Fab Four Bars

Chocolate chip cookies, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Double Stuf Oreos, and dark chocolate brownies are among my favorites. But all four, in the same treat? Now that is fabulous.

One of the gals in my office made these recently and proclaimed them to be amazing, so I thought I’d give them a try. You could certainly make the cookie dough and brownie batter from scratch, but for convenience’s sake I chose to experiment with the store-bought versions.

A few suggestions: you certainly need your cookie dough to be pliable, so let it sit out on the counter top for about 10 minutes, then dust your hands with flour before you press it into the pan. While I baked my Fab Fours for about 40 minutes and the brownies were done on the pan’s edges, about one inch in from the edges they were gooey as could be. If you like gooey brownies, that’s probably fine, but you need to be careful about proper cooking times since brownie batter contains raw egg and raw egg can be dangerous. I might let mine bake another 5 minutes or so next time.

Trust me: you want to cut these into small squares, not huge slabs. They’re incredibly rich so you really only need a small piece to get the full effect. Enjoy!

Ingredients

Two 16-ounce tubes refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough
16 regular-sized Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
16 Double Stuf Oreos, chopped into large chunks
1 box dark chocolate brownie mix

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line a 9 x 13 glass baking dish with parchment paper, allowing the paper to extend over on all four sides.

Allow cookie dough to stand at room temperature for about 10 minutes, then press it into the bottom of the parchment-lined pan.

Place peanut butter cups top-side down on the cookie dough, spacing evenly.

Sprinkle Oreo chunks over/around the peanut butter cups.

Pour brownie batter over the top and smooth with a spatula as much as possible.

Bake for at least 40 minutes; cool in pan on a wire rack.

Peach Crisp

I suspect that crisps, like cobblers, were born of necessity. Some time ago, a thrifty and creative baker probably had some fruit that had gotten soft and rather than toss it out to the birds in her backyard, she decided to whip it up into a tasty dessert. I admire such resourcefulness, being a thrifty gal myself.

Crisps are easy to make and quick to bake, requiring basic pantry staples and whatever fruit is in season.This crisp is made from farm-fresh white peaches that were just beginning to get mushy in the heat of my kitchen, but you could substitute (or add) apples, apricots, or pears. You could also use frozen, rather than fresh fruit, if you let it thaw first and bake it for 40 minutes rather than 30.

This recipe bakes in an 8×8 glass dish, but you could increase the quantities to bake it in a larger dish if you need to serve a crowd. A classic accompaniment would be vanilla ice cream, but I might serve it with a berry ice cream for an interesting twist.

Ingredients

About 2 1/2 cups sliced peaches
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons butter, cut into cubes
1/4 cup chopped pecans

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Place peaches in the bottom of an 8×8 baking dish; add sugar and stir to combine.

In a medium bowl, combine oats, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, sugar, and nutmeg.

Add butter and rub it into the flour mixture until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Add pecans and toss to combine, then sprinkle the topping over the peaches.

Bake for 30 minutes, until top is just golden brown.

Cool completely, or serve warm.

Pound Cake

The Christmas before Mike and I got married, to help me prepare for married lady-ness, my mom gave me the Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook. Its red and white plaid cover shelters a binder of classic BH&G recipes—70 years worth, in fact. It is the most useful book that I possess, or have ever read.

A treasure chest of middle-class American cuisine, this cookbook features information about weight and measure conversions, emergency substitutions, the different types of pasta, the merits of butter over margarine in baked goods, a glossary of common cooking terms, and diagrams of the different cuts of meat. Unlike some of the other cookbooks I’ve used, the BH&G has never failed me. Every single recipe I’ve made from it—and believe me, I’ve nearly exhausted the cookie and cake chapters—turns out exactly as expected. This speaks volumes for BH&G’s test kitchens, and makes things so much easier for self-taught cooks and bakers.

This pound cake recipe is a slight adaptation from the one in the BH&G (I tripled the quantity of vanilla) and yields a sturdy but tender texture that would be an ideal base for a trifle. It could be accessorized by any number of glazes, though I highly recommend pairing this cake with whipped cream (or whipped topping, as is pictured above) and the summer fruit of your choice or a handful of chocolate chips.

