black and white cookies

Having not traveled at all, it's not surprising that I have never had a Black and White cookie. Let's just say it's not a common cookie at the grocery store near my house. For some reason I thought the Black and White cookie was a cutout cookie recipe, and I expected a rather crisp cookie dipped in two kinds of icing.

Turns out, it's a really nice and light cakey cookie, flavored with vanilla and lemon, with vanilla and chocolate icing spread on each half of the cookie.

I made two batches of Black and White cookies within the span of 3 days. The first batch I made was a Cake Boss recipe, while the second one is the Baked recipe out of the Explorations book. (Pictures are of the Baked recipe.)

The first, the cake boss recipe, the dough didn't spread very much at all and the baked cookies were very domey. The batter was extremely sticky and did not settle while baking. Could have been a mistake on my part. My ingredients were not all room temperature, and the mixture curdled big time.

The texture of the cookie was fine, but the cookie shape was not what I expected.

The glaze was finicky, but once I got the hang of it (working quickly, while keeping the icing warm, and adding water to thin out the icing as needed) it went fairly smooth. I loved the consistency of the vanilla icing, as it coated the cookie nicely without dripping everywhere or pooling around the cookie and set quickly. I see myself using this icing recipe to make petits fours one day. The chocolate icing I liked less. I had a hard time getting it to the proper consistency and it had an unappealing finish once dried.

The cookie itself was good, even plain. Actually, it might have been better plain, as I thought the chocolate icing was just... not so good. But might have been the chocolate I used. I don't know.

I quickly set out to make the Baked recipe while the cake boss recipe was still fresh in our minds, so we could compare.

The batter was much nicer to work with. I used a small 2-3 tbsp cookie scoop, and got large cookies. I wouldn't have wanted to make them any larger. They spread some, a couple of them running into each other on my baking sheet, yet stayed thick and soft. The baked cookies was barely golden around the edges.

The cookie itself had a more pronounced lemon flavor than the cake boss recipe, probably because it called for lemon zest (which I did not measure, but I couldn't have been very far off what was called for in the recipe). I also used 3/4 tbsp of lemon juice to make the 3/4 cup buttermilk called for in the recipe. I thought the naked cookie was really good.

The glaze is very simply mixing powdered sugar with milk, cream and vanilla. Half of the vanilla glaze gets over 1/2 cup of cocoa powder added to it to make the chocolate icing. That's where I ran into problems. There was no way all that cocoa powder was getting incorporated into the vanilla icing, even with the added teaspoon of water called for in the recipe. I even took out the hand mixer to make sure I had incorporated all the cocoa in the glaze, but in the end, I had to add a lot of milk for the icing to become the same consistency as the vanilla one. Not a big problem, but I suspect because of all the added milk, the chocolate glaze had issues setting up properly. It was quite delicious though! I used a supersoft red cocoa powder and loved the finish of the glaze on the cookies. Both vanilla and chocolate glaze pooled too much around the cookies for my liking, but were easy to spread on the cookie and gave the cookies a nice look.

Overall, I much preferred making and eating the Baked recipe for the Black and Whites. I'm glad I got to play with the vanilla glaze from the cake boss recipe, but the win in this case is strongly in the Baked boys' book. Very awesome cookie that's dangerous to keep around in the kitchen. It's so light that you'd have no problem eating one after the other without even noticing.

The Baked Black and White cookies recipe can be found on the Baked Sunday Mornings page.

carrot layer cake

It may not look like much, but inside this cake is three layers of super moist and delicious carrot cake, two layers of "liquid cheesecake", two layers of "milk crumbs" and three layers of graham frosting.

And it was one of the best cakes I've ever made. Sure it's 5 recipes to make one cake, but the time and effort is totally worth it. Although I love the usual carrot cake with the thick layer of tangy cream cheese frosting, this one is a sophisticated version of the standard fare with layers of texture and flavors.

I love making Momofuku Milk Bar cakes. All the components can be made ahead of time, and the assembled cake needs to be stashed in the freezer to set properly. So while it is 5 recipes, you can make each one when you have the time.

The original recipe yields a 6-in cake and I needed to feed more than 8 people, so I doubled all the recipes (except the graham cracker crust) and made a 9-inch cake instead.

I started by making the milk crumbs, a combination of flour, milk powder, cornstarch, sugar and salt combined together with melted butter, then baked. Once cool, the crumbs are coated with more milk powder and melted white chocolate. Now, it's very important to keep these crumbs aside until ready to assemble the cake, as it's insanely easy to pop them in your mouth just like that. Then you won't have enough for the cake.

