Fresh Peach Muffins [sms]

This week's SMS, Fresh Peach Muffins, was chosen by JoVonn of The Givens Chronicles. She has wonderful recipes of things every day and it's so wonderful to see someone cook that much.

This week marked the start of school. *whine whine whine* It's not that I don't like school - it just takes too much time to learn everything. My classes this year - if I can get into all of them - are Financial Economics, Intermediate Financial Accounting, Organizational Behavior, Intro to Managerial Accounting, and International Monetary Economics. 5 classes that are going to take quite a bit of work [actually a lot of work]. Thank goodness I have friends in many of my classes. As for right now, I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with the fact that I have so many classes.

Anyways, back to the muffins, these were pretty easy to make. I had cut the recipe in half since I still had sweet stuff in the house and these seem like they would make great breakfast food in addition to my banana bread muffins from last week.

I had cut the peaches up into tiny little pieces and decreased the amount of milk in the muffin to add more peaches into the muffin since people had mentioned that peach flavor was not very pronounced.

Recipe for the muffins here! Make sure to check out the rest of the SMS bakers on the blogroll.



ps sorry for the quality and lighting of pictures in this post. I had baked these Friday - didn't get to eat them until Saturday night because of a roommate meeting Friday night and Outsidelands Saturday. I had gone to a couple of parties last night - didn't drink, but I hung out with my friends til 3:30 am so I'm not really up to defrosting another muffin to take pictures of.

Dobos Torte [db]

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook KaffeeTahaus: Exquisite desserts from the Classic Caffes of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

This Dobos Torte was quite easy, and hard to make. It was quite easy in its steps, but once I had gotten to getting everything together, it just didn't go as well as I hoped that it would have.

I had created mini tortes, but they just were not very well since I had forgotten to level each of the layers. Also, my buttercream was not THAT set when I had decided I needed to start putting the tortes together. My eggwhite mixture probably should have been mixed some more, but I was just too tired to care anymore. This definitely was something that I should have created on different days, just to give me time to do each part and each part well. Putting it all together in one day was just not a good idea. I had to use toothpicks to keep it all together without melting or having the tortes fall on me.

After freezing it, it did taste really good. I really enjoyed the taste of the torte and I had enjoyed making it. Next time, if I decide ever to make it again, I would make the parts separately and also have some way of keeping the torte's level and together. I think that was my major probably with this torte. The chocolate buttercream was amazing! I had to leave the hazelnuts out because I was going to have my roommates eat them and since three of the five other girls that I live with just moved in, I don't know their likes and dislikes. I would rather not feed them something they may be allergic to.

Grapefruit Bars

So my mother decided to have me bring lots of grapefruit back up to Berkeley. Why - I have no idea. I think she just likes feeding me because she thinks that i get no food here...which is partially true because I'm too lazy to cook and buy food and because I have no time.

With an excess of apples and grapefruits, I got started. I know that I didnt have many apple recipes left - so if you have any good ones suggest them! Other than that, I needed to get rid of these grapefruits. I cannot eat them all.

I looked on my list and I had a grapefruit squares recipe that I had wanted to try. These seemed perfect for this little kickback that I was invited to last minute.

Recipe:
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour + 1/4 cup for filling
1/4 cup white sugar + 1 1/3 cup for filling [I couldn't find my 1/3c so I just used 1 1/2c of white sugar]
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt + 1/2 teaspoon for filling
1/2 cup cold butter, cubed
4 eggs
Zest 2 grapefruits
Zest of 2 lemons
Juice of 1 grapefruit
Juice of 1 lemon
powdered sugar (for dusting)
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In a medium bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups flour and 1/4 teaspoon of salt and set aside.
In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.
Slowly add in the flour and salt mixture until combined.
Press this mixture into a greased and/or lined 9×13 pan.
Bake the crust for 15-20 minutes or until just turning golden on the edges.
While the crust bakes, combine the grapefruit and lemon zest and 1 1/3 cups of white sugar [like I said above, I used 1 1/2 c] in a medium sized bowl and rub them together until the zest is incorporated into the sugar.
Whisk or beat in the eggs and add the juices.
Add 1/4 cup of flour and 1/2 teaspoon of salt and whisk them in, too.
Pour the lemon filling over the hot crust and bake for 20-25 minutes [I think mine took about 30 mins or so] or until the top is set and doesn’t wiggle.
Remove the bars from the oven and allow to cool COMPLETELY before sprinkling with powdered sugar and cutting.

I thought these had a nice sense of tartness and it was really good. I think that everyone had really enjoyed it as well.

