Chip Chip Hooray!

I've moved!

2011-11-08T21:17:00.006-05:00

It's official! Chip Chip Hooray is movin' on up.

Head on over to http://chipchiphooray.com and check out my new digs! And don't forget to update your readers or RSS feeds to make sure you still get all my awesome posts--I wouldn't want you to miss out!

Mom-Mom's Boxty (Irish Potato Pancakes)

2011-11-07T14:54:00.000-05:00

Let's face it: the Irish aren't exactly know for their cooking abilities. When there is no meat temperature other than well done and the starch part of your meal often consists of a dark stout, it's likely that you'll be passed over when it comes to gourmet food tours. (Disclaimer: Stereotypes! :) )

Maybe so. But when my mom and my aunt talk about Sunday night dinners growing up, they always, always reminisce about the boxty my grandma (affectionately known as "Mom-Mom" by her gaggle of grandchildren) would make them. ("Boxty" is the Irish term for potato pancakes--like latkes, for my Jewish brothers and sisters out there.) My mom loved them hot off the skillet, while my aunt preferred them cold the next morning for breakfast (with granulated sugar sprinkled on top).

One of my favorite things about living on my own is having the ability to cook what I want completely on a whim. So when I needed a side dish for my baked chicken one night, I figured, "What the heck?" A quick text to my cousin later, and the recipe for my grandma's boxty was in my inbox.

These potato pancakes are crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside, deliciously salty and, thanks to the whole wheat flour I used, just a touch nutty and sweet. You could serve them as a side if you're pretending to have a balanced dinner...or you could totally make these your meal and embrace the comfort food mentality of the fall and winter months. I know what my recommendation would be. Just sayin'.

Mom-Mom's Boxty (Irish Potato Pancakes)

Ingredients:
1 medium-sized white potato
About 3/4 cup whole wheat flour (or all-purpose)--how much you add is dependent on how quickly your batter thickens, so it's a ballpark figure (my grandma's original recipe reads "two shovels")
1/2 tsp baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 tbsp cool water (or more as needed)
Extra virgin olive oil (or butter) for frying

1. Using a box grater, grate potato into a bowl.
2. Begin to add flour to thicken the mixture, then drizzle in cool water. Combine with a fork until the mixture starts to become a paste-like batter.
3. Add baking soda and salt and continue to mix. Make sure the batter isn't too thin or liquidy--it should be able to hold its form in the bowl.
4. Heat a medium-sized saucepan over medium-high heat. Add extra virgin olive oil (my grandma's original recipe says "a hot margarine-laden pan," but I was trying not to be too decadent!).
5. Drop dollops of batter into pan and flatten with the back of a spatula (mine were about 3-4 inches in diameter).

6. Cook on one side until browned, about two minutes, then flip and cook the other side. The pancakes' done-ness is dependent on your personal preference--I like mine crispy on the outside!
7. Serve with salt, ketchup, powdered sugar, applesauce, or whatever your desired garnish may be!

Pumpkin Oatmeal Raisin Cookies -- Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T07:22:00.000-04:00

First things first: I guess that October decided to dress up as December for Halloween this year, huh?

For serious. Not cool. I'm still having nightmares about commuting in last year's epic snowstorms and I'm completely not ready to start dealing with all that mess again. Fall, come back for awhile, k?

Part of me almost wishes this freaky snowstorm had happened on Sunday so that this generation of little kids would look back someday and have one year of Halloween pictures taken with a snowy backdrop. Don't you all remember those Halloweens where it was so cold that you had to wear a long-sleeved turtleneck under your costume? Or worse, horror of horrors, your down coat. No matter how much you protested that Wedding Princess Jasmine did NOT have a white turtleneck with pumpkins on it under her bridal gown, or that Cinderella absolutely did not wear a parka when she headed out in her coach. Those excuses did not fly with Mom, authentic photographs be damned. (Not that I'm still bitter or anything.)

Anyway, down to business. I have been watching the pumpkin-centric recipes pile up this fall, dreaming of the scent of cinnamon and nutmeg and other such autumnal spices permeating my kitchen. But October turned out to be such a hectic month (and that giant Costco-sized can of pumpkin in my cabinet was more than a little intimidating) that I kept putting off breaking out the great gourd in my own lil kitchen. This past week, I finally caved!

These pumpkin oatmeal raisin cookies were moist, flavorful, and super soft. They got rave reviews from my yoga class (the designated recipients--I had promised them a post-class treat), coworkers, and even my mom, who asked me to save her a couple for when I was visiting this weekend. They are definitely a cake-y cookie--from the reading I've been doing, it's hard to get a crispy pumpkin cookie. But that's A-OK with me, since I prefer a soft, chewy cookie anyways. If you're in it for the crunch, though, I make no promises. :)

Since I'd never done a pumpkin dessert before, I didn't want to go too heavy-handed at first, especially because my family typically balks at anything orange. The pumpkin in these cookies is very subtle, since the flavor of the raisins lends a bright taste as well (official assessment from Charlie, my always-articulate taste tester). It's definitely there, though, as is the spicy undertone from the cinnamon. And the color of the cookies even tends toward the orange, making these a fun addition to any fall table. I hope you enjoy!

Pumpkin Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Adapted from Greens and Chocolate

Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup old fashioned oats
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon*
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp honey
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 large egg**
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup raisins

*Taylor's original recipe also added nutmeg, cloves, and ginger--all of your traditional fall spices. I, however, am a poor city-dwelling 20-something. Those spices are expensive, man! I just went extra generous on the cinnamon. If you have more cash at your disposal than I do, feel free to add pinches of those wonderful spices to your batter.
**I realize it's seemingly impossible to add "half" an egg. Since I was scaling this recipe down, though, I didn't want to mess with the binding agents and have them out of proportion. So what I did was this: break your egg in a mug, then mix it up with a fork. Pour half of your beaten egg into the batter and combine as normal. Probably would get me expelled from Le Cordon Bleu, but...whatevs.

For the graham/cinnamon/sugar topping:
1 sheet graham crackers, crushed
3 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

1. Cream butter, sugars, and honey together in the bowl of an electric mixer until smooth and fluffy, between 2 and 3 minutes.
2. Add pumpkin, egg, and vanilla, and mix until well incorporated. The batter will still look a little funky (read: gritty) because of the pumpkin puree, but never fear--all will be well when the dry ingredients are added.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredient mixture until just combined.
5. Fold in the raisins.
6. Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes.
7. While the dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
8. In a small bowl, mix crushed graham crackers, granulated sugar, and cinnamon until combined.
9. Form balls of cookie dough (mine were about 2 inches across) and press the tops into the bowl of graham/cinnamon/sugar.
10. Drop dough balls onto prepared baking sheet (mine is nonstick, but you could line with parchment paper if you like).
11. Bake for 11-12 minutes, or until the edges are just starting to brown. (Because the cookies are so moist, the bigger your cookie, the longer it will take to bake--some of my bigger cookies needed closer to 13 minutes to be fully done.) While cookies are baking, walk from room to room in your apartment inhaling the a-freaking-mazing scent that will permeate everything. Perhaps call your sister/mother/boyfriend and brag about how good your apartment smells. It's totally fine.
12. Cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies. These cookies also will keep wonderfully in an airtight container (I am the queen of Tupperware) because they're so moist to begin with.

NYC Eats: Dinner at Queens Kickshaw

2011-10-24T09:47:00.000-04:00

Now that I finally feel settled into my new neighborhood, I figured it was time to start sampling the local cuisines! A friend of mine read about a place that specialized in "fancy grilled cheeses" in the Gothamist--you don't have to do much arm-twisting to convince me that grilled cheese is a fabulous dinner. Throw in a bangin' list of hard ciders? I'm all over it.

The Queens Kickshaw storefront is pretty unobtrusive--if you don't know you're looking for it, it'd be easy to walk right by (as I had done several times before our visit). The decor is deliberately sparse and the lighting is low; the ceiling has an unfinished look that contributes to the quasi-industrial, very hipster-y feel. We walked past the coffee and dessert counter into the back dining area, where we found a four-top wooden table with tall chairs.

The menus are on clipboards--extra cool points, Queens Kickshaw--and feature food items as well as a full list of beers, wines, ciders, and nonalcoholic beverages (they're known for their coffees, too).

My dining partners each ordered a bottle of the Crispin Saint, a Minnesota-produced hard apple cider made with maple syrup. They were kind enough to let me sample, and umm--yum. Sweet and crisp and delicious when served cold. We were a little surprised by the prices--each of their bottles cost $14--but you get a lot for your money. I'd say at least three good-sized glasses of cider came out of just that one bottle. A buzz can be sufficiently attained, if that's your aim. ;)

For my cheesy dinner, I selected the Fontina Val d'Aosta (a picture pre-devouring can be seen at the beginning of this entry)--an open-faced sandwich on focaccia bread that was spread with pesto, layered with mushrooms, and then smothered with plenty of that fontina. And it came with a little side salad topped with pine nuts!

My two friends both ordered the Cheddar and Mozzarella, a good old-fashioned cheese sandwich on brioche bread served with a side of tomato soup. Yes, dipping did ensue. They each raved about the sandwich, one even going so far as to quote Parks and Recreation, saying it was "lit-tra-ly" the best thing she'd ever eaten. High praise if I do say so myself!

These definitely aren't your shoestring budget grilled cheeses--my sandwich was $11, and the cheddar/mozz was $8. The portions were large enough to be considered dinner-sized, though, so I considered the cheesy goodness worthy of the splurge.

The Queens Kickshaw
40-17 Broadway
Astoria, NY 11103

S'mores Explosion Pie, and a Pie Party Live recap

2011-10-17T07:59:00.000-04:00

Have you ever imagined what life would be like if you took every and any ingredient and made it into a pie? Can you even conceive of that many different kinds of pies?

Ladies and gentlemen, I have seen the promised pie-land. And let me tell you, it is yoga-pants-wearing good.

This past Saturday, I had the fantastic opportunity to take part in Pie Party Live, a NYC food blogger event organized by the fabulous Jackie and Ken. The potluck o' pie was held at Rodeo Bar, whose fine establishment graciously provided us with space and smiling service for the whole three hours of pie gluttony. Thank you, Rodeo Bar!

The only requirement for admission to the event? Bring a pie!

Okay so, free admission. I had never baked a pie before this weekend.

I know, I know. What kind of baker/foodie/sweets lover am I? But I'll be honest with you--pie crusts scare the living daylights out of me. The cutting in cold butter, the rolling, the fiddling, the tearing...it makes me twitch just thinking about it. So what's a girl to do? While your answer is probably "Face your fear!" mine was "...I'll make a graham cracker crust. I like those better anyway. Win!"

Building off my graham cracker crust, I decided to make a S'mores Explosion Pie for the big day. It was basically a deconstructed s'more--sweet, crunchy graham crust, chocolate cream filling, and marshmallow fluff topping (with mini Hershey's kisses for good measure). And while my pie may not have looked as swanky as some of the pies you'll be able to feast (ha!) your eyes on momentarily, the taste was sure spot-on!

S'mores Explosion Pie
For the crust:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (about 8 sheets, crushed)
1/3 cup sugar
6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Crush graham cracker sheets into fine crumbs. If you don't have a food processor (like me), stick the graham crackers in a Ziploc bag and take out your week's worth of work-related frustrations on them. You can also roll a drinking glass over the pieces to get the crumbs down to a finer consistency.
3. Whisk together graham cracker crumbs and sugar until fully blended.
4. Pour melted butter and vanilla extract over the crumb mixture and mix until all crumbs are coated and begin to stick together.
5. Press crust mixture into a 9" pie plate (I used a disposable aluminum one).
6. Bake crust for 8-10 minutes, or until crust begins to lightly brown.
7. Remove from oven and let cool completely before adding filling. (I actually baked my crust the day before I made the chocolate filling.)

For the chocolate filling:
From Baking Bites
2 cups milk (I used 2%)
1/2 cup granulated sugar, divided
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla extract (I wound up using about 1 1/2 tsp after tasting the pudding and adding a little more)
2 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
marshmallow fluff, mini Hershey's kisses, graham cracker crumbs, etc. for topping

1. In a medium saucepan, combine milk and 1/4 cup of the sugar. Bring to a simmer, whisking occasionally just to dissolve the sugar. Milk will be ready just as it begins to steam.
2. While the milk heats, whisk together the egg, egg yolks, remaining 1/4 cup sugar, and cornstarch until smooth. (**Note: You'll want to use another saucepan or similar large, heat-proof container for this step, since you're adding the milk to the eggs. The container has to be big enough to hold both mixtures at the same time.) Slowly drizzle the hot milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly.
3. Return the mix to the original saucepan and, while stirring, cook over medium heat until the pudding starts to become very thick (2-4 minutes--mine only took 2). Cook, stirring constantly, for 1 more minute, then remove from heat.
4. Whisk in butter, vanilla, and bittersweet chocolate until everything comes together and looks uniform. Pour into prepared pie crust.
5. Cover filled pie with a sheet of saran wrap to prevent a “skin” from forming on the surface of the pie. Allow pie to sit and come to room temperature for 1-2 hours, then refrigerate until well-chilled, about 4-6 hours (I did mine overnight).

When the pie was cooled to room temperature, I pressed the Hershey's kisses into the chocolate filling and dolloped the fluff around the edges. I also sprinkled some crushed graham crackers over the top for good measure. :)

(I do think that if I could have a pie do-over, I might make the fluff into a marshmallow buttercream using butter and powdered sugar. The fluff melted into the chocolate layer, which I wasn't expecting, so it wasn't really the decorative border I was counting on it being. But hey, live and learn! It was still gooey and yummy.)

As I told a bunch of the bloggers I met at Pie Party Live, I think the word I'd use to describe my pie is "whimsical." If I were a five-year-old and you told me I could have a s'mores pie for dessert, I'd want it to look like something I could stick my face into. Maybe that's just me. :) But I think s'mores are a fun dessert, and I wanted them to be a fun pie, too!

And now, the real reason you're reading this post...a photo recap! Disclaimer: the lighting in the area of the bar where we were noshing was pretty awful, so pardon the mediocre quality on a lot of these photos (my poor lil point-and-shoot).

Gorgeous pies from our host and hostess: Ken's apple-onion tart and Jackie's cupboard harvest pie.

Two of the wonderful bloggers I met were Lisa of Jersey Girl Cooks and Kate of Food Babbles. How cute are Lisa's itty bitty Concord grape pies? Kate and I had commiserated the night before Pie Party Live about our lopsides pie crusts, but I still think her apple & pear pie with a gruyere crust looks incredible--check out the cookie cutter lattice on top!

I also got to see Lillian from Sweets by Sillianah again for the first time since the Share Our Strength bake sale back in May. (I feel like I've grown so much as a blogger since then!) Her pies were diverse and incredible--a peach and blueberry galette, an apple cinnamon galette, and Chilean beef empanadas (I could have eaten a whole plate of those babies).

I think my favorite sweet pie of the day was the salted caramel pie that Serena from Big Apple Nosh brought. Sweet caramel filling on a crunchy, cookie-y graham crust, topped with fresh whipped cream?! I may or may not have gone back for thirds on this one (true story).

And even though I'm usually not a savory pie girl, Justin from Just Cook NYC brought a bacon corn pie with a cornmeal crust that was out-of-this-world delicious.

Utter pie carnage...we took no prisoners.

My pie, midway through the nosh-fest! Looking like it got some love, if I do say so myself. :)

And let's not forget about my blogger fangirl moments. In one day, I got to meet Pam from Three Many Cooks (I totally went up to her and gushed about her daughter Maggy helped me have the confidence to start blogging for real), Brownie (and Lil B!) from Blondie and Brownie, Abby Dodge, and Gail from One Tough Cookie. It was hard not to gawk like the starstruck foodie I was. I was in a room with multiple people who have written actual cookbooks! Seriously, ridiculous.

A special hello to the other friendly bloggers I met on Saturday: Georgie and her husband Jeff from GeorgieCakes, Monique from The Eatinist Bitch (LOVE her blog name and fantastic attitude), Jennifer and her friend Dana, Alissa the Glamorous Snacker, and Kelsey of World Food Travel. You're all wonderful! I hope there are many other meet-ups in our future.

And last but not least, the day ended on a high note--I won a prize in the raffle! I'm looking forward to taking a trip to Ivy Bakery to pick out my free pie. Just...maybe not for a few days just yet. :)

For a full list of the pies in attendance, check out Jackie's pie post here. I'm sure there'll be lots of other recap posts as well!

A Jolly Olde Time in London Towne!

2011-10-10T18:29:00.003-04:00

Cheerio, mates! As those of you on Twitter may remember, I've just returned from a wonderful, whirlwind weekend spent visiting my sister (affectionately, Middle Chip) in London, where she's studying for the semester. We had such a fabulous time, and I was so sad to leave her again until December! But it's definitely a weekend I'll always remember sharing with her. :)

Now, the two of us didn't get up to all that much cooking this weekend (although we did manage one kitchen creation!), but what follows is a bit of a tour through our antics and escapades...most of which involve a lot of sugar...

I landed bright and early on Friday morning--a full hour earlier than expected, actually, since our plane apparently caught some ridiculous tailwind. After making my way to my sister's flat, the two of us popped into a cafe to refuel (me) and wake up (her) over some toast and tea (...and a chocolate croissant). We did some exploring until her class at 2, visiting the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain and the Peter Pan statues in Kensington Gardens, as well as the Prince Albert Memorial. Then I was left to my own devices as Middle Chip went to go learn about the ins and outs of marketing in the UK.

