Happy birthday, America! (Apple Pie Cookies)

I've been told that pies are the next cupcake. I wasn't convinced. Yes, you can make pies in adorable miniature form in a cupcake pan. But it's just not that portable, you know? They crumble, the filling falls out, it's a whole plate and fork deal. But I think I've found the solution.

Peanut butter cup brownies

Confession.. I made these at the beginning of April. It's now the middle of May and I'm only now getting around to posting. Oops.

They are brownies baked in mini muffin tins with peanut butter and chocolate chips spooned into the middle. They are the perfect combination of chocolate and peanut butter. They are bite size. They are adorable.

Almond Chocolate Chip cookies

I saw a story a couple weeks ago on NPR about gluten free baking. I don't particularly enjoy doing it--I feel like I have less flexibility to modify recipes because I don't know how they work, whether it's gluten, egg, dairy, soy, etc, free. Years of baking and recipes have given me some idea of how ingredients work together in cookies, breads and the like. But with GF recipes, all that goes out the window. I made some GF chocolate chip cookies a week ago that turned out incredibly flat and crispy and looked kind of.. holey. No idea why, because I don't know how the GF flour mix worked with the dairy free shortening and egg free substitute. The cookies were still delicious though, so that was a plus.

Still zesting

A lovely friend of mine was having a birthday party for her darling one-year old daughter and I wanted to contribute a yummy baked good. Rolling along the zesting train, I came back to the lime white chocolate pound cake. (I know what I said about buttermilk and I still hold to that, but my roommate had extra buttermilk for me to use!).

Given the success of the lime white chocolate chip cookies, I had high hopes for the pound cake. The lime seemed to be a perfect way to lighten up the sweetness of the pound cake and white chocolate. Sadly, the cake didn't turn out.

The flavor of it was exactly what I hoped for, but I could. not. get. it. out. I ended up half loaves due to the bottom half of the loaf remaining in the pan. At least they looked normal when flipped over (albeit a bit short). I greased all the pans sufficiently, so I'm not sure what happened. From the holes in the pound cake, my suspicion is that the white chocolate chips couldn't withstand the sustained heat and melted, creating a sticky browned sugar/fat/cake situation on the bottom of the pan. I really liked the flavor, though, so I'm going to try this one again with modifications.

Currently with my zesting projects, I'm one for three--the lemon berry muffins were eh and these were stuck fast to the pan.

Piles of lime zest

It was my first time baking with my Kindle! It was so useful to not have to bring my laptop into the kitchen with me. All I had to do was send the recipe to my Kindle address (either as a Word doc or a pdf) and it downloaded wirelessly.

They looked fine when they came out, but as you can see, the bottoms didn't fare so well. Totally normal looking when flipped back over though.

Lime White Chocolate Pound Cake

from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody
3 cups cake flour (I used 3 cups all purpose minus 6 tbsp)
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 cup buttermilk
3 TBSP fresh lime juice
Zest of one lime
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 eggs, at room temperature
1 cup white chocolate chips coated with 2 TBSP flour

Preheat oven to 350F.

Grease a 10-4 inch bundt pan or a long loaf pan (I used 4 mini loaf pans and still had enough leftover to fill 6 muffin cups) using baking spray (next time I'll grease and flour), set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugar, until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition. Add the lime juice and zest, and beat for one minute on medium-high speed.

Mix together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a bowl and set aside.

Starting and ending with the flour, alternate adding the flour mixture and buttermilk to the butter mixture. Mix until fully combined after each addition--five additions total (1/3 flour, 1/2 buttermilk, 1/3 flour, 1/2 buttermilk, 1/3 flour). Fold in the white chocolate chips.

Bake for 60-65 minutes, or until a wooden skewer tester or knife comes out clean.

This season brought to you by the color orange

I love fall. I love the leaves changing, cooler weather, sweaters, warm apple cider, hot chocolate, being buried under blankets and boots.

Fall also means pumpkins, and lots of them.

Carving them.















Eating their seeds.

And of course, other things.
















The start to all that is good and delicious: copious amounts of sugar and butter
















Some crystallized ginger--easily found in the bulk section of QFC/Whole Foods and the dried fruit section of Safeway.
















Can't forget the most important part: PUMPKIN




















Poor little naked cupcake. I'll help, no worries.




















Topped them with cream cheese frosting

Pumpkin cupcakes
Adapted from allrecipes.com

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 (3.4 ounce) package instant butterscotch pudding mix

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/3 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup white sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree

Preheat an oven to 325 degrees F. Grease 24 muffin cups (I got 27-30 out of this recipe), or line with paper muffin liners. Whisk together the flour, pudding mix, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ground ginger, allspice, cloves, and crystallized ginger in a bowl; set aside.

Beat the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until light and fluffy. The mixture should be noticeably lighter in color. Add the room-temperature eggs one at a time, allowing each egg to blend into the butter mixture before adding the next. Beat in the vanilla and pumpkin puree with the last egg. Stir in the flour mixture, mixing until just incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared muffin cups.

Bake in the preheated oven until golden and the tops spring back when lightly pressed, about 25 minutes. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.

Cream cheese frosting
Adapted from allrecipes.com
Covered about 30 cupcakes

1 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese,softened

1/4 cup butter, softened

2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners' sugar. Store in the refrigerator after use.