Breakfast Bars

The Beats! 

So I've been thinking for a while now about just coming clean, fessing up, and posting all the songs/artists that I hate to admit I like but in truth I love ... you know, the ones where you joke around about the song because "it's so bad that it's almost good" when really you're apologizing to the artist under your breath because really you're obsessed with it?  Or when you run to your computer to make sure that no one clicks the "25 Top Played" playlist to find that, "Wait ... You have listened to a Justin Bieber song one hundred times?!?".  Or you just laugh when the song comes up on your iPod's shuffle and quickly blame it on the time in college when you had unlimited access to the music of everyone in the dorm, so you weren't going to be picky.  Maybe none of you have this problem, but I know there are dudes out there that have a JLo cd hidden under their seat ... yeah, just because your windows are rolled up, I can STILL hear what you are lip synching, sir, and I know for a FACT that I have friends that like Miley Cyrus' Party in the USA, which I still can't quite believe possible.  Anyway, I found a way to bare my musical soul to the world without full disclosure, when I was thinking about my hometown last week (I always get nostalgic for Sheridan during Rodeo Week).  I always make sure to listen to a local radio station at least once when I'm home, and am blown away by their musical selections.  The last time I was home they were playing Tubthumping by Chumbawamba.  Whaaaaat?! I'm not kidding.  This is a true case of "it's so bad it's almost good" (except this time I'm not lying, it's just  ... not ... good).  It's 2011 and this song came out in 1997 ... and that is why I love my hometown.  So with that, I can successfully (at least I hope) leave you guessing - if you can make it through the playlist, that is - as to what I actually love and that which I can't believe is still playing on the radio in Wyoming.  Clever?  I wish but probably not, because you probably lost respect and stopped reading the second I mentioned Justin Bieber ...

  

The Treats!  

   
Ok, I wrote way too much about my beats so I'll be short here.  Just a few adjustments/recommendations before getting started...  This recipe is extremely easy and open to modifications.  I'm allergic to peanuts so I substituted in a cup of natural almonds (which I roughly chopped to make a bit smaller).  Also, seeds can be hard to find or expensive, so in this case I just used a cup of sunflower seeds instead of a mix.  I've made them several times and used dried apricots, cherries, craisins, etc.  I'm sure they'd also be tasty with other dried fruits, nuts, seeds, whatever, maybe even a layer of chocolate melted on top ... Easy to make, easy to bake, easy to eat.  The perfect trifecta.  And for all the freaks like me that have strange food allergies, this recipe allows you to know exactly what's going into your granola bar, so when you blow up, can't breathe, and have a neanderthal brow it's your own fault.  

 

Breakfast Bars 
(makes 16)              

From Nigella Express
 

What you'll need ...

14- ounce can condensed milk

2 1/2 cups rolled oats (not instant)
1 cup shredded coconut (I used sweetened)
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup mixed seeds - pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, etc.
1 cup natural unsalted peanuts (I used almonds)




Preheat oven to 250 degrees and oil a 9x13 inch pan (or something close).  Warm the condensed milk in a large pan.








Meanwhile, mix all the other ingredients together and add the warmed condensed milk, using a rubber spatula to fold and distribute.  
"Fold and distribute?"  Sounds like an engineer wrote this. 







Spread the mixture into the oiled pan and press down with a spatula (I sprayed mine with PAM to keep the mixture from sticking to the spatula itself) to make the surface even. 









Bake for 1 hour, remove, and after about 15 minutes, cut into four across and four down, to make 16 chunky bars.  Let cool completely.  These save well, so stash them in a tin and grab one whenever you want.

Fruit Pizza

The Beats! 