I took the Tube down to Trafalgar Square, where I spent some time people watching and noshing on chicken tikka masala (if I'm not mistaken, the UK is like the #1 place to get Indian food outside of India itself. And I'd believe it--there's plenty of options, sit-down or take away!) before wandering down to Covent Garden. I had a blast there, sampling teas in tiny shops, watching a dancing string quartet, and even doing some overseas cupcake research.

Welcome to Ella's Bakehouse, Covent Garden. I was drawn into this tiny storefront by the sheer amount of pink and glitter that I could see through their front-facing windows (admittedly not something I'm normally attracted by, but I suppose this was an anomaly). And the cupcakes! They had their traditional bestsellers--Oreo Cookies and Cream, Red Velvet, Raspberry Lemon. But then I asked for the local favorite. The shopkeeper's answer?

The Malteser.

Now, I had never heard of Maltesers--which I think are basically the UK version of Whoppers, or malted milk balls--before I started reading so many baking blogs. But how could I say no to a cupcake that was not only a British fave, but also drenched in edible glitter?! Not possible.

The cupcake itself was a vanilla sponge cake with crushed Maltesers throughout. It was a pleasantly dense cake--not overmoist and crumbly like some couture cupcakes I've sampled. Almost more of a poundcake consistency, if that makes sense, which stood up well to the silky sweet vanilla buttercream on top. The whole Malteser was also a treat when the time came for that bite!

I would have loved to sample the other European favorite, the Nutella (apparently the French tourists go crazy for this particular variety), but I guess the hazelnut-dotted vanilla sponge with Nutella buttercream will have to wait for my next trip overseas. :)

The rest of my wandering took me to the National Gallery and past Number 10 Downing Street and the Houses of Parliament, before returning to my sister's flat to meet for a late dinner (four-hour classes are no joke!). Of course we had a plan...

Fish and chips!

I know, I know, could we be more cliche? But I'm not kidding when I tell you they were finger-lickin' good. If you ever get a chance to patronize the Stanhope Arms, order the fish and chips with a side of mushy peas (...well, maybe that's a taste thing, but I love them) and an ice-cold Magners (Middle Chip voices her love for Strongbow here). I will admit it here: I will take a pint of cider over a pint of ale, beer, or whatever other hoppy thing you offer me, any day. Yes, it's basically hard apple juice. I own it.

Middle Chip and I returned to her flat with our sweet teeth nagging us...and she had a dessert epiphany.

Homemade Nutella "crepes"!

Ingredients:
2 whole wheat tortillas (ours were the 8-inch kind)
1 jar Nutella spread
Whipped cream, ice cream, or other garnish--we chose Cadbury whipped chocolate pudding!

1. Heat a small skillet over a medium flame.
2. Spray skillet with nonstick cooking spray and press tortilla down. Wait 10 seconds, then flip.
3. When bubbles start to form on the tortilla, spoon Nutella into one side, spreading as best you can. Fold the tortilla over to cover.
4. If desired, repeat Nutella-ing process on one side of the folded tortilla and fold over again.
5. Flip folded tortilla-crepe to brown the other side.
6. Remove and garnish with your desired topping.
7. Eat and enjoy!

Free admission: these are not your delicate French crepes. But if you are a) a poor college student (like Middle Chip) or b) a broke entry-level employee (like me), these will do just fine! Our only complaint was that, since the tortillas are typically used for quesadillas and the like, they're a bit thicker than your traditional crepe wrapper would be, making for a somewhat chewier dessert experience. Our solution of choice, however--more Nutella--countered this imbalance just fine.

Our next day in London took us all over town as well. We visited two open-air markets--Portobello Market and Borough Market--and also took a jaunt over to King's Cross Station (now renowned for its prominence in the Harry Potter books, of course). I absolutely fell in love with Borough Market--a foodie's paradise! It was filled with booths staffed by local growers and artisan producers showing off their wares. I sampled tons of unique olive oils, jams, cheeses, chutneys, teas, even granola.

Middle Chip and I also saw a show off-West End that night, at the Almeida Theatre in Islington. If you're in London or if My City comes to the U.S., we both thorougly enjoyed it!

Sunday was definitely dedicated to sweets and confections. After a perfunctory breakfast, we headed to Hummingbird Bakery to sample the cupcakes I've heard so much about--all of my college friends who studied abroad in London raved about them. Middle Chip chose her go-to, Red Velvet frosted with cream cheese, while I selected the Black Bottom--chocolate cake with cheesecake and chocolate chips baked in, topped with cream cheese frosting.

Oh yes, it was as good as it looked. The chocolate cake was dark and dense, which balanced out the sweet tang of the cream cheese really nicely. And the chocolate chip / cheesecake bits provided awesome textural contrast--I was in cupcake heaven! Hummingbird also offers daily special cupcakes, and I wish we had been there on a Tuesday...I'm dying to know what a Popcorn Cupcake tastes like.

Our next stop that morning was Harrods, shopping mecca for any female with a charge card. After exploring the housewares and jewelry sections of the labyrinth ("Ohhh, dahling, look! This chaise longue is on sale for only £1,200!"), we happened upon the Harrods ice cream parlor. As I'm wont to say with any sort of confection (I mean, we had cupcakes at 10:30 in the morning for crying out loud), much as is the case with alcohol, it's 5 o'clock somewhere. Time for an ice cream break!

Both Middle Chip and I opted for Nutella sundaes, hers with brownie bits and mine with caramel sauce. The cute little bear wafer toppers made for an even more adorable photo op!

The final [food] highlight of Harrods came when we popped into Laduree, a Parisian cafe known (at least among my London-traveling friends) for its macarons. My salted caramel macaron was just the perfect amount of crispy and chewy--definitely a thumbs up! (Middle Chip voiced equal full-mouthed approval of her chocolate macaron).

Sadly, I had to take my leave from my dear sister early this morning. She has exams to take and an internship to start, and I have to be rudely slapped back into reality when I return to my big-girl job tomorrow. And while she's taking weekend trips to Florence, Brussels, Munich, Paris, and Barcelona...I'll be here wishing I were with her! Hopefully you can all tell by this food-filled (and REALLY LONG) update how much fun we had together...miss you, sissy!

Chicken and Black Bean Enchiladas: Welcome, Fall!

2011-10-03T07:31:00.002-04:00

Fall is here, fall is here!

Okay, well, technically fall has been here for a week or so now, but it's only really started to feel like fall here in the New York City area since October started this weekend. The weather has been crisp and cool, with that smell of the coming holiday season in the air. I love it.

I think these gooey, cheesy enchiladas are a great fall meal, whether you eat them for dinner fresh outta the oven or freeze a bunch for easy meals-in-a-minute later in the week (I'm a big fan of this method, as we all know!). They might not be the most photogenic food in the world, but I promise they taste better than they might look. :)

These beauties are my adaptation of Caroline's Spicy Turkey Enchiladas that she posted on her blog chocolate & carrots (I highly recommend you check it out if you've never perused her site!). Since I had made lasagna with ground turkey recently, I opted to use chicken instead. My grocery store didn't have any rotisserie chicken (the style a bunch of other enchilada recipes I read recommended) in stock that day, so I went for the ground chicken. I also opted to add black beans to the chicken and veggie mixture inside the tortillas, and I can't adequately convey to you how yummy it was. I love the texture beans lend to Mexican dishes, and these bulked up the tortillas nicely. Two thumbs up!!

Chicken and Black Bean Enchiladas
Adapted from chocolate & carrots's Spicy Turkey Enchiladas

Ingredients:
1/2 medium white onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 lb ground chicken meat
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 can low-sodium black beans, rinsed and drained
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 tomatoes, sliced (I only needed 1 1/2)
8-10 whole wheat tortillas (I used Mission medium soft tortillas, 10 count)
~1 cup shredded Mexican four-cheese blend
1 10-oz can red enchilada sauce

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Heat diced pepper and onion with olive oil in a medium saucepan until onion begins to soften. Then add in ground chicken, breaking into marble-sized pieces, and continue cooking together until meat has no pink left.
3. While the veggies and chicken are sauteing, heat rinsed and drained black beans in a separate, smaller pot until warmed through and lightly simmering.
4. Add pepper, chili powder, cumin, and garlic powder to the veggie and chicken mixture and allow combined ingredients to simmer--you want to make sure those great flavors are absorbed!
(**Note: I drained off the excess oil and juices from the chicken before adding the spices. I would recommend you not do this, because it's much harder to make sure the spices coat the chicken and veggies evenly without that added moisture. I also would have appreciated a moister filling as the cooking process went on. Moral of the story--hang on to that cooking liquid.)
5. Line the bottom of a 9x13" Pyrex pan with your sliced tomatoes.
6. Distribute the black beans and chicken/veggie mixture evenly among the tortillas. Roll each tightly and place, seam side down, in a row on top of the tomato layer.

7. Pour enchilada sauce over the rolled tortillas, then top with shredded cheese.
8. Cover entire pan with aluminum foil, trying your darndest to keep the foil from touching the cheese (see the "after" picture below and you'll know why!).

Alas! Cheese crater as a result of foil contact.

9. Bake for 30 minutes, then remove foil and cook under the broiler for another 5-7 minutes, or until cheese begins to brown and enchiladas are bubbling.
10. Let stand for another 5-7 minutes before cutting. Serve with your garnish of choice! Sour cream, a squirt of lime, or even chunky salsa all would be great with these enchiladas.

A thought, in retrospect:

I was a little nervous about all of the spices Caroline had in her original recipe. "Ground red pepper and red pepper flakes? Plus chili powder and black pepper and cumin?? I can't handle that!" was more or less the narrative running through my head. So I decided to cut the ground and flaked red pepper, keeping the other spices in their original proportions. In the end, I wound up feeling like I actually would have appreciate some extra kick! Go figure. I guess my palate has grown into spiciness. :) Don't be afraid of the flavors this recipe packs!

I would have tried to make this a prettier picture for you, but it was too yummy. Sorry I'm not sorry.

Oh, and I can't finish this post without making sure all of my invisible internet friends out there know: Erin over at The Spiffy Cookie is hosting an awesome bake sale auction right this very second. All of the proceeds from the 20+ baked goodies up for grabs will go to help pay the medical bills for her friend's twin brother, who suffered an accident that resulted in his leg being amputated below the knee. Erin will add her bake sale profits to the funds raised by the 5K Run for Dave being held by Dave's family to help pay for his prosthesis. What are you waiting for? Go check it out! And, if you're so inclined, make a bid for my Oatmeal Raisin Comfort Cookies--wouldn't they hit the spot on a cool fall evening?

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies: Who Have You Hugged Today?

2011-09-26T07:30:00.001-04:00

Most of you probably know that October is breast cancer awareness month. Now, I know it's not October yet, but it's pretty darn close, and I think this post is deservedly a bit early.

I got a call at work early last week telling me that one of my best friends from home had just lost her mother. My friend's mom has been battling breast cancer for about six years, and there have been a lot of ups and downs along the way. I've often felt powerless watching the toll it's taken on my friend and her younger sister, yet at the same time been amazed by her mother's incredible strength--when a few of us pitched in to cook their family a week's worth of meals and hopefully ease the burden a bit, her mom invited us all inside to serve us tea, strawberries, and cream, entertaining us when we'd come to lend her a hand. She was an amazing, vibrant, faith-filled woman, and I can only hope that there is some larger plan at work in the universe that explains why she was taken from her family so soon.

After having been at home for the viewing and funeral, I found myself really reflective and, quite frankly, in need of some solace. Baking has always been weirdly therapeutic for me--the formulaic recipe steps, the physical motions involved in incorporating ingredients, the transformation of distinct parts into a new whole, and, of course, getting to indulge in the results. And what I really wanted this week especially was oatmeal raisin cookies.

(Oh, did I mention I got to use my KitchenAid stand mixer for the first time?!?! Adding to the magical comforting power of these cookies was the fact that I flipped the switch, turned around, and BAM! instant cookie dough. I feel like the way people must have when they realized they could use electricity and stop chopping firewood. I'll lose bicep mass...but so worth it.)

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
(slightly adapted from the Quaker Oats Vanishing Oatmeal Cookies recipe)

**Note: I halved this recipe, since I knew I didn't need four batches (the original recipe makes about 40 cookies). If you're in the market for lots o' cookies, feel free to double up again.

Ingredients:
7 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/8 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup raisins

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugars on medium speed until smooth and creamy.
3. Add egg and vanilla, mix to incorporate.

4. In a separate, smaller bowl, whisk to combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
5. Add these dry ingredients to the wet mixture; continue mixing to incorporate.
6. Add oats and continue to mix.
7. Finally, add raisins (I turned my mixer down to low to add these, since the dough was starting to get a bit thick and I didn't want to overwhelm the paddle attachment with the addition of the raisins).
8. Drop dough in rounded teaspoonfuls on ungreased cookie sheet.
9. Bake for about 8-10 minutes, or until edges start to brown. (I pulled mine just before 8 minutes was up--I like my cookies a little underdone, especially when they're oatmeal.)

My mom and I share a similar love of oatmeal raisin cookies, mostly because they might be the best cookies to dip in a warm, comforting cup of tea. These cookies aren't fancy or complicated or even that original--all I did was tweak a few ingredients and proportions on the recipe for Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies that comes on the lid of the Quaker Oats can. But to me, they're the equivalent of a warm cookie hug. And we all need one of those once in awhile, you know? So hug your mom, and if you're so inclined, please say a prayer for or send a positive thought in the direction of my friend, her family, and her mom. And enjoy these cookies, preferably with a cuppa and some good TV.

As a p.s., thank you so much to everyone who has commented, tweeted, or otherwise sent along well wishes for Charlie! He is doing much, much better, and (knock on wood), I think he's made tons of progress on the road to a full recovery. Hopefully he'll be dancing again soon!

Tricked-Out Brownies: When You Need Yum Quick

2011-09-19T21:29:00.001-04:00

I sincerely wish I were one of those people who liked when life threw her curve balls. You know the type--they relish the volatility of the everyday and meet the various and sundry obstacles they encounter with this superhuman optimism that makes the rest of us want to steal their cookies. Or maybe that's just me.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, the road of life has been decidedly bumpy this week. Remember back when Charlie had his knee surgery and I made those awesome Chocolate Revel Bars as a get well soon treat? Well, regardless of how undoubtedly delicious those bars were, it seems that they weren't powerful enough to guarantee a quick and easy recovery...

Early last week, Charlie texted me in the middle of the workday and asked me to call him...which doesn't happen unless something's up. Sure enough, his doctor had confirmed that the discomfort he'd been feeling in his knee was an honest-to-goodness infection--and wanted Charlie to have surgery the next afternoon. Neither of us had been expecting anything like that--we figured he'd have to go on antibiotics or something, but we didn't think it was anything so serious as "You need to have surgery tomorrow."

Thankfully, the procedure went fine (better than they expected, even), but Charlie still had to stay in the hospital for two days afterward to keep getting IV antibiotic treatments. He had to miss a whole week of school, and (though he might deny it) I could tell he was feeling pretty down in the dumps. So I decided to scrap/modify the plans I'd had for this past weekend and drive down to see him, hopefully bringing some distraction and cheer with me.

Now, you all know me well enough to understand that I don't go anywhere without food. It's just a given. But when you decide to take a weekend trip 24 hours before you actually leave and you're still in the beginning stages of furnishing and stocking a kitchen...well, your options are kind of limited.

I had: a 9x13 Pyrex pan. Eggs. Measuring cups. And peanut butter.

Solution? Brownies with a twist.

Tricked-Out Brownies
...When "From Scratch" Just Isn't an Option

Ingredients:
1 package Betty Crocker classic fudge brownie mix
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil (**See note)
2 eggs
6 regular-sized Reese's peanut butter cups, roughly chopped
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease a 9x13 Pyrex pan.
2. Prepare brownie mix according to instructions on the box except:

**Note: The recipe on the Betty Crocker box used to call for 1/2 cup of vegetable oil. Sometime in the last two or three years, though, they changed the amount of oil called for to 2/3 cup. But my sisters and I--who are pretty consummate brownie makers, if we do say so ourselves--are of the firm opinion that the consistency of the finished product suffered noticeably as a result of the change. So in spite of the new Betty Crocker instructions, we've stuck staunchly to our original proportions, and recommend you do too!

3. Stir chopped peanut butter cups into prepared brownie batter.
4. Pour brownie batter into greased pan.
5. Warm your 3/4 cup of peanut butter in the microwave until it pours easily (about 30-40 seconds). Pour melty peanut butter over the batter. Use a butterknife to swirl the peanut butter into the brownie batter.
6. Bake according to instructions on the box (I always bake mine for 29 minutes). If you are adding sprinkles or another topping midway through baking, let the brownies bake for 10 minutes, then add the toppings and bake for another 19.
7. Brownies are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow brownies to cool completely before slicing.

Some other highlights from our weekend included...

Me kicking Charlie's butt at Trivial Pursuit. Not pictured: me losing by 8 points in Scrabble. I demand a rematch.

Mmm, taco salad for lunch at Panchero's. Not pictured (again): the gigantic side of blue corn chips and guac we split. Nom.

My KitchenAid stand mixer FINALLY came home with me!! (Charlie gave me my gorgeous pistachio mixer as a birthday present back in May, but it's been living at his place until I moved into my apartment and got the furnishings under control. And at long last it's sitting here in all its shiny, dough-ready glory!)

I have a dresser! Aka I am no longer living out of giant black trash bags (...not that that was my real life for the past two weeks or anything). Also please ignore my clothing spilling out of everywhere. I promise I'm actually super clean and organized. Kthanks.

Dear life, just let us be healthy and lounge around in sweatpants and rot our brains with Dancing with the Stars for a while. Please? I'd be much obliged.

