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.

Pecan Pie…for my Mom

Everyone loves my mother. No, really, they do. Many times in my life, when I’ve introduced myself to someone, they’ve said “oh, are you related to Genny Kozusko?” And when I confirmed that she’s my mom, they inevitably proclaimed, in wide-eyed fascination, “Genny’s your mom?!? I love her! What’s it like to have a mom like her?”

What is it like to have a mom like Genny? She was strict with my brother Andy and me when we were kids, tolerating no back-talk, tantrums, or nonsense. Weekly mass attendance was compulsory, good grades were expected, and junk food was rationed like it was World War II. But every summer, she packed us into the car for a week-long trip to Maryland, where she and my Aunt Liz would take us to Gettysburg, or DC, or Baltimore and teach us about everything they knew; during the school year, Genny came to all of our games, school plays, and concerts when her own busy teaching and coaching schedule permitted. When I lived away from Pittsburgh, I called her every week to check in, and I still call her when I travel to let her know that I’ve arrived safely. She helped Mike and me paint our house, landscape our yard, and renovate our bathroom. She’s our go-to dog-sitter and always happy to take Millie for a walk when she stops by.

What it’s like to have a mom like Genny is to know that I must leave this world a little better off than I found it; to know that family, faith, honesty, hard work, and humor are the most important things that exist. I’m incredibly lucky to have her as my mom. And because it’s Mother’s Day, I’ve baked this pecan pie for her.

Ingredients

1 unbaked pie crust
3 slightly beaten eggs
1 cup light corn syrup
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups pecan halves

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line a 9-inch pie plate with crust; trim edges and shape as desired.

In a medium bowl, combine eggs, corn syrup, sugar, and vanilla and mix well. Add melted butter, taking care not to cook your eggs, stirring to combine. Stir in pecans, then pour filling into crust.

Cover the edge of the pie with a guard or foil to prevent over-browning; bake for 25 minutes, then remove guard and bake another 20-25 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center of the pie comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack for at least two hours before refrigerating.

Meet Genny

Genny O’Donnell Kozusko is the second-youngest of six children. Born in Howard County, Maryland on June 9, 1946, she is fifty minutes older than her twin sister, my Aunt Liz. She’s the director of athletics at The Ellis School in Pittsburgh, though she is retiring this year to spend more time volunteering at her church, hanging out with our nephew Roman, and hopefully walking Millie.

Below, Genny leans over to touch the Green Monster at Fenway Park in Boston.

Butter Cookies with Chocolate Drizzle

My grandmother used to buy tins of Royal Dansk Danish butter cookies, and their signature blue tin meant one thing to me as a child: the pretzel-shaped cookie sprinkled with enormous granules of sugar. It was my favorite, followed closely by the one with the tiny chocolate chips in it. This recipe reminds me a bit of the Royal Dansk cookies; it is simple, with few ingredients, and easily adapted into various shapes. Before today, I’ve baked these as twists and pretzels, both dipped in chocolate. Because chocolate makes everything better, especially sturdy butter cookies like these.

The chocolate drizzle is incredibly easy to make and convenient for both drizzling or dipping, depending on what you prefer. Next time, I might coat each cookie entirely in chocolate.

Ingredients

For the cookies

8 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg white
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour

For the chocolate drizzle

1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
1 tablespoon shortening

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a mixing bowl, combine butter and sugar and cream together until combined.

Add vanilla and egg white and mix until combined.

Add salt and one-half cup flour; mix until incorporated. Add remaining flour slowly, mixing until well incorporated.

Using a one-inch cookie scoop, scoop out dough and roll into balls. Place a few inches apart on prepared cookie sheets and flatted into discs using the bottom of a glass.

Bake for 14-16 minutes, until cookies are light golden brown.

Allow to cool completely before drizzling or dipping.

Once cookies are cool, combine chocolate chips and shortening in a small saucepan. Melt on low heat, stirring frequently.

Drizzle chocolate over cookies, or dip half of each cookie into chocolate and allow to set on waxed paper.

