Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Whoopie Pies are a traditionally "cookie" made in amish country. I first had them when I worked in pennsylvania a few years ago. Then I lived with someone in france who was from canada and made them often. I decided to find a pumpkin recipe. I love these!!!! They are light and cakey and everyone will find their new favorite food after eating these. And my neighbors/landlord loved them too! heehee

RECIPE:

Pumpkin Cakes:

3 cups (390 grams) all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 cups (410 grams) light brown sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 - 15 ounce (425 grams) can pumpkin puree

Maple Filling:

1/4 cup (55 grams) crisco

1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) (55 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup (115 grams) confectioners' (powdered or icing) sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup (120 ml) maple syrup

DIRECTIONS:

For Pumpkin Cakes:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place oven rack in the center of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silpats.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ground ginger, ground cloves, and salt. Put aside.

Using an electric mixer (preferably using a paddle), beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract and pumpkin puree. Beat in the flour mixture just until incorporated. Drop heaping tablespoons of the batter onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing about 2 inches apart. With with the back of a spoon dipped in water, smooth the tops of the cakes and flatten a bit.

Bake for about 10 - 12 minutes or until the tops of the cookies, when lightly pressed, spring back. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely

Filling:

Beat the crisco and butter until soft and creamy. With the mixer on its lowest speed, gradually beat in the confectioners' sugar. Increase the speed to high, and beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Then, with the mixer on low speed, beat in the vanilla extract and slowly drizzle in the maple syrup. Beat until a bit thicker.

To Assemble:

Take one cake and spread a tablespoon of the filling on the flat side of the cake. Top with another cake. The assembled cookies can be stored, covered, in the refrigerator for several days. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Sorry I didn't take pictures again. I have been so busy....at least im baking :)

Southern Deviled Eggs

Went to a party over the weekend and my friend Jaimee's favorite food is deviled eggs. This is my classic recipe that I tweak if I need to! I basically make the eggs and then add ingredients to taste. ALWAYS taste your food before serving! Enjoy

RECIPE:

9 large eggs (or however many you chose, just change the amounts)

1/3 cup mayo

1 1/2 T dijon mustard

2 tsp apple cider

salt and pepper to taste

2 tsp scallions minced (white part only- and I usually add more)

2 tsp fresh tarragon minced (plus extra for garnish)

paprika to taste

DIRECTIONS:

boil the eggs. do it the way YOU were taught. I was taught so many ways, that I make them different every time. All I can say is the same always is to chill quickly by running cold water on them and putting ice on top. chill as cool as possible to stop cooking and to peel immediately.

cut eggs in half lengthwise. Put yolks in a bowl and mash. Add mayo, mustard, vinegar, salt pepper and paprika (can use as a garnish only if you want). Make as smooth or as chunky as you want. Spoon into a piping bag or a ziploc bag and cut the top. Pipe into eggs. Garnish with tarragon and paprika. cover til you are ready to serve!

sorry i didn't take pictures! I was running late and forget :) Picture a creamy egg! hahah. enjoy

2nd edition of Trifle

Here is the rest of the trifle recipe and pictures!

Mascarpone Whipped Cream

RECIPE:

2 cups chilled heavy whipping cream

1- 8 ounce container mascarpone cheese

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

Using an electric mixer, beat cream til soft peaks. Slowly add sugar until stiffer peaks. Finally add the vanilla and mascarpone and whisk til stiff peaks :)

Pumpkin Mousse

RECIPE:

1 (1/4 oz) envelope unflavored gelatin

1/4 cup cold water

1 (15 oz) can pure pumpkin

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp ginger

1/8 tsp salt

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

Sprinkle gelatin over cold water in a small saucepan and let soften one minute. Bring this mixture to a simmer and stir until gelatin is dissolved. Whisk together the gelatin, pumkin, brown sugar, spices and salt until combined.

Beat cream and vanilla until stiff peaks. Fold into pumpkin mixture (fold= to lightly mix in with a spatula)

*may need to be refrigerated until cool- then re-whisk.

ASSEMBLE:

(do it YOUR way- this was mine)

starting on the bottom layer- gingerbread (chunks of one inch cubes to fill the entire bottom), spread on pumpkin mousse, sprinkle on chopped praline, spread on mascarpone cream. Repeat making sure to end with cream and sprinkle with praline. ENJOY!

OMG! sorry

So yes...i have been MIA! I am sooooo sorry. I have no excuse except I got this part time gig in Waukegan. So between moving, staying at my parents (the commute is so short!!!), and going to florida for a week, i am FINALLY situated in my new place! Pics will come soon. For now...I am making a pumpkin trifle which will be finished on Saturday. (baking a bunch this wknd) So for today I will leave you with the two recipes I made today to BEGIN the trifle. I hope you enjoy! I bought 3 cans of pumpkin...so pumpkin recipes here i come ;)

Pecan Praline:

RECIPE:

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup half and half

1 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

6 oz pecans (12/3 cups- WHAT?!)

