Banana Cupcakes with Chocolate-Sour Cream Frosting

I spent the summer in France, then taking summer graduate courses, and then Orlando, so I haven't been doing a lot of baking or cooking lately. Anything I have made, I haven't had time to document or blog here. In two days I start my next semester of graduate school and a new job at the hospital working with heart-failure and heart-transplant patients. Chances are, this blog and my other blog , Fine Fettle Kettle, might continue to be slow for a while. However, I do have an excuse to either bake a cake, cookies, pie or other dessert each week, because my daughter works at the Center for Women and Children in Crisis, and can take whatever I make to them for a little sugar on the weekend.

Banana Cupcakes
(Found in Martha Stewart's Cupcakes and here)

Ingredients

• 3 cups sifted cake flour (not self-rising)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 6 ounces (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups packed light-brown sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 4 very ripe large bananas, mashed (about 2 cups), plus sliced bananas for garnish
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 
  

Directions

1. Make cupcakes as directed in Basic Cupcake How-To, using mashed bananas, buttermilk, and vanilla for wet ingredients.

2. Stir pecans into batter. Once cupcakes are cool, frost tops with caramel buttercream. Frosted cupcakes will keep, covered and refrigerated, for up to 2 days. Top with banana slices before serving.

Chocolate-Sour Cream Frosting
(Found in Martha Stewart's Cupcakes and here)

Ingredients

• 1 pound (4 cups) confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 18 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
• 1 1/2 cups sour cream

Directions

1. Sift together confectioners' sugar, cocoa, and salt. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat cream cheese and butter until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low. Gradually add sugar mixture; mix until combined. Mix in melted and cooled chocolate and then sour cream; scrape down sides of bowl and continue beating until smooth. Use immediately, or frosting can be stored in the refrigerator up to 5 days, or frozen up to 1 month, in an airtight container. Before using, bring to room temperature and beat on low speed until smooth.

Old-Fashioned Horehound Candy

Horehound candy brings back memories of my youth. I'm not really old enough for this to be the case, but in my small hometown, old-fashioned candy was still in fashion, and sarsaparilla and horehound flavored candy were available in the local candy store. Originally, horehound candies were used as cough drops, but apparently the bitter-sweet flavor became a widely-spread choice of candy over time. It's a little more difficult to find horehound candy these days. However, if you have an herb garden, horehound is easy to grow, and the candy is easy to make.

Horehound plant:



Old-Fashioned Horehound Candy
2 cups chopped horehound leaves and stems
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup molasses
1 cup honey
3 cups brown sugar
3 T salted butter

Boil water in a saucepan. Add horehound leaves, and stew for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and continue to steep leaves in hot water for another 30 minutes. Strain horehound leaves and stems, and pour the horehound "tea" water into a 4-quart pot. Add other ingredients and combine, then bring to a boil. Do not stir once the candy is boiling. Using a thermometer, bring the mixture to 300ºF - 310ºF. Pour over a large, buttered cookie sheet. Allow to cool, just until you can touch it, then roll into tiny balls and sprinkle with white sugar. Hint: you have to work fast to roll the candy before it hardens. You may want to have 2 -3 helpers to do this.

Other options (if you don't want to roll the candy) are below:

Square version (score candy with a knife as it cools, then break into squares):



Broken version (allow to cool, then break into pieces):

Individual Flourless Chocolate Kahlua Cake (Ramekin)

I'm doing a series of ramekin dishes for both of my blogs. This flourless cake turned out delicious!

Individual Flourless Chocolate Kahlua Cake (Ramekin)
1 ounce semisweet chocolate
1 T butter, softened
1 T cocoa powder
1 egg
Dash of salt
1 T sugar
1 T Kahlua
1 tsp powdered sugar


Place chocolate and butter in the bottom of a ramekin. Microwave for 20 seconds, stir, then 20 seconds again and stir until melted. Allow to cool. Add cocoa powder then egg, whisking with a small wire whisk. Add sugar, salt and Kahlua. Bake in a toaster oven at 300ºF for 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Serve warm.

Individual Berry Crumble in a Ramekin

I find that when I'm home alone, or when my kids and husband all decide to cook for themselves, I like making individual dishes baked in a ramekin in my toaster oven. I keep toying around with the idea of doing a blog of recipes designed for one person and cooked in a ramekin. What do you think?