Hokay, so ... I've always been a big Natalie Merchant fan.  If we were playing the game "If you could have any fill in the blank (in this case we're using voice) you wanted, whose would you choose?",  I would choose Natalie Merchant's voice.  It's soft, and deep, and almost haunting.  Which is why I used her for the soundtrack to one of my High School English presentations.  Maybe they will listen to her instead of me, right?  Last year she released her first album in several years and I fell in love with it's odd lyrics and sound.  In Leave Your Sleep, Merchant has adapted children's rhymes and lullabies, some well over a hundred years old, into songs.  Some of the included poets are Robert Graves, Edward Lear, Ogden Nash, and Robert Louis Stevenson (I don't really know my poets, but these guys sound important).  Bleezer's IceCream is one of my favorites (you can't really go wrong singing about ice cream) as well as The Adventures of Isabel (it reminds me of one of my favorite friends that I don't get to see often enough).  Since buying the album I've decided that if I ever have kids this is what they will spend the first year of their life listening to ... I figure we can transition into Weezy and the gang later at a more appropriate age, around year 3 or so. 

   

 

The Treats!  

    

Fruit pizza screams summer to me.  Well maybe not screams,  but it implies summer to me.  And since Seattle seems to be struggling with the concept of summer I thought it might like a subtle reminder.  I made this yesterday and this morning it's ... gray, windy, chilly, and looking like October.  Ohhh well, it's a fun, easy, and quick recipe anyway.  I only ran into one road block when I realized I had used up all my baking soda in an attempt to absorb some of the smell wafting from my soggy mountaineering boots after too many trips into the snow covered peaks.  This came with the realization that no kitchen goddess would ever use the last of her baking soda to try to erase a stench from mountaineering boots.  Fail.  I substituted in 3 times the amount with baking powder but I think it led to a slightly crispier cookie that I would have avoided otherwise.  And my boots still smell.  But it's probably not good to talk too much about bad smells when you're introducing a recipe so ... you have a couple of choices here.  You can make one big pizza or like I did, split them up into "individual" pizzas.  I ended up making four plate sized cookies, which might be a little much when you're talking about a dessert ... but not really.  The most important part is to have fun decorating with fruit.  If you're a nerd like me, it becomes like Tessellations, one of those math games where you must fit the geometrical shapes together.  Maybe that's the enginerd side of me coming out.  The point is, make it pretty.  Ok, go.

Fruit Pizza   (makes 6+ servings)              

From a variety of sources combined ...

What you'll need ...

Dough:
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 cups all-porpoise flour
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Icing:
1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla

Toppings:
Several cups of fresh, sliced fruit - kiwi, berries, peaches, etc.
1/2 cup apricot or apply jelly (for glaze, opt.)
1 Tablespoon of water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, cream together butter and 3/4 cup sugar until smooth.  Mix in egg.  Combine flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt; stir into creamed mixture until just blended.  I also added a tiny bit of almond extract.  Press dough into ungreased pizza pan (although in retrospect, I would recommend greasing it).

Bake in preheated oven 8 to 10 minutes, or until lightly browned.  Cool (this is a command, i'm not just saying "cool").  In a large bowl, beat cream cheese with 1/2 cup sugar and vanilla until light.  Spread on cooled crust.

Arrange desired fruit on top of filling.  If you want a nice shine on your fruit, heat 1/2 cup jelly with 1 Tablespoon of water until almost boiling, stir, and glaze onto fruit with pastry brush.  I prefer using apple jelly to apricot jam so you don't have to filter out the apricot chunks.  Chill (you and the fruit pizza) until ready to serve.

Apple Streusel Cake with Almonds

The Beats! 

