Recipes

Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

November 24, 2009

This being fall and being in the mist of the Great Pumpkin Shortage of 2009, I had to grab as much canned pumpkin as I could to be prepared of anything to come my way. What’s a person to do with like 8 cans of pumpkin, and quite a few of squash bought in a fit of hysteria? Make Pumpkin Cake, of course! All of this worked out perfectly for the monthly cakes I make for our staff meetings to celebrate the birthdays. Unfortunately, I had to combine Oct and Nov since I was too busy with hw the night before the Oct staff meeting.

I found a recipe online but it called for an insane amount of eggs and oil so I figured I could find something a bit less artery clogging and keep searching. I went for my Fearless Baking cookbook by Elinor Klivans and found a recipe called Pumpkin Cake with Brown Sugar Icing. This recipe seemed normal with 2 eggs so I decided to move on from there. I would have made the recipe as is except I did not have whipping cream for the icing since I had anticipated a cream cheese frosting from the start. I think I’ll give this another go and make it with the brown sugar icing since the cake came out so well with a light texture, perfect flavor, and a nice hint of ginger.

Yes, this is true. I don’t really eat the cakes I make. I’m a savory person who would rather eat chips/pretzels/tortilla chips than cake/cookie/ice cream/fudge/etc. I can’t buy goldfish crackers or cheez its… cheese and salt, damn you being my two favorite things! Honest I tried a piece of the cake that I trimmed off to sqaure them off that square inch was enough for me.

I made 3 batches of this cake that I divided among 2 pans. I had two 9×11 pans but 1 was ‘borrowed’, so I used the 9×11 and a 11×13 that I have. I just had to keep an eye on the baking times. Instead of using 1 cup canned pumpkin I just used the whole can. This might have prevented the cake from rising as much but it resulted in a very flavorful and moist cake.

Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

9-in square baking pan or 11×17 inch baking pan, both with 2 inch sides

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1 can pumpkin

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup canola or corn oil

2 large eggs

3/4 cup pecan halves (optional)

Cream Cheese Frosting

1/4 cup butter, at room temperature

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, room temperature

1 pound confectioners’ sugar, sifted

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325 F. Line pan bottoms with parchment paper, and butter or oil the sides and bottom.

Sift together the dry ingredients (except sugar), set aside.

Combine the canned pumpkin, sugar and oil in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer/stand mixer until smooth, about 1 minute.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating until well incorporated.

Once the mixture looks smooth and shiny begin to add the dry ingredients in batches.

Pour batter into pan, layer pecan halves into batter. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick is inserted in the center is clean when removed. Let cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to continue cooling.

The frosting is made by creaming the butter and cream cheese together with an electric/stand mixture. Sift the powdered sugar and slowly combine into the butter mixture. Lastly add the vanilla and beat until smooth.

Apply the frosting once the cake has completely cooled. When transporting layer cakes place dowels or toothpicks into the cake to prevent the layers from sliding apart.

Wild Mushroom Risotto

October 29, 2009

Price and I made mushroom risotto last night. It was the first time I ever made risotto. It took so much longer than the recipe said it would but it was worth it because it was so good. I’m now determined to make lots and lots of risotto.

I pulled out my Martha Stewart Classics Cookbook and got to work. It was really easy to prepare, I just had no idea how many pots/dishes it would use… 1 large to cook risotto, 1 pot for broth, cutting board, 2 bowls for prep, wooden spoon, and bowls for eating. I was hoping around grabbing different bowls and things but now I’ll be better prepared next time.

I followed the recipe with the exception that we: 1) did not have shallots so we used 1 small white onion. 2) we did not have wild mushrooms, so we used button mushrooms, and it still was good 3)We had some truffle butter and we used that with a little bit of unsalted butter to total the amount in the recipe. Truffles make me happy 🙂

We have an electric glass stove top so I had to continually play around with the heat because 1 min it was hot and the broth was getting incorporated quickly and then the next it was taking its sweet time. Oh I wish to have a nice gas range one day. Plus i think I was a bit nervous in doing this since I have the tendency to cook things on a higher temp that what is called for so I overcompensated this time and the cooking part took about 40 minutes instead of 25-30.

