TWD: Pecan Powder Puffs

There are certain recipes that I've never made that have absolutely nothing to do with difficulty or ingredients.  The Pecan Powder Puffs (aka Mexican Wedding Cookies) for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie, chosen by Tianne of Buttercream Barbie, happen to be one of those recipes.  In fact, I've been ignoring the fact that a really easy recipe for these cookies has been sitting in the book. I was doing a good job of ignoring it up until now too.  

Why?

They are dangerous. Severely dangerous. Sigh.

Years ago, when I first moved to Utah, I was working in a law firm where the secretaries all loved putting treats out on their desks during the holidays. I was working in the firm as a runner (basically a gofer, just like it sounds :) and therefore was exposed to all the various treats hiding around all three floors of the office. These happen to be the only treat I remember.

Anyway, one of the secretaries always brought a huge tub of these cookies and every time I went by I couldn't resist grabbing another one.  When you figure that in an 8-hour shift I went by her desk at least 8 times... well, you can imagine the problem. I fully justified it because working as a runner, on a 3-floor office I figured out that I was walking about 40 miles per week (no joke!) and therefore my 19-year old body could eat whatever the heck I wanted and get away with it (and did).

Fast forward a generous handful of years and that is no longer the case.  I cookie that is cobbled together of pecans, sugar, butter and a bit of flour, then dipped in more sugar before eating and you can imagine that having these babies in my vicinity is a recipe for major weight gain.  Therefore, until today, I had never made them.

Now, my cookies didn't turn out as puffy as the cookies I've usually seen, but I expect is has something to do with oven temperature or high altitude.  Bottom line, they were still incredibly tasty and crumbly and melt-in-your-mouth delightful, so I really didn't care.

And guess what? I was right, they are dangerous, because the batch is already over half gone... and I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who has been eating them.

For more delicious cookies, visit the TWD blog and LYL post.

TWD: Citrus Sunshine Muffins

The Citrus Sunshine (Currant) Muffins for this week's TWD were the perfect choice as far as I'm concerned. Especially in light of the fact that it was Daylight Savings on Sunday (thank goodness my phone updates itself because I completely forgot!) and this coming Sunday is the Vernal Equinox - SPRING!

Now, if only the weather decides to cooperate and stops dumping snow on us (like last week - seriously, that was our backyard on the 8th) then I would be thrilled!  I am SO over Winter!

Conversely, I think it is pretty funny that the main season for citrus around here is WINTER! There has to be some really brilliant reasoning behind the Powers That Be deciding that. What better way to get some sunshiney feelings in the midst of the snow and darkness!

These muffins were perfectly delightful in delivering on the promise of the citrus and sunshine double hit of happy.  I was happy while I was making them - I love rubbing the zest and sugar together - I could seriously just smell that all day!

I made a couple of small modifications to the recipe this time which were a big hit around our house. I didn't have any currants, and didn't know if any of us raisin haters would like them anyway, so I didn't bother getting any.  Instead I chopped up some good white chocolate and added some chunks to the muffin batter in place of the currants.  I also didn't have any lemon extract, so I just zested the lemon and rubbed it into the sugar along with the orange zest.  I also added a small splash of vanilla to the batter because I love the combination of citrus and vanilla in a big way.

These muffins were wonderful - tender, citrusy and bright, a little sweet and oh so good!  I'm so glad that Lauryn of Bella Baker chose them for this week's recipe because I have overlooked them for far too long.  Make sure to visit the Tuesdays with Dorie blog and see how the other muffin makers made out!

TWD: Catch-Up! Chocolate Pots de Creme & Toasted Almond Scones

Since we have basically all been a bunch of germ magnets for the past two weeks (some longer than that!) I am playing a major game of catch-up around home and in life.  I've actually made the past 3 or 4 Tuesdays with Dorie recipes and never had a chance to photograph and/or post them. Oy!

I am not much of a pudding fan. However, if you put something in front of me that I know used really good ingredients, I won't say no. I also really like the texture of baked custards, which is basically what these Chocolate Pots de Creme seemed like to me. I finagled the recipe to only make a half-batch and ended up with 4 cups total - which was a good thing because I'm pretty sure I would have ended up eating the entire full batch and not sharing. 