Dinner on a Budget: Lasagna with Turkey Meat Sauce

2011-09-12T09:01:00.000-04:00

Well, I've officially been living in my new apartment for a week, and things are starting to get easier. I've figured out which subway lines will get me to the office fastest in the morning, which grocery stores have the best prices for produce, and which pizzerias I do not want to frequent. All important knowledge to have!

One of the things that's been surprisingly overwhelming for me has been figuring out how to plan weekday meals that are affordable and (somewhat) healthy. You'd think I'd relish the endless opportunities, right?

That's what I thought, too, until I realized a) just how much food costs. I mean, seriously, how can somebody legitimately charge me $5 for a loaf of bread?! and b) by the time I get home from work, a lot of food stores are closed, and I'm also way too exhausted to feel like tackling a complicated new recipe after a full day at the office.

So after seeking the counsel of some more experienced friends (and after relying on GrubHub one night this past week--I'll admit it!), I decided to turn spend a few hours this weekend cooking a freezer-friendly meal.

This lasagna is adapted from the recipe my mom has used at home since we were kids. I opted for whole wheat noodles and ground turkey meat to lighten it up a little, but feel free to use regular lasagna pasta and ground beef if that suits your fancy--it would be just as crazy delicious.

(This is also the first meal I baked in our now non-Fugly Oven! And let me tell you, it works beautifully. Still proud. Don't judge.)

Lasagna with Turkey Meat Sauce

Ingredients:
1 small white onion
3 cloves garlic
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 lb ground turkey meat (I used 93% lean)
1 13-oz can tomato sauce (I used Ragu's Tomato and Basil, since I'm not intrepid enough to make my own sauce...yet)
1 package whole grain lasagna noodles (you'll need 9 noodles to make the 3 layers)
1 package part-skim shredded mozzarella cheese
Grated parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Peel onion and roughly chop into small pieces (it doesn't have to be as precise as dicing, just chop to the size you'd like to find in your sauce). If necessary, Google "How to peel an onion" on your iPhone. Not that it was necessary for me to do this.
3. Peel garlic cloves and cut into thin slices. Add onion and garlic to a large saucepan along with extra virgin olive oil. Cook on low-medium heat until onions begin to brown and garlic is fragrant, 8-10 minutes.
4. Begin adding ground turkey to saucepan in small clumps. Make sure your pieces of turkey meat aren't too big, because you want an even distribution throughout your meat sauce. Also, if they're too big the pasta won't lay flat on top of them when you being layering your ingredients. I typically find that a pea- to marble-sized piece is ideal.
5. Continue cooking onions, garlic, and meat until turkey is cooked through (completely browned with no pink left), about 7-8 more minutes. At this point, you can drain your pan of the excess oil and grease if you'd like.
6. Add 3/4 can of tomato sauce to mixture cooking in saucepan. Stir to combine and then cover. Allow to simmer for 20-25 minutes to allow flavors to combine.
7. While the sauce is simmering, cook your lasagna noodles as directed on the package (if necessary--my mom always used the no-boil kind to make life easier!).
8. Spoon a little bit of sauce into the bottom of a 13x9 Pyrex pan (this layer doesn't need to be thick or have that much meat in it--it's mostly just to keep the lasagna from sticking when you scoop it out to serve).
9. Layer three noodles across pan. Cover with a layer of meat sauce, sprinkled mozzarella cheese, and grated parmesan.
10. Repeat twice more with remaining noodles, meat sauce, and cheeses.
11. Cover pan with aluminum foil and bake for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes, remove foil and cook another 8-10 minutes, until edges are just beginning to brown and cheese is melted and bubbly.
12. Remove from oven and let stand for 5-7 minutes so that lasagna can set (otherwise it'll fall apart completely when you try to scoop it out. Lasagna soup is not the goal here!).

Enjoy for dinner, then cut into serving-size pieces and freeze for maximum enjoyment all week long. :)

Where Have I Been?

2011-09-06T21:44:00.001-04:00

Wow, Labor Day weekend has come and gone. Seriously? It's officially fall now?

Well, that's okay, I guess. But only because it means stores have started stocking candy corn. Have I mentioned that I have an unhealthy obsession with candy corn? Yeah, there's that.

I have been way, way behind on everything in my Google Reader these past few days, and Tweeting? Fuhgeddaboudit. Know why?

I moved!

Yup, I have my own itty bitty kitchen now. Case in point...uh, counter space? What's that?

These bowls from Target may in fact be my favorite thing in my kitchen.

So given the fact that we still lack things like, um, a table (my TV is sitting on the floor right now as I watch Chopped), I obviously haven't had much of a chance to bake anything. Yet. But don't worry, I'm getting ready!

I spent two hours on Monday night scrubbing out our Fugly Oven. If you think it looks a little shabby now, man, you should have seen it before I got my hands on it. I don't think it had seen a sponge...ever. Now it's cookie-ready!

One of the things about moving that made me the most excited was getting to prepare my own meals on a regular basis. Granted, I'm realizing that it's also pretty daunting (I didn't realize that panic could set in mid-workday regarding a lack of dinner plans for that night), but I think I'm doing okay so far.

Night 1: Tilapia filet with carrots and broccoli.

Night 2: Whole grain penne with broccoli and the other half of the tilapia filet, plus tomato basil sauce!

Not bad for a newbie, right? Don't worry; the sweets will make a return soon enough...I don't think my cabinets can go too long without a supply of flour, sugar, and chocolate chips!

P.S. Is anybody else completely and totally addicted to Pinterest? I sign on intending to pin one thing...and then six hours later I come to and I have six new boards and I've decorated three houses I'll never be able to afford. Not even an exaggeration. So I'll be a bad influence on you, too--come pin with me!

Funfetti Pancakes, aka Hurricane Comfort Food

2011-08-28T23:41:00.001-04:00

How are all the rest of you on the East Coast holding up after Hurricane Irene? I know there was a variety of different effects depending on what region people found themselves in. I was lucky enough to be in a mostly unaffected area--we got a ton of rain and wind, but because my house is on a hill, we didn't get any flooding. There were a lot of leaves and twigs to be raked up on Sunday afternoon, but no damage to the house or cars or anything, thank goodness. I know we're among the lucky ones!

Perhaps you found yourself cooped up inside as a result of our dear friend Irene--whether in anticipation of her coming, during the storm itself, or in the aftermath of the cleanup. Whenever I find myself housebound and stir-crazy, I crave the mother of all comfort foods: pancakes.

These Funfetti pancakes are the brainchild of Jessie Oleson, also known as the Cakespy. Jessie's outrageous confectionary creations make me ooh, aah, and, occasionally, giggle with every post she makes. I can't wait until I find an excuse to visit Seattle so I can pay a visit to her shop in person!

When she posted the recipe for these Funfetti pancakes a few months ago, I bookmarked them right off the bat, knowing the perfect day would come for these breakfast treats to make their debut. Charlie and I made these for breakfast during the weekend I was helping him recuperate, and we both gave the final results two thumbs way up. The rainbow chips in the Funfetti mix make for sweet pockets of mild crunch, and the cake batter-y flavor lends an undertone to these pancakes that never lets you forget you're really having dessert for breakfast. They're definitely a decadent and super-sweet treat!

Funfetti Pancakes
from Cakespy, via Serious Eats

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups (about 1/2 box) of Funfetti cake mix
1 cup milk (we used skim, in an effort to feel less guilty, haha)
1 egg
1/2 cup flour
butter, for greasing griddle or frying pan

1. Combine cake mix with milk, egg, and flour in medium-sized mixing bowl.
2. Blend on medium speed until all ingredients are combined, about 2 minutes. The mix will be VERY thick--it's okay! It will take a bit longer to cook than you're probably used to, but the pancakes come out fine.

Really, I promise. Just relax.

3. Let griddle or pan heat up (a medium-high setting is good) and grease with butter.
4. Drop about 1/4 cup of batter on griddle/pan for each pancake. Let the first side cook until the edges start to firm up and look drier than the center of the cooking pancake. (Because of the white cake mix, the edges of my pancakes, at least, didn't start to look "golden" the way regular pancake mix does.)
5. Flip the pancake and cook the second side (this will cook for a shorter time than the first). Because the batter is so thick, flipping the pancake may be a little tricky. I mastered the spatula-in-each-hand-flip-from-both-sides method--feel free to tell me if you discover a better one! :)
6. Serve immediately! Recommended garnishes include maple syrup, whipped cream, strawberry jam, or even cake frosting (Charlie and I were so mad we didn't have any frosting on hand--we've vowed to make a Funfetti pancake sandwich next time. Do I even have to explain to you what that is? I didn't think so).

Happy breakfasting! And to those of you who are still cleaning up in the aftermath of Irene, good luck and be safe. I'm thinking about you!

Links in this post:
www.cakespy.com
www.seriouseats.com

Chocolate Revel Bars: Get Well Soon!

2011-08-23T21:02:00.000-04:00

So, remember when Charlie left for Africa a-way back at the end of June?

Well, he's back. Yay! However, there is a not-yay part.

Back in the spring, he tore his ACL and his meniscus (in a dancing competition...on a cruise ship...trust me, the story is as good as it sounds) but it went undiagnosed until right before he left for Africa. You'd think that couldn't happen, right? That doctors with medical degrees couldn't miss something like that? Yeah, I'm with you on that. But anyway, by the time they figured out that significant connective tissues were separating, he was already so close to leaving that the surgery had to be scheduled for when he returned. Welcome home...now let us cut you open.

See that? That's a leg immobilizer. Also pictured: giant battery-powered ice cube (literally. We had to fill the cube up with ice every night and then plug it in so it'd keep supplying the part that wrapped around Charlie's knee with coldness).

Being the girlfriend that I am, I of course had to come up with a treat that said both "Welcome home! Here's a butter-sugar-flour explosion!" and "I hope this combines with the Percocet to numb your excruciating pain." A monumental task. Luckily, Nicole over at Baking Bites gave me the perfect idea!

I'd had these Chocolate Revel Bars bookmarked for ages, and I was just waiting for an excuse to make them. Of the things I bake, Charlie's favorite is definitely Magic Cookie Bars. I usually do 'em with chocolate chunks, peanut butter chips, pecans, and a little extra coconut if I know the whole batch is going to him. Slight problem. On this particular evening, my baking cabinets contained...none of these things. However, I did have TONS of oats. Solution? Revel bars.

Charlie's verdict? With his mouth full: "These are in the top five things you've ever baked." The oatmeal cookie layers sandwiches what basically becomes chocolate fudge: my favorite thing about these bars is how rich and chewy that middle layer is. The walnuts added some nice crunch and texture to the top, too. It might be fun to riff on this recipe with whatever you have in your cabinet, the way you can do with Magic Cookie Bars (maybe a caramel layer in the middle with chocolate chips and pecans on top? Caramel Turtle Revel Bars!). I do think that next time I'd prefer the cookie layer on the bottom to be thicker than the one on the top--see my note at the bottom of the recipe for my explanation on that.

Chocolate Revel Bars
Adapted very slightly from Baking Bites

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oatmeal (not instant)
1/2 cup of unsalted butter, at room temperature (divided into 7 tbsp and 1 tbsp)
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp vanilla extract, divided
7 oz sweetened condensed milk (about half the can--I used a little bit more than this)
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips, divided
1/2 cup toasted walnuts, coarsely chopped

(To toast walnuts, place them on a baking sheet in a 400 F oven for 5-7 minutes. They'll come out warm and toasty and delicious!)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8x8-inch square baking pan with aluminum foil and lightly grease (I used Pam Baking spray, which worked like a charm).
2. In a small bowl, whisk together flour baking soda, salt, and oatmeal.
3. In a large bowl, cream together 7 tbsp of butter with brown sugar. Beat in egg and 1 tsp of the vanilla extract.
4. Add flour mixture and blend until well incorporated.
5. In a microwave-safe bowl, combine sweetened condensed milk with 1 cup of chocolate chips and 1 tbsp butter. Heat in 40-second intervals, stirring in the middle, until the mixture is smooth and melted. Then, stir in remaining 1 tsp vanilla extract.
6. Take 2 cups of cookie dough mixture and press it in an even layer into the bottom of your pan. Spread chocolate mixture evenly on top of the cookie dough layer.
7. Stir remaining 1/2 cup of chocolate chips and 1 cup of walnuts into the rest of your cookie dough. Break dough into small chunks and distribute evenly on top of the chocolate layer. The chocolate won't be completely covered--that's okay!
8. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the top is lightly browned. The chocolate will look shiny and wet, but it'll cool down fine.
9. Cool completely in pan (mine actually had to cool overnight), then slice.

Makes 20-25 squares.

Note:
Nicole's original recipe says to press 1 1/2 cups of dough into the bottom of the pan, but I found myself wishing the bottom cookie layer were thicker. I upped the amount in my recipe, since I'd prefer to have more cookie in the foundation of these bars and more chocolate peeking through a top layer that's more crumb-like.

Links in this post:
http://bakingbites.com

Williams Sonoma Cupcake Mixes: Reviewed

2011-08-14T22:43:00.001-04:00

Photo courtesy of metrolic.com

What are the first things that come to mind when you think about the UK?

Tea and crumpets? Big Ben? Prince William?

All fine answers. Now, your list probably doesn't include cupcakes. It's okay; I understand, really. But if you've been reading this blog for any appreciable length of time, you'll know that my sisters and I have a deep affinity for these darlings of the baked good world, and we manage to find a way to work them into any occasion, if not all.

So what was the most recent of these occasions?

Well, my dear Middle Chip has decided to spend her fall semester abroad in jolly ol' England. She departs in just under three weeks--I can't believe it! And so this weekend, we had all of our extended family and friends over for a UK-themed Bon Voyage party. It was, to quote the lovely Julie Andrews, "practically perfect in every way."

My mom was super impressed with the presentation of these chocolate peanut butter cupcakes I baked a while back--so much so that she asked me to bake two batches of cupcakes for this party and use my piping bags to frost them (thank you, Wilton star tip, via Charlie!). But how to make these cupcakes fit the rest of the festivities?

Middle Chip and I brainstormed a bit and decided to use the Union Jack as our inspiration. Each of us had recently received a cupcake mix from Williams Sonoma--she a vanilla, I a red velvet--and had been itching to try them out anyway. What if, we thought, we baked up both of those batches, frosted them with cream cheese and vanilla frostings (courtesy of my girl Betty Crocker and the fine folks at Duncan Hines, respectively), and stuck mini Union Jacks in them? Undoubtedly these could then be deemed British Cupcakes.

It was a plan. Break out the mixer!

Look at how red the batter is!

The mix was really user-friendly: both required only the addition of water, vegetable oil, and eggs. They cooked up exactly within the time frame the box predicted (16-18 minutes, if you're curious) and popped out of the cupcakes tins with no problem. The only complaint I would voice is that the mixes aren't big enough--the box is supposed to make 12 cupcakes, but I only got 9 from the red velvet and 10 from the vanilla. I filled my cupcake wrappers 2/3 of the way full, as I normally do, and you can even see from the pictures above that some of the cupcakes are on the small side. If I'd tried to make the batter stretch to 12 cupcakes, I would have had a bunch of shrimpy confections!

That said, these cupcakes were definitely a hit at the party. I sampled one of the red velvet ones myself, and the consistency of the cake was great--moist but a little bit dense, which I prefer over an airy, crumb-y cupcake. My dad sampled one of the vanilla batch (although I topped his with chocolate [not pictured--totally messed with the theme] since he's a bit of a picky cupcake eater), and he deemed them "phenomenal." It takes a lot to make my dad use four-syllable adjectives when it comes to food!

(Why yes, I was playing with the focal black & white in Picasa, why do you ask?)

Let's face it. Box mixes are convenient, they're easy to work with, and they're almost always a crowd-pleaser. So if you're baking for an occasion like this one--a family party with lots of kids, where you didn't have a lot of time beforehand to fuss with from-scratch recipes--pick a mix you know is going to turn out yummy. I recommend these Williams Sonoma mixes wholeheartedly!

And just in case you wanted to see what some of the other treats we served were...

Scones!! (Regular and chocolate chip.)

More scones!! (Raisin and regular, made by our wonderful family friends.)

And of course...a big ol' sheet cake! (The buttercream roses are my favorite. I think I stole like five.)

At least now I know what to serve if Will and Kate ever decide to pop by for tea...pip pip, cheerio!

Paella! La comida de España

2011-08-07T22:31:00.008-04:00

This, mis amigos, is a true Spanish paella. The photo above was taken in a restaurant two friends I visited on a weekend trip to Valencia, a large city on the eastern coast of Spain, during my semester abroad there. This has to be one of the best meals I ate in the country--paella valenciana is renowned for its authenticity, even though you can get paella in mostly every Spanish cafe or restaurant.

(Paella is one of the most typically "Spanish" dishes. It's almost like a giant casserole, made with saffron-infused rice and any number of added ingredients. Seafood paellas will include mussels, clams, calamari, shrimp, and prawns. Mixed paellas will have some seafood elements as well as chicken or rabbit. And vegetarian paellas have peppers, snap peas, and other yummy legumes.)

I was doing a bit of reminiscing about my time in Europe this weekend, so I decided to share with you a recipe I inherited while I was there!

La comida española came to mind this weekend in particular during one of my apartment hunting trips. I'm currently in the throes of searching for an apartment closer to my job, and I say "throes" because the process is incredibly beyond stressful--I feel like the only things I do anymore are read Craigslist and visit apartments, half of which have already been rented by the time I actually get there to see them.

On this particular day, I got to the area a bit before my appointment, so I decided to wander around and check out the local fare. What did I happen to find? A Spanish tapas restaurant! I'm no stranger to Mexican food, or even South American cuisine, within the five boroughs, but finding places that brand themselves as authentically Spanish doesn't happen to me quite as often. I stopped to read the streetside menu, and one of the proprietors came out to greet me. When I mentioned that I was so excited to find his establishment because I'd lived in Salamanca for four months during college, he exclaimed, "Una salamantina!" and then proceeded to talk to me solely in Spanish for the next five minutes I stood there.

