Thursday, September 11, 2008

New Address!

I have a new address and website! I'm having some issues at the moment getting my Blogger account to properly redirect you automatically, so for the moment, you'll have to click the link or enter the new address in your browser.
www.pumpkinandspice.net
I'll be posting all new blog entries there from now on, so be sure to change the address on your favorites lists and/or blogrolls!
See you there!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Coming Soon...

Hi! I know it's been a few days since my last post, but please bear with me! I've got something new coming really soon! I pinky-swear!

Saturday, September 6, 2008

The Buttercream Low-Down

I looove frosting. I'm the one at the birthday party who wants the corner piece with all the roses piled on top and I'm not afraid to admit that when I'm done making frosting, I eat the scraps out of the bowl.
The world of frosting is big and beautiful- there are hard royal icings, cooked fudge frosting, marshmallowy meringue frostings, glazes, ganaches, and of course, buttercreams. Buttercream is probably the most popular frosting (in America, at least), but there are so many varieties...

My personal favorite is simple buttercream(sometimes referred to as "American" buttercream.) It's easy to make, is uncooked and pipes like a dream. It is, however, so sugary it makes your teeth burn. Most bakery "birthday" cakes- the kind with roses- are iced with simple buttercream. It's also what I used in my yo-yo cookies- you can find that recipe here.
Simple buttercream is made by creaming a fat with confectioner's sugar and flavorings. For the fat you can use butter, shortening or a 50/50 of the two. All butter tastes the best, but doesn't pipe as well because the butter gets soft at room temperature, also, the icing is a little ivory in color. All shortening tastes the most "fake", but pipes the best, is pure white and holds its shape best if it's a little warm. I like a half-and-half of butter and shortening, as you get the nice buttery flavor, but also the stability of the shortening. I also add an egg white to mine. It may sound gross, but the egg white really helps give the frosting a nice, smooth mouth feel. You can leave it out and use a tablespoon or two of cream, but the frosting is a little grittier. They sell pasteurized egg whites in a carton, as well as pasteurized in-the-shell eggs if you don't want to take your chances with food borne illness.

If you want something that's a little less dense and a little less sweet,but that still pipes well, Italian buttercream is a pretty good choice. It's a little more complex, as it has a cooked meringue base, but it is much less sugary tasting. It pipes quite well, and I like it better on very sweet cakes. (Sorry, this is a by-weight recipe...if you don't own a food scale, I highly recommend them. Not only does it make European recipes a cinch, but baking is so much less messy when you weigh it. They're only about $20. It's a good investment.)

Italian Buttercream

8oz sugar
2oz water
4oz egg whites
10oz butter, room temp.
1tsp vanilla extract

In a heavy bottomed saucepan heat sugar and water until they reach 240F. While the sugar is heating, put your egg whites in your mixing bowl. When the sugar is at about 200ish, start whipping the egg whites to med-stiff peaks. Once sugar reaches 240F, reduce the speed on the egg whites to low and slowly and carefully whip the hot sugar into the whites. Once all the sugar is in, add the vanilla and turn up the speed and whip the mixture until it is cool. (No warmer than body temperature!) Turn the speed down, and add the butter in chunks, waiting until one chunk is incorporated to add the next. Once the butter is all in, whip a little longer, until fluffy.
(Be sure your meringue is pretty cool before adding the butter, or it'll just melt and make buttery sugar soup.)

French buttercream is similar in preparation to Italian buttercream, but is made with yolks instead of whites. It's very rich, but just lightly sweet. It's pretty soft, and doesn't really pipe that well. You could get a border and some filigree out of it, but not roses. It's very delicious, though.

French Buttercream

8oz sugar
2oz water
3oz egg yolks
10oz butter, room temp.
1tsp vanilla

The preparation is basically the same as for Italian buttercream, so I'll give you abridged directions. Whip the yolks until they are light and thick. Cook the sugar and water to 240F. With the mixer on low, slowly drizzle the sugar into the yolks. Add the vanilla, and whip until cool. Add the butter in small chunks while still whipping. Whip until fluffy.

Last, and definitely least (in my opinion) is Swiss buttercream. It pipes really well, but tastes exactly like the "honey whipped margarine" that they put in little paper cups on breakfast buffets. Seriously, it tastes primarily of butter, and then, as a faint aftertaste, a tiny bit of sweetness. I love frosting, but Swiss buttercream is where I draw the line. I'm telling you about it, so you are aware of its existence, but I'm not going to post a recipe. I can't in good conscience inflict it on others. If you're really passionate about eating butter, you can scour the internet and find a recipe yourself.
Hopefully, these recipes are helpful, and will provide you with a bit of direction in the vast and varied land of frosting options. Don't be intimidated by the cooked frostings, because the flavor and textures are truly divine, and really, they aren't that hard to make. Happy frosting, my friends!

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Yo, yo! Party Cookies!