There are only three cups pictured because I ate one last night before chilling the pots - I wanted to try both the room temperature texture and the chilled texture. Although it was really good at room temperature, I'm inclined to agree with Dorie that the texture and taste is much better when chilled thoroughly. 

It doesn't hurt if you add some whipped cream and shaved chocolate either. Just sayin'.

Aidan (my 7YO) ate one of these today and I think he summed up what we thought of these the best. 

Direct quote: "If I was wearing socks right now, this would knock them off." 

Ah, kids! ")

As for these bad boys from last week, I've actually made them several times in the past few years. They were one of the first recipes I tried in the book and they are a definite favorite of ours. I accidentally overbaked them just a little this time so they were a tad dryer than normal, but it really didn't matter. We love these Toasted Almond Scones.

The Chocolate Pots de Creme were chosen as this week's recipe by Christine of Black Cat Cooking.

The Toasted Almond Scones finally saw their day in the sun thanks to Mike of LivingOutWest.

My thanks to you both for great choices that really hit the spot!

For many more links to all the other Tuesdays with Dorie bloggers who made these recipes you can visit their respective LYL posts here and here.

Once I get life just a bit more under control and can avoid spending the entire week at hospitals, doctors, InstaCare and assorted pharmacies I will sit down and actually write some posts to go with the plethora of drafts sitting in my files. 

In the mean time, I hope you are all having an absolutely fantabulous start to March!

TWD: Fluff-Filled Chocolate Madeleines - Toasted Marshmallow Chocolate Madeleines

Happy 1/11/11.  Just had to say that.  It's actually my Mom's birthday today and the boys that that was pretty cool, so, there you go.  :)

This post, much like these madeleines, is going to be short and sweet.  I've been stuck with the same cold on and off for weeks that we just all keep passing around here and am hoping to feel better soon.  In the meantime, honestly, attempting to put together semi-coherent sentences is more than my tired brain can handle. So. If the sentences below aren't really even semi-coherent, I hope you'll just smile and nod and let me live in my little bubble.  ;) It's like I tell my boys, sometimes you just have to humor the tired mommy.

Well... obviously, I had marshmallow fluff.  Actually, I got it with the intention of filling these chocolate madeleines for this week's TWD (picked by Margo of Effort to Deliciousness) and following the recipe exactly.  I've been waiting and waiting for this recipe's time to come and was so excited to see it slated for this month (darn colds!!).  Thanks Margo for choosing this one!

Anyway, I just ran out of time, patience, energy, etc. and bagged it.  I slacked out - even though I wanted to fill and do the chocolate glaze (I'll get to it next time!) and just slathered some fluff on top, broke out the torch and called it good.  The madeleines themselves didn't quite get that 'hump' I was hoping for, and I think mine actually ended up being a little under baked, but they were still terrifically yummy.  It is always fun to bust out the madeleine pan and making chocolate ones are our favorite.  I can only imagine I would love them just that much more dipped in chocolate.

For more fluff-filled madness (and I think I even 'heard' some others talking of other fillings!) please visit the Tuesdays with Dorie blog and check out the LYL post to see what the other bakers came up with this week.

TWD: Midnight Crackles - three years of blogging

Happy Anniversary!

These cookies looked so pretty, with the dark chocolate 'midnight' color and the pretty sprinkle of powdered sugar I added.  They were just a little cakey, but still just slightly fudgey and crumbly too and were a great treat for my New Year's celebration with my boys.  Kayla, of course, celebrated with us as well, but isn't yet old enough to get her hands on the chocolate - I'm sure we'll make up for that in spades some day.  The spices in the cookies were a nice little surprise -  I went with the cinnamon and a pinch of cloves. 

This week's recipe, for the Midnight Crackles, was chosen by darling Laurie over at Slush, our Tuesdays with Dorie founder, and the lovely and so helpful Jules of Someone's in the Kitchen with Julie.  I for one greatly appreciate the choice of chocolate first thing in the new year.

Terribly overexposed pic to show those crackles!

