Mozzarella Croissant Rolls

Here is a baking fail - wanted to make an easy snack, and what could be easier than prepared dough and string cheese? Two tubes of croissant dough and a bag of mozzarella string cheese later, I had a project.

I originally planned on cutting it into pieces the length of the cheese and roll them up. But this dough would not comply. So I just cut the dough along the perforated lines and tried my best to cover up all the dough. Baked at the listed time on the tube for 20ish minutes. While that was baking I heated up the marinara poured myself a glass of wine. 

I made this for M, but I did have one. Should have brushed the tops with butter and garlic. And I think next time I'll make the dough from scratch.

Happy Spring. Have Some Bread.

Winter is over. Hurrah.

This morning I decided to try another no knead bread recipe. Not too bad, but stickier than other no knead recipes I've made. Well received by my co-workers, who have gone a while without my homemade bread.

Will try a whole wheat sandwich bread soon.

This Blog Lives! (Sorta)

We celebrated my grandmother's birthday this past weekend, and as she requested, I baked her a birthday cake. Nothing too fancy, a white almond and dark chocolate layered cake with vanilla buttercream. The green sugar is the only acknowledgement of the St. Patrick's Day weekend.

Turns out I didn't bake a large enough cake - there twice as many people there than I had expected, so the slices ended up being thin and halved. There was also a fruit tart, but that went unnoticed.

---

I ran into Mr. Fussy at Nine Pin a few weekends ago and he had mentioned I had survived the blog roll purge. Not bad. I wish I had the motivation to write as much as he does, but writing is hard for me. And as I explained to him at the time, it is much easier to post on Instagram than write blog posts. If you look at my IG feed, you will see that I post almost daily. Photo with a few words... send.

If writing could be that simple.

National Cookie Day

I once had this crazy scheme where I would cook something for every food holiday for a year. 365 different food items, at least. Yep... definitely crazy. I lack the patience or the follow through to complete that. So I'll just stick to things here and there. Like national cookie day.

Cookies! Easy.

Whipped up a somewhat basic chocolate chip, but surprise! Dash of maple extract. Next time I'm thinking subbing in some maple sugar (damn pricey, but worth it perhaps) or subbing the regular sugar out for toasted sugar. Switch to chocolate chunks... dark chocolate... possibilities are endless.

If anyone wants, I've got four dozen ready for the baking. Perfect for resolving any cookie emergency.

Apple Cider Sugar Cookies

Remember, remember... the fifth of November...

... as the day I talked about these sugar cookies.

gimmicks. yes!

Being that it is fall, what better than make a seasonal cookie. And not just any cookie, but something in the shape of the cookie's flavor! Fall. Apples. Cider. Apple cider sugar cookies. Perfect? Perfect.

I used a recipe I found on Julianne Hough's website. You know, from Dancing with the Stars. I gotta say, it is a decent recipe and will now be on the baking rotation. Baking these will make your kitchen smell wonderful. The apple cutter is from Michaels, and I went with my tried and true sugar glaze. Used whatever I had leftover from Halloween, so not only did I have Red Delicious looking cookies, but Golden Delicious as well. Next time I make this, I'll try it with boiled cider. I'm thinking it will make for a stronger apple flavor.

Cookie Time

Dough made, rolled out, chilled.

Apple cookies. Fall. In season. 

Flax Seed Crackers

First day of September! How shall I celebrate? How about something LCHF/keto?

Most crackers are off limits on the lchf/keto diet. Shame, since cheese and crackers go hand in hand. I spotted Flackers at Fairway and decided to give it a try. I was expecting the worst, but it was really good! Looking at the ingredient list - flax seeds, apple cider vinegar, and seasonings - I knew I could replicate this at home.

There are quite a few flax seed cracker recipes out there, but it seems like most of them call for ground flax seed meal. And I'm sure that's fine, but I wanted to replicate the whole flax seed crackers I had. The flavor combinations are up to you, this batch was "cheese" and garlic flavored. Why the quotation marks? You'll see.

"Cheese" and Garlic Flax Seed Crackers

1 cup flax seeds

1 cup water

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup nutritional yeast, plus more if needed (the cheese!)

2 teaspoons garlic powder

1. Mix the flax seeds and water in a large bowl. Set aside for 1.5 - 2 hours. Should be gelatinous, pour off any excess water.

