Pecan Pie

Last Thursday was Valentine's Day and my Valentine's sweet spot is Pecan Pie.  He doesn't like a lot of sweets, but for some reason his favorite dessert is one of the sweetest, most sugary ones there is.  So my Valentine's Day present for him was to bake this classic treat.

I finally bought a pie plate for this special occasion, but I ended up getting one of those deep dish ones, so I had to double the pastry and the filling recipes.  Normal pie plates (9 inch) should be fine with the single recipe.

Overall, the recipe is very simple and straightforward to make.  I pulsed the pastry ingredients in my food processor (thanks Jess and Chris!), which made it much easier to cut the butter into the flour. This is normally a much more difficult and lengthy process when you do it with two knives and your hands.  So I recommend a food processor if you have one!  The filling is even easier to mix together and all you have to do is pour it over the pie crust before you throw it in the oven.

So if your sweetheart is sweet on this sweet, then I definitely recommend whipping this recipe up!

Pastry Dough Ingredients

Coarse Dough

Dough Flattened into Disk

Pecan Pie Filling Ingredients

Pastry Dough Pressed into Pie Plate

Unbaked Pie 1

Unbaked Pie 2

Baked Pie 1

Baked Pie 2

Baked Pie 3

Pastry Dough

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 stick cold unsalted butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 to 5 tablespoons ice water

Pecan Pie Filling

3/4 stick unsalted butter

1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar

3/4 cups light corn syrup

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon grated orange zest

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 large eggs

2 cups pecan halves (1/2 pound

1.) Blend together flour, butter and salt in a bowl with your fingertips or pastry blender (or pulse in a food processor) just until mixture resembles a coarse meal with some roughly pea-size butter lumps.

2.) Drizzle 3 tablespoons of ice water and gently stir with a fork (or pulse in processor) until incorporated.

3.) Squeeze a small handful; if it doesn't hold together, add more ice water, 1/2 tablespoon at a time, stirring (or pulsing) until incorporated, then test again.  Do not overwork dough or pastry will become tough.

4.) Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface. Using your hands, mold the dough together into a ball.  The warmth of your hands will help distribute the fat.  Press the ball of dough into a 5-inch disk.  Chill, wrapped in plastic wrap until firm, about one hour.

5.) Preheat oven 350 degrees F with a baking sheet on middle rack

6.) Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into a 12-inch round and fit into a 9-inch pie plate.  Trim edge, leaving 1/2 inch overhang.  Fold overhang under and lightly press against rim of pie plate, then crimp decoratively. Lightly prick bottom all over with a fork.  Chill until firm, at least 30 minutes (or freeze 10 minutes).

7.) Meanwhile, melt butter in a small, heavy saucepan over medium heat.  Add brown sugar, whisking until smooth. Remove from heat and whisk in corn syrup, vanilla, orange zest and salt.  Lightly beat eggs in a medium bowl, then whisk in corn syrup mixture.

8.) Put pecans in pie shell and pour corn syrup mixture evenly over them.  Bake on hot baking sheet until filling is set 50 minutes to one hour.  Cool completely.  

Chocolate Oreo Fudge

Those Twinkies were quite an undertaking last week.  Between the egg whipping, the heating, the cooling, the stirring, the molding, the injecting...it took about two and a half hours to make something that took me about 2.5 seconds to inhale. Not that the amount of time was a bad thing.  I was happy with the final product, but I just don't have that amount of time every week to commit to my Sweet Spot.

So this week's recipe took about the same amount of time, but two of those two and a half hours were spent waiting for the fudge to harden in the refrigerator; so to me, that was time well spent for a sweet that was just as good, if not better.

In summary, the Chocolate Oreo Fudge was extremely easy to make and even easier to eat!  With very few ingredients, fudge is a great go-to treat and you can add many different goodies to the mix to make it your own.  Nuts are a great addition as well as peanut or almond butter.  I decided to add Double Stuffed Oreos to my recipe because...well because they're Oreos!

I definitely recommend this recipe if you don't really consider yourself a "baker", but need something quick, easy and delicious to fill that Sweet Spot!

