BB's "Yum-ptious" Apple Pie

The theme for last week's baking challenge was 'Kids', so I asked BB what she would like to make with me. Of course, the girl who used to sing a song about pie wanted to make apple pie. So, we did!

I peeled and cut the apples. She pretty much did the rest.

We didn't get to make it until today, because of all the work finishing up the smoker last week, plus all the chaos of my birthday party on Saturday, plus other parties BB and KB went to this weekend, PLUS the fact that BB's playing softball. She called yesterday upset that we hadn't made the pie yet, so that's what we did right after school today.

She did TRY to peel the apples, but didn't like the peeler.

She added the sugar and flour...

Stirred it all together...

Filled and pinched the crust...

And mixed and brushed on the egg wash all by herself.

The filling itself was made of about 5 large granny smith apples (7 or 8 cups, peeled and chopped) tossed in lemon juice, about a cup of sugars (I used about 1/3 brown and 2/3 white), a small bit of flour, plus some cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger that I just eyeballed, but was a little heavy handed with.

I cut the smiley face vents, she made the nose.

I haven't had a full slice yet, just tasted a bit of the filling, but it is, indeed, yum-ptious. Even more importantly, she had a blast making it!

After cooking. So cute!

A Revelation - Banana Rum Cake

Over the weekend, I had so much free time and space in the kitchen that I went on an absolute cooking binge. A while back, I had made some white chocolate banana ganache with the intent of using it for truffles, but I made it a bit too thin. So, I set it aside to use for a cake glaze.

So, so very good.

A couple of years ago the entire family went to the Cayman Islands on a cruise, and of course we brought back a number of rum cakes and many different flavors of Tortugas rum. Banana isn't a flavor of rum that we drink very often unless we're making a couple of particular drinks, so there was plenty of it. So, late on a Friday evening, in the midst of my cooking spree, I went to town on making a rum-laden bundt cake.

Just after turning out and splashing a little rum on the top.

After I baked the cake, which used some banana pudding mix, a cake mix, and some pecans, I splashed it with a bit of rum and left a cup of rum in the middle, then covered the cake overnight. The next day, I made a glaze with sugar, rum, and butter and doused the entire thing with that. After letting that glaze soak in for a day, I topped it off with the white chocolate banana ganache.

Since we really do try not to keep a ridiculous amount of sweets at the house (though we usually fail), I sent the cake to the lodge with my dad last night, since they eat potluck-style. There were only ten men and a couple other desserts, but only three slices of this stuff made it back. I finally got to have a piece before bed, and WOW.... just wow. It's got just enough rum in it for you to feel the warmth in the back of your mouth when you swallow, but not enough to really taste the rum. You definitely taste the banana flavor, and the chopped pecans add a really nice crunch. There's obviously alcohol still in there (and you can smell it), so you might not want to offer it to a teetotaler. That's okay, though - more for us!

BB was my photography assistant today, and she frequently threatened to devour what little cake was left.

Banana Rum Cake
For the cake:

• 1 package butter recipe cake mix
• 1 package banana cream pudding mix
• 3 whole eggs + 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 c milk
• 1/2 c oil
• 1/2 c + 1 shot banana rum 
• 1 c chopped pecans

Mix together all ingredients except pecans until the batter is well-integrated. Stir in pecans and pour into greased bundt cake pan. Bake at 325 for one hour, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then flip out onto rack to complete cooling for another hour. Splash shot of rum on the cake, especially around the interior ring. Cover and allow to set overnight before glazing.

For the glaze:

• 4 tbsp butter
• 1 c sugar
• 1/2 c banana rum
• 1/2 c water

Melt butter in saucepan over low heat, then stir in sugar and rum. Once well-integrated, increase heat slightly and add just enough water for sugar to dissolve into syrup. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly, then spoon and brush over cake while still warm, taking care to cover the entire exterior of the cake. Allow glaze to soak in overnight for best results. Top with white chocolate banana ganache if desired.

White Chocolate Banana Ganache

• 1/3 cup heavy cream or half and half
• 12 oz bag white chocolate morsels
• 2 tbsp banana extract
• 1/4 tsp coconut extract

Heat cream and extracts in a double boiler until hot. Gradually add white chocolate, stirring until chocolate is completely melted and integrated. For thicker ganache suitable for truffles, decrease cream or increase chocolate until it reaches the desired consistency.  Allow to cool to room temperature, then use immediately or cover and store in refrigerator.

