How to Make a Chocolate Ganache in the Microwave

Dark and rich chocolate ganache is my favorite frosting to bake with and eat. It sounds so grown up and sophisticated but it is so easy to throw together in under five minutes. And because you simply pour it on, it's quicker to frost with and more forgiving. All you have to do is pour on the beautiful, shiny chocolate coating that basically begs to be eaten.

You can make a ganache using the stove top, but I prefer to use my microwave to save a little time and make things even easier. If you have a mini food processor, you can shave a little more time off the prep by not having to chop up the chocolate by hand. I wouldn't call the use of either appliance cheating because they don't affect the taste of the ganache.

Whatever you don't use to frost, you can save in the fridge for up to a week. Reheat the leftover ganache in the microwave for 20 to 30 seconds and give it a little stir. You can use it to frost more baked goods, or drizzle it on ice cream. We just used our leftover ganache as a base for chocolate milkshakes.

Step by Step Chocolate Ganache
You just need 3 ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of heavy cream, 
• 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter,
• 8 ounces (2 bars) of semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate.

1) Pour the heavy cream and butter in a glass bowl. Bring to a boil in the microwave by cooking for 1 minute increments until it begins to bubble. Don't let it boil over.

Save time by using a mini food processor instead of  knife.

2) Break the chocolate into chunks and place in a mini food processor. Pulse until coarsely chopped. If you don't have a food processor, you can do this with a knife.

How will this disgusting looking concoction turn out?

3) Remove the hot heavy cream from the microwave. Pour the chocolate in. Stir with a spatula until chocolate is melted and smooth.

This is the magic of ganache. With just a few stirs, the chocolate melts and your sauce is ready.

4) Spread on cakes, cupcakes, or pies. Cover the leftovers with plastic wrap and save in the fridge for up to a week. To reuse, heat in the microwave for 20 to 30 seconds and stir with a spatula.

Spreading my beautiful, shiny ganache on a pie crust to top with caramelized bananas.

Chocolate Ganache
Prep Time: 3 minutes
Cook Time: 2 minutes
Ingredients:
8 ounces of semi-sweet or bittersweet fine quality chocolate such as Ghirardelli or Scharffenberger (this just depends on how dark you like your ganache - you could even use milk chocolate to make it kid-friendly. I am selfish, so I don't.)
1/2 cup of heavy cream
1 tablespoon of unsalted butter

1. Pour the heavy cream and butter in a glass bowl. Bring to a boil in the microwave by cooking for 1 minute increments until it begins to bubble. Don't let it boil over.
2. Break the chocolate into chunks and place in a mini food processor. Pulse until coarsely chopped. If you don't have a food processor, you can do this with a knife.
3. Remove the hot heavy cream from the microwave. Pour the chocolate in. Stir with a spatula until chocolate is melted and smooth.
4. Spread on cakes, cupcakes, or pies. Cover the leftovers with plastic wrap and save in the fridge for up to a week. To reuse, heat in the microwave for 20 to 30 seconds and stir with a spatula.

Cinnamon Pear Breakfast Cake for my Weekly Coffee Klatsch

Since moving to Chicago last summer, I've made a group of friends that have quickly come to mean the world to me, a small group of women who like me, chose to leave behind careers earned with advanced degrees to be at home with their children. Smart women who read and think as much as I do, whether it's the darker meaning buried in the latest Pinkalicious children's book or an interesting New York Times article.

We get together once a week for coffee, after dropping off the kids at school, and I look forward to those mornings all week. What I love most about what we've come to call our coffee klatsch is that our conversations can and usually drift from mundane topics like our favorite supermarket to intellectual discussions prompted by the latest New Yorker article. Even surrounded by my children's artwork and toys, I reconnect with the career woman I used to be thanks to my coffee klatsch mornings.

I doubt our conversations would flow as well without the baked treats the host prepares: scones, muffins, or  coffee cakes, often hot out of the oven. With so much in common, it makes sense that we also all love to cook and share recipes. I had the ladies over on Friday, and I prepared a golden cinnamon pear cake to serve. it was the perfect breakfast treat, not too sweet with cinnamon and vanilla scented pears that just melted in the mouth.

Breakfast Pear Cake
(Adapted from Smitten Kitchen Mom's Apple Cake)
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Serves 6 to 8
Ingredients:
5 large pears, peeled and cut into large chunks
1 tablespoon cinnamon
5 tablespoons sugar
2 3/4 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
1 orange, juice of
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
4 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a tube pan with a removable bottom, or, if you don't have one, a simple round cake pan. 
2. Peel, quarter, and cut the pears into chunks. Toss with cinnamon and sugar and set aside.
3. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. 
4. In a separate bowl, juice the orange, no need to be fancy, just squeeze it by hand, removing any pits. Whisk together oil, orange juice, sugar and vanilla. Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking until well incorporated.
5. Now fold in the dry ingredients and mix with a rubber spatula. Scrape the bottom and the sides well to make sure you have no unsightly pockets of flour left.
6. Pour half of batter into your greased pan. Spread all the pears over it, gently to not crush them too much. My pears had oozed out some yummy cinnamon juice, I folded that in as well. Cover with the remaining batter and smooth out with a spatula.
7. Bake for an hour to an hour and 15 minutes, until a toothpick or knife comes out clean. You can serve this warm or cold.