DIRECTIONS:

Spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray. In a heavy saucepan on medium high heat, boil both sugars and half and half. Whisk constantly. When the sugar dissolves reduce the heat to low and simmer, while whisking, for about 5 minutes. Add butter, vanilla, and salt. Let the mixture simmer (with a candy thermometer preferably) until it reaches 260* F- about 8-10 min. Remove from the heat and mix in the pecans. Pour onto the prepared pan. Cool completely.

Gingerbread Cake

RECIPE:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 stick unsalted butter softened

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 large egg

1/2 cup molasses (NOT robust or blackstrap)

3/4 cup well shaken buttermilk

1/2 cup hot water

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350* with rack in the middle. Butter a 13x9 inch pan. Line with foil (edges hanging over) and butter foil.

Whisk together flour, soda, spices and salt.

Beat butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Beat in egg until blended and then beat in molasses ad buttermilk. At low speed at the flour until smooth. Add the hot water and beat for about a minute. The mixture MAY look curdled or separated. This is ok.

Spread batter evenly into pan. Bake until toothpick comes out clean (30-40 min).

PICTURES WILL BE POSTED OF THE FINAL PRODUCT :)

Banana oatmeal chocolate chip almond muffins

Can i put more things into these?!?! Anyway, like I said, I am moving Saturday so I was going through my food and realized I had too many bananas and leftover oatmeal and almonds plus a bag of chocolate chips. So I had to figure out how to put them all together and this is what the outcome was! I am SURE these are to be a hit with friends and family!! Great breakfast item!

Recipe:

1.5 cups of oats (toast them in oven at 375* for about 10 min or fragrant)

1 cup all purpose flour

1.5 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1T baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp allspice

1/8 tsp cloves

1 stick of butter melted

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup canola oil

3/4 cup milk

3 ripe bananas mashed

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup chopped almonds

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375*

Combine first 8 ingredients (all dry) (minus choc chips and almonds). Combine butter through bananas (all wet ingredients). Pour wet into dry just until incorporated. Fold in chocolate chips and almonds. Scoop into muffin tins with liners. These don't rise too much so you can fill them full. Bake until golden brown on top...could be 30 minutes. They are delicious directly out of the oven. So warm and fluffy! Happy breakfast eating :)

Apology!

Hey friends. I have no clue how many people are reading this blog or not...but for those of you who do, I have to apologize for this upcoming week. I am working M-F from 6-2 in waukegan and then packing because I am moving on Saturday! WOOHOO! Which not only means that I am busy packing, but all of my kitchen will be packed :( trust me, this is sadder for me than you can even imagine! I will TRY to bake at least once because I don't know if I can go the whole week without it!!! In any case, instead, I am reading a great book about facts that you would never know about food! So I am going to post a tidbit daily that HOPEFULLY you didn't know about! Maybe we can all learn together! Here is todays:

Is there a nutritional difference between dark meat and light meat on a chicken?

Dark meat (the leg, thigh, and back) has two to ten percent more calories than does the light meat (the breast), depending on the bird; fryers are more caloric than roasters. (fyi- fryer is a chicken between 6-8 wks old and weigh between 3-4.5 lbs. roasters are between 2-6 months and can reach up to 8 lbs). Dark meat also has slightly less protein and about 1/3 more fat. Both are low in cholesterol and supply comparable amounts of A and B vitamins and calcium!

Have a great sunday!!!

Lemon Pistachio (White Chocolate dipped) Biscotti

Hi all! Sorry I've been MIA. On monday of this week my catering company asked me if I wanted a short term gig thru November 13th! So I took it, but it requires me to wake up super early and be in Waukegan by 6 am! At least I'm making some money again :)

Anyway, since I'm projected to move Oct 31/Nov 1 I am still trying to use up ingredients! Today's special ingredient was Pistachios! I also am planning on giving this away to my new landlord and the guy who found me the place!

These are super simple and great with coffee and tea!

Recipe:

2 1/4 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

6 oz ( 1 1/2 cups) unsalted pistachios

3 large eggs

zests of 2 lemons

3 tbsp lemon juice (had no lemons- i used water)

1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350* and put rack in the middle.

Mix flour, sugar and baking powder with the pistachios. Mix eggs, lemon zest, lemon juice (or water), and vanilla extract. Mix egg mixture into flour mixture until just incorporated. I did this all by hand! On a floured surface separate dough into to batches rolling into a log. Place on the cookie sheet (with plenty of space in between since they rise a bit) and slightly flatten. Bake for til they feel firm, about 25 minutes. Let cool completely.

Reset the racks to upper and lower third and reduce oven temperature to 300*. Slice biscotti into 1/3 inch thick diagonal slices. Arrange on a cookie sheet, without leaving space in between them. Bake until dry and slightly golden, about 15 minutes. Remove and cool on a baking rack.

When completely cooled, melt the chocolate (in a double boiler or in the microwave at 15 second increments) and dip 1/4 of the biscotti in the chocolate and place on a piece of wax paper and let cool. You can dip these in dark chocolate as well or not dip them. Your choice! That's the beauty of them. They are fun to make!