2. Mix in the remaining ingredients. The addition of nutritional yeast should be enough to thicken the mixture. Add more, if necessary.

3. Spread the mixture in a thin layer on a solid food dehydrator tray. Set on a low temp, ~ 150 degrees. Let it dry about four hours. If it's dry on top and still flexible, flip the cracker over and allow it to dry another 2-4 hours. Break into even sized pieces and store in an air tight container.

This can also be baked in the oven, I have not tested it yet, but I'm guessing same temperature and same length of time.

Gluten Free Apple Cider Baked Donuts

I really need to take any recipe that proclaims it's "amazing" with a grain of salt. Especially when it's with ingredients I don't use very often. I'm not a true follower of the Paleo/Clean Eating lifestyle, but I do dabble when I see things that may be good. And these apple cider donuts seemed as if they would be. The writer claimed they were good. That I wouldn't miss regular baked donuts after having these.

I'm not too sure about that. For starters the substitute flour for regular flour is coconut. And coconut oil for the fat. Hmmm... shouldn't this just be called coconut donuts with a hint of apple cider instead?

Followed the recipe and it reminded me of playdough. A fine grained, pasty thing instead of the smooth batter I am used to dealing with. Easier to pipe into the pans unlike the regular donuts. I wasn't sure if they were going to puff up so I didn't fill the pans all the way. But maybe I should have.

Overfilling would have made it easier to take out of the pan. Or not - I broke a lot of them as I tried to get them out of the pan. These donuts were crumbly, dry. And tasted more like coconut than apple cider. Tossing in cinnamon sugar helps distract you from the weird texture, but not much.

Not making these again.

Just a Little Rusty

It's been a while since I made cupcakes. Or cookies for that matter.

Really. I can't remember the last time I did. So needless to say it wasn't my best showing. But  I was insistent that make something for a meeting at work. A good dose of sugar to keep people focused on the subject at hand kind of thing. Anyways, the plan was yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting and chocolate chip cookies with espresso chips. Sounds good, right?

The cupcakes were fine, except I experimented a bit with dishers. A disher, if you don't know is an ice cream scoop. Aside from scooping ice cream, they are also used for uniform portions of cookie dough and cupcake batter. I made half a batch with #24 and another with #24 and a small scoop, not sure of the number. #24 barely fills a liner halfway. Perhaps I should buy a 26. 

The frosting for the cupcakes had problems from the beginning. The recipe calls for mixing cocoa powder with melted butter. I probably should have mixed it with a whisk to blend it better. Or perhaps a double boiler to keep it warm. What I ended up with was a chocolate blob at the bottom of the bowl. Whatever, I figured it would resolve with the additional of the powdered sugar and milk. Nope. A nice think frosting, but there were little chocolate bits throughout. Instead of leaving it be, I added more milk. Bad idea - the frosting turned runny. Dumped in more powdered sugar and it corrected the runny frosting, but only slightly. At that point I gave up and frosted the cupcakes and called it a night.

As for the cookie dough, the recipe called for an all-purpose flour/bread flour mixture, but I don't have any bread flour. I just haven't needed bread flour lately so I switched my supply to AP. Lesson learned. All AP lead to a flatter cookie. They were crisp on the edges and soft in the center. Perfect texture and taste wise, but they looked... bleh.

I completely get this is all in my head because there were none left - everyone loved them. Next round of treats will be better.

American Baking and Pastry - Tricky Dough

It was the last lab of my American Baking & Pastry class so naturally I wanted to finish on an up note. For the most part I've been doing well with the baking, with some glitches here and there, but nothing that would make me feel like a baking dummy.

But along came the Cranberry Walnut Tart. And that dough. That dough!

Let's start from the beginning. I decided this morning that I wanted to do the special dessert for this week. The week's theme was New England and what's more New England than cranberries? Looked over the recipe, seemed simple enough. Thought it was strange we using a different dough for the tart shells, especially since there was an Apple Caramel Tart for the B menu that used Pate Brisee.

Whatever, a new dough to learn.

I was paired up with my partner from the last lab (Double Chocolate Cream Puff) and went checked the fridge to see if there was extra tart dough we could use and woohoo! More than enough. Chef had also mentioned making another batch just to practice making the dough. Sure, but after we got these tarts going.