Sour Cream Banana Muffins with Oatmeal Crumble

These browning beauties are an invitation to bake.

We recently signed up for an organic and local produce delivery service called TCF Organics. It's a wonderful service that delivers huge quantities of delicious produce to our front porch every Wednesday at a much lower cost than you could get them anywhere else. Like a CSA, they reserve the right to choose the freshest and tastiest produce to deliver, so we never quite know what we'll find in our cooler, but we always know that it will be good. As these things go, there's usually one item that tends to pile up and so far it's been bananas.

I woke up this morning to an alarming pile of bananas in varying shades of brown, just crying out to be turned into something delicious. I am not one of those people who greet the day with a wide smile, jumping out of bed to achieve great things. This isn't some sort of new development as a result of nocturnal disturbances by sleepwalking children. I've never been a morning person, but my husband, on the other hand, is one of those mysterious morning people who completes a day's worth of activities before I painfully open my eyes. Because of this, he is the breakfast king and I rarely make breakfast treats. But tomorrow morning, we will all be rewarded by these warm sour cream banana muffins with a sweet and crumbly topping.

The crumbly oatmeal topping is sweet with caramel overtones. You can't resist picking at it.

Sour Cream Banana Muffins with Oatmeal Crumble
Ingredients:
For the muffins:
¼ pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup of dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup mashed very ripe bananas
½ cup sour cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
For the topping:
1/2 cup of oatmeal (not steel cut, the quick oats kind but not the instant kind)
1/2 cup of a dark brown sugar
1/4 cup of butter, softened

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two sheets of 12-muffin tins. (adding a dusting a flour on top of your butter or other grease barrier will help your muffins pop out beautifully after cooking.)
2. With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, beating well.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Mix with a wooden spoon. Add the bananas, sour cream and vanilla. Stir well.
4. Pour batter into each muffin hole, filling each 2/3 of the way up. Set aside.
5. Cream together the oatmeal, brown sugar, vanilla, and butter.
6. Scoop up a teaspoon of topping and crumble it on top of each muffin hole.
7. Bake, until a tester comes out clean, about 40 minutes.
8. Either serve warm, or cover once cooled to serve the next day for breakfast.
9. These are heavenly cut in half with a pat of salty butter on top. Also fantastic with fig preserves.

Buttermilk Cornbread wtih Pancetta, Green Pepper and Shallots

griWhen I moved to America, I discovered a whole world of foods. During that first summer, English was still a jumble of mysterious words, but the juicy burgers and sweet corn at barbecues at neighbor's houses were a language I could understand. I fell in love with cornbread that summer, whose sweet yet salty crumbs pair so well with some honey butter.

While plain cornbread is delicious, I love to sneak in some surprises in my batter, especially bacon and pepper. To not have to open a brand new package of bacon, I like to use the small packs of diced pancetta sold at Trader Joe's or just buy pancetta at the deli. Toss in a little diced green pepper as well and you'll have a rainbow of pretty colors and flavors in your cornbread. Serve it at your next cookout, and use any leftovers for a delicious base for roast chicken stuffing.

Buttermilk Cornbread 
with Pancetta, Green Pepper and Shallots
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
1/2 cup of pancetta, diced
3 shallots, minced
1 green pepper, seeded and diced
1 3/4 cups of cornmeal
1/2 cup of all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1 cup of buttermilk (use powdered buttermilk if you don't have any fresh)
1/3 cups of sour cream
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons of salted butter, cut into large chunks

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Place a large cast iron skillet or pan in the oven.
2. Heat a large frying pan over a medium flame. Add a tablespoon of butter and melt. Add the shallots and saute until softened, about 2 minutes. Now add the green pepper and the pancetta. Saute for another 3 minutes, until the peppers are soft and the pancetta is very lightly browned. Turn off the heat and set aside.
3. In a small saucepan, bring 3/4 cups of water to a boil. Remove from heat and pour in 1/2 cup of the cornmeal. Stir rapidly until you have a warm mush.
4. In a medium bowl, blend the remaining corn meal, flour, brown sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
5. Add the buttermilk, sour cream, and eggs to the warm mush and blend well with a spatula. Now fold in the peppers, pancetta, and shallots.
6. Once the oven has reached the desired temperature, remove the pan from the oven. Add the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter to the pan and swirl to melt and grease the pan. Pour any excess butter into the warm mush mixture
7. Pour the dry ingredients into the warm mush and stir until just incorporated with a wooden spoon. Don't overwork the batter or the cornbread will be tough.
8. Spoon the batter carefully into the hot pan and smooth out the top. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown and delicious looking. Serve warm.

Cocoa Brownies with Browned Butter and Skor Chunks

I've been using the same delicious brownie recipe for 20 years. I know that statement makes me sound like an old crone, so I should clarify that I started making homemade brownies as a pimply teenager, shedding tears over mean middle school boys while being hypnotized by the sensuous beauty of chocolate slowly melting into butter. Those brownies were rich, fudgy and decadent, and although I tried other recipes over the years, I never found one worthy of replacing our family brownie recipe, until this week, when I got the latest issue of Bon Appetit.

