Rollin' In the Pumpkin

Last Sunday we were lucky enough to have some friends over for dinner (check out The Sweet Art!), which gave me the perfect excuse to spend most of the day in the kitchen.  I love Sundays where there is no rush and I can pour a little extra love into my cooking/baking endeavors.  I have learned that when we are entertaining it is best for me to prepare as much ahead of time as possible.  While I wish I were that person who can chitchat in the kitchen while measuring and mixing and end up with a fabulous meal, that just isn't me.  So rather than stress myself out, I just choose recipes that can be made ahead of time with minimal last minute assembly required.  I mentioned in an earlier post that I recently started using Pinterest, cue menu for dinner party.

I decided on a hearty chicken pot pie followed by a pumpkin roll for dessert, swoon!  I will save the chicken pot pie recipe for tomorrow because right now all I have on my mind is that roll of spiced pumpkin goodness studded with chopped walnuts and stuffed with vanilla cream cheese frosting.  This was my first attempt at making any kind of "roll" dessert and I think it turned out pretty well.   

Cream Cheese Stuffed Pumpkin Roll

from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

Cake:
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3 eggs
2/3 cup mashed (canned) pumpkin
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Filling:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 15x10-inch jelly roll pan.  Cut wax paper to fit the bottom of the pan and leave an inch overhang on each of the short ends of the pan. Lightly grease the wax paper and sides of the jelly roll pan.

Mix the sugar, flour, salt, soda, cinnamon, eggs and pumpkin in a large bowl and pour mixture over the waxed paper.

Sprinkle the walnuts, if using, on top of the mixture. (I did this but a lot of my walnuts stuck to my tea towel so next time I will probably mix the nuts into the batter.)

Bake for 14-15 minutes until edges pull away from the sides of the pan and center is done.

Lay a large, clean dishtowel on the counter top (it is best to use a dishtowel without any texture – a tea towel or similar towel works best). Spread a thick dusting of powdered sugar all over the towel.

When the cake comes out of the oven, turn the pan upside down on the powdered sugar-laden towel so the wax paper is on the top (helps if your husband is around to help you lift off the piping hot pan!).

Gently peel off the wax paper, being careful not to tear the roll.

Starting at one of the short ends, roll the pumpkin cake up with the towel to cool.

While the roll is cooling, mix the cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar together until it is light and creamy. Once the roll is cool, unroll and with an offset spatula, carefully spread filling in an even layer over the cake.

 (Spread all the way to the edges, I left space because I thought it would ooze out but it doesn't)

Roll it up without the towel and place in the refrigerator (covered with plastic wrap or wax paper) for about an hour before serving. 

 

I dusted mine with additional powdered sugar before serving.

Enjoy!

Mom's Banana Nut Bread

Today, I am sharing with you my favorite recipe for banana nut bread.  I think the main reason I love this bread is that it reminds me of home.  My mom is not a huge baker (although she is an amazing cook!), but whenever we had extra ripe bananas in the house it meant one thing - banana nut bread!  There is nothing flashy or trendy about this banana nut bread, but served warm or cold, slathered with a thin layer of butter, it makes the perfect breakfast, dessert or middle of the night treat!

I'm guessing the recipe comes from an old KitchenAid Mixer booklet because it actually includes what level and for how long you should mix each step, plus it includes shortening which seems to be a taboo ingredient in the baking world today.  But I'm a rebel so I'm keeping it in there!  Side note:  Does anyone else think KitchenAid's today aren't as strong as the old school ones?  My mom's is a machine and mine seems to wimp out the minute I add flour (I still love it, don't get me wrong!). 

Banana Nut Bread

1/3 c. shortening

1/2 c. sugar

2 eggs

1 3/4 c. sifted all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 c. mashed ripe bananas

1/2 c. chopped walnuts

Place shortening and sugar in bowl and beat for a minute, scrape bowl and beat another minute.  Add eggs and beat for 2 minutes.  Sift together flour, baking powder, soda and salt into a separate bowl.  Add half flour mixture and half of mashed banana.  Mix for 30 seconds then add remaining banana and flour mixture, mixing and additional 30 seconds.  Stop and scrape the bowl.  Blend walnuts in on stir speed.

Love my Granny's old Corelle ware!

Pour mixture into a greased and floured loaf pan.  (Mixture will be thick.)  Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes. Allow to cool 10-15 minutes in pan then remove from pan and cool on rack.

Love my mom's old Corelle ware, too!

 

Enjoy!

What is your favorite "old school" recipe?  Feel free to post links, I'd love to try them!

When all else fails...

bake brownies.

and follow the recipe to a t.

(what does that mean anyway?).

Now that I'm blogging more often, I have been trying lots of new recipes.  I've also been trying to put a spin on recipes to make them my own.  Sometimes I get wonderful results and I'm happy I tried something new.  Other times, not so much.  Here are some examples of recent baking fails:

  

I did get a few good pavlovas out of this batch, but others just stuck to the tray and the tops popped off!

         

 This one, don't even ask.  Ok, ask.  No, they are not my attempt at making Mr. Hankey cookies.  I was actually trying to make chocolate churros.  Doesn't that sound good? Eh, not so much...

So when I woke up yesterday, I was determined to make something I knew I would love and that would be nearly impossible to screw up.  

Brownies!

Now normally I would go straight for the box mix (it's good stuff!) but there is also something magical about a delicious homemade brownie.  I remembered back to early in the year when Bon Appetit featured Browned Butter Walnut Brownies as the cover recipe and knew I wanted to try it.  Although these brownies got mixed reviews (people seemed to love 'em or hate 'em), it was love at first bite for me! 

