KatyInTheKitchen: Birthday Charlotte Russe

A few weeks ago, my sweet roommate requested that I make a special birthday treat for her mother, who is visiting this weekend to celebrate! We discussed something decadent and rich that would be a complete birthday indulgence.

Now that summer is over, I'm back to baking away, and was excited for an opportunity to make a delicious and beautifully presented treat. . .my favorite!

I spent a lot of time deciding what I wanted to make when I happened to come across the idea for a Charlotte, or a Charlotte Russe cake. You've probably seen one before, but not known what's it's called. A Charlotte is a dainty mold cake filled with custard, mousse, or cream and surrounded by ladyfingers or sponge cake.

Since I haven't made one of these treats before, I searched around for some recipes that fit the bill. I made my ladyfingers using this amazing recipe from the Cilantropist, and while her mousse filled Charlotte sounded amazing, I opted for a coconut custard recipe favored by Martha Stewart.

The result, a rich, creamy coconut custard filled Charlotte garnished with some fresh tangy raspberries and finished with a chocolate bow. Divine!

KatyInTheKitchen: Avocado Chocolate Chip Cookies

Not long ago (I can't remember quite when) I heard some rumblings around the internet world about avocado chocolate chip cookies. The avocado is used to replace the butter and oil in chocolate chip cookies, which reduces the calories and adds all the health benefits of that creamy, lovely little berry we call avocado. While at the grocery store last week, avocados were on sale and I grabbed one on a whim. After a few days of it sitting in my fruit stand, I knew I'd need to use it up, and these cookies popped into my mind. Perfect!

Admittedly, these are not quite the same as their full fat, full butter predecessors, but they have a slightly sweet, spongy, moist quality all their own that is so. addictive. And with only about 84 calories (in my version) compared to the 240 of a "regular" chocolate chip cookie, it's easy to convince myself that these are basically healthy and it's definitely fine to eat just one more.

Ingredients: 

1 cup whole wheat flour 

1 tsp baking soda 
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 bag chocolate chip minis
1/2 cup avocado (approximately one avocado) 
1/2 cup sugar
1 Egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

To make (24 cookies):

              Remove avocado from skin and place it in a deep bowl. Also, add sugar. 

              Mix on high speed until you have a smooth mixture. 

              Add egg and vanilla extract. 

             When that’s all mixed, add baking soda, flour and salt.

             Mix everything on high speed until it’s all blended properly.

             Add chocolate chips and mix with a spoon.

             Place it on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 15-18 minutes at 290 degrees . (I didn't use parchment paper and just loosened them after a few minutes and it was fine. 

Recipe and nutritional info adapted from this post

These aren't much to look at, I know. Blame the whole wheat flour and baked avocado for that. Still, give 'em a try. And let me know what you think!

KatyInTheKitchen: Homemade potato chips

This past weekend, after a morning of laundry, cleaning, and, ok, some lazing around, I milled around my kitchen wondering what I'd have for lunch.

Based on the meager offerings in my pantry, it was going to be a turkey sandwich, but I had a craving for a little something extra. 

 I decided to make my own potato chips, since I don't usually have any around. I'd never made my own before but I figured it couldn't be all that hard. 

After glancing online for any strange little details that might be necessary, I discovered that after thinly slicing the potatoes, soaking them in cold water for a half hour so supposedly removes excess starch and allows them to crisp up better.

After that I popped them in a deep pan with some hot oil and let them fry away, and removed them to a cooling rack to drain off any excess oil.

I liked that I could add whatever seasonings I wanted to these chips. I opted for simple salt and pepper and they were a perfect compliment to a turkey, cheddar, and apple butter sandwich. 

KatyInTheKitchen: Rosemary Shortbread

Oh Sweet Heavens, friends. 

This holiday seasoned, I discovered what might possibly be the most delicious and unexpected treat. Like, ever.

I recently subscribed to Family Circle after realizing how fun it was to get a mag in the mail every month, and this recipe was featured as a homemade Christmas gift. I didn't give any out as a holiday present but I did make it for my tree trimming party and again for my office Christmas potluck.