It's only been two years since I graduated from Montana State University, and sometimes I can't figure out whether the time has passed in a flash or in what I call metric time, when it feels like there are 100 seconds to a minute and 100 minutes to an hour (i.e. the clock hand just isn't moving).  Regardless of my perception of time, so much has changed.  My friends and family are on their own life adventures, traveling, trying new careers, getting married ... pretty exciting stuff.  This weekend is one of my favorite girlfriend's bachelorette party and even though I can't go, it's made me stop and think about our friendship.  We, along with our third partner in crime, were inseparable by the end of our senior year.  The stress of being a midst the final classes in our engineering education was overwhelming, so we countered that and general life drama with plenty of frozen yogurt dates, high heel & sweatpants parties, and late night debauchery downtown.  I'll always remember having a rough day, telling one friend (who threw me in her truck and made a phone call) and doing a drive by kidnapping of our third (the bride-to-be) who was supposed to be working on a computer programming assignment.  Three pitchers later, that didn't matter anymore (well at that point, nothing seemed to matter anymore, haha) but her lack of hesitation to help a friend over homework wasn't lost on me.  This hasn't been about "the beats" at all I guess, but this playlist has a bunch of the songs that remind me of our good times ... and if John Denver seems to stick out, well, so did we when we had our karaoke debut with Country Roads...



  

The Treats!  

   

This is the dish that I made for her bridal shower, but I can't report on the results because, unfortunately, I didn't make it to that either (this is getting embarrassing).  I think I would have heard if it poisoned someone, although my friends are probably too nice to admit it, so we're going to go ahead with it.  Plus, it's just fun to say "apple streusel" really fast over and over again.  It's incredible easy and quick to put together and coming from Cooking Light, it's probably more "healthy" than anything else I've put on this site so far ...  

Apple Streusel Cake with Almonds   (makes 9 servings)              

From Cooking Light Complete Cookbook

What you'll need ...

Streusel:
2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 Tablespoon butter
2 Tablespoons sliced almonds


Cake:
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup (2 oz.) 1/3 fat cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 egg
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4  teaspoon salt
3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
Cooking spray
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced crisp apple (about 3/4 pound)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  To prepare streusel, combine first three ingredients in a medium bowl; cut in 1 Tablespoon butter with a pastry blender or two knives until mixture resembles coarse meal.  Stir in almonds.


To prepare cake, beat granulated sugar, cream cheese, and 1/4 cup butter in a large bowl with a mixer at medium speed until smooth.  Add extracts (vanilla and almond) and egg, beating well.





Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, level with a knife.  Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl, stirring well with a whisk.  Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternatively to egg mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

Pour batter into a 9-inch round cake pan coated with cooking spray; sharply tap pan once on counter to remove air bubbles (BAM!).  Arrange apple slices (I used two big apples, because my theory is always the more the merrier) over batter; sprinkle with streusel.  

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes of wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool completely on wire rack.  Cut into wedges.  Apple streusel, applestreusel, applesussel!!

Brooklyn Blackout Cake

The Beats! 

  

After my tamed down playlist last week, I received an email from a friend telling me to bring back the hip hop.  Ok, twist my arm (sorry Mom).  But in an attempt to be a little more moderate I've mixed in some reggae, leaving you with an awkward mix of offensive, crude hip hop with chill, peace-loving island tunes.  Oh, and then there's the song as a mash up of Jimi Hendrix and JayZ.  If you find this to be musical travesty, I'm sorry, I still think it's sweet.  I needed something a little more fun anyway, because fun music means fun food and I needed this cake to be GOOD.  Plus, the birthday recipient had the unique experience of being one of my housemates in college so he's already numb to my musical taste.  Well, I don't think anyone has recovered from the time the sound system in the kitchen, streaming music from my computer, blasted the first few lines of R. Kelly's Bump 'n Grind.  I promise I had no idea that was even in my musical library.  My mind's telling me no, but my body, my body's telling me yes ...

The Treats!  

