Strawberry Poke Cake

I've been thinking about making this strawberry poke cake ever since I watched the episode of Cook's Country on which it was featured. I've never heard of it, but apparently the idea originated from Kraft in 1969 as a way to increase Jell-O sales. The basic concept starts with a white cake baked in a 13 x 9 pan. After the cake cools you poke holes in the cake and then pour a strawberry syrup over the top. The syrup seeps into the wholes and creates pinkish-red streaks throughout the cake. The cake is topped first with strawberry "jam" made from the strawberry solids and then a layer of whipped cream.

There's a great picture of this cake on the Cook's Country website. You have to register to get access to the recipes, but registration is free. My pictures don't do it justice. It's a really cool looking cake and, even more importantly, it's delicious! The white cake pairs wonderfully with the strawberry syrup and topping. The syrup keeps the cake moist but doesn't make it soggy.



Strawberry Poke Cake
from Cook's Country

For the Cake:
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for preparing pan
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for preparing pan
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 large egg whites
1 3/4 cups sugar

For the Syrup and Topping:
4 cups frozen strawberries
6 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons orange juice
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons strawberry-flavored gelatin
2 cups heavy cream

For the cake: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 baking pan. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in bowl. Whisk milk, vanilla, and egg whites in large measuring cup.

With electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down bowl as necessary. Add flour mixture and milk mixture alternately, in two batches, beating after each addition until combined, about 30 seconds each time. Using rubber spatula, give batter final stir. Scrape into prepared pan.

Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Cool cake completely in pan, at least 1 hour. Once cool, cake can be wrapped in plastic and kept at room temperature for up to 2 days.

For the syrup and topping: Heat 3 cups strawberries, 2 tablespoons sugar, juice, and water in medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Cover and cook until liquid is deep red and strawberries are softened, about 10 minutes. Strain liquid into bowl, reserving solids, then whisk gelatin into liquid. Let cool to room temperature, at least 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, poke about 50 holes in top of cooled cake. (A great tool to poke the holes with is a wooden skewer. You want holes all over the cake but try not to poke all the way down to the bottom of the cake. If you do, all of the strawberry liquid may end up on the bottom of the pan.) Slowly pour cooled liquid evenly over top of cake. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate until gelatin is set, at least 3 hours or up to 2 days.

Pulse reserved strained strawberries, 2 tablespoons sugar, and remaining strawberries in food processor until mixture resembles strawberry jam. Spread strawberry mixture evenly over cake. With electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat cream with remaining sugar to soft peaks. Spread cream over strawberries.

Braised Short Ribs

I bake a lot, but when it comes to cooking, I'm just not as proficient. I'm not a terribly creative person and I think cooking tends to be a more creative endeavor. I like to bake because it's a more exact science....follow the recipe, get a yummy treat. Sure, there are plenty of cooking "recipes" too but it's just not the same in my mind. Eventually I hope to improve my cooking skills and this recipe was definitely a step in the right direction. It was outside of my comfort zone for sure.

This is a time consuming recipe, though to be fair, most of the time the ribs are in the oven and you really don't have to do much but check to make sure there's enough liquid in the pot. I hope to catch a rerun of the episode of Anne Burrell's show, Secrets of a Restaurant Chef, on which she makes this recipe. The instructions were fairly clear, but I'd still feel better seeing what exactly the "crud" on the bottom of the pan was supposed to look like, among other things. I did my best, stuck the ribs in the oven and waited anxiously for them to cook.



I served the ribs with couscous and they were definitely worth the effort. I had the most amazing short ribs here on our honeymoon and these didn't live up to that experience, but they were delicious. We made a ton of ribs and I reheated them for a few meals and they were just as good when reheated, a definite bonus. We'll try making them again, maybe with a different recipe, though I'm not sure the recipe was the problem as much as the inexperienced cook :)

Braised Short Ribs
from FoodNetwork.com

6 bone-in short ribs (about 5 3/4 pounds)
kosher salt
extra-virgin olive oil
1 large Spanish onion, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 ribs celery, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 carrots, peeled, cut in 1/2 lengthwise, then cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1 1/2 cups tomato paste
2 to 3 cups hearty red wine
2 cups water
1 bunch fresh thyme, tied with kitchen string
2 bay leaves

Season each short rib generously with salt. Coat a pot large enough to accommodate all the meat and vegetables with olive oil and bring to a high heat. Add the short ribs to the pan and brown very well, about 2 to 3 minutes per side. Do not overcrowd pan. Cook in batches, if necessary.

