Brownies. Simple, fantastic, Brownies.

 

It seems like good days are good for most people, and bad ones bad for everyone.  Like when you have good luck, there's luck in the air, so everyone else has a similar fate.  But when the luck goes awry, suddenly everyone is left scrambling, unsure of what to do.  That could be just this week, the week which my teachers have decided that because winter break is soon, they must cram all they have neglected to teach.  Or it just could be the whole luck thing. Yeah.

         At times like these, I really just need to step back and make brownies.  Simple, chocolate brownies.  Neither cakey nor fudgy, with an irresistable chewiness and crackly crust.  Yes.  Brownies.... :)

           In honor of the brownie, let me present my favorite recipe for them.  Very healthy (not!) and extremely delicious.  The strange method of boiling the water, butter, and sugar produces a lovely, shiny crust.  And they're super chocolately, with a whole 3 cups of chocolate chips! Use high quality chocolate, for the most deluxe brownies ever!

 

Brownies

Sift together in a large medium bowl:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
Bring the to a boil and boil for 30 seconds:
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons water
1 cup sugar
Turn off heat and stir in:
3 cups chocolate chips
Allow the mixture to cool before adding:
4 eggs, one at a time (or 2 eggs and 4 egg yolks, for richer brownies)
2 tsp vanilla extract
Stir in:
the dry ingredients
Spread the batter into a 9x13 greased pan and bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

The pictures above, edited slightly different.  I'm still sure which I prefer. :O

Pear Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Buttermilk Caramel Sauce

         For some reason, a majority of the birthdays in my family are in November.  Because of this I have found that during November I am constantly baking birthday cakes, pies, or whatever a person might request.  Then, smack in the middle of all this chaos you have Thanksgiving.  Don't get me wrong, I love Thanksgiving and all the food I get to eat, but ahhhh, I literally bake from 8 in the morning to 10 at night.  This year I made rolls, pumpkin pie, vegan pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and chocolate pudding pie. 
        So, anyways, the point I was getting to is that the busyness of November the reason this blog is so neglected, and come December (AND WINTER BREAK!) I  think I'll have more time.  But for now, here's an amazing recipe for pear cake (the recipe my Godmother requested for her November Birthday).

 Buttermilk Caramel Sauce [adapted from here]

3/4 c. buttermilk
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 stick real butter
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla

Combine all the ingredients (but vanilla) in a large pan, and boil until a deep caramel color.  Allow to slightly cool before stirring in vanilla.  Refrigerate leftovers.

Pear Cake [adapted from here] 

3  ripe Bartlett pears, peeled and diced (about 2 cups)

2 tsp  sugar

2 large eggs

4/3 cups  sugar

scant 1 cup  vegetable oil

2 cups  all-purpose flour (or use Pamela's Baking & Pancakes mix to make GF)

2/3  teaspoon  salt (1/2 if using Pamela's)

2/3 teaspoon  baking soda

2/3 cups  pecans, coarsely chopped

1 1/2  teaspoons  vanilla extract

1/3 cup buttermilk caramel sauce (recipe above)

Toss the pears and 2 tsp of sugar and leave to stand for 5 minutes.  

Mix the eggs, oil, and 4/3 cup sugar with a whisk until combined.

Whisk in the baking soda, salt, and vanilla.

Gently fold in the flour, followed by the pecans and finally the pears.

Pour the batter in a greased 9 x 13 pan and ladle the sauce over.

Bake for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. (make sure you're testing the cake, not just the pears)  

Frost with Vanilla Bean Frosting (recipe below)

Vanilla Bean Frosting

 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup butter (1 stick, 8 tbs), room temperature

2 cups powder sugar

1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)

Beat the cream cheese and butter in a hand or stand mixture until fluffy.  Gradually add in the powder sugar and beat for 5 minutes.  Stir in the vanilla bean paste.