The brownies were right on the cover, in a mouth-watering tower. Only the chunky walnuts marred their perfection. I actually did a quick Twitter poll, asking how people feel about nuts in brownies. The answer was almost unanimous. Most people think adding nuts to brownies are a crime. I completely agree, crunchy nuts just take away from the chocolate.

Caught this brownie thief red-handed.

The recipe is easy to whip up. You can have a warm pan of brownies on the table in 35 minutes.

The brownies are rich and intensely fudgy, perfect to cut into tiny bites of chocolate bliss. Unlike my original brownie recipe, this one uses cocoa powder instead of melting chocolate as the base, but it still sends tendrils of chocolate smells up throughout the house, combined with the betwitching aroma of browned butter. This recipe makes a very small batch, and I had to make it twice to have enough to bring to my book club and have a few leftover for the kids and these pictures.

After making the recipe plain a few times, I had the urge to experiment by adding bits of Skor candy bars. They melted but gave the brownies a hint of toffee and sweet almonds. Seems like a nice compromise to put to bed that whole nuts in brownies debate.

Cocoa Brownies with Browned Butter and Skor Chunks (Adapted from Bon Appetit Feb 2011)
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 20 to 30 minutes
Ingredients:
10 tablespoons of unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups of sugar
3/4 cups of unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Scharffen Berger - this is worth experimenting with as each cocoa tastes so different)
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/3 cups plus 1 tablespoon of all-purpose flour
3 Skor Candy Bars, smashed into tiny chunks
2 teaspoons of water
1/4 teaspoons of salt

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Line an 8x8x2 baking pan with foil, leaving a 2-inch overhang. Spray the foil with a non-stick cooking spray or rub with butter. (This foil trick is so neat. No more messy looking brownies stuck in the pan. Revolutionary.)
3. Melt the butter in a nonstick pan over medium heat. Continue cooking until butter stops foaming and browned bits form on the bottom of the pan, about 5 minutes. Watch it closely. You do not want the browned bits to burn. Use your nose and smell the butter. You want it to smell a little nutty, not burnt.
4. Remove from heat and add sugar, water, cocoa, vanilla, and salt. Stir until blended then leave the mixture to cool for 5 minutes.
5. Add eggs to mixture one at a time, stirring vigorously with a rubber spatula after each addition until shiny and smooth. 
6. Now add the flour and stir until blended. 
7. Stir in the Skor chunks. 
8. Pour into prepared pan and bake until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Begin checking at 20 minutes. Note that the Skor candy chunks added 10 minutes of cooking time to these brownies. If you're leaving them out, the brownies will be done pretty close to 20 minutes.
9. Cool on rack then remove by pulling out the foil. Enjoy! These stay moist and delicious in an airtight container for up to a week.

How To Make a Halloween Haunted House Cake

A Ghoulish Halloween Cake

As a kid, I was so frustrated when my mental images didn't come to life with paint and paper, but my problem was that I wasn't using the right medium. When I started playing around with cakes and frosting, I realized that I'd found my true canvas.

Now I make cakes for every occasion. In fact, I'll use any excuse to go all out on a cake, and my favorite non-birthday occasion is Halloween. With ghosts, skeletons, blood and gore, there's just so much fun to be had in creating a really ghoulish yet delicious cake. My kids have been nagging me to get our Halloween decorations up since early September, so I'm kicking things off with a Halloween-themed cake.

To make this terrifyingly yummy haunted house, I didn't need much equipment.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookies... the Perfect Antidote to the Endless Falling Snow

How do I deal with the endlessly falling snow? By baking, of course. Filling my house with the smells of baking cookies is the only way I can deal with Snowmageddon. And with all the shoveling I'm doing, I figure I'm entitled to not only lick the bowl, but also enjoy some warm cookies with my hot chocolate.

As I was shoveling the fresh six inches of snow that covered our driveway today, I started craving coconut, sweet white coconut flakes coupled with rich dark chocolate. I was craving it so intensely that my mouth started watering and I started shoveling faster and faster. As soon as I reached the street, ensuring that my husband would be able to make it up the driveway to save me from a house full of crazy snowbound kids, I started baking.

These cookies just came to me. I started with the basic Nestle Toll House recipe as my base and I divided the batter in two. I threw the first half of the batter in small mounds on a cookie sheet to give the kids the "standard" cookies they crave.

And then I got creative with the second half of the batter. I was driven by some sort of divine chocolate coconut inspiration. Basically I just kept adding more and more chocolate in cocoa powder and extra chocolate chips and making coconut snow fall on top. The cookies came out rich and chocolaty, the perfect balance of chocolate and coconut, just as I had imagined they would be.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookies
Ingredients
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cups of unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup of unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups of chocolate chips
1 cup of shredded coconut, preferably unsweetened

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder in a mixing bowl. Mix thoroughly with a fork.
3. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. The longer you cream, the better the cookie. This step makes all the difference.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. 
5. Gradually beat in cocoa/flour mixture on the lowest setting of your mixer. Mix until just combined. Here you don't want to overmix as overworking the flour will make your cookies less moist.
6. Stir in the coconut with a wooden spoon or spatula.
7. Drop heaping spoonfuls of batter on silpat or aluminum foil on baking sheet.
8. Bake for 9-11 minutes until the cookie is set, but not crisped. It's hard to do the golden brown test with chocolate cookies like these, so make sure to be alert to what your nose tells you. You don't want them to start to smell like they're crisping too much or are on the way to getting burned.
9. Serve hot, or cool on rack and keep wrapped up for 3-4 days.