Chocolate Oreo Fudge
18 oz semisweet chocolate baking squares
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1/8 tsp salt
3 cups coarsely crushed Oreos

1.) In a heavy saucepan, over low heat, melt chocolate squares, sweetened condensed milk, and salt.  Remove from heat; stir in crushed cookies

2.) Spread evenly into wax-paper-lined (or greased) 8-inch square pan. Chill 2 hours or until firm.

3.) Turn fudge onto cutting board, peel off paper and cut into squares.  Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator.

Vanilla Snack Cakes--a.k.a "Twinkies"

Apparently Hostess will no longer be making Twinkies.  And for those two days when America wreaked havoc on the snack aisles in grocery stores, beating up their neighbors for that one last box of creme-filled sponge cakes, I thought to myself, "maybe I should learn how to make them, just in case". Then, of course, some other food manufacturer took over the weighted task of producing the novelties, and all was right in the world again.

But I still wanted to try to replicate the treats, and without any of those nasty preservatives (so you could technically say this recipe is the "healthier" version of Twinkies...sorta).  They ended up being pretty good. I didn't have any snack cake molds (who does, anyway?) so I used those mini disposable meatloaf pans, pictured here:

But if you're feeling more creative and coordinated than me, you can mold a double layer of aluminum foil around a bottle of spices.  If executed properly, the final product's shape would be a lot closer to that of an actual Twinkie.  Since I used these pans, mine turned out more flat and square, rather than round/oval-shaped.

The creme injection part can also be a little tricky if you don't have a special tool.  I'm lucky enough to have this cool cupcake decorating contraption (pictured below) that I used to pump the filling into the cakes.  If you don't have something like this, I recommend just frosting the top of the cakes with the filling and calling it "icing" instead.  It will taste the same and it's all going in the same place anyway!

Aside from the difference in shape, the spongy texture and taste of the cake was very similar to that of the original and the creme filling was sweet and light.  I definitely recommend making these treats if you are a real vanilla snack cake fan.

Cake Ingredients

Creme Filling Ingredients

Whipped Egg Whites

Cake Batter

Cake Batter in Molds

Creme Filling

Snack Cakes, Filled (whole)

Snack Cake, Filled (split)

Vanilla Snack Cakes

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

4 egg whites

1/3 cup cane sugar

2 tbs honey

1/4 cup water

2 tbs vegetable oil

4 egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla extract

Snack Cake Creme

2 tbs all-purpose flour

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup cane sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

4 tbs (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces

4 tbs coconut oil

Directions:

1.) Snack Cakes: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and lightly grease your molds

2.) Sift the all-purpose flour, cake flour, baking powder and salt together and set aside

3.) In a dry mixer bowl with dry beaters, beat the egg whites until stiff, about 2 minutes.  Transfer the beaten egg whites to a clean bowl and set aside

4.) In the same mixer bowl, add the sugar, honey, water, oil, egg yolks and vanilla and beat for 1 minute. Add the flour mixture and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes.  Fold in half of the beaten egg whites; once the first half is fully incorporated, fold in the second half.

5.) Pour the batter in the prepared molds, filling them about 2/3 of the way full.  Bake until golden, 15 to 20 minutes, rotating the pans half way through baking.  Cool the cakes in in the pan for at least 20 minutes, then remove to a wire rack and cool completely before filling with the Snack Cake Creme

6.) Snack Cake Creme: Combine the flour and milk in a saucepan over medium heat to form a thin paste, about 4 to 5 minutes, stirring constantly.  Be careful not to brown the roux.  Stir in the sugar and continue to cook until smooth, about 2 to 3 minutes.  Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.  Cover and refrigerate to cool completely.

7.) In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the butter and coconut oil until light, about 1 minute.  Add the cooled flour paste and beat until creamy, about 5 minutes.

8.) To fill the cakes, use a skewer or chopstick to poke 2 to 4 holes (depending on the size of your cake) partially through the snack cake from the bottom, and wiggle around to hollow out some space.  Use a piping bag fitted with a Bismark (#230) tip or a very small star-shaped tip to fill the cake with the Snack Cake Creme.