Total prep/cook time: 3 days, but only about 90 minutes of work.

Happiness rating: 10/10 - this thing disappeared fast!

52 weeks of baking, Week 5: Apple danish loaves

I think I've outdone myself, breakfast wise. I've made coffee cakes, doughnuts, and various other breakfast goodies in the past, but when we realized that we had dried apples that needed to be used, I got to work.

If I can't get the whipped cream 'fuzz' off my lens, I might be shopping for a new camera.

These weren't just any apples, either - they were the last batch from the apple tree in the back yard, before it mysteriously died last year. These apples needed love and respect, and I think I've honored that. On Monday evening, I gave them a good rinse and began simmering them with a bit of sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, and ginger. Once they cooled, I put them in the basement fridge until I could get the pastry dough made, which I did on Wednesday night. I'd been wanting to make some -real- pastry, and so I decided to go with danish dough. I used 1/5 of the recipe for danish dough from page 235 of Baking & Pastry: Mastering the Art and Craft. It tasted quite salty before I let it rise and rest overnight, and I was a bit worried - enough so that I even added in a little extra sugar. But, recipes can be deceiving, so I went with it.

I can't believe that this was the first time I'd rocked my KitchenAid's dough hook.

Yesterday afternoon, we took it out of the fridge, and BB beat out the butter for the roll-in while I rolled it into a rectangle. We rolled in the butter, and of course, she had to help.

We're going to have a talk about the need for ponytails while baking, because her hair's almost that long.

After giving it a four-fold, resting half an hour, splitting it, giving it a 3-fold, then another 3-fold half an hour after THAT, then even more resting, it was finally time to get to filling. Following the technique from the same book, on page 630, for what they call a 'Braided Coffee Cake' (not that I consider this to be a coffee cake in the slightest, since coffee cake is dense and has a crumbly topping), I cut some angled strips onto either side of the dough, keeping a big long patch in the middle, then filled it with apples and started to 'braid' it up by alternating sides as I folded the strips over the top.

It was kind of a pain to tack the ends together, but thankfully there wasn't a ton of leakage.

Once it was all finished, I had two huge loaves of apple danish, about 18 inches long each. They went into the proofing drawer of the oven for an hour and a half, and wow did they rise! I actually had to separate them onto two different baking sheets after the rise time, because while I expected SOME rising, my yeast was a little old and I didn't expect it to be that active.

It went from this....

to this! I guess that yeast was still pretty active after all.

Finally, it got a second egg wash, and went into the oven for around 35 minutes at 350. What came out really did amaze us, and we found ourselves picking at one of the loaves after dinner last night (the one that left us stuffed, and for which we had bananas foster as dessert - these are THAT tempting).

Tons of apple-filled deliciousness.

This stuff is absolutely divine. Even though the saltiness did decrease tremendously, I would definitely use a little less the next time around (and I've decreased it in the recipe below). The flakiness and texture of the dough is amazing, and the spiced apples are soft, but still have a tiny bit of bite to them. All in all, the perfect way to use the last apples from our dearly departed tree.

Danish Pastry Dough
creates about 2 lbs dough

• 362 g bread flour (12.8 ozs)
• 42 g sugar (1.45 ozs)
• 5.6 g instant yeast (0.6 ozs)
• 3 g salt (0.1 ozs)
• 34 g softened butter (1.2 ozs, about 1.5 tbsp)
• 74 g eggs (2.6 ozs, or one extra large egg)
• 168 mL milk (5.6 ozs, or 2/3 cup plus 1 tbsp)
• For the roll-in: 272 g chilled butter (9.6 ozs, or 2 sticks + 2.5 tbsp)

Mix together the dry and wet ingredients with a dough hook until well integrated. Transfer to a floured surface and let rise at 75 degrees or in a proofing drawer for two hours or until doubled in size. Punch down, roll out into a large rectangle, fold, and wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Store in refrigerator at least 8 hours, or overnight, to let gluten relax completely.