Ingredients

8 tablespoons butter
3 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preparation

Let butter, eggs, and sour cream stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Grease and lightly flour an 8x4x2 loaf pan.

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and baking powder; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat butter on medium speed for about 30 seconds. Gradually add sugar and continue beating on medium or medium-high speed until very light and fluffy, about 7 minutes.

Beat in vanilla.

Add eggs, one at a time, and beat for 1 minute after each; scrape the bowl well before adding your next egg.

Add flour mixture and sour cream alternatively, beginning and ending with the flour mixture, beating after each until ingredients are just combined.

Pour batter into loaf pan and bake for 60-65 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Cool completely before serving.

Peanut Butter Muffins

Happy Canada Day! Today, I’d like to celebrate Canadian Marcellus Gilmore Edson, pioneer of modern peanut butter, as I consider him to be a genius on par with Albert Einstein and John Nash.

Whatever possessed Mr. Edson to mill roasted peanuts between sheets of heated metal is beyond me, but I’m certainly glad he did. Without him, we wouldn’t have peanut butter cookies, cakes, candies, muffins, pies…the list goes on.

This muffin recipe is very simple, yielding a subtle peanut butter flavor and smooth, moist texture. You could serve them with peanut butter (as I did in the photo above), but jelly, honey, or regular butter would also work well. The original recipe for these muffins called for brushing their tops with melted butter, then sprinkling them with cinnamon and sugar.

Ingredients

2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 tablespoons butter, cold, cut into pieces
1 cup milk
2 eggs

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Line two muffin tins with paper liners; you will need 16.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

Cut in peanut butter and butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

In a large measuring cup, combine milk and eggs and whisk together; add to crumb mixture and stir until just moistened; batter will be very lumpy.

Fill muffin cups about 3/4 full.

Bake for 15-17 minutes, until tops are just golden and a cake tester comes out clean.

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

Today, Soergel Orchards is having their annual Strawberry Festival. Beyond picking your own berries in their fields, you can get your face painted, go on a hay ride, jump in a bouncy castle, or in my case, enter a strawberry recipe contest.

How does the self-taught baker set out to win her first competition? She thinks about what she’d want to eat, and goes from there. This recipe is a confectionery interpretation of an iconic summer drink, and I’m proud to say that it won first place.

Strawberry Cupcakes with Lemon Curd Filling

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 heaping cup strawberry puree
1/4 cup whole milk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Zest of 1 medium lemon
8 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 large egg whites, at room temperature
About 1/2 to 3/4 cup lemon curd, at room temperature

Preparation

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line cupcake tins with 16 paper liners.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In a large glass measuring cup, whisk together strawberry puree, milk, vanilla, and lemon zest; set aside.

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter on medium speed until light in color. Gradually add sugar and beat until fully incorporated; scrape down the sides of the bowl frequently. Add egg and egg whites, one at a time, and beat until well incorporated.

Add the flour mixture in thirds, alternating with the strawberry mixture, beginning and ending with the flour. Scrape down the sides of the bowl frequently and beat for 1-2 minutes after the last addition of flour to make sure all ingredients are well incorporated.

Scoop batter into prepared cupcake tins, filling about 2/3 full. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean; cool on a wire rack.

Using the small end of a melon baller, scoop out a small amount of cake from the center of each cupcake; fill with lemon curd (a half-teaspoon measuring spoon works well for filling if you don’t want to use a piping bag). Frost with fresh strawberry buttercream; store cupcakes in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Bring cupcakes to room temperature before serving.

Fresh Strawberry Buttercream

Ingredients

8 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
Scant ¼ cup strawberry puree

Preparation

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and lemon juice on low speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes.

Gradually add powdered sugar, in half-cup increments, beating until fully incorporated.

Add strawberry puree, mixing until completely incorporated, about 1-2 minutes.