I made the liquid cheesecake next, combining cream cheese, an egg, sugar, salt and cornstarch, then baking it in the oven until not quite set. This stuff gets scraped into a bowl and kept in the fridge until needed.

Liquid Cheesecake

makes one 6” baking dish

227 g Cream Cheese (8 ounces)
150 g Sugar (3/4 cup)
15 g Cornstarch (1 tablespoon)
2 g Kosher Salt (1/2 teaspoon)
25 g Milk (2 tablespoons)
1 Egg

Heat oven to 300 degrees F. Put cream cheese into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the sugar and mix for 1-2 minutes, until the sugar has been completely incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Whisk together the cornstarch and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk in the milk in a slow, steady stream, then whisk in the egg until the slurry is homogeneous.

With the mixer on a medium low speed stream in the egg slurry. Paddle for 3 or 4 minutes, until the mixture is smooth and loose. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Pour the cheesecake batter into a 6 inch pan and bake for 15 minutes. It is done when it is set on the edges but still jiggly in the center. If the edges aren't quite set, bake for 5 minute increments until it's done - no more than 25 minutes.

Cool completely to finish the baking process and allow the cheesecake to set. It will be creamy, and spreadable and can be stored in the fridge in an air-tight container for up to a week.

Just like all Momofuku Milk Bar cakes, the batter gets whipped furiously in the mixer. I bake the batter in cake pans instead of a sheet pan because I find it easier. I left my cake layers in the pan to cool so the sides were kinda wonky, but it all worked out in the end.

Carrot Cake

1 stick butter, softened
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup grapeseed or vegetable oil
1 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 cups shredded peeled carrots (2-3 medium sized carrots)

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine the butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and cream together on a medium-high for 2 to 3 mins. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the eggs, and mix on medium-high for 2 to 3 mins. Scrape down the sides of the bowl once more.

On low speed, stream in the oil, then increase the mixer speed to medium-high and paddle for 4 to 6 mins, until the mixture is practically white, twice the size of your original fluffy butter/sugar mixture, and completely homogeneous  with no streaks of fat. Don't rush the process. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl.

On low speed, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Mix for 45-60 seconds, just until your batter comes together and any remnants of dry ingredients have been incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Remove the bowl from the mixer. Dump the shredded carrots into the bowl and, with a spatula, fold them into the batter.

Grease three 6 inch pans and line them with parchment paper. Divide the batter between the pans and spread it in an even layer.

Bake for 25-30 mins. The cake will rise and puff, doubling in size, but will remain slightly buttery and dense. At 25 minutes, gently poke the edge of the cake with your finger, if it bounces back slightly and isn't jiggly in the center, it's done. Leave it in for 3-5 more minutes if it isn't quite done.

Cool the cake on a wire rack (or in the freezer.)

On the day of the assembly, I made the graham cracker crust with graham cracker crumbs, milk powder, sugar, salt, butter and heavy cream. That mixture gets pureed in the blender with milk, the mixed in with whipped butter, brown sugar, icing sugar and cinnamon.

I assemble the cake in one of the cleaned cake pans I use to bake the cake layers in. I line the pan with plastic wrap, then place the first layer of cake at the bottom of the pan. I use acetate sheets to line the inside of the pan a create a collar around the cake layer. Once everything is set up, milk gets brushed on the cake layers. Half of the cheesecake mixture go on next, then half the milk crumbs and then a third of the graham frosting. Then cake, more milk, the rest of the cheesecake layer, the rest of the milk crumbs, another third of the frosting. The final cake layer goes on top, then the remaining frosting tops the whole thing.

Because my cake layers were not straight, I was counting on the filling to fill up the gaps, so between adding components to the cake, I banged the pan on the counter so that all the space around the cake layers would be filled.

Because of all the soft filling, the cake needs to set in the freezer for at least 12 hours. I left mine in the freezer overnight, then took it out the next morning, leaving it in a cool spot to defrost. We ate it about 5 hours later, and it was still kinda frozen in the very middle, but still, nobody complained.

daring bakers: hidden veggies

Using veggies in sweet applications is something I've done before, but only with the very obvious carrot, pumpkin, zucchini and rhubarb (if it counts as a vegetable).

Ruth from Makey-Cakey was our March 2013 Daring Bakers’ challenge host. She encouraged us all to get experimental in the kitchen and sneak some hidden veggies into our baking, with surprising and delicious results!

So I quickly went to the kitchen and grabbed a sweet potato I had been meaning to roast, and microwaved it to make muffins with pecans and flavored with maple syrup.