How To Make a Millenium Falcon Star Wars Cake

Birthdays are a huge deal for our kids. We go all out, every year, giving them one day to feel really special, like the king, or queen, of our little world. We start discussing and planning for the next one pretty much as soon as the party is over.  Although a lot of the talk is devoted to the type of party to have, the most involved discussions are about the cake.

I started out making my kids' birthday cakes when my oldest turned one. That first birthday was celebrated with ballet slipper pink and baby blue frosted cupcakes. The next year was our first foray into the world of character cakes with a cheery Elmo cake, a tradition that has continued ever since. Last year was the first year I abandoned the structure of Wilton cake pans to go free-form with a pirate cake for Jack. I was scared, but with the help of so many great websites filled with ideas, the cake was easy to make and so much fun to decorate.

This year, Jack kicked things up a notch by requesting a Star Wars cake. After browsing through a bunch of different concepts at Coolest-Birthday-Cakes.com, I decided to make a Millenium Falcon spaceship and decorate it with some Star Wars figurines. Another Google search directed me to the delightful Josh and Amy blog where Josh had carefully documented how he made a Millenium Falcon cake for his wife. His advice was invaluable.

I started out with two boxes of basic white cake mix courtesy of Betty Crocker and two containers of Betty Crocker Rich and Creamy Vanilla frosting (they are the sponsors* of this post and the awesome giveaway down below). I used to make my kids' cakes from scratch with my favorite cake recipe, but they just didn't like the taste. They like vanilla confetti cake and they like vanilla icing, and that's what they want for their birthday and they're not shy about telling me to not get fancy. So now I give them what they want, and save my favorite cake recipe for my own birthday and my husband's. Plus I get to spend the time I save not whipping up my own frosting on decorating.

So without further ado, here is the recipe and step by step directions to make my Star Wars Birthday Cake.


Millenium Falcon Star Wars Cake Directions
Ingredients
2 boxes Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® white cake mix
2 1/2 cups water
2/3 cup vegetable oil
6 egg whites
2 bottles  Betty Crocker® Decors rainbow mix candy sprinkles
2 containers Betty Crocker® Rich & Creamy vanilla frosting
1 Can of black Betty Crocker® decorating icing (with assorted decorating tips)
1 package of Kit Kat candy
1 package of Rollo candy
assorted Star Wars figurines

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease two 9 by 12 inch baking pans.

 In large bowl, beat cake mix, water, oil and egg whites with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Stir sprinkles into batter. Pour into pans.

Bake about 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Run knife around sides of pans to loosen cakes; remove from pans to cooling racks. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

Print up image of Millenium Falcon to trace. Place on top of cake and cut cake along outer perimeter of drawing. As you can see above, my drawing was a little small, so I just used it as a guide but cut my cake to be large enough to feed 15 hungry boys.

 

• Cut the top section from the second cake. To make it easier to manipulate, I divided mine into different blocks. The center circle I then cut out again from the remaining cake to make it a high tower on top of the cake. You don't see that in the picture.

• Cut the edge of the top pieces on a bias to give your top layer a domed look. I promise that you are now done with the scary cutting portion of the project, and can now move on to the fun frosting and doling out of cake.

• Mix about a half a teaspoon of the black decorating icing into a tub of the white icing. Mix thoroughly and add more black if you have not reached your desired shade of gray.

• Apply a layer of frosting on the circular part of your cake. Lay the second layer pieces on top. Spread a little more frosting on the circle in the middle and lay on your top tower. Lastly, affix the gun to the left part of the ship, making sure to put plenty of frosting as glue so the gun doesn't fall off. The gun is not in the picture, but it is what is jutting out of the black and white drawing on the left. Belo

• Cover the entire cake with gray frosting. Decorate with additional black decorating icing to highlight ship details. I was afraid to use the black accents, but in hindsight, looking at the pictures, I wish I had used more. Then finish with candy pieces and Star Wars figurines.

To those of you with Star Wars purists out there, please don't take issue with the fact that this is Han Solo's ship and a young Anakin Skywalker is standing on it, years before the ship was probably built. My little birthday boy is much more concerned with the color of light sabers than actual Star Wars lore.

* Please note that as sponsorship of this post and giveway, Betty Crocker provided me with a Flip camera, a $100 gift card to purchase party supplies, as well as Betty Crocker product coupons via MyBlogSpark.

*** The winner has now been selected by random.org. Comment #49 was randomly selected and Sarah is our winner. Congrats Sarah and check out her blog, Solutions Sleuth, to read how she used her supplies! ***

Simply the Fudgiest, Yummiest, Most Irresistible Brownie Recipe Ever

Family secrets are meant to be shared. So tonight I'm outing a big, decadent,  fudgy family secret. I may get in trouble for this. Maybe even get raked over the coals. Because it's not really my secret to share. This is my baby sister's recipe. But how could I keep the recipe for the fudgiest brownies under wraps?