Using a small cookie scoop, scoop frosting onto tops of cupcakes and spread with an offset spatula. Frosting can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days; refrigerate cupcakes after they are filled and frosted for up to 3 days.

Note: you can adjust the sweetness or tartness of this frosting very easily by adding more lemon juice or puree; you’ll just need to add more sifted powdered sugar so the frosting isn’t too runny.

Victory! Yep, that’s me with the star of today’s festival, The Strawberry.

Oatmeal Craisin Chocolate Chip Cookies

As far as chocolate goes, people tend to have strong opinions; many are milk chocolate loyalists, while others embrace the antioxidant properties of dark. I will eat any kind of chocolate except white, which I maintain is not really chocolate, given that its cocoa solids are removed during production. And, white chocolate just tastes strange to me. But anyway…

While I tend to prefer milk chocolate chips in classic chocolate chip cookies, there are many recipes in which semisweet, dark, or bittersweet chips are more appropriate in order to balance their accompanying flavors. To complement the tart dried cranberries in this recipe, I sought bittersweet chips, which are 60 percent cacao. Fortunately my local grocery store had Ghirardelli bittersweet chips, but both Hershey and Nestle make dark chocolate chips containing 53 percent cacao that could have worked just as well. A fun aspect of dark and bittersweet chocolate chips is that they’re larger than both milk and semisweet chips, which adds to their visual appeal.

Side note: as I’m not a dried fruit fan, Mike tasted these cookies and proclaimed them excellent, proving my theory about bittersweet chocolate chips balancing tart dried cranberries to be correct.

Ingredients

8 tablespoons butter, softened
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup white flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
3/4 cup dried cranberries
3/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line three baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a small bowl, combine white flour, wheat flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt; mix and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla.

Stir in flour mixture until well combined.

Stir in oats; at this point, you may need to reach in and use your hands to thoroughly incorporate them.

Stir in dried cranberries and chocolate chips; again, you will likely need to use your hands.

Using a two-inch cookie scoop, generously scoop out dough and roll into balls, then flatten slightly. Place at least 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake 11-12 minutes, until edges are golden but centers appear slightly under-baked. You do not want these cookies to appear totally baked when you pull them from the oven, as they will continue to bake for several minutes on the hot baking sheet once they’re out.

Let stand on cookie sheets for 5 minutes, then cool completely on a wire rack.

Planet Cupcakes

Not everyone can eat chocolate, and my mom is one of those folks. And because our nephew Roman requested a chocolate cake with chocolate icing for his birthday party this past weekend, I needed an alternative for Grandma Genny, who was also in attendance. The result: planet-themed vanilla cupcakes.

The most time-consuming aspect of these cupcakes was, quite obviously, the decoration.You need a decent quantity of vanilla buttercream, lots of food coloring, and plenty of time. It was a lot of fun to interpret the planets in frosting, though; I used a few colors mixed together for Venus, Earth, and Jupiter and got out the pastry bag for the rings on Saturn and Uranus, and of course the Sun, which was my favorite (and, incidentally, was the cupcake that I ate).

For the Vanilla Cupcakes

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup milk

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Line a cupcake pan with paper liners; set aside.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add eggs, one at a time; scrape down bowl, and beat in vanilla.

Add flour mixture and milk alternatively, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

Divide batter evenly among liners, about three-quarters full each.

Bake until golden and tops spring back to touch, 20-22 minutes.

Transfer pans to wire rack; cool completely before frosting.

For the Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened
3 to 3 1/4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 to 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk
Both liquid and gel food coloring; I used yellow and blue liquid coloring and golden yellow, orange, red, royal blue, and violet gel coloring

Preparation

Place butter in a mixing bowl and beat for a few minutes using the paddle attachment.

Add 3 cups powdered sugar. With your mixer on low, incorporate the powdered sugar into the butter. (Hint: I find that placing a kitchen towel over the mixer during this stage prevents a powdered sugar blizzard.)

Increase speed and add 1 tablespoon vanilla, salt, and milk.