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

While the short ribs are browning, puree all the vegetables and garlic in the food processor until it forms a coarse paste. When the short ribs are very brown on all sides, remove them from the pan. Drain the fat, coat the bottom of same pan with fresh oil and add the pureed vegetables. Season the vegetables generously with salt and brown until they are very dark and a crud has formed on the bottom of the pan, approximately 5 to 7 minutes. Scrape the crud and let it reform. Scrape the crud again and add the tomato paste. Brown the tomato paste for 4 to 5 minutes. Add the wine and scrape the bottom of the pan. Lower the heat if things start to burn. Reduce the mixture by half.

Return the short ribs to the pan and add 2 cups water or until the water has just about covered the meat. Add the thyme bundle and bay leaves. Cover the pan and place in the preheated oven for 3 hours. Check periodically during the cooking process and add more water, if needed. Turn the ribs over halfway through the cooking time. Remove the lid during the last 20 minutes of cooking to let things get nice and brown and to let the sauce reduce. When done the meat should be very tender but not falling apart. Serve with the braising liquid.

TWD: Fresh Ginger and Chocolate Gingerbread

This week's TWD was chosen by Heather of Sherry Trifle: fresh ginger and chocolate gingerbread! Around Christmas, I'd made these chewy chocolate gingerbread cookies and really liked them so I was hopeful that this week's pick would be just as tasty!

I made a few modifications to the recipe based on what I had available as well as what I was in the mood for. This recipe calls for ground ginger, fresh ginger and stem ginger in syrup. That sounded like a lot of ginger to me and many of the other TWD bakers agreed so I used only ground ginger in my version. I actually bought some fresh ginger to use, but decided against it at the last minute. Also, Dorie frosts the cake with a chocolate frosting, but after seeing Caitlin's post this morning I knew I was going to go with whipped cream!



This week was a comedy of errors for me. I didn't have a 9 x 9 pan as the recipe calls for so I used an 8 x 8 pan as well as a few ramekins. The cakes in the ramekins baked up beautifully and released without a problem. The cake in the 8 x 8 wasn't as cooperative. After 45 minutes I tested the cake and my knife came out clean so I took it out of the oven to cool. When I unmolded the cake 10 minutes later, I was surprised to discover the the center was quite raw! So, I had to figure out how to get the cake back into the pan so I could cook it a bit more. It was a messy endeavor but I did get it back in. I baked it for another 10-15 minutes and took it out again. The center was pretty ugly (sort of concave) and when I unmolded the cake, a few pieces of the center of the cake stuck to the pan. So, with a concave center on top and some missing pieces on the bottom center, this wasn't a pretty cake! Fortunately, whipped cream was a great cover for this cake's problems.



I did try a few bites of one of the smaller cakes I made in the ramekin and thought they were delicious! I'm not a huge fan of gingerbread so it wouldn't be my first choice for cake, but I did enjoy it. You can find the recipe on Heather's blog. Also, be sure to check out TWD to see how the other bakers fared!

Triple Chocolate Cookies

I think I first saw these cookies on one of the Food Network's holiday specials this year. They looked delicious plus they had the added benefit of being one of Ellie's recipes, which means they're a bit more nutritious than your typical cookie. I made a few changes to the recipe based on what I was trying to use up from my pantry. Instead of milk chocolate, I used semisweet chocolate chips. Also, I used peanut butter chips instead of pecans because I almost never have nuts of any sort on hand.

I can't recall ever having made cookies where oil was used in place of some of the butter so I was curious to see how these would turn out. On top of that, whole wheat pastry flour is used in combination with all-purpose flour in the recipe and I wasn't sure what effect that would have on them. Shane was the ultimate test subject for the cookies as I knew he'd immediately pick out any "healthy" factor and disapprove :) He gave these a big thumbs-up though! They're moist and rich with chocolate flavor. They're super simple to make so I'm sure we'll be making them again soon.



