Pumpkin Black Bottom Cupcakes

Instead of venturing out tonight, the hubs and I are spending a comfortable and stress-free evening at home. Maybe I'm a fuddy-duddy, but there is nothing more delightful than kicking back in sweats, reading a good book and enjoying a bottle of good wine on a Saturday night. Besides, I didn't want to miss the entertaining parade of trick-or-treaters canvasing our neighborhood.

In keeping with the comfortable laid-back mood this evening, I wanted to bake something that wouldn't take much effort. David Lebovitz's Black Bottom Cupcakes was the perfect remedy for lazy baking. Seriously, this recipe is unbelievably easy to make! Using only a couple of bowls and mixing spoons, you will be rewarded with these impressive looking cream cheese chocolate cakes. I love how each cupcake has its own unique personality:

In keeping with the holiday theme, I tweaked the recipe slightly to create a pumpkin cream cheese filling. You can find the original recipe here, and I made the following adjustments to the cream cheese filling:

- reduced the cream cheese to 6 oz

- added 3 oz canned pumpkin

- added 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

- added 3 drops of orange food coloring

I encourage you to try baking these super easy treats yourself. I promise that these cakes are better than anything that you'll find in a trick-or-treaters bag.

Happy Halloween!

Chocolate Macarons (DB)

Thanks to this month's Daring Baker's Challenge, this was my first attempt at making macarons. I've assumed that these delicate European cookies were difficult and time consuming, so I never bothered to try making them at home. Besides, I'm fortunate to have Paulette Macarons within a short driving distance from mi casa. Paulette's macarons are works of art, and they are almost too pretty to eat (still, that hasn't stopped me from inhaling a box or two).

Confession time - I tried THREE times to make macarons using the recipe selected by our hostess Ami, and every attempt was a huge failure - ARGHHHH!!!! I had trouble getting the little "feet" on my cookies, and when cooled, they were as hard as rocks and pretty sad looking. I'm pretty sure that these failures were attributable to me and not the recipe, as the other DB'ers were sharing their picture perfect macarons using Claudia Fleming's recipe (which is included at the end of this post).

After taking a few minutes to swear like a sailor, I took a deep breath and decided to work with a different recipe. If this attempt didn't work, I vowed never to make macarons again. I went with a chocolate macaron recipe from David Lebovitz - the man has yet to fail me in the ice cream deparment, so I had faith in his recipe. The link to his recipe is here.

Voila - Macaron success!!!! The cookies had a nice crunchy exterior which gave into a nice chewy interior. The filling for these cookies is a simple bittersweet chocolate ganache.

I kicked back and relished in my macaron success with a plate of these sugary gems and a cup of tea.

Macarons

from The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern by Claudia Fleming

Ingredients

Confectioners’ (Icing) sugar: 2 ¼ cups (225 g, 8 oz.)

Almond flour: 2 cups (190 g, 6.7 oz.)

Granulated sugar: 2 tablespoons (25 g , .88 oz.)

Egg whites: 5 (Have at room temperature)

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.

2. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.

3. Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.

4. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.

5. Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).

6. Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.

7. Cool on a rack before filling.

Yield: 10 dozen.

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The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

Carrot Ice Cream Cake-wich

Call me a bit obsessed...it's been a kick taking my favorite cakes and transforming them into portable ice cream creations. After having success with my red velvet ice cream sandwiches, I turned to riff on another favorite cake of mine---carrot cake! I had more than enough cheesecake ice cream leftover and thought that it act as the perfect foil for a moist cookie that incorporated all of the elements of carrot cake. The cookie recipe was adapted from epicurious, and I've made and enjoyed this soft chewy cookie on its own on more than one occasion. The experience of pairing this moist, cakey cookie with the tart, creamy ice cream --- pure heaven!
The ice cream recipe can be found on my red velvet post.

Carrot Cake Cookies
adapted from epicurious.com
makes approx 24 cookies

Ingredients
1 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup coarsely grated carrots
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup raisins

Directions
- preheat oven to 375°F.
- line 2 baking sheets with parchment.
- whisk together flour, spices, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.
- beat together butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla in a bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
- mix in carrots, nuts, coconut and raisins at low speed, then add flour mixture and beat until just combined.
- drop 1 1/2 tablespoons batter per cookie 2 inches apart on baking sheets and bake, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until cookies are lightly browned and springy to the touch, 12 to 16 minutes total. Cool cookies on sheets on racks 1 minute, then transfer cookies to racks to cool completely

Red Velvet Ice Cream Sandwiches

Don't ask me why, I've recently been obsessing over ice cream sandwiches. During my undergrad days at UCLA, my friends and I would take study breaks and head into Westwood to Diddy Reese for their yummy homemade ice cream sandwiches (gee, and I wondered all that time how the hell I gained 15 pounds my freshman year). The fun of this experience was creating your own cookie/ice cream combo --- my favorite was white chocolate macadamia w. strawberry ice cream (sounds strange, but it was delish). The bonus was that this delicious treat was only $1 (and no, this isn't a typo) --- perfect for a student budget. Mind you, this was many moons ago, but today Diddy Reese is still staying strong in the ever changing retail landcape of Westwood, and they are still making those lovely ice cream sandwich treats for only $1.50.