Maple Sweet Potato Muffins

recipe slightly adapted from : Ontario Sweet Potato

1 cup mashed sweet potatoes
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
¾ tsp. ground cinnamon
Dash salt
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
¾ cup salad oil
¼ cup maple syrup
½ cup chopped toasted pecans

1. In large bowl, combine sweet potatoes, flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Add eggs, oil and maple syrup; blend well. Stir in pecans and currants.

2. Spoon evenly into greased muffin cups, filling each ¾ full. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes or until muffins spring back when lightly touched. Remove muffins from pan and serve warm. Makes 1 ½ dozen muffins.

I thought they were really good, especially the top of the muffins where I had sprinkled some maple sugar! They were pretty greasy though, so I would add some applesauce next time so I can reduce the amount of oil.

maple bacon marshmallows

I was brainstorming maple recipes this week for someone else when I came across this picture. Marshmallows had been on my to-do list for a while but they got bumped to the top of it when I saw the maple bacon combo. This time of year, you just can't escape maple everything, so might as well embrace it.

I love bacon and maple syrup together. I love maple syrup even more when there is bacon involved. So these totally made sense to me.

These taste exactly how you'd think. Strong maple flavor, and salty bacon. In a pillowy soft marshmallow. I love salty sweets, so this was a huge hit for me. Not sure we like the textural contrast between the marshmallow and the bacon. You just don't expect chewy bits in your candy. Didn't stop me from eating way more of these than I should.

Maple Bacon Marhmallows

recipe source: Marshmallow Madness by Shauna Sever via Epicurious

4 1/2 teaspoons unflavored powdered gelatin
1/2 cup cold water

2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup Grade A dark or Grade B maple syrup
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup (about 1 1/2 ounces) finely chopped candied bacon*
1/2 cup 3 parts powdered sugar to 2 parts cornstarch, plus more for dusting

Lightly coat an 8-by-8-inch baking pan with cooking spray.

Whisk together the gelatin and cold water in a small bowl. Let it soften for 5 minutes.

Stir together the sugar, maple syrup, corn syrup, water, and salt in a medium saucepan. Bring it to a boil over high heat, stirring occasionally, until it hits 240°F. Be prepared to lower the heat as needed—this syrup likes to bubble up. Microwave the gelatin on high until completely melted, about 30 seconds. Pour it into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Set the mixer to low and keep it running.

When the syrup reaches 240°F, slowly pour it into the mixer bowl. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 5 minutes. Increase to medium-high and beat for 3 more minutes. Add the cinnamon, increase to the highest speed, and beat for 1 minute more. Quickly fold in the bacon bits. Pour the marshmallow into the prepared pan. Sift coating over top. Let it set for 6 hours in a cool, dry place. Use a knife to loosen the marshmallow from the edges of the pan. Invert the slab onto a work surface. Cut it into pieces and dust them with more coating.

*To make candied bacon, lay 6 or 7 bacon slices on a wire rack set over a sheet pan lined with foil. Combine 1/4 cup light brown sugar with 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon. Rub over both sides of bacon. Bake at 350°F until deeply caramelized, 30 to 35 minutes. Let cool before chopping into bits.

honey banana poppy seed bread

C'est inévitable. When I buy bananas just because, they stay on the counter and get too soft to eat out of hand and of course, at that point, I'm too lazy to bake with them. And when I buy bananas *specifically* for baking, they disappear right before my eyes.

I still managed to make this week's Baked Sunday Mornings recipe for Honey Banana Poppy Seed Bread by going back to the store for more bananas. And just in case, I also bought a packet of poppy seeds, then discovered I had an opened one with barely a tablespoon out of it at home. It's not an ingredient I use very often, in fact, the only time I can recall eating poppy seeds is on an everything bagel. But I enjoyed the slight crunch they imparted to this banana bread.

I wasn't feeling all that great when I made this recipe, so I might have forgotten an ingredient, but this banana bread seemed off to me. The batter seemed thin. My usual recipe rises way more than this one did. And looks more rustic. Once I cut into the loaf, I was surprised to see how dark it was inside. I made sure to bake it completely, but I don't think I over-baked it.

    

I really enjoy banana bread, but unfortunately, not this recipe. It just tasted too... toasty to me. But the rest of the fam seemed to like it, so posting it anyway. For the recipe, click on through to the Baked Sunday Mornings Blog and see how the other bakers enjoyed this one!

sweet and salty brownies

I haven't blogged in forever! I skipped the last 6 Baked Sunday Morning recipes including this week's Lacy Panty Cakes. But I wanted to post anyway, just to see if I remembered how! Seriously, I did bake a lot in the past weeks, but did not have the energy to take proper pictures and write about the recipes, but I figured I could do a recap post, just so I could come back to the recipes I made.