  

Hmmm, I don't quite know where to begin on this one.  I wanted to try a new birthday cake, so instead of going to my tried and true strawberry banana or guinness chocolate cakes I gave this one a try.  If you like rich and you like chocolate ... sold.  I didn't think the cake was bad, but I just don't know if it was worth the amount of work and the spoon sacrificed in the process.  I guess it's worth noting that I do think it tasted better the second day, after spending the night in the fridge; however, I'm also the girl that likes pizza for breakfast and cold, plain pasta for dinner ... leftovers are awesome.  Annnyway, if you have an afternoon and evening to kill, give it a try.  Worst case scenario - you'll break a spoon and cement a cornstarch mixture to the bottom of your bowl, but come out with a pretty dank cake.  And I'm not using the Merriam-Webster dictionary of dank here, more like the urban dictionary version (Adjective meaning "good".  Can I have that in a sentence please?  Well urban dictionary, probably the most intellectual site on the interweb, provides this profound example: "That burrito was dank as f@$*").  I'm done.

Brooklyn Blackout Cake   (makes 10-12 slices)              

From Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook

What you'll need ...

 
For the cake:
6 1/2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, room temp
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup whole milk (or whatever you have)
 
For the custard:
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 Tablespoon light corn syrup (syyyyyyyyyrip!)
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups cornstarch (whoa! is right ...)
5 1/2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
 
Three 8" round cake pans, lined with wax paper

 
Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.  

 

I guess there are plenty of ways to line your cake pans, but it's key for a layered cake unless you want a layer of metal along with your icing.  Here's how I do it ... Use a knife to trace the outline of your cake pan onto the wax paper and punch out the cut out.  Put the cut out in the bottom of your pan, then spray bottom and sides with cooking spray.  Do this with each pan.  Okay, enough with prep, it's time to bakey bake, no?

Put the butter and sugar in a freestanding mixer (or hand held mixer) and cream until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well and scraping any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula after each addition.  Turn the mixer down to slow speed and beat in the vanilla (vanilli, vanilli!), cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until well mixed.  Add half the flour, then all the milk, and finish with the remaining flour.  Mix until everything is well combined.  

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans and smooth over.  Bake in the preheated oven 25-30 minutes.  Let the cake layers cool slightly in the pans before turning out to cool completely.







So, here's where things got awkward.  The custard started off looking like the homemade gak mixtures I concocted as a kid (you know, with water, cornstarch, and food coloring to make sure you ruined everything it touched?).  Then it quickly turned into cement.  I stubbornly attempted to keep stirring, which only broke my spoon (pictured).  So I added a cup of water, total, and it seemed to do the trick ... kinda.  Here we go - Put the sugar, corn syrup, cocoa, and 2 1/2 cups water into a large saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking occasionally.  Mix the cornstarch with 1/2 - 3/4, whisking briskly as you add the water.

The mixture should be the consistency of thick glue (ha!) so add more water if it's too thick (this is where I used one full cup).  Whisk gradually into the cocoa mixture in the pan over medium (not high) heat.  Bring back to a boil, whisking constantly.  Cook, whisking constantly, for a few minutes until quite thick.  Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla.  Pour the custard into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and chill until very firm.




Slice a thin layer off one cake, put in a food processor (I got by finely chopping with a knife), and process into crumbs.  Put one layer on a cake stand (or pizza pan if you're not classy like me) and spread one-quarter of the chocolate custard over it.  Place a second layer on top and spread another quarter of the custard over it. 

Top with the last layer and spread the remaining custard over the tops and sides.  Cover and chill for 2 hours.  I went ahead and made an attempt to hide my classy pizza pan with fresh berries, but it kinda gives of a July 4th look, huh?  Oh well ...

Coconut Cupcakes

The Beats! 

  

My mom visited last week and as we sat at the table, neck and neck for the 2nd night of a 3 game Scrabble series (this is boosting my street cred I'm sure), listening to the playlist from my last post, she broke her concentration to say "I don't think I like this music."  I said, "Oh, the hiphop?"  And she replied, "Well, I guess.  I didn't know I didn't like it, but I guess I don't."  And with a little reflection and a lot of tissues, I've decided I'm ok with that.  I would be more worried if Little Momma loved hip hop.  If in the middle of the game she had laid down the lyrics to Farewell Wenches I probably would have passed out.  I don't really understand why I like hiphop either actually.  I moved to Wyoming in 3rd grade and soon-after my best friend and I make an unspoken decision to be undercover thug for the rest of our lives.  Anyway, this post isnt' supposed to be about hiphop because to appease my mother and make the rest of the Scrabble game enjoyable (see how thug is that?), I created the following playlist ...  which I should add, has some of my most favorite songs despite their non-hiphop genre.  I like all music ... it just happens that yes, I have a crush on Ludacris, yes I've watched the documentary on Tupac's Resurrection, and yes I've been splashed with Lil' Jon's crunk juice.  Oh, wait, this post isn't about hiphop ...

