Comfort Me With Apples

Apricot, Almond and White Chocolate Cupcakes

My reputation precedes me, I've come to find out. It's generally expected that I'll bring some sort of dessert when I go to a party, and I've found that it's a good way to guarantee an invitation back. That's been the case at a semi-regular get-together some friends throw, so I was expecting the invitation and the request for cupcakes a week ago. What I was not expecting when my husband and I arrived last night, was to find that the guests had all already been talking about my cupcakes.
I believe the exact quote was, "my world is a happier place knowing that your Fluffernutter cupcakes exist in it."

I strayed a bit from the traditional when coming up for the flavors for this cupcake, but it seemed to go over pretty well anyway. I think one friend had four before the night was over. The base is a traditional white cake with almond meal substituted for some of the flour, and almond extract added. It makes for a tender, subtly almond flavor that pairs quite well with the apricot preserves I used to fill them.

Truthfully, I could have eaten them just like that, but I've been playing with the flavors of white chocolate and mascarpone cheese together lately, and that was truly the inspiration for this cupcake. I love the flavor that mascarpone adds. It's a little lighter, and a little less tangy than cream cheese, so it really lets the white chocolate speak for itself while adding just a little undertone of deliciousness.

Recipes

Raspberry White Chocolate Mocha Cupcakes

A friend had a birthday celebration this weekend, and when I asked him what kind of cupcakes he wanted, he mentioned the caramel macchiato cupcakes I made a few months ago. I wanted to keep this cupcake in the same theme, but I didn't really want to repeat myself, so I came up with this raspberry white chocolate mocha cupcake. It's a coffee cupcake with raspberry pastry cream filling, whipped white chocolate ganache frosting, topped with a bittersweet chocolate drizzle and a chocolate covered coffee bean.

It's definitely an intense and time consuming cupcake, but he's a good friend, and another friend visiting from New York said it was better than anything he'd ever had at Magnolia Bakery, so ultimately it was worth it.

I started with Chokylit's coffee cupcakes with a few small variations. I do still want a more intense coffee flavor, so I should have taken my own advice from last time and added some espresso powder. Next time for sure.

Next I made a standard pastry cream and added fresh raspberries. Delicious, but I made way too much. I've got a ton left over in the fridge that I'll have to find some use for. I would also like the raspberry flavor to be a bit more intense, so next time I'll probably do a few things differently. I'll increase the raspberries and decrease the pastry cream, and I'll probably add some sort of raspberry syrup or framboise to up the flavor a bit. All in all it turned out great, but the white chocolate was definitely the dominant flavor.

Last up was the white chocolate ganache. It's a simple mixture with good quality white chocolate and cream, simply melted together, cooled and then whipped until fluffy. I will caution you, though, this is not a warm weather cupcake. Portland was on the warm side yesterday, and this frosting was not forgiving. I ended up loading the cooler and a bag of ice in the car just to transport these to the party.

I felt like these might be just a little bit too sweet, so at the last minute I decided to melt some bittersweet chocolate and drizzle it over the top. It turned out to be a nice touch, and the balance between the white and dark chocolate was just right.

Recipes.

Cinnamon Ice Cream with Blackberry Pie

Surely there's nothing more American than pie and ice cream. Oh sure, I know the old saying is about apple pie, but it seems to me that sweet pies of any type are an almost exclusively American treat. So what better way to celebrate Independence Day than blackberry pie, ice cream, and lighting stuff on fire?

Both of these recipes are simple and unfussy. The ice cream starts with a simple custard base, infused with the flavors of cinnamon and vanilla.  I simply  heated cream and half and half together with half a vanilla bean, a  cinnamon stick, and a little ground cinnamon, then slowly combined it with egg yolks and vanilla sugar.  With a total of nine egg yolks, this may be the richest ice cream I've ever made, but hey, it's a holiday, right?  I heated it until it coated the back of a wooden spoon, then plunged it in an ice bath and stuck it in the refrigerator for about four hours. Pour it all into the ice cream freezer for about twenty minutes and you've got some very decadent cinnamon infused ice cream on your hands.

The pie absolutely couldn't be simpler. Fresh blackberries are combined with sugar and some thickeners and put aside to combine while you make the crust. I was very pleased with the way this crust turned out. I usually shy away from shortening based crust for two reasons. I like the taste of butter, and shortening simply isn't something I usually stock in my pantry. Really the only use I have for it is in pie crust and in biscuits. I'm happy with the all butter or butter and cream cheese crusts I've made before, but I found a non-hydrogenated shortening at Whole Foods made with palm oil, so I picked it up out of curiosity. This is definitely the flakiest crust I've ever made. I think this one will be my standard in the future.

I can't stress enough how simple this pie is. Waiting for the crust to chill and then rolling it out was really the hardest part about the whole day. I rolled out the bottom crust and laid it in the pie tin, poured in the berry mixture and then weaved together a lattice crust for the top. A simple egg wash and some turbinado sugar on top give it a pretty finish.

This is my entry in Mike's Table's You Scream, I Scream, We All Scream For Frozen Desserts event.