So this weekend was my sister-in-law's father's 50th birthday, and I was asked to do a dessert bar for the occasion. We went with mini chocolate cupcakes topped with peanut butter cream cheese frosting, and a sprinkle of gold luster dust, Corona blondies with a hint of lime, and Baked's Sweet and Salty Brownies, also my contribution to this week's Baked Sunday Mornings. I rounded out the dessert bar with some red licorice, chocolate covered almonds, sour cherry candies and salty and sweet popcorn.

The group had made the Sweet and Salty Brownies back in December 2010, but I never got around to making them. The first step is to make a salted caramel sauce from sugar, corn syrup, water, cream, sour cream and salt. I might have taken my caramel a tiny bit past dark amber, but it was still delicious. The brownie batter is the standard Baked recipe: Butter and chocolate, melted over a pan of simmering water, white and brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour, cocoa and salt. Half the batter is spread in a 9x13 pan, then the caramel is drizzled over top, and the rest of the batter covers the caramel. The brownies bake for 30 minutes and need to chill so they can be cut cleanly.

I expected a layer of caramel between two layers of brownies, but the caramel got incorporated in the brownie. The brownies should have been sprinkled with coarse sugar and fleur de sel, but I skipped this step. I cut them into 24 squares, but they revised my plan and cut them in half as I thought they were a bit too big compared to the rest of the desserts on the table.

This last baking project went relatively smooth. Helped that I got almost two weeks to plan and execute it!

Since I last blogged, we celebrated my niece's third birthday with a Dora themed cake. Not a big fan of Dora, but had fun decorating this girly cake! It was a 9-inch cake consisting of two chocolate, two strawberry and one vanilla layer, with homemade honey strawberry jam between the cake layers. It was frosted with standard vanilla american buttercream, a royal icing border and fondant accents.

We also celebrated a coworker's birthday and I made Baked's whiteout cake into cupcakes. The frosting on these cupcakes was a huge hit! It was creamy and fluffy and so tasty! I might have found my new favorite fluffy frosting recipe! I'm pretty mad at myself for not taking pictures as the cupcakes were pretty with their frosting swirl and white sprinkles and non pareil, plus I had wrapped them in pretty cupcake wrappers.

That same week, I made a Skylanders cake for my coworker's son's 7th birthday. Skylanders is a videogame (that I kinda want to play after doing the research for this cake) and the cake was supposed to look like the portal in the game. The cake was an 8-inch chocolate cake filled and frosted with chocolate american style buttercream. If it looks unfinished, it's that they put the Skylanders toys that the birthday boy was getting as a gift on top of the cake.

Two weeks ago was my daughter's school's open house for registration and her teacher had asked if I could provide the snack for that day. Not thinking twice about it, I immediately said I could without fully comprehending what they wanted. Turns out, they wanted 100 cupcakes. Thinking about it now, it doesn't seem that bad, but that week, it was a tiny bit overwhelming. So I made 25 chocolate cupcakes frosted with chocolate frosting and decorated like beavers (inspired by these) and 25 vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting topped with beaver toppers (inspired by these). I made rice krispies squares and chocolate chip cookies to round out the 100 snacks needed. Also mad that the only picture I took of these was a horrible blackberry picture taken at 9 pm.

Then came Valentine's day, with my daughter's expectation that I would bake treats for her friends, for her teacher, for the entire world. I was pretty caked out by that point, so I made the often repinned rolo-stuffed ritz cracker sandwich and drizzled them with white and pink candy melts. Two to a valentine's day treat bag, I was done in under 15 minutes. And by the way, these things rock. The salty-sweet, chocolate + caramel, crunchy treats? Super addictive.

So that's where we are. And just to round out the month, I have a brother-sister birthday party to bake cupcakes for next Saturday, a 3-tiered Strawberry shortcake cake for Sunday and my mom's birthday cake before the days in February run out!

So the next recipe on the Baked Sunday Mornings schedule is Vanilla Bean and Milk Chocolate Budino, and I really hope I get to make that one and blog about it next week! See you then, hopefully!

Gevulde Speculaas

It's Daring Bakers' reveal day!

Francijn of Koken in de Brouwerij was our January 2013 Daring Bakers’ Hostess and she challenged us to make the traditional Dutch pastry, Gevulde Speculaas from scratch! That includes making our own spice mix, almond paste and dough!

The only speculaas I ever had is a crisp, buttery cookie made with spices including cinnamon, cloves, mace and ginger, pepper, cardamom, coriander, anise seeds and nutmeg and shaped like a windmill. We were challenged by Francijn to make a stuffed speculaas, which is more like a pastry than a cookie, including the spice mix, the dough and the almond paste.