So, all that said, happy blogiversary to me - three years! Incidentally, I just noticed that my last post for French Fridays with Dorie was actually my 400th post too.  Two milestones for me in one week - wow!  More importantly though, happy anniversary to the TWD group! Thank you for still coming here and hanging in there through thick and thin.  I hope you stick around, because there is much more to come and I'm going to try hard to get back to writing and sharing more about what is happening with us than just being so vague all the time.  I love you guys! I hope, that even though I don't often get a chance to comment or check in on anyone's blogs, that you know I'm thinking of you often and sending my love out to you! I don't know how I would cope with all the craziness without the support of my bloggy friends, so thank you, thank you, thank you!

TWD Rewind: Caramel Pumpkin Pie

So, I think I've only ever made pumpkin pie one other time.  I'm not entirely sure why I haven't made it more, but I really like making it, so it will be a regular item on our Thanksgiving menu (much to Aidan's delight! - he loves the stuff!).

That said, even though I like making it, I'm still not as much a fan of eating it.  Go figure.  Aidan and Dusty like it though, so, there you go.

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie we were given the option to do a rewind.  Since I had volunteered to help out with some pumpkin pies for an international student dinner for the holiday that my friend Becky over at The Vintage Mixer was helping organize, and since it was so close to Thanksgiving, I couldn't resist making the Caramel Pumpkin Pie (originally hosted by Janell) my rewind of choice.

I chose to use two different pie crust recipes I love that I found over on Epicurious.  One (the small tart) is a cream cheese pie crust (I've made it as written and it works great, but it was a little fussy for me, so I will hopefully get a chance to write down my 'easier' version soon for you - if you need it in the meantime, just email me - this crust is awesome and tastes SO good!).  The other is just a basic pie dough recipe (the large pie with leaf border), but it uses a combination of shortening and butter, which I think always gives the best results and is easy to work with.

For the leaves on both the pie and 'tart' I just used a large maple leaf cooking cutter I have and glazed the dough with an egg wash and a sprinkling of sugar before baking.  I love making the edge crust this way because I often really stink at making a great edge - this way I get to cover it up!  

The egg wash not only gives the crust a nice shine, but it acts as the glue that helps hold that outer crust together.  You just layer all the pieces, slightly overlapping (my cookie cutter is a good 2 1/2 inches and took 10 leaves to cover the entire edge as shown) and brush the egg wash on.  Sprinkle with a little sugar for a little sparkle and crunch.

I did bake the pies most of the way through before adding the decorative border though - otherwise I think the crust edges would probably have just sunk into the wet pie filling.  I waited until the outer part of the filling was fairly well set before doing the border.  It didn't hurt the pie to come out of the oven for a few minutes to add the pre-cut leaves (I cut them when I originally rolled the dough, then just kept them covered on a lined sheet in the refrigerator until I needed them).  It was about 15 to 20 minutes before the pie was going to be done and I just let the pies bake until the filling was set and the leaves were golden.

Happy Thanksgiving! 

TWD: Tarte Fine + a Review & Giveaway

The Tarte Fine (aka apple pizza) was the recipe for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie, chosen by Leslie at Lethally Delicious.  I have to admit, I generally am really not a fan of baked fruit.  I do however, really love me some puff pastry. With how simple this recipe was, I knew it would be a simple one to pull off, even with a busy week. Of course, with me, that usually just means that I'm going to complicate things for myself somehow.

A quick note before I get much further though - do you know what this Friday is? Besides being October 1st it will be the very first post for the brand spankin' new French Fridays with Dorie celebrating and cooking our way through her new book - Around My French Table (which she is incidentally out on tour with right now).  This week's first recipe is a favorite of mine and if you don't have your book yet, you really ought to go ahead and order one. You won't regret it!  Also, if you didn't see the article, you can read a nice article that the Post-Gazette did about our own Laurie & Dorie :) This group is going to be awesome!

This week's complication turned out to be by making the recipe twice so that I could perform my own little puff pastry test.  Back when we made the little parisian apple tartlets for TWD I made the rough puff pastry recipe from Martha Stewart's site (you have to watch the video with Michel Roux - it is so great and the perfect simple tutorial).

