Experiments in Baking (& Bacon)

Between blog posts, I do quite a bit of baking. And I have to admit that, lately, I've been getting a little bored. So when I saw a recipe in Food & Wine for bacon bourbon brownies, I thought that they sounded just crazy enough to be fantastic. So I began tweaking the recipe.

If you're still with me after figuring out that I made brownies containing meat and liquor, I promise you won't be sorry. It sounds pretty weird to put these things together but (to most people) all 3 of these things are great on its own so why not put them together?

I have to admit, I am certainly not a bacon-eater, bourbon-drinker, or brownie-eater (unless they're gluten-free) but I couldn't, in good conscience, tell you to try these without actually having tried them myself. The salty-smokiness of the bacon complimented the chocolate nicely, and the subtly of the bourbon added a little something extra as well. So if you're brave, give these a shot (or at least make them for your man!) and let me know what you think!

Bacon Bourbon Brownies (Adapted from Food & Wine Magazine)

Yield: One 9"x9" pan

4 strips of bacon, cooked to crisp and broken into small pieces (save 3 tablespoons of the fat)

9 tablespoons butter

10 oz semisweet chocolate

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

3 large eggs

3 tablespoons bourbon

1 1/4 cup flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9" square baking pan well.

In a medium saucepan, stir the butter and chocolate over medium-low heat until melted together. Add both of the sugars and stir for several minutes, until the sugars begin to dissolve. Remove from heat. Add the bourbon and saved bacon fat. Cool slightly.

In the meantime, combine flour and salt in a small bowl.

Add the eggs to the slightly cooled chocolate mixture and stir until combined. Stir in the flour mixture. Stir in 3/4 of the bacon pieces.

Pour into prepared pan and sprinkle with remaining bacon and chocolate chips.

Bake 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Pâte à Choux: A Lesson in Cream Puffs

Pictures by Becky Rosenthal

Pâte à Choux sounds fancy and French (Well, it is French), which I have to admit is part of it's appeal to me. It can seem daunting to make if you've never done it before. So when my friend Becky asked if she could join me when I made them, I was thrilled to share. 

Pâte à Choux is a light pastry dough used for making eclairs, profiteroles (or cream puffs, but profiteroles is fancier), and beignets. I'll share the recipe and important techniques and then you can hop over to Becky's blog to learn how to make different variations of a fantastic pastry cream to fill them!

Pâte à Choux (Adapted from Mastering the Art of French Cooking)

Makes 20-24 puffs

Ingredients:

1 cup water

6 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup flour

4 eggs

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment, a silicone baking mat (works best) or grease WELL, so that your puffs don't stick.

Bring water, butter, salt, and sugar to a boil in a medium saucepan until all of the butter is melted.

Remove from the heat and add the flour all at once. Beat vigorously until completely combined. Return to heat and stir over medium-high heat until the mixture pulls away from the side of the pan.

Remove from heat. Add eggs, one at a time, stirring constantly to prevent the eggs from cooking (it helps to have a friend help you during this step!). Stir until completely combined.

Spoon warm batter into a pastry bag fitted with a medium to large round tip. Pipe circles (1 1/2 to 2 in) on the lined baking sheet, like below. (Note: they will spread very little so they can be placed fairly close together)

Bake about 25 minutes, or until golden brown and hollow-sounding when the bottom of the puff is tapped (this is VERY important so that they don't sink).

Turn the oven off and prop the door open for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven. Cool.

Fill a pastry bag fitted with a small round tip with pastry cream or other filling of your choice. Insert into the bottom of each puff. Squeeze until full. Dust with powdered sugar or drizzle with chocolate, if desired.

Edible Gifts: Peppermint Bark

It's been quite awhile since I wrote my last "Edible Gifts" post. But with the weeks winding down for Christmas, there's still time to get crafty with your foodie gift ideas.

In case you don't remember, I made the suggestion (by way of Advent Conspiracy) that this year, we put more thought into our gifts and spend less on meaningless items. 

This peppermint bark is just the thing! I have to admit, I have a mild obsession with peppermint bark. And I have my favorites. I love the tiny pieces of peppermint candy mixed in with the white chocolate of the Ghiradelli peppermint bark, but also enjoy the larger pieces of candy that garnish the top of traditional peppermint bark. So I had to share this recipe (which has a little of both!) so that all of you can enjoy it as much as I have been. It's festive, delicious, and super easy. So easy, in fact, that you'll be kicking yourself for buying it at the store for all these years!

Peppermint Bark
Yield: One 9" x 9" pan (to be broken into pieces)

10 oz good quality semisweet chocolate
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
10 oz good quality white chocolate
1 tablespoon vegetable or canola oil
15 pieces peppermint swirl candy, broken into small pieces
Cellophane and ribbon for wrapping

Melt the semisweet chocolate in a double-boiler, stirring constantly. Stir in the peppermint extract. Spread into a 9" x 9" pan lined with parchment paper. Freeze 20 minutes, or until hardened.

