Dream•sync

First, I got more personal comments via text and phone and in person from my last blog than I ever expected.  It was a difficult post to write because it's so much easier to 'bury' those feelings of inadequacy.  Yet it is such a comfort to know that others have felt similarly, and take encouragement from my 'battle cry' (which honestly when I wrote that was more of a whimper... but words have power, and the more I read them the more Truth was written on my heart :)

In any case, thanks to those who contacted me.  And praise be to God that anything I say has eternal value - it's all because of Him.

Which brings us to today's post :) 


Brown Sugar Bundt Cake & Buttery Brown Sugar Sauce
Adapted from the Betty Crocker Spring 2007 'Indulgent Desserts' magazine, page 24.

Prep Time: 45 minutes
Start to Finish: 4 hours roughly
Yield: 1 bundt cake and some lovely caramel sauce (recipe follows the cake recipe)

My Plan of Attack: I work from home 8 - 5 every day, so I can't take a huge chunk of time to make this.  Instead I break it up.  Make the bundt cake over lunch hour and stick it in the oven right before going back to work (which obviously only works if you work from home :).  Bake it as described, let it cool in the pan, then flip onto a cooling rack until work is done.  After work, make the sauce and plate the cake.


Brown Sugar Bundt Cake

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3/4 cup milk

Substitutions/eliminations:

• You can completely forget the baking powder and salt and it makes a wonderful pound-like cake.  I say 'forget' because that's what I did when I made this yesterday lol :)  The cake turned out wonderfully, very moist and slightly more dense than normal.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Grease and flour a 12-cup bundt pan or angel food cake pan.  I used butter and completely forgot the flour - not recommended.  The cake did not want to come out yesterday. So be sure to flour your pan after greasing.  This is easy in case you aren't sure how to do it - take a little flour, stick it in the greased pan and tap the flour around, covering the grease.  Tap out any extra flour once the pan has a nice even flour coating to it.
3. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.  Or not if you want a more dense & moist pound cake :).  Then just measure out the flour in that bowl. 
4. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars (brown and granulated).  I usually do this with a pastry cutter to help eliminate lumps.  Be sure your butter is completely softened otherwise it will take much longer to get the batter to the right consistency.  This is where a kitchen aid mixer comes in very handy.  I like to start creaming the butter and sugars together by hand before adding them to the kitchen aid.  It gives them a head start and I don't have to scrape the sides of the bowl as often.  Use the paddle attachment, and finish creaming the sugars & butter together on a low or mix setting.  Then ramp it up to medium mixing speed for 5 minutes.  Scrape the bowl occasionally.  The mixture will become light and a bit fluffy.
5. Add one egg at a time, waiting until each is completely mixed in before adding the next. 
6. Add the vanilla.
7. Reduce your mixing speed to low, then alternate adding a little of the flour mixture, with adding a bit of the milk. Once those have both been completely added, continue mixing until the batter looks smooth.  I ramped up the mixer every once in a while which probably added a little air to it - this isn't an issue.  'Smooth' is probably a relative term here - my batter looked a little grainy, and was the consistency of a fluffy, heavy paste. 
8. Spoon the batter into your pre-greased & floured bundt pan.  Even it out as best you can, then stick it in the oven to bake.
9. Bake the cake for anywhere from 50 minutes to an hour and 10 minutes.  It all depends on your oven and the weather honestly - you'd be surprised how much humidity impacts baking :) You can stick a toothpick in to see if it's done, or do what we used to when I baked cakes in a large kitchen for camp - you do the 'sponge' test.  Carefully (don't burn yourself!!) take your fingers on the center part of the cake and lightly press.  If the cake is done, it should act kind of like a sponge when pressed.  It should slightly return to it's original spot.  You'll feel resistance if it's done.
10. Pull the cake out and cool itin the pan for 10 minutes.
11. Here's where the floured pan comes into play - take a cooling rack and place it over the pan, then using hot pads flip the rack and pan over.  If it worked the pan should come off.  If it didn't you may have to tap the pan with a spoon on the bottom to get it to release the cake.  Don't fret if some of it gets stuck to the pan, just carefully work those out and place them right back on your cake.  It won't affect the taste ;) 
12. Allow the cake to completely cool, at least 2 hours. 
13. Plating - find a nice round plate to put the cake on - I put mine right in my cake carrier for transport, no plate necessary.  Serve with the warm sauce you'll make from the recipe below.

 Buttery Brown Sugar Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
• 1 teaspoons vanilla

Directions:

1. In a 2 quart saucepan, heat all the ingredients - except for the vanilla.  Bring to boiling over medium heat stirring constantly.  You must stir constantly otherwise the sugar and milk may burn which makes for a very bad tasting sauce.
2. Boil and stir for 2 minutes.
3. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.
4. Once cool, stir in the vanilla.
5. Serve the sauce warm, drizzle over the cake (or ice cream, or cookies, or whatever else you can find to drizzle it over :)

I actually didn't add the milk or the vanilla to the sauce until after it had cooled slightly.  It was still quite warm when I added both, and the sauce turned out just fine.  In fact last night everyone was drizzling it over just about anything they cold find.  The sauce recipe is definitely a keeper... I'll have to see what it's like over ice cream...

