Pineapple Habanero Birthday Sorbet

You may have noticed the radio silence around here for the past three months. That is because, until yesterday, we had no refrigerator.

Right before Christmas, we woke up to room-temperature milk and OJ. The fridge was on, but not cold. We were getting ready to go out of town for ten days, and our budget was already blown on travel and Christmas presents, so we said "Screw it, we don't need a new fridge until January." The weekend after our trip, we did a little online window shopping and decided to get a new stove as well; it'd be nice to be able to cook something without the smoke detectors going off. The cost of a new stove and a new fridge meant we had to save up a bit before we could buy, because we didn't want to put it on credit. It was about 15 degrees outside, so we just put our milk, eggs, OJ, and beer in a cooler and put it out on the fire escape.

All was well and good, until it started getting up to 30, then 45 degrees. On the first day it actually hit 60, we knew it was seriously time to go get the fridge. After four weeks of back-order purgatory, our new appliances arrived!

Here they are, already broken-in with finger smudges, magnets, and bacon-grease.

The first thing I made in the new oven? My birthday cake! The first thing I made with the help of the fridge? Pineapple Habanero Sorbet.

Pineapple Habanero Sorbet

Ingredients

3 cups fresh pineapple, chopped
1/2 habanero pepper, de-seeded and roughly chopped
1/3 cups water
1/3 cups light rum
3/4 cups sugar

Directions:
Blend all ingredients until smooth. Put in the ice cream maker your boyfriend's mom gave you for Christmas, but that you haven't been able to use for three months because you didn't have a freezer. Let sit for four hours.

Yields 1 quart.

Recipe from Thursday Night Smackdown.

Wacky Depression Cake

 

Notice anything missing from the ingredients I used to make a Chocolate Wacky Depression Cake? There's no eggs, no milk, and no butter! And yet, this is the moistest (most moist?) cake I have ever made. It keeps for days, and is not too sweet while still being chocolate-y. And yes, it calls for vinegar. Trust me, it all works out in the oven.

Chocolate Wacky Depression Cake

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup cocoa powder
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 cup water

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together by hand. Add all the wet ingredients until well combined.
3. Pour into a 8×8 pan which has been prepared with non- stick spray.
4. Bake for 30 minutes until done.  Allow to completely cool before serving. Top with frosting, a little powdered sugar, or leave plain. It's all good!

Recipe from Savory Sweet Life.

Chocolate Chip Cookies: The Revelation

You know how sometimes, you didn't know what it was you were looking for until you found it? These cookies are exactly what I want in a chocolate chip cookie, but never knew: soft, pillowy, chewy goodness. These cookies aren't going to satisfy everyone, as they don't have your conventional chocolate chip cookie texture. These are almost muffin like, very puffy, with no crunch. The secret ingredient? Applesauce!

Ingredients
1 1/2  cups  all-purpose flour
1 1/2  teaspoons  baking powder
3/4  teaspoon  salt
1/2  cup  applesauce
1  cup  packed brown sugar
1/4  cup  butter, softened
1  tablespoon  vanilla extract
1  large egg
1  cup  (or more) semisweet chocolate chips

Yields approx. 2 dozen

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl; stir well with a whisk.
3. Combine applesauce, sugar and butter; beat with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes)*. Beat in vanilla and egg. Add flour mixture; beat at low speed until well-blended. Fold in chips.

4. Drop by level tablespoons 2 inches apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray**. Bake at 375° for 10 minutes or until almost set. Cool on pan 2 to 3 minutes or until firm. Remove cookies from pan; cool on wire racks.

*I didn't feel like breaking out my hand mixer, and just combined everything with a good ol' wooden spoon.
**These cookies are STICKY. They even stuck to my wonderful Silpat mats. Trust me, you need the cooking spray.

By request! A printable version of this recipe.

Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes with Irish Cream Frosting

Guinness cupcakes are the perfect cupcakes if you don't like deserts that are overly sweet. The cupcakes are nice and moist, and chocolately without being cloyingly sugary. The frosting is probably my new favorite frosting - irish cream goes really well as a frosting flavor. It's similar to vanilla but with slightly more complex flavor.

Ingredients
For the cupcakes
1 (12-ounce) bottle Guinness stout
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sour cream
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa, plus more for garnish
2 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
A pinch of salt

For the frosting
1 stick of unsalted butter, softened
3-4 cups of powdered sugar (as needed)
3-4 tablespoons of Irish Cream (Baileys) and/or milk (as needed)
A pinch of salt
Yields: around 40 cupcakes (a lot!)

Directions

1.  Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2.  In a large mixing bowl, combine the Guinness, milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Mix in the sour cream. Feel free to sip on a spare Guinness.

3.  In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the cocoa, sugar, flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet Guinness mixture.