It was fantastic. I absolutely love any opportunity I get to practice my Spanish (my favorite day of a cruise I took recently was the day I got to haggle for our souvenirs in Cozumel), but I get really self-conscious about it in New York, where so many people are native speakers.

Anyway, it got me thinking about all of the fabulous paella I ate while I was in Spain. Paella is the Sunday supper for a true Spanish family. In truth, my host mother would only serve this dish on Sundays, and making it was a huge (and time-consuming!) production. The version I'm giving you below could possibly be dubbed Paella for Dummies...or maybe just Paella para Americanos. I took a cooking class while I was in Spain, and this was one of the dishes the chef showed us how to prepare (I'm sure the other two will surface in the future!). I took copious notes, and I'm so glad I did!

We made the paella above for one of my roommate's birthdays during my senior year of college (you've met her before--D, my sugar Sweet sunshine doctor-photographer). She studied in Sevilla, so our common love of all things español unites us as well.

I spaced out the ingredients (which are mostly still in EU measurements, since they're from my cooking class--I added conversions where I thought necessary) a bit more than I usually do because I added some commentary below. This recipe is really, really versatile and can be easily adapted to what you have on hand or what you're able to do. A true Spaniard would probably disown me, but I promise you it's hard to mess this up!

Spanish Paella
(for 6 people, with heaping portions)

Ingredients:
1 onion, cut into tiny pieces
3 peppers (green, red, yellow) - optional
1/2 cup olive oil
2 g saffron, ground [I know this is an expensive ingredient, but the paella won't have that gorgeous golden color without it--it's worth the splurge!]
Salt, to taste

700 g of rice, cooked (about 25 oz)

1.2 liters of water or stock (2x more liquid than rice, if you change the proportions)
laurel (added to water for flavoring)

1/2 of a chicken, cut with the bones still inside
[When my roommates and I made this, we used boneless chicken breasts cut into strips--use what you've got!]

200 g shrimp
[The frozen kind work just fine, if you're on a college student's budget]

200 g mussels/clams - optional
200 g calamari (~5 pieces, cut) - optional

1. In a large frying pan (or a giant paella pan), cook olive oil, onions, peppers, and saffron (ground) for 10 minutes on very high heat. Add salt, to taste.

2. Heat water/stock in a separate pot, add laurel. Bring to a boil.

3. Add chicken to the vegetables and continue cooking.

4. Add shrimp, mussels, and calamari (if using) to cooking chicken and vegetable mixture. (If you use mussels, make sure they open when you cook them!)

5. Add boiling water/broth to your meats and vegetables to moisten.

6. Add cooked rice to your pan. [My roommates and I were also on a college budget--we used that Minute Rice stuff and it still worked just fine. Just as long as you've already prepared the rice before you add it to the veggies and meats!]

7. Allow paella to cook for 20 minutes on medium heat OR

8. Cook for 5 minutes on very high heat, then for 5 minutes in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius (about 400 degrees Fahrenheit). [If you're using an oven-safe skillet or pan, this'll give your paella that nice crispy-crunchy top that you can see in my authentic picture at the beginning of this post.]

I hope you enjoy! (Que te disfrutes!!)

A delicious vacation recap

2011-07-31T23:41:00.001-04:00

So don't get me wrong. I love you guys. But I'd much rather be here.

I just got back from eight wonderful days in the Sunshine State, and this whole back-to-work-real-life-still-exists thing is a rather unpleasant surprise. To distract myself from the inevitable post-vacay slump, I present to you: a recap of some of the culinary highlights of the trip!

It needs to be stated from the get-go that I was beyond excited for my first visit to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios. I started reading the books back when I was a wee 'un, and I just saw the final chapter of the last movie a couple of weeks ago (it may or may not have been opening night. Don't judge). The whole series is something I associate really strongly with my childhood and growing up, and I couldn't wait to see it all built lifesize, right in front of my eyes.

The whole place completely surpassed my expectations. (I'll spare you the gushing here, but suffice it to say that if we are friends on Facebook there will be copious amounts of photos.) For one thing, I got to eat lunch in the Three Broomsticks. And I had Cornish pasties! They were actually quite good for theme park food--the ground beef mixture inside was spicy and flavorful, and the pastry crust was light and flaky. (For those of you who have actually had Cornish pasties in like...the actual United Kingdom, I apologize. I'm sure these make you chortle. But sitting in the big wooden booth under beveled glass windows eating "Cornish pasties" made me feel like Emma Watson was about to walk by in her Hogwarts robes or something.)

The Cornish pasties were made even more amazing, however, by the beverage they were serendipitously paired with:

Butterbeer.

Chances are, you can't be a food blogger or even food blog reader without having noticed the huge upswing in Harry Potter-themed desserts around mid-July (when the movie came out). There were butterbeer cupcakes, butterbeer ice cream, even butterbeer cookies. All wonderful. But I am fairly confident that they pale in comparison to the Real Thing. Behold:

The masterminds behind this delicious concoction wisely decided to offer two versions at Universal: the original (more akin to root beer in appearance, but with a frothy head similar to a stout) and the frozen (think butterscotchy milkshake) varieties. Now, I am a purist. However. It was so godawfully hot in Orlando the day we were there that I was ducking into the shadows of lampposts for relief. I think J.K. Rowling and her breathren will understand and excuse my deviation from the more beer-y butterbeer. Plus, the frozen butterbeer is just so tasty...its sweetness and creaminess and altogether-wonderfulness kind of negated any guilt I felt about its questionable authenticity. :)

Middle Chip and I also bought one of Hagrid's rock cakes from Honeydukes (the candy shop in the books). It was kind of a cinnamon raisin scone with turbinado sugar (thanks to Maris at In Good Taste for teaching me what that is!) sprinkled on the top. Definitely a yummy snack for midday--and definitely big enough to split!

Let's fast forward a few days and cross the English Channel, shall we?

One of my favorite parts of Epcot Center is visiting the World Showcase--mostly to sample all of the cuisines! Middle Chip and I always insist on taking a trip to the France pavilion to visit our favorite crepe stand. They can't hold a candle to the crepes au Nutella I got outside of Notre Dame during my semester abroad, but eating them in the shadow of [Disney's] "Eiffel Tower" is pretty fun! This time, I chose the strawberry crepe topped with sugar, and sis chose the chocolate.

Oh, and let's not forget my love of everything Spanish. There is (to my utter horror) no Spain pavilion in Epcot. There is, however, a Mexico! And y'know what they offer at the cantina in Epcot's Mexico?

CHURROS!

Churros con chocolate was one of my absolute favorite guilty pleasure snacks when I lived in Spain, so these were a must-have in my wanderings around the World Showcase. Disney's version are rolled in cinnamon sugar in addition to being deep-fried (like I said, guilty pleasure), and they actually came with a dulce de leche dipping sauce rather than a chocolate one. A different taste experience than the almost-ganache-like dunking chocolate I got used to overseas, but still delicious!

To round out the Orlando leg of our vacation, Middle Chip and I decided to treat ourselves to some sweets from the Confectionary at the Magic Kingdom (this little gem can be found on Main Street--it's one of the first storefronts on your right-hand side when you start walking down the promenade).

We split an Oreo fudge-wich--aka a circular cut-out of chocolate fudge sandwiched between two oversized Oreo wafers--and Middle Chip got herself a Mickey cake pop as a belated birthday treat. (She had been wearing the "It's my Birthday!" Disney pin all week long, so she was totally the star of the show. Three different cast members sang to her. Loudly. In public.) Since we were leaving for Tampa the next morning, we didn't eat them that night--instead we saved them for a beachside treat during the latter half of our vacation. Totally the right call! The fudge-wich was as rich and decadent as you might expect (definitely my favorite of the two), and the cake pop wound up being s'mores style! Underneath the chocolate coating, the ears were marshmallow and the head was almost like a brownie. Yum yum.

Feel full yet? I do. I still do. I probably will continue to for at least another two weeks.

Will this stop me from eating? Heck no.

However, I apparently have to do laundry now, or something. Because I have no more clean clothes. Oops?

Links in this post:
www.universalorlando.com/harrypotter/
http://confessionsofacookbookqueen.com
www.thespiffycookie.com
http://bakeat350.blogspot.com
http://ingoodtasteblog.net

A Roomie Reunion--Sugary Sweet!

2011-07-23T12:02:00.000-04:00

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Tara. (I promise, this story isn't autobiographical.) She was the first one in her family to go away to college, and she'd chosen to dorm. She was also getting randomly matched with a roommate. Cue scary music.

Fast forward. Have I mentioned how fantastically awesome and wonderful my college roommate is? Seriously. As in, provides me with this recipe for cake in a mug and convinces me to be spontaneous and fun-loving and all that jazz I'm usually not. Have I mentioned she's also going to be a doctor? And that she just got back from spending five weeks traveling from village to village in the Himalayas providing medical care to people there who really, really need it?

Yeah, she's way more epic than I am.

Anyway. Needless to say, I would be happy to act as the poster girl for the "Getting randomly matched with a roommate can work out fabulously" society. After not having seen my dear roomie since my birthday way back in May, we decided to meet up in NYC one evening after I got out of work. Roomie dearest (hereafter, D) also had a plan to bestow upon me my belated birthday gift:

A trip to sugar Sweet sunshine to sample an array of their cupcakes, plus documentation with her (freaking amazing) DSLR camera (of which I am incredibly unspeakably jealous). Hooray!

Can we talk about how adorable this place is?

We decided we were gonna go big or go home. So we got six cupcakes, cut 'em all in half...and tried all of them. Yes, I did take notes.

First up, the Strawberry (strawberry cake with cream cheese icing) and the Pumpkin (pumpkin cake with cream cheese icing).

The word D and I both used to describe the Strawberry was "subtle"--it was a cupcake that was understated in its deliciousness. I was pleasantly surprised to find bits of strawberry fruit in the cake itself, which made for a really great texture. The cream cheese gave the cupcake a yummy tang--I'm glad I opted for the strawberry/cream cheese combo rather than the strawberry/peanut butter option they also offered. For some reason, strawberry and peanut butter just sounded weird to me!

The Pumpkin was spicy perfection, probably my second favorite of the whole tasting shebang. It tasted kind of like Thanksgiving in a cupcake--all of the goodness of those cinnamonny, nutmeggy spices you get when you make pumpkin bread or other holiday baked goods. And of course, the more cream cheese icing involved, the better.

Next, the Pistachio (pistachio cake with "the Moose," which is sugar Sweet sunshine's special satin buttercream) and the Bob (yellow cake with chocolate almond buttercream).

The Pistachio actually wasn't as packed with flavor as I had expected it to be. The cake was green when we cut into the cake, which surprised the two of us and had us prepared for some sort of strong pistachio flavor, but it didn't really follow through with that taste-wise. We weren't huge fans of "the Moose" either--it was light and whippy, but kind of insubstantial and not sweet at all. D's analysis: "This is all buttah." Mine? Kind of meh. Not finger-lickin' icing. And we all know that's how I prefer mine to be.

Now, the Bob? Don't even get me started. Oh my gosh. Even at the end of the tasting, when D and I were both ready to explode and were just craving salty things to balance out the extreme sugar overload in our systems, I probably could have eaten another dozen of these. If you can't tell, this was my favorite of the bunch. The chocolate almond buttercream was a total knockout--the almond flavor definitely came through, and it gave the traditional buttercream a really fun quirk. One of the first mixed drinks I got a taste for was an amaretto sour (I know, I know, the girliest drink possible), and this cupcake was like eating one of those--I think I much prefer the baked good version to the alcohol one, if we're being honest!

Finally, the Black & White...Just Right (chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream) and the Sexy Red Velvet (red velvet cake with "the Moose").

The B&W was a keeper in my book because the buttercream made a reappearance, this time in a vanilla version rather than the chocolate almond. It was also a nice change to have some chocolate cake after having so many vanilla variants!

After the fact, though, D and I both wished we'd gotten the Sassy Red Velvet rather than the Sexy. The Sexy Red Velvet was topped with "the Moose," which, as we'd discovered, we weren't the biggest fans of. But its Sassy sister was iced with my beloved chocolate almond buttercream! Curses! I guess I'll just have to go back and get another. And maybe the Ooey Gooey (chocolate cake with chocolate almond buttercream), too. You know, for statistical purposes. Or something. Another thing we noticed, both with the B&W and the Red Velvet, was that the cake was a bit drier and crumbly, not quite as moist as with the first four (oof)--I'm not sure whether to attribute it to the cupcakes sitting on the table outside of the refrigerator cases the longest, or perhaps it being later in the day, or another x-factor that hasn't come to mind.

Cupcakes, get in mah belleh.

I should add that sugar Sweet sunshine sells a veritable cornucopia of delicious sweet items. Before D and I started the Great Cupcake Tasting, we told ourselves we'd have room for their Chocolate Bomb pudding after the fact (or maybe we'd take some to go). I cannot even communicate to you how wrong we were. Sadly, we did not get to sample their cookies, brownies, or assortment of cakes (of the layered and non-layered varieties), but...simply incentive for a return journey.

Moral of the story? Go downtown. Way downtown. Where the streets don't have numbers anymore. Getcha self some cupcakes. Tell yourself you can never eat again.

Then go have matzo ball soup at Katz's Deli for (real) dinner.

As I mentioned earlier, all of the photos in this post were taken by my roommate, who, in addition to being on the road to her MD, is also an amateur photographer and part-time blogger! You can see more of her photos on her blog here!

Links in this blog:
http://sugarsweetsunshine.com
http://katzsdelicatessen.com/
http://whenlifegivesyoumud.blogspot.com

Cupcake Crawl 2011!!

2011-07-17T22:51:00.001-04:00

Well, if you follow me on Twitter, you'll know that Sunday of last weekend was the day Middle Chip and I had been waiting for: Cupcake Crawl 2011!!

And here it is, in all its recap glory...read on for cupcake gluttony!

Middle Chip and I did not embark on this adventure alone. We were joined by two family friends, also sisters, who are almost exactly our ages. Our fathers went to high school together, so we've grown up attending one another's milestone celebrations and visiting on holidays, despite the fact that they live about an hour away. The four of us have a shared love of all sorts of sweets, and when a tour of some of New York's finest cupcakeries was proposed...well, are you surprised Middle Chip and I were all over that idea?

Our first stop of the day was in the West Village, an adorable place with a devious name: Sweet Revenge.

Sweet Revenge actually markets itself as a cupcake, beer, and wine bar (I know), so their menu lists all of their recommended pairings based on the flavors of your chosen cupcake. They have both bar-stool seating and an assortment of tiny, cute tables--we were feeling casual, so we opted to pull up stools at the bar (we also knew we'd be taking tons of photos, hah).

Check out their display case: the Crimson & Cream, which is a raspberry red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, and the Mayan Chocolate, a cinnamon chocolate cake with cinnamon chocolate buttercream. Did I almost press my face up against the glass? Why yes.

My first cupcake of the day was the signature house special: the aptly named Sweet Revenge. It was a peanut butter cake filled with a chocolate ganache core, frosted with peanut butter fudge and sprinkled with some roasted peanuts. Hooooly peanut butter, Batman.

Now, I am a Frosting Girl--I can eat the stuff with a spoon, straight, no cake necessary. So, understandably, the frosting to cake ratio of this peanut butter behemoth was a delightful surprise. I was surprised that they called it a "peanut butter fudge," though, because to me the taste and consistency were a lot more like buttercream--quite sweet, whippy, not too thick. Despite the semantic confusion, the frosting was definitely my favorite part of the cupcake.

The cake itself was (sadly) a tad dry--it crumbled a little bit when I split it with my fork and had trouble supporting its granddaddy of a frosting dollop. The ganache core was delicious--and was a nice chocolatey complement to what was a very peanut buttery cake--but it was, weirdly, colder than the rest of the cupcake. It stayed in its little core shape and didn't really meld with the surrounding cake, which meant I wound up eating most of the ganache in solitary bites rather than integrated with the rest of the cupcake experience.

Middle Chip picked the Dirty: a Valrhona chocolate cake with dark chocolate truffle frosting, dusted with cocoa powder. Not for the faint of chocolate heart.

I tried a bite of this and even I was surprised by the intense flavors of the bitter dark chocolate. It was delicious, for sure, but I don't know if I could have consumed a whole cupcake's worth. (Plus Middle Chip and I both agreed--the liberal amount of cocoa powder dust upped the bitter ratio by about a billion percent. Definitely a taste you've got to be looking for, and we were both a bit so-so on it.)

Does any of this mean we had any trouble finishing our cupcakes? Heck no.

The favorite cupcake from Sweet Revenge was unfortunately not captured in a close-up photograph! Our friend chose the Mayan Chocolate cupcake (I got a side view of them in the refrigerator picture, above), which Middle Chip and I both sampled. Verdict: I am going back to Sweet Revenge and having that cupcake. No ifs, ands, or buts. Wanna come? Good, it's a plan. The cinnamon/chocolate combo is a total knockout.

Stop number two took us back uptown a bit into the Greenwich Village area, to (the original) Magnolia Bakery.

If you've ever watched Sex and the City, Magnolia Bakery is the shop where Carrie and Miranda get cupcakes in this episode (and Sarah Jessica Parker has actually been seen there a lot as well!). They have a few locations in New York, but since this is the original there's usually a line around the corner (like there was on this particular Sunday). Then they let a few groups in at a time to pick their goodies (and get out before someone elbows you in the face).