Wild Mushroom Risotto

Serves 4

6 to 8 cups Homemade Chicken Stock, or canned low-sodium chicken broth, skimmed of fat
1/4 ounce dried wild mushrooms, such as porcini
9 ounces assorted fresh wild mushrooms
7 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup finely chopped shallots
1 cup Arborio or Carnaroli rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
4 to 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for grating or shaving
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat stock in pan over medium heat. Add dried mushrooms; cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Remove with slotted spoon; chop finely. Keep stock at a simmer over medium heat.

Remove stems from fresh mushrooms; chop finely. Slice caps 1/4 inch thick. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Add mushroom caps; cook, stirring occasionally, until golden and soft, about 3 minutes. Transfer to bowl. To pan, add remaining 6 tablespoons oil, mushroom stems, and shallots. Cook, stirring, until translucent. Add rice; cook, stirring, until rice begins to sound like glass beads, 3 to 4 minutes.

Add wine. Cook, stirring, until wine is absorbed by rice. Using a ladle, add 3/4 cup hot stock to rice. Using a wooden spoon, stir rice constantly, at a moderate speed. When rice has absorbed most but not all of liquid and mixture is just thick enough to leave a clear wake behind the spoon when stirring, add another 3/4 cup stock.

Continue adding stock in this manner, stirring constantly, until rice is mostly translucent but still opaque in center. Continue cooking until rice is al dente, but not crunchy. As rice nears doneness, watch carefully; add smaller amounts of liquid. The mixture should be thick enough that grains are suspended in liquid the consistency of heavy cream. The risotto will thicken slightly when removed from heat.

Add dried mushrooms and mushroom caps; warm over low heat. Remove from heat. Stir in butter and Parmesan; season with salt and pepper. Divide among four bowls; grate Parmesan over risotto. Serve immediately.

Cooking the onions

The dried mushrooms after they were reconstituted and but into the broth for 5 minutes

Rice just into the pot

Almost done.. sorry for the crap photo, there was so much steam!

All done! I shaved some parm on the top.

The photos are horrible! So sorry about that. The risotto looked so much better in real life. Plus it smelled and tasted great. I thought the process was easy and the result was great. I think I am going to try butternut squash risotto next. I really was surprised how much oil and butter were in the recipe. I have to see about cutting that back because 1/4 cup of oil is a lot!

Easy Slow Cooker Turkey Chili

October 26, 2009

This Easy Slow Cooker Turkey Chili will keep you warm & cozy all winter long. It’s hearty & healthy, but without all the fuss. The perfect, easy dinner!

Post Contains Affiliate Links. Read my full disclosure HERE

I love our slow cooker. We use it all the time!

Do you have a slow cooker? If not, you need one!!! It’s so awesome.

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Cranberry Apple Pies

October 18, 2009

Apple Pie is my thing. I won a pie contest at our local library when I was 5/6… no, really ask my Mom! I totally rocked it. Plus I used a Pillsbury crust which made all those grandmas pissed to no end since my pie with store bought crust kicked their pies bottoms with homemade crusts. Must dig that photo out somewhere. (Get on it Mom!) Well, since then I have to make apples pies in the fall. HAVE TO. I signed up for a Meetup event that was a mac and cheese/ pie cookoff so this required me stepping up my game and trying something new. I saw a recipe for an apple cranberry crumb pie in my new gourmet magazine that sounded good but since I hate crumb toppings I had to do things my way.

I was happy with the outcome of my pie since the sweet apple was balanced by the tart cranberry. Plus the cranberries still had a bit of that burst in your mouth consistency. I typically make pies that stack up really high but since I was pressed for time and space in my tiny ‘oven’ I made them average, I guess you could say that. While at the meetup people were saying how interesting and good mine tasted with the cranberries and something else, something they could not figure out. Well that something was ginger. I had an impulse to add some ground ginger and I guess it paid off. Although I used cornstarch, like usual, it still bubbled over. I’m guessing it’s due to the fact that the cranberries gave off more liquid than I expected ( I adjusted the recipe to reflect this). Luckily I put my pie on a sheet pan incase this would happen, also, its easier to take out of the oven for me.