After overnight rest, pound out roll-in butter until pliable. If butter becomes warm, return to refrigeration and chill slightly. Roll the dough into a large rectangle, and spread the butter over half of the rectangle. Fold the dough over, press out any air bubbles, and pinch the ends together, then roll out and do a four-fold (fold each end into the middle, then fold at the middle like a book). Return to the refrigerator for 30 minutes, then roll out again, and do a three-fold (as if folding a letter for an envelope). Chill in the refrigerator another 30 minutes, do a second three-fold, then refrigerate 30 more minutes.

Roll out the chilled dough and shape and fill as desired on parchment paper. Once shaped/filled/etc, coat with egg wash and place in a proofing drawer or warm place and let rise for 90 minutes at 85 degrees. After rising, add another coat of egg wash, and bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes, or until golden brown.

Total cook/prep time: 16 hours - 30 minutes to mix, 2 hour rise, 30 minutes shape/roll/wrap, 8 hours rest, 3 hours roll-in and fold, 90 minute rise, 30 minute bake. It's less time than it sounds!
Family happiness rating: 10/10. This stuff isn't going to last long.

52 weeks of baking, Week 4: Flower cupcakes, plus banana and blueberry fillings!

BB is having a tea party tomorrow. She's been excited about it for weeks, and has gone to a great deal of trouble to make up invitations for her friend who lives a few doors down from here. A couple of weeks ago, I found a flower-shaped cupcake pan at Hobby Lobby, which I'd intended to use for this tea party. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to hide it before BB showed up at the house, so the surprise was ruined, and she's been asking me about the flower cupcakes every single day since.

The pan itself is a neat thing - you put cupcake liners into it, fill the liners all the way up, and bake for five minutes. After the five minutes is up, you add another big spoonful or so of batter in, and make sure it gets into the corners of the mold. Once they're done, you let them cool for a minute, and out come super-cute flower-ish cupcakes!

Why didn't they have fun shapes for cupcakes when I was a kid?!

Of course, I couldn't -just- do cupcakes, since this is frosting/filling week. BB's favorite fruit is banana, and her friend's favorite fruit is blueberry, so I decided to make filling for their cupcakes (the adults get plain ones, because they're fuddy-duddies). It really wasn't difficult at all - fruit, a little liquid, a little sugar, and some xanthan gum to thicken them up to be the right consistency for filling.

Xanthan gum: a true victory of food science

For the cake itself, I used this recipe, which turned out to be delightful. A petal from one of the cupcakes was a bit cracked, and my sister grabbed it. I managed to get a few bites, and was very impressed - this recipe is a keeper! For the icing, I took my mom's advice and used a mixture of cream cheese and shortening, plus over a pound of powdered sugar and some almond and butter flavoring. The result was a good consistency, and the almond and butter flavorings definitely helped balance out the flavor. It tastes like buttercream, but with a little something more.

Now, as a disclaimer, I have to say that this is my first time actually decorating a cake. Icing a cake, in my experience, has involved slathering cream cheese or caramel-coconut-pecan icing all over a couple of layers and hoping that they aren't too lopsided once I'm done. Sometimes I might sprinkle nuts across the top, but that's about it. The only time I've ever used a piping bag has been to fill doughnuts. So, around 7:30 PM I decided that the cupcakes were cool enough, and was ready to settle down and practice my icing techniques.

Except that isn't what happened. What did happen was my mother and I coming to the realization that her decorating kit, tips, couplers, colors, and all, had mysteriously vanished, most likely to my sister's house. So, I found myself on a last-minute run to Wal-mart, where I managed to pick up the tips, colors, and bags that I needed. Finally, around 9:00 PM, I was finally able to get started on my very first cupcake. It turned out well, I think, and so I kept on going. There are still a few more plain ones to ice in the morning, but I managed to get enough finished for the tea party even if I oversleep. Not too shabby, I say.

The pink flower is plain, the yellow has banana filling, and the purple has blueberry. I'm sure you guessed that already.

Banana Cupcake and Doughnut Filling

• 1 very ripe banana
• 1 splash (about 2 tbsp) half and half
• 3/8 tsp xanthan gum
• 1/2 tsp banana extract
• 1 tsp sugar

Using small food processor, puree bananas, add half and half. Add small amounts of xanthan gum at a time (about 1/8 tsp), pulsing until the filling obtains desired thickness. If filling becomes too thick after setting, stir or whisk in additional half and half.