Quinoa Chocolate Cake and Chocolate Frosting

I have some odd habits when it comes to baking.   For one thing, 70% of the things I bake are gluten free.  Not because I, or even someone I know is gluten intolerant, just because from a young age, I was told that eating gluten is bad for you.
This mentality began when I was seven and my dad decided to switch to an all raw diet.  One of his new beliefs was the idea that grains are bad for you (meant only for birds or something), especially grains containing gluten.
Ha! I don't know whether this is true, but I still try to cooperative with my dad's eccentricity none-the-less.  So, when I saw a picture of beautiful picture of chocolate cake on Babble.com, imagine my surprise when I realized it was completely gluten-free!
My dad even joined me to try a slice.  (His first slice of chocolate cake in more than 7 years!)
As a testament to the magic of this cake, I am fairly certain that my dad has been sneaking bites of it when no one's looking. Hmmm.
 

GF Quinoa Chocolate Cake (found here)
2/3 cup white or golden quinoa
1 1/3 cup water
1/3 cup milk
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup cocoa powder (high quality!)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Rinse the quinoa, and then combine in a saucepan with water over medium heat.  Bring mixture to a boil, and boil for 10 minutes.  Turn off heat, and leave the saucepan covered for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, sift together the sugar, cocoa power, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
In a blender or food processor, combine the eggs, milk, and  vanilla extract. Pulse until combined.  Add the quinoa and butter, and blend until smooth.*  Pour the mixture over the dry ingredients, and stir until moistened.  Divide the batter among 2 greased 9 inch cake pans, and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees, or until toothpick comes out clean.
*note: If you don't blend until completely smooth, the final cake will retain some of the quinoa's texture. I loved the additional texture (that I got by neglecting to fully blend it), but I doubt most people would.

Chocolate Frosting (found here)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
2/3 cup cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine the butter and cocoa, and alternate between adding the milk and powder sugar.  Whisk in the vanilla.

1 Minute Macadamia Nut Nutella

        About half a year ago my family received a box of chocolate covered Macadamia nuts.  Inside this box there were at least 60 of these chocolates, way too much for even an average family to consume.  Add a dad who doesn't eat chocolate, a mom who prefers savory food, and me who just doesn't love nuts...except when in Nutella. 

       In a whim, realizing these chocolates were very near their expiration date, I tossed them in my food processor, and sat back while they blended into a silky cream. (which took less than a minute, if you were wondering)

       This has to be the greatest 1 ingredient food ever.  How can a silky smooth, chocolately, macadamia nutty spread not be? 

       Now, please excuse me.  I need a moment alone with just a spoon and this nutella.

Macadamia Nut Nutella

Blend chocolate covered macadamia nuts into a food processor until silky smooth.

(the mixture will go through several stages, chunky, crumbly, clumpy, watery, silky smooth)

Pumpkin Crumble "Pie" w/ Vanilla Whipped Cream

It's no secret that I'm a lazy baker.  Well, a lazy person in general.

I don't like walking places, I'd much rather drive (or bike to save the environment).

I'd rather take a nap then go sightseeing,

and I tend to making the same simple recipes over and over.

My brother calls me "The Laziest Atheletic Person"

When I'm inspired, I'm completely different.  I can stay up all night making a four layer cake, sprint constantly during a soccer game, and bake 5 dozen cupcakes to sell for charity.

Yeah...except last night I wanted pumpkin pie.  I really wanted pumpkin pie.  I had just had two soccer games, was feeling lazier than ever, and I wanted pumpkin pie.  So I made pumpkin pie. 
Kinda.

Let me introduce you to Pumpkin Crumble.  It's what happens when you combine pumpkin pie and apple crumble.  It's easy to make.  And there's no finicky pie dough.  Hurrah! 

For the pumpkin pie filling, I used a recipe I had been eyeing for a while. It was good, but slightly overcooked (my fault!)   The crumble recipe I used is my "go to" crumble recipe.  The crumble was absolutely delicious!  Crunchy, sweet, and cinnamony. The crumble slightly sunk into the pie filling while baking, which I figure could be solved by slightly baking the filling before spreading the crumble over it, but I wouldn't bother with that.  This recipe is suppose to be simple, so let it be just that. :)

Oh, and all these pictures were taken by my new SLR camera (Canon Rebel T1i)!  So far, the images are so much crisper on my new camera.  :) It's been rather muggy lately so the lighting wasn't great when I took these photos, but I'm hoping next week there will be more sun (and more rain!).

