Thursday Things

1. I am applying for a job at a local café! I spend enough time there as it is so I may as well be on the payroll. Wish me luck!
2. Because I spend so much time at said café, I tend to shake from all the caffeine I consume. But that's good right? Burns more calories?
3. I am relatively productive. But also a heinous procrastinator. I think that’s why I like the idea of journalism so much. The deadlines and need to beat the clock make it seem exciting.
4. I have over 2 dozen recipes bookmarked that contain the word “pumpkin” <--fact.
5. This morning my dorm had a pancake breakfast. Best. Idea. Ever. Carbs + conversation = human connections.
6. Nothing makes me more nervous happier than baking for my friends. I feel such a sense of relief accomplishment when they take home my treats and don’t get sick come back asking for more.
7. By combining numbers 3 and 6 above, a friend of a friend asked me to make cupcakes for her daughter’s graduation party next year! A real, live baking job! I am beyond ecstatic. Naturally, I had to make test batches for her and her daughter to try. So, the weekend before I left, I spent nine hours in my kitchen when I should have spent all of that time packing. It was totally worth it though when I produced these little beauties below.

To start things off I made this dark chocolate cupcake with white chocolate ganache and cinnamon and sugar bacon on top (recipe via How Sweet Eats). The mother and daughter loved the idea of bacon in a cupcake (who wouldn’t?!?), so I am going to add bacon to the actual batter and change the ganache to a sour cream frosting to add a little more tang to the dessert.

This guy is a dark chocolate rootbeer float cupcake with a vanilla bean butter cream and rootbeer frosting and filling (recipe via How Sweet Eats). For the party I am going to do a vanilla rootbeer cake, but keep the frosting and the filling the same.

Here we have a a candied ginger cake (recipe via 101 Cookbooks) with a tangy lemon and cream cheese frosting that my mom and grandma have used for years.

A balanced diet means plenty of vegetables so these brown sugar banana cupcakes with avocado butter cream from How Sweet Eats totally fit the bill, right? Right.

The café I adore (as referenced above) has an amazing horchata cake made with ground almonds. I didn’t go that route but found this horchata flavored cake recipe from Cupcake Bakeshop that was a good approximation. I made the horchata buttercream, adding a little lot more cinnamon and filling the cakes with a cinnamon whipped cream. Sigh.

One of my favorite desserts is tiramisu, but I don’t have the patience feel I have the expertise to execute it properly. These tiramisu cupcakes brushed with a coffee liquer glaze and topped with a mascarpone whipped cream frosting were a delicious approximation on the Italian layered dessert (recipe via Martha Stewart).

Since I was turning desserts into cupcakes I decided a bananas foster cupcake with a cinnamon caramel Swiss meringue buttercream would be a fitting recipe to tackle. This was my second time making a Swiss meringue buttercream and I love the process! It produces a light, not-too-sweet frosting that is delicious and SO worth the extra effort (recipe via  The Curvy Carrot).
     
       8. I really like cupcakes.

                

             9. I really need to go for a run.

Happy Thursday!

Amanda

Chocolate Chip Cookies > College

I have been at school since Friday. That’s five days and four nights away from my home. That’s five days and four nights away from my bed, my car, my family, and my kitchen. That’s five days and four nights of showering with flips flops on, walking up eight flights of stairs to go to bed, realizing I forgot an air freshener, and having someone else make my meals.

But that’s also five days and four nights of welcome back hugs, “how was your summer?”s, walks around the city, and meeting new people. 

Classes don’t start for another week, but I got to return early to help move the freshmen in. Scared, anxious, and more than a little nervous mixed with a lot of excited – that was them. And that was me only last year. It is amazing how things can change so much in only 365 days. 

This year is completely different than last. I can feel it already. With every box that I lifted and bed that I lofted, I felt the weight from my first year of college sliding off my back. Now, I recognize people when I’m walking down the street, I know the fastest route to work without having to think about it, and I unpacked and set up in my room in less than two hours. While I do miss home, and all that is familiar there, I am happy to be back. And I am so happy to help the freshmen make the transition that was excruciatingly a little hard for me. 

Last year, when I would get to feeling homesick I searched for a way to comfort myself, some solace for my heart, mind, and soul. I found that in food, in making my own specifically, and baking especially. At times, I thought I wasn’t smart enough, pretty enough, or good enough for my school. That it would all be easier if I just called it quits and went home. The reassurance I got from pulling my pan out of the oven was enough to quell those negative thoughts, to make me realize it would all be ok.

No matter how different I think this year may be, I know I will still get homesick. It is an inevitable as late night study sessions and extra shot lattes. Even now, just imagining the smell of chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven provides me the biggest feeling of relief. The warm vanilla and cozy brown sugar enveloping me like a hug. The taste of a warm cookie, with its melty chocolate, crisp edges, and sweet softness, offers me more reassurance than I would have ever thought possible.

