Author: Amy

Caramel Oatmeal Bars (version one)

I can think of few better things to do on a snowy afternoon when Mike is working an event at the Aviary than try a new recipe.  This one, though, will need some improvements; baked according to the recipe, it’s not quite what I had hoped it would be.

In order to find caramel oatmeal bar nirvana, I can certainly try different recipes; were I to improve upon this one, I’d make the bottom crust slightly thicker, increase the volume of the chocolate chips to one cup and perhaps switch to milk chocolate, and try pecans instead of walnuts.  I might also decrease baking time by five minutes or so to see how everything holds up.  Stay tuned for Caramel Oatmeal Bars, version two, in the coming weeks!

Ingredients

  • 1-14 oz. bag Kraft caramels
  • 7 tablespoons heavy cream
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 cups rolled oats
  • 1 ½ cups packed brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup butter, melted
  • ½ cup semisweet chocolate chips
  • ½ cup chopped walnuts

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line a 9×13 glass baking dish with foil.

Melt butter in the microwave; this can be done while you’re preparing the crust.

Combine flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt in a very large bowl.

Add melted butter and stir together until well-moistened, using your hands if necessary.

Press half of the mixture into the bottom of the baking dish and bake for 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt caramels and heavy cream in a medium saucepan on low to medium heat, stirring very frequently until smooth.

Remove crust from oven; sprinkle with chocolate chips and walnuts, then pour in the caramel, using a spatula to spread it out and into the corners.

Press the remaining crust mixture on top.

Bake for 25 minutes; cool in baking dish on a wire rack.

Wait until bars are completely cool before cutting.

Coconut Macaroons (Gluten-Free!)

Mike and I are an interfaith Jewish-Catholic couple.  Passover and Easter sometimes coincide, which presents a variety of culinary challenges; Mike can’t have anything made with flour for eight days, and throughout Lent I give up sweets and avoid meat on Fridays.  I first made these macaroons a few years ago while Mike was in the midst of his nothing-leaven-for-Passover endeavors.

This recipe is entirely gluten-free and fairly easy to make, so it’s a good option for family and friends with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity.  Check out more gluten-free recipes!

Ingredients

  • 3 egg whites, room temperature
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla (McCormick pure vanilla extract is gluten-free)
  • 3 cups shredded coconut

Preparation

Preheat oven to 325.

Line three baking sheets with waxed paper.

Beat egg whites on medium-high speed until frothy.

With the mixer on low, add vanilla and continue to beat.

With the mixer on medium, add sugar gradually, then increase speed to high and continue to beat until stiff peaks form; this can take 10 minutes or more, depending on your mixer.

Gently fold in coconut one cup at a time.

Drop by rounded tablespoons, spacing about two inches apart on the baking sheet; you should be able to fit 9 macaroons on one sheet, and the entire recipe makes 21 cookies.

Bake 18-20 minutes, until very, very light brown.

Cool completely on baking sheets.  When cookies are cool, carefully peel the waxed paper away from the baking sheets, then carefully peel the cookies from the waxed paper.

Fudge Frosting

Every time I visit Annapolis, Maryland, I have to stop at Uncle Bob’s Fudge Kitchen.  Uncle Bob’s is a classic tourist shop, crammed to the rafters with magnets, key chains, mugs, Naval Academy t-shirts, Chesapeake Bay cookbooks, and “don’t bother me, I’m crabby” paraphernalia.  In the front are large windows, where trays of fudge, candy, and caramel apples the size of softballs issue their siren’s call to all who pass.

Uncle Bob’s peanut butter fudge is my true favorite, but their chocolate fudge is excellent as well – not too sweet, with a creamy texture.  This frosting reminds me a bit of that fudge; I first used it on a devil’s food cake about eleven years ago.  Mike took the cake to his office, and his colleagues proclaimed it worthy of the blue ribbon at the county fair.  To this day, that statement is among the highest praise I’ve ever received.

The recipe below yields enough to frost two 8-inch layers or one 9×13 sheet cake.

Ingredients

  • 4 ¾ cups powdered sugar
  • ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • ½ cup butter, softened
  • 1/3 cup boiling water
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preparation

Combine powdered sugar and cocoa powder.

Add butter, boiling water, and vanilla.

Beat on low speed until ingredients are just combined, then increase speed to medium and beat for 1 minute.

Almond Cupcakes with Fudge Frosting

I love opposite flavors in baking; if I have a chocolate cupcake, I want vanilla frosting, and if I have a vanilla, yellow, or almond cupcake, I want chocolate frosting.  This cupcake has a very rich almond flavor, but if you prefer something milder, omit the bitter almond oil and just use ½ teaspoon of almond and vanilla extracts each.  The fudge frosting has been adapted in measurement to frost 24 cupcakes; look for the full recipe in another post!

Almond Cupcakes

Ingredients

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup shortening
  • 1 ¾ cups sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ teaspoon almond extract
  • ¼ teaspoon bitter almond oil
  • 4 egg whites
  • 1 1/3 cups sour milk (see how to make this below!)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line two muffin tins with paper liners.

Make sour milk; place1 ½ tablespoons lemon juice in a glass measuring cup and add enough milk to equal 1 1/3 cups of liquid total.  Let stand for 5 minutes.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl.

Beat shortening in a mixing bowl for 30 seconds.

Add sugar and flavorings, beating until combined.

Add flour and sour milk, alternatively, until just combined.

Fill liners halfway and bake for 21-23 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool completely before frosting

Fudge Frosting

Ingredients

  • 2 1/3 cups powdered sugar
  • ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • ¼ cup butter, softened
  • 1/6 cup boiling water (just under 2 oz. in a glass measuring cup)
  • 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

Preparation

Combine powdered sugar and cocoa powder.

Add butter, boiling water, and vanilla.

