Thursday, July 14, 2011

A Very Harry Potter Day

Despite the url and name of this blog having something to do with Lord of the Rings, I love Harry Potter; I’ve been reading the books since I was in elementary school. Even though the books are 100 times better than the movies, I always enjoy when the movies come out. And today the final Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows comes out. In addition to watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (I watched the other ones throughout the past week) and listening to A Very Potter Musical (if you haven’t seen that, you should watch it, here), and reading some of one of the books,  I wanted to bake something to commemorate the occasion.  I was really excited when I found a recipe for Butterbeer Cupcakes. They’d be perfect for tonight! At least two hours of waiting in line, we’d need something to eat! (I would get to the theater sooner, but alas, I have to work.)

I have not had Butterbeer from Harry Potter World at Universal, so I wasn’t exactly sure what it should taste like, so the recipe from amybites really helped.

The Cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350 and line cupcake pans with 18 cupcake liners
2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
3 large eggs
1 ½-ish teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon butter flavoring
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup cream soda

In one bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, beat the butter until light and fluffy, then add both of the sugars. Mix until well blended. Then add the eggs individually, beating thoroughly after each one. Mix in the vanilla and the butter flavoring. Then slowly alternately mix in the buttermilk, cream soda, and the flour mixture. Pour into the lined pans, filling each one about ½ to ¾ of the way full. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick is inserted and comes out clean.

Mmm.


While that’s baking…

The Ganache:
1 11-oz. package butterscotch chips
1 cup heavy cream
1 squeeze bottle

In a saucepan, melt together the butterscotch chips and the cream. Keep stirring so it doesn’t burn! (A double broiler can and probably should be used, but I didn’t). Once it’s all melted together and smooth, let it cool to room temperature and pour into the squeeze bottle. 

That bottle did make things easier!
 Once both that and the cupcakes are done, fill the cupcakes with the ganache by sticking the squeeze bottle into a cupcake and filling it until the ganache comes out of the top. The butterscotch sank down after a while, so I added a little more every now and again to some of them. Make sure you have some left over for the frosting!

You can see the (not so) tiny holes. They'll get covered up by the frosting anyway
 

Once that is done, it’s time to make the frosting… 

The Frosting:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/3 cup butterscotch ganache
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon butter flavoring
pinch of salt
2 ¼ c powdered sugar
Splash of milk or cream (as needed)

Beat the butter until light and fluffy. Mix in the ganache, vanilla, butter flavoring, and salt. Beat in the powder sugar, slowly, until the desired consistency. I must say, this has got to be the first time in a while that I didn’t get powdered sugar all over the place. Then decorate! Some of mine are drizzled in remaining butterscotch ganache, some of them aren't. Just testing it both ways. Also, I thought about making fondant snitches to go on top, but I didn't think of making them 2 dimensional instead of 3 dimensional, and the 3D way wouldn't have looked very good.


Pretty





 I normally stink at decorating, but this is the first time I used a 1M tip, and they don't look half bad if I do say so myself!



Friday, July 8, 2011

Chocolate Chip Oreo Brownie Bars!

So today, I was hanging out with a couple of friends and we had run out of things to do. We decided to bake. :-) I haven't gotten to bake in what seems like forever and if it didn't happen soon, I'm sure I'd go on baking withdrawals. After much debate and internet searching, we decided on baking this. They looked absolutely delicious and like they had more calories than I should eat in a week. 

It was actually super easy to make, especially with 4 extra hands and a mixer.

Preheat the oven at 350 degrees and grease a 9x13 pan

Start with the chocolate chip cookie dough. Your favorite recipe will do. This is the one provided by the original post. I usually go with the standard Nestle recipe, and melt the butter.

Look at Colleen mix!
Put that in a greased 9x13 pan. 

Next, layer Oreos on top of that!


And that's not all!!
After that, make a really fudgy brownie mix. We used a box and added the hot fudge topping like the recipe called for [and probably a little extra]... but a homemade recipe would be delightful as well, just a tad bit more work. That goes on top the Oreos and cookie dough... mmm
Mmmm.

That goes in the oven for 45-55 minutes at 350 degrees. And it comes out like....


So. Much. Delicious.
 I wasn't going to have any (what good would that be for the workout I did this morning!?), but the other two weren't letting me say no. It was gooey and delicious, but I probably couldn't have more than one in a night. And by in a night, I mean a hour or two. :-)


Friday, July 1, 2011

Maple & Honey Pork Chops and Cookie Dough

When I'm at school, Friday's are typically my baking day. At home, over summer vacation, I have far less to do, so I want to bake more often. Yet, between not having working air conditioning and having less people to taste/eat my baked goods, I don't do it nearly as often as I would like. So today, instead of baking, I made dinner and "dessert." 
Dinner, it's not something that I usually make. I much prefer the joys of baking. But today, I decided to help my stressed mother out and make [the second set of pork chops for] dinner. After much debate, we finally settled on making her pork chops. They are really simple and quite delicious. And by simple, I mean, they require practically no work whatsoever. 

Ingredients: 
Pork Chops 
Honey
Pure Maple Syrup
Allspice

Start by browning the pork chops in a large frying pan on a medium to high heat. This should take a few minutes on each side. 
As that's going, mix together the honey, maple syrup and allspice. Since this is my mother's recipe nothing is exact, BUT, she uses roughly, 1 tablespoon of honey per pork chop, as well as 1 tablespoon of maple syrup per pork chop, and 3/4 to 1 teaspoon of allspice total (depending on your preference). Make sure it's mixed thoroughly! 
Once the pork chops are browned, turn the heat down to low, and pour the honey mixture over the pork chops. Cover and let simmer for a long while! Or at least it seems long while starving. Occasionally flip the pork chops, making sure each part of it is getting in that wonderful sauce. They should be done in about 30-45 minutes - they should look that "caramelized brown color" according to my mother. 

Four delicious pork chops!



Since that requires very little attention while cooking, I decided to make cookie dough [per my mother's request]. I had talked about making cookies while it was much cooler out, when it looked like it was going to pour all day. By the time I had all of the ingredients for it, it was getting to be the predicted 90 degrees or so outside. That's why I've only gotten around to making the dough... and really, that's all the mother wanted anyway. 
The cookie dough is simple enough... The recipe should look familiar since it was borrowed from the back of the Nestle chocolate chip bag (I just omit a few of the ingredients)
Ingredients:
3/4 c white sugar
3/4 c brown sugar
1 c. margarine, mostly melted
2 eggs
1+ tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 c flour
1 bag chocolate chips
1 bag M&Ms

I always mix together the white and brown sugar then add in the eggs, margarine, and vanilla. Once all of that is mixed together, I add in the flour and mix! Oh! And don't forget to mix in the chocolate chips and M&Ms!!. Growing up, we mixed nearly everything by hand, so I still do that now. I realize that an electric mixer makes life easier (and is required for some things), but I always get more satisfaction out of mixing things together by hand. That's pretty much it for the cookie dough, especially since it has not and might not ever be made into cookies! 
Mmm. Tasty.