The trick with this dough, according to Chef, was to keep it cold. Frozen. So we tried to work quickly, rolling out the dough in the sheeter and cutting out pieces to fit into the tart tins without really having to work it too much. Mostly pushing it into the tin, removing any air bubbles, and cutting off the excess. When we had our 24 tart shells, we stuck them in the freezer and waited.

And waited. 

Every now and then I would peek and press on the dough, to feel for any give. When it seemed firm enough, I pulled the tray out of the freezer and popped them into the convection oven. The recipe calls for it to bake in a convection over until pale before pulling them out, filling, and finishing the bake in a deck oven.

All was well for a minute. Then came the fall.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

I really did say that. All exaggerated with clenched fists and shaking my head. Why did they collapse?!? We just couldn't figure out what happened. Followed everything according to the directions. Except one.

We didn't show Chef the tarts before they went in the oven. When we called him over, it was what he pointed out first. What we thought was frozen wasn't frozen enough. They should have gone into the rapid chiller before baking. There was some leftover dough, but I went ahead and made another batch. I was planning on making some anyways. Wrapped the finished dough in cling and let it sit in the freezer while we rolled out the old dough. When the tarts tins were prepared, we placed them in the rapid chiller and let them sit there for about 30 minutes. Chef cranked up the temperature in the convection oven slightly, and stayed there to watch how the frozen tart dough would fare. 

First minute was okay. Whew.

Then came the fall.

NOOOOOOOO!!! AGAIN?!?

I was seriously doubting my baking abilities at this point. Followed the recipe... made sure it was frozen. Why why why why why why why?!? And then I heard this:

"We've been having problems with this all week."

Really? If only this was mention when we started! I felt slightly better.

It wasn't as tall as it was supposed to be, but we still used the baked tarts. The filling for these tarts is similar to pecan pie filling. Walnuts are toasted in a pan before being chopped. My partner was in charge of the walnuts and chopped them fine, but not too fine. I roughly chopped the cranberries, you should be able to tell that there are cranberries in there. To this eggs, melted butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup are added. Filled the tarts and baked them in a deck oven at 350.

As you can see, a decent portion of the walnut/cranberry with just enough of the liquid from that mixture. According to the recipe, it should be baked for 10-15 minutes of until firm. Ended up taking 20ish mintues and turning the pans around.

How it looked like finished. Kind of surprised it didn't brown too much.

Here's some close up action of the tart. I suppose I could have chopped the cranberries finer, but wouldn't you want to be able to tell you were in fact eating a cranberry? Got to eat a broken one. Reminded me of the walnut boat tarts I used to buy from the Philippine Bread House. 



Ube Buttermilk Donuts

I recently went to a birthday party for a friend and brought donuts with me. I've really been on a donut kick. For this batch, I wanted to make them extra special - just that added touch of Filipino awesomeness. And believe me... they were awesome.

If you want to make these, take a buttermilk baked donut recipe (now don't think I'm holding out on my recipe... I just don't remember which one I used) and add to it ube halaya. It's the stuff in the jar. This ube has sugar already added to it, so you can scale back on the sugar in the recipe. Or not. Your call. I may have used a little over 1/4 cup. Maybe more. I wasn't really measuring. Bake as you would any baked donut. Toss in sugar. Practice self restraint and share these delicious purple treats. You can up the purple hue with some food color, but it's not necessary.

I got to the party with donut container in hand and I swear donut radar kicked in. I think they were hidden at one point, but everyone had a chance to try them, including the birthday boy. I'm not sure if there were any left when I headed home, but I sort of recall someone asking for the recipe. 

If I were you I'd stick to the larger donut pans. Those minis can be tricky. Plus if you overfill them they look like mini bundt cakes.

Brioche and Gluten Free Breads

One of my colleagues asked me at work, "so what are you bringing me next?"

Well, brioche. The larger of the two loaves I baked up this evening. Forgot to do the egg wash, but it really isn't necessary. I could help myself and cut into the smaller loaf. Nice and buttery. Reminds me of a croissant, but not flaky. Considering how much butter is in the recipe, eating this with butter is not needed. Would be fabulous for French toast. Will have to tinker with it to make mini ensaymadas.

