Makin' Bacon

It's been reported back that the Jalapeno Bacon Brownies were just OK and that there was "too much going on"...Not really surprised, but also not discouraged. We're going to go in a slightly different direction. Apparently the jalapenos didn't add enough spice, while the bacon pieces oozed too much grease into the cooked brownies. So I'll keep the bacon component but instead of jalapenos try adding a nice chile powder to the mix (just for a hint of heat). Still haven't decided how to take care of the greasiness inside the brownie....

 

 

 

  

  

  

 

 

This is all I got when I asked for a picture of a brownie out of the pan- Taken with my boyfriend's iPhone. The brownies were taken along on his annual weekend cabin trip, while I was left at home (thankfully). While home I had time to perfect the Peanut Butter Cup Banana Cookies. Follow this for the recipe.

 

Visions of bacon brownies danced in their heads

I have had a very interesting past few days of baking, which started off by baking a brownie cheesecake Friday at 5:30 in the morning before work. I brewed two strong cups of coffee for myself and one to put in the cheesecake. I've made this cheesecake before and it's a snap. It's from one of Judy's books, All-Butter Fresh Cream Sugar Packed No-Holds-Barred Baking Book, the amazing founder of Rosie's Bakery in Cambridge, MA and it is delicious.

The cheesecake finally finished baking seven minutes before work, so I turned off the oven, opened the oven door and slid the rack half way out to let the cheesecake cool slowly in the morning kitchen air. Then I ran out the door and prayed for the best.  My boyfriend had already packed the cheesecake in the car along with all of our wakeboard gear before I could take a peek at it- and we were off to the lake.

This was all done to celebrate his birthday with friends and family over Labor Day weekend at our home away from home. Saturday night, blissfully ruminating over sunken cheesecake (due to elevation and off roading), some how jalapenos, brownies and bacon turned into a fantastic wondrous dish that I have been recruited to make. But do we chop up bacon and fold it into the batter, or do we sprinkle it on top just before it goes into the over, or do we place bacon on top of the cooked brownies over a light layer of chocolate frosting?!

OK, mind is going explode, let's move on to recipe #2 of the Peanut Butter Cup Banana Cookies that I baked yesterday, in which I reduced the sugar and added more banana- the recipe still needs fine-tuning. The added banana is great, but reducing the sugar isn't going to work for me, though it hasn't stopped me from eating 3 4 today....Third times the charm and I'll update the recipe then.

cookie dough rolled in orange sugar
(a nod to both the Giants and Halloween)

out of the oven

Rosie's Bakery Brownie Cheesecake

Options for the crust are vanilla wafer cookies, graham cracker crust, or Oreo crust (chocolate cookie), which is what I have used in the past, but this time I tried a Nutter Butter cookie crust-Yum!

Crust

1 1/4 cups vanilla wafer crumbs (about 30 cookies), or Nutter Butter crumbs (about 16 cookies)

1 tbs sugar

6 tbs (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Cake

12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup hot, very strong brewed coffee

1 lb (2, 16 ounce packages) cream cheese, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

4 large eggs, at room temperature

Preheat oven to 300 F and place a roasting pan or baking dish with water in the bottom rack of the oven to create moisture.

For the crust, first crush the cookies (I do it in a food processor) so you're able to measure out 1 1/4 cup. Then chop the nuts in the food processor. Place the cookies, nuts, butter and sugar in a small bowl and toss together with a fork. Press this mixture over the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan. Disclaimer: Here the book gives directions to bake the crust for 10 minutes at 350, but I never bake my crust, I find that it bakes the flavor out of it. Once it is in the bottom of the pan I place the pan in the fridge until the filling is ready to be poured in.

For the cake filling, melt the chocolate in the coffee in the top of a double boiler placed over simmering water.

Cream the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and salt in a medium-sized mixing bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed, or in a KitchenAid mixer until light and fluffy (About 2 minutes). Stop the mixer once or twice to scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula.

Add the eggs and beat the mixture on medium-high speed for 30 seconds. Scrape the bowl and beat on medium speed 30 seconds longer.

Add the chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and beat on medium speed for 15 seconds. Scrape the bowl and then mix until the batter is smooth and uniform in color, about 10 more seconds.