Triple Chocolate Cookies
from FoodNetwork.com

1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch processed)
1/4 teaspoon salt, optional
1/3 cup coarsely chopped dark chocolate (2 ounces)
1/3 cup coarsely chopped milk chocolate (2 ounces) (I used semisweet chocolate)
2/3 cup chopped pecans, optional (I used peanut butter chips instead)

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

In a large bowl, mash together the butter and sugars with a fork until well combined. Add the oil and egg and beat until creamy. Mix in the vanilla.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, cocoa powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well. Stir in the dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and the pecans and mix well. Using a tablespoon, scoop the batter onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 12 minutes. Transfer cookies to a rack to cool.

Cranberry Sorbet

I first saw this recipe on Annie's blog a few months ago back when I was on my cranberry kick. I made a note to try it and finally got around to it recently. I've been hoarding a few bags of cranberries in my freezer and thought this would be a good way to use some of them. Plus, I figured this would be healthier than ice cream yet still a good cold treat.

The sorbet was tasty, though honestly not my favorite. It wound up being a bit too tart for me. The original recipe called for orange zest and orange juice and eventually I'd like to try that combination as it sounds delicious. I meant to try Annie's version (with cranberry-raspberry juice) but I forgot to check what kind of juice I needed before I ran out to the grocery store and wound up with cranberry apple instead.



Cranberry Sorbet
adapted from Annie's Eats, originally from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

1 1/2 cups cranberries, fresh or frozen
1 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups cranberry apple juice
1 to 2 teaspoons Grand Marnier or Cointreau (optional) (I omitted)

Heat the cranberries, water and sugar in a medium saucepan until the liquid begins to boil. Boil for 1 minute, then remove from the heat, cover, and let stand for 30 minutes.

Puree the cranberry mixture in a blender or food processor and then press the puree through a sieve to remove any large bits of cranberry skin. Stir in the cranberry apple juice and the liqueur, if using.

Chill the mixture thoroughly, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Makes about 1 quart.

Italian Bread

As I mentioned yesterday, I made a huge pan of lasagna for inauguration day. Since we're going to be eating a lot of lasagna leftovers this week, I wanted to make fresh bread to add a little something to dinner. I have so many bread recipes to choose from, but I decided to go with one for italian bread from my Weight Watchers cookbook since I haven't used it in a while. The only problem I had with this recipe is that I wasn't exactly sure how to fold the dough to form the loaf. I didn't think the instructions were terribly clear. I did the best I could and I don't think it mattered too much in the end. The bread was delicious! It has a nice crisp outer crust but the inside is soft and just wonderful.



Italian Bread
from Weight Watchers New Complete Cookbook

1 envelope active dry yeast (I used 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast instead)
3/4 cup lukewarm (105-115 F) water
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
1/4 cup whole-wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cornmeal

In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast over 1/4 cup of the water. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. (Note: this step isn't necessary if you use instant yeast. You can just throw the yeast in with the flour and salt in that case.)

In a food processor, combine the all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, and salt. With the machine running, scrape the yeast mixture and the remaining 1/2 cup of water through the feed tube until the dough just forms a ball. (I poured the entire 3/4 cup of water through the feed tube since I didn't need to proof the instant yeast.) Knead the dough by pulsing until it is smooth and no longer sticky, about 30 times.

Spray a large bowl with nonstick cooking spray; place the dough in the bowl. Cover loosely with plastic wrap or a damp towel and let the dough rise in a warm, draft-free place until it doubles in volume, 40-50 minutes.

Punch down the dough; lightly sprinkle a work surface with flour. Turn out the dough; form into a 12 x 16 rectangle. Fold into thirds, lengthwise, and pinch the seams to seal, forming into a 12-inch tapered oval loaf.

Spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray; sprinkle the cornmeal in a 12-inch strip down the center. Place the loaf on the baking sheet; cover loosely with plastic wrap or a damp towel and let it rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in volume, about 30 minutes.

Dust the loaf with about 1 teaspoon flour; with a sharp knife cut 2-3 slashes into the top. Place in the upper third of a cold oven; set the oven to 400 F. Bake about 20 minutes; reduce the oven temperature to 350 F and bake for 25-30 minutes longer, until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. Remove from the baking sheet and cool completely on a rack.

Happy Inauguration Day!