Middle Chip selected the more traditional vanilla cupcake with vanilla buttercream (and sprinkles!), while I opted for the chocolate cake and chocolate buttercream (the mid-bite version is pictured at the very top of this entry. After my peanut butter explosion at Sweet Revenge, I needed some chocolate to balance it out! That's mathematically sound, right? Exactly).

The four of us headed to a little park across the street, where we grabbed a couple of benches and made a picnic snack out of our cupcakes. One of our friends' assessments? "Buttah. Like buttaaaaah," which she then translated to mean that this buttercream didn't skimp on its eponymous ingredient.

Middle Chip voiced her preference for Magnolia over Sweet Revenge--she said she found her cupcake moister and liked the icing a lot better. I definitely agree with her about the moistness of the cake, although my two cupcakes had such different flavor combinations that it's difficult to dub one "better." I think I'd say that Sweet Revenge is more of a "gourmet" cupcakery--we didn't do the pairings since it was 4 pm on a Sunday, but I definitely plan to order a glass of wine or a bellini the next time I'm there! So I'm not surprised the cupcakes are a little fancier. Magnolia, I think, appeals more to the bake sale cupcake kid in all of us.

Stop number three took us across town to Crumbs, which has become totally ubiquitous in New York but can't be left off a list of sugar coma-inducing baked goods. (Plus, their cupcake of the month for July is S'mores, which is Middle Chip's favorite cupcake possibly ever.)

It was fun to see all of the summer cupcake decor Crumbs had set up, but we were in for a not-so-pleasant surprise--they were sold out of the S'mores cupcakes! Middle Chip was super disappointed, and I didn't want to get something for myself when she wasn't going to be able to get her favorite, so we wound up leaving empty-handed.

Originally, our Cupcake Crawl came to an end after this trio of cupcakeries. But after the Crumbs letdown, I took myself and Middle Chip on a little detour on our way to the train...

We stopped at Baked by Melissa!

Now, I've posted about these little quarter-sized beauties before, but Middle Chip had never sampled them. We got a sampler box of six, three each: I chose s'mores, peanut butter and jelly, and cookie dough, while Middle Chip went for s'mores, cookie dough, and red velvet (yes, we are indeed sisters).

I was glad I could cheer her up from her Crumbs disappointment--she loved hers! My minis (pictured above) were as sweet and perfectly bite-sized as I remember from last time. Thanks to Baked by Melissa for helping us end our day on a high note rather than a low one!

The verdict? Cupcake Crawl 2011 was a huge success. Middle Chip and I (and our intrepid fellow cupcake tasters) are already planning our next adventure...perhaps an Ice Cream Crawl? Thoughts??

(An editorial note: Today, July 17th, is actually Middle Chip's birthday! Happy Birthday to my wonderful sister. <3)

Links in this post:
www.sweetrevengenyc.com
www.magnoliabakery.com
www.crumbs.com
www.bakedbymelissa.com

Peanut Butter Cereal Bites: Snackers Rejoice

2011-07-10T22:03:00.000-04:00

Full disclosure: I am a compulsive snacker. When I bring my lunch to work, I also have a snack for mid-morning, a snack to go along with my sandwich/salad/entrée du jour, and a snack for that 4 p.m. hour when it’s not quite time to go home yet but my tummy’s getting rumbly.

The result? I’m constantly looking for new snack foods to mix up my day. Since I know I am what those nutrition people call a “grazer,” I try to be conscious of at least making sure what I’m grazing on is healthy, especially because I’m doing it so often. I love fresh fruit—apples and grapes especially are my go-tos for wash-and-pack, and now that strawberries and watermelon are in season, they’ve entered the rotation as well. I’ll often throw in a carton of yogurt or some baby carrot sticks with peanut butter for something more protein-heavy to get me through the long morning.

You know what I really like, though? Granola. Toasty and nutty and salty and sweet. It actually kind of dismays me that so many “granola bars” I used to buy actually have a lot of scary unreadable ingredients on their product labels—something tells me that ingesting a bunch of carrageenan and zinc oxide (isn’t that the stuff they make you put on your nose when you get sun poisoning?) kind of outweighs the oats and grains and stuff.

Which is why I was really excited when Maria at Two Peas and Their Pod wrote this post about Peanut Butter Granola Balls! (If you haven’t been over to Maria’s blog yet, you’ve definitely got to check it out. In addition to the tons of non-scary, beginner-friendly recipes [always good for me!], her dedication to family and loved ones shines through in everything she writes and prepares.)

The yield of a recipe is always a concern for me. Maria’s recipe made about 24 granola balls—more than I could eat in two weeks, probably—so I scaled down her proportions a lot. I also made a bunch of swaps based on what I had in my pantry, so I can assure you that this is definitely a great mix-and-match recipe.

Peanut Butter Cereal Bites

Adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod

Ingredients:

1 tbsp unsalted butter

2 tbsp creamy peanut butter

1 (generous) tbsp honey

1/2 cup old-fashioned oats

1/2 cup Oat Cluster Cheerios Crunch (my current favorite variation—great with strawberries, fyi)

Handful of raisins

Handful (plus a few for you) semisweet chocolate chips

Cupcake wrappers (for the finished cereal balls to set)

1. In a small pot over medium-low heat, melt butter, peanut butter, and honey together. Stir with a wooden spoon until smooth.

2. Remove from heat and let cool for about 2 minutes.

3. While the sticky mixture is still pliable but not pipin’ hot, stir in oats, Cheerios, and raisins.

4. Let mixture cool for about 3 more minutes. Then stir in chocolate chips. (Wait a little bit longer if you don’t want them to melt as much.)

5. Drop heaping spoonfuls of your warm mix into cupcake wrappers and arrange on a plate or small tray. Place in the fridge until cool and set, about 15-20 minutes.

Makes about 5 cereal bites (mine are the size of ping-pong balls).

I think this recipe would be absolutely crazy good swapping Nutella for peanut butter—I unfortunately didn’t have any of that chocolate hazelnutty goodness on hand today, but it’s definitely on my to-do list. Adding almonds or walnuts might be fun too! Let me know what your favorite flavor combos are if you give this a try. :)

Links in this post:

www.twopeasandtheirpod.com

Lunch Break: Chocolate & Crepes in Alphabet City

2011-07-04T20:34:00.001-04:00

I work in Midtown Manhattan. Now, normally this provides for some pretty interesting sights. Free movies in Bryant Park, more food trucks of every conceivable ethnic variety than one could possibly choose from, and a whole lotta tourists (okay, so sometimes that part is exasperating).

But at other times? At other times the constant hustle and bustle and GOGOGO of Manhattan just gets to me. And so last week, thanks to an about-to-expire Groupon, I decided to take a field trip waaaay downtown to St. Marks Place during my lunch break. People, it's a whole different world south of 14th Street.

When I got off the subway at Astor Place, I meandered along, just soaking up the sheer downtown-ness and its contrast to the much more buttoned-up atmosphere in Midtown. It even seemed sunnier downtown, if that was possible--although this may have been a manifestation of my excitement, hah. And I had nearly reached my destination--Motek Creperie, where I was entitled to $12 worth of crepes, coffee, or other delicious fare--when I saw this sign out of the corner of my eye:

FREE CHOCOLATE TASTING?

Oh, just hold the phone now. There are few things I love more than chocolate. But things that are free are way up there. Of course you know I detoured and wandered right in.

Byron, the president of The Chocolate Library, assured me that the broken-up bits of dark chocolate on the counter were indeed free for the tasting. And when he found out I was a part-time food blogger, he brought out this bowl of Fearless brand chocolates so that I could sample even more of their products! Of the ones in this box, I sampled the Exploding Coconuts and Sweet & Hot Hibiscus Ginger flavors, both of which were variations I'd never tried before (I'm usually a chocolate purist, mostly due to my being skeptical about anything that doesn't contain ganache). They were also both organic raw chocolate with a really high percentage of cacao, which gave them a cool flavor I can only describe as "earthy."

The coconut one was just a little bit crunchy and pleasantly sweet--I liked it even though I'm not usually a coconut person. And the hibiscus ginger one--which I was the most nervous about, since I've never really gotten the hang of the whole chili/chocolate trend--was so interesting to eat. It started out quite mild, with just a hint of spiciness to it. Gradually you noticed a bit more heat, and it really left a kick in your mouth with the aftertaste. I don't know if it's the chocolate I'd choose for my Easter basket, but as something of a couture chocolate product, it was definitely unique and really flavorful.

I also got to try this Pacari bar, another raw organic chocolate, this one made with maca. Apparently (thanks, Wikipedia), maca is a South American variety of plant used in lots of different food and medicinal recipes, but also (and this is perhaps why it's best known in the U.S.) marketed as an aphrodisiac. Go figure.

After my oh-so-brief chocolate detour, I was back on my way to Motek Creperie.

I decided to stray from my M.O. a little bit and opted for a savory crepe instead of ordering off the sweet menu. I know, I know, crazy, right? But seriously, when I read this: sauteed spinach, tomato, and honey-roasted turkey with aioli--I knew I'd found my sandwich soulmate in crepe form. Besides, woman doth not live on Nutella alone, right?

So, they make your crepe for you rightthere. On the little crepe griddle, in the window. Taking my food excitement to the next level.

Not having sugary second thoughts. No no no. (Are you seeing the strawberry jelly and the Nutella and the white chocolate spread on that shelf?! Yeah, me neither.)

Motek also had a really cute seating area for those customers who ate their crepes on premises, as well as a bunch of other tantalizing sweets on display in these little jars on the counter.

Now, let's talk about this crepe. Is your tummy rumbling for lunch yet?

Not pictured: the ENORMOUS iced coffee that kept me from dying of dehydration between St. Marks and Midtown. Totally clutch addition to this lunch.

It should be. This turkey crepe totally lived up to my savory expectations. The aioli gave just the perfect amount of zest to this crepe without being too heavy or gloppy--it was an excellent match to play up a fairly mild roasted turkey. I do wish that the turkey had been a bit more substantial--Motek used sliced deli meat rather than pieces of breast meat, and they got a bit lost between the folds of crepe. The crepe itself was soft with just a hint of sweetness, pairing nicely with the sweetness of the sliced heirloom tomatoes. And the spinach provided a great counterpoint, salty and a little garlicky thanks to that sauteeing.

I think my favorite thing, though, was how well-layered this was--a good quality of any crepe! With each piece you cut out of the triangle, you had all of the flavors present in each bite--a little spinach, tomato, turkey, and aioli no matter where you cut from, very evenly distributed so that no one taste ever overpowered the others.

The verdict? I wish I had about 10 more Groupons. I guess I'll just have to treat myself to another day downtown so I can sample something from the sweet side of Motek's menu...maybe during their sweet crepe happy hour from 5-7!

Links in this post:
www.groupon.com
www.chocolatelib.com
www.motekcrepe.com

Pecan Cinnamandies

2011-06-26T23:05:00.002-04:00

My boyfriend's going to Africa. Did I mention that? Oh yeah. For like five weeks. And sure, I mean, it's with his grad school program not like an Iron Man-style walkabout (oh wait; that's Australia...whoops), but c'mon...Africa's kinda far away.

So clearly, the thing to do when one's significant other is departing for a foreign country is to make them cookies.

I call these Pecan Cinnamandies--they're based on a bunch of recipes for Pecan Sandies I found, but I added some spiciness and went for a more cake-like cookie by using cream of tartar in addition to baking soda, as well as an egg and vanilla.

Now, if you've been reading my blog for even a little while, you know that I love sweet things. The only dessert that has ever come close to being too overpoweringly sugary for me is Cold Stone, and that's only in recent years (I suppose my palate is starting to refine? Or maybe I'm just becoming a wuss). So I feel it is my duty as an ambassador for the diabetic-coma-inducing to let you know that these cookies have a much more subtle flavor than the baked goods I usually do.

The pecans are definitely the star of the show as far as these cookies are concerned. They lend a crunchy, buttery quality to the cookie base, which I described to Middle Chip as almost a cross between a sugar cookie and a shortbread. Nut-lovers will rejoice--rather than their beloved walnuts or almonds or, as in this case, pecans, being overshadowed by chocolate chunks and candy bar pieces and all of the other flashy sassy stuff I'm accustomed to throwing in cookies, the beauty of these cinnamandies is their simplicity. You're eating the cookie for the pecans, and each bite is a nutty reminder of that.

So, dear pecan fans, I hope that you will embrace these cookies and give them a home in your kitchens. The Africa-bound's first words, upon biting into one? "Fluffy. Pecan-y. Delicious."

Pecan Cinnamandies
Inspired by Martha Stewart and The Sweets Life

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon, plus more for sprinkling (if desired)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus 1 tbsp
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup pecans, chopped and toasted (see below)

For toasty pecan goodness:*
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Roughly chop pecans until you have one cup's worth.
3. Melt 1 tbsp of butter in a small pan. Toss chopped pecans in melted butter to coat.
4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or nonstick foil (I used foil; we were out of parchment paper) and spread pecans out in a single layer.
5. Toast pecans in the oven for about 6 minutes, stopping to turn them with a spatula halfway through. Remove from oven and let cool.

*A big thanks to Amber at Bluebonnets & Brownies for encouraging me to toast up the pecans before baking! Her Southern gal expertise--to say nothing of her culinary expertise in general--was very much appreciated.

For the cookies:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together dry ingredients: flour, salt, baking soda, cream of tartar, nutmeg, and cinnamon.
3. In another bowl, cream butter with brown sugar and powdered sugar until fully incorporated (that is, no chunks of butter or clumps of sugar remain--when I was starting out, I never knew exactly what to interpret "fully incorporated" to mean).
4. Stir in egg and vanilla extract. The cookie batter will be pretty sticky--never fear. It also smells like Thanksgiving thanks to the nutmeg and cinnamon, which was a delightful surprise on a sticky June night.
5. Fold in the pecans, making sure to stir them in completely. You don't want half of your cookies to be nut-filled and the other half to be empty! (Or maybe you do...in which case, ignore me.)

6. Form dough into balls about 2 inches in diameter and arrange on a cookie sheet (lined or greased if that's your fancy--ours is ancient and for some reason, completely nonstick. I have no idea why. Cookies legitimately just pop off like magic. I'm convinced it's the influence of my ancestors or something). Optional: sprinkle cinnamon on the top of each cookie dough ball, as in the photo above. I did this with my second batch and it tasted (and looked!) awesome.
7. Bake for about 9 minutes, or until the edges start to turn golden brown. Remove cookie sheet from oven and let cool for about 5 minutes before transferring cookies to wire racks to cool completely.

Links in this post:
http://www.marthastewart.com
http://www.thesweetslife.com
http://www.bluebonnetsandbrownies.com

Perfectly Portioned Pancakes

2011-06-19T18:43:00.002-04:00

What are your thoughts on breakfast? If you're anything like me, it's your favorite meal of the day. I mean, breakfast is so versatile! It can be sweet; it can be savory; you can even have it for dinner on occasion. What could be better?

Sometimes after one of those weeks--those weeks when your train breaks down, everything at work that has been running late suddenly gets back on schedule all at the same time, and you feel under the weather to boot--you just want to wake up on Saturday, when the weekend is finally here, and treat yourself to a yummy breakfast. But I bet you're a good person. And when the thing you really, really want is pancakes, you say to yourself, "Oh, no, I shouldn't make pancakes. A whole batch? And only me around to eat them? No, that would be wasteful."

Well, kids, thanks to the always ingenious stylings of Joy the Baker (and a little freestyling on my part), that is no longer an issue.

I found this recipe on Joy's site a few months ago and nearly jumped for joy. "The Single Lady Pancake"? Perfect! (Okay, granted, I'm not really a "single lady," but I think you could substitute "single-portion" and infer the same thing. It just sounds a whole lot less cool.)

This pancake is even better because you can totally convince yourself that it is healthy...and then add chocolate. Just look at these ingredients: whole wheat flour, skim milk, oats--oats! Things that have oats are always healthy. Like oatmeal raisin cookies. True fact.

But you don't want to be too healthy. Cocoa powder and chocolate chips fix that, I promise.

The Perfect Single-Portion Pancake
Adapted from Joy the Baker's Single Lady Pancake

Ingredients:
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp cocoa powder
1 tablespoon dried oats (I used the regular kind, but you could also use quick-cooking. I like the texture that the whole oats give in each bite, but that might not be for everyone.)
2 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 tbsp plus 2 tsp vegetable oil
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp milk (I used skim, since that was all I had)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Small handful semisweet chocolate chips

1. Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk together oil, vanilla extract, and milk.

Again, do not laugh at my old-school alphabet bowls.

3. Combine wet and dry ingredients, then fold in the chocolate chips. The batter will be fairly thick.
4. Heat a small griddle or frying pan over low heat and grease with a pat of butter. Pour pancake batter in a round. Let one side cook just until bubbles begin to form--it's hard to tell when one side of the pancake is done; the batter is so thick that it takes longer than usual for the bubbling to begin. At least for me, as soon as I saw them start to take shape, it was time to flip.

5. Flip and cook the other side of your pancake.
6. Remove from pan and repeat the process with any leftover pancake batter (my mix made two medium-sized pancakes, about five inches across).
7. Top with powdered sugar, maple syrup, or whatever your breakfast-loving heart desires!

Make these for yourself. Love yourself. Remember that you are awesome and that sometimes breakfast really can make everything better. And then call me up and make some pancakes for me, too. K? Thanks.

Links in this post:
http://www.joythebaker.com

Dinner for Two: Tomato & Mozzarella Crostini and Spicy Roasted Red Potatoes

2011-06-13T20:13:00.001-04:00

I like food.

I think that's pretty obvious, right? That's what I thought. And while there is a very warm and fuzzy and often-hungry place in my heart (and stomach) for dessert, by no means does that lessen my love for all those parts of a meal that come before the sweet stuff.