Many of the reviews stated that the browned butter gave the brownies a distinctive "nutty" flavor.  I'm not sure if this was actually due to the browned butter or the fact that they do have a cup of walnuts in them.  That said, I will make it exactly the same in the future because I loved them.  However, they are packed with nuts so you can always cut back if you wish. 

Ok, all this talking is making me hungry.  Let's get to the recipe!

Cocoa Brownies with Browned Butter and Walnuts

from Bon Appetit 

 

Ingredients:

Nonstick vegetable oil spray
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder (spooned into cup to measure, then leveled)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, chilled
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup walnut pieces

Position rack in bottom third of oven; preheat to 325°F. Line 8x8x2-inch metal baking pan with foil, pressing foil firmly against pan sides and leaving 2-inch overhang. Coat foil with nonstick spray. Melt butter in medium saucepan over medium heat. Continue cooking until butter stops foaming and browned bits form at bottom of pan, stirring often, about 5 minutes. 

 

Tip: I find that it is easier to see the butter changing colors if you use a pan with a light colored bottom.

Maybe I should have stopped here but I let it go a little bit longer...

...and ended up with this.  The brownies still tasted amazing but just be careful because once it goes, it goes fast!

Remove from heat; immediately add sugar, cocoa, 2 teaspoons water, vanilla, and 1/4 teaspoon (generous) salt. Stir to blend. Let cool 5 minutes (mixture will still be hot). Add eggs to hot mixture 1 at a time, beating vigorously to blend after each addition. When mixture looks thick and shiny, add flour and stir until blended. Beat vigorously 60 strokes. Stir in nuts. Transfer batter to prepared pan.

Bake brownies until toothpick inserted into center comes out almost clean (with a few moist crumbs attached), about 25 minutes. (Mine seemed quite gooey after 25 minutes but I stuck with the recipe and they turned out fudgy and delicious) Cool in pan on rack. Using foil overhang, lift brownies from pan. Cut into 4 strips. Cut each strip crosswise into 4 brownies.  They are rich so you could also cut each brownie in half diagonally and have twice the brownies!

Delicious!  I ate four in a row and made Greg bring the rest to work to save me from myself!

Oh wait!  I forgot I saved one for you (hope you don't mind I already took a bite out of it!)

Questions:
If you could only pick one food magazine to subscribe to, what would it be?

If you are recipe developer, how do you do it, especially when it comes to baking?  I do ok when I'm throwing ingredients together to make a soup or a dinner, but I've had a ton of baking disasters when I try to do my own thing!

Have a great weekend everybody!

Cherry Walnut Chocolate Biscotti

Before we moved, I worked at a bakery back in Milwaukee.  Over the summer, there was a period of time that I was in charge of opening in the mornings.  I would stumble into the darkness and make my way to the lights.  The entire bakery illuminated in the glow of overhead lighting and my morning had begun.  The opening was down to a fine science, if I did everything in a certain order, the bakery was ready to open right on time for that first customer (and there was always one waiting on the stoop for me to unlock the doors).  Usually the coffee finished brewing and the ovens went off just in time for me to bring out a steaming basket of bread and a plate of fresh cinnamon rolls for the first rush of customers.

However, every once in awhile, I finished early.  These were the best days as I would be able to enjoy the early morning silence, the sort of magical time of day when the sun is just starting to peek out and the rest of the world is starting to come alive.  In this time, I would sometimes sit with the newspaper - I loved Wednesdays for the food feature - for about five minutes. 

And if I was really lucky, I would be opening on the day after biscotti baking.  The end pieces were always set aside and were fair game to us.  I would dunk the end of the biscotti into a steamy hot mug of foamy vanilla latte until it was dangerously close to crumbling into the bottom, before letting it melt in my mouth.  Pure bliss!

My love for biscotti grew on those early summer mornings, but I never actually made my own, until now.  I decided I wanted a decadent breakfast treat for Easter weekend and biscotti fit the bill.  Not only are these a tasty treat, they also stay fresh for a week or more, perfect for a holiday weekend when I don't want to spend the entire time in the kitchen. 

Cherry Walnut Chocolate Biscotti       
from Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan (get this book today!)

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tbsp instant espresso powder (You can leave this out but I think it adds a depth of flavor.)
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
6 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chopped nuts (I used 1/2 cup chopped walnuts and 1/2 cup dried cherries.)
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone baking mat.

Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa, espresso powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Jasmine wanted to be on the blog so she did her cute flop and roll in the background.

Cream the butter and sugar on medium speed about 2 minutes, mixture may be crumbly. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the eggs and vanilla and beat for another 2 minutes; don't worry if the mixture looks curdled.  Reduce the speed to low and mix in the dry ingredients in 3 additions, mixing only until a dough forms. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix in the chopped nuts, chocolate and dried fruit.

 

This is the part where I try not to eat the entire bowl of dough - I have no fear of raw eggs.

Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead in any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing.  Divide in half and shape each portion into a 12 inch log. Flatten each log with your hand so they are about 1 inch tall and 2 inches wide.  Place each log on the baking sheet and sprinkle with a little sugar.  Bake for about 25 minutes, until slightly firm.
 

These look like giant Tootsie Rolls,  mmmm Tootsie Rolls.

Be sure to leave plenty of space between the logs since they will expand quite a bit.

 This is what they look like after the first round of baking.

Remove the sheet from the oven and let it cool on a rack for 20 minutes. (Leave the oven on.)  Using a serrated knife, cut each log into slices between 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick.  Leave the slices standing up and arrange on the baking sheet. Return to the oven for another 10-15 minutes.

Transfer biscotti to a rack to cool.

 

 

 
These make a great gift and travel well if you are heading to Grandma's house for Easter - Enjoy!