It's Rosemary Shortbread, and probably going to be my new favorite savory treat to make.

The recipe is quite simple (included below) and it's been a huge hit with everyone I've served it to (besides a few picky eaters). It's flaky, soft, and buttery as expected but with barely any sugar and a healthy dose of salt and rosemary, it's heady and aromatic and oh, so, addictive.

The recipe also suggested a few different salty sweet combos such as thyme and lemons zest and Cayenne pepper and cocoa. I tried the thyme & lemon zest combo and really enjoyed it as well!

Rosemary Shortbread:
(makes 24 cookies)
2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
2 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 c. confectioners' sugar

Directions

1. In a bowl, whisk together flour, rosemary and salt. In a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar on medium speed until well blended. Reduce speed to low and slowly add in flour mixture; blend until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Gather dough into two balls, wrap both tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

2. Heat oven to 350 degrees . Remove one dough ball and roll out to 1/4-inch thickness on parchment paper. Punch out cookies using a 31/2-inch tree-shaped cookie cutter. Transfer cutouts to a cookie sheet about 2 inches apart; refrigerate for 15 minutes. Repeat with second dough ball. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. (Do not allow cookies to brown.) Transfer cookies to a cooling rack.

Family Circle recipe here

easy as pie, right? Or, dare I say. . .cookies? 

KatyInTheKitchen: Late Summer Peach Pecan Pie

Believe me, no one is more aware of the fact that it is no longer summer. Autumn, glorious autumn is pushing her way into New England and I couldn't be more ecstatic. A few weeks before fall, however, while reading a food blog, I came across a recipe for Peach Pecan Pie. The author was raving about this quintessential late summer treat and suddenly I was overcome with the urge to bake one. Never mind that, in all my years, peach pie has never marked the end of summer for me; or, that pie isn't really a favorite treat of mine. I felt as if this pie, made entirely from scratch was imperative to bid farewell to sultry summer and make way for fall. 

I scoured two separate farmers' markets for the appropriate peaches, and made sure to stock up on some last minute ingredients. Then, last Wednesday, I embarked on my peach pie journey. 

Everything went swimmingly, especially the fun part about pouring the custard mixture over the delectable peaches! The pecan topping was supposed to be a yummy crumble. . .

and here is where I discovered a fun fact. 

My oven is apparently on the fritz. My crumble slowly melted into a pecan crust much to my dismay. This happened to me a few weeks ago while I was making some zucchini muffins with a crumb top but I figured my proportions were just off. Now, I'm thinking my oven temperature is off!  Naturally, this would happen right before fall and the holidays. 

Nonetheless, my peachy pie was a delicious way to end the summer. On Thursday, a friend joined me for a hearty dinner of pot roast with slow cooked veggies and then we stuffed ourselves with some of this fruity tart for dessert. Yum. . .with summer ending so deliciously, I'm almost sad to see it go. 

KatyInTheKitchen: Potato Chip Cookies

As I mentioned yesterday, I was in CT visiting my mom and some of my siblings this past weekend. I (as usual) was in the mood for baking and decided to whip up a special little treat for them. I'd found a recipe on another blog for Potato Chip Cookies which sounded delightfully intriguing. I love that salty sweet combo! 

My roommate, brother, sister and mother all loved these cookies. They are sort of like a pecan sandy (sandie?), dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with a little sea salt for good measure. 

If you'd like to take a crack at these delicious cookies, you can check out the recipe below:

Ingredients:

1 cup of butter, softened

3/4 c. granulated sugar 

3/4 c. crushed potato chips

1/2 c. ground pecans

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

2 c. all purpose flour 

Confectioners sugar for flattening cookies

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees 

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, cream together the butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy; about 3 minutes. With your mixer on low speed, add in potato chips and pecans and mix on low speed until fully incorporated. Add vanilla and mix until thoroughly combined. Stir in flour and mix the flour is just combined; do not over-mix

3. Scoop dough into 1 inch balls. Place dough balls about 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets

4. Slightly flatten each dough ball with a glass dipped in confectioners’ sugar.

5. Bake in preheated oven for 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack.

6. Dip cookies about 1/4 to 1/2 way in melted chocolate and then lightly sprinkle with sea salt 

KatyInTheKitchen: 4th of July!

