Brown Sugar Caramel Pound Cake~I'm going to need a moment please

Again Pinterest makes you believe that you can cook, bake, entertain, and craft.  I can bake but not always creative on my own so I have turned to pinterest to help with that.  I found a recipe for another pound cake.  Now not just another pound cake but something so rich and decadent tasting, you may need a moment alone.  May I present the Brown Sugar Caramel Pound Cake!!!

I know I should have put in a picture of it cut but that would lead to locusts descending on the plate.  But I need to give you the recipe for the deliciousness:

Brown Sugar Carmel Pound Cake

Ingredients:
1 ½ cups butter softened
2 cups light brown sugar, packed
1 cup granulated sugar
5 large eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
1 8oz bag toffee chips
1 cup pecans, chopped

Carmel Drizzel:
1 – 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 spray a 12 cup Bundt pan with cooking spray with flour

Beat butter until creamy. Add sugars beating until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. In medium bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add flour mix to batter alternately with milk, beat until just combined. Stir in toffee buts and pecans. Spoon batter into pan and bake 85 minutes or until wooden pick comes out clean. To prevent excess browning, cover cake with foil while baking.

Let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove from pan, and let cool completely on a wire rack. Spoon Caramel Drizzle over cooled cake.

Directions for Caramel Drizzle
In a medium saucepan, combine condensed milk and brown sugar; bring to a boil over medium-high heat, whisking frequently. Reduce heat, and SIMMER for 8 minutes, whisking frequently. Remove from heat; whisk in butter and vanilla. Let cool for 5 minutes before using. NOTE: Make sure you drizzle the caramel while it’s still HOT. When cooled the caramel does somewhat harden.

 I have found that the toffee settles to the bottom of the bundt pan no matter what you spray on it.  A friend told me to coat chips whether its toffee, chocolate chip, butterscotch.  The will *float* better in the batter.  Trust me, as lopsided as it is, it will be eaten.  It's almost new years' eve.  Bring on the food and booze!!

Old School Chex Mix revamped

We had our Mad Men party last week and we had mixed nuts made with brown butter and thyme for one of the appetizers.  I wanted to make something for Christmas snacking so I thought I would do chex mix but add the mixture I added for the nuts and combine them both.  So I dried peanuts and pecans on a cookie sheet for about 10 minutes in the oven heated to 350 degrees.  I let them cool and I put rice chex and pretzel knots on a cookie sheet in the oven separately for 15 minutes. Now I can start the sauce.  Here we go:
2 sticks of butter
1TBSP worchester sauce
1/2 tsp cajun seasoning
6 TBSP brown sugar
3 tsp coarse salt (I used regular salt)
2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp tabasco sauce
6 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves only ( you can probably get away with the bottle stuff)
melt the butter in a pan and add all the other seasonings on low
get a big enough bowl to put the nuts and chex in and pour sauce all over and make sure your hands are clean and mix it thoroughly. Pour it out on the cookie sheets spread evenly and put it back in the oven for about 15-20 minutes.  Take out and let cool.
This can be stored in an airtight container for up to 1 week.  I put them in freezer bags and stuck in the freezer because cooled nuts tastes better.
Thanks in part to Martha Stewart and Chex for helping me with putting more nuts in my mouth.

Giant Cupcakes!! Nom Nom Nommy.

So I was supposed to make a chocolate cake for Thanksgiving but when I went to my parents and started cooking, my mom tells me that she doesn't have any cake pans.  What? No pans? What did she do with them?  When they had their kitchen redone, she got rid of a lot of cookware so no pans.  What to do?  My mom kept her giant cupcake pans though.

I just used a basic yellow cake mix but of course I had to be different and add mango juice to it instead of water because you should never use water when baking.

Bake as usual.  Make sure to spray the muffin cups or line them!! No one likes to dig cake out with a knife.  So while it was baking, I got crushed pineapple, drained some of the juice, and put in a small saucepan and added about 1/4c of brown sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, and 1tsp cornstarch to stir and let the sugar melt.  Take off heat and continue to stir to thicken it up.  There was still juice in mine so I drained it a bit more because I didn't want soggy cupcake.  Yes, it was going in between the slice of cupcake because that's how I roll. 

