Dinner Rolls

Did I mention I'm loving this cookbook my mom gave me? Every recipe I've made from it has been a hit. These dinner rolls were no exception. My friend and I started doing a dinner swap once a week and I decided to make a batch of these to go with this soup. The book says these are the world's best, and I think they are definitely in the running. I used Trader Joe's 100% White Whole Wheat flour instead on all-purpose and it was a great, healthy substitution. My husband, who tries not to eat too much bread, ate like 4 of these. They'll definitely be on our Thanksgiving table!

Get the recipe (and others!) here.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Mmm.. pumpkin... it's so Homer Simpson, my love of pumpkin. I found yet another way to have pumpkin and cream cheese frosting- Pumpkin Whoopie Pies! Yes! Little moist pumpkin cakey cookies sandwiching cream cheese frosting.
This recipe is from Brown Eyed Baker, a site full of yumminess. Her recipe uses maple cream cheese frosting. I just used plain cream cheese frosting as I have no use for maple. These are super moist- I think I may have blended them too much after the flour was in- they were a little gummy. Definitely a must-try. Even if you just eat the cream cheese frosting like my 2 year old.

The recipe is here. 

Baked's Candy Cookies

I heart Baked. I've never been to the actual bakery in NYC, but I've made a few of their recipes- their brownies and the chocolate cake with salted caramel. Apparently, I have yet to post either of these, since I just searched for them and they're not up.
A couple weeks ago, they posted a link on Facebook for these Candy Cookies- candy bars inside chocolate-dipped chocolate shortbread cookies. Yum, right? I decided to make them for our friends for the holidays. I used Mounds candy bars for the centers, and double dipped the cookies in white and milk chocolate.

Then I finished them with a drizzle of red candy coating for a festive touch.

These little cookies are AMAZING! You have to dip them in chocolate, otherwise they're dry and not that flavorful. They were a huge hit with our friends, and our family! Make them! And then make another batch because you ate all of them!

Candy Cookies

Recipe by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito

INGREDIENTS

1. 2 cups all-purpose flour
2. 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
3. 1/2 cup sugar
4. 1/8 teaspoon salt
5. 1 stick plus 6 tablespoons (7 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
6. 1 large egg yolk
7. 40 mini peanut butter cups and or 20 fun-size Mounds bars, cut in half
8. 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
9. 4 ounces white chocolate, chopped
10. Sprinkles, dragees or nonpareils, for garnish

11. DIRECTIONS

    1. Preheat the oven to 350° and line 2 large baking sheets with silicone mats or parchment paper. In a small bowl, whisk the flour with the cocoa powder, sugar and salt.
    2. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle, beat the butter at medium speed until creamy. Beat in the egg yolk. Add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed until incorporated. Pat the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic and refrigerate until chilled, about 30 minutes.
    3. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough a scant 1/4 inch thick. Using a 2 1/4-inch round cookie cutter, stamp out as many rounds as possible. Reroll the scraps and stamp out more rounds. You should have about 40 rounds. Set a peanut butter cup or halved mounds bar in the center of each round and roll the dough around the candy, pinching any tears. Roll the cookies into balls and arrange on the prepared baking sheets, 1 inch apart.
    4. Bake in the cookies on the upper and middle racks of the oven for about 16 minutes, until the dough is firm and just slightly browned; shift the pans from top to bottom and front to back halfway through baking. Let the cookies cool completely on the baking sheets.
    5. In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the bittersweet chocolate on high power in 30-second bursts until nearly melted. Remove from the microwave and stir until melted. Repeat with the white chocolate in another microwave-safe bowl. Dip the tops of the cookies in the melted chocolate and decorate with sprinkles, dragees and nonpareils. Transfer the cookies to a parchment paper—lined baking sheet and refrigerate until the chocolate is set, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a platter and serve.

Christmas Goodies

I can't believe I had enough in me after these to make more sugar cookies! For our friends, I made some simple sugar cookies with royal icing.

For other friends, I made Bakerella's cake pops, covered in white and red candy melts and painted them with gold luster dust.

CS Bakers- Chocolate Hazelnut Nutcracker Cake

Whew! I'm starting to update. It's been a crazy couple of weeks! First of all, December's Cake Slice Bakers cake was Chocolate Hazelnut Nutcracker cake. A hazelnut sponge-like cake with grated chocolate mixed in, soaked in syrup, and layered with Creme Chantilly.
I personally was disappointed in this. The hazelnut flavor was great, but like this cake, I didn't like just whipped cream for the filling. I would also add more chocolate to the cake as I couldn't taste it. I just used simple syrup instead of run syrup.
Chocolate Hazelnut Nutcracker Cake
Makes one 9inch triple layer cake
Ingredients – for the cake layers
1 cup skinned hazelnuts (about 4 ounces)
10 whole graham crackers (5½ ounces), broken into pieces
1¼ cups sugar
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely grated
10 eggs, separated
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup all purpose flour
1½ tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp baking powder