Those of you who live in the south and prowl the bakery section of your local Publix like me are probably familiar with the decadant, super sugary, artery clogging death cookie known as the Yo-yo. It exists outside the walls of Publix, but aside from a few references to the cookies I found on-line, it seems to lie pretty low on the cookie radar.
Delicious and wonderful in that "I think I can feel my thighs getting bigger" sort of way, the yo-yo is two cookies (chocolate chip at Publix, though most non-Publix references I found were sugar cookies) sandwiched together with buttercream icing and (sometimes) dipped in chocolate. They sell them individually at Publix, probably realising that if they sold them in multi-packs they'd have to make people sign a waiver. I'm usually good and just glance wistfully at them, but every now and then I break down and buy one. I eat it, bounce around like Mike Myers in that hyper-hypo sketch on SNL, then collapse into a little sugar coma.

Kyle and I had some friends over for game night this weekend, so of course I had to make some sort of dessert. I decided to make a homemade version of my favorite guilty pleasure cookie.
It's very simple- I used my standard chocolate chip cookie recipe (which has been modified and tweaked over the years), a "simple" buttercream, and chocolate candy coating for dipping.
If you really wanted to, you could even use store bought cookie dough and jarred frosting, though the recipes aren't hard, and will taste better. I did cheat a little with the candy coating (sometimes called "almond bark", though I don't know why). The coating is easily melted in the microwave and sets up hard, without having to go through the process of tempering like you would have to with real chocolate.
Pumpkin's Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes about 5 dozen 1/2oz cookies

2 sticks (8oz) butter, softened
1/2c sugar
1c packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2t vanilla
1t salt
2 1/4c flour
1t baking powder
1 bag semi-sweet chips
1c milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Cream butter and sugars together until combined. Add eggs one at a time, along with the vanilla, mixing until just combined. (Do not over-cream or cookies will spread too much). In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder. Add half to the butter and egg mixture. Mix until mostly combined, then add the rest of the flour. Mix until just combined. Fold the chips in by hand. Using a 1/2oz disher (or a spoon) drop cookies onto parchment lined cookie sheets and bake for 10-12min, turning halfway through. Cool on wire racks.

Simple Buttercream
Makes enough for 28-30 cookie sandwiches

1 stick (4oz) butter, softened
4oz vegetable shortening (yes, shortening.)
1 egg white (yes, an egg white. If you get grossed out by raw eggs, use the pasturized egg whites in a carton or the pasturized-in-the-shell kind.)
1lb confectioners sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
In a bowl, whip the butter and shortening until combined. Add the egg white and vanilla and whip. Add the confectioners sugar and whip (you may want to start on low and work your way up to avoid a mess.) Whip until fluffy.
Match cookies up in pairs to other similar cookies. Pipe or spread a generous layer of icing on half the cookies. Sandwich together with the remaining cookies. If desired, dip in melted chocolate candy coating and decorate with rainbow spinkles.

Enjoy with a glass of milk or mug of coffee and an insulin shot.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

The Velveeta Trilogy: Part 3


My final installment of culinary experimentation comes courtesy the "Quick Fixin' Dinners" chapter of "Velveeta: Recipes for People Who Eat Food". I think the chapter intro says more than I ever could:
"These recipes are designed for quick and easy preparation. And to reflect that, we decided to name these recipes 'Quick Fixin' Dinners'. Notice how we dropped the 'g' on the word 'fixing' to show how quickly these dinners can be made. By dropping the letter 'g', we have created a visual cue, so the reader will be convinced that these really are quick recipes and that they should try them for that reason alone."
Well, I'm convinced. Shall we?


Cheeseburger Mac
From "Velveeta: Recipes for People Who Eat Food"
Serves 4-6


1lb ground beef (I used one bag Morningstar Farms Grillers Recipe Crumbles instead)
2 3/4cups water
1/3 cups ketchup
1-2t onion powder (I used 2)
2c (8oz) uncooked elbow macaroni
3/4lb (12oz) Velveeta, cut into cubes.


In a large skillet, brown ground beef and drain. (Since I was using veggie "meat", I skipped this step.) Stir in water, ketchup and onion powder. Bring to a boil. Stir in macaroni. Reduce heat to simmer and cover. Cook for 8-10 minutes, or until pasta is desired doneness. Add Velveeta, and stir until melted.
This was truly fast! (I suppose I should have known that, given the visual cues at the beginning of the chapter and all...) Since I didn't have meat to brown, mine took less than 15min, and I'd guess even with ground beef to brown you'd come in under 25min.


It was good- I mean, everyone loves Velveeta Shells and Cheese, right? This was that with meat. Hard to go wrong. Kyle was a little iffy on the ketchup- it's not super noticeable, but it gives the dish a slight sweetness that he wasn't sure he liked. He thought he'd prefer it sans ketchup. Me, I'm a gross freak and mix ketchup in my mac 'n' cheese anyway, so of course I liked it.