After the cupcake has cooled, I split them crosswise and spooned the pineapple on the bottom half and put the cupcake top back on.  Then I frosted those puppies!!!  I got complaints from my siblings about the pineapple and my sister acted like I was demon spawn for messing with a classic cupcake.  Still ate it.  

Giving Thanks for Dressing.

Now I grew up an army brat so I've heard different terms for this dish.  Stuffing and dressing are most common. I may have a hard time coming up with a recipe because this one wasn't really written down and was passed from my grandmother to my mother to me.  One of those pinch of this, scoop of that type of dish.  I'm going to organize it for you and hope you like it.  Now when I was much younger say, 12-17, I didn't like or eat this stuff.  My dad was convinced I wasn't his child because of it.  I and my tastes buds grew thankfully and this is something I can eat with giblet gravy and dark meat turkey and cranberry sauce all day and next day leftovers set into a sandwich (that may be another post).  Let's get started, shall we?

Cornbread Stuffing
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
I start off making regular cornbread.  Might want to double that recipe depending on how many people you are making it for. Add sugar if it doesn't call for it because it's a southern thing.  I like Pioneer brand cornmeal and just follow directions on the back and bake and set aside.
1 pkg gizzards and livers (chicken)
1 large onion
1 large green pepper
1 stick butter
1 pkg Pepperidge Farm herb stuffing mix
2-3 eggs
1 can chicken or beef stock4-6 TBSP poultry seasoning (yes, I said TBSP, I believe in if you can't see the seasoning, it's not enough)
4 TBSP sage seasoning
2- TBSP season salt
2- TBSP black pepper
2- TBSP onion powder
in a small pot, put gizzards and livers with chopped onions and green peppers with a tsp of poultry and sage seasonings and a bit of salt and pepper on medium heat for about 30-45 minutes.  Scoop out gizzards and livers and chop as fine as possible and return to pot on warm heat
Now you are going to need a huge bowl to mix everything.
crumble the cornbread, add the pepperidge farm, cut butter into 4 squares and put in bowl, Using a spoon, add the gizzards, onions, and juice a cup at a time so butter can melt.  You don't want it steaming because you are going to add eggs and you don't want them to cook right now.  Add 2 eggs first and see how moist the mix is.  If you think your mix is still a bit dry, then open the chicken or beef stock.  Now add the seasonings.  I gave amounts because it sounded right but sometimes you have to eyeball it.  Taste a pinch because that's what we do.  If it tastes bland add either poultry seasoning or sage and pepper.  Spread in a foil lined pan and up the oven degrees to 375 and cook 45 minutes to 1 hour depending on how much you are making.  It should look nicely brown and crisp on top.  Like this:

Going for office potluck tomorrow.  I'll let you know if there are any leftover.  Finger licking good.

Rhubarb what?

Ok, so when I was a kid, my godmother made rhubarb pie.  But she was "healthy" and she used honey and no sugar.  Now I'm about 11 or 12 and it's a pie so I put a piece in my mouth and my mom must have seen the look on my face because she hisses quietly, "do NOT spit it out.  Just swallow it."  And so starts my dislike of rhubarb.  It's funny looking and very tart and usually I like tart things but this wasn't one of them.  Present day, my coworker brings a strawberry-rhubarb crisp to the office and pretty much forced me to try it.  What is this?  It's slightly tart and yet sweet with a lovely oatmeal crumble on top.  Delicious.  Now I need the recipe.

Ingredients
4 cups fresh rhubarb, 1-inch diced (4 to 5 stalks)
4 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and halved, if large
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons grated orange zest(skipped it)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup quick-cooking (not instant) oatmeal, such as McCann's( I used Quaker)
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, diced
Vanilla ice cream, for serving
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

For the fruit, toss the rhubarb, strawberries, 3/4 cup of the granulated sugar and the orange zest together in a large bowl. In a measuring cup, dissolve the cornstarch in the orange juice and then mix it into the fruit. Pour the mixture into an 8-by-11-inch baking dish and place it on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper.

For the topping, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, the remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar, the brown sugar, salt and oatmeal. With the mixer on low speed, add the butter and mix until the dry ingredients are moist and the mixture is in crumbles. Sprinkle the topping over the fruit, covering it completely, and bake for 1 hour, until the fruit is bubbling and the topping is golden brown. Serve warm with ice cream.