I don't make it into Westwood as often as I'd like (well, until UCLA basketball season starts - Go Bruins!), so Diddy Reese is a bit out of reach for me. I wanted to recreate these treats at home, but do something with a little twist. I've been craving red velvet lately, so why not kill two birds w. one stone.

I 'm reluctant to admit this, but the red velvet cookie base was based on a recipe by Rachel Ray. Love her or hate her, she's here to stay. I've never bothered with her cooking show or books (RR is now working on a petfood line...i'm not sure if I really needed to know that), so this would be a first to try one of her recipes. The cookies sandwich a rich, homemade cheesecake ice cream. This was a terrific treat, as it has all of the flavors of red velvet cake, complemented by the tangy, cool and creamy ice cream.


Red Velvet Cookies
adapted from Every Day w. Rachel Ray
makes approx 20 cookies for 10 ice cream sandwiches

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 tbsn unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsn salt
5 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tbsn red food coloring
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.
2. Using a mixer, beat butter with the granulated sugar until fluffy, 3 minutes. Beat in the egg, food coloring and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk until smooth.
3. Place 1/4-cup scoops of batter 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet; spread out. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry, 12 to 15 minutes. Let the cookies sit for 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool.

Cheesecake Ice Cream
adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

Ingredients
8 oz cream cheese
2/3 cup sour cream
1/2 cup half and half
2/3 cup sugar
zest of half a lemon
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp vodka (optional: helps ice cream from getting too hard in the freezer)
pinch of salt

Directions
1. Combine all of the ingredients in food processor and puree until smooth
2. Chill mixture in the frig, and then freeze in an ice cream maker

Ice Cream Sandwich Assembly
1. pull ice cream from freezer and allow to soften slightly at room temp
2. place a 2oz scoop of ice cream on one cookie. place another cookie on top and press slightly to sandwich together. Optional: press chopped pecans into the exposed ice cream.
3. wrap individuals sandwiches in plastic wrap and freeze until ready to serve.

Lemon Verbena Ice Cream

With summer in full swing, I have been on a total ice cream making binge! Thanks to David Lebovitz, my ice cream maker has emerged from the bowels of my cupboards and I've been putting this long neglected appliance to good use. Once we had a taste of home-churned ice cream, we said adios to hagen daz, ben & jerry and breyers and haven't purchased pre-packed ice cream in over a year (okay, cold stone is the only exception...I love those mix-ins!).

I absolutely LOVE lemon verbena, and have often infused the herb into tea or chopped the herb into fruit salad. This ice cream recipe really showcases the heady herbal flavor of the lemon verbena. I've taken the original recipe (which comes courtesy from David Lebovitz) a step further by incorporating some mint.

The perfect accompaniment to this delicious ice cream is a simple fruit salad. In these pictures, the fruit salad is made from nectarines, blueberries, some chopped mint & lemon verbena leaves, a squeeze of lemon juice, and a touch of honey.

Lemon Verbena Ice Cream
adapted from David Lebovitz.com
makes approx 1 quart

1 1/2 cups loosely-packed fresh lemon verbena leaves
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves (you can reduce the amount or omit)
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup sugar
6 large egg yolks
pinch of salt

1. In a medium saucepan, warm the lemon verbena and mint leaves with the milk,1/2 cup of the cream, and the sugar.
2. Once warm, remove from heat, cover, and let steep for one hour.
3. To make the ice cream custard, pour the remaining cream into a large bowl set in a larger bowl of ice water, and put a mesh strainer on top.
4. Use a strainer or slotted spoon to skim the lemon verbena from the milk and squeeze the leaves to extract as much liquid as possible back into the saucepan, then discard them. Rewarm the lemon verbena infusion, then whisk the eggs together and slowing pour in the warm infusion, whisking constantly.
5. Scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan and cook, stirring continuously with a heatproof spatula, until the custard leaves a trail on the spatula when you drag your finger across it. (If using a thermometer, it should read about 175F, or 79C.)
6. Immediately strain the custard into the bowl of cream. Stir until cool.
7. Chill thoroughly, then freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.