First, let me start by apologizing to Mary Ann of Meet Me in the Kitchen. She chose Berry Surprise Cake for this week's TWD but I just didn't get around to making it. It looks delicious though so I hope to try the recipe soon. Head over to Mary Ann's blog for the recipe and check out TWD if you'd like to see how the cakes turned out this week!

Anyway, Happy Inauguration Day everyone! I was really excited about today and enjoyed watching the day's events unfold. To celebrate the day, I made a nice meal for Shane and I to enjoy. We had lasagna (at Shane's request), biscuits and chocolate cake. Yum! I made this cake just the other day for my mom and Shane kept threatening to eat it so I had to make him his own today!

Having made the cake the other day, I was able to improve on it today. I took it out of the oven a bit early the other day and the center ended up collapsing a bit as it cooled. It wasn't a big deal as I topped the cake with a chocolate ganache which covered it nicely. Today, though, I left it in a few minutes longer and avoided the sunken center. Also, instead of topping with chocolate ganache, I used a vanilla frosting. The chocolate ganache would have been chocolate overload for me but with the vanilla frosting, this cake was perfect! It was delicious....very moist and great chocolate flavor. The recipe is also great because it comes together so quickly (no mixer required!) so I know I'll be making it again and again!



Pantry Chocolate Cake
from The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book

1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
3/4 cup boiling water
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking poweder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon instant espresso (optional)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with foil, allowing the ends of the foil to overhang the pan (which will make it easier to remove the cake after baking).

Whisk the cocoa and the boiling water together in a small bowl. Let the mixture cool slightly.

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and espresso powder (if using) together. In another bowl, whisk the vegetable oil, egg, vanilla and cooled cocoa mixture together. Stir the oil mixture into the flour mixture (I found it easiest to do this with a rubber spatula as the batter is fairly thick and got caught in the whisk).

Give the batter a final stir with the rubber spatula to make sure it is 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 until a toothpick inserted inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, about 30 to 35 minutes. Let the cake cool completely in the pan, 1 to 2 hours.




Vanilla Frosting
from The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book

3 sticks unsalted butter, cut into chunks and softened
3 tablespoons heavy cream
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups confectioners' sugar

Beat the butter, cream, vanilla and salt together in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes.

Reduce the mixer speed to medium low, slowly add the confectioners' sugar, and beat until incorporated and smooth, 4 to 6 minutes. Increase the mixer speed to medium-high and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy, 5 to 10 minutes.

Baked Ziti with Sausage

I mentioned that I had a friend in town this past week and fortunately, she loves trying new recipes as much as me. We were in the grocery store picking up a few items and decided, on a whim, to also get the ingredients for this baked ziti with sausage. I was looking forward to trying it as I've never made baked ziti with meat before. Besides, you can never go wrong with baked pasta.....yum.

We omitted the onion from the recipe so Shane would eat it but were I to add onion, I think I'd cook it with the sausage to avoid that raw onion flavor. Otherwise, we followed the recipe as written. It's easy to put together and smelled delicious when it came out of the oven. Everyone liked it (though Shane was quick to point out he still liked this lasagna more) and we've really enjoyed the reheated leftovers the past few days. I will definitely make this again but I think I'll use turkey sausage and maybe try a different cheese mixture just to change things up.



Baked Ziti with Sausage
from AllRecipes.com

1 (16 ounce) package dry ziti pasta
1 pound mild Italian sausage (remove meat from casings if buying links)
1 (15 ounce) container ricotta cheese
1 egg
1 large yellow onion, minced
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 1/2 (26 ounce) jars spaghetti sauce, divided
1 (8 ounce) package shredded Italian cheese blend
1 teaspoon dried basil (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.

Fill a large pot with lightly salted water and bring to a rolling boil over high heat. Once the water is boiling, stir in the ziti, and return to a boil. Cook the pasta uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the pasta has cooked through, but is still firm to the bite, about 8 minutes. Drain well in a colander set in the sink.

While pasta is cooking, heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the sausage, and cook and stir until brown, about 10 minutes. Drain sausage and set aside.

Stir together the ricotta, egg, onion, garlic, and oregano in a large bowl until well combined. Stir in the drained pasta, the drained sausage, salt, pepper, and 1/2 jar of the spaghetti sauce; mix well.

