Club Baked: Baked Cheese Grits

This latest Club Baked pick had me skeptical at first. First, because I've never in my life had grits, and the only grits I've ever seen were sketchy looking puddles of white mush at southern diners. Looked more like something that you would feed someone with no teeth or taste buds than something I would want to consume.

Also, it seemed like a lot of work. Constant stirring - for 20+ minutes. All I can say is that the thoughts running through my head as I stirred and stirred and stirred some more were "These better be good" and "This better be worth all of this." (I can get a bit cranky if I'm hungry)

Luckily, after all that stirring, and grating and stirring some more I ended up with something that is actually pretty delicious. I get it now, southern peeps, grits are pretty delicious. With all the fat in there though, they better be. Although I'm still skeptical of those white piles of mush at the diner.

I ended up substituting goat's cheddar and another soft goat's cheese for the monterrey jack and sharp cheddar, but I don't think it affected the end result much. I did end up making half a recipe, which I think will still end up being 4 servings for us.

These grits are creamy, cheesy with just a bit of bite from the stone ground grits. I think it's more of a weekend breakfast than a weekday, but I could just as easily see it as a dinner side dish in place of mashed potatoes and the like. I'm pretty glad I sucked up my skepticism for this recipe and gave it a try. Find the recipe over at Lisa's blog and the other baker's results at the Club: Baked blog.

Club Baked: Mississippi Mud Pie (A) or, How to Salvage a Mess and Improvise

I love chocolate. So, despite the fact that my spring form pan was currently at a friends (because I had recently taken over a gluten free, dairy free cheesecake), I definitely wanted to make this cake. I thought about the possible alternatives: I had two 8" cake pans, one 9" cake pan, a deep pie pan or I could use a square or rectangular baking dish. I was leaning towards the baking dish, then the pie pan, then my husband intervened and said to just use the 9" cake pan.

I was also out of parchment. I figured I could deal with some white dust on the outside of the cake, so I buttered and floured the cake pan instead.

The freezer is full, so instead of freezing the pie crust, I just left it in the fridge for some time while I set out other ingredients to come to room temperature until I thought it felt pretty solid.

I then proceeded to make the filling. It came together easily and without issue. It looked amazing, sort of like a very light, less sweet version of French silk pie. I can get behind anything that even moderately resembles French silk.

The first problem came when I poured the batter into the cake pan. It was bound to overflow, so I fit as much in as I could without actually overflowing and hoped for the best. Once in the oven, the batter started to rise. It then started to spurt like a volcano from one of the sides. Once it started to firm up, it stopped and rose almost beautifully. Once removed from the oven, it fell (as it was supposed to) to almost fit back in the pan. But I knew that there was no chance that pudding was ever going to sit on top of this thing in any way, shape or form resembling the cookbook's photo.

While the cake cooled, I made the pudding (with goat's milk - the only substitute I made in the recipe). I learned my lesson with the Boston Cream Pie Cake, so once it started to thicken, even though with my continuous whisking I hadn't actually seen any bubbles, I pulled it off the heat and poured it into the awaiting bowl where I added the finishing touches. It really is a tasty pudding - very smooth, rich, but not too sweet.

Because I had no way to assemble and finish this cake in the way it was intended, I used the 3 hour chill time to figure out what to do. Should I build a fort around the cake to keep the pudding until it firms? Should I try and pour what I can into the well made by the sunken cake? I ended up settling on the best, and far by easiest, solution: a trifle.

This way no cake would be wasted, and it wouldn't matter if it was a bit sloppy, especially since I don't actually have a trifle dish. The only drawback being that this would be one boring, all brown trifle. I hoped the taste would make up for it, and it did.

It's a light and fluffy cake layered with rich, almost chocolate mousse type pudding in between homemade whipped cream. I took the few remaining sandwich cookies and crushed them up to use as a topping. It's really very good, not too sweet, but very rich.

I feel pretty good about myself and this cake and the progress I've made at baking. When I started baking along with this group, I was adamant about following recipes, I didn't trust my instincts, and never would I consider thinking out of the box. Even cutting a recipe in half gave me stress. I know had this little hiccup happened to me a few months ago, I would not have handled it as well. Now, as I have been doing with savory recipes for years, I'm able to go with the flow. By no means do I feel confident to go willy-nilly baking without a recipe just yet, but at least I have gotten past the point of being overwhelmed and upset when things don't turn out perfect.

Check out the other baker's outcomes here, and then head on over to Alexis' blog for the recipe! Nice pick, Alexis.