The Treats!  

  

As you can probably guess by this post, I'm slowly beginning to understand the cupcake fad.  That doesn't mean I understand paying almost four dollars for one, but I think I grasp the appeal of making something easy, relatively small, and "cute".  You don't have to fight, knife in hand, over cutting the cake unevenly.  You don't have to fret that the guest of honor's birthday wish will leave every other persons serving covered in germs.  And sometimes you can get away without washing a plate and fork for every person at the party.  We're not talking about being lazy, we're talking about being smart, ok?  So for the second time this week I'm making cupcakes.  I'm always kind of mesmerized by desserts decorated with coconut flakes because it reminds me of snow ... and I love snow, and the flavor reminds the of the sunscreen I used as a kid on the beach - really, it's the best of both worlds. So here's a recipe for coconut cupcakes.  The cupcake itself is a dense,  moist cake that tastes more of vanilla than coconut (at least to me), but I've made some changes to pimp out the coconut flavor in the icing.   

Coconut Cupcakes   (makes 18)              

From Bon Appetit Magazine

What you'll need ...

Reduced coconut milk:
2 13- to 14- ounce cans unsweetened coconut milk

Cupcakes:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
1 1/3 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup reduced coconut milk (see above), room temp

Frosting:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup reduced coconut milk (see above), room temp

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 cups sweetened flaked coconut, lightly toasted for garnish

Cupcake tin and liners!

To make the reduced coconut milk, bring coconut milk to boil in large deep saucepan over medium-high heat (coconut milk will boil up high in pan). Reduce the heat to medium-low; boil until reduced to 1 1/2 cups (I know this is annoying since it leaves you pouring in & out of a measuring cup, so I just "got close"), stirring occasionally, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer to small bowl, cover and chill in refrigerator (coconut milk will settle further as it cools).  I also read a review for which the reader skipped this step entirely and just used the recipe amounts (1 1/3 cups) straight from the can ... up to you. Reducing the milk just creates a more dense, moist cake.

For the cupcakes, position rack in center of oven; preheat to 350°F. Line eighteen muffin cups with liners. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until smooth. Add sugar; beat on medium-high speed until well blended, about 2 minutes. Add 2 eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition and occasionally scraping down sides of bowl. Beat in vanilla and remaining egg. 

Add half of flour mixture; mix on low speed just until blended. Add 1 cup reduced coconut milk; mix just until blended. Add remaining flour mixture; mix on low speed just until blended. Divide batter among muffin cups. Bake cupcakes until tops spring back when gently touched and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer cupcakes in pans to rack; cool 10 minutes. Carefully remove cupcakes from pans and cool completely. 

Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until smooth. Add sugar, 1/3 cup reduced coconut milk, vanilla extract, and salt. Beat on medium-low speed until blended, scraping down sides of bowl. Increase to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy.  I added one cup of non-toasted sweetened coconut flakes and 1/4 teaspoon almond extract into the frosting to bring out the flavor as well ...  To toast the coconut, layer flakes onto a cookie sheet and heat in oven at 350 degrees.  Watch carefully and stir the contents occasionally to prevent burning.  


Top each cupcake with frosting. Using spatula or knife, swirl frosting over top of cupcakes. Sprinkle with coconut (I topped them with both toasted and un-toasted coconut flakes as well as a half raspberry for garnish).  Keep refrigerated until you're ready to devour ...