Pumpkin Crumble Pie

Ingredients:

1 recipe pumpkin pie filling [here]

1 recipe crumble [below]

1 recipe whipped cream [below]

Pour the pumpkin pie filling into a buttered 9 inch round ceramic or glass cake pan, and gently sprinkle the crumble on top.  Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 20 minutes more, or until the filling is set, but the center still jiggles when shook.  Chill until completely cold, and dollop with whipped cream before serving.

Cinnamon Crumble:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup butter, chilled (1/2 a stick)

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Whisk together the sugar, flour, and cinnamon.  Cut the butter in with a fork or your fingertips, until completely combined.  (if you use your hands, be careful not to melt the butter)

Vanilla Whip Cream

Ingredients:

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

2 tbs powder sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Whip the cream, sugar, and vanilla together until soft peaks form.

Pear Sorbet

It's pear season.  And back to school season (well, a little bit after that).

That means:
a.  school=no free time=no updating blog
b. pears=sorbet
c. school=blog being neglected!
d. pears=sorbet
e. school=blog becoming a coffin
f. pears=sorbet

So, in an attempt to revive my blog, I'm here today to share some great news!  First of all, I *might* get an DSLR camera for my birthday (Canon Rebel) and secondly it's pear season, which means s-o-r-b-e-t.   I don't know about you, but in my opinion there's nothing better for getting the mind off school related stress then watching pear puree churn into delicious sorbet.  Seriously.  It's hypnotic.

So, if you're like me and facing stress right now, just scroll down a little bit, whip out an ice cream maker, grab some organic pears, and make some delicious pear sorbet.

Pear Sorbet

adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

4 ripe pears, pealed cored *note: I used two Red Anjou pears (& didn't peel them) to get the peachy color.
1 1/4 cups water
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp fresh lemon juice

Cut the pears into 1 inch cubes, and place in a nonreactive saucepan with 1/2 cup of water.  Cook over medium heat for 15 minutes until soft, and beginning to caramelize.
Let the pears cool for a few minutes, then transfer to a blender or food processor with the remaining 3/4 cup water, sugar, and lemon juice.  Blend until completely smooth.
Chill until cold (don't churn it unless completely refrigerated) and then process in an ice cream machine.
Scoop into a container and freeze for another couple hours until as hard as desired.

Chocolate, Butterscotch, Nutella & Pudding Ice Cream Cake

       I first set my heart on making an ice cream cake when I noticed that the assignment for Daring Bakers July was to make a Swiss Roll Ice Cream Cake.  It was ingenious! Layers of silky ice cream and rich fudge resting inside a delicious chocolate swiss roll cake.  I knew such a project was a two day affair, and since my patience is of a five year old, I compromised and made this ice cream cake.
       Choosing for the layer cakes to be chocolate was simple, for in my mind, homemade cakes can only compare to the artificial (but amazing) box mixes if they are chocolate.  Not any chocolate cake, but Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake.  The butterscotch was an easy decision as I've always adored Smitten Kitchen's Easy Butterscotch Sauce, and have made it many times.  Warm, it can make even the cheapest ice creams taste gourmet.  Frozen, it melts in your mouth.
       As for the pudding, well, let's just say at one shopping spree to whole foods I literally bought 8 packs of "cook & serve" pudding,   I have since used 2 of them and decided a layer of pudding should take okay. Unfortunately, I misestimated that boxed pudding really doesn't compare to homemade pudding and it freezes really hard.   Because it was not quite delicious, below I have included a homemade pudding recipe.  Considering it has egg yolks, it should freeze creamy, and not rock solid.

       Nutella is my latest, favorite food and I decided that the only ice cream worthy of being in my creation was nutella ice cream. The recipe literally took 30 seconds to put together, and another 25 minutes to freeze.  Rather than spread the ice cream on my cake, I opted for another method, and froze the nutella ice cream in a 9 inch cake pan.  When I was assembling the cake, I just popped the ice cream disk out, and placed it over the pudding layer on the cake.  It was very handy.
       Finally, I "frosted" the cake with a pint of vanilla ice cream.  Any flavor would do (coffee sounds amazing)  but I didn't have the patience to make another ice cream, and I had some vanilla ice cream in the freezer just begging to be used.  I also had some crunchie bars, so I crushed them up and sprinkled them on top.  This dessert was a little too delicious if you ask me.
       Anyways, I'll spare you any more of the details!  The recipe is obviously what you want! :)

Chocolate, Butterscotch, Nutella & Pudding Ice Cream Cake
Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake
source: HERE
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.
2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans. 