In the prepared baking dish, cover the bottom with 1/3 jar of spaghetti sauce. Layer 1/2 of the pasta mixture, 1/3 jar of spaghetti sauce, and 1/2 of the shredded cheese. Then layer the remaining 1/2 of the pasta, 1/3 of the sauce, and 1/2 of the cheese. Sprinkle with basil. Cover the dish tightly with aluminum foil.

Bake in the preheated oven until heated through, about 20 minutes. Uncover; return to the oven and bake until cheese is melted, 5 to 10 more minutes.

A Good Day!

Recently I posted about my disappointment over the disappearance of my favorite seasonal soda: Cranberry Splash Sierra Mist. I think, for the most part, I'd gotten over my disappointment. But then, I got some great news yesterday. Here, see for yourself:







Yes, with a hot tip from a friend, several 2 liter bottles of the Cranberry Splash Sierra Mist were secured!! So if, like me, you love this soda and were sad about its disappearance, I recommend checking your local CVS for more.

Banana Espresso Chocolate Chip Muffins

I've really been enjoying browsing through the book Baked: New Frontiers in Baking, which I borrowed from my library recently. The book is due shortly so I figured I'd better get cracking on trying some of the recipes. I think I want to purchase the book, but I'd like to test a few of the recipes and see how much success I have with them first.

My friend Teresa is in town for a few days and it was the perfect opportunity to test one of the muffin recipes for breakfast. I have had my eye on this banana espresso chocolate chip muffin recipe so we decided to give it a shot. I bought bananas yesterday so obviously they weren't ripe enough yet. I used a trick I saw on a Food Network show to ripen them quickly. I put the bananas (in their peels) in the oven on a baking sheet at 400 F for about 10 minutes. It worked perfectly and we had ripe bananas ready to be mashed and added. Like most muffins recipes this one comes together quickly and thankfully, the muffins baked up beautifully! I did cut back on the amount of chocolate chips because the picture of the muffins in the book looks VERY chocolately. Teresa and I both agreed, however, that the amount of chocolate in the muffins as I made them was perfect. We couldn't taste the espresso at all so maybe I would try to add a bit more next time but otherwise I wouldn't change these a bit!



Banana Espresso Chocolate Chip Muffins
from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking, by Matt Lewis, Renato Poliafito and Tina Rupp

1 1/2 cups mashed, very ripe bananas (about 4 medium bananas)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup whole milk
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips (I used ~2/3 cup)



Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a 12-cup muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, stir together the bananas, sugars, butter, milk and egg.

In another medium bowl, whisk together the flour, instant espresso powder, baking soda and salt. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the well and stir until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Fill each cup about three-quarters full. Bake in the center of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Move the muffin pan to a cooling rack, and let cool for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, remove the muffins from the pan and let them finish cooling on the cooling rack.

Muffins can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days.

Makes 12 muffins.

Coffee Ice Cream

One of the many cooking-related gifts I received for Christmas was the America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book. I am in love with this book. It's truly phenomenal, from its recipes to its tips, equipment reviews and more. I loved the book so much I borrowed the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook from my library. I've enjoyed looking through this book just as much. In fact, I've probably spent more time with this book than the baking one since I have to return it to the library soon.

One recipe I found that I really wanted to try was coffee ice cream. Quick fact about me.....I don't drink coffee. At all. I do, however, really enjoy coffee ice cream. I don't have it very much though because I generally pick something a little more adventurous if I get ice cream when we're out. I've been wanting to make coffee ice cream since I got my ice cream maker but most of the recipes I've seen require coffee beans and (obviously) I don't have any and I didn't really want to purchase any. This recipe, however, uses instant espresso powder, which I do happen to have on hand since a number of chocolate recipes use it to enhance the chocolate flavor. I whipped this up yesterday and loved it! It's better than any coffee ice cream I've ever had and the texture is wonderful. Some of the ice creams I've made haven't had the best texture (they've either been a little too hard or too soft) but this one is perfect.



Coffee Ice Cream
from The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup sugar
4 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons instant espresso powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Set a fine mesh-strainer over a medium bowl and set the bowl in a large container of ice water. Heat the milk, cream, 1/2 cup of sugar, and the espresso powder in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar, until steam appears and the milk is hot (175 F), about 5 minutes.