Turning on the oven is just about the last thing I wanted to do this week. Boston's been having some hot weather and our little apartment doesn't exactly enjoy nice air flow. Nonetheless, I wanted to make a special sweet treat for a cook out yesterday. Immediately, upon offering to bring dessert, I knew I was going to reprise the strawberry cake recipe I'd made this spring for a friends birthday.  And what better excuse for some delicious baked goods than a Fourth of July cook out?!

This recipe uses freshly pureed strawberries and lemon zest for a sweet and tangy zing. Add cream cheese frosting and blueberry garnish and you have a red, white, and blue treat perfect for a patriotic affair!

If you'd like the recipe, check it out here. I changed things ups a bit, using more lemon zest, no food coloring and tweaking the cream cheese frosting to my own tastes. It's definitely summer-y, delicious, and worth a bake!

Champagne Cupcakes

For a dinner with friends this weekend I decided to start tweaking a recipe for a concept I'm hugely fond of, baking with alcohol. Baking wines and champagnes into pastry provides a great depth and oakiness of flavor you don't get from anything else. And just the other day I had a beer bread that was positively delightful.

I first was seriously introduced to this concept this winter in my pastry class when we made a white wine cake.  For various reasons, I wasn't hugely impressed with my classes white wine cake, but I've been ruminating on possibilities for this technique ever since.  

You can imagine my intrigue, then, when my mother sent me an e-mail for pink champagne cupcakes she saw on the Betty Crocker website. The recipe used a boxed cake mix with just some added champagne and food coloring. Not to sound a snob, but no way was I going to use a preboxed cake mix, so I started doing some research on scratch champagne cupcake recipes I liked. 

After combining a couple recipes that I like, the result was a sort of pound cake using champagne as the liquid and whipped egg whites to lighten it up. While I liked the finished product, I think I'm going to try for something a little lighter next time, more spongy, so the texture of the bubbles in the champagne will really come through.

I finished this batch off with some homemade vanilla buttercream and a chocolate speckled strawberry. And then, did the unthinkable,: I didn't take any pictures!

Well, except a quick shot snapped in the car for a friend begging to see them

If you're interested in the recipe, check it out below. I used an almond champagne for these, but I think I'll experiment with a muscato next time!

Cupcakes:
2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup champagne
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
6 egg whites


Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pan with paper liners (yields about 22 cupcakes).  

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.  In mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar on medium high speed until light and fluffy.  Add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with two additions of champagne combined with vanilla.  

In a clean bowl, beat egg whites on high speed until they hold stiff peaks.  Fold in about 1/3 of the egg whites to lighten the batter then gently fold in the remaining egg whites.  Transfer batter to cupcake liners, filling each about 2/3 of the way full.  Bake approximately twenty minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  

Stand Mixing

Folks, I know my birthday is over and done with. I blogged it, you read it, you moved on.

But can we please revisit the fact that I received a Kitchenaid stand mixer for my birthday?? As in, the one thing I've been longing to own. It's one of those sorts of appliances I resigned myself to not owning until I got married (hello, bridal registry). Or at least, I'd assumed that would be the case.

Then along come my darling friends and their scheming and voila: I'm not just a saucy gal with a penchant for baking and a hand mixer, anymore. I'm, like, legit. 

Hand me my chef hat, please. 

 Despite dying to take her on her maiden voyage this week, I just didn't have the opportunity until last night. A friend and I hosted our initial meeting for a book club we're starting and we decided to whip up some of my favorite cookies: Peanut Butter, Chocolate, and Blackberry Jam cookies. 

A stand mixer and my favorite cookies?? Be still my beating heart!

Here are some photos of this momentous occasion, a new era for KatyintheKitchen, really.

Oh, and if you are interested, check out the video below of me opening my mixer during my birthday dinner with some close pals. It's not filled with hand flapping, surprised shrieking or anything like that. . .

Spring Treats

Happy (belated) Easter everyone! 