Only the bravest amongst you should read on. The butter content of these brownies is not for the faint of heart. But these brownies are rich and decadent and well worth every calorie-laden bite.

That is, if you manage to even get them cooked. It's always a challenge for me. As soon as Jack smells the chocolate and butter melting, he hovers, spoon in hand, ready to pounce on the batter. And I confess (because we're sharing secrets here), that I often join him spoon in hand!

Aunt Tiff's Irresistible Brownies
Ingredients:
1 cup of butter
150 grams of bittersweet chocolate
4 eggs
2 cups of sugar
1 cup of all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon of salt

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 13 inch by 19 inch baking pan. In a saucepan, melt the butter and chocolate over low heat.
2. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the sugar. Let it cool a little.
3. Add eggs, one at a time and beat well.
4. Add flour, vanilla, and salt and stir well.
5. Pour batter into greased baking pan. It's up to you how well you scrape down the sides. Bake in oven 30 to 35 minutes. We like it a little mushy in our family. But to make sure it's cooked, slip a knife into the middle and make sure it comes out clean.

Mexican Chocolate Yule Tide Log

I'm a butter lover. Look deep inside my fridge and you'll find nearly half a shelf devoted to butter in all shapes and sizes. There's European style butter, unsalted butter, and salted butter. There's store brand butter, local butter, and French fleur de sel butter. Each of these has a purpose, a place in my life, whether it's perfecting a piece of toast, creaming with sugar for chocolate chip cookies, or melting atop a sirloin steak. No doubt about it, I'm a butter girl, and proud of it.

So when the Challenge Dairy butter PR agency contacted me to complement me on my noodle kugel recipe and invite me to participate in holiday recipe contest using their butter, I was happy to sign on. They assigned me to the dessert category. A few weeks later, I received a nice refrigerated shipment of Challenge Dairy butter (European Style and regular unsalted), jars of Spice Islands Vanilla Extract, Cinnamon, and Nutmeg, and a few cooking utensils. And then I began brainstorming on the perfect holiday dessert recipe.

Challenge Dairy Butter is only available in the West right now, but they do have an amazing sweepstakes going on through December 31to win a trip for a family of four for 7 days and 6 nights at the Mountain Sky Guest Ranch just North of Yellowstone National State Park. Right about now a seven day vacation sounds pretty great, especially such a luxurious one worth $17,000!

In addition to being a butter lover, I'm also a master procrastinator. And so it wasn't until today, with just 10 days left to go until Christmas eve, that I got to work on my recipe. Every year, for our big Christmas eve feast, my sisters and I prepare some yule tide logs. But I didn't want to showcase just any old recipe for this challenge. I wanted something new, something a little different, something a little exotic. So I varied our traditional dessert a bit, and created this Mexican chocolate Yule Tide Log.

This is definitely an adult dessert, a symphony of dark chocolate and lightly sweetened mascarpone. The cake is a very light jelly roll (gateau roule), made light and fluffy by beaten egg whites and egg yolks. And the chocolate is a traditional ganache jazzed up with some cinnamon, vanilla and nutmeg. I added a little butter to increase its shine. To keep the chocolate from being too overpowering, I paired it with a layer of mascarpone. The cake looks elegant, and even though it is intensely chocolaty, it is also light, the perfect conclusion to a big meal.

Mexican Chocolate Yule Tide Log
Ingredients: For the Jelly Roll Cake
1/4 cups of sugar
5/8 cups of flour
1 1/2 TBSPs of butter
3 egg whites
4 egg yolks
1 extra TBSP of sugar
For the Fillings:
8 oz of semisweet chocolate
1 cup of heavy cream
1 TBSP of cinnamon
1 pinch of nutmeg
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
one package of 8 3/4 oz of mascarpone
1/2 cups of sugar
To make jelly roll cake:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Melt the butter in microwave.
3. Beat the egg yolks and the sugar together at medium speed until creamy and pale yellow. At least 5 minutes. Stop the beaters and incorporate the flour with a spatula, mixing until just barely incorporated.
4. Beat the egg whites until stiff. About halfway through, throw in the extra tablespoon of sugar to help the egg whites hold their stiffness.
5. Simultaneously pour the egg whites and the butter on the egg yolk mixture. Mix it all together very delicately, to preserve as much of the air as possible while still incorporating everything.
6. Spread the batter in a large rectangle on a silpat or a sheet of wax paper atop a cookie sheet. You don't need your dough to be more than 1/2 inch thick.
7. Cook for 7 minutes, making sure you don't burn the cake.
8. Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature.

To make ganache and mascarpone fillings:

1. Chop up your chocolate into little chunks.
2. Bring the heavy cream to a boil in a medium saucepan.
   
3. Turn the heat off and pour in the chocolate, stirring until completely melted and gorgeous. Add in the butter, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg.
4. Divide the ganache in half. Place half in the fridge for 5 minutes to cool and stiffen. Keep the other half in the saucepan.
   
5. Pour the mascarpone and sugar into a bowl, beat for 2-3 minutes on medium speed.
6. Remove the chilled half from the fridge. Beat for 3 to 5 minutes to thicken.
   