Orange you glad...

The hubs and I recently went to San Diego, California. Can you believe it was my first trip ever to California? It was a fun time, with a stop at the ocean, avocado pickin', and relaxing.

This is also the technique we use for changing our air filters.

While were we there, we picked some oranges and citrus fruits of all kinds, and brought home a bounty! Now that my kitchen is full of citrus, I am slowly but surely finding some tasty recipes involving the tart, sweet little fruits. In addition to just eating them, of course, because I can assure you that you haven't really lived until you eat a perfectly ripe orange just off the tree (and proceeded to get juice all over your fingers!). I also tasted my very first kumquat. They are as fun to eat as they are to say. I think I may have forever ruined my taste for store bought oranges...

For the first recipe, I wanted to use up the blood oranges*. We only had a few, but they were beyond ripe, so I wanted to use them quickly before they went the way of the compost. A quick browse of the internets and I found a recipe for a Flaky Blood Orange Tart from Food and Wine. You know I love anything in a flaky crust, and the hubs likes anything resembling a cobbler, so this seemed like a great use for the blood oranges. Plus, it wasn't fancy or complicated so I could easily assemble it and get this - stash it in the freezer - to be made later. Of course, it didn't really last that long (really only the minimum 4 hours...) but it's nice to find a recipe that you can make ahead and whip up quickly when needed. A half recipe made about four to six servings.

While not fancy, this dessert is pretty in it's own right, with the vibrant colors of the oranges shining through like a little stained glass window. It smells amazing, but most importantly, tastes great. It does have a cobbler like flavor with the buttery crust, tart oranges and the addictive sweetness of liquid crack salted caramel syrup. Definitely make the syrup.

I tried to get photos of this before we ate it, but I wasn't so lucky, which is why I've taken strategically partial tart pics. That other half of the plate...it's empty. And then when I wasn't looking the hubs snacked on even more! At least I know he liked it.

Since we now have so much citrus, I'm sure I will be posting more recipes shortly. Leave a note in the comments if you have any favorite citrus recipes that I should try!

*This was also my very first blood orange!

Club Baked: Mississippi Mud Pie (A)

aka Coffee Ice Cream Tart

When asked what I would like to host for Club: Baked, I sat down with the hubs and the Baked Explorations cookbook and discussed the possibilities. I was asked to pick something from the pies and tarts section, which for me was just perfect. I prefer pies, with their ease of preparation, their forgiving nature, and of course, the lack of scientific, precise measuring that make so many cake recipes downright frustrating for me. And this recipe had no flour which, for someone who has a flour bomb go off regularly while baking, also includes less clean up. Right around my hosting time, we were having a pretty over the top dinner, so I wanted something just a little special. With some hemming and hawing (debating between this and the Whiskey Pear Tart, apparently we like booze in our desserts), we finally settled on the Mississippi Mud Pie (A).

Of course, after just discussing the ease of preparation of most pies, I landed with the one that has so many steps. Luckily, each step is fairly easy, a simple stirring of ingredients and a pour into the pie shell, so what looked initially like a daunting recipe turned out to be pretty easy and straight forward. Although, all the stopping and starting in between steps dragged it into a two day process for me.

I started with the making of the ice cream. The Baked guys have a recipe for Coffee Ice Cream in the cookbook, but since I didn't have any instant espresso powder, or Kahlua, I ended up adapting my almond milk ice cream recipe. I simply added just a pinch over 1 1/2 cups of whole coffee beans to the milk base after the first simmer, and continued to heat on low for about an hour, maybe two. Until it tasted like a strong latte. After scooping out the beans and discarding, I added another 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 cup cream to compensate for the of the liquid that evaporate or got tossed with the beans, stirred and voila! Coffee Ice Cream. 

After making the ice cream, I set about making the crust. After scooping mounds of icing from the center of each sandwich cookie, I was able to use the wafers to make the crust. (Was anyone able to find just the wafer part? Please tell me where you get such a thing!)\

The bourbon fudge...let me pause a moment here.  Bourbon AND Fudge. These are pretty much two of my favorite things and together and, well, let's just say that I had no dirty dishes.

Cookie Crust, check.

Bourbon Fudge, check.

Toasted Pecans and Coffee Ice Cream, check and check.

More bourbon fudge, check, check, and check.

A little freezer action and some sparkly candles, and this thing was ready for it's debut.