While the milk mixture is heating up, in a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks and the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar together until smooth. When the milk mixture is hot, slowly whisk about 1 cup of it into the egg yolks to temper. Then, slowly whisk the tempered egg yolks back into the remaining hot milk. Continue to cook the custard over medium heat until it is very hot but not simmering (180 to 185 F).

Strain the custard into the bowl, set in the ice bath and add the vanilla extract and then let cool, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes. Remove the custard bowl from the ice bath, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until completely chilled, about 3 hours.

When chilled, stir the custard thoroughly and then churn in your ice cream machine per the manufacturer's instructions.

TWD: Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins

This week's TWD was chosen by Rebecca of Ezra Pound Cake: savory corn and pepper muffins! Though I've become much more proficient in the kitchen over the past year, one thing I still really struggle with is muffins. I thought this week's selection would be another opportunity for me to improve so I welcomed it!



The original recipe for these muffins is really interesting. It's a southwestern take on corn muffins and includes chili powder, black pepper, jalapeno pepper, red bell pepper and cilantro. I'd love to say I was adventurous and tried this variation....but I didn't. Dorie offered an alternative "playing around" version which was a more basic corn muffin and that's the route I went. I knew the southwestern variation wasn't my thing but I love plain corn muffins so I was looking forward to trying them.

Let me start with the good news: these are really delicious corn muffins! I followed Dorie's recipe for plain corn muffins but I left out the corn kernels as I didn't have any on hand. I thought the muffins were just sweet enough and had a great texture. Now for the bad news...my issues with muffins continue. My muffins were really flat and in fact, a few even had concave tops. I can't figure out why muffins rarely bake up properly. I was careful not to overmix the batter and really thought these would turn out well. At least they taste good!



You can find the recipe on Rebecca's blog if you'd like to try these muffins. Be sure to head over to TWD to see other variations of Dorie's corn muffins.

Cinnamon Nut Buns

Last week I raved about the dinner rolls I made using a recipe from my December issue of Everyday Food. The same dough which is used to make those rolls can also be used to make cinnamon rolls! Once I knew how delicious the dinner rolls were (and how easy the dough was to work with), I knew I wanted to try the cinnamon rolls too. I decided to make them this weekend so Shane could have them for breakfast and I could drop some off at our friend's house. I only made half of the recipe because I figured 12 of these cinnamon rolls were more than enough for us and our friends. I also omitted the nuts since we don't really like them but otherwise, I followed the recipe to the letter. I've never seen a cinnamon roll recipe that includes chocolate chips in the filling but I liked the idea. I think the chocolate adds another unexpected dimension to the flavor. These rolls were just as easy to make as the dinner rolls and turned out just as well! They have a brown sugar glaze as opposed to the typical confectioners' sugar glaze you see on cinnamon rolls but it's wonderful. I wish we had more room in our freezer so I could have made the other half of the recipe and stuck them in there for another time!



Cinnamon Nut Buns
from Everyday Food, December 2008

Dinner Rolls, prepared through the first rise

For the Filling
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pans
1 cup packed dark-brown sugar
2/3 cup walnuts or pecans
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
salt
all-purpose flour, for work surface

For the Glaze
1 cup packed dark-brown sugar
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons water

Butter two 13-by-9-inch baking pans. In a food processor, combine brown sugar, nuts, chocolate, cinnamon, and a pinch of salt. Pulse until coarsely ground; set nut mixture aside.

Divide dough in half. Working with one half at a time (keep the other half covered with plastic wrap), roll dough out to a 16-by-10-inch rectangle on a lightly floured work surface. Spread 4 tablespoons butter over dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border all around. Sprinkle half the nut mixture over butter. Leave a border around the filling so it doesn't seep.

Starting at a long end, roll up dough like a jellyroll; with a sharp knife, cut crosswise into 12 equal pieces.

Place buns, cut side down, in prepared pans. Cover pans loosely with plastic; let stand in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 1 1/4 hours. (Alternatively, after shaping the rolls you can freeze them. You'll want to add 2 hours to the second rise (for a total of 3 1/4 hours) if the rolls are frozen.)



Preheat oven to 375 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds. Bake buns until golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes, rotating pans back to front and top to bottom halfway through. Let cool 15 minutes.



Prepare glaze: In a small saucepan, heat brown sugar, butter, and water over medium, stirring, until simmering; cook 1 minute. Drizzle glaze over buns; let stand 10 minutes before serving.