To assemble yule tide log:

1. Carefully detach the jelly roll from the silpat or wax paper.
   
2. Spread the whipped chilled ganache over the entire surface.
3. Cover the ganache with the sweetened mascarpone.
4. Carefully roll the cake up and transfer to a serving platter.
5. Pour the ganache still in the saucepan on top as a shiny chocolate glaze.
6. Cake can be served immediately, or kept chilled overnight. The ganache will set over time, especially if kept in the fridge.
   

Chocolate Hazelnut Banana Bread: a Recipe Born on Twitter

Twitter is a mystery to the uninitiated. Mention it to a crowd of non-bloggers and you're sure to get plenty of "I don't get it" comments. My husband is always asking me, "Just what are you tweeting about?"

Well, lately, I've been doing a lot of tweeting about food. I'm not joking. There's a huge community of passionate foodies on Twitter. We share recipes, gush about the tomatoes at the market, and inspire each other to experiment with new ingredients. The other day, Jennifer Perrillo tweeted, "Yeah or Nay - should I add chocolate chunks to my banana bread?" I was walking through the supermarket when I saw her tweet and I spontaneously responded, "Definitely chocolate. Maybe even do Nutella!" I had never tried it, but I thought that the nutty chocolate spread would go well with bananas. Let's face it, there are few things that Nutella doesn't taste great with. Maybe camembert.

By the time I left the supermarket, I was craving warm banana bread oozing with chocolate. Then I got home and spotted the dark specks on the banana bunch in my fruit bowl, I decided to give it a try. I actually substituted the Kroger brand chocolate hazelnut spread because it is nuttier than Nutella and I thought it would pair up well with the bananas.

I had it last night hot out of the oven, and again this morning for breakfast. In my book, the bananas make it a healthy breakfast option!

Chocolate Hazelnut Banana Bread
Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

¼ pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup mashed very ripe bananas
½ cup sour cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
¾ cups of Nutella or other chocolate hazelnut spread

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan.

With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, beating well.

Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Mix with a wooden spoon. Add the bananas, sour cream and vanilla. Stir well.

Spread a layer of batter into the bottom of the loaf pan.

Spoon three or four dollops of Nutella on top – each should be a generously heaping tablespoon. Then spread another layer of batter on top, and repeat the Nutella dollops. Continue repeating until you have used all your batter. Finish with banana bread on top.

Bake 1 hour, until a cake tester comes out clean. Turn out onto a rack to cool.

#BirthdayCakeHell

Juju said, "I wanna princess cake."

Bella said, "I want a bear cake. You know, 'cos I'm having a Build a Bear party."

Juju said, "I wanna a pink cake."

Bella said, "I want a big cake. The kind that stands up. Not the boring flat kind."

Juju said, "Me too! Me too!"

Then Bella added, "And don't get fancy with my cake. I want funfetti. From the box. And icing. From the supermarket. That's what I like and it's my birthday so I get to choose."

And Juju said, "Me too! Me too! Pink, mommy, pink!"

So for once, I simply followed orders. I bought the molds. I bought the mix. I bought the frosting. And then...

I made the cakes.

But as I baked, resisting the urge to get creative, to add some sprinkles to my homemade vanilla sour cream cake recipe, terrified that these crazy three dimensional cakes would explode or crumble on the way to the mall, I rebelled. I kept up a steady stream of tweets and tweetpics with the hashtag #birthdaycakehell.

Twitter has never been more satisfying:

I'm about to start baking those Wilton stand up cakes. Yes cakes. Plural. Bear + princess. Each kid wanted a diff one. Shoot me now. Please!
4:19 PM Oct 2nd from UberTwitter
As I spooned the batter in, neighbor kid said "yuck! You're putting it in his butt! You're making bear butt cake." #birthdaycakehell
5:35 PM Oct 2nd from UberTwitter
The cake seems to be exploding... From its butt. #birthdaycakehell http://pic.gd/581bcf
6:17 PM Oct 2nd from UberTwitter

But at the end of the day, after all the tweeting, the requests, and the near disasters, the kids were thrilled with the final outcome.

Bella even had seconds.

But I have a new worry needling me now. What will they demand next time?

Chocolate Flourless Cake: a Passover Dessert You'll Crave

Chefdruck's Tasty Tuesday

Soon after I started dating Steve, I attended my first Passover Seder at his parents' house. I was charmed by the tradition of retelling the history of the exodus of the Jews from Egypt. Everyone takes turns reading from the Haggadah, in our family's case a thick stack of photocopied readings, history, and maps about Passover that Steve's dad has cobbled together over decades of holding Passover seders. Sitting around the table loaded with ornate china and silver, I imagined a very young Steve reading the same words that I was reading out loud.

I was a little put off by some of the food on the table like the gefilte fish and the chopped liver, but I put on my game face and dug right in. Our first year together, I even tried to "keep" Passover with Steve by abstaining from all things made with wheat that was allowed to rise (bread, pasta, or cereal) and substituting copious amounts of Matza (unleavened bread). After a week, I was painfully constipated and very grumpy from having unsatisfying breakfasts. I decided to show my support for Steve by making Passover a week full of delicious meals, instead of a time to be endured.