Easter is one of my favorite holidays, celebrating Christ rising from the dead and bringing us new life! For me, it also somehow symbolizes the beginning of spring more than the official beginning. 

This Easter week I've done my fair share of spring baking (yay!) due to a lovely friend's birthday and an Easter potluck. Spring baking is so lovely: so many beautiful colors and fun ideas! 

strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting

Bird's nest coconut cupcakes

Oh, and maybe you've noticed the new spring look to my blog. I don't know what it is about the fresh spring wind that makes me want to do some reinventing!

Visitor & Nutella Stuffed Cookies

A week ago today, a dear friend Sarah, who now lives in Colorado with her husband, came to visit. We met  up with two of our other great friends for dinner and had such fun catching up. Getting the four of us together basically reduces us to non stop inside jokes and constant laughter. The poor souls who had to sit on either side of us at the restaurant probably wanted to kill us all, but we were having such a good time we didn't care. Laughter with old friends is one of my favorite things!

Here we are all together, for the first time in ages!

As a little present for Sarah and her husband I made some nutella stuffed peanut butter cookies. Another gal pal, V, shared this recipe she found on another blog, and I've been simply dying to make them for something, and this was the perfect excuse!

Check out the recipe!

Because I'm the worst at math, there may or may not have been some miscounting on my part and thus slightly larger than planned cookies, but boy, oh boy, were they divine (how could anything stuffed with nutella not be)!

My only advice, add way more nutella than she mentions and, really, than seems safe. Trust me, you won't regret one hazelnut-y minute of it

I didn't add as much nutella to this batch. I won't make the same mistake twice!

A little bonus. I'm the stunner on the right.

 

Katy in the Kitchen: Pizza

Sunday nights are possibly one of the saddest nights. The looming cloud of another week at the office weighs down my shoulders. Quelle Horreur! 

I mean, I'm just being dramatic. In all seriousness, though there's definitely a tone to Sunday nights; just the slightest taste of melancholy.

Luckily, once a month some lovely friends and I get together on a Sunday night to make dinner, catch up, and generally enjoy each others company (and some wine. Don't forget the wine!) which makes the evening just a teense more bearable. This week was one of our dinners and we were making one of my favorite foods. Pizza. Every nine year old on the planet and I get a little shiver up our spine at that word. 

Thankfully, my tastes have expended beyond my nine year old self, and I love trying all different wild combinations of pizza. Boston is shamefully lacking in good pizza, in my experienced opinion, but I really enjoy making my own pizza (especially on the grill!) so it's not really a loss.

The pizza we made last night?

A delightful white pizza (no gross alfredo sauce) topped with carmlized onions, butternut squash, spinach, and goat cheese. It was devine. My only tweek might be to cut the squash into a little bit smaller chunks for next time. Only because while I like squash, we're not super tight, and I can only handle it in small doses, you know?

I'd also like to throw out that goat cheese (much like chocolate)  when combined with anything, basically makes it a thousand times better, even if it was already good to begin with.

Email me for the recipe if you'd like: katydidwhatblog{at}gmail{dot}com


Also, for all you foodies, a new little feature on my blog {look up}! There is now a "KatyInTheKitchen" page where all my various an asunder baking/cooking/decorating posts will be collected-should you want to focus solely on some culinary delights now and again. Enjoy!

Happy February 15th!!

Last night some sweet friends joined me for a little "Galentine's Day" dessert party (I didn't make that up, I got it from a friend who got it from Parks and Recreation). Basically, I really love Valentine's Day. Because I love love, and the colors pink and red, and eating chocolate covered strawberries, and listening to the Titanic song (by listening, I mean, belting it out at top volume, sure that I sound just like Celine)

Here are a few pictures of this auspicious occasion. As usual, once the party started I forgot to take pictures of actual people. There's one of myself thrown in there with my new Gussy, though. Red ruffle head band and Valentine's Day?? Too good.

wall art courtesy Kait Brink, LOVE courtesy ME

desserts included white wine cake, vanilla cupcakes, sugar cookies, and chocolate covered strawberries

Today, I brought some of the extras to work, and some of the women thought they were from a real bakery! Such a compliment!!

