Sometimes I think I need to lay off the carbs and refined sugar. But then a recipe like this falls into my lap! Suddenly, all that attempt to be more disciplined disappears. I know it's been a while but I have been busy! Post BaByQ I took a mini-vacay with some friends up North for the 4th. Before I knew it fall was calling and school began again. I took the ghosts of summers past and used them in this recipe for a s'more bundt cake.

Yes, that's right. All the flavors of a campfire baked into a cake with a hole in the middle!!!!

I found this recipe over on thecakeblog.com and it liked the idea of adding crushed graham crackers into the cake batter. Also, can you say oats?! Who doesn't like a little oatmeal in the fall? I did a little more tweeking and just used regular old powdered sugar glaze instead of topping it with a thinned out marshmallow fluff.

And it was good! I think I ended up eating maybe 2 pieces out of the whole cake. My mom and gramps wouldn't even wait for it to cool enough to glaze. They wanted to taste test while it was still warm. That food close-up is from a day later when I went to get a piece and realized it was almost gone!

It's that time of year when we begin to reflect on the days past and look toward the new year. It's also the time when family comes to visit. Or you go to visit family. Usually around this time I am also in the kitschen werking to create some goodies to send to my friends. This year, it didn't happen. What had happened was.... First, I couldn't find a DIY card design I liked. So I conceded and bought cards. Second, I took that kinda last minute trip to Florida with my sister. So I wasn't in the kitchen early enough to get my baking/concoction making done in good time. Thirdly, I got home and tried to speed through the process. But, once I was done the packages wouldn't have reach people before the holiday mail blackout. In the end... I had a lot of goodies on my hands and not enough people to give them to. Also, I will be trying to get out "Happy New Year, So Glad the World Didn't End," packages after the 2nd. So if you usually get something in the mail from my kitschen in December, just look for it in January. I might remake these things or do something new... again. Prefences/request... in box me.

Smitten Kitchen Brioche Pretzels

I have linked to and used multiple recipes from the Smitten Kitchen blog. I love it. I find that her recipes never steer me wrong. It's where I got my favorite chocolate cookie recipe from (that is until I get my hands on some chocolate discs and make that fancy Frenchman's recipe). Well, Deb (the writer), has recently published her book! And most of the recipe's in the book are new ones not found on the website!!! I didn't buy the book (too rich for my blood) but I did squee and snatch it up off the library shelf. On a related note, The Kitchen (another fav blog of mine) has this particular recipe posted as a sneak peek online.

Homemade Beer Marshmallows Covered w/ Chocolate & Pretzels

Once the sugar bloom is at the correct temperature add it to the gleatine bloom. Whip that shizz on high for a bit. Add in vanilla. Continue whipping until it forms soft peaks.

My mother once in a while often puts in requests for baked goods for work. This year she as for a dozen cupcakes and 3 dozen cookies. I'm going to not even try to feign modesty and report I was happy to hear that at the annual holiday party her co-workers actually asked, "Ms. B, where are the cupcakes? Your daughter didn't make us any this year?"  My reputation grows ya'll! In the end she asked the day after for me to make 2 sets of goodies for her different program sites. Here's a report on what I made for her.

All Nutella Cupcakes

Now you know I loves me some chocolate and peanut butter. I also really like cookie butter/speculoos. One time I even made Oreo butter. All that is to say you should be able to guess I also love Nutella/hazelnut chocolate spread. I do! What I don't like about many of the Nutella cupcakes on the market is that they're usually just chocolate cake w/ Nutella buttercream. Not cool dude! I want that hazelnut goodness through and through. Fortunately, Robin of Bird on a Cake, feels the same way. She posted a GREAT way to incorporate hazelnut flavor into your chocolate cake recipe. The secret... (which is GENIUS in my mind) ADD HAZELNUT CREAMER!!!! My mind was blown you guys. So that's what I did.

 Holiday Cookie Cut-outs

Once again I used the best ever sugar cookie recipe. I figure, it works so... meh. I bought an amazing set of nesting circular cookie cutters waaaaay back when I lived in DC. I pulled them out. First I made like 2 dozen teeny tiny circle because the plane was to make them look like peppermints. Then my mom informed me she needed the cookies to be ready that afternoon (I thought I was baking for the next day) so that changed things a bit. I bumped up my cookie cutter size and only iced about 1 dozen faux peppermint cookies.






So yeah. I made these things for my mom. She took them to work and to share with others. They were enjoyed. Not a lot of process pics for this post b/c I used basic clutch recipes which I've shared before. But, my next post will include some new things... And you can be merry in knowing I continue to try my hand at different dessert creations.