Beat on low speed until ingredients are just combined, then increase speed to medium and beat for 1 minute.

Lemon Squares

I love lemons!  I love them in cooking, in baking, on tea towels, in my kitchen décor…I just love them, for their sunny yellow rinds and their fresh, tart flavor.  Lemon squares are, to me, a classic American dessert, a staple at bake sales and church picnics.  Every woman in American probably has a recipe for lemon squares somewhere in her arsenal.  I know I have several, and yet, until today, I’d never made them from scratch.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup flour
  • ½ cup butter, softened
  • ¼ cup powdered sugar
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • Zest of 1 small to medium-sized lemon
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs
  • Powdered sugar for dusting

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, butter, and powdered sugar and mix on low speed until small, pea-sized crumbs form.

Press into bottom of an 8x8x2 baking dish.

Bake for 20 minutes; meanwhile, prepare filling.

Beat granulated sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, baking powder, salt, and eggs until pale yellow and somewhat fluffy (but not meringue-like fluffy), about 3-5 minutes.

Pour over hot crust and bake for 25 minutes, until no indentation remains when touched lightly in center.

Cool and dust with powdered sugar.

Go Giants! New York Style Cheesecake

The Super Bowl is tomorrow, and because we’re rooting for the Giants in our house, I’ve prepared a New York style cheesecake to celebrate.  I’m not sure what makes a cheesecake “New York style,” but this was fairly easy to prepare, except for the crust.  This was my first graham cracker crust, and I definitely improvised and deviated from the original recipe to get the consistency and amount I needed, but it turned out just fine.  The true test will be if it tastes good, but we won’t know until tomorrow, as cheesecake must be refrigerated overnight before serving.  We’ll add some fresh whipped cream, blueberries, and strawberries tomorrow.

Graham Cracker Crust

Ingredients

  • 18 graham crackers
  • 12 tablespoons butter
  • 2 tablespoons sugar

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Melt butter in a saucepan or microwave.

Break graham crackers into smaller pieces and place in a food processor, then process to crumbs, with no large pieces remaining.

Mix graham cracker crumbs and sugar together, then stir in butter until the mixture is evenly moistened.

Press crust mix up the sides and along the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan.  I used my hands and the bottom of a glass to get the crust as flat as possible.

Bake for 10 minutes.

Cool completely on a wire rack before adding filling.

Cheesecake Filling

Ingredients

  • 3 packages cream cheese, 8 ounces each, softened
  • ¾ cups sugar
  • 1 tablespoon flour
  • 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • ¼ cup milk

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

In a mixing bowl combine cream cheese and sugar, beating until fluffy.

Add flour and vanilla, beating until well combined.

Reduce speed to low and beat in eggs and yolk, one at a time, until well combined.

Add milk and beat until just blended.

Pour batter into prepared crust and bake for 55-60 minutes, until set but slightly jiggly in the center.

Cool completely on a wire rack, then refrigerate overnight before serving.

Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream

My friend Alex wants chocolate raspberry cake for her wedding – not a chocolate cake with raspberry filling, but a literal chocolate with raspberry flavoring in the batter.  Several bakers have told her this isn’t possible, so I decided to prove them otherwise.

Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes

Ingredients

10 tablespoons butter, slightly softened

1 ¼ cups sugar

4 eggs

¼ teaspoon almond extract

2-3 teaspoons raspberry extract (depending on your preference)

1 ½ cups flour

¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

¾ cup milk minus about 2 teaspoons (depending on how much raspberry extract you use)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line two muffin tins with paper liners.

Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Mix in eggs, almond extract, and raspberry extract.

Add flour mixture alternatively with milk, beating until just combined.

Using a cookie scoop for even portions, scoop batter into muffin tins.

Bake 20-25 minutes, until tops spring back when lightly pressed.

Cool on a wire rack.

Vanilla Buttercream

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened

3 to 3 ¼ cups powdered sugar, sifted

¼ teaspoon salt

1 to 2 tablespoons vanilla extract

2 tablespoons milk

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.

For thinner buttercream, add additional milk, one tablespoon at a time, until you reach the desired consistency.

 

Homemade Vanilla Extract

On a weekend getaway to Williamsburg, Virginia, I spotted vanilla beans at the Raleigh Tavern Bakery.  On the packaging was a recipe for homemade vanilla extract, and I’ve adapted it as follows; I usually have one bottle in use and another steeping in my cupboard.

Ingredients

1 vanilla bean

Good-quality vodka

Preparation

Place the vanilla bean in a bottle with a good seal.

Pour in enough vodka to cover the bean and store in a cool, dark place for 3 to 4 months.

 

Russian Tea Cakes

These classic powdered sugar-covered treats are also known as Mexican Wedding Cookies, but my husband calls them Nut Bombs.  One Christmas during my childhood, my mom Genny (who fully admits that she’s no Betty Crocker) attempted to bake a batch.  I’m not sure what went wrong with her recipe, but they turned out like rocks and she called them Christmas Bombs.  I must have told Mike this story way back when we were just dating, but it stuck with him.  This past Christmas, a colleague of Mike’s asked if I could bake these for her, and when he told me what she wanted, he said, “you know, those nut bombs.”

Today’s batch is for my sister-in-law Kristin.

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened

½ cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

¾ cup finely chopped walnuts

2 ¼ cups flour

¼ teaspoon salt

powdered sugar for rolling

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Beat butter, ½ cup powdered sugar, and vanilla together until creamy.

Stir in nuts, flour, and salt until dough comes together; you may need to reach in with your hands and knead the dough a bit.

Shape into balls using a small cookie scoop.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until bottoms are light golden brown.

Let cool about 4 or 5 minutes, then roll in powdered sugar and place on a wire rack to cool.

When completely cool, roll in powdered sugar again.