In any case, enjoy :)

I can't tell you how blessed I feel to be in my own kitchen.  A kitchen that has all the equipment I've collected over the last several years.  A kitchen that I picked out appliances for as opposed to using whatever was in the apartment.

It is such a blessing.

And it allows me the opportunity once again to try recipes both new and old.  Including one of my favorites - Chocolate-covered Cheesecake Bites.  I've made these for all kinds of events, from work carry-ins to birthday celebrations and it's become one of my 'signature' desserts I guess.  I've even been told by friends never to bring these to their house ever again (because they couldn't stop eating them :)

So without further ado...

Chocolate-covered Cheesecake Bites

Prep Time: 50 minutes
Start to Finish: 4 hours roughly
Yield: 4 dozen

My Plan of Attack: I work from home 8 - 5 every day, so I can't take a huge chunk of time to make this.  Instead I break it up.  Make the cheesecake over lunch hour, let it cool for an hour on the rack at room temp, then cover and stick in the fridge.  After work, pull it out, cut into pieces and freeze for dipping later that evening.  The following day at lunch do the drizzle and plating.

Ingredients
      Crust

• 1 cup chocolate graham cracker crumbs
• 1/4 cup butter

      Filling

• 1 8oz package cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract

       Coating

• 2 1/3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 3 tablespoons shortening

       Drizzle

• 2 oz white chocolate
• 1 teaspoon oil

Substitutions/eliminations:

• You can completely remove the almond extract in the cheesecake with little effect.
• Shortening - I looked high and low in my local grocery for a non-vegetable alternative to shortening and found none.  So this batch of coating I made reluctantly with shortening.  You should be able to substitute an animal fat like lard which a friend of mine has been using more recently - i expect her to blog about it soon :)
• Oil - the original recipe calls for vegetable oil.  My favorite oil - Olive - which I use for essentially all my cooking is not really the best thing to use in sweets.  If you have coconut oil you may try using that instead.  Trina - that same friend who's been experimenting with lard - has a great post on where she gets her coconut oil.
• Don't limit yourself to just white chocolate drizzle. This time I've used caramel, and at some point in the future I'd like to try dulce de leche which is a little more solid than the caramel I used. You could top with a fruit as well.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300°F.
2. Line and 8x8 square pan with foil so that it extends over the sides of the pan. Coat the foil with butter or cooking spray.
3. Melt the 1/4 cup butter and combine with chocolate graham cracker crumbs in a small bowl.  Press in the bottom of your pan.
4. In a large bowl, cream together the cream cheese and sugar.  I usually do this with a pastry cutter to help eliminate lumps.  Be sure your cream cheese is softened otherwise you'll have chunky cheesecake :)
5. Add the sour cream and beat on medium with an electric mixer.  Scrape the sides as necessary.  Do this until the mixture is smooth and fluffy in appearance. Add the egg and almond extract and beat until completely combined.  Pour this into your crust and even out with a spatula.
6. Bake 30-40 minutes until the edges are set.  The middle will be soft, but will set when cool.  Cool on a baking rack for an hour.  Then cover and transfer to the fridge for at least another hour.  You can leave it in longer if necessary.
7. Prepare two cookie sheets with parchment paper - you can use wax paper as well.  Remove the cheesecake from the pan by lifting the foil, then remove the foil completely and place your square cheesecake on a cutting board.  Cut into 8 rows by 6 rows, making 48 oblong cheescake bites. Place half of these on one cookie sheet, half on the other.
8. Put both sheets in the freezer.  You can try to coat the chilled bites with the hot chocolate but you'll end up very frustrated - trust me :)  Freezing the bites makes coating much simpler.
9. While the bites are freezing, make the chocolate coating.  This is where having a double boiler comes in handy.  Melt the chocolate chips and shortening/lard in the double boiler.  I usually do this on medium to low heat once the water is hot.  If you don't have a double boiler you must be extremely careful when melting chocolate on the stove-top.  It is very easy to burn chocolate - and it tastes awful.... You can try microwaving the chocolate and shortening for 3 minutes on medium heat, stirring and them microwaving in 15 second increments and stirring after each until the chocolate is completely melted. If you like working with chocolate and don't have a double boiler - ask for one for your next birthday or for Christmas :)
10. Once the chocolate coating is ready, Pull one cookie sheet out of the freezer.  Using a fork or toothpick - I actually use fondue forks which are perfect for dipping - dip one bite in the chocolate, lift and drain the excess back into the pot, then place back on the lined cookie sheet.  Do this for the rest of this sheet, then place back in the freezer.  Repeat for the second half of the bites.
11. Prep the white chocolate drizzle using your clean double boiler (or you can microwave this as well - 1 minute on high, then stir and microwave in 15 second increments stirring after each until melted).  Using a piping bag (which you can make by taking a ziplock bag and cutting a very small hole in one corner) drizzle the white chocolate over the coated bites.  The chocolate will be very hot so use caution when drizzling...  When done put the bites back in the freezer.
12. Plating - When you're ready to serve or transport, pull those sheets out of the freezer and onto your favorite serving dish.  While they are thawing back to room temperature you might see condensation forming on the chocolate - this is perfectly fine.  Most of the time they disappear before you have to worry much about this :)
    

Keep them in a sealed container either in the fridge or freezer - If I have any left they are usually in the freezer as they keep longer there where people don't think to look for them :)

The original recipe for this was in a Betty Crocker Spring 2007 'Indulgent Desserts' magazine.  I have yet to try all the recipes in there - but the one I have tried have been very well-received.  Now that I have a kitchen to experiment in you might start to see more of these posted.