Blueberry Cupcake and Doughnut Filling

• 1 c frozen blueberries, rinsed
• 1/2 c water
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1/2 tsp xanthan gum

Simmer blueberries over low heat until soft. Stir in sugar and continue to simmer another 15 minutes. Puree mixture and process through a food mill, allowing to cool to room temperature. If filling becomes too thick after setting, stir or whisk in additional water.

Decorator's Icing

• 1 8oz brick cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 lb, 3 ozs powdered sugar
• 1 cup white shortening
• 1 1/2 tsp clear butter flavoring
• 1 tsp almond extract

Cream all ingredients together in mixer, adding powdered sugar until at the desired consistency. Separate into individual bowls and add coloring, then pipe onto cakes as desired.

Total prep/cook time: 3ish hours, including decorating

Family happiness rating: 9/10. Mom thought the banana filling tasted too ripe, but BB was over the moon about it, and that's what matters.

See the full album here.

52 weeks of cooking, Week 2: Chinese food

I could post on week 1 of the challenge, but that was a very uninspiring challenge for me - eggs. I HATE eggs. The smell of a cooking or hard boiled egg makes me want to gag. There's nothing appetizing at all about how they look. I won't eat them, unless they're baked into something. So, for the last day of the holiday break, I cooked breakfast for my nieces to get this challenge out of the way, making french toast. I also made a fried egg sandwich for my dad. I suppose the pain is over, at least.

See? Even if I had any photography skills, that would not be appetizing at ALL.

At any rate, Week 2 went much, much better. The theme was Chinese food, and although I'm not particularly good at asian cuisine, I decided to go for it. The full meal was comprised of potstickers, mongolian beef, and chicken and vegetable lo mein.

The potstickers were a lot of fun. KB was home sick from school, so BB stayed home too. BB had been asking to cook again, so I decided that this would be the perfect project. I went to the asian market and picked up some dumpling wrappers and other assorted ingredients, then stopped at Publix for ground pork. I mixed ground pork with minced garlic, minced ginger, green onions, some soy sauce and sesame oil, and some shredded bok choi, and put it in the food processor just to get the veggies into smaller bits and well-integrated.

I'm soooo glad I'd bought that dumpling/ravioli/mini-pie press a couple of years ago! This was our first chance to use it and BB took to it like a pro. By the time she'd made about 3 dozen, she was calling herself the 'dumpling magician'. I cooked them simply by steaming them over high heat, and tried this 'dumpling sauce' I'd found at the asian market instead of making my own, as I normally do. It was roughly the same as what I would make at home, so that's nice for when we decide to raid the other two dozen that are stashed in the freezer!

My 'dumpling magician' definitely put some magic into these yummy things.

I also made some Mongolian Beef, based off of this recipe, but with the addition of broccoli and bok choi. Overall, it turned out excellent, but I think I would slightly increase the sugar-to-soy ratio next time. I've already been asked when I'm going to make it again!

Finally, there was the lo mein. I used this recipe that I'd seen someone else post on with good results as a starting point, but changed it up a bit. First of all, I replaced the linguine with some wider noodles marketed as 'Chinese wide lo mein' noodles, but the linguine probably would've done just as well. Second, I reduced the amount of chicken to 3 thin-sliced breast pieces and added a lot of vegetables. Peas and broccoli from the garden were at the ready in the freezer, and I also added in some slices of carrot as well as more bok choi. Instead of shiitake mushrooms I used beech mushrooms, which were adorable and very tasty. I also completely ignored the cooking procedures - cooking chicken, then putting it in a bowl, then cooking the veggies, then cooking the sauce and noodles and adding it all together was a ridiculous idea.

Overall, the meal was a huge success. In retrospect, I wish I'd been more thorough in reading the comments about the lo mein recipe and picked up some oyster sauce, which appears to be the missing 'secret ingredient'. I will agree that it didn't have exactly the same flavor as what you get in a restaurant, and although it was very good, it was just different enough for BB to notice.

You can't fake that kind of excitement.

Total prep/cook time: 2.5 hours, including dumpling assembly.
Family happiness rating: 8/10, they asked where the fortune cookies were!

See the full album here.