Dark chocolate curls for decoration

Method – for the cake layers
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter the bottom and sides of 3 9inch cake tins. Line the base with parchment paper and dust the sides with flour, tap out any excess.
2. Spread the nuts onto a baking tray and toast for 10-12 minutes until lightly browned. Leave to cool completely. Increase the oven temperature to 350 degrees F.
3. In a food processor, grind the graham crackers to crumbs. Transfer to a bowl and set aside. Add the toasted nuts to the processor (no need to wash) and add ¼ cup of sugar. Pulse until the nuts are finely ground, but do not blitz too much or else it will form a paste. Add the nuts, graham cracker crumbs and grated chocolate together in the bowl and mix.
4. In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks and ½ cup of sugar using an electric mixer until well blended. Add the oil and vanilla slowly, beating until ribbons begin to form on the surface of the mixture. Then, fold in the chocolate nut crumbs.
5. Place the egg whites in a clean bowl and beat until thick and foamy. Gradually add the remaining ½ cup of sugar, continuing to beat until the whites form stiff peaks. Fold a third of the egg whites into the yolk mixture and mix well to slacken the mix. Sift over the flour, spice and baking powder and fold in. Gently fold in the rest of the egg whites until no streaks remain but do not over mix.
6. Divide the batter between the three pans and bake for 25-30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the layers cool in the pans for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire wrack to cool completely.
7. To assemble the cake, place a layer on a cake stand, flat side up. Sprinkle it with a third of the rum syrup and let it all soak in for 1-2 minutes. Spread ¾ cup of crème Chantilly over the top, right to the edge. Repeat with the remaining layers, letting the syrup soak in before adding the crème.
Use the rest of the crème to cover the sides of the cake. Decorate the top with dark chocolate curls.

Rum Syrup
¼ cup sugar
¼ water
¼ cup dark rum

Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan. Place over a medium heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat and add the rum. Allow to cool before using.

Crème Chantilly
2 cups heavy cream
3 tbsp confectioners sugar
1½ tsp vanilla extract

Combine the cream, sugar and vanilla in a chilled bowl and whip until the cream is stiff but not too thick or buttery.

TWD- Grandma’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookies

Starting the holiday season off right, we have yet another cookie recipe this week. Chosen by Ulrike of Küchenlatein, these are a variation on a couple sugar cookies recipes from Dorie. I love sugar cookies and the satisfaction I get from a whole batch of baked, decorated sugar cookies. What I don't love, is the time and effort it takes to get to the end of a whole batch of baked, decorated sugar cookies. All the chilling, rolling, cutting, baking, re-chilling, re-rolling (I know, sometimes you're not supposed to re-roll), more baking....and then you're still not done when they come out of the oven. Honestly, I'm only cut out for this kind of thing a couple times a year.
But it's the Christmas season and you HAVE to have some sugar cookies, right? Well, Dorie's recipe is great because you can just roll and cut right in the plastic wrapped dough disks! I love it!! No floured countertops (and floors)! The dough is super soft, though. To save 2 hours of chilling time, I put mine in the freezer for about 45 minutes. Worked just fine. I kept trading off between the two dough disks- kept one in the freezer while I worked with the other. Here's my helper. I know I shouldn't let her lick the paddle, but you couldn't resist that face, either. In Christmas jammies, no less! I topped mine with a simple sugar/milk drizzle and some colored sugar sprinkles. I also drizzled a few with melted chocolate.
So, not as cutely (is that a word?) decorated as I would've liked if I had more time, but these cookies are really good. Buttery and crispy... I am of the opinion that they need icing, however. A naked sugar cookie is not for me!! Check out Ulrike's blog for the fantastic recipe!

TWD- Chocolate Linzer Sables

Wow, I actually got these done. Luckily, I'm on the West Coast, so I saw this recipe by 2:30pm my time. This week's recipe was chosen by Noskos of Living the Life. I haven't made sables before, nor have I ever made anything linzer as I'm not prone to make anything with jam, but I figured I would make chocolate filling. Then I looked at the sidebar in the recipe and there it was! Great minds think alike, right?
I actually used finely ground unsalted cashews since that's the only nut I had in our pantry. I halved the recipe and also added 3 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder with the flour/nut mixture.
Let me just tell you, the smell from these was AMAZING! The tiny bit of cloves (not a fan, normally) and cinnamon, with a hint of chocolate filled the kitchen, making it smell like the holidays. WONDERFUL!!I made the ganache a little thin and left some of the chopped chocolate in tact so there's a little surprise in some of the bites.
These cookies are honestly some of the best I've tasted. I would highly recommend giving these a shot. They're fairly quick (chill time notwithstanding) and easy and are absolutely wonderful!! Check out the recipe here! Thanks, Noskos for the great pick!