One last thing!  Shout out to my sister who is an EXCELLENT BAKER!  She is also extremely artistic, so her desserts are always so pretty!  Check out her latest creation below: Italian Creme Cake with Pecans.  Isn't it beautiful?!  Great job, Jess!  Love you!

I'm Back!

I know what you're thinking.  Did I stop baking?  Did I give up on this whole blog thing?  Have I gone gluten-free?  The answer is no, to all of the above (and definitely not the third one...you can't be gluten-free if you have a sweet spot like mine).

I really have been baking.  Quite a bit, actually.  The holidays require sweets, and lots of them.  I made well over 200 cookies for Christmas to give as gifts and serve at parties.  However, by the time I was done baking, I was too exhausted to write about it. So to prove to you that I actually have been baking, I've posted a few pictures of my flour and sugar-filled Christmas adventure below.

Here is a list of the cookies I made.  If any sound interesting to you, please comment below and I can send you the recipe directly:
Hello Dolly Bars
Pistachio-Cranberry Biscotti
Maple-Walnut Spice Cookies
Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Italian Ball Cookies (sorry, this one is a family secret...my lips are sealed!)
Roll-and-Cut Sugar Cookies

Butterscotch Chip Oatmeal Cake

A bowl of oatmeal is a great way to start the day.  The breakfast staple is an excellent source of fiber (which keeps you fuller longer), full of whole grains, and if you add a little honey or brown sugar, it's a real tasty treat!

Which is why when I add oats to my desserts, it automatically transforms them into healthy treats and I can have three or even four servings in one sitting.  The healthy benefits of  a couple of cups of oatmeal negate all of the butter, sugar, flour and, in this case, butterscotch pieces that also find their way into the batter of my favorite desserts.....

....Well, not really.  But oats certainly do add a light texture and hearty flavor to many desserts.  This cake specifically is extremely simple and yummy!  The oats give the cake an airy texture and the pecan pieces provide an added crunch.  The butterscotch chips seem to fall to the bottom of the batter in the pan during the baking process, so when they melt, it creates a sort of caramelized crust on the bottom, which pairs well with the moist cake.  As you will see from the pictures, it isn't the prettiest dessert, but it's one of the tastiest!

So next time you're feeling in a "healthy" mood and are looking for an easy and delicious treat, I definitely recommend this Butterscotch Chip Oatmeal Cake!

 

 

Butterscotch Chip Oatmeal Cake
1 cup quick-cooking rolled oats
1 3/4 cups boiling water
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, cut up and softened
2 eggs
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 12oz package butterscotch-flavor pieces
3/4 cup chopped pecans

1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Place oats in a large bowl.  Pour the boiling water over oats; let stand for a couple of minutes.  Grease and flour a 13x9x2-inch baking pan; set aside.

2.) Add granulated sugar, brown sugar and butter to oats mixture; stir until the butter is melted.  Stir in eggs until combined.  Stir in flour, baking soda and salt until combined.  Fold in the butterscotch pieces and chopped pecans.

3.) Pour batter into the prepared pan.  Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.  Cool completely in pan on a wire rack.

Pumpkin Caramel Bars with Bacon

Pumpkins are on every doorstep.  The candy aisles are empty at all of the grocery stores.  Halloween is almost here!  Which is why I decided to make pumpkin bars for this week's post.  What makes these treats really scary?  They have crumbled, crispy, smokey, greasy bacon sprinkled on top!  It may sound bizarre, but the combination of the spicy pumpkin bars, sweet caramel frosting, and salty bacon actually work well together to form a delicious dessert!

I really enjoyed making this recipe, but just a warning: it isn't one of those treats you can whip up quickly.  There are a lot of elements, each of which takes time and careful moderation.  The bacon needs to be cooked first so it can cool by the time the bars and frosting are finished; the bars need to rest before they can be frosted; and the frosting takes at least 10 minutes with a stand mixer or hand mixer on high speed before it is cold and fluffy enough to spread over the bars.  I even placed the bowl of frosting in the refrigerator for about a half an hour to allow it to set a little more.

But the time and effort required for these pumpkin caramel bars are definitely worth it as soon as you take that first bite!  So don't be scared....try them out!

