust shield on the pie (another Christmas gift from Justin) and popped it in the 425 degree oven for 40 minutes. It turned out just right!

Rating:

Our friend Andrew was over for dinner, so he had a piece of strawberry pie for dessert. Andrew isn't big on sweets, but he really enjoyed this. It's a winner!

The first time I had it, I didn't think I liked the almond flavor, but it has really grown on me. I've considered omitting it, but Justin says that's one of his favorite parts. If you're not big on almond, you could add less or omit it completely. The pie would still be heavenly!

Warning: following this recipe will result in a messy kitchen! And maybe an expanded waistline!

Sawyer's Birthday Cupcakes--best for canines!

Sawyer's 4th birthday is tomorrow, so we're having his birthday bash today. This is his first birthday party with friends, so we wanted everything to be perfect. The past 3 years, I've made a coconut cake for him and he just gets to have a piece. This year--because we're having other canine friends over--I decided to make dog-friendly cupcakes for Sawyer and his canine companions. Originally I was just going to take a dog cookie recipe that I have and adapt it into cupcakes, but I couldn't find my book! So instead, I looked up some recipes online that used the ingredients I already had in the house. I just did a google search and found this recipe.

What I used:

2 cups shredded carrots

2/3 cup natural applesauce (unsweetened)

3 eggs

2 tsp. cinnamon

3 cups oat flour

1/2 cup rolled oats

Frosting (these are approximations)

2 cups plain yogurt

1/4 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup meringue powder

How I did it:

First I preheated the oven to 350 degrees. I had baby carrots in the fridge, so I used a food processor to shred them. I had bought them for Justin's salads next week and wound up using most of the bag--oops!

I combined the shredded carrots with the eggs and applesauce in a large mixing bowl and set it aside. It was a little runny but it was with good purpose.

The original recipe calls for whole wheat flour, but I didn't have any, and I can never find it in the grocery store. Instead of using regular flour (which is one of the 1,000 things Sawyer's brother, Kirby, is allergic to), I always throw oats in the food processor and grind them to a fine flour-like consistency. You can see (in the picture below) that I processed more than 3 cups, so unfortunately I had to throw about 1/2 cup away. It's always sad throwing away food!

I added the cinnamon and the regular oats to the oat-flour mixture. After that was well-mixed, I combined the wet and dry ingredients--being sure to add the dry ingredients to the wet slowly. The mixture turned paste-like, so I added just a bit more applesauce to make it more like batter.

I liked the idea of small cupcakes for the dogs, so I used my mini-muffin tin to make mini-cupcakes. The batter still wasn't as runny as regular cupcake batter, but the original recipe said it would be "thick," so I went with it. These cupcakes don't rise, so I filled the pan up to the top.

After making one tray of the mini-cupcakes, I wanted to make a few regular sized, so I used the rest of the dough to make a dozen doggy cupcakes. 

They mini-cupcakes baked for about 13 minutes, and the larger cupcakes baked for 25. I let them cool overnight so I could figure out how to do the icing. 

I had read somewhere before that you could use meringue powder in yogurt to thicken it up to use as icing. I did a trial-and-error with the yogurt and powder--adding peanut butter to really get it to thicken up. I used an icing piper to get just enough onto each cupcake.

I added coconut on top to keep the feel of Sawyer's original birthday cake--plus these cupcakes don't have any sugar in them, and I wanted to give the dogs a special treat! 

I have some cupcakes set out for the party, but I've also created these doggy bags for the canine guests. Inside there is a to-go cupcake, some dog treats, and an extra special dog toy.

The rating:

I gave Sawyer and Kirby an un-iced cupcake last night, and they loved it! The real taste test will be when the party guests arrive. I wouldn't recommend that any human guests try these cupcakes. Like I said, they don't have sugar in them, and plain yogurt doesn't really taste good.

Hope everything goes off tonight without a hitch!

Oh, and P.S.! Humans are getting cupcakes too--coconut cupcakes! I didn't experiment with those though. I cheated and used a box and pre-made whipped icing. They still look fantastic though!

Chocolate dipped chocolate chip cookies

Being home the whole week on Spring break, I had to do a bit of baking. I love working in my mom's kitchen because she has so many cool gadgets that I don't have. It has become sort of a custom for me to make these chocolate chip cookies when I come home because Dad loves them so much.

What I used:

1 cup dark brown sugar (I would have used light brown sugar, but we were out)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup butter flavored shortening

2 tbs milk

1 tbs vanilla

1 egg

1 3/4 cup flour

1 tbs baking soda

1 tbs salt

1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 package Hershey's semi-sweet baking bar plus 2 oz leftover chocolate

How I did it:

I preheated the oven to 375 degrees. Then I combined the wet ingredients (sugars, shortening, milk, vanilla, and an egg) and mixed with the KitchenAid mixer. 