4.  Line and grease your muffin tin and divide the batter among the muffin tins. I lay aluminum foil over my tin, then poke holes over the cups and then insert my liners, then spray. This keeps any batter that spills from baking onto my muffin tin.

I also like the use a ladle to distribute my mixture. Keeps things from getting too messy.

5.  Bake 25 minutes, until risen and set in the middle but still soft and tender. Cool before turning out of the tins.

While your cupcakes are cooling, start on the frosting.

Cream your softened butter and irish cream, and gradually add the powdered sugar. I used about 3.5 cups, plus a splash or two of skim milk, to get the consistency I liked. I also recommend a pinch of salt - a little salt helps tone down the toothache sweetness of the frosting.

You should have enough frosting to cover all of your cupcakes generously - no need to skimp! If you want to mail them to a cute redheaded boy, I recommend the shoebox method. Refrigerate overnight so the frosting doesn't stick to everything, then mail.

Sweets for my sweetie

I just made something really delicious for Colin. However, it is a surprise, so I can't reveal what I made yet. I'm mailing them to his office, so I should be able to post about it by the end of the week!

Care to take any guesses? Here's a few ingredients to get you started: sour cream, powdered sugar, and twelve ounces of Guinness!

And now, things to bake!

Here are the sweet treats I've bookmarked recently:

Homemade Peppermint Patties from Serious Eats

Chocolate Wacky Depression Cake from Savory Sweet Life

Peanut Butter Cup Brownie Bites from Savory Sweet Life

 

Chocolate Cake with Orange Chocolate Frosting from Bon Appetit via Epicurious

 

Lemon-Scented Pull-Apart Loaf from the Kitchn

Chocolate Mousse with Olive Oil and Sea Salt from the Kitchn

Mocha Silk Pie from the Pioneer Woman

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies from Sugar Cooking

S'mores Cupcakes from Bakerella

Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies from Joy The Baker

Culinary Aspirations

I subscribe to many, many food blogs. Twenty-three, to be exact. This leads to a LOT of bookmarked recipes, all of which I swear I'll make one day. Here's a round-up of some of my recent favorites (that I've still yet to try):

Easy Sausage and Peppers from The Kitchn

Scrambled Eggs in Puff Pastry from Serious Eats

Potato Leek Soup with Bacon from Migs, via It's All About the Bacon 

Hot Caramelized Onion Dip from Closet Cooking

 

White Chicken Chili from Closet Cooking

 

Pear and Gorgonazola Omelette from Closet Cooking

Beer-Braised Beef and Onions from Gourmet Magazine, via Epicurious

 

Pretty much Marlboro Man's entire Birthday Dinner from Pioneer Woman

Banana 'Ice Cream'

This is so simple, yet so tasty, and you won't believe it until you try it.

Ingredient
Bananas

(yep, that's it!)

Directions
Slice up a banana or two, then freeze it.

I've found it's easier to slice then freeze, since cutting a frozen banana isn't easy. It'll take a few hours for your slices to freeze. I usually let mine go overnight.

Whip out your trusty Magic Bullet or blender.

Toss in your bananas and blend.

You can dribble in a tiny bit of milk or vanilla or cream if you want, but your bananas, after a minute or so, will come out looking like this:

Unless, of course, your Magic Bullet dies. Which mine finally did, right in the middle of banana-ice-cream-making magic. The above picture is a screen shot from months ago when I first tried this recipe.

So what's a girl with a broken Magic Bullet and no blender and a serious craving for banana ice cream supposed to do?

She gets creative. And out comes the hand mixer. And guess what? It worked!

A blender is still ideal, to get the ultimate creaminess. Seriously, it gets to the exact texture of soft-serve ice cream.

You can even store it in the freezer, then later serve it to your guests at a dinner party and make them guess the ingredients. Or ingredient.

Or you can add some mini chocolate chips and gobble the whole thing. What? It's just bananas! It's good for you!

RESULTS of The Great Chocolate Chip Cookie Experiment

In an earlier post, I mentioned my quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie. I decided to give Kristen some credit and try the recipe she recommended.

Ingredients

1 c. shortening

1 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

2 1/4 c. flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 c. chocolate chips

Directions

1. Combine shortening, sugars and vanilla. 
2. Sift flour, soda and salt. 
3. Add to creamed mixture. Mix well. 
4. Stir in chocolate chips. 
5. Drop by teaspoon on cookie sheet. 
6. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.

 

For the first time, I used an actual teaspoon to scoop out 'teaspooned-sized' drops of dough. It really did help with consistency, and contributed to nice, even baking.

As for the cookies? Success! Crunchy but not hard, and salty but not too salty. I'm sure this won't be the last recipe I try (still need to try the bread flour one), but it's my favorite so far!