Thanks Barefoot Contessa!!!

Dessert Nachos!! Ole!!

Now this was during Superbowl time even though I don't really watch the game.  It is tailgating and parties and that's for everyone!!  I was watching TV or more like reading and the TV was on, Restaurant Rescue with Robert Irvine I think, and I heard him mention, these are dessert nachos, you can sell them for $8 a plate.  My head popped out of my book and said, nachos?? Dessert nachos?  Ok, you have my attention.  So I watch Mr. Irvine go through the steps and I thought I can make that.  I needed ingredients:

Dessert Nachos
1 pkg flour tortillas regular sized
2 pkg frozen mixed fruit, chopped bite size
1 8-12 oz jar raspberry jam
mixed chocolate and white chocolate sauce
deep fryer w/ oil
1 cup granulated sugar mixed with 3-4 tsp cinnamon
Now the tortillas need to be cut into 1/4ths and set aside while oil is heating about 350-400
but first cut fruit while it's frozen and then mix the jam in and stir.  Place in refrigerator after it has thawed a bit, maybe an hour.
first you will need the sugar and cinnamon mixed in a large bowl because the chips are going in right after being in oil so you will need tongs.

depending on how big you deep fryer is, you can put 3-4 at a time to watch and flip over when they are turning light brown.  Take out and dump in sugar mixture.  Once coated then have a pan or large basket lined with paper towel.  Repeat these steps until you have fried all tortillas and dredged in sugar.  Now to make the chocolate.  You can use dark and milk chocolate chips in a pan with 1/2 small heavy cream and stir over low heat until chocolate melts.  Add  a capful vanilla flavoring.  There are white chocolate chips and I would recommend melting them in microwave since they are more like an accent to everything.  Get a nice plate and assemble the chips on there and then drizzle the dark chocolate over them and a bit of the white chocolate.  In a little side bowl put your *salsa* or the fruit compote with jam you just did.  Just make sure it's completely thawed out before serving.  Trust me, it's delicious.

Sweet Chimichangas??? Really? Oh. Yes.

I know, I know, I haven't written in so long, I'm practically a memory.  But no worries, I can bring you back to the fold.  Strawberry chimichangas.  Yes, sweet fried goodness!!! I saw the recipe and decided I just had to make it.  It didn't look too  complicated and as I was making it, in my mind, I was already tweaking it for next time.  Yes, a little OCD but do not judge me.  To whomever first thought of this dessert, let me say muchas gracias.

STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE CHIMICHANGAS

INGREDIENTS:

1 (8-oz.) package cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup sour cream
1 Tablespoon plus 1/4 cup sugar, divided
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
6 (8-inch) soft flour tortillas
1 3/4 cups sliced strawberries, divided
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
Vegetable oil, for frying

Equipment: toothpicks; deep-fry thermometer

DIRECTIONS:

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese with the sour cream, 1 tablespoon sugar, vanilla extract and lemon zest, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Fold in 3/4 cup of the sliced strawberries.

Divide the mixture evenly between the tortillas, slathering each portion in the lower third of each tortilla. Next, fold the two sides of each tortilla toward the center and then roll the tortilla up like a burrito and secure it with a toothpick. Repeat the rolling process with the remaining tortillas.

Combine the remaining 1/4 cup sugar with the cinnamon in a shallow bowl and set it aside. Line a large plate with paper towels.

Add 3 inches of oil to a large, deep saucepan, leaving a minimum of 2 inches from the top of the oil to the top of the saucepan. Heat the oil over medium-high heat until it reaches 360ºF on a deep-fry thermometer.

Working in batches, fry the chimichangas until golden brown and crispy, about 3 minutes, flipping them as needed. Transfer the chimichangas to the paper towel-lined plate to drain for 1 minute, and then roll them in the cinnamon and sugar mixture. Repeat the frying and rolling process with the remaining chimichangas, returning the oil to 360ºF between batches.

Remove all toothpicks from the chimichangas and transfer them to serving plates. Top each with a portion of the remaining 1 cup of sliced strawberries and serve immediately.