CS- Sweet Potato Cake with Almond Cream Filling & Chocolate Cream Frosting

November's Cake Slice Baker's recipe was for Sweet Potato Cake with Orange Cream Filling and Chocolate Cream Frosting. We had the option of substituting something for the sweet potato, but I was curious to try the sweet potato. I've had sweet potato pie, and thought it was really good, so I was excited to try this cake. The potato puree was gorgeous- bright orange and velvety smooth, I knew the cake would be moist. We're not fans of orange flavored desserts, so I substituted almond extract and sprinkled in toffee bits. This girl couldn't wait to get a taste.I thought reserving 1 cup of frosting for the filling wasn't enough. As you can see, it was spread a little thin in places (the cakes were also not level so it was thick in some other places!). I would recommend 1 1/2 cups for the filling; there was too much for the outside. I also cut down on the amount of cream cheese and butter used in the recipe, which was still wonderful. How can you not love anything with cream cheese frosting?!!

This was a delicious, moist cake. It got rave reviews from our dinner guests, as well as my co-workers who got the leftovers! Below is my version, or check out the blog roll for the original!

Sweet Potato Cake
adapted from Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes by Alisa Huntsman
Cake:
2 medium or 1 large sweet potato (12 ounces)
3 cups of cake flour (I substituted 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour + 6T corn starch)
3 teaspoons of baking powder
1 and 1/2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon of cloves
5 eggs, separated
2 and 1/4 cups of sugar
1 stick butter, at room temperature
1 and 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla
1 and 1/4 cups of milk
1 cup toffee bits

Makes a 9-inch triple layer cake, serves 16-20 people

1. Preheat the oven to 400F degrees. Prick the sweet potatoes in 2-3 places, place on a small baking dish and bake for 1 hour or until the potatoes are very soft. Remove from the oven and cool slightly.

2. Reduce the oven temperature to 350F degrees. Butter the bottoms and the sides of the pans and line with parchment paper. Butter the parchment paper also.

3. When the sweet potatoes are cool peel off the skin and remove any dark spots. Cut the potatoes into chunks and puree in a food processors. Puree until smooth. Measure out one cup of potato puree and set aside.

4. Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground cloves. Set aside.

5. In the bowl of electric mixer add the egg whites and attach whip attachment. Beat on medium speed until egg whites are frothy. Raise the speed to high and gradually beat in 1/4 cup of sugar. Continue to beat until the egg whites are moderately stiff.

6. In another large bowl with the paddle attachment, combine the sweet potato, butter, vanilla, and remaining sugar. Beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks one at a time. Make sure to scrape the sides of the bowl after each egg yolk is added. With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients and milk in alternately in 2-3 additions. making sure to begin and end with the dry ingredients.

7. With a large spatula, fold in one fourth of the egg whites into the batter to lighten. Then fold in the remaining egg whites until no streaks remain. Making sure to not over mix or this will deflate the batter. Divide the batter among of the three pans.

8. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Let the cake layers cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Then turn out the cake layers onto a wire rack and cool completely at least 1 hour.

9. To assemble the cake, place one layer flat side up on to a cake stand. With a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2 inch round tip and filled with chocolate cream cheese icing, pipe border around the edge of the cake. Fill the center with the almond cream filling smoothing it to the edge of the border. Sprinkle with toffee bits. Place the second layer on top and repeat the process. Place the third layer on top and use all the chocolate cream cheese frosting to cover the top and sides of the cake.

Chocolate Cream Frosting:

makes 3 cups

8 oz ounces cream cheese at room temperature
6 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
16 ounces of powdered sugar; sifted
1 and 1/2 ounces of unsweetened chocolate melted and slightly cooled

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar to cream cheese butter mixture. Making sure to scrape down the sides the sides of the bowl. Then beat until light fluffy 2-3 minutes.

2. Measure out 1 cup of frosting and set aside.

3. Add the melted chocolate to the remaining icing in the bowl and beat until well combined.

Almond Cream Filling:
1 1/2 cup of reserved cream cheese icing from above.
1/2 teaspoon of almond extract

1. Stir together all the ingredients until well mixed.

Sugar Cookies

This recipe is from a cookbook I got as a present at my bridal shower. I hadn't really made anything out of it until my sisters-in-law, who have it as well, made this recipe. It's my favorite sugar cookie recipe. I've tweaked it a little:
Sugar Cookies
1 c butter
1 1/2 c sugar
2 eggs
5 T sour cream
1/2 t almond extract
1 t vanilla
1/2 t baking soda
1/8 t salt
3 3/4 c flour

Cream butter & sugar. Add eggs, sour cream, and extracts; mix well. Add baking soda, salt and flour; mix on low until just combined. Roll dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate 2-3 hours (I sometimes freeze it for 30-45 min if I'm in a hurry).
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Roll dough out on WELL floured surface; cut into shapes. Bake on ungreased cookies sheets for 7-8 minutes. Cool on pans for 2 minutes, transfer to racks to cool completely.

Frosting
1/2 c butter, softened
4 c powdered sugar
1/2 t vanilla
1/2 t almond extract
pinch of salt
1/8-1/4 c milk

Beat butter slowly with powdered sugar. Add extracts and salt. Add milk, a little at a time, and continue to beat until frosting reaches desired consistency. Color if desired. Use immediately or cover tightly and store at room temperature for up to 2 days.