Caramel Popcorn

Caramel is tricky. Chemically speaking, caramelization is the removal of water from sugar, a breakdown of molecules and re-formation of compounds that yield a distinct flavor. Making caramel can be a complicated business, because it’s a sensitive substance. Rainy days aren’t good for candy making in general, and you’ve got to be careful about stirring or not stirring according to a recipe’s specifications.

When Mike and I lived in Maryland and DC, my caramel popcorn turned out very differently, with a smooth caramel coating that I am yet to achieve in Pittsburgh. In LaPlata, Mike’s coworkers took up collections, giving me the proceeds to buy ingredients and keep them in caramel popcorn on a weekly basis. But here in my sunny Pittsburgh kitchen, the atmosphere, or moisture in the air, or humidity yields a crystalline caramel akin to rock candy, rather than a smooth caramel like it should. I’ve amend my recipe below to feature an additional half-teaspoon of vanilla from what I used today.

Ingredients

3/4 cup unpopped popcorn kernels
12 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
6 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preparation

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Using an air popper, pop the popcorn and place it in a large roasting pan; remove any unpopped kernels.

In a medium saucepan, combine butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup. Cook and stir over medium heat until the mixture comes to a boil, then continue boiling, without stirring, for 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and add baking soda and vanilla, then stir vigorously to combine; the mixture will puff up a bit and it is very important to do this off of the heat.

Pour immediately over the popcorn and bake for 15 minutes; stir, then bake 5 minutes more.

While the popcorn is baking, spread two large pieces of aluminum foil on a table; tape down at the edges and butter well.

When popcorn is finished baking, spread immediately on the buttered foil to cool.

Chocolate Chip Blondies

I wonder if people really ask their neighbors to borrow cups of sugar. It happens all the time on older television shows, facilitating friendships between spirited women and will-they-or-won’t-they love matches between handsome guys and pretty gals.

Last night, I fell one half-cup short of the requisite two cups of packed light brown sugar in this recipe. For a brief moment, I thought about running next door to ask if my neighbors had any, but I settled on a quick internet search and found the solution. (As it turns out, mixing equal parts dark brown sugar and white sugar will yield a similar flavor and texture.) And then, I wanted to know who came up with the world’s baking substitutions? Who took the time to experiment, and how did they get the ratios just right? Whoever they were, I’m grateful for them, for their bravery to try something new instead of just abandoning their recipes, and then for sharing that knowledge with the rest of us.

Ingredients

1 cup butter, melted
2 cups packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
2 eggs
1 cup chocolate chips

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Butter a 13 x 9 baking dish.

In a large mixing bowl, combine brown sugar and melted butter; mix well.

Stir in baking powder, salt, and vanilla until well combined.

Add flour and stir until well combined.

Add eggs and stir until fully incorporated.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Spread batter in buttered pan and bake for 35 minutes, until the top is golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool completely in the pan.

Peanut Butter Honey Muffins

For the past three months, I haven’t eaten sweets. How, you ask, can a baker do such a thing? What would possess someone who clearly loves desserts to deny herself all manner of cakes, cookies, chocolates, and pastries for months? The simple answer is: her scale (which nearly got hurled out the window after Christmas). And so with only 14 days to go in Operation No Sweets ‘Til Denver (I’m going to Denver for work two weeks from now), I sought out something that was baked, but not dessert-like. Enter the peanut butter honey muffin.

One could argue that such a muffin is dessert-like, but it contains no sugar, only honey, so I put it in the same category as corn muffins or blueberry muffins; they are more of a breakfast item than a dessert (I mean, some people might have blueberry muffins for dessert, but I certainly wouldn’t).

Most of the time when I read a recipe, I have a good sense of how the finished product will taste. I expected far more peanut butter flavor in these muffins, which I’m sorry to say turned out bland. The original recipe called for only one cup of flour, but the batter was too runny, so I added about six generous teaspoons of additional flour, one at a time, to shore it up. I suspect that this may have altered the flavor, so next time I’d like to try adding crunchy peanut butter in a greater amount, and perhaps some brown sugar in addition to the honey to balance the texture.

