Happy Halloween!!

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Clara of I Heart Food 4 Thought. You can find the full recipe on Clara’s site or by purchasing the book Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

First, I mixed up the batter in my KitchenAid. Love, love, love my mixer. 🙂
Then I used my ice cream scoop to evenly divide the batter into 12 cupcakes and threw them in the oven.

They came out of the oven and seemed kinda — well — flat. They didn’t rise much at all. Does it seem weird that baking soda and baking powder were both in this recipe? Can someone explain to me how these ingredients work?

But anyway, I had short cupcakes.

But I made ganache and frosted them anyway.

Then, I picked the orange M & M’s out of a bag to put on top of the cupcakes to give them a “halloweenie” feel. I only ate one of these and I thought it was pretty good. Very rich and chocolaty. I took them to the yearbook girls yesterday and they just picked at them. I think it was too much chocolate for their taste buds.

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was perfect for the season! Thank you to Kelly from Sounding my Barbaric Gulp for choosing pumpkin muffins this week! The full recipe can be found on Kelly’s site or on page 13 of Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

A big thank you goes out to my hubby, Mike, for making the batter for these bad boys. My ear has been bothering me and I was quite whiny about it (honestly, I think it may fall off soon) so he made the batter while I played with Bo. I finished the cupcakes up because Bo needed some daddy time, otherwise, these would have been a total Mike creation. All of the photos were taken by him as well!

Mike is a much more meticulous baker than I am. He set out all of the ingredients first and was all prepared before he began the recipe. I’m more of a dump it in as you go type, but his organization did make for a nice picture. 🙂

Mike combined all of the ingredients to make the batter, but only added the raisins after a firm reminder. I think he’s still scared because of Dorie’s French Chocolate Brownies that I made earlier in the year!
I took over and scooped the batter into the muffin molds and sprinkled on the sunflower seeds.
And here is one of our muffins, getting ready to head into the fiery inferno.
Viola! Beautiful pumpkin muffins!
I really enjoyed the muffins. The pumpkin flavor was good. The texture was good. The raisins didn’t creep me out and I loved the sunflower seeds on top. Definitely best warmed up with a little butter!

I took them to school to share yesterday but Jason’s chocolate chip cookies won out. One of the yearbook girls was brave and she thought it was quite tasty. Anyone want a muffin? I’ve got 8 left.

It’s Tuesday! Time for another exciting Tuesdays with Dorie recipe. This week’s recipe is Lenox Almond Biscotti. The recipe was selected by Canela and Comino . The full recipe can be found on their site or by purchasing the ever popular book Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

I’ll be the first to admit I wasn’t thrilled to see this as the recipe this week. I’ve never been a big fan of biscotti. I love coffee but I’ve never seen the appeal of eating a dried piece of dough with it. I decided to make it anyway because I have several friends who do enjoy biscotti so I thought Bo and I could take it to them when we stop by this week. However, after tasting this biscotti, I’ve changed my philosophy. These were easy to make and surprisingly good. This recipe far surpassed my expectations!

The first step is to combine the butter, sugar, and eggs and whip until creamy.

Meanwhile, whisk together the dry ingredients. Yum – cornmeal!

Next, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and finally mix in the almonds. I threw the biscotti logs in the oven and then let them cool before cutting into individual chunks.

Then you bake the biscotti again.

Beautiful biscotti.

The final stage is to try it with a cup of coffee. And I have to admit, a few less will be delivered to my friends, because they are already mingling in my gullet.

This is the first challenge in Do You Want Pies With That? Click over and visit the others who participated in this months challenge!!

The goal of the club is to create a new and unique pie each month. This month’s theme was “I Love that Movie!”. When I originally told Mike about the theme he came up with my pie idea immediately — Sleepless in Seattle Mocha Pie.

Mike doesn’t like coffee and he only tolerates Sleepless in Seattle, but it is one of my favorite movies of all time. How can you not fall in love with little Jonah? And the flashback with Tom Hanks and his late wife in front of Wrigley Field…. That is what my dreams are made of… Anyway, I digress, can you think of a better pie for a sleepless night than one with a little kick of java to keep you going. 🙂

It was very rainy here yesterday. Maybe I was channeling Seattle…

I took my favorite French Silk Pie and modified the recipe to create my version of:

Sleepless in Seattle Mocha Pie

You will need:
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
4 eggs
2 Tbsp. instant coffee
pre-baked pie crust (Dorie’s is always good)
whipped cream (heavy whipping cream and sugar)

Allow the butter to soften slightly. Beat sugar and butter until sugar is not grainy. It is very important that you beat this step long enough – otherwise your pie will not have the silky texture it needs.

While the butter and sugar are mixing, melt 2 ounces of bittersweet chocolate in the microwave and let it cool. In a small bowl, beat one of the eggs and add the instant coffee to dissolve.