Now for the tweaking part.  I am going to say freeze the chimichangas after you wrap them so the filling will not be as gooey when you bite into it.   Just for an hour or two then let them sit out while you are heating the oil to fry them up.  And I'm sure you can use a strawberry drizzle with whipped cream as well.  Enjoy!!

Cake of childhood, Pineapple Upside Down Cake (or cupcakes)

My friend CC and I are hosting a Mad Men themed Christmas party this year.  So we research and thought one of the desserts needs to be somewhat TV inspired.  PUDS(Pineapple Upside Down Cake) starting making an appearance after Dole started canning its pineapple and recipes flooded in after that.
I thought PUDS would be a simple, easy, tasty dessert.  We did a test dinner last night and yesterday morning I remembered, I don't have a cast iron skillet.  So I did the next best thing.  I made cupcakes.  You can't use pineapple rings obviously because muffin pans are smaller so you have to modify the recipe.  The one I found says you can break up the fruit into pieces and halve the cherries.  It turned out delicious and only took about 30 minutes to make.  Still kicking myself  that I didn't take a picture.  I'll have to remember to do so when we have the party.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake cupcakes recipe:

for the cake:

2 eggs

2/3 cup white sugar

4 TBSP pineapple juice 

2/3 cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

for the brown sugar topping:

2 tablespoons of butter/margarine

1/3 cup brown sugar (packed)

can pineapple rings 

maraschino cherries

Instructions

1.Melt the butter and brown sugar in the microwave – 30 seconds should do it. Once melted, mix it well!

2.Sift the dry ingredients.

3.Mix the wet ingredients thoroughly!

4.And preheat the oven to 350 F.

5.Once the wet ingredients are mixed well and the dry ingredients are sifted, you can mix them together.

6.Pour the dry into the wet, and mix until everything is combined and you can’t see any clumps of dry ingredients.

7.Spray your muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.

8.Spoon in a little bit of the butter/brown sugar mixture into the bottom of each cup – it ends up being a little less than a tablespoon each. Then place a maraschino cherry in the middle and surround it with bit of pineapple.

9.Now you’ll spoon the batter onto the toppings.

10.Bake in a preheated 350 F oven for 20 minutes. Test their doneness with a toothpick – it should come out of the middle of a cupcake nice and clean!

11.Once they’re done, you need to let them cool for at least 15-20 minutes, preferably on a wire rack.  If you try to take them out of the pan right away, you’ll probably lose your toppings because they’ll be too hot.

12Go around the edge of each cupcake with a butter knife to help loosen them. Then cover the muffin pan with a large plate or a cutting board and flip it over! This should let them come out nice and easy, and in one piece!

Try it!! So good!! 

Key Lime Pie is so Divine!!

Key Lime pie says summer to me.  It has that bit of tart I just love.  I made this pie several times in the past few months and I made it for my friend's 30th birthday party at our office.  I am a bit of a snob when I comes to certain things homemade.  The crust is so important.  Seriously, I hate store bought crust.  If I'm in a hurry and I need to get something quick, it's one of those last resort decisions to use one.  The recipe is so crazy simple but I did have a friend of mine tell me I need to add more key lime because it's just not tart enough.  Now I like tart but apparently she wants to have lemon/lime face.  Here is the recipe:

Key Lime Pie
filling:
1 can (14oz) condensed milk
4 egg yolks (separate the whites out)
3-4 oz of Key Lime juice

crust:
3 oz of toast almond slivers - buy them and use a tiny slice of butter and toast.  Must watch carefully or will burn and taste horrible.  Believe me, it's happened.
4 tbsp butter melted
1-1 1/2 cups of graham cracker
3 tsp white sugar
sprinkle of cinnamon.

Heat oven to 350 degrees and mixed all the crust ingredients and press into pie plate and bake for about 8 minutes.  Take out of oven and let completely cool
Use a mixer and pour in condensed milk, key lime juice and egg yolks.  Mix well and pour into crust.  Bake for about 20 minutes.
Cool and then spoon cool whip topping on pie and chill for at least 4 hours.

This is what was left at party.  And then it was gone after the picture was taken.

Cookie Pie?