Enjoy!

So St. Patrick's Day recipes were a hit, though apparently all the alcohol from the Bailey's Irish Cream did not bake out of the bread pudding...Still good though :)

I've had several requests for the recipe - which I got from recipezaar.com - I love this site especially when I'm looking for a new recipe to try.  You can search for all kinds of recipes, and sort by rating which should give you a bit more confidence when trying a new recipe :)

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup butter
• 4 ounces baking chocolate
• 1 cup flour

Mint Filling

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons peppermint extract
• green food coloring
• 3-4 tablespoons cream

Chocolate topping

• 8 tablespoons butter
• 1 (12 ounce) package chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven at 375°F.
2. Beat eggs until fluffy.
3. Add sugar and vanilla; beat well.
4. Melt the butter and chocolate and add to the mixture (mixing well).
5. Add flour and stir until smooth.
6. Butter a 13x9 pan then pour in mixture.
7. Bake for 25 min or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
8. Allow brownies to cool before adding the mint filling.
   
9. Mint Filling: Mix 4 tablespoons butter, confectioners' sugar, mint, and cream.
10. Add green food coloring.
11. Frost brownies and refrigerate for an hour.
12. Make the chocolate topping by melting butter and chocolate chips in a saucepan over medium heat.
13. Pour chocolate topping over mint filling.

To serve - either chill it first, then cut into squares, or serve it a few minutes after applying the warm chocolate topping.

This version differs slightly from the version on recipezaar found here.  I used Baker's German Chocolate for the brownie mix, and unsalted butter.  I also think that hand mixing the brownies after step 3 might have prevented the light 'crust' that formed while baking.  Will have to try this one again to see if I'm right.  Didn't affect the taste at all - just made it harder to apply the mint filling. 

Anyway - enjoy!

For those of you at Prayer & Praise last night and for those of you who are just interested in the chocolate pie recipe :)  My family makes these pies every year for Christmas.

This recipe is usually found inside the Baker's German's Sweet Chocolate box, but as microwaves came out they modified the recipe.  This is the 'old school' stove top method.  Something about nuking chocolate doesn't seem right to me...  Next time I make something for a recipe I'll post pictures... Enjoy :)

Prep Time:

• 10-15 minutes to make
• 3-4 hours to set
  

Ingredients:

• 1 Baker's German's Sweet Chocolate Bar (in the green box)
  
• 4 oz cream cheese, softened
  
• 1/3 cup milk, divided
  
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 cups cool whip
• 1 graham cracker crust
  

Directions:

1. Place the chocolate bar and 2 tablespoons of milk (taken from the 1/3 cup) in a medium to large sauce pan.  Heat on medium, stirring often till the chocolate is melted and the 2 tablespoons of milk are mixed in.  Be careful not to burn the chocolate as it will ruin the taste of the whole pie :)  Remove from heat.
   
2. Add the cream cheese, sugar and remaining milk.  Stir until smooth.  
3. Fold in the cool whip until the color is consistent.
   
4. Pour into graham cracker crust and add a dollop of cool whip to the top.  I like to add either mini chocolate chips or chocolate curls to garnish the top.
   
5. Freeze for 3-4 hours and pull out 15-20 minutes before serving to allow it to thaw for cutting. 

Usually you want to eat these when they are just starting to thaw. Last night they had a chance to soften up a bit too much. Still tastes good though :)

Abbey requested the recipe for the bars I brought to Prayer & Praise on Wednesday, so here it is. Saw it on the side of the Corn Flakes box and only modified it slightly.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup butterscotch chips
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 5 cups corn flakes cereal

Directions:

1. Measure out the corn flakes and place in a large bowl.
   
2. In a large sauce pan, combine chocolate chips, butterscotch chips and peanut butter.  Stir over low heat until smooth.  Remove from heat.
3. Add the pre-measured corn flakes to sauce pan.  Stir until evenly coated.
4. Coat a 9 x 9 x 2 pan with cooking spray and transfer the mixture into it.
5. Using wax paper, press the mixture evenly into the pan.  Cut into squares when cool.

I actually used a 9 x 13 pan and the bars came out thinner, but just as good :)  Next time I'll probably double the recipe for the larger pan.  If you need the bars to cool faster throw them in the freezer or fridge, just allow them to thaw a bit prior to cutting into bars if they freeze - otherwise they have a tendency to break along jagged lines.  Again, this does not affect the taste :)