Cinnamon Ice Cream
Blackberry Pie

Neapolitan Cupcakes

I love Martha Stewart's Strawberry Meringue Buttercream. I love it, and I was absolutely craving it this weekend, but apparently it's not okay to just eat a bowl of frosting, so I had to figure out what to put it on. I had a couple ideas rolling around in my head. One involved a cupcake and a chocolate covered strawberry that I might come back to at a later time.

The other one involved that most versatile of all ice cream flavors. Neapolitan. What's not to love, right? Chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla all in one dessert. And it just so happened I had all the ingredients I needed for Neapolitan cupcakes right in my kitchen, so that's what I went with.

I started with a standard vanilla cake recipe, plenty of eggs, butter, and that Mexican vanilla I love. Once it was mixed, I divided it and added melted semisweet chocolate to one half. Now comes the tricky part; how to get it in the cupcake pan without mixing the flavors and making a huge mess?

It turns out I needed a helping hand in the form of my husband. I had him hold a large table spoon in the middle of each cup while I spooned chocolate on one side and vanilla on the other. It worked out pretty well and he didn't even eat all the batter before I could get it in the oven.

Recipes

Caramel Macchiato Cupcakes

Do I file this one under cupcakes or breakfast? Maybe I should just file it under delicious. We spent last weekend camping on the Oregon coast, so I wanted a cupcake that said "rustic, yet gourmet." Campfire coffee is a pretty long standing tradition, and I had a friend request this particular chocolate Swiss butter cream frosting, so this cupcake was born.

I knew I wanted a filling to put it over the top, and I have to admit, I like my coffee strong, but with plenty of sweetness. Even better if it's caramel sweetness, right?

  And so I knew what I had to do. I borrowed the cupcake base recipe from Cupcake Bakeshop. I've made several of her recipes before and they always turn out well, and since we were heading out right after work and I had limited time, I wanted something fool-proof. They turned out great with a good coffee flavor and pretty little flecks of coffee grounds throughout. Next time I'll probably add some espresso powder, too, just because the frosting is pretty dominant and I want the coffee flavor to come through a bit more.

I boiled up some sugar and honey and made a pretty, sticky filling to pipe in the middle, and topped them all off with bittersweet chocolate frosting.  I'd say they were a hit.

Recipes

Orange Cottage Cheese Pancakes with Lemon and Passionfruit Curds

Ah, pancakes. For most of my life I would have told you that I just don't like pancakes. They're kind of flat and soggy and just don't taste very good. I've slowly come to realize, however, that it's not pancakes themselves I don't like, it's what boxed mixes have done to change people's expectations of what a pancake is. I don't like box mix pancakes, and I've never liked diner style pancakes because they come to you as flavorless discs that you're expected to drown in butter and maple-flavored corn syrup. This falls under the Soggy Bread Category for me, and triggers my gag reflex.

But, as I've grown in the kitchen and become a better cook, I've realized that a pancake can be a light, fluffy, flavorful affair, and much more than just a vehicle for maple syrup. Start with cottage cheese and a few fresh eggs, add some fresh orange juice and zest for flavor, lighten them up by beating the egg whites before adding them in, and you have something much more than just a pancake. This is something I'll gladly put on my plate all on its own or maybe with just a pat of butter and a touch of real maple syrup.

Of course, I had a lazy Sunday morning in front of me, several egg yolks I needed to use up, and a freshly purchased package of passion fruit juice burning a hole in my refrigerator. What's a girl to do? In the interest of cleaning out the refrigerator I whipped up some lemon and passion fruit curds, sent the husband to the store for some cottage cheese, and got down to making breakfast.

Recipes

 

   
Pankcakes topped with lemon and passion fruit curds and vanilla yogurt with peppered bacon and orange slices

Fluffernutter cupcakes

Nothing goes better with peanut butter than chocolate. I think we all agree on that, but my last several cupcake recipes had been chocolate heavy and very rich. So when our friends announced they were having a party, and with it just on the verge of spring outside, I decided to go a little lighter. And what's the second best flavor to go with peanut butter? Why, marshmallow, of course.

Now, I didn't grow up in New England, and my parents were crunchy Northern California hippy types, so fluffernutters aren't a part of my heritage. I had never even heard of them until well into adulthood. But really, who can resist creamy peanut butter and sticky marshmallow fluff on soft white bread (all things we never had in the house growing up, by the way)?  And if that sounds good, just imagine it in cupcake form.

So I knew the first thing I needed was a soft white cake base. I also just recently made a trip to Penzey's Spices to pick up some Mexican Vanilla, and I wanted a simple cake that would show off the flavor. I ended up using a labor intensive, but absolutely perfectly moist, recipe I've been using for a few years now. It uses a massive amount of stiffly beaten egg whites for leavening, but I had some asparagus in the fridge, so I knew I could make a Hollandaise with the leftover yolks the next day.

Next was the filling. I wanted it to have a very cupcake feel since the fluffernutter sandwich is such an American icon, and I felt like peanut butter butter cream would bring more to the table than just straight peanut butter. After filling I whipped up the marshmallow butter cream using everyone's favorite Marshmallow Fluff. I wasn't sure the flavor would be strong enough with that alone, but it turned out fine.

I topped each cupcake with a few peanut butter chips, and knew I had gotten it right. Everyone's favorite white trash sandwich in cupcake form.

Recipes