As the wet ingredients were mixing in the KitchenAid mixer, I combined the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, and salt). 

I slowly added the dry mixture to the wet mixture. 

Then I added the chocolate chips to the mixture.

I used a small cookie scoop to drop the dough in small rounds on the ungreased cookie sheets. I baked the cookies for 10 minutes.

I let the cookies cool on parchment paper and then melted the baking blocks. I dipped the ends of the cookies in the chocolate and placed them on the parchment paper. I slid the chocolate dipped cookies in the fridge for about 30 minutes, and now they're finished and delicious!

Rating:

I've made these so many times before, but they are a family favorite. The chocolate chip cookies are good on their own, but the chocolate dipping adds that extra bit of "mmmm."

Cinnamon Bun Cake (Guest Blog)

Cinnamon Bun Cake (Guest blog by my wonderful sister, Amanda Wright)

Cake:

3 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
4 tsp baking powder

¾ cup milk

¾  cup buttermilk
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla

Cinnamon filling:

4 T butter, melted
2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
2 T flour
1 T cinnamon
2/3 cups nuts (optional)

Frosting:

2 T cream cheese

1 cup powdered sugar

Cinnamon rolls: what’s not to love about them?  The worst part about making cinnamon rolls is the wait.  After the dough has been stretched and the yeast has been activated, you have to wait hours before you can shape your rolls.  Some recipes even make you wait doubly long—once shaped, the rolls will need to rise again.  This recipe breaks all the rules.

Originally, the recipe calls for 1 ½ cups milk.  I had buttermilk in the fridge, so I used ¾ cup buttermilk and ¾ cup milk.  It adds depth of flavor but you won’t be missing out if you use milk.  (The second time I made this recipe, I didn’t have buttermilk on hand…so I used 1 cup of milk, ½ cup of cream and a dash of lemon juice.)

In a bowl, sift flour, salt and baking powder together.  In a separate bowl, beat eggs and sugar together.  Mix in melted butter and vanilla extract.  Fold flour mixture into wet mixture, alternating flour and milk.  A little  bit of flour, a stir, a little bit of milk, stir. Don’t over mix!  Pour batter into a greased 13x9’’ Pyrex dish.  I used a slightly smaller dish (11x7’’), so my cake came out thicker.

 

In a separate bowl, combine the ooey gooey cinnamon mixture: 1 cup softened butter, 2 tablespoons flour, 1 cup brown sugar and 1 tablespoon (I used 2 because I can’t get enough cinnamon).  I used a potato masher to combine these ingredients because the butter wasn’t soft enough to use a wooden spoon.  That worked well and it was oh so tempting to lick when I was finished.  You’ll have a thick paste-like consistency.  If you’re adding nuts, add them into the cinnamon paste now.  The first time I made this recipe, I added in toasted French walnuts.  They came from a friend’s walnut tree in France.  They added a nice crunch to the cake, but if you don’t like nuts or don’t have any (or don’t feel like cracking and toasting them) the end result will be equally delicious, just less crunchy.

This is the fun part: drop spoonfuls of the mixture on top of the batter.  Don’t worry about spacing them evenly, just make sure you place some in each corner.  Corner pieces are the best and you’ll want to make sure there’s luxurious cinnamon in every bite.  Take a knife and swirl the paste into the batter.  Don’t be afraid to over swirl!

Place the dish in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes for a 13x9’’.  I baked mine for 40 minutes.  The cake will rise quickly because of the baking powder, but you need to make sure the center is cooked.  Let the top get a dark golden brown.  Don’t worry about having a dry cake: the inside will be rich and moist.

 

While the cake is in the oven, I combined 2 tablespoons of cream cheese with the powdered sugar into a bowl.  I used ¾ cup of powdered sugar and ¼ cup of vanilla sugar because I like the flavor of the vanilla sugar—vanilla extract would make the frosting too runny.  Mix until well blended.  Use full fat cream cheese, you might as well!  It will taste better, and you won’t use that much because the cake is tasty enough on its own.  Put the mixture into a resealable plastic container; you can add a dollop (do a dollop do do a dollop…) whenever you cut a piece.  The cake won’t get soggy and you can reheat the cake without cooking the frosting.

It’s up to you whether you let the cake cool or not… I’d wait 10 minutes so it slices better.  Cut yourself a generous slice, top with a spoonful of frosting, serve with coffee or tea and ENJOY!