Individual Berry Crumble in a Ramekin

Fill a small ramekin with fresh or frozen (thawed) berries, about 2/3 full
Sprinkle with 2 tsp of sugar

In a cereal bowl, combine with a pastry cutter:
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp rolled oats
Pinch of cinnamon
Dash of salt

Sprinkle butter combination over berries. In a toaster or small oven, bake at 350ºF for about 8 minutes, or until top is brown and berries are bubbly.

This recipe is about 350 calories, 6 grams protein, 8 grams dietary fiber, 10 grams fat, 131 mg sodium, and 18 grams sugars.

Revisiting Cinnamon Rolls

Scald and set aside to cool:

1 cup milk

Cream:
6 T butter
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs

Dissolve:
2 T yeast
1 T sugar
1 cup warm water

When the above steps are completed, combine them and add 6 1/2- 7 cups flour and 1 tsp salt. Knead well and place in a greased bowl. Raise until double and roll out. Sprinkle with cut-up butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Roll up and slice into 1 1/2 inch rolls. Place on greased cookie sheet and allow to rise again. Bake at 375º for 12 - 15 minutes.

Frosting:
3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 square butter
1 tsp vanilla
milk

Mix ingredients, adding milk until desired consistency.

My daughter, Adara slices the rolls

Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Bars

Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Bars (from bon appetit magazine)

Ingredients:

Crust

Nonstick vegetable oil spray

2 1/4 cups finely ground graham crackers (from about 17 whole graham crackers)

2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, melted

Filling

3 8-ounce packages Philadelphia-brand cream cheese, room temperature

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1/2 cup purchased dulce de leche

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Glaze

2/3 cup purchased dulce de leche

3 tablespoons (or more) heavy whipping cream

Fleur de sel

Preparation

Instructions:

Crust

Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat 13x9x2-inch metal baking pan with nonstick spray. Mix graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and cinnamon in medium bowl. Add melted butter; stir until coated. Transfer crumb mixture to pan. Press evenly onto bottom of pan. Bake until crust is light golden, about 10 minutes. Cool completely on rack.

Filling

Blend cream cheese and sugar in processor until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute, stopping occasionally to scrape down sides of bowl. Add eggs 1 at a time, processing 3 to 5 seconds to blend between additions. Add dulce de leche and vanilla; process until blended, about 10 seconds. Spread batter evenly over cooled crust. Bake until just set in center and edges are puffed and slightly cracked, about 38 minutes. Transfer to rack; cool completely.

Glaze

Heat dulce de leche and 3 tablespoons cream in microwave-safe bowl in 10-second intervals until melted. Stir to blend, adding more cream by teaspoonfuls if too thick to pour (amount of cream needed will depend on brand of dulce de leche). Pour glaze over cooled cheesecake; spread evenly. Refrigerate until chilled, about 1 hour (glaze will not be firm). DO AHEAD Can be made 2 days ahead. Cover; chill.

Cut cheesecake lengthwise into 4 strips, then crosswise into 6 strips, forming 24 bars. Sprinkle bars with fleur de sel.

Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Bars on the bottom, stacked with Peanut Buddies, Lemon bars, similar to Triple Sec Lime Bars, and Raspberry Bars (from Cooks Illustrated September 2005).

Mimsy's Pine Nut Honey Tart

I had quite a few pine nuts left over from the Lebanese-Inspired Spicy Lamb Pizza on my other blog and the Italian Easter Pie (posted in this blog prior to this post). I found a recipe for Pine Nut Tart, another Italian dessert, in a generic Mediterranean cookbook I've had for years. I made quite a few changes to the recipe, so I'm calling it my own version. Fabulous. Seriously scrumptious. I'm really happy with how it turned out, and my kids and their friends and Dave all seemed to like it too.

Mimsy's Pine Nut Honey Tart

Butter Crust
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
3/4 cup cold salted butter, chopped
1 egg

Mix the flour, sugar and butter until it looks like coarse cornmeal. Add the egg and mix until combined. Press into the bottom of a tart pan or springform pan. Cook at 375ºF for 10 minutes. Set aside.

Filling
1 1/2 cups raw pine nuts, roasted in the oven at 375ºF for 7 minutes
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 tsp almond extract
3 eggs
1/4 tsp salt

Combine honey, butter, extract and eggs. Beat until blended. Spread roasted pine nuts in crust. Pour honey mixture over nuts. Bake tart in the oven at 375ºF for 40 minutes or until set. Serve slightly cooled (warm) or cold.