This pie was incredibly rich. One of those desserts where just a little sliver will fulfill your sugar/chocolate/ice cream craving. For someone who eats a Dove dark chocolate to satisfy a sugar craving, this was super sweet.  I loved the coffee ice cream. For me, that was the best part. Next time, I would add more pecans maybe even mixing them into the ice cream. They offered a texture change with their crunch and cut down on the crazy sweetness of the rest of the ingredients. I would also skip the chocolate drizzle on top simply because it was such a rich pie, I didn't feel it really needed it. Okay, probably a light chocolate drizzle for, as my husband says, "flair." (Love that guy!)

Also, grease the pan! I guess I missed this step. But I had a h*ll of a time getting out the first slice. The second was a little better, but I think a light greasing would have solved the whole mess.

I think the best thing about learning to make this pie is the sheer volume of possibilities it opened up, and to me, that's the mark of a good recipe. One that introduces you to something that you can build on. Tweaking the ice cream and fudge flavors and even the toppings and you have an almost limitless amount of ice cream pie possibilities. Graham cracker crust, caramel in place of the fudge with a vanilla ice cream topped with pecans would be a nice fall treat. Maybe served with some warmed spiced apples. Kind of a Kriss Krossed apple pie a la mode. For Christmas, peppermint chocolate fudge with candy cane ice cream. Plain fudge and caramel ice cream topped with nuts for a toffee flavored ice cream pie...

Thanks everyone for baking along! Next up: Speculaas by Fiona: Ms Fifikins

Mississippi Mud Pie (A)
Yield: One 9" Pie

Ingredients

For the Chocolate Cookie Crust
30 chocolate wafer cookies, about 6 oz
1 tbsp granulated sugar
6 tbsp (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted


For the Filling
4 oz good quality dark chocolate (60-72%)
1/4 c plus 1 tbsp heavy cream
3 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tbsp light corn syrup
1 c confections' sugar, sifted
1 tbsp Kentucky bourbon
1 pint good quality coffee ice cream
1/2 c toasted pecans, coarsely chopped


For the Bourbon Fudge Topping
2 tbsp heavy cream
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp light corn syrup
3 oz good quality chocolate (60-72%)
1 tsp Kentucky bourbon


Make the Chocolate Cookie Crust
In a food processor, pulverize the wafer cookies into a very fine crumb. You should have about 1 1/2 cups. Place the crumbs into a bowl, add the sugar and stir until combined. 


Pour the melted butter over the crumbs and mix well. Transfer the crumb mixture to a 9-inch pie plate and press it into the bottom and up the sides. Use the back of a large spoon to get an even crust. Set the crust aside in the refrigerator. 


Make the Filling
Place the chocolate in a large heatproof bowl. In a medium saucepan, bring the cream, butter and corn syrup to a simmer. Remove the mixture from the heat, pour it over the chocolate, and let sit for 1 minute. Then whisk the chocolate mixture until it is completely smooth. Whisk in the confectioners' sugar and bourbon.


Spread the fudge evenly over the bottom of the pie crust, cover it and refrigerate for 2 hours.


Soften the coffee ice cream by placing the container in the microwave for 10 seconds on high. Put it into a large bowl and use a rubber spatula to beat it until it is slightly malleable. Spread the ice cream over the chilled fudge filling, sprinkle it with pecans, gently pressing them into the ice cream, and freeze the pie for about 1 1/2 hours, or until the ice cream is firm.


Make the Bourbon Fudge Topping
In a small saucepan over low heat, heat the cream, butter and corn syrup together until the mixture beings to simmer. Remove the pan from the heat and add the chocolate. Whisk until the fudge is smooth - if you still have a few stray chocolate chunks, reheat the mixture over very low heat until they are completely melted. Stir in the bourbon. 


Beat the fudge topping until it reaches room temperature, and pour it over the ice cream and pecan layer in a zigzag pattern. Freeze the Mississippi Mud Pie until it is set, about 20 minutes. To serve the pie, cut it with a warmed sharp knife. 


The pie will keep in the freezer, tightly covered, for up to 4 days.

Club Baked: Caramel Apple Cake

This week, as part of Club Baked, we tackled the Caramel Apple Cake (hosted by Lulu the Baker). This is a three layer, spiced apple cake with a caramel butter cream frosting. The cake, and it's six sticks of butter, is otherwise known as "the cake that induced a heart attack". Fettuccine Alfredo has nothing on this cake.

Just pretend you didn't read that last bit as you enjoy your slice and then pawn off very small slices to unsuspecting friends and family.