 In sort of related news (I like to bake, thus the desserts) I'm entering for a chance to win a KitchenAid, basically my life's dream. And if you enter, you might win. And if you win, I win one too. Get it? Good. Make it happen.

Fresh Baked Bread

I submit that there are few things better in this world then biting into a warm piece of home baked bread.

Good thing we baked a whole bunch of different kinds in my pastry class last week!

(Clockwise from top left: Focaccia with rosemary and sage; jalapeno, cheddar cornbread; goat cheese and scallion biscuits; rosemary, garlic rolls, Black Forest bread stick; sticky buns)

Christmas Confections: Part 2

I know you're only carrying on with the treats posts because you want to hear about the failure I teased about last post. You could skip all the way to the end, but then you might miss out on some yummy ideas. . .

This is a little something we like to call White Trash in my family. The epitome of politically correct holiday desserts, eh? 

White Trash is an amazing little confection consisting of (in my version) pretzels, crispex, peanut M&M's, mint M&Ms and vanilla candy melts. The beauty of this little munch mix is that you can really tailor it to suit your tastes. My mom puts peanuts in hers and plain M&Ms, and she's also made other themed mixes, with red hots for Valentine's Day, and so on. I think this years batch was my favorite though. The mint M&Ms really added a cool kick that I adored!

I'd also like to take this opportunity to give a shout out to my friend, E, who joined me one night the week before Christmas for a little baking party.  E was making a cranberry upside down coffee cake that immediately had my attention. Not only was it incredibly moist and delicious with that hint of tartness cranberries provide. It was amazingly festive with the brown sugar glazed cranberries cheerily topping the cake! She got the recipe here, and I'm definitely going to be making this myself at the earliest opportunity!

 And now we move on to the duds. You know the ones. They bake up all amazing and delicious looking. But one bite proves they're not quite what you wanted. Enter these bacon cheddar mini muffins. Whipped up for a holiday potluck.

These little guys were incredibly simple, and although I'm not a bacon eater in general, frying up some bacon for these little minis was almost enough to turn me into one! Though, I think the strips I ate while making these will tide me over until next years bacon baking flop. 

Despite looking delicious and flavorful here, these mini muffins were more like biscuits--quite dry. Also, not the bacon or even the bacon drippings I used in lieu of vegetable oil added enough rich flavor to the batter. The cheddar all but disappeared in the dish. I was less than impressed, and will not be making them again. 

Oh well, you live an learn. Perhaps I'm better with the sweet stuff. Or bacon and I were just never meant to be friends. In any case, I'm off to make a cup of raspberry hot chocolate and munch on the last morsels of WT. 

Did you bake anything fun this holiday season? Tell me about it! 

katydidwhatblog@gmail.com 

E with her scrumptious cake!

Christmas Confections:Part One

     Every year during the holiday season, I get super pumped to bake all manner of sweets and goodies (truth be told, I start dreaming up recipes in July. . .). 

     Sadly, because I don't have a family of 50 fast metabolizing children  nor am I so popular that hundreds of people are dropping by every nigh for a treat, a lot of my sugary confections have to fall by the way side when it comes down to it. 

     I did decide on some new desserts that I wanted to make this year, and based on the reactions, they all turned out great! 

Topping the list were these glorious nutella thumbprint cookies (which I got from here) I decided to whip up for Christmas, My mother, in particular was a fan of these delightful little morsels, which were a great sort of upgrade on the old peanut butter blossoms. With a bit of a creamier texture, and a molasses heavy zing thanks to some dark brown sugar, they were a great addition to my thumbprint cookie repertoire (my peanut butter black berry thumbprints are still my fav!)

This year, I also decided to get a little crazy and make a Bûche de Noël 
 for Christmas Eve dinner. Buche de Noel are somewhat time consuming to make, but all the different steps were actually quite fun. This one is a mocha chocolate yule log, and while the mocha bit was a hit, I actually am not a coffee flavored person myself (I know, why did I make a dessert bursting with coffee flavor then?). I'm definitely going to try some jelly roll variations just for their fun effect! 

