Triple Pi Day

Some people know that March 14th is Pi Day (get it, 3/14?). Some people bake pies for Pi Day. I failed to bake a pie on Pi Day this year. I also failed to bake 2 pies for Tau Day. Soon after Tau Day I was talking to a coworker about how bummed I was that I didn't bake. A few days later he sent me a meeting invite for Triple Pi Day (10/12). Since 3Pi is 9.42 he decided that Triple Pi Day would be September 42nd...or October 12. It was a glorious day filled with much celebration. Here are my contributions.

Pumpkin with a graham cracker crust

Candy Corn Apple

Maple Bacon Pecan

And everything is right with the world again...

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How to Not Win A Cupcake Contest

Today I entered a cupcake contest at The Big E. I really didn't know what to expect as I have never really been to a real fair, much less one that represents multiple states! But I have been receiving a lot of compliments at work about my baked goods to I figured I'd give it a shot. The grand prize was a big ribbon and $50! I really didn't think I had much of a chance of winning but there is always that little piece of you that holds out hope until the very end when the results are announced.

I've been practicing for weeks. I got my inspiration from a cupcake baking contest with the boy. We decided to have a salted caramel cupcake bakeoff as I have never been satisfied by a salted caramel cupcake at cupcake shops. I've been baking 4+ batches (24 cupcakes each!) at a time to practice different variations of the cake and the frosting and then bringing them all into work to pawn off on my gather feedback from my coworkers. My poor coworkers have probably had their fill of salted caramel cupcakes. In fact I'm considering trashing the leftovers from the competition instead of making my coworkers suffer anymore.

Here is the final combination I came up with (recipe at the very end if you are interested).

My final entry

I thought salted caramel was somewhat original. I was wrong. There were a total of 19 entries and 5 of those were some combination of chocolate cake and caramel frosting. I was right in guessing that it would be a winning combination (I just didn't master that combination...).

The winning combination...they added caramel popcorn

Second place...they used goat cheese and goat milk

Sorry for the crappy quality of the photos...I only had my cell phone camera and I don't have cropping software on my computer (yeah...I'm too cheap to pay Microsoft for their "standard" software and too lazy to find something free to download....although I just remembered I can crop photos on my phone...my bad).

The feedback I got included:

1. Cake too dense (not a surprised, I kind of knew that going in but by the time I figured it out last night it was too late to do anything).

2. Frosting sunk into itself and the cake (no idea what this means...the frosting didn't sink at all unless they confused the filling for frosting)

3. Filling lost in cake (that explains number 2).

Here is how I filled the cupcakes:

Cored 2 plugs of cake out, filled cupcake with glaze

Put part of cake back on top so the frosting had something to sit on

All and all, I didn't win any of the big prizes. But everyone got at least a merit award which consisted of $18 in coupons for sugar (which was actually a better value than places 2-4...except they got cash and I have to spend mine on sugar)

So all in all here are the lessons I learned:

1. Use a filling that is clearly different than frosting (ie: jam, straight caramel...)

2. Don't pick the trendy cupcake flavor from the cupcake shop and try to make it better

3. Don't pick apple, pumpkin, or anything fall theme (the other 75% of the cupcakes fell into this category)

4. Add some super crazy twist (salt is not enough) to the recipe

5. If your cake isn't right, make another batch!

For anyone interested, here is the recipe I ended up with (adapted from a combination of pieces of recipes I found around):

For the Cupcakes:

½ cup plus 1 tablespoon Dutch-process cocoa powder

½ cup plus 1 tablespoon hot water

2¼ cups all-purpose flour

¾ teaspoon baking soda

¾ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 & 2/3 cups granulated sugar

3 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

¾ cup sour cream

For the Filling:

1 pound light brown sugar

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup butter

1/2 teaspoon salt

For the Frosting:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/3 cup heavy cream, plus more as necessary

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

1 16-ounce box confectioner’s sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

For the Cupcakes:

1. Make the Cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line standard-size muffin pans with paper liners.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder and hot water until smooth. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

3. Heat the sugar in a medium saucepan set over high heat. Cook, stirring constantly until sugar begins to melt. Add butter and mix until sugar is dissolved and butter is combined with sugar. Transfer the mixture to the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium-low speed until the mixture is cool, about 4 to 5 minutes.

4. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition, and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the vanilla and then the cocoa mixture, beating until smooth.

5. Reduce the mixer speed to low, and add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the sour cream, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Mix each addition until just incorporated.

6. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared liners, filling each about two-thirds full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the Filling:

1. In a medium, heavy saucepan, bring the brown sugar and cream to a rolling boil; boil 1 minute. 

2. Add baking soda; boil 1 more minute. 

3. Remove from heat. Add butter, but do not stir yet. Let the mixture cool in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

4. Beat well.

For the Frosting:

1. Melt butter in saucepan.  

2. Add brown sugar and cream.  

3. Cook over medium-low heat for about 2 minutes, until the sugar is dissolved.  

4. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Transfer to a large bowl.

5. Using a handheld electric mixer, beat in confectioners’ sugar until smooth.  If frosting is too thick, add 1 tablespoon heavy cream at a time until consistency is right.

6. Cool before frosting cupcakes.

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In Search of the Perfect Banana Bread Recipe

Last year I was on a big banana kick. Bananas in smoothies, bananas in yogurt, bananas by themselves, even banana babies. One week I let the bananas get too ripe and I made banana bread...and I loved it. From then on the only reason I bought bananas was to make banana bread. I tried a few things to make a little lower cal, like applesauce instead of some of the fat. 

One week I went to make my banana bread and discovered that I had run out of eggs. Instead of getting in my car and buying eggs, or going to a neighbor to borrow some, I just googled "eggless applesauce banana bread" (don't you love that you can just throw a bunch of random ingredients and what you want to make into a search bar and find a perfect recipe?). I discovered this fabulous recipe. It became my go-to recipe for a few months. Then I got a boyfriend and gained a little weight so I went in search of a way to lower the calories in this tasty treat (other than the obvious remove the nuts and the chocolate chips).

Today was my first adventure in altering recipes myself. I started small but I have big ideas for the next round. But here goes for what I tried today. I looked at what items were the highest calorie and tried to cut back

Original Recipe (8 servings, 262 calories per serving):

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
3 large ripe bananas
1/2 cup applesauce
4 tablespoons butter or 4 tablespoons margarine, melted
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Highest calorie items in here are (other than the chocolate chips and walnuts) the flour, sugar, and butter. 

To start I cut out 3 tablespoons of butter (looking back, I could probably cut out all of it) and added an extra tablespoon of applesauce in case I needed a little extra moisture.

Next I replaced the 3/4 cup all-purpose flour with 1/2 oats. I blended up most of them to get more of a flour texture but left some whole too (I can't give you exact measurements for this part because I made a triple batch...).

Finally, I tried Domino Light sugar and Stevia blend because I'm a dope and bought the wrong stuff at the grocery store, I wanted to straight 0 calorie Stevia stuff.

I'm a crappy blogger and failed to take a lot of pictures in the process but here's what I did take:

Pan 1 had a little stevia/cinnamon blend on top 

Pan 2/3 had a little bit of pecans on top with the stevia/cinnamon blend

The boy likes the crunch of the nuts and they add a little healthy fat to the mix without too too many calories but I prefer to have the option to add a little chocolate to my bread so I made a plain pan.

Today's recipe was:

1/2 cup oats

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

3/8 cup Light Sugar & Stevia Blend

3 large ripe bananas

1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp Natural Applesauce

1 tablespoons butter

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon Cinnamon, Ground

Overall, this recipe comes out to 150 calories per serving (8 servings)

Pan 1 post baking

Pan 2 post baking

What is looks like out of the pan

Overall, it has a little more of a cake consistency that the original recipe (the other recipe was really moist and we could never get it to bake all the way through without leaving a little big of a pudding texture in the middle). I think my next round will be all stevia, all oats, and no butter. But I'll take 150 calories a serving for now, and the little stevia/cinnamon mixture on top adds a little sweetness so I don't even need chocolate! I can pair this with some sausages and a yogurt and have the perfect breakfast!