So what's a famous award winning flavor combo that never gets old? Peanut butter and chocolate of course! What's the best type of candy bar to find in your candy bag at Halloween? Snickers! What happens when you put those two truths together in the form of ice cream? Serious Eat's "Better than Snickers," ice cream of course! I tagged and flagged this recipe a while ago. With the weather turning chilly and the patio seating options not as plentiful I've had to find new ways to amuse myself. Which meant out came the ice cream maker.

As I've mentioned before I use corn starch instead of egg yolks to thicken my ice creams. This recipe is even better because the peanut butter works as the thickener. No slurry! Just add some no-stir peanut butter to that cream base!

 Remove from heat and add these three: butter, half and half and salt. Stir...let cool.

Use that time the caramel is cooling wisely.... it's churning time! Set up your ice cream maker and bring out the wet mixture from the fridge. Churn that mother down.....



Once you're ice cream is done churning you'll want to store it. Layer caramel between the ice cream and twirl a knife through it to create a "ripple."

So remember how I made those oatmeal cookies with malt powder? I had some left over right? So what's a girl to do? I needed to cull my pantry in order to make room for more, newer, ingredients. I decided to take my malt powder and turn my favorite ice cream into a cupcake. Enter the Chubby Hubby cupcake.

For those not in the know... Chubby Hubby is a Ben & Jerry's flavor. It's got malted vanilla ice cream, chocolate covered PB filled pretzels, chocolate swirls and PB swirls. In short. It is awesome. Sweet, salty, and malty!

First task... integrating the pretzel element. I chose the crumb crust route. I figured it'd give a bit of texture to the cupcake experience in the form of a buttery, crunchy, bottom layer. So I took out my food processor and crushed up some pretzels.

Then I mixed them with a couple table spoons of melted butter and smooshed them into the bottom of my cupcake liners.




Next up? Chocolate! I used a chocolate cupcake recipe from How Sweet It Is. I wanted something with actual chocolate and cocoa powder. I'm a glutton like that. I also recently realized that I left my hand mixer's beater blades at the summer rental house my family stayed at so I wanted something that didn't require creaming butter and sugar for the batter.







Now let's get to the best part.... make some plain old vanilla butter cream.... Dump the remaining malt powder into it.... Beat the hell out of it with a fork. As you work on your arm muscles don't be upset you left your beaters in Michigan City, because now your forearms get that work out they've been needing!


 Cupcake assembly line!

Finally... it was time for a garnish? What's my rule about garnish? It should give you a hint as to what flavors to expect in your food. Is this what Alton Brown would do? Alex Guarnaschelli? I'm not sure. But it's how I role.

Okay. So I have a confession to make. This post is a month in the making. I originally planned to make these cookies for my big sister's birthday. I went out. Bought the pistachios. Made the cookies... and ate them. Not in one sitting. But first my mom tasted one or two. Then my sister. Then a friend came over and wanted a snack. Before I knew it there were only 3 cookies left and I just couldn't send only 3 cookies. So I vowed to make them again and send some at a later date. I eventually did and promptly put a dozen in the freezer to keep them fresh and away from prying hands until they could be sent.

I snagged this recipe from Joy the Baker. But if I remember correctly it's originally posted on Smitten Kitchen. Or you could just take your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and swap for dark chocolate chips/chunks and add pistachios. Oh! Note to self.... if you can pay $0.50 extra for pistachio meats pre-hulled do it. I spend waaay to much time prying those bad babies open. Although it did give me the time to listen to another podcast. I recently started listening to podcast when I bake instead of turning on the TV. It gives me something to do AND I feel better about myself afterwards b/c it's not TV.

So the first time I made these cookies I just scooped them out onto the baking sheet and put them in the oven. But, they didn't spread as much as I wanted... Sometimes I want nice thin cookies with a little chew to them. So I consulted a professional and she suggested I take them time to flatten them before baking them. Cuh-raizy I know! Here I was all worried about butter to flour ratios and/or the need to adjust the oven temperature and the solution was so simple all along. I thought smashing the dough would have been sacrilegious. But, apparently sometimes it is better to K.I.S.S. Also in the background of the picture above you can see a stack of the malted oatmeal, chocolate chip, peanut, pretzel cookies I made. Why? I love cookies with a lot of stuff in them! I also was excited to try malted milk powder in a cookie. I love, love, love malts. I was hoping this would be my new go to recipe. Verdict isn't in yet. My mom likes them though. She's been eating them all week!