Without further ado, Chip Chip Hooray ventures into the realm of the savory.

This past weekend, I went and visited Charlie at his summer house "down the Shore." (Since I am not a native New Jersey-an, I get ruthlessly mocked by my college-roommate-turned-doctor [who is a Jersey girl born and bred] for using the phrase "down the Shore." Apparently it just confirms my status as a "benny," aka an intruder from New York who comes down for the weekend, traipses her obnoxious self all over their boardwalk, and leaves again. Alas. I have no defense.)

It was a wonderful weekend all around--a trip to the family-owned ice cream place in town, delicious seafood dinner, and, of course, time relaxing by the waves. (The one hiccup: I fell prey to the "Oh, it's cloudy! I don't need sunscreen!" trap. Silly, silly Tara. The vicious sunburn currently making it uncomfortable to be clothed begs to differ. Lesson: Wear your sunscreen, kids; cloud cover don't mean nothin'.)

For me, though, the highlight of the weekend was definitely Sunday evening. Charlie and I decided to cook a tandem dinner of sorts: he'd put together an entree dish, and I'd take care of the appetizer, side dish, and dessert. Exciting! After an epic trip to Acme to pick up all of the ingredients the two of us would need, we were ready to dive in.

First on the menu? French baguette crostini: tomato and fresh mozzarella on a bed of baby arugula, drizzled with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and kosher salt.

Chances are, if you've ever been out to dinner with me, you know that my favorite appetizer is caprese salad. Beefsteak tomato, buffalo mozzarella, fresh basil...mm, any time of day is a good time for that. I had already been toying with the idea of turning this into a bruschetta or crostini of some sort, and when Charlie and I decided to cook, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to try it out!

Main course: Sauteed chicken breast in a marsala cream sauce cooked with shallots, mushrooms, and sundried tomatoes.

I'm not the biggest red meat person, so Charlie concocted this delicious chicken dish. The flavors blended together amazingly--since he cooked the sauce in the same pan that he'd sauteed the chicken, the sauce thickened up beautifully with just a little bit of cream. The mushrooms plumped up with the flavors they absorbed from the chicken and the marsala wine, and the sundried tomatoes just added this fantastic tang to the whole thing that made the dish really summery. The fresh chives and parsley on top made it even more colorful.

And on the side: Spicy roasted red potatoes.

I joked with Charlie that I was going to call these "brave potatoes," because they almost have the same sort of flavor as patatas bravas, one of the most popular tapas you can find in Spain. If you've ever had them, think a taste along those lines. In making these, I was trying to imitate this packaged herb and spice rub my mom used to buy for red potatoes. Whenever I'd make them in college using the mix, my roommates would go nuts--I couldn't leave my leftovers in the fridge because they'd always get stolen!

And for dessert, these fabulous chewy chocolate peanut butter bars from Kristan at Confessions of a Cupcake Queen (which we made the night before so they'd be all set in the fridge when we were finished cooking and stuffing ourselves silly).

I know, I know. Saccharine overload.

After our homemade dinner for two, the perfect end to the night was curling up on the couch with some pinot grigio and the Tony awards. Seriously, could a Sunday evening be any better? Happy cooking!

Tomato and Mozzarella Crostini
Ingredients:
1 loaf French baguette (you won't use the whole thing, obviously, unless you're planning on feeding your entire extended family. But I trust your ingenuity--I'm sure you can find plenty of other uses for the remaining baguette.)
1 clove fresh garlic, peeled
1 large tomato (think the beefsteak variety--you want something that'll hold its shape when you dice it up)
1 ball fresh mozzarella cheese
1-2 cups baby arugula
Extra virgin olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Kosher salt

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Slice the baguette into pieces about 1 inch thick. Arrange the crostini (as many as you'd like--we did 10 for the two of us because we reaaaally like crostini, haha) on a baking sheet lined with nonstick foil.
3. Brush the top face of each crostini with some of the olive oil, just enough to moisten it.
4. Rub the peeled garlic clove on the top of each crostini to infuse it with garlic flavor (hard enough that the nub of garlic wears down and you'll have used up the whole clove by the time you finish).
5. Put the tray of crostini in the oven for about 12 minutes, just enough so that they toast and will still have enough crunch to them when you add the moister ingredients.
6. When the crostini are toasted, let them cool for a few minutes while you dice the tomato and mozzarella into tiny cubes. (If you're only cooking for two like I was, you probably won't need the entire tomato or the entire ball of mozzarella, either. Lunch leftovers!) Place together in a bowl on the side.
7. Transfer cooled crostini to a serving plate or dish. Layer a few leaves of arugula on each crostini, so that it covers the face of the bread and makes a little bed.

8. Distribute your tomato and mozzarella mix on top of each arugula-d crostini. Go nuts! I never mind when my crostini are spilling over the side--better too generous than too stingy, is my philosophy.
9. Drizzle the tops of your crostini with balsamic vinegar and olive oil.
10. Sprinkle some kosher salt over the top of your crostini.

Spicy Roasted Red Potatoes ("Brave Potatoes")
Ingredients:
6 red potatoes (more if you're feeding a bigger crowd)
4 tbsp virgin olive oil
1/2 - 1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp paprika
1/2 tbsp cayenne**
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
2 tbsp rosemary, plus more for dusting
Pepper to taste
Kosher salt

1. Preheat oven to 400 F.
2. Wash your potatoes well (since you're not peeling them) and chop them into bite-sized pieces--not as small as if you were dicing, maybe about 2 inches long by 1 inch thick (you shouldn't have to cut one to eat it when you spear it with your fork). Place potatoes in a large bowl.
3. In a medium-sized bowl, mix olive oil, garlic, paprika, cayenne, Italian seasoning, and rosemary. Stir well with a fork to combine. Add in pepper to taste--I would recommend about half a teaspoon.
4. Pour mixture over potatoes and toss until they are fully coated. Repeat step 2 to make more oil rub if needed.
5. Line a baking sheet with nonstick foil and lay potatoes out on the baking sheet in a single layer. Do your best to make sure none are piled on top of each other, as this will prevent them from getting nice and crispy in the oven.

6. Sprinkle additional rosemary on top of the potato layer, as well as a generous few pinches of kosher salt.
7. Place potatoes in oven and roast for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, remove from oven and use tongs to turn potato chunks so non-roasted sides are now facing up. Continue to roast for another 15-20 minutes.
8. Check potatoes at this point--are the edges starting to brown and crisp up? If not, leave them in for another 10 minutes or so. The nice thing about these potatoes is that it's pretty hard to burn them--I like mine on the crispier side as it is!
9. When potatoes are roasted to your liking, remove tray from the oven. Transfer potatoes to bowl and serve!

**I think it's worth noting that the next time I make these, I'm going to scale back a little on the cayenne. The potatoes definitely had a nice heat to them, but I want to see if I can get the rosemary to be more of the dominant flavor. However, if you love spice (or if you have a boyfriend like mine who could not stop extolling the glorious kick these potatoes had [keep in mind we've yet to find a cuisine of any ethnicity too hot for this boy]), you might think they're just fine the way they are.

Chocolate PB Sand Pail Cupcakes: An entry for Cupcake Project

2011-06-05T20:24:00.004-04:00

True confession: The very first baking blog I started reading was the Cupcake Project. Day after day, I found myself heading back to Stef's page to read about these fantastical cupcake (and other) creations that I never imagined I'd have the skill (or courage) to try myself. One day, months after I'd started reading and a few weeks after my own fledgling blog took its first steps, I saw it: the 2011 Ice Cream Cupcake Contest! Along with the fine folks at Scoopalicious, Stef challenged her readers to create a recipe for ice cream cupcakes.

Hooked yet? That's what I thought.

Was I intimidated? Umm, heck yes. I didn't know the first thing about creating recipes--only following them. But, more importantly, I was intrigued. This contest involved some of the things I love most in the world: cake, frosting, ice cream, and writing about all of the above. And so I set to work, brainstorming and sketching and dreaming up combinations of cake/frosting/ice cream that would create a bangin' cupcake entry. I read about a bazillion cupcakes recipes, trying to get a sense for the ratios in which ingredients are combined and the ways you can tweak and substitute and add to make a recipe that's truly your own.

The result? A summery beach pail cupcake filled to the brim with sand--one of the best parts of a day at the beach. The cupcake itself is a chocolate peanut butter base. It's filled with a core of Milk 'n' Cookies ice cream (you can thank Ben & Jerry for that--trying to make homemade ice cream on top of everything else might have broken me!), which you can imagine as that cool, packed sand right near the waterline that's filled with shells and little pebbles and such (represented by the cookie bits; stay with me here). And then, in the little well on top, the cupcake is frosted with a peanut butter buttercream icing topped with brown sugar--the dry sand on top of the pail that's spilling over the sides.

I was super proud of the way these turned out. The cupcakes rose up and domed beautifully, and the smell. Oh, heavenly. (Also, I'm not going to lie to you--I licked the beaters like a five-year-old during the mixing process. I legitimately considered only baking 12 cupcakes and eating the remaining batter straight from the mixing bowl with a spoon. It is THAT GOOD, people.)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Sand Pail Cupcakes
Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup white granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup peanut butter
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup whole milk, plus 1 tbsp
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium-sized mixing bowl and whisk to combine.
2. Cream butter, sugars, and peanut butter until smooth.
3. Add one egg at a time, waiting to add the second until the first is fully incorporated.
4. Add 1 cup of milk and the vanilla and mix on low speed until incorporated. Batter will be liquidy at this point.
5. Add dry mixture to the wet ingredients in thirds, mixing on low speed as you add the dry ingredients. When the mixer starts to resist, bump up to medium speed and continue to combine, scraping the sides of the bowl as you go. (I also added that extra 1 tablespoon of milk here to moisten up the mixture a bit as it combined.) Batter will be thick, but light and creamy.

6. Fold in chocolate chips.
7. Line cupcake tins with wrappers and fill 2/3 of the way with batter.
8. Bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
9. Cool tray on wire rack for 5 minutes, then remove cupcakes from tin and cool completely on wire racks.

Yields about 24 cupcakes (I got 28, but a couple were scrawny.)

After the cupcakes cooled overnight, I cored five of them to be my ice cream cupcakes. Those cupcakes got filled with the Milk & Cookies ice cream I mentioned above, then put in the freezer for a couple of hours to solidify the core before I frosted them.

For the buttercream:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tbsp whole milk
1 tsp vanilla

1. Cream butter and peanut butter together until smooth.
2. Stir in 1 cup of powdered sugar.
3. Add vanilla extract, then 2 tbsp milk. Mix on low speed until incorporated.
4. Add 1 cup of powdered sugar and 1 tbsp milk. Continue to mix.
5. Continue adding ingredients to attain desired consistency--if frosting is too thin, add more powdered sugar. If frosting is too thick, add more milk. I found that the peanut butter made this frosting pretty thick to begin with, so I didn't need as much powdered sugar as I initially anticipated.

If you try either of these recipes and have any feedback or suggestions, I would love to hear them! Hopefully this will be the first of many Chip Chip Hooray originals. :) And keep an eye out for my entry on the Cupcake Project website--the contest ends June 15 and winners will be chosen July 1.

Links in this post:
www.cupcakeproject.com
http://scoopalicious.blogspot.com

P.S. Thanks and hugs to my Baby Chip for her photographic eagle eye!

Lunch break! Noshing in Philadelphia

2011-05-30T23:21:00.000-04:00

There are certain days that are absolutely made for open-air dining. You know the ones--blue skies, zero humidity, light breeze--when those friendly little street-side cafes just seem to call out, "Come! Stay awhile! We have wine!"

Okay, well maybe not always that last part. In any event, my boyfriend and I found ourselves in Philadelphia on just such a Saturday not long ago. We contemplated our dining options: Reading Terminal Market? Always a hit--no matter what you or your dining partner are in the mood for, you both can let the spirit move you until you find the cuisine you fancy. Margaret Kuo's? One of our favorites during undergrad, but alas, neither of us were having that very particular craving for Asian at the moment. The choice, it seemed, was clear:

Creperie Beau Monde.

As we turned off South Street onto 6th Street, we both immediately said, "Ohhh." The street was tree-lined, quieter than the thoroughfares that bordered it, and filled with smaller, eclectic shops. And then we reached the creperie, on the corner of 6th and Bainbridge.

The maitre d' asked us if we'd prefer indoor or outdoor seating, and we immediately opted for the outdoor section. We were seated at a table on a raised deck adjacent to the main restaurant, with a wrought-iron railing separating our table from the sidewalk.

Wouldn't you just want to sit and people watch here?

Our waitress was more than happy to indulge our utter uncertainty--the menu at Creperie Beau Monde is seemingly endless. They serve both savory (buckwheat) and sweet (wheat) crepes, and although they give you plenty of suggested combinations for each, you can also mix and match any of the possible fillings you want. Permutations weren't my strong suit in high school math, but I feel like the number of possibilities that produces is pretty darn high.

I finally settled on the coq au vin crepe for my lunchtime entree: chicken stewed with red wine, baby onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, carrots, and pancetta. I've ordered coq au vin a couple of times in French restaurants and I've always loved the blending of flavors, so I figured that encasing all that stewy goodness in a crepe could only enhance the deliciousness.

Um, I was right.

It's like the gastronomic version of a Christmas present wrapped up with a bow: EAT ME!

Charlie--since he will be a recurring character, he probably deserves to have a proper name--chose the Cajun gumbo crepe (rice, okra, shrimp, and Cajun sauce), but also added Andouille sausage. (I honestly think he is immune to spiciness. We go to Indian restaurants and he has to ask them to bring sauces on the side that are amped up because if they are on the food they will literally cause me to pass out.) His looked scrumptious when they brought it out too:

I had a tiny bite, and it wasn't terribly spicy, so I'm sure it was quite mild for him.

The crepes were, in my opinion, perfectly done--all the fillings were moist and evenly distributed, but the bottom of my crepe never got soggy or torn. There was plenty of chicken, and the red wine-y aroma permeated everything fantastically.

My crepe upon first bite!

We also got a side of seasoned red potatoes from the brunch menu, but those disappeared too fast for me to snap a photo of them. Suffice it to say that they were fabulous, crispy onion strings and all!

Now, you all know by now that for me, the true highlight of any meal is the dessert course. Trust me, Beau Monde did not disappoint. Our savory crepes were so substantial that both of us agreed we were too full to each get a dessert crepe, but splitting one seemed like a viable option. (A reader would do well to note: splitting a dessert with me requires a level of patience unknown to most of the male gender. I am very territorial about my sweets. I also have chronic dessert envy and thus will almost inevitably insist on having a bite of your dessert to ensure that I do not find it tastier than mine. I have been known to pout.)

Enter the dessert crepe, filled with Nutella and topped with vanilla ice cream and powdered sugar, with a dollop of Chantilly cream on the side. Heavenly? You'd better believe it.

I've been told the expression on my face after tasting this crepe was one that bordered on epiphany, and I don't doubt it. The warm Nutella, coupled with the slight crunch of the crepe, met its match in the almost-too-sweet-but-just-sweet-enough combo of confectioner's sugar and ice cream. I may or may not have swiped the last dustings of powdered sugar off the rim of the plate with my finger. Don't lie; you've done it, too. (The waitress wisely had them divide this dessert crepe in the kitchen and bring it out on two plates. She must have intimate knowledge of sharing issues herself.)

If you find yourself down on South Street in Philadelphia and your tummy is a-rumbling, you definitely can't go wrong stopping in at Creperie Beau Monde. They also have brunch and dinner menus, as well as daily specials. Don't forget to explore the nooks and crannies of the Philly side streets while you're out and about!

Links in this post:
http://www.readingterminalmarket.org/
http://www.margaretkuos.com/
http://creperie-beaumonde.com/bm-about/

Snickerdoodles: Sugar-Coated Nostalgia

2011-05-23T23:49:00.011-04:00

This past weekend, I hopped a train and chugged down the Northeast Corridor to the City of Brotherly Love--Philadelphia, home of such illustrious denizens as the Liberty Bell and the cheesesteak. I was invited to a party given by a friend of mine who'd just graduated from college the week before, and as I welcome any excuse to return to Philly, I was more than happy to attend.

Now, I'm one of those people who doesn't go to any sort of function without bringing food. I'm sure you know them. Many of you probably are them. My choice for this party? The classic, dependable, yet never-boring snickerdoodle.

For those of you who don't know, I went to Villanova University, just outside of Philadelphia. Here, the cookies demonstrate my pride.

Allow me to explain. My friend, the party's honoree, is a Classic Baked Good Man. That is, he'd be happier with a no-frills, baked-to-perfection chocolate chip cookie than with any sort of bar/sandwich/cake-pie-brownie concoction I could dream up, no matter how daring or creative the recipe. He just knows what he likes. So I knew I couldn't stay far from the tried-and-true.

But, being me, I still wanted to try something new--especially so I could write about it! Believe it or not, I'd never actually baked a snickerdoodle before this past weekend. Granted, I've eaten more than my fair share of them, but these cookies contain one ingredient that has always--irrationally or no--frightened me: cream of tartar.

I don't understand it. "Cream of tartar"? What kind of name is that for an ingredient? To be honest, it immediately makes me think of tartar sauce, which I don't like anyway. And I didn't actually know what it was supposed to do. Couldn't I just substitute some other, friendlier ingredient? Absolutely not, according to all of the blogs I read while doing research. The cream of tartar, it turns out, is one of those leavening ingredients (along the lines of baking powder and baking soda) that given snickerdoodles their unique, almost cake-y texture inside. And I wasn't prepared to sacrifice that! So to the grocery store it was to track down the innocuous-looking little jar. As it turns out, though, it was well worth it...

Sweet Cinnamon Snickerdoodles!

