Chellisms

Drunk Baking

I have to admit that I was a bit jealous when I read Tammie's post about all of the holiday candy making that she did over the weekend with her family.

Her post prompted me to e-mail mom and Ashley and set-up a baking day of our own. On the agenda we have, 3 batches of each of the following:

Pioneer Woman's Rum Cake

Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls, we are making 1 batch of these as it makes 7 pans

Pioneer Woman's Chex Mix

Peppermint Bark

Pumpkin Bread

English Toffee

Cookie Dough Balls

Divinity, plain and cherry

Peanut Brittle

Fudge

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Crunchies, this one will need a walk-through for anyone other than Ashley, Deb and I but they are so yummy. Edit: These are actually called Rosettes and the directions with purchasable tools can be found here. My recipe is a bit different but you will have to wait for that.

 

These are just most of the ingredients. I still have to grab the dark rum, milk, 2 lbs of white chocolate, more chocolate chips and a couple of odds and ends.

We are calling it drunk baking because, well, Ashley plans on being drunk while she bakes. I like to bake, Ashley not so much. I figure she can just sit at the bar and watch. And drink.

Drunk baking, it's what we do best. I hope.

Recipe Wednesday: Chef Pete

This week is a bit different, rather than a recipe I have a person. One of my favorite people, Chef Pete. You might recall Chef Pete by a slew of other names Pappy Pete, Petey Poo or maybe my personal favorite Rumproast.

Chef Pete started attending cooking school in August. Not a community college course but a full-fledged-cost-more-than-my-last-car-twice-over cooking school. Oh, and he still works full time during the day as an engineer.

The girls and I have reaped the rewards several times as he often gets to bring home his cooking triumphs but this week my mom and I were invited to a night of cooking at the school. Ashley was kind enough to keep the ladies for me as the evenings festivities began at bedtime and Tim had to work and missed out.

The food was great. Crepes stuffed with asparagus, sauteed onions and spinach and covered in a cream sauce. Wasn't sure I would like them but they were yummy. Crepe Suzette that may have induced an orange-y sugar coma that was to die for. French Toast with strawberry coulis, and fresh whipping cream. Fresh made sausage, it looked good but I can't wrap my head around a meat grinder. Eggs made to order. Two types of quiche, Eggs Benedict, eggs florentine, bacon, fresh fruit and so much more.

It was so good.

 

I think he likes working the flambe station, or maybe just yelling flambe!

Recipe Wednesday: Cinnamon Muffin Melt Knock Off's

When Ashley came out in April she made the mistake of introducing my mom and I to Tastefully Simple. That was really an evil thing to do. Online food products? How evil-ly delicious.

I secretly like to call them Tastefully Expensive...

So, my pocketbook and I have this love hate relationship with Tastefully Simple. I love some of their products but my pocketbook weeps when it is time to checkout. I figure if I can find a way to re-create a few of their items at home then I can stock up on the ones that I can't and absolutely love. Last time my mom and I placed an order, my mom ordered the Cinnamon Muffin Melts. They were super yummy, but at $5.99 for a mix that makes a dozen muffins that is a bit steep for me.

Ashley googled around a bit and came across this recipe, we decided to try it out and see how it compared.

Cinnamon Muffin Melt Knock Offs

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour   

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 large egg

3/4 milk

1/3 cup unsalted butter

For Rolling:

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1  teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 12 cup muffin pan. 

2. Mix dry ingredients together, set aside. Beat egg and milk together in small bowl, set aside. Beat softened butter until light and fluffy. 

3. Alternate adding in egg and flour mixtures, mixing after each addition.

4. Spoon batter into prepared muffin pan, filling each cup 2/3 full.

5. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool 5 minutes, turn pan over onto a wire rack removing all muffins then turning them over with tops up. Let them cool enough so they may be handled. 

6. Melt the remaining butter. Mix together sugar and cinnamon in a shallow bowl.

7. Once muffins have cooled dip all sides in melted butter then roll in cinnamon sugar mixture. Place on wire rack to finish cooling.

8. May be served warm or cool. Store in an airtight container.

Note: I noticed something along the way with this recipe, in the original recipe it says the tops should turn golden brown when done. After 22 minutes at 350 degrees mine were as pale on top as when they went in but the sides were browning and the toothpicks were clean. Could it have been my oven? Quite possibly, yes. My suggestion would be not to trust the color of the muffins as a sign of doneness, the color in the pics is simply the cinnamon sugar mixture.

How did these stack up against the real TS Cinnamon Muffin Melts? Let's just say that I will not be buying the boxed mix anymore, this recipe is wonderful. I would rather spend my Tim's hard earned money on the Sweet Pepper Jalapeno Jam instead...

Recipe Wednesday: MIA Edition

Okay, so I have missed two Wednesday's in a row. Last week was California's fault and this week I have no excuse other than I have yet to go to the grocery store since returning from California and no recipes have struck my fancy.

I did pick up a new cookbook at the library this week, Chocolate Epiphany. After thumbing through it I think it might be a bit beyond my reach, but we shall see. Maybe next week we will have something chocolate-y, this week I am just trying to get back into the swing of things.

Recipe Wednesday: Banana Nut Bread

I haven't actually made anything for Recipe Wednesday in weeks, right after Ashley got here the weather was really cool and we baked a ton. Today it was close to 90 and there was no way I was turning my oven on.

With the weather being warm off and on I bet your bananas are ripening faster than you had anticipated. What great timing that todays recipe includes ripe bananas. It will also be our last recipe from The Martha Stewart Baking Handbook, maybe not forever but at least for this summer.

Banana Nut Bread

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

3 large eggs

2 cups granulated sugar

1 1/3 cups vegetable oil

2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups ripe mashed banana (about 3 medium)

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut (optional)

1 cup (about 4 ounces) walnuts or pecans, toasted and finely chopped (optional)

nonstick cooking spray

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Spray two 9-by-5 inch loaf pans with non-stick cooking spray, set aside.

2. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment beat the eggs, sugar and vegetable oil on medium-low speed until combined. Beat in the flour mixture. Add in vanilla, banana, buttermilk and optional coconut and nuts. Beat just to combine.

4. Divide batter evenly between prepared pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean, about 60 to 65 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Remove loaves from pans to cook completely. Bread can be kept well wrapped at room temperature for up to a week or frozen for up to three months.

Notes:

As you can see from the pics I made my two loaves into three, one standard size and two minis. Why? I only have one standard size pan and didn't feel like trekking to my moms house to borrow another. I had another one at some point, it might still be in Hawaii. Or California. Or a highway in Oregon.

I dislike coconut. Tim dislikes nuts. He dislikes bananas more but I didn't remember that until after the fact and besides, all I had were almonds. Ashley thought almonds in banana bread might be odd. I think she is odd.

Oddness aside, the bread was yummy and we all enjoyed it (except Tim, but he doesn't count) for breakfast and look forward to eating the two loaves that I stowed in the freezer as soon as we work our way through the 8 dozen english muffins that someone thought were a good idea. Ahem...