Pumpkin Bar Ingredients

Caramel Frosting Ingredients (water not pictured)

Pumpkin Bar Batter

Baked Pumpkin Bars (pre frosting)

Caramel Frosting

Pumpkin Bars with Caramel Frosting and Bacon

Pumpkin Bars (pre Emma's mouth)

Pumpkin Caramel Bars with Bacon
Bars:
8oz bacon, cooked and crumbled
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup chopped pecans

Caramel Frosting
2 cups packed brown sugar
1/3 cup water
Pinch of Salt
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 stick unsalted butter, cubed
4oz cream cheese, cut into 1-inch cubes
1/4 teaspoon sea salt (optional)

1.) Bars: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Coat a 9x13 inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.  Cook bacon in a saute pan over medium heat until crisp; drain on a paper towel lined plate and set aside.  Reserve 2 tablespoons of the drippings.

2.) Whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon and table salt for the bars in a medium bowl, set aside.  Whisk together pumpkin puree, granulated sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, egg, melted butter, bacon drippings and vanilla in a large bowl until well blended.  Stir in flour mixture and pecans.

3.) Spread pumpkin batter evenly into prepared pan, bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes.  Let cool completely before frosting.

4.) Frosting: Boil 2 cups brown sugar, water and a pinch of salt for the frosting in a large saucepan over high heat, 5 minutes, swirling occasionally to prevent scorching.  Whisk in cream and butter pieces. (Mixture will bubble furiously; keep whisking).  Boil 2 minutes more.

5.) Transfer caramel to the bowl of a stand mixer; whip on high speed until sides of bowl are cool to the touch and caramel is thick, about 10 to 15 minutes.  Add cream cheese, one cube at a time, until frosting is smooth.

6.) Once bars are cooled, spread the caramel frosting evenly over the top, then sprinkle the bacon pieces over the frosting.

Sweet Potato Bread

Have you ever picked up something at the grocery store in the beginning of the week, planning to eat it for breakfast, lunch or dinner over the next several days, but for some reason you never got around to it or completely forgot you even bought it?  That was the case for me this week with my sweet potatoes.  I bought them with every intention of popping them in the microwave then sprinkling them with cinnamon for a delicious side dish to one of my dinners throughout the week.  However, by the time Saturday rolled around, they were still in the thin plastic bag I put them in at the grocery store that previous Sunday, knot still tightly bound.  Just sitting there on my kitchen counter.

Sad, I know.  So to remedy this, I decided to use them in my recipe this week!  I'm glad it wasn't the ground turkey or chicken wings that I forgot about, or this week's recipe would have been pretty interesting, to say the least...

This bread is actually quite delicious.  I found it in a Cooking Light magazine, so it's also quite healthy.  The taste is very similar to that of carrot cake.  So if you're not a huge sweet potato fan, you have no excuse not to try this bread.  Well except if you're not a sweet potato fan AND you're not a carrot cake fan.  And if that's the case, you're just weird.  So I would definitely try this recipe if you're looking for a more healthy, vitamin enriched dessert with notes of warm spices combined with a light yet sweet icing.  You should also try it if you happen to have some extra sweet potatoes lying around!

Bread Ingredients

Icing Ingredients (Note: Lemon Extract is Missing)

Bread Batter (Note: It Tastes Much Better than it Looks!)

Icing

Baked Bread without Icing

Baked Bread with Icing

Sweet Potato Bread
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup plain 2% reduced-fat Greek yogurt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1/3 cup shredded peeled sweet potato (about 4oz)
1/3 cup chopped pecans

Icing
6 ounces 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon lemon extract
Dash of salt

1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray 9x5-inch metal loaf pan with baking spray.

2.) Bread: Combine flour and next 6 ingredients (through cloves) in a large bowl, stirring well with a whisk.  Combine yogurt, sugar, oil and eggs.  Add yogurt mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until moist.  Gradually fold in sweet potatoes and pecans.

3.) Scrape batter into the loaf pan.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs clinging.  Cool in pan 10 minutes.  Remove bread from pan; let cool completely on wire rack.

4.) Icing: Combine cream cheese and remaining ingredients in a bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed 2 minutes or until smooth. Spread icing evenly over bread.