Ingredients

1 cup plus 5 to 6 generous teaspoons flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons peanut butter
3 tablespoons honey
3/4 cup milk
peanut butter, honey, or honey butter for serving

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Line a muffin tin with 10 paper liners.

In a medium bowl, stir together baking powder, salt, and one cup of the flour.

Add vegetable oil, peanut butter, and honey; mix with a fork, using a cutting-in motion like you would for pastry, until crumbs form.

Add milk and stir together; add additional flour, 1 generous teaspoon at a time, until the batter is no longer runny.

Using a 2-inch cookie scoop, scoop batter into liners, filling about three-quarters full.

Bake 12-16 minutes, until tops are very lightly golden brown.

Cool on a wire rack or serve warm; I recommend serving with peanut butter and honey, or honey butter, to enhance the flavor.

Molasses Applesauce Raisin Drops

Baked goods often employ interesting ingredients to yield certain textures, and this cookie calls upon applesauce to produce soft, chewy results. Mike requested these some time ago, and they involve many of his preferred ingredients, including raisins, molasses, and cinnamon.

Applesauce is usually used in baking to reduce the fat content in a recipe, but as this one contains a cup of butter, the purpose of applesauce here is more flavor- and texture-based. While cooking the applesauce, raisins, and lemon zest, keep a close eye on the mixture and don’t allow it to go above a simmer and stir it frequently to avoid burning. Be sure to use a very large mixing bowl, as this yields a large quantity of dough.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups sweetened applesauce
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon zest
1 1/2 cups raisins
3 3/4 cups flour
2 3/4 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
generous 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, cut into small cubes
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons molasses
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 tablespoons sugar, for shaping

Preparation

In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In a medium saucepan, combine applesauce, raisins, and lemon zest. Cook over medium heat until mixture is thickened and raisins are reconstituted, about 10 minutes. Stir frequently and take care not to let the mixture burn; remove from heat and pour into a large mixing bowl to cool just slightly.

Add butter, brown sugar, and molasses to raisin mixture and stir until butter melts.

Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla and stir to combine.

Add flour and stir until evenly incorporated.

Cover with plastic wrap and chill at least two hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line several baking sheets with parchment paper.

Using a two-inch cookie scoop, scoop dough onto prepared sheets, spacing about two to three inches apart.

Grease the bottom of a large drinking glass and dip in sugar, then press to flatten cookies.

Bake for 15 minutes, until edges are slightly darker than centers.

Cool on cookie sheets for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Butter Biscuits with Apricot Preserves

Some bakers are loyal to kitchen scales, relying on grams and ounces rather than tablespoons and cups. I’ve never used a kitchen scale, though one is certainly on my dream-kitchen-supply wish list. Today, one would have come in very handy, because I found this recipe on the BBC’s website, and its ingredient volumes were listed in grams and ounces.

Using an internet conversion program, I translated the ounces into more familiar measurements—several tablespoons here, a cup plus a few tablespoons there. This made me think about how the rest of the world uses the metric system and Americans don’t, but that’s another story for another day. This recipe turned out to be a very quick and easy way to use up the two egg yolks I didn’t need in this morning’s icing for my Easter sugar cut-outs.

Ingredients

1 cup plus 4-5 tablespoons flour
7 tablespoons powdered sugar
14 tablespoons butter, cut into cubes
2 egg yolks
About 8 tablespoons apricot preserves

Preparations

In a large bowl, combine 1 cup flour and the powdered sugar.

Add butter and, using your hands, rub together until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Add egg yolks and stir with a fork to make a soft dough; add one tablespoon of flour at a time until the dough is firm enough to handle, but still very pliable.

On a lightly floured counter top, roll out dough to about 1/8 inch thickness.

Cut with desired cookie cutters (heart or flower shapes probably work best); cut a small hole in the center of half of the shapes for the top of the sandwich, through which the jam will show once the cookies are assembled.

Bake for about 14 minutes, until cookies are firm and just golden brown.

Cool completely on a wire rack.

Flip each whole cookie over and spread about one teaspoon of jam on each.

Top each cookie with a cut-out cookie to create the sandwich.

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