Mom's Banana Apple Bread and Muffins [sms]

This week's SMS, Mom's Banana Apple Bread, was chosen by Joy of Hot Oven, Warm Heart. This fruit-filled bread was really easy to make and I really enjoyed making it. I had made a dozen muffins and used the rest of the batter for the bread since I ran out of cupcake liners.

I actually made this last week because I was still up in Berkeley and it's just so much easier to bake up there. Back at home in Brea, I have make things that are less sweet and things that are easy to make since I do not have too many supplies at hand.

I had actually made lots of substitutes in this recipe. With the apples, I had used golden brown sugar instead. I also only have fugi apples so I just cut one up since they are so big. I also added more cinnamon and vanilla extract. I just like the smell and taste of cinnamon and vanilla.

For the bread/muffins itself, I subbed 1/8 c of the sugar with cinnamon sugar. I also added more cinnamon and vanilla extract. See a pattern here? I took out the ground cloves since I didnt have any hand, but I added 1/4 teaspoon more of nutmeg. I also added some hazelnuts left over from the hazelnut truffles, 1/2 c of milk chocolate chips, and 1/2 c of semi sweet chocolate chips.

These tasted actually very good. I had a muffin before I left, and I froze the rest for a nice and healthy breakfast for those crazy days that are about to start when school starts. I brought the bread home and everyone really enjoyed it. It was nice and healthy, and not too sweet - unlike most things I bake.

Recipe for the bread here! Make sure to check out the rest of the SMS bakers on the blogroll!

Chocolate Caramel Cookies

Today's a reunion of some sorts. I get to see some of my friends that I havent seen in like 3 weeks! =]

Well we're getting pho and I always seem to bring along with me when I go out and get lunch with friends. This time I decided on a chocolate caramel cookie that Danny - one of them that I was meeting up with - wanted.

It's a really simple recipe which I decided to halve since I didn't have enough ingredients.
Recipe for chocolate caramel cookies
[taken from here]
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter (no substitutes), softened
1 cup sugar
1 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract [I used two!]
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons baking cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 (13 ounce) package Rolo candies [I found these rolls of Rolo candies at a store, they had approx 24 total in them]

Directions:
In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar.
Add the egg and vanilla; mix well.
Combine flour, cocoa and baking soda; add to the creamed mixture and beat just until combined.
Shape dough by tablespoonfuls around each candy.
Bake at 375 degrees F for about 10 minutes or until top is slightly cracked. Cool for 3 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Note: you may have to watch the cookies because if they crack too much the caramel will flow out. This happened to me a couple of times.

Even my little brother loved it!

Hazelnut Truffles [sms]

This week's SMS choice was Hazelnut Truffles and was chosen by Anne of Living Life Foodcariously. I had brought these along with the ice cream cupcakes to a meeting and everyone enjoyed the chocolate-y truffles that seemed very expensive and too high class for us college students.

I had made these truffles with the Green and Black's Organic chocolate because the store nearby had a sale and decided to splurge a little more after finding the hazelnuts and buy this really nice chocolate.

Sory for the blurry picture, I think I was in a hurry because I had a lot to do this week.

The truffle was easy to make after getting all the ingredients together. I personally didnt have any semisweet chocolate in my place, so I mixed the milk and the dark chocolates together ending up with a 60% cocoa content...so that's about the content of semisweet chocolate. I also subbed the alcohol for almond extract since I am underage therefore no alcohol. =]

bowl as I was scooping it out.

The truffles were super easy to put together and I had covered with rice krispies crushed together and another couple with graham cracker crumbs.

These were super fun to make and super delicious as well.

I also added small pieces of this in the ice cream portion of my Raspberry Chocolate Ice Cream Cupcake.

Recipe for the truffles here! Make sure to check out the rest of the SMS bakers on the blogroll!

Chocolate Salted-Caramel Cupcakes [msc]

For those of you following my blog, this is my THIRD group that I've joined. I feel like these are the only three I will join until I decide to quit one of them. Both Daring Bakers and MSC are monthly which means I get a whole month to bake items and SMS is weekly meaning that is a bit more restricting time-wise. I am super excited though because it's Martha Stewart AND cupcakes.

This month's choice was chosen by the founder, Betty from EAT MY CUPCAKE. She chose this wonderful Chocolate salted-caramel cupcake. Martha has them as mini cupcakes, but I have no mini cupcake tin or liners so regular cupcakes they are! I decided to make these for the 24-hour service-a-thon as well. My friends are just so spoiled by my various baking things that I happen to make...ALL THE TIME.