And in return I want to help the freshmen. I want to let them know that it’s hard, but it gets easier. It’s lonely, but you make great friends. It is tough, but it is rewarding, and in the end it is all worth it. I know that they’ll make it through this; I have an entire year under my belt to prove it. I also have my cookie sheet and measuring cups to help me if necessary.

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies (makes about 36 cookies, adapted from The Brown Eyed Baker and The Pioneer Woman)

2 ¼ cups plus 2 TBSP flour

1(heaping) tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. instant coffee granules or espresso powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

Pinch of ground ginger

12 TBS (1 and a half sticks) butter, melted and cooled to room temperature

1 cup packed brown sugar

½ cup granulated sugar

1 egg plus 1 egg yolk

2 tsp. vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)

1 and ¼ cup semisweet chocolate chips

Wisk or sift together flour, baking soda, salt, coffee granules, cinnamon and ginger in a medium bowl. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer combine butter and sugars. Mix on medium to medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about three minutes. Add egg and yolk and beat for another minute. Stir in vanilla.

Working in three small batches (and going SLOWLY), add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Start with the mixer on low speed and increase to medium speed as flour is incorporated, only adding the next batch of flour once the previous is fully combined. Scrape the bowl as necessary.

Remove bowl from mixer and stir in chocolate chips. Cover dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Dough can be stored, covered, in the fridge for two days or in the freezer, tightly wrapped, for one month.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.*

Using a large cookie scoop, or ¼ cup measure, scoop dough onto lined sheets, leaving about 2-2 ½ inches between each cookie. Don’t worry about rolling the dough into a perfect ball, we want the rough, uneven edges to produce those beautiful cracks in the tops of the cookies.

Bake in preheated oven for 8-12 minutes, or until edges are lightly golden brown and centers are just set. (I pull mine out right at the 10 minute mark, but depending on your oven and desired level of doneness, adjust times accordingly.)

Let rest on pan for 5 minutes before removing to a rack to cool completely. Cookies can be stored in an air-tight container for up to a week.

*parchment paper is not necessary with these cookies. If you don’t have it there’s no need to spray the pan, I just like the way the paper helps crisp the bottom of the cookies.

 

No one ever warned me about Sophomore 15...

The King's Cookie: Peanut Butter, Bacon and Chocolate Banana Chip Cookies

To have a grandma compliment your baking is like having Michael Jordan say your free throw form is good. It is the Holy Grail all bakers search for, whether they’ll admit it or not. These are the women that have loved, cared for, and fed us since we were tots. They know a thing or two when it comes to creaming butter and sugar and always smell like vanilla and cinnamon.

So, when my grandma told me I should open up a bakery after eating one of these cookies, I knew I had something.

Grandma and I have always connected over food – she is the one who really got me interested in it. A lot of what I know and do in the kitchen is because of her. We can talk for hours about recipes, meals, restaurants, you name it.

When I found these chocolate covered banana chips while we were out shopping the wheels in my head started turning. We had just shared a wonderful meal together at a local farm market that left both my soul and my stomach satisfied. Over the course of two hours my grandma shared stories, laughs and lessons that I am going to miss when I am away at school.

I put the chips in my basket and looking at Grandma, I said, “What if I made a peanut butter cookie with these and bacon in them? Like an Elvis cookie?” I was met with a blank stare. I don’t think she quite understood what I was getting at. 

Once we got home she left me to do my experimenting, only poking her head in a few times to make sure I was doing it. Putting bacon? In a cookie? 

See the bacon-ey goodness in there?

Then she tasted it. And her eyes went wide and then closed. She smiled as she chewed. “These are wonderful, I want the recipe.” Here you go, Grandma.

Peanut Butter, Bacon and Chocolate Banana Chip Cookies (adapted from allrecipes.com, makes 36 large cookies)

3 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder 

1 ½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp cinnamon

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs + 1 egg yolk

1 ½ cups peanut butter (chunky or smooth)

½ cup chocolate covered banana chips

2/3 – ¾ cup bacon (about 8-12 strips, depending on how meaty you want the cookies)

In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and yolk one at a time, thoroughly mixing after each addition. Mix in the peanut butter. 

In three or four small batches (and with the mixer on low, like really low) add the dry ingredients to the peanut butter mixture. Mix until flour is thoroughly incorporated. Stir in the banana chips and bacon. 

Cover and chill dough for at least one hour. 

Preheat oven to 350.

Using a large cookie scoop or ¼ cup measure scoop dough balls onto baking sheet about two inches apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until light golden brown. 

This may be called the King’s cookie but it is in honor of a queen, my grandma.