Cranberry Apple Pie

2 crusts for a 9″ pie- homemade or store-bought

7 Cortland apples, peeled, cored, sliced into pieces

1/2 a bag of fresh cranberries, washed- look through for stems

1/2 cup of granulated sugar

1 tablespoon of cinnamon

1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon of ground ginger

zest of 1 orange

juice of 1 orange

2 tablespoons of vanilla extract

3+ tablespoons cornstarch

Preheat oven to 425.

Peel. core, and slice apples. In a large bowl combine the apples, cranberries, and all other ingredients. Mix well. If there is a lot of liquid add a bit more cornstarch to thicken it.

Put 1 crust into 9″ pie plate. Carefully, add all apples and cranberries into pie crust. Cover with the other crust. Trim the edges/excess and cut slits in top crust.

Bake for 15 minutes at 425. Turn oven down to 350 to continue baking, approx 45 minutes. If the crust starts to darken add tinfoil around crust or slip on a crust shield.

Let pie cool 15 minutes before serving. The cooling allows for the juices to thicken.

Serve and enjoy 🙂

And remember… a compost would love all that apple peel and core goodness. At least my compost does!

Buttermilk Waffles

October 3, 2009

We woke up to rain. Lots of rain. Rain pounding down on the skylight over the stairs. Rain does funny things to you. It makes you want to cancel all of your plans just so you can hibernate while watching bad movies and cooking shows. Luckily, Price had a class to go to and I wanted to get to Harvest Fest in Somerville so we were ‘forced’ outside. At least I got to make a comforting breakfast for us… waffles.

Last year my boss Helen gave me the Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. It was a thank you for making all the birthday cakes for our then pod (now I do them for the office). I love the structure of the book as it gives a detailed description of the recipe for an introduction and the recipe amounts are given in several ways from volume and weight measurements. Also, at the end of each recipe there is a section called ‘understanding’ that explains little things about the recipe, like cake flour has less gluten-forming protein than all-purpose flour. There is a pine cone cake (you can see the picture on amazon) that I am dying to try… too cute! Anyway, whenever I want to make waffles now I go to this book for a great buttermilk waffle recipe.

This waffles have a great tangy flavor without overpowering your palate. There is a lot of butter in the recipe so you don’t even have to add anymoreon top. The butter in the batter also helps create a crisp crust. We always make the whole batch and freeze the waffles to save them for a weekday breakfast (as if there is any time) or a dinner.

Buttermilk Waffles

Makes 6-8 8″ Waffles

Ingrdients

1 3/4 cups unsifted cake flour or 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
2 cups of buttermilk*
16 tablespoons of unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Process

Wisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
Beat the eggs and buttermilk together in a small bowl.
Combine the buttermilk and eggs into the flour mixture. Mix lightly with a fork until the flour is moistened. Mix in the melted butter. The batter should be lumpy.
Cook in your waffle iron. A really hot iron will produce a better waffle- nice crisp edges!

Note-You can freeze up to 2 months. When freezing the waffles free them separately and then store or place a piece of parchment paper between each waffle before freezing.

*If you don’t have buttermilk on hand you can make your own with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar for every cup of milk and let it sit for 5 minutes

Stuffed Artichokes

September 30, 2009

Stymie: It might choke Arty, but it ain’t gonna choke Stymie!

Whenever I hear someone say Artichoke I think of that line from the Little Rascals. I remember my mom making stuffed artichokes when I was younger but I was not a fan then. I slowly came around to them, just like tomatoes. One thing at a time, first it was okay in dips, then marinated in salads, and now I even cooked them for our dinner! Over the weekend I went to grocery store and artichokes were on sale. Crazy on sale…. I got 7 for about $3. I could not pass them up so I called my mom when I was there to find out how she made stuffed artichokes. Luckily, she told me how easy they were so I planned for them to be our dinner on Sunday night.

To be quite honest I don’t have a recipe for this because I just winged it. My mom told me what was in the filling but no amounts so I just got to work and made it up as i went along. I think I was a little heavy on the hot pepper but the amount of garlic and cheese was good. They are easy to eat- snap off a leaf and scrape off the filling and ‘choke with your teeth. Plus, I was able to add all the post meal leaves to our compost.