3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.  Place the layers in the freezer while you continue with the rest of the recipe.

Smitten Kitchen's Easy Butterscotch Sauce:
Follow the recipe HERE.
*one quick note* After making the caramel, let cool and then stir vigorously until it has the consistency of peanut butter.


Vanilla Bean Pudding Recipe
Source: HERE
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups milk, divided
Pinch salt
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon vanilla pastes or seeds for 1/2 a vanilla bean (optional)
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
Place 2 cups milk and salt in a saucepan. Sprinkle sugar on milk and do no stir; heat over medium-high. Quickly combine cornstarch with remaining milk; add egg yolks and mix well. When milk comes to a full boil, remove saucepan from the heat and stir in cornstarch mixture. Pudding will begin to thicken. Return to the heat and cook for 1 minute. Remove from the heat; stir in vanilla and butter. Pour into a bowl, cover the top with plastic wrap, and let cool until it is at room temperature.

Nutella Ice Cream Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup Nutella

2 cups (cold) Half & Half (or 1 cup heavy whipping cream and 1 cup 2 % milk)

Combine the ingredients in a blender, and blend  on medium speed until combined (about one minute).  Process through an ice cream maker according to the manufacturers instructions.  While being processed, line a nine inch cake pan with plastic wrap.  When the ice cream is of soft serve consistency, pour into the cake pan, and cover with another layer of plastic wrap.  Let it freeze for a couple of hours, or until firm.

TO ASSEMBLE:

Ingredients:

1 recipe Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake 

1 recipe Smitten Kitchen's Butterscotch Sauce

1 recipe Vanilla Bean Pudding

1 recipe Nutella Ice cream

1 pint vanilla ice cream, softened (or another flavor of your choice)

2 large Crunchie Bars, crushed (or another candy bar of your choice) [optional]

1. On a cake plate, place one layer of the Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake.
2. Spread with 1/2 of the butterscotch sauce
3. On the butterscotch sauce, spread 1/2 the vanilla bean pudding.
4. Top the vanilla bean pudding with the disk of nutella ice cream.
5. Spread the remaining pudding on top the nutella ice cream disk.
6. Place the cake in the freezer for 30 minutes.  
7. Take the other layer of cake and spread with the remaining butterscotch.  
8. Place it on top of the pudding layer, butterscotch side down.  
9. "Frost" The cake with the vanilla ice cream, and sprinkle with the crushed Crunchie bars.
10. Freeze the cake until 10 minute before you plan on serving it.  Let it defrost the the fridge for the 10 minutes before serving.

Blueberry Crumble Muffins

           Blueberry plants are fickle little things. My family has tried to grow them several times, and we usually end up with sour little berries attached to shriveled plants.  Of course, it may be that we just suck at gardening, or that we neglect to water them, but after many dead blueberry plants, my dad decided that we should just buy blueberries when in season.  
          After grocery shopping yielded an abundance of blueberries, I decided that rather than just stuffing my face with the blueberries (which I could easily do) I wanted to bake with them.  As pie requires lots of time, I decided to make blueberry muffins instead. 

         The muffins were extremely easy to put together, and tasted amazing.  The muffins were moist, sweet, and soft, and studded with vast amounts of ripe blueberries.  The streusel added a sweet crunch to the muffins that really took them from being great, to fantastic.

          As I love all things mini (hinted at by the blogs title), I made some mini blueberry muffins, and some full sized.  The mini’s were perfect for a one bite treat, and the large muffins were, well, larger.  I can not stress how much I wish I had one of these muffins right now.  But I guess I have to just stare at the pictures and drool.