The other bread is a gluten free and I made this specifically for one person at work. Like the brioche I made two - this somewhat shaped loaf and a misshapened mess that should never see the light of day. It's okay, but nothing something I'd eat unless I'd absolutely have to. It's made with sorghum and brown rice flour, and a heavy amount of tapioca starch. It may be in my head but I swear I can taste a fine grit. Weighs a ton. 

Will have to remember to bring jam or apple butter in for the bread.

American Baking and Pastry - Lecture 1

Today was the first day of school for the fall semester at SCCC, and one of the few times in my long college career where I was looking foward to it. First day of class and we were already assigned homework.

And I already finished it. Something that I don't think I've ever actually done. So for all you kids out there, this is how it looks when you take classes you actually like - you do the homework right away.

Enough about that.

As with the first day of classes, it was basically an overview of the course and what to expect for the semester. There was a little bit of teaching, but mostly going over things we should have learned in Intro to Baking. This is a five hour class, but tonight we stayed for a little over two.

There are a handful of familiar faces in my class, which is a relief. The make up of the class is about 50-50 younger students to older adults. And I fall into the older adult side. But because this is an upper level class, I think people will be taking things seriously.

Homework tonight was going over the handout on common liqueurs used in baking and their corresponding flavor. Most of the items on the list I already know, such as Amaretto, Cointreau, Drambuie, Grand Marnier, Pernod.

Next week is another lecture, but according to the schedule it's the last time we'll be in a classroom before the final exam. The rest of the semester will be spent in the kitchen.

Under the Copper Tree Presents: Recipe Calculator Manager Thing v1.0

Hi.

So R's been busy with some things.. work, classes, baking... mostly baking. And so to help her out with her recipes, (keeping them organized, calculating weights, approximating costs, etc.,) I've come up with a nifty Excel spreadsheet. It allows her to enter any recipe in more or less any measure, recalculates and converts to US and metric units, scales for batch size, and semi-automatically calculates costs, ("semi" meaning you still may need to enter in a few price details if it's not already included in the list I have set up). This is still far from perfect, but it works for our needs, even if we still have to fudge some information around.

I've tried to make this as easy to use as possible, but I'm pretty sure it's still going to give some folks a headache. Being such, I've locked the worksheets to prevent any accidental additions, deletions, or general tomfoolery. If you'd like to unlock and add your own customized additions, just send an email to underthecoppertree@gmail.com and we'll gladly oblige. Also, this is a macro-enabled worksheet that uses Visual Basic scripting, so you'll need to enable content and macros to be able to easily add recipes. I promise there's no malicious software or coding that's included, and I won't be able to peer through your webcam and see what's happening in the privacy of your living room.. (P.S. Dan, put a shirt on.)

Fields that you can select you can edit. This includes the 'Recipe Name', 'Ingredients', measurements (except for calculated measurements), instruction areas, batch size, yield, and 'Ingredient List'. If an ingredient is added that is found in the 'Ingredient List', pricing information is automatically calculated and scaled to the amount called for in the recipe. Price of ingredient used will automatically appear to the left of the name, and the total cost of the recipe will be updated. If an ingredient is not found in the 'Ingredient List', you can enter or update the information as required. Names must match exactly (ie. "egg" is not equal to "eggs"), though you can create multiple entries to account for this. Cost will be calculated using the calculated measurements, so it won't matter if you buy N oz of a certain ingredient but need X cups -- it will give you a price regardless. Since '#' is not a quantifiable unit of measure, a value for '#' will need to be entered in the 'Ingredient List' to calculate cost per item.

To add a recipe, simply click the Add button. This will copy your recipe to a new worksheet, named via the 'Recipe Name' field. Be careful though, this new recipe will be shown in the newly focused window. You will need to click on the "Add New Recipe" tab again, (which will still be populated with the recipe you just added), and hit the Reset button to clear the fields and ready the worksheet for another new recipe. .. Like I said, this is a work in progress.

Anyway, if you'd like to try it out you can download it from here. I'd love your input, questions, comments, suggestions, large sums of money, etc. Leave a comment or email underthecoppertree@gmail.com.

Thanks Santa!

I really don't want to push the whole resolution thing, because of the inevitable breaking of my proposed resolutions. Goals sounds safer. So one of my goals is to write more. But not write for writing's sake. So many things quickly become forgotten and I really don't want to let anything pass me by this year.