Beat for 3 minutes, then taste. If you’d like a stronger vanilla flavor, add the second tablespoon of vanilla, along with the additional ¼ cup of powdered sugar. Beat until combined and very smooth; you want an easily-spreadable consistency.

To Decorate

You’ll need just a few tablespoons of frosting for each cupcake, but I started out by tinting larger quantities in the colors I knew I’d need more of, like yellow and blue, then darkened them as I went along. Reserve as much un-tinted buttercream as you can so that you can lighten colors if you need to; I also used un-tinted frosting to pipe “Happy Birthday Roman” and some stars on Roman’s chocolate cake.

The Sun

Tint about four tablespoons of frosting using golden yellow gel food coloring. Fit an 8-inch pastry bag with a star tip and pipe lines radiating out from the center of the cupcake to cover the top, then pipe additional “rays” so that they stand up vertically from the surface of the cupcake.

Mercury

Tint about a half-cup of frosting using yellow liquid food coloring; you’ll just need a few drops to create the very pale yellow of Mercury. Frost the cupcake and create a smooth surface.

Venus

Tint a few tablespoons of frosting using orange gel food coloring; apply a thin layer of frosting, then add both yellow and un-tinted buttercream to create swirls.

Earth

Tint about a half-cup of frosting using blue liquid food coloring; you’ll just need a few drops to create a pale blue that you can use for Neptune. Remove a small portion of the light blue and tint it darker, using royal blue gel food coloring. Frost the cupcake using swirls of both blues and some white; add piped white “clouds” if you like.

Mars

Tint a few tablespoons of frosting using red gel food coloring. Frost the cupcake and create a smooth surface.

Jupiter

Using un-tinted, yellow, and orange frosting, frost the cupcake and create band-like effects with your spatula (or knife, whatever you’re using). Using a toothpick, dab some red frosting on to create the dust storm and drag the toothpick through the other color bands to create hints of red.

Saturn

Darken the orange frosting you used for Venus and frost the cupcake to create a smooth surface. Tint a very small amount of frosting violet using violet gel food coloring; fit an 8-inch pastry bag with a leaf tip and pipe very loose rings.

Uranus

Reserve some of the pale blue frosting for Neptune; darken the blue that you used for Earth and frost the cupcake to create a smooth surface. Pipe un-tinted rings using a star tip or plain tip.

Neptune

Using the pale blue frosting you created before you frosted Earth and Uranus, frost the cupcake and create a smooth surface.

What about Pluto?

Yes, I also frosted Pluto using the violet frosting I had for Saturn’s rings, but there was no room for Pluto on my cake plate. And since Pluto was downgraded from planet status a few years ago anyway, I thought that was okay 🙂

Roman’s Birthday Cake

Our nephew Roman turned six yesterday. Mike and I moved back to Pittsburgh right after he was born, so we’ve had front-row seats to watch him grow up. It seems like just last week he was swaddled and drinking from a bottle. Now, he plays Angry Birds on my brother’s iPad and runs around the house with a light sabre telling me that “Jedi knights only need to sleep once a year, Auntie,” when I attempt to put him to bed.

Roman is a funny, intelligent lad who requested a chocolate cake with chocolate icing for his birthday. It’s an easy recipe, yielding a single layer cake that is good for smaller parties (we hosted Roman’s family party, with seven people in attendance, at it worked out very well). To complement our outer space theme, I also baked Planet Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting and used some of the vanilla buttercream to decorate this cake.

For the Chocolate Cake (originally posted on 12/29/12)

Ingredients

1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup shortening
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare the pan one of two ways: grease the bottom, line it with a circle of waxed paper, then grease the paper and the sides of the pan and flour well, or use Wilton Bake Easy! Nonstick spray. This time, I used the Wilton spray and it worked very well.

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

Add milk, shortening, and vanilla, beating on medium speed for two minutes.

Add egg and beat on medium speed for another two minutes.

Pour batter into prepared pan; it will be a light brown color and very fluffy in texture.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool cake on a wire rack in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove from the pan (if you desire) to cool completely.