TWD: French Pear Tart

This week's TWD marks the start of the second year of Tuesdays with Dorie! I didn't join until April, but the other bakers had already been working their way through the book since January. To celebrate the one year anniversary of the group, none other than Dorie Greenspan herself was asked to choose the recipe! She was happy to do so and she chose one of her favorites: the french pear tart! Despite the fact that I bake quite frequently, I rarely make tarts so this was a good opportunity for me to try my hand at one!



This recipe has three components: the tart shell or crust, the almond cream and the pears. Though the finished tart looks very fancy, each individual component is really simple! Both the crust and the almond cream are made in the food processor and the pears come from a can, if you can believe it. The recipe can be also be made with fresh pears (poached or unpoached) but I still haven't figured out the art of choosing the best fresh produce so I stuck with canned pears.



I think this tart is one of the prettiest desserts I've ever made. As it cooks, the almond cream puffs up and browns around the pears. I dusted mine with confectioners' sugar to finish it off but you could also glaze it with jelly to give it some shine. When I make something that I think looks nice (particularly a cake, pie or tart), I'm hesitant to cut into it and "ruin" it. Silly, I know. But since I was giving this tart away and wanted it to look its best, I didn't cut a slice for myself to try. I did, however, taste the components individually and they were all delicious! I wasn't sure how many pear halves came in a can so I bought more than I needed and now I know I'll be using them to make this tart again!



Many thanks to Dorie for her pick this week! Be sure to head over to her site for the recipe as well as some beautiful photos. As always, you can also check out the TWD bakers to see how they made out with this week's recipe.

Chocolate Stout Milkshake

I own far too many cookbooks and I truly don't have room in the house for more. Yet, for some reason, I can't stop myself from lusting over new cookbooks any time I'm out shopping. I've been eyeing Baked: New Frontiers in Baking since I saw one of the authors on Martha Stewart not too long ago. I convinced myself to check it out of the library instead of buying it. It bears noting that our town library is amazing when it comes to cookbooks - I think I currently have 5 or 6 checked out..... Anyway, Baked is an absolutely gorgeous book....beautiful photos, fun fonts and bright colors. The first recipe I decided to try was a simple milkshake. It combines chocolate and beer and I knew Shane would be psyched about it. I stopped at the liquor store and grabbed chocolate stout today and threw this together this evening. We had some chocolate fudge ice cream in the freezer so I used that instead of plain chocolate ice cream. This shake was a big hit with Shane! In addition to the delicious shake, he got to drink the rest of the bottle of chocolate stout. Not a bad way to start the week!



Chocolate Stout Milkshake
from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking, by Matt Lewis, Renato Poliafito and Tina Rupp

2 huge scoops (about 2 cups) premium chocolate ice cream
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 cup very cold chocolate stout
1 tablespoon malted milk powder

Put two tall (8-ounce or larger), heavy glasses in the freezer while you make the milkshake.

Put the ice cream, milk, stout and malted milk powder in a powerful blender. Blend until smooth. Pour into the chilled glasses and serve with spoons.

Makes 2 8-ounce servings.

Dinner Rolls

Our friends invited us over for dinner recently and I knew they'd really appreciate homemade rolls. I'd seen this recipe for dinner rolls in my December issue of Everyday Food and had been meaning to make it so this was a good opportunity. This was one of the easiest bread doughs I've ever worked with. It wasn't incredibly sticky so kneading by hand wasn't terribly challenging. The first rise was perfect and I shaped the rolls and prepared them for the second rise. I put half in the freezer for another time and stuck half in my oven (it's cold and drafty in my kitchen right now) to rise. Then I got absorbed in watching college bowl games and completely lost track of time. Next thing I knew my rolls were over-risen. Unfortunately, I didn't realize it until I started baking them. It wasn't pretty and I don't have any pictures to document the event but essentially they spread a ton and were really flat. I brought them to our friends because I simply didn't have time to make another batch. We ate them but they were a bit sour and dense. Tonight I took the other batch out of the freezer and let them rise for a second time. I was much more careful this time and they rose perfectly. I did forget the egg wash before putting them in the oven but they were absolutely delicious nonetheless!! Soooo much better than last time. We had them warm with butter and they were the perfect complement to our pot roast. This is definitely my new go-to roll recipe!