It wasn't a very complicated cake to make, just a bit time consuming. I first had to hunt down a third 8" pan. Perhaps real bakers have three, but I was really thinking I was doing pretty good when I upgraded to two just a short time ago.

The morning of, although you could just as easily tackle this part the night prior, I made the caramel sauce. I was tempted to make cinnamon cajeta since I knew that recipe was foul proof, but I went ahead with the Baked caramel recipe and I am glad I did. It's much thinner than the cajeta, but I think mine turned out a bit too thin. The thinner consistency comes in handy when whipping the frosting, but as a topping, it's a mess. Once I got all the equipment, and restocked my butter, and had set aside the caramel, I was ready to begin the cake.

The apples and spices in the cake remind me of apple bread, a good thing since I looove apple bread. I used unsweetened store bought apple sauce, although if you are adventurous you could make your own. It's not hard to make applesauce at home, but this cake is quite involved as is, so I gave myself a bit of a reprieve on that one. It's not like I'm worried about the nutrition value...

Once I had the cakes out of the oven (which took a bit longer than the recipe indicated, about 50 minutes), I began to work on the frosting. I was truly nervous here since I had heard some other bakers had trouble, but mine came together without a hitch. I did heat the goat's milk, sugar and flour in a cast iron dutch oven, so the temperature was quite stable and slow to heat. Once it started to thicken, I poured it into my mixing bowl and whipped until cool and then, of course, added three sticks of a little butter and the caramel sauce. Seriously, I read the recipe several times just to be sure that was the correct amount of butter.

With the cakes cool, I assembled the cake into three layers, with lots of butter cream frosting in between. I also snuck in a bit more caramel, drizzling a thin layer on top of each cake layer. It quickly soaked into the cake after which I smothered it in frosting. With an added drizzle a moderate pour of caramel to the top, it was ready to serve.

I served the first slice to my hubs and I (we shared as I was still getting over the butter) and he told me that I wasn't eating fast enough to stop him from eating the whole thing (He doesn't know about the butter...). He even said that I was getting better at baking cakes (I'm a pie person) and that I had perfected frosting. Needless to say, this cake was a winner. It wasn't too sweet as I had feared it would be. It does have a very moist, dense consistency similar to an apple bread, with the light sweetness of the frosting. The frosting is like a sweet, buttery cloud. I thought the thickness of the frosting layers was obnoxious at first but, once I tasted them, it all made sense.

I would say that if I had been more adventurous and made homemade applesauce, leaving little chunks of apple in there so not to be quite as homogeneous as store bought, it would have been even better. Like off the charts good. The hubs wished it had a bit more caramel, but that was easily remedied with a drizzle from the jar left in the fridge.

All in all, as if you couldn't tell, this was a great fall cake. The spice, the apples, the caramel - pure fall. <3 Check out Lulu the Baker's blog for the recipe!

Club Baked: Sawdust Pie & Homemade White Chocolate

This week's recipe is hosted by Tessa of The Cookin' Chemist and she selected Sawdust Pie. I'll be honest, I was a bit hesitant to try this one. The name was not the most appetizing and there wasn't a photo in the book indicating what to expect. But since I was busy studying for my licensing exam and missed the last two Club Baked picks, I thought I should give this a try. And I'm so glad I did!

The pie itself was easy to assemble with some prep - making the pie crust and white chocolate. (Sidenote: these two steps took longer to make than the actual pie, which shows you just how easy and quick this pie goes together) Due to that pesky cow's milk allergy, I can't have regular white chocolate since it contains milk powder. I thought about omitting the white chocolate all together and just using dark, but I also really wanted to try to make the white chocolate as I noticed a few other Baked recipes used them as well. The homemade white chocolate was the only substitution that I had to make in the entire recipe and I think it helped make the pie less sweet overall.  

Recipe for white chocolate at end of post.

For the pie crust, I stuck with the basic recipe found in Baked: Explorations with one minor change. I substituted vanilla sugar for plain granulated. I keep vanilla sugar in my pantry and sneak it in to all kinds of baked goods and the pie crust seemed like the perfect place.

Once I had the pie crust assembled, the rest was easy peasy. A few pulses of the food processor on some graham crackers and pecans, a little shaving of white chocolate, a handful of dried, unsweetened coconut and some scoops of sugar and I was almost done! I'll admit I was concerned about the coconut flavor in this pie. I like fresh coconut, but the dried stuff I normally have a texture aversion to, but in this pie, it is barely noticeable with all the other strong flavors and doesn't stand out texturally with everything else.