I hurried to make this before going back to work in early January, and luck was on my side, as I had all the ingredients needed.

As Francijn told us that the different components get more flavorful as they sit before they get assembled, I made them two days before baking the pastry.

For the spice mixture, I used cinnamon, cloves, ginger, white pepper, cardamom and nutmeg, basically, the spices I had on hand. I know that mace is a must, but I couldn't find it in stores.

The dough quickly comes together, basically blending room temperature butter into flour, sugar (I used dark brown sugar), baking powder, salt and the spice mixture. It seemed pretty dry to me, but I formed it into a cylinder using plastic wrap to keep everything together.

The almond paste is quickly made in the food processor. I used almond meal, an egg, sugar and lemon zest, and let that sit for a couple of days. 

I used a 8-3/4 inch springform pan to bake my pastry in, using the removable bottom to cut out two rounds of dough that I had flattened with a rolling pin. 

Our host instructed to roll out the almond paste before layering it between two layers of dough, but mine was soft enough to be spread on top of the dough. The three layers were held together with some beaten egg, that I didn't beat enough, as I could see little bits of cooked egg between my layers.

With my dough scraps, I quickly cut out a small windmill to decorate the top of my pastry, brushed it with more beaten egg, and baked the whole thing for 40 minutes.

I also made some royal icing decorations to pretty it up some. At first, I was only going to use the windmill blades on the cake, to hint at the Dutch origin of the pastry, but the result was not quite what I had in mind. I had some icing leftover, so quickly piped a windmill, not really planning on using it. But when I looked at my work table a little while after, one of my daughters had put the blades on top of the windmill, and together, it looked pretty good! 

The resulting pastry is a lot more like cake like than I would have imagined, and quite delicious. The texture is very addicting, and the spices give a wonderful flavor. It smelled amazing while baking, and I couldn't wait to cut into it while I was taking pictures.

Gevulde Speculaas
Slightly adapted from a Dutch traditional recipe provided by Francijn

Spice mix

1 teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon white pepper 

½ teaspoon cardamom 

1 teaspoon nutmeg
3 ½ tsp cinnamon

Combine all spices together and store in an airtight container.

Almond paste
1-1/3 cups (320 ml)(125 gm) (4½ oz) ground almonds

5/8 cup (150 ml) (125 grams) (4½ oz) granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon (5 ml) (3 gm) lemon zest

Add the ground almonds and the sugar to the bowl of a food processor, and grind for one or two minutes. It must be very fine. Add the egg and lemon zest and let the food processor combine it until a paste forms.

Store the almond paste in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Although the flavor gets better as days pass by, it is not wise to store the paste for too long, as it contains a raw egg. For the same reason you should not eat the paste unbaked.

Speculaas Dough
1¾ cups (250 gm) (9 oz) all purpose (plain) flour
1 teaspoon (5 ml) (5 gm) baking powder
¾ cup (150 grams) (5-1/3 oz) brown sugar, firmly packed
a pinch salt
2 tablespoons (30 ml) (15 gm) (½ oz) speculaas spices
3/4 cup (1½ stick) (175 gm) (6 oz) unsalted butter

Put flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and spices in a bowl.
Dice the butter and add to the dry ingredients.
Mix until smooth.
Feel free to add a little milk if the dough is too dry.
Wrap in clingfoil and put in the refrigerator for two hours.

You can choose to make the dough a few days in advance, just like the almond paste, that will benefit the flavor.

Assembling and baking the Gevulde Speculaas

1 recipe speculaas dough
1 recipe almond paste
1 large egg

Grease a 9 inch springform pan
Preheat the oven to moderate 350°F/180°C/gas 4
Divide the dough into two portions.
Roll out both portions on a lightly floured surface, until they are exactly as big as the baking pan.
Put one of the layers in the pan and press it lightly to fill the bottom.
Lightly beat the egg with a teaspoon cold water.
Smear 1/3 of the egg over the dough in the pan.
Roll out the almond paste between two sheets of clingfoil, until it is exactly as big as the pan, and put it on the dough in the pan.
Press the paste lightly down to fit in the pan, and smear the next 1/3 of the egg over it.
Now put the second layer of dough on top of the paste, press it lightly, and make as smooth as possible.
Smear the last 1/3 of the egg over the dough.
Bake for 40 minutes in the preheated oven.
Let cool completely in the pan, then cut it in portions as you like.

If you wrap the stuffed speculaas in clingfoil, after it has cooled completely, you can store it a few days at room temperature. Freezing is possible, but fresh speculaas tastes better.

For the complete challenge and to see how the rest of the Daring Bakers liked this recipe, please visit The Daring Kitchen.