I also want to try and save more, spend less. Unclutter. Be nicer. Things. I'll let you know how those things go.

Today the family got together to celebrate Christmas and New Years. After the death of my grandfather, I would have thought we would get together more often - especially during the holidays. We did at Thanksgiving, but life got in the way for Christmas. And New Years Eve... everyone did their thing separately. I was upstate sick and baking. I still am feeling sick and tried my best not to pass it on.

When I say family, it also includes the extended family. And there are a lot of us, making gifts difficult. So we have resorted to Secret Santa/Kris Kringle. The names of all those participating are thrown into a hat and the name you draw is the person you get a gift for. At first it was just the adults, and us kids still received presents. But we're now adults so we're having a Secret Santa of our own, with a few differences. The parents set their limit to $50; we settled on the $20-$50 range. We have a group on Facebook where we list some ideas of things we would like (call it selfish/materialistic/not in the spirit of the holiday all you want, but I appreciate the suggestions... and knowing sizes!); the parents take a wild guess.

I got my cousin J some makeup thing from MAC, M got my cousin R an Otter Box. R's girl K got me what you see above. They didn't have to get me both, and I was not expecting it at all. But it was a bit of a thank you for my baking cakes and little treats for their son. His birthday was on Thanksgiving and I made him a chocolate cake with chocolate fudge buttercream. On an uncle's birthday I made a banana cake with cream cheese frosting and he absolutely loved it. He has an allergy to peanuts and a handful of nuts so I have been trying to be very careful in my baking and take it into consideration when choosing recipes. 

Have you ever seen the documentary "Kings of Pastry?" It follows pastry chefs compete in the Meilleur Ouvrier de France competition for a chance to be awarded the title of MOF. Those French and their titles... Anyways, one of the pastry chefs in the documentary is Jacquy Pfeiffer. He also wrote the book, "The Art of French Pastry" which I got as my Secret Santa gift. I flipped through it quickly and ohmygoodness I will have a lot of fun trying these recipes out. The page I opened up to was a recipe for Anise Macarons. It lists metric measurements which since my baking class, is the only way I do my baking. 

Helping me perfect those macarons will be the silicone baking mats I also got. But it also has other uses... not just for macarons. Incan make uniform meringues and meringue clouds. And Nila Wafers. Not that I'm craving them, but I can make them and make them uniform. 

Now I just need to find a good nut-free recipe.

When the Mind Wanders at 3AM

I got one... maybe two hours of sleep.

And it could be that second hour that ruined my bread.

But then again, I really should stop making bread so late into the evening. It's my second attempt at the sandwich bread from the Bread Bible cookbook. So far it is looking better than what I made the first time. But regardless I have a feeling this will go into the "never bake again" pile. Or maybe I was fooling myself into thinking I had a handle on this bread baking thing.

Along with baking bread I've been doing the food prep I should have done days ago. The leeks I grew in my garden this year will go into some potato leek soup this week. I'll have to remember to make some bread bowls for it.

We're covering cakes in lab this week. I'll be making a chocolate cake with swiss buttercream. And being he overachiever that I am with this class, I'll be making it before class. So today or tomorrow. Not to mention I need to make something from the quick cakes lab that I'll be missing. I've narrowed it down to biscuits or scones. Sweet or savory. Maybe both.

I was contemplating a nap before I'm fully awake, but it's already after 4. Might as well stay up and just get the day going. I've seen it go from steady rain to wet snow. Looks like it's slowing down now.

I don't know where my snow brush is.

Sur la Table Haul

This is still a thing, right? Posting about purchases at shops? If not, call it a revival.

I wouldn't call myself a die-hard, but I really do like this store. I walk in an ooh and ahh just about everything in there. I easily lose track of time when I visit (I was in there today for over an hour!) and my restraint is always tested. Today I did alright... I went in for one thing, possibly two. I walked out with only three. 

Next lab we're covering cookies. Brownies are also thrown in there. The recipes we had to choose from were not all that appealing. I was thinkng shortbread, but I figured that would be more work. Spritz seemed easy enough, plus I get to use a pastry bag. But here's the kicker - they don't suply the pastry bag, or the star tip the recipe calls for. Considering how much I've spent for this class, they could have those on hand. But no...