For the Chocolate Almond Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients

8 tablespoons butter, softened to a texture like ice cream (not too soft)
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1/4 cup cocoa powder, sifted
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon almond extract
1 tablespoon milk

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, beat butter for about 30 seconds.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add powdered sugar and cocoa powder. Cover your mixer with a kitchen towel to prevent a powdered sugar/cocoa storm and set your mixer on low, beating until all the sugar and powder is incorporated into the butter; this takes a few minutes.

Add vanilla and beat for one to two minutes, then add the almond and beat for a few minutes, and finally the milk, beating for a few minutes. You want a very smooth, easily-spreadable texture.

Frost the cake according to your preferred frosting thickness; decorate as you like.

Pecan Scones

One of the most important things about baking is following your instincts. When you do, amazing things can happen. When you don’t, you end up burning the daylights out of your scones.

Fresh from the oven, these treats looked like the kind of scone you’d pay three bucks for with your morning coffee; they were golden brown and fragrant, smelling of pecans and chocolate and espresso.

I should have left them alone.

But the recipe instructed me to generously dust the tops with powdered sugar, then place the scones back in the oven, under my broiler, to caramelize. Enticed by the notion of a crunchy sugar shell on the top of each scone, I gave it a try. And even though I’m quite adept at broiling, I was no match for the melting point of powdered sugar. Half of the scones were in the direct path of the heat, and those caramelized, then burned within seconds. The others, which weren’t in the direct path of the heat, didn’t even begin to melt. Some careful moving of the baking sheet ensued, and I was able to properly caramelize just a few. And fortunately, the properly caramelized scones are delicious…but next time, my instincts will win out.

Ingredients

2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon espresso powder (optional)
8 tablespoons butter, cold, cut into cubes
1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted and cooled
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1 lightly beaten egg
1 tablespoon heavy cream

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Stack two cookie sheets together and line the top one with foil or parchment.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and espresso powder (if using).

Add butter and cut in with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs; you’ll need to use your hands in addition to the pastry blender.

Add pecans and chocolate chips, stirring to combine.

Add maple syrup to buttermilk and all the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients all at once, mixing until dough is just combined.

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead 4-5 times. Pat into a circle about 7-8 inches wide and 1 1/2 inches thick. Cut into eight wedges and place on the cookie sheet.

Make egg wash; combine lightly beaten egg with heavy cream and brush the tops of each scone.

Bake 18-20 minutes, until tops are golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center(s) comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack.

Chocolate Pie

I waited four months for this pie.

Why, you ask, would someone like me go four months without a cookie, slice of cake, scoop of ice cream, sip of soda (Western Pennsylvanias read: pop), or bite of pie? Let’s just say that sugar and I had one of those unhealthy, borderline addictive-type relationships, and something had to be done about it…not to mention that my scale came very close to being hurled out the window after Christmas. But, now that I can look upon sweets as a normal part of a regular diet rather than the focus of my daily caloric intake, I really wanted a chocolate pie.

This is not a chocolate cream pie, but rather an interesting, almost brownie-like creation. It could definitely benefit from some whipped cream and raspberries (or raspberry sauce), fresh strawberries, or even a drizzle of melted peanut butter. It is also quite good just plain, and well worth a four-month wait.

Ingredients

1 unbaked pie crust
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1 tablespoon vanilla
4 tablespoons butter, melted

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line a 9-inch pie plate with crust, trim the edges, and prick the bottom and sides with a fork. Line the crust with two layers of foil, fill with dried beans or pie weights, and blind bake crust for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and cool 10 minutes before filling. If using beans, pour them into a bowl and allow them to cool, then store for re-use.

In a mixing bowl, combine sugar, cocoa powder, eggs, evaporated milk, vanilla, and salt. Carefully add melted butter, taking care not to scramble the eggs.

Cover the edge of the pie with a guard or foil; bake for 30 minutes, then remove guard and bake another 20 minutes, until the pie is set. Remove from oven and cool completely; refrigerate once pie reaches room temperature.

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