Blueberry Crumble Muffins

Original Source: here 
Makes 7 muffins

Muffin batter:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup + 2tbs white sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1/2 cup milk 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup fresh blueberries

Streusel topping:

½ +2tbs cup white sugar

1/3 + 2 tbs cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup butter, melted

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

turbino sugar

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line muffin pan with 7 muffin liners.
2.  Whisk together the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.
3.  In a another bowl mix together the vegetable oil, egg, milk, vanilla extract, and lemon zest. Stir well. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix just until you have a thick and slightly lumpy batter. Fold in the blueberries. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full.
4.  Combine the sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Add the butter and mix with you fingertips until like moist sand.  Sprinkle the streusel over the top of the muffins.  Lightly sprinkle the muffins with turbino sugar.
5.  Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick come out clean.

"The Perfect Loaf"

When I first bought a bread machine, I was ecstatic over the fact that I could make bread in a mere 3 hours.  After several flops, I realized that the bread recipes that came with the machine were utter trash, and made it my quest to find a bread machine recipe for "The Perfect Loaf".   After many hopeless rounds of trial and error, I think I have come very close to perfection.  In my eyes, this means a white bread which is high-rising, and tender, but still sturdy.  I think this bread fits that criteria!  It's perfect in sandwiches, excellent for french toast, and can be eaten plain, or with a smear of butter as well.

The breads is ready to go into the oven.  The white ones are dutch crunch, brown speckled ones are cinnamon swirl, and the plain, are well, plain.  

If you haven't already guessed, the bread in these pictures are TEENY! The length and width are just a couple inches each! (which makes the perfect for giving away as gifts) I bought the loaf pans from costplus, and they are fantastic!

This bread also has a secret cup of whole wheat flour that no one will know about!  I have actually used two cups of whole wheat flour, and it's still just as delicious, but I love the light color of this bread when you only use one!  I like to delude myself into believing that this bread must be healthy because it has whole wheat flour. :)

The bread is cooling on a "pastry rack" (aka. my toaster oven's rack).

The standard 9'' x 4'' bread pan will also work for this recipe, and if you just want delicious bread quickly, you can allow your bread machine to complete the whole bread making shebang. Those without bread machines, don't despair, I've included directions on how to make this bread by hand too.

The texture of this bread is phenomenal!  And look, you can't tell there is a cup of whole wheat flour!

"The Perfect Loaf" (according to Mia)

• 2 eggs
• 1 ¼ cup warm water
• 3 tbs oil
• 2 tbs sugar
• 1 tbs honey
• ¼ cup buttermilk powder (or dry milk)
• 2 tsp salt
• 2c bread flour
• 1c all purpose flour
• 1c whole wheat flour
• 2 tbs vital wheat gluten
• 2 ¼ tsp instant yeast (1 yeast packet)

METHOD A (Just Bread Machine)

   Make the bread your bread machine using the regular cycle, 2lb,& the crust color of your choice. Add the ingredients in the order you bread machine suggests.

METHOD B (Bread Machine, then by hand)

sing your bread machines dough cycle, make the dough for this bread.  Remove the dough and let it chill in your fridge for at least 30 minutes.  (you can drop the "chilling" step if you're impatient.)

method B1 (mini loaves) [MAKES 12]

Grease and flour 12 mini bread loaves (about 3 1/2'' by 2'' large) Cut of 3.5 oz pieces of doughs, and gently shape into loafs.  Let each piece of dough rise covered in a mini pan until the dough brims 1/2 inch over the top of the pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes (set the time to 10 minutes at first) until an internal thermometer reads 190-200 degrees.  Rub the tops with butter if you want the crust to be extra soft. 

method B2 (a large 9'' by 5'' loaf)[MAKES 1]

Grease and flour a 9'' by 5'' pan.  Form the dough into a loaf and let it rise, covered, in the pan, until it brims 1 inch over the loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees until the internal temperature is 190-200 degrees(about 30-40 minutes).  Rub the top with butter if you want the crust to be extra soft.

METHOD C (By Hand)

   Combine all the dry ingredients, add the wet ingredients and stir until combined. Kneed until smooth.  Let the dough double in size [covered & let rise in a warm place], punch it down, let it double once more, and proceed by looking at steps b1 (mini loaves), or b2 (large loaf) found in METHOD B.  Couldn't be simpler. :)

       Mini sandwiches made with mini bread.

P You can email me at nomachomp@gmail.com if you would like the recipe for either the dutch crunch, or cinnamon swirl bread.