The recipe and instructions that follow are adapted from this recipe at Smitten Kitchen (which she in turn adapted from Martha Stewart). Her recipe called for 1 1/2 cups of granulated white sugar in the cookie batter. I really like the darker, molasses-y taste that brown sugar gives to cookies, and I'd also seen a couple of other recipes that played with using it in snickerdoodles, so I decided to give it a try--thus my quantites on the ingredients list below. I'm certain these would be fabulous with just white sugar as well.

I also added a splash of vanilla as I was beating in the eggs. I had a roommate in undergrad who once told me that her secret for any cookies was to add vanilla, and frankly, I don't blame her. I love it as an aromatic, and cookies that leave a trace of vanilla, especially cookies as sugary as these, can't be beat.

Ingredients:

For the cookie batter:

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 sticks unsalted butter (16 tbsp, or 8 oz)

3/4 cup granulated white sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 large eggs

splash of vanilla (optional)

For the cinnamon sugar coating:

1/4 cup granulated white sugar

2 tablespoons cinnamon

(Or more of both as needed)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Sift together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt in one bowl. Set aside.

3. In another bowl, combine butter and both sugars (or just your granulated sugar if you're not using the brown). Beat until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl.

4. Add eggs and beat to combine. At this point, add the vanilla if you're subscribing to my philosophy.

5. Add dry ingredients, about 1/3 at a time, and beat to combine.

6. Here the recipe recommended that I chill the dough for an hour before scooping, which I did. However, having worked with the refrigerated dough and the slightly thawed dough two batches later, I actually preferred the stickier dough--it made it much easier to roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture (see below).

7. In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup granulated white sugar and the cinnamon. Form small balls of dough (mine were about 2 inches in diameter for a cookie on the smaller side) and roll in cinnamon sugar mixture.

Any cookie that gets rolled in pure sugar is fine by me.

8. Place about 2 inches apart on baking sheets. Now, the original recipe called for these cookies to be baked for 10 minutes, but mine were completely done after 8. I wound up baking the second and third batches for only 6 minutes, because I made the dough balls smaller (party cookies--quantity matters!) and prefer my cookies more on the underdone side to overdone. If you want larger cookies (Smitten Kitchen's were 3-4 inches across), play with upping the bake time.

9. Transfer sheets to a wire rack to cool for about 5 minutes before removing the cookies.

Using a smaller dough ball size, this recipe will make about 3 dozen cookies.

These snickerdoodles were an overwhelming success, which I attribute in large part to the fact that the graduate has a ton of cousins under the age of seven. Those little kids were running around double-fisting sugar-coated cookies all night (to their parents' delight, I'm sure). Both plates were wiped clean by the end of the party--not a leftover in sight. (I should also say that I saw my former thesis adviser, who was a party guest as well, pocket several snickerdoodles when he thought no one was looking. He is one of my favorite professors ever for a reason.) A reliable source (okay, well, my boyfriend) proclaimed, "They taste like little pillows of heaven!" And it's true--they had that crunchy sugar-coated outside / dense but airy cake-y inside thing going for them that makes cookies oh so addictive. Especially when they're bite-sized! That means you can have more, right? ...Right?

Oh, psh, who asked you anyway?

Links in this post:
http://smittenkitchen.com/

Cookies for a Cause! -- Share Our Strength Bake Sale

2011-05-15T11:23:00.002-04:00

This weekend, I had the privilege of helping out at the Great American Bake Sale's New York City location. The event was organized by the nonprofit group Share Our Strength, which works to educate people about childhood hunger and, by increasing awareness, take steps to supply children with healthy, affordable food. I found out about the bake sale as I was perusing one of the other baking blogs I frequent, and I thought it sounded like a fantastic opportunity to give back (after volunteering became second nature to me during my undergrad years, it seems odd to me that it's so hard to get involved now).

I couldn't have asked for a more fantastic group of food bloggers to sell baked goods with! Maggy, one of the masterminds behind Three Many Cooks, was our fearless leader, somehow organizing us all into a cohesive unit of metropolitan-area bakers. I also got the chance to meet Amber from Bluebonnets & Brownies, Andrea from High/Low Food/Drink, Lillian from Sweets by Sillianah, and Emily from Nomnivorous, all of whom were wonderfully welcoming and definitely made me feel at ease, even as a newbie blogger. :)

Check out some photos from the event!

Andrea's "Burger" Cupcakes and Cookie "Fries" were definitely the hit of the day!

Lillian's macaron pops were so cute! And a big hit with the niche macaron market.

My double chocolate chip cookies held their own--see below for the recipe.

Individually packaged salted caramel walnut brownies. These bloggers put me to shame with their thoroughness.

Amber's Movie Theatre Cookies, with a double feature of raisinettes and kettle corn--mm!

Chocolate pecan cookies. And they're made with love.

Red velvet cupcakes--in an adorable cocktail cup carrying case, no less.

Other blogger-bakers who I didn't get a chance to meet or to chat with for as long included Jessica at Food Mayhem, Anna at Sweet by Half / London Foodie NY (to whom I send best wishes for a speedy recovery!!), Hazel from Tasty Pursuits, and Urvashee from Dessarts. I'm absolutely floored by how accomplished these bloggers are while still handling careers, marriages, families, and daily life--totally inspiring.

As my contribution to the bake sale, I decided to make double chocolate chip cookies--always a big hit among my college roommates, and ideal for anyone who has a love affair with chocolate. I tend to bake them on the smaller side (justification: you can eat more and not feel bad!), so I packaged these in baggies of three for the sale.

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar (In college I always used dark brown sugar, since for some reason that was all we had. I had light brown sugar in my cabinet this weekend, though, and it didn't change the results at all.)
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
(*Normally, I make these cookies uber chocolate-y and use 1/2 cup of semisweet and 1/2 cup of milk chocolate chips. This time, though, I thought the white chocolate chips would pop nicely in the cookies when you saw them on the table.)

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Cream the butter and sugars in a large bowl with an electric mixer on high speed.*
3. Lower to medium speed and add the egg and vanilla.
4. Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
5. On low speed, add the dry mixture to the butter mixture. Beat until fully incorporated.
6. Fold in the chocolate chips. Your dough will be dark, as in the picture below, and it'll also be pretty sticky--that's okay. I find that this dough is less floury than other cookie doughs I've made, but the cookies always come out fantastic anyway. You'll just have stickier fingers when you're working with it.

7. Form the dough into approximately 1 1/2-inch balls. Place on parchment- or foil-lined baking sheets, 2 inches apart. Bake until centers are just set, about 11 minutes. Let cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks.

Please ignore the display of New York Mets pride that snuck into the background of this photograph.

*As you may have surmised from previous posts, I'm not lucky enough to own a KitchenAid stand mixer. It's pretty much #1 on my list of "Things I Would Buy If I Won the Lottery" and/or "First Thing to Put on My Registry Not That I Think About Things Like That," but as of now it's just me and my wooden spoon. It takes a lot longer to get the butter/sugar mixture creamy, but I get a bicep workout and I feel pretty damn good about myself when it finally happens. Moral of the story: Don't despair if you're not in possession of the gadgets! Secondary moral: Drop a lot of strategic hints to people who might someday get one for you.

Links in this post:
http://strength.org
http://threemanycooks.com
www.bluebonnetsandbrownies.com
www.highlowfooddrink.com
www.sweetsbysillianah.com
http://nomnivorous.com
www.foodmayhem.com
http://sweetbyhalf.com
http://londonfoodieny.com
www.tastypursuits.com
www.dessarts.com

If you give a Tara a cookie...

2011-05-08T21:53:00.000-04:00

Well, clearly she'll want some milk to go with it, but the cookie is the only real non-negotiable part. On this, a gorgeous Mother's Day weekend, Middle Chip and a took a mid-morning jaunt to a lovely little mecca called Milk & Cookies. We oohed. We aahed. We got there 20 minutes after opening.

Cookie porn after the jump.

So, what, you ask, brought us to this lovely little cookie-ry? ("Cookie" just doesn't lend itself to neologisms the way "cupcake" does. "Cupcakery" is so catchy.) A fabulous thing called Groupon, my friends. Way way back in October, before this blog was even a twinkle in my eye, I found a deal for Milk & Cookies in my daily email from the folks at Groupon.

(Reader's digest explanation of what Groupon is for the uninitiated, courtesy of their website: Groupon negotiates huge discounts—usually 50-90% off—with popular businesses. We send the deals to thousands of subscribers in our free daily email, and we send the businesses a ton of new customers. That's the Groupon magic.)

I snatched up that Groupon, printed it out...and let it sit on my desk for seven months. Because I'm that dumb. Well, actually because I don't get downtown as much as you'd think, but this isn't the time for excuses. I got there before the Groupon expired on June 1! Anyhow, Middle Chip and I decided to split the offer, which was for a baker's dozen of Milk & Cookies' sweet, sweet offerings.

Sitting on the bench outside with our giant box of (still warm) cookies. Excitement at this point is palpable.

Selections ran as follows:
3 chocolate chip
3 s'mores
2 sugar M&M
1 oatmeal raisin
1 double chocolate
1 sugar
1 peanut butter chocolate
1 milk chocolate caramel

COOKIES!

Middle Chip's double chocolate (the one that looks like a molten brownie in the photo above) was so fresh out of the oven that it literally could not hold its shape. It imploded into a pile of freshly baked goodness seconds after this photo was taken and had to be emergency-airlifted into a separate bag. See below.

Sad broken cookie. I'm guessing still delicious, though. It's like the principle of conservation of matter. Can't be created or destroyed...just changed.

After a bit of wandering around the Village (during which time we found a hole-in-the-wall Belgian waffle-ry that also sold cream puffs and muffin tops--have I mentioned I love New York?), Middle Chip and I started the journey home.

Not that we could wait until we got there to sample our cookie haul...

This chocolate chip sadly did not make it off the train. Not so sadly, it was scrumptious and our bellies were happy the whole way home.

For your viewing pleasure, a tour of (nearly all of) Milk & Cookies' offerings, in photos. What are you waiting for? Get your butt there, stat. And maybe get some cookies for your mom, too.

Sugar M&M cookies. Hiding bits of candy goodness. Excellent for tea dunking, fyi.

Baby Chip requested that we bring her back a sugar cookie. If you couldn't tell, she was unable to wait until after this photo shoot to start snacking.

Delicious-looking (though slightly unexpected) s'mores cookies.

And a close-up so you can see the marshmallow bubbling to the top of the cookie.

Peanut butter chocolate on the left, milk chocolate caramel on the right. Mmmm.

Spotlight on the peanut butter chocolate. Heavenly smells.

Last but not least, oatmeal raisin!

Of all the ones I've tried so far, the s'mores have been my favorite. I was actually expecting them to be chocolatier--maybe in a cocoa batter rather than the sugar one they're baked in--but the combination of flavors totally works. The marshmallow really adds to the chewy texture of the cookie, and the chocolate bits sprinkled throughout mimic a real s'more startlingly well. A+ for cookie-eating experience.

So should you find yourself near NYU/Washington Square Park and in need of a cookie fix, you now have an unbeatable destination. You're welcome.

I hope you all had wonderful days with your mommas--no one bakes cookies like they can!

Links in this post:
http://www.milkandcookiesbakery.com/site/
http://www.groupon.com

Throwback: The Boss

2011-05-03T22:54:00.001-04:00

No, not Bruce Springsteen.

I'm talking about a far sweeter sort of boss...the Cake Boss. A few months ago, the Little Chips and I decided to make a journey--a pilgrimage, really--to the now-infamous Carlo's Bakery. We had seen too many delicious cookies and pastries and cannolis consumed on our TV screens to go another day without tasting them ourselves.

Now, if you're a fan of the show, you know that patrons start lining up outside before the bakery even opens on most days. Much as it might have pained our sleep-loving souls, we were prepared to forgo normal REM-cycle patterns in our quest to sample Buddy & Co.'s baked goods.

Waking up when it's still dark out sucks. I think we can all say this with a fair amount of certainty. Everyone remembers those winter days in high school where you had to wake up to catch your bus and it was still pitch black, when you were attempting not to pour orange juice into your cereal instead of milk because you were still half-asleep. Well, after rising at the ungodly hour of 5:30 am, the Chips and I stumbled toward our local train station in the (still) pitch black. Arriving in NYC meant grabbing a hasty breakfast (egg sandwiches, the food of champions) and boarding yet another train to ye olde Hoboken, New Jersey, where we found...

They "renamed" the street the bakery is on--I guess Buddy's kind of a big deal.

We got to the bakery a little while after it had opened, around 7:30, and although I was worried we'd get slammed with a long wait (then again, I worry about everything), the line had only just started to snake outside the door of the shop. Hurray!

The view of the line when we made it inside the door.

We did have one celebrity sighting! That's one of Buddy's sisters.

What's the best way to pass a half-hour wait in line? By planning the laundry list of sweet treats you're going to buy when it's finally your turn, of course.

And as a side note, the entire place just smells delicious. I think if I ever buy an air freshener for my car, it'll be "Just-Opened Bakery Fresh."

Baby Chip is OBSESSED with the psychedelic purple cake in the middle. It is her dream to one day call this cake her own.

Finally, finally it was our turn! We each bought more baked goods individually than we all could have eaten together, but let me tell you...it was so worth it. We brought that haul home and ate ourselves into sugar comas for the next three days.

And you thought I was exaggerating.

The only fitting was to close out this post is with a picture montage. I leave you with the following snapshots of our delicious loot, as well as the promise that there will be another Carlo's Bakery update sometime in the near future--Baby Chip has been demanding a return basically since we set foot on the train to come home. Maybe this time we'll even see the Boss himself...

On the left, a twist on Italian seven-layer cookies--these were made with Nutella! And on the right, the most unimaginably delicious crumb cake I have ever consumed.

You can't go to an Italian bakery and not get a cannoli. Seriously, who do you think I am?


Baby Chip keeps it classic--a sugar cookie and a yellow cupcake with vanilla buttercream.

Red velvety goodness, waiting unassumingly in its box.

The alcove where Buddy takes consultations on the show!

(Not all of you may be quite as rabid in your fandom as the Little Chips and I am, but in case you're curious, you can follow Buddy on Twitter, become his fan on Facebook, or buy his book [thank you, Middle Chip, for this lovely Christmas present].)

Hoppy Easter cupcakes

2011-04-26T23:18:00.001-04:00

Whether you celebrated Easter or Passover or simply the arrival of a disconcertingly large rabbit last week, chances are you noticed some sort of seasonal cuisine. This season brings with it such tasty morsels as pizza rustica, hot cross buns, and anything matzo. My tastes, I'll admit, are a little less refined.

Unless we're talking refined sugar. Then we're getting somewhere.

This colorful cake above is only the beginning of the Easter baking fun the Little Chips and I had last weekend. Follow the jump for more adventures in cupcakery!

Ever since my boyfriend--a baking enabler if there ever was one--got me a set of piping tips and pastry bags for Christmas (along with a cake lifter and turntable! What a keeper), I have been dying to experiment with different icing techniques. And when Middle Chip ordered a Wilton cake decorating workbook from Amazon last week, well, the opportunity just seemed too good to be true.

The first thing we decided to do was create a set of rainbow-colored cakes in addition to the plain yellow cakes. I used the technique Nicole describes for her Mardi Gras cupcakes here, separating some of the batter and using food coloring to dye it springtime colors.*

(*Disclaimer: Since we were experimenting with different frosting and decorating techniques, we used a boxed mix for the cupcakes and canned icing. I definitely want to try from-scratch icing really soon [especially this Oreo cream cheese frosting!] but I was nervous about having too many variables in one project. Plus, our family is super picky...if they decided they didn't like my from-scratch cupcakes, I'd have two dozen cupcakes to consume all on my own. Not ideal for the waistline, y'know?)

Why yes, this is one of my baby food spoons from several decades ago. No, we do not ever throw anything out in my house. Thanks for noticing.

Action shot! Dyeing the blue batter.

The important thing to remember about this technique is not to try to spread the batter evenly, layer on top of layer. As you can see in the picture below, the blue icing sits on top of the pink but doesn't cover it completely--that's okay. The colors will bake in clearly defined stripes if you leave them this way, but trying to spread them out will create a not-so-pretty mush of colored batter.

The layers of colored batter, dropped in their cupcake wrapper and ready to bake.

After baking the cupcakes according to the instructions on the box, they came out like this:

Our renegade rainbow cupcakes amongst their plainer siblings.

I love that you can see the hints of pink peeping through!

The next part of our project? Piping icing as a filling for our cupcakes! Most of my favorite cupcakeries use a frosting core, and it's always my favorite part. Now, I don't have a cupcake corer or any special tool to remove the centers, so I just used a really skinny sharp knife and cut a small cylinder out of the center--it worked just fine.

Cored and ready for filling.

Piping the center...guess I should have gotten a manicure?

Piped full of delicious vanilla frosting!

Our final step? Making the cupcakes Easter-themed! We created bunnies, complete with marshmallow ears and M&M facial features, Easter baskets with Twizzler handles and jelly bean eggs, and Easter eggs with M&M and piping gel decorations.

Oh so festive.

Cross-section of a rainbow cupcake. Cool colors never looked so appetizing!

A casualty of the evening...filled cupcake, mid-consumption!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, whatever you happened to be celebrating. And hopefully I'll be back again soon to tell you my Oreo frosting success story! :)

P.S. Credit for all of these awesome photos again goes to Middle Chip and Baby Chip...I can only hope to someday use the macro setting with such aplomb.

Links in this post:
http://www.amazon.com
http://bakingbites.com
http://www.cupcakeproject.com

"The most dangerous cake recipe in the world..."