I couldn't help sneaking in 2 ounces of  semi-sweet chocolate, though. I was so happy I added this when I tasted the pie. The bite of the semi-sweet chocolate really complimented the nutty sweetness of the pie. After adding the (6!) egg whites and filling the pie crust, it was time for the oven. (Don't worry about those 6 egg yolks, I feel some ice cream making in my near future...Come to think of it, a scoop of cold ice cream would go fabulously with a warm slice of this pie...)

This pie was easy to make and tasty to eat. Sort of a less sweet, less syrupy version of traditional pecan pie. I served this pie warm, with a big, fat dollop of homemade whipped cream to some of the hub's friends. After looking skeptically at something called "Sawdust Pie" and quizzing me on ingredients a few times, each took a slice and cleaned their plates. Success!

Thanks to Tessa for choosing this recipe that I never would have given a second thought without her prompting. It's a great fall pie and would be a great dessert offering for Thanksgiving. Check out her blog for the recipe. Also, check out other baker's links here.


White Chocolate 
adapted from this recipe


2 oz. food grade cocoa butter - They carried this at my Whole Foods, but you can purchase online as well)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp goat's milk powder
itty bitty pinch of salt

Melt the cocoa butter in the microwave in a microwave safe dish. I used a Pyrex container with a lip to pour so it is easier to fill the molds later. Start with 2 minutes and add 1 minute at a time until all the cocoa butter solids are liquefied.

Using a pot holder, remove the cocoa butter from the microwave and stir in the extract, sugar, milk powder and pinch of salt. Continue to stir until all of the ingredients are incorporated and melted into the cocoa butter.

Pour the mixture into mold. I used silicone cupcake molds that I had on hand. An ice cube tray would work, too if you don't have candy molds. You could buy a fancy candy mold if you want, but it's not necessary. Then simply place the molds into the fridge to harden and a few hours later, you have great tasting, smooth, homemade white chocolate. :)

Club Baked: Time to Make the Donuts!

This recipe was hosted by Gloria, The Ginger Snap Girl, so you can find the recipe on her blog. Also check out the other member's results from this recipe at Club: Baked.  

Do you have any idea how often I've heard that phrase? For most of high school and all of college, I worked at Dunkin' Donuts. Every day that I went to work, my dad would say, in a sing-song-y voice, "Time to make the donuts!" Needless to say, I know donuts. I can decorate them, fill them, frost them, you get the picture. It was a fun job, creating new combinations in the back, an unlimited supply of caffeinated beverages, and (usually) fabulous customers. (And too you not so fab ones - I'd be careful about being mean and cranky to the person that supplies your morning pick me up - Do you want decaf?).

I have never made donuts from scratch though, so I was thrilled when Gloria picked the Farm Stand Buttermilk Donuts for the second recipe of Club: Baked. When I got the book it was absolutely one that I wanted to try. Only problem? Buttermilk.

Easily solvable problem though. For this recipe, I substituted buttermilk for a mixture of 3/4 cup goat's milk and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. I let that sit and mingle while I drained the sheep's milk yogurt that I used as a substitute for sour cream  (more details on how to do that over here).

To get my itty bitty donut hole centers, I used a metal frosting tip to cut out small holes. It worked out, although they were a bit too small at 3/4". But I thought it was good improv since I don't have a 1" biscuit cutter.  

disregard the semi-phallic shape being formed by the frying donuts - i didn't notice until editing!

This recipe was fun to make and very tasty to eat! My friend and fellow sprinkle lover, Patty,  and I made up a full recipe. Luckily, she took several with her when she left. Which was good because after using a 2 1/2" biscuit cutter for the outer edge of the donuts, I ended up with far more donuts than I could eat (about 30!). I liked their small size - it was perfect for sampling all the flavors without feeling stuffed, but it did make far too many! Next time I will certainly make a half recipe as I suspect they are best fresh.

As for the toppings, I made the chocolate frosting & cinnamon sugar as the recipe suggests. For the donut holes, I actually tossed them in some powdered sugar. I would say the powdered sugar topping was actually my favorite, followed in close second by the chocolate (with rainbow sprinkles of course!).

The donut itself was absolutely yummy. It was cakey, moist, and had just the right amount of spice. The nutmeg and cinnamon really took this donut over the top. They weren't overly sweet, either, which is sometimes a problem with donuts. The dark chocolate frosting was much more suited to this particular donut than the sweeter traditional chocolate frosting.

All photos in this post were edited with the PW Vintage Photoshop Action.