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Candy Corn Delight

Welcome to Halloween season! My latest favorite baked treat is the slutty brownie. How could you go wrong with the 3 greatest non ice cream desserts ever combined into delicious treat? Ever since I made my first batch I've been dreaming of ways to incorporate some of the other Oreo flavors. The past few weeks my cube mate at work and I have been discussing the Limited Edition:

Candy Corn Oreos 

and Candy Corn M&M's

Both are sold at Target and both were difficult to find when they were released. But lucky for me, my local Target restocked! My mother tried both over the weekend and said she thought they were too sweet and ended up throwing them away. I was nervous about trying them but my cubemate found the Oreos last night and brought them into work today. I agree that they were pretty sweet but he reminded me that candy corn is pure sugar so they can't really be "too sweet" if they were supposed to be candy corn flavored. He also found the M&M's last weekend and failed to share with me :( but he did mention today that he thought they might taste good in a cookie. I made him promise to bring me a cup of the M&M's to work tomorrow so I could take them home and make candy corn M&M cookies. I even had the idea of mixing in real candy corn into the batter.

As I was driving home today thinking about the candy corn sugar cookies I had a flash of brilliance....candy corn slutty brownies with the candy corn M&M's and the candy corn Oreos. The only problem I had then was I couldn't make them with real brownies...but I could make them with BLONDIES!!! I did some quick googling and found that someone out there had created slutty blondies! From here it was easy. Swap out the candy corn Oreos for the blondie Oreos, the candy corn M&M's for the white chocolate and add candy corn to the sugar cookie layer. And thus the Candy Corn Delight was born (I had to keep the name PG because I'm bringing a pan of them into work but I came up with all kinds of creative names for these things including Candy the Stripper brownies). I couldn't wait for cubie to bring in M&M's tomorrow, I had to go out and buy my own Oreos and M&M's tonight!

Start with the sugar cookie dough, mix in 1 cup of candy corn

Spread in bottom of pan

Jam as many candy corn Oreos on top of the sugar cookie layer. Most recipes call for 12 Oreos, I say, if you're gonna do this, do it right! The boy was able to fit all 20 Oreos from the bag plus 1/4 of mine into his pan, I only managed to fit 19.25 Oreos into my pan :(

Next step, Blondie batter with 1 cup which chocolate candy corn M&M's

Mix those babies in

Spread on top of the Oreos

Yum!

Check out those layers!

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean

I think the candy corns melted....

I tried these babies about 10 minutes after they came out of the oven. They hadn't really set yet so I wasn't able to get a good photo illustrating all of the layers. Hopefully they'll set up better tomorrow and I can get a good photo. In my taste test it appeared as though the Oreos may have melted into oblivion and the candy corn turned the bottom layer into a magical concoction of sugary delightfulness.Overall they taste pretty darn good. I'm not super into non chocolately desserts but I do like me a good sugar cookie every now and then. I may have survived without the M&M's (surprisingly...). 

I say if you like sugar cookies and candy corn you'll sure like these! Recipe below (adapted from whatsgabycooking.com)

Ingredients

For the Brownie layer:
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 2 tsp of vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp of baking soda
• Half a bag of white chocolate candy corn M&M's (a little less than 1 cup)
For the Oreo layer:
• 1 package of Candy Corn Oreos
For the Cookie Dough layer:
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter (at room temp)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cup AP flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup candy corn

Instructions

For the Brownie layer:
1. In a microwave safe bowl melt the butter and transfer into a mixing bowl. Add the brown sugar and whisk to combine. Add the vanilla and egg and continue to whisk until totally incorporated.
2. In another bowl mix together the dry ingredients, flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.
3. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients until fully combined. Stir in the white chocolate candy corn M&M's and set the batter aside
For the Cookie Dough layer:
4. Cream together the butter and sugars in a mixer. Add the egg and vanilla, making sure to scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl. Add the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder and mix on low until everything is incorporated. Hand mix in candy corn. Set aside.
Assembly:
5. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
6. Line the bottom of a 9x9 baking pan with tin foil and then spray the tin foil with a layer of baking spray.
7. Layer the cookie dough on the bottom of a 9x9 baking pan, pressing down to form the bottom of the slutty brownies.
8. Layer as many oreos that will fit on top of the cookie dough. No need to overlap. One single layer will do.
9. Since the blondie brownie batter is thick, carefully press the brownie batter on top of the oreo layer and make sure it's even on top.
10. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Test with a knife to see if the center is done. If the knife comes out clean, let the brownies rest before serving. If the knife comes out with batter still on it, allow the brownies to bake about 5 minutes more.

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