This decadently rich chocolate fondant cake is Kosher for Passover because it does not contain any flour. However it is so delicious that it should not be saved for Passover alone. It's like the offspring of a brownie and fudge. And it's so easy to make that it's almost embarrassing.

Chocolate Fondant Cake
14 ounces of bittersweet chocolate
8 eggs
2 sticks of butter
1 cup of sugar

1) Preheat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.

2) Melt the chocolate and the butter at very low heat.

3) Beat the eggs.

4) Fold in the egg mixture into the chocolate mixture.

5) Add the sugar.
6) Butter and sugar a round pan. Pour in mixture.
7) Cook for about an hour – begin testing with knife at 45 minutes.

My New Favorite Kitchen Toy

Chefdruck's Tasty Tuesday

A few years ago, "Santa" aka Steve gave me a cookie press. I'd been wanting one for a while, and I was excited to get the gift although I'd never made those types of cookies before. I carefully put it away in a prime time position in my kitchen cabinet. It remained there for two years.

Then some divine inspiration this December moved me to break out the cookie press. I literally had to dust it off to find the tape to cut to open the package. I did some quick research online and discovered a recipe for which I had the ingredients in my fridge: spritz cookies. I made a few alterations, and whipped up a batch of dough. There was no chilling, no rolling out, just some mixing. Ten minutes later, I had a batch of dough ready for pressing.

Figuring out how to get the hang of my cookie press took some doing but once I had it figured out, it was really quite simple. All I did was pack the dough in the canister, choose the cookie type, and press away. I could change the shape at any time, didn't have to wait until I was done with the dough in the canister. Just press, and voila.

My kids' favorite cookies to bake, up until now, had been sugar cookies. I dreaded their requests to make them because it's really a two day process or at the very least an all day process. First make the sugar cookie dough, then chill it, then roll it out, then bake it and decorate it. We now have a new favorite cookie that can be on the table in thirty minutes tops. And they even taste good!

Spritz Cookies

INGREDIENTS
1 cup butter softened
1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C ).
2) In a medium bowl, cream together butter, cream cheese, and sugar.
3) Beat in egg yolk, and vanilla. Continue beating until light and fluffy.
4) Gradually stir in flour, salt, and cinnamon.
5) Fill the cookie press, and form cookies on ungreased cookie sheet.
6) Decorate with colored sugar or sprinkles.
7) Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes.
8) Remove from cookie sheet, and cool on wire racks.

The Day that Wasn't

Today was going to be an amazing day, one for the record books in terms of productivity. I had a babysitter booked for the afternoon. I was going to write for an hour and a half - something amazing - something that would most definitely get published in either the New Yorker or Brain, Child. The juices were going to flow freely onto the page because my holiday to do list would finally be empty.

During the previous hour and half of babysitting, I was going to find the perfect gift for my mother in law, my father in law, my sister, my brother in law, and one more little thing for my youngest niece. I was going to hit Five Below and find dozens of hilarious stocking stuffers for a buck or two that would keep us all laughing through the entire week we will be spending as a family: a wide assortment of pooping figurines, a pocket Rubik's cube, and some fuzzy slippers.

Then tonight, I was going to get a good night's rest instead of stressing about all that I still needed to do before Wednesday. I was going to stop writing notes on colorful post-its and stop searching for lost post-its. I was going to relax, put my feet up, and really focus on getting excited for this time with my family.

But none of that ever happened.

Because this morning, the board of ed called at 5AM to announce that school would be closed for the day because of a forecasted snow storm. When I woke up an hour and a half later, there was no snow on the ground. I couldn't believe how trigger happy they were so early in the season. I imagined that we would get a little dusting and that I could still carry on with my plans.

And then the blizzard hit. No more babysitter. No more shopping. No more writing.

Instead we hung out at home. We played, we read, but mostly we baked.

and we sprinkled,

and then we sprinkled some more.

until we had industrial quantities of butter cookies in every conceivable shape.

I accomplished very little on my list today. I have one less shopping day to get my presents, but somehow my stress decreased. I realized that it won't matter how much there is under the tree, as long as we can spend quality time like I did today. Maybe we'll even make some more cookies!

Today was also the last Parent Bloggers Network blog blast. They partnered with FFDA, a non-profit organization that offers support and assistance for folks who are feeling overwhelmed, both at the holidays and all year long.

Thanksgiving Recipes: Carrot Souffle and Pecan Pie

Chefdruck's Tasty Tuesday

With less than two full days until Turkey Day, I have gone into major cooking mode. I don't host (Christmas dinner is my big feast), but I do cook up a storm. This year I am bringing stuffing, two sides, and two desserts. I've been lucky enough to be assisted by my little sous-chefs for a good part of the day and we've actually had a lot of fun!

We've made carrot souffle, pecan pie, and begun a chocolate mousse meringue cake. Still on the docket is apple sausage cornbread stuffing, and funeral potatoes. I was going to make creamed spinach, but was intrigued by Angie's entry in my Stop and Shop giveaway (it's for a $100 of gift cards and only has 22 entries!). I emailed her and she sent me the recipe in about thirty seconds. It is an elaborate concoction with sour cream and cheddar cheese - I instantly added it to my list.