I was deciding to half the recipes, but at 12am, I didnt want to go and half everything and I was way to tired to think so I decided to make the full recipe for the cupcakes.

I ended up using kosher salt because I dont even know where to start looking for other things like that.

In the morning, I had made the caramel recipe which was really hard and confusing by the way, but it eventually got finished, and half of the frosting. The original frosting recipe yielded 5 cups and that was WAY TOO MUCH. Half was good. I still ended up with a little bit extra frosting.

They were super yummy and moist. The saltiness factor was an amazing surprise for many so it was nice. I think lots of my friends enjoyed the richness of the cupcake and the nice surprise of caramel in the middle.

The recipe for this month's Cupcake Club is found on pages 148-149 of Martha Stewart's Cupcake book.

Raspberry Chocolate Ice Cream Cupcakes

These were made for the Dmitriy, my "husband." I think the only reason why we're "married" is because we do act like a married couple sometimes. This only happens because we fight and we just know each other pretty well, but of course, I have my own boyfriend, Brent. It's cool haha. ♥

Picture of Dmitriy and I from like March 2009

So yeah, his favorite berry is blueberries, but he likes raspberries too so I decided to make this fancy shmancy cupcake for him. I was inspired from this ice cream cupcake entry that had caught my eye. It was very interesting and I thought I could make something like this, but my version. [Number 10 out of 10! which means I had finished my goal!]

These cupcakes are chocolate cupcakes filled with a raspberry preserve, topped with ice cream shaped in a heart. On top of that, is a bit of chocolate frosting and a raspberry.

Recipe for the chocolate cupcake
(taken from here)
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter, softened [I melted mine]
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract [I used 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract instead]
1 cup milk [I used half cup buttermilk, half cup soymilk]

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the vanilla.
Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk; beat well.
Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full. [I filled mine half full and got 24 of them]
Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

To make the ice cream topper:
Put melted vanilla ice cream into a pan.
Then, sprinkled some hazelnuts and chocolate hazelnut truffles in small pieces in the melted ice cream.
Drizzled caramel and hot fudge all over in crazy cool designs.
Then place back into the freezer for it all to set.
Later, use a cookie cutter to cut out the shapes desired. I had used a heart.
To easily cut the ice cream, put the cookie cutter in some warm water and then use to cut.

To put the whole thing together,
Cut a cone from the cupcake and place the preserves/jam inside and replace the top.
Refridgerate the cupcakes and make sure to cut out the shapes from the ice cream.
When serving, place the ice cream on top of the cupcake, frost and serve with some fruit.
Enjoy!

Snickerdoodle...Cupcakes [sms]

This week's SMS is hosted by Spike of Spike Bakes. This yummy snickerdoodle recipe was a favorite among my friends. They had all liked the cinnamon-y goodness that exists in this snickerdoodle.

I had made some changes to the recipe itself. I added one more teaspoon of cinnamon, added 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract [I used imitation since I'm a college student and that's basically all I had on hand.] I bake these for 11 minutes instead of the 12 suggested in the book. I also sprinkled some extra cinnamon sugar on top of the cookies.

Being me, I could not just stop at just making these cookies regular cookies. I decided for the 24-hour service-a-thon to make some cupcakes to go along with it. It's just a regular cinnamon cupcake with a honey-cinnamon frosting. On top, I garnished with part of the cookie.

Recipe for the cupcake:
[taken from here]
Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 cup whole milk [instead I used 1/2 cup of soy milk]
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temp.
2 large eggs
3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp. sugar [I had subbed one tbsp of sugar for cinnamon sugar]
1 tsp. grated orange zest [I omitted this]
1/2 tsp vanilla extract [I added 1 tsp of imitation vanilla]
Instructions:
Preheat oven at 350. Line your cupcake pan with paper liners.
Sift flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a small bowl.
Stir milk and butter over low heat until butter melts.
Add in sugar and eggs. Mix.
Beat in vanilla.
Add in the flour mixture; beat until just blended.
Divide among the cupcake pan. [I just used 2 tbsp per cupcake]
Bake until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, mine took about 12 minutes.
Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes and transfer onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Recipe for the honey-cinnamon frosting:
[taken from here]
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar [I used approx 1 1/2 cups]
1 tablespoon honey [I ended up putting 2 tablespoons in]
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon [I added 1/2 teaspoon instead, I like my cinnamon]
[I also added 1 teaspoon of vanilla]
Directions:
Beat all the ingredients until smooth, 4-5 minutes.

Recipe for the snickerdoodles here! Make sure to check out the rest of the SMS bakers on the blogroll!