Ginger-Molasses Chocolate Chip Cookies

The recipe for these cookies can be found HERE.

Mimsy's Caramel Apple Birthday Pudding

My birthday pudding!

Mimsy's Caramel Apple Birthday Pudding

Cake:
2 large granny smith apples, peeled and sliced
2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter (melted and cooled)
2 cups brown sugar
3 eggs
3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

Mix butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs and mix. Sift dry ingredients and add to butter mixture. Combine until wet. Fold in apples. Place in 9 x 13" pan and bake at 325ºF for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Poke holes in cake with skewer. Top with Apples in Caramel Sauce and allow cake to absorb the sauce.

Apples in Caramel Sauce:
3 large granny smith apples, peeled and sliced
1/3 cup water
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup brandy

Cover sliced apples in water , cinnamon and brown sugar. Cook until tender. Remove apples with slotted spoon. Add butter and cream and simmer until thickened. Return apples to sauce and add brandy and vanilla. Pour over hot cake. Serve warm.

Chocolate Sandwich Cookies with Cream Cheese Filling

This cookies are based on a recipe from this cookbook, only with slight ingredient and method alterations and a completely different filling.  THESE ARE NUMMY so get your noms on.  They are quick and easy to make and you won't regret it.  Besides, just look how adorable they are.  Who wouldn't want to grab one of these at a party?

Chocolate Cookies 
1 1/4 sticks of unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 cups flour
3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 375ºF. Beat butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add egg and beat until nearly white.  Combine dry ingredients separately, then add to butter mixture.  Beat together until well-combined.  Roll into 20 2-inch balls.  Roll in sugar, place on a cookie sheet and then flatten.  Bake for 8 minutes or until cracked.  Remove from oven and cool completely on rack.  Sandwich cream cheese filling between cookies (flat sides together).  Serve immediately, or store in refrigerator in sealed container.

Cream Cheese Filling
1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
8oz cream cheese
3 Tbsp salted butter
1 tsp vanilla

Beat together until smooth and fluffy.

Lemon Cake with White Chocolate Lemon Buttercream and Lemon Curd Filling

 This cake is rich and refreshing and delicious!  I'm not going to lie to you.  My cake fell a bit and looks like a... cake wreck.  So don't be like me and over-beat your cake.  Also, remember to adjust for high altitude if you live at 5,000 ft elevation like I do. This I forgot.   In spite of looking a bit frumpy, the cake was wonderful.

Lemon Cake with White Chocolate Lemon Buttercream and Lemon Curd Filling

This cake is based on a lemon cake from the book Rose's Heavenly Cakes

Cake

6oz White Chocolate

6 large egg yolks

1 cup milk

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

3 cups cake flour

1 cup sugar

3/4 tsp salt

4 tsp baking powder

1 Tbsp lemon zest

9 Tbsp unsalted butter

Start by making the Lemon Curd and then the White Chocolate Lemon Buttercream (below).  They need to be made 4 hours ahead of time.

Preheat oven to 350ºF

For cake, melt white chocolate and set aside to cool.  Mix egg yolks, milk and vanilla in a small bowl. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and lemon zest in a large mixing bowl. Add butter and mix until well combined.  Add egg mixture a little at a time until combined.  Add melted chocolate and mix until smooth.  Don't over-mix.  Spread into two 8" cake rounds (greased and floured).  Bake at 530ºF for 25 minutes or until done. Cool completely.  Fill layers with lemon curd and frost with buttercream.

Lemon Curd Filling

3 Tbsp lemon zest

7 large egg yolks

1 cup sugar

6 Tbsp unsalted butter

1/2 cup lemon juice (from about 3 lemons)

1/4 tsp salt

In a medium sauce pan, whisk the yolks, sugar and butter until well blended. Whisk in lemon juice and salt. Cook over medium-low heat until curd is thickened.  Do not allow to boil or it will curdle!  This might take some patience.  I suggest listening to an audiobook or watching a show while doing this.  I was over the stove for 20+ minutes. Allow curd to cool in refrigerator in an airtight container for 3-4 hours.

 

White Chocolate Lemon Buttercream  

10.5 oz white chocolate
20 Tbsp unsalted butter (divided)
4 large eggs

Melt white chocolate without much heat (over double boiler if possible).  Whisk in eggs and heat to 140ºF while stirring.  Cover and refrigerate.  Stir the mixture every 15 minutes until cool to the touch. whip in butter (using whisk attachment on mixer) until peaks form. Refrigerate, covered, for 3 - 4 hours.

Right before frosting cake, whip again and add about 1/2 cup of the lemon curd to the buttercream icing.

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.