And let me stop complaining. The pastry bag by itself goes for $17.95. This kit has the bag plus plastic tips for $24.95. I don't know about you, but I think it's a good deal. I'll let you know how well it works on cookie dough. Will be perfect for piping whipped cream or meringues. And because it's a silicone bag, I can use it over and over again.

This is the reason why I stopped into the store today. I flipped through the mailer and saw this beaut, along with a milk frother and pressure cooker oven. Never going to get the frother or oven (unless gifted or given to review hinthinthinthinthint) but the guide is more than reasonable. They are selling it for $9.95. And as the packaging states, it can also be used for fondant, tortillas, and parchment paper. If only I had seen this a couple of weeks ago. But it's the holiday season and pies will be made. Many many pies will be made. You could have pie if you want. I really like the whole process of making them... not really eating them. Maybe a bite or two, but not necessarily a slice anymore. My apptite is weird, I know.

A bowl scraper, $3.00. Nothing fancy here, but it will be a workhorse. I've bought some before at the dollar store, but they always ended up being used for home repair. I follow some bakeries on Youtube and I've noticed some use the scraper when mixing dough by hand. I think I'll try that technique on my next batch of bread. 

I really hope Sur la Table thinks about opening a place in the Capital Region. I <3 them. Really do.

~~~

Random Thoughts:

I harvested more of what remains of my garden and brought it down to my parents. They took all of the  kale, chard, and a big chunk of celery. My sister is digging through the sweet potatoes and onions, hopefully she can use it. Definitely use the sweet potatoes and celery for juicing.

We don't have cable so I get my tv fix whenever I visit. Let me tell you, I really like the new shows on CBS. Stalker, Scorpion, NCIS New Orleans, Madam Secretary. Good stuff. 

AC Moore is having their Moonlight Madness sale tonight. 25% off total regular and sale purchases. But you need the coupon. Ends at 9pm.

I bought a book at Costco, Against All Grain. Pretty excited about it. Not excited that they only accept American Express. But as my dad has explained, their credit card is connected to American Express. I never have cash and I only use my debit card when absolutely necessary. Boo, Costco.

There is leftover Halloween candy. At first I resisted, but Nestle Crunch. I'm a sucker for them.

Post Nap Surprise

“Oh… you’re up.”

Not really the thing to say when you are suddenly woken up by a lunging pup. I can’t really hold it against her… she’s a cutie.

While I was having a much needed snooze fest, M took it upon himself to clean up the kitchen and try his hand at baked goods. It’s not from scratch, but I really can’t hold that against him.

“It’s not really good,” he started to say as I walked into the kitchen. He then went on to explain all the reasons why these muffins were a failure – sticking to the wrappers, not sure if the directions were followed correctly, and well… the stuff was old. A few months past the “use by” date. Not that an expiration date as ever stopped me before. And besides, the kitchen smelled really good.

The muffin did stick to the wrapper, but it was still pretty warm. Taste wise, it was pretty bland. Maybe on the verge of banana bread like. But with no banana, so that’s a bit of a stretch. The topping was a weird powdery mess, but it looked nice enough. Hard as a rock and possibly tooth chipping.

So what box mix was responsible?

I don’t even remember buying it, but I’m sure it was on sale and figured I’d give it a try. It would be better if you doctor the mix and forgo the topping it comes with. You can do better.

Homemade Pumpkin Peanut Butter Dog Treats

I must admit, I am spoiling this pup rotten. She has a ton of toys and a number of shirts to keep her warm while she’s outside. Her dog food is some expensive, fancy schmancy stuff. So obviously she will only get healthy-ish treats.

I found this recipe somewhere on Pinterest, the actual link I’m sure I can find it if I put my mind to it, but… that means work. And I like to avoid work when I can. Like now.

Regardless of my lack of follow through, this recipe is simple enough – you mix together pureed pumpkin (canned is the easiest), peanut butter, whole wheat flour, oats, cinnamon, salt, and egg. I also added some flax seeds… only because I need to kill this supply. If you make this in your mixer, you may want to use the dough hook. Roll the dough out on a floured surface to about half an inch thick. You can use cookie cutters, or cut into strips or squares (probably the easiest of your options). Placed on a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 20 (for a chewy treat) to 30 minutes (for a hard treat). Store in an air tight container and soon enough your pup will come running when they hear that container open. Stella does… that’s not weird, right? 

Moons Over My Pie-y Cake