Pour the filling over the crust. Bake the cake on the center oven rack until it is set and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 1 hour 25 minutes.

Allow the cake to cool completely on a wire rack (or the way I did it on the oven rack, pulled partially out of the oven. My mom does it by turning off the oven and just leaving the oven door open), then refrigerate the cake overnight.

German Chocolate Cake Exposed

Everyday life has been taking up all of my time, which means I haven’t had time to bake, haven't had time to blog and found myself needing to buy a cake for my very own mother’s birthday.

After accepting the fact that there was just no way I could manage to bake a German chocolate cake for Sunday if I was leaving directly from work Friday to go wakeboarding all weekend, I started to call around on my lunch break to find a bakery that would make a great German chocolate birthday cake.

After calling three bakeries I found a place that actually made authentic German Chocolate Cakes. The first place, an upscale grocery store that will remain nameless said, “we don’t have the ingredients to make a German chocolate cake”, the second place, an independent bakery, tried to trick me by replying to my request for a German chocolate cake with, “…so we'll make a devil’s food cake with…”. Turns out they don't actually make German chocolate cake. OK, third times the charm- Creekside Bakery in Novato, CA made me a wonderful traditional German Chocolate Cake.

The first time I made a German chocolate cake was a few years ago, and it of course got me researching chocolate and what German chocolate is really all about. And now young scholars, I pass this knowledge on to you:

A Brief History

• German chocolate was actually created by a man named Samuel German. (Much less romantic then what you expected the origin of the name to be, huh?)
• It only has 48% cocoa liquor (generally less than semi-sweet) and has added white sugar
• Mr. German created this chocolate mixture in 1852 because he thought it would be convenient for bakers
• The German chocolate cake gained popularity when a recipe appeared in the 1950s in a Dallas newspaper

Turns out this chocolate is quite convenient if you want to make a traditional German Chocolate Cake (recipe from the Bakers' box).

Though an authentic German chocolate cake leaves the sides of the cake exposed to show the beautiful frosting layers of caramel, pecan, coconut goodness, I frosted the sides of the cake with a chocolate buttercream frosting (and so did the bakery that I bought my mom’s birthday cake from-go team!) You can never have too much of a good thing (frosting) when it comes to baking.

Not only is baking your own cake generally less expensive than buying one, it’s also much more satisfying to eat and share with your friends and family (at least if you’re a baker!)  But, overall this purchase worked out great- we had a delicious birthday cake after a great dinner and the only thing I had to worry about was getting to the baker before closing on Sunday.


...What else can you use German chocolate for? I’m glad you asked.

Try making chocolate peanut butter bomb cookies, yet another variation on my peanut butter cookies in which you omit the chocolate chunks in the cookie batter. Instead melt Bakers' German chocolate in a double boiler, adding in a tablespoon of light corn syrup once it has melted. Peanut butter cookies should be chilled, and the melted chocolate should be some-what cooled. Completely cover the peanut butter cookies with the melted chocolate and place on a cooling rack on a plate. Place it in the fridge to completely chill the chocolate coating. Once the chocolate has set, the cookies are ready to eat. They are best kept in the fridge so they don’t get to messy. I'd love to hear of other great recipes that call for German chocolate...

Peanut Butter Cup Banana Cookie

Finally, the first time I have been in town for a weekend and can write about the one time I have baked in the past two weeks. But I’m not complaining, the lack of baking and blogging is because I have been going to the lake every weekend, though I am still better at baking than wakeboarding ;)

This tiny bout of baking came on because our friends at the lake said they had never had any of my baked goods. Thursday night, after a grocery trip to Berkeley Bowl where I picked up a bag of about 10 over-ripe bananas for $1, I got to work with two loaves of banana bread, one plain and one with walnuts and dark chocolate chips-It's so easy and always pleases.

That didn't cure my baking itch though, so once the bread was in the oven I got to work on my own recipe that I have been wanting to give a whirl. The idea came to mind after a lot of thinking about my failed attempt at this Banana Peanut Butter Cup cookie recipe. Look at the cookies in her blog, they're beautiful, and now check out what happened when I made them…

After random contemplations since then, I think this happened because I pureed the bananas rather than mashed them and it needed more flour. I was skeptical before trying this recipe anyway because it had no butter- I mean really a cookie with no butter?