I'm not going to share all my recipes or I would never be able to finish cooking, but I will share my favorite side and my take on a traditional dessert. Carrot Souffle is so sweet and delicious that it is basically cheating to not count it as dessert. But I proudly serve it next to the turkey and it disappears quickly every time. It's a great way to get kids to eat a veggie. I'm also including my recipe for pecan pie, with an easy to make homemade crust. And since I'm hooked on my new Flip video, I'll share with you a video of me pretending to be Martha as I could with the kids.

Carrot Souffle
PUDDING INGREDIENTS:
2 lbs fresh carrots boiled until soft (can use baby carrots)
6 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
6 TBSPs flour
2 TSP vanilla extract
2 sticks melted unsalted butter
Dash of Nutmeg

TOPPING INGREDIENTS:
12 TBSPs dark brown sugar
8 TBSPs melted butter
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup crushed corn flakes (feel free to make more if you want more crunchies)

To make the pudding. Put cooked carrots and eggs into food processor and puree. Add the rest of ingredients. Process until smooth.

Bake in greased 9”x13” pyrex pan at 350°F for 40 minutes.

Mix the topping ingredients together. Put the topping mixture over top of baked soufflé. Bake another 5 to 10 minutes.

You can serve after cooled for 20 minutes or reheat the next day in the microwave.
Pecan Pie
Crust:
1 ¼ cups (5 ½ oz) all-purpose unbleached flour
¼ tsp salt
1/8 tsp baking powder
8 tbsps (1 stick)
2 to 3 tbsps cold water

Filling:
1/3 cup (5 1/3 tbsps) unsalted butter, very soft
¾ cups firmly packed light brown sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
1 ½ cups coarsely chopped pecans

To mix the dough by food processor, combine the flour, salt and baking powder in a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Pulse 3 times at 1-second intervals to mix. Cut the butter into 1 tbsp pieces and add to the work bowl. Process, pulsing repeatedly at 1-second intervals, until the mixture is fine and powdery, resembles a coarse-ground cornmeal and no large pieces of butter remain visible, about 15 pulses. Scatter a small amount of water on the butter and flour mixture and pulse 5 to 6 times. The dough should begin to hold together. If the mixture still appears dry and crumbly, add the remaining water, 1 teaspoon at a time.

Scrape the dough onto a lightly floured surface and form it into a disk. Sandwich the disk between 2 pieces of plastic wrap and press into 6 inch disk. Refrigerate the dough until firm, or until you are ready to use it, at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 375° F.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to fit a 9-inch glass pie dish. Fold the edges under all the around the rim and crimp.

In a medium sized bowl, cream the butter and the sugar. Add the remaining ingredients, except for the pecans, in order, one at a time, beating well with each addition. Stir in half the pecans. Carefully pour the filling into the prepared crust. Sprinkle the remaining pecans evenly over the filling. Bake for approximately 50-60 minutes or until the filling is fairly set. Filling will firm up as it cools.

Allow pie to cool for 2 hours before cutting and serving.

Best Vanilla Birthday Cake Recipe

Chefdruck's Tasty Tuesday

I called my blog Chefdruck Musings because food is one of my biggest passions. I love to cook, to bake, and especially love to dine out. I've posted about food, shared recipes, restaurant reviews, but I still didn't feel like I was devoting enough time on this blog to talking about food. I read a great article on blogging a few months ago on Five Minutes for Mom by Scribbit - she discussed the ebbs and flows of traffic and dedicating certain days of the week to a certain type of post.

That's why today I'm launching Tasty Tuesday, a weekly blog post about food. Every tuesday I'll be sharing a recipe of something I've made or eaten that I really liked. I'm also going to invite you all to do the same on your blogs and share your links with me. I want to try your favorite recipes and anything you love to eat.

So if you have a post about food you want to share, please leave it in a comment to this Chefdruck's Tasty Tuesday post. It doesn't have to be a Tuesday post for you, or a post about something you've cooked, just anything about a food you love. Then I'll give you some link love in next Tuesday's post by featuring a recap of the previous week's food comments.

Bon Appetit!

Today's Tasty Tuesday feature is about birthday cakes. I have a delicious recipe for a vanilla sour cream cake. I used it for Bella's and Juliette's parties during the last two weeks. It works well for cupcakes, character cakes, and sheet cakes. It will be moist on the day of the party and hold up well for a few days after.

I got the recipe from a Williams Sonoma train cake pan, but I doctored it a bit. My latest additions this time were to add sprinkles and chocolate chips to the batter.

Vanilla Cake Recipe

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 3/4 cups sugar

2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp kosher salt

16 tbsps (2 sticks) of melted unsalted butter

1 cup sour cream

4 eggs

2 tbsps vanilla extract

1/2 cup colored sprinkles

3/4 cups chocolate chips

1) Have all the ingredients at room temperature.

2) Preheat oven to 350 degrees farenheit. Grease your pan.

3) Place the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a bowl and mix.

4) In a mixer, cream together the melted butter, sour cream, eggs, and vanilla until combined. Then fit your mixer with a flat beater and add the dry mixture until just mixed. Do not overbeat or your cake will be tough.

5) Pour into your pan or cupcake pan - do not fill much more than halfway as this cake will rise a lot.

6) Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, between 15 to 30 minutes - depending on your type of cake. Cupcakes will cook quicker than a sheet or character cake.