(For what it's worth, I'm sure this recipe could also be made in a stand mixer with the dough hook but it's really not necessary since this dough is so easy to work with.)



Dinner Rolls
from Everyday Food, December 2008

1/4 cup warm water (115 F)
2 packets (1/4 ounce each) active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm whole milk (115 F)
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted, plus more for bowl and pans
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons salt
3 large eggs
6 to 6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface

Place water in a small bowl; sprinkle with yeast, and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. In a large bowl, whisk together milk, butter, sugar, salt, and 2 eggs. Whisk in yeast mixture.

Using a wooden spoon, stir in 6 cups flour, 1 cup at a time, until you have a soft, shaggy dough (if necessary, add up to 1/2 cup more flour). Turn dough out onto a floured work surface; knead until smooth and elastic, 5 to 10 minutes. Butter the inside of a large bowl; place dough in bowl, turning to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap; let stand in a warm spot until dough has doubled in size, about 1 1/4 hours.

Butter two 13-by-9-inch baking pans. Divide dough in half. Roll each half into a 15-inch rope; cut each rope into 15 1-inch pieces. Press each piece into a disk, then shape into a ball. Arrange dough balls in prepared pans. (To make ahead: Wrap pans well, and freeze, up to 2 months.) Cover pans loosely with plastic; let stand in a warm spot until rolls have doubled in size, about 1 1/4 hours (2 hours more if frozen).

Preheat oven to 375 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds. In a small bowl, beat remaining egg until blended; brush onto rolls. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes, rotating pans back to front and top to bottom halfway through. Let rolls cool 15 minutes before serving.

Yields 30 rolls

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Icing

I've been promising Shane chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting for some time now. With all of the holiday baking I did, these kept getting pushed to the back burner. Finally, last week I set aside time to make them and they were worth the wait! The chocolate and peanut butter combination very rarely disappoints in my opinion! I've used this cupcake recipe before but this was the first peanut butter icing I've tried. I was concerned the peanut butter frosting would be overwhelming but that wasn't the case. It was light and creamy and just sweet enough. Shane was a big fan too so I know we'll be making these again very soon!



Chocolate Cupcake recipe here

Peanut Butter Icing
from FoodNetwork.com

1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 cup heavy cream

Place the confectioners' sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium-low speed until creamy, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as you work. Add the cream and beat on high speed until the mixture is light and smooth.

Eggnog Cupcakes

In the spirit of trying new things, especially around the holidays, I picked up some eggnog to give these cupcakes I'd seen on Annie's blog a shot. I didn't take a close look at the recipe before I ran to the store so I ended up with eggnog that was not low-fat. Ooops. In any event, these cupcakes came together quickly (no mixer required) and baked up nicely. I wasn't sure how apparent the eggnog flavor would be, but even after baking, the scent of the eggnog and rum was fairly strong. Since there's also eggnog and rum in the frosting, I knew these cupcakes probably weren't going to be a hit with anyone who didn't also really enjoy eggnog. I loved how cute the finished cupcakes looked garnished with cinnamon and cinnamon sticks, but I didn't love the taste. The eggnog flavor was too strong for me. Fortunately, my mom found some coworkers who thought they were delicious so no wasted cupcakes!



Eggnog Cupcakes
from Annie's Eats

For the cupcakes:

¼ cup dark rum or bourbon

1 cup low-fat eggnog

¼ cup vegetable oil

1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

¼ tsp. ground nutmeg

1 cup sugar

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

¼ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

For the frosting:

¼ cup butter, softened

3 tbsp. lowfat eggnog

1 tbsp. rum

generous pinch of nutmeg

2 (or more) cups confectioners’ sugar

ground cinnamon

cinnamon sticks

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. In a small bowl, mix together the rum, eggnog, vegetable oil, apple cider vinegar, and vanilla extract. In a large bowl, mix together the nutmeg, sugar, flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk until just combined. Divide evenly between prepared muffin wells.

Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the cakes spring back when lightly pressed. Cool in the pan 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting, cream together the butter, eggnog, rum, nutmeg and confectioners’ sugar. Add in more confectioners’ sugar if needed to make the frosting stiff, but spreadable. Frost the cooled cupcakes. Sprinkle with cinnamon and garnish with a cinnamon stick.