I will say, the frosting recipe I used for this Buche was quite possibly the single most delicious chocolate buttercream frosting I've ever come across. I'm itching for an excuse to whip up another batch. . .if only so I can "taste test" half of it in the process! 

Stay tuned for part two tomorrow. . .including a holiday baking fail!

A pumpkin brownie kind of day

  

Happy Monday! Finally, some fall weather has hit Boston, and you know what that means. I've been itching to do some baking! Fortuitously, my dear friend Jordana's birthday was Sunday (Happy Birthday J) and so I had an excuse to hit the ovens. These delicious little pumpkin pie/brownie hybrids seemed like the perfect treat for a autumnal birthday. I've never been an enormous fan of pumpkin pie like treats, but add chocolate to anything, and I'll eat it! I used someone else's recipe for the pumpkin "pie" part and then took liberties with the chocolate chunk brownies. If you'd like the recipe, e-mail me here. Or just stop by and I'll whip you some up!

Here are a few other highlights from my weekend. On Saturday, I took the 7th grade girl I mentor on a trip to the 'country' for some apple picking. I can't wait to make some applesauce this week. yummm!

                 

steak and stir fry

This weekend was a glorious one for sure, filled with great food and amazing friends. And even a little bit of sunshine on Saturday, a rarity of late here in Massachusetts!

I got to spend part of it helping some wonderful friends move out of their little house which I've grown to love over the last year they've lived there. They graciously let me crash there for a few months last summer while I was in between homes and I immediately fell in love with their huge front porch, adorable kitchen, and how much FUN they had in that place. It was sad to say goodbye, but at least it was only to the house, not to them! We kicked off our celebratory weekend with my first grilling session of the season. Mostly I just held the umbrella for my grill mate when it started pouring mid grill, but still. . . We were rewarded with some delicious steak and veggies! topped off with some daiquiris and Trader Joe's berry crumble pie with french vanilla ice cream. Talk about delicious!

Not to be outdone, some girlfriends in Boston traipsed over to my place Sunday upon my arrival back in Btown for some stir fry and girl talk (my fav!). We threw together this amazing mango chicken stir fry that was such a treat. Check out the recipe here if you are in the mood for a summer fresh stir fry (note:: because we all love it so much, we added about double the amount of ginger, and it was to DIE for). The recipes a great start, but we definitely added the herbs and spices to our taste. And using different kinds of mango really ratcheted up the complexity of the dish. It's definitely a keeper!

One of my favorite things is getting in the kitchen and experimenting with recipes with lots of wine and goods friends to chat with. Do weekends get any better than this? Next up we're thinking of having some fun with fish. yumm!

so many beautiful friends in one weekend. I'm so blessed!

Birthdays Galore

This time of year is choc-o-block full of birthdays, it's insane. Between friends and family I've got at least one, often 2 birthdays a week!

Now, don't get me wrong. I l-o-v-e birthdays. Celebrating people's birthdays it one of my favorite things to do. Seriously, a whole day to let someone know how special they are and that they are loved? What could be greater?

Still, my own birthday at the end of April comes at the very tail end of all the birthday hubbub and sometimes I feel like where all so exhausted, it's hard to get it together for one final hurrah. (well, sort of. I get pretty excited about my birthday, I can't lie. . .)

Amidst all this chaos, I got an invite for this past Friday to a dear friends birthday dinner party, and because I love her and cake making, I offered to bring the birthday cake! Immediately, my head was filled with overambitious projects I have neither the time, skill, nor tools to make a reality. Not to be deterred, I made due with what I had to make her a fun, spring themed cake. I had so much fun making it for her and I think she had just as much fun demolishing it :)

Here are some pics of the cake. Sorry if this post is a little braggy, but I'm pretty proud of this one (and it tasted pretty darn good as well!)

Oh, and speaking of birthdays. . .

This month my blog turned one year old! (yay) and today is it's 200th post-day! Can you believe it?  What fun this last year has been, I hope it continues for many more blog birthdays to come!

and also, it's my baby sis' birthday today. 

Happy Birthday, mon petit chou!