So here’s my spin on it— less healthy but more delicious?

PB Cup Banana Cookies

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup mashed over-ripe banana (about 1 banana) 
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter (2 oz)
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar (2.3oz)
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar (I used turbinado brown sugar aka sugar in the raw) (2.5oz)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup peanut butter (12oz)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour (2.5oz)
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp white flour (4.5oz)
• ~10 peanut butter cups chopped into quarters 
• 1/2 cup walnut pieces

Have all ingredients at room temperature and preheat the oven to 350.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking soda and salt and set aside.

In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and the sugars until light and fluffy (4-5 minutes.) Mix in the egg and vanilla. Mix for 2 minutes, then the peanut butter until combined, then the banana until combined. Once combined, slowly add in the dry ingredients and mix until blended, but don’t over-mix. Add in Reese's and walnut pieces.

Let the cookie dough sit in fridge over-night (or at least a couple of hours).

Remove from fridge, create golfball-size dough balls. Place on an ungreased baking sheet and sprinkle a tiny pinch of coarse salt over the tops (you can sprinkle some sugar over too make it prettier). Bake at 350 for about 12 minutes. Let cool on baking sheet for a couple of minutes then transfer to a cooling rack. Success!

White Chocolate Banana Birthday Cake

I know, I know I’m about to describe a weekend with another banana recipe. But in my defense it was my friend, Jen’s birthday and when asked if she had any special requests for her cake, she said anything— and then listed banana, peanut butter and chocolate as her favorite flavors….

So, there I was in the kitchen (for the third time in a row) mashing ripe bananas for a banana birthday cake (with a fluffy peanut butter frosting filling and a white chocolate ganache)!

While the flavors don’t sound like a cake for adults, it was quickly devoured by the birthday-goers, and really I think this cake will please anyone. While banana bread is dense, and peanut butter is thick, this cake was nothing but light and fluffy and quite sophisticated.

(Going back to my Tips & Tricks to Mix By may be helpful). For this cake, make the white chocolate ganache and the cake the night before and assemble it the next day (The day you need it). The flavor of all cakes significantly improve by the next day too…

Banana Cake

2 cups cake flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp sour cream
1 1/2 cup mashed banana (3 large bananas)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and lightly flour two, 8-inch round cake pans.

In an electric mixer on low speed, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix the eggs in one at a time until fully incorporate. Mix in the vanilla.

Sift flour, soda, powder and salt together in a separate bowl.

Add the dry ingredients to the batter, about 1/2 at a time, alternating with a 1/2 cup of the mashed bananas, mix after each addition and begin and end with the flour mixture.

Bake about 35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. (Tip: a light colored, metal cake pan, will keep the cake from browning too much. Glass or dark metal pans, will make your baked goods darken more in the oven.)

Let cool about 15 minutes, then gently remove from the pans and by flipping them onto wire cooling racks. Let cool completely before frosting (overnight).

White Chocolate Ganache

3 cups Guittard white chocolate chips
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 Tbsp light corn syrup (adds a bit of shine to the ganache)

Place chocolate into a large heat-safe mixing bowl. Heat cream on the stove until boiling. Pour cream into the chocolate and whisk vigorously until the chocolate has melted smooth. (if you have difficulty turning mixture smooth, place in the microwave for 30 seconds, then keep whisking.) Near the end of this process, add the corn syrup. Cover and place in fridge for 24 hours.

Peanut Butter Frosting

1 cup butter
2 cups Skippy smooth Peanut Butter
2/3 cups heavy whipping cream
8 cups powdered sugar

In a mixing bowl, beat butter and peanut butter until light and fluffy. Slowly beat in ½ of the powdered sugar. Mix in ½ of the cream. Beat in the remaining powdered sugar. Add more cream as necessary until the frosting is a good spreading consistency and the color is light in color and smooth. Place in fridge for 30-45 minutes.

Putting it All Together

When ready to pour the ganache over the cake, reheat the ganache in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between each interval. Repeat this process until it is completely melted and smooth. It should be a thick but pourable consistency.

Pour the ganache over the layered cake. Place the finished cake in fridge to let the ganache harden. Take your masterpiece out of the fridge an hour before serving.




...Maybe I should just start a website dedicated to bananas?