2011-04-18T20:37:00.002-04:00

Well, it's another manic Monday. Although my day way bookended by events that normally would bum me out (namely, (a) my eyeliner broke at 6 a.m. so I looked either extremely ill or like an insomniac all day long and (b) the LIRR had massive delays system-wide thanks to a stall in the tunnel, so I had to make a mad dash via an express subway to Brooklyn and hope I made a different connection there [I did]), I am still flying high from my awesome weekend.

Why so awesome, you ask?

Well, my delightful college roommate sent me a message at 11 p.m. on Friday night, putting forth the proposition that we go back to campus to visit. The next day. As in, I would get on a train in eight hours and come meet her in NJ and we'd head to PA together.

Now, those who know me well know that I am not a spontaneous girl. My nickname in high school among my friend group was The Planner (yeah; not very catchy) because if I didn't pick a time, name the place, and call everyone, nothing would ever happen. To quote a line from a scandalously overused Broadway musical that's stuck in my head thanks to Glee, "I make lists in my sleep, baaaaaby."

But on Friday, I asked myself, "Why the hell not?" I had no plans this weekend. I haven't seen my roommates in forever. And it just sounded like fun. So I threw some clothes in a beach bag, grabbed a few hours of sleep, and hopped on a train at 7:30 the next morning en route to good old alma mater.

I think I need to start incorporating more impulsiveness into my life. We surprised a bunch of people who had no idea we were coming, braved a monsoon just to get from campus to the car, and ate pizza and chocolate eggs at 3 in the morning. Glorious, simply glorious.

Anyway! In honor of my college throwback weekend, I've got a Monday night treat for all of you who might not be riding the wave of happiness that I'm lucky to be surfing. Courtesy of the very same college roommate who convinced me to step outside my box of routine...

Five-Minute Chocolate Mug Cake

Ingredients:
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional...highly recommended)
A small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug (microwave safe)

1. Add dry ingredients to mug and mix well.
2. Add the egg and mix thoroughly.
3. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well..
4. Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again.
5. Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts (my microwave doesn't have wattage on it, so I just microwaved for 3 minutes on my microwave's default setting).
6. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed!
7. Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired. EAT! This cake is even more delicious with ice cream on top to moisten up the brownie/cake-y texture.
(This can serve two if you want to feel slightly more virtuous...but why would you want to share?)

And just to give you proof that this recipe does, in fact, work:

Fresh outta the microwave and ready to eat.


A la mode? Obviously.

Who said all college kids eat is easy mac and ramen?

Bite-sized? Fun-sized!

2011-04-15T18:38:00.000-04:00

Happy Friday! In honor of the weekend (weekend), you could watch this video. Or, if your brain cells can't take it anymore, you could look at these yummy (yummy) pictures and plan your next cupcake excursion in New York. I know which one I'd pick. But that's just me.

So, today my coworker found out that her boyfriend got his job placement (he studied to be an air traffic controller) and...it's in New York! Yay! (Yay because it could have been at any airport in the country. Oof.) And to celebrate with us, she went out and bought a tray of these teeny little cupcakes from Baked by Melissa. Now, I had never heard of this place before--a rarity when it comes to me and cupcakeries--but I was, of course, immediately enchanted by the meticulously applied toppings that each tiny cake had. (It's hard to tell from this picture, but each cupcake top is only a little bigger than a quarter in circumference.)

What a lovely Friday treat! Clearly we'd already started to indulge when I whipped out my phone to take this picture.

Know what my favorite part of mini cupcakes is?

You can eat a bunch of them and they all add up to one regular cupcake. True story.

S'mores on the left, and Cookie Dough on the right

Above are my initial two choices, and both were scrumptious. All of these cupcakes had a super moist cake--one of my coworkers commented that they almost didn't look like they were done cooking (they were; never fear). But as a girl who's had many an unfortunate crumbly cupcake, I'll take that just-baked taste any day. Also, in spite of their deceiving size, the majority of the cupcakes were filled! So the S'mores cupcake had a tiny bit of graham cracker inside, and the Cookie Dough one was packing another little daub of dough like the one you can see in the picture. The icings on both were also spot-on--that delicious fudge-y chocolate that's not quite a ganache but richer than a buttercream. Mmm.

I may or may not have gotten peer pressured into having a third cupcake. No, it didn't really take a lot of arm twisting. But the Chocolate Chip Pancake was calling my name (it's the one with what looks like vanilla icing [it's actually maple syrup buttercream] and chocolate chips in the picture above). That little guy was actually made out of pancake batter-dough, according to the menu:

And it tasted like it! Now, perhaps you're not interested in the uncanny experience of eating a pancake in cupcake form. (I don't know why you wouldn't be.) But if you are, this cupcake somehow made that magic happen.

Thankfully (or not so much), I was able to stop myself at three. But according to my fellow noshers, all of the other flavors were equally divine (Red Velvet was lauded in particular).

If you'd like to celebrate spring's arrival (finally), or maybe just escape the April showers, Baked by Melissa has not one, two, or three, but four locations in NYC! Chances are, there's one near you. And if there isn't...I mean, that's what lunch breaks are for, right?

Links in this post:
http://www.bakedbymelissa.com/#

Peace, love, and ice cream

2011-04-12T23:07:00.000-04:00

So, today was Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough on the left, and Triple Caramel Chunk on the right.

I know you're jealous. It's cool. I'm just gonna leave it at that.

Night, kids!

Saturday Night Baking Fever

2011-04-10T19:08:00.000-04:00

I ask you this question: What does one do on a weekend evening with no plans and nothing on TV?

Obviously, one bakes three batches of cookies. And, since one is bored and lonely, one convinces Baby Chip to help by giving her the job of Baking Photographer. Thus, all photo credits for this post go to my aspiring photographer sister.

If you can't tell from my sidebar, I am an avid reader of any and all baking/food-related blogs. One of my absolute favorites has to be Joy the Baker. I kind of want to be Joy. Not gonna lie. She seems all cool and chill and together in a way that I only aspire to be at my current spazzy all-over-the-place stage. Anyway! So I was perusing her index for something to bake, my only criterion being that I have the ingredients on her list in my kitchen (laziness was making a trip to the grocery store a total non-option). And eureka! This post and recipe are based on Joy the Baker's Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies, adapted a little to fit my kitchen's offerings and my taste buds.

Ingredients

For the cookie dough mixture itself:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup white granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour (I used whole wheat)

1 1/4 cup oats, old fashioned or quick cooking

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

(Joy's recipe calls for 1/2 teaspoon of salt here...but I forgot to add it. The cookies still tasted amazing without it, so do with your salt what you please.)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Generous pinch fresh grated nutmeg (I used the store-bought stuff, so I interpreted "generous pinch" as "two shakes of this little can")

Joy's Add-ins:

1 medium apple, peeled, diced small (I used the apple reject in my crisper...I think it was a Roma)

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

3/4 cup walnuts (I omitted these, since I'm usually more of a chewy cookie fan than a crunchy one)

My Add-ins:

1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/3 cup white chocolate chips

1/2 cup raisins

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. In a small bowl, peel and dice the apple and toss with lemon juice. Set aside.

3. Beat the sugars and butter until creamy, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add the egg, beating for 1 minute. Add the vanilla extract and beat until blended.

(True confession here. I forgot to add the brown sugar when I was first creaming together the butter and granulated sugar. In fact, I didn't realize I forgot to add it until I was in the middle of step four below, and realized that I still had brown sugar sitting on the counter that I hadn't used yet. So I wound up adding the brown sugar after the egg and vanilla had already been mixed in. Kinda unorthodox, maybe, but the cookies still turned out totally fine. That said, do as I say, not as I do.)

4. Whisk together the oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt (if you don't forget to add it like a dummy). Add dry ingredients to the butter and egg mixture, slowly beating until just incorporated. I decided to improvise and make "healthy cookies" and "not-so-healthy cookies," so I split my dough mixture into two bowls at this point.

5. Stir the apple chunks and raisins into one bowl of reserved dough.

6. Add your semisweet and/or white chocolate chips to the other batch of mixed-up dough.

7. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 13 minutes or until the cookies have reached your desired doneness (I left mine in for about 12 minutes, until the bottoms were just starting to brown but hadn't gotten crispy yet.) My cookies stuck to my cookie sheets a little bit, which I think happened because a) my cookie sheet is 100 years old and doesn't have any nonstick left in it anymore and b) I'm terrified to use parchment paper because one of my college roommates once set it on fire. So even though Joy said to line my cookie sheets with parchment paper...I did not.

8. Let cool on the cookie sheets for about 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks (I lined my wire racks with wax paper).

Not gonna lie, both of these cookies tasted fantastic warm from the oven (but I think I'd be hard pressed to find a cookie that didn't). I was surprised to find, though, that the next day, the apple and raisin cookies were still perfectly soft and chewy! Probably due to the moisture given to the cookies by the apple, which I had initially been nervous about using (I'd never done apple cookies before). So in the end, even though I thought the chocolate batch would be my favorites (I tend to be a "not so healthy" person when it comes to baked goods), the apple cinnamon raisin ones were my hands-down favorite. (Chocolate chip raisin cookies, you are still scrumptious. Please do not be sad and forlorn.)

Links in this post:
http://www.joythebaker.com/

TGIF, f'realz

2011-04-08T20:44:00.000-04:00

So, just a short post to say that in spite of the fact that today included:

savagely burning myself on the office toaster oven
a wicked paper cut resulting from jogging my proofs too earnestly
hellacious email drama and
walking out the office door to rain--surprise!--with no umbrella,

I did not throw myself in front of a passing city bus because my dear Middle Chip brought me a cupcake from Magnolia Bakery. Vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream frosting. In its own jaunty little Magnolia Bakery carrying case. I may or may not have shut my office door at 4 p.m. to eat my cupcake in peace because it was the bright spot in my life at that moment. So, dear sister, thanks from the bottom of my heart to you.

(Please excuse the crappy photo quality; I had to use my iPhone camera due to the spontaneity of such a wonderful gift.)

I think the cute boxes are half the reason I like boutique cupcake shops so much. Okay, maybe 25%.

Bringing much more joy and happiness to my office than my fake gerbera daisies ever can.

Just before digging in. :)

Happy weekend!

Links in this post:
http://www.magnoliabakery.com/home.php

Having my (cup)cake, eating it too

2011-04-04T22:24:00.000-04:00

I'm sure most everyone is aware of the cupcake craze that's swept the American food industry. Cupcakes are the new cool kids, and boutique cupcake stores can be found in literally any town or city.

Does that make me any less interested in sampling as many delicious cupcakes as I can. Hell no.

I've been hearing about the wonder that is Robicelli's for some time now. A rotation of cupcakes with flavors like Rue McClanahan and Butterbeer? Whose interest (and taste buds) wouldn't be piqued? So when I happened to read last Friday that Robicelli's had started stocking at Joe in Grand Central Station--aka the very location where I happened to be getting dinner that evening--I knew it was fate.

You met my youngest sister, Baby Chip, last time. Well, my dinner date this particular evening happened to be my other sister--Middle Chip.

Middle Chip is my partner in baked good crime. If I ever want to try a new recipe, however outlandish or possibly disastrous, she's my go-to. And if I'm in need of company to sample the various sweet retail establishments New York has to offer? Done and done. And sure enough, when I relayed to her my Robicelli's discovery, she was 100 percent on board.

After our passably tasty yet slightly disappointing pizza dinner (sigh, meatless Fridays), we ventured into the Graybar Passage in Grand Central Station and through the doors of Joe. And there they were! The infamous Robicelli's cupcakes in all of their piped-icing finery, waiting for me to give one of them a home (...in my belleh). Now, for those who don't know how Robicelli's works, they pick four different cupcake flavors (out of over 100) for each delivery day--Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. (Not all of the bakeries or storefronts they supply to get a shipment each delivery day, so make sure to check the location availability!) And on this particular Friday, the rotation was...

The Bronx Zoo Egyptian Cobra: Orange cardamom cake, Egyptian rice pudding buttercream, brown butter spiced rice crispies
Chocolate Cheerwine: Chocolate Cheerwine cake, chocolate buttercream, Cheerwine ganche, Cheerwine simmered dried cherries
The Liddabit: Chocolate cake, nougat-salted caramel buttercream, peanuts, salted caramel & ganache drizzles
Southern Belle: Banana bourbon cake, vanilla buttercream, brown butter and bourbon glazed pecans

Iiiiiiiiiiiiii know.

So, which cake masterpiece made the final cut?

The Liddabit, in all its chocolate-y, nougat-y, caramel-y glory.

After Middle Chip and I finally found a table at which to park ourselves (not an easy task during rush hour in Grand Central), I dug in. And let me tell you--the hype was not hype. It was truth, my friends! Truth! Even though it was around 6 pm at this point, the cupcake tasted supremely fresh. The cake was moist, not dry or crumbly, and the buttercream tasted as though it had been piped on just seconds before I plucked it out of the display case (but wasn't so soft that it didn't hold its shape). The few nuts on top added a nice crunch, and the ganache and caramel drizzles mirrored the sweet/salty thing the chocolate cake and salted caramel frosting had going on.

Mid-nomming.


Gone. No, I didn't scrape the cupcake wrapper. I swear.

All in all, exactly the kind of cupcake-eating experience you want to have before you take a two-hour train journey. Then again, I recommend cupcake consumption as preparation for pretty much any life experience, so maybe take what I say with a grain of salt(ed caramel).

Links in this post:
http://robicellis.tumblr.com/
http://www.joetheartofcoffee.com/

And here goes...let the chips fall where they may.

2011-03-26T12:23:00.002-04:00

I'm starting with the bad puns already...that can't be a good sign.

So, I actually created this blog a few months ago. Buuuuut I've been putting off writing my first entry because I got cold blogger's feet--what did I actually have to say? Maybe this was a terrible idea. And why did I ever think that was a cute name for a blog, anyway?

I finally told myself to shut up (inside me, that is. Blogger me, we want her to talk).

What is Chip Chip Hooray? Well, on the one hand (and on the most literal level), I want it to be a record of my culinary exploration. I've always had a healthy (or perhaps unhealthy) appreciation for baked goods, and, more recently, really excellent food of the savory variety as well. I'm fascinated by food blogs, sometimes to the detriment of my actual, paid employment. And I love the idea of having a sort of e-storage of my ponderings and musings about all things yummy. New recipes I tried? Particularly interesting article on food I saw? Delicious restaurant or rogue food cart I think everyone should visit rightthisminute? Now I have a place to write all that! But on the other hand, I don't want to just limit it to baking and food shtuff. Because, frankly, I don't always have all that time to dedicate just to ogling pretty dishes (much as I may wish I did). So you may occasionally get bits and pieces from my Real Life, aka the world of books that dominates my 9-to-5 day, or whatever miscellany may be bouncing about when the writing urge should strike. You have been warned!

The recipe I decided to use for my very first post is a bit of a family affair...follow the jump!

My cousin got married this past summer, and my two sisters and I were all asked to be bridesmaids. The morning of the wedding, as we were all running around with hairpins flying and zippers breaking (that one's not a joke, unfortunately), my aunt (the mother of the bride) brought out two giant 13x9 Pyrex dishes full of freshly baked crumb cake. Now, it is a well-known fact among my family members that baked goods will solve many a dilemma. But take eight stressy bridesmaids and stick a warm, cinnamon-y crumb cake in front of them? Suddenly we'll pose for as many pictures as you want. (Okay, maybe the mimosas helped as well.)

Note the wedding detritus scattered around the crumb cakes...clearly the bridesmaids had already dug in.

My youngest sister--we'll call her Baby Chip--absolutely loves this cake. She probably ate a whole Pyrex on her own, and she raved about it for the rest of the summer. Baby Chip's birthday is this weekend, and so I decided to bake her a crumb cake all her own. Success! She cut herself a giant hunk after she stopped squealing.

Auntie's Yummy Crumb Cake

Ingredients:

1 box vanilla cake mix (Okay, okay, I know this is a little bit of a cop-out for a recipe posting. But truth me--this crumb cake is so worth it you won't even mind that Betty Crocker's giving you a little help.)

For crumb mixture:

2/3 cup granulated (white) sugar

2/3 cup dark brown sugar

4 cups all-purpose flour

3 sticks melted butter

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 tbsp vanilla

1. Prepare cake mix as instructed on the box. (For the mix I used, this involved adding 1 1/4 cups water, 3 eggs, and 1/3 cup vegetable oil.)

2. Grease and flour a 9x13 Pyrex baking pan. Pour vanilla cake batter into the pan and let bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. While the cake is in the oven for these 20 minutes, prepare your crumbs.

3. Combine granulated sugar, brown sugar, and flour in one bowl.

4. In a separate bowl, combine melted butter, cinnamon, and vanilla.

5. Add wet ingredients to dry mixture. Start to stir with a wooden spoon, then finish forming the crumbs with (clean) hands. (This is where it gets fun--I like to form giant crumbs [think the size of huge marbles] since for me, crumb cake is merely an excuse to eat as much crumb topping as I darn well please. Baby Chip prefers smaller crumbs that are layered on top of each other almost like sand.)

6. When the cake's 20 minutes are up, remove from oven and carefully place crumb mixture on top of partially baked cake.

7. Return cake to the oven for another 20 minutes.

Remove from the oven, let cool, and enjoy!

Note: Some cake may bubble up through the crumb top layer. Never fear! If you're worried about your cake looking pristine, you can carefully peel the excess cake bubble with a fork. Then sprinkle confectioner's sugar over the top of the crumb layer--a lot, if you want your cake to have that out-of-a-bakery-box look, or a little, if you just want to disguise any imperfections here and there.

Take a look at some more pictures below.

A close-up of the massive crumbs. Nom.

Cooling unassumingly on its wire rack, waiting for Baby Chip to come home.

Delicious!