When the butter and sugar are smooth in texture, add the chocolate, then the coffee/egg mixture. Beat for 3 minutes. Then add each additional egg, beating for 3 minutes after each addition.

Pour your filling into a pre-baked pie crust that has cooled. Be sure to scrape the bowl and get all of the mocha goodness. 🙂 Place the pie in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
Before serving, whip up a batch of homemade whipped cream. It’s really easy! Just beat 1 cup of heavy whipping cream and once it starts to form peaks, add 2 Tbsp. of sugar.

I topped the pie with chocolate chips. Viola! Sleepless in Seattle Mocha Pie!

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Wee Treats by Tammy. The full recipe can be found on her site or by purchasing the ever popular book Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

The cake portion was very easy to make and didn’t require any fancy materials. Just a few bowls and a whisk to whip up the cake.

I decided to make two mini-cakes using my two small springform pans. I don’t have a large springform pan anymore. It was stolen when I took a cheesecake to the school’s Christmas party. And I’m still bitter about it…

So I popped the two cakes in the oven and fed Bo some dinner. Then, after Bo went to bed and the cakes were cool, I made my first batch of homemade caramel. And it was yummy!!

The first step is to combine sugar, water, and corn syrup in a heavy bottomed pan. Then, let it boil until it starts to turn a deep amber color. Once the color starts to appear add cream and butter. I can feel my arteries clogging…

The next step is to combine the peanuts and the caramel to make the topping and poor it over the cake. Yum!

My caramel slid down the side of my springform pan, so I don’t have any pretty pictures of the finished product. But it does look as good as it tastes — ooey and gooey! I took one of the mini-cakes to school to share with the lunch crew and the yearbook girls and we had the other cake last night for supper.

We had to hack into the cake using the blunt end of a plastic spoon during lunch, but it still tasted good. My mom liked the cake and said that the top tasted like a Pay-Day candy bar. Mike agreed with Mom but felt like it would have been better over a more fudgey brownie. Mike and I both prefer more fudge-like brownies instead of cakey ones. Bo had a few bites of the cake (sans peanuts and caramel) and really loved it. What’s not to love about chocolate cake??

Overall, I probably won’t make the cake again, but the caramel topping is definitely a keeper. Apples dipped in that peanut and caramel topping would be a pretty amazing fall treat!

I don’t own a torch so I decided not to attack the Creme Brulee this week. Instead, I made a rewind from before I joined Tuesdays With Dorie –Snickery Squares. These were originally hosted by Michelle. You can find the full recipe on her site or by purchasing the book, Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

The first step was to make a buttery, shortbread crust. I threw all of the ingredients into my Cuisinart (my second favorite kitchen toy — after my KitchenAid) and it turned out lovely.

I pressed the dough into the bottom of an 8×8 pan and began caramelizing peanuts. The first step is to stir water and sugar over medium high heat. Once the mixture starts to darken, toss in the peanuts.
Once the peanuts have reached an amber color, spread them onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Viola!!
While my peanuts cooled, I poured the caramel over the top of my crust. Wasn’t it pretty?
Finally, I sprinkled the caramelized peanuts over the caramel sauce, and then finished it all off with a thick layer of melted chocolate.
The end result, while appearing ooey-gooey and good, really wasn’t something to write home about. It was almost too rich. Overall, I was disappointed. I finally had an opportunity to complete a rewind recipe and I didn’t find it wonderful. As Mike said, “it was fine.” And it was. But it wasn’t wonderful….

I took the leftovers to school to share with the lunch crew. Jason thought they were good. Ben thought they would have been better without chocolate. He apparently doesn’t like chocolate that well. And Mandy thought they were way to messy to attempt to eat during class. Hopefully, next week’s chocolate, caramel, and peanut cake will be a bigger hit!

I’m a slacker…
And I don’t really like plums…
So I didn’t make the Tuesday’s With Dorie Plum Cake this week…
But stop over there anyway and see everyone else’s.

Instead, I made a super fast, super easy dessert that Mike loves – Key Lime Pie. This is Mike’s Mom’s recipe — and she stole it off the back of the container of Nellie and Joe’s Key West Lime Juice!

You’ll need:
1 premade graham cracker crust
14 oz. sweetened condensed milk
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup lime juice
a few drops of green food coloring

Combine all ingredients and blend well with a hand mixer.

Pour into crust and bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes and refridgerate at least 4 hours before serving.

We decided to let Bo try it. He’s sucked on limes and lemons before so we knew he could handle the tart flavor. That didn’t stop some of his expressions from being pretty adorable!

Mike prepares Bo’s first bite. This is the only picture I have of the finished pie!!
Bo waits for the spoon to make it to his mouth.

“Hum. Pie.”

“It’s a bit tart. And why are you taking my picture?”

“Sour pie. Humph.”