Filling:

breadcrumbs

parmesan cheese

parsley, finely chopped (I used a lot)

garlic, minced

hot pepper flake

olive oil

salt and pepper

Mix breadcrumbs, cheese, parsley, garlic, and seasonings together in a bowl. Add olive oil to make a paste to stuff into artichoke.

Artichokes need to be prepped by carefully opening them up. Trim away the tips as you go. Wash them at this point and trip the bottom so it sits evenly. Separate the leaves to you have room for the stuffing. Stuff the artichokes.

Steam the artichokes for 20-30 minutes in a pot with an inch of water, add water if level gets too low. (Don’t walk away and start to watch TV! I almost forgot about them!)

Porcupine Meatballs

September 25, 2009

I had a craving for porcupine meatballs on Wednesday night. Luckily, my dad wrote down this recipe along with other family ones a few years ago that I turn to every now and then. There are only 6 ingredients, including water, so I went to the grocery store on my way home from class and grabbed the 3 that I needed.

Porcupine Meatballs is a simple meal made of meatball filled with rice- making it spiky- and served with gravy over noodles. Simply put it’s an inexpensive meal and easy to make. Plus there is a good chance you already have most of the ingredients in your cabinets like me. You can do this with beef but we try to keep it lean so we use turkey. If you use beef then adjust the gravy and rice-a-roni to match the beef flavor. This is so comforting because it is warm and filling- a real autumn/winter food. I made large meatballs to get cooking faster (too tired after a 3 hour class) but you really should make smaller meatballs. This allows the meatballs to cook faster and the rice cooks better when they are smaller.

Porcupine Meatballs

1 lb of ground turkey

1 box of rice-a-roni (I used chicken flavor)

1 egg

2 cups of water

1 lb of wide egg noodles

1 family size jar of turkey gravy

Start water on high heat to cook egg noodles until al dente.

Combine the ground turkey, rice-a-roni (including seasoning packet), and egg. Form into small meatballs (1 1/2 dia).

Brown meatballs in a skillet with oil. (You can drain off oil/fat, if you prefer). If the skillet gets too busy with the meatballs you can remove some to get enough room to brown all of them. Once all meatballs are browned, reduce heat to med/low and add 2 cups of water. Cook for 20 minutes. If the water begins to reduce too much, add a bit. When the meatballs have i a few minutes left add in the gravy.

Serve the meatballs with the egg noodles. Enjoy 🙂

Tomatillo-Avocado Salsa

September 24, 2009

Tomatillo-Avocado Salsa is a wonderfully creamy salsa is combines fresh tomatillos and avocados. It’s Salsa Verde that is taken to the next level.

Post Contains Affiliate Links. Read my full disclosure HERE

I swear that since we are so busy we often make dinner of chips and salsa a thing. Maybe too often? NOPE!!! NEVER!!! Gimme chips and salsa every day of the week please!

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German’s Chocolate Cake

September 21, 2009

Post originally from 9/29/09, text and photos updated 12/31/17

I asked Price what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday and he picked German’s Chocolate Cake. That is his favorite, so it is time that I make it for him!

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Super Rich Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

September 18, 2009

I served this cake yesterday at our monthly staff meeting for our September birthdays. It’s easy to make and it provides great results. The cake is rich, crumby and chocolately and it’s topped with a smooth frosting that is full of peanut flavor. I doubled the recipe to make 2 9×13 cakes that I stacked. I can cut about 48 slices of cake when I use an 9×13 pan. I perfer cupcakes but 1 single cake it a lot easier to transport than a lot of cupcakes.