The reason I put a question mark on my title is I was iffy about doing it.  Now I love anything Tollhouse usually but the recipe I used called for a crust to make it a "pie".  I've never done that before.  I used the Tollhouse recipe on the bag but I also lined a pie plate with a ready made crust. Baked as usual and let cool for a few minutes because I wanted to taste it warm with the vanilla ice cream I bought.  Yeah, I live dangerously.  So I bite into it.  Moooaaannnnn!! It's good until I bite into the crust. Should it taste like a cookie and a pie?  In theory, it sounds great but the reality is, eh.  And now my whole Tollhouse experience is destroyed. I will try again of course.  Now it's sitting on the counter top and no one else has touched it.  Crust is bad.

Lesson learned.

Mmmm, pie.

I have made something I haven't in quite some time.  A bourbon chocolate chip pecan pie.  Oh yes, it just rolls off the tongue.  Bourbon chocolate chip pecan pie.  Same diabetic friend that asked for the cream cheese pound cake wanted this.  I make sure she has her insulin available at work.  I used a pretty quick and easy recipe this time.

Easy Peasy Bourbon Chocolate Chip Pecan Pie

1   (9-inch) unbaked pie shell
2 cup pecan halves
3   large eggs, beaten
3 tablespoon butter, melted
1/2 cup dark corn syrup (I used light)
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoon good-quality bourbon (Jim Beam)
3 ounce semisweet chocolate, chopped (doesn't have to be finely done, just rough)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. 

Cover bottom of pie crust with pecans. 

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs and melted butter. Add the corn syrup, sugar, bourbon and the chopped chocolate. Stir until all ingredients are combined. Pour mixture into the pie shell over the pecans and place on a heavy-duty cookie sheet. 

Bake for 10 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees F and continue to bake for an additional 25 minutes or until pie is set. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. 

I can't wait for her to taste it.  I'll keep ya posted.

Brownies!!

I made Knock You Nekkid brownies tonight just for fun.  Yes, you have to say nekkid, not naked but it sounds dirtier that way.  :)  I haven't made them in a long while and they aren't much to look at but my gosh, I bet dollars to donuts that it will be consumed tomorrow before noon.  You know, a nice breakfast, mid morning snack, and hell, lunch.

COOKIE MONSTER

So today I'm finishing my order for oatmeal raisin (I told you about my trust issues and raisins, didn't I?) and peanut butter cookies.  Now that I've made them I may want to take them off my menu.  Unless I'm making about four to six dozen cookies, it doesn't seem worth all the effort to make just a couple dozen.  Since I'm new to this, I am still working out all the kinks. I may but down on my menu form minimum 4 dozen.  I hope JR likes them.  I made extra to sell in little brown paper bags like when I was a kid and me, they will be gone around lunch time.  Week 1 is almost done.  I don't think I made any money so I need to make changes if I want to do this before my son's basketball season starts.  I think I can do well during the holiday season so let's keep doing down the rabbit hole.

Success!!!

I gave my customer the cake and she loved it.  Funny thing is, I posted the pictures to FB before I brought the cake to work and a few coworkers on my FB saw the white box with purple ribbon but they didn't know who it was for.  They were going to go through each office to see who got the prize.  So crazy.  They could have just emailed and asked.  But I got another order out of it!  One of the guys in the business office is ordering cookies for his relatives coming this weekend.  Another coworker is bitter that I don't have peach cobbler on the menu.  So I had Original Jenni modify my form and now there is a special request section.  Not good enough for this princess.  She wants it on the permanent menu.  I have already had the argument that peach cobbler is a fall/winter type dessert for me.  Like Key Lime pie is usually only in summer.  I will have to play with the menu or come up with seasonal versions.
Still excited!!!

The Beginning.

I've never done a blog before but I've been baking, cooking, and helping plan parties since I could reach the stove.  I'm not for the fancy cakes and decorating, I just like comfort food.  The kind my mom and grandmother used to do.  My name is Kelli and I love to bake.  My coworkers are always asking me, what are you bringing to the office?  So I decided to say, sure I'll bring ya stuff to nosh on at work, but now I'm going to charge ya.  I got my first customer that day.  Cream cheese pound cake.  Simple yet it goes with fruit, ice cream, or just by itself.  I had to make two because the guinea pigs, I mean kids, always want to try what I make.  For my first effort with the cream cheese version of the pound cake, I think I did pretty good.  I'll let everyone know how my customer feels about it.