Wait until right before you take the pan out of the freezer and then melt white chocolate in a double-boiler, stirring constantly. Stir in the oil.

Remove the white chocolate from heat and stir in about half of the crushed peppermint candies (the tiniest crushed up pieces, if you can). Immediately spread onto the hardened semi-sweet chocolate and sprinkle with the remaining candy pieces. Allow to harden in the freezer.

Break into pieces, wrap in cellophane, and tie with a ribbon, if desired.

Because Lemons are in Season . . . Lemon Cake!

Beautiful picture by Amy Lashelle Beckler

This past Summer, one of my loveliest girlfriends married her long-time (and very talented) photographer boyfriend. I was lucky enough to do the cakes for their wedding. Although I did 5 different kinds of cake, the pictures of the lemon cakes were some of my favorite. I was resistant to post this summery-like cake until my friend Becky put up her monthly list of seasonal produce in Utah . I was pleased to see that lemons made the list!


So, my Utahan friends (and the rest of you), stop on by the grocery store where lemons are sure to be 3 for $1 and use them to make this beautiful lemon cake with cream cheese frosting. Enjoy!

Beautiful picture by Amy Lashelle Beckler

Lemon Cake
Yields one 2-layer 9" round cake


1 cup salted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 eggs, at room temperature
2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
Juice from one lemon
Zest from the same lemon
1 cup buttermilk (if you don't have buttermilk, put 1 tablespoon lemon juice in a measuring cup and fill the rest of the cup with whole milk. Wait 5 minutes)


1 cup lemon curd


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 9" round cake pans


Cream together softened butter and sugar on medium-high speed for 30 seconds. Add lemon peel and juice and mix a few seconds more. Add eggs, one at a time and mix until each is combined.


Combine flour, baking powder, and baking soda in a small bowl. Add half the flour mixture to the creamed-butter mixture and mix until combined. Then, half the buttermilk and mix. Repeat until all of the ingredients have been incorporated but do not over-mix.


Divide the batter evenly between 2 pans. Bake 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans. Cool completely before frosting.




Cream Cheese Frosting:

1/2 cup salted butter, softened

3 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened

5 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon good quality vanilla

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

Mix softened butter, cream cheese, vanilla, and zest in a bowl fitted with a paddle attachment on medium speed until smooth and well-combined. Scrape down bowl. Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time and mix in between each addition until well-combined.

Candied Lemons:

One large lemon

1 cup sugar

One cup water

Slice lemon into 1/4 inch thick slices. Remove seeds. Cut slices in half. 

Combine water and sugar in saute pan over high heat and stir until sugar is dissolved. Reduce heat to medium and place lemon slices in pan in one layer. Cook without stirring 45-60 minutes until the rinds start to dull in color. Remove slices with a fork and place on a sheet lined with parchment. Cool.

Spread the lemon curd over one layer of cake and top with the second layer. Cover the outside with cream cheese frosting and assemble candied lemon slices on top of the cake.

Raspberry Cream Pie (Making Good Use of Leftover Pie Filling)

In the midst of all of the Thanksgiving madness and a job I am not always thankful for this time of year, I forgot to mention how very thankful I am for a job where I can bring home leftover confections and fillings. We may have accidentally made quite a bit (about 25 lbs!) of extra vanilla pie filling. So, before it went bad at work, I took home a good-sized bucket of this stuff. In hopes of making something a little more fresh and delicious than just  a vanilla cream pie, I managed to find some beautiful raspberries (at this time of year; can you believe it?!) to fold in and lay over a lovely gluten-free crust.

If you're lucky enough to find some nice produce this time of year, feel free to choose whatever you can get your hands on to use in this recipe!

Raspberry Cream Pie

Yields: one 9" pie

Crust:

6 oz gluten-free animal crackers (or graham crackers, or vanilla cookies), crushed

1/4 cup granulated sugar

4 tablespoons melted butter

Mix together all of the ingredients by hand and press into 9" pie pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 8 minutes. Cool.

Filling and Topping:

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

One 6 oz package fresh raspberries (minus a few to be saved for garnish)

3 cups vanilla pie filling

1 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

Crush raspberries with the back of a fork in a small bowl. Sprinkle 1 tablespoons sugar over berries and mix together. Fold into prepared pie filling. Spread into cooled pie crust.

Make whip by pouring heavy cream into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whip attachment. Beat on low speed 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium-high and whip until soft peaks form. Add 1/4 cup sugar and vanilla and beat until stiff peaks form. Spread over prepared pie. Top with fresh raspberries, if desired.