Super Rich Chocolate Cake

Serves 12-16 people

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup coffee*
1/2 cup cold water*
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) of unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
6 ounces of unsweetened chocolate, melted (Baker’s Brand is good)

Cake pans:

Two or three 9 x 2- inch round cake pans
One 9 x 13-inch cake pan
Muffin Tin (Makes 24, No need to grease & flour prior to using cupcake liners)

Process

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare baking pans by greasing and lightly flouring the cake pans. Line the bottoms with waxed paper
In a small bowl, wish together the cocoa, coffee, and water. Add in the vanilla extract. Set aside
In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl (or freestanding mixer), using medium speed cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Mix in the melted chocolate, mixed thoroughly. Add the dry ingredients into the butter mixture in thirds, alternating with the liquid ingredients, beating well after each addition.
Pour the batter into the pans, dividing evenly. Bake for 20-25 (cupcakes for 20-22) minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. Remove from pan and cool on wire rack.
When the cake has cooled, ice it with the Peanut Butter Frosting.

*If you want to taste more coffee flavor the use more coffee and less water, and wise versa. Any adjustments need to equal 1 1/2 cups of a coffee/water combination

Peanut Butter Frosting

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, very soft
2 cups of creamy peanut butter (do not use natural)
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups sifted confectioner’s sugar (with more to add to reach desired consistency)

Process

Beat the butter and peanut butter until creamy, about 3 minutes.
Add the milk and vanilla extract slowly and beat for 3 minutes, gradually add in the sugar and beat until creamy and of desired consistency.

Coquito- The Puerto Rican Eggnog

September 8, 2009

Coquito is the Puerto Rican Eggnog like drink that is made with lots of coconut and rum. It’s a boozy drink that will transport you to the island.

Post from 9/8/2009, Pictures Updated 11/4/18

Post Contains Affiliate Links. Read my full disclosure HERE

Coquito season is one of my favorite seasons. I love it sooo sooo much. Are you ready for it? Are you gifting it?

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Chipotle Chocolate Cupcakes

September 3, 2009

I saw the Spicy Chipotle Chocolate Cake from What We’re Eating and have wanted to do it for awhile. I love Mexican hot chocolate so I thought they that I would enjoy this too. Our friend Essa is going back to Egypt to sort some Visa issues out so decided to make these his ‘pot luck good luck send off’.

It was fun to bring them to the pot luck dinner because I was able to have quite a few reviews of it. Everyone liked them but they liked the cake and frosting seperately. The cake gave you a hint of chili about the 3rd bite in, a slow mellow burn. They could not taste any nutella in the frosting, just cream cheese. But people like the frosting since they were eating it out of the mixing bowl (frosting them there made transporting them a bit easier!). I will try it again with a plain chocolate buttercream frosting so the cream cheese does not battle with the chipotle. Such a good cake, I know I’ll make it again.Amanda had a great idea with the chili/chocolate combination. So good!

I made changes to the recipe to work for cupcakes and my convection oven. (You may refer to the original recipe here)

Chipotle Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes 24 cupcakes

2 sticks butter, unsalted
10 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
5 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp chipotle chili powder

For Frosting
16 oz cream cheese, room temperature
6 oz nutella
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1/3 cup milk, plus extra as needed

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line 24 cups in cupcake pans with wrappers. Set aside.

In a medium size bowl, sift together the salt, flour, baking powder & chipotle chili powder. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl/stand mixer, combine the eggs and sugars. Beat until the sugars have completely dissolved into the eggs and the mixture begins to thicken- 3-5 minutes.

While the egg/sugar mixture is mixing, melt the butter in a double boiler. Once the butter has melted, add the chocolate chips. Stir until all chocolate has melted. Do not burn chocolate. Remove from heat.

Once the egg and butter mixture has thicken fold in the dry ingredients. Add the vanilla extract and chocolate-butter mixture into the batter. Fold to incorporate. Batter will be thin

Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake lines. Bake at 325 for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. (If it comes out with any gooey batter, let the cake bake longer, as needed.) Remove the cupcakes from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Cool for at least 2 hours before frosting, store frosted cupcakes in a cool place/refrigerator. Once cooled, the cupcakes may be covered and stored at room temperature for a day before frosting.

Making the Frosting:

Using a larger bowl and electric beater or standmixer beat the the cream cheese and nutella into until light and fluffy. Sift in the cocoa powder and powdered sugar. Add the milk then then gently beat to incorporate. Beat until the frosting is light and fluffy. Frost cupcakes!