I made one version from the rough puff pastry and one from the Pepperidge Farms frozen puff pastry.  The rough puff once again beat out the frozen stuff hands down for flavor, flakiness, and texture.  The PF puff pastry was good, but the homemade puff pastry really made this dessert something special.

No surprise that I did the sweeter version over in the 'playing around' section of the book with the added butter and sugar under and over the apples.  I also added a little sprinkle of cinnamon since it is just always such a natural pairing in my book.  I was surprised how much I really enjoyed this dessert, but only the homemade pastry version (the other I ate a couple bites and was done).  As I mentioned, I don't like baked fruit all that much, especially apples, so I think that the fact that they were sliced so thin really made a difference for me.  I would definitely make this again... but probably only when I have some more homemade pastry on hand.

As much as I loved making my own puff pastry, and how delicious it turned out, I haven't done it more than a couple of times.  Not so much because of the effort or even the time and performing the different 'turns'.  It was actually the mess.  As you can see in the video you dump a huge pile of flour and an equally huge pile of little cubes of butter onto your countertop and go to work.

homemade rough puff pastry version

In a house with three small children running around, as you can imagine, counter space is a precious commodity and it will come as no surprise to anyone out there that any time I want to make something that has any time on the counter I have to perform a deep cleaning to feel like I can use the space.  With little kids, believe me, a simple nice thorough wipe-down is never enough!

You may remember not too long ago I mentioned that I would be doing an upcoming review for CSN Stores.  They were kind enough to let me choose what I would like to review and after drooling over any number of things from their selection of Le Crueset and other dutch ovens to dining chairs (I particularly love the breakfast nooks - so cute!), baking rings, and lots of fun, harder to find restaurant and bakery style equipment. CSN Stores is actually comprised of 200+ stores though with just about anything you can think of, not just for the kitchen.

I spent quite a while going through their site browsing and when I found this huge, silicone pastry mat I knew I had to try it out.  The thought of having a sturdy, non-stick, easily cleanable surface to use for breads, cookies, pastries, etc - I had to try it.  Thanks to CSN Stores sending me one I was able to have one and try it out.
 

pastry mat with flour and butter ready to make rough puff

The main thing I can say about this pastry mat is that I can't believe I've gone so long without one! Oh, how much I love this mat.  It is huge for one thing - that is no small mound of flour and butter you see there either.  The work space was clean, plentiful and perfect.  Cleaning up couldn't have been easier since I just removed any left over mess to the sink and washed up, leaving my countertops clean as well.

The ordering process with CSN was simple and easy, and best of all, my pastry mat arrived promptly within a couple of days.  I really enjoyed going through their site and being able to read reviews of products from others as well as having all the product specifications right there.

If you have a baker in your life, or want to get started a little early on your holiday wish list, I definitely recommend that you put this pastry mat at the top of your list.  In fact, forget getting it for the holidays - you need this BEFORE then so that you can really pull out all the stops for your holiday baking! Just think of all the things you could do! I know I am.

THE GIVEAWAY!
To help you along the way, CSN Stores is offering a $25 gift code to one lucky reader to use off of anything in any of their stores.  All you need to do to enter the giveaway go check out CSN Stores and leave a comment on this post before Thursday, September 30 at midnight MST telling me what you would get.  That way, by the time all the comments are in, we'll have one heck of a wish list going right here I'll bet!  The winner will be drawn using Random.org.

For second entry in the drawing tweet about this giveaway and include @PheMom in the tweet so I know about it and in case I don't already follow you on Twitter.  Then LEAVE ANOTHER COMMENT telling me you tweeted so that it's in the drawing.

Good luck!

store-bought puff pastry version

homemade rough puff pastry version

TWD: Peanut Butter Crisscrosses with Chocolate Chips

For some really random reasons, this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe for the Peanut Butter Criss-Cross Cookies (here with chocolate chips) took me on a surreal trek down memory lane.  It was kind of fun though, and the cookies were great, so, while I don't often get really random on here, please allow me in this case to indulge in some true ridiculousness.  Thank you to Jasmine at Jasmine Cuisine for choosing this recipe and sending me to visit the past.  It was fun!