Something happened yesterday that has not happened in a very long time.

I was phone-less.

Yeah.

I plugged it into the charger while running around getting things ready for the day. Ran out the door and remembered I didn't have my phone as I was exiting 787. Not that it really mattered... it was a busy day at work, but it was weird.

M, being the nice guy he is, brought it in when he came in for work.

I am pretty sure this would not have happened if I had decided not to bring a cake into work.

Monday was my co-worker's actual birthday, but I thought it would be nice if I made something to celebrate. I'm still pretty new here and still in the "getting to know you" phase of it all. One of the gifts co-worker received was a tote full of pinwheel cookies.

"I know Moon Pies are your favorite, but I figured this would be close to it."

Well, that was easy. I looked up recipes for moon pie cakes, and settled on one from the Serious Eats website. Go on, look it up. It didn't seem that hard, but making marshmallow frosting seemed daunting. Still, I was up for the challenge. I printed out the recipe and headed to the store after work.

Because of my interest in cakes of late, I had most of the ingredients at home. I grabbed more butter (amazing how much of this stuff I go through!), dark chocolate, unflavored gelatin, and graham flour. Did you know that graham flour is a type of whole wheat flour? I didn't, which would explain why I had such a hard time finding the stuff. The other shoppers must have thought I was nuts walking up and down that aisle trying to find graham flour. But I found it, and after cleaning up the kitchen from M's most recent round of renovations, I started on the cake.

Cake

Mix the dry ingredients together, mix the wet ingredients together, and then mix them all together. I was contemplating swapping out the AP flour with cake flour, but I didn't want to risk messing up the thing. The addition of whole wheat flour (and I guess the brown sugar plays into it as well) will darken the batter, and gives it that graham cracker coloring I'm used to. Maybe whole wheat flours do that in general - I don't work with the stuff very often.

The recipe calls for the use of two 9-inch round pans, but a taller cake, so I used an 8-inch pan and collared it. I probably filled it a little over half, and had enough batter left over for six cupcakes. Placed both in the oven and went back to some Netflix watching. The cupcakes were done in about 30 minutes. The middle of the cake was still a bit fluid, needed another 25 minutes or so before it was done. Left the cake out in the sun room to cool and went to sleep.

Marshmallow Frosting

Because it is marshmallow, I figured the best time to make it would be the following morning. Which meant four in the morning wake up. Crazy, yes... but I was determined to make this an amazing cake!

After making this frosting, I think it's safe to say making marshmallows shouldn't be too hard. You just have to get over the fear of piping hot sugar flying at you. Wear long sleeves and it's not a problem. And maybe glasses.

While the sugar/water mixture was coming to a boil, I leveled and torted the cake. I may have been a tad too generous with the cake spray, because the cake seemed pretty greasy. I started making this with the hand mixer, but it was taking much longer than the recipe stated. So into the stand mixer the frosting went and soon after I had what looked like fluff. Placed the first cake layer on the cake circle and a generous amount of the frosting. Smoothed it out to the edges and placed the second caker layer and more frosting. I need to work some more on my icing technique, but for a pretty crumby cake I did pretty well. I was going to add more of the frosting, but it started to set so I quickly dusted a small pan with corn starch (that's what you use, right?) and spread the remainder in there. Put the cake back in the sun room to set while I worked on the chocolate sauce.

Chocolate Drip

Pretty simple enough - heavy cream and corn syrup heated to a simmer then mix in chocolate. I gave it a shower/getting ready for the day length of time to cool down before pouring over the cake. It was still pretty runny because not only did it spill over the side of the cake, but also off the cake board and onto the turntable. Cleaned up as best I could and boxed it up. Dishes were left for M.

Results

There are no pictures in this post. Because I didn't have my phone. See how it all ties in? The co-worker with a birthday liked it, and others mentioned that it did remind them of a Moon Pie. Success! I dropped a slice off in M's department and he shared it with his co-workers. He didn't tell me what he thought about it.

I can't tell  you what I thought about it, because I haven't tried it. I like the baking and giving them away to people, but I don't want to actually eat these things. Not that it's diet reasons. I think I'm starting to lose my sweet tooth. But there is one slice left. And it's waiting for me.

I'll have to get back to you on what I think of it.