I have always LOVED peanut butter cookies.  My favorites growing up were always the ones that added in some chocolate.  No shock there.  These cookies were everything I want in a good peanut butter cookie.  I only made changes (leaving out the extra peanuts and adding the chocolate chips without the cocoa variation) because I just wanted to use what I had on hand.  I'm sure the other variations are just as wonderful.

For whatever reason - and I blame the nostalgia of these cookies themselves for sending me off on this tangent - when I was typing 'Criss-Cross' in the title it took me all the way back to 1992 and another Kris Kross - two kids who were only 13 and hit big on the rap scene.  The first song I remember was one called "Jump" - not a particular favorite of mine, but it did get me thinking...

I would have been a freshman in high school (you all know I'm not shy about dating myself here now).  I grew up in Wyoming and the extent of our access to the outside 'trendy' world was getting our tv stations from Denver.  If I wanted any concept of what was going on in the world (let's face it - the internet was just getting going where I lived - I have no idea when it started booming in places that weren't as rural as Wyoming) was to watch MTV.  This all got me thinking about what music I listened to back them (pretty much everything - which is the same now) and what other music was popular during my high school years.

This is one random tangent I know, but it made me realize a couple of things about music that was popular in the early nineties - there was an awful lot of jumping going on - especially at our high school dances.  So, to share in the random tangent I went on and take any of you other nineties lovers there with me, I found a list of some of the songs that were popular in the 90's.  Prepare yourself.

So, grab a cookie and have your own little nostalgic moment.  Enjoy! I'm not going to lie - I enjoyed this mix - some were favorites, some were ones that we got really, really, really sick of - but over all it was a nice little trip with some good laughs too.

The 90's were a pretty big decade for me I must say as I look back.  I started high school, dated for the first time, went to my first school dances, had my first real crushes, graduated high school, moved away from home for the first time, moved to a different city/state from my parents, went skydiving, met my husband and got married.  It was a whirlwind.

What song/memory do you associate most with the 90's?



I have to send you to this separate clip too though because for some reason the first one pretty much had no grunge on it and frankly, that was a huge part of the 90's for me too.  Along with my flannel shirts and Docs (which, incidentally, I still find very cute - they were pretty practical in Wyo too - these are the closest style to ones I used to wear I think).  That was a very acceptable fashion in the wilds of Wyoming.  :)

TWD: Espresso Chocolate Shortbread with Chocolate Caramel Cream Filling

Remember that Caramel Cream made with Chocolate from Le Caramel I told you about on Sunday?

Well, after I made my Espresso Chocolate Shortbread cookies for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie (chosen by Donna of Life’s Too Short Not to Eat Dessert First) I just couldn't get the idea of increasing the amount of chocolate involved with my cookies.  Oh, was it good!  I just spooned a nice dollop of on the back of a piece of shortbread, sandwiched it with another cookie, and voila! Instant doubled goodness.

The shortbread itself was tender, crumbly and delicious.  I went ahead and made the regular recipe, figuring that it wouldn't be much more caffeine in it than if I ate some tiramisu.  I think I ate only three pieces of shortbread, and I'm not kidding, I could feel that caffeine kick!  I guess since I have completely (other than my chocolate intake) cut caffeine from my diet I am a total caffeine light weight now.  Fortunately, the day I made these I really needed the kick anyway so I didn't feel too bad about it.

It could have had something to do with what I used in place of espresso powder (which I can never find or figure out exactly what it is supposed to be).  As far as I can tell it is just a super fine ground strong coffee.  If that is actually correct, then my substitute of two Via packets (Italian Roast) from Starbucks (available at most grocery store chains now at about $3 for 3 single serving packets - 2 packets equaled just shy of the required 1 tablespoon of espresso powder).  The Via packets are described as a micro ground instant coffee and it really does look like a powder and dissolves instantly.

Visit the TWD Blog for more versions of this week's shortbread cookies!

If you haven't already noticed that bright rainbow button over in the sidebar, please consider this your invitation to check back tomorrow (Wednesday, September 1st) for the announcement of the book for September's Edible Imagination and to see our review of Alice in Wonderland and what we made.  I hope you'll join in the fun!

TWD: Gingered Carrot Cookies + cream cheese filling

I really didn't know if I would end up getting around to making this week's cookie recipe for the Gingered Carrot Cookies for Tuesdays with Dorie.  The recipe was chosen by Natalia at gatti fili e farina and I'm so very glad she spotted this one tucked away in the book.  I'm not sure, because they don't sound familiar that I did notice this one in the book before.  And what a shame missing out on this recipe would have been.

Of course, as usual I couldn't leave well enough alone and changed some of the ingredients a bit.  I left out the raisins - no shocker there with me of course.  I wasn't sure how that was going to affect the texture so I decided to replace that cup of raisins with another cup of carrots. Dorie's description made the carrot flavor sound fairly subtle and I didn't think I would mind the extra hit of the carrot flavor.

I also happened to have some left over orange candied pecans (I'll post that recipe soon!) so I used those instead of the plain pecans.  I didn't really think the extra flavor would be noticeable, but it actually did still stand out in the cookie - and it was awesome!

The last thing I did to change things up was simply to turn some of these cookies into little inside-out carrot cookies with cream cheese frosting in the middle.  Any version would do - and incidentally I think it would be really nice with a little hint of cinnamon in the frosting.

Be sure to visit the TWD blog for everyone's links that made the cookies this week.

TWD: Chewy Chunky Blondies

The time for the chewy, chunky blondies for Tuesdays with Dorie has finally come.  I've wondered about this recipe for a while, but I'm not sure why I hadn't just tried it before now.

These were the pick of Nicole over at Cookies on Friday, which is where you can find the recipe.

The original recipe calls for chocolate, butterscotch of toffee bits, walnuts and coconut.  I opted to make homemade toffee bits (recipe below) and use pecans. They turned out really great, but were quite gooey when they were warm.

Don't forget to visit the TWD Blogroll for more blondies!

Homemade Toffee Chips

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup cream
1 tablespoons butter

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Line a baking sheet with parchment or buttered foil and set aside.

In a heavy saucepan combine the sugars and cream and bring to a boil. Cook on medium heat to softball stage (a  drop of the mixture in a glass of ice water will make a 'soft ball') (238 degrees F). Add the butter and vanilla and stir. Continue cooking until hardball (a drop of the mixture in a glass of ice water will make a 'hard ball') stage (245 degrees F).

Pour the mixture onto the lined baking sheet and set aside to cool and harden.  Once it is cooled, break into bits and use in cookies, cakes, baking, as ice cream topping, or whatever your little heart desires.

Store any leftovers in an airtight container.

TWD: Banana Cake into Banoffee Cake

If anyone out there has figured out how to squeeze more hours into the day, please let me know! I actually made this cake almost two weeks ago... and I just remembered in the wee hours of the morning that though I had loaded the pictures, I had yet to write and post about this week's Tuesdays with Dorie pick.

This week is bananas - both the cake, and my life (see what I did there with my lame-it's-reeeeaaaaalllly-late-early-whatever BAD sense of humor - sorry about that).

Anyway, the Lots-of-ways Banana Cake, chosen by Kimberly at Only Creative Opportunities is a great recipe with lots and lots of options for what to do with it.  It really got me thinking, and what I really wanted was a snacking cake with lots of goodies loaded into it.  I didn't feel like coconut, so I opted to turn the cake into a halved-recipe (only 1 9-inch cake) banana-toffee-chocolate-pecan confection.  I'm so glad I did because it was a delicious and imminently snackable treat.

I made a plethora of changes and wanted to save them, so I opted to post my version of the recipe over on my SLC Baking Examiner page at Examiner.com - just in case anyone else out there was looking for a very simple and snackable cake.

The cake itself turned out moist, and tender with just a little banana flavor.  It is fairly dense for a cake, but not as dense as most banana breads I've had.  I made a mixture of dark chocolate chips, homemade toffee chunks, chopped pecans and even